He traced his nose down the curve of my jaw. “You’d better be.”
A tiny moan left me when he kissed down the slope of my neck. “Is that so?”
I could feel his grin against my skin. “You know it’s so.”
“Stalker,” I whispered with a smile fluttering at my lips, the word nothing but affection.
“Knight, Princess. Knight. After last night, tell me I get to be your king.”
My head tilted back, and the smile that had been threatening lit in a full bloom. “Hmm . . . I don’t know,” I teased, my fingers twining in his soft hair.
“Ouch, Princess. You know exactly where to hit a man where it hurts, don’t you?” It was all mischief on his tongue as he kissed and nipped. “I guess you don’t need me after all.”
A giggle slipped free before I pulled back and cupped his face, sincerity weaving into my tone. “Yesterday was terrifying, Kale, and somehow . . . somehow you turned it into the best night of my life.”
Those soulful eyes glinted in the light, his throat bobbing as he swallowed. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt the way I felt last night,” he admitted his voice gruff.
I tucked my bottom lip between my teeth before I asked, “What are we doing, Kale?”
His fingertips fluttered across my cheek. “I think we’re needing each other.” He blinked. “I had no idea I needed anyone or anything until I met you.”
And that need . . .
I could feel it compounding and expanding and shifting.
Restoring.
“Stay with me tonight,” he said.
My gaze moved to my sleeping son. “I don’t think he’s ready for that yet. Plus, I need to be up early to get to the shop in the morning, and Evan has his summer program.”
The words flooded out like excuses I didn’t want to have. But they were there, and they were real.
“I have a guest room. You both can sleep in there. I just want you near me. I need to know you’re safe. I have to be at work early, too. I’ll wake you first thing.”
“This is getting so very complicated.”
A grin tweaked his striking face. Goodness, no man should be that pretty. It just wasn’t fair.
“I promise that if you stay, I’m going to take you in my room and really complicate you.”
Oh, and neither was that. Not at all.
Desire exploded in the air.
Hot, heated energy.
But it was bigger than ever before.
Because I could feel it.
The love that shined all around me.
Powerfully. Brilliantly.
But looking at Kale? I was too scared to let it escape from my tongue. Afraid to put it out in the world. I knew once I said it, it was going to ring so true that I’d never be able to hear anything else.
“Stay with me,” he coaxed in that magnetic way.
There was nothing I could do but relent. I guessed I’d been relenting all along. Giving and giving because I couldn’t stay away. Last night, I’d fully succumbed. I should know any reservations would be futile.
“Okay,” I whispered.
“Need me after all, huh, Princess?” That tease was back.
“I think I’ll always need you,” I murmured.
A soft smile fluttered across his sexy mouth, before he shifted around so he didn’t disturb Evan. He climbed to his feet and carefully pulled my little boy into the well of his arms.
Kale hugged him to his chest.
And it spun and spun.
The love that whipped through the room like a hurricane.
The strength of it was so massive that a slice of terror cut through my center.
Awed by its beauty and intimidated by its force.
Kale started for the hall, and I climbed to my feet and followed him through the darkness.
Angling Evan a bit, he dipped down so he could turn the knob.
The room was obviously reserved for guests. The ceiling high, coffered and finished with crown molding and massive windows that overlooked the city beyond.
A rustic, four-poster bed, covered in plush, luxurious bedding, sat against the right wall.
Kale went right for it, dragging down the covers and nestling my son in its safety. He ran his fingers through Evan’s hair and pressed a tender kiss to the top of his head.
Evan sighed and sank into the comfort.
I swore that I felt the ground shake beneath my feet, felt the tangle of emotion lodge in my throat.
Tears threatened to strangle me.
Overwhelming. The way Kale’s aura was suddenly everything. Wisps that wound.
Vapor.
Kale headed back my way, the softest kiss pressed to my cheek. “Hold on one second, I’ll be right back.”
He slipped by me, disappearing for a few moments into his bedroom before he returned with a baby monitor. “I have this for Rex’s kids. I know Evan’s not a baby, but it will make me feel better that we can hear him if he wakes up and needs us. I set up the speaker in my room.”
And that love?
That was the moment it shattered me.
He plugged in the monitor and then slowly moved back toward me. He threaded his fingers through mine and led me back into the hall, leaving the door open a crack.
A breath jutted free when he shifted and moved toward me. My back hit the opposite wall of the hall.
He pushed his fingers into my hair, his nose back to running along my jaw. “I haven’t even gotten to kiss you yet. I’ve been going out of my mind thinking about last night. About you spread out under me. Your sweet body. Want to get lost in it, Hope. Get lost in you.”
A whimper left me, and I fisted my hands into his T-shirt. “I will never forget feeling you for the first time . . . the way it felt the moment you took me.”
That piece that would always belong to him.
He lightly swept his lips across mine.
Fire.
I swore that one brush was all it took for this man to set me on fire.
My phone blipped from my back pocket.
Kale dropped his forehead to mine. “Someone has awful timing.”
“Whoever it is can wait because I’m not sure I can.”
A sexy chuckle rumbled from his chest. “Ah . . . there she is . . . my little vixen hiding under all that sweet. I love it when she comes out to play.”
My phone blipped again.
“Shit.” He pulled back, those blue eyes glimmering, hovering somewhere between playfulness and lust. “If that’s Jenna, you’d better get it.”
The smallest laugh jolted free. “Don’t tell me you’re afraid of my best friend.”
A smirk ticked up at one side of that delicious mouth. “Not scared. Terrified. You know she threatened to cut off my dick.”
“No,” I wheezed, embarrassment riding to my face.
She had no shame.
Kale ran a thick lock of my hair between his thumb and forefinger, flirty play moving across his features. “It is my best asset. I don’t think I can risk it . . . for your sake.”
He grinned one of those earth-shattering grins. The kind that was cocky and arrogant and did funny things to my insides.
Heat flashed to my face, flutters lighting in my belly and making my hands tremble. I fumbled to reach for my phone, the words a wisp. “You’re ruinin’ me, Kale Bryant.”
He nuzzled under my chin, leaving a trail of kisses across the sensitive skin. “Oh, baby, trust me, I plan on it.”
Oh God.
This man.
I quickly slipped my thumb across my screen, sure Kale was right and it was Jenna checking on us. Hell, knowing her, she was probably wanting a play by play.
When I saw what was on the screen, it was instant. The way fear cinched down on my chest like the tightest band and sickness clawed at my spirit.
Nausea churned in my gut.
Unknown: Last chance, Harley, before I see to it that you never see your son again.
Kale edged back, eyes slanted down so he could read
me in the darkness. “What’s wrong?”
Anxiety climbed my throat, clotting and suffocating. I tried to force it down. Play it off. “It’s just my ex.”
Anger.
In a flash, it had taken Kale hostage. His entire being vibrated with rage.
Fierce and brutal and savage.
His voice was grit. “What does he want?”
I had a feeling if I told him the whole truth, he would go flying out the door. Set on destruction. Intent on crushing anything that might stand as a threat to Evan or me.
But I couldn’t hide this from him. Not when I’d already dragged him into the middle of it. I turned my phone toward him so he could see what it said.
Fury.
It ignited on Kale’s face.
Kerosene.
This was not a knight dressed in shining, unblemished armor. Not the kind fairy tales were made of.
This was the kind that filled history books.
The kind that fought to the death for what they believed was right.
Kale pressed a fist to the wall at the side of my head as if he was barely holding on, coming unhinged, words gravel as they scraped from his throat. “I want to erase him, Hope. I want to hunt him down and destroy him. Make sure he can never hurt you or Evan. Not ever again.”
“I hate him,” I admitted over the clot of horror and fear bottled like acid in my chest.
Kale dropped his forehead to mine, this time in a tortured, rattled rage. “Who is he?”
I blinked, pressed my mouth to the roar of his heart that pounded through his shirt. “You can’t do something crazy, Kale. You can’t. You have to trust me that I’m doing everything to end this and end it for good.”
I’d already gotten myself in deep enough without drawing more attention.
I needed to do this quietly and swiftly.
And God, I wanted to tell Kale, admit it all. But he was still Evan’s doctor, and I wasn’t sure I could risk putting him in that position.
Endanger him that way.
It wasn’t fair.
It wasn’t right.
So instead, I pushed my phone into my back pocket and wound my hands back into the fabric of Kale’s shirt. Clinging to him. Hoping he could hear the beat of truth in my words.
“I’ll do whatever it takes to keep him away from my son. But the next months are going to be difficult. I’m up for the greatest fight of my life. I need you to know, I will do anything, sacrifice anything, to make sure I win that fight.”
I was gathering evidence.
Each text.
Each message.
Each threat.
My attorney was sure that would be all the proof of abuse we needed. The callousness and carelessness.
Kale groaned, as if it caused him pain. “And what if I want to be the one to do it? Protect him. Save him.” His big hand slid to my face. “Save you.”
My words were a breath. “You’re already savin’ me. In so many ways.”
Kale groaned again. But this time, it was in need. “God damn it, Hope. God damn it, what have you done to me?”
His mouth slanted over mine.
Commanding.
Demanding all of me.
Tangles of tongue and nips of teeth.
He didn’t break the kiss when he hoisted me from my feet and pressed me deeper against the wall, his hands on the outsides of my thighs as he made a place for himself between my legs.
He rubbed himself at my center, his cock hard, as desperate as his touch.
I ached and whimpered, my fingers sinking into his shoulders. As if I might be able to hold on to him forever. “Kale.”
“I won’t let him hurt you. I won’t. Not you or Evan. You’re mine.”
Need tumbled through me. A raging storm.
This man too much.
Too perfect.
He pulled me from the wall and carried me the rest of the way down the hall and through the double doors at the end of it. He stepped inside, nudged the door shut with his foot, and fumbled to click the lock behind him.
He pulled back, staring up at me as he carried me into the center of the enormous, darkened room, the only light filtering in through the wall of sliding doors that overlooked the city below.
His room luxury and peace and comfort.
Masculine.
Sexy.
That was what I felt when he kneaded his big hands into my bottom, kissing me again and murmuring, “I’m losing myself.”
I framed his face in my hands. “And I’m finding myself.” He carried me toward his bed, which was massive and imposing, just like the man. Slowly, he slid me down his body, my feet unsteady when he set me on the floor.
He pressed a hand on either side of my neck, and I was sure he could feel the raging thunder of my pulse beating through me.
The way my heart went pound, pound, pound. “I want you, Hope. Want you in a way that scares me.”
I searched his face. “Fear never negates hope. It just means we want something badly enough that we’re terrified we might not get to keep it.”
A groan rumbled in his chest, and he was pulling me flush against all his hard and heat. “Sweet girl.”
“I need you,” I returned.
The air stretched taut around us. Pushing and pulling and demanding.
That attraction alive.
A thriving, breathing entity.
We panted through it. Sucking it into our lungs, inhaling each other as all our pieces fell together.
Forming something complete and whole.
Kale stared down at me. Eyes that intense, fathomless blue.
It felt as if I were jumping into the coolest waters, floating in the deepest sea, soaring through the warmest sky.
He gripped me tight. “Told you next time I had you, I wasn’t going to go easy on you.”
His voice grated with the warning.
Desire boiled my blood. “Don’t you know what they say . . . nothing good in life is easy.”
There was no longer any question about what had gotten into me. It was this magnetic man. Seeping into my skin. Dripping into my veins.
That was the only invitation he needed. Kale was on me in a flash. His mouth swooping in to capture mine the same way he’d captured my heart.
Swiftly.
Madly.
Wholly.
Plundering—body, mind, and soul.
I felt beautiful in his arms.
Bold and sexy.
My mama would call it risqué.
She’d be right because, with Kale, I was ready to take every risk.
He flattened his hands under my shirt, running them up my back and lifting it higher and higher.
“Strawberries and cream. So fucking sweet,” he murmured.
Those words sent a rush of chills skating down my neck and scattering across my flesh.
He tore my shirt over my head and dropped it to the floor before he flicked the hook of my bra and dragged it free of my arms. His eyes swept over me. Head to toe. “Look at you, Hope. You are a vision, baby. I think every fantasy I’ve ever had was of you, and I didn’t even know it.”
My spirit danced, and I was pressing my hands under his shirt, running them over the hard, defined planes of his abdomen, needing to discover him, expose every inch of smooth, tanned skin.
He stepped back and yanked it the rest of the way over his head.
A sharp breath left me at the sight. “I close my eyes, and this is what I see. You, Kale. Beautiful you. I never thought it would be possible to want a man the way I want you.”
I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his chest right over his beautiful heart that thundered and sped.
Every part of this man was stunning.
Captivating.
Kale suddenly dropped to his knees in front of me. Adept fingers were quick to work free the button and zipper of my jeans. He pulled them down a fraction and dragged me forward to kiss me on the lace fabric that covered my center.
He inhale
d. “So, so sweet.”
My fingers twisted in his hair, and I swore I couldn’t breathe. “You undo me.”
The air grew thicker when he peeled both my underwear and jeans down my legs. My legs that shook as he stripped me, leaving my clothing a discarded pile on his floor.
The way he looked up at me was staggering.
He nudged my legs apart and dragged his fingers through my lips, spreading me.
I gasped.
“So sweet and wet and hot. Your pussy is perfection. Want to live in it. Fuck you day and night.”
A blink of that shyness gathered on my chest and climbed to my cheeks. A part of me was shocked that I was turned on that he was talking to me this way. Shocked that I was standing there letting him touch me this way.
My world flipped so quickly.
No longer recognizable.
But those thoughts were chased away when he slowly drove two fingers into my body.
So deep that I shuddered, my knees giving, close to buckling.
The man knocked me from my feet.
Kale pushed to his and set me on the edge of his bed. Free hand smoothing up the inside of my thigh, he spread me wide for him while he continued to pump me with the other.
“Kale,” I whispered like a plea.
He dipped down and licked against that spot where I needed him most. Where I felt needy and achy and desperate. My fingers dug into his covers. “Kale . . . that feels so good. How do you make everything feel so good?”
I whimpered when he pulled his fingers free, and he edged back, leaving me a wet, quivering mess where he had me lain out on his bed.
He sent me one of those smirks as he began to shrug out of his jeans and underwear. “I’m just getting started, Princess.”
He kicked free of his clothing.
An earthquake rocked me to the core, looking at him standing there that way.
Arrogant and bare and bold.
His cock jutting for the sky.
He stroked himself once.
I swore, I nearly lost it right there.
“On your hands and knees, baby.”
Oh.
Oh God.
My insides trembled and shook.
Watching him, I slowly rolled over and climbed to my hands and knees. I started to crawl toward the middle of the bed.
Hot hands landed on either side of my waist, and Kale hauled me back to the edge. “Not so fast, Shortcake.”
Standing behind me, he smoothed his palms over my bottom.
Fight for Me: The Complete Collection Page 57
