Something About a Hot Guy

by A. L. Jackson

  She pressed her hands over her heart, pleading with me to get it. “Like I’m less. Like you’re doing me a favor.”

  Grief punched a hole through my chest.

  Is that the way she looked at herself? Is that the way she thought I was looking at her?

  She sucked in a shattered breath. “But I know what I want, and I know what makes me happy, and I’m working on all the rest. I believe in myself. We’re all a work in progress, and I’ve made a ton of it. And I’m not about to settle for someone who is aiming to make me feel better about myself. Bolster my confidence when I don’t have any.”

  Her head shook, and for the first time ever, there wasn’t a tentative bone in her body. The girl bleeding honestly. Not shrinking for a second.

  Fuck.

  I liked that, too.

  “I get it.” Her voice quieted. “You care about me on some level because of Vanessa. Feel obligated to me in some way. You probably really do want me to experience things I’ve never experienced before. But believe me when I tell you I don’t want to experience those things with anyone who doesn’t want me for me. I want the real deal, Kyle. I mean, for a second I thought I’d take you any way that I could have you, but that’s not me, and I don’t want it to be. I’m not going to cheat myself.”

  The softest smile tugged at the corner of my mouth, and I eased forward and inch. “You think I feel obligated to you because of my sister? Because I feel sorry for you in some way?”

  Uncertainty filled her expression, and disbelieving laughter rippled up my throat, like it was trying to reach out for her, hold her, words tender in their delivery. “You do realize my sister would cut my balls off if she found out I kissed you? Skin me alive if she knew I touched you. Believe me, I’m not doing her a favor.”

  Kenna frowned the cutest frown.

  I took another step forward, unable to stay away from this girl.

  Not anymore.

  Not ever again.

  “She kept catching me staring at you when we were in high school. When I was nearly going crazy with how fucking bad I wanted you. Not because I felt fucking sorry for you.” My face pinched in sincerity. “But because I wanted what I saw. Why do you think I called you clueless all those years?”

  She wavered, her tongue darting out to wet her lips like she didn’t know how to respond.

  I answered for her. “Because you didn’t seem to get how fucking gorgeous and appealing and perfect you were. Even if you didn’t want me, I wanted you to see yourself for how amazing you were.”

  I dipped in closer, nose filling with the scent of this girl, my heart taking off like a gunshot. “How amazing you are. And if there is anyone around here who needs pity? It’s me.”

  Pushing through all the boundaries, I backed her against the hallway wall. I planted my hands over her head, and she gasped a breath that I inhaled, and I ran my nose up the side of her jaw so I could murmur in her ear. “Because I’ve been the pathetic fucker who’s been in love with his little sister’s best friend for his entire life.”

  Those big brown eyes blinked a thousand times, staring up at me, her face twisting with hope and doubt. “What did you say?”

  I hooked her chin with my index finger and forced her to meet the gravity in what I was about to confess. The sheer truth of it. “I’m in love with you, Kenna Myer. I’m in love with this sexy body and your gorgeous heart and your giving spirit. I’ve been for as long as I can remember.”

  I angled closer. “You want the truth? I’ve always been right here, waiting on the sidelines for you to see me for me, too. Not the cocky asshole who was your best friend’s big brother. But as a boy who fell for a girl. Fully and wholly.”

  Her throat wobbled as she swallowed, emotion rising in the air and shivering in the inch that separated us, our hearts running wild, a thundering crack that ricocheted through the enclosed hall.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” she whispered, those eyes a tangle of need and affection and the one thing I’d wanted for all my life.

  Her love.

  I wanted to sweep her up. Take her and love her right back.

  But I knew we couldn’t go any farther without hashing this out. Putting a nail in the questions and insecurities.

  Until she was clear.

  Regret tightened my chest in a vice. “Already told you, for years, Vanessa warned me off. I figured maybe you were too young for me. Too good for me. I don’t fucking know. Only thing I did know was it didn’t feel right to go after you. I spent a ton of years trying to forget my feelings, but it didn’t change, no matter how much time went by. When I went to your and Vanessa’s graduation, I decided I didn’t fucking care, anymore. I was going to go for it. I came to you, remember?”

  I’d been all in that night.

  Put my heart on the line.

  She hadn’t even acknowledged it.

  A frown pulled across her face, brow drawing together as she searched through her memories.

  Saw the second she struck on the right one.

  “After dinner,” she whispered, confusion twined through her soft voice. “Out by the pool.”

  I gave a tight nod. “Yeah. And you didn’t say anything. I figured that was it. Killed me, but I told myself I had to finally accept that you didn’t feel the same. That I had to move on because loving you hurt too much.”

  A single tear tracked down her cheek. “I . . . I remember I was so nervous, out there with you alone. I’m pretty sure I was basically hearing a buzz in my head and not what you were actually saying. Because what I thought you were saying couldn’t have been true, you know?”

  She shrugged a pained shrug. “I . . . I convinced myself I was making it up. That I was assigning a whole new meaning to what you said. That you didn’t mean it like I thought.”

  She inhaled a shaky breath. “But then you stalked away and . . . I . . . I told myself I had to at least try. Put myself out there for the first time. It took me a couple hours, but finally I managed to gather the courage to go looking for you. I found you with Lanie.” The last she choked over.

  Regret blasted through my being. What the fuck had I been thinking? Acting out of pride and hurt and my pouting dick rather than with my heart and mind.

  I dropped my gaze and blew out a sigh. “Shit.”

  Tremors rumbled through her body, old wounds that shivered and shook, never fully healed. “That broke me, Kyle. Scarred me in a way that I’ve yet to undo. But I know I have to. I can’t let a single moment define who I am.”

  Her gaze dropped, the girl warring with something deep and dark, before she looked back up at me from under her lashes. So damned pretty it speared me again, an arrow through the heart. A hook in my soul.

  “But that’s what I just did, isn’t it? I let a single moment of rejection and hurt cloud what was going on between me and you . . . and . . . and I ran because that’s what I do when it gets too hard. And I don’t want to be that girl, anymore. I don’t want to be scared of this.”

  I reached up and brushed back a lock of hair matted to her face. “I’m so goddamn sorry that I ever caused you an ounce of pain. But I was determined that night to erase you from my heart and my psyche. To finally give up the fascination I had with you.”

  Sadness moved across her face, and I leaned in closer, making sure I was directly in her line of sight. “But it didn’t work. Didn’t work for a second. Because you were always right there, a vision of perfection. You were what I compared every other girl to, and not one of them ever had a chance of filling your shoes.”

  I spread my palm across her face. “I love you. I love you for real. I love you with all of me. I love you for you.”

  A fresh round of tears slipped down her face, and I was cupping both of her cheeks, wiping away her tears.

  “I’m so in love with you, Kyle Love. I love you for you. So much it hurts. I’ve been aching for you my whole life, and I had no idea how to fill it.”

  Slammed with an onslaught of desire that could no longe
r be tamed, I yanked her off her feet and pinned her to the wall.

  She gasped and then laughed, and she threw her arms around my shoulders. I pressed her closer to the wall and brushed my lips along the shell of her ear.

  “I have a pretty good idea of how to fill it.”

  Shivers raced across her flesh, a palpable singe I wanted to trace with my tongue, just as badly as I wanted to devour the needy sigh that scraped her throat.

  So I did.

  I swallowed that sweet little sound with a kiss.

  A kiss that was hard and desperate. A little manic. Two of us finally free. No walls left between us. No questions or insecurities or nosey sisters that were just going to have to get over the two of us.

  Fingers dove into my hair, fisting tight, tugging hard.

  Reckless and rash, pricks of pain pulling at my scalp.

  The force of it shot straight to my dick.

  My dick that was hard as steel. Impatient to finally get in this girl.

  Her pussy hot where she was rubbing against my pants, her desire wrapping me in chains.

  But I had to be careful with her.

  Not because she was pathetic or fragile or weak.

  But because she deserved to be treated right.

  Adored and worshipped and revered.

  She kissed me back with a passion unlike anything I’d ever felt.

  But that’s the way it was when you found your match.

  It was a fire. An inferno. Fireworks launched from a deserted island. The magnitude of it hitting you from out of nowhere.

  Awestruck.

  Love blistered and blew, devotion pumping firm as we fought to get closer to the other.

  “Kyle,” she whispered. “I need you.”

  “I know, cupcake. You’ve got me. I’m yours. I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Actually, you are.”

  I jerked back to look at her.

  She had a coy grin on her face. “You’re taking me to my bedroom.”

  Shyness bled out with her demand, but that’s what it was, the girl telling me what she wanted.

  I was all too willing to oblige.

  Still, I had to tease her a little. “Oh, yeah?”

  She bit down on her bottom lip, redness splashed all over her cheeks. “Mmhmm.”

  I nipped that bottom lip with my teeth. “Tell me you aren’t just using me for my body.”

  She splayed her hands over my shoulders. “I have spent an inordinate amount of time fantasizing about it,” she rasped just under her breath.

  A groan escaped.

  Shit.

  Wasn’t sure I could handle that, the idea of this girl getting off to the memory of me.

  “Then I guess it’s about time you experienced the real deal.”

  She scratched her fingertips along the scruff of my jaw. “And I’m so, so ready.”

  I carried her back through the door that still sat wide open, leaving her suitcase behind.

  We’d deal with that later.

  We had far more important things to attend to.

  I kicked shut the door as I held her by the bottom.

  She giggled. God, I loved the sound of that, her joy flooding the room, as blinding as the sun that poured in through the windows. “So sexy. Just like a romance novel.”

  I nuzzled my entire face in her chest. “I’m about to show you a romance novel.”

  “Oh, I hope so.”

  The mood was light, the two of us finally free, no separation or worry left between us.

  I carried her into her room and tossed her onto the middle of her bed. My girl bounced on the mattress, laughing and squirming and panting heavy, the girl staring up at me like she was looking at the sun.

  Nerves racing fast, but trust in her eyes.

  I was going to show her that she could.

  I crawled over her tight little body that writhed, her hips jerking from the mattress in a bid to meet with mine.

  My expression softened, adoration filling me full when I reached down and cupped the side of her face. “I love you, Kenna. Tell me you belong to me.”

  She touched my face. “I’m yours, Kyle Love. From here to eternity. I’m right here . . . take me.”

  Five

  Kenna

  My words echoed through the space between us. I was certain they were more assured than any word I’d ever whispered or written or imagined into existence.

  I lay staring up at the man who hovered over me. That presence fierce and intense and unrelenting, his gaze deep and possessive and somehow tender.

  Filled with an adoration I hadn’t understood before then.

  Maybe it had been my insecurities. My fears. Or maybe my path had just been different. That I needed the time to grow and understand and accept who I really was and what I wanted.

  And what I wanted was Kyle Love. I had always, but now, it was different.

  I trembled with it.

  My body a fault line getting ready to shatter.

  He leaned down and kissed me.

  Softly.

  Lips sweet and full, an intoxicating drug that made me high, bliss filling my mind and teasing into my senses, his tongue a demand that pulsed desire through my veins.

  Fear was there, too.

  I realized that was okay.

  It was a part of who I was. That as long a I didn’t allow it to steal my joy, that it didn’t take my choices, that I would accept that part of me.

  Work with it.

  Give pieces of it to him, knowing he would be there to help me hold them.

  A big hand splayed across my face, and he tipped up my chin, taking the kiss even deeper as that muscled, lean, hard body brushed up against all my soft.

  Just a tease.

  My insides screamed.

  A groan bled from between my lips, and I could feel him smiling against my mouth.

  “Someone’s anxious,” Kyle murmured before he pulled back to look at me. My chest tightened as I stared up at the gorgeous man staring back at me. Dizziness swept through my mind, my equilibrium shot, everything buzzing and trembling as I teetered at the edge of the sublime.

  The man had awakened every cell that had lain dormant.

  Stoked a fire that had been waiting to be lit.

  A hot blanket of shyness and want spread across my flesh.

  Kyle watched it as if he were tracing the shape the blush painted, the man cherishing every second of me.

  “I’ve been waiting for this for a long, long time,” I whispered, making sure he knew. That he understood that he had it all. Was taking it all. That I was willingly offering it to him.

  He edged off the end of the bed and straightened to his full height. His magnificent chest bare, his abs ripped and hard and packed, his package pressing at the thin fabric of the sleep pants that hung low on his hips.

  That blush spread like a wildfire, my inexperience rustling through my nerves, all of it amplified with this need that I’d never felt before.

  A glow between my thighs that made me press my heels to the bed, shifting in anticipation, deprived for too long.

  “I’m pretty sure I’ve been waiting for this longer,” he rumbled in his sexy, confident way. “Waiting for you to find me. Waiting for my match. For the person I always knew was meant for me.”

  His gaze swept over me where I was waiting for him on the bed.

  And I didn’t feel self-conscious or small. I felt like the most beautiful creature that ever existed. No longer questioning that was the way he viewed me.

  “Are you nervous?” he asked, voice low and eyes keen as he watched me carefully, though there was the hint of a smile threatening at his mouth.

  Just looking at him had the man pinning one to mine, the twist of my lips soft and awed and devoted.

  Because oh God, was he something to look at.

  And he was mine.

  “Yes,” I admitted, my chest heaving as I sat up a little, just wanting to be closer to him. “But I like the way it feels. The wa
y it feels like I can’t breathe while I’m waiting. I can’t wait to be with you.”

  That smile cracked, and he reached out and touched my chin with the knuckle of his index finger.

  A tender, sweet caress.

  Then he edged back and started to push down the waistband of his sleep pants.

  Oh my God.

  I was pretty sure my mouth dropped open. I might have even drooled a little.

  Could anyone blame me?

  Redness streaked and bloomed, heat consuming me like I was on open flames as he bared himself to me.

  Fully unclothed as he stepped out of the pants.

  The man was hung like a priceless painting in a museum.

  “Now I’m really starting to worry you might be using me for my body.”

  My attention snapped up to his face. That was a feat in itself. Then I was blushing more as I watched the smirk pull to his delicious mouth.

  I rested back on my hands, flipping my hair back, going for sexy, knowing it was most likely all kinds of awkward, my heart fluttering when I realized he’d like it if it was, anyway. That he loved me for me.

  “Maybe a little,” I told him, letting my need rush out into the room. Desire coating the words.

  He climbed onto his hands and knees on the bed, forcing me back as he came closer, crawling over the top of me.

  My heart took off at a sprint, so loud I knew he could hear it, the same as I could feel his thundering from his chest.

  “I guess I can be okay with that,” he teased, voice a rough scrape, as rough as the hand he clenched down on my hip. “I plan on using this body for my pleasure again and again.

  “Oh.” It left me on a surprised gasp, then my stomach twisted in anticipation as the man’s gaze went feral.

  “But it’s my heart that’s exploding with bliss,” he growled.

  Savage and sweet.

  Oh my.

  Turned out I liked that a lot.

  I wanted him rough and soft.

  Demanding and giving.

  He slipped his hand under my sweatshirt and spread it up my side, riding up over my ribs, until he was cupping my breast and his thumb was flicking it across my bare nipple.