She grabs a pillow off the bed and tosses it at me. “You asshole,” she laughs, “take that back.”
“What?” I defend, easily deflecting the pillow where it thumps against the wall and falls to the floor. “You drink the stuff non-stop lately.”
She crosses the room and lays her palms flat against my chest, trying to move me. “Get out of here already.”
My feet go nowhere and I bust out laughing. “It’s cute you think you can push me.” I grab her hands, tucking them into mine, and duck my head to whisper seductively in her ear, “I’m not going anywhere, Kira.”
She shudders against me, not in fear but lust, and I can see her nipples pucker against the cotton of her dress. Sadly, I know it’s my cue to back off before we do something stupid.
“You get that shower, explore, whatever the fuck you want,” I say lightly. “You’re the queen of this castle.” I spread my arms wide.
With that, I jog down the stairs and out the side door, getting out of there before we fall into bed or I admit she’s also the queen of my heart.
51
Kira
Rush raps his knuckles against the open bedroom door and I look up from the trashy gossip magazine I bought at the last gas station we stopped at.
“I want to take you somewhere,” he announces.
I glance at the clock on the nightstand. It’s after seven already. We’ve spent most of the day apart, except for lunch, because I wanted to give him his space. I stayed close enough that I’d know if he was about to get into trouble or spiral out of control. There’s no way I’d completely abandon him.
I close the magazine, leaning against the fluffy pillows. My back is killing me, but I’ve reached the stage in pregnancy where I’m a miserable lump anyway.
“Where?” I hesitate to ask, studying him closely and finding his blue eyes to be calm and clear like a smooth pond and not the raging ocean I’m used to.
He takes a step into the room. “I was thinking,” he curls his fingers around the footboard of the bed, “I wouldn’t tell you.” He gives me a rakish grin, reminding me of some rogue pirate desperate to covet my heart like a treasure chest.
“Aren’t we past secrets?” I raise a brow at him in challenge.
He drops his head, shaking it slightly. “You have me there—we’re going to pick up fast-food and then I’m taking you to one of my favorite places in this crappy town. Technically it’s in the next town, but who cares about the details.” He winks.
“Well, since you’re saying food is involved, I can’t say no. This baby says he’s hungry.”
Rush chuckles. “He gets that from me.”
I slide off the bed with a groan, pressing my hand to my aching back.
“Are you in pain?” he asks, his eyes wide with worry.
I point to my stomach. “I’m carrying a bowling ball with me everywhere, it’s natural for my back to hurt. My feet also ache, and I pee all the time.” I slip my feet into my flip-flops and grimace. “Which reminds me, I better pee before we go.”
“I’ll wait for you downstairs.” He tosses his thumb over his shoulder.
“Meet you there,” I promise, and head for the hall bathroom to empty my bladder.
I barely sit down on the toilet when my bladder empties itself. It’s probably been thirty minutes—less even—since I last peed, but it feels like I’m emptying an entire gallon of water.
I finish and wash my hands, then meet Rush downstairs in the kitchen.
Following him out through the laundry room, he helps me into his massive truck.
“I wish I never had to look at this truck again,” I grumble as he places a ‘helpful’ hand on my ass.
He laughs. “Why is that?”
“It’s mocking me.”
He closes my door and walks around the front. After he’s in and buckled he inquires, “It’s mocking you? How?”
“It’s mocking me, by forcing me to need help to get in and out. I could barely manage before, and now my equilibrium is all off thanks to this chunk.” I rub my stomach fondly.
I don’t know how I went from being so scared and terrified of being a mother, to loving this tiny human I’ve never met so completely.
He shakes his head sadly as he backs out of the driveway. “Don’t hate the truck. She’s a beauty.”
He caresses the steering wheel like you would a lover before shifting the gear into drive.
“Do you have anything planned for your birthday?” I ask him, making small talk.
His head whips toward me and he grins. “You remembered my birthday.”
I roll my eyes. “It’s not like it was hard to.”
“But you wanted to remember it, didn’t you?”
I don’t answer him, and I guess that’s all the answer he needs anyway, because he faces the road once more sporting a proud smirk.
A few minutes later he rolls into the drive-thru of a burger joint—bless him.
He doesn’t even ask me what I want on mine, he already knows, as he places our order—adding a chocolate and strawberry milkshake on at the end.
“Stop trying to fatten me up,” I grumble playfully.
“First off,” he holds up one finger, “you would’ve killed me if I hadn’t ordered one—don’t even try to deny it. Secondly, these are the best fucking milkshakes ever. You can quote me on that. Thirdly,” he sticks up a third finger, with a grin, “well, I don’t really have a third—but I’ll just say, I’ll be telling you I told you so in no time.”
I roll my eyes dramatically. “Keep telling yourself that.”
It’s a lie. I know I’ll love it. I can’t resist a milkshake.
He pays for the food and drives forward to the next window. He hands the carrier filled with our drinks and shakes to me and then takes the food bag, placing it in his lap.
As he drives through the town, I study every detail I can, as if by getting to know the town, I can know Rush better.
We end up on an open road, with farmland on each side.
“Man, there are a lot of cows. Just like back home.” I can’t help but laugh.
He gives a small chuckle and stuffs his hand inside the bag, pulling out a French fry. “That’s what happens when there are farms every-fucking-where. Cows, cows, and more fucking cows.”
Eventually he turns onto a gravel road and the setting sun nearly blinds me. I yank down the sun visor for some relief.
I spot some cars up ahead, but I can’t figure out what anyone is doing. There’s a small hut built by the road and Rush slows down, coming to a stop.
He rolls down his window and leans out.
“How much?”
“Five bucks,” the teenager replies.
Rush pulls out a ten and hands it to him. “Keep the change.”
He drives forward and backs his truck in near the others.
“Out you go,” he tells me and I glare at him. “Right,” he grins, “you need my help.”
“You’re eating this up,” I grumble.
“Yes, yes I am,” he chortles. The jerk. “Just wait here,” he orders.
I raise one brow, because where the hell else am I going to go?
He hops out of the truck and heads around the back, putting the tailgate down. I turn my head around, looking out the back window, and my jaw drops because the back is filled with pillows and blankets on top of what I think must be an air mattress.
Beyond him, I squint and make out a … screen.
When he opens my door I smile at him. “You brought me to a drive-in.”
He grins, his hair pushed back messily like he can’t get it out of his eyes quickly enough. He looks boyish and at ease, so much younger.
“I did.”
My heart fills with something I don’t quite understand. Hope, longing, and something else.
He takes the drink carrier from me and offers me his other hand. I slip my hand into his and watch the way his closes over mine.
I’ve never wanted to give my heart or my
self to anyone. It always felt like too big of a risk. But somehow, piece by piece I’ve been handing them to Rush long before I realized I was.
We’ve both made mistakes, been hurt by each other and our pasts, but I still know my heart chooses him. I choose him. The words stay locked in my throat as my feet touch the ground and he lets go to close the truck door. I know I’ll let them out soon, I have to or I’ll go crazy, but now isn’t the time.
He places his hand low on my waist and guides me to the back of the truck.
“This seems kind of cheesy now,” he admits with a small shrug and an adorably sheepish smile, “but I used to love coming here as a kid, and I thought you might like it too.”
I place my hand on his arm and tilt my head back to look up into his eyes.
“This is perfect, Rush. This is the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me.”
His smile nearly blinds me and makes my chest pang.
He sets the drinks down on the tailgate and grabs my waist. “Up you go.”
“Rush, no!” I cry, but he’s already lifting me onto the back of the truck as if I weigh nothing.
“Even pregnant, I bench press more than you weigh.” He levels me with the look—you know, the one where someone is clearly telling you without words you’re crazy.
“Whatever,” I grumble, and scurry awkwardly toward the back of the truck where the mountain of pillows is.
Rush hops into the back of the truck in one lithe movement that’s too fucking sexy to be legal. I almost want to ask him to take his shirt off and do it again, but he’d get way too much pleasure from my request, so I bite my tongue. Literally.
It takes a few minutes for us to get settled with our food and drinks.
“What movie is playing?” I ask.
“No fucking idea,” he answers, and shoves some fries into his mouth.
“They could be playing a chick flick,” I warn, unwrapping the burger. “Or Titanic.”
He shrugs. “Tonight, it doesn’t matter.”
“Why is that?” I pause my movements and tilt my head toward him.
“Because,” his eyes meet mine, the blue swirling with an endless pool of shades, “all I care about is being with you.”
I duck my head before he can read too much from my eyes.
“You’re killing me,” I confess on a barely there whisper, the words slipping out unbidden between my lips.
He brushes my hair away from my face and lifts my chin with the backs of his fingers so I’m forced to stop avoiding him.
“Not as much as you’re killing me.”
It seems illogical that out of all the millions of people in this world, the two of us would find each other. We’re so much alike, but so different at the same time. With him I feel complete. I’ve found a part of me I’ve been missing and didn’t even know I needed. Now that I’ve found him, I never want to let go.
I scoot closer to him and his eyes widen a fraction of a second before I press my lips to his.
He’s stiff at first, caught off guard, but it takes only a moment for his lips to become a soft pillow beneath mine. His fingers delve into my hair and he kisses me back with such passion and fervor I wonder how I’ve ever lived my life without this feeling.
Without him.
I give, he takes, he gives, I take. We know this dance well and it’s been too long since we’ve stepped on the dance floor.
My fingers tangle into the cotton of his shirt, begging and aching to pull him closer.
He grabs me by the waist and pulls me onto his lap. My burger tumbles onto the blankets, but I don’t care.
Suddenly, I’m only hungry for him, and I’m positive if I don’t get my fill I’ll die.
He kisses me desperately, like a man on death row begging to hold on for just a minute longer.
Our time apart has been necessary, I know.
I needed to heal and to accept my role in the way things played out. I needed to grow up and stop holding on to things that were only weighing me down. You can’t soar if your wings are clipped.
Rush, too, needed time apart to come to grips with his reality. I think if I’d told him I loved him too that night in New York City, he would’ve continued on his merry way—drinking and never dealing with his parents’ deaths. He’s been forced to overcome those obstacles in a way he never would have if we’d tried being together from that moment on.
I know in my heart, all the way down to my soul, if that day would’ve gone differently, we would’ve never made it as a couple. We still might not, nothing is a guarantee in this world. But before, we were standing on a shaky ground crumbling beneath our feet, now we have a solid foundation to build upon.
Time is fleeting. It ebbs and flows. Moments end only to never return.
Our moment could’ve ended in that hotel room in a city that means nothing to us.
But something tells me it’s only starting now.
His lips break from mine and he holds my cheeks in both of his massive hands.
I can see every small freckle dashed across his nose. Every fleck of gold and green sprinkled in his blue eyes. Every eyelash. Even a small scar on his forehead normally hidden by his hair.
It’s only when you let your guard fall away that you can truly see one another for who you are. We’re more naked to each other in this moment than we’ve ever been, and we’re fully clothed.
“Hi,” he whispers, staring back at me.
I don’t shy away. For the first time in perhaps my entire life, I don’t feel like I have anything to hide. “Hi.”
“You kissed me.”
“I did.” I curl my fingers into the hair at the nape of his neck.
“You kissed me,” he repeats with a grin.
“I did,” I reply once more with a smile.
His smile fading slightly, he sighs. “I didn’t want to push you for too much too soon.”
“You didn’t push me,” I remind him, moving my hands to lay them flat against his chest. “I kissed you, remember? I got tired of waiting for you to make the first move,” I laugh, and it feels good to let such a carefree sound tear out of my throat.
“So, what does this mean?” he asks, gliding his fingers gently through my hair.
“It means…” I begin slowly, moving my lips to his jaw and placing a kiss there. “I’m finally…” Another kiss to his neck. “Ready to…” I place a kiss on the opposite side of his neck. “Say…” I kiss his jaw, again mirroring where I kissed him on his right side. I bring my lips leisurely up to his ear and whisper, “I love you.”
His breath catches slightly and I know I’ve surprised him. I smile against his skin and his arms tighten around me. He buries his head into my neck and his stubble scratches me, but I don’t care.
He pulls back, but only enough to meet my eyes. His are filled with happiness, relief, and…
“I love you too, Kira. You came out of nowhere, like a falling star—no, like a whole fucking meteor shower, and you lit up my world. Nothing is right now without you.”
“I know what you mean.”
Behind me, the movie begins to play but I don’t turn to look. It’s the last thing on my mind.
In this moment, all that matters is him.
Us.
“You want to give this whole thing called life a try with me?” he asks jokingly.
“Yeah, yeah I do.”
He hugs me again, and I never want him to let me go. I could stay in his arms forever and I’d be happy. I’m not an expert in love, far from it, but I think that’s how you know you’ve found the one—when they’re the only one you can ever imagine holding you, spending time together, simply existing with.
He finally sets me off his lap.
“All I want to do is fucking kiss you, but we better eat. Can’t have little man getting hangry.” He rubs my stomach.
“No, we can’t have that,” I agree. My eyes fall to my burger lying on the blanket, where several flies are attacking it. My lips curl in disgust. “At lea
st I have fries.”
Rush holds out his wrapped hamburger. “Have mine.”
I shake my head. “I’m not eating your food.”
“Kira,” he says in a low voice of warning that makes my center clench. My God, it’s been too long since I’ve had sex and I want nothing more than to rip off his clothes and make him my meal.
“Can we split?” I acquiesce.
He shrugs. “Fine, we’ll split it.”
I pull the fries out of the bag while he tears the burger in half.
He hands me my half and I take a bite. “Oh, this is good,” I moan.
He gives a husky laugh. “You haven’t even gotten to the milkshake. Brace yourself.”
I wiggle my back against the pillows and sit side by side with Rush, my right leg touching his left.
Darkness has almost completely erased all the color from the sky.
I don’t even care what movie is playing, because I’m so focused on Rush. He keeps stealing looks at me and it makes me feel warm and fuzzy. This giddiness is new for me, strange but exciting.
Sitting here with him in the back of his truck, among the pile of blankets and food, I realize this is pretty much a date. The first real date I’ve ever been on.
The irony isn’t lost on me that I’m experiencing my first date weeks before our baby is due, but I’ve never believed in doing things according to society’s standards—why start now?
Rush finishes his half of the burger and wipes his hands on a napkin.
“You’re not watching the movie,” he tells me. “You’re staring at me. I can feel you looking at me.”
“I don’t care about the movie.”
“What do you care about, Kira?” He tilts his chin down toward me, and even in the dark I can’t escape the way his eyes feel on me. I never knew you could be electrified by a look before, but you can.
Rush proves the impossible is possible time and again.
“You,” I whisper.
My stomach flutters to life with excitement and nervous energy as he cups my chin gently and presses a tender, barely-there, kiss to my more than willing lips. I’d love nothing more than for him to kiss me deeper, to steal my breath, but there’s something infinitely more romantic about this. It’s a reminder we have all the time in the world.
Wild Flame (The Wild: A Rock Star Romance Book 2) Page 40