Chapter Seventeen
Devon hadn’t realized until that moment that there was a part of him that had worried he would never again experience the pleasure of having Kami in his bed. She was his wife. It should have been a foregone conclusion. The two of them had always possessed the sort of chemistry that other people would have killed for.
Right now the flare of heat between them was so intense that Devon fully expected to see singe marks on the sofa when he finally rose from his seat. But that wasn’t what he was thinking about right now. Not really. As he kissed and laved his tongue around and around Kami’s nipples, he realized that her taste and her scent were so very familiar and so precious to him. It was far more than just a physical desire for release. This was more. It was everything.
He let his hands move toward Kami’s waist. She was still wearing her khaki uniform pants from the coffee shop. She had always been ashamed of her uniforms. Devon wasn’t. To him, they were a part of the person he admired so deeply who worked her ass off no matter how often anyone else would have quit.
Finding the button and zip closure of her pants, he picked at them until he felt the button give way. Her low laugh was sexy as hell. She pulled back, unfortunately taking her breasts with her as she stood up suddenly in front of him.
He watched her face, memorizing once again the expression of lust and love on her beloved features. She was such an exotic woman. All of that caramel-tinted skin and curves in all the right places. He felt like a slack-jawed young man with his first lover as he watched Kami wriggle her generous hips while she pushed her khaki pants down over her hips. The fabric fell down her shapely legs and pooled at her feet. That was when she picked up her feet one at a time and got them free of the pile of clothing on the floor. The movements were so incredibly feminine. He could not help but smile at her as she lifted one tiny foot and kicked those pants aside.
The only thing left was a pair of plain white panties. It has always amazed him that in a world of provocative underwear, Kami had the ability to make a pair of plain, white cotton panties look like the sexiest garment in the world.
This moment was no exception. Devon could not hold back a groan as she hooked her thumbs in the panties and dragged them down her legs. She had to half bend over as she did. The position let her breasts hang free and for just a moment Devon was utterly consumed with the thoughts that overcame him at the sight of his woman.
Then Kami stood straight up and put her hands on her hips. She gazed at him. Tilting her head to one side she gave him an expectant look of anticipation. “Well? I’m waiting. You’ve still got pants on, Devon, and if memory serves that just isn’t going to work.”
A bark of laughter escaped his lips and for just one moment he did not move as though he might be considering the possibility of just sitting there. But when her elegant dark brows rose, Devon finally reached for the button fly of his jeans. It only took one tug to get them all undone. And it only took a slight lifting of his hips to get those pants down over his thighs.
He paused there, giving her an expectant and maybe a bit playful look. “Well? Are you going to help?”
She was already kneeling at his feet to unlace his boots. It was a sexy sight that Devon would never get tired of. He wiggled his feet a bit to help her get the boots off and then soon enough she was moving her soft hands up his legs toward the waistband of his pants.
It only took Kami a moment to pull his pants all the way down and work them over his feet. She leaned forward and began brushing her lips against the insides of his knees as she did. Anticipation was brewing in his gut. He was so turned on that the tip of his erection was pushing up above the waistband of his underwear.
Kami did not seem concerned with the fact that his underwear was still on. Before Devon could question that, she moved up his body and pressed her mouth to the cotton stretched taut over his erection. She dampened it with her tongue. The sensation of her wet tongue pressing against his full, hot flesh was a form of excruciating torture. She licked and nibbled and sucked until Devon pushed his hands into her hair.
His fingers immediately encountered the rubber band holding her curly hair captive. He deliberately snapped the rubber band and helped her hair unwind from the tight roll she had placed it in so many hours ago when her day had begun.
The dark mass of hair spilled into his hands and across his thighs. The softness of her hair was a sharp contrast to the extreme sensations whipping through his body. Suddenly it was all too much. He needed more. He needed everything. Devon needed her. And if he did not get her soon he was going to go stark raving mad.
Stabbing his hands into her hair, Devon carefully dragged Kami up the length of his body until she was on the couch with him. He squirmed out of his underwear. It was awkward, but he managed anyway. It left his erection arcing up between them with no small amount of insistency. Kami wrapped both her hands around him. She gave a squeeze that made Devon groan. He could no longer think. There was nothing for him but the sexy woman who belonged to him.
Kami seemed to guess what he was thinking. She flung her leg over his. Straddling him, she sank down with slow, deliberate precision onto his erection. The way she bit her lip as she impaled herself on his body was so arousing that Devon nearly lost control then and there.
Once she was fully seated astride his body, Devon placed his hands on her hips. The two of them began to move together. It was hot. It was so hot. But it was also more. Devon lightly stroked her cheeks and her chin. He touched her lips and felt a wave of tenderness so potent that it nearly pushed him over the edge. She was so beautiful and right now she was giving him everything. How could any man ever ask for or even want more? He was so incredibly lucky to have found this woman who was everything he could ever want in life.
Kami’s hair fell over one shoulder. It was wild as it moved with each motion of her body grinding against his. Devon reached up and tangled his fingers in the mass. He loved the way it felt against his skin. He loved the scent of it. Cherries. He could always smell cherries beneath everything else.
“Devon!” she gasped his name and within a few seconds he felt her body tighten around his.
The powerful feeling of her climax was too much. Devon groaned and gave into the desire to let go. He spent himself inside her body until there was nothing left of himself that he had not given to his wife. She collapsed forward against his chest and Devon wrapped his arms around her. He could have held her there for the rest of his life and never moved.
The thought held more than a little attraction attached to it. What would it be like to just live here with Kami? How would the two of them manage? They had never lived together before. That was true. But they had been living in dwellings that had been so incredibly packed full of other people, their problems, and their stuff that it could not possibly be more complicated to be in a space that held nothing but the two of them and all of their baggage—whether it be literal or figurative.
“I’m sleepy,” she whispered. “And I don’t even think it’s time for bed. Is it time for bed? I can’t see a clock. Do we own a clock?” Her giggles made his heart want to dance. “I don’t know. How goofy is that?”
“I think it’s perfectly reasonable considering the fact that you weren’t the one to purchase any of the stuff in this apartment. You’ll make it yours soon enough. Remember that you can move anything you’d like. It’s all your choice.”
She suddenly sat straight up on his lap. Cocking her head to one side, she gazed at him with a frown puckering the delicate skin between her brows. “What do you mean it’s all my choice? This is your place too. You can’t possibly not care at all where stuff goes? What if I decided to put a fountain in the foyer or something and you had to step in it every time you walked into the apartment?”
“That would be too bad because I would absolutely hate having to shop for new shoes on a regular basis.” He heaved a long suffering sigh and winked at her. “But if you really wanted a fountain right in front of the
door, I would make it work.”
“Oh please!” She punched him lightly in the chest. “You cannot be serious. So what do you want to do with this place? What kinds of things do you want to see happen since we’re going to live here together?”
He must have paused for just one moment too long because her expression began to darken. A lot. Her throat moved as she swallowed. Devon scrambled for an answer, but it was too late. He had given her doubts and she wasn’t going to take them lightly.
“No!” Kami snarled. “No. You must be kidding me! You cannot possibly expect me to live here alone! What? Are you just going to stop by a few times a week to have sex? Is that it? Devon, don’t do this to me! I gave up everything for you!”
“Don’t.” He held up one hand and hoped to head off her tirade. “Don’t do that. You don’t even know what I’m planning. You don’t know the facts. You’re just going off on some angry rant because you’re worried. So can you please slow down long enough for us to just talk about this?”
“Not if talking means you’re going to try to talk me into living here by myself.” She got up off his lap and started scrambling to find her clothes. She was wriggling to get herself into a bra and her panties. She was absolutely adamant about it. That was for sure. “I’m so mad at you right now, Devon King!”
“I’m not going to make you live here by yourself,” Devon shouted at Kami. He hated it when she got like this. So he went ahead and switched to Spanish just to see if he could get her to slow down. “Would you please listen to me? I want to live here with you. I do. But I still have a vested business interest in that house in University Park.”
“Business interest?” She whipped around and glared at him. She was actually waving her shoe at him. Not good. “It’s a freaking house!” she shouted in Spanish.
“No. The house belongs to the company. I don’t want to just vacate. I can’t. I have to try and hang onto the business. My brother Orion and I are the only ones standing between all of us and my mother’s plans to completely cut us out of the family money. Do you understand what would happen if she managed to do that? I would be standing here with nothing. No money to support myself. No job. Nothing. She will cut us all off without a single thought if she thinks that it will get her what she wants.”
“Control?” Kami whispered. “Wow. Your mother would steal from her own sons just to get what? Money?”
“Money is a pretty powerful motivator. Think about it,” Devon murmured, knowing that he was stepping on shaky ground. “That’s what makes your father do what he does, right? He wants more money to pay the bills, to send home to Mexico City, to make himself look successful in the eyes of his family members back in Mexico.”
She switched back to English. “Yeah. That’s what he wants.”
“And what is he willing to do in order to get it?” Devon prompted. He hated reminding her of this stuff. It angered him every time he thought about what her father had done for so many years. It did not matter if it was cultural or not. It didn’t’ matter if this was the way that Kami thought normal looked. It wasn’t right. “Isn’t your father willing to marry you off to some kid who will live there in the apartment and keep you under his thumb while both he and your father reap the financial benefits of all your hard work?”
“Yes.” Her voice was so shaky. He saw her tears and knew he had pushed her too far, but what else was he supposed to do? “Tomorrow. I’m supposed to be married tomorrow.”
“But you aren’t going to be because you are married to me. You don’t have to marry that boy. You don’t even have to show up at the chapel to explain yourself. You can just ignore the whole thing. Go ahead. You can do that because you have more options than your father could ever dream of.”
“I just want you with me,” Kami whispered. She turned away from him and wrapped her arms around her body. It was as though she were hugging herself for comfort.
That bothered Devon. He wanted to be the one to comfort her. He wanted to be the one she turned to. So even though he was naked and it was possible that Kami was still angry enough with him to try and lash out, Devon stood up and went to her. He slid his arms around her waist and pulled her against his chest.
She resisted for the span of a few breaths before melting back against Devon and holding onto his arms as though she wanted to make certain that he never let go. He didn’t mind. He wanted badly to feel her against him. He wanted to be the one she went to for comfort. And if it meant he gave her whatever he could while he tried to pick up the pieces of his own life, that was fine.
“You have to go tonight,” she whispered. “That’s what you’re telling me.”
“Yes.” But he did not want to. Devon pursed his lips. He could not bear the thought of not being with her tonight. He needed her probably just as much or more as she needed him. “No. No, I don’t need to go. I’m going to stay here tonight. I know you have to get up early and go to the coffee shop anyway. I want to spend tonight with my wife.”
“Like a wedding night,” she whispered.
The words convinced him like nothing else probably could. They had been married for more than a year. This would be the first night that they had ever spent together. This needed to be the new beginning for the two of them. It needed to be that and so much more.
Chapter Eighteen
“Earth to Kami…” Shawn whistled to Kami as he waved both hands in front of her face as though he were trying to flag her down.
Kami made a face at him and flung her towel right back in his face. “Oh, stop it! I’m not that zoned out. You’re just making a big deal out of it because I’m smiling today and for some reason people think that’s weird.”
“Even our regulars are talking about it,” Shawn teased. “They keep asking me who the new barista is. You know, the one with the big smile on her face.”
It was two o’clock in the afternoon. Sunday mornings were often so busy that the staff could hardly find time to sneak a potty break between making huge drink orders that were supposed to somehow keep the customer awake through whatever church service they planned to attend. Then of course they were all ordering pastries as though they wanted the sugar rush on top of the caffeine and did not even think to consider the crash after that initial sugary boost was over and done with.
Now though, the coffee shop was empty. The first rays of sunlight were attempting to break through the cloud cover outside, and there was a slight possibility that the sidewalk might actually be dry by the time that Kami’s shift in the coffee shop was over.
“I’m really happy for you, Kami,” Shawn told her softly. “We all are. John was talking about it with Geary and Meghan right after you left yesterday. Nobody deserves happiness more than you do. You work harder than anyone else we know.”
“I don’t know about that.” Kami felt embarrassed to think that all of her coworkers were talking together about how pathetic her life was and how she deserved some kind of break since it pretty much seemed to everyone like she was miserable. “I’m usually off work by sometime in the early to mid afternoon. It’s kind of hard to whine and moan about that when there are people who work all night long.”
Shawn rolled his eyes. He was rinsing out mixing cups in the sink beside the big coffee machines. “Yeah, but you go into work hours and hours before most of us are even coherent. I can do the five o’clock mornings. I don’t like them. But they’re part of my job. If you tried to make it four, I think I would have to find a new career.”
“Ha!” Kami twirled her towel around and around and then shook her head. “You just said because they’re part of your job, right? Well the four o’clock morning is part of my job. If you had to do it, you would make it work. That’s just what happens.”
“Just what happens.” He was shaking his head.
Then the front door bell dinged and Geary came sauntering into the shop in her uniform. She was about a half hour early. Not really unusual for most of them. The shop was a fun place to work, and plenty of the e
mployees just hung around before and after their shifts to shoot the breeze and enjoy an extra shot or two of espresso.
“You know what?” Shawn picked up another towel and snapped Kami lightly on the backside. “Go home. Go enjoy that new apartment. Maybe your guy will be there. I like the smile on your face. Keep it there and I’ll see you later.”
How could Kami argue with that? For the first time in her life she didn’t have to say no to leaving early because she couldn’t afford to lose half an hour’s pay. Now she could make a decision to have a few minutes off and deal with the financial consequences on her own. It was so very liberating!
Kami waved to Shawn and to Geary and then she pushed her way out the front door of The Corner Shop with a spring in her step. She felt like the whole world was just a better place. That was it. She was happy. And then she paused on the sidewalk to think about the fact that she didn’t actually have to be anywhere.
Dammit. The priest.
Kami didn’t go to mass very often anymore. Usually only on special days or holidays when she wasn’t working. But Father Kearney had been the priest in her home parish back in Vickery Meadow since she was just a little girl. The idea that the poor man was going to think that Kami was somehow at fault for this whole mess about the marriage ceremony and that nonsense was just horrible to contemplate. Kami felt guilty that her parish priest didn’t realize that Kami was already a happily married woman.
There was a bus chugging down the street at that very moment. Kami started walking quickly and within moments she was jogging toward the stop. She made it just in time to swing onto the bus and go hurtling off down the street and unfortunately away from her cozy apartment on the eleventh floor of the gray granite building in downtown Dallas.
Billion Dollar Wolves: Boxset Bks 1-5 Page 84