Since I Saw You

by BETH KERY

  “Dog-walking clothes?” Lin asked, her eyes drifting closed under the influence of his big, rubbing hands moving so deftly on her muscles.

  “Yeah. Casual, easy, weekend clothes—the kind I hardly ever see you wear. You’ll need something for when we take breaks and take Angus for walks.” She blinked her eyes open, his hot stare telling her precisely what they’d be taking breaks from. He kissed the end of her nose and then her mouth, lingering for a moment to penetrate her lips ever so briefly with his tongue, sampling her.

  “Well?” he prompted as he backed up, his gaze lowering over her naked body.

  “Well what?” she asked, made stupid by the way he looked at her with such heat.

  “My computer is out in the living room. Do whatever you need to do while I shower and I run out, because when I come back, you’re mine for the next twenty-four hours. And you’re going to get it if I catch you sneaking any work after that.”

  Her heart leapt when she noticed the hard glint in his eyes. She shook her head and rolled her eyes, trying to discount his threat. He arched his eyebrows, giving her a pointed glance that told her loud and clear he hadn’t been teasing. Her eyes widened.

  “That’s right. I meant it, mon petit chaton,” he assured quietly. “For the next twenty-four hours, I’m your boss. If you test me by focusing on anything but relaxation, fun, or pleasure, I’ll have to prove it to you with a punishment.” She blinked. He grinned suddenly, a brilliant flash of good humor. She laughed when he swooped down to give her one last kiss. He started to back out of the room but pointed at her foot.

  “Shoe size?” he demanded.

  “Seven,” she replied breathlessly. He nodded, turned and headed toward his shower.

  For several seconds, she just stood there, dazed. Despite that charming smile that radiated sex appeal like a beacon, Lin was left with a sneaking suspicion accompanied by an illicit thrill that Kam had been dead serious about what he’d said.

  Cocky and incorrigible, she thought with wry amusement as she retrieved the towel. She refastened it around her breasts and met her own gaze in the mirror. Her smile faded.

  You’ve never been more irresponsible and foolish in your life.

  Nor have you ever been more dishonest.

  Didn’t Kam deserve to know about her secret infatuation for his brother for the past eleven years of her life?

  But when she and Kam were together, like they’d been last night, the only man in the room was Kam . . . the only man in her mind . . . her world. Just because she had some past unresolved—and unresolvable feelings for Ian—didn’t mean she should go around making dramatic confessions about it to Kam. That was ridiculous. Besides, maybe Richard had been right when she’d said her unrequited feelings for Ian had kept her safe from commitment. Safe from hurt. Safe from rejection. Between Ian and her work, Lin was lucky she wasn’t still an untouched virgin. Even so, dipping her toe in the water now and then hardly equated to swimming.

  If Richard’s analysis was right, what was she doing with Kam? He was no stellar specimen when it came to being an ideal mate, was he? Quirky, commitment-phobic geniuses who also just happened to be drop-dead sexy and could get almost any woman to fall into bed with them were hardly the hallmarks of a perfect partner. Kam had told her point-blank yesterday that his relationship with Phoebe Cane was agreeable to him because it was just about sex, no strings attached. Yes, he’d insinuated that he didn’t plan to hurt her and hinted that he had a deeper interest in her than casual sex. Hadn’t he?

  Why did it feel in retrospect that he hadn’t really said anything all that substantial last night? She closed her eyes, trying to re-create the intensity of emotion she’d experienced. It’d felt overwhelmingly intimate and beautiful and special while she’d been under his influence. In the morning light, her logical brain tried to re-create the magic of letting go, of trusting . . . but it eluded her.

  No, she hardly felt safe carrying on this way with Kam.

  Yet here she was.

  What Kam did make her feel, she realized as she opened her eyes and stared at herself honestly in the mirror, was good, and more alive than she remembered feeling in her entire life.

  Maybe this wasn’t wise and maybe it wasn’t safe, Lin acknowledged as she opened up a drawer and found a comb. But it was wonderful.

  Didn’t she deserve the spotlight for a precious moment, no matter how short that time was? Didn’t she deserve to bask in the euphoria of great sex, risk, and romance instead of always being the efficient, careful, reliable understudy hovering in the wings?

  • • •

  Kam’s eyes grew warm when he entered the apartment a little less than an hour later and saw her on the floor next to Angus, a computer in her lap and a cup of coffee steaming on the table not far away. Sunlight flooded through the floor-to-ceiling windows and turned Lake Michigan a sparkling teal in the distance. Angus had succumbed to the warm sedative of the sun a few minutes before, when Lin had scratched her behind the ears.

  She smiled as he stalked toward her, his gaze lowering over her appreciatively and lingering on her bare, outstretched legs. “You look a hell of a lot better in that shirt than I do,” he said, referring to his gray button-down, which fell on her at midthigh.

  “I disagree. I happen to like this shirt on you a lot,” she said, taking a sip of coffee.

  He tossed a shopping bag on the couch behind her. “You should, since you’re the one who picked it out.” Lin’s hand jerked, splashing some coffee on her upper lip. “Now we’re trading off. I’m the one buying clothes for you.”

  “What . . . do you mean?” she said looking up at him.

  He smirked. “You didn’t really believe that I thought Ian picked out all those clothes for me, did you? Or chose the new curtains for Aurore, or all that bedding and linens and the new dishes for the kitchen? Give me some credit for reading him. Everyone knows he relies on you for stuff like that. Everyone knows you have impeccable taste.”

  She blushed. “I hadn’t realized you knew.”

  “Your mark was all over that stuff. Your reputation precedes you. Ian, Francesca, Lucien, and Elise talk about you as if you could do no wrong. You transformed Aurore. Only you could make that ancient pile start to look not only elegant, but also comfortable,” he said matter-of-factly, kneeling on the carpet and sitting next to her, his back leaning against the couch, one long, jean-covered leg bent, the other one sprawled out in front of him, his hip pressed against hers.

  “I’m glad you liked the things. It was hard to choose, never having been to Aurore. Never having met you,” she admitted.

  For a few seconds, they didn’t speak. The sunlight brought out the russet highlights in his dark hair. Before she could second-guess herself, she touched the thick waves. He smelled good, like soap and the outdoor air. “Ian described your character a little to me. It guided what I bought for clothing. Rugged. Independent. Nonconformist.” She met his sun-gleaming eyes. “Utterly male.”

  His eyebrows went up. “Ian described me that way?”

  She smiled as she reflected. “No. But somehow, I got that impression.”

  He caught her stroking hand and pressed his mouth to her palm. Warmth spread in places far away from his lips.

  “I like your glasses,” he said when he lifted his head slightly, his breath brushing against her skin.

  “Thanks. I wear them for reading.”

  She felt him studying her intently.

  “What?” she asked, grinning, sensing he was analyzing her component parts again like he did a machine’s.

  “This is how you should be all the time,” he murmured gruffly. “You can’t take the love of work out of the girl, but you should do it more like this. With your hair down. Sitting on the floor in the sunlight. Wearing one of my shirts . . .”

  His lips were suddenly moving on hers, warm and sweet as the sunligh
t. She held her breath during that kiss, as if by doing so, she could hold on to the moment. His arms surrounded her, molding her back muscles in that delicious, bone-melting manner he had. Their kiss became wet and deep, tongues dueling sensually. She slid her hand beneath the blue-and-white plaid cotton shirt he wore, touching his warm, smooth skin. He groaned into her mouth and tightened his hold. He brought her onto his lap with a flex of hard muscle. She landed, straddling his hips, their kiss barely pausing.

  Lin wasn’t sure how long they kissed and touched, their actions simultaneously languorous and hungry. She was wrapped in a cocoon of sunshine with him and she was melting, her body softening and heating, her flesh yielding in a way it never had before. Maybe he felt the need to stretch the moment, too, because while he touched her, he did so fairly chastely, framing her jaw with his hand or brushing his fingertips against the shell of her ear or her nape. He rubbed her back, coaxing her muscles to yield even more. She touched his neck and shoulders, stroking him through the opening of his shirt. At one point, he leaned back and calmly removed her glasses, placing them on the couch behind him, then resumed his sensual kiss. She felt his arousal beneath her spread pussy, but for once, urgency didn’t ride her as it often did with him. Kam trumped all that. His taste and his molding lips and his sleek, masterful tongue.

  Inevitably, their arousal swelled untenably, though. She panted softly, helping him to unbuckle his belt and unfasten his button fly. She came up on her knees, granting him room. He worked his clothing down to his thighs, and then she came back over him. He held his erection in place and she lowered, gritting her teeth as his flesh slowly fused with her own. Her core had gone liquid with sweet arousal, but she had to apply a steady pressure to get her flesh to relent. Their gazes held fast until she sat in his lap and his cock pulsed high inside her. A sharp cry escaped her throat and he caught it with his seeking lips, nibbling at her, calming her as he rubbed her back.

  “Venez maintenant. Commençons,” he coaxed gently against her mouth after a moment. Come now. Let us begin. His large hands slipped beneath the shirt and palmed her buttocks. He lifted and brought her back down on him, squeezing her ass when he was fully sheathed, his mouth shaping into a snarl of pleasure. She joined him in the movement, rising and falling onto his cock, their mutual dance creating a divine friction. As they grew more frantic, he took more of her weight, his arms flexing powerfully as he lifted and crashed her down into his lap with increasing speed. The pressure was intense.

  “I’m going to come,” Lin cried out.

  “No,” he said sharply. He pushed her down onto his lap with a loud smacking sound. He held her there, his cock throbbing in protest in her deepest flesh.

  “Oh . . . I have . . . to,” she said in a strangled voice, her hips flexing, straining for the required pressure to come.

  “Don’t,” he said so sharply she opened her eyelids sluggishly. His facial muscles were strained, his eyes fierce. “Make it last.” His words went straight to her heart. She wanted it to last, too, but she sat on the launching pad, flaming, straining to ignite. She moaned, her hips struggling against his hold.

  He grabbed some of the hair that trailed down her back. He lifted her shirt with his other hand and transferred it to the fist gripping her hair. Gently, he pulled back on her hair, pulling back her head. Chin up in the air, she whimpered when he slapped his palm against her bare buttock in a sharp, rapid rhythm. Smack, smack, smack.

  “Oh!” she cried out, grimacing. He’d stung her skin, but his cock had jerked viciously inside her at the sound of his palm cracking against her ass. It’d been that which had made her exclaim in a mixture of discomfort and acute arousal. He released her hair and she met his gaze slowly.

  “Better?” he asked hoarsely.

  She nodded. The absolute necessity to climax had been pushed back temporarily by his spanking hand. They just stared at one another for a moment, both of them breathing heavily. A slight sheen of sweat shone on Kam’s upper lip and forehead. The sunlight made his eyes into slits of blazing silver.

  “Let’s make it last,” he repeated.

  “I’ll try,” Lin agreed shakily.

  “Don’t move,” he directed.

  Holding her stare, he began to rapidly unbutton the shirt she wore. He pushed back the plackets, baring her breasts to the sunlight and his gaze. His nostrils flared. Again, she grimaced as his cock jumped inside her.

  He began to play with her breasts. Lin moaned in rising misery as he plucked at the nipples, stiffening them into aching points. He looked up at her face, watching her reaction. She bit her lip, sweating in a sweet agony.

  “I want to move,” she whispered tremulously.

  “I know. I want it, too,” he muttered heatedly. “It feels so good. I want it to last a little longer, though. That’s all. Stay still.”

  He whisked the shirt off her shoulders and down her arms. It was gone. She was naked and quivering, nailed to his lap. She began to unbutton his shirt, but he caught her wrists.

  “Not now,” he said. “I have something else in mind. I want you to gather all your hair and hold it against your head with both hands. I love your hair, but it’s getting in the way of my touching every inch of you.”

  She quickly gathered the long strands and did as he asked, her breathing erratic. She didn’t understand why he wanted her to do this, but following his terse demands excited her for some reason. “That’s right,” Kam said roughly. “Put out your elbows. Arch your back. Open yourself to me.”

  So, it wasn’t just the restraint of her hair he had in mind. She stared down at him after she’d taken the position. It did make her feel open, her naked body fully exposed, her spine arched, her breasts thrust forward . . . her heart vulnerable.

  His gaze ran over her from head to thigh, slow and hot. She was scorched by that stare. She could barely draw breath.

  He spread both hands on her hips and whisked them along her sides and over her breasts and down her belly and up her back.

  “Kam,” she moaned, undone by his worshipful gaze, tormented by his possessive touch. He swept his hands everywhere, his actions somehow both lewd and cherishing at once.

  “It’s all right,” he soothed when she whimpered as he massaged her ass in both hands. “Just a moment longer.” He placed his hands on her hips and stretched his thumbs toward her sex. He parted her labia, fully exposing her glistening pink folds and clitoris. Her exposure was complete. A rough groan tore at his throat. His cock swelled. Her shaking amplified. He looked up at her face, his expression tight with rapt wonder.

  “God, you’re beautiful,” he breathed out. Then he leaned forward, his back leaving its rest against the couch, holding her so tightly she could barely draw breath. One of his forearms slipped beneath her ass like a supporting bar, his hand cupping a cheek, his other arm surrounded her waist, hugging her against him. He began to move her. She rose and fell over him like a crashing wave as he took complete control of her weight. Every muscle in his body grew hard and flexed as he strained for relief.

  She’d begged for him to unleash the storm, and suddenly she was at the center of it, taking its full wrath. His cheek was pressed against a breast. He gave a low, guttural growl, the sound and vibration in her flesh thrilling her, sending a spark through her. She lowered her arms, her hair falling around them, and grabbed his head.

  “Kam . . . oh . . . God,” she cried as he pounded her down on him, her voice vibrating with the strength of his short, staccato thrusts inside her. She felt him swell, heard his tortured groan.

  He slammed her down on him again, roaring as he climaxed. For a moment, he seemed frozen by pleasure, but then he inhaled roughly and began pounding her up and down on his cock again as he ejaculated. The feeling of him pouring himself inside her sent her over the edge. She cried out sharply, the blast of climax all that much hotter and more powerful for having endured the flames with him.
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  Chapter Sixteen

  She lay draped over him like melted candle wax for long, languorous moments, stroking his strong back muscles, coaxing them to release after their intense contraction during lovemaking. She didn’t like that he was still mostly dressed while she was nude, but she felt too weak to undress him, too content to move.

  Angus made a muted woofing sound in her dreams, the sound making Lin blink and focus. She saw the bag Kam had left when he’d joined her on the floor and they’d lost themselves to passion.

  “You never showed me my dog-walking outfit,” she murmured, nuzzling her face in the crook of his neck and shoulder.

  “Hmmm?” he muttered lazily as he continued to stroke her naked skin from buttocks to shoulders, his low, resonant hum tickling her ear.

  “The clothes you bought me,” she reminded him, kissing his neck.

  “They won’t be as good as the ones you bought for me, but they’ll work. Why didn’t you tell me you bought me the clothes and the things for Aurore?” he asked gruffly after a few seconds.

  “Ian thought you might take offense.”

  “Why would I take any more offense if you chose things for me versus him or Lucien?”

  She brushed her lips against the slowing pulse at his neck and leaned back to look at his face. “I don’t know exactly, except to say that I think he worried you’d become irritated if you got the impression he was trying to . . .” She paused, searching for the words. “Make you into something you’re not. Change you. He cares about you, Kam. Truly. He just wants the best for you.”

  “Now that I think on it, I would have taken offense if anyone else had done it,” he said after a moment.

  “Done what?”

  “Bought me things. I know I paid for them, but still . . .” He faded off, his gaze narrowing on her. “Because it was you, it didn’t bother me. Somehow.”