by Roxie Ray
With an enormous weight lifted off of my shoulders, I went to work.
Throughout the week, I sent them notes of things I’d picked up from Kaylee like she liked silk sheets and hated dark walls.
The girls combined with Janice were beasts. They sent me updates on purchases and emailed receipts.
Everything moved really fast. Midweek, I went by Jace’s Place and sat at the bar across from my brother. “I think it’s time for you to find a new renter for my apartment, brother.”
Jace’s face lit up. “I wondered when you were going to officially tell me you got the house.”
“And I think I’ll be moving in this week. Don’t worry, I’ll pay rent until you find another renter, though,” I told him as he rounded the counter.
“Nonsense, I don’t care about that rent. I told you to begin with I didn’t want you paying it.” He yanked me into his arms and clapped me on the back several times. “Drinks are on me, brother!”
My heart swelled as other members of the pack joined us and congratulated me.
Maybe, finally, I did belong.
Thursday, I met with Janice, Skye, and Bri. They walked with me through the house.
And I was not disappointed. The house was gorgeous. Decorated in light, airy colors, with the windows treated to let light in but give privacy. The furniture would be ruined if we had children, all creams and light grays.
But it was absolutely perfect.
“A few more deliveries are coming next week, but it’s livable,” Janice said. “You’re ready to go.”
“Thank you,” I whispered. “You did it.”
All three women beamed at me. “Go get ‘em,” Skye said. “Make our girl happy.”
Kaylee and I had plans for Saturday. She wanted to do at least one live this weekend since she’d been uploading so many videos. So Friday had me at our new house on my own.
I’d stopped by my storage unit on my way home from work and filled my SUV up with boxes, planning on spending the evening moving some of my kitchen appliances in. When Kaylee moved in, we’d figure out what to keep and what to donate. Or hell, the house was big enough we could keep it all if she wanted to.
Halfway through my second box, my phone rang the special ringtone I’d set for Kaylee. “Hey, babe, I thought you were working,” I answered.
She sounded upset. Her voice was higher than usual and sounded shaky. “I was. I canceled my live.”
“Why?” She’d been adamant about doing it, about being there for her fans.
“I got on and got started, but I couldn’t get into it. I guess they could tell because they started commenting and asking if I was okay. I ended up telling them I had a headache and apologizing, and then put up a video.”
“I’m sorry, love,” I said softly. “Is there anything I can do?”
“I miss you. That’s so unlike me, but all I could think about was being with you.”
Laughter bubbled up my chest. I had this insane reveal planned for tomorrow night. But that all went out the window and I didn’t even care.
“Why are you laughing?” Kaylee asked.
“I’ll be there in ten minutes to pick you up, and I need you to bring a blindfold.” I laughed silently as I rushed out of the kitchen and grabbed my keys from the bowl thoughtfully placed on a table near the door.
“Oh, a blindfold? Sounds kinky.”
I slammed my car door shut and turned over the engine. “Whatever you were wearing for the live. Throw a coat over it. I’ll be right there.” I didn’t give her a chance to hang up. I clicked the button on my phone and pulled out of the driveway, eager to get to my mate.
I left the engine running, then bounded out of the car. I went up Kaylee’s steps at top speed and she met me at the door. “What’s this about?” she asked.
“Don’t ask questions, please. We can talk, but don’t ask where we’re going.” I opened her car door and closed it behind her, then ran around and got in the driver’s seat. “I had this big romantic thing planned for tomorrow night, but we’re doing it impromptu tonight because I missed you too. And I can’t wait.”
Of course she didn’t listen. She didn’t wait until we got there. “Is it like a romantic dinner? I’m not dressed to go out.”
“Don’t worry. That won’t matter.” I kept stalling her until we pulled into the driveway. “Hang tight.”
After opening her car door, I unbuckled her seatbelt and lifted my mate into my arms.
She giggled and wiggled as I walked toward the house but didn’t know where we were. I’d managed to keep it a secret.
I opened the front door, glad I’d accidentally left the house all lit up against the darkness, then changed my mind. She should see it from the outside.
Flipping the switch to turn on the outside lights, I hurried us out into the front yard. “Ready?” I asked.
“I’ve been ready. I’m dying.”
Slowly, I set Kaylee on her feet, then pulled the sleep mask off of her beautiful face. “Tada,” I whispered.
She blinked as her eyes adjusted. Her brow furrowed as she looked from the house to me. “What is this?” she asked.
“It’s yours. This house started the feud. Come on.” Laughing, I pulled on her hand and brought her inside.
“Oh my gosh,” she whispered as she looked around. “How?”
I sucked in a proud breath. “As much as I’d like to take credit, all I did was employ your best friends.”
She giggled and covered her mouth with her hand as she looked around. “Employ?”
“Not really the right word. Begged them to help, more like.”
She walked slowly through the downstairs. “It’s like you got in my brain and decorated from my thoughts.”
“I think Bri and Skye managed to get into your apartment and took your magazines where you’d been dreaming about decorating this place when you were trying to buy it.” I stepped back and smiled. “And now it’s yours.”
“Mine?” she whispered and stared at me with wide, round eyes.
“Yours. Ours. I want to live here with you, marry you, have babies with you.” I spread my arms. “I want my future with you here. And if you don’t want that, it’s still yours. I’ll wait. I’ll keep dating you or be friends with you, but either way, the house is yours, no matter what happens with our relationship.”
She gasped and stared at me, shocked, then looked back to the house.
I watched her look at the house. She soaked in every detail, the clean lines, the art on the wall, the openness. While she marveled and remarked, I stood behind and breathed her in. This wasn’t a moment either of us would get to have twice in one lifetime. I wouldn’t be able to recreate the emotion or the feeling and this time was full of intensity, hers as potent as mine.
She’d come into my life, fully in and she turned, laid her hand over my heart. Probably she could feel the racing, the pounding I couldn’t control under her palm. And it was all because of her. Her eyes, stormy and blue, like a warm summer night, sparkled with tears.
I stood enthralled, unable to form a word, she was too beautiful, too much.
“I don’t know what to say. Thank you.” She shook her head. “I know it isn’t enough and you deserve more, but I can’t think. It’s…so perfect.”
No. She was perfect. This was a house with walls and a roof. Like millions of others in the world. There was only one Kaylee and if I could find a way to make her happy enough to stay with me, I would.
“Porter. I don’t have anywhere to go with all these emotions and I’m probably going to explode if I don’t let them out.” She curled her fingers into my shirt, holding on and I wrapped my arms around her. Pulled her in. A tear leaked out and trailed down her cheek, followed by another and another after.
“Don’t cry.” Even though they didn’t come from sadness, I couldn’t stand to see them.
“No one’s ever done anything like this for me before. This house is a dream, a fantasy. Much like the man who gave it to m
e.” She brushed her hand over my cheek, tilted her head and smiled the softest, most beautiful smile I’d ever seen in my life.
When I opened my mouth, she laid my finger over my lips and I closed them. As much as I wanted to tell her how I felt, I wanted to hear what she had to say. I could wait.
“Please. I have to finish this.” I nodded and she clasped her hands around the nape of my neck and pulled me down so she could lean her forehead against mine. “No one’s ever made me feel wanted.” How that was true, I would never know. I cocked an eyebrow, and she corrected. “Not desired. Desire is chemical. Physical. This is more. It’s bigger. It’s…” She shook her head. “I don’t have words.” She paused and closed her eyes. Opened them a second later. “It’s everything.” A tiny sob, more of a hiccup, shook her shoulders. “You’re everything.”
“Kaylee.” I dusted a finger from her cheek along her jaw to her chin so I could tilt her head up and see into those big, beautiful eyes. And I wanted her to look at me, to know what I was about to say came from deep inside my soul, from the places no one but her had ever touched. “As long as I live, until I take that very last breath, I’m going to make sure you know I do desire you. But more, I want you. All of you. And I need you. And I appreciate you.”
“Jesus.” She shook her head and breathed out slow through a perfect O of her lips. Asshat that I was, my mind went straight to blow job and stayed there long enough my cock jerked. “You have a book of perfect things to say hidden somewhere? Things written in invisible ink on your arms?” She sniffed and her eyes flooded again.
I caught a tear and flicked it away. “Smile for me.”
“You just gave me a house.” She smiled a fake, phony, overexaggerated and little scary smile. “You. Just gave me.” She paused again then nodded. “A house. If you want me to do handstands and click my heels like Dorothy, move out of the way, big boy. Because it’s on.” And now she grinned the real thing. My heart thumped harder. “You should ask for something bigger than a smile.”
When I didn’t speak, she bent as if she might give the handstand a real try, and I pulled her back up. Her lips crashed against mine, and I tangled my fingers into her hair because I might’ve needed to hold on. When my tongue brushed against hers, she moaned into my mouth, and my dick twitched, as hard as it had ever been or probably ever would be again for as long as I lived.
“Take me to bed, Porter.” In this house. With this woman. There was nothing I wanted more. She kissed me again and when she pulled back, I smiled.
“If you want me to stand on my head and click my heels like Dorothy, move out of the way because it’s on.” My reward was another kiss, this one deeper, more passionate, and more than I could let her keep control of.
I held her with one arm and flicked open the button of her pants with the opposite hand. Then I untucked her shirt because I needed to see those beautiful breasts, needed to tease those pebbled nipples, needed to taste her skin. I blazed a trail of kisses down the column of her throat to the soft spot between her shoulder and neck. Nibbling, sucking, marking her.
No way were we making it to the bedroom. There were about twelve too many steps and a hallway between us and the king-sized mattress. Later, maybe. But now, I couldn’t wait. Not another second.
I moved us toward the sofa, lowered her onto one of the cushions and used my body to nudge her backwards. She moaned, then whimpered when I stood and undressed, cried out as I knelt to tongue her nipple while I fumbled through a one-handed removal of her pants.
When she was naked, I stared. Every time I saw her, I couldn’t get over it. She was curved and beautiful, delicious in ways women weren’t usually. And I needed a taste.
I lowered my head and licked the inside of her thigh then moved so I could spread her legs and reach the treasure between. Her skin was like silk and I sucked a spot on her thigh. When she moaned and rasped out my name, I swiped my tongue up her slit. Fuck. She tasted so good.
I pushed my tongue in and out of her while she arched and twitched, tried to fuck my tongue. I switched it for two fingers and laved her clit with my attention. No way was I going to last very long, so I wanted to make sure she was satisfied, pleased, crying out my name.
Her fingers pushed into my hair and she pulled. “Please. I want your dick. Right now.”
But I had other plans. I wanted to lick her until she came apart, then I wanted to lick her some more. I pumped my fingers in and out, swished and grazed my tongue over her flesh. Her leg muscles stiffened, and her moans grew louder until she held my head against her, and her body flinched and bucked.
When she relaxed and let go, I continued licking her until again, she asked for my cock. “Please, Porter. Please!”
Begging was hot. I’d always been a fan, but from Kaylee it was the most erotic sound I’d ever heard. Fuck. I wasn’t going to last, but I couldn’t wait any longer. I needed to be buried inside of her.
I rolled on the condom and she stood, pushed me onto the sofa then straddled my lap, slowly lowered herself onto my cock. And every slow bounce was torture, exquisite, but torture in the best fucking way.
Her breasts bobbed and I took one in my palm and skimmed my thumb over the nipple so she threw her head back. When I leaned forward and wrapped my arms around her, holding her in place so I could lick her nipple, she squealed softly.
Best sound ever created.
My balls tightened and my cock twitched. I thrust up, once, twice, enough the sofa moved a couple inches backward, probably scratched the hardwood, but I didn’t give a fuck about more than feeling the walls of her pussy clench around my dick.
She slammed her ass down onto my lap and cried out. “Porter!”
It was enough to push me over the edge with the kind of force that created a freefall, and I closed my eyes, letting the sensation crash over me.
Fuck me. It was intense and delicious, and I wanted more of her. Everything I could get and anything she could let me have. I couldn’t remember a time when I hadn’t wanted her, or even consider a time when I wouldn’t. Kaylee was everything I never knew I would need.
19
Kaylee
Tapping the keys on my laptop, I sighed with a deep sense of contentment. I hadn’t said it to Porter yet, but I was in love. The big L. And he felt the same way, otherwise he wouldn’t have been trying to give me a house.
But still, bills had to be paid. I had every intention of moving in with Porter, but I wasn’t about to just jump right over there. Despite the fact that I’d been there the last few days pretty much nonstop, I’d been helping Porter move his stuff in.
My stuff needed more time to get used to the idea of cohabitating.
I logged into my bank account and sighed. The balance was a bit lower than I liked seeing it. All the money I’d put aside for the house was in another account, and I’d been slacking on live streams. Prerecorded videos never brought in as much as a live stream where I interacted with my fans.
Still, it was more than I would’ve made in a retail job or sitting in a receptionist’s office, though, so I wasn’t complaining.
After paying my bills, I logged onto a site I hadn’t been on in a while. It was a spot for freelancers. I liked to get on there and take random jobs that would help me hone my editing skills and occasionally the odd design job if it were simple enough. I usually didn’t charge much at all for these types of jobs, which helped ensure the client picked me out of all the candidates to complete the work and it built up my portfolio. Plus, I learned something every time I took a job.
I put in a few bids, updating my qualifications first, but this time, I upped my prices. Still lower than I was worth, but it was time to get serious about my editing. I was good at it.
After finding a few jobs that looked like something I’d like to do, I logged off. It wasn’t my career yet, but hopefully one day. One day soon.
“Your apartment is tiny.”
I squealed and jumped when Sammy’s voice interrupted my musings about
a possible future in editing. “You are sneaky! You need a bell.”
Sammy tilted her head at me. “Not the first time I’ve been told that.”
No apology in sight. She loved it. It was just her way, from what I’d learned about her.
“There’s a protection spell around your apartment.” She walked around my recording equipment and peered closely at it.
“When did you put it up?” I asked. There wasn’t anyone else that I knew of who could’ve or would’ve done something like that.
Sammy shook her head. “Wasn’t me.”
I froze in the act of turning my computer chair around to face Sammy. “Who then?”
Sammy gave me a pointed, dry look, and chuckled. “Figure it out. Who else with magic would want you protected?”
“Pixies?” I asked in a hushed voice.
“That’s the stink around here, and your blood is so diluted that it’s not you making the place reek.” She shuddered.
“What does pixie magic smell like?” I couldn’t imagine magic having a smell.
“Marshmallows. And sunshine.” She breathed deep and grimaced. “And rainbows. Yuck.” Sammy’s disdain for pixies was obvious. “It confirms there are pixies connected to you that still feel the need to protect you. Why they haven’t revealed themselves to you, or me for that matter, I don’t know.” She moved toward my filming bed, which was neatly made up with a silk bedspread. “Your future is blocked. I can’t see it at all. It’s got to be the pixie magic and whatever protection spell they have on you.”
“But what does that mean? Do they care about me?” It made no sense. “If they care about me, why haven’t they told me about themselves?”
Sammy shrugged. “My research hit a wall. I can’t find any information past what you’ve researched about your family.” She sighed. “I’ve reached out to a few contacts that might be able to dig a little deeper, but from what I can tell, your family’s troupe was wiped out.”