* * *
Kade had just finished stocking sunscreen on the bottom shelf when he heard the back door slam. In the reflection on one of the displays he saw Ali walking down the aisle toward the front of the shop. She was humming, something he’d noticed she did a lot the past week. It was strange, most people hummed when they were happy, but he got the feeling that it was the opposite for Ali.
She’d been acting strange for days. Since they’d spent the night together, honestly. The real Ali was feisty, demanding, and competitive. This Ali said little but always said it with a sweet voice and a fake smile. This Ali reminded him of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Kade stood to let her know that he’d completed the final task on the list she’d given him a few days ago but when he opened his mouth no words came out.
The setting sun was streaming through the front window and it cast an ethereal mist around her as she walked toward him. Her dark blonde hair fell in soft waves around her face and he wanted to thread his fingers through it. Her skin glowed in the golden rays that bathed her. Her eyes were a translucent amber that captivated Kade in a way that nothing else did.
When those captivating eyes met his she jumped and her laptop flew out of her hands. “Ahh!”
On pure instinct, Kade reached out and grabbed it.
“What are you doing?!” she gasped.
“Stocking the sunscreen. And saving your laptop.”
With one hand still clutched to her chest she used the other to swat his arm. “You scared the shit out of me!”
That was the Ali he knew. Spunky. Fiery. Swatty.
He couldn’t help but grin down at her. “Sorry. I was just going to tell you that I finished the list.”
She blinked up at him, tried to regain her composure, and inhaled slowly. He saw her switch back.
“Thanks.” Reaching out she pulled the rescued computer from his arms. “For everything,” she said with her sweet alien-invaded Ali smile. And with that, she headed into her office.
“What’s going on with you?” he asked as he followed her inside.
Her tone was kind but impersonal as she answered him. “Just going to finish up here and then drop the boys’ stuff over at Ryder’s, they called to ask if they could spend the—”
“No. I mean, what’s going on with you? Why are you acting like…?” He paused. He wasn’t sure how to put her odd behavior into words.
She spun around to face him, her brow furrowed. “Acting like what?”
Seeing a glimpse of the real Ali gave him the incentive to say exactly what he was feeling. “Like a Stepford Wife.”
Her mouth fell open, but then it closed again.
“That’s what I mean.” He clarified. “Just say it. Ever since we had sex it’s like you’re scared to talk to me.”
“Oh. My. God.”
Anger radiated off of her as she set her laptop down on the desk beside her. She looked like she was about to rip him a new one and he had to fight the smile that threatened to show on his lips. He’d felt so off-balance this entire week not knowing what was going on in her head, what she was feeling.
He’d never felt as lost as he had these past few days, not even when he’d hit rock bottom. Because he’d always had her. Whether she knew it or not, she’d been a lighthouse in the storm of his life. And he didn’t know how to navigate without her.
“Do you honestly think that sleeping with you made me a…” She lifted her fingers in bunny ear quotes. “‘Stepford Wife?’”
“I don’t know if that’s what made you act like a Stepford Wife, but I honestly think that’s what you have been acting like since we had sex.”
“You are un-freaking-believable.” Her hands fisted at her sides and the fighter in him braced himself for a punch, but then she relaxed her shoulders and her fingers uncurled from her palms. In a measured tone she calmly stated, “I’ve been trying to be nice to you.”
“I don’t want you to try to be nice to me. I just want you to be real. I want the real Ali.”
“You want the real Ali?!” she asked through a forced laugh.
“Yes.”
“Do you know what I want, Kade?!”
“No. I don’t. I have no idea because you’re too busy being polite to tell me. And I hate it, Ali.”
“Well, guess what? It hasn’t been a walk in the park for me either.” She let out a harsh puff of air and started to walk around him.
“Wow.” He stepped to the side to get out of her way and made sure his tone conveyed just a touch of pity. “I never thought I’d see the day that Allison Walsh backed down from a fight.”
He knew he was taking a risk challenging her, but he felt like he had no other choice. He’d tried talking to her. Several times. He’d tried to give her space and time, but that only seemed to make it worse.
At this point, pissing her off was his last resort.
CHAPTER 21
Ali stopped in her tracks and turned back to face him. Her eyes flared as they met his. She could feel that her cheeks were flushed and her heart was racing a mile a minute. A thought popped into her head and she almost lost her self-righteous higher ground by laughing at it.
Being angry sure feels a lot like being turned on.
She didn’t know what to say or do anymore. It felt like every word she wanted to say she couldn’t get out. It was exhausting and she was tired of being consumed with so much anger. And lust.
That was the other thing she was consumed by. But she wasn’t quite as tired of that. At least not in that moment.
She was a young woman. Even though the life she lived sometimes made her feel like that was the furthest thing from the truth. She had needs. And right now, the need that was closest to the surface was being touched by Kade. Her pride was the only thing standing in the way of taking what she needed.
She’d been the one to say that nothing else could happen between them. She’d been the one to declare that the night they spent together was a one-time only event. She’d been the one that had insisted they stay just friends.
And now she wanted more. She wanted what they’d shared the other night. She wanted to forget everything but how amazing he made her feel.
“Talk to me, Ali.” The desperation in his voice tipped it for her.
It made her feel like he needed to connect with her just as badly as she needed to connect with him.
She stepped forward and pressed her body to his. She didn’t hesitate; she didn’t wait for his reaction. She didn’t—and this was new for her—pause to think about how her actions would affect anyone but herself.
She was putting her own feelings first for a change and she didn’t feel one damn bit of guilt about it. Well, at least not right now, anyway.
She snaked her arms around his neck and lifted on her toes to press her lips to his. Somehow, being lip to lip was even better than she’d remembered.
He froze for a minute before wrapping her up in an all-consuming embrace and crushing her body to his. She let out a moan. There was something so primal about being held by Kade. It unleashed a primitive “Me Jane, you Tarzan” thing inside her that made her feel safe and secure, so cherished and protected by the manliest man who ever manned.
Their kiss started off slow and exploratory. It was smoldering and sultry. Then it changed into something raw and savage.
Just when she was starting to lose herself, Kade pulled away and trailed his fingertips down the side of her face and looked into her eyes. “Are you sure you want to do this?” His voice was raspy and raw.
“No,” She shook her head. “But that’s the wrong question.”
He grinned, just a little. “Okay. What’s the right question?”
“Do I need to do this?”
The last syllable was barely out of her mouth before his lips were on hers, his tongue thrusting into her hot and waiting mouth and drowning out any additional words she might’ve been about to say.
He reached down and grabbed her ass, gripping it so fi
rmly that she could feel the outline of every finger through her denim shorts. A groan escaped from low in her throat, disappearing in the hot, wet field where their tongues were doing battle.
She loved it when he touched her like that. It was so hot and so visceral, the way he planted his hands on her like he owned her. It was like the romance novels she’d read where the hero was claiming what was his.
It wasn’t something she ever thought she’d appreciate in practice, but a lot was surprising her when it came to Kade.
A deep, throbbing ache grew between her thighs and she knew that it was a pain that would not be satisfied until Kade touched her there. There was simply no cure for a lady boner except an orgasm. That’s what Jess had told her once and she was beginning to believe it.
That made her way too dependent on him in this moment, but with his tongue moving in her mouth and his hands tightly gripping her booty, she decided she didn’t really care. In fact, she was thinking it was working itself out quite nicely.
He took a few steps forward, pressing her up against the wall. It jarred her and she sucked in her breath. It also sent trembling waves of arousal through her. For all her independence, she couldn’t believe how much she loved being manhandled by Kade.
“You’re really good at this,” she breathed. She barely had the strength to speak that tremulous whisper, but she could tell from the hungry way that Kade started kissing her neck and the deep groan that ripped from his chest she’d gotten her message across.
His lips were tender as they traveled down her neck, but they were anything but passive. He pressed them against her soft flesh with a determination and authority that sent heat spreading out from every place they came in contact with.
“Nobody touches me like you, Kade,” she whimpered, only barely in control of the words that she was saying in her head-spinning ecstasy. “Nobody makes me feel the way you do.”
In between kisses that were now traveling down her chest, he stopped and growled, “Good. Nobody better.”
He pulled back slightly and ran his hand up her body. He cupped her breast through her shirt and used his thumb and forefinger to capture her nipple, hard and poking out through the fabric before tugging it down.
“Your body makes me crazy. You make me crazy.”
Even through her bone-crushing pleasure, a small smile touched her lips at his words. The tone he’d used made her think that he wasn’t any more in control of the words coming out of his mouth than she was. She liked that. She liked knowing that she wasn’t the only one being driven to the brink.
She was cognizant with every passing second that they were in the rental office, even though the door was locked. It actually made things so much hotter, the semipublic location.
She lifted her leg and hooked it around him. She began to grind her hips against his rock-hard muscles, the heat from his body penetrating straight through her jean shorts. It wasn’t as good as a finger or tongue but it gave her stimulation in all the right spots, raising her ecstasy levels to the point where she wasn’t quite sure how much longer she would be able to hold on.
Kade’s lips and tongue were all over the bare flesh of her chest as he cupped her breast and teased her nipple with his fingers until it had reached the point where pleasure verged on pain.
But holy mother of all that was holy, it felt something like heaven to rub up against him in that slow, circular motion as she tangled her fingers in his hair and held on to his twitching shoulders. She was certain he was going to take her where she wanted to go just like this.
That certainty was shattered, however, when Kade slid his hand around to the front of her shorts, undid the button and then slid his fingers down inside her panties and started to rub her. There was nothing that felt as good as Kade touching her, skin to skin.
He made her feel alive. Empowered. And loved.
* * *
Kade couldn’t get enough of Ali. Touching her. Tasting her. Kissing her.
He needed her more than he needed air to breathe. There was nothing as intoxicating as hearing her moan or whimper and feeling his finger coated in her arousal. It was almost too much to take.
Her smooth skin was like butter under his hands, and now he had his hand down her pants, moving his fingertip up and down her silky wet seam over and over again as she squirmed against him.
This was it. All he wanted to do with his life. There would never be anything else in his life as good as pleasuring Ali.
He shifted the angle of his hand so he was able press his fingers into the wet heat between her legs. Her entire body clenched when he drove two digits into her. Her inner walls bore down on him so tight he thought she might just squeeze him right back out again, and then she let out a quiet, gasp that made his dick stand up.
Hearing the small, desperate sounds she made as he moved his fingers in and out of her fed into every caveman instinct that Ali brought out in him. Here she seemed completely dependent on him. The rest of the time, she was tough. Independent. Self-sufficient. He liked feeling like she needed him, and that he was doing something for her that she couldn’t do for herself.
She had the weight of the world on her shoulders and he loved being the man that made her forget about everything except feeling.
He moved his fingers faster through her silky flesh, drinking in the gasps she let out like they were water and he was a man dying of thirst. Her fingernails dug into the back of his shoulders, and he didn’t mind the pain at all. He liked it. The stinging sensation amped up his arousal.
“Oh. Yes. I’m close. Yes. Don’t stop.”
Each of her words came out in a staccato burst, punctuated by desperate little gulps of air in between. He wished he had a recording. He’d never need porn again. All he would have to do was queue that up and he’d be hard as a rock in seconds.
“Come for me,” he growled.
As soon as his words hit her ears, she cried out and tightened every muscle in her body, her arms encasing his neck like a vice as she squeezed him hard throughout every crashing wave of her orgasm. Hot juices gushed from her and coated his hand inside her panties.
When she finally quieted in his arms, still trembling a little, her hair curling up where it met her damp forehead, he pulled his hand out of her and raised it up to his face. She drew back and looked at him, puzzled.
He smiled at her, every muscle in his body sizzling with want for her, and then licked every bit of her juices from his fingers, never breaking eye contact with her for one second. When he was finished, he said simply, “You’re delicious.”
She closed her eyes for one long moment before opening them again, a new clarity and determination behind them. Now it was her turn to maintain eye contact with him as she did something incredibly sexy—she reached between them and unfastened his pants, then slid her own hand into his boxer briefs to grasp his dick.
All he could do was breathe. His mind spun. He was unable to form words, and even if he could’ve put together a coherent sentence in his brain, his throat was closed too tight with lust to be able to vocalize it.
It didn’t matter. Every bit of communication that was needed was more than handled by the energy passing between their hearts, the sparks igniting in their eyes, and the touching of their hands.
She held her hand still inside his pants, just cradling his hard shaft between her gentle fingers, and they looked into each other’s eyes and breathed hard. Kade couldn’t remember another moment in his life that had held such erotic energy, both for what it was and for what it promised.
He knew, right then and there, there wasn’t anything in the world he wouldn’t do for this woman. And not just because she had him by the balls, so to speak. He knew he couldn’t go back to the way things were. He loved her and he had a pretty good idea that she loved him, too. Whatever else was going on, they’d figure it out. Together.
He knew he couldn’t say that to her, though. Not right then, not after all she’d been through, some of it because of him. He ha
dn’t earned the right yet to tell her everything that he felt. So he did the next best thing. He lowered his head and pressed his lips to hers, softly and tenderly, and kissed her with everything that was in his heart. He used his kiss like a telegraph, as if every movement of his lips was his heart’s version of Morse code, tapping out a message that only she could decode.
As they kissed, she started to stroke him. Her movements were not frantic or jerky, but slow and deliberate, and they were all the sexier for it. His dick throbbed against the gentle stroking of her hand. He felt like he was going to burst, like there was no other way forward except to simply explode.
Her movements picked up a little bit of intensity, going just a touch faster, and her fingers squeezed him just a little bit tighter. He deepened their kiss and slipped his tongue into her mouth. His heart beat a little harder and faster with every delicious stroke of her hand. Like a rushing river, the blood pounding in his veins was all he could hear.
He raised one hand to the back of her head and tangled his fingers in her silky hair, pressing her head forward so that her mouth was fitted tight to his. He never wanted to let her go, and he kissed her like he would never have to.
He explored the recesses of her mouth with his tongue like it was virgin territory to him. In a way, it was. They were different people than the last time.
Things were changing between them so quickly that what qualified as “them” was a totally different animal every time they touched. It made kissing her uncertain and thrilling, and a thousand different things that he could never hope to untangle. Especially not when his brain was swirling from lust because of those very kisses.
Suddenly her hand stopped moving. She froze. And he opened his eyes.
“What?”
“Do you hear that?” her brow furrowed.
There was a vibrating sound coming from the shop. He opened the door, stuck his head around it, and saw that his phone was vibrating on the glass counter. Then it stopped.
“It’s nothing,” he assured her.
He’d barely brushed his lips to hers when the office phone rang.
Whisper of Love Page 16