by Aria Ford
He nods, steals a sidelong glance at me, and smiles again. “I see. Well, dust-ups are par for the course around here.”
“Yeah, I’m getting that.”
He cocks his head with that wry grin of his. “How’s it all going for you—apart from yesterday, I mean? How are you liking the job?”
“I like the job a lot,” I tell him. “I really enjoy working with Ivy, and since you explained about Isaac, things are much better between him and me, too. I really appreciate you telling me. It made all the difference.”
He shrugs. “Sure thing. I would do anything to help you out. If there’s ever anything I can do to make your life easier, you just let me know.”
I make a dive for the steps. “Thanks, Connor. I’ll let them know you stopped by.”
He steps in front of me. “I’m not finished with you yet. I’ve been thinking. You shouldn’t stay here. Isaac, he’s a decent guy, but he’s not exactly stable, you know? Maybe it’s not safe.”
I round on him. “That’s not what you told me last time. You said he was all right, and Jade was the dangerous one.”
“I know what I said, but I’ve been thinking. You could stay somewhere else and still take care of Ivy while Isaac’s at work.”
I stare at him. “Where is this coming from? What made you change your mind so suddenly?”
He takes a step closer to me. “I know you’ve got a man on the outside and everything. I just would hate to see anything happen to you in there. If staying somewhere else would help, you should do it.”
A prickling sensation runs down my spine. I hear something he’s not saying. “And where do you suggest I stay that’s close enough that I could get to work every morning?”
He shrugs again and looks away. “Well, I have a little rental apartment just around the corner. You could have that. I’m sure Isaac would pay the rent.”
The clouds part, and I see the whole thing laid out plain as the nose on his face. “Why would Isaac pay the rent on that when he could have me living here for nothing? He obviously doesn’t think he’s unstable, and after what you told me, I don’t think so, either.”
He flashes his eyes when he looks at me. “No?”
“No.” I take a deep breath. “I can see where this is going, so I think you better know I just got back from splitting up with Parker to be with Isaac. I’m staying here, and we’re gonna raise Ivy together. I’m going to help him deal with Jade. I love him.”
Parker stiffens, and all his easy laughter falls away from him. “Is that so?”
“I’m sorry to break it to you like this, Connor, but nothing can ever happen between us. I realize now Isaac is my future. It’s not going to be an easy future, but that’s the future I’m choosing. I never meant to give you the wrong idea.”
His eyebrows come together in the middle. “I don’t think you ought to do that.”
I hold up both hands. “Well, it’s done. I can’t go back on it now.”
He takes another step toward me. “You’re making a big mistake. I can give you a nice life. Ditch him and come with me. He doesn’t know I’m here. He’ll never know. Come on. He’ll find another nanny easy enough.”
He stands too close. I don’t want him that close, but something about him holds me there so I can’t get away. He eases closer. I never have to wonder what he’s thinking or what he’s doing, and some part of me wants it, too.
His presence infects me with some wicked excitement. He must feel it. I don’t want to feel this way. My body still twinges with the electric buzz of my night with Isaac. I want to be touched all over, and he’s the one standing in front of me.
His hand drifts toward me. It grazes my waist, and my skin bursts into flame. How can I feel this way about him? I don’t want him, yet I can’t stop the sparks pricking all over me. My pussy still wet from last night sobs open and oozes my juice into my panties.
My flesh calls out to him, and he hears. He lowers his hand to rake his fingernails up my thigh. My pussy quivers to my deepest insides. I don’t want to ache for that touch, a little higher, a little deeper and stronger.
He vibrates with the same thrilling charge. He can smell it on me, and it attracts him like a moth to the flame. He backs me toward the trees. In a few seconds, no one will be able to see us in the woods.
I can’t let this happen. I have to stop it. I hold up both hands between us. “Listen, Connor. This isn’t what I have in mind. I don’t want to do anything with you, and I’ve got enough man troubles without getting into it with you, too. I think you better leave, and I’ll tell Isaac to get in touch with you when he can.”
His voice rumbles from deep in his chest. It rattles my bones and squeezes another jet of fluid from my crotch. “I’ll straighten Isaac out for you. I’m not afraid of him. If he gives you any static at all, you come and tell me.”
“I don’t want Isaac straightened out,” I insist. “I have to go now, Connor. See you later.”
I make another dodge to get around him, but he moves to cut me off. Before I know what’s happening, he circles me in his arms and kisses me. He probes his tongue into my mouth and he pins me against a tree trunk.
That kiss explodes in my brain and all down my body. I want it, but I want it from Isaac. I want Isaac’s body inside me, his fingers probing me, his tongue licking me—not this.
I wrestle out of his grip. I jam both hands against his chest to shove him off. “Get off me, Connor. I just said I don’t feel that way about you. I’m in love with Isaac. Leave me alone. I’m going inside, and you’re leaving.”
He doesn’t hear me—or doesn’t want to hear me. He hears that part of me that responded to him. He backs me against the tree one more time, and his arms close around my sides. His mouth muffles my protests, but they already turn to moans of agonizing desire. He shoves his crotch between my legs. His hard prick pokes through his pants to touch my sensitive flesh. I can’t think of anything but Isaac.
What am I gonna do? I can’t let this happen. He’s Isaac’s best friend. What did I ever do to give him the idea I wanted to have anything to do with him? How can I desire anything he does to me?
I do desire it, though. I can’t help it. I make one more valiant effort to push him off and break free when a tremendous bellow rips across the estate. I turn toward the sounds, but Connor doesn’t notice. I catch a flicker of movement beyond the gate, and Isaac rushes toward us across the driveway.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Isaac
I come home so happy, so contented, so satisfied. I expect Kira to go home to Parker. That would be the sensible thing to do, in spite of all her assurance that she loves me and wants to stay with me. How long can that reasonably last, anyway?
Either way, I’ve got my bases covered. I won’t stick around this dismal old city to pick up the pieces. I’ll take Ivy somewhere far away. She doesn’t have school or friends here, so she won’t have any trouble starting over.
For the first time in a long time, I can be happy about coming back to this mausoleum of a house. It’s not a prison for me anymore. I’ve got options, and Ivy and I can be long gone before Jade gets out of jail. I’ll take Ivy somewhere Jade will never find us. I’ll leave all the old skeletons in these closets for the new owner to deal with.
I look up at the high walls fringed by the dark trees beyond when I hear a strange noise coming from the woods behind the driveway. I pick up the pace, but when I come to the front steps, I hear the noise again. I follow it, and the happy feeling, the contentment and peace evaporates into hate-fueled murderous revenge.
There’s my so-called best friend Connor with his arms around Kira and their lips locked. Is this the woman I spent the last two nights loving? I could handle her going back to Parker. I never let myself believe she would do anything else—but Connor? No way!
I charge across the driveway heading straight for them. I want to shred them both limb from limb. “I’ll kill you!” I thunder. “I swear to God I’ll drain every last dro
p of blood from your miserable body. What do you think you’re doing on my property with her? Huh? Step away from her before I flay your ever-lovin’ skin off.”
Kira steps forward to block my path. “Isaac, wait! It’s not what you think.”
I don’t look at her. I roar at Connor. “You don’t know what I think. He knew I wanted you, and he came here to steal you from me. Don’t lie about it. You’ve had your eye on her ever since she showed up here. Admit it. You were never my friend. You’re a low-down, mud-sucking, son of a….”
Connor holds up a hand. “Cool your jets, big fella. Just simmer down and listen for once in your life.”
I bare my teeth. My fists itch to pound something into oblivion. “I’ll never listen to a word you say again as long as I live. You think you can come in here and snatch her like a thief in the night? I should have known you would laugh in my face and then cut me off at the knees. Get out of here before I do something you’re not gonna like.”
Kira rushes to my side. “Please listen to him. This is all a terrible misunderstanding.”
“Misunderstanding!” I bellow. “How could I misunderstand him holding you and kissing you like that? Do you think I didn’t see him touch you? I’m not blind, and I’m not stupid. I didn’t misunderstand anything.”
She clings to my arm and tries to drag me away from him. “It’s not what you think. Just listen. We can explain everything.”
I shake her loose. “Back off.”
I make a rush to attack Connor. I’ll knock him into next week for what he’s done. He’s my oldest friend, but I’ll pound him into rubble along with the rest of the world if he doesn’t watch out.
The next instant, I’m glaring at Kira standing right in front of me. I try to push her out of the way, but she sticks to me like my own skin. She won’t let go of me, and she shoves her face so close to mine our noses bump. I could lean forward and kiss her if I didn’t hate her so much right now.
“Don’t do this, Isaac,” she urges. “Don’t fight the whole world. You don’t want to do that. You don’t want to be that. I know. I understand. You’re mad right now, but just listen for two seconds. That’s all I ask.”
I don’t look at her. I fix my eyes on Connor over her shoulder. “He’s two-faced, lying scum. He deserves the worst I can dish out.”
Her eyes burn into me. ““Losing your temper and letting your fists fly out of control is what got me hurt in yesterday. You don’t want that to happen again, do you? Do you want to hit me again, Isaac? Is that what you’re trying to do, because I won’t let you get anywhere near him. If you want to fight him, you’ll have to go through me first.”
I snarl into her face. “So you’re defending him now? That’s just rich.”
“I’m not defending him,” she tells me. “I’m trying to help you. I’m trying to save you from becoming that demon from Hell. You don’t like being that. I know. I’m trying to keep you sane. Don’t attack him. We can explain so you won’t want to. You just have to listen.”
I can’t fight her. She speaks to the part of me that doesn’t want to fight anybody. She knows me too well. I don’t want to be that person. I don’t want to fight the whole world. As soon as that thought enters my mind, I realize I don’t want to fight Connor, either. I don’t want to lose my best friend over some stupid misunderstanding.
I shift my eyes to him and growl under my breath. “I’m listening.”
She takes a deep breath. “I left the house this morning. I went downtown and went to see Parker.” My eyes shoot to her face when she mentions that name. “I broke up with him, and I came back here to be with you.”
I don’t want to look at her. I want to keep glaring at Connor, to keep hating him and wishing him dead, but I can’t after what she just said. I have to look at her. I have to see her blessed face when she delivers that Earth-shattering revelation.
She dumped him. She broke it off with him to be with me. So it’s all true. She really does love me. She really does want to be with me. She really does want to hitch her wagon to my star, for better or for worse.
Those words mean so much more now, after everything that’s happened. She really means it, even if she never said it. My problems are her problems. She’s here with me, and she’s not going anywhere. I can lean on her. I can rely on her and trust her. She’ll be there. She’ll share my burden.
Connor’s voice breaks in on my thoughts. “She loves you, man. She doesn’t want anybody but you. She tried to tell me, but I wouldn’t listen. I tried to put the moves on her, and that’s when you showed up. It didn’t mean anything. I’m sorry. I should have listened, but I didn’t know anything was going on between you two. She only told me right now, and I didn’t want to hear that, so I didn’t.”
I want to argue. I want to fight, but between the two of them together, they drain all the fight out of me.
“She doesn’t want me, man. She doesn’t want anyone but you.”
By the time he finishes talking, I couldn’t fight to save my life. I can only stand there and look back and forth between these two people who mean so much to me. If I’m going to do this, if I’m gonna live this life, something’s got to give. If I want to be with Kira and have her at my side and at my back and in my bed, I’ve got to learn to soften up and let people care about me, even if when they do things I don’t like.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Kira
Darkness crowds around the windows of the big house. I check on Ivy, and when I find her sleeping soundly, I sneak downstairs in search of Isaac. I expected him to come to my room before now, but he didn’t come.
I steal a peek into his room, but he’s not there. I could spend hours searching this house, but I find him in the parlor off the main entrance. A fire blazes in the fireplace, and he sits cross-legged in a wing-backed chair. He stares into the flames and doesn’t see me when I enter the room.
I creep around his chair and catch a glimpse of his profile in the flickering light. I’ve never seen him like this, all soft and quiet and thoughtful. What secrets lurk under his handsome veneer?
He glances up at me, but doesn’t stir. He gazes at me like an apparition out of his thoughts.
I take a step forward and lay my hand on his shoulder. “Are you okay?”
He nods. “I’m fine. How are you?”
“I’m okay. I just wondered where you were. Ivy’s asleep.”
He nods one more time and looks back into the flames. I can’t hold myself back from him. I want him so much. I want to bring him back to the world, to make him see me and love me and want me.
I move around in front of him and sink to my knees in front of his chair. I want to kiss him, but I don’t dare. He’s too far distant. I couldn’t bear kissing him if he didn’t want me back.
I rest my hands on his knees. My whole being sobs for him. Can’t he see how much I love him? Can’t he sense how my body aches for his touch, just once?
A glisten of moisture sparkles in his eyes. He takes a deep breath, and when he speaks, the air whistles out of him in a high creak. “Listen, Kira. I don’t know how to tell you this, but I love you so much it hurts sometimes. The hurt of loving you gets all mixed up with the hurt of not having you all these years. That’s why I don’t want to come near you sometimes. It’s not that I don’t love you and want you. I just don’t know sometimes whether I can love you right. I want to do everything right, and I don’t want to hurt you by doing it wrong.”
I can’t listen to this any longer. I lace my arms around his waist and lean my chest against his lap. I lift my face to kiss him. “You don’t have to do it right. You won’t hurt me by loving me. I just want you. I don’t care what it looks like. I just want you any way I can get you.”
He bends down to kiss me. He rubs my shoulders with both hands and brushes my hair off my face. “I love you so much. I can’t stand the thought of living without you.”
I hug him tight, and when I press my body against him, I feel his crotch hard
en under me. He wants me. Oh, Lord, he wants me!
I draw closer, and closer still. I rub my breasts against that hard lump. My tongue slithers into his mouth, and his kiss electrifies me like never before.
He guides me closer so I have to rise on my knees to meet him. He steers me onto my feet and sits me down on his lap. I swivel sideways and sit down with my legs draped over the chair arm.
My body quivers all over for him. My breasts itch for his mouth and his hands. I lean into him, and he cranes his head back to kiss me. His hands slip around my waist, and one big paw slides down my hip to my thighs.
He slots his fingers between my legs. His breath grates between kisses. He pants through his nose, and his hot breath carries his scent into my nostrils. I run my hand over his chest to his neck and into his hair.
He rubs up between my thighs to tickle the juices out of my slit. I sog into my panties. He excites me beyond endurance, and his thick member shoves into my ass from underneath.
His hand scoops up to my breast. He massages it until I sob in ecstasy. Will it never end? Will we always make love like this, every night after Ivy goes to sleep? Oh, please God, say it will be like this forever! I would give anything for this.
He moves me back and forth across his lap until I grind down in rabid lust. I want so much more than this. I want his hands on my skin and my nipples in his mouth.
He hears my desires roiling out of my soul. He breaks off his kiss to focus on unbuttoning my shirt. Oh, yes! Please, God! He lays the two sides back and slips my bra strap of my shoulder. Panting desire rushes through me. My pussy aches for him, but every slow move he makes thrills me more and more.
He fingers the lacy border of my bra. I want him to touch my nipple, but he teases me until I collapse into him. I bite his ear and breathe against his neck. I have to find a way to distract myself from that maddening finger tingling on my skin.
I just start on his shirt when he drags my bra down and sucks my breast into his mouth. I almost pass out from the incredible intensity of sensation. He nips me with his teeth and inhales my flesh to send me into a passion.