The Thing About Love

by Kim Karr

  I held out the money though, he could take it himself.

  “Finn, are you okay?” Jules asked her cousin.

  He mumbled something that at least gave me hope he was alert enough to ambulate.

  She looked over at me. “He says he’s fine.”

  Without appearing to be overly worried, I strode over toward Finn and Jules and then squatted down. “Do you know your name?” I asked him.

  “Finn,” he mumbled. “Finn Easton.”

  I tracked his pupils. “Do you know what day it is?”

  He looked over at Jules, and she nodded at him. “Saturday,” he answered.

  “You know why you’re in here on the floor?”

  “I was knocked out,” he said, his lip more than a little swollen and impeding his speech.

  “What the fuck are you, a doctor or something?” the human janitor asked.

  Finn was alert at least, and I felt comfortable enough that getting him out of there should be the first priority.

  The sound of shuffling feet was quick, and huge boots were beside me. “Cause we don’t allow medical attention to be given in the building.”

  I glanced up. “Do I look like a fucking quack?”

  It wasn’t like I denied who I was. I simply asked a question.

  For some reason using the term for a sham doctor seemed to satisfy him. “Just get him out of here,” he fumed, and then he turned and stormed out of the room.

  “Come on,” I told Finn as I hoisted him up.

  Jules went to his other side.

  “I’m good,” he told her.

  I pulled his arm over my shoulder. “I need that sweatshirt back,” I told Jules.

  She removed it, and I couldn’t help but watch the way she moved. The shape of her body. Her slight curves. Once she handed it to me, I put it on Finn and pulled the hood up. If the crowd saw him, there was a chance he’d get heckled. This way we might slip out somewhat unnoticed.

  Before I opened the door, I asked him, “Have you vomited?”

  He shook his head no.

  “You know, you should go to the hospital for a scan.”

  Again, he shook his head no. “I don’t have any insurance. It’ll be too expensive.”

  “Finn!” Jules admonished, “Don’t worry about that.”

  “No,” he said firmly.

  I nodded. “How about I examine you first, and we decide after?”

  To that he said nothing.

  As soon as we stepped outside the office and into the hallway, he broke free of me. “I need to walk out of here on my own.”

  The main room looked even more crowded than when I’d arrived, and the crowd sounded even rowdier.

  It wasn’t a bad idea.

  “Jules, stay between the two of us. I’ll lead the way.” I told her.

  Jammed wall-to-wall with bodies, even though I had her hand, and she had Finn’s hand, it was hard to weave through the mass and stay together.

  Jules wrapped her arms around my waist to stay close. I tensed and sucked in a breath, realizing the shaking I felt was a physical response to her body. And the feel of her front to my back had me wanting to do very bad things to her. I couldn’t recall a time any woman had sent a shiver racing down my spine.

  Outside, she let go of me, and I didn’t like it. I wanted to keep her cocooned in safety until we could get out of there. After taking another few deep breaths to shake off whatever this was, I turned to check on Finn.

  “My vehicle is over here,” I said, “Let me get you back to my place, and I’ll take a better look at you.”

  “We can’t go to Rosewood!” Jules exclaimed.

  “Not Rosewood,” I said. “My apartment in mid-town.”

  She nodded. “Do you want me to follow you?”

  “No. I want you to ride with me. I’ll bring you both back here tomorrow to get your vehicles. They’ll be fine until then.”

  “But your car is too small.”

  “I didn’t drive my car. I borrowed the night nurse’s Explorer.”

  “Matthew’s?”

  I nodded. She remembered.

  Finn was quiet but keeping pace. The air was humid, but still so much better than inside. I wiped my brow and kept moving. When we got to the truck, I opened both the passenger and back doors. Jules slid in, and I closed her door, and then helped ease Finn down. As he slowly sat, he stopped for a moment to say, “You must be the infamous Dr. Kiss I’ve heard so much about.”

  Normally, I would have cringed over the use of Dr. Kiss and what he’d said, but tonight I found myself grinning. “Don’t believe all the bad shit your cousin says about me, I’m actually a decent guy.”

  He nodded. “I know you are. She told me.”

  “Finn!” she exclaimed. “Shut it.”

  I laughed as I closed the door. He might have been banged up pretty bad, but at least he was talking and tracking.

  The rear window was jammed open about an inch, and as I walked around the vehicle, I heard Finn say, “Relax Jules, it wasn’t like I told him you think he was made for you.”

  Made for her.

  What the hell did that mean?

  Burn the Midnight Oil

  JULES

  I PRESSED MY FINGERS TO the cool glass.

  Atlanta was never dark, but it looked more alight than ever from the forty-fifth floor of Jake’s apartment. Painted in a silver and gold wash, everything down below appeared almost magical. The streetlights resembled twinkling lights, and Lake Clara Meer seemed more similar to a reflective mirror than a body of water.

  Yet, the reason I was there was about as far from magical as you could get. I was in way over my head. That was becoming clearer and clearer by the day. As if running Easton Design & Weddings into the ground wasn’t bad enough, now I had Finn risking his life to help me build it back up.

  Things couldn’t go on like this.

  I hated to admit it, but maybe I wasn’t cut out to run a business of such large scale. I loved planning weddings. I loved the parties. It was the business dynamics I sucked at.

  Expenses. Invoicing. Checks and balances.

  It was all too much.

  The sound of a door closing had me whirling around. Jake had been in his guest room with Finn for over an hour, and I was a nervous wreck.

  Barefoot and looking exhausted, he came down the hallway, running a hand through his damp hair. In fact, his entire body looked damp.

  “How is he?” I asked.

  Jake started toward the kitchen. “He’s going to be fine. Nothing broken. And as far as I can tell, a few bruised ribs and a mild concussion is the worst of it. I helped him take a shower and gave him some clean clothes. He’s sleeping now.”

  Relief washed through me, and I sagged back. “Jake, I don’t know what I would have done without your help tonight.”

  With his bottom lip in that state of semi-permanent pout he wore so well, Jake stopped at the small bar in the kitchen. “He shouldn’t have been there.”

  I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I know that, and I’m sure he does as well. He was doing it to help me.”

  Lifting the whiskey bottle, Jake gave me a knowing nod, and then he started to pour the amber liquid. “I told your cousin I’d introduce him to a friend a mine whose father is the general counsel for the UFC. If he wants to fight because he has demons to slay, that’s his business, but he needs to be smarter about it.”

  I started for the sofa where I’d left my purse and phone. “You’d do that for him?”

  Setting the bottle down, he looked up. “Sure, if it will help him out.”

  My eyes found his but dropped a little when I noticed the way his shirt was sticking to the sculpted muscles of his chest. “That’s really nice of you.”

  Jake smirked a little and cupped his ear. “Say that again, I don’t think I heard you.”

  I grinned at him. “You heard me.”

  He reached for a bottle of wine. It was Pinot Grigio, and of the Cupcake variety. This made m
e smile. “I didn’t buy this for you.”

  “Oh, I didn’t think you did,” I quipped. “I mean it fits so well among your bottles of vintage varieties, it’s like it belongs right where it was on your shelf.”

  Looking up at the fine bottles of wine that obviously he had collected over a long period of time, he shrugged. “I figured I’d help the company out.”

  When he started to open it, I stopped him. “I should probably call for a ride and go home. It’s late.”

  Ignoring me, he poured the wine into a glass. “You can’t leave. You have to help me check on your cousin throughout the night.”

  Alarm shot through me. “What do you mean? I thought you said he should be fine.”

  With a glass of whiskey in one hand and wine in the other, he started toward me. “Finn needs to be woken up every couple of hours to make sure he’s alert. Nothing to worry about. It’s standard practice for concussions. And then he needs to be watched for the next three days as well.”

  Suddenly, I felt nervous. He’d rejected me by ignoring my text. Oh, God, the text. Obviously, I’d gone overboard. “Yes, of course. I can sleep on the sofa.”

  His lazy gaze drifted over me, warming my skin as if he’d touched me. When he handed me the wine, he said, “You do have other options, you know.”

  Setting my purse back down, I took the wine and sipped at it. “Oh, and what might those be?”

  He lifted a thumb and pointed to the hallway opposite of where Finn was. “I have a really big bed in there. I’m more than willing to put myself out and share it.”

  I frowned at him. “Why didn’t you respond to my text?”

  He finished sipping his whiskey. “I didn’t get a text, or unlike you, I would have responded.”

  My expression turned to confusion. “You didn’t get the video I sent from my bathtub?”

  A half smile curved his lips upward. “No, but I’m more than intrigued. Were you naked in the bathtub?”

  Pulse racing, I tripped over the coffee table leg when I went to set my glass down and landed face first on the sofa. Crawling across the leather the few feet I had to go, I dove for my phone in my purse as soon as I reached it.

  Jake sunk onto the sofa beside me, his gaze more than intrigued as he watched me intently bring up my messages.

  Still on my knees, my heart was pounding against my ribcage when I saw what I’d done. “No. No. Nooooo!”

  It hit me like a brick.

  I’d searched the letters Ja and never noticed I hadn’t selected Jake Kissinger.

  Instead, I must have tapped on Jaxson Cassidy.

  Oh, my freaking God, Jaxson!

  Quickly, I typed out a message.

  Me: Jaxson, I’m so sorry. Please disregard the video.

  Him: You have some explaining to do.

  Me: I will. Later. Promise.

  Without asking, Jake took the phone from my hand and looked at the screen. “Who’s Jaxson?”

  Deflated, I answered in a pathetically sad tone. “My ex-fiancé.”

  Jake’s eyebrows climbed. “You were engaged? What happened?”

  I looked down at him. “Yes, but Jaxson and I weren’t right for each other, so I broke it off.”

  “How long have been broken up?”

  “Almost a year.”

  He was quiet for a moment.

  When I couldn’t take it, I tried to snatch my phone back.

  Jake held it just out of my reach. “Oh no you don’t. I’m going to watch this.”

  “No way!” I reached across him, but his hold on it was too tight.

  His gaze met mine. “I’d think after everything I did tonight, you’d be more than willing to let me watch something that was meant for my eyes to begin with.”

  Resigned, I flung myself back on the couch and covered my eyes. With my feet on the sofa, I peeked through my fingers just enough to see him.

  How was this even happening?

  He set his empty glass down and then angled one leg over the other as if settling in for a movie—of the porn variety.

  As soon as the sound of running water filled the quiet, sparse room, I felt my cheeks flush.

  My on-camera moans were loud, and I had to fight my physical reaction to his response. His pupils flared as if a raw hunger had ignited inside him. When he watched me climax, he sucked in a breath. Thinking about what it would feel like with his very real, very thick cock inside me, an uncontrollable shiver worked up my spine.

  The sound of the water lapping mixed with the noises of my climax filled my ears, and I knew the video was almost over. By the time it ended, Jake’s chest was rising and falling at a very rapid pace.

  He was turned on.

  I could see it in the way his jaw tensed. The way he bit his lip. The rigidness of his body. The outline of his erection.

  It only took Jake a moment to look away from the screen. When he did, his gaze was hot and heated, and on me. “Fuck, you’re so hot. Show me your pretty pussy.”

  I blinked. Did he just ask me to show him my pussy?

  He did.

  I know he did.

  Was it like you show me yours, and I’ll show you mine?

  I looked down at his thick erection.

  I wanted to see it. Touch it. Feel it. I wanted to own it.

  And yet I didn’t respond. I couldn’t. But my body did. My nipples hardened and pressed against the silky material of my bra causing arousal to shoot through my body in a blast of heat.

  He untied my Converse. “That was a tease.”

  “In what way?” I managed to ask.

  “You made yourself come for me but never showed me so much as a glimpse of what you were touching. I want to see it. Show me.” His voice was so husky it sounded like gravel.

  My entire body was trembling. “Right here?”

  His nod was slow and seductive. “Right now. I can’t wait another second.”

  I was still on my back, and I was looking at him through my spread thighs. Like this, he had a bird’s eye view of my denim-covered pussy and would have the same view of my naked one. “But what about Finn?”

  Pulling both of my sneakers off at the same time, he let them drop to the hardwood. “He’s asleep, and won’t wake up for hours.”

  “You mean until we wake him up.”

  “Yes, until we wake him up, in two hours.”

  Two hours.

  It didn’t get past me that we had two hours of time to occupy.

  With shaky fingers, I unsnapped the cool metal. Was I really going to strip for him? I was.

  The small noise that eked out of his throat convinced me I made the right choice. My panties were already damp. They’d been that way from the first moment I saw him, no matter how many times I’d changed them.

  I wasn’t telling him that.

  Pulling on my zipper, it ratcheted apart tooth by metal tooth. I could feel the cool air whoosh over my skin when my fly opened. I hooked my thumbs in the sides of the denim to push them down.

  Jake’s features had turned almost primal as he watched me slide the fabric over my hips and thighs. The jeans were tight, and I had to lift my hips to ease them down.

  Slow.

  Slow.

  Slow.

  I kicked out of them.

  “Take off your panties,” he whispered in a voice rough-edged with need.

  My breath was coming in short, harsh pants as I easily slid the tiny piece of lace down and then kicked it off.

  I gasped when he got to his knees and circled his fingertips around my ankles. “Spread your legs, Jules.”

  Automatically, my legs went slack, falling open and baring myself to him.

  With just his fingertips he brushed over my smooth pink flesh. “Fuck, you’re perfect,” he groaned.

  Nobody had said that to me in a very long time.

  Using a single finger, he dragged it along my folds in a teasing manner. “You’re so wet. I can’t wait to taste you, to be inside you, to make you come.”


  I couldn’t stop the hitch of my breath or the thump of my heart or the smile on my face.

  The tease was over, and he withdrew his soft touch and then rested both of his hands on my knees. “Take your top off, and your bra as well.” This time I didn’t have to think twice. With the way he was looking at me, I would have done just about anything.

  Without waiting another second, I lifted the hem of my tank and pulled it over my head and then reached behind and undid my bra. Once I’d pulled my arms out of it, I tossed the pieces to the ground. And then hesitantly, I raised my gaze, holding my breath as I looked back up at him.

  “Fucking perfect,” he said again, but this time his voice was a low growl of appreciation that sent a jolt all the way to my toes.

  There was a discernible bulge between his legs straining at the denim fly, and I wanted to reach and unzip him.

  “Do you even know how sexy you are?” he asked.

  His question stunned me. “I know the way you’re looking at me right now makes me feel sexier than I ever have.”

  And it was true, under his needy, heated gaze, I don’t think I’d ever felt this desired.

  Ever.

  The only way I could describe the intensity of the moment was to say it was like being brushed with fire every time he raked his hot stare down my body and back up.

  I was completely naked now, and yet he didn’t pounce. His approach was slow. My toes curled into the couch cushions with the anticipation of what he’d do next, but he made me wait.

  Of course, he made me wait.

  Then he was crawling. Coming up and over me, his body was strong and looming. When his face was directly above mine, he began to lower his head. I tilted my chin upward and placed my palms against his chest. I ran my fingertips down to his abs, and he flinched beneath my touch, his muscles going tight and quivering. I hastily withdrew, but he caught my hands with one of his and guided them back. “Don’t stop.”

  I didn’t.

  And then all at once, his warm, sensual mouth was moving exquisitely over mine and one of his hands was sliding up my body, and I couldn’t move. The feel of his skin on mine was pure bliss.