by M. S. Parker
That was when I realized the error – no condom.
She felt it, too, arching under me and bracing her hands against my chest. “Kane?”
“I need a condom,” I said, panting against her lips. “Tell me you have one.”
She shook her head, eyes wide.
“Fuck!”
But when I went to pull out, she locked her ankles just under my ass. “Do we have to stop? I’m on the pill. I started after…” Her eyes clouded, and I bent my head, kissing her hard and fast.
“Don’t think about that. Don’t think about him,” I ordered her. “Not here with me. Not ever, if I can help it.”
“No. Not here,” she agreed. “But…” She arched against me once more, her nipples stabbing against my chest, another wicked temptation in a sea of them. “But…do we have to stop?”
I stared down at her beautiful face. Common sense warred with want. “We should. It’s the smart thing to do.”
“I’ve tried to be smart my entire life,” she said, a smile playing on her lips. “It’s overrated.”
When she undulated under me, I was lost. “Fuck smart,” I said hoarsely.
With a groan, I sank all the way inside her, experiencing the bliss of being skin to skin for the first time. She was hot, wet silk around my dick, and it was the sweetest ecstasy I’d ever known.
“You feel so good,” I muttered against her ear.
“You, too.” She shivered under me.
I withdrew and thrust back inside, keeping it slow, wanting to savor every moment.
But nothing that good ever lasted.
She tightened around me, the muscles in her pussy milking my cock until I squeezed my eyes shut against the sensation. I almost saw stars the next time she did it, and I slammed into her harder than before.
She cried out.
“Raye?”
“Do it again,” she pleaded.
Who was I to reject a lady’s request.
I did as she asked, and what had been slow, almost sweet turned dirty and frantic, bordering on rough. Her nails dug into my shoulders, her mouth biting into mine as she sank her teeth into my lower lip. I thrust my tongue into her mouth, and she responded by sucking on my tongue the same way I’d like to have her sucking on my prick.
It drove me crazy, and I had to fight not to let go of my baser instincts.
Warning tingles raced up and down my spine, and I clenched a hand in the sheets beneath her, trying to ride it out.
But she came around me, her silken tissues starting to spasm and grip me tighter than a fist.
Her climax triggered my own, and those chills racing down my spine turned into something with all the force of a neutron bomb. It hit low and fast, and I exploded.
I groaned into her mouth as the orgasm slammed into me. She spasmed around me, milking…squeezing…draining me dry.
Thirty-Six
Raye
It seemed impossible that only a week had passed.
It seemed impossible that a week really had passed.
I hadn’t seen or heard from Chad.
Kane had told me he hadn’t seen or heard from Calie…and neither had Austen.
Maybe things were going to actually settle down, and I could enjoy this new time with my…boyfriend.
Wow.
I was still having a hard time believing it. Kane and I had what we considered was a talk. A big one. Neither of us had ever been in a serious relationship before, a fact that baffled me when it came to Kane, but he’d told me that he’d never really considered himself relationship material.
You changed all of that, Raye, he’d said.
I still found myself grinning whenever I thought about it.
But Kane had gone and changed everything for me, too.
That was the amazing thing. We’d gone and changed things for each other. And today, he wanted me to meet his family.
He’d already told me that his dad died when he was a kid, but he wanted me to meet his mom, brothers, and sisters – well, one of his sisters. The other was back at school at M.I.T., a fact I found a little intimidating, although I wasn’t going to tell him. Not yet anyway.
But his other sister and the rest of his brothers, their families, he wanted me to meet them and his mother.
Which explained why I was standing in front of the mirror at ten a.m. on a Sunday morning, fussing with my hair and getting ready. I normally didn’t even crawl out of bed before ten on a Sunday, and here I was with my makeup already on and debating between a gray sweater that made my eyes look bluer and a blue sweater that made my eyes look lighter.
I went with the blue sweater. It featured a V-neck that I thought would appeal to Kane, although it wasn’t at all revealing.
I decided I’d picked right not even five minutes later when I answered the door, and he looked at me with a gleam in his eyes and a smile on his face.
“You look gorgeous,” Kane said, a low growl in his voice as he stepped inside. He pulled me up against him, and I giggled as he rubbed his face against my exposed neck. “Way too good for me to waste on taking over to meet my family. Let’s get naked instead.”
“That means I’m wasting it on you too, goofy,” I said, pulling away before he messed up my lipstick.
His lids drooped low as he stared at me. “It’s not a waste. I’d appreciate it more than they would.”
“Stay,” I said, holding a hand up as he advanced on me.
He did, but not without a surly look…and a sexy one that ended up sending pangs right square to the core of me.
Huffing, I turned on my heel. “You wait here,” I told him over my shoulder as I headed to grab my boots.
If he ended up following me, we’d be late getting over to his mother’s, something I didn’t want to do the first time I met her.
I’m not going to have a panic attack.
I’m not going to have a panic attack.
“Will you relax?” Kane murmured, leaning in to whisper the words in my ear as we trudged up the final flight of stairs. “You’re so nervous, you’re making me nervous.”
“I’m sorry,” I squeaked out. “I just…what if they don’t like me?”
“The only person you need to worry about is Dinah, and half the time she doesn’t like me,” he said, as brutally honest as he always was. He pulled me to a stop once we reached the top of the stairs, tugging me over to the wall.
I leaned up against it, and he partially caged me in, leaning over me with one arm barring me in.
I didn’t feel trapped with him doing this. I felt…protected.
He cupped my face with his free hand and rubbed his thumb over my lower lip.
“Why doesn’t Dinah like you?” I asked, irritated by that idea. I knew who Dinah was – the oldest girl, just a little younger than him. She’d made far different choices than he had, and he’d never made any attempt to hide how proud he was of her – or any of his siblings.
He’d made mistakes. I’d never deny that. But he’d overcome them and was trying to do better. That should count for something.
“Because I fucked up. She won’t ever forget that.”
I huffed out a breath, already deciding that maybe I wouldn’t like Dinah.
I wasn’t very good at hiding how I felt because Kane’s face lit with a grin. “You’ll like her just fine,” he told me.
I raised my chin. “Not if she doesn’t like you.”
“It’s not that she doesn’t like me,” he said, hedging. “She just…I think she worries about the kind of example I might set for the younger kids in the family. I mean, hell. Look at Austen.”
“Austen is old enough to make his own choices,” I said tartly.
Kane opened his mouth, maybe to argue, but in the end, he just closed it and shook his head. “It’s going to be fine,” he muttered. But I don’t know if he was saying it to me…or to himself.
I fell in love.
Several times over.
The first time was with his brother, Eddie,
who kissed my hand and told me I better be careful and not break his brother’s heart.
The second time was with Kane’s brother-in-law, Justin – Dinah’s husband. “I knew somebody would get him, sooner or later,” he said with a huge grin. “It was just a matter of time.”
The third time was with two twin little girls, Rose and Zoe, who took one look at me and instantly held up their arms, demanding to be hugged.
But the fourth and most important time happened when Kane led me to the kitchen and said, “Mom?”
A slim woman with graying brown hair turned away from the stove.
She looked at him, then her gaze fell on me.
Her eyes widened slightly, then to my horror, they filled with tears.
I wanted to hide, but even as I was considering the option, she rushed toward me and caught me up in a hug. “You’re Raye,” she said simply. “Kane’s told me so much about you.”
It was the first time I’d ever felt such simple, non-demanding warmth.
Without thinking, I curled my arms around her and hugged her back.
“Hi,” I said through the emotion clogging my throat.
She laughed and pulled back, staring up at me. “You want to help me with lunch?”
I met Dinah maybe halfway through lunch.
She’d been there all along, but according to a comment I’d heard from Eddie’s boyfriend, Rick, she’d gone to lay down and didn’t get up to join us until seconds were being passed.
The moment she appeared in the doorway, Eva Jonson got up to fetch the plate she’d set aside for her oldest daughter, and when she brought it back, Dinah frowned down at it.
“No meatloaf?”
“You wouldn’t eat it anyway,” Eva said, waving a dismissive hand.
I didn’t think much of the comment until later, when Eva leaned forward, elbows on the table. “Are you going to tell us, Dinah?”
Dinah looked at her mother, a perplexed expression on her face. “Tell you what?”
Eva laughed as she sat back. “You took an hour-long nap in the middle of the day, and you’ve bolted from the table twice. I think you know what I’m talking about.”
“Oh, fine…” Dinah rolled her eyes while her husband leaned over and covered her hand with his. Her announcement of “I’m pregnant,” was almost drowned out by hoots and hollers as everybody else in the room figured out what Eva was getting at, and Dinah was soon enveloped by people wanting to hug her and ask questions.
I stayed where I was.
Surprisingly, so did Kane.
“Aren’t you going to rush over and hug her?”
He shrugged, a faint smile playing on his lips. “She’s getting plenty of hugs right now. I’ll catch her later.” He slanted a look at me. “You don’t seem too ready to bolt for the door. My family not scared you off yet?”
“Nah,” I said lightly. I wasn’t about to tell him that I was about as enamored with his family as I was with him. That might scare him off. “This isn’t so bad.”
The grin on his face told me that he’d seen some of what I was trying to hide.
It was okay, though. I realized it as his gaze softened, and he leaned over to press a kiss to my temple, hugging me tight. I was surrounded by the scent of him, the feel and strength of him, and I let myself sink into his embrace.
“None of that now,” a playful voice said.
I looked up to see Eddie wagging a finger at us. His gaze locked with mine and he winked at me. “Leading my brother astray, I see how it is,” he said.
I blushed while Kane swatted out with a hand, connecting with the back of his brother’s head.
Eddie took it with good-natured humor, settling back in his seat next to Kane while eying the rest of the family, most of whom were across the table. “Looks like just about all of us are settling down, huh?”
Kane’s arm came around my shoulders, and he tugged me in tight. “Looks like.”
I leaned into him and let myself think about what Eddie had said.
Settling down.
That kind of meant…home, right?
I realized I was smiling.
Home.
Here. Not this place, exactly. But here in New York. With Kane, even. Maybe we were moving fast, and maybe I was the only one who was thinking like this, but I didn’t think so.
For the first time in forever, maybe the first time ever, I felt like I had a home, like I had a place where I belonged.
Thirty-Seven
Kane
My brothers and I took over the clean-up for the day.
Mom wanted to fuss over Dinah, and I think she also wanted to hover over Raye, although she was too…gentle, too good at it to make Raye feel smothered.
The look in Raye’s eyes when my mother had hugged her was one that was going to stay with me for a long, long time, probably the rest of my life.
“Your girl’s a sweetheart,” Eddie said in a low voice as we washed dishes, both of us attuned to the voices out in the other room.
“I know.”
“You serious about her?” He shot me a look as he passed me a pot to rinse off. Once I was done, I turned it over to Justin to dry, and Austen took care of putting it up. We had the system nailed down.
“Yeah, Eddie.” I met his eyes. “I’m serious about her.”
“Been going out long?”
I shrugged, not wanting to tell him we’d actually only been out on one or two dates in the past week, and before that…what did I call what we’d been doing before that? Not like I was going to tell him, but no. We hadn’t been going out long.
The timing didn’t matter though.
She felt right to me.
And when she looked at me, I could see it in her eyes that she felt it, too.
I wasn’t going to question that.
“Well, good for you,” Eddie said, bumping my shoulder with his. “She makes you smile a lot. Shit, I didn’t know you could smile that much. So…yeah, good for you.”
“She’s a good cook,” Austen piped up from his spot at the end of the line. He was moving to the beat of the music pulsing out of the headphones he had draped around his neck. The music was loud enough that all of us could hear it, but he was the only one who seemed to appreciate the loud, discordant tones.
“When did you get to try her cooking?” Eddie asked, looking put out.
I met Austen’s eyes.
I didn’t have to do anything else.
I’d had a talk with Mom – and yes, she had wanted to go after Calie, but other than her, nobody knew about the mess with Calie and Austen.
And Austen seemed to have settled himself down in the days since it had happened. It was early yet, but maybe he’d gotten himself scared enough to get his act together. Not exactly the ideal way to do it, but it was better than not having it happen at all.
Under Eddie’s sharp eyes, Austen shrugged and grinned. “Don’t worry, man. I’m sure she won’t mind cooking for you at some point. She just likes me more.”
The good-natured ribbing kept up even once we were finished.
Meeting Raye out in the living room, I looped my arms around her waist and asked if she was ready to go. Eddie could be as nosy as an old mother hen when the mood got on him, so I figured it was best to head out.
She nodded, tipping her head back to meet my eyes. “We can go if you’re ready.”
Once we were out on the street, I took her hand, trying to think up a subtle way to ask her if she wanted to spend the night, but Raye stepped in front of me, bringing me to a stop.
She cocked her head, eying me nervously, then she blurted out, “You want to come over to my place?”
I kissed her. “Sounds good to me.”
The subway ride was becoming familiar, and I spent the time with my arm around her shoulders while she held my hand and traced her index finger over and around some of the scars on the back of my knuckles and my palm.
Once we got to her place, she started up the steps.
My ph
one rang, and I pulled it out, checked the number. It was one of the guys from work, so I let it go to voicemail and put the phone on vibrate. I could take a few hours away from the world, right?
I went to put the phone in my pocket just as Raye rounded the corner, disappearing out of sight.
I missed my pocket, dropping the phone in the process, my hands still numb from the cold. Swearing, I knelt to grab it. Once I had it in hand, I rotated it to check and make sure I hadn’t broken the screen. I’d lost more than a few phones that way.
Luckily, the expensive case I’d invested in this time had protected it. As I went to shove it in my pocket, I heard a rush of footsteps and Raye’s startled voice.
Adrenaline kicked in.
I rushed around the corner just in time to see her driving her fist into the temple of a man nearly twice her size.
He jerked back, but not in time to entirely avoid the blow. He looked slightly dazed, but he managed to catch her by the arm, jerking her up against him.
That was as far as he got before I reached him, coming up behind him and wrapping my forearm around his neck. “Let me guess…” I said, anger pulsing inside. “You must be Chad.”
He jerked against my hold, and I loosened my grip enough for him to slip away, but then I caught him again and slammed him into the wall, glaring into watery blue eyes that now held more than a little fear.
“You like going around and terrorizing women?” I asked, shoving my forearm against his windpipe. His pale face started to go red.
He opened his mouth, trying to choke out something. I doubted it was an answer to my question.
“I’m going to put this to you plainly. You’re going to stay away from Raye. Permanently. For like…the rest of your life,” I said, speaking in a slow, measured voice. “If you come around her again, I’m going to round up some friends of mine. And let me tell you, these friends make me look like Santa Claus. Do I look like Santa right now?”
The sleazy bastard frantically shook his head.
“So, you can imagine what kind of friends I can round up, right?”