by Alexa Keith
As soon as we were inside, I asked, “Where’s your room?”
She pointed left in the direction of the hall with a single door at the end, but she didn’t move.
“Kay…” I said softly.
She looked to the floor and shook her head. “No…I can’t do this.”
I moved to stand in front of her. “Baby, talk to me.”
“Talk to you?” she said, lifting her head. “You want me to talk to you?” she questioned, raising her voice.
“That’s all I’ve wanted for nine fuckin’ days,” I said, reaching for her.
“Okay…” she started and stepped away from me. “Tell me, Steele, why would you want a no-name slut like me when you can have anyone you want?” Kayden finished with frustration.
I shook my head. “Kay, don’t say that—”
She cut me off, “Oh no, Steele Waters. No, you don’t, you fucking coward. Not this time!” she yelled and began pacing the elegant large foyer.
“What do you want from me?” I threw my arms out to the side.
She swiftly twisted to face me. “What do I want from you?” She threw her head back and chuckled. “Right now…” She paused and looked me dead in the eyes. “Nothing. I don’t want a damn thing from you.”
“Princess…please…” I tried to talk calmly. My blood was racing through my veins. This wasn’t what I’d expected when we left the club. A small line of sweat ran down my spine. I was supposed to be balls deep inside her right now, telling her I love her, that I need her, that I want her. I shouldn’t be standing here, throwing words back and forth, living the past over.
“Do you have any idea what you did to me?” she asked, eerily composed.
“No,” I said.
Her heels clicked loudly against the wood floor as she stalked over to me. Kayden’s hands came up and pushed against my chest. “You left me in the middle of your fucking party, surrounded by people I didn’t know, Steele.”
She pushed again, and I stepped back. She followed as I kept moving back.
She shouted at the top of her lungs, “I was puking my guts up after finding out that you had fucked another girl that same afternoon when I was shopping for a dress for your party with your goddamn bimbos, who so graciously shared details about your threesome with me.”
My back hit the door behind me. The sultry brown eyes I was used to looking in were now filled with heated rage. Kayden’s hand came up and slapped me across the face.
Fuck, it stung like a bitch.
The woman had an arm.
“You bastard.” She stepped back.
I brought my hand up and touched my cheek. I advanced toward her.
“Don’t touch me,” she said firmly and stood her ground.
“You’re really testing my limits, Kay!” I shouted in her face.
The anger running through me was strong, but I would never lay a hand on a woman. Her hand came up again, but I caught it and twisted it around her back.
“Let me go!” she shouted in my face.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her other hand in motion, and I caught it mid-air. Bringing it around her back, I held both her wrists in one hand and rotated her. Pushing her up against the door, I got in her face.
“I came after you. Did you know that? No, you didn’t, did you? I saw someone snatch you up, and then I got a text from Marco, saying one of his goons had you and that you would be taken care of. But you didn’t know that, did you?” I roared irately.
“No, I didn’t,” she barked back.
“Did you know that I went back inside and went apeshit on everyone? Did you?”
Her eyes blinked a few times before she said, “No.”
“No, I didn’t think so,” I spit harshly at her. “What about that I was in a whiskey fog for three fuckin’ days? Did you know that, Princess? No, you didn’t.”
“Steele…” Kayden started lowly.
“No, Princess…” I said just as low. “I was wrong. I’ve got no problem admitting it. I should have never let you walk out. I should have let you explain. But I was scared, and I’ve never been scared in my life. The feelings I was having terrified me.”
Her eyes filled with tears, and she blinked them back. “You don’t think I’m terrified of the way I feel too, I just wanted to fit into your life, Steele. That’s all I was trying to do,” she said tentatively.
“I know, baby. I know.” My fingers pushed her hair behind her ear. I let the backs of them gradually run down her check. I continued bringing my voice down soft and low as I asked, “But you know what?”
Kayden shook her head.
“It only made me realize how much I’m so fuckin’ in love with you.” My thumb grazed her crimson lips, and my eyes followed its path. “I need you, Princess. You’re all I think about, all I want, and I’m sorry. God, I’m so fuckin’ sorry for not standing by your side.”
A tear fell from her eye, and I caught it on her soft pink cheek. My eyes came to her tear-filled brown ones. “You, baby…you’re it. From the moment you walked onto the set that day, you changed me. You made me want things in life that I’ve never wanted before.” I caught another tear beside her lips. “And I want it all with you.”
Her brown watery gaze held mine. In some sense, I thought maybe I’d said too much, that maybe she didn’t feel the same.
There was only one way to find out now.
I dipped, wrapped my arms around her midriff, and stood. She encircled her legs around my waist and never took my eyes from hers. I walked slowly down the hall. The instant we crossed over the threshold, I put her down. She began to tread backward. Slamming the door behind me, I started walking toward her. The look in her eyes showed lust and fear, and it was turning me the fuck on. The hunger I felt for this woman soared through my veins. My cock strained against the zipper the minute her back hit the floor-to-ceiling window. My lips tilted up slightly. She bit her bottom lip, and I almost came in my fuckin’ jeans.
I put a hand on either side her head, trapping her in. My lips gently touched hers, and we both lost control. I plunged my tongue deep into her mouth. Her hands clutched on to my shirt at the waist. My hands went to the bottom of her top, and I broke the kiss long enough to pull it over her head. I let my fingers stroke the warm soft flesh of her stomach. She quivered with my touch and held on to my shoulders for support.
I’d waited for this moment for nine fuckin’ days, and I wanted to savor it, but I couldn’t tame the beast inside me enough to slow down. I pulled down the cup of her bra, and took a nipple into my mouth. I sucked hard, and Kayden arched her back off the window. My hand went to the other, and once I had freed her tit, I moved my attention toward it.
“Oh God…” Kayden moaned.
I sucked her hardened bud into my mouth as I let my fingers toy with the other. My mouth continued down on her body, kissing, sucking, and biting as I went. “Fuck, I love your body,” I mumbled against her fevered skin.
I got to my knees, stuck my face between her legs, and breathed her in. Leather and her intoxicating scent filled my senses. My eyes moved up her body as I slowly detached her belt. The sound of clinking metal hit the floor. Her half-lidded hazy eyes came to mine. She drew her bottom lip between her teeth. I undid the button and zipper, and I swiftly removed her pants over her heels.
Gold flecks of light mixed with the bright moon, highlighting her gorgeous body from behind her. Nothing but bare flesh of the woman I loved stood before me. She was fuckin’ breathtaking. I placed my hands on her soft breasts and gradually ran my fingers down her body, making her tremble beneath them.
When I reached her knees, I lifted one of her legs and placed it over my shoulder. My eyes feasted on the wet silkiness that my body longed for. My tongue came out, and I took one good, long swipe of her soaking wet pussy.
“Fuck…” I groaned as her taste burst into my mouth. I continued to eat at her like a starved man—in essence, I was for her.
“Steele…” Kayden whined.
>
I hummed as I sucked her into my mouth.
“It’s been…oh God…” Her voice was strained against the assault my mouth took on her. “I’m going to…to…”
I reluctantly let my mouth move off her. “Do it, baby,” I grumbled my command, and went back to feasting on her.
My tongue flicked at her entrance, and I was greeted with a rush of juices and her screaming my name. I fitted my mouth on her and drank her in.
When her convulsing slowed, I stood and wrapped my arms around her waist. I took her mouth hard as I lifted her. Twisting, I stalked to the bed and laid her down with her ass on the edge. I grabbed the back of my shirt at the neck and pulled forward.
Tossing it aside, Kayden hummed as her eyes bore into mine, “Mmm…”
“I’m gonna give you mmm, Princess,” I rumbled with a lust-filled voice.
I divested myself of the rest of my clothing fast. The wanton look in her eyes had to mirror mine. Placing her legs on my shoulders, I leaned down, took her mouth roughly, and positioned my cock. I pushed deep inside her with one long stroke, our attached mouths muffling the grunts. I sat deeply seated inside the hot confines of her pussy, fearing I would erupt if I moved. Once I was in the safe zone, I moved my hips in deep, fast thrusts. Kayden lifted her hips in time with mine, causing the sounds of slapping flesh mixed with heavy breathing to fill the room.
“Fuck...” I groaned into her neck.
The velvet channel encased around my cock was making me light-headed. Kayden gripped my shoulders, digging her nails into my flesh. The stinging triggered me to pound into her.
“Oh…God…Steele!” Kayden yelled as another orgasm seized her.
Her tight cunt milked my cock, causing my orgasm to follow hers. I groaned next to her ear as the intense sensation ripped through my body.
Kayden
I stirred in the warm confines of the soft bed. My body was sore but deliciously tender. Squirming back, I found a cold spot, not the hard body with strong arms that had been enclosed around me when I fell asleep the night before. No, there was nothing. I didn’t even want to roll over to make sure I was wrong. Every time I had slept with Steele, he was always wrapped around me. Nothing lay behind me, except for the heady trace of Steele’s clean-scented cologne.
“What did I do?” I muttered, pulling the sex-smelling covers over my head.
After we’d finished our first rendezvous last night, we’d silently slid right into bed. My mind had been twirling with the events that had taken place along with Steele’s confession of love. I’d kept telling my brain that this was not the time to try to process that, but it hadn’t listened. I’d contemplated his words as they rang in my head.
Did he truly love me? Or was it just an attempt to get me in bed?
Waking up to his absence in bed made me think the latter. I could slap myself for being so damn weak around him. He’d made me forget about everything. When his hands, mouth, and other parts were either in or on my body, my mind would go blank. All thoughts were consumed with nothing but him.
And it was a feeling I loved and hated all at the same time.
We laid soundless for a while, his front against my back, his arms wrapped tightly around me. His one hand had gradually moved down my thigh before catching my knee from behind and lifting it. He’d pulled it back and placed it on his bent leg. Then, he’d slipped his hard length inside me. The deliciously slow rhythm he’d set had me going again, forgetting about everything. No words had been said. It’d been just a few grunts and groans along with light kisses on my shoulder. Heavy whimpers and moans had come from me. I hadn’t even called out his name when my orgasm hit me. I’d just breathed through it on a moan. It was the most sensual sex I’d ever had, that we had ever had. There had been no words, just unhurried and pleasing movements that said a million things our voices never could.
I pushed those views from my head and quickly rolled over. I thought if I faced the empty bed fast enough, then it wouldn’t hurt so badly. I was wrong. Grabbing the empty pillow, I hugged it to my body. My thoughts wandered to the talk I’d had with Bull the morning I left.
“What exactly do you think Steele did that was so wrong?” Bull asked.
“Where do you want me to start? They’re a number of things, but what really hurt the most was him not coming after me?” I said.
Bull sighed. “Did you ever think that he was in a state of shock by your actions that night?”
I hated the rationality he was making me face. No girl wanted to be told that she was wrong or possibly wasn’t thinking in her right mind toward the situation.
“Maybe,” I uttered.
Bull reached for my hands over the wood table that we sat at on my back porch.
He held them tight. “Look at me.”
I brought my eyes to his deep dark ones.
He started, “I lost my wife when the girls were thirteen and sixteen.” Bull blinked a few times before continuing, “I’ve been down this road more times than I can count. And believe me, sweetheart, Lana was a stubborn girl. She was always right. Everyone else was always wrong. She thought she knew what everybody else wanted.”
He grinned at the remembrance of a young Lana. “She was a senior in high school at the time, and she just came home from a date. Lana was over the moon about this boy. They had gone to a party at her friend’s house. She said it was the best night she ever had. A few days later, I found her crying in her room. I asked her what was wrong, and she said he hadn’t called her. Then, I told her to tell me about the date in more detail, and she did. And you know what I found out?” Bull squeezed my hands.
“What?” I asked in anticipation.
“That she became another girl that night, a floozy party girl, and that was not Lana at all. She was my focus girl. She knew what she wanted and went for it, determined as hell the whole way, and she always got what she was heading for.”
Bull chuckled, and I smiled.
“See, he was the popular quarterback, and always at the parties, socializing with everyone. So, she assumed that’s what he wanted, a partying social butterfly. After our long, drawn-out talk, she put aside her pigheadedness and called him. She found out that wasn’t what he was looking for.”
Bull stopped talking. I waited a minute for him to start again, but he didn’t.
“So, what happened?” I asked impatiently.
“A happily married couple and two healthy kids is what happened.” He squeezed my hands again before letting go. He sat back in his chair and crossed his beefy arms over his chest.
I matched his position before I asked, “Are you trying to tell me nicely that I’m stubborn?”
His rich, deep laugh rumbled through the quiet morning. “No, sweetheart. I’m telling you that you have to sometimes step out of your own box and look in. Don’t always assume what someone else wants…or thinks.” Bull paused for a second. “And give him a chance to explain his side,” he finished.
I rolled back over and snagged my cell off the nightstand. I tapped the screen quickly. Listening to the rings, I snuggled back under the covers.
“Sweetheart…” His thick voice drew out.
Tears instantly hit the backs of my eyes. “I gave him his chance,” I said lowly.
Bull’s voice mixed with a smile and confusion when he said, “Talk to me.”
I did. I told him everything that had happened—from the club to the fight, and finally, what Steele had confessed. I’d even mentioned the hot sex that started up against the window and the sensual sex afterward. Of course, it wasn’t in detail because that wouldn’t be right. Even though I confided in him, he was still like my dad, and that would be wrong on so many levels.
“I leave you for twenty-four hours, and all this shit happened?” he asked, disbelieving.
“I know,” I said, trying to convince myself that it really had happened.
Bull huffed, and I heard the phone rub against his stubbly chin. “Girl, now, I need to process this shit. I rais
ed two girls from their teenage years—not one, but two. And never did I have to process through the shit they handed me. But you…I’m starting to get a brain cramp and an ulcer.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
His voice became firm when he said, “Don’t you ever tell me you’re fucking sorry again. Never be sorry for handing me your shit. And if you do it again, I’ll kick your ass before the full word comes out of that mouth.”
I smiled in spite of the sadness I was feeling. “Okay…I’m—”
“Girl, don’t test me,” he said irritably. Then, he questioned, “And why aren’t you at your appointment?”
I sat up, flipping back the covers. I craned my neck toward the clock on the other nightstand. “Oh shit.”
Bull said more to himself than me, “He really does have a strong effect on you.”
I jumped out of bed and started rummaging through my suitcase. Holding the phone with my shoulder and tugging my jeans on, I asked, “How’s your mom?”
“Tests came back fine. That woman’s gonna outlive me. Tara’s gonna keep an eye on her while I fly out to meet you in Texas.”
I was sliding my feet into flip-flops when I asked, “So, you are meeting me out there?”
“I said I would,” Bull said. “You go, and I’ll give you a call after I’ve had time to process your shit.”
I smiled again because Bull was starting to sound a little like me with the processing business. “Okay,” I said. I stopped myself in the doorway to the bathroom. “Love you, Bull,” I said softly.
The pause felt like a million years before his thick, deep voice said, “Me, too, sweetheart.”
Then, he disconnected, and I grinned while I pulled my T-shirt over my head.
I was able to slip out of the room while all the others were still sleeping. Having to explain what had happened between Steele and I—both in California and last night—was, by far, not a conversation I was looking forward to having. I didn’t even have time to process what had happened. All I knew was that I was late for my appointment, and I needed to put Steele aside for the moment, so I could focus on why I was really here.