by Zoey Parker
It sent a shiver of fear down my spine.
James Austin was coming after me. I was his target. I wasn’t the one he was going to hurt to get to me. It was going to be April and Caleb—and Kade, because whether James Austin realized it yet or not, I was falling hard for Kade. And that would be impossible to hide soon.
The knowledge made me want to run out of the room right then and there and throw myself against Kade. It made me want to plead with him to leave me, to save himself. It made me want to beg him to run away with me and leave everything behind.
I didn’t know which was the smartest of those ideas, but it didn’t matter. I couldn’t do any of them and Kade would probably tell me I was nuts anyway.
No, we were going to have to see this through to the end. No matter what.
Chapter Sixteen
Kade
Abby was quiet on the drive home. She was lost somewhere in her own thoughts, probably being eaten up by her own personal guilt over what happened to April. I hadn’t gone in the room as promised, but through the window I could see what kind of shape April had been in. It wasn’t good. In fact, she looked like a patchwork quilt of ugly colors. Her face was swollen and one eye seemed stuck shut.
She didn’t look good and I knew Abby well enough now to know that that didn’t sit well with her. She’d gotten it into her head that April was her responsibility, but the truth was this whole thing was my responsibility.
I couldn’t be everywhere at once and I wasn’t stupid enough to assume anything to that effect. But April was my responsibility by proxy. She was something that belonged, in a way, to Abby, something important, and I was trying to keep the things important to Abby intact. Besides, the fact that that asshole got to April told me that I wasn’t doing a good enough job.
Because Abby had gotten hurt. Maybe not physically, but emotionally, and sometimes that was worse. If I’d gotten to that hotel sooner, if I’d gotten Abby’s phone to Caleb sooner, if I’d just insisted that Abby stay in that night or that April stay here with us…well, there were a lot of things I felt I could have done differently to have protected that young woman. But I didn’t do any of them and that was something I was just going to have to live with.
I parked the car in the garage and we both went upstairs, Abby still silent.
“Coffee?” I offered her.
She considered me a moment and nodded her head. “Yes, please. I’m just going to freshen up. Wait for me here?”
Though the urge to follow her everywhere she went was strong, I ultimately nodded my head and forced myself to stay in the kitchen as she went upstairs. After seeing the state April was in, I wasn’t too keen to let Abby go anywhere without me, but I reminded myself that the house at least was safe. As long as we were both here, she was alright.
I made a fresh pot of coffee and poured two steaming mugs. I set one down on the counter and nursed the other in my hands for a bit, blowing across the top of it in a vain attempt to cool it enough to drink right then.
Finally, I put it down because as much as I wanted coffee, I didn’t want to burn off my taste buds at the same time.
She’s taking a long time, I thought as I waited for Abby. I was starting to get anxious—I should have done a thorough check of the house first before I let her go anywhere without me. Cold fear suddenly washed through me. What if someone was in the house? What if they’d been waiting upstairs this whole time, lurking in her bedroom, springing at the chance to get her alone?
My fears maybe seemed paranoid, but given the situations lately, they were justified. I sprang into action, running to the staircase. I opened my mouth, about to call out for her just as I hit the bottom step of the stairs, but a second later I froze.
She stood at the stop of the staircase, wearing a silky robe that fell across her perfectly curved body, draping her in shimmering white silk that left little to my imagination. Her hair was let down, cascading about her shoulders in perfectly shaped curls. Her bright blue eyes were fixed on me as she began to descend the staircase.
My words caught in my throat, my eyes riveted to her. Her hips swayed as she walked, her robe long enough that it caught the step behind her as she stepped down, catching on the carpet and pulling back away from her long, smooth legs all the way up to her creamy thighs.
I sucked in a breath. She’d changed, clearly, and I was suddenly intensely interested in what she was wearing beneath that robe.
As she came closer and closer, I cleared my throat, trying to find my voice. “Abby? What…what are you doing?”
She offered me a silky smile. “I realized that I made a mistake the other day.”
I frowned. I was having difficulty focusing—her long, bare legs and the way that silky material slipped across her full breasts, swaying and moving as she continued to step down closer to me. She looked like a barely-clothed goddess, the material as ethereal as she was.
“Mistake?” I managed to get out, nearly choking on my own words as my eyes continued to devour the vision before me.
Her smile widened and suddenly she was only a step above me. Her hands, which had been hanging easily at her sides up to this point, lifted up suddenly, going to the tie at her waist. They gripped either end and paused.
I was rock hard, staring at her as my heart thumped wildly, the need for her so strong that I didn’t know how we could still be standing there on the stairs, how we weren’t splayed across the floor somewhere with my cock buried inside her sweet, silky pussy.
“Yes. The first time you saved me, I offered you a reward,” she purred, and I throbbed for her, aching, only barely holding back a groan. “I said you could have anything you wanted that day. I wanted to make the same offer for the second time you saved me.”
Desire coursed through my veins. I wanted her, here and now, on the floor, the stairs, the kitchen counter—anywhere.
This is all a mistake, a small voice in my head reminded me. This is Caleb’s niece.
But my thoughts halted abruptly like a car wreck on the interstate, piling up to an abrupt and immediate halt. Abby’s delicate hands tugged at either end of her robe ties until the flimsy bow pulled apart. She let them fall to the sides and instantly, her robe slipped open. A strip of silky skin was revealed straight down at her middle—and told me instantly that she wasn’t wearing a goddamned thing beneath it.
I shuddered in pleasure at the sight of her pussy lips, bare and smooth, visible thanks to the way the robe hung open just barely. Her hands went to the sides of the robe at her breasts, then pulled them away, revealing still more of her gorgeous body. Her breasts were large and heavy, with nipples that were already pebbled into hard peaks.
She pulled the sides open until they slid from her shoulders. Then she let them drop and she was completely naked in front of me.
“Whatever you want,” she whispered in a low, sultry voice that did as much damage to me as her bare, naked body. “It’s yours today.”
The voice of reason was gone. The one that told me this was all a bad idea and that I was supposed to be resisting temptation. In its place was such burning, undeniable need that my hands went to her hips and dug in, my fingers gripping hard enough that I might have left small marks for tomorrow.
I didn’t care and neither did she. She let out a soft moan and that was all the confirmation I needed.
I jerked her to me, causing her to stumble a little down the last step and crash against my body. Which was perfect, because it allowed me to drag her against my body until her legs were spread to either side of my hips and my crotch was poised at her pink opening. Her hands wrapped around my neck immediately for balance and she leaned her head down to touch her lips to mine.
Fire engulfed me and one hand left her hip to tangle into her luxurious locks, pulling her into me farther so that I could turn what was a soft kiss into a deeper, passionate one. She moaned into my mouth and I gladly swallowed it, slipping my tongue into her mouth to duel with her tongue.
For a half a second
, I considered where I wanted to take her, what I wanted to do with this gorgeous goddess wrapped around my body. Then I moved, deciding that the couch was closest and I needed to be inside her as quickly as humanly possible.
My hand gripped her ass tightly, relishing the soft, yet firm feel of it in my palm. I carried her to the living room and threw her down on the couch when we got there, letting her fall apart, her body bared before my hungry gaze.
“On the couch?” she questioned, maybe trying to sound indignant, but she failed miserably so I didn’t worry about it.
I grinned at her. “That’s right, princess,” I told her, yanking off my shirt and tossing it somewhere. Then I undid my pants as quickly as I could, still raking my eyes over her. I heard her breathe in a shuddering breath and smirked as I slid my pants down, exposing my already rock hard erection.
I went to her, settling myself between her shapely legs, spreading them further until her thighs were against my hips and my cock was poised at her entrance. I slid the length of it along her pussy lips, collecting the moisture there.
“You’re already wet for me,” I noticed, reaching my hand down along her small waist and navel to dip between our bodies and touch the dampness there.
She bucked up against my hand, moaning. “Yes, I am. I’ve wanted you a thousand times since this morning.”
Groaning at that knowledge, I gripped my shaft and lined it up. Then I pressed myself against her pussy lips, splitting them open like the petals of a flower. Going farther, I slid the head of my cock into her warm, wet opening.
“Oh, Kade,” she cried as I pushed myself in farther and farther.
Her walls were tight around my cock, gripping me like a vise, a wonderful feeling that made me want to spill myself right then and there. But she also felt so good that I wanted to prolong this. I wanted to spend the next hour making love to her, maybe the rest of the day. I wanted to fuck her until she was limp beneath me, gasping and moaning, her heart hammering as she struggled against exhaustion.
She said whatever I wanted today, I thought wickedly, and grinned down at her.
“You promised me whatever I wanted, right?” I asked her as I pushed myself in as far as I could go, bottoming out inside of her with still just a bit of my shaft lingering outside. Her hand reached down between us to stroke that exposed flesh, sending jolts of pleasure through me as a result.
“Yes,” she purred as she stroked me. “Anything.”
“Good,” I told her as I slid myself out of her warm center. Her hand was still there wrapped around my shaft at the base and as I pulled out, sliding along the length of it to add in still more pleasure as I withdrew. I let out a groan. “You have such little hands.”
When all but the bulbous head of my cock was released from her core, she added her second hand and pumped my length.
“Yes, that’s it, baby,” I murmured as she did so, enjoying how soft her hands were as they stretched to wrap around my girth. I bucked toward her hand, which pushed me farther into her core at the same time. We both groaned at the contact.
She continued to work at me with her hands until I finally decided that this wasn’t moving quickly enough. It was slow and wonderful and utterly torturous. I needed more from her in that moment. Reaching down, I grabbed her wrists and pinned either of them above her head so that I could slam into her, tearing a cry from her throat.
“Kade!”
I found a rhythm that was fast enough to give me the friction I needed. Abby’s breasts heaved as she groaned and begged me for more. She shouted my name again and again, until she unraveled beneath me, crying out as an orgasm swept through her sweaty body. My own was right behind hers. As her lips clenched around my cock, I jerked myself into her twice more before calling out her name as I spilled myself into her.
All I wanted to do in that moment was collapse on top of her and pass out, but I didn’t want to crush her beneath my weight, and, unfortunately, the couch didn’t really give me any room to roll off of her.
Groaning, I accepted my other option, which was to pull myself out of her, my cock slowly softening, and stand.
“Where are you going?” she whispered breathlessly, her hair wild, her limbs like jelly, and her eyes almost loopy with the high from her orgasm.
I smiled down at her and managed a sloppy kiss to her lips. “To rinse off. In fact, I think you should come with me. After all, you said whatever I wanted to do today. There’s a lot of day left.”
She laughed at me then, shaking her head a little, but her eyes glinted with a mischief that matched my own. She let me help her up and we managed to get to the bathroom in her room, not kissing or fondling each other until at least halfway up the stairs.
We ended up taking a bath together in the large whirlpool tub. She sat between my legs, her back against my front, her hips moving just right so that my cock slid against her rear in delicious ways. I let my hands roam over her body, fondling and caressing.
We talked about nothing important, keeping up the lighthearted feelings our lovemaking had brought about.
“Which is why I will never work with rabbits again,” she told me sternly, but I just laughed at her.
“Ah, clearly high maintenance.”
She swatted at me playfully, smacking my arm as I laughed again.
We stayed in there until the water got cool, then we filled it up again and stayed for probably thirty minutes more. I might have considered asking her to stay in there with me all day if it weren’t for the doorbell coming through the system.
I groaned. “If we ignore them, do you think they’ll go away?”
She grinned at me, but was already getting up out of the water, reaching for a towel. I took the moment to admire her smooth, perfectly tanned skin and her damp golden tresses trailing across her back and shoulders. She was fucking gorgeous and I was still reeling from the fact that she let me touch her the way I did.
“Probably not,” she told me, leaning down to put a kiss on my lips. “Which is why we’d better go and answer it.”
She dried off and reached for her robe—thankfully not the silk one that had started this whole craziness, because I’d have to kill someone for seeing her in that. This one was mint green and fluffy with what looked like a kitten on it. Later, I’d probably mock her for it, but right now I was feeling too damn good.
Right until I realized that she was going to answer the door. In a robe. When a stalker was after her.
That got me out of the tub in a hurry. “No, wait. You go and get dried off and dressed. I’ll answer the door. After all, no one cares about seeing me naked.” I winked at her, because I didn’t want her to realize what I was suddenly worried about. She deserved a quiet day.
She grinned at me. “I care about seeing you naked.” But she winked at me and consented, telling me to hurry back.
And, god, did I want to.
I didn’t bother with more than a pair of sweats that hung low on my hips, racing down the steps with a bare chest and damp hair. Whoever it was was probably just delivering a package or something. I’d send him on his way and go back upstairs to fondle Abby’s lovely, goddess-like body.
When I jerked open the door, it was Brody standing on the other side. His eyes went wide; I froze. I saw realization flicker within them. “Oh hell,” he muttered, running a hand through his dirty blonde hair. “Oh hell, tell me I’m wrong.”
I swallowed harshly. “Get inside,” I commanded, and dragged him in before he could reconsider. Closing the door behind him, I swiveled to face him. “Damnit.”
He nodded. “Yeah, no shit! God, you know this is all trouble, right? No way is this going to work out. It’ll never fly and you know it, Kade.”
I cursed again, feeling panic well up in my chest. Of course I knew Brody was right. This was a relationship that would be constantly on the verge of crumbling beneath me, disintegrating. I couldn’t win.
But, man, did I want to.
“Please, Brody, whatever you think is goi
ng on here, you’ve got no proof. So maybe…maybe you ought to just keep it to yourself.”
The other man cursed several more times, running his hands through his hair until it almost looked like he’d tried to spike it, but had fucked it all up. He was clearly unhappy about the whole thing, but didn’t say anything beyond curse words for a long while. Finally, when he was finished, he let out a sigh and shook his head.
“You should end this, Kade. End it because you know that Caleb will find out—even if he won’t hear it from me.” His face was grim as he said it, but I could hear in his words the sincerity and the implicit promise that when the cat got out of the bag, it wouldn’t be from his lips.
I offered him a weak smile and clapped him on the shoulder in a brotherly manner. “Thanks, Brody. I won’t forget this.”
The other man nodded. “Yeah, sure. No skin off my nose, right? But think about what I said. End it before things get bad.”