Be Mine, Sweetheart (Something Borrowed)

by Codi Gary

  He smoothed his thumb over her cheek and she felt the wet spread of her tears across her skin.

  “Because.”

  She laughed softly. “That’s not a reason. That’s a school yard excuse.”

  He smiled at her. “Now who’s being insulting?”

  Kelly covered his hand and held it to her cheek. “Please, no jokes. Just be honest with me.”

  Chris took a deep, shuddering breath and met her gaze. “I was jealous. I don’t want him touching you, ogling you…pretty much any action that involves you.”

  “Why?” she asked.

  “Because I don’t want to see you hurt. I hate that I’ve been the cause of any of your pain.”

  Chris’s words softened her anger and she found herself stroking over his cheek with her fingers, the sharp scratch of stubble tickling the pads. “What do you want then?”

  Without warning he lunged at her, taking her mouth with his. The burst of sensation made her cry out, and cling to him, opening her lips under the press of his tongue. Lightning-hot flashes of desire raced through her veins and she melted against him.

  When he finally pulled back, with his lips a hairsbreadth away, he answered.

  “You,” he growled. “I want you.”

  Chapter 25

  Chris cupped the back of Kelly’s head, kissing her with every repressed emotion he’d been bottling up for days. When she pushed against his chest for a moment, he let her pull back enough to speak.

  “We shouldn’t do this right now. You’re drunk.”

  He shook his head, brushing his lips against her cheek while her mouth was turned away. “I’m not that drunk. I have ninety percent of my faculties. I know you’re Kelly, I know you taste like some kind of sweet wine, and I know I never get tired of kissing you.”

  He let out an oof as Kelly climbed across the middle console and straddled his lap, her lips covering his.

  Chris slid his hands up her back, gripping her through the fabric of her shirt. Her pencil skirt rode up to her waist. Her hands framed his face as she kissed him, and he opened his mouth under hers. She ground down on him in response, and his erection pressed painfully against the front of his jeans.

  This is what he’d been dreaming of for days. Kelly, wild in his arms, desperate to be with him. He’d done everything to try not to think about her, naked and quivering against him, crying out with passion. He’d thought he’d be strong enough to not want her, to make things right so they could go back to being friends.

  By the way his cock was straining to be inside her, he knew he’d failed big time.

  He slid one of his hands between them and found her wearing a thin satin thong, barely enough fabric to cover her.

  “Do you love this underwear?” he asked.

  She shook her head.

  He used both hands and ripped it out of his way. Then, he went to work on his belt and jeans. His motions were so frantic, his hands shaking, and then hers were tangled in the mix. Together, they managed to push everything down to his knees until his cock was free. He rocked his hips against her wet folds and a hiss escaped between his lips. Kelly rubbed against him, working her body until the tip of him slipped inside. She whimpered above him, and he groaned at the sensation as her body sucked in the head of his cock. Then she was rocking her way down his length until he was all the way inside her, and he shuddered in ecstasy.

  For some reason, the shake of Kelly’s hips on top of him seemed to ring a confession from him.

  “I didn’t mean it when I said that I thought what we did was a mistake.”

  “You didn’t?” God, her voice was so hot. Breathless and slightly smoky, it made his dick flex.

  “No. It was the best night of my life; how could it be a mistake?” He gripped her hips in his hands and thrust up hard.

  Her hips jerked, and her breath hitched. “Why did you say it, then?”

  Chris repeated the motions slowly, listening to her uneven little gasps. “So many things. Scared of losing you. Of betraying Ray.”

  She stilled on top of him. “Ray? You think we’re betraying Ray?”

  The shock on her face told him she’d never considered it before, but she was doing so now. Shit.

  He pressed his forehead to hers. “I don’t know. You were his girl for so long. It felt as though I was horning in on his territory.”

  Kelly’s expression snapped into a scowl. “Wait, I’m a territory now? Like a land to be conquered and claimed?”

  He held her hips fast when she started to climb off him. “I didn’t mean that. Ray loved you and you loved Ray. I’m worried that you need someone with a clean slate, so there is no comparison or constant reminder of what you lost. Anything we have will always be tied to him, and I just…I don’t want you to want me because it brings you closer to him.”

  Kelly stared at him with something he could only describe as disbelief. “Are you serious?”

  “I wouldn’t joke about this.”

  “I never thought of our friendship as tied to Ray. We might have grown close because of him, but we’ve stayed tight because of us. And you’re right, I did love Ray. I will always love Ray, because he was my first everything. But I don’t want to be tied to his loss for the rest of my life. I want to be happy.” She stroked the side of his face tenderly. “And when you aren’t being an idiot, you make me very happy. I don’t think of anyone but you when we’re together.”

  Chris’s chest expanded as a rush of air blew out of him. He hadn’t even realized he’d been holding it, waiting for what she would say.

  Using his hands still on her hips, he made her sway, his cock still buried inside her. “Do you want me to make you happy now?”

  She slid her arms over his shoulders and smiled. “Yes, please.”

  Chris held onto her to get her going, slowly bringing her down as he pushed up. Before long though, she’d taken over, finding her own rhythm. He leaned back against the seat, lifting his hips as she pushed forward, watching her under hooded eyes as she found what she liked, what felt good to her. He loved the look on her face when she hit the right spot, her mouth forming a little “oh” as she repeated the motion. Her head falling back and her eyes closing.

  It was fucking beautiful.

  Before long, she was crying out in pleasure, her muscles spasming on his cock and her body quivering in his arms. He kept thrusting up into her, finding his own release as she came down from her orgasm, her mouth pressed softly against the side of his neck. He groaned in satisfaction as he came.

  “Kelly, fuck.”

  His body jerked once, twice, and when he was spent, he held her loosely against him, trying to catch his breath.

  She placed little kisses up his neck and jaw, rubbing her cheek against his. “That was pretty good.”

  He opened one eye, and caught her grin. “Really? We’ve gone from amazing together to pretty good?”

  “Only because the close quarters are giving me a leg cramp.”

  Chris realized that the seat belt clip was digging into his left butt cheek and winced. “I feel your pain.”

  He opened the door and helped her off his lap and out the door. Once all his parts were back inside his pants, he got out of the truck. They stood in front of his place, under the moonlight and pine trees, and fighting back the doubts and fears, he took her hand.

  “Do you want to come inside?” he asked.

  “I do, but I don’t want to move too fast.” When he laughed, she grinned sheepishly. “I mean, any faster than we already have. I think that’s what happened the first time. We hadn’t even kissed before and we jumped into bed.”

  “Right, and riding me in the front seat of my truck is going slow.”

  She shoved his shoulder with her free hand. “Shut up.”

  He pulled her closer since her hand was still in his. “I really missed
you, Kel.”

  “I missed you too.”

  Chris tugged her toward the porch. “Then I think you should come in.”

  She held back. “Wait. First, before anything else happens, I wanted to apologize about pressing you so hard about what we were last weekend. It all came out of nowhere and you weren’t the only one freaked. I was just surprised because I’ve never…felt that before.”

  “Felt what?”

  “That kind of passion. That out of control ‘I need to be near this guy’ sensation.”

  Chris kissed her, his hands coming up to tangle in her hair. “I haven’t either. It wasn’t just you. I really want to give this a try, Kelly. Not because I am trying to keep you from experiencing life, but because I want to share it with you.”

  “Wow. That was pretty romantic.”

  “Is that a yes to spending the night with me?”

  She smiled brightly. “Yes.”

  They climbed the porch steps hand in hand and when they got inside, Chris pointed to the spare bathroom.

  “If you want to get cleaned up, I’ll use the master bath.”

  “Sure. Can I borrow a T-shirt to sleep in?”

  Chris pressed his mouth against her ear. “You’re not going to need it.”

  Kelly blushed. “Naughty.”

  “Uh huh, so hurry up.”

  Kelly disappeared into the bathroom. Chris went into his bedroom and stripped off his clothes. Fungi watched him from his perch on top of the cat tree Chris had bought him, his eyes heavy lidded with sleep.

  Chris put the anti-fungal medicine on his little circle and then covered it with a bandage before Kelly walked in. After he washed his hands and brushed his teeth, he got into bed.

  Kelly came in a few minutes later, wearing nothing at all and his breath caught as her hips swayed the entire way across the room. She crawled across the bed and stopped, frowning as she pointed to his chest.

  “What is that?”

  He glanced down at his bandage. “It’s nothing.”

  “Then why do you have a gauze pad on it?” she asked.

  Chris groaned. “Fine. I have ringworm.”

  Her mouth dropped. “You weren’t going to tell me?”

  “It’s not like I have herpes. I have it covered, and you said it was no big deal.”

  “Nope. That stuff is so contagious. There is no way I am sleeping in this bed with you.”

  She started to scramble back, and he caught her, pulling her under him while he hovered over her. “Hey, you have already been in my bed once and you’ve handled Fungi, so if you were going to get it, it would have happened already.”

  She stuck her tongue out at him, but stopped struggling. “You are so lucky I like you.”

  Once he was sure she wasn’t going to bolt, Chris laid back on the bed, waiting for her to snuggle against him. On his unaffected side.

  The alcohol hit Chris harder as they lay there, breathing softly, his hand stroking her skin.

  “I love you,” she whispered.

  “I know,” he mumbled automatically, just before he drifted off to sleep.

  Chris sat on an old swing, like the one at the park Ray and he had played on as kids. He kicked his legs in the air as he went higher and higher.

  “You better not jump or your mom’s gonna be mad.”

  Ray’s voice startled him, and he dragged his feet to stop, staring at his friend next to him. Ray was wearing his big, blue parka and Sacramento Kings beanie he’d worn throughout fourth grade, but looked like he did at twenty-one. His hair was shaved close to his scalp and underneath he wore his standard army fatigues.

  “You scared me.”

  “Sorry, just figured we wouldn’t have much time to talk. It’s gonna rain soon.”

  Chris squeezed Ray’s shoulder. “I know you were worried about me hurting Kelly, but we’re good.”

  “Really?” Ray’s voice was thick with skepticism.

  “Yeah. I told her some of my concerns and she voiced her frustrations. It’s great.”

  Ray stood up on the swing, arching his body to go higher. “So, when she told you that she loved you, something that she’s never said to another man since me, how did you respond?”

  Chris tried to remember what Ray was talking about, and suddenly, the memory came rushing back.

  “I said ‘I know’, but she didn’t mean it like that. She was just doing our bit.”

  Ray watched him around the chain of the swing, his face shifting from left to right. “How did you know she didn’t mean it? Did you ask her?”

  “Well, no, but she would have said something if she did, right?”

  Ray shook his head. “You, my friend, have a lot to learn about women.”

  Suddenly, Chris panicked. Did Kelly really love him? Was he in the same place as her emotionally? And if he wasn’t, how did he come back from that?

  “What do I do?”

  Ray jumped from the swing and landed in a crouch, breathing hard. When he stood up and face him again, his expression was blank. “That’s up to you. Do you love her?”

  “Of course, I love her. This is Kelly we’re talking about.”

  “No, I mean, do you love her in the ‘til death do you part’ kind of way?” Ray asked, punctuating each word with his hand. “Because that is what she is looking for and if you can’t give her that, you should let her go.”

  “What if I can’t?”

  Ray watched him sadly, and Chris gripped the chains on the swings as large, white wings spread out from the back of Ray’s jacket.

  “Then you were never the guy I thought you were.”

  Ray turned his face up to the sky and with bent knees, shot upward. The ground shook beneath Chris and Ray disappeared into the clouds.

  Chris woke with a start, and reached out to pull Kelly closer, but his arms touched nothing.

  He got up, searching the house and calling her name.

  She was gone.

  Chapter 26

  On Friday morning, Kelly tapped her pencil onto her desk, the steady beat strangely comforting. She hadn’t been able to keep any part of her body still, especially her brain, after last night.

  She still couldn’t believe that she’d told Chris she loved him. Like, really loved him, and he hadn’t realized it. He’d just mumbled, “I know,” and a few moments later had been passed out snoring. She could have ignored it, and pretended it was no big deal, but in the end, she’d called Rylie and asked her to come get her. The last thing she’d wanted was to take off with Chris’s truck after ditching him.

  Her phone beeped, and she pressed the intercom button. “Yes?”

  “Ms. Barrow, your mother is on line one.”

  Kelly was a little surprised her mother was calling on her work phone instead of her cell, but pressed line one with a smile.

  “Hi Mom, how’s the desert treating you?”

  “Hot as the blazes, but that’s why God made air conditioning.”

  Kelly knew her parents loved Arizona, no matter how they complained about the heat. They’d followed Kelly’s uncle and his wife there when they’d retired and had become quite the social butterflies. Kelly had been upset when they’d told her they were moving, but as they pointed out, they saw her more now than when they lived five minutes away from her.

  “Pretty sure air conditioning is manmade.”

  “God can take credit for all of man’s accomplishment,” her mother admonished.

  “Yes, you’re right. So, what’s going on, Mom? You called my work phone in the middle of the day, so something has to be up.”

  “Well, I’m so glad you asked.” Why did she sound so cheerful? “I wanted to tell you that your father and I have decided to celebrate our fortieth wedding anniversary renewing our vows. In Hawaii.”

  Kelly’s eyebrows shot
up. “But…your anniversary is in three weeks.”

  “Yep.”

  Kelly groaned, cupping her forehead in her hands. “Mom, you can’t plan something like that in so short a time.”

  “Actually, we’ve been planning this for a while, this is just the first time I’m telling you about it.”

  Oh, God, why is she doing this to me? “But why? Why wouldn’t you tell me, so I could be there? I mean, I have a business and I have to prepare for these things.”

  “Well…”

  “And I could have helped you! How long are you planning on being gone?”

  “We’re going to do five days with friends and family and then ten days just the two of us. Like a second honeymoon.”

  Kelly could feel a headache starting behind her forehead. “All right, well, I guess I’ll have to see if I can get a flight and hotel room in...” Kelly looked at the calendar and groaned. “The first week of July that won’t bankrupt me.”

  “Oh, don’t worry about it, honey! That’s taken care of, as is your schedule. I called Veronica months ago and she promised me she’d keep your schedule clear.”

  Kelly stared at the phone, wondering if she could telepathically choke her mother. “You…conspired…with my assistant?”

  “Yes, and I have to say, she is a lovely girl. I think you should promote her to a consultant. Smart as a whip, that one.”

  Kelly was going to have to have a companywide meeting about her employees being in cahoots with her mother. And how that was a bad thing.

  “Oh, and Marcy and Keith are coming.”

  “Chris’s parents?”

  “Yes! Marcy is one of my dearest friends, and of course, Christian was invited. Such a lovely young man.”

  “He’s thirty-two, Mother.”

  “And when you are sixty-four, that is young.”

  Kelly attempted to sound casual as she asked, “Did he say he’d come?”

  “I believe so, at least, that’s what Marcy told me. I really wish you’d wake up and just marry him already. A man like that, driven, successful, handsome…well, he won’t wait forever.”

  Kelly didn’t want to tell her mother what had transpired between her and Chris or she might trigger overprotective mama mode. There were some serious drawbacks to being the only child of a woman who would do anything within her power to make her child happy. Her mother was a fixer, and although it was wonderful in some instances, personal relationships were not the place for it.