Page 41 of How Much For a Life of Lies?

I loved this position, but I wished I could see his face.

“Kai?” I asked, and it was a hundred questions and doubts in one. Only he bounced on me, pushed himself down as I met him halfway, and he cursed and moaned.

“I need your hand! Please, Zach… please.”

I finally closed my fingers around his cock, the other balancing our weight, my thighs burning, and I started a rhythm with my fingers trailing the length of him, gripping, and releasing, and his abs clenched.

I felt his release on my hand, and he praised me, and his cock, and a million other things, as I fucked up inside him, my orgasm surged inside me, swept me away, and I was done. Finished.

“Beautiful,” I murmured at the gift he’d given me.

We rocked gently, kissing awkwardly and cute, until I was soft, and I pulled out. I headed to the bathroom, grabbed a washcloth, and cleaned him up as he lay boneless on the bed. Then, with the washcloth there in case he needed it, I curled up next to him.

What now? I wanted him to kiss me.

I wanted him to hold my hair, and make me suck him, and then kiss me like he wanted me forever.

I was gone.

My crazy, unpredictable, talkative partner was mine.

He didn’t know it yet, and I wondered if I’d ever be able to tell him.

“My turn next,” he murmured, burrowing into my side and resting his head on my chest. I gathered him close. “And we’re going to talk about this,” he added as he pressed a kiss to my nipple.

At first, the words struck terror in me, but I shoved the worry away because he felt good in my arms. Dangerously real, and mine.

“Go to sleep,” I whispered.

He turned on his side, shuffling back so my big bad hero was the little spoon. I held him close, one hand under his head, the other on his hard belly.

“This was inevitable,” he said in the softest tone. “Us was always going to happen. You know that, right?”

I didn’t answer, and his breathing evened out until he was asleep.

Only then could I talk. “I know.”

SIXTEEN

Kai

Indigo Sauveterre’s call woke me from a very sexy dream in which Zach was fucking me and telling me I was the prettiest boy he’d ever seen.

I loved that dream, and Indigo’s five a.m. interruption was shit. I extricated myself from the warmth of Zach’s arms and answered.

“Ten minutes, KD. Don’t bring your fuck toy.” Her tone was flat, but the call meant Kozlov’s second knew about the fight in the bar and how her former pilot was probably off in a hospital somewhere and unable to fly one of the helo transports she ran for her boss. Of course, she knew—she had a hand in everything that happened on the dark fringes of Cedar Ridge.

That was the point of taking Viper out of the game.

I rolled up and out of bed, headed to the bathroom, didn’t once look at Zach in case I gave in and climbed back into bed with him, then brushed my teeth and turned on the water in the shower, lost in thought.

Last night had been… intense, to say the least. And now, in the quiet aftermath, with Indigo’s instruction to get myself out to the mines, I couldn’t shake this nagging sense of unease. He’d held me, and fucked me, and made me feel…

… wanted.

I hated feeling scared, vulnerable. It was unfamiliar territory, a place I rarely allowed myself to venture. But last night… last night had been different. With Zach, everything felt different. He had this way of getting under my skin, of making me feel things I didn’t want to feel.

What would I let it become? I’d tried to say that we should talk so I could work through the emotions swirling inside me, but he’d held me close and told me to sleep.

---