Page 33 of Liaising Kai

Trying to will away the emotion that clogged his throat, Davis touched her face. “I won’t if you won’t,” he said gruffly, his voice breaking.

She pressed her thumb across his mouth, her voice husky as she whispered, “Okay, deal.” She gazed up at him, her eyes swimming with unshed tears. “I care very deeply for you. Please believe that.”

“I believe that, Kai.”

Sliding her hand along his jaw, she lifted her head and kissed him, softly stroking his mouth with hers. Sliding his arms around her, he took control, his dick thickening and hardening. Her hands were all over him as if she was trying to map every inch of him into her mind and, he hoped, her heart.

Releasing a pent-up breath in a rush, Kai slid her arms around his neck and moved on top of him. Closing his eyes against the onslaught of sensation, Davis turned his face against her and wrapped her in a hard embrace, wondering how in hell he would ever manage to let her go if that's what she wanted. Grasping a handful of hair, he clenched his jaw and turned his head against hers, something raw and wild breaking loose inside him. Inhaling raggedly, he clutched her against him. A tremor coursed through her, and she drew her knees up and pulled out of his hold, her hair cascading around her face as she rose above him. Drawing his hand to her mouth, she placed a hot, wet kiss against his palm. Lacing her fingers through his, she caught his other hand and repeated the hot, erotic caress, then forced his hands down. Another tremor shuddered through her, and she rose up, then lowered her delicious weight onto him, taking him deep inside her.

Breaking out in a cold sweat, Davis clenched his jaw against the sharp, electrifying surge of feeling, his shoulders coming off the bed as she moved once, twice against him. His heartbeat a frenzy in his chest, his pulse thick and heavy, he tightened his fingers through hers in a white-knuckle grip, turning his head against the pillow, “Kai…Ah…God…babe.”

The sensory onslaught nearly ripped him apart. It wasn’t the sex. It was the physical and mental connection, as if being inside her fused them into one amazing whole. His heart trapped in his chest when she lowered her head and covered his mouth in a slow, wet, softly searching kiss.

She stroked the palms of his hands with her thumbs, her breasts grazing his chest. “Davis,” she whispered brokenly against his mouth, kissing him so sweetly. “Davis.” Another shudder coursed through her, and she tightened her hold on his hands, her breath catching as she flexed her hips, her hot, wet tightness gripping him, stroking him, drawing him closer and closer.

An agony of sensation shot through him, and he rolled his head again, the cords of his neck taut, and he sucked in a breath through clenched teeth. He rode out the hard, swelling need. This was a damn good start toward breaking down all her barriers.

Then she moved again, taking him even deeper inside her, and he went under, the fever claiming him. He groaned and flexed beneath her, driving inside her.

When Kai woke up, it was slow and easy, and she marveled at the warmth and power she was snuggled securely against. She lay in the circle of his arms, her head resting against his jaw. The regular rise and fall of his chest tranquilized her, and sleep nearly pulled her under again. But his breath feathered across her face, and through the gray fog in her mind, she realized she only had to move her head a fraction and her mouth would brush his. Feeling warm and drugged, she shifted her head and touched his mouth with the whisper of a kiss, then smiled drowsily as he tightened his hold on her.

She could stay here forever, foregoing work, sleep, and eating to stare at him. Was it just her good fortune to find such a man? The kind of man who seemed to know how to navigate her deepest fears and anxieties, all by being himself? And again, she wondered why she had waited so damn long.

She absorbed the feel of him against her, then eased up on one elbow, a sweet, protective feeling washing through her as she gazed down at his sleeping form beside her.

He was lying with the sheet barely covering him, his head turned toward her, his devastatingly handsome face drawn in angles and sheer beauty. His body was strong and well-formed, wrapped in hard ridges of muscles everywhere, some of the delineations stealing her breath like the firm curve of his biceps, and the sexy muscles curving around his hips. The strong line of his jaw was accentuated by a stubble of beard, the burnished skin across his slashing cheekbones drawn smooth. What a gorgeous package inside and out.

He’d landed on a few things that would win her over, support, understanding, and the sense that no matter what she did or what she said, he would be there for her. His openness and his declaration that he loved her had thrown her for a loop. She recognized how much courage it must have taken for him to utter those three very powerful words. She wondered if he was even aware of his own magnetic power.

It wasn’t that she couldn’t reciprocate—she was in so deep with him. It was that she needed time to sort out her own head to really understand her own baggage that weighed so heavily on her. She didn’t mean to be cruel or withholding, that wasn’t it at all.

She combed her fingers through the dark thickness of his hair, gently drawing it back from his forehead. She could only be grateful he’d pushed her into this strange place where she was analyzing and contemplating everything that had led her to this moment. She wanted to get beyond it all, but she realized she had to sift through it before she could understand it.

Absently fingering the silky texture of Davis’s hair, she stared off into space for a moment, then sighed.

“That was one heavy sigh,” Davis said. She looked down into those mesmerizing, sleepy eyes and smiled.

“It’s your fault,” she whispered, slipping her hands down over his face, pressing her thumb against his full bottom lip.

“You said you wanted to share something with me after we had lunch. How do you feel about that now?”

“Surprisingly good,” she said.

“That’s progress, right?”

“Yes,” she admitted. “You make it so easy to talk to you.”

“That’s because, for me, it is easy to be with you…most of the time.” He chuckled and she pinched his side, but he just laughed again.

Warmth leeched out of her. “I lost a child,” she said, her voice subdued, and the humor drained from his face. He half sat up.

“Kai—God—babe?—”

Fighting against the swell of tears, Kai slipped her arms around his neck, a soft sob wrenching loose when he gathered her up in a hard, tight embrace, a tremor shuddering through him, and Kai yielded to the pressure of his arms, tears of a deep, wrenching ache slipping from beneath her lashes. Despite all the things that had gone wrong, this was right. So damned right.

He didn’t say anything, just waited for her to continue. She hugged him hard for that. There was never overt pressure from Davis, just his presence and the feel of him in her space spurred her on. “She wasn’t my only loss. I lost my family, too. My husband, and all the dreams and hopes I had with them.”

Twisting his face away from her, he caught her hand, then laced his fingers through hers with a crushing grip. His expression scored with a range of emotions, he closed his eyes and pressed her hand against his mouth.

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