Page 186 of Crucible

“And how do you know that?” Khalil just gives me a look like it’s a dumb question and removes my other boot. “Oh, God,” I say, coming to my own conclusion. “Don’t tell me you have a foot fetish, too. I honestly don’t think I can handle another kink between you three.”

“Seth doesn’t have any kinks.”

That’sKhalil’s response.

“He told me he wants to put his hand inside of me. Hishand. As in all five fingers and his palm too. How is that not a kink?”

“You can handle it,” Khalil says with absolute certainty.

“I cannot and will not.”

Khalil hums noncommittally, but I still hear the unspoken “we’ll see” underneath it. Thorin finally chooses a boot for me to try, handing it to Khalil before he walks off. I peer over my shoulder to watch him prowl over to the counter where Seth is leaning and speaking low with J.R.

“Take a picture. It will last longer,” Khalil teases.

I snap my head back toward Khalil, who is slipping the hiking boot onto my right foot. “Huh?”

Khalil finishes tying the lace and taps my leg. “Wipe that drool from your lip, and tell me how that feels.”

Like a cloud,I think as I stand and pace the short aisle between the wall of shoes and the seating area. “Like a boot.”

Khalil peers up at me, caressing his bottom lip with his forefinger as he studies me, and I fall into a trance watching that finger sweep his lip.

Have I mentioned how fucking sexy Khalil Poverly is?

If we’d met in high school or college, I never would have stood a chance with him. I was rather lame before my uncle pulled me out of school. I had no swag or confidence and only textbooks for friends. Girls like me were never noticed by boys like him.

“You really can’t help but be a bitch, can you?”

I surprise us both when I drape my arms on his shoulders and straddle his lap with a coy smile. Khalil’s muscular thighs under my ass is better than any cushioned ottoman. “Not really, no.”

I rub his shoulders in apology, and Khalil tilts his head to kiss my neck. My lashes flutter when his kisses grow more heated until he’s sucking and biting on my neck too. It makes me wet, thinking of him leaving his mark like he owns me. It makes me insatiable, knowing he does.

Before long, I’m swirling my hips and grinding on his growing erection and wishing we were alone because I really want his dick in my mouth right now.

The spell is broken too soon, though, when Khalil lifts his head suddenly. I can feel the abused skin of the spot he was marking throbbing when he mumbles, “Shit.”

“What’s the matter?”

“J.R.’s watching us.”

“So?”

“So judging by his wide eyes and the fact that he just turned red as a tomato, I’m thinking either Seth or Thorin already told him you were my cousin.”

I fly out of Khalil’s lap even though it’s already much too late to put the awkward back in the bag.

I’d forgotten about our cover story.

“Oh, oh, my God,” I mumble. Meanwhile, Khalil clutches his stomach as he bends over from laughing so hard. I punch his shoulder as hard as I can. “It’s not funny, you jerk! He’s going to think we’re weirdos!”

No longer laughing, Khalil snorts while I chew a hole in my lip. “It’s a little funny.” When I just glare, he sobers and rolls his eyes. “You do realize we’re notactuallycousins, right?”

“Why couldn’t you have just made a story about me being an ex-girlfriend or something?”

“Yeah, that would have been better.”

“You’re…not…helping,” I grind out.

---