Page 105 of Her Marine
“It's fine,” she responded, pulling her hand away and stepping back. Killian reached out, taking her face in his hands.
“If you say it, you'll be mad at me.”
“I…what?”
Killian contained his groan because, for some reason, he, the man whose mouth was as slick as they came and was never lacking a comeback. Who was always confident in what he said, had said the wrong thing—given her the wrong impression.
“If you say it, I'm going to take you in the bedroom and fuck you like it's the last chance I'll ever have to do so, doctor's orders be damned. I don't care if I hurt myself, but you do. Which is why you'll be mad at me.” He studied those pretty brown eyes as realization sank into them. “So, if you say it, if you let me hear it, it's with the understanding that I need to show you in return.”
Killian watched her swallow as she pulled her lower lip to be held hostage between her teeth. He could almost hear the mental conversation she was having with herself, witness the battle taking place behind her eyes.
“I…I don't want you to hurt yourself, but…” She trailed off.
But she wanted him to know, and he'd have to be a fool not to. He'd known the moment he found her sleeping next to his hospital bed, had realized that they both did, and he was sure it'd happened before then, but that situation caused it to make itself known…loudly.
Killian leaned down, placed his lips to hers, and kissed her softly. A gentle touching of their lips before he slipped his tongue into her mouth and slowly tasted every inch of it. His tongue explored, flitting over hers. He wanted to drown her in him.
He stood, kiss unbroken, and dropped one of his hands to grip her hip, pulling her flush against his body. Her hands snaked up the back of his shirt, grasped it, and held it as if her life depended on it while he attempted to steal the oxygen from her lungs through the kiss.
As seconds ticked to a minute, Journee moaned against his lips, a shuddering breath soon followed by a gasp, and she pulled away. Killian stared down into her eyes; her pupils dilated slightly from the small orgasm she'd just had. He could make her cum with words; making her cum from a kiss was light work.
She lay her head against his shoulder, and Killian wrapped his other arm around her. They stood like that for a while as her words replayed. Journee told him that she'd go through it as often as she had to, and that's all he needed to know because she'd be there if he ended up in that situation again. If he stayed on his current path.
29
Journee watched as Cynthia, the woman whose birthday event she’d help plan, opened her gifts. It was the final activity before the party transitioned into a late Mother’s Day gathering. Everything was supposed to happen the weekend prior. However, Cynthia had gotten sick four days before and asked if they could push it back a weekend. Since Journee didn’t have any other events on the books, and the party was taking place at a building owned by Cynthia’s family, it hadn’t been hard to get everything moved.
She’d spent Mother’s Day with her grandmother and sisters. Talia and Kaydence had stopped by that afternoon to bring her a present, and her grandmother decided she didn’t want to do anything over the top since her birthday was the following Sunday. They’d adhered to her wishes but planned to take her out tomorrow to celebrate her seventy-fifth birthday.
Journee had been a little bummed that her grandmother hadn’t let her plan something big to celebrate the day. Seventy-five was a milestone, and she wanted to commemorate it, but her grandmother stated that spending it with them was all she needed, and she agreed that Journee could plan her eightieth birthday. She had every intention of holding her grandmother to it.
Once Cynthia opened her gifts, the party would transition outside, and Journee no longer had to be there. Cynthia had only asked that she decorate for the event and ensure there was space for the different games they would participate in. Normally, Journee would do the breakdown with Abbie and a couple of temps if needed. However, Cynthia didn’t have a set end time, so she and her family decided to do it themselves.
As the party transitioned, she said her goodbyes and gave cards to several people who asked for one. She made sure she had all her belongings before going and getting into her car. She’d only been driving for seven minutes, headed home when her phone began to ring over the Bluetooth in her car. Ziggy’s name flashed across her console, and Journee pressed the button on her steering wheel to answer it.
“Hey, Ziggy.”
“Hey, Journee. I hope I’m not interrupting your event.”
“No, you’re fine. I left a couple of minutes ago, and I’m heading home. What’s up?” Journee asked as she put on her signal light to switch lanes.
“Killian’s doing exercises that aren’t on his approved list.”
Journee refrained from rolling her eyes and sucking her teeth. She’d barely been gone two weeks, and here he was, doing shit he knew he wasn’t supposed to. He had a follow-up appointment in a few days, and she didn’t understand why he couldn’t have just waited until then when they would tell him whether or not he could add more exercises or if he needed to wait and keep them the same.
The exercises they’d put on his approved list were already progressive as it was. He could move up in reps according to how long he’d been out of the hospital. So, she didn’t get why he just didn’t follow it. He hadn’t had a problem doing so when she was there, but now he wanted to try to do something extra. It made her wonder if he’d been doing that the entire time she’d been gone.
“I’m starting to remember why I didn’t ask for a sibling.” Journee heard Killian say, and while she and Ziggy both knew he was playing, the other woman still let out an offended squeak.
“Tigress,” Killian’s voice came across the speaker.
“No,” Journee responded. “I’ll call you when I get home. I want you to look me in my face when you give me whatever excuse you have.”
“Baby—”
“Let me talk to Ziggy, please,” Journee requested, cutting him off. There was a bit of shuffling, and Ziggy was back on the phone.
“Hey.”
