Page 77 of So Close

Your husky laugh is the most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard. “I know I’m crushing you, but my knees are weak, and I don’t want to drop you. Gimme a minute.”

I wrap my arms around your shoulders and hold on tightly. “There’s no rush.”

Eventually, you regain the strength to straighten and pull me away from the refrigerator. You’re still hard inside me, and I know from experience you are indefatigable. But the edge has smoothed a little, and your dark eyes reveal heartbreaking affection. We’re so often distracted by the sizzling chemistry between us, that irresistible gravitational pull keeping us orbiting one another. Only in these brief moments of satiation do we acknowledge what’s growing between us, the connectedness stemming from acceptance and esteem.

My fingers comb through your sweat-slicked hair. “I love you. The words don’t change, but my feelings do. I love you more each minute. I love you more now than I did this morning or yesterday.”

Your throat works on a hard swallow, and your eyes sheen wetly. The silence stretches, and I think you won’t speak, which is fine. I don’t need words, only you. Then you find your voice.

“You just love me for my body,” you tease, your emotions thickening your speech.

“Well … you do dispense orgasms like a vending machine on the fritz.”

Your smile is wicked. “Hold on tight.”

You turn to the stairs and then take them as if I don’t weigh anything. We spiral upward in shadow, the briskness of your stride bouncing me on you. I don’t know how you manage to keep us connected. It should be awkward or uncomfortable, but you’re so strong I’m secure. Still, when we reach the bedroom, I’m laughing so hard I can barely hold on.

You walk to the bed and lower me to my back. You’re not even short of breath, which flatters me, considering how winded you were from your climax.

Brushing my hair back from my face, you surprise me by saying, “I don’t want you to worry. We’re safe. Cameras are surveilling the house and perimeter, and we monitor motion detectors 24/7. Guards and drones canvass the property line at regular intervals. No one’s getting close without us knowing about it.”

“Oh, Kane.” I sigh and press my hand over your heart. We can hide but ignoring reality won’t be so easy. The world would come between us if we let it. We must choose each other above everything, always.

“We can defend a location,” I agree, “but you won’t always be homebound. You’ll need to move around at some point, and you’re vulnerable at multiple points in your workday. A needle prick on the sidewalk in front of the Crossfire. Poison slipped into your drink at a business lunch. Even a long-range rifle shot, right here on the beach. You can’t live like a prisoner.”

“I could – as long as I’m imprisoned with you.” Your gaze is as somber as your voice. “But you’re going to explain why you reacted to the flowers the way you did, so I have the information I need to deal with it.”

I lie beneath you, rigid with surprise. I recover instantly, forcing my body to relax. “You say that as if I know.”

Such an obvious tell reveals my thoughts, but my guard is down with you. You ensured it would be by keeping me perpetually in a woman’s most vulnerable state. Even now, your thick penis is shoved deep inside me.

Has that been your intent all along? I’m beyond impressed if you can command physical arousal with such calculation and frequency.

Your dark eyes harden into black diamonds. “I’m crazy about you, but I’m not an idiot.”

“I never thought you were.”

“You think I’ve forgotten walking in on you and Ryan? That I’ll ever forget? You were already afraid of someone before we got together, and you think being with me puts me in danger, so you’ve done your damnedest to keep us apart.” The curve of your mouth takes on a cruel edge. “It’s time for you to tell me why.”

39

LILY

“Why were you afraid for me,”you persist, “and not for Ryan?”

Ryan.Navigating my past will always be treacherous. “I didn’t love him,” I tell you, breathless.

Your brow arches. “Obviously. Later, you’ll tell me why that relates. Right now, I want to know where the man who sent you flowers fits into our timeline? Before I met you or since you’ve been Ivy?”

I study you while my thoughts spin. You’re menacing at the moment. There is nothing soft or comfortable or infatuated about you. The danger perversely excites me.

I gather myself for the moment I’ve dreaded. “Did you ever look for your father?”

You scowl, displeased by what you perceive to be a change in topic. “It’s your turn to answer questions.”

“What happened to your father pertains.”

You withdraw from me to turn onto your back, your erection gleaming wetly as it curves proudly toward your navel. I push the hem of my dress down and roll to my side, facing you. Nothing cools amorousness like thinking of your parents.

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