Page 18 of Raze
Kellan’s leaning back against the bathroom door with his arms folded, legs crossed at the ankles, and a wicked smirk, as if he’s settled in to watch.
“What are you doing?” The shower is hopefully loud enough to block our voices if Dane is in the living room. What would he think if he saw Kellan in here with me?
“You keep running away from me, so I needed to catch you with your pants down so we could talk.” Literally, apparently.
“And you couldn’t wait for me to be done in Aiden’s room after?”
“Nope. You’d run. Now, you can’t leave unless you’re showered and dressed, or else Dane will ask questions.” His devilish grin widens.
I sigh and yank my shirt down. I’m no prude when it comes to my body and it shouldn’t matter since we’ve already fucked. But that was before he tried to make this about more than sex. Before he tried to make things personal…intimate.
I’ve long accepted and enjoyed sex for its physical benefits and pleasures, but there was never anything more to it than that. I’d share my body, but the rest? It belongs to me.
“Fine. What do you want?”
He pushes off the door and prowls toward me. I back up immediately, stopping only once I reach the edge of the shower. It’s one of those open doorway walk-in showers, with a split wall of glass and then stone around the rest of it. When I look back at him, he’s right in front of me.
“I’m sorry,” he starts. All playfulness drops as his blue-green eyes look into mine in earnest. “I should have known there was more to it. I knew you cared about all of us. I was blinded by my own selfish feelings that I couldn’t see anything past them. Now that I know the truth, that you never betrayed us and it was us, I’m going to make it up to you.”
The air between us is thick and hot. I blame the steam of the shower filling the bathroom, but I can’t deny the thundering of my heart or the way the oxygen seems to have been replaced by steam and heat. His lips hover mere inches above mine, but he doesn’t touch me.
“How?” That’s all I manage while keeping my hands to myself.
His eyes drop to my lips and then back up. “I’m going to start by earning your trust back. I will win your heart if it’s the last thing I do in this life. You’re mine, and I won’t ever let you go again.”
My heart stutters in my chest and my breathing shallows. “Kell, I told you, I can’t—”
“I know.” He smirks and drops his lips to the skin below my ear. His breath is even hotter than the air around us and feathers across my sensitive flesh. “Just enjoy my efforts for now and worry about the details later. What it means to be mine is different than what you may think.”
He sucks on that spot, and pleasure zaps through me. Then he moves back and turns to leave. I grab his wrist without thinking. He looks at me, his eyebrow raised in question while a tiny smirk perches on the corner of his lips.
“Shut your face and kiss me.”
Kellan chuckles and lowers his face to mine. My lips part with expectation, but he stops short. His large hand skates up my thigh and fingers the lace panties I still have on. “Whatever my girl wants, she gets.”
Jury is still out on how much of what he’s saying I believe, but the cynical side of me is tired right now. I can worry about that later. As soon as our mouths seal together, like two halves of a whole finally being joined, the realist in me goes to sleep.
We’ve kissed a few times now, but this time is different.
I can’t put my finger on what it is about it that just feels more…real. Like Kellan’s baring his soul to me in this kiss. I can taste his feelings and his regret over the past. I can taste his resolve to give me everything he’s promised.
His fingers tease the wetness between my folds and then push into me. I groan without thinking, and he slaps a hand over my mouth. “Shh…” He laughs softly into my ear. “Unless you were hoping to piss Dane off more than he is already.”
“Fuck,” I mutter as he runs his tongue down the side of my neck while pumping his fingers in and out of me. His beard tickles and teases my skin, and I shiver at the sensation. “You might have to gag me,” I confess breathily, and he chuckles against my collarbone where he’d pulled my shirt aside.
“Get in the shower,” he orders huskily. He’s already working his clothes off and kicking them to the side. I hurry to follow suit, but there’s nothing sexy or smooth about me when I struggle to get my shirt off in a rush.
Kellan pauses when he sees me, eyeing me hungrily, like he’splanning out how he’s going to taste every inch of me.
“We need to make this quick,” I remind him. The shower’s already been on for a while. I walk into the water, and when he doesn’t immediately follow, I look over my shoulder to find him appreciating my backside, too. “Kell!”
“Don’t rush me, beautiful. I’ve been waiting seven years for this moment. You were already perfect, but I didn’t realize how high that bar could go until now.”
My scarred self-esteem can’t handle that level of compliment, so I let it roll off my back instead of sinking in. “Get in here and fuck me, or I’ll take care of myself.”
I duck under the spray and let the hot water soak into my skin. I can feel Kellan’s presence behind me, like a looming beast approaching its prey. He holds me still between one hand on my hip and his teeth at my shoulder while his other hand roams along my curves to follow the trail of water.
His fingers slide back inside me, stoking the embers he’d started earlier into flames. My head falls back on his chest as I gasp for air. He works my body like he’s an expert already. In ways that others I’ve been with have never come close to.
