Kenzi came, screaming his name. He continued to pound into her a few more times before he came with a final thrust.
Dax pulled out, cleaned off, then lifted her into his arms and carried her to bed. He laid her gently down, covered her with the bed sheet, and joined her beneath them. Kenzi snuggled against him, and he kissed her cheek and groaned.
She hugged him tightly. “You have good taste in presents.”
“And you have a fucking amazing mouth.”
They lay tangled for a long time, coming back to earth together and simply enjoying holding each other. Although it wasn’t yet night, they dozed.
Kenzi woke to her phone ringing. She ignored it at first but it rang again. She slid out from beneath a still-sleeping Dax and went to find it.
When she looked at who was calling and checked her text messages, she wished she hadn’t. Her father must have said something to her brothers because they were not only trying to get in touch with her, but they were saying they’d be there the next morning when she brought Dax by.
She looked up and saw the silver bullet he’d bought her still lying next to the couch. She cleaned it off, put it away, and gathered up the clothes she and Dax had shed all over her living room. No one was saying they’d drop by, but with her family anything was possible.
Breakfast with her brothers? Dax hadn’t signed up for that. Would he back out?
There wasn’t an ice cube’s chance in hell that a meeting between her brothers and Dax would go well. They’d hated everyone she’d ever dated.
I can’t do that to Dax.
Dax woke to Kenzi climbing back into bed beside him. He tucked her back against his side and stroked her hair in wonder. When he wasn’t with her he could almost convince himself he could walk away from her. But when she was with him she felt as vital to him as air.
It was scary shit.
And amazing.
She wasn’t fragile anymore. Had she ever been? The past might have knocked her down, but in the short time he’d known her, she’d found her footing. He wouldn’t say she was changing, but she was standing straighter, smiling easier.
She was also fucking incredible in bed; he didn’t know how he’d go back to being with other women. He couldn’t imagine ever wanting to. The idea was less scary every time he thought about it.
It was more than the sex, though. It was the way she’d stood up to her father, winning the argument without feeling that she had to hurt anyone to do it. It was the way she’d chosen Taffy instead of a purebred puppy almost everyone else he knew would have preferred.
Kenzi Barrington was a good person, a better one than he was. Better than almost everyone he knew.
He remembered her face when she’d heard him say love wasn’t in his vocabulary. For the first time in his life he wished it were. Life didn’t work that way, though. He’d done many things a man with a conscience would regret. No, he’d never lied to anyone, but he’d also never shown mercy. In business, as well as in his personal life, he’d never taken into account how others felt. He’d always believed that, at the end of the day, even a friend like Clay would betray him.
Clay never had, and being with Kenzi made Dax wish he’d appreciated that earlier. He’d considered Clay the closest thing to family he had, but even that hadn’t afforded him the loyalty it should have. Why should he when one day he’d disappoint him as well?
And Dean Henderson.
Another man might have been jealous of him, but Kenzi’s eyes didn’t light up when she mentioned him. He believed she genuinely felt guilty that Dean had kept his silence to protect her, and she’d never done anything to clear his name.
Kenzi caressed Dax’s chest. “You don’t look happy.”
“I’m thinking.”
“About what?”
“About your friend Dean.”
“Oh.” Her expression turned cautious. “He and I were never anything but friends.”
Friends.
Dax suddenly didn’t like how he also shared that title.
Kenzi touched his temple. “Now you’re frowning. You believe me, don’t you? I wouldn’t lie about something like that.”
“I believe you.” I just don’t like it. “Do you ever see him?”
Kenzi shook her head. “My parents really didn’t want me around him, so I stayed away. I feel like I should say something to him now, so he’d know how grateful I am, but I haven’t spoken to him since I moved away.”
Dax’s hand tightened on Kenzi’s lower back. “I’ll talk to him.”
Kenzi’s eyes flew to Dax’s. “You? What would you say?”
Dax hadn’t thought that far ahead. His comment had been a knee-jerk reaction to not wanting her to go to Dean, looking for a way to make an old wrong up to him. “He’s going to lose his company if he doesn’t do something soon. The writing is on the wall.”
Kenzi went up onto one elbow and looked down at him in shocked surprise. “You’d help him?”
Fuck. Is that what I’m saying?
“I could offer him some advice.” Dax closed his eyes briefly as he imagined how well that would be received by Dean.
Kenzi’s eyes filled with tears. “You don’t know how much that would mean to me. If I knew I was somehow able to repay Dean—” Her voice broke, and she shook her head. “Dax, you are the most wonderful man I’ve ever met.” She kissed him then, effectively wiping Dean and everything else out of Dax’s thoughts. Her breasts bounced against his chest as he pulled her on top of him.
It didn’t take more than that for talking to be replaced by frenzied kissing. They rolled so she was beneath him, and Dax let everything else fall away. Tonight was about being with Kenzi, and he wasn’t about to waste a moment of it thinking about another man.
In fact, he wasn’t going to think about anything besides how to get Kenzi begging for him to take her again. And again. And then tomorrow morning, once again if they could still move.
Chapter Twelve
Kenzi hadn’t found the right moment the night
before to tell Dax that her brothers would be at her parents’ house, waiting for them. She tried to tell him several times while they got dressed that morning. Dax had his driver bring him fresh clothes, and there was plenty of time to say something while they waited. Kenzi simply didn’t know what to say.
She didn’t want to make it seem like he shouldn’t go, but then she didn’t want him to feel he had to. Ever since she’d come home as an adult, her brothers had driven away every man she’d introduced them to. She knew not to take anyone home to meet her parents, but that didn’t stop her brothers from showing up at a restaurant she was eating at or a social gathering. Lance would appear first and ask a hundred questions about her date’s personal life. Ian would attempt to smooth the situation over, but he could be just as bad when it came to making what would have been a conversation into an interrogation. If that didn’t scare the guy off, Asher would take him aside and threaten him with something. Kenzi didn’t know what since no one ever said, but the guy always came back looking shaken. If he stayed around by some miracle, Grant would lecture him on the importance of financial planning and stability. That was usually the last straw. Andrew wasn’t around much, but if he was he had no problem threatening her date’s life right in front of her. As a rule, men were best hidden from her family.
Kenzi couldn’t imagine Dax answering many of Lance’s questions. Nor could she see him being intimidated by Asher. He seemed like the type who would debate financial strategies with Grant. She didn’t know what Dax thought about the Marines, but she had the feeling he’d respect them.
So what am I afraid of? If Dax doesn’t want to meet them, he’ll say so. If he does, they won’t get the best of him. They couldn’t drive him away—could they?
There it is. The reason I haven’t told him.
I want him to want to meet them, but what if, like all the other men who’ve met my family, he walks? I couldn’t blame him.
What if Dax isn’t as strong as I think he is? What if he’s just a wonderful man who, after he meets my family, decides I’m not worth the hassle?
