Chapter Two

 

Kendra

 

“Since Drake bailed, you know you have to give me a ride home, right?” Danny asked, biting into his third slice of pizza.

“No problem.”

Our parents called to tell us they were dining with some friends at the club, so after our job was done we’d ordered a pizza and were watching highlights from the ball game. Our team won eight to four, but I couldn’t get excited about much of anything. Not after the way Drake left. That look in his eyes, like I’d really hurt him, still dogged me.

“You’ve been kind of quiet this afternoon,” Danny said, watching me out of the corner of his eye. “Having second thoughts about Africa?”

“No.” I wasn’t, was I? No. Just seeing Drake again, hearing his claims, had me on edge. I had to believe he was lying, or at least exaggerating. The alternative was to believe that he really did want me… and that could change everything.

“It’s a big commitment, sis. You sure you know what you’re doing?”

I reached for my soft drink and took a sip. It wasn’t the first time someone who cared about me had asked that question. I got it. They were concerned about me. But couldn’t they see I was doing what I felt I had to?

“I need to do this.”

“Need to?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. “Or want to?”

“Come on, Dan. You know how important it is for kids to get a good education. Here, we just take it for granted. There, they can’t afford to take a single thing for granted. A good education is a luxury for most, but without it they’re stuck in this brutal cycle of poverty.”

I set my pizza down on the napkin. It wasn’t easy to eat when I was thinking about starving children.

“I hear everything you’re saying, and believe me, I admire all the work you’ve done. But girl, what about your safety? There’s some messed up shit going on there.”

He didn’t think I knew that? I wasn’t an idiot. And I hadn’t made this decision without contemplating the risks. “The way I see it, we can all just keep living in our safe little bubble, blind to the problems in the rest of the world, or we can step up and do something about it.”

I hid my fears behind tough talk. The truth? I was scared shitless about the kind of people I might encounter there. But every time I thought about the dangerous criminals, I also thought about all those sweet kids with their bright smiles, who deserved an education.

“I just want you to stay safe.”

I reached for his hand. “I know you do.” I smiled. “If you were the one going, I’d probably be trying to talk you out of it, but Dan, I need to do this.”

“Is there anything anyone could say to talk you out of it?”

That question almost made me think he knew more than I thought he did about my relationship with his best friend. But surely Drake wouldn’t have said anything?

“Um, no. I’ve made up my mind.” I leaned over to kiss his cheek. “But I love you for caring.”

“You better come back to us,” he said, tugging on one of my curls and watching it bounce back. “Because I’d lose my shit if we ever lost you.”

“You’re not going to lose me. I promise.”

 

***

 

Drake

 

I was worse than a caged bear. I’d tried to go to the shop after my encounter with Kendra, but I’d been such a hateful prick, my guys all told me to go home. They were right. I had no business being there in that state of mind.

I’d already pounded back a few shots of whiskey, hoping that would dull the sting of her words, but nothing helped. She thought I was a player. She thought I’d played her. And why wouldn’t she? I’d fucked her. Taken her virginity. Then never made an attempt to see her or talk to her again.

She couldn’t have known that I was thinking about her every day. That I was missing her every night. She couldn’t have known that I jerked off to images of her in the shower, or that I blasted her favorite song every time it came on the radio. She couldn’t know that I bought a bottle of her favorite perfume and sprayed it on my pillow every once in a while, just so I’d feel close to her. She couldn’t know that I was fucking gone over her.

She couldn’t have known because I’d been afraid to tell her. I told myself that I’d been doing her a favor, giving her the time and space she needed to find herself, to pursue her dreams. But that was a crock of shit. I was afraid of rejection. Afraid I wasn’t good enough for an angel like that. Terrified I couldn’t keep her happy for the rest of her life.

So I sat back on the sidelines, telling myself one day I’d make my move. One day she’d be mine. Only now, she thought I was a selfish asshole only looking to get his dick wet. And who could blame her? That’s exactly the way I’d been acting for the past five years. No wonder I disgusted her. I disgusted myself too.

A knock at the door had me biting back a curse. It was probably Danny passing by to find out why I’d bailed on him. I’d texted to tell him I had a work thing to deal with, but I didn’t expect him to believe me. I couldn’t lie for shit.

I must have been scowling when I opened the door because my sweet doll took a step back, her eyes wide.

“What are you doing here?” I hadn’t intended to sound so harsh, but I was mad at myself, not her. She’d spoken the truth. I just didn’t know how to deal with it.

“I just dropped my brother off at home, and I was hoping we could talk?”

I stepped back, letting her enter. I watched her eyes travel over my things. I had the bulky, distressed leather furniture, large flat screen, heavy wood tables. No pictures or knickknacks on tables collecting dust. It probably looked like a typical bachelor pad to her, not a place she’d want to spend a lot of time. But she would be in Africa for the next year, so I wouldn’t have to worry about it. Son of a bitch. Every time I thought about her there, it made my palms sweat and my heart race. Why wouldn’t she listen to reason and abandon the idea of living in a place where foreigners were routinely kidnapped and tortured?

“Can I get you something to drink?” I had to get past our argument at her parents’ house so I could make her see that going to Nigeria was a bad idea. Not just bad. The worst fucking idea she’d ever had.

“Um, do you have wine? It’s been one of those days.”

“Sure.” She followed me into the recently renovated kitchen. “Place looks great, Drake. You’d just bought it the last time I was here, remember?”

I remembered the last time she’d been in my house. It was three weeks before she’d left for college. She came over to help me unpack and it took everything in me not to bend her over the kitchen counter and take her right there. But that came later. On the eve of the night she left.

“Yeah, thanks.” I opened a bottle of red wine and poured her a glass before adding another splash of whiskey to mine.

“Thanks.” She raised her glass to mine. “To new adventures.”

I growled, surprising her. “New adventures? Do you have any idea what could happen to you over there?” I backed her into the granite island behind her. “You could get kidnapped or raped or…” Shit. I couldn’t let myself go there. It would destroy me if something like that happened to my doll.

“Hey,” she said, stroking my face. “Relax. Nothing’s going to happen to me.”

“You don’t know that!” I tossed the drink back and slammed the glass down on the counter before roughly boosting her up. Her wine splashed over the side, soaking her bare thigh. “I won’t get a good night’s sleep knowing you’re there. I’ll worry about you every goddamn day. Is that what you want?”

“Why do you care so much?” she whispered, studying me.

My voice was husky, laced with pain. I lowered my head. “You know we’ve always had this… connection. It kills me to think about you getting hurt.”

“I love that you care,” she said, smiling. “But I really am going to be okay.”

I closed my eyes before wrapping my arms around her. I pulled her against my chest, stroking her hair. It was so soft, so silky, so wildly out of control. I loved it. “Please don’t do this.”

“Do what?” she asked, her words muffled by my chest. “Don’t live my life? Don’t help people? Don’t take risks?”

“Don’t leave me again.” I framed her perfect face with my hands. Even with only a smear of lip gloss and a brush of mascara, she was still the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. “I’ve waited for you for so long.”

“Waited for me?” She laughed. “It doesn’t sound like you’ve been waiting for me.”

“If I’d kept it in my pants for the past five years would you still be going?” I regretted every one of those times now, all the women whose names and faces I barely remembered, who were now keeping me from the one thing I wanted most.

“I don’t know.” She shook her head. “I can’t answer that. When I went off to college, I thought what we had was a one-time thing and that was all we could ever have.”

I should have told her how I felt about her then, but I was trying to be selfless and give her the freedom she needed. I thought she should experience life so she could come back to me and be sure about us.

But I’d screwed it all up and now she had no faith in me. Or us.

“Give me a chance.” I knew I was asking a lot, but if I didn’t ask, I’d never be able to forgive myself.

“A chance?” she echoed. “To what? Change my mind about going?” She frowned. “Did my brother put you up to this? Or my parents, maybe?”

“You think your brother would want me doing this?”

I grabbed the back of her head before taking her mouth in a savage kiss. I was acting like a fucking animal, but I was desperate. I felt like the clock was ticking and I only had so much time to change her mind about leaving me.

Her lips were swollen, her eyes wide when I finally let her go. “What are you doing?” She shook her head. “Why are you doing this?”

“Why?” I slid my hands up her thighs and rested my forehead against hers. “Because I can’t keep my hands off you. Because I need you.”

“You need me?” She closed her eyes. “What do you need me for, Drake?”

I knew she thought I only needed her to get off, but she couldn’t have been more wrong. I needed her to breathe, to smile, to laugh. Hell, I needed her to function. “Let me show you.” I slipped my hands under her tank, finding the clasp of her bra.

“You want to take me to bed?” she whispered. “That’s what this is about?”

My cock twitched at the possibility. Of course I wanted her in my bed, but I wanted so much more than that. “This is about you and me finally getting our shot.” I curled my hand possessively around her perfect breast, plucking her nipple. “This is about me finally getting to make you mine.”

“Drake, I…”

“Sssh.”

I tugged her top over her head, taking the bra off too. She was sitting on my counter half-naked, and all I could think about was licking and kissing every inch of her. We had to talk. I needed to make her understand how I felt about her. But first, I needed to be inside of her again. It had been too damn long, and now that she was so close, I couldn’t help myself.

I opened the buttons running the length of her tiny shorts before slipping my hand inside her pink lace panties. “Baby, you’re so wet for me.” I spread her arousal over her clit and started to rub the engorged nub while kissing her neck. “You want this as much as I do, don’t you?”

She moaned, curling her legs around my waist as she tipped her head back.

“Been too long since you had a real man, huh?”

She growled, tugging on my hair before she bit and licked my neck.

“You want to mark me? Go ahead.”

She moved the gold chain hanging around my neck with her tongue before sucking the skin into her mouth. Hard. “How will you explain that to your little girlfriends?” she asked, admiring her handiwork.

I hadn’t had a girl mark me since high school, but I thought it was hot as hell that Kendra wanted other women to know I was taken. Because I was. Whether she knew it or not. I was hers. And she was mine.

“I don’t have to explain anything to anyone, baby. Just you.” I palmed her mound, thrusting two fingers inside of her. “You’re so tight. Just like the first time.”

I hated thinking about the other men who’d taken what was mine. I should have been her first, her last, her only fucking lover.

I tugged her shorts and panties off, spreading her legs wide as I dropped to my knees. She was perfect, and just looking at her made me hard enough to pound nails. I licked up and down her slit, catching her sweet essence on my tongue as she moaned my name, curling her legs around my head as she inched closer to the edge of the counter.

“Yes… Drake…”

I lapped at her, desperate to feel her throbbing against my mouth, to hear her sweet cries as she tried to fight the inevitable. “Come for me, baby doll. Let me feel it. Let me taste it.”

“Oh God, I…”

Her release felt like a hot rush, and I was a parched man finally getting a drink after days of dehydration. Nothing ever tasted so good or smelled so sweet. I dropped tender kisses on the inside of her thighs, her hips, and her belly before wrapping my hands around her face and looking into her eyes.

“You’re spending the night with me.” It wasn’t a question. I wasn’t letting her go anywhere.

She nodded, still looking dazed. “I just have to text my mama and let her know I won’t be home.”

She’d stayed with her parents during breaks from school and would probably be looking for a place of her own now, if not for that damnable trip to Africa. I couldn’t think about that now. Not when my sole focus had to be making up for lost time.

I waited for her to send the text before I scooped her up in my arms and carried her into my bedroom.

“This is crazy,” she whispered, when I kicked the bedroom door shut behind us. “We shouldn’t be doing this again.”

“You’re wrong,” I said, kissing her neck. “We should’ve been doing this every chance we got over the past five years. I was too stupid to see that. I let…” I couldn’t tell her I’d let her have other guys even though I felt she belonged with me.

I released her and she fell back on the bed, watching me undress.

“What were you going to say?” she asked, scooting back on the pillows. “You let…?”

I braced my weight on my closed fists as I lowered my body over hers, using my strength to keep my erection just shy of her core. It was tough to resist. She was drawing me like a beacon with her heat.

“I let you kiss other guys.” I lowered my body, taking her mouth in a hot, possessive kiss that made her moan as her hips rose, seeking more. “I let other guys have you.” I braced my hands on her hips, my eyes lingering over every part of her body. “And that was the biggest mistake of my life. You’re mine. You’ve always been mine.”

Her lips were puffy, her eyes glazed at she stared back at me, trying to make sense of my claim. “I thought you didn’t care.”

I narrowed my eyes before shifting my body so my face was level with her tits. I lashed her nipples with my tongue before I demanded, “You thought I wouldn’t care that someone else was doing this to you?”

She whimpered as I moved down her body, searing her skin with open-mouth kisses. I spread her legs, licking her inner thighs and teasing her with my mouth. Grazing, but not devouring her the way I knew she wanted me to.

“Please.” She was pleading, writhing, but she wasn’t getting what she wanted until I got what I wanted. Confirmation she was mine.

“Please… what?” I circled her with my tongue, avoiding the spot that needed my attention the most. “Please lick you? Please make you come again?”

“Yes!” She tugged on my hair, her frustration obvious.

“Gladly. You just have to tell me who you belong to.”

When it came to this woman, I was a barbarian. So territorial, taking what I needed, and protecting her from anything or anyone that could hurt her. It had always been that way. But then I was holding back, afraid to show her how I felt about her. I was so done holding back. She wouldn’t leave my house until she knew that I intended to spend every night for the rest of my life worshipping her perfect body.

“Drake, please.” She lifted her hips, trying to coax me into giving her what she needed. “Don’t do this. Not now.”

I brushed my stubble against her soft skin. She didn’t realize I was torturing myself as much as her. I’d thought about being between her legs hundreds of times over the years and I wanted nothing more than to relive my fantasies. But not until I heard that all-important word. Mine.

“Who does this belong to?” I asked, teasing her clit with my tongue. “Mmmm? Who else had the right to do this?”

“No one,” she finally whispered, sounding breathless and frustrated. “Just you.”

“Good girl.” I rewarded her with a fast and furious performance that had her teetering on the edge of sanity, crying my name as she pleaded with me to push her over. “Now let me hear you say it. You’re mine.”

I looked up the length of her body. Her eyes were narrowed, her cheeks flushed, and there was no doubt she was pissed that I was using sex to get what I wanted, but my back was against the wall and I was doing what I had to do to get my baby doll to stay right where she belonged: in my bed.

“You’ve always been mine.” I dipped my tongue inside of her, letting her sweetness flood my mouth. “That’s why you wanted me to be your first.” When she started wiggling, I pinned her hips to the bed, giving her more. “And you want me to be your last too, don’t you?”

“Ohmygod…”

“Just say it.” I needed to hear it. I needed to know I’d be her last lover and that another man would never be allowed to do to her what I was doing now.

“Please, please, please.”

Her cries were so desperate, so weak, that it made me feel like an ass for resorting to these measures, but my doll was a girl of her word. If she said she was mine, she meant it.

“Let me give you what you need, baby.” I coaxed her a little more, giving her a taste of what she had to look forward to if she surrendered. “I just need you to give me what I need.”

“I don’t know what you want from me,” she wailed, digging her heels into the mattress as I spread her wider, using my fingers to further entice her.

“Yes, you do. I want you in my bed. No one else’s.”

Her breath was shaky as she gripped the sheets. “Fine.” I could tell she was clenching her teeth when she said, “Now will you finish what you started.”

I knew I’d been a bastard, but she wasn’t the only one on the raw and ragged edge. I was dying to sink inside of her. Done with the teasing, I was a man on a mission and she went off like a little rocket. I kissed her tenderly as she came back down, thinking how lucky I was to be getting a second chance with her.

“Hey,” I said, smiling down into her glazed eyes. “Feeling better now?”

She sighed, sounding content. “You have no idea.”

I chuckled, shaking my head. “You’re gorgeous, you know that?” I’d always loved everything she hated about herself, from her blond ringlets to her deep dimples, I thought she was a knockout.

“You’re just saying that,” she said, poking me in the stomach with her index finger. “Because you’re hoping I’ll return the favor.”

“I wouldn’t object,” I said, winking at her. “But I’ve got other plans for you first.”

“Is that so?” She arched her back as I caressed her breasts before sliding lower. “Wow, you don’t believe in giving a girl a chance to catch her breath, do you?”

“I’ve been waiting a long time for this,” I said, hoping my tone conveyed how serious I was. “For another chance to say and do the things I should have, the first time we were together.”

She covered my mouth with her fingers, shaking her head. “Please, don’t. That’s not what tonight is about. It’s about two old friends… reconnecting. Finding a little pleasure in each other.”

She didn’t know how wrong she was. She was my friend, she always had been. But she was so much more than that and if she wouldn’t let me tell her, I was determined to show her.

I rolled onto my back and snagged a condom out of the nightstand beside me. She watched me roll it on, biting her lip as her legs seemed to spread of their own volition.

I turned over, stroking her soft cheek with the back of my hand. “You want this, don’t you?”

Her smile was soft when she said, “Of course I do. Why would you ask me that?”

“I just need to know you won’t have any regrets in the morning.” The last time I’d murmured regrets, I was walking away. But they hadn’t been regrets about the sex, they were regrets about the fact we couldn’t do it again.

“No regrets,” she assured me, lacing her hand through my hair. She brought me down for a sweet kiss that made me wish she was ready to hear how I felt about her. It was too soon. She needed to warm up to the idea of us as a couple before I dropped that little bombshell on her.

As my body covered hers, I looked down into her eyes and got a flash of what our babies would look like with those blue eyes and blond curls of hers. I knew, without a doubt, this was the woman I wanted as the mother of my children. She was great with kids. And she’d be amazing with ours.

I teased her slowly, giving her a taste of how good it would feel as I dipped inside of her before withdrawing. “I’m so glad you’re back in my life, baby. I’ve missed you like crazy.”

“You’ve seen me.”

But not alone. No opportunities to steal kisses or do… this. I plunged deep inside of her, making her gasp at the sudden invasion. “You okay?” I asked, hesitating to make sure I hadn’t pushed too far, too fast.

She smiled. “So okay.”

Damn. She was so tight. Just like the first time. Which led me to believe there hadn’t been many men in her life since me.

“You’re killin’ me here,” I said, dropping my head onto her chest.

“I love the way you feel,” she whispered in my ear. “The way you fill me so completely.”

I groaned. If she kept saying shit like that, I didn’t stand a chance of making this last. “It’s been a while for me, babe,” I admitted. “Just give me a minute.” When I finally started moving, she was watching me.

“It’s been a while?”

I cupped the back of her head, drawing her close as I made love to her slowly. “I knew you were coming back to me. I wanted to wait… for this. For you.” I hadn’t been with anyone else in six months. My hand was getting quite the workout, just imagining what it would be like to have my baby back in my arms where she belonged.

“Ahhh…” She skimmed my back with her nails. “Faster.”

I always wanted to give her what she needed, even if meant I had to make it up to her with another round. “Anything you want, doll.” I meant it. I’d give her anything she ever wanted, in and out of bed. I hadn’t been working my ass off for the past five years to build my business for no reason. I’d been thinking about our future the entire time, about being able to give her the kind of life she wanted, when the time came for us to be together.

I picked up the pace, as I tried my best to hold back. She was clenching me in her tight heat, her pleas rising to a fevered pitch as I plunged fast and deep while rubbing her clit.

“That’s it,” she whimpered. “Right there. Aaaahhhh….”

I watched her lose control before I did the same, emptying in to a damn piece of latex when I really wanted to be emptying inside of her. “So good,” I murmured, kissing her. “So damn good, baby doll.”