CHAPTER 25
Kade kissed Ali like he was drowning and she was air. He breathed her in with everything he had. He devoured her as his hands roamed up and down her body with a primal desperation. He wanted to touch every single inch of her all at once. Erotic tension was building inside of him with an intensity that was driving him to the brink.
“I love you.” He broke their kiss just long enough to say the words he’d been waiting to tell her for so long. “I love you. I love you. I love you.”
Ali repeated those words back to him as she did her own roaming. Her fingers threaded through his hair and traveled down the back of his neck, across his shoulders, and over his chest. She fisted the material of his shirt and started tugging it up.
“What about the boys?” he asked.
“What about them?” she asked breathlessly as her brow wrinkled.
“What if they wake up and come down here?”
She smiled, pulling at his shirt again. “I locked the door.”
“You did?”
“Habit. KJ worries, so I come down here if I’m feeling emotional.”
His heart squeezed in his chest thinking of her having to hide and disguise her grief to protect her nephew. “Like the onion.”
She smiled as she yanked harder at his shirt and confirmed, “Like the onion.”
He knew that she wanted this to be fast and furious but he needed to slow things down. As desperate as he was to feel her skin under his hands and as much as he wanted to be buried inside her again, he wasn’t going to let this be a “wham, bam, thank you ma’am” situation. No, this time he was going to explore every inch of her body before they came together.
Sitting up so his back was no longer pressed against the back cushions, he reached behind him and pulled his shirt up and over his head in a swift motion.
“Better?” he asked.
“We’re getting there,” she said as she started to remove her own shirt but Kade stopped her by covering her hands with his.
She stilled and looked at him with a questioning eye. He stared at her, silently communicating what he wanted to do. His steady gaze bore into her with muted expectation. If it was any other woman, he would’ve felt the need to explain to her that he wanted to be the one to do the undressing, but with Ali a look was all it took. They were that connected.
Her arms dropped to her sides, surrendering to his silent plea. He watched as her chest rose and fell in increasingly faster intervals and the skin on her neck flushed with anticipation.
The air between them crackled with desire. He could hear the base of his thudding heart as his fingers skimmed up her torso, still covered by her T-shirt. When they reached the rounded curve of her lower breast he stopped for a moment before outlining the crescent shape. Then, he let them travel up her mounds, brushing against the hardened tips of her nipples. They lingered there, circling, pressing, squeezing her nubs, teasing them with his barely-there touch.
As she sat straddling him in only a T-shirt and cutoff sweats her hips began to roll into him, and he felt the heat of her core pressing against his raging erection. It was screaming for him to rip off her clothes and bury himself in her tight, wet canal but he ignored it. Tonight was about delayed gratification. He wanted to bring them both to the edge and keep them there as he discovered each and every nuance of her body and soul.
She looked at him with a lust-filled gaze as he slid her shirt up. His heart beat a little faster with every new part of her body he uncovered. Her gently flared hips, the flat expanse of belly, her softly rounded breasts tipped by proud pink nipples, the elegant slope of her thin shoulders, all of it calling for his full attention.
When her shirt dropped beside his, he paused for a minute to take in her bare upper body, letting his gaze rove lazily over the creamy expanse.
She was truly breathtaking, and he was finding it difficult to inhale or exhale.
He couldn’t truly wrap his mind around how beautiful she was, both inside and out. As gorgeous as her body was, it paled in comparison to the shining beauty of her heart. And that heart had chosen to love him. Now he needed to make damn sure that he proved himself worthy.
His hands did a thorough job of trailing over every square inch of her exposed skin, including her thighs, which were settled on each side of him. Then he snaked his touch around her back and splayed his fingers out as he flattened his palms. Holding her firmly in place, he leaned forward and pressed his lips to her neck and shoulders, moving down her chest slowly but surely until he finally reached her nipples.
When he felt the soft skin of her areola under his lips he traced the outline of each with his tongue several times before he flicked the center buds. She buried her fingers in his hair, curling them up in fists and sending sharp little jolts of pain through his scalp that immediately translated into pleasure.
As he continued licking her flesh, he let his hands drift to her waist and moved his thumbs in slow circles over the tight skin of her belly. With each circle he made, his thumbs dared to dip a centimeter lower until they began slipping beneath the elastic of her waistline. She was moving closer and closer to oblivion with every lick, every caress, and he couldn’t wait to take her all the way. He could already hear it in the sharp little pants she let out; already feel it in the trembling of her skin under his fingers; already see it in a red flush covering her skin in patches.
Without warning, he gripped her hips, turned and laid her on the couch in one swift, smooth motion. Her heavy-lidded eyes looked up at him as he tugged her cutoff sweats and panties down and off of her toned legs.
When her feet lowered back down her legs fell open. The sight was tantalizing and erotic, causing flashes of anticipation lightning to burst in him like a sultry summer storm rolling in. At his blatant appraisal, she spread her thighs farther apart, revealing her arousal glistening on her sex.
He slid his hand smoothly down between her legs. His knuckles brushed her inner thighs and her muscles trembled like leaves in the wind. Before he reached the apex of her legs, he could feel heat radiating from her core. Lightly, he began to trace the folds of her skin, moving methodically up and down her seam. He rubbed her juices over her lips, massaging her intimately. Making sure to increase the pressure at the base of her opening. All the while, his thumb teased her clit. His dick pulsed painfully as she squirmed under his attentive motions.
An eager gasp filled the air as she angled her hips up, pushing for even closer contact between them. He repeated his movements, drawing out increasingly frantic moans and whimpers from Ali.
Kade studied her face, her movements, and her voice. He looked for small clues that would tell him when he was hitting the spots that were particularly effective at ramping up her pleasure. Soon, she was writhing underneath his hand as he stimulated her most sensitive pressure points and reduced her to a trembling mass of jelly, her muscles shaking and twitching uncontrollably.
With measured control, he kept the rhythm of his touch steady as she gave herself over to her release. He watched as the throes of passion overtook her and he lost himself in her. She was mesmerizing. Her body, her soul, her wetness, her warmth. Everything about her was so fascinating, and it all worked to pull him in, hypnotizing him.
When her limbs went limp, she opened her eyes and they locked with his. He held her golden gaze. As they stared into one another’s eyes something ignited in her. She sat up suddenly, a fire in her eyes that he hadn’t seen before. There was a frenetic energy about her as her fingers reached for his jeans and pulled at the button and zipper.
His body was primed, ready, and about to explode from the hot foreplay they’d just engaged in. Seeing her frenzied movements and feeling the sensation of her clumsy touch through his jeans only amped the arousal that was coursing through him. Once again, he covered her hands with his, stilling them to get himself under control so he didn’t pop before they’d even gotten to the good stuff.
He set her hands aside and stood to unbutton his jeans. His heart was galloping like a herd of wild horses as he slowly unzipped his jeans and pushed them down until they hit the floor. He stepped out of them and kicked off his shoes. The only sounds in the room were their heavy breaths as he turned to face her, his fingers wrapped around his shaft.
Her amber gaze lifted to meet his. Her cheeks flushed and her eyes burned like hot coals as she licked her lips. It was a slow movement, made all the more sexy by virtue of the fact that she clearly wasn’t intending it to be. It was just Ali, being so sexy in her natural, everyday movements that she had him in a perpetual state of half-chub. Or, like in the current moment, full-fledged, throbbing hard on.
His erection jutted up proudly like a flagpole on territories that had just been claimed. Except this time, he wasn’t doing the claiming. Ali reached out and took him in her own hands, and he moved his hand to her hair. Her fingers traced slow strokes up and down his shaft. Her movements sent shudders racing through his entire body. He focused all of his concentration on maintaining his control.
He let his head fall back and focused on the sensations. Every movement of her hands, every slight stroke over his sensitive dick, sent a new wave of pleasure through him. And with every new wave, he felt a little more lightheaded and a little less connected to reality.
Then, she upped the ante by fixing her lips around his tip and swirling her tongue. It was methodical, and the pressure was perfect. She sucked him, licked him, and stroked him like she was making love to him. Fuck, it was taking everything he had not to come in her mouth. It wasn’t just the physical sensation that had him near the edge, it was the way she put her whole heart and soul into making him feel good.
She pumped her head up and down, keeping her lips fastened tight around his thick shaft. Her tight, wet mouth sucked at his cock every second of every stroke, and he felt like it was going to suck him straight into oblivion.
The spinning in his head and the tremors in his body reached the breaking point where he knew he had to put a stop to this or he’d shoot his load straight into her mouth. Kade put his palms against her shoulders and gently pushed her back from him. He grinned down at her. “My turn,” he said simply. And then she grinned, her eyes flashing.
He knelt beside the couch as she reclined back, settling into the cushions. His hands pushed her knees open as he wasted no time pressing soft kisses up and down the silky, smooth skin on her inner thigh.
She moaned, arched her back, and opened her legs further. Like a predator pouncing on prey, he captured her sex with his mouth as he pressed two fingers into her tight passage. Her body bucked against him as he curled the tip of his finger, hitting a spot that he’d found the first night they’d made love. His tongue flicked rapidly over her engorged tip as his fingers worked to stimulate her inner walls.
Soon, her inner walls contracted around his digits as she rode out her release, grinding her hips against his mouth as she came apart. He smelled the earthy scent, watched her sexy body twitch, felt her tight canal spasm, tasted her sweet release, and heard her sensual moans.
He knew that he’d never be as happy as he was in this moment; bringing Ali this kind of pleasure was the peak of his existence. His only hope was that he got to travel to that peak for the rest of his life.
* * *
Ali’s head spun hard from the climax that Kade’s mouth had sent roaring through her when he thrust inside her, piling sensation on top of sensation. She could still feel the soft waves of ebbing orgasm shivering through her body as the new waves of being stretched and filled crashed through her.
She felt the cushions dip beneath her back. She opened her eyes to see Kade hovering above her. He lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her. She could taste herself on his lips and tongue, making the kiss feel more intimate and pushing her erotic limits.
Her arms wrapped around him, loving the feel of his solid strength as it surrounded her. She let go and drifted into the bliss of swirling sensations that his kiss, his touch was bringing her.
When he broke their connection she began to protest until she felt his lips being pressed to the hollow of her neck. He continued kissing down her body and she marveled at the trail of fire that his lips left in their wake.
She couldn’t keep herself still under his caress. Her body writhed as if it had a mind of its own. Every brush of his fingers against her hip, every flick of his tongue on her nipple, every press of his leg between her inner thighs. They all elicited moans and whimpers; they all caused a writhing that she couldn’t have choreographed even if she had tried.
Every time she was in Kade’s arms she felt utterly safe and protected. She took one look at his solid arms, strong muscles, and masculine tats and knew that nothing could hurt her. Except him. It had been so painful to love him and not be loved back, but now she knew that she was.
Life had beaten her up so thoroughly over the past several months that she’d honestly wondered at times if she’d ever feel safe again. The idea that she would have someone in her life that loved her as much as she loved them, that would work just as hard to take care of her as she worked to take care of them…it had seemed like a pipe dream. It had felt to her, during her most lonely times, as if it would be dangerous to even dream that it could be a possibility because of the crushing disappointment that would inevitably descend when she returned to reality and realized how far from a realistic possibility it was in her world.
Then Kade had come back. And he’d changed everything. He’d taught her how to trust again, and he’d taught her the value of forgiveness. He’d shown her that she was worthy of being cherished and loved. He’d opened up her heart in places that she hadn’t even realized it had been closed.
And, yes. He made her feel safe. And protected. And she loved that.
She tried to push all of that out of her mind and live in the moment as he engulfed first one of her nipples in his mouth, and then moved to the other. He rotated back and forth between them, seeming to have a natural instinct about when he’d stimulated one to the peak point of pleasure, almost to the place where that pleasure turned to pain, and then he’d move to the next and do the same.
He knew her body instinctively. If she’d been guiding his every move, she couldn’t have directed him to give her any more pleasure than he already was. He seemed to know what she needed in ways that she wasn’t even consciously aware of herself.
It seemed like such a cliché, the whole “this person knows me better than I know myself” thing, but he proved it every time he touched her. He was connected to her on a soul-level that she couldn’t even begin to understand but simply made up her mind to enjoy with everything in her.
As he trailed kisses with his lips and curlicues with his tongue over each of her nipples, she arched her back and pushed them against his mouth, wanting more of him. More of his kisses, more of his tongue. Just more of him altogether.
She needed to get close to him. There was a deep place in her that wanted to join with him. To be bonded in a way that went beyond their bodies—but her body was the only way that she could imagine getting that close. All she knew was that she needed him, and that she’d never be able to get enough.
Kade’s mouth on her body made her feel like she was in a deep hole that she was powerless to escape no matter how hard she tried to climb out, or that she was pushing a rock up a hill that she could never reach the top of, because every time she got close it would come rolling back down again.
Thankfully, there was a lot of pleasure to go along with that frustration.
Still, the one thing that held true was that she had a goal, a climactic place that she was trying to get to, and she was powerless to guide her movements. Kade, however, had it within his power to bring her right to the edge of orgasm and then back her off again, and he made liberal use of that capability.
Yeah. He definitely liked to torture her, and she was realizing that she liked it, too.
She buried her fingers in his hair as he devoured her breasts, making her feel like the most desirable woman he’d ever seen. The way he moved his mouth against her was more than just going through the motions. It was expressing what was in his heart. It was worshipful, full of awe and love.
“Please,” she pleaded as the empty ache that only Kade could fill grew unbearable.
He reached between their sweat-laced bodies and she felt the plump crown of his shaft press against her slick entrance. Eagerly, she spread her thighs farther apart and tilted her hips up in desperation. Her efforts were rewarded as he entered her slowly, at an excruciatingly seductive pace.
His face was buried in her neck and she loved feeling the heat of his breath and the weight of his body as he stretched her inner walls to the point where pain met pleasure.
Her hands raked his back as he began pulling out and then pressing back into her in deep, commanding strokes. As his pace grew faster, so did his breathing. She clutched onto him, pulling him as close to her as possible. Their skin was slick and the friction of their bodies rubbing against one another only added to the acute arousal consuming her.
Kade thrust into her over and over again, his powerful muscles giving real weight to the movements. Her second orgasm started nearly on the heels of her first—and this one took her almost completely by surprise, as well. It crashed through her like a freight train and she was the damsel, hapless on the tracks in its path.
Whereas the first two climaxes he’d given her had gone off like firecrackers, exploding through a million different parts of her body at once, this one was just one tidal wave after another of pleasure pounding through her body, knocking her down to the sand with each powerful break.
She maintained enough presence of mind to realize by the tightening of his muscles and the desperate quality of his grunts that he was plunging over the edge at the same time she was. Knowing they were sharing the experience, reaching their climax together, only intensified her own orgasm, something she would not have thought was possible.
There was nothing in her life now that she didn’t want to share with Kade. The good was made sweeter by experiencing it together, and even the hard times would be made so much more bearable because he would be by her side. They were a team. Together, always.
A silent cry ripped from deep within her soul as pleasure that caused stars to whirl behind her eyes rocked her. Her entire body convulsed under the sheer magnitude of her release.
She was still drifting back down to earth when Kade masterfully flipped their positions so he was lying on his back and she was draped over him. A grin tilted her lips. There were definite benefits of being with someone who grappled for a living. She loved that he could handle her with skill and expertise. It was hot because she knew he would only ever use his primal power to pleasure her.
He pulled her against him and she rested her cheek on his chest as he kissed her on the top of her head. “I love you.”
There was nothing better than hearing those words from the man that she’d loved her entire life.
Anchored by the simple, tender strokes of Kade’s fingers through her hair, she sighed, contentedly, “I love you, too.”
Her wildest dream had just come true, and it was even better than she’d ever imagined it could be.