He didn’t look nervous, exactly, but he did look a little suspicious.
“So that’s Rob.”
She nodded. “That’s Rob.”
“Your good friend.”
“My very good friend.” She moved to Maya’s desk.
She unbuckled her belt and removed her scabbard and sword, then placed them on the edge of the desk.
Zach swallowed hard as he followed her motions with his eyes.
Kiera unbuttoned her leather vest and shrugged out of it, leaving herself in the short tan dress and boots from the other night. Tonight, though, she had vines and leaves painted on her face.
“I don’t really like Rob.” Zach hadn’t moved a step from where she’d left him by the door.
“Why is that?”
“Because he knows you better than I do.”
Her heart warmed. “You don’t need to be jealous of Rob.”
Zach pulled his eye patch off. “I am anyway.”
She couldn’t catch her breath for a second. Zach Ashley had dressed up as a pirate for her.
Rather than try to put words to whatever she was feeling, she crossed to him and removed his belt and sword. Then she started on the buttons of his shirt.
“Kiera—”
She looked up at him. “You don’t have to be jealous of anyone else. You don’t have to win me over with arcades and eye patches. I’m yours. Completely.”
Hot possessiveness flared in his gaze. “Tell me something about you that no one else knows.”
She hesitated for only a second. “I would do anything for a guy who would dress up as a pirate for me.”
He gave her a smile as he let his shirt fall to the floor. “I actually already knew that.”
She grinned and spread her palms over his chest, then ran them back and forth over his hot skin. “I promise you there are definitely some things you know about me that Rob doesn’t.”
He swiftly turned her, crowding her up against the door. “Like what?”
Her whole body tingled. “You don’t know?”
“I want to hear you say it.”
“You know exactly how to touch me to make me moan, Zach.” She lifted her arms as he stripped her dress up and over her head. Her hair fell back to her shoulders, and she said, “You know how my breasts feel in your hands.”
He quickly divested her of her bra and filled his hands with her breasts, running his thumbs over her nipples.
“What else?” he asked huskily.
“You know exactly how to kiss me to make me melt.”
He lowered his head and claimed her mouth, running his tongue over her bottom lip as he circled her pebbled nipple with the pad of one thumb.
But he didn’t stay long. He lifted his head. “More.”
“You know how…I feel…around your finger…” She blushed hotly.
He simply grinned. “How you feel? Do you mean this?” He lifted his hand and traced the tip of his finger over the vines that swirled over her cheeks and forehead.
His touch anywhere on her body was amazing, but she shook her head. “You know what I mean.”
“I want to hear you say it.”
“You want to hear me say that you make me hotter and wetter than anyone else ever has?”
Again that flare of heat showed in his eyes. “Yes. And more.”
“You want to hear that no one has touched me like you do?”
He pressed closer and lowered his voice. “Touched you where?”
“All over.”
“Say it.”
“Zach,” she protested quietly, tipping her head back against the door behind her.
“You won’t say pussy for me, Kiera? You won’t tell me that I can touch you and stroke you and make you come like no one else?”
She shook her head back and forth but smiled. “Yes. All of that.”
He chuckled and lowered his head, then kissed the side of her neck and slid his hands over the silk panties she still wore. “Rob doesn’t know how you sound when you come? He’s never heard you say, ‘Oh God’ as he presses on your clit just right, he’s never felt your sweet pussy clenching hungrily around his fingers?”
“No.” She gasped as his hands slid lower, the tips of his fingers pressing against her clit exactly as he’d said.
“Good girl.” He took her mouth again, slipping a finger underneath her panties and into her heat. He thrust deep, then circled her clit while circling her tongue with his.
She fumbled for his pants, her fingers forgetting every few seconds what they were supposed to be doing. But eventually she got his fly open and her hand inside his underwear, wrapping her fingers around his hard length.
He ripped his mouth away, then rested his forehead on hers and breathed hard. “God, Princess, your hand is like heaven.”
She ran it up and down his length. “I need you, Zach. Please. This time, please.”
Whatever the reason, whatever had changed, he suddenly bent his knees and gripped her butt, lifting her.
She wrapped her legs around him. Her panties and his boxers all that separated them.
He turned and took the three long steps to the couch that sat under Maya’s window. The shades were drawn, and they were encased in a temporary cocoon, just the two of them.
Their own little bubble.
“I can’t wait any longer,” he said gruffly as he lowered her onto the couch and followed her down. “I want you too much.”
“Yes. Finally,” she said.
He grinned. “I promise there’s been a reason I’ve been waiting.”
“What is it?”
He looked down at her bare breasts. “I completely forget.”
“Well, this better not be about Rob.”
“It is,” he said. “But only in the sense that he was a part of the show and the friendship you have here. The inner circle I want to be a part of because it’s part of your life.”
Her heart flipped, and she felt like yelling, “Yes, yes, yes!” Instead she cautioned him, “My life involves dressing up on a semiregular basis.”
“I know.”
She looked up at him, her grin growing slowly as understanding dawned. “You like the eye patch.”
He didn’t admit it. But he didn’t deny it either. “I like knowing that, whatever the rest of the world sees you dressed as, I get to see you undressed.”
And she wanted him to.
She realized that he’d wanted her no matter what she wore or how she looked. She might get to choose what she showed to most of the world, but not Zach. He saw all of her. Of course, most of the world wasn’t looking as hard as he was.
The people who mattered looked closer. Maya, Sophie, Rob. Pete and Dalton. Aimee. But they also left her alone, for the most part, when she insisted. Zach didn’t do that. Zach didn’t let her retreat into her bubble.
She took his face between her hands. “We’re going to do this.”
“Damn right we are.”
“But you have to give me a minute.”
He started to lean in to kiss her but then realized what she’d said. “You need a minute?”
She pushed him back, and he rose up to kneel between her knees.
“Just one.”
She slid off the couch and padded to the desk where her purse was stashed in a bottom drawer. She rummaged inside and pulled out a condom and a pack of makeup remover cloths. She turned to face him and tossed him the condom. He caught it in one hand, his eyes glued on her. She opened the cloths as he watched her. Then she swiped one over her face. It wasn’t enough to remove everything. The gold paint in particular was tough to get off. But it would take off the light green. And most importantly, it would make her point.
She wiped it over her forehead as she walked back to the couch.
“I’ve always had a fantasy about making love to a dashing rogue pirate.” She stopped and put a knee on the couch cushion where he was still kneeling, his large, hard erection pressing against the front of his regular-guy cotton boxers. “So keep the eye patch. But lately my fantasies have been filled with a handsome, charming EMT that I want to make love to more than I’ve ever wanted anything. Even more than I want the Buffy replica scythe that Maya is giving me in exchange for doing the show tonight.”
His eyes softened as she wiped the cloth over her cheek and chin. “Buffy?”
“Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
“That’s kind of an old show, isn’t it?”
“It’s a kick-ass scythe.”
The corner of his mouth curled up. “And you won’t get it now?”
“I left the show to have sex with my boyfriend in her office. No way am I getting that scythe.”
He grasped her wrist, stopping the makeup removal. She met his eyes. She knew the “boyfriend” thing meant a lot to him.
“I’m more important than the scythe?”
“Yep.”
“Wow. That’s a big deal,” he teased.
She chuckled. “I’m glad you know that.”
He pulled her in, kissing her roughly. He took the makeup cloth from her fingers and tossed it away. “Just you and me, Princess.”
“Kiera. Zach and Kiera.”
“Okay.” He gave a single nod. “Hey, Kiera?”
“Yeah?”
“Take your panties off.”
She laughed and slid them off before she wiggled around him to lie back on the couch. He stood and swiftly pushed his jeans to the floor, then shed his boxers.
Kiera caught her breath. She’d felt him over the past two weeks but hadn’t had the pleasure of seeing him. And certainly not fully, every inch of skin and muscle exposed to her gaze. And her hands. And her tongue.
He started to kneel over her again, but she stopped him. “Hang on there, hot guy.”
He quirked an eyebrow. “What?”
“Just give me a second to look.” She propped up on her elbows and dragged her gaze over him from head to toe. She watched raptly as he rolled the condom on.
“Kiera,” he growled. “Killing me.”
“Well, okay,” she said with a sigh, lying back. “If you insist on ravishing me, I guess, go ahead.”
He leaned over her and scooped a big hand under her to roll them. “Oh no, you’re ravishing me, Princess. I’m at your mercy.”
She braced her hands on his chest and looked down into his handsome face. “It’s been a long couple of weeks.”
His fingers curled into her hips. “Totally worth it.”
She laughed. “We haven’t even done it yet.”
“Not that. I was talking about the look on your face.”
She shook her head. “What’s the look on my face?”
“Totally happy, trusting, open. Because of me. For me.”
For a second it felt as if the butterflies in her stomach had picked her heart up and were swooping around with it in her chest. She leaned in and put her lips against his. “I don’t have a lot of practice saying amazing things like that, so I think I’ll just do a few amazing things, if that’s okay.”
He squeezed her hips again, this time more playfully. “You could start practicing the word thing now.”
She lifted her head. She licked her lips. Her mind spun. “All I’ve got is You’re amazing, Zach.”
He laughed and pulled her head down to his. “I’ll take it.”
Then he started kissing her, and from there they resorted to phrases like yes and like that and right there and more as their hands traveled over each other and their mouths freely tasted and their bodies pressed and rubbed. She licked her way down his chest and stomach, tracing the ridges of his muscles with her tongue, but didn’t quite get as far south as she’d planned before he hauled her up and fastened his lips around one of her nipples.
She arched her back, her fingers tangling in his hair as he moved a hand between her legs and stroked her nearly to the peak before backing off.
When he finally slid her down, guiding her hips until his erection nudged against her, Kiera caught her breath. “Thought I was ravishing you, hot guy.”
“Oh, you are, Princess. You totally are.”
She pushed herself up off his chest, changing the angle slightly, and moved her hips, taking him in.
They groaned together.
“Damn, girl,” he muttered, his breathing ragged, his big hands bracketing her rib cage, holding her still.
But she wanted to move. She ached with the need for more friction. “Zach,” she protested, wiggling against him.
“Just a sec,” he said, his eyes squeezed shut.
She waited a second. And then another. But eventually she blew out a breath. “Zach. Please.”
“Putting this off for two weeks might have been an error in judgment,” he said, through gritted teeth.
She couldn’t help it. She laughed. And apparently that caused a motion that created either intense pleasure or intense pain because she felt his hands tighten on her and a muttered “Fuck” under his breath.
“That’ll serve you right,” she said, probably with too much glee in her tone. She took his hands from her waist, threaded their fingers together, and then swiveled her hips, taking charge of the ravishing after all.
She moved on him for several delicious minutes, reveling in everything about the moment. The way he looked, sounded, and felt. Every inch of her felt affected, and she wanted it to last all night. But the tense look on Zach’s face told her that he was barely hanging on. However, he was hanging on. And suddenly she wanted to make him lose control. He loved to be in charge, loved to make the decisions and call the shots. She’d love to be the cause of him coming undone.
She lowered her chest to his, and his arms wrapped around her. She felt safe and cherished even as she was feeling more pleasure than she’d ever imagined. “Zach,” she said against his ear.
His hands moved down her back to her ass. “Yeah, Princess?”
“It’s my turn to know how you sound and feel when you come.”
He froze. For a second. Or maybe only half a second. But almost immediately his hands tightened, his rhythm increased, and he thrust into her full and hard.
Words. That was the key with him. No matter what they were doing.
She gripped his shoulders and hung on as he drove upward, over and over, taking them both closer and closer to climax. His big hand covered the base of her spine, and he somehow moved her on him, against him, in a way that sent bolts of electric pleasure streaking through her as she watched his green eyes grow darker and hotter.
“Need you to come first, Kiera,” he ground out, his jaw tight.
She nodded, so close, but unable to tell him.
“Want to hear my name,” he told her.
And somehow he pressed her pelvis against his in a way that made her eyes cross and her orgasm crash over her all at once. “Zach!”
“Yes, fuck, yes, Kiera,” he muttered, slamming his hips into hers three more times before his whole body tightened and he went over the edge too.
The postcoital look on Zach’s face was simply one more thing she loved seeing on him. She leaned in and kissed him, then rested her cheek against his chest, taking deep breaths and letting her heart slow.
Her pulse had just evened out when it was kicked up again by the sudden piercing beep that erupted from somewhere in the vicinity of Zach’s pants.
“Dammit.” He shifted immediately, rolling her off him and sitting up.
“Your pager?”
“Yeah.” He snagged one leg of the pants and pulled them toward him, quickly silencing the beeping but then frowning at the screen on the pager.
“You’re on call tonight?” she asked.
He stretched to his feet. “No. Everyone’s being called in. Something big.”
He dealt with the condom and wrapper in Maya’s trash can, and Kiera knew she’d be hearing about that the next time Maya used her office. Like later tonight. She didn’t care.
“Something big like what?” she asked, grabbing for her dress.
“Something they need multiple units for,” he said, pulling his pants back on. “Like a convention center ceiling falling in during Comic Con.”
She wrinkled her nose at him as she stepped into her panties. “Such a random example. As if something crazy like that would ever happen.”
He shrugged into his shirt and then grabbed her wrist and pulled her close. He kissed her softly, then ran a hand over her cheek. “Once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing.”
And just like that she was this close to telling him how she felt about him. Real feelings too. Serious ones. Good thing he had to go to work.
“Be careful,” she said, kissing him.
He was clearly reluctant to pull back as he buttoned the bottom three buttons on the shirt and grabbed his jacket. “Always careful.”
“You’re going to wear the eye patch?” she teased as he scooped it up from the floor.
He grinned. “Damn right. I plan to tell the guys that this patch got me laid by a hot princess.”
She nudged him toward the door. “You can tell them that. But it’s not true.”
“I’m not saying my two weeks of amazing foreplay didn’t help…”
He turned back as he stepped through the door, and she kissed him once more. “Trust me, hot guy, I much prefer you out of costume.”
He grabbed her before she could step back and pulled her onto her tiptoes for a real kiss. “I’ll text you later,” he said when he finally let her go.
Kiera bit her lip on the invitation to just come over. But she did give him something. “Or call me.”
He paused, then nodded. “You got it, Princess.”
Then he was gone.
Off to be someone else’s hero for a little while.
* * *
Her phone almost never rang.
Given that she conducted most of her business through e-mail and most of her personal relationships via text, it took her a second to recognize it.
Plus it was three in the morning, and Kiera had been fast asleep dreaming of princes swooping in to kidnap and ravish her…on a pirate ship.
She frowned and shook the dream off, reaching for her phone. “Hello?”
“It’s me.”
Zach’s deep voice rolled over her, making her inner muscles clench. All her inner muscles.
She rolled to her back, pressing the phone hard against her ear. “Where are you?” Please say my front porch. Please say my front porch.
“Just got home a little bit ago. I wasn’t going to call. It’s late. But…”
He trailed off, and she sat up.
“I’m glad you did,” she assured him. There was something in his voice that made her ask, “Are you alright?”
There was a long pause. “It was a rough call.”
She frowned. “I’m sorry.” She swallowed hard. “Do you want to talk about it?”
Holy crap. She’d offered to talk. About something that was obviously making him emotional. More, she’d meant it.
“It was…a car accident.”
She was trying to picture his expression, trying to put herself there in the moment, but she’d never heard Zach sound like this. And that bugged her. “You were out for a long time.”
“It was multiple cars on the freeway. High speed.”
He sighed, and she thought she heard his breath shake.
“A lot of victims.”
“Oh, Zach, I’m sorry.”
“There was a girl…”
Kiera’s heart clenched before she even heard the whole story. Even the whole sentence.
“She was twenty-four. She was in the back, right-hand side. The other car crossed the median. They think the driver fell asleep.”
Oh God. Exactly like Josie.
“Zach—”
“She died.”
Kiera’s eyes slid shut. Zach didn’t do well with losing patients. He’d told her as much himself, though it had been no surprise. But to lose a girl who reminded him of Josie…She could feel his pain as if it were grabbing her by the throat. “I’m so sorry.”
What else was there to say? What could she do?
Zach cleared his throat on the other end. “I, um, just wanted you to know why I hadn’t texted.”
“Zach, I—”
“I need some sleep, Princess. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“I, um…okay. Yes, sleep. I—” She had no idea what she’d been about to say.
Or maybe she knew exactly what she’d been about to say and got scared.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” she finally said.
“Night.”
They disconnected, and Kiera flopped back onto her pillow, her phone clutched against her heart. Her pulse was racing, and her mind spinning.
She got up and went into the bathroom for water. She drank a glass. Then another. Then she had to pee.
She finally got back in bed, pulled her blankets up, and closed her eyes.
It took only thirty seconds for her to realize that she wasn’t sleeping tonight. At least not here.
She flopped onto her back. It was the middle of the night. But Zach…needed her.
And she wanted to be there.
She got back up, aware that every step she took was a step closer to being as involved as she’d ever been. And she couldn’t have stayed away for anything.
Twenty minutes later she was in front of Zach’s door. There was an amazing lack of traffic this time of day, and the doorman on duty recognized her, so getting to him had been easy.
She lifted her hand to knock, but then realized it was 3:40 in the morning. She didn’t want to wake up Aimee or startle anyone. Instead she pulled her phone out and texted, Are you there?
And that was when she realized that, if he was asleep, she might be in trouble.
But a moment later he replied. Yeah.
She bit her lip, suddenly nervous. Zach would know what it meant that she was standing outside his apartment at this time of night. But she couldn’t go back.
Then she remembered how he’d sounded on the phone, and she knew she wouldn’t go back anyway.
Are you okay?
She let her breath out, her heart squeezing. He was having a horrible night, and yet he was asking about her. She needed to get her arms around him.
Will be in a second. I’m outside your door.
The next thing she heard was the sound of footsteps coming closer and closer.
The door swung open, and he stood staring at her, his expression a mix of emotions in the glow of the light from the hallway.
“Jesus, you’re really here.” He reached for her, pulled her inside, wrapped his arms around her, and buried his face in her hair.
“I had to come,” she whispered against his chest.
“I’m so glad.”
Her heart swelled as he ran his hands over her head and down the length of her hair. “You could have asked me to come,” she told him.
He pulled back and looked down at her. “No. I couldn’t.”
No. He couldn’t. Even in the midst of his own pain, he would have thought about the fact that she didn’t do this stuff.
She took his face in her hands and pulled him down. “I’m here, Zach. I’m not going anywhere.” She kissed him, and he held on to her as if she were a piece of driftwood in a stormy sea.
He finally lifted his head. “I didn’t come to you because I don’t know if I can be…anything…for you tonight. I’m a mess.”
She knew it was hard for him to admit that. Zach was always the one who was together. Who pulled other people together.
“You don’t have to be anything for me, Zach. Being here, holding you, is all I need. I’ll be whatever you need.”
Three heartbeats ticked off, then he took her mouth again, kicked the door shut, and started walking her backward.
He tugged the zipper on her hoodie down and shoved it down her arms. She pulled her hands free, and he tossed it to the side.
“You’re in your pajamas?” he asked.
She looked down. “I didn’t do anything but grab Maya’s hoodie and Sophie’s flip-flops.”
“You didn’t tell them you were leaving? Did you drive? They’ll be worried.”
He slid his hands under her tank top and pulled it up and over her head, tossing it too.
She gasped as his hands cupped her bare breasts as he nudged her backward toward the stairs.
“I’ll text them,” she said.
He lifted her, and she put her arms around his neck as his hands cupped her ass.
“Later,” she added.
He carried her upstairs and down the hall to his bedroom. He put her on her feet again and tugged on the end of the tie at the front of her loose pajama pants. They fell to her feet. She didn’t wear panties at night, and he growled his approval. She stepped out of the pants as she continued backward toward the bed.
He never took his eyes off her as he also untied his loose pants and shoved them off. He opened the bedside table drawer and dumped a box of condoms onto the top next to his alarm clock. He took one and rolled it on without looking.
Then he leaned over her. “Need you, Kiera.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck. “Yes.”
He put a hand between them, stroking a finger through her folds. She was already hot and wet for him. It wasn’t arousal like she was used to feeling for him. This was more a desire to be close to him, to give him something that she could best give with her body.
He slid his finger deep, and she whimpered.
“I’m so fucking glad you’re here,” he muttered.
He surged into her a moment later. She wrapped her legs around his waist and opened up to him in every way.
But he didn’t move. Instead he put his arms under her and crushed her against his chest and kissed her.
They were completely joined, every part of her around every part of him, holding tight, and they stayed like that for several long minutes.
When he did finally move, it was in long, slow strokes that felt more like caresses.
Just having him inside her was heavenly, and she simply let him lead, taking whatever he needed.
They moved together like that for long, blissful minutes. It was sex, but it was so much more too. It was about easing the pain, celebrating the good, being close to and connected with someone.
Finally the heat and friction began to build. Zach increased the rhythm, driving harder and harder.
Kiera didn’t think she was going to get an orgasm out of the deal this time but didn’t mind a bit. Emotionally she was spent, and all she cared about was making Zach feel good. But then he reached between them for her clit while saying, “I could lose myself in you, Princess. Get lost with me.”
She shot straight over the edge, amazed to learn that there were different types of orgasms—the ones that gave that bone-deep, amazing sense of completion and satisfaction, and the ones that made her want even more—things like holding hands and talking and pancakes in the morning.
She remembered him saying he couldn’t make anyone else in his life pancakes.
She really wanted those pancakes now.
She wanted to be close to him, important to him. Involved.
He rolled to his side, and she followed, cuddling up against him for several long, delicious minutes.
“I’m sorry about your night,” she finally said softly, her hand over his heart.
“I just kept thinking about her family,” Zach said, his voice a little rough. “They were at home, probably watching TV, and had no idea their world was about to change forever. They’ll think about the last time they saw her. They’re going to replay that last conversation a million times. And I was just praying that it was all a good memory.”
She lay still, not saying anything for a moment. But finally she asked, “What was your last conversation with Josie?”
He took a deep breath. “It was just a normal conversation. She needed me to come over and unplug her shower drain. She called me for that almost every other month. I asked her if she was plugging it up on purpose.”
Kiera smiled. If that was a surefire way to get to see Zach, she’d plug her shower drain up on purpose for sure.
His finger was tracing up and down her arm, but he seemed lost in thought.
“We just…talked,” he said. “It was nothing unusual. But thinking back—her guitar was lying on her bed. Seeing her guitar in her room was nothing new—she’d always had a guitar—but I remember specifically that it was out and lying on her bed that day. I’ve wondered since then…” He took another deep breath. “I’ve wondered if she wanted me to ask about it. Or somehow give her an opening to tell me about the band. Or something. Because after…the funeral and everything…we went through her things and there was band stuff everywhere. All over her room. Demo CDs and notebook pages with song lyrics and photos and even a poster.” He gave a hard laugh. “Can you believe that? There was a poster for her band on her bedroom wall. I never noticed.” He sighed. “It’s strange how you see what you want to see.”
They lay quietly for a few minutes. Kiera didn’t know what to say to comfort him.
“Thank you for coming. I needed you, Princess.”
Her heart filled. She thought about her response for a second, but finally couldn’t not say, “I’ll be here whenever you need me.”
She felt her heart pounding, aware that what she’d just said was huge. She hoped Zach realized that. And then promptly hoped he didn’t.
“Yeah?” he asked, his arm tightening around her.
She had to be honest. “Yeah.”
He shifted them until he could pull the comforter up over them both but didn’t let her go. His breathing slowed, his muscles relaxed, and he fell asleep.
Kiera lay with her hand still on his heart and finally admitted that her life had just become very complicated. She was in love. With Zach Ashley.
She sighed, prepared to be awake for hours thinking over everything, replaying every word and touch and conversation that had led her to this point.
But the next thing she knew, the sun was streaming in his bedroom window, and she’d had nine hours of the deepest sleep she’d had in as long as she could remember.
* * *
Zach woke and stretched, immediately reaching for Kiera.
The bed was empty. Without opening his eyes, he rolled and put his face in the pillow she’d used. It smelled like her, so he knew her being there hadn’t been a dream. He also knew it had been a big step on her part. And he knew he was in love with her.
She’d come to him when he’d needed her. She’d been there. And she’d stayed through the night even after he’d unloaded about the accident and his memories of Josie.
But he’d hoped she’d still be there this morning.
He growled and flopped onto his back. Son of a bitch. He was going to be patient with her. He was. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t pissed. And hurt.
Fuck. People didn’t just get a good night’s sleep and get over everything. She knew that. Jesus, she was still nursing wounds from three years ago. He wasn’t judging her for that. But she needed to move on, and he’d thought that he was going to be a part of that for her. He’d thought last night was a sign it was happening.
He sat up swiftly. He was going to her now. She wasn’t going back inside that bubble. It was time she understood that he was a patient guy, but that she’d just reached the end of his wait-and-see. He was going to tell her how he felt about her and make her face how she felt as well.
Zach pulled on blue jeans and was still yanking his T-shirt over his head when he swung the bedroom door open and was hit in the face with the smell of bacon.
His stomach rumbled at the same time his heart turned over and said, “Kiera” even as his brain said, “It might be Aimee.” It might be. Stranger things had been happening with her than cooking. Like her being curled up on the couch in front of a movie last night when he’d come home instead of on her computer. And her taking one look at his face and getting up to get him cookies.
He padded down the stairs, almost as if afraid of spooking whoever it was. When he came around the corner, his heart swelled. It was Aimee. And Kiera.
They were laughing and talking as Kiera cooked.
She was, indeed, making bacon. And eggs. And blueberry muffins.
He stared. She was making him breakfast. Them. She had stayed, and she was making breakfast for him and Aimee.
“Good morn—” Kiera’s greeting was cut off as he strode forward and swung her up into his arms.
“Be back in a little bit,” he said to Aimee.
Kiera looked from him to Aimee and back. Then she wordlessly handed the spatula to Aimee.
Zach carried her up the stairs and down the hall to his room. He set her down, shut the door and locked it, and pulled his shirt back over his head.
“I’m in love with you,” he said without preamble.
Her wide eyes went from his chest to his face. “Wha—what?”
“I’m in love with you, and you would make me incredibly happy if you’d take off your clothes and get back in my bed.”
“It’s the bacon talking,” she said. She gave a little squeak as he moved to stand almost on top of her.
“Take your clothes off, Kiera. Or should I say my clothes?”
She was in one of his T-shirts and her baggy pajama pants and bare feet. Her hair was tied up, she had muffin batter on one cheek, and she looked rumpled and…happy. She looked happy.
“Need you naked, Princess.” He reached for the bottom of his shirt and their fingers bumped as they both worked to get the shirt off over her head. “Pants,” he said simply as he shed his jeans.
Her pajama bottoms hit the floor and he lifted her up and tossed her onto the bed.
She lay back, obviously anticipating him climbing up with her, but instead he knelt by the edge of the bed and pulled her toward him.
“Zach.” Her eyes were wide again, and she was shaking her head.
“Oh yes.” With his gaze on her face, he spread her knees. He ran a finger over her mound to her clit and watched as her eyes darkened and her lips parted. He did it again, then slid his finger into her slick heat. A breath hissed out between her teeth.
He leaned in and kissed the inside of her thigh. “You smell like blueberry muffins.”
She gave a soft laugh. “I do not—” She broke off on a sharp gasp as he put his tongue a little higher.
“But you taste even better,” he told her. Then he licked again. A few times. Before he sucked her clit between his lips.
“Zach!”
“That’s it. That’s exactly what I want.” He returned his mouth to her clit and lower, tasting every inch of the pink sweetness before him and relishing every moan, gasp, and Zach and yes that she gave him.
She climbed fast, and he wanted to push her over the edge, but more, he wanted to be as deep in her as he could get so he could feel every ripple from her head to her toes. He rose, dragging his body up hers until he could kiss her. His mouth on hers, he reached for the little pile of condoms he’d made on the bedside table last night. Even he was impressed with how he got it open and on with only the slightest amount of shifting and rolling. Then he pulled one of her knees up and eased into her.
She was tight and hot and…everything. The woman in his arms was, quite simply, everything. She frustrated him, made him laugh, made him think, and made him a better man than he’d been a month ago.
Kiera wiggled underneath him, tipping her hips so he could sink even deeper. Oh yeah, she also made him crazy, hot, and hard.
“Princess, you’re rushing me.”
She smiled up at him. “You’re the one who makes me like this.”
“Like what?”
“Hot. Horny. Insatiable.” She stroked her hands down his back and grabbed his ass.
“Some of my favorite words.” He flexed the muscles under her hands and thrust into her. “But insatiable might be the best of the bunch.”
“Yeah?” she asked, arching to meet his next stroke.
“It means you’ll be staying.” He thrust. “In bed.” He thrust again. “With me.” Another thrust. “All day.”
Kiera arched her neck, her head tipping back on the mattress. “Throw in all night too and you’ve got a deal,” she panted.
“Well, if you insist.” He thrust again and reached between them for her clit.
She moaned and her fingers dug into his butt.
“I could have you in my bed with me all day any day,” he said, circling her sweet spot.
“Zach,” she groaned.
“Say it, Kiera. Tell me there’s nowhere you’d rather be than spread out on my bed with me buried deep, making you moan and come again and again.”
Her head rolled back and forth. “Zach.” He let up on the pressure slightly. Her eyes flew open. “Hey.”
“Tell me.”
“Will you wear the eye patch later?” she asked.
He felt his smile spread, but he narrowed his eyes. “If you’ll be the stowaway I tie to my bed as punishment.”
She grinned, and Zach wondered when the last time a woman had grinned in bed with him. Then again, he wasn’t sure he would have noticed. He’d never been as fascinated with a woman’s facial expressions, particularly her eyes, as he was with Kiera’s. He’d nearly run out of chocolate-brown things to compare them to.
“Thought you decided you weren’t the pirate type.” Her Hershey’s Kisses–brown eyes twinkled at that.
“Turns out I have a little bit of bad boy in me after all,” he said. “At least when it comes to the list I’m compiling.”
“The list?”
“Of sounds you make and how to reproduce them consistently.”
She smiled. “How long’s the list so far?”
“Fourteen different sounds, nine of which are caused by more than one thing.”
She laughed. “What about the other five?”
“Produced by more specific things I do or say.” He circled her clit again, and she made the one that sounded like a hum and a groan put together.
“Fourteen?” she asked, breathless again.
He grinned. He’d totally made that up. She did have a number of sounds, and he was all about getting her to make them over and over again, though. “Going to need more study,” he said, stroking deep as he used his thumb to circle the sensitive hum-groan spot.
“I’m thinking you might get new noises if you play pirate,” she told him.
“You do have a thing for bad boys?” He pulled almost all the way out and then plunged forward.
She gasped, then shook her head. “No, but I have a thing for a regular guy with a big-enough heart and sense of humor to go along with something silly for fun.”
He stroked in and out again, getting a sound that was a cross between a gasp and a sigh. “There’s nothing silly about the idea of you dressed as a tavern wench waiting for my ship to come into port.”
“Whoa, you’ve got a couple scenarios all worked out, I see. I can’t be a pirate queen, with my own ship? And we meet on some deserted island for our rendezvous?”
He moved his hips again, relishing the feel of her under and around him, hot and wet, even as they teased and joked. For a girl like Kiera, talk of costumes and pretend play might just be the best aphrodisiac of all. “Being princess of all of Leokin is enough being in charge. You’ll be at my mercy in this story, wench.” He thrust again, and she moaned.
He thought it was as much the wench thing as the thrust.
She stretched and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Well, I have a very big thing for you, Zach Ashley. The guy. No costumes of any kind needed.”
“I know exactly what you mean, Kiera Connolly.”
He picked up the tempo then, sliding in and pulling out in long, deep strokes that quickly took them from the low burn that had been simmering between them to a full, rolling boil of need.
Her soft noises mixed with the occasional Zach made it impossible for him to hold back, and Kiera met him thrust for thrust until they were both flying. Zach’s body pulsed hard and hot into hers until he felt as if he’d been completely wrung out.
When the waves of pleasure finally subsided, he rolled to his side, dragging her with him. He was still breathing hard, and he was gratified to see her chest heaving as well.
“Now it’s time for breakfast,” he said.
“I wanted to make you pancakes. But I don’t know how.”
He grinned at her. “Are these pancakes literal or metaphorical?”
She returned his smile. “Both.”