10 Ways to Steal Your Lover (15 page)

BOOK: 10 Ways to Steal Your Lover
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“I know,” Craig replied, letting go with
a cough. “It’ll be okay.”

 
      
No. It’s okay. No. Don’t worry about it.
But Kane realized he could believe this far more than anything else Craig might
have said.

 
      
“Delilah will explain. But I understand,
man. Just the way it goes, sometimes. At least with you I’ll know she’s happy.”
Craig popped him in the shoulder almost hard enough to hurt before turning to
Rainbow and offering his arm. A clear escape, Kane knew, but he didn’t blame
his friend. Not at all.

 
      
Never one to miss a beat, Rainbow beamed
up at him and looped her arm over his. “I never realized quite how tall you
were, Craig. Big strong guy like you can really give a woman ideas.”

 
      
Craig coughed out a laugh and led her to
the door where Jesse waited. Just before they all left the room, Delilah called
out to Jesse, who waited with his dark brows raised.

 
      
“Don’t think for a minute I won’t be
getting even for this,” his almost-wife warned sweetly.

 
      
“For what?” Jesse tried one of his
patented innocent grins.

 
      
“Just keep in mind that my father is one
of the best military strategists of his time. I know how to set up an attack
you’ll never see coming.” She wiggled her fingers at him with evil delight.

 
      
For just a second, Jesse paled. He looked
to Kane. “You sure you want to stay?”

 
      
Kane looked at Delilah and all the
longing, all the need, he’d ever felt for her threatened to swamp him. She
looked back, her eyes clear and happy. They probably wouldn’t stay like that.
Once everyone was gone, once it was just the two of them, she would probably
feel the indecision creeping up on her again, like it had all day.

 
      
Most of the time he’d known her, actually.
If she could ever manage to trust in herself, she might learn to trust in him.
Trust in them.

 
      
The odds of that happening today weren’t
so good. Soon enough, she would wonder if she should have left with her
parents. With Craig. She was only staying until they figured out what to do
with the dubious legality of their certificate. Until that was settled, the
choice of their future was in his hands. It would kill him, but he knew if she
changed her mind about staying, he wouldn’t stop her. He’d have to let her go,
like he did everyone else in his life.

 
      
Just the thought of it made him ill.

 
      
And yet, he nodded his head at his
friend, holding his breath until Jesse stopped staring at him with those back
eyes, seeing too much and saying nothing, just like always. For a man who made
his living singing, he communicated best with silence. He knew good and well
that things weren’t settled, but he was smart enough to accept Kane’s choice
and go. The door snicked shut, leaving them alone with too much to say and no way
for him to choke the words out.

 
      
No, that wasn’t true.

 
      
The truth was, he didn’t have any words
left.

 
      
“I have to take care of something
upstairs for a few minutes,” he muttered, heading for the steps before she said
something he’d regret.

 
      
Unfortunately, his thoughts weren’t any
better alone in the bedroom. Since they’d had a Do Not Disturb on the door to
the suite, housekeeping hadn’t come in to make the bed. The sheet and the duvet
were still in disarray, thrown haphazardly over the bottom end. Seemed a good
enough place to sit and depress the shit out of himself.

 
      
Before he dropped, groaning with
weariness he hadn’t felt even ten minutes before, he reached into his back
pocket to pull out the envelope with the license.

 
      
Keeping his movements slow and careful,
he looked down at the parchment paper. So strange to think he could hold a
dream in his hands. Could touch it and cherish it.

 
      
But that was his mistake.

 
      
Because this wasn’t the dream.

 
      
It was a trap.

 
      
Not for him, but for her. She’d honor the
commitment to him because he was asking it of her. If he signed this, all but
telling her his choice was more important than hers, he’d be no different than
anyone else who thought they had the right to choose anything for her. He
couldn’t bear to be that. Many other things—stubborn, determined, probably too
quiet and definitely too rough —but never that.

 
      
What sealed his determination was the
plain fact that when Delilah came to him, he wanted her to be sure that she
loved him. That she wanted him.

 
      
Anything less just wasn’t good enough.

 
      
Before he could talk himself out of
it—and because he knew he could never do it with her watching—he gave the paper
a fast, near silent rip. Turning the pieces, he ripped them again. It felt like
he’d tore out his heart, but it had to be done. Now he just had to figure out
how to tell Delilah.

 
      
“Kane?”

 
      
He looked up, shoving the pieces under
the pile of blankets behind him like the evidence of a crime instead of the
useless piece of paper that it was.

 
      
She stood there in the doorway, her
fingers twisting the end of her sweater. She watched him, concern etching a
line between her brows and pulling down the corners of her mouth. “Are you
okay?”

 
      
He nodded, but he couldn’t help looking
away. Lying really wasn’t his best skill.

 
      
She must not have believed him because
she walked into the bedroom, already rambling. “I’m so sorry about my Dad. The
things he said to you…” She plopped down next to him, her soft warmth pressed
against his side as she fit her elbows to her knees and cupped her face between
her hands. “I’m not making excuses for him, but when he hits critical mass like
that, it’s never good. He’s a blusterer, especially when he’s worried about
something personal. Give him a rogue missile and he’s a rock. Show him a baby
with a fever and he falls to pieces. I’m not really sure why, but it’s the way
he is.”

 
      
“Probably depends on whose baby it is,”
Kane managed to push through his straining vocal cords.

 
      
“Probably.” She smiled at him. “Anyway,
I’m sorry about what he said. Sorry you had to deal with him when he was like
this.”

 
      
“You don’t have to apologize for him.” Especially
since her father had hurled most of his outrage at her.

 
      
“I know, but someone should.”

 
      
“Then it shouldn’t be you.” He knew his
voice had dropped to a rough tone he didn’t often use around her, but he
couldn’t change it. “Your father is a grown man, let him make up for his own
mistakes.”

 
      
“What about my mistakes?”

 
      
Like their wedding? No, even if she was
right, he couldn’t bear to hear her say so. Without thinking about it, he
reached for her, grasping her nape and her shoulder, pulling her into him. He
claimed her mouth, opening her to his kiss and wordlessly demanded from more
her. Just one more time, he needed what only she could give to him.

 
      
Hands in her hair now, Kane angled her
head so he could delve deep into her kiss. Her nails slid against his own
scalp, her hunger as ravenous as his. Gasoline on a raging fire, as far as Kane
was concerned. The future was uncertain and daunting, but this moment, this,
the magic he felt between them, was something he understood wholeheartedly. No
guilt. No confusion. Only need. Desire. Love.

 
      
He could love her. Once more, he could
love her.

 
      
Then he’d have to let her go.

Chapter Eleven

 
      
Her body had melted into his the moment
their mouths met. When he pulled her close, she came to him without a trace of
trepidation. She simply gave of herself and he, selfish bastard that he was,
took.

 
      
His hunger ravenous, he ran his hands
over her, tugging urgently on the button of her jeans even as he pushed her on
her back. Her hands tangled with his to get it undone, shoving at the denim
until it slid over her hips. Unable to wait, he rolled her unto her belly,
licking and sucking over the slope of her spine while his hands shucked the
jeans from her hips all the way down to her knees. It was only when the silk
grazed his lips that he was able to stop.

 
      
She wore the thong.

 
      
On his knees now, Kane stopped to stare
at the sight in front of him. Delilah knelt on top of the stark white sheet,
facing away from him, pulling her shirt off and revealing the pink satin bra
clinging to her tanned skin like a tenacious lover. That taut, round ass of
hers swayed with her struggle to stay upright while undressing.

 
      
He would have appreciated that view on
its own, would have savored it even, if his mind wasn’t now set on keeping her
bent exactly like this, but with her thighs spread so he could have complete
access to every fold and valley of her pussy. He wanted her right there, bathed
in sunlight, open while he licked and stroked and sucked the pale pink flesh
until she came, screaming his name. Again.

 
      
She’d surprised him by wearing the
underwear he’d requested. all day long, she’d been wrapped in satin. Like a
present. A wedding present. For him.

 
      
His cock throbbed at the thought.

 
      
Which was kind of funny, considering he
didn’t think he could complete a thought with the uptilted globes of her ass
waving in front of his face, her sex cupped lovingly by silk growing wetter
before his eyes. For him.

 
      
Abandoning the jeans on her ankles, he
reached with both hands to run his thumbs over the firm swells, parting her
cheeks to see the thin string travel over her most secret spaces all the way up
to the triangle right at the lowest part of her spine. His thumbs caressed,
earning a moan from her and her hips curved up at him again.

 
      
Oh yes, he was going to have to taste
absolutely every inch of her now. Mercilessly.

 
      
Her small shriek at the first touch of
his tongue to the bottom curve of her ass had him smiling. He got a much bigger
one when he added his teeth. In a bizarre dance of escape combined with
desperation to get him to bite her harder, Delilah pushed against his mouth and
somehow managed to wriggle her face into the mattress to muffle her own sounds.
Not liking that at all, Kane switched to the other side, sucking hard enough to
make her buck back up. Ragged breaths and little sighs created a symphony just
for him as he nipped and tasted, savoring the taste of her skin, the quiver of
her thighs, the musky scent of her arousal.

 
      
He slipped his fingers beneath the edge
of her thong, stroking the slick folds slowly. Petal soft, the wet heat was too
much temptation and he slid his finger along the edges of her opening. A
sweeping touch had her writhing and whimpering his name. Unable to refuse her,
he pressed his open mouth over the silk, using just his lips to find the hard
pebble of her clit. Her entire body shuddered at that.

 
      
Good.

 
      
He sank his middle finger into her,
stirring her moisture against the walls clamping around him. Desperate for a
taste now, he sucked at her through the panties, pulling hard, then letting the
little nub go, over and over again while she wriggled in front of him. Another
finger joined the first, pumping into her hot folds and pushing her further
toward frustration.

 
      
“Kane, God, please.”

 
      
How was he supposed to say no to that?
Yanking her pants off her ankles, he pushed her knees wide and fit himself
completely between them. One last stroke of his fingers inside her and he pulled
them out to drag the panties over to the side. Then he was free to drink her
down.

BOOK: 10 Ways to Steal Your Lover
3.88Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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