Lexie and Killian (4 page)

“With me? You know what’s going on with me. What do you mean?”

“I saw the envelope from the Savannah Art Show Committee. It was lying on the counter. Unopened.” He glanced at her, but in the dark he couldn’t see the expression on her face.

“So you saw it.” Her voice held a defensive edge. “So what?”

“Are you planning to enter?” He tried to keep his voice as calm and even as he could because he had mixed feelings about this. Savannah had been the scene of not just her opportunity for success but also of a spectacular humiliation. And factored into it was the jackass she’d thought herself in love with at the time. “Lexie?” he prompted, when she didn’t answer.

“I’m thinking about it,” she answered.

He still remembered how shocked he’d been when he learned she painted all the artwork hanging on the walls at Heart Starter. Not to mention the incredible portrait of him now hanging in their family room. He was so damn proud of her, and so pissed off at the jerk who’d stolen her chance from her. He wanted her to have this opportunity, even if it came to nothing. At least it would mean she’d moved past that disaster, and he wanted that for her with everything he was.

“But you contacted them about an entry, right? Isn’t that why they wrote to you?”

“I, uh, asked for a place in the show.” She paused. “There are a limited number of entries, like always. I thought…”

“Thought what?” he pressed, sliding a quick glance at her and seeing her small shrug. “That you might not get accepted?”

“Well, you know,” she murmured. “It’s been almost three years since I went to art school in Savannah and left all that behind.” 

“But you’re still painting,” he reminded her.

“For myself,” she told him. “And you. And my friends. That’s all. Killian, I was already older than many of the students when I went there. For all I know, the newest crop of young geniuses has already passed me by.”

“I don’t believe that. Besides, I’m for sure no judge, but your painting has a maturity I bet most of the others lack.”

“Thank you. You’re the best husband.” She reached across the console and squeezed his thigh.

Even a gesture that light made his cock leap to life and beg for attention. He needed to get home in a hurry.

“I say that not just because you are my wonderful wife but because your talent is so obvious. Lexie, you can’t let what happened the last time affect what you do for the rest of your life. You love painting. Why not take a shot here? If you don’t get in, or don’t win the prize, you’re still going to keep painting. And more people will see your work and want to buy it.”

She giggled. “Maybe you could take out an ad that says that in great big letters.”

“If it would make you happy.” He put his large hand over hers. “Right now, what would make me happy is to get you home and naked as fast as I can, and forget about today’s disaster.”

“Sounds good to me.”

Chapter Two

By the time they parked the truck and made it inside the house Lexie was so aroused just from thinking of sex with her husband her pulse raced. Moisture flooded her panties, her cream evidence of her heated desire. The nipples on her aching breasts tightened to diamond-hard tips. A pulse throbbed low in her belly and in the walls of her sex, insistently trumpeting the intensity of her need. Would it always be like this between the two of them, instant conflagration whenever they touched, raging hunger whenever they were alone? She hoped they didn’t burn themselves out before they celebrated their first wedding anniversary.

A slight tremor shook Killian’s hands as he hung his jacket on a peg in the mud room. She hooked hers next to it and, without a word, spun and headed for their bedroom. She’d almost made it into the room when his hands grasped her hips, turning her around to face him.

“I have to have a taste.” His voice held that passionate, husky sound she loved.

“Have at it.”

She could barely get the words out before he slid his hands up to cup her face and brought his lips down on hers.
God!
From the very first time they were together, Lexie swore Killian’s kisses were magic. Erotic magic. He brushed his mouth over hers in a light contact, making all the little nerves there sit up and beg for more. His lips brushed smooth against hers. As always, the brief contact made her automatically open for the exploration of his tongue.

Oh god! His taste!
Better than anything she could remember. Tonight, it was filled with the faint lingering flavors of barbecue and corn and the essence that was Killian that not even a hint of beer could chase away. The scent of outdoors still clung to him, an earthy masculine smell which never failed to turn her on. The kiss went on and on, Lexie clinging to Killian’s shoulders, sure she would have fallen from the weakness invading her body without the support of his hands.

“God.” He panted when he lifted his mouth from hers. “Your kisses should be outlawed, you know that? It’s a damn good thing no one gets to enjoy them but me. Otherwise, you’d have a long line of men trailing you wherever you went.”

Lexie wanted to laugh. Not that her social life had been a disaster, but she’d never had a long line the way a lot of the women she knew did, not even in high school. Maybe because she always focused on her art. And Rick had—

No! She would not think about him tonight. Not let thoughts of him creep into the bedroom with her and Killian.

“You okay, sugar?” Killian’s face was still so close she could feel his breath on her cheeks.

“Better than okay. Why?”

“You just got the strangest expression.”

Think of something. Quick, before he asks more questions.

“Maybe I was wondering if you were going to bring out that new rope you ordered tonight.” And what a shock it had been for her to realize how his little rope fetish had turned her on big time. Partly because he never took anything to the extreme but a bigger part was her absolute trust in him and her belief he’d never abuse that trust. She could still remember the first night he’d brought it up, in her little apartment over Heart Starter. At first, she’d been afraid, then skeptical but, in the end, curious enough to let him tie up her wrists.

Holy Hannah! What a turn on that had been. It opened a side of herself she’d never known existed, but one she embraced fully with Killian.

Fire blazed in his eyes at her words. “Who’d ever have thought my little artist would be so hot for bondage.” He traced the outline of her mouth with the tip of his tongue. “I think we can manage it, but first we need to get out of these clothes.”

He was out of his boots and socks before she could blink and already unbuttoning his shirt.

“Wow.” She grinned. “Someone is in a hurry.”

“Especially when you mention rope. Come on, girl. Let me see that luscious body of yours.”

She pulled her Heart Starter T-shirt over her head, tossing it onto the small chair in the corner. Killian’s eyes widened as he took in the sight of her bra. Beneath the utilitarian shirts she wore for work, she’d taken to wearing very sexy lingerie, knowing how much her husband loved it. Tonight’s concoction was bright red, cut low enough her breasts swelled above the delicate lace edging. Teasingly, she held the cups in her palms as if offering herself to Killian. Eyes glued to her, he licked his lips.

“You like to do that teasing, don’t you, darlin’. You know teasers always pay the price.”

“Counting on it,” she told him. Wetting the tip of one index finger she circled the satin fabric around a beaded nipple. She continued to be stunned at how uninhibited she was with him. “
Really
counting on it.” She ran her gaze up and down his body. “But aren’t you supposed to take your clothes off, too?”

His laugh was rough and ragged with need. “I’m enjoying the show too much.”

“Well, that’s all the show you’re going to get until you at least lose the shirt.”

His gaze still locked with hers, he finished unbuttoning his plaid shirt, tugged the tail loose from his jeans, and eased it down his arms. One flick of his hand and the shirt landed on top of her T-shirt in the chair.

Lexie caught herself wanting to drool. Would she ever get used to the sight of her husband’s ripped body, his hard abs and sculpted muscles, the gorgeous sprinkling of curly black hair on the hard wall of his chest? The hair arrowed down to the waistband of his jeans and below, and her mouth watered even more as she conjured up the image of what it pointed to.

“Now, you,” he urged. “Your turn again.”

“Oh, we’re doing the striptease thing tonight?” she baited.

“Darlin’, I’m always up for a little strip show with you, although tonight, I’m not sure I can wait.”

Lexie didn’t think she could either. Not only could Killian turn her on with just the slightest touch, but also, tonight, she needed it to wash away the effect of today’s near disaster and the tension she’d felt in the emergency room waiting area.

She asked herself daily how she ever could have gotten so lucky as to have Killian fall in love with her and marry her. She’d fallen for him the moment he walked into Heart Starter, although her cautious heart had tried to put the brakes on. Now, well, she didn’t even want to think of what her life would be like without him.

Are you crazy, girl? Dithering and blathering when you have a near naked hot man who wants your body, and who loves you to distraction? Get your shit together.

She kicked off the ugly but comfortable shoes she wore at work. Then, wetting her lips, she unsnapped her jeans and pushed them down her legs, wiggling her butt as she did so. Then she stood there in a thong matching the red bra, nothing more than a scrap of satin barely covering her mound. Discovering Killian had a thing for a bikini wax, she’d made it a habit to maintain it so no curls peeped out from the edges of the little triangle of fabric.

“Christ!” he growled. “Come here, Lexie. Let me run my tongue over those smooth, silky thighs.

“Not until you get rid of the rest of your clothes.” To tempt him a little more, she turned around in a circle, making sure to wiggle her hips from side to side. Then, adding sauce on the dish, she bent over, grabbed her ankles, and did another little shimmy.

When she turned around, Killian had ripped off his jeans and his boxer briefs and stood there, legs apart, the most droolworthy specimen of manhood she’d ever seen. The muscles in his thighs and calves were as hard as every other one in his body. And speaking of hard, his cock stood out proud and thick, swollen with need, the purple head dark and adorned with a tiny drop of precum.

Killian reached between his legs and cupped his balls. “All for you, sugar. Every bit. Now come here.”

She sashayed to where he stood and stared at him for a long moment before she closed her fingers around his cock. He sucked in a breath.

“Jesus, Lexie. You touch me and I’m almost at the detonation point.”

“Then maybe we’d better take the edge off so we can enjoy a long, slow ride.”

His fingers tightened on his sac. “My way.”

She nodded. “Your way. Always.”

He stepped to the large dresser along one wall, opened one of the drawers, and took out a length of light-blue silky rope. Early on, he’d tossed the lengths of regular rope he used, telling her they were too harsh on her skin. But sometimes, some nights, she wanted that harshness. Wanted to see the reddened skin when he released her. She thought of it almost as a branding, a positive sign she was his and he wanted to keep her always.

Dramatic much, Lexie? Of course he wants to keep you. Get that other asshole out of your head.

Yes, out of her head. Would another happily married woman with a hot husband think about some jerkoff? No! And she wasn’t going to, either.

Killian stroked the length of rope as he walked back to where she stood. Cupping her chin, he looked hard into her eyes. “I just want you to know, I never expected to find the woman of my dreams and the love of my life in Red Creek, Kansas.” He ran a finger over the slope of each breast. “For the rest of my life, I’ll be grateful to Dusty for bringing us all here.”

“Me, too,” she breathed.

Again, he took her mouth, thrusting his tongue deep, licking every inch of the smooth inner flesh. Lexie met her tongue with his, again clutching his upper arms to steady herself. Hunger raced through her, and need and desire, a triple threat reaching into every corner of her body. They didn’t even break the kiss when he reached behind her to unfasten the bra, slide the straps down her arms, and let the little garment fall to the floor. Consumed with hunger for him, she dropped to her knees, clasping her hands behind her in a position that had now become familiar.

Killian had explained to her, right in the beginning, he wasn’t really into the whole bondage and discipline thing but it turned him on to have her appear helpless to do his bidding. To tie her up and ravish her body at his leisure. It astonished her how erotic it was to her and how much it turned her on. Their own special little game.

Now, she waited as he wound the length of braided silk around her wrists and tied the end off in a knot. Finished, he walked around to stand in front of her, close enough that her mouth touched his shaft. She could see the blood pulsing through the thick vein wrapped around it. Bending slightly, she traced the length of that vein with her tongue, reveling in the shudder that ran through his big body. She did it again and again, until he drove his fingers in the fall of her hair, twisting the strands around them, and shifted her so the head of his dick rested right on her bottom lip.

“You know what I want.” The sound of his voice was guttural, its harshness arousing because it indicated the degree of his need.

“Mmhmm,” was all she could say as she opened her mouth and wrapped her lips around his thickness.

Killian tugged on her hair to tilt her head back a little more, allowing him to slide his engorged shaft along her tongue, deeper into her mouth. He moved his hips in the rhythm he’d found worked best for them, the head of his cock sliding deep and bumping at the back of her throat then slipping out again. Lexie kept her lips closed around him, scoring the silky soft skin lightly with her teeth. Sometimes she bit down just a little, eliciting a harsh groan from him and causing him to up the speed of his movement.