My Beloved: A Thin Love Novella (8 page)

“I always need you. I always anticipate how you’ll feel around me, wanting your tight, warm pussy milking me dry.” One smooth movement and Kona had her thong off and his hand slid down, separating her wet lips. Kona pressed his thumb against her clit, rolling it until Keira’s back arched, then slipped two fingers inside of her, rubbing the walls of her core, kneading his knuckle right over that spot that never failed to leave Keira panting. Kona groaned, returned his mouth to her neck, moving his teeth, his tongue, over her pulse as he continued to move his fingers inside her. Keira let her head fall back, lost as the sensation Kona’s tongue and mouth and long, strong fingers shot through her body. Instinctively, Keira squeezed against his fingers, her hips moving in small circles as his movements increased. “Yes, baby, just like that. Squeeze me hard, stroke me with those tight muscles, love me from the inside.
That’s
what I always anticipate, Wildcat. That’s what you always give me.”

Keira’s sharp gasp surprised her, but not her purring when Kona went deeper. She grabbed his shoulders, pulling him down fully on top of her, her breath coming out in short pants against his lips. “Kona. Oh bebe, please fuck me.”

His only response was a low, needy growl and the lightening quick speed of his hands on Keira’s body, desperate, eager as he pulled her dress off.

“Don’t… rip… rip it.”

“Fuck that dress. That dress can go straight to hell.” He leaned up, hurried to strip himself bare before he was on top of Keira again, opening her up to him with his hands pressing down on the inside of her thighs. “That dress was in my way.”

And then, with nothing barring him from her naked body, Kona thrust inside, no preamble, no warning and Keira cried out, loving how full she felt, how hard he took her.

They became a tumble of limbs and mouths, pulling, pushing, taking and Keira’s mind was too foggy, too full to care about anything but the way Kona felt inside of her, how deeply he touched her. She didn’t care that she was screaming, likely advertising their make-up sex to the entire resort, that she yanked on Kona’s hair, that he flipped their positions and moved her up and down, hard against his dick.

Keira only cared that Kona was hers, that the only thing that really mattered was the way their bodies fit together, the taste of sweat on their skin and the idea that this beautiful, frustrating, sweet, strong man would be hers… always.

He loved the smell of her body after he’d taken her. Kona loved how warm her skin felt, how soft her fingers were when she scratched her nails through his hair. He was threatening to drift off and nuzzled closer against her stomach. Her touch was too comfortable, fingers in his hair as she hummed, voice a raspy, melodic whisper that felt like a drug.

“What is that song?”

“I heard it in Waikiki when Malaine took me to the farmer’s market. There was a player with hulu girls performing for the tourists. I liked the melody.”

“It sounds so familiar.” But he couldn’t place it, then didn’t care about anything but feel of Keira’s soft skin rubbing against his face as she snuggled down deeper onto the mattress.

“I’ve loved you for half my life.” She said that like the idea surprised her, like she couldn’t believe all the time they’d been apart, then together again had added to something like more than half of her life.

“You’re just figuring that out, Wildcat?”

“It’s just something that popped into my head.” She turned onto her side and Kona followed pulling her against his chest as they faced each other on the pillow. “That half a year at CPU, all those years you were gone, and the almost half a year since you came back. That’s half my life.”

“You counted the time we weren’t together?”

Keira’s smile was easy, sweet as she moved her chin, let her thumb trace across his scar. “Just because you weren’t around doesn’t mean I didn’t love you. I had a daily reminder of how thick my love was for you, bebe.”

“You never stopped either?” She grinned wider and shook her head. Kona couldn’t help kissing her then, small and brief, but those lips, that tiny taste, was still drugging. Like always. “I think it gets better, stronger the older you get.”

“I don’t think that’s possible.”

He kissed her forehead, hugged her against his chest. “Me either, but I got no problem waiting to find out.”

Kona felt relieved, unbelievably lucky that Keira hadn’t taken off again. He always expected it, anytime she got scared, anytime she let the worry overwhelm her. But lately, before now, everything had been going well, with the exception of missing her so badly his stomach ached when he was off commentating at a game. But then, naked Skype chats had helped dull that particular ache.

He was uneasy with her claim that he loved the spotlight too much. He couldn’t lie and say he didn’t enjoy it, but it was no comparison to her, to their life together. Still, Kona would have to have a long talk with Keira about their future, about his career and the new opportunity that Devon had brought to him earlier today in what had to be some of the worst timing, ever. He wanted to shove that conversation aside. Keira felt too good in his arms, seemed too content, for him to upset her.

But one aspect of that very prickly topic couldn’t wait, not with the concerns she had shared with him earlier. Keira had to be told before the wedding tomorrow. As much as he hated damaging her calm, Kona was worried that he’d have no other chance to break the news to her, especially since Ransom still hadn’t managed to find the nerve to talk to her about his unexpected wedding guest.

“Keira?”

“Hmm?” She snuggled closer, clearly comfortable resting against him. Kona had slept next to Keira every night for the past nearly five months. He’d already learned when she was drifting off by the rhythm of her heartbeat and the slowed breaths that tickled his chest.

“Baby, I need to talk to you about something. You awake?”

“Hmm… what?”

“I said are you…” Kona’s phone sounded, pulling Keira from drifting off completely and he looked down at her, giving her what he hoped was an apologetic frown when she sleepily glared at him. A quick glance at his screen and Kona hurried to accept the call. “Hey man, just a sec.” He shifted to the edge of the bed and pulled on his boxers, tilting his head at Keira when she turned away from him. “Baby,” he said, covering the phone speaker, “it’s the wedding planner guy. I have to take this.” Keira looked over her shoulder when he touched her, the line between her eyebrows disappearing as he kissed her. “I’ll just be a few minutes.” Keira nodded, seemed a bit less irritated and Kona took that as his cue to finish his conversation.

But a few minutes turned into close to an hour when Ronnie Christenson, the owner of Happily Ever After Events, wanted to profusely apologize for Nya’s inappropriateness and then wanted to go over, in precise detail, the agenda for the wedding day. Kona tried four times to tell the guy he had to go, but Christenson was resilient, insistent and highly anal about details.

By the time Kona returned to bed, Keira was sleeping soundly, small little snores coming from her. Kona leaned down to kiss her, stopping short when he saw that the wrinkle between her eyebrows had returned and a harsh frown pulled down her mouth as she slept.

During the flight to Hawaii, Keira and Kona had agreed that there would be no bachelor or bachelorette parties. They were long past drunken frivolity, strippers and having one final stab at decadence before they tied themselves to each other forever. So the rehearsal had been the night before the wedding, and instead of spending their down time relaxing and getting ready for the next day’s chaos, Keira and Kona were having make-up sex. Not that she was complaining.

Though they hadn’t wanted debauched parties with their friends, Kona insisted that Kiera be given some princess time before the ceremony, setting her up the morning of the wedding to be treated to a massage and pampering at the resort spa. So she left that morning early, leaving a kiss on Kona’s lips as he snored steadily.

The spa was mostly quiet, very relaxing and after her facial was completed and the deep tissue massage had her feeling like her bones had gone rubbery, Keira rested in the large massage room, thin curtains separating her from the rest of the bridesmaids as they enjoyed their own bit of pampering.

She felt relaxed, languid, had even gone so far as to turn off her cell and thought the quiet would continue until she heard the lower murmurs on the other side of the curtain, catching Kona’s name. She lay perfectly still, focusing on the private conversation Auntie Malia and another woman whose voice Keira couldn’t place whispered low to each other.

“Cancer, in her bones.”

“Terminal?”

“That’s what she told Malaine. My daughter the only one who still talk story with her.” Malia sighed, the exhale worrying Keira. She could hear the sadness in the woman’s voice, the defeated tone that told Keira whoever was sick had Malia fearful and worried. “She no a good woman. Never was even when I feed her boys, God rest Luka.”

Keira twisted her head, slipping off the table to hear Malia better. Kona’s mother was sick? Dying?

“She was hard, her whole life, yeah? No sweet in her.”

“Except for Kona, yeah.”

“Maybe but she even hurt Kona bad. I hate her for being no good to that boy.”

“Why she so mean?”

Malia sighed, adjusted her body and Keira could hear her body squeak against the chair. “That Samoan, Liam Kaino, he made her that way.”

“He Kona’s father?”

Malia clicked her tongue to the roof of her mouth as though the thought of Kona’s father disgusted her. “He made those boys. He no their father.” She released another disgusted sound, something guttural and annoyed, but adjusted again her seat, squeaking against the leather.

“Kaino said he love my sister, said he want to marry her. He come from money, from New Zealand and
Lalei was so happy. Love him too much, I think. Then he goes back to New Zealand, tells Lalei he’ll send for her, but he never did.”

“She never talk to him?”

“Nah. He stay there, stay far from Lalei, but then my sister, she says she having his baby, she need tell him he gonna be a papa.” Malia exhaled again, made a distinct sound, sad and disappointed, then finished speaking. “She get there and Liam say he sorry but he marry this
haole
from the mainland.”

The sharp gasp of Malia’s friend moved around the room and Keira pulled her towel over her shoulders, frowning for the betrayal Lalei had faced. She could sympathize, though Kona had never known Keira was pregnant when he pushed her away.

“She no tell him about the babies.”

“Why?”

“She say he no have the right to them boys. She say he never know and he didn’t. His
haole
wife couldn’t get pregnant and my sister want Kaino to die thinking he had no babies. That made her hard, made her hate
haoles
, made her hate anyone who she think could take Kona from her. Even Luka. He look too much like Kaino. Kona look like our people. She marry that skinny Tonga, Alana and keep his name after he die. Our name, she no want. Lalei a sad, mean woman. So sad.”

“And now she sick?”

“She alone too for what she did to Kona and his boy and pretty
haole
Keira. Kona no speak with her.”

Keira couldn’t listen anymore. She slipped on her robe and left the room, walking out to the private patio overlooking the ocean. She
wasn’t sure how to feel. She hated Kona’s mother, had harbored such a fierce dislike for the woman for all she’d done to Keira, what she’d tried to do to Ransom. A year ago, Keira wouldn’t have batted an eye about
Lalei
being sick. She doubted she could have even mustered the sympathy to feel bad for Kona at losing his mother. The woman had always been so selfish and vile to everyone but Kona and even then, she’d manipulated him for decades, trying to place him on whatever path she wanted him.

But Keira’s own mother had died six months ago. From what she heard, the illness was painful, lingering and her mother suffered for almost a year before her liver finally failed. When she got the call that the woman was dead, there had been no instant swell of grief, no overwhelming emotional display that leveled Keira. To Keira, her mother died the instant she told Keira to get rid of her baby.