Page 116 of The Kings of Kearny

Her grip on my shoulders tightened. “Come here,” she panted.

I dropped down, resting my elbows on either side of her head. She lifted her hips, and the angle changed. The next time I surged forward, my lower abdomen slicked over her clit. From the way she gasped, this was exactly what she needed. I fisted my hands in her hair and started fucking her in truth, remembering the steady, relentless rhythm that would send her tumbling over the edge.

She stared up at me, those deep brown eyes piercing, even as they started to lose focus. Her brows creased, a little line forming between them. I pounded into her and watched from inches away as she started to unravel. Sweat beaded her brow. Her hands fell to my ass, fingers gripping, urging me on.

Her pillowy lips parted on a moan. “Jakob,oh God.”

She squeezed her eyes shut, and deep inside, her inner muscles squeezed too. The noises she made were throaty and desperate and unevolved, and I couldn’t hold out any longer. I shifted up as she came, angling deeper. She scrabbled at my back like a wildcat, crying out. I gripped her good hip in one hand and rammed home for the last time, spilling myself inside her.

“Fuck,” I ground out. Other words fell from my lips, but I had no idea what the hell I said. I was nearly delirious. Coming inside her was like seeing God.

I all but fell on top of her, cheek planted between her breasts. Her chest heaved beneath me. The thunder of her heartbeat was loud in my ear.

She shook, and I realized she was chuckling.

“Like seeing God, huh?” she asked.

Shit, I’d said it out loud.

I nodded in response. I didn’t trust myself not to give more away if I opened my mouth again. I didn’t trust myself not to ask her to get rid of her brand-new apartment and move in with me so she could make me see God twenty-four seven until we both starved to death because we were too busy fucking to remember to eat.

She kissed the top of my head, arms sliding around me, holding me close. We needed to get cleaned up. Hell, we’d probably just ruined the couch cushions. But her body was so warm, and I was suddenly so tired that closing my eyes and taking a nap on top of her seemed like an excellent idea. She couldn’t get away from me again if I kept her trapped like this.

Maybe tying her up was something I could get into after all.

“Uh... Jakob?” she said. “Not that I don’t want to snuggle, but you’re sort of crushing my bladder.”

I heaved a sigh and pushed off of her. “Shower?”

She nodded, holding a hand up to me. I ignored it and scooped her straight off the couch. She frowned and opened her mouth, probably to make a smartass remark about how I hadn’t dicked her so hard that her legs stopped working, but I sealed my lips over hers before she could get it out.

After the shower, we unpacked our things and got dressed. This rustic cabin had charm to spare, but if we wanted to eat while we were here, we needed to head into the nearest town and pick up some food.

The postcoital bliss faded from Krista’s face as she tugged on a pair of leggings. I watched her out of the corner of my eye. I always watched her. She looked distracted as she slipped a low-cut tank top on. I knew something was bugging her when she sat down to pull on a pair of sneakers because she was full-on frowning.

“What is it?” I asked.

She straightened and looked up at me. “I don’t know if I can relax, knowing he’s out there.”

I heaved a sigh. Fuck, we were going to have to do this now. I knew from the look on her face that she wouldn’t give; she could be even more stubborn than me when she put her mind to it. I wanted to at least get through the weekend, have one last, brainless hurrah before shit went sideways again, but it was clear that wasn’t going to happen.

“He’s not out there,” I told her.

Her brows rose. “What? Jakob! You promised me you didn’t kill him!”

She sounded mad, borderline petulant, like she wasn’t upset that Imighthave killed Redding but that I hadn’t let her be part of it.

Please God, let her want to be part of it,I thought. If I’d misread the situation, if I’d misread her, then what I was about to do would send her screaming away from me forever.

“Come on,” I said. “I got you something.”

She frowned. “What?”

I held out a hand. “Just trust me, okay?”

With a wary expression, she put her hand in mine and let me pull her up. I tugged her through the house and led her out the back door. This cabin wasn’t much, but it was secluded, and that made it priceless right now. I hadn’t been lying when I told her no one would hear her scream out here. The land around us was part of a conservation easement, and there wasn’t another human being for a hundred acres in all directions. This was Mike’s summerhouse. Yeah,thatMike. Dad’s Mike. And all the shit that Dad didn’t want tracked back to him usually ended up out here. And by shit, I meant bodies.

There was a narrow path between the trees out back. I dropped Krista’s hand and led her up it. The sun was disappearing beneath the horizon, throwing long shadows across the trail, and I made sure to call out when I stepped over a root or a rock, so she didn’t trip. A few hundred feet into the woods, a small, low hut came into sight. It was barely more than a lean-to, paper-thin walls holding up a metal roof that was covered over in rust.

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