Page 54 of Kai
“I’ve changed my mind.”
“About what?” I asked, even though my body already knew.
She shifted on her long legs. “About testing my sisters’ hypothesis.”
“Why?”
“This.” She lifted her hands, gesturing all around us. “You.”
My eyebrows shot up on my forehead.“Me?”
“You are brave,” she said. “Capable. Patient. Kind. You’re worth the experiment.”
My heart somersaulted in my chest.My Zen wavered, and my pulse picked up. The blue fire in Cece’s eyes combined with the stern set of her jaw to show me she meant what she said.My need for her sizzled under my skin, burned in my veins, and pained my dick.
She was ready much sooner than I’d expected or deserved.
Serves you right for trying to anticipate a woman whose brain is light years ahead of yours. The question is: Areyouready, Marine?
My desire for Cece didn’t falter, but the old memories showed up to taunt me. Gritting my teeth, I shut my eyes and fisted my hands.Not now. I willed them to go away. They were the only obstacle between me and Cece.
“Have you changed your mind?” she asked when I didn’t speak right away. A note of uncertainty honed her voice, a hint of the vulnerability that often complicated her strengths.
“No,” I said, resolved to listen to my body, to my feelings. “I havenotchanged my mind.”
“Good, because I want to kiss you.” She moistened her lips. “I want to kiss you very badly.”
It took all I had not to take her mouth and maul her. “I’m cool with that.”
She slid off her baseball cap and dropped it on the ground. But her eyes? They stayed on me. She took a step forward, braced her hands on my shoulders, and seared my body with her touch. She leaned her face forward, close, closer still. Balancing on the tips of her toes, her mouth hovered over mine. My respiration quickened, and so did hers.
I filled my nostrils with her scent—the hints of plumeria that always wafted from her and the salt on her skin. She smelled like my garden growing up, like my life when I’d been happy.
It was as if everything I’d ever wanted from life coalesced before me all at once. Keeping the memories at bay, I made a tremendous effort not to jump her on the spot when I wanted to rip off her clothes, lay her down on the dirt beneath the sky, andfuck her from now until dawn.
Instead, I dug my nails into my palms and waited.
She tilted her head, studying me with her sparkling gaze. Her slow blinks fluttered over my skin like dragonflies’ wings. Her stare was full of questions. I doubted she expected answers, but I took the risk, anyway.
“Yes, you can trust me,” I volunteered. “Yes, I want you to kiss me. Yes, it’syourchoice. I’m here, right here.Ifyou choose to kiss me.”
As the night approached, an obsidian specter swept its dark veil over the sky. It trailed along the first stars of the evening in its wake. Echoing the delicate sparkle in Cece’s eyes, the stars twinkled. The ocean stilled around us, as if holding its breath, just like I was doing.
I held motionless, wanting, needing, fearing, hoping, waiting, enduring the excruciating pull of her body on mine, willing and yet accepting of any choice she made.
She chose to kiss me, thank fuck.
Her mouth landed on my lips, a soft brush that turned firm and urgent as she tightened her arms around my shoulders and leaned into my space. I held her gently at first, allowing her to set the pace, but she was eager. It was as if after making her decision, every ounce of her reticence had evaporated. Mine was still there, tormenting me in the background, but I pushed through it.
As soon as her tongue slid over the seam of my mouth, I parted my lips, eager to taste her again. She rewarded me with her passion, a dance of tongues and lips that stole my breath, a wave of need so powerful and perfect, I didn’t want it to end.
I hugged her to my chest. Wild heat ripped through my veins and sent my pulse racing. Our entwined tongues danced to the song of the waves and the melody of the breeze. Replying to her kisses, I slipped my tongue in and out of her mouth, slowly,teasingly. A moan lifted from her throat as she gently raked the tips of her teeth over my lips. She was hungry. For my mouth. For me. A groan escaped me, a rumble of need.
Eliminating any distance between us, she pressed her breasts to my chest and her belly to mine, a contact that throbbed through me. My body molded to her form. As if mimicking her nipples, my dick pushed against the spandex, making itself evident.
I dipped my hands beneath her rash guard and ran them over her soft skin, exploring her form, memorizing the shape of her body. She felt so good. Beneath my touch, her skin radiated with the day’s warmth. To be wanted the way she wanted me right now was my fantasy come true. To be needed by her was a prize from the universe.
I glided up a hand, and fingering the rim of her bra, set aside the mesh. I cupped her gorgeous breast, kneading her mound, but avoiding her nipple, encasing it with my fingers and then strumming it with a feathering touch.
