Page 51 of Claiming His Wife
“She is no daughter of mine,” Richard insisted with a hard look at Kalilah.
“Then I quit!” he returned.
“What?”Two voices in unison questioned his declaration. Kalilah looked at him with something close to awe.
“The company, you can keep it. I no longer have any interest in it.” With that bombshell, Finn exited the study.
Kalilah exited hot on his heels and barely caught him at the door.
“You can’t do that!”
“I can, and I have,” he answered easily.
“You don’t understand,” she started to explain but he cut her off as he suddenly stopped walking and turned to face her, his face a mask of stubbornness, his jaw clenched. The blonde scruff on his face gave him a very wild look.
“Actually, for the very first time I do, the picture became clearer with that scene in there and I just want to say that if this is what you’ve been going through all these years, I am sorry for your pain and the part I’ve played in it.”
Kalilah swallowed at his intensity.
“No, you don’t need to apologize to me; I may have been hurt but then so were you. He used us. We were nothing but pawns to ensure the continuity of the business.”
“I’m just glad it’s all over now; he can keep his money and his company,” he replied, eyes fixed on some distant sight.
“You can’t quit. It’s your dream and you’ve done such a good job with the company, don’t stop now. You have so much more to do,” she pleaded.
“I can’t, knowing that he threatened you and cut you out of the family,” he returned, his blue eyes searching hers.
“I don’t think I’ve ever said it, but I am really proud of you. There are people whose livelihoods depend on you. It’s bigger than me and you and all our sacrifices.” She moved closer to him and placed her hand on his chest.
“The sacrifice was too great. Our entire marriage...” his pained voice trailed off.
“I know.”
He turned away from her to look at the garden and said, “I’ll rescind my resignation, but only because you asked me to. I’ll let him stew for two weeks though.”
“Make it a month.” An impish suggestion that had him looking down at her. He brought his face down and leaned into her touch, lips tracing over her cheekbones before capturing her mouth in a hot kiss, his hand fisted in her hair.
CHAPTER 15
TWO WEEKS LATER, KALILAH LAY IN FINN’S BED, on her side, gazing out the window at the morning sunshine with a silly grin on her face. Memories of last night and the nights before coursed through her. She hadn’t been to work in a fortnight. She was emotionally recovering from everything she learned, in addition to familiarizing herself to her husband’s body. Jonathan kept calling and she kept sending him to voicemail. She planned on getting a local number anyway, since moving back to the States now seemed highly unlikely. Finn had kissed her into a frenzy when she had showed him the horrible texts Jon had sent her.
She and Finn spent the past two weeks in his condo doing nothing more than watching Netflix and making love. They spoke of nothing of their future or their past. They simply basked in the passions of their present moment. Kaiya came over to Finn’s once last week to sign some paperwork for her dance school, and Kalilah had told her sister everything that had transpired between her and their father. Her sister understood her need to distance herself. Kalilah still couldn’t believe that she was here now. Laying in her husband’s bed.
Last night had been a lot of things, all of them very good. The big hand splayed across her breasts shifted even lower, to her stomach, and her breathing hitched in anticipation of starting the day off the same way as they had left it last night. Her sore body warned against any rigorous action, but she woke up with a fine edge to her hunger and she would be ignoring anything that was not leading in the direction she wanted. She was introduced to multiple orgasms last night, and she couldn’t wait to renew their acquaintance.
Finn shifted, pecked a good morning kiss on the back of her shoulder, and patted her bottom. Then the sleep-drugged touch became sharper, harder somehow.
Finally!That was the only thing she could think. He turned his lips towards hers, and his hands pulled her closer. Then his lips nudged hers open, and his tongue dipped into her mouth. She heard someone moan, and realized it was her. She did not want to be the only one moaning.
She lifted her hands and ran her fingers through his hair, running her nails along the skin at his neck and along his shoulders. It was his turn to moan. She would have smiled, but her mouth was busy.
She became aware of a hand on her leg, and she parted them for his insistent fingers. They climbed higher, past every place she wanted them to touch, until he wrenched her hands above her head.
She tried to lift her legs to rub against his inner thigh, but he pinned her body to the bed with his legs and trapped her hands with one hand, while the other took a leisurely stroll across her body that short-circuited her senses. Kalilah would have been content to allow him to give her pleasure, but not this morning. There was no way she was going to let him touch her bare skin when she couldn’t return the favor. She bucked against him, a feat that achieved little except to make her naked breasts sway at mouth level. He caught a nipple and bit softly before licking the pain away with a tongue slick with saliva.
Kalilah quickly abandoned the ineffective measures and focused instead on pressing against his impressive length, trapped between their bodies. It proved difficult at first, but she arched up lightly before rubbing fiercely against him, his sharp intake of breath was a hard-won reward.
“Be quiet,” he growled. She smiled.
