Slashes in the Snow : A Baum Squad novel Page 12

  Kira naked never gets old.

  “Hands over your head, Snow.”

  In that I’m-so-sexy-I-don’t-even-need-to-try way, Kira lifts her arms. Her whole body elongates, and so does my resolve. Being stretched to the point of snapping. I am a fucking fool for this woman. A sucker, a dope, a sap. A victim of weakness. Because that’s Kira’s power. She makes me weak. She breaks me down. She makes me kneel. And through all that, she somehow makes me better. Makes me stronger. Makes me able.

  I like who I am when I’m with her. She changed me, and she doesn’t even realize it. I didn’t realize it either until the moment she threatened to leave.

  I kneel and place my hands on her thighs. “Who does this body belong to?”

  “You?”

  “Me? You don’t sound sure, Snow.”

  “I'm not.”

  “Why?” I push her legs apart, exposing the sweetest, most vulnerable part of her body.

  “Because you make me question everything?”

  “Question the way I truly feel? What my true intentions are?”

  “Yes,” she huffs as I blow on her clit.

  “I’m going to put all those doubts to rest tonight.” I kiss the pink piece of flesh. “No more doubts. No more secrets. No more fears. I’ll give myself to you right now, if you do the same. If you tell me you’re mine. Pledge it to me.” I suck on her clit, hard enough to send a message, soft enough to make her respond.

  “Ky,” she mewls.

  “Do you want to be mine, Kira?” I lick and suck, gliding my tongue along her slit in light, airy strokes.

  “Do you want to be mine?” Kira buckles, crunching up to look at me, her cheeks pink with need.

  “I’m already yours, Kira. All yours.” I look her dead in the eyes. I have never given myself to another human being the way I have given myself to Kira. I’m drawn to her in ways I can’t explain. On a level so profound I can’t even comprehend it. The only thing I truly understand is that I need Kira in my life.

  Period, end of story.

  “Promise?” She latches onto my neck, desperate for my word. And I’ll give it to her. When it comes to Kira, I’ll give her anything.

  “I promise.” And I mean it with every breath and every fiber. Every cell that swims through my veins.

  We seal our pact with an intense, emotion-filled kiss that sets the sheets on fire and ignites the passion boiling right beneath the surface.

  “Scream my name when you come. Scream that you’re all fucking mine.” I eat her out with no reserve or restraint or repression. Pulling out her pleasure as fast and as hard as my lips and hands will allow.

  “Ky, Ky, Ky,” she pants, oppressed by the weight of her ecstasy. I finger her fast then slow, her pussy spasming from the oscillating sensations. A seesaw of highs and lows that drive her straight to the edge. Her body tenses, her breathing shallows, and her nails claw at the back of my neck. “Fuck, I’m yours,” she declares seconds before she shatters in a beautiful display of bliss. “I’m all fucking yours,” Kira nearly cries as she comes, and it’s a stunning stretch of surrender I wasn’t prepared for. Even though I wanted it, pushed for it, essentially begged for it, the reality of it reduces me to almost nothing. Kira has taken my heart hostage and is now holding it for ransom. A ransom I’m positive I’m never going to pay.

  “Ky.” She murmurs my name so purely I rush up her body to kiss her. To lose myself in her. To hand myself over to her.

  “You fucking destroy me, Snow.” I press my lips, hot and hungry, all over her face, and neck, and naked chest. I have finally come to realize I need more than just her body. I also need her love. “I—need—you.” It’s as close as I can come to professing my true feelings and not stumble all over myself.

  “You have me,” she promises between emotive kisses. Kisses that hypnotize me. That break me down and nearly annihilate me.

  “Roll over.” I urge her onto her stomach and pull her up to her knees. Making quick work of my fly, I release the fucking projectile my dick has suddenly become and sink into the one place that will cover the explosion.

  “Ah, Ky,” Kira’s voice pitches as I thrust, the force too much.

  “Fuck, sorry.” I cover her body with mine, anchoring one hand over hers, and tilting her chin up. “I told you I needed you.” I kiss her deliriously, hard up, and hungry to fuck. Kira clutches the comforter as I continue to pound away at her. “I’m yours, I’m yours, I’m fucking yours.” I hold her tightly against me, our choppy breaths mingling with each brutal thrust.

  I’ve never been so rough with Kira before. Possessive, dominant, demanding, maybe, but not rough. Tonight is different, though. Everything is different. I need her more, crave her more, just demand so much fucking more.

  And she gives me everything. Her body, her trust, her entire self.

  Hard, fast, deep. Hard, fast, deep. Hard, fast, deep the rhythm goes until the tip of my cock becomes so sensitive it could burst like a carnival balloon.

  “Kira.” I shudder as my thighs go numb and all my energy drains rapidly in a rapturous way. “Fuck, baby.” My body and mind drift through a euphoric space, high off the woman I’m buried deep inside of.

  I press a long, lingering kiss against her temple. “You take it like such a good girl.”

  “You give it like such a bad boy.”

  I growl and bite her neck. “I play to my strengths, Snow.”

  “I want to be one of your strengths, Ky.”

  “You already are, baby. You already are.”

  15

  Kira

  I WAKE up to soft vibrations next to my head. I crack my eyes open, my limbs a tad sore from last night's sheet shenanigans, and check my phone laying on the pillow.

  I read the text from Ky: Stay in bed, Snow. I want you naked when I get back.

  I smile like a stupid idiot making note of the time. I’m supposed to be leaving for the airport right now instead of just waking up. However, I’m choosing to stay in bed. Choosing to stay in the States with Ky, my stepfather’s son, whom I’m falling madly in love with. My therapist would officially diagnose me insane. For the first time though, insanity has never been so appealing.

  I TEXT BACK: Naked brunch?

  KY: Fuck yes

  I LIE in bed waiting for far too long. I’m antsy, and I need coffee. Ky said he wanted me naked, so I have a fix in case he comes home while I’m downstairs. Throwing my hair up in a bun and putting on a sheer white nightie with ruffles on the hem, I head downstairs.

  It is a glorious fucking day, so I open up the whole house. The glass walls separate along the entire back of the first floor, making an indoor space an outdoor space. I inhale the sea air as the sound of the waves crash against the shore and the seagulls soar in the wind.

  I hear a vroom-vroom of an engine. And not a bike engine either. No, I know the sound of that exact engine. The way it purrs and idles.

  I sneak to the foyer to peek out the window, and I find a surprise. Ky getting out of an electric blue Viper with white racing stripes. Holy fuck, he didn’t.

  I watch him enter the house, punching in the key code, juggling two coffee cups and a brown bag. I step back until I’m nearly in the kitchen. He catches me out of bed. I can’t see his eyes because they’re covered by his dark Oakleys, but I can read his body language. He’s surprised to find me, but not upset. He stalks toward me, and I stay completely still until he’s right next to me.

  “Snow, you were supposed to stay in bed.” He presses a firm kiss on my head. “You didn’t listen.”

  “I’m still naked. I half listened,” I defend my position.

  “That material is getting ripped the fuck off your body as soon as I put this down.” The corners of his lips curl up sinisterly.

  “I can just take it off right now and save you the trouble.”

  “Ripping it will be more fun.” He leans over and catches my mouth with his, delivering a paralyzing kiss.

  “Mmm,” I moan, and my response has
him sporting a shit-eating grin.

  “Damn right, baby. All it takes is just one kiss.”

  “One kiss for who?” I challenge. Not wanting to come off as weak for him as I truly am. So fucking weak and feeble and tamed.

  He snickers slightly. “Maybe both of us. C’mon.”

  Ky sets his haul on the kitchen island, then hands me a cup. “Lavender latte.”

  I take it utterly surprised. “Seriously?”

  “Seriously.” He tosses his glasses onto the marble top and rolls his eyes.

  “But you hate Bradlee’s.”

  “I know.” He shrugs. “But that’s what you do for love, right? You stand in a shitty coffee shop you despise for an hour getting stared at just so you can order the girliest fucking latte on the menu. Which, by the way, is totally disgusting. I tasted it. I stand by my original assumption.”

  I hold the coffee cup to my chest, with my heart about to burst. Who is this man? Could it be the person Gerard always talked about? The one I was so desperate to meet?

  “Love?” is my only response.

  Ky shakes his head lightly, like I caught onto his card trick. “What else am I supposed to call it?”

  “I guess what it is.”

  Ky balls the sheer material clinging to my body in his fist and drags me slowly to him. I place my latte down right before he kisses me. Kisses me like he’s never kissed before. So slow and torrid and deep and consuming that I lose myself in the feel of him. Ky could so easily be my destruction. His gentle side makes me weak, and his dominant side makes me wet. It’s a detrimental yin-yang I love being entangled in.

  “Maybe I’ll make you keep this on?” He tugs on the nightie. “You look sexy as shit in it.”

  “I thought you might appreciate it.”

  “I do, baby.” Ky slides his hand with the material in it down my torso and touches me right between the legs. “I’m going to fuck you in it and then I’ll rip it off your body.” He sneaks his finger between my folds and strokes my clit, and just like every time before, I turn into putty from his touch.

  “You better hurry up, then, ’cause I’ve been waiting for you all morning.”

  “I need some foreplay first.”

  “Oh, yeah?” I go for the button of his jeans. One blow job, coming up.

  “Not that.” He stops me.

  “No?” I pout. What, then?

  He picks up the latte. “I want to watch you drink this.”

  “You kinky bastard,” I laugh.

  “I have my moments.”

  I sip the latte as seductively as possible just to appease him. He watches my face the whole time.

  “Did that turn you on?” I tease. Ky grabs my waist and presses his erection right into my hip. “I guess so.”

  “It’s what you do to me.”

  “I’ve got skills.” I take another sip of my latte.

  “And one hot, sexy body.” He lifts me off the ground and places me on the countertop. It’s cool underneath my bare bottom.

  “Is that all you want me for?” I toy with him. “My body?”

  “Pretty much.” He scoots himself between my legs. “I’m a caveman. What can I say?”

  “Who likes fast cars,” I fish.

  Ky opens his mouth to respond, then catches himself. “Cars?”

  “Yeah, you borrowed Gerard’s Viper to get breakfast.”

  “It’s fucking sweet. I needed four wheels, so I checked out the garage. My bike doesn’t exactly have cup holders.”

  “My mom gave it to him as a wedding present.”

  “She’s got good taste.”

  “She does know her cars.”

  “Yeah, there was a hot Vette in the garage, too. I almost took that.”

  “Good thing you didn’t. She’s overly protective of that car. Even I need permission to drive it.”

  “Why’s that?” He gropes my body.

  “It was my grandfather's. Last thing she has left of him. That was kind of their thing. Working on cars.”

  “I get it.” Ky nods. “Family is everything. Even when it’s gone.”

  That statement says so much about Ky, and his slashes of resentment that run so deep.

  “Speaking of family,” I tiptoe lightly around the subject. “I have to call my mom and tell her I’m not coming.”

  Ky’s eyebrow raises ever so slowly as he contemplates this. I still feel like the subject of our parents is touch and go, but he said he would try for me. Begin to let go of the past and look forward to the future.

  “I think that’s a great idea. Let’s FaceTime them.” There’s something devious in his suggestion.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Absolutely. Let’s do this.”

  I’m a little stunned. And a little skeptical. I was expecting a fight. At the very least hemming and hawing that he doesn’t want to speak to his father.

  “First, let me put some clothes on.” I slide off the counter.

  “Bummer.” Ky curls his lip.

  “You can have me naked the rest of the day. The rest of the summer, if you want.”

  “Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about,” Ky approves.

  I run upstairs to grab a tank top and shorts and am back down in the kitchen in no time.

  “Let me have a few minutes to talk to her alone first.” I backtrack toward the laundry room. “Two minutes.”

  “Alone?” Ky isn’t keen on the idea, but he lets me go, and I barricade myself into the laundry room, getting a bout of déjà vu when I shut the door. That day started out horrendous and ended up like a fairytale. I just never imagined my handsome prince would be my stepbrother. Wonder what the Brothers Grimm would make of that?

  I dial my mother with my heart beating like a baseline in my chest.

  “Hi, sweetheart,” she answers the call cheerfully. It’s dinnertime overseas, so her hair is done and so is her makeup. She looks radiant. Paris agrees with her. “Are you at the airport?”

  “Not exactly.” I bite my lip.

  “Oh? Is there a problem? Can you not find your passport?” She goes all parental.

  “No, I wouldn’t call it a problem.”

  I see her glance up at someone, no doubt Gerard.

  “Then what would you call it?”

  “I would call it a change of plans.” I make a clownish expression.

  “I’m not sure I’m following.”

  “I’m not coming.” I just go ahead and rip the Band-Aid right off.

  “What? Why?” My mother’s face falls.

  “Because, I met someone.” I hold my breath, anticipating her reaction.

  “You what?” She bats her long, thick eyelashes incredulously. “When? How?” These questions are all legitimate. When she and Gerard left for Paris a month-and-a-half ago, there wasn’t even a whiff of a man in my life, so I understand the shock.

  “It’s all really new, and I know this feels like it’s coming out of left field, but I really like him, Mom . . . I may even love him.” I admit softly.

  I do love him.

  “Love?” My mother looks like she was just hit with a baseball bat. I hate springing this on her, but it did just kinda happen. “Kira,” her tone becomes serious. “You know if you’re happy, I’m happy, right?” I nod. “But have you been completely honest with him? Does he know about your past?” She hints. My past. Our past is a delicate subject.

  “He knows some,” I admit.

  “All?” she presses.

  “He will. I’ll tell him everything. I trust him. But we’re still getting to know each other. It’s sort of complicated. I didn’t want to drop all my skeletons on him at once.”

  My mother considers this rationale. “Okay, sweetheart. Just as long as you trust him. I don’t want you to give your heart away to a man who doesn’t know how to handle it.”

  “He’s pretty strong. I think if anyone can handle my past, and my heart, it’d be him.”

  My mother nods, accepting my decision. That’s the one thing s
he’s always had, my back. “Do you want to meet him?” I open the laundry room door and head back into the kitchen where Ky is impatiently waiting.

  “Meet him?” My mother perks up. “Of course.”

  “Is Gerard around?” I slide onto one of the kitchen island stools. I steal a glimpse at Ky, trying to pick up any animosity from the mention of his father’s name. There seems to be none.

  “Yes, he’s right here.” She tilts the phone sideways so both their faces are smooshed on the screen.

  “Hey, Little Darlin’, I hear you’re ditchin’ us this trip.”

  “It’s for a good reason.”

  “It better be, or he’ll have to deal with me,” Gerard threatens, and not in a joking manner either. When it comes to the guys in my life, he’s a protective papa bear.

  I feel Ky shift behind me. “She’s in good hands. Don’t worry about a thing, ol’ man.” Ky leans over so his face can share the screen with mine. Gerard nearly passes out. “Ky?”

  “Hey, Pops.”

  “What in the fuck?” His eyes dart from me to Ky and then back again.

  “It’s a long story.” Ky places a hand on my shoulder.

  “It’s a Greek tragedy, is what it is.” Gerard does not sound one ounce of pleased. Shit. “Gerard,” my mother steps in right in the nick of time. He’s starting to turn red. “Ky and Kira are both adults. And I’m sure they didn’t intend for this to happen?” My mother shoots me a sidelong glance, like, right? She’s thrown, too. “You can’t help who you love. As bizarre as it may be sometimes. Look at us.” She vindicates.

  “We aren’t related,” he replies with clenched teeth.

  “Neither are we,” Ky points out. “Marriage doesn’t really count.” He’s smug. Ky is loving this, seeing his father squirm on a hook. It’s written all over his face and is audible in his tone.

  “Kira, are you really serious about this? It’s not some crazy joke?” Gerard grills me.

  “No.” I glance happily at Ky. “What can I say? Attraction to bad boys must run in the family.”

  Gerard shakes his head. “Oy.”

  “Madame, Monsieur,” a man with a thick accent addresses my parents. “Bon appetit.”