60. Effie
60
EFFIE
I continue to stare up into Kieran’s green eyes as my heart pounds and my entire body trembles.
He’s here.
He’s standing right in front of me, asking me to dance.
How?
Why?
Where is Brax?
“Effie?” he whispers when I don’t do anything.
My mouth opens and closes, but no words come out.
I’m speechless.
Dumbfounded.
I never in a million years thought he’d be here.
I sense someone step up beside me, but I can’t look over. My eyes are locked on Kieran’s.
He’s nervous. It’s not something I see often, but it’s there.
He has no idea how I’m going to react, and the longer I just stand here completely useless, the more he’s beginning to freak out.
“Are you two ready to show me some moves?” Maria asks as if nothing unusual is happening here.
I manage to nod in agreement, and a second later, my hand slips into Kieran’s huge paw.
Wrapping his arm around my waist, he presses his other palm against my lower back before tugging me closer.
I gasp as our bodies collide, then as if he does this every day of the week, he leads.
How?
I continue to stare up at him in disbelief as my feet move in time with his.
“W-what is happening?” I whisper, finally finding my voice.
His eyes search mine before they drop to my lips for a beat.
“I’m sorry,” he responds, his deep voice giving away the emotions he’s battling. “I’m sorry, and—” He sucks in a deep breath. “I love you, too.”
My message.
He’s replying to my message.
A breath rushes out of me, and I just about manage to catch the sob that wants to follow it.
His grip on my body tightens before he releases me, spinning me out and then drawing me back in.
I know Grams taught him to dance before. But she didn’t teach him this.
I shake my head in disbelief as our hips come together again.
“H-How…How are you doing this?”
He ducks lower so his forehead presses against mine. “I told you, Effie. I’d do anything for you.”
Tears burn my eyes.
“Y-you’re really here?” I ask, still unable to fully process what is happening.
“Don’t mind me crashing your date, do you?”
A laugh tumbles from my lips.
“It’s never been a date, Kieran. Brax and I?—”
“I know,” he assures me. “I know everything.”
“Including these dance moves, apparently.”
His smirk grows, and damn it if it doesn’t make him even hotter.
“Fantastic. You two are natural together,” Maria praises.
“Yeah,” Kieran muses without breaking eye contact with me. “We are.”
Oh my god.
The song comes to an end and Maria immediately instructs us to go straight into our new tango.
My lips twitch with a smile. Learning a waltz is very different from a tango.
“What the hell?” I laugh when Kieran releases me and takes two steps back, ready to start.
Completely dumbfounded, I stand there as the beat drops and he stalks back toward me, spins me around, and presses his front to my back.
Heat from his huge, hard body surges through mine, lighting me up from the inside out.
Lifting my arm in the air, I shudder as he drags his palm down my skin, making goosebumps erupt across my body.
“How have you done this?” I breathe as his knuckles skim over the side of my breast, something Brax never did.My nipples pucker and pressure begins to build in my lower stomach.
The tango might be erotic and seductive, but Brax was always a total gentleman.
Kieran, however…
Spinning in his arms, I gaze up at him as I wrap my leg around his, rubbing myself against him.
His nostrils flare and he sucks in a sharp breath.
He’s hard.
Desire shoots through me, leaving heat pooling between my thighs.
Kieran’s hot hand burns against my lower back, taunting me with everything he’s capable of before he dips me.
Blood rushes to my head as I flip it back, but that isn’t the most shocking thing because…
“We’re alone,” I whisper once he’s righted me again and my gaze finds his.
Kieran’s eyes blaze with heat.But there is more than just that, there’s an apology, a promise. Everything I’ve craved.
“Is that right?” he muses, pressing our bodies closer.
“You planned all this?”
“Maybe.”
I shake my head. “You learned the tango for me.”
“Trust me, this right now is no hardship.”
I don’t know where Maria and the others have gone, but I don’t care.
Ducking lower, he brings his lips within touching distance of mine, making my heart beat even harder.
“I’m sorry for all the things I said. I was angry and hurting and?—”
“I’m sorry for not telling you everything. But I promise you, nothing ever happened between?—”
“I know. Can you forgive me?”
“Kieran,” I breathe. “I’ll always forgive you.”
“Good, because I’ll fuck up. I know I will. I won’t mean to, but?—”
“So will I. I’ll probably be needy, and get jealous, and I’ll?—”
“You’ve got nothing to get jealous over, baby. You’re the only woman I see. It’s been that way for quite some time now.”
“Argh,” I cry when he suddenly moves, spinning me around him. “You’re really good at this.”
“Who do you think Brax’s first partner was?”
I still for a moment when he positions me in front of him.
I blink at our reflection in the floor-to-ceiling mirrors before us.
My cheeks are flushed, my chest is heaving, and my eyes are sparkling with happiness and desire. And that’s only made worse when Kieran drags his hands up my sides.
Brax always stopped on my ribs, but Kieran…he goes all the way.
A filthy moan rips from my lips as he squeezes my breasts, forcing my head to fall back against him.
“Y-you’re kidding, right?”
He gives me a megawatt smile.
“Yeah, Luck. I am. Fuck, you’re hot.”
With his eyes still locked on mine in the mirror, his lips descend on my shoulder.
His kiss is electric.
Heat floods through my veins as his lips trail up my neck and then to my ear.
“I can’t believe you danced with my best friend like this,” he rasps, squeezing my breasts again. A moan rumbles in my throat, and I rub my ass against him, causing him to hiss as if he’s in pain.
“I thought I was your best friend,” I complain.
“Not anymore. You’re my girl. And one day, Effie Campbell…one day, you’re going to be my wife.”
Before I have a chance to say anything, he spins me back around and frames my face with his hands.
“Will you be mine?” he asks.
“Yes. Yes, yes, yes.”
His lips crash against mine and his hands slip back, his fingers threading through my hair, holding me in place as his tongue invades my mouth.
Desire flows through me as I kiss him back just as eagerly, my hands sliding up his hard chest.
Like teenagers, we make out in the middle of the room as if we’ve got all the time in the world.
Our hands roam as we lose ourselves in each other.
“Missed you,” he whispers between kisses. “Hate my life without you.”
“Same,” I agree.
“I lied before,” he confesses, making me pull back to look at him with my heart in my throat. “When I told my mom that I wasn’t in love with you. I was, I always have been, I just…hadn’t figured it out yet.”
An emotional sob erupts before I jump into his arms.
He catches me easily, and I wrap my legs around his waist.
Both of us gasp as I rub against his erection.
“We need to get out of here before I do something I shouldn’t.”
“Okay,” I breathe, more than ready to take this tango to the next step.
“Would have been fucking hot in front of those mirrors though,” Kieran says as he lowers my feet back to the floor.
I glance over my shoulder and see myself on my knees before him with his dick in my mouth.
“Effie?” he asks when I don’t respond.
“Y-yeah,” I muse. “Hot.”
His attention burns the side of my face, and when I rip my gaze from the mirror, I find him staring at me with a smirk playing on his lips.
“Whatever you’re thinking about, I want it.”
“You don’t even kn?—”
“Don’t need to. The only thing I do know is that I’m going to make every single one of your filthy fantasies come true.”
After changing into his sneakers, he throws his bag over his shoulder and waits for me to do the same.
“What happens next?” I ask, pausing before turning to leave.
“We’re meant to be having a date to talk,” he reminds me.
Biting down on my bottom lip, I let my eyes trail down the length of him.
He’s wearing a black hoodie and grey sweatpants.
And those sweatpants—or more specifically, what’s hiding beneath them—are not in any fit shape to walk into a restaurant.
“I think we’ve done enough talking,” I decide. “Takeout at my place?”
“I thought you’d never ask.”
Taking my hand in his, he leads me out of the dance studio. I don’t know what time it is, or how much of the lesson is technically left, but I don’t care.
“What about Brax’s car?” I ask as we walk up to it.
“He’ll take it home. He’s in that coffee shop over there, just in case this all went very wrong.”
My eyes shoot to the coffee shop in question, and right there in the window is the man I thought I was meeting for our dance class.
“He’s a good guy,” I muse, lifting my hand to wave at him.
“Yeah. He is. Even if he has been manhandling my girl.”
“It’s dance. It’s art.”
“Mmm. If you say so.”
When we get to my car, he pulls the passenger door open for me before jogging around to the driver’s side and dropping into the seat.
“Buckle up. You’re in for a wild ride."
“Oh my god,” I squeal as he wheelspins out of the parking lot.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
I swear, the drive back to my apartment has never taken so long. The air between us is thick with desire.
No sooner has he parked and killed the engine than he’s at my door and throwing me over his shoulder.
“Kieran.”
“Can’t wait any longer, Luck,” he says as he jogs toward the elevator.
“Ow, shit,” I complain when he spanks my ass.
“Get used to it. You’ve got a number of things you need punishing for.”
I slam my lips shut as the elevator doors open.
He presses the button for the top floor before dragging me from his shoulder and slamming me against the back wall.
“You’ve been a bad girl, Luck. A really bad fucking girl.”
My core aches at his words.
“Do you know what bad girls get?” he asks.
His dark, desire-filled eyes bore down into mine and his jaw ticks with impatience.
“Orgasms?” I tease.
“Punished, Effie. They get punished.”