Chapter 14
Another week had gone by, and Lefty was feeling cautiously optimistic.
Cruz had been in constant contact, letting them know that Brown would most likely be taken in for questioning either today or tomorrow.
Stryker was under surveillance in France, and Cruz was hopeful the Parisian detectives would be talking to him in the very near future.
He also hadn’t seen anyone suspicious hanging around his apartment complex.
He hadn’t felt anyone watching them, and he hadn’t seen anyone who looked out of place.
All of that didn’t mean someone wasn’t there, but the more time that passed, the greater the chance that whoever had been after her either hadn’t figured out where she’d gone, or was no longer interested in finding her.
Kinley had started to go out without him by her side a little more. She wasn’t crazy enough to go gallivanting around by herself—that was a sure way to invite trouble—but she’d gone shopping with Gillian, as well as accompanied Devyn to an interview.
Lefty loved seeing her blossom as her friendships with the other women deepened. If ever there had been someone who needed and deserved friends, it was Kinley.
But it was their one-on-one time that had him feeling the best. Kinley was inquisitive, and after the first night when she’d gotten him off, hadn’t been reticent about touching him.
Of course, while that made nights pleasurable for him, they were frustrating too.
He wanted to take Kinley the way he’d dreamed, but he was still trying to move at her speed.
The last thing he wanted was to make her feel uncomfortable in any way.
Last night, she’d asked if she could try oral sex on him.
He wasn’t about to say no to that. The second she’d wrapped her mouth around his cock, he’d had to grab himself and recite baseball stats in order not to explode in her mouth.
He knew how she felt about swallowing, and while he’d enjoyed having her mouth on him, he didn’t want to do anything that would turn her off oral in the future.
She’d finished him off with her hand…and then had tentatively asked if he might want to touch her.
He’d been waiting for her to ask for a very long week. It had been torture for him not to reach out for her. He hated not giving back the same pleasure she’d been giving him. But he’d promised that he wouldn’t do anything she wasn’t ready for.
Two-point-one seconds after the words had left her mouth, his fingers were between her legs and he’d felt her for the first time. She’d been soaked, and it hadn’t taken very long at all for him to get her to orgasm.
Gage wasn’t normally a patient man. As a single child, he’d been given pretty much whatever he wanted, when he wanted it.
But he knew without a shadow of a doubt that waiting for Kinley to give herself to him would be one of the best gifts he’d ever get in his life.
And he’d wait however long it took for her to be comfortable with letting him take her virginity.
He’d never wanted the pressure of being with a virgin. Even when he was in high school and college, he’d steered away from the inexperienced girls. But he couldn’t think about anything other than how beautiful their coming together would be.
It was lunchtime, and he’d just gotten off the phone with Kinley.
She was going to go to the grocery store with Gillian in about an hour.
She said she had a surprise dinner planned for him, and he couldn’t wait.
She wasn’t the best cook, said she’d never had the desire to learn or had anyone interested enough to teach her, but now that she was living with him, she wanted him to come home to nutritious meals every night.
He’d just hung up after telling her to be careful when he turned around to see his team all watching him.
“What?” he asked.
“Looks like things between you and Kinley are going well,” Brain said.
Lefty couldn’t read his tone. “They are, but I’m not sure how that’s your business.”
“It’s our business because you’re our friend, and we like her,” Oz chimed in.
“She’s been living with you for a few weeks now. We know her case is moving quickly, with people being questioned and the surveillance and all, but still… We don’t see you outside of work too often these days. Just want to know she’s okay,” Grover said.
Lefty wasn’t sure whether to be pissed that his friends might think she wasn’t okay, or pleased they cared enough about Kinley to ask. “Kinley is… She’s different,” Lefty said, trying to find the words to explain their relationship.
“We know that,” Lucky said. “That’s why we’re wondering what’s going on between you guys. We’re worried about her too, you know.”
“What do you guys think? I’m pretending to care about the fact she witnessed a girl’s last moments on earth just to get some pussy?”
No one said anything for a long moment, and Lefty’s words seemed to echo in the small break room they were using to eat their lunch.
Then Trigger said, “I think they’re just concerned about you both.
It was obvious to all of us how much you liked her, and then she showed up here, and you moved her into your apartment and got involved in her issues without a second thought.
And you’re updating us on the case, but not your relationship.
We’re just trying to figure out where things between you guys stand. ”
Trigger was right. He hadn’t talked much about Kinley simply because it felt rude, and the last thing he’d wanted to do was talk behind her back. Especially once she’d moved in. He’d never been that guy, and he wasn’t about to start now.
He decided to set things straight in the bluntest way he could. “I’m not having sex with her.”
The looks on his friends’ faces ranged from surprise to confusion.
“You aren’t?” Brain asked.
“No.”
“Why not?”
Lucky’s question was a little offensive, but Lefty knew he wasn’t trying to be a dick.
“Because she’s not like other women. She’s been hurt in the past. A lot.
Imagine you’re six years old and you’re living with a family.
You like them, and they’re nice. The nicest people you’ve ever lived with.
They don’t beat you or starve you or ignore you.
Then one day, you get home from school and they hand you a garbage bag filled with your clothes and tell you that they’re sorry, but they’re moving and can’t take you with them.
That you’ll have to go live with another family. How would that make you feel?”
When Kinley had told him that story, Lefty had been pissed. How someone could be so callous toward a child was beyond him.
He went on. “She’s been let down again and again, until she learned to trust no one but herself.
By the time she got to high school, she was known as the ‘poor foster kid’ no one wanted.
She kept to herself and her classmates gave her a wide berth—when they weren’t bullying her.
She somehow managed to make it through college and get herself a great job.
But that job was in Washington, DC, and you all know as well as I do how fake and horrible people in politics can be.
She’s never had any true friends,” Lefty said.
“Before she showed up here in Texas, I was intrigued by her. In Africa, she kept her head in the middle of that mob. Then we talked, and I realized she was smart and I really liked being around her. When we were in Paris, we connected even more. The bottom line is that we’re friends first. The last thing I want to do is rush her into any kind of relationship.
But—and it pisses me off that I’m telling you this before I talk to her about it—I want her to stay here.
I want to continue to get to know her better.
And yes, I can see myself being with her for a very long time, but I’m moving slowly.
I don’t want to freak her out and have her decide I’m not a good prospect for a boyfriend. ”
Lefty knew he was talking too much. That he wasn’t letting his friends get a word in edgewise, but he couldn’t stop. He took a deep breath, then admitted something else.
“She’s never had a real boyfriend. She’s never been with anyone…
if you know what I mean. At first it concerned me, but the more I’m around her, the more shocked I am.
Someone should’ve snatched her up by now.
She’s amazing. Generous, kind, and has a core of steel.
She has to in order to have survived her childhood without becoming a homicidal maniac.
“Yes, she’s living with me. Yes, we’re sleeping together, but we’re not having sex.
I haven’t touched her…much. I want her to want me as much as I want her.
Every night I fall asleep thinking I’m the luckiest bastard in the world to have her by my side, and I want to kill every single person in her life who made her feel like a piece of dirt on their shoe.
I hate that she’s scared. I hate not knowing whether someone is still after her, and I really hate that eventually, the time will come when we get called on a mission and I have to leave her on her own.
But I’d hate even more separating myself from you guys because you can’t or won’t understand how special she is to me. ”
He was practically panting when he was done, but Lefty didn’t care. His friends had to understand how important Kinley was to him, and if they did anything to make her feel uncomfortable, they’d have him to answer to.
But instead of being pissed, all his friends were smiling.
“I can’t believe you’ve found yourself an honest-to-goodness virgin,” Doc teased.
Lefty didn’t even crack a smile.
Doc realized that he’d probably stepped in it and quickly backpedaled. “I mean, that’s great, man. It doesn’t matter, not to us.”