Chapter 21
TWENTY-ONE
Kinsley
“You deserve to be here …”
Shane’s words permeate deep within me as he cups my jaw, and his mouth gently presses against mine. The kiss starts out slow and tender, until he pushes my lips apart and deepens the kiss, giving me what I need.
“… if I have to remind you of that every day for the rest of our lives, I will.”
Craving more of Shane, I slide my palms down his chiseled torso, my fingers exploring every ridge of his six-pack, until I get to the hard length that’s bobbing between us.
“Kins,” he groans into my mouth when I wrap my fingers around his shaft and pump it up and down, relishing in the velvety-smooth skin. “Fuck, baby, I need to be inside you now.”
He grips the curves of my hips and, without preamble, lifts and lowers me onto his cock, causing us both to moan in unison as he stretches and fills me completely.
“You feel that?” he murmurs, locking eyes with me.
“What?” I breathe out, half dazed from the way his cock is filling me.
“This.” He presses his hand to my chest, right above my heart. “Your heart is beating wildly.” He pushes up from the bottom, and his cock hits a spot deep within me, making me moan. “Your body is on fire.” He slides one hand around and reaches between us, his thumb grazing my clit and making me squirm in want.
“You’re alive,” he says, rubbing my sensitive nub in a way that has my insides clenching. “And every fucking day, I’m going to remind you of that.”
“Shane,” I choke out, fresh tears welling up in my eyes.
“You’re alive,” he repeats, continuing to circle my clit with the pad of his thumb. “Now, the question is, are you ready to start living?”
When I don’t answer him right away, he brings me to the brink of my orgasm, only to take it away, making me cry out in frustration.
“You want to come?” he says, leaning in and nipping at my bottom lip. “Then, answer me.”
He adds a bit of pressure to my clit, enough for me to feel the stirrings of my orgasm. He does it again and again, bringing me to the edge and then pulling me back.
“Shane, please,” I beg, knowing what he wants, but unsure if I can give it to him. “You said you’d help me forget.”
“But that’s not what you really need,” he says as he continues to wind me up so tightly that it feels like I’m going to implode if I don’t get some relief soon.
“Don’t you see, Kins?” He applies more pressure to my clit. “You can’t push what happened to the side and pretend it didn’t happen. It happened. Two people you loved died, and you survived.” His brown eyes lock with mine, and it’s as if he reached into my body and tugged on my soul. “And now, it’s time for you to live.”
My heart pounds against my rib cage as his words penetrate deep, filling the fissures in my heart like a soothing balm. Butterflies swarm my chest, and my head feels fuzzy. It’s all too much, yet not enough, and even though I’m scared shitless, as I look into Shane’s eyes, there’s nothing I want more than to live with this man. So, I give him the only answer I can …
“Yes,” I choke out. “I’m ready to live.”
His lips curve into a beautiful smile, and then his mouth is back on mine, nipping, licking, sucking, as he breathes life back into me one thrust at a time. His thumb presses against my sensitive clit, and with a couple more skillful strokes, I detonate around him, screaming his name as he takes me straight over the edge with him.
* * *
“I want to take you out on a date.”
I glance up at Shane from beside him on the bed, wondering if I heard him right because after everything that’s happened between us, he wants to take me out on a date?
“Huh?”
I know I’m a bit dazed from all the sex we’ve had—after we got out of the bath, we rinsed off in the shower, and then after drying off, he carried me to his bed, where he worshipped my body until I couldn’t take it anymore and I collapsed against his chest, curled into his side, where we both passed out—but did I hear him right?
Shane chuckles and kisses my forehead. “I said, I want to take you out on a date.”
“We are dating,” I say with a laugh.
“Exactly.” He reaches around and strokes the side of my bare breast, making me squirm. “Yet we haven’t gone on a single date.”
He rolls us over so he’s hovering above me and cages me in with his arms. “What do you say, Kins? Will you go on a date with me … in public?”
Ah, so that’s where he’s going with this. We live in a small town, and the second we’re seen together, people are going to talk. And before we can even order dinner, everyone will know that Brookside’s very own hero and single dad is dating the town’s recluse.
“I don’t know,” I say in a serious tone that has his face falling. “If I’m seen out with you in public, people will assume that I’m off the market, and now that I’m ready to move forward, I’m not sure I want to tie myself down to one man.”
His eyes narrow in confusion, and as much as I’m having fun messing with him, I can’t keep my straight face going. He’s just too damn sweet.
“I’m just kidding,” I say with a laugh, reaching up and poking his hard stomach with my fingertip. “Yes, Shane, I would love to go on a date with you in public.”
“You brat.” With one hand holding himself up, his other reaches between us and tickles my side, making me bark out a laugh. “Keep that shit up, and I’m going to lock you up in here and never let you go.”
“Mmmm,” I moan, pulling his face down to mine. “Is that a threat or a promise?”
I wrap my legs around his torso, and because we’re both naked, he slides right in, both of us groaning in unison.
“A promise,” he says against my lips as he slides in and out of me. “Definitely a promise.”
* * *
“Is that your stomach grumbling?”
Shane rolls me onto my back and glances down at me with a frown while I blink several times, attempting to wake up.
“Well …” Before I can finish, my stomach grumbles again, and I giggle. “We never ate last night,” I point out.
“Jesus.” He frowns. “I’ve only been a boyfriend for like a day, and I’m already sucking at this.”
“Oh my God, stop,” I say with a laugh, pulling his face down to mine for a chaste kiss. “You do not suck. Besides, the amazing orgasms you gave me last night more than made up for you not feeding me.”
“It was good sex,” he agrees, peppering kisses along my jawline.
When my stomach growls loudly, we both laugh.
“That’s it,” he says. “Jump in the shower, and I’ll make us breakfast before you wither away.”
I roll onto my stomach, torn between wanting to remain in his comfy bed and getting out of it so I can eat.
“Now,” he demands, playfully smacking my ass.
“Fine.” I groan, crawling to the edge and rolling off. “But how about instead of cooking, you shower with me, and then we can go out?”
I waggle my brows, and Shane smirks. “I like the way you think.”
After our shower and the two orgasms he gave me while in there, we get dressed—me in my jeans from yesterday and a shirt of Shane’s he lent me since I hadn’t planned on spending the night and have no clothes—and then head out.
Since we’re both starved, we head to Sunny Side Up Café to get something to eat, agreeing to stop at my place afterward so I can change.
I usually work on Saturdays, but Scott canceled all my appointments until Tuesday when he realized he scheduled me on the anniversary of Brandon’s and Brenna’s deaths.
“I was thinking,” Shane begins, but before he can finish his thought, he’s caught off guard by the sound of my mom’s voice.
When we look over, we find her and my dad sitting at a booth.
“Kinsley,” Mom coos, standing and hugging me. “I’m so happy to see you. You look … radiant.”
In other words, she’s shocked and thrilled to see that I’m not drowning in the darkness. When she texted me yesterday, asking if I was okay, I told her I was at Shane’s so she wouldn’t worry. All I got back was a blushing emoji.
“I look like I haven’t changed my clothes since yesterday,” I mutter, making her laugh.
“Shane,” Dad says, sliding out of the booth and giving him a handshake. “It’s good to see you.”
“You too,” Shane says.
“What are you two up to today?” Mom asks.
“First, I need to feed this one,” Shane tells her with a laugh as he pulls me into his side and kisses my temple. “Apparently, we forgot to eat last night and …” At the insinuation of us being too busy to eat, Shane’s eyes go wide, and his face—what’s not hidden under his facial hair—heats up in an adorable shade of pink, making my mom giggle and my dad snort out a laugh.
“What I mean is …” he stammers.
“We’re hungry,” I finish.
“Why don’t you join us?” Mom suggests. “We only just sat down.”
I glance at Shane, unsure if he’s okay with that, but without looking at me, he slides into the booth across from my parents and pulls me down next to him.
“Where’s Taylor?” Mom asks after the waitress takes our drink order.
“At a cheer competition,” I tell her. “Look how pretty she looks!”
I pull out my phone and click on the picture she sent me this morning, then turn it around to show my mom.
“Aww, I love it,” Mom says.
“She sent you that?” Shane asks, glancing at the picture. “What the heck? She hasn’t even texted me this morning,” he grumbles. “What am I, chopped liver?”
“I’m sure she’s going to text you,” I tell him.
Just as he pulls his phone out, it dings with an incoming text.
I look over and see a text from her, letting him know she’ll be cheering all day and to wish her luck and she’ll FaceTime him later.
“See?” I say with a laugh. “She just likes me more.”
I stick out my tongue playfully, and he mock glares.
“You have such a sweet girl,” Mom tells Shane. “She reminds me a lot of Kinsley when she was younger.”
“Thank you,” he tells her. “I definitely got lucky.”
“It’s not luck,” Dad says. “It’s good parenting. Give yourself some credit.”
Shane nods. “Yeah, but she makes it easy. I was worried that she would rebel, especially since her mom isn’t around much, but she’s a damn good kid.”
“Well, I think all kids rebel at some point or another,” Mom says.
“I didn’t,” I note.
“Really?” Dad says. “I can recall a few times you rebelled.”
“Do tell,” Shane says with a glint in his eye.
“Remember when you were sixteen and you snuck into the tattoo shop and tattooed your boyfriend?” Dad says with a smirk.
“Oh my God, am I ever going to live that down?” I groan. “In my defense, he was a football player and a senior, and I was young and dumb and trying to impress him.”
“His parents nearly flipped a gasket when he came home with a tattoo of the school’s mascot,” Mom says with a laugh.
“Thankfully, he was eighteen, and Kinsley made him sign a waiver,” Dad adds with a chuckle.
“Oh yeah!” Mom laughs. “What about the time she drew all over Natalia and the other models right before a fashion show?”
Dad laughs. “Her aunt Celeste was so pissed that her models had Free the Tatas written on them with lifelike breasts underneath, but it was too late to try to cover it up, so they all had to walk the runway with it.”
“Hey!” I exclaim. “That was for a good cause.”
Mom laughs. “Remember the time she body-painted?—”
“Okay, enough about me,” I say, leaning over and covering my mom’s mouth. “Where the heck is the waitress? I’m starved.”
I glance around, and Shane laughs.
“I like learning about you,” he says, tucking me into his side and kissing my cheek.
One of the things I love about Shane is how touchy-feely he is. It doesn’t matter where we are or who we’re with, he always shows me how much he cares, whether it’s holding my hand or kissing me. I always feel cherished.
“Well, in the future, anything you want to know, ask me, not them.” I glare at my parents, who don’t even have the decency to look ashamed.
“Are you two doing anything fun today?” Mom asks.
“After I get her fed,” Shane says, “I’m going to convince her to go away for the night with me.”
I whip my head around to look at him. We discussed going on a date, but going away wasn’t mentioned.
“Where?” I ask.
“I don’t know.” He shrugs. “Maybe we can find a last-minute hotel on the beach.”
“You guys should go to the cottage in the Hamptons,” Mom says. “When was the last time you were there, Kins? It’s probably been …” She trails off, her eyes widening as she connects the dots at the same time I do.
The last time I was there was with …
“Actually …” She clears her throat, shooting me an apologetic look.
“Am I missing something?” Shane asks.
“The last time I was at the cottage in the Hamptons was with Brandon,” I tell him. “We went there for a short vacation while I was pregnant.”
I can see my parents gaping at me, shocked that I’m speaking so candidly with Shane, but I meant what I said last night. I’m ready to live my life with him, and that means accepting the past instead of running from it.
If I avoid everywhere Brandon and I went, we’d have a lot of places I would have to avoid, and that’s not what I want for Shane or me.
“We should go,” I tell him. “It’s free, and I haven’t been there in years.” And then I consider what I just said and pedal back. “Unless that would be really awkward and …”
“Hey, stop,” Shane says gently, smiling softly at me. “A trip to the Hamptons sounds good, as long as you’re up for it.”
He reaches down and squeezes my hand, and my heart swells in my chest.
“I think that would be nice,” I admit.
I can’t avoid the cottage forever, and going there and making new memories with Shane sounds kind of perfect.
“Then, we’ll go,” Shane says, glancing at my parents. “Thank you for the invite. I’m ashamed to admit that even after living in Brookside all these years, I’ve never made the trip to the Hamptons despite it being only a couple of hours away.”
“I know it well,” I tell him, snuggling into his side. “I can be your tour guide.”
I glance up at him, and he smiles down at me for a second before he leans in and gives me a quick kiss that has me craving more.
“I can’t wait,” he murmurs against my lips.
When we break apart and look at my parents, my dad is smiling, and my mom legit has tears in her eyes, and for the first time, it really hits me how down I’ve been these past few years and how worried they’ve been about me.
“Do you guys want to go?” I offer.
“No, we’re good,” Mom says. “You two go and have a good time. Once it’s warmer out, we’ll have to do a long weekend and invite everyone. I’m sure I can convince your brother and sister to join us.”
“Looks like it’s just you and me,” I tell Shane, kissing the corner of his jaw.
“I can’t wait.”