Chapter 10
10
OWEN
I rap the brass door knocker and wait, tapping my foot impatiently, desperate to see Jade again.
But she’s spending the night with Blake, numbnuts. You don’t stand a chance.
As someone on the other side fumbles with the lock, I straighten to full height, preparing to greet this Blake guy.
As the door swings open, I’m thrown off center as a stunning brunette woman welcomes me. “Hey. You must be Owen?” She widens the wedge of the open door, beckoning for me to come in with the sway of her arm.
“Eh, yeah,” I stutter as I step inside out of the dark and into the warm mood lighting of the hall.
“We’ve been expecting you.” She winks, shutting the door behind me before she fiddles with the shiny red belt around her waist. She’s immaculate from head to toe. Who is she?
Just then, Jade bounces down the stairs in a deep burgundy knee-length dress, making her hair look a deeper red tone.
I audibly gulp at her beauty as lust courses through my veins. I want her .
“Hey, Owen,” she says breezily, as if I didn’t act like a deranged idiot earlier. She stops on the bottom stair and casually leans against the banister. “So, you met Blake .” She emphasizes her name with wide eyes and motions with a head nod in the other woman’s direction.
My head snaps in Blake’s direction. “You’re a woman?”
Blake looks down at herself, squeezes her boobs, then lifts her gaze back up. “All five foot five of me.” Then Jade and Blake both burst out laughing.
I narrow my eyes and stare Jade down. “But?—”
She cuts in, “You thought Blake was a guy? I know.” Smug with herself, she folds her arms in front of her and pops a hip. “I figured that out after you left. Then Gregor sent me a text confirming my suspicions.”
I may steal that meat cleaver I spotted earlier from Jade’s cutlery drawer and chop off Gregor’s balls with it when I get back to our villa.
With a pleased and confident curve to her lips, she says, “You’re blushing.”
“No, I’m not.” She’s right, my cheeks are burning.
“That’s cute.” Her grin broadens even more.
Blake walks behind me. “I’ll leave you two alone,” she says amusedly. “Your pass to get on to base for the next four weeks is sitting on the console table, Owen.” She pats my back twice. “Have Jade give you my number and text me when you arrive and I will meet you at the guard room and show you where to park.”
Feeling like an idiot, I watch as she disappears into the kitchen. Then I slide my eyes back to Jade.
She beckons me to her with her forefinger.
Pulse racing, I walk across the hall to the bottom of the stairs where she still stands. Up one step higher than me, and now the same height, she drapes her arms over my shoulders.
“Hi,” she breathes.
I relax when she presses herself against me. “You could have told me.” I’m filled with humiliation at my knee-jerk reaction.
“You didn’t exactly give me a chance to explain. You went off on a tangent at a hundred miles an hour.” She moves her lips closer to mine. “Your jealousy makes me like you all the more.” She grants me a lazy smile, making my heart do some sort of weird tumbling thing in my chest.
She likes me.
“I’m sorry about earlier.” Our foreheads rest against each other.
“I’m not. Now kiss me like you did last night, Owen Brodie, because kissing you feels amazing. Utterly perfect.” She sighs, happiness shining in her eyes as she repeats the words I confessed to her this afternoon.
I wrap my arms around her waist and kiss her like I’ve never kissed anyone before, because, before her, no one has ever come close to how I feel when my lips touch hers.
Not anymore.
Because this woman who is currently kissing me, digging her fingers into my hair and moaning into my mouth, is the only woman to render me speechless and make me lose all sense of reality.
This past year has been so fucking hard, but this woman… the one who didn’t run a million miles away from me when I freaked out earlier, make spiteful jests about my behavior, or look at me as if I meant nothing… is making all my emotional wounds disappear. She’s wrapping me up in a cocoon of euphoria; she’s fucking addictive and healing me in ways I don’t yet understand .
She’s deepening our kiss, twirling her tongue around mine, and I never want her to stop.
Threading my hands into her locks, tightening my grip, I tug her head back, allowing me access to the delicious curve of her neck.
“Owen,” she moans, my cock now rock solid for this woman.
Moving my lips across her jaw, I trail a path of languid kisses down her slender throat and back up again, toward the sweet spot I discovered she likes behind her ear.
Nuzzling into my neck, she kisses away all my insecurities and doubts from earlier, the heat between us becoming unbearable.
“We have to stop.” My lips move against her soft skin, and I’m inwardly annoyed because it’s not what I want.
“I don’t want to,” she gasps as if reading my thoughts as I nip at her neck, rubbing her pelvis against my aching cock. “I want you.” Her brazen words hold nothing back.
I swallow her erotic mewls with a kiss, our bodies coming alive together as she sets my heart on fire.
“I think you’re magic,” I mumble between breaths. “A kiss shouldn’t feel this good.” Should it?
“Kissing you feels like witchcraft,” she whispers. Her petal-soft lips twitch against my mouth, then blossom into a full smile at the same time as mine.
Forehead to forehead, my chest heaving in excitement, we stare giddily into each other’s eyes.
“Can you forgive me for my outburst this afternoon? You drive me fucking crazy.” I try to justify my jealous behavior. I don’t know what the hell is wrong with me.
Well, that’s a bald-faced lie, I do. It’s her.
She’s special.
“I like you crazy.” She bites at her bottom lip .
I rock my head slowly left and right, as if in disbelief. She likes me crazy.
She follows up with, “Would you like to do something with me tonight?”
Still holding on to her, I lean out of our embrace slightly. “What about Poppy? And your mom? Gosh, how is your mom? Is she okay?” I’m still not fully convinced it’s the heat that’s making her dizzy.
She tucks a lock of my hair behind my ear, which I find oddly settling. I may decide to keep my hair longer if she touches me like that again. “My mom was fine at dinner after resting this afternoon, and she’s had no more weird dizzy spells. She said she felt better, too, but went to bed half an hour ago because she wanted to get an early night. I reckon she needs a good sleep. It’s been a busy time for us coordinating our move here.”
“That’s reassuring news, but tell her I’m here tomorrow if she needs me to help with Poppy.”
“I’ll let her know,” she says, then reminds me of her earlier question. “So, tonight?”
“What about it?” A boost of energy, enough to start a car, brews in my belly.
“Wanna get out of here?”
“Poppy?”
“I asked Blake if she could babysit for a couple of hours. I’ll have you home by midnight.”
Calm settles in my bones, knowing she made plans to enable her to see me tonight.
“What happens at midnight?”
“I turn into an ogre.”
I shake my head at her stupidity.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see.” Then she kisses me again.