Chapter 18 #2
No. The last thing, the very last thing on Earth I want to do is to get an erection in front of my foster brother. I’d never live it down. Not from Kai. I’d—
I open my eyes. Kai isn’t even paying attention. He’s spanned a hand across her front, now, kissing her deeply and fervently, his own eyes closed. Gwenna kisses him back, sweetly, firmly, the soft edge of her tongue impossible to ignore as it darts between her parted lips.
But her fingers are on me. My belt buckle. My pants zipper.
“Gwenna—” My voice sounds rough, throaty, deeper than usual, and I try to push back, palms on the floor, but she has me, somehow.
I look up to see Kai holding her, gentle but firm, by the jaw, fingertips curved around her chin and grazing her lips.
He pulls her apart from him and angles her face forward, so she’s gazing down at me. Her eyes hazy, half-open.
I choke down another noise.
“What are we doing here, Gwenna?” Kai asks quietly, his thumb stroking her lower lip. Her eyes flicker shut. “You want him to go?”
She shakes her head softly.
“You want me to go,” he states.
She shakes her head again. Then opens her eyes.
“No. Even though you smell like an ashtray.”
Kai just grips her face tighter and pushes her into a kiss.
“Whatever you want,” he growls.
I watch, helplessly and transfixed, as she kisses him back, the light of the now roaring fire playing over her bare skin, watch as Kai palms her breast in one broad hand and listen as she gasps in response.
I have to close my eyes. Sink my teeth firmly into my lip. Breathe out very steadily and very slow.
The light touch of hands on my shoulders brings me back.
“Gwenna,” I say.
“I’m cold,” she whispers. She pulls at the bottom edge of my sweater, and I don’t even have to think, help her push it up and over my shoulders and arms so I can bring her to me, press her skin against mine.
She tucks her hands between us as she leans forward, and they’re like ice on my chest as she kisses me.
“You’re freezing,” I murmur against her mouth.
“I told you.”
“Good thing someone got you out of those wet clothes.”
I open my eyes to see that Kai, behind her, has leaned over too, one hand sliding into the bent crease of her hip. As if he’s going to.
Gwenna shudders.
Fuck. I close my eyes. I’m fully hard now and there’s nothing I can do about it. Regardless of why she’s making that kind of sound, if she is, and it’s right in my ear, and her naked body is half-straddling, half-hovering over mine…
I can’t. I have to. All I can think about is getting her to do that again.
Hazy, I open my eyes again just in time to see Kai, on his knees, take her by both hips and drag her back slightly. Somewhere, he lost his shirt, too, his pants loose.
But she wants me. Too. Reaches for me, undoes the rest of my belt and my pants and locks her now-warm fingers around my cock.
I push up to my elbows, trying to look at her properly, but my arms feel weak, and when she rolls her wrist my head tips back and my vision swims with stars.
God, Gwenna.
Above me, her body jerks, and Kai is in her, I realize, yet somehow, she’s crawled forward enough to kiss me, melting and slow, one hand bracing my shoulder for balance and the other gripped tightly around me.
She jolts, quakes, as somewhere he drives into her, but I cannot think about it, I truly cannot think about it, I can only think about the press of her mouth on mine and the frantic, feathering little strokes of her hand.
“Fuck. Look at you.” Kai’s voice, a raw edge I’ve never heard in it before—Jesus, of course I haven’t—but the distraction of hearing him speak is wiped out by whatever he does to her next, because Gwenna whines, whimpers into my mouth, and suddenly all I care about is whatever she wants, exactly what she wants, for as long as she wants it.
This incredible girl.
All at once, it’s too much—her body, her touch, her taste, the heat of the fire and the sound of her breath—and I surrender.
The orgasm crests out of me in long, languorous waves, spilling onto my stomach and her hand, and it’s only when the roaring in my ears subsides slightly that I hear Gwenna cry sharply, feel her shudder above me.
And as she does, another, deeper cry from somewhere behind her.
The room quiets, save the snapping of the fire. Gwenna melts forward, onto my chest and off of Kai, and I swallow thickly, lifting my arm to make space.
“Didn’t have you for a screamer, King.” Kai, with zero apparent inhibition, reaches for his crumpled T-shirt and uses it to wipe himself off.
Christ. I don’t even remember if I made a sound. My face flames, and I tense my hold on Gwenna’s shoulders inadvertently.
She just presses a kiss into my chest. “I like it.”
I briefly want to die.
“See? Relax.” Grinning, Kai hitches up his pants and gets to his feet. “Let’s just get this beautiful girl to bed, shall we?”
Hours later, my eyes fly open.
I’m in bed. Gwenna’s bed, I recognize after a moment, the dim but distinct forms of her bedroom taking shape as my vision adjusts. I’m on my back; Gwenna is draped over me, asleep.
And draped over her is a tattooed arm.
I lift my head off the pillow, as much as I can, and glance to my right.
Kai.
I fall back on the pillow.
“What?”
I stiffen. Did I say that aloud? I must have.
“What?” comes Kai’s voice again, the edge of irritation sharper.
“Nothing,” I whisper back hurriedly. “Nothing. We fell asleep here.”
“Yeah, I can tell.”
“C’mon. She’s all warm. Keeping me warm.”
“Are you…” I can’t even make myself say the words. “…inside her right now?”
The half of Kai’s mouth that’s visible over Gwenna’s side curls up in a smile. Jesus, God.
“What’s it to you?” Kai’s shoulder lifts and falls. “We just kinda fell asleep that way.”
He shifts on the mattress, and whatever it is he does makes her eyebrows draw together, her lips part.
She sighs.
Oh, God. I try to roll over and away, but I can’t. Gwenna has me pinned, her head heavy on my chest.
I settle for lying on my back, staring at the ceiling. I try not to think. At all.
“You know what this reminds me of?”
I slam my eyes closed. “Shut up, Kai.”
“The good ol’ days. Bunking down at tournaments. Remember Salt Lake City?”
I remember. Two teenage boys, one uncomfortable hotel bed. Kai thought it’d be funny to fart on my pillow.
A lot.
“I wish I didn’t.”
“Not me. Fond memories.” He sighs.
Another few moments of silence. I relax, slightly, and wonder if I could actually manage to fall back asleep this way when—
“You know, for someone who was so grateful to be alive a few hours ago, you’re really not acting like it,” Kai whispers.
“Maybe I’m reconsidering.”
Kai says nothing. Then he chortles. “Hey, you made a joke!”
I stay silent. Perhaps there’s a way I can smother him without waking Gwenna up.
“How far we’ve come, is all I’m saying,” he whispers. “C’mon. Can’t we bond over this?” He lifts an arm in my direction. “High five.”
“No.” I will not high five over this. I’m embarrassed even thinking about it.
Her hand taps against Kai’s.
“High five,” she mumbles.
Now I stare at Kai. Is she awake? I mouth.
“Obviously she’s awake, dipshit,” Kai answers—out loud. “You think she’s slapping me five in her sleep?”
Gwenna’s eyes fly open. “Yes, I’m awake,” she says, head still on my chest, and a small, sleepy smile steals over her face. “You two are the loudest whisperers I’ve ever heard, you know that?”
“I’m so sorry,” I say quickly. “If I could just—” I try to ease out from under her. “I’ll go.”
“What?” The smile vanishes. “Why?”
“Yeah,” Kai mumbles from Gwenna’s other side. “Like I was saying. Not the first time we’ve shared a bed, bro.”
Gwenna kisses my chest. “Stay.”
“Yeah. Stay.” Kai tightens his arm around her waist, yawning noisily. “Or don’t. Whatever.”
“Okay,” I say—to Gwenna, primarily. “I’ll stay.”