CHAPTER 17
RILA
It wasn't a lie. She was truly happy with Victor, he was charming, lovely and made her laugh.
But it wasn't the same happiness as when she was with Kieran.
Just like the passion wasn't the same. She had fallen in love with her college boyfriend, but she had never loved him.
That feeling belonged to only one person.
It was painful to remember and admit that the man who had torn a hole in her heart was the same man who had made her happy like no one else could.
What started with her looking for him through her window, prepared for when Kieran showed up at the lake and they could spend the day skating, turned into kisses when no one was looking and hiding in each other's beds in the early hours of the morning.
One day, they were just kids who spent two weeks skating together while she chattered and he listened intently. Then, they grew up and the attraction appeared like an invisible string, pulling them closer to each other.
He made her heart race, her skin tingle, and her body burn. Being with Kieran was like breathing fresh air while simultaneously being suffocated by the attraction between them. He took the oxygen from her lungs and made her cells burn, but she had never breathed as well as when she was with him.
— So why didn't you stay with him? — he leaned down, his face barely a foot from hers. All she could see was blue. Crystal blue and vibrant like flames made of ice — Why isn't he here anymore?
The player was so close that their knees were touching, and Rila knew he could hear her ragged breathing. Hell, Kieran could probably hear her heartbeats because of how hard her heart was hammering against her sternum.
— Why, Rila? — his voice came out low, making her whole body shiver — Tell me.
It was when his fingertips brushed against her arm that she broke. She felt like a volcano erupting, spewing lava after so many years of slowly boiling.
— Because he wasn't you! — she yelled and slammed her palm against his hard chest, irritated by the way her body was reacting to him even after all this time — No one has ever compared to you, okay? Is that what you wanted to hear?
His nostrils flared as Kieran took a deep breath and she saw the blue darken, the pupils taking over his eyes like oil being poured into the sea.
— Hell yeah — he growled.
Then, soft, familiar lips crashed against hers hungrily, desperately. Kieran kissed her as if it were his salvation. As if she was his salvation.
Her hand on his chest gripped his shirt, her fingers curling into the fabric and pulling him closer. The heat of his body made her shiver, she knew that heat so, so well.
Kieran was her paradox. Everything about him was familiar and safe, yet unfamiliar and dangerous. And God, was that scary.
When one of his hands moved up to the back of her head and he gripped the dark strands tightly, Rila couldn't hold back a moan. That made the kiss deepen, his tongue taking over hers as he used the hand in her hair to direct her mouth.
It had always been like this when they were alone, with Kieran taking control and her letting him do it without a second thought. He took her lips, her tongue, her sighs, her thoughts, everything. He took her.
Rila could feel her body melting, her torso moving back a little with each encounter of their tongues.
Kieran wrapped his other arm around her waist, holding her against him as he leaned toward the floor and pushed the building blocks between them away, scattering them around the duvet.
He took his hand from her hair again to hold the weight of the warm, muscular body that covered her.
And without thinking about what she was doing, she opened her knees so that he fit between her legs.
She hated how kissing him felt so good, so right. Hated how they were still in sync even after all this time. Six years had only served to increase the intensity of what was already perfect.
She didn't hesitate to take her frustration out on him in the kiss, making it so fierce it was almost punishing. She slipped her free hand down the arm that was around her waist and let her short nails run up it with a little pressure.
He growled against her mouth before breaking the kiss and beginning to stamp his lips against her jaw, his teeth scraping gently against the skin.
Rila took a deep breath, feeling her lungs burn as they finally received an adequate amount of oxygen.
Her eyes remained closed. She didn't want to open them because she knew she would have to stop what was happening when she did.
She would have to face the fact that she had lost the battle against her desire for him.
That she had succumbed to the man who had broken her heart and who could do it again.
— You have no idea how many times I've dreamed of this. With your lips, your kiss, you — Kieran murmured against her ear, placing a small kiss on the sensitive spot behind her ear — You live in my head, consume my thoughts and steal my sanity, Rila.
Her thighs tightened against his hips in response. She knew exactly what that feeling was like. It was maddening how one person could infiltrate another the way he did her. It didn't matter that Rila didn't want to think about him, he was still there. All the time. All the fucking time.
Rila felt his face slide down her neck again, his nose brushing against her jaw as his lips kissed and nipped at the sensitive skin. His grip on her waist tightened as his head reached her collarbones exposed by the neckline of her blouse.
This shouldn't be happening. She should stop this, she really should.
But instead of pushing him off, Rila slid her hands down his back at the hem of his shirt for a few seconds before slipping her fingers underneath, her nails coming into contact with his warm skin. She felt the muscles in the area tense as her hands moved up and a growl left his chest.
She could perfectly feel the boundaries of the muscles on his back. She had studied these muscles, knew each of their insertions and innervations, knew perfectly well what they looked like. Yet, it was completely different to have Kieran's muscles moving beneath her fingers.
— Take it off — she whispered in his ear, her voice husky and full of lust.
Because that was what she was feeling at that moment. Pure and complete lust. It had been a long time since her body had burned for another person like that. Adrenaline pumped through her system, making her skin burn.
Kieran did exactly as she asked and the white shirt was out of the way in the next second. It was only then that she opened her eyes.
However, seeing him on top of her like that didn't bring her back to reality, didn't make her realize that she should stop doing that. Quite the opposite, seeing his perfectly sculpted torso and messy brown hair only served to cause a spasm in her private part.
Rila crossed her legs over his ass, the movement causing their hips to grind against each other and his erection to rub against her sex, causing her to let out a small whimper.
Shit. Shitshitshit.
She was wet. She was completely wet from a simple make-out session on the living room floor. Damn Kieran Ward.
As the sound echoed through the room, dark blue eyes lashed towards her and she had to hold herself back from squirming at the sight of his lips, reddened and slightly swollen.
— Take it off — the player slipped his hand under her shirt, repeating her phrase as his rough fingers slid over her belly, making the area tremble with the contact.
Rila lifted her torso and pulled the cloth, throwing it somewhere in the room and remaining only in jeans and a black bra.
— Good girl — one corner of his mouth curled upward and she had to bite her lower lip to keep from copying him.
Kieran turned his attention to her exposed skin, his mouth trailing kisses from the valley of her breasts to her navel. His trimmed beard rubbed deliciously against her pale skin, leaving a reddish trail. She knew what was about to happen the moment he undid the button of her pants.
And Rila didn't protest when he slid the jeans down her legs, the garment suffering the same fate as her t-shirt and leaving her in just her underwear.
His hand slid all over her body and all her skin seemed to be directly connected to her sex, because it pulsed harder and harder with every inch that his fingers caressed her. But it was when Kieran's mouth joined them that her body began to whisper to him like flames dancing in a bonfire.
Then, his face stopped in front of her panties, where she was sure there was a wet spot, making it quite clear how horny Rila was.
Without making any words or sounds, he wrapped his hand on the piece of black cloth and pulled it down in one motion, leaving her completely exposed.
— Perfect, exactly as I remember — she barely paid attention to his words because he was pushing her legs to bend as he spoke, settling himself between her knees.
His beard brushed against her thighs and her throat went dry. His breath fanned her folds, making her shiver and curl her fingers into the duvet. He hadn't even touched her yet and Rila was already writhing.
The first flick of Kieran's tongue against her wet sex made her gasp loudly. He licked her slowly, from her entrance to the nerve bud at the top, so slowly that she had to close her eyes so she could concentrate on continuing to breathe.
— Open your eyes — he demanded in a deep, hoarse voice — I want your eyes on me all the time or I'll stop.
— Oh, fuck — she whimpered.
She was going to die. Her brain was short-circuiting, she couldn't focus on keeping oxygen flowing into her lungs when Kieran had his mouth on her folds.
Rila forced herself to open her eyes and stare at him from beneath her lashes as he just kept breathing into her sex, each exhale making her knees shake.
— Good girl.
And finally, finally, he closed his lips over her clit, his tongue circling the spot with a dexterity that made her grip the comforter even tighter. Heat began to rise to her toes with each stroke against that bundle of nerves. She couldn't stop the moans from escaping her throat.
Her legs tried to close whenever he sucked her clit and moved his tongue on it at the same time, but the movement only served to make her thighs rub against the sides of his face, the friction with his beard increasing her pleasure even more.
All this while she had to struggle to keep her eyes on the man between her legs.
Her entire body was on fire, every cell in her body combusting. But it was when he slipped two fingers into her canal that her vision blurred.
— Fuck, yes. Oh my God — the words came out in a rush along with a moan. She had to bring one of her hands to his head and squeeze the brown strands when the sensation of thousands of tiny needles began to prick her skin — Holly shit. Kieran.
Rila was a mess. She could feel her pleasure dripping down as she stroked her inner wall right in the place that made her squirm and want to pull her hips away from his mouth. But, Kieran palmed his free hand on her belly, pushing her down against the ground and holding her in place.
That's when the heat became unbearable and tore her apart from inside out. Her eyes were still open, but she couldn't see anything because her vision went back while some white dots danced across it. Her toes curled and a long, louder moan escaped her lips as her mind became even more foggy.
Rationally, she knew that she was still on the floor of that rented house, but her body seemed to be floating outside of Earth.
When she came to herself, blinking repeatedly, the first thing she saw was Kieran running his tongue over his lips stretched into a smile. Then he placed a kiss on the inside of one of her thighs while the other was caressed by his rough hand in an affectionate gesture.
She was panting, her mouth dry and throat scratchy as the sound of the oven time echoed through the house.
— Dinner is ready — wall all he said before standing up, his erection pushing against the dark fabric of his jeans and his six-pack abs being the only things Rila could think about at that moment.
Building blocks and pizza. That was what she should have been focused on. It didn't matter that he had just given her the best orgasm in six years. She shouldn't be thinking about climbing into his lap and taking care of that erection while she spread her hands over those defined muscles.
No. Building blocks and pizza, nothing else.