Chapter 9
Ihad to tell him. It wasn’t even a fucking question. Wilder was my best friend, and we were closer than brothers. Lying to him, or not telling him about what’d happened with Kenzie was just off the fucking table.
I felt like an asshole though. Not for what’d happened with her — that had been incredible. What had happened when Mackenzie and I had crashed together had been something that’d been brewing for months — an unstoppable force of nature that I knew then neither of us would’ve been able to stop anyways.
I felt for her. Yes, there was the physical — the way her tight, untouched little body made my cock harder than it’d ever been. The way she moaned so fucking sweetly, or the way she gasped like she was coming when I spanked that little ass. Or the way pussy her tasted like candy and felt like heaven when I’d felt it coming against the underside of my cock.
But it was more than that. It was a lot more than that. Something about her sparked something inside of me I’d never felt before. There’d been women in both our lives before — I mean, Wilder and I were both thirty-seven. But it’d never felt right. Nothing had “clicked” or made sense, and the few relationships both of us had had never really lasted.
With Kenzie, I felt the “click,” and I felt it hard.
It wasn’t just her age either — it wasn’t me fetishizing her being “barely legal,” though I wasn’t going to deny that the thought made my cock fucking hard as steel. She was much older than her years, in a way. Yes, she had the “brat” act down, but I knew “rough background” when I saw it, and I knew Wilder did too. Hell, we’d both come from that ourselves. Kenzie had a worldliness about her that she hid away, but I’d seen it in her eyes from time to time since she’d arrived.
I’d definitely seen it when we’d crashed together.
I wanted her. I lusted for her. But I was also head-over-damn-heels for her, in a way I’d never felt before. And that was why I found myself taking a breath outside Wilder’s office before knocking.
“Yeah, come in.”
I stepped inside, my body tense and my face hardened. Me wanting to tell Wilder was one thing. Him wanting to hear it was another thing. Because even if we’d never talked about it that openly, I knew how we both felt about her. I knew he had probably the same damn thoughts about her that I’d been having — that intoxicating and confusing mix of forbidden lust and feelings we’d never had before.
I hadn’t stolen her from him — shit, it wasn’t like she was “his” to take. But I knew telling him might hurt him, and that felt like a knife in my gut to think about.
“How was the city?”
Wilder glanced up. He looked tense and worn out.
“Eh, it was fine.”
“The signing that rough?”
He smiled grimly and shook his head. “Not the reason I’m all tensed up, man.” He cleared his throat, started to say something, but then just shook his head.
“Speak,” I growled. “C’mon, talk to me man.”
Wilder sighed. “Kenzie, man.”
I tensed.
“I…” He frowned and swore under his breath. “Fuck, I heard her last night, Linc. After what happened, after I spanked her, I walked by her room. She was…” He groaned, his jaw tight. “She was making herself come.”
My cock throbbed at how fucking hot it’d be to hear Kenzie playing with that tight little pussy.
“She made herself come and I fucking stood there and did the same listening to her. I’m over the fucking edge, Lincoln. I could barely concentrate today at those meetings because I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Then I goddamn called up the security cams for the house on my phone and watched that little tease laying out in that tiny little bikini by the pool.”
I looked away.
“I mean, fuck, dude, I fucking jerked off in the goddamn bathroom at the lawyers offices watching her. I’m fucking losing it.”
He sighed heavily.
“Wilder.”
He glanced up, and his brow creased as he saw the look on my face.
“What’s up?”
“It’s about Kenzie.”
He started to open his mouth, when suddenly, he saw it written all over my face, and he froze. We knew each other so well after the Marines and what we’d been through together, that I almost didn’t have to say it. But I was going to anyways, because he deserve to hear it.
“Something happened today, while you were gone. Between her and me. Fuck, man, I didn’t plan it like that. And I know neither of us have said shit about it, but I know the way you look at her.”
I grit my teeth, my hands tightening to fists as I shook my head.
“Look, I’m gone tonight, alright? I’ll move out, I just—”
“Did you fuck her?”
Wilder’s voice was edged, his hands tight on the edge of his desk like he might flip the whole fucking thing.
I shook my head.
“She’s a virgin, isn’t she?”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “And no, I didn’t go there. I—”
“Tell me,” he growled fiercely, his eyes blazing.
“She was trying to provoke me, walking around the house without a top on and giving me attitude. Then she cracked a beer and I snapped.” I swallowed, my cock throbbing at the memory. “I took her over my knee, and I spanked that little ass of hers. Things kind of went off the rails from there, man.”
“And?”
I met Wilder’s gaze. “Do you actually want to hear this or are you just saving it up to fucking murder me or something?”
Wilder didn’t blink. “Just fucking tell me what happened,” he growled.
“I put my hands on her. Felt her pussy, how fucking tight and wet she was. Like goddamn velvet. I took my cock out, I spread those legs, and I licked her pussy until she came for me.”
Wilder groaned, and suddenly, I realized it wasn’t furious anger on his face, it was furious lust.
“How’d she taste?” he hissed.
“Like fucking candy,” I growled back. “Wilder—”
“She make you come?”
I clenched my jaw, my cock achingly hard thinking back on it.
“I teased her clit with my cock. Didn’t fuck her, but I made her come on my cock until I came all over her pussy.”
Wilder swore, lunging from his chair and whirling to pace behind his desk.
“That little fucking tease,” he hissed under his breath.
“Fuck, man, you have a right to be pissed.”
He stopped, and slowly, he shook his head, snorting a short laugh.
“No, Linc, I don’t. And I’m not mad — not at you, I just…”
“You want her too.”
He turned to look at me. “Is that all it is for you?” he growled, his look edged in steel. “You just want her?”
My face hardened. “Fuck no.”
“Don’t patronize me, Lincoln,” he growled quietly. “I mean do you just want to fuck her, or—”
“No!”” I snarled. “I’m in—”
I stopped, catching my breath and realizing both my hands were clenched into fists.
“No,” I said again. “I’m pretty sure I’m in love with her, man.”
The room was silent for a second before he finally spoke.
“Same,” he said slowly. “Looks like we both fell for the girl neither of us should’ve been thinking about like that.”
I sighed, shoulders slumping. I went over to Wilder’s bar cart and poured us both a bourbon, passing him one as we both sank down into chairs and drank slowly.
“Linc, you’re my best friend,” he finally said quietly. “You’re like the brother I never had. Fuck, you’re closer than a brother. You’re blood to me.”
“And you know you’re blood to me too,” I said fiercely back. “And you know you just say the word and I’m gone. She’s yours, because no girl is ever going to tear our friendship apart.”
Wilder smiled thinly. “She’s not mine, though. She’s her. And you’re right, she can’t and won’t tear us apart as friends.”
“So what the fuck do we do?”
Wilder was quiet a second, his eyes twitching like he was thinking before finally, he went still. He knocked back the rest of his drink and looked up at me.
“Anyone else in the world, and I’d be furious right now. You know that. If it was any other guy, I’d be losing my fucking mind right now. But, not with you. Maybe it’s cause we’re who we are, and because of how close we are. I’m not mad at you for today, Linc.”
“So what do we do?” I sighed. “I mean we can’t both have her.”
“Says who?”
Wilder’s words made me freeze, my glass halfway to my lips. Slowly, I lowered it, and looked over at him.
“What?”
“I said who says we can’t both have her.” And slowly, he started to smile. “Like I said, any other guy and I’d be considering murder right now. But there’s no jealousy with you. Look, I know the way she looks at you. Just like I’m not blind to the way she looks at me, or how I know her bullshit ‘brat’ attitude is just to get under our skin. I know the sounds I heard her make the other night when I put my hands on her.”
Wilder took a deep breath.
“So who says we can’t both have her?”
Slowly, I nodded, my cock throbbing rock hard. “She does look at you the same way she looks at me.” Hell, I’d noticed it too.
“She can be a real handful,” Wilder said lowly.
“Little brat like that,” I made a tsking sound with my teeth as the hungry grin spread across my face. “Might be she needs twice the discipline.”
Something sparked in Wilder’s eyes as he started to nod.
“Might be, she needs twice the daddy.”