Chapter 4
Allister
Steady, man. Jesus. I can't breathe.
I limp back out the front door and load the last of her belongings into the Suburban, dragging in a breath that sounds like it could be my last.
That's a fucking death rattle, not a breath. What the fuck is wrong with me? She was fucking kissing me back. Hard. She was clinging to me, and I just walked away?
I rest a hand on my head and try to get my bearings while the sun streaks through the trees around the guesthouse.
Now I've left her sitting in there all alone. I bailed on the best kiss of my life, a kiss that was leading somewhere I've dreamed about since I laid eyes on her.
It's no excuse, but damn if I wasn't sure I could control myself. My dick sure couldn't. I came in my fucking pants when she squeezed the back of my neck and pushed her tongue into my mouth.
Fuck.
I kissed her and came. And it was by far the best orgasm of my life.
I lean my forearms against the car, lower my head between them, and try to get a grip. My dick hasn't lost an inch. It's begging for more, the warm cum from that climax spreading in my boxers and down my shaft.
That's when I spot the driver, Wilson, the limo pulled in by a stand of trees at the entrance to Deck's place.
And he's just standing there. Watching me.
What the fuck?
He starts for the driver's door, but I'm already bolting toward him.
"Hey!" I shout. I don't know who to trust with Leah.
Any of the staff could've been in on it with Victor and Simon. I'd drop every one of them if it were up to me, but it's not, so I'll handle it myself. "I want to talk to you."
The engine turns over as I get closer, and I dig in and sprint, catching the car just as it pulls forward. I step in front of it and slam my palm against the hood. His eyes snap open, staring at me through the windshield.
"What?" Wilson lifts both hands, slow and easy, his eyes level on mine.
I'm around to his side before he can get it moving again. "Get the fuck out of the car."
"No."
I slam my hand against his window, and he jumps again.
"OK, Jesus, alright." The driver's door clicks open, and I grab the handle, nearly tearing it from its frame. "I don't…"
"Why are you here?" I get that the staff has looked after her for years, that some of them have gotten close, but this is too much. "Why didn't you leave?"
"I'm trying to now." He rolls his eyes, and it does nothing to kill the feeling he's hiding something.
"Don't play. My bullshit detector is going off."
He doesn't fight me when I take his collar and haul him out. "I thought Leah might need me, that's all."
I take a deep breath. There's no fear in his face, just a set to his jaw that says he's been handled rough before and outlived it, but he's telling the truth. Military training taught me to read people.
I relax my grip, and he rolls his collar straight like I never touched it. "Do you know who I am?"
"Yes…"
"Say it."
"You're Decker's friend. Allister."
"What else?"
His eyes move over my face, slowly, taking inventory. I don't like the way he's looking at me. There's something there, and I can't quite work it out. I'm about to tighten my grip again when he speaks. "You're the one who rescued Leah."
"That's right. And I'm going to take care of her, because that's what I do. So you'd better get used to that." I lean forward. Not too much, just enough to let him know I'm in charge.
Something flickers across his face, there and gone, but then he nods, and I let go and stalk away.
I need to get back to Leah. Thoughts of her flood back in, and I forget Wilson on the spot.
I remember what it felt like to kiss her, the cum still sticky inside my boxers, sliding against my cock as I go hard for her again.
My heart is wreaking havoc on my chest wall. Fighting the bones, hammering to get out. I've never had heartbeats hurt before, but these do, because they're mad as hell, and I don't blame them. No one's tugged at my heart before, not like this. No one. Not ever. And I just left her there.
I suck in a breath and break into a run, back to the door and down the hall, bursting into the bedroom like a sheriff into a saloon to lay down the law.
She's on her feet, her arms secure in the metal bind of her crutches. Her deep brown eyes match the shine of her hair, and my throat nearly closes at the sheer beauty of her standing in front of me.
"Let's go." Her voice is tense, and that's my fault.
"Precious, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have run out like that." I'm on her, hands settling gently on her shoulders, my thumbs rasping over the softest skin I've ever felt at the curve where her neck meets them.
She shifts her body, tense, leaning slightly away from me.
My head's got two weeks of new growth on it now, dark and short over a scalp I kept shaved for years.
I stopped the day she whispered to May that the bald guy scared her, that all the bad guys in fairy tales are bald.
So no more bald for me. I remade myself so I'd never be the one who scared her, then walked out on her anyway.
"Stop calling me that. It's fine. Let's go.
" Her words are sharp, her lips losing the softness that printed her somewhere deep in my soul.
Her flavor was like finding an old friend and a new day.
She needs to know that one kiss has bound her to me.
She doesn't know it yet, but she's never getting away.
Never.
"No, it's not fine. Listen. Sit down." I pull gently at her elbow. There's a question in her eyes, but I urge her on anyway.
She sighs and follows, taking two tentative steps before I lay a hand at the small of her back and ease her down onto the edge of the bed.
She frees her arms from the metal crutches, the aluminum clinking as I take them and set them aside, then drop to my knees in front of her and gather her hands in mine.
"That kiss…" I falter, heat climbing from deep inside, my cock bent painfully in my pants, never mind the sticky, drying cum reminding me how desperate I am for this girl.
I go for broke, complete honesty. "I kissed you, Leah, and it was the best feeling in the world.
And…" I pause, make sure she's looking at me, and squeeze her hand, leaving my ego at the door.
"And it was so good, I came in my damn pants. "
Time stops.
My throat tightens, and my balls tingle as I look into her warm, dark eyes, waiting for her to smack me and send me packing.
The next seconds feel like a year. Then a sparkle catches in her eyes, a light deep in the dark that slowly spreads over the rest of her face until she blossoms into a smile that lights up my soul, and a little girlish giggle escapes her lips.
"Really? You…" Her cheeks ripen to deep crimson, her full lips framing the masterpiece of her smile. Her voice falls to a whisper, as if anyone else could hear her. "You came from our kiss?"
"Full on, baby. Didn't you hear that grunt? That was a cum grunt. It fucking hurt, I came so hard." I grin right back at her, because it's impossible not to. I'm released from pride and ego. Nothing matters but the truth and making her smile.
She moves her hands in mine, twisting them until our fingers lace, and my heart swells, because she wants to hold us together.
"I wouldn't know what kind of grunt that was. I thought I hurt you. I've never even kissed a boy…" She cuts herself off with another unsteady smile. "…a man before. Neither one, boy or man."
She tips her head side to side, fluttering her eyelashes, and it's the damn cutest thing I've ever seen. She's got my balls tied in knots already.
The fact sinks in. She's never kissed anyone before. I'm her first.
I'm overwhelmed by that honor. And then it hits me, and my ego marches back in the door and swells with the thought that every one of her firsts will be mine.
She doesn't know it yet, but I do.
Being this close to her pushes away my own insecurities about how little experience I have. It also makes me want to see her smile every day from now until forever.
And give her about a billion orgasms.
And hopefully babies. Lots of babies.
But always orgasms, because that's the only other face I want to see her wearing, besides a smile. Her "O" face. And I'm going to be the one to see it first and forever.
"What are you doing?" Her eyes narrow, and she tugs her lips to the side. The little mole just under her left eye twitches. I shake myself out of my lust-filled stupor.
"I'm honestly not sure." My face aches with something unfamiliar, and I'm wearing the biggest dumbass smile the world ever saw.
Like a "kid on Christmas morning" kind of smile.
"You look good with a smile. It suits you." She teases.
"Let that be our secret, okay?"
Her giggle sends a lightning bolt from my head to my toes, exploding in a painful jerk of my still-wet cock.
I let her hands go.
"Do you trust me, Leah? Like, really, do you?" I cup her cheeks, feeling the silky warmth of her skin under my palms, and I picture how that same softness will feel when I get my tongue on her pussy. Because I want that more than I want my next heartbeat.
Her lips tuck in against her teeth for a moment. She's considering me, and I like that she's giving it real thought, because the question means more to me than she knows.
When she nods, it sends my blood pressure through the roof, and I peck gently at her nose, then her forehead. I can't take her lips again yet. The fire building inside me will explode, and I'm not sure she's ready for that kind of intensity.
"May said orgasms are amazing," she whispers.
My bones ache with how much I want her right now.
I dip my head lower, grip her face in my massive hands, hold her eyes on mine. There's a twinkle there, a boldness that shocks and inspires me. She fascinates me. This innocent doe has an honesty about her that nearly sends me to the ground.
"Well, let's see what you think after I give you one." I search her eyes for any hesitation, but an impish curve at the corner of her mouth tells me there's none. "Or ten."