12. Killian
Chapter 12
Killian
I stared down at Willa’s head as she curled against me, unable to believe what had happened last night. I knew I was going to have sex with her, or I’d hoped , so the fact that we did wasn’t the problem. It was how I’d had sex with her that was the problem.
I’d kissed her. More than once. Sure, I stopped it the last time and made sure it didn’t happen again, but it had happened. Flashing back to last night, I was disturbed to realize how much I’d enjoyed tasting her soft lips, hearing her groans in my mouth, feeling her slippery little tongue.
I hadn’t kissed someone in years. I barely spoke to the women I had sex with, let alone kissed them. It was one of the many reasons Cara’s jealousy had been so confusing.
I knew randomly kissing her that first time was going to start a shit storm, and I was right.
I also couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a woman spend the night in my bed. Sleepovers caused confusion, which caused drama, so I typically avoided them at all costs. It was why I often had sex at the club with its clear boundaries and well-lit exit signs.
Of course, the situation with Willa was unusual—I could hardly kick her out after we had sex. The problem was, I didn't have any desire to kick her out. Several times throughout the night, I’d wake hard and aching. I’d roll her on her back and slide my hand between her thighs until she was panting and moaning, then simply whisper, “Spread your legs.” She obeyed immediately every time, which made me even more desperate to fuck her.
I’d enjoyed sleeping with her warm, soft body pressed against me, breathing in her feminine scent. Enough that the whole experience had sent warning signals and red flags flashing in my head.
I reached for my phone. Fuck, it was six p.m. We’d slept for at least fourteen hours and through an entire day. I’d lost all sense of time since kidnapping Willa and by the time we fell asleep, we’d both been exhausted from a combination of crashing adrenaline, sleep deprivation, shock, and a shit load of sex.
Willa started stirring, and I stared at her, still stunned to see her lying next to me. She looked adorably wrecked with her half-lidded, sleepy blue eyes, blonde hair tangled from my clenching fist, and her skin covered in bites and bruises that gave me entirely too much satisfaction.
“Oh my god, I’m so sore,” she groaned as she flopped on her back. Sadly, the sheet was pulled up over the full breasts I’d hoped to get an eyeful of.
I couldn’t stop the grin that broke out across my face. As soon as Willa noticed she hit me in the face with a pillow.
“Stop looking so smug.”
I shrugged. “I figure I have a lot to be proud of.”
She sat up and gave me a swat on the arm, pushing tangled waves of hair out of her face. “God, I can’t wait to go back to my room today, if only to have access to a hairbrush.”
I frowned. “You’re not going back to your room today. You need to stay here.”
Her head spun around so fast, I thought it might fly off the top of her neck. “What?”
“You need to stay here, Willa.”
“What? No way. I’ll still help you with Lily, but I have to get back to my regular life. I should probably take this opportunity to tell you that Lily and I are not close. You might be disappointed by how little I actually know about her life.”
Cullen sure as fuck wasn’t going to like hearing that, so I had no intention of sharing it with him. “Anything you can give us could help. You’d be surprised at what you know, but don’t realize you know.”
She looked at me like I was crazy. “What? What I don’t realize I know? What does that mean?”
I stroked my hand down her back. “People are observant, more so than they realize. They are hearing and seeing things all the time without noticing its significance. Your knowledge of Lily may feel insignificant to you, but you’ve known her your whole life. You know how she thinks, how she behaves, how she reacts. In fact, weren’t you surprised when she offered you the ID?”
She nodded her head. “Very.”
“See? You know her, so that behavior didn’t fit what you knew. That kind of awareness can be a big help to us, because we only know what Mac has told us about her, which was very little.”
“Okay, I’ll do the best I can,” she said, sincerity ringing through every syllable. How could I have thought this creature was Lily? It now seems like an unimaginable error. “I notice you didn’t reply to the first statement I made about going back to school.”
I let out a deep breath. She was right, I was avoiding it. “Look, I understand you want to return to your regular routine, but I’d like to keep you here until we find Lily.”
Her blonde head popped up and she gave me a severe frown. “Until you find Lily? No way. That’s crazy.”
“It’ll probably just be a couple of days.”
“But why?”
“Lily set you up, she knows we took you. She probably watched me walk out with your unconscious body. You don’t think she’s going to be making sure you’re not at school, make sure we still think you’re her? If you suddenly show up in your regular life, she’ll know we know you’re not her and she’ll run. Right now, she’s comfortable. And when you get comfortable, you get sloppy. We need her to think she’s safe.”
Her lips pressed together as she stared at me with a thoughtful expression. “Damn! Your argument makes sense.” She flopped on her back and stared up at the ceiling, her face still set in lines of aggravation.
I snorted and rolled on top of her. “I’m always right,” I said, giving her a hard, brief kiss on the mouth. Shit, I had to stop doing that. My mouth drifted down her neck and I inhaled deeply, smelling our combined scents, some of my cologne mixed with shower products and sex. My dick started to harden as I rubbed against her soft skin.
She raised a blonde brow. “I can think of a very significant time when you were wrong.”
“Considering last night, I’m not sure I’d consider it a mistake anymore.”
She flushed and ducked her head into my chest. Considering where I'd stuck my fingers, tongue, and dick all night, it was incredible she could still be so shy. Before I could tease her, I was interrupted by a rattling pound on the door.
Shit. I knew exactly who it was. What the fuck was he doing up already? Willa was staring at me in wide-eyed trepidation, a question in her eyes.
“Cullen,” I replied informatively.
She didn’t look any more at ease with that information. “What does he want?” she whispered, her brow puckered in concern as her anxious eyes kept darting to the door.
I reached up and rubbed my thumb against her cheek. “Relax, Willa. I won't let him do anything to you. He understands you’re helping us.”
The pounding started up again.
“Are you sure about that?”
“Calm the fuck down,” I barked at the shaking door, then turned back to her. “Yes, I’m sure.”
She didn’t look reassured, but I needed to deal with Cullen before he busted the fucking door down. I rolled out of bed and quickly pulled on my jeans.
“Wait!” Willa said, and I turned to find her scrambling to put her dress on. Now that I knew that Cullen was going to see her, I was suddenly very unhappy with the little dress. It showed too damned much. I quickly grabbed my t-shirt off the floor and threw it over her head while she looked at me in confusion.
“Don’t ask, just keep it on,” I said.
I went over and threw open the door and found exactly what I’d expected—an irritable looking, very exhausted, but seemingly sober Cullen.
“What the fuck do you want?” I snapped out. I had been looking forward to fucking Willa at least one more time.
He glanced over at Willa and smirked as she struggled to put her arms through the sleeves of my t-shirt. I hadn’t been paying attention when I put it on her, so the sleeves weren’t in the right place. He shot me a look with a raised brow. He fucking knew I put the shirt on her because I didn’t want his motherfucking eyes on her.
“Really, Kill? It’s been two fucking days.”
“Shut up. What do you want?”
“I’m here to tell you play time’s over. Get your girl, and let’s get to fucking work.”