Chapter 21
Killian
I rub Celani’s back and nod at her to continue.
“You can tell me anything, sweetheart. Go on,” I assure her.
She sighs and looks down at her hands in her lap. “When Pierce left, I waited a little while and then I went down into his office to look around and see if I could find anything. I never go in there, and I thought maybe something could be in his drawers that would be a red flag,” she explains.
My chest tightens. “Celani. Sweetheart, you have to be careful,” I warn.
She pouts up at me. “I know but I just feel like I’m not doing enough to figure things out!
” she protests. “His phone is always glued to his hand, so there’s no way for me to get access to it.
And you know what else? I tried getting on the laptop that he had on his desk, but he changed the password, Killian!
I’ve always known his password and now all of a sudden it didn’t work. ”
I rub her back gently, hating to see how agitated all of this is making her. I know that she feels stuck right now, but I need to assure her that we are working on all of this behind the scenes.
I blame myself for not picking up on Pierce’s odd behavior sooner. I am always paying close attention to people, and looking for anomalies in their behavior. But in the past few weeks my focus has become very singular.
Celani.
I haven’t honestly given a damn about how Pierce has been doing as long as I knew Celani was safe. I left him in Malakai’s hands to keep track of him. But now I am on full alert and piecing things together with my team.
“I didn’t want to stress you out with the details, but Davi has already accessed Pierce’s email accounts, and search history on his computers.
Even the one he has at work, thanks to Malakai,” I explain.
“Everything he found was pretty standard, but it’s just his phone we haven’t been able to get ahold of.
Like you said, it is always attached to him. ”
Her shoulders slump and her face fills with disappointment. “So how will we find out what he is hiding?” she asks.
I take her chin in my hand, and the same familiar determination fills me like every time she gets worried.
“Let us worry about it, sweetheart. Don’t go back through his things again. If he finds out what you’re doing it will only make him even more careful to hide what he may be trying to. Ok?”
She twists her mouth but nods. “Ok,” she murmurs unhappily.
“Good girl,” I say, kissing her and standing up.
I scoop her into my arms and move us to lay against the pillows on the bed. She sits between my legs with her back on my chest, and we stay there quietly for a few minutes staring out of the large window that faces the hill and pond.
It feels so damn amazing having her here in my space. Like my dream truly came to life in the most incredible way.
I stroke her hair and soak in the privilege of having her presence surrounding me. After a while I decide to ask something that has been on my mind since I left her last night.
“I told you more about how I grew up yesterday. I want to know more about your dad, and if you feel comfortable telling me.. your mom too.”
She turns her head to look up at me and a sweet smile grows on her face. “You do?”
I nod. “I want to know everything about you.”
She squeezes my hand and looks away from me like she is contemplating where to begin.
“Things with my mom were similar to how it was for you. She divorced my dad when I was two years old, and I don’t remember her at all.
She sent me gifts on my birthday for a while but then she gave that up too,” she says, a hint of sadness in her voice.
"Do you ever wonder where your mom or dad are? "
"No, not anymore," I say honestly. "Do you wonder where your mom is?"
She tilts her head thoughtfully. "Sometimes. But I don't know if I would be very accepting of her coming back into my life. She didn't even show up after my dad passed away," she says frowning.
“I had a bunch of nannies growing up since my dad was always working at the hospital. When I got older, sometimes he’d pick me up and take me in to work with him.
I’d spend my time after school in the doctor’s lounge doing homework and reading under those scratchy hospital blankets,” she says, wrinkling her nose but smiling fondly at the memory.
“I told you most of the good parts about my dad when we’ve talked before, but the truth is as I got older, I spent most of my time at Desirée’s house while my dad worked.
Her family is really like my own. She has three younger brothers, and her mom was home a lot more than my dad,” she explains, then looks up at me again.
“All of those happy memories I shared with you of hayrides, and fun game nights were with them. I loved my dad, but he put work above everything else. He never seriously dated again after my mom left, and he didn’t even really spend much time with friends.
He missed out on a lot of milestones I had with sports, and award ceremonies, sometimes I even spent holidays with Desirée and her family while he was in the ER.
It was only when he got sick that his body forced him to take a break and look at what else there was to life. ”
I slip my hands around hers and she squeezes them, taking a moment to gather herself before continuing.
“I don’t think I ever told you, but he sold my childhood home and moved into a smaller house a year before his cancer diagnosis. He left that house to me in his will. I kept it even though I was living with Pierce by that time.”
Her voice lowers and tears shine in her eyes, “I can still feel him there when I go inside,” she says quietly. “I don’t know if it’s because he spent his last days there, or if somehow his spirit is still..”
She trails off shaking her head and wipes her eyes. “Sorry. I’m sure I sound crazy,” she sighs.
I shake my head. “Not at all, Celani. I’m sure he is still with you, and is so proud of you, sweetheart,” I say, positive my words are true.
She smiles sadly, “I don’t know if he would be proud, Kill. You know he never even liked Pierce?”
I raise an eyebrow, the corner of my mouth lifting. “Really?” I ask, unable to hide the satisfaction in my voice.
She shakes her head. “Not at all. He always said that Pierce had something off about him that didn’t sit right with him.”
“Smart man,” I mumble, taking in everything she is saying.
Her eyes search my face and the twinkle in them returns. “I..I think that he would have really liked you,” she says thoughtfully. “You remind me of him in a lot of ways. He was smart, determined, and humble. He was intimidating to a lot of people, but if he trusted you, he had the biggest heart.”
We hold each other’s gaze, and I trace my finger over her plump bottom lip.
“I do trust you, sweetheart. And I don’t know how big my heart is, but you have so much of it already,” I whisper.
I lean down to kiss her slowly and she parts her lips for me, welcoming me inside. I can’t get enough of her soft, full lips. From our first kiss they became my favorite thing in the world. My brain is constantly imagining them, begging me to get my next fix.
She moves to straddle my lap, not taking her lips from mine as she holds onto my shoulders. We kiss like we are starving for each other, like all of our problems don’t exist as soon as we come together.
She presses herself down on me and moans when she realizes just how hard she made me even before I opened my eyes today. She begins to work her hips on top of me and I growl.
The thin fabric of her pajama pants, and my lounge pants leave very little between us. Her slow movements are giving us both the perfect amount of friction we need, and when her eyes flutter closed I pull my lips from hers and raise up her shirt.
A black bra with a small bow in the center greets me but I’m unconcerned with the design, too eager to see the real beauty underneath it. I unclasp the back of it and stare at her in awe.
“Beautiful,” I rasp, feeling dazed as I admire her dark nipples and full breasts.
My mouth descends on her without a second thought, my tongue wrapping around one stiff nipple at a time. She moans and digs her nails into my shoulders as I attempt to devour her whole.
I slowly release one of her nipples and kiss my way up her neck, gripping her ass to help her continue to move over my swollen cock.
“You like this baby?” I demand hoarsely. “Is rubbing yourself on my cock making your pretty clit feel good?”
“Yes,” she whines, sliding over me faster.
I can feel precum leaking from my tip, and I grip her tighter, desperate to make her come so I can taste her again. Her brown eyes meet mine and the desire in them makes my balls ache.
“You are breathtaking,” I say against her lips before taking another kiss. “I’ll take anyone’s breath that tries to touch a single curl on your head.”
“Killian,” she breathes, her voice cutting off into a whimper.
Her legs begin to shake and she presses her hot pussy down hard against me. I take her lips again as we both groan into each other’s mouths, coming together in a blinding bliss.
She presses her forehead against mine, and I feel her wet pussy pulsing against me as she tries to catch her breath.
“That felt so good,” she mumbles, placing a soft kiss on my neck and looking into my eyes. “Did you like it too?”
The corner of my mouth lifts and I grab her hips, pulling her up so she can see the mess we both made.
She covers her mouth to stifle a laugh. “So..yes?” she asks teasingly.
I flip her over onto her back making her squeal. I hook my thumbs onto the sides of her pajama pants and pull them down. My eyes drink her in and I lower my mouth to her glistening pussy.
She whimpers as my tongue slides through her folds, gently cleaning and teasing her. She grips my hair roughly as I play with her clit sucking on it eagerly. She writhes until her pussy is pulsing again and this time she comes inside of my mouth.
I lick my lips and give her a satisfied smile as she covers her face.
“How do you make me go off like that?” she murmurs, suddenly shy.
“Magic,” I tease, kissing her mouth and pushing off of the bed.
I walk over to my dresser and open a drawer. “I’ll give you something clean to wear. It will be too big, but at least it will be dry.”
I take out my nicest lounge pants for her, and some boxers for myself, then help her off of the bed, taking her into the bathroom. I insist on helping her clean up, and I try not to get myself worked up all over again while I touch her, but fail.
I force myself to behave, then take her back to the bed. She lays down on my chest, her body turned sideways under the sheets so she can look up at me. The pants I gave her are huge on her, and she looks adorably small in them.
“You happy, sweetheart?” I ask, studying her soft expression.
She nods and gives me a lazy smile, “So happy.”
She draws circles on my chest with her fingers while I stroke her soft curls. Her finger moves to my left hand where one of my tattoos is. I’ve seen her look at it before and she looks up at me now asking the question that I knew would eventually come.
“What is this one? It looks so familiar but I can’t place it,” she asks curiously.
“It’s a scythe,” I answer, interlacing her fingers with mine. “The blade the Grim Reaper carries.”
She gives me a long look piecing together exactly why I would have something like this on my body.
She doesn’t say anything else about it, instead she just lays her head back on my chest. I have no idea how everything I’ve told her about myself and my history hasn't made her want to keep her distance from me. But I’m grateful she sees beyond all of my darkness and understands that no matter how dangerous I may be, I’ll never be a danger to her.
After a while her eyelids begin to droop and she yawns, her circles slowing over my skin until her hand stills, and she dozes off. I watch over her, unhappy that I will have to wake her up to take her back to the main house before Pierce comes home.
I reach over and grab my phone, shooting a text to Malakai.
He responds quickly and I read it over, happy to see he is on top of it already:
Malakai: The tracker on his car shows him downtown at the same building I took him to for that ‘meeting’ he wouldn’t let me go into. I’m on the way there now.
Good. Stay on him.
I set my phone back down and stare at Celani as she sleeps peacefully. I think about all of the new things I learned about her today and feel grateful that she trusts me enough to tell me everything she did.
She may be going back to Pierce today, but there will be a time very soon when he will never see her again.