Chapter 18
CHAPTER
EIGHTEEN
ISLA
He slowly parted his lips, beckoning me to do the same.
I followed his lead, imitating the pace he set.
His tongue traced my swollen lips, and it left the craziest sensation in its wake.
A tingly fire that only he could put out.
I’d never be able to lick my lips and not think of this very moment.
It would be lodged next to my heart, where he belonged.
I pulled back my tongue, and he took it as an open invitation to gently push his into my awaiting mouth. Seeking mine out, he turned this kiss into something more.
I was his girl.
I had always been his girl.
A soft moan escaped my mouth as he pecked my lips one last time, gradually pulling away from me and leaving me breathless and wanting more.
My eyes fluttered open, instantly locking with his hypnotizing stare that answered every question I needed to know, every emotion I needed to feel, every expression I needed to see.
It was all written right there in front of me.
Taking breaths in between, he pleaded, “I want to lose myself inside you.” He kissed me again—deeper, more urgent, and demanding.
His hand moved from clutching my thigh and began roaming. It started in my hair and traveled down to my face as I writhed and moaned beneath him, enticing him to go further. I wanted to feel his callused fingers on every inch of my tingly skin.
“Fuck… you feel good. How do you always feel so fucking good?” he growled, gliding his hand toward the top of my breast. I could feel my nipple hardening through my flimsy cotton tank.
I pushed my chest further into his hand, and he immediately gripped it harder, using his knee that was still holding up my thigh as leverage.
He started thrusting his dick against my core, earning him another whimper.
My hips moved on their own accord, rubbing against his cock with the same momentum of his thrusts.
His thin shorts and my panties made it easy to feel the friction that ignited between us. His dick relentlessly ground against my clit, stimulating my longing to come, which felt amazing.
He painfully groaned, knowing exactly what he was stirring inside me. Kissing me with all the passion and hunger of a starved man while his hand slid under my tank.
Demanding a response from me that only he elicited. He caressed the top of my bra, and it didn’t take long for him to push the material aside and knead my warm, perky breast. My sweltering skin felt incredible in the palm of his hand, exciting me in ways I never thought were possible.
With that one touch, my nipples hardened, my stomach clenched, and shivers coursed down my spine. Our movements became headier and more urgent, both of us searching for something, anything.
My back arched off the towel when he pushed my shirt up and kissed his way down to my breast. His lips sensually pecked from the side of my neck to my collarbone.
He was slowly savoring the burn of my body coming apart against his rugged frame, getting hotter with each caress of his tongue touching my flesh.
The desire…
The ache…
The need for relief…
It was right there, wavering and waiting to go off. My hips rocked faster against his cock, and he kept up the same momentum. Both of us wanted to come down from the high that we were rousing with dry fucking each other.
My breathing picked up as did my arousal, engulfing him in nothing but my want for us to keep going and have him claim what had been his for so long.
He released a growl from deep within his chest, vibrating against my core. His mouth slammed back into mine, and our tongues collided.
His lips.
His tongue.
His hands.
I felt him everywhere.
“Isla… give it to me, baby…” he roughly muttered between kisses. Biting my bottom lip, he sucked it into his mouth.
My legs quivered, and my core pulsated. I breathlessly gasped, sucking in air and falling over the edge so hard I saw stars.
Coming undone from the inside out, I throbbed, shuddering, helpless beneath him.
My panties were drenched. I was motionless from his touch.
He could do whatever he wanted with me, and I’d mold to his every desire. Just to feel like I did right now.
Loved.
So very loved.
My eyes snapped open when Julius whispered into my ear with a seductive tone, “Next time I make you come, it’s going to be on my cock.” My gaze connected with his intoxicating stare.
I knew he meant every last word, and I was royally screwed. If things were complicated and confusing with us before…
Now we’d have to face Kraven.
The drive home was silent, but only in the car. In our minds, an orchestra was playing. Especially after we pulled into the garage. As soon as Julius cut the engine, I heard Kraven.
His piano came to life.
The hypnotizing melody of Ludovico Einaudi’s “Experience” softly flowed through the walls. It was the song they were playing when I first met him in the subway station. I hadn’t heard it in such a long time. They didn’t play it often, and I always wondered why, given how perfectly they executed it.
I was viciously thrown back to the moment his piano lured me, and just like then, my feet moved of their own accord. Each note from his piano accelerated my heart in the same way it did that day. I was seeking refuge, trying to save myself from what was about to happen.
I was surprised by his chess move, but his playing the piano for me had always been our thing. He knew who I’d been with all day, and this was his way of reminding me where half of my heart was.
It was his piano that overpowered my fear, and his talent that drew me in. Like a moth to a flame, the same invisible, gravitational pull yanked me with such force that I didn’t know how I’d return.
My feet moved with purpose and reason, with the same determination I had the first time I laid eyes on those Caribbean blues. It felt dangerously familiar, the same palpable surge of energy that almost knocked me over.
I walked up the stairs, each step filled with so much emotion it nearly brought me to tears. His fingers bled across those piano keys in the same devastatingly haunting way that I could never escape. He always played so breathtakingly beautiful.
Kraven always played dirty, and this was no different. Yet I couldn’t stop myself from getting to him as fast as I could. I didn’t want to miss a second of his performance. His music always had the power to bring me to my knees.
Julius was just as talented, and he played with his heart, while Kraven played with his soul. Their talent came from different parts of them, which made sense since Melody taught it to them that way.
Once I stepped into his bedroom, I immediately recognized the lone wolf that seemed to be lying dormant these past couple of months. He was showing me that it still lived inside him, but when it was just him and me, we were a pack.
His jet-black hair and bright-blue eyes were still such contrasting traits that he wore like a striking paradox. It was his icy stare that proved he wasn’t happy where I’d been or who I’d been with.
Did he know Julius and I fooled around? Could he see it on me? Feel it, maybe?
Again, I couldn’t look away, mesmerized by the devastatingly broken man in front of me.
I stood there captivated, with tears suddenly streaming down my face.
We locked stares. Through his music, we spoke all the words, we said all the things, and we saw all the signs, breathing it all in.
Igniting our connection, our passion, our love…
I watched him play with such fierce perfection, wanting to prove his role in my life and how he was there for me. It was only him and me, and I understood every last note. It was this raw, desperate cry for me…
Our memories together tore through my mind at the same rapid speed.
“Hey, Kitty, weekend custody belongs to me now.”
“You’re going to actually speak to me.”
“What, Kitty? Cat got your tongue, or do you only reserve your voice for screaming my name? Is that how I make you purr?”
I ripped through every last one until the song was coming to an end, triggering me in the worst of ways.
And just like that, he played the last key, and it echoed through the small space between us, through all the walls in the house, and even to Julius, who was now standing behind me with his pain burning a hole in my back.
Before I could open my mouth, Kraven bit out, “Did Kitty have a nice day today?”
Instant chills coursed through my body, freezing every nerve and muscle, leaving every part of me unable to move.
It didn’t help my disposition, although there was no controlling the emotions he was dragging out of me.
The only sound I could hear was my pounding heart, while my mind collided with the past and the present.
It didn’t take long for the truth to set us all free.
“Don’t do this, Kraven. Please…” I begged him, ready to get on my knees if I had to.
Nothing could have prepared me for the string of events that happened next. Not my past. Not our past. Not his anger or his hatred.
Or his love for me, destroying us all.
My vision tunneled, and all the blood drained from my face as I continued to watch him. Waiting for his next attack. For a few seconds, time seemed to stand still. No one moved, including me. An undeniable sense of awareness saturated the room and penetrated our bones.
I couldn’t help but silently pray for a world where we could all be together, where I didn’t have to choose, and where we could all just be happy. It was such a foreign concept, but what do you do when you’re in love with two men?
How did I choose between two people who made me feel whole? It was nearly impossible to even contemplate. Losing one of them would be like losing a part of myself, and I didn’t know how that would work out for the person I decided to be with. Now there was a baby…
How do we make any of this work?
They were going to ask me to pick between them. It was inevitable. Everything was leading to this moment when I’d have to destroy one of them. The power I held at that moment was wild, and coming from someone who was never in control, I was lost with it.
The despair in my emotions recoiled off the walls that were now caving in on me. My heart jackhammered its way up through my throat.
“Kraven, please…” I begged again, fully aware it was useless.
Our pain mixed as one, belonging together. It was entwined through the past and the present, the good and the bad, his darkness, his demons, through the life and future we might never have.
I didn’t stop my tears. I couldn’t. Not when I was with them. Not right now, when they seemed to matter the most.
I was terrified of the future, and it was the only thing that would make this fair.
Kraven stared at me, fully aware of what sentiments he was pulling out of my body. His truths were killing me far more than all the lies he could put together. All the times he pushed me away, all the times he drew me toward him in the same way he was right then.
I was always the one in the middle, and it was exactly where I was at the moment.
“Kitty,” Kraven coaxed. “I asked you a question, and I expect an answer.”
“Don’t talk to her like that,” Julius snapped, only making it worse.
“Oh…” Kraven mocked, cocking his head to the side. He stood, stepping toward me until he was by my side. “The prodigal brother returns.”
“Kraven,” I warned. “Don’t do this.”
He baited in a patronizing tone, “And who’s going to stop me, Kitty? You?”
In one stride, Julius was in his face. “No, Little Brother… that’s going to be me.”
He grinned. “You should be thanking me. It’s going to make her choice a lot easier.”
“Don’t you fucking dare try to turn this around and act like you’re the martyr, Kraven. You called the cops on me, you ungrateful fucking shit… after everything!”
He extended his arms out at his sides. “Yeah, I did that for her.”
Julius scoffed in disgust. “Fuck you! You did that for yourself.”
“Really?” he challenged. “How long do you think it would have taken for your new friends to use her like they used us, huh?”
“I’m not a fuckup like Melody and Joe. I wouldn’t have let that happen.”
“Julius…” Kraven ridiculed. “You know as much as I do that it was only a matter of time until shit hit the fan.”
“So you betray me instead?”
“You can stand there and say you wouldn’t have if it came down to protecting her?” He snapped, “You would have done the same fucking thing, so stop pretending like we aren’t the same.”
“Fuck you!” Julius shoved him, and I stepped between them.
“NO! We are not doing this again!”
Several tears formed in my eyes as I took in their composures and what it meant to me.
To all of us.
I shook my head, hanging on by a thread. “This isn’t going to help anything.”
My chest locked up, eyes blurring with fresh tears, barely allowing me to see their handsome faces. My lungs caved in, and I was suffocating in my own misery.
In our love.
In everything that ever mattered to me.
The next thing I knew, Kraven grabbed something off his desk, slamming it into Julius’s chest.
“You want to end this? Here!”
My gaze shifted to what was in Julius’s hand before my gaze spread wide. “Is that what I think it is?”
Kraven nodded. “You bet your ass it is.”
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
“You don’t have to ask me twice.” Julius whipped around, heading straight to the bathroom.
In a tornado of emotions, I watched as Julius swiped his mouth with a cotton swab before slipping it back into the separate bag. Kraven’s swab was already in there.
Now we would know who the father was, and right on cue, the baby decided to make its presence known…
With a sharp pain in my stomach.