TWENTY
Splice
Wiping the sweat off his face with a hand towel from his back pocket, Splice tossed the screwdriver back into his tool kit at his feet.
Lisa’s new security cameras were now strategically placed out front and back of her house.
If any bastard messed with her car again, he’d know about it.
Then he kicked off his unlaced boots in Lisa’s mudroom before finding her in the kitchen, sitting at the island with her iPad.
He scowled and bent his face over her shoulder.
“Remember, Lottie suggested you take a break from your devices for a few days because you’re still having headaches.”
“I’m completely fine,” she insisted, “and if I don’t check emails, there will be five hundred by the end of the week. Are you going to sift through them, hmm?”
“Yeah, if you want me to. But all I’ll do is delete them.” He smirked, palming her nape lightly.
She’d been allowing him skin contact for the two days he’d been taking care of her, and Splice was like a hog in shit, kind of happy for it.
He hated that the only way he’d gotten access to her house and her was because of the road accident, but he was a man of opportunity and had insisted he be the one to look after her, having to fight Nina for the position.
“How’s your head?” he asked, catching how she moaned as he rolled his thumb and finger on her nape.
“Just a little achy, but nothing I can’t handle.”
“You don’t need to handle it, sweetheart. Any dizziness or sickness?”
“No, nothing. I’m good, Ryan; I’d tell you if I wasn’t. I’m a big baby with pain or being ill.”
She was a brave goddess, and he gently kissed her temple.
Seeing no protest, he repeated the gesture, prompting Lisa to turn on the stool and look up at him.
Clearly, she wanted him to kiss her, so he leaned in eagerly, already tasting her.
However, her hand on his chest stopped him.
She didn’t release her grip until her hand was clutching the neck of his muscle tee.
Then, playfully, the goddess traced her finger along the edge, touching his hot skin, which felt even warmer from her touch.
“Ryan.” Her voice was sex-soaked.
“Hm?”
“Did I say you could kiss me?”
Fuck. Him.
Splice was instantly hard in his jeans, like rock fucking solid, while all the blood rushed out of his head and headed south, hearing the sinful tone of her voice.
“Did I give express permission for your mouth to touch me just then?”
Splice was seconds away from dropping to his knees and yanking her legs open to give Lisa his personal apology.
His voice box was thick with lust when he held her gaze and answered.
“I assumed you were thinking it,” he half-grinned, and she smiled back at him, making her even prettier than she already was. There was no part of Lisa he didn’t think was pretty, and being around her made him act like a leashed dog, so fucking happy to be with his owner again.
“You’ve forgotten all the manners I taught you,” she reminded him of times she’d held him at bay for hours, not allowing him to touch her while the tension and suspended desire built like a forest fire between them.
When she’d allowed him to touch her, they’d been a combustible entity; the sex had been like no other.
It wasn’t the first time Lisa had acted on their sexual dynamic in the past days, and it was like she’d kicked him in the solar plexus for how actively eager he wanted to be.
Just yesterday, when he’d insisted on carrying her upstairs to bed when she’d fallen asleep with her head on his lap, watching one of her Asian dramas, she’d looped arms around Splice’s neck, telling him, “I can hear your thoughts, Ryan. You’re only carrying me to bed; don’t get any dirty ideas.”
He’d lost his mind and the control of his tongue because while he had Lisa cradled in his arms, like she was the most precious thing in his entire universe, he’d nuzzled their noses together and answered.
“Sweetheart. I’ll be the man who takes care of you when you need it, especially now.
That means protecting you, doing shit for you.
You get that, right? You see, that’s what I’m aiming for.
It’s the same promise I gave you when I was nineteen, only now, ten years later, I will make it happen.
” Another nuzzle of their noses followed.
Her eyes were so brilliantly bright, and her cheeks were hot.
He smiled. “And my dirty thoughts will stay just that until you get me underneath you, controlling my cock like your personalized toy.”
That last part earned him a whack on the shoulder, and he laughed, finishing the trek into her bedroom, where he’d laid her on the bed.
Sadly, he hadn’t stayed with her all night like he’d wanted to; even being her guard dog at her bedroom door would have satisfied him, but he’d turned up at her house this morning at the crack of dawn to resume his duties.
And now she was throwing sparks at him.
He wasn’t imagining things. The chemistry was sizzling so hot between them.
Ever since he’d brought Lisa home from the hospital, she’d been more open with him. Letting their hands linger with touches, letting him snuggle right up to her on the couch.
Splice didn’t know he was a touch slut until Lisa, and now he used every chance he got to get a feel of her skin, in whatever way she’d allow.
“Maybe you need to give me a refresher course; it’s been a while since I had to use my manners.” He told her, a grating in his voice.
His entire body craved to be owned by her, under the control of Lisa’s hands. Her will was his desire.
The thing about wanting the right woman and knowing she was the one for him meant Splice possessed a new line of patience he would have once bet his house on not having.
And while her rare, hard-earned kisses drove him so fucking crazy, tasting her, experiencing how shyly she opened her mouth to him, or the way she gripped his hair to ask for more kisses silently, he was as content as a man who was getting his dick wet regularly.
He could wait for as long as Lisa took to want him back in the same frantic way.
Splice was totally convinced Lisa was his girl.
And if he made the wrong move right now, said some dumb shit he was known to do, he’d lose his fucking mind if she walked away from him.
Patience and dedication, that’s all he needed to win her heart again.
And when he got her heart, he was gonna be the proudest motherfucker on two legs to know he owned it.
Dropping his head, he rubbed his nose against hers.
“Think you might wanna do that, sweetheart?”
“I don’t know.” She whispered, her hands sneaking to his waist. “Could you afford my manners lessons?”
She wasn’t talking about money; he guessed that much, and Splice smirked, moving his nose to roam over Lisa’s heated cheek. The day she gave him the green light, he was gonna map her entire body just like this until she was cemented in his memories once more.
“I’d pay anything.” He told her the truth.
“Ryan,” she said breathlessly, and sort of sighed as she pawed his waist, and then she dropped her forehead to his chest. He stroked her hair, fingering slowly, part in case her head was hurting, but another part in tempting her to play with him, even just a little.
He envisioned chasing her indefinitely, finding contentment and happiness in that endless pursuit as long as he could stay by her side. But the intimacy she was offering brought him a level of joy he hadn’t anticipated.
This was true hunger for a woman. Not the temporary satisfaction of sex. His hunger for Lisa was beating hard in his chest.
When Lisa raised her head, she met his eyes, nibbling on the corner of her lip.
“I think we should have a talk.”
Oh, the fuck not. He thought. That usually meant someone was being kicked to the curb.
Splice’s brow folded over his eyes, and he flattened his lips, gripping her nape and tipping her head back to look at him.
“But first, give me a kiss.” She told him before he could question what she meant.
Lisa stole the air from his lungs when she yanked his shirt and connected their lips in the hottest way, seducing him without even trying.
She took control of his lower lip, and he was instantly aroused by her taste flooding his mouth and senses.
Of course, Splice was no slow bastard; he took his cues like a well-versed pupil, and when he grunted into Lisa’s open lips, he took the kiss deeper, sliding a hand down her lower waist, mapping the dips and curves like a man who’d been starving for years and now was about to be given the keys to a candy store.
It was Lisa who ended the kiss, even as he protested and went in for a sneaky last kiss. Her hand was rubbing his chest, almost as if she were calming down a wild stallion. And the thing was, he would always come to heel for her.
He couldn’t explain the sensation or how it settled in his head and chest.
It was a truth he’d accepted long ago and was glad about it.
With intimacy, Lisa would always have his submission.
Would he be the same with any other woman? It wasn’t even something he’d tried with any other sexual partner over the years. No woman ever brought him peace in this way. Or gave him the same sense of happiness just being in her orbit.
If that was love, then Splice was in deep.
And he’d probably been living with that feeling for Lisa for years because, as proven, it has taken no prompting for him to take up the same mantle the moment he saw her again.
A man recognized his other half.
His soul.
The owner of his heart.
Heaving a breath, he dotted a kiss on Lisa’s temple.
“That better not have been a goodbye kiss, sweetheart. Because, fair warning, I will turn into the biggest deviant and kidnap you. I have a basement; I’ll lock you down there.”
“Ryan,” she burst out laughing, as if she thought he was the biggest joker.
He was so damn serious; he was already ten steps ahead in his mind, working out what he’d need to make it happen and how he’d juggle his work while keeping the most precious caged bird in his palms. “You don’t have to be so drastic.” Then she mumbled. “Even if it sounds sexy as hell.”
His head snapped up, and his vision focused solely on Lisa, searching out her flushed face.
She liked that idea?
He knew they were on the same wavelength.
“I heard that,” he smirked, “Plan B is official. Now tell me what you wanna talk about.”
She cleared her throat. “First, about you and me, and what is this between us. Also, clearing up everything you still don’t know. And second, something about the accident.”