10 Ways to Steal Your Lover (16 page)

 
      
No sooner did he start sucking her clit
than she came, shaking and gasping, flooding his mouth with sweetness. Long,
lapping licks kept her at a state of near delirium, right where he loved her. Following
the rich, heady droplets, he stroked her opening as he had before, only this
time with his tongue. Every swipe delved deeper, until he was licking deep
within and she was grasping the back of his head, almost back to another peak.

 
      
But she wasn’t going over alone this
time.

 
      
Fumbling one-handed—his other wasn’t
about to leave her clit, even if someone threatened to cut it off—he undid his
fly. Shoving at the offending denim, he freed himself, stroking only once to
take a strong grip on himself before climbing up behind her and fit himself
there.

 
      
He sank slowly, all the way to the hilt,
trying to savor the sensation and commit it to memory. It would have to last
him and he had no idea for how long. Possibly the rest of his life.

 
      
Settled deep, her body quaking while she
held on with both hands to the sheet covering the bed, her head dropped between
them on the mattress, he let himself have this one moment to remember. Joined,
the feel of her rippling around him inside and out, he lowered his mouth to the
line of her spine, pressing kisses there while his hands swept beneath her to
cup her breasts in his palms. She undulated, not willing to wait any longer.
still kissing her back, he dragged one hand down the already slick muscles of
her belly, dipping to find her clit once more. Her muscles squeezed him tight
in response and he matched the circular stroke of his fingertips to the slow
movements of his hips. Deeply, he moved against the heart of her. Slow as
possible, he slid back, rubbing himself against every millimeter of her
sensitive channel. The return stroke was just as slow. Just as thorough.

 
      
“Kane.” She lifted her head turning just
enough to look him in the eye as he continued his slow siege. Passion had
turned her eyes dark, the brilliant blue a near violet now, her lips swollen
and red. And they looked beautiful whispering his name.

 
      
“I love you, Del.” If this was the last
time he would be with her, he wasn’t going to hold anything back. But he needed
from her too, an ache that felt like it came from his soul.

 
      
She stared into his eyes, almost
pleading. If he were a stronger man, he’d give her all the time she wanted to
take, but no matter what she said next, this was all the time he was sure to
have. After everything he’d just thrown away, he needed to know this was more
than just sex to her.

 
      
He could see that she wanted to close her
eyes, to drop her head and let him ride her to another wave, but as if she
could read his mind, feel his demand, she didn’t do it. Didn’t ask him to move
faster or rush him with her own movements. She met him slow rock for slow rock.
She stared back at him, the connection between them growing tighter. Her
muscles squeezed him every time he pulled back, milking, flexing like a velvet
glove. His muscles screamed for release, his cock aching to bury deep within
her and stay there forever, but he couldn’t stop and he couldn’t rush them both
to the orgasms that would end it. Couldn’t keep from wishing for what was
always beyond his reach.

 
      
Her love.

 
      
Her hand stretched out to him, twisting
her torso to be able to cup his jaw. She was so beautiful, her cheeks pink, her
black hair spilling over the white cushions like an ebony waterfall. Her thumb
touched his lips. “Don’t you know, Kane?”

 
      
He licked her thumb, fitting his teeth
around it.

 
      
“Haven’t you always known? Even when I
didn’t realize it?” Her breathy voice broke with a soft cry, her soft mouth falling
open while she rippled around him in fluid undulations. “It was always you. You
were the one I’ve been waiting for, all this time. I love you, Kane. Always,
always you.”

 
      
He closed his eyes, something close to
pain but infinitely sweeter ripping through him. He turned her, flipping her
fully onto her back before sliding himself over her.

 
      
He had to – had to – feel her with every
part of him. He tucked his arms under her shoulders, lifting her closer, even
as she wrapped her own around him. She was still murmuring when he took her
mouth, swallowing her words when he began to push into her again. Her legs
wrapped tightly around his waist, holding him until they were barely moving.
Just her flexing around his cock, him gliding along those crucial places within
her that made her gasp. Made her arch and quake. This time, when she came, she
took him with her. Not with a scream, but with a whisper.

 
      
With love.

 
      
Delilah woke slowly, oddly enough to the
sound of running water in the distance. She blinked, the dim light not helping
her part the shadows from the cobwebs of her rest. She hadn’t dreamed, her
sleep far too deep for that. The bone-deep slumber of contentment, she decided,
a smile curving her lips. Nah, contentment didn’t begin to cover it.

 
      
Every inch of her body was languid and
satisfied to the point that she didn’t want to move. Except for the fact that
she wasn’t remotely where she remembered falling asleep. Kane must have moved
her up on the bed, tucking the blankets around her after turning what could
have been an ugly discussion into something wonderful. Beautiful.

 
      
Freeing.

 
      
She felt stupid now, for holding back her
feelings from Kane. Disconcerted, too, to learn how transparent she’d been. At
least to everyone else. If she’d been honest sooner, with herself and Craig,
they would never have gotten as far as a wedding day. She’d have been free to follow
those feelings that had drawn her to Kane from the beginning. Hel, he probably
would have come to her just like he did that morning in the church—

 
      
She sat up, eyes wide at the flash of
memory. She hadn’t called Kane to her. She hadn’t even had the chance to tell
her parents the wedding was off or why. She’d taken a gulp or two of the
champagne her grandmother had left on the vanity in order to bolster her
courage to break it off with Craig and was staring at it, considering downing
the rest to tell her parents her decision when Kane’s staccato knock had
sounded. He’d opened the door and popped his hand in, that familiar beaten-up
tan hat waving like a white flag.

 
      
“Del? Craig said you wanted me?”

 
      
She’d wanted to laugh and even cry a
little at that. She must have made a sound of some kind because Kane had
stepped into the room, a concerned frown on his handsome face, looking all kinds
of sinful in the black tux she knew he hated wearing. Give him a pair of jeans
and a t-shirt for every day of the week and his day was made. Only for her and
Craig had he agreed to truss himself into a monkey suit. On the condition that
he got to keep his hat. She’d had more fun than she’d been able to admit
working out a deal with him over that and it had been worth all the finagling
to see him dressed up.

 
      
His eyes, that steady green gaze she
trusted more than any other, fixed on her face. “Everything okay?”

 
      
That was when she knew she’d made the
right decision.

 
      
“No, everything is finally just the way
it should be.” She’d smiled up at him, wondering if he could see on her face
how free she finally felt. “I do want you.”

 
      
His confusion cleared slowly. So slowly
that she realized he was afraid he might be wrong. She slipped her hand into
his, relieved as she curled her fingers between his rough, dry ones and rose on
her toes to press a soft kiss to his warm lips.

 
      
“I’ve wanted you for really long time,
Kane. I was just too scared to admit it. I’m not scared anymore, though. None
of it matters. Not the wedding. Not my parents. Not who I keep trying to be or
who I thought I was supposed to be with. I couldn’t sit one more second knowing
I was about to make the biggest mistake of my life to make everyone else happy.
It wasn’t worth it. Not when I finally know where I belong. With you.”

 
      
A pained gleam filed Kane’s eyes until he
scrunched them shut. “But…Craig—”

 
      
“Knows,” she interrupted. “That’s why he
sent you.”

 
      
His last gift to her. More than she’d
ever expected of the man walking out of her life, but possibly the most
wonderful thing he’d ever done for her.

 
      
Kane stared down at her for the longest
seconds of her life, his expression inscrutable, before he gently puled the
glass flute from her hand and downed the rest of the champagne in one gulp. He
put the glass down on the nearest table firmly, then looked back at her with
that special grin that set her heart tilting to a matching angle.

 
      
Next thing she knew, she was swept into
his kiss, both his arms around her, her whole world wobbling into a new
position.

 
      
The right one.

 
      
The memory faded behind the gauze in her
mind then, their words becoming too faint to make sense of. Not that she needed
more. If the rest of their night never came back, she’d be just fine with it.
She had the memory that mattered. They could make all new ones.

 
      
Well, once she found him, anyway.

 
      
She tugged the sheet free from the bed,
wrapping it around her body with a self-effacing smile. She stood a good chance
at turning this toga-style robe into a habit if Kane insisted in getting her
naked whenever they were alone. “Kane?”

 
      
He didn’t reply so she followed the light
and the sound of water toward the bathroom. Too much water to be the showe—

 
      
She jumped at the sound and feel of paper
under her feet. With a frown, she bent to pick up discarded pieces of tan
colored parchment. Like the kind Norman had handed to Kane at the chapel…

 
      
The four distinct squares had spread out
on the thick carpet and Delilah picked them all up carefully. She flipped them
until she could see the printing and it was without question their combined
license and certificate. Kane had torn it in half. Twice. But why?

 
      
She shuffled through the pieces until she
found the one missing his signature. The line was still blank. She frowned in
confusion, her heart aching. What had happened to make him do this? To throw
away something he told her over and over again that he wanted more than his
next sunrise. Her eyes stung, fingertips running soothingly over the damaged
paper.

 
      
It made no sense, of course, the paper
couldn’t feel, but tearing something as sacred as a marriage certificate felt
so wrong she couldn’t help wanting to make it better. She took it all back to
the bed, where she put them back into the proper order. It didn’t give her any
answers but it felt better than leaving them in a ramshackle pile on the floor.
Turning her back on it, Delilah picked up the trailing end of the sheet and
walked back to the bathroom.

 
      
Whatever answers there were, Kane was the
only one who knew them.

 
      
She padded across the marble, her steps
slowing as her husband—paper or no paper—came into view. Hip deep in steaming
water, his forearm flat to the glass, his head against his own fist, he stared
out to the city far below. He must have dunked under at some point because his
dark gold hair was nearly black, slicked and dripping down his back. Beads of
water had found precarious holds all over his skin, spilling into one another
as gravity dragged them back to the pool. And yet, for all the heat, every
muscle in his body was rigid. As if he were holding himself together by sheer
force of will.

 
      
Maybe he was.

 
      
Because clearly, he knew she was in the
room with him.

 
      
“I fell in love with you the first time I
saw you,” he said without turning around, his voice a low growl. “I’ve loved
Craig like a brother almost my whole life but the second I saw you, I wanted to
tear him apart for finding you first.”