Full Disclosure (Homefront: The Sheridans Book 2) (21 page)

“A paycheck Allie can match. Besides, you
know Logan and Ryan would always make sure you had a job at JLS if you needed
it.”

“I don’t know that. Nothing is a
guarantee.”

“No, it’s not. But you have to take some
risks in life. Reach for that brass ring. Let yourself believe that you deserve
something better than the status quo. Something great.
Someone
great. Someone
like Ryan.” She pauses, glancing toward my son. “Hold up there, champ. That’s
my car.”

I watch my son stop by Cass’s old Mazda.

“Just remember I’m here for you if you
ever need to talk, okay? Just a phone call away. And so is Allie. Unless she’s
otherwise occupying herself with her betrothed.” She gives a dramatic eye roll.
“That’s why we all need two best friends in our lives. Back-up.”

I hug her again and don’t want to let go.
My brother died so long ago, but I still miss that bond that siblings share. My
friendships with Allie and Cass are the closest thing I’ve had to that since I
lost my brother.

I wonder what he would be telling me
right now. Whether he’d side with Cass, or be like me.
Play it safe, Kim. Bad
things happen when you take risks in life.

Or was I really punishing myself, like
Cass said?

“You’ll call me when you arrive?” It’s
more of a reminder than a question at this point.

“Of course. I’ll call you from my
flophouse in Queens. Should be a grand place, befitting a princess. But my
roomie is pretty cool. We have the same agent.”

“If you get sick of it, you have a room
at my place. Remember that, okay? If you can handle living with a little boy
who misses the toilet bowl half the time, that is.” I say, laughing as I tug
Connor close to me.

“They never grow out of that,” Cass says
with a snort, getting down on her knees and pulling Connor into her arms. “I’m
gonna miss the heck out of you, sweetie. You take care of your mom, okay?”

“I will,” he promises. “I love you, Cass.”

My heart absolutely shatters.

“I love you too, sweetie.” Cass looks
away, wiping a tear as she climbs into her car.

“Call me when you get there,” I remind
her for the eightieth time.

“Promise.”

I swallow the lump in my throat, watching
her through the haze of unshed tears as she slams her door.

I hate Buckeye Land. I hate that
everything is so overpriced there and that the seats in the roller coasters are
super sticky. I hate that they are always pushing overpriced merchandise on my
kid there.

But I love that stupid amusement park for
bringing me Cass this summer.

I pile Connor and the dogs into my car and
listen to him bubble over with excitement as he chatters in the back seat. It’s
going to be hours before I can get him to wind down for the night, I can tell.

As I pull into my parking spot in front
of the townhomes, I spot Ryan sitting on my front stoop, and my entire body
practically croons with delight.

“Ryan!” Connor shouts as he bolts out of
the car and wraps his arms around him.

It’s all I can do to stop myself from
greeting him the same way.

“What are you doing here?” I ask instead.

“Logan and Allie texted me on my way back
to my place. Seems they were ordering Chinese tonight and wanted to see if
Hannah would like to join them. They get it all—egg rolls, lo mein, kung
pao chicken, extra fortune cookies. Hannah loves Chinese food.”

“Extra fortune cookies?” Connor says,
wide-eyed.

“Yeah, and they said they’d love to have
you join them tonight, if your mom says it’s okay.”

Now
I’m
wide-eyed. I cock my head
at Ryan. “Oh, really?”

“Can I, Mom?”

I bite back my smile. “I guess you can.”

With Ryan grinning at my side, I rap on
Allie’s door and she gives us a knowing look as Connor hurtles himself toward
the smell of lo mein coming from the kitchen.

“Hope you don’t mind us offering. I just
figured you might need some help from Ryan… hanging that flag he got you,” Allie
says with a wink, shutting the door.

I feel Ryan’s hand slide across my back.

“Hanging my flag, huh?” I angle a look at
him as we take our ten-step journey to my place.

“Yeah. Logan loaned me an extra flagpole
and hanging kit he had stashed somewhere.”

His eyes spark of mischief, and it has
nothing to do with hanging a flag, I’m certain.

My heart is practically palpitating at
the thought of being alone with him. I slide my key into the lock and turn the
knob. “He did, did he?”

Ryan steps into my house. I shut the door
behind us and click the bolt, safe within the confines of my home, and set the
dogs free from their leashes.

“He did. All I need is a drill to—”

Not an instant passes before I launch
myself so quickly into his arms that he can’t even finish his sentence. I am
starved for him, flooded with a need that’s been building all day from the
simple feel of his hand in mine.

His lips feel lush against mine, as does
his rock-hard chest, pressing up against me so close I swear I can feel his
heart pounding. No, wait—that’s
my
heart. And it’s doing
double-time as I feel his tongue slip past my lips and touch my own.

I shiver as his hands skim along my
cotton shirt, up my spine and to the base of my neck. He threads his fingers
into my hair, and pulls his lips momentarily from mine.

“I needed to see you, Kim. I hope you
don’t mind.”

My lips caress his jawline, then move downward.
“Do I look like I mind?” I murmur as my mouth moves to the opening at the top
of his polo shirt.

This won’t do. This won’t do at all, I
think as I tug at his shirt, pulling it upward. What has this man turned me
into? I’m ravenous, and the only thing that can satisfy the emptiness inside my
core is him.

“No, you don’t look like you mind at all.”

With some urgency, he helps me pull his
shirt over his head and I practically purr at the sight of him again. I fan my
hands across his pecs, moving my lips back to his as I feel myself lifted off
the ground.

Oh my God.

There’s really nothing like getting
whisked off my feet by a man like Ryan Sheridan. I take a mental snapshot of
this moment as our mouths consume each other, teeth scraping, and breath intermingling
as though we are one. He carries me up my staircase and nudges one of the doors
open.

I open my eyes just a slit to see his
brow furrow at a giant Minecraft poster greeting him.

“That’s Connor’s room,” I say, barely
even moving my mouth from his. He doesn’t even bother replying, moving to the
next door while I shake my head. “Spare bedroom,” I tell him, and I feel him
groan against my mouth.

Finally, we reach my room and he bumps
the door shut with his hip, leaving the dogs in the hall. My unmade bed greets
us along with about six different shirts from this morning as I struggled to
decide what to wear today. He doesn’t seem to mind the mess, not even moving
his eyes from me as he lays me down on the bed. He sprawls on top of me, his
strong arms propping him up so that I can still breathe.

I can feel him, hard and ready beneath
his shorts, and I’m not willing to wait.

“Shorts. Off,” I command, and nearly
laugh when he pulls mine off of me in response. Only my white panties separate
us, and the heat of his mouth against them makes me arch instinctively toward
him. “I actually meant
your
shorts,” I say, “but this works for me,
too.”

Laughing, he unzips his shorts and tugs
them off of his muscular legs, pausing momentarily to retrieve a condom from
his pocket before he tosses them onto the floor.

“You’re acting as if we’re in a rush,” he
says before pulling me up slightly from the bed so that he can remove my shirt.

“You’ve never seen how fast Connor can
wolf down Chinese.”

“Ahh. In that case…” He pulls off his
boxers and slips on the condom without delay, and I mirror his actions,
removing my panties.

Lowering himself on top of me, his lips
gently caress mine, so tenderly now I ache with desire.

“I couldn’t take my eyes off of you all
day, Kim.”

“Really?”

“And every time I touched you, it made me
want you even more.”

I open my legs to him, and savor the
exquisite feel of him sliding into my moisture, my body receiving him as though
it was designed only for him.

I shudder beneath him, the silken feel of
his length moving inside of me, sending waves of lust through me. My mind, my
body, my very soul feel enraptured by the motion, so deep inside me in one
instant, then slowly pulling out. And when I nearly weep for the invasion
again, he presses into my folds once more, the tip of him touching me at my
deepest point, causing my breath to catch every time.

Again and again, he moves his body in
this ancient, primal rhythm. He’s tormenting me with the deliberateness of his
movements, with half of me wanting him to penetrate me faster, harder. And the
other half of me wants to prolong this glorious torture for as long as I can
remain conscious.

And that may not be long, I ponder as my
breath catches again, and I grow lightheaded as I feel ecstasy within my reach.
My channel tightens around him, my body’s instinctive request for more, and he
obliges, thrusting deep inside me, holding the position as he presses against
my clit, the friction of it casting a fire across my body.

I gasp, drawn into a web of sensation.

“That’s it, baby,” he says, his eyes
never leaving mine. “You feel so good when you come with me inside you. So
good.”

My body nearly riots with fury when I
feel him slide out of me again. But then, just as I nearly beg him for more, he
slips deep inside me. When he holds that position, I find myself grinding
against him, the climax approaching quickly now. And then I cry out, trembling
violently as every nerve in my body fires.

Tiny reverberations still flow through me
for minutes afterward, till I feel boneless beneath him. I melt back into the
sheets, with him still hard inside me.

His lips meet mine now, the kiss nudging
me back into consciousness, back into a reality that is more sensual than any I’ve
ever experienced. Pulling me to my side, I expel a long breath as he moves one
of my thighs up high near his shoulder and my other one up on his waist, offering
an angle that stimulates me in an entirely new way.

“This is definitely better than putting
your flag up.”

With my eyes still only half open, I crack
a smile. “I won’t argue that point.”

His hand glides across my breasts, down
my body, tunneling into my curls, and then stopping at the bundle of nerves
that seems hypersensitive to his touch. I whimper when he strokes me there.

“That feels good, honey?”

“Mmhm,” I murmur, barely coherent.

“Then let me make it even better for
you.” He lifts my one leg up to his shoulder and then over his head, leaving
him at my back, entering me from behind.

I nearly laugh; I never thought I was
that limber till right now. But the laugh dissipates inside my throat when his
hand moves to my clit, making slow, sumptuous circles around my center as he
thrusts inside me, harder now.

I exult in his movements—his hand,
his cock, both playing my body like a fine instrument. Every nerve ending
sings, as his speed reflects more urgency with each passing second.

His lips plunder my neck as I feel
another climax within my reach. He pulsates inside me, and I pant in response,
my vision blurred as I feel myself climb up an apex before me. As he sucks in
my ear lobe, nipping ever so slightly, his thrusts become more demanding, and
my vision blurs.

Fire pools at my center till finally, the
orgasm splinters through me just as I feel him reach his own breaking point,
shattering right along with me.

Buried inside me still, he wraps his arm
across my chest and holds me protectively against him.

“You know, I really
did
just come
over to hang your flag,” he says, and I feel the smile on his face against my
neck as he kisses me.

“Liar.”

- RYAN -

I’m well aware that the eyes on me as I
walk into JLS are full of questions this morning, even though no one dares ask
them.

“Good morning, Mr. Sheridan,” Maryanne
greets me the moment I step on the marbled floor of our lobby.

I nod. “Good morning.”

But her eyes are asking me if it’s really
true that I’m dating an employee of JLS. Half the people who work here were at
the Buckeye Festival and saw me holding hands with Kim. And I’m sure they couldn’t
have missed every possessive look I sent in her direction throughout the day,
even when we were on opposite ends of the field.

I nod to a few people as I step into the
elevator, and I feel their eyes on me as I select a floor number. I toy with
the idea of pressing the number for Kim’s floor and seeing if she has made it
to her desk in the HR department. And since news has clearly spread like
wildfire, it couldn’t do any harm. But she’d kill me if I dropped by her floor
during the day, especially if I laid a big fat kiss on her to get her day
started. She’d skin me alive. So I press the button for the top floor—my
usual routine.

All I can do is hope that everyone is
being as tight-lipped around her as they are with me. It’s no one’s business
that we’re dating.

“Good morning, Mr. Sheridan,” Deborah
greets me as I walk toward my office. “Did you enjoy the Buckeye Festival?”
Only Deborah would ever dare ask that. But I spent a little time during the
festival talking to her and her two grandchildren who are close to Connor’s
age.

“I had a wonderful time. Best festival
ever.” Smiling, I give her a meaningful look.

“Indeed,” she answers, her eyes bright
with humor as she hands me my coffee. “Your brother’s in your office.”

My eyebrows raise in question, and I
glance at my watch. I thought he’d be on a plane by now headed to DC for the
foundation conference.

“Thanks.”

I open my door and Logan is staring
daggers at me. Raising an eyebrow, I shut it behind me, noting his luggage
resting at his side.

“Hey, what are you doing here? Your whole
department was on an eight o’clock flight,” I say.

“I changed to a later flight last
minute.” He pulls his phone from his pocket. “And cut the bullshit about my
travel plans. You better have a good explanation.”

“For what?”

“Kim’s an employee and a mom and a good friend
of our family. I won’t put up with you screwing around on her and breaking her
heart,” he mutters as he types in the password for his phone.

My eyes widen. “I have never screwed
around on any woman, and certainly not on Kim. What the hell is this about?”

“You don’t know?”

“No. Obviously, I don’t.”

After a few touches and swipes, he shoves
his phone in my face.

Setting down my coffee mug, I reach for it.
I hold it back momentarily, letting my eyes focus and…
shit
.

Me. And Aimee Peters. The photo has captured
her lips on my cheek and her breasts smashed against my chest.

Had she even stood that close to me? It
had only been an instant. I seriously hadn’t noticed.

“Where did you get this?” I ask.

“Cass saw it in the Style section of the
paper when she got back to New York yesterday. She called Allie to find out who
this bimbo is.”

“She’s not a bimbo at all, dammit. That’s
Aimee. Remember? Aimee Peters. We broke it off months ago.”

“I remember. And she’s not the bimbo in
the picture. You are. What the hell are you doing kissing her at the benefit a
few days ago when you’re dating Kim?”

“I wasn’t kissing her.
She
kissed
me
on the cheek. Pretty customary. I told her I was dating Kim, by the way, and
she was fine with it. She has no interest in pursuing me when I’m with someone
else. It’s not her style.”

“Well, it looks pretty bad.”

I look at the photo again, my shoulders
sagging. “Yeah, it does. Dammit. Does Kim know?”

“Hell no. Allie wanted to give you a
chance to explain first. Then I have the okay to kill you if I don’t like your
explanation.”

“So are you going to kill me?”

“No. If only to give you a little time to
explain this to Kim before she finds out the wrong way.”

I retreat to the leather chair behind my
desk. “Of course I’ll talk to her about it. But if it’s in a New York paper,
she’ll probably never see it anyway.”

His long arm reaches across my desk and
he smacks me on the side of the head. “Get your head in this century. It’s on
their online edition, too. How do you think Cass texted the photo to Allie?
It’ll get around on the internet and someone at JLS will see it. And now that
half the company is talking about you dating an employee, it will end up
getting forwarded to Kim.” He picks up the phone and extends the receiver to
me. “Call her.
Now
. Or I will.”

“I will. As soon as you get out of my
office.” I don’t want her hearing this from someone else any more than Logan
does.

“Don’t let me stand in your way,” he
retorts, grabbing his suitcase and slamming my door behind him.

I burrow my fingers into the taut muscles
of my shoulders, trying to ease the knots that are forming. Dammit. I hope she
didn’t see that photo yet. Lifting my phone, I picture her scolding me to not
call her at work. She even told me yesterday that she doesn’t want her
supervisor thinking that dating me will be some kind of a distraction during
her work day.

Damn her work ethic.

I set the phone back down on my desk and
pull my cell out of my pocket. She can’t object to a quiet, surreptitious text
or two, can she?

“Are you free for a coffee break?” I
type.

“I just got here. Don’t think that would
be a good idea,” she replies instantly.

“Lunch then?” I pause a moment, glancing
at the clock, feeling the pressure of needing to see her sooner rather than
later.

“There’s an HR lunch meeting today. We’re
working through. How about after work?”

Dammit. “Can’t. Look, I really need to
see you about something.”

She answers only with a “?”

“Please come see me in my office for just
two minutes.”

“Ryan, if I come up there, everyone will
think you’ve summoned me for a quickie or something. I’m getting enough weird
looks this morning.”

She’s right. If I’m feeling it, I’ll bet
she is, and ten-fold.

“Okay. Meet me on Logan’s floor in his
office. He just left for the airport and his entire department is in DC at a
conference. Ten minutes. Please,” I tap in the final word, holding my breath
momentarily. I stare at the phone for a few seconds, waiting for her reply. Grabbing
a pen, I twirl it around my fingers nervously

Finally she writes, “I’ll be there in
10,” and I sigh in relief.