Heading East (Part 2 of 2) (The True North Series) (18 page)

22

WES
T

Dinner was a wonderful affair. I had never seen Kat smile so much as she did that night. Bringing her father, Rich, to New York had been no easy feat but, judging from the glow on her face as she looked at the people surrounding her, I knew that all my efforts had not been in vain.

I sat back and took her in. She looked stunning with her blonde hair framing her face in loose waves, wearing a hunter green tank top that hugged her body under a men’s white dress shirt. Her black slacks were loose but tapered at her ankles, and she wore a pair of sexy black stilettos to complete the outfit.

She looked strong, stunning, like a woman who had finally found her place in the world.

After dinner I broke out a bottle of champagne that I’d been saving for this occasion.

“To Kat,” Rich, said, raising his champagne flute. “For her tenacity and pure brilliance.”

“To my dad,” Kat countered, no doubt to steer attention away from her. “Who protected me and has always been there for me.”

“And to Luke for making it happen,” Drew said, taking me by surprise. He hadn’t said more than a word to me since I’d landed in Alaska. He cleared his throat. “That, that was a cool thing you did.”

I nodded in his direction, lifting my own glass. “And to you and Franny. May you—”

“Finally tell us what the hell happened,” Kat interjected, causing a round of
giddy laughter to erupt.

“I will, I promise,” Franny said, glancing at the man beside her. “But not tonight,” she said, finishing her drink and rising to her feet. “Right now we need to get going.”

“You’re not staying with us?” Kat asked, casting a questioning glance at me.

Drew put a hand on
Franny’s shoulder. “Not this time.”

Kat whirled on her dad. “But you’re staying with us, right?”

Rich chuckled, a deep, hearty sound. “Yes, Katie. I’m staying here.”

Kat walked the happy couple downstairs, still trying to get the story out of them and leaving me under the watchful gaze of her father.

“You know, I don’t think I even heard her curse once tonight,” Rich said, his eyes towards the front door.

I continued loading the dishwasher. “She has definitely toned down the language a little,” I said. “But not by my urging, I assure you.”

“Hmm.” There was a long pause,
then he said, “She seems different.”

“Different how?” I already knew the answer to this question, had seen firsthand how Kat had reluctantly emerged from her cocoon of comfort and found the courage to spread her wings, but I wanted to know if other people could see it too.

“She’s…” He stopped, searching the room for the right word. “Warmer. She’s more talkative, more social. And I noticed that she makes more physical contact, not just with you but with other people. She’s definitely not the same girl who said goodbye to me over nine months ago.”

“No, she’s not.” But it wasn’t just Kat who had changed; I was no longer the same person either. I couldn’t even remember what it was like to be the guy who avoided true intimacy, who instead lived his life focused on outer pleasures.

“She calls you West,” Rich said in a soft tone, pulling me from my thoughts.

I turned away from the sink to give him my direct attention. “Yes. She gave me many names back in Alaska,” I said, recalling the impetuous look on her face each time she’d called me something funny. “West is the one she finally settled on.
”

“You know why, don’t you?”

I shook my head as a strange sensation traveled down my spine, as if I was poised above a treasure chest, about to discover what lay inside. “Though I suspect it means something significant.”

Rich leaned back, his hands resting on his belly.
“Ever since Kat was old enough to listen I’d told her to head west.”

I frowned. “Why?”

“Because west is where you find your freedom and, in turn, yourself.”

I sank down on a stool, absorbing his words. Kat believed I was the key to her freedom. Even when I didn’t have an identity of my own she’d put her faith in me that I’d somehow help her find herself. The enormity of it was enough to bring a man to his knees.

I looked back up to her father, who was watching me with a steady gaze. “Sir, there’s something I need from you.”

He raised an eyebrow, a knowing smile on his lips. “And what’s that?”

“Your permission.”

~

After we set Kat’s father up in her bedroom, making doubly sure he had everything he needed, Kat and I headed back to my side of the apartment. As soon as we locked the glass door behind us I took hold of her waist and swung her around to the brick wall, taking her mouth in one smooth motion. She wound her arms around my back and pulled me closer, her body arching off the wall and into me in desperation.

A groan rose from my throat, the pleasure of having her in my arms so intense that I almost gave up on the rest of the evening and fucked her right then. I had plans, but at that moment I was having a damned hard time trying to remember what they were. Instead of wasting valuable time thinking I simply planted my hands on the wall beside her head and feasted on her mouth, vividly aware of the contrast between the gritty brick against my palms and the soft slickness of Kat’s lips.

I pulled away, breathing hard. “How the hell did I manage to live without you for so long?” I asked, nuzzling her cheek, breathing her in.

She put her hands against my chest and pushed me away. Before I could recover my wits, she took hold of my shoulders and spun us around so that I had my back to the wall. She gave me a look of mischief before sinking to her knees, her fingers sliding up the bulge over my jeans and taking hold of my belt buckle.

“Kat…”

She looked up at me while her fingers made short work of undoing my fly. “I’ve had this fantasy,” she began in that voice that I found so sexy. “Where we’re in this very position, and I pull your pants down over your ass until you spring free.”

I watched as she did just that, chuckling as my shaft smacked into her chin.

“And then I put my tongue down here at the base, by your balls, and lick all the way up to the tip.”

I gasped at the exquisite sensation of her wet, hot tongue sliding along the underside of my dick and licking along the crease of my head. I slid my fingers through her hair, gathering and twisting it around my hand, and nudged at her lips. “Does this fantasy involve having me inside your mouth?”

She grinned up at me. “So impatient.”

“You have all the power right now.” I tugged on her hair to tilt her head higher. “So please, take hold of me and slip my cock between your lovely lips before I lose all sense of control and just bend you over the couch and fuck you from behind.”

The infuriating woman actually
tsked me. “That is not gentlemanly language.”

I quirked an eyebrow.
“Who said I was a gentlem—” But whatever it was I was about to say was cut off when she sucked me into her mouth.

“Oh fuck.” I threw my head back against the wall and tried to breathe through the overwhelming pleasure of Kat drawing me in and out over and over at a maddeningly slow pace, her eyes fixed on my face.

All of my muscles clenched, my body bowing forward from the force, and still she kept going, pushing me to the edge.

I tightened my hold on her hair and tugged her away. She stared up at me, her lips glistening with moisture, with a question in her eyes.

I bent down, gathered her in my arms and, with long strides, carried her to the bedroom. “My turn,” I told her, throwing her onto the bed, the blanket ballooning out around her.

I wish I could say I undressed her with the care she deserved, but as it was my control had all but dissolved. Her clothes—and the rest of mine—came flying off in oh-point-five seconds.

With one hand I held her ankles together then bent down and licked the crease between her legs, gratified to hear her moans. “Hold here,” I told her, clamping her hands around her own ankles while I took hold of her ass and ran my tongue over her folds again and again.

I slid my hands up between her legs then pulled them apart, taking in the vision of her laying on the bed, her eyes full of need and her chest rising and falling.

Never taking my eyes off her face, I crawled over the length of her body until we were aligned, my cock lying on her mound.

“I need you, West,” she said, her voice rough with emotion.

With a nod I took hold of my shaft and positioned myself at her entrance, pushing in the slightest bit. She lifted her hip, meeting me halfway, and, with a long groan, I slid home.

I took her mouth in a rough kiss, my hips rocking of their own accord. All of my self-control had evaporated and my body had taken over, moving automatically, seeking out every point of pleasure. I slid my arms under her, holding onto her shoulders as I moved faster even as I continued to devour her with my lips and tongue.

Kat wrapped her legs around my back, allowing me to penetrate even deeper until I was sinking all the way to the root. I knew she was close when she tightened almost painfully and held her breath; I thrust in hard and then she cried out as her inner walls quivered around me.

I grasped her ass and, having lost all sense of self, pounded her almost savagely. The room was filled with sound—of the bed creaking, of Kat keening, of my heavy breathing, of skin slapping against skin. And then I exploded, my entire body bowing over her while my cock surged and surged.

She was shaking by the time I came to myself, her fingers trembling on my back.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” I asked, brushing hair away from her face. “Did I hurt you?”

She shook her head, a tear slipping out of one eye. She cleared her throat. “I’m just…” She was too choked up to finish the sentence, but she didn’t have to. The look in her face was plain as day, the emotion brimming right out of her eyes.

I pressed my cheek against hers. “I love you too, Kat,” I whispered.

I lay in bed that night, wrapped around my favorite person in the world, exhausted but unable to fall asleep. Even after the second time we made love I was still too full of energy to settle down.

Kat’s voice floated through the darkness. “Can’t sleep either?”

I let out a soft chuckle as I turned on the bedside lamp. “No.”

She twisted in my arms until she was facing me, her head tucked under my chin. “I haven’t had a chance to thank you for bringing my dad here,” she said and kissed my throat. “Thank you.”

“It was my pleasure,” I said, gathering her closer. “Your dad is a good man. I figured he deserved to see his daughter following her dreams.”

She looked up, a smile on her face. “It’s so strange to see him in regular clothes. I’ve gotten so used to seeing him in jumpsuit orange,” she said, shaking her head. “I can’t believe he’s actually free.”

“Kat, your dad told me what West means,” I said softly.

“Oh.”

When she didn’t say any more, I asked, “Is it true?”

She pressed her cheek against my chest and said nothing.

“Hey,” I said, taking hold of her chin and leaning back so that she had nowhere to hide. “I’m incredibly honored to be your West.”

Her eyes glistened and she wiped at them quickly. “Let’s not talk about that right now. It’s been a crazy, emotional day.”

I got out of bed to look through my luggage and came back with a little blue box in my hand. “I’m afraid the day’s not over yet.”

Kat sat up, her wide eyes fixed on the box in my hands. I kneeled on the bed before her, holding the box out, waiting for her to tug on the white ribbon that was wrapped around it.

“Open it.”

She stared at me in disbelief for a few seconds longer before she finally did, lifting the lid off and taking out the black velvet box tucked inside. “You know, men often make the mistake of buying jewelry for their girlfriends from Tiffany and packaging it in such a way that makes the girl think they’re proposing,” she said. “So if you’re giving me earrings, you’d better tell me now.”

I shook my head, trying to bite down a smile. “Not earrings.”

She gulped and flipped open the lid, taking in the platinum ring atop which sat a round blue diamond set in a bezel setting.

“A blue diamond to match your eyes,” I said, taking out the ring and holding it up between us. “Kat, I don’t know what manner of miracle led me to you, if it was providence or divine intervention, but I count myself lucky that you found me.”

“There you go, using your pretty words again,” she said with a sniff, her eyes flicking between the ring and me. Eventually she focused on my face, her eyes glimmering like the diamond.

“I want you, Kat,” I said, moving closer until our faces were only inches apart. “I will always want you.”

She pulled back, her chest rising and falling as her eyebrows drew together. “Are you sure? I’m crazy sometimes and I get jealous easily. I curse like a sailor and I do that thing when I lift weights, you know that grunt that you say sounds like a sex noise,” she said, the words tumbling out of her mouth. “I’m way too competitive and I’m not like…” She covered her eyes and took in a deep breath. When she looked at me again, something was different in her eyes. “Before I came here, I thought there was no way I’d ever get used to all the noise and chaos. I’d hyperventilate every time I was around too many people.”