Inked by an Angel (25 page)

Kyle couldn’t process all of this. Jed was here with her now. Just as she’d dreamed of for weeks. He was holding her. He was finally explaining all the things she’d been wondering about. And now, the thing she wished for most seemed to be within her reach. She was afraid to hope.

“Kyle,” he said, his voice low and raw, “do you love me?”

How could she express the width and depth of her feelings for him? There were no words to give him.

She brushed the little stud beneath his lip with her fingertip, the source of many of her fantasies. His hot breath caressed her finger as he exhaled.

He studied her every movement as she slowly peeled the blanket away and shifted to straddle his lap. She cupped his face with both hands and brushed his mouth with hers once, twice.

“Yes,” she whispered against the skin of his neck as she found his pulse with her lips. “I love you more than I can say.”

She decided if she didn’t have the words, she’d make him feel her love. Absorb it through his skin and blood and bone until it reached his soul.

His hands gripped her hips and his mouth found the sensitive flesh behind her ear. His breath came in hot, moist bursts as he inched his way closer to her lobe. He gently suckled her little earring into his mouth and worried it with his teeth momentarily before letting it go, his lips still at her ear. “I love you too, baby.”

She didn’t move. She couldn’t.

He gently pushed her back until she was sitting up facing him, his hands supporting her at the waist. He brushed a strand of hair from her face. “Did you hear me?”

She shrugged and the strap of her tank top slid down her shoulder.

He reached up to straighten it, his fingers lingering suggestively on her arm. There was an inferno in his gaze that sizzled clear down to her core.

“Well, let me make sure you heard me. Because it’s important,” he said as his hand worked its way teasingly under the hem of her shirt to the heated skin of her belly.

She swallowed.

“I said . . .” His thumbs barely brushed the undersides of her naked breasts and she sucked in a breath, her eyes automatically closing.

“Look at me,” he commanded.

Her eyes slid open and she tried to concentrate on his fierce blue eyes. He reached up and took off her glasses. He set them on the small table next to the couch. “There. Now I can see those beautiful eyes better.”

She blinked, trying to pull his face into focus.

“Kyle, Kyle.” His hands were back and the tips of his fingers were caressing her ribs in an exquisite form of torture. “So beautiful.”

She moaned as her head lolled to the side and heat flooded her body. She’d been waiting so long for him to touch her again. Need was clawing at her.

“Now, as I was saying,” he said, his hands now frustratingly still. “Did you hear me?”

She reached for him, aching to fulfill this void within her body, but he wouldn’t budge.

He quirked a brow.

“Fine,” she relented, just wanting to get on with things now that her hormones were raging. “I heard you.” She leaned in and tried to kiss him.

“What did I say?” he insisted, dodging her.

She rolled her eyes. She honestly didn’t want to repeat it. What if she’d heard him wrong? How embarrassing would that be? She placed her hands flat against his chest. “Jed, this is silly. We’re both consenting adults here. I don’t need flowery words or promises you don’t mean.” She looked at him from under her lashes. “I know how
I
feel and that’s enough for me. And I think it’s pretty safe to say that I’m a sure bet for you tonight.” She rose to stand and offered her hand. “Come to bed with me.”

He studied her face for several seconds, but he didn’t press her any further. He stood, his body heat, even through the barrier of clothes, scorching her. But instead of taking her hand, he scooped her up into his arms, making her gasp in surprise. Her arms automatically flung around his neck.

He leaned down and kissed her briefly. When he pulled back, his eyes were as intense as she’d ever seen them. “Just so we’re clear, I’m not spouting off
flowery
words just to get you into bed.”

“Okay.”

“And,
just so we’re clear.
I. Love. You. Too.”

She swallowed.

He started walking toward her bedroom. “So, we have an understanding, then?”

Her stomach tied into knots as her heart dropped somewhere to the vicinity of her tailbone. Jed loved her? How had that happened? It had to be a miracle. An honest-to-God miracle. Tears welled in her eyes.

“You’re sure?” she croaked as he set her on her feet next to the bed.

Over his shoulder she could see the picture of the Roman Colosseum and suddenly it seemed so far away and so utterly small in comparison to what was happening here.

He drew her close, his hands at the curve of her hips. “I’ve never been more sure of anything.”

She smiled as hope blossomed to sheer joy inside of her. “Took you long enough.”

“Yeah, well—”

She didn’t let him get in another word. She pulled his face down and pressed her lips to his.

His hot hands cruised along the flesh of her torso as he slid up her tank top, breaking the kiss long enough to yank it over her head before sealing her lips with his again. He moved his hands down her back, the rough pads of his fingers counting each of her ribs with painstaking care. Then back up, he traveled the length of her spine with the tips of his fingers as his tongue dipped to tangle with hers and she tasted the subtle remnants of red wine.

He eased her to sit back on the edge of the bed then gently nudged her to lay back, the crisp cotton sheets cool against her heated skin. He leaned down and nuzzled his lips to her stomach, his breath bringing fine bumps to her flesh as his hands eased up her inner thighs.

He murmured nonsensical love words to her that she couldn’t make out over the whirlwind of sensation whipping through her system as he worshiped every bit of exposed flesh on her body.

His hands, hotter than fire, settled on her hipbones. She glanced at his face as he studied her like a piece of fine china. “So, so pretty,” he whispered. His searing gaze met hers, his intentions crystal clear. Yet he remained still, his vibrating energy tethered, as if he were waiting for her permission.

Silently, she raised her hips, allowing him to slide her shorts and panties down her legs. His soft intake of breath when she was fully exposed to him was enough to fill her heart to bursting with love for this perfect man. It was nearly too much. She closed her eyes to the threatening tears as he traced his fingertip from the arch of her foot, all the way up the line of her leg, across her belly, her chest, until he got to the pulse bounding in her throat. There, he placed his lips.

Her eyes fluttered open. He worked his way around to her ear, bringing a cry to her lips, which he swallowed with a scorching kiss. He kissed her until she was hot enough to combust. And he still had his clothes on. Somebody was way overdressed.

She pushed him back and reached for his shirt. “Please,” she begged. She’d waited long enough to see the artwork on his body already. She yanked at the edge of his T-shirt trying to get it off.

“Allow me,” he said, his voice rough with obvious need.

He stepped away from her and turned down the lights, so only the soft light of the moon filtered in through the blinds. She wanted to cry out in frustration that she couldn’t see him in the dark, but she supposed there was plenty of time for that. Besides, there was plenty of light to make out the important stuff and for that she was more than grateful.

As he kicked off his shoes and socks and unbuttoned his jeans, her mouth started to water. He turned away and pulled his wallet from his back pocket to put it on the dresser. There was a shroud of blackness all round him and only the right half of his body was visible in the mirror with the beams of the moon shining on him like a spotlight just for her.

She wanted to swoon when he finally reached for his shirt and yanked it over his head. Instead, she forced her eyes to open wider and tried to take him in.

He looked up and caught her eye in the mirror. The moonlight hit his skin and it was magic. He was so much more beautiful than she had ever imagined.

On the right side of his chest and shoulder was a massive dragon of emerald green and royal blue that wrapped around his upper arm and all the way around to his back. It breathed multi-colored fire and rippled with ferocity.

It was the sexiest thing she had ever seen.

Her eyes roamed down to his ribcage. Japanese lettering was lined up in neat rows of text like the verses of a poem down his side.

“You like what you see?” he asked, his voice husky as her gaze traveled further down to the open zipper that revealed his Happy V.

“It’s perfect.” She patted the bed. “Now come here. I’ve waited for you long enough.”

He started to turn, but paused. “Wait. Damn it.” He thumbed through his wallet.

“What’s wrong?”

“I think I forgot to bring protection.” He glanced at her apologetically. “But I had no idea this would happen.” He turned back to keep searching.

Relief and love flooded through her. “Jed, get your butt in this bed right now before I drag you over. I’m on the pill and I have condoms if you want to use extra protection.” She rolled over to rifle through her nightstand.

In the space of a heartbeat, he had shucked his jeans and made a baseball slide into the bed, landing nearly on top of her. The skin-to-skin contact was intensely hot and wildly erotic. She tried to turn to him, but he kept her pinned with her backside to his belly.

“I should’ve known I could trust you to be prepared, Muffet,” he whispered in her ear as he reached around and cupped her breast.

She tipped her head back and relaxed into his kisses as he ministered to her neck and the line of her throat and shoulder. He slid his bottom arm underneath her so he could use one hand to tease and play with her breasts as he trailed his other fingers along her belly and hips.

When he dipped between her thighs, close, but not quite to where she wanted him, she couldn’t help herself and she arched back and pressed her bottom against him.

He moaned in her ear. “Easy, baby.”

She brought a hand around and gripped his hip. Her head turned as her lips sought his, and their tongues intertwined. His hand continued it’s teasing play at her breasts, alternately squeezing and giving rolling twists of her nipples, making her squirm.

His other hand inched further up her thigh, still teasing her. “Please,” she begged.

They both groaned when his fingers finally touched her. Lightly and with the hint of a tease at first, but then he offered what she craved. He whispered sweet nothings to her as he drove her closer to the edge.

Then he no longer whispered sweet nothings. Instead, he picked up the friction, stroking her harder and faster while telling her all the dirty things he wanted to do to her. Had been wanting to do to her.

“It’s okay, baby,” he whispered in her ear, his hot breath caressing her skin. “Let go. You’re safe with me. You’re always safe with me.”

And she was gone. Free. She shattered into a million pulsating nerve endings like she’d never done before.

He held her as she fluttered back down to earth like an autumn leaf, brushing kisses to her shoulder.

She took their intertwined hands and kissed his knuckles. “I love you.”

He didn’t miss a beat. “I love you, too.”

She smiled in the semi-darkness. “Just checking.”

She knew he was smiling, too. “I know.”

She flipped to face him and their bellies stuck together with the sheen of their perspiration. She felt his erection still going strong. “What are we going to do about that?” She glanced down.

He trailed his fingers down her spine and cupped her bottom. “I don’t know. Got any suggestions?”

She kissed him. “A few.” She caressed the dragon on his shoulder. She liked. A lot.

He reached between them and caressed her body from her breasts to her thighs. Then he replaced his fingers with his mouth and started all over again. By the time his lips were settled on her hipbones, and lower, she was panting his name.

He shifted and poised himself above her. He met her eyes.

In that split-second, she realized how different her life could’ve been without him and an overwhelming sadness threatened to consume her.

She squeezed her eyes shut as a blinding white light shot through her brain. When she opened them again, nothing was as it should be. Or was it? She shook her head to try and clear the cobwebs and remember what had happened, because for the life of her, she could not figure out how her stable, predictable world had altered so terribly off-kilter. She pondered this as she stared up through heavy, blurred eyes at the beautiful man with sweat pouring down his face, as he threw back his freshly shaven head in a warrior’s moan and thrust into her body.

“Oh, God,” she heard herself cry out in a voice too deep and sensual to be her own.

Her eyes rolled back into her head and she enjoyed the ride. She moved her hands and they tangled into the mess of her hair. Sex kitten’s hair, she realized.

“Open your eyes,” he gritted out in a deep, gruff voice that rolled over her skin like butter.

She obeyed and focused solely on him. He was watching her as if he was waiting for something.

He speared her with a particularly deep and thick thrust. “Does that feel good?”

She nodded, too stunned to answer.

He did it again and she moaned her thanks.

Something about him drew her in. But he was so not her type. And yet, as his body continued the magic, he was apparently
so
her type after all.

He reached down and hiked her knee up to his shoulder to allow the deepest penetration possible and she nearly broke. She raked him with her fingernails as she cried out. “Holy—”

“I know, baby.” He quieted her with his lips.