OGs: Deep Down (14 page)

Mike sat on a chair and placed his elbows on his knees.

They were silent for a very long time.

“Where are the firefighters?” he asked without lifting his gaze to her. He didn’t need to look at her in her underwear. Her scent alone was driving him insane.

“What firefighters?”

“The male models.”

“Ah, no. It was just me.” She moved toward him and sat down, then asked so low he barely heard her, “Why did you cancel?”

Mike shrugged. “Too angry.”

She didn’t ask anything else, and after a while the silence was so loud his ears were roaring with it. Still, he refused to chitchat. He’d gut himself first.

“You know, what you said the other day, about me hooking up with Drake to make you pay.”

“Kyra—”

That was the last thing he wanted to talk about.

“It wasn’t like that. Not at all. I don’t want you thinking that.”

“Does it matter what I think?”

“Yeah,” she whispered. “Always has. You’re right. I should have stayed and beat you with a baseball bat, but I was shell-shocked. I know I turned you down when you proposed, and things got out of hand, but I soon realized it was a mistake. You’re comfortable in your own skin. Breathing came so easily to you. Not to me, until I started going out with you. When I was with you, I could breathe. I didn’t have to grit my teeth to get through my day. And I got used to that, taking this…easiness for granted. All that disappeared when you weren’t with me. The anxiety, the itchiness, the nonstop restlessness was back, and I realized this sense of belonging, of being happy, it didn’t come from me, but from us. I was hurt that you let me go without a fight, but soon I was ready to come back. Ready to consider giving up the job, hell, my whole future as a dancer if that was what it took.”

He flinched at those words. Regret grabbed him by the balls and squeezed, hard. Giving up her future as a dancer for him. Yeah, because when push came to shove, he hadn’t really given her that many options, had he? He hadn’t wanted to leave Alden. He hadn’t wanted to be traveling, or having her traveling. He’d wanted her with him. She’d been between a rock and a hard place. Him on one side, her dreams on the other, when they should have found middle ground. But he wasn’t ready to utter those words. He was still hurting in so many ways; voicing that he might have been wrong too wasn’t a possibility.

Then again, she could have chosen to pursue her dancing career somewhere closer—in Boston, for example.

“And then I saw you with her in our spot, celebrating your birthday. She was all over you, and your eyes were on me. I…I lost it. I went back to the cruise ship and cried myself to sleep every damn night. I don’t remember much of those first months.”

Now that he was getting the explanations he’d dreamed of for seven years, he didn’t want to hear them. Those months she was talking about, he’d been stubbornly refusing to call her. It’d taken him four months of misery to get down off his high horse and call her. She never answered.

“Drake was chief of security, and he was there, dazzling me. Playing me. You don’t understand, but the world in a cruise ship is like a bubble totally separated from reality. You lose track, especially when you’re there to entertain the guests, not clean cabins or cook. It’s night after night of shows and parties. Captain’s first meal. Captain’s dances. Pretty, fancy dresses and cocktails. My life was all that—endless parties. Days blended with one another. I was so down, and he treated me like a princess. He turned out to be an asshole, but back then he was a charmer. Or maybe I was too stupid to know better. And I was so fucking alone. I know how all this must sound. Excuses. But it’s all I have. I was alone and hurt. I…I fucked up, Mike. I thought he could help me forget. But he wasn’t a match for you. Even though I was on the pill, I insisted we used condoms.”

He shook his head. “Kyra—”

He really didn’t want to hear this. Couldn’t, but she ignored him, her eyes glued to the floor.

“I think I knew, deep down, I was making a mistake. When it broke, I didn’t give it too much thought because of the pills. Problem was, I was such a mess I’d been drinking and throwing up. When I realized I was pregnant, I was terrified. I had nowhere to go. Absolutely no one to turn to. Drake had some decency in him, because he offered to marry me. And after the initial shock, he seemed actually happy about the baby. Maybe it was the novelty. Drake took care of all the arrangements, made it sound like a fairy tale, being married by the captain. Like a movie. I was swept along. And my contract was going to be up in no time. Without him and his insurance, I had nothing. I was too ashamed to come back to Alden to Cynthia and Ralf. And Angie was in Boston, dealing with her sick mother. I was alone.”

His voice sounded rough, even to himself. “You had me.”

“I didn’t know that. It hadn’t occurred to me that you were so drunk you’d black out. I’d never seen you drunk before, much less to that extent. All I knew was that you were aware I was meeting you for your birthday and you ensured I saw you with Jess.”

“Shit.”

“I understand I should have clocked Jess and confront you, but I was twenty-one. Last words you’d said to me were that if I didn’t want your ring, I didn’t want you, and that was it.”

Mike flinched. “I was angry. I didn’t mean it.”

MIKE REACHED FOR her and hauled her to his lap, rearranging her body so she was straddling him. At first she went stiff, not sure what was expected from her. She tried to caress him, but she realized his arms were tight around her, and she couldn’t move hers to touch him. He leaned his forehead against hers and closed his eyes. She could feel his whole body trembling, all his muscles tense. He looked in so much pain, yet he wasn’t allowing her to comfort him.

It took a while before she could find her voice.

“You didn’t try contacting me,” she whispered. “I was on that ship months before you actually called me.”

He finally opened his eyes. “I’d hoped you’d come back on your own, but you never did. After four months I was at my breaking point. I couldn’t stay away any longer. Couldn’t wait anymore. I called you, but you never picked up.”

“It was too late. I was pregnant by then. I was so confused and—”

“Shh,” he said as a tear rolled down her cheek.

He broke the strong hold he kept her in and swept the tear with his thumb.

She tentatively reached for him and brushed the tips of her fingers on his chest, thrilled when he didn’t restrain her again.

“When I came back for the funeral, you looked so furious I was sure you hated me.”

His smile was sad. “I never hated you. I wanted to but never could. I went to see your show on Broadway a hundred times. Your videos? Countless times. I saw all the episodes of
Shake Your Booty
when you were on. Even when you got eliminated, I still watched them, hoping to get a glimpse of you in the dance troupe. I don’t like Amantis—all that pop rock is not for me—but I’ve seen them in concert many times since you’ve been performing with them. I could never get enough of you. I may have hated myself for that, but you, never.” A pause and then he continued, “Did I really look straight at you when Jess was—” He didn’t seem to be able to say the words.

“Giving you head? Yes.”

Mike closed his lids tight. When he opened them, his eyes were full of pain. “I’d swear to you I don’t have a recollection of that. I would have never let her touch me otherwise.”

Kyra nodded. “Did you really have that ring since I was eighteen?” she whispered, looking straight into his deep blue eyes. His admission had had her heart in a knot since hearing it.

Mike nodded too. “I jazzed it up three years later when I proposed, but yeah, I bought it then, the day you graduated high school. I wanted to buy it when you were sixteen and give it to you, but I didn’t want to scare you. You already looked shocked enough when I came to pick you up from school and kissed the hell out of you.”

Kyra smiled. “I almost dropped dead.”

He hadn’t been a compromising guy; he’d told her that if she was going to start dating, her only choice was to date him, because he wasn’t going to allow any asshole near her. She’d nodded, beaming, and hadn’t put up a fight. She hadn’t wanted anybody but him.

“I’m very sorry I accused you of trying to blackmail me,” she continued, sobering up. “Our relationship had been a bit shaky that last week, since I mentioned the job, and I assumed…”

“I was nervous, thinking about how I was going to propose. And yeah, you talking about that job offer all the time didn’t make matters better. It pissed me off,” he said quietly, his voice barely there. “Fuck, baby. I’m so sorry for what I said.”

Kyra covered his mouth with her hand. They both had overreacted and said things they hadn’t meant. Things they regretted but ended up changing their lives. They spent years apart, paying for their intransigence.

“I meant what I said. You are no good as a rebound fuck because you are, and always will be, so much more. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

They stared at each other, Mike’s hands on her face, tracing her eyes, her nose, her mouth. Kyra was afraid to move, scared he would shake himself out of the trance he seemed to be in and deny her. Put distance between them. But his eyes were soft, so she caressed his arms, then rested her hands on his neck. She wanted to taste him so badly.

“Mike—”

He slowly leaned over her. As if knowing what she craved, he brushed his lips over hers, the tip of his tongue teasing her. She opened up right away in a gasp, but he didn’t take over; he continued nuzzling her face and lavishing sweet barely there kisses on her mouth, while he held her head, his hands buried in her hair. Now she was the one trembling, her heart pounding.

Little by little his touch deepened, his tongue thrusting inside her mouth, sucking at her, and she tightened her embrace.

He wasn’t rejecting her kisses as he’d done before. He wanted her; she could feel him hard and throbbing between her legs, but his movements weren’t hurried.

She, on the other hand, was rocking against his cock, leaking all over him. She’d been sitting on top of him for a while, her panties and his boxers not forming a real barrier, and she was more than bothered.

“Mike, I need—”

He smiled against her lips. “I know, baby. I can tell, but I thought you wanted my kisses. If you want, I can stop.”

“No,” she all but yelled. She was going to say something more, but he cupped the back of her head and took full possession of her mouth. With his other hand he reached down and pressed his palm against her pussy.

He swallowed her moans. “So fucking sweet. I can smell you. You want me.” He delved under her panties and growled, caressing her open folds. “You’re dripping wet, kitten.”

Then, without more warning, he slid two fingers deep inside her and she cried out, clamping around him.

“Sweetest fucking pussy I’ve ever had. Always ready for me.”

Kyra bore down on his hand, panting against his mouth, her whole body tensing, so close to coming she couldn’t breathe.

“I don’t think so,” Mike said, removing his fingers. “I want to be inside you when you come.”

“You were inside me,” she protested.

He smirked. “I meant my cock, baby.”

She followed his gaze down. The tip of his huge cock was coming out of his boxers. He pulled them down a bit, freeing his whole length and moved her panties aside.

The sight sobered her up and cleared her head, making her remember where they were. She pulled up and tried to unstraddle him, but he tightened his grip on her.

She glanced at the door, then back at him. “Mike, we can’t. They may come at any second and find us.”

“Look at me,” he said, pointing at his erection, throbbing and already leaking, crowned by that devilish piercing. “If they find me like this, they’ll have a heart attack. If you sit on it, you’ll spare them.”

She laughed softly. “Well, okay. If it’s to spare their feelings, by all means.”

Placing her feet on the chair’s legs, she lifted herself and pulled her panties aside again, baring her wet pussy to him. He held himself from the base and brought the tip of his cock to her opening. The second they made contact, she moaned and he cursed.

“Fuck, baby,” he bit out, watching as she accepted him and his cock slowly filled her, those amazing metal balls pushing against her walls.

“Jesus. You feel so amazing.” One of his hands was on top of her ass, pressing her against him. The other was deep in her hair, his fingers wrapped around her neck. “I’ve dreamed about this for so fucking long,” he whispered into her mouth. “Seven years. I lay in bed, my dick in my hands, my eyes fucking closed. Imagining sliding inside you. Trying to remember how you felt. How you smelled. How you tasted.”

Her womb contracted at his words. His eyes were boring holes in her, but she didn’t break eye contact, just gasped and fought for breath. He wasn’t fully in her, and she was already losing her mind.

Once he filled her to the hilt, he let out a hoarse groan and stilled deep inside her, his erection growing even bigger.

“Mike, please. Move.”

“Babe, wait. Let me get used to your tiny pussy squeezing me. Just give me a second.”

She nodded, but as she did, she realized she was in no position to give anything. Her pussy, flexing to accommodate him, suddenly decided to go solo. She felt the tingling start deep inside her body, that glowing ache growing bigger and bigger. Hell, she wasn’t going to be able to stop.

“Mike, ah, shit. I can’t…I can’t stop it. I’m coming, babe,” she cried out as she lost control of her muscles, and her pussy began convulsing, clenching around him.

“Oh hell,” he grunted as he kept her pressed against him, giving her clit all the friction it needed to join the party and prolong her orgasm.

It took ages to come down, that electric current buzzing all over her. Something she hadn’t felt since Mike. As if she’d been asleep for the past seven years, waiting for him to burst into her life and awaken her.

When she opened her eyes, he was sweating, his jaw bunched. He hadn’t come. He’d ridden her orgasm and milked it until she was spent. “Jesus fucking Christ, Kyra. I think you gave me a heart attack.”