I clench desperately around his fingers, my hips bucking involuntarily as my body writhes under his control. My thighs shake, and then my whole body goes taut from a mix of pleasure and pressure. Just when I don’t think I can take any more, his free hand comes to my abdomen, and he presses down, grounding me.
“Breathe.”
The rush of air mixes with the release that tears through me with zero abandon. My back arches, and though Kai’s hand remains on my abdomen, I feel myself contract around his fingers. A wave of heat surges through me, pleasure crashing over every part of me like a storm. I cry out, my entire body seizing and shaking with the force of it, stars dancing behind my closed eyes. It’s overwhelming, a white-hot rush that leaves me gasping and undone, my fingers clawing at the concrete as I finally let go.
He groans—his mouth working me through my climax and dragging it out. Waves of sensation crash through me so intensely that I forget where I am.
I forget everything buthim.
When it’s over, I go limp. In a flash, Kai is there, pulling himself onto the deck and running a wet hand over my forehead.
“You did so well, little dove,” he murmurs.
I look up at him, and for a second, I understand why people pray to a deity. Because what just happened, the way he guided me through it, felt otherworldly.
“I’m so proud of you.”
The weight of his words causes me to close my eyes, and they sink into the adrenaline still coursing through me—calming me.
As he pulls me up and wraps an arm around my shoulder, I feel him kiss the top of my head. For a second, Kai pulls back, like he’s about to apologize.
I stop him, curling my fingers into his damp hair, pulling him closer.
“Don’t,” I whisper, my breath still ragged. “I wanted this. I want you.”
“Me too,” he murmurs back.
And somehow, I know with absolute certainty that we’d crossed a line today, a line we could never uncross.
Even if we could… I don’t think I’d want to.
CHAPTER TWENTY
THE APPETIZER
Julian
I take another sip of my whiskey, listening to the sound of tires crunching on the gravel driveway. It’s a nice night, and I have the windows in the receiving room open to let in the early night breeze. And as I lift the glass of amber liquid to my lips again, I let the whiskey sit on my tongue for a few seconds, numbing my mouth as I stare down at Sophie’s text from half an hour ago.
Sophie Love <3
On my way home. Viewing went great. I signed the contract. I saw Kai… and there’s something I need to tell you.
My stomach clenches with nerves as I swallow the whiskey slowly. The sound reverberates through the quiet room, and when I hear her car door slam shut, I sink back into the chair I’m sitting in.
I hadn’t responded to her text—I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t have the whole story, and I wanted to hear what she needed to tell me before reacting.
Something hot slides through me when I think of the two of them together, different scenarios playing before my eyes in my overactive imagination. Did she run into him at the shop? Or did she seek him out somewhere? Perhaps they ran into each other and went back to his place… He doesn’t live far from the building she was viewing.
A cold sweat breaks out on my forehead as I hear her come through the front door.
“Honey, I’m home!”
Her voice carries through the house, and I have to ignore the pang of disappointment that works through me. She sounds normal—unaffected—and I wonder if I’m overthinking this.
It has to mean something that Ihopeshe tells me she fucked him, right?
I suppose it would cancel out the guilt I’ve been carrying around for kissing him two nights ago.
