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I threw an unopened electric bill that Josh had left on my side table at him. “Ha-ha.” As I brushed past him, tiredness suddenly filled me at the thought of how much tidying I’d have to do. So much for wowing Kas with my mortgage-free home. “Josh has a key. He would’ve looked for hints on where I’d disappeared to.”
Kas wrinkled his nose as he sca
I shrugged with a guilty smile. “He was worried about me.”
His face fell. “And he was right to worry.”
“But he doesn’t have to anymore because I’m home.”
“With the very man who trapped you.”
“Yes, well...he doesn’t need to know that, does he?”
Kas’s eyebrows drew into a strict line. “You don’t plan on telling him the truth?”
I shook my head, my heart skipping a beat at the thought of what Josh would do. “No chance. Not unless I want you out of my life.”
Kas sucked in a breath. “Is that a possibility?” He stalked toward me. “That you’d want me out of your life?”
“What?” I shook my head so fast I made myself dizzy. “No, of course not!” I stepped into his arms. “I only meant, my brother is...protective. If we tell him how we met, he’s not going to accept you. He’ll do whatever he can to get you away from me.”
“Because he loves you and would see me as a threat,” Kas whispered.
I nodded into his chest. “But once he gets to know you—once he sees the man I see and understands how I feel about you, then maybe we can tell him the truth.” I pulled back to stare into his handsome face. “Promise me that you’ll go along with the story I share. Just for a little while.”
He chewed the inside of his cheek for a moment before nodding. “I’m not a very good liar, and it won’t help that I have the same tendencies as him. I would’ve happily killed anyone who dared to threaten my brothers and sisters...I did kill them when I had the chance.”
I stood on tiptoe again and kissed him. The distraction worked. “We’re together now, Kas. No one else’s opinions matter.”
“You sure about that?” he murmured against my mouth.
“Positive.” I opened my lips again, encouraging him to kiss me as deep as he had on the porch. Impatience as well as lust filled me.
I wanted so, so much to show Kas my home. I wanted him to curl up on my couch and watch TV with me. I wanted him to spoon me in bed and sleep with me. I wanted him to cook in my kitchen and laugh with me.
So many, many experiences I wanted to give him, yet he’d effectively told me that whatever I gave him, he’d pay back. Whatever gifts and memories I granted, he’d not feel on equal ground until he’d repaid them.
It frustrated me as well as made sense. I’d hoped to lavish him with new experiences to drown out the horrors of his past. I wanted to buy anything and everything that would grant him happiness, but how was I supposed to do that if being generous upset and emasculated him?
His hands landed on my hips, dragging me into his hard body. “Where’s your bedroom?”
The steel of his desire definitely didn’t seem like I’d stripped his masculine value by buying him lunch and new clothes, and I made a promise to myself to keep the promise I’d made to him.
I’ll let him pay me back.
I wouldn’t take that away from him, not after he’d had so much stolen from him. If Kas wanted to record every pe
In the end, it wasn’t material things that would prove my love. It was the intangible things. Things like having his back if anyone questioned our relationship. Things like standing beside him if my brother found out the truth and condemned Kas from being in my life.
It was the choice to put him first, above everyone.
And I could do that because he’d done the same for me.
Ending our kiss, I took his hand and walked him down the short corridor, past the two other bedrooms and family bathroom to the master at the end. There, I opened the door and breathed a sigh of relief that Josh hadn’t raided my room for answers, or...if he had, he’d at least tidied up after himself.
Kas stood by my huge bed, eyeing the white linen, the blush comforter, and the silver cushions thrown haphazardly on top. My orchid plant had died on my dresser from lack of water, and the scent of climbing chalk and flowery perfume wafted from my bathroom.
I waited for him to speak, to comment on my lack of perfection in neatness and decidedly bad plant care, but he merely stalked toward me, picked me up, and threw me on the bed.
I barely caught a breath as his hands unbuckled my pants, slipped off my sneakers, and pulled my jeans and panties down in one go.
Words escaped me as Kas’s eyes flashed dangerously black as he dropped to his knees and yanked my bare legs toward him.
I cried out as his mouth found my core, his tongue lapping at my clit with infectious hunger. Lust exploded through me, clenching on need, desperate for more.
Looking up, he grabbed the back of his T-shirt and ripped it over his head. Falling back between my legs, he licked and tongued until my legs snapped closed around his temples, sensitivity making me buck and moan.
It was embarrassing how quickly he’d driven me to an orgasm.
“I’m close. I’m—” I groaned as he stopped. A heartbeat later, the bed dipped, and a blur of his jeans flying into the corner of the room caught my gaze. He spread out over me, kissing me deep, tasting of me as his hot, hard cock prodded between my legs.
I went to help guide him, but he beat me to it.
With a quaking, lust-cracked voice, he muttered, “I can do it.” Reaching for his cock, he hissed between his teeth when he wrapped his fingers around himself. The pain in his eyes returned along with a thousand ghosts he’d yet to exterminate. Sweat broke out over his forehead as he guided his erection to my entrance and let go of himself.
Breathing hard, he sank inside me, his head pressed against mine, his trembling body pushing me against the mattress. “I’ll get better,” he breathed, thrusting the final inch into me. “One day, I’ll be able to show you how much you mean to me. I want to watch you come by your own hand while I do the same.”
I shivered as his cock struck the perfect spot inside, nudging my orgasm back into being.
I squirmed beneath him, my hips rising to meet his as his hand closed over my breast. “I look forward to it,” I moaned, settling into the rocking motion of Kas fucking me possessively, completely, lovingly.
We lost ourselves to the moment.
We climbed up the pleasure mountain and fell together, rippling with bands of pleasure, holding each other as we crashed at the bottom.
The exhaustion that I’d been battling ever since we’d left the valley returned like an entire house landed on my head.
I was home.
With the man I loved.
Who’d just stolen the rest of my coherency and was currently in my bed.
My eyes drifted closed as Kas withdrew, and I rolled onto my side. I patted the mattress behind me, fully expecting him to snuggle in close. We could shower later. We could unpack and explore later. We could eat and talk...later.
Kas didn’t spoon me, and for a second, I hovered in tiredness before the chill along my naked skin made my eyes open.
I focused on Kas.
Instantly, my exhaustion faded.
He’d already put his jeans back on and pulled his T-shirt back into place.
I sat up, yanking a silver cushion over my nudity. “Where are you going?”
Stark fear filled me that he was leaving.
That we’d just arrived but all of this was too much, too soon, too overwhelming. “If you don’t like it here, we can go—”
“It’s not that.” Grabbing one of my pillows, he held it dangling by his thigh, his eyes lingering on me, full of frustration, regret, and need. “I can’t sleep in here with you.”
I shook my head. “You slept with me in the hospital. Not once did you wake and try to hurt me.”
“I know, but I think I always knew that if I did wake up mid-strangle, a doctor would’ve come to your aid a moment later. They would’ve stopped me, and you would’ve been safe because we weren’t alone, not really.” He backed toward the door. “We’re alone here. I’m tired. My head hurts. I’ve had micro whiteouts for the past few hours. I think I should sleep alone tonight.”
Pain bruised my heart. “But what about your choice back at Fables? You said you made the choice to no longer let your nightmares control you.”
He took a moment to reply, his voice rusty and coarse. “I wish it was that simple. I’ve made more progress than I thought possible, but...I don’t know if I’m still capable of hurting you against my will. I’m not willing to risk it.”
“You won’t.”
“I don’t know that.”
“I trust you, Kas.”
He shrugged sadly. “But I don’t trust myself.” Stepping into the hallway, he murmured, “Eventually, I’ll be able to sleep right there beside you. Believe me, it’s fucking killing me to leave. But...I love you. If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be here. And if I did anything to harm you—” He cleared his throat, his shoulders swooping back with determination. “Good night, Gem. Thanks for welcoming me into your home. I’ll...I’ll see you in the morning, okay?”
Tears came for no other reason than I was tired and wrung out and hurting for both of us. I’d been ignoring the realities of our situation, believing he’d be cured now that we were away from Fables.
I’d been silly to think all his issues would disappear overnight.
Nodding slowly, I smiled. “I’ll see you in the morning.” I said it like a promise and a threat. “Don’t go outside until I’m with you, okay? I want to be with you when you explore your new home.”
I also, selfishly, didn’t want him seeing trees in the distance and ru
I didn’t fully trust that Kas was adaptable to suburban life. The call to return to the wild might be too great, and the urge to lock all my doors and trap him inside made me just as bad as the monsters who’d captured him in his youth.
“I won’t.” He looked at me one last time, his gaze still heated from our mutual orgasm and weary from our journey. “Good night, Gem.”
He closed the door before I could blow him a kiss goodbye.