Breathe Into Me (28 page)

My alarm went off and I stretched my arm out to silence it before it woke Kane up. After rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I looked over to see Jessi sitting on her bed, rubbing lotion on her arms, staring at Kane and me.

“What?” I hissed in a hushed tone.

She shrugged. “Nothing. You two just look cozy. When did he sneak in here?” She nodded toward Kane.

I shrugged the best I could because Kane’s head was on my shoulder and his arm and leg were draped across my body. Any movement was difficult. “I don’t know. Just a few hours ago. He couldn’t sleep so he came over.” I then noticed that Jessi was actually up and ready before me. “Wow, how long have you been up?”

She got up from her bed and walked over to her desk where she kept all her jewelry. “Oh, not too long. When your alarm went off and you didn’t wake up to turn it off, it woke me up so I turned it off for you.” She smiled. “Plus you two looked so cute I didn’t want to disturb you.” She shrugged as she put on her earrings.

I finally glanced at the time on my alarm clock and saw that it was thirty minutes later than I normally woke up and I shot straight up in a panic. Kane grunted at my abruptness and then sat up himself.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” he asked, looking wildly around the room.

I threw the covers off my body and they ended up flying over Kane’s head. I glanced back and threw a sorry his way before grabbing some clothes from my closet and rushing to the bathroom to throw them on. I couldn’t be late for my first class. I hadn’t done all that studying for nothing.

When I came back out of the bathroom, Jessi was gone and Kane was still sitting on my bed, but he at least looked fully awake and ready to go.

“Sorry about waking you up like that. Jessi turned my alarm off and I have a huge test this morning so I can’t be late.” I said as I threw on some shoes. “I’m going to
kill
her!” I jerked my hair back in a ponytail. I really was going to lay into her when I saw her again. What was she thinking?!

“Kelsey, it’s okay. You still have plenty of time.” Kane said as he stood and stretched his arms above his head, his shirt riding up just enough for me to see the lower part of his toned stomach and I had to turn my head so that I wouldn’t get distracted enough to decide to just skip class and lock myself away in here with him for the rest of the day.

When I finally had my hair out of the way, I grabbed my bag from my desk and started cramming things in. I went to hoist it on my shoulder, but Kane took it from me at the last second. “I got it. Let’s get you to that test before you have an aneurysm.” He kissed my forehead and I swatted him on the arm, but I didn’t argue with him since he was kind of right.

While we were waiting for the elevators, Kane brought our interlaced hands to his mouth and kissed my knuckles. I smiled at him, then rested my head on his shoulder. I could get used to this.

“Well, look who it is,” a voice cooed from behind us, and I didn’t have to turn to know who it was. I remembered it perfectly from yesterday. Katie.

Kane sighed, then slowly turned to look at her. “Morning, Katie,” he said flatly.

I didn’t bother turning around for fear that I might claw her eyes out. Which was completely unlike me, but I didn’t like her thinking she had any sort of claim on Kane.

“Morning to you too. It’s been a while. How come you haven’t been around to see me, Kane?” I could hear the girly flirt in her voice and it was putting me on edge. I really wished these stupid elevators were faster, but then again, did I really want to be locked in an elevator with this girl? Things would probably get very ugly if I were locked in such close quarters with her.

Kane completely ignored her question and instead said, “Have you met my girlfriend, Kelsey?” I peeked up at him and he smiled down at me. Great now I was going to have to turn around and acknowledge this girl when I really didn’t want to, but to be polite I glanced over my shoulder and gave her a tight smile. “Hi,” I chirped.

Katie looked about as thrilled to be talking to me as I was to her. She crossed her arms over her chest and gave me a scowl before plastering a fake smile across her face and exclaiming, “Girlfriend?! I didn’t know you had a girlfriend!” She then paused and leaned in toward me. “You lucked out with this one, doll. He’s a real catch. Enjoy him.” She didn’t have to finish her sentence for me to know what she really meant. Enjoy him …
while it lasts.

I bit the inside of my cheek and smiled, then turned back around because the elevator had finally arrived. Kane and I stepped on. When the doors started to close and Katie still had not stepped inside, Kane shot his hand out and stopped them. “Were you getting on?” he asked her.

“You know what? I forgot something in my room. I will catch the next one. You two have a nice day.” She gave us another fake smile. “Oh, and Kane, just because you have a girlfriend now doesn’t mean you have to go ignoring your friends. I’m sure Kelly wouldn’t mind sharing you from time to time,” she sneered.

“It’s Kelsey,” I said and knocked Kane’s hand down and watched the elevator doors close in her face. “Bitch,” I mumbled.

Kane laughed and I glared at him.

“What?! She was hitting on you! Right after you told her that I was your girlfriend! Who does that?!” I was almost shouting. I was feeling very territorial at the moment and I didn’t like the he was finding it amusing.

“You’re right. She’s a bitch,” he said as he wrapped his arms around my waist and leaned in for a kiss that I pulled away from.

“Why in the world would you even hold the elevator for her in the first place?” I questioned. If he hated her so much, wouldn’t he have just let the doors close on her like I had planned to do all along?

He gave me a puzzled look. “I don’t know, Kelsey. It’s just a habit I guess to hold the door or elevator door for someone. I wasn’t really thinking about who it was for.”

I knew I was being silly, but I couldn’t help it. That girl had me so annoyed right now and I was taking it out on Kane.

“You’re right,” I sighed. “I just don’t like her.”

“That makes two of us.” He winked and leaned in again to kiss me. This time I let him.

Kane and I had begun spending almost all our time together. He was either coming to stay with me at my dorm or I was going to his apartment. After that first night when we both found it hard to sleep, we decided that it was best if we just went ahead and stayed together. Seeing as how both of us would be useless if we went every day on only a couple hours of sleep.

Tonight was one of the nights we were staying at his apartment. We had gone bowling with Jessi and Landon earlier that night, and since his apartment was closer, we decided to crash here. I had just taken a shower and was now sitting on the edge of Kane’s bed, wringing my hands together.

We hadn’t had sex again since that first night. Kane had said he was giving me time to heal from the soreness, but I was more than ready to give it another go. I just wasn’t sure how to approach the subject.
Do I just come out and tell him? Do I try to seduce him into it?

I heard the water in the bathroom shut off, and the butterflies that had been floating around in my stomach grew into what was more like an angry swarm of bumble bees. My stomach was flipping so hard, it was almost painful. I couldn’t believe what I was about to do, but dang it, he gave me a taste of something then just took it away. Did he not know that he was being a super tease? If I wanted more, I was going to have to go after it.

I heard the bathroom door open and then close. The floorboards creaked under his weight as he began walking down the hall toward his room, where I was. He twisted the knob and pushed open the door, wearing nothing but a fluffy blue towel. The tattoos going up both his arms and across the top of his chest were clearly visibly in all their beautiful glory. I was never going to get tired of looking at those tattoos, or at him for that matter. I don’t care what some people say, a man can be beautiful and Kane definitely was. He was simply stunning.

“What are you staring at?” he lightly laughed as he walked over to his dresser and opened the top drawer. As he passed by me I could smell his sweet scent. There had been times I had wondered if he actually wore cologne or if it was just body wash I smelled. I guess now I had my answer.

“Nothing.” I shyly shrugged.

If he only knew what was going through my head at this moment. My face grew hot just from the thought.

“Yeah, I don’t believe you.” He smiled as he pulled a pair of black boxer briefs from his drawer and slid them on under his towel, then dropped the towel into the hamper.

What a shame.

His smile grew even larger, causing those dimples I loved so much to deepen. He pulled his bottom lip between his teeth and gave his lip ring and quick flip. Ah hell, he was doing that on purpose. He knew what playing with that lip ring did to me.

Well, mister, two could play that game. I scooted back further onto the bed, keeping my eyes on his. I slowly laid my body back onto the middle, then stretched my arms above my head and faked a yawn. I could feel that my tank had ridden up around my belly button making a good two full inches of the bare skin of my stomach visible. My pajama shorts rested pretty low on my hips and I knew he could see my hip bones sticking out.

Kane had this weird thing with my hip bones that I was becoming aware of. I had begun to notice that anytime we would lie together and my hip bones were exposed, he would constantly rub over them. It wasn’t the most normal thing to fetish over, but hey, some people got off on sucking other peoples toes. I would take a hip bone fetish over a toe jam sucker any day.

“Wow. I am so tired tonight. This day has gone by so slowly. I couldn’t wait to get it over with so I could curl up in bed and finally get some sleep.” I tucked my hands behind my head, and closed my eyes.

Even with my eyes closed I knew he was still looking at me. I could feel it; I could feel the passion rolling off him, washing over me. I pointed the toe of my left foot and began lazily sliding it up and down the calf of my right leg, and faked another yawn.

The bed dipped and I felt a warm hand begin caressing the inside of my calf, I smiled. I had him.

“You can wipe that grin off your pretty little face right now. You got what you wanted. You have my full attention now, sweetheart.” His hot breath tickled my neck and he lowered his head down to nuzzle the sensitive skin between my shoulder and neck.

I sighed as his hand continued to rub up and down my leg, going a little higher with each trip up. He softly kissed a line across my shoulder and back before pulling back to look at me.

“I don’t think I will ever get enough of you, Kels. I’m addicted, and there is no going back for me. I never thought my heart was capable of these feelings until you. You shine so bright, and so warm, that you melted the ice I had around my heart and made me feel again.” He leaned forward, rested his forehead against mine and took a deep breath that he held for a minute before slowly blowing it out. “I love you, Kelsey.”

I didn’t know if it was possible for a heart to have butterflies, but at that moment, after he said those three words to me, my heart most definitely had butterflies.

He finally pulled his face back to look me in the eye. “I do, Kelsey. I love you so damn much.”

I placed my hand on his cheek. He leaned into my touch and I gently ran the pad of my thumb under his eye. “I love you too,” I softly whispered to him. My throat was so tight from the overwhelming emotions I was feeling for him, a whisper was all I could manage.

His smile beamed so bright after I whispered those words, and he crushed his mouth to mine, kissing me deeply as if his life depended on that one kiss. He wasted no time ridding me of my tank and pajama bottoms, and began exploring my body first with his hands, and then with his mouth. Placing feather light kisses on my most sensitive areas.

I could feel his lip ring with every kiss that he placed. The cold metal against my heated skin was almost enough to send me over the edge. He kissed across my collar bone, then slowly down to the mounds of my breasts. I couldn’t stop the quiver that ran through my body as his tongue ran across one mound and dipped down between the two. He must have felt my shudder, because he let out a throaty laugh and cupped my other breast in his hand ever so lightly, massaging it with his palm and fingers. This man had magic hands, let me tell you.