OGs: Deep Down (24 page)

“I know,” she said quietly. “She thinks the world of you.”

“I think the world of her too.”

“I’m afraid Sam will imagine that…”

“That what? That she can count on me? That I’ll be there whenever she needs me? Because you know I will. I’m not Drake. Whenever she needs me, I’ll be there for her, regardless of where you live and what happens with us.”

She nodded. She knew. And that seemed to scare her even more.

“I won’t hide anymore as if I were a dirty secret,” he added in a low, hard voice.

“You are not a dirty secret.”

“Then why don’t you want to go to my parents’ next weekend? You afraid you’ll catch something from us?”

“Of course not!”

“Then why?” he growled, losing patience.

“I’m not afraid. I’m embarrassed! That’s why! I fucked up. I dumped you, and I fucked up. They should hate me. Instead, I come back at my lowest, no money, no nothing, and they go out of their way to help me and my kid. A kid who is not yours.”

His heart went out to her. “Kyra—”

“You know, when I came to Alden with Sam and Drake for my foster father’s funeral, your mother and your grandmother approached me. Asked if the baby was yours. It killed me to tell them no. Your mother said whatever had happened between us to cause us to grow apart was a mistake, that me marrying someone else was a mistake, and that I would never find anyone better than you. They love you. And I hurt you.”

“They don’t hate you. Or Sam. They couldn’t love you and Sam more.”

The curtains were open, so he had no problem seeing Kyra’s tears rolling down her face. “I’m so sorry, honey. I’m sorry I left you. I’m sorry Sam isn’t yours. I’m sorry I put you through hell. I’m sorry I was such an immature brat that I left the most important thing in the world to chase moronities.”

“Fame and professional accomplishment are not moronities,” he whispered, brushing her tears away.

It had taken him years to understand that, to understand her.

She shook her head. “It’s not as wonderful as I thought it would be. Or as fulfilling. I was so lost without you.”

“You should have come back to me.”

“I was too embarrassed to come to Alden. I had walked out on you. I wanted my baby to be yours, but she wasn’t.”

“I would have taken you, kitten. You and your baby as my own.”

Her beautiful eyes were sad. Resigned. “I owed it to my daughter to try to make it work with her father. And I still wanted to follow my dreams. Besides, you were busy fucking everything that moved, remember?” He lowered his gaze, cursing under his breath, and she flinched. “Sorry. That wasn’t fair.”

“Just for the record, that shit started after I saw you with Sam in your hands and that arrogant prick at your side. I spent a whole week shit-faced. I was so hurt and so mad I just didn’t know what to do with myself.”

“So the training for the sex Olympics started,” Kyra finished.

Mike cupped her face. “If I thought I had a chance with you, I would have gone to hell and back. You told me you didn’t want to settle, and then a bit over a year later, you were doing that with someone else. I thought it was me you didn’t want to settle with. And about the sex Olympics, they didn’t help. Not a damn bit, baby, because none of them were you.”

“Melanie—”

He shook his head. “Melanie is a beautiful, enchanting woman, but I didn’t love her. We went out several times; then you came back and I understood the futility of it all.” He hadn’t even had sex with Melanie. He thought that maybe leaving the sex out, he could make it work. That he wouldn’t get that restless feeling in his gut he always got after being intimate with a woman, that need to run away. It hadn’t worked.

Mike kept her in his arms, rocking her, his mind in turmoil.

“The biggest mistake of my fucking life,” he mumbled.

“What?”

“Letting you walk away from my life after you refused to marry me. That was the biggest mistake of my life, and there hasn’t been a single day since that I haven’t fucking regretted it. I shouldn’t have let you walk away. I should have made you listen. Struck a bargain with you. Agreed to be with you even though we weren’t getting married, but I was hurt, baby. So fucking hurt. It was so childish of me. I let you go, stubbornly waiting for you to come back to me. Refusing to acknowledge you might have a point too.”

“I wasn’t that rational either. Instead of acting like a grown-up, I lashed out at you when you proposed. We were together. I should have discussed taking that job with you.”

“You wanted to dance, baby; I should have given that to you. Let you live your dream while I protected you and watched your back. Instead I just fed you to the sharks and left you alone, unprotected.” But he’d had a life he hadn’t wanted to leave behind. A family, a gym, friends. And yes, he had responsibilities, but he hadn’t even considered compromising.

“Mike—”

“And I’ve been paying, baby. I’ve been paying for that for seven years. And all for what? Because of my pride.” A wounded ego, that was his excuse for not seeking her out and talking things through.

She encircled him in her arms, hugging him hard. “Not your fault, honey.”

Well, she could say it as many times as she wanted, but he wouldn’t feel any differently.

* * * *

Mike woke up to Sam’s face.

“Did you guys have a sleepover?” she asked, rubbing her eyes.

Oh fuck. He looked down at himself. Thank God he was dressed. “Your mom wasn’t feeling well. So I stayed to look after her,” he explained in whispers.

“Is she all right now?”

“Yeah, baby girl, she’s fine. You hungry?”

Sam nodded. “She was supposed to make me waffles.”

“Let’s go before we wake her up; she needs rest. I’ll make breakfast.”

“Waffles?” she asked skeptically.

“Waffles,” he reassured her, winking. “Not as fantastic as Gram Rebecca’s or my mom’s, but decent enough.”

He carefully got out of bed, tucked Kyra in, and turned to Sam. She raised her arms, and Mike lifted her.

“Can I help? I always help Mommy,” she said as they entered the kitchen.

“Sure.” He sat her on the counter, took a bowl, and moved to the fridge for the eggs.

He noticed Sam was not an early riser because she was slow and didn’t talk a mile a minute as always. For some reason she seemed a bit unsure. Not even mentioning the upcoming foam party, the one Sam had been very excited about, got her out of her funk.

As they were preparing breakfast, she looked at him. “Mike, do you like me?”

That startled him. “Sure, baby girl. Why wouldn’t I like you?”

She shrugged. “I want you to like me. Mom is happy with you around. Dad…he didn’t like me, and that’s why he wasn’t around.”

Mike froze. Did the scumbag tell his own daughter he didn’t like her? “Sam, I’m sure he likes you.”

She lowered her gaze. “I heard him once yelling I was a bother.”

Fucking asshole.

Mike took a deep breath to calm down. “Honey, adults say things they don’t mean sometimes. I’m sure he didn’t mean it. And you don’t have to worry. I will always like you. Whatever happens, wherever you are, you can always count on me.”

That seemed to pacify her, for she nodded solemnly and resumed mixing the eggs.

It took a while for her to shake the sleep and her unusual quietness off, but soon she was telling him about the foam party she was dying to go to and the tree house she wanted to build in the yard.

When they were almost ready, he heard sounds coming from the bedroom, and soon enough Kyra entered the kitchen. He didn’t know whether she thought he was going to disappear before morning, but she looked unsettled. Worried.

She walked to them. “Uh…good morning,” she greeted, her eyes never lifting to his.

He was not going to let her pull up those kinds of walls, not anymore, so he curled his hand around her neck and brought her to him.

“Good morning, beautiful,” he said and kissed her on the lips. Shortly but firmly, not letting her go right away, caressing her cheek with his thumb.

Kyra blushed. “Good morning,” she whispered back against his mouth, her gaze soft.

“Eew. Gross,” he heard Sam say, but from the corner of his eye he saw her smiling from ear to ear.

Chapter Eleven

Kyra was in the kitchen, putting the breakfast dishes away, when Mike came in. He’d gone earlier, before she and Sam woke up, for a run with Max. Today was Tuesday, and this was the first time he’d left her alone since coming to her place on Sunday. She’d tried to go to work at the gym yesterday, but he wouldn’t hear of it. She’d insisted on him going to work, but he’d given her a wry look.

“Yeah, right. Think again.”
That was the downside of being with someone you’d known for ages—no way to fool him. He’d guessed she would try to sneak to the gym. All in all, she couldn’t complain about the way she’d spent the day, wrapped up in Mike, resting and being taken care of. This morning he couldn’t have been away more than a couple of hours, yet she’d missed him terribly.

She was in over her head. Drowning more by the second.

She glanced at him, and the dish she was drying almost fell to the floor. Mike was all sweaty, his chest falling and rising with every ragged breath, the muscles of his upper body straining and bulging. He looked like a frigging gladiator coming back victorious from the arena. Minus the gore, of course. A wave of heat swept over her, scorching her synapses in its wake.

He gave her a once-over, his eyes lingering on her poking nipples and the way she squeezed her legs to relieve the tension there, and then smirked. “My baby is horny.”

She nodded curtly, blushing so strongly her ears were on fire. She turned to the sink, embarrassed he could read her so easily.

He reached for her, forcing her to face him, and kissed her softly. “Cramps are gone?”

“Almost,” she assented, nuzzling his chest. She didn’t need to tell him about the ache deep inside her. About how her sex was swollen. Even if he couldn’t see her general state of twitchiness, he knew her.

After the couple of days of more flow, she always felt heavy in her pubic area. She had no clue if it had to do with the increase of hormones during her monthly or with the rush of blood in the muscles of the area or with the cramps easing up, but her sex was throbbing with need. Hell, her whole body was quivering with it.

And she didn’t seem to be the only one; Mike’s eyes were dark with lust, and his sweatpants could do nothing to hide a monumental erection that was growing more impressive by the second.

She grazed his nipple with her teeth, bringing their lower bodies into contact, and he groaned. “Where’s Sam?”

“Library story time,” she whispered as he lifted her in his arms, and she wrapped her legs around his hips.

He kissed her hard and deep, his hand on the back of her head, the other on her ass, pressing her against his erection. Rubbing her against it.

Her breath hitched, and her pussy clenched. It was extremely sensitive, already flexing.

“How badly do you want me?” he asked, kissing her neck.

“Like you wouldn’t believe it,” she confessed. No need to play coy with Mike. “I may instantly combust. If you rub against me a bit harder, I’ll come,” she said as she squeezed her legs around him, ready to go.

“Don’t dare come yet. Not before I get inside you,” he ordered, and placed his hand on her pussy. “You wearing a tampon?”

She stilled. “Mike—”

“I want inside you. Now.”

“I can pleasure you at the same time,” she said, reaching for his cock.

“I don’t want to spill in your hand. I want in your pussy. Not going to make you come petting you over your clothes, as we did seven years ago. You will come, but with my cock inside you.”

Oh God. Her sex convulsed sharply at the image his words conjured. She was crazy turned on and panicked at the same time.

“I’ll bleed all over you,” she mumbled, her voice strained as she tried, unsuccessfully, to disentangle herself from him.

Mike smirked and spoke against her lips. “Baby, look at me. There are a few things you could do all over me that I would object to, strongly, but this isn’t one of them.”

“I’m self-conscious,” she whispered, attempting to duck again.

Mike lifted her chin with his fingers. “No reason to be, baby. Not with me. I’m the same Mike you used to attack during your period. You came while giving me a blowjob, remember?”

Yes, she remembered. He hadn’t even touched her, and she was coming, his cock in her mouth. She would explode from him petting her lightly through the clothes. Mike would lick her nipples, press a thigh against her pussy, and there she went. A private Fourth of July show.

“Still. There was never, you know, actual penetration.” God. Talking about this was making her more embarrassed.

“That will change, starting today. You need the release, and I need to give it to you.” He studied her for a moment, then asked, “Would you be less self-conscious in the shower?”

She nodded.

In a flash they were in the bathroom, kissing like mad against the wall. He pushed her dress over her head, ripped off her panties, and without breaking eye or mouth contact, he reached for the waist of his sweatpants and pulled down just enough to free his cock.

At the contact with her core, she jerked.

“Mike!”

He looked straight into her eyes, his shaft pulsing between her folds. “Pull the tampon out.” His tone was hoarse, the order laced with need.

She didn’t move, except for digging her nails into his shoulders deeper, her breaths so choppy she wasn’t sure she could talk.

“Either you pull it out, or I will, baby,” he threatened.

“You wouldn’t dare,” she said realizing by his expression the foolishness of her statement.

“It’s you in my arms. Of course I would.” Then his face softened. “Unless you can look me in the eyes and tell me you don’t want me inside you.”

She couldn’t do that; she wanted him. More than anything in the world.

With her ears roaring, her pussy throbbing, and almost unable to draw in air, let alone think, she nodded. “I want you inside me, honey.”

“Eyes on me,” he whispered as she reached between her legs.