Playing for Kinley (Cruz Brothers Book 1) (21 page)

I was pretty sure that Kinley was a virgin, but she definitely didn’t kiss like one.

She knew what she was doing and it felt incredible.

The little noises she was making in her throat as her fingers pulled at my hair were driving me crazy. I’d been rock hard the second my fingers touched her, and she was starting to notice. Her hips were grinding against mine, slow and steady, a gentle rock. I let her control the pace, going at her own tempo, but she was a quick learner. Things were getting heated fast and I knew that I needed to slow it down, especially when my hardness found that soft spot between her thighs.

Yeah, it knew where it wanted to be.

But that was not going to happen today. I may have finally revealed my desire for her, but I was not about to take advantage of her like that. No matter how amazing of a kisser she was, I knew she wasn’t ready for what I wanted to give her. Especially with the day she’d had.

As much as it pained me—and the rest of my body—I gently pulled back, stepping away just enough so that my erection was no longer in contact with any part of her. I was going to have the blue balls from hell after this.

The glazed look on her face made me want to take possession of her mouth again but I restrained myself. Barely. “I’ve wanted to do that for a long time,” I told her.

She blinked a few times, a slow smile spreading across her face. “You have?” The hopeful sound in her voice just killed me.

I nodded, smoothing some of her hair out and pushing it behind her ear. “Yeah, I have. I want to do it again, too.”

That smile just got bigger and my heart fluttered. Actually fluttered. “I do, too.”

“Why don’t we talk when I get back?”

Her forehead creased. “You’re still going over there?”

I searched her eyes and slowly nodded. “I have to, Kin. Nobody’s going to treat you that way. This is just something I have to do.”

She studied me for several seconds and eventually nodded. “Okay. But seriously, don’t hurt him. I don’t want you getting into trouble.”

I grinned at her, loving that she was worried about me. I didn’t have many people in my life who actually felt concern for me like that. “I’ll be fine. I’ll come see you after.”

She pursed her lips, looking like she wanted to scream in happiness but held back. “Okay.”

I leaned down to give her one more quick peck on the lips and then headed for the door. Before I turned the corner, I turned back to look at her. Her fingers were running over her lips, a dreamlike expression on her face.

“I don’t think we should tell anyone about this right now, okay? Not yet, anyway.”

She shook her head, her smile unchanged. “I won’t say anything. It’ll be our secret.”

And it had been our secret for almost five months. We never told anyone what we were doing and they never found out.

As I thought about that memory throughout the rest of the evening and on our way back to my place, I was getting a feeling of déjà vu. There had been some obvious tension between us—a lot of it—ever since we’d re-established our “friendship.” And we’d always had this undeniable chemistry, something I’d never felt with anyone else.

But this déjà vu feeling was coming from the fact that I was starting to feel something within me snap, just like that afternoon when I’d first kissed her. Like I was getting to this point where I wasn’t going to be able to hold back anymore, wasn’t going to be able to restrain myself from taking her the way I’d imagined ever since that afternoon in her bedroom.

I had come so close to having all of her so many times during that summer we had together, but the timing had just never been right. Not to mention the fact that I’d wanted to wait until she was a little older. Because despite how I felt about her, a small part of me had still always felt that I was taking advantage of her.

But she wasn’t seventeen anymore.

She was a grown woman and I couldn’t keep my hands off any longer. I was done messing around. I’d do whatever she wanted, whatever she needed me to do in order to make her mine.

One way or another, though, I was going to have Kinley.

Kinley

Who knew that what it would take for me to have fun tonight was the exact person who had been causing most of my anxiety for the past few months—hell, the past few
years
.

Parker had successfully leveled things out and eased that ever-present tension between us. Every concern I had over inviting him to the wedding had been alleviated with his charm and goofiness, his humor and his smiles.

Tonight made me remember what it used to be like between us, when it didn’t always have to be about the secrets we were hiding or the feelings left unsaid. It didn’t always have to be about the path we were on and what our future looked like, whether or not we had one together. We could just have fun, enjoy each other, without having to have all the answers right now.

I’d needed that a lot more than I’d realized.

And he’d given it to me.

But through all of that, the sexual attraction was still brimming. He never once put on the pressure, but I’d still wanted to be close to him all night, still felt drawn to him. He sent sparks of desire through my body every time he touched me. My body had been so attuned to his all night, it took everything I had in me not to pull him into a bathroom stall and have my way with that hard body of his.

And tonight at the wedding, every time I saw a woman watching him with lustful interest while licking her lips as she considered the various possibilities of getting into his bed, I wanted to march over and scratch her eyes out. Almost every woman there practically had diamond rings sparkling in their eyes while they ogled him.

I hadn’t wanted to leave his side for even a second for fear of him being pounced on by the gold diggers of Boston’s upper crust.

Now, we were back at his place. And I wasn’t sure what was going to happen next. What
should
happen.

I knew he felt what I had out on that dance floor with every heated touch of our hands or graze of our bodies. But there wasn’t music playing now. There was no more alcohol. We didn’t have any more excuses to be close to each other.

Would that stop us from having what we both wanted?

I was still trying to figure it out as we stepped inside his place and he turned on the lights. I knew the adrenaline from dancing was going to wear off soon and I was going to crash, but I wasn’t there yet. I was still wide awake and my body still hummed with arousal; it hadn’t diminished in the least on our drive over here.

Plus, I was pretty buzzed from all the wine at the wedding and I was feeling good. Alcohol could either be your best friend or your worst enemy. And right now, we were like two peas in a pod.

“You tired?” Parker asked as he loosened his tie and slung it over the couch in the living room.

I shook my head. “No, not really. I’m still pretty wired.”

He smiled and waggled his eyebrows at me. “Good. Me, too. And I’ve got an idea.”

I froze.
Oh, God. This is it
. He was putting it out there. Would I say yes?

Oh, yeah
. I was ready for it.

He must have seen something on my face because he burst into laughter. “Not that. Although I’m certainly open to it if you’re offering.”

My face heated and I quickly looked away. How embarrassing. He’d known exactly what I was thinking and he’d brushed it off in such a cavalier way. Maybe he didn’t want it as bad as I thought. Maybe I’d been reading him wrong all night.

He was still smiling at me when he continued. “No, I was thinking something more along the lines of bowling or tennis.”

I raised an eyebrow at him and glanced at the clock on the wall. “Now? It’s after midnight, Parker.”

He reached down to pull something out of the basket on the coffee table and tossed it to me. It was a Wii controller. “Let’s see what you got, Masterson.”

I grinned, relaxing. Video games were neutral ground. I could deal with this. “I’m going to assume the Wii is for your niece and nephew?”

“Yeah, but I need some major practice. I haven’t beaten those kids once.”

I laughed and kicked off my heels. “But you’ve always sucked at video games.” He looked over at me, huffing in protest. “Oh, come on. Remember how bad you used to lose to me in Donkey Kong? And Mario Kart? You were always such a sore loser.”

He smirked, his face turning challenging. “This coming from the woman who almost went on a killing rampage after the softball debacle of 2008?”

“You and Clay were cheating! The teams were uneven!”

He stepped forward and tugged my hair playfully. “Keep telling yourself that, darlin.’”

I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms over my chest like a five-year-old. He just laughed and headed toward the kitchen. “Can I get you something to drink?”

I smiled in spite of myself. “A beer will be fine.”

Three games of bowling and four tennis matches later, we decided to call it a draw. We were tied in both wins and level of drunkenness. Neither of us was trashed, but definitely into the happy-tipsy phase. We figured we should stop before we entered into the can’t-walk-up-the-stairs-without-falling phase. At the moment, however, we were finding the stairs themselves pretty funny as neither of us could stop laughing at them.

By the time I reached the stop of the steps, I was laughing so hard, I was clutching my stomach and tears were escaping out of the corners of my eyes. I didn’t even know why we’d started laughing in the first place.

I finally caught my breath and stopped in front of my bedroom door as Parker walked down and stopped in front of his. I turned back to him, a sudden buzzing filling my head but it wasn’t from the alcohol. We were both getting ready to go into our bedrooms and undress, where there were beds.

I was sure the look on his face mirrored mine because it was all dark and lustful, his desire etched in every line. Those eyes of his seared me, cut right through me, and turned my insides into a scorching inferno of jelly.

Hey, I was a little drunk. My metaphors were bound to not make sense.

“Goodnight,” I said to him, unsure if there was something else he wanted to say. Or do, for that matter.

If something was going to happen here, I was probably going to need him to take the lead on it. I was hardly in control of my emotions or faculties when I was sober, so I didn’t have enough confidence nor was in the right frame of mind to know how to handle this situation.

“’Night, Kinley,” his low voice rumbled.

I turned around and started to open my door when he spoke again. “Wait.” I looked over my shoulder at him, hope blooming like flower petals in my heart. He walked toward me, eyes intent as they traveled the length of my body before coming back to rest on my face. “Don’t you need help with your zipper?”

Oh, boy.

Not that damn zipper again.

He’d practically set me aflame earlier when he’d been that close to me. I wasn’t sure if I could handle it if he touched me and then walked away again. I would just have to stop it before he could take it too far.

I turned with my back to him, pulling my hair over my shoulder. “Sure. If you don’t mind.”

His fingers traced across my shoulders like before and started to unfasten the hooks at my neck, slowly, one by one. Just like before, he leaned in close to me, his hot breath at my ear. I could hear every time his breath caught, feel the warmth of his body heat spread through me like a drug.

I felt the material separate as he released all three hooks and then felt his fingers caress down the length of my back, headed for the zipper. He started to pull down on the zipper, but my hand flew up and caught it when he brought it low enough that my fingers could reach it. It wasn’t unzipped all the way, but I was pretty sure that my panties might completely melt off if he stood there breathing on me for one more second.

I spun around to face him, one hand on my zipper, the other holding the front of my dress up. I knew he remembered that I wasn’t wearing a bra.

“Thank you,” I whispered. His mouth was mere inches away from mine and I could barely breathe.

He gave a tiny shake of his head. “I’m not even going to tell you to stop this time.”

His body moved faster than my brain could process as he lowered his head and covered my mouth with his, shoving me roughly against the door in the same movement. He immediately speared my mouth open with his tongue, seeking out my own. Our mutual moans at the touch were heavy with arousal and relief. It was like both of our bodies relaxed in the same instant when our lips connected, like a huge weight was lifted off of both of us.

It had been so long since we’d done this. Years since we’d last kissed.

He locked both of my hands in place with his body, pinning me to the wood with his hips. Those hips started rolling into mine, his thick shaft thrusting into my core, which was throbbing with need. I ate at his mouth and he completely devoured mine, our bodies re-discovering each other and what this felt like.

He angled his head to the side, taking the kiss deeper, our heavy breathing becoming hotter. Suddenly, I felt his fingers covering mine over the zipper at my back and he slowly started to drag them down with his, lowering the zipper further.

It was a heady moment as that zipper moved downward. The only sounds in that hallway were our breaths and the quiet
hiss
of the material opening. Every millimeter it moved was another second for one of us to stop this because the further it lowered, the closer we moved toward rolling around naked on my sheets.

And we both knew it.

He kept moving it and I didn’t stop him, until it finally reached the edge of the material. His hand froze for only a second before gliding his fingers over my bare skin, touching every inch that was now exposed.

Between the way he was touching me and the way he was sucking out all of my oxygen through his mouth, I could hardly breathe, making me lightheaded. And when his hand started to move toward the hem of my dress, I pulled away, breaking the kiss.

His face said he already knew what was coming before I even said it. Probably didn’t even need to say it, but I did. “This probably isn’t a good idea tonight.”

He nodded reluctantly. We both knew it was the truth. It just sucked.

“I know,” he breathed, still panting harshly. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have pushed.”

I smiled at him. “You didn’t. I wanted it, too. I just don’t want us to be drunk the first time we do this. Especially after all this time.”

His face softened. “Me either. I want us to remember every moment of it.”

I put my hand on his chest and he immediately covered it with his own. “I’m not entirely sure what’s happening here, but whatever it is, I want to take it slow. There’s a lot of complicated stuff between us, and if this is real, I don’t want to ruin it by going too fast.”

His grip tightened on my hand. “I know. I’m not going to mess it up this time, Kin. I swear to you. We’ll go as slow as you want. I’ll wait however long you need me to.”

I hated that my eyes burned with the threat of tears. I didn’t want to turn all emotional on him. Stupid alcohol.

“Why don’t we just take it one day at a time, okay?”

He nodded, his smile both joyous and relieved. “Whatever you want.”

I gently pulled my hand away and stepped inside the bedroom. “I’ll see you in the morning,” I told him, my heart beating a mile a minute with the implication of this change in our relationship.

The look he gave me was reassuring. It said that he was going to remember all of this in the morning and things weren’t going to go back to the way they were. That we hadn’t made a mistake and that he wanted this just as badly as I did.

“Sleep tight, Kin.”

##

It was really no surprise that all of my dreams—and yes, there was more than one—were all about sex, with Parker. I woke up only slightly less worked up than when I went to sleep.

But that took a back seat to the hangover I was currently nursing.

This was when alcohol turned into your worst enemy—in the form of a grueling headache, a queasy stomach, and a taste in your mouth that made you wonder when the hell you stopped for Mexican food before you came home.

I needed a hangover cure in a bad way.

I stumbled out of my bedroom, relieved that Parker wasn’t standing in the hallway with a shit-eating grin on his face, and carefully walked into the bathroom.

Yep, I looked like death.

Between not getting all of my makeup off last night and sleeping with my hair down, I looked like I could have been an extra in
Zombieland
. I did what I could with a hair tie and a water scrub to the face, but in the end I just said screw it. If Parker couldn’t take me at my most unattractive, then he shouldn’t even waste his time. Because I definitely didn’t bother with makeup and a curling iron every single day, especially when I was working.

I made my way downstairs—again, carefully due to my pounding head—and smelled the food before I even got to the kitchen. Though it smelled amazing, my stomach rebelled at the idea of digesting any kind of food right now.