Rebel on the Run (7 page)

Kaelyn shushed him and stood still as he knocked foam from her body, then bundled her in his well-worn towel. Between the scent of him—pure, masculine, clean, evergreen—and the softness he pressed to her flesh with those deft, if mammoth, fingers, she trembled yet again.

When he swaddled her in his arms and smothered her in the heat of his body, she quit attempting to resist. Instead, she rested her head on his shoulder and allowed him to care for her as he lifted her from the tub and set her on a fuzzy bathmat that had barely avoided being gilded by the extra-sparkly froth. The cartoon car-shaped rug felt divine when she curled her toes into it.

For the first time in a while she felt…safe.

Like the disaster her life had become might not be so scary after all. It might be nothing like what she’d planned for herself, but these people she’d stumbled across had rallied around Bryce. She’d bet none of them had a straightforward journey to this refuge where they’d grown to accept and cherish their differences.

The concern they’d shown for Bryce made her certain they would never give up on each other. And if she could pretend, for a few fleeting ticks of the clock, that their protective bubble included her, why shouldn’t she?

Especially if Bryce was willing to keep holding her and rocking her and murmuring things as he glided his hand and the towel across her skin.

“You smell so good.” The truth slipped out of Kaelyn as he returned the relaxation she’d gleaned from the steamy water.

“I could say the same.” Husk infiltrated Bryce’s timbre, roughening his voice, though not his touch. He knelt then nuzzled her belly as he began drying her thighs. “Honey, you might as well move your hands so I can do a good job here. I’ve pretty much seen it all anyway.”

Kaelyn balked. “Maybe on your other women, but not me.”

She couldn’t help her old beliefs from slipping out.

“Do you mean Nola and Sally?” Bryce paused at her acerbic tone.

“Sorry, sorry.” She swallowed hard and shook her head. “I wouldn’t say something like that about your friends’ ladies. It’s just that your dad…”

“What?” He gritted his teeth. “What did that fucker do?”

“After you left, he seemed chattier. He’d always find me to tell me how proud he was that you were
seeing
some beautiful woman or other in Europe.” She couldn’t help the bitterness draining from her. “He would tell me how charming they were, how worldly, how—”

“I get the picture.” Bryce gripped her tighter than he probably intended. “Listen. I hooked up with women. I’m not saying I was some kind of monk. But they weren’t that frequent and I certainly didn’t have any meaningful relationships. I haven’t since…”

He swallowed hard, then looked directly into her eyes.

“No one’s meant to me what you did. Do,” he promised. Except something flickered in his gaze when he rubbed the back of his neck.

Suddenly, she didn’t want to know. For the first time in forever, part of her blossomed, yearning to be touched. It’d been ages since she felt compelled to explore. “Hey, you don’t need to explain. It’s not like I’m a virgin either.”

He winced at that.

Some selfish part of her kept her from telling him how bland her experiences had been. How boring. Unfulfilling.

“Besides, Kae, it wouldn’t matter if I’d slept with a thousand women. None could compare to you.” Bryce melted her last shreds of resistance. “Who are you going to trust—my father or me?”

She touched his cheek, hoping he could tell she felt the same about him. Between him and the evil bastard who’d raised him, there was no contest. Bryce deserved her faith. At least she prayed he did.

“So I’ll be honest. If you think I really had my eyes closed those times we went skinny dipping…” He caught himself, maybe because he noticed her eyes narrowing as she thought yet again of how naïve she’d been.

Unfortunately it was true. And her chill returned.

“Fuck, Kae.” He growled. “I can’t think when you’re around. That was dumb. I’m sorry. And I was a jerk for sneaking a peek back then.”

“You’re not
really
sorry, are you?” The revelation awed her. She’d tempted him? Those times he’d seemed oblivious to her crush—could he have actually felt something?

“Ah. Honestly?” He blew out a sigh that fluttered his hair over his creased brow.

Her fingers curled into fists to avoid burying themselves in the strands. Still, she nodded as she looked him straight in the eye. So she saw it, when he told the pure, unadulterated truth.

“No. I’m not. They’re some of my favorite memories. You were gorgeous.” His pupils dilated as his praise gave her the courage to let go of some of her insecurities and her death grip on her goods.

His Adam’s apple bobbed after she bared her breasts to his stare. When he rocked forward slightly, she wondered if he really meant to lick his lips right then. Distracted by his intense admiration, her hand between her legs fell away also.

“Fuck me.” He moaned. “You
are
gorgeous, I meant. More than I ever dreamed, Kaelyn. Lush. Filled out from that girl’s body. You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”

Squirming, she shifted restlessly before him.

“I’m making you uncomfortable.” He squeezed his eyes closed, causing wrinkles where she’d never seen them on his youthful countenance. “I’m screwing this up.”

“You’re not.” She reached out and cupped his handsome face, enjoying the rasp of his light beard on her palms. “I thought you didn’t feel it. I mean, you never acted like we were more than friends. Would ever be. So when your dad told me…I believed.”

A lump formed in her throat and she swallowed. Hard.

“Ah, Kae.” Bryce lunged to his feet, enfolding her in the towel and lifting her as though she weighed no more than Buster McHightops. He pivoted, placing her on the sink so he could meet her gaze once again. The towel rested beneath her, ensuring the cool surface of the counter didn’t reach her, the same way he insulated her from reality.

Maybe that was why she didn’t flinch when he put his hands on her knees and pressed them apart, insinuating his bulk between them. Though his broad chest tapered to a trim waist, she spread her thighs for him, making it all too easy to imagine what it might be like to be intimate with him.

As opposed to the gentlemen she’d taken before, he’d be raw and exciting. He’d strip away propriety and leave wildness behind. What kind of etiquette was there for exposing yourself so completely? Body and soul. 

She didn’t know.

But she hoped he’d teach her.

Kaelyn reached around Bryce’s bare chest to splay her hands on his back. Even spreading her fingers apart as far as possible, she didn’t feel as though she held much of him. He was so big. As if he’d grown larger than life since she’d seen him last.

“It feels good to have you hug me again, Kae,” he whispered into her hair as he cupped her ass, helping her squirm closer to him…closer to the edge.

“Is that what I’m doing? It feels different.” A ragged laugh burst from her lungs. “It’s like you’ve been reincarnated as some badass version of the boy I knew. You’re so familiar. And…not.”

“I’m not that person anymore.” He repeated what he’d told her earlier.

“I know. And neither am I. But you’ve improved and I’m…” She stopped short of admitting how broken she felt.

“You’re amazing.” Leaning in, he nuzzled their noses together. This close, she could spy the ice-blue flecks between the gray of his irises. “Don’t make me show you.”

“What if I want you to?” she whispered. Never in her life had she needed that confirmation more than this instant.

“Are you sure?” His breath ghosted across her lips. “Do you know what you’re asking for?”

“Not really,” she admitted. “But I want you to show me. Whether that makes me a fool or not.
This
is for me.”

“I wish I’d earned every bit of your confidence.” He groaned and slipped closer, his lips brushing hers as he spoke. “But I thank you for it anyway. And I’m enough of a bastard to take what you’re offering. Because I’ve wanted it for half my life. I never thought I’d see you again, Kaelyn. I never thought I’d find out what you taste like beyond that pathetic nibble I had.”

With that admission, her heart cracked. Or maybe it reformed itself, slightly stronger than it had been before. She lifted her hands, caressing his neck on the way to burying her fingers in his hair. A tug and a whimper later, her mouth crashed into his.

Doubts vanished. Instinct prevailed. Her lips caressed Bryce’s, nudging him to respond when he appeared frozen with either shock or disbelief. Her tongue emerged to flirt with the seam of his lips when he held back. The tension in the muscles that quivered around her proved his restraint. Except she suddenly hoped to rip that away from him. To make him as exposed as she felt in his arms, and in the world in general these past few days.

His roar proved he felt it too, this powerful yearning that ensured she’d never be cold again despite the dampness on her skin. Or maybe the moisture gathering between her thighs, which had nothing to do with the bath she’d abandoned.

For the first time since her neighbor had taken off in the night, never to return home, something inside her stirred. Reawakened. Her craving seemed to have grown from the budding interest she’d experienced for her teenaged friend to a full-on blaze of desire for the man he’d turned into.

Kaelyn didn’t give a crap that it wasn’t ladylike when she coiled her legs around his hips and smothered him like the mink coat she’d hated, doubly so since her father had insisted she wear it in the company of his peers. Bryce didn’t seem to mind. She devoured his lips as they softened against hers. Soon she found herself being rocked backward beneath the force of his returned affection.

She’d been in the driver’s seat, but only for a moment.

Thank God.

The Bryce she’d sensed beneath his calm exterior showed up, proud and insistent. He grappled with her, squishing her closer to the furnace of his core until the thickness of his hard cock beneath his jeans rode the bare, sensitive place at the apex of her thighs. She squeaked and maybe jerked at the initial contact.

Not because she hoped for escape. But because she’d been unprepared for the shock he sent through her system. Everything screamed out in response, begging for more of that pure electricity. White-hot radiance stole everything from her mind except thoughts of how to ride the lightning he forked through her veins.

Worries disappeared, replaced by unadulterated lust.

In two seconds, he’d reinforced her objections to the quiet, pleasant loving that hadn’t done much for her when she’d been intimate with her previous boyfriends.

Freedom to explore raged through her, empowering her. She raked her French manicured nails down his chest, sad for the tiny bit of space insinuated between her and the wall of muscles in front of her, which made her feel protected by their inherent strength. So she slid her hands around his ribs, reveling in how they bellowed with the force of his escalating respiration.

The nonverbal admission of her effect on him turned her on even more.

Kaelyn hugged him to her despite the fact that she had to break contact with his mouth to suck in a gasping breath. He took the opportunity to kiss her chin and jaw, working toward her ear. Who knew it could be so sensitive there?

A soft moan escaped her when he progressed to her neck and had her quaking in his unrelenting grasp. Thankfully, he seemed only to gain strength and momentum as he feasted on her tender flesh while she turned malleable in his hands.

Her spine arched, granting him access to anything he chose to sample. From her collarbone then downward to the curve of her modest breasts. Never before had she regretted her lack of endowment. But his hands made her seem tiny when he cupped her, rolling her hardened nipples between his fingers while staring at the darkening peaks as if they were the most fascinating things he’d ever seen.

“Beautiful,” he murmured.

And before she could figure out what to say, he’d descended on them, flicking his tongue over first one, then the other. She gasped and speared her fingers into his hair once more, using the grip to mash him closer while steadying herself against the dizziness encroaching. He had her completely off-balance, her entire world shifting beneath her with the talented swipes of his tongue.

Her toes curled behind his back, where her ankles crossed, hugging him to her.

Could this really be happening?

Sure, she’d had plenty of dreams that ended up like this. Some plain old fantasies too. Daydreams. Lots of them. Well, except Bryce hadn’t had these tattoos, or been so muscular, and they’d been in a bed, not on the bathroom sink.

Beggars couldn’t be choosers.

And she was certainly about to plead if he didn’t start sucking her harder, pulling her nipple into his hot, moist mouth.

As if he listened to her silent demands, he increased the pressure of his suckling, tugging on her distended peaks until he drew her more fully between his lips. His tongue danced around the tissue while his hand entertained her other breast.

When he released her with a slick noise that probably shouldn’t have sent shockwaves through her core, she whimpered. Quick to stifle her complaints, he switched sides, balancing out his decadent treatment.

His free hand wandered down her stomach, causing her to suck in a breath and drop her head back against the mirror with a decided
thunk
. Oops.

Bryce chuckled around her breast, peeking up at her to ensure she was okay before proceeding with his dexterous handling of her most sensitive parts.

He winked up at her, then proceeded to circle her belly button with barely there brushes of his index finger. His mouth abandoned her in favor of blazing a trail of kisses that followed the path of his hand.

He kissed her ribs, then her stomach, pausing to lick the swells of her hipbones. And when his chin nudged her mound, she flung her hands to the edge of the countertop and clung as tight as she could manage to keep from rocketing into orbit or plunging to the tile floor. The entire world seemed to wobble beneath her.