“You don’t have to do this.” She shakes her head. A tear finally falls, but she wipes it away as fast as it came. “You can do what you want with whoever you want.”
“I never even touched her. She was in the gym, and she came on to me, but I turned her down.” I watch her face, and I watch her eyes. What Cori said finally snaps into place. I have one more shot with her. “When you asked me to kiss you, I said I can’t. I never said I didn’t want to.”
“It’s the same thing,” she fights back.
“It isn’t,” I finally say, the days and hours of frustration rising to the surface. “I couldn’t kiss you in that bar because I knew it wouldn’t be enough.” The weight on my chest suddenly lets up a bit, her mouth opening. “I knew that if I kissed you that one time, it wouldn’t be enough, and I would want more. I would want to bury my hands in your hair.” I laugh at the irony of me trying to stay strong and fight this. “I didn’t just want to kiss you last night in that bar. I wanted to own you, claim you, make you fucking mine. I wanted to get lost in the kiss I know I will never, ever forget. A kiss I know the minute it happens will be over for us because there will be no other.”
“I …” she says softly, her brain trying to wrap around the words, and then my brain stops working. My head doesn’t listen to the side saying just do your job. Instead, it listens to the side that says make her yours. I walk to her, her eyes going bigger and bigger as I get closer and closer. “Brian.” It’s the last thing I let her say because my hands are in her hair, and I tilt her head back, finally giving in to the months and months of aching for her, the months of wanting to taste her when I knew I couldn’t.
Her mouth opens when I finally touch my lips to hers, her hands going to my face as she tilts her head to the side. Her tongue finally slides with mine, and our groans are swallowed by each other. Her hands move from my cheeks to my hair, and then finally, her chest is flush with mine. The kiss goes from soft to full-on need. Our heads move side to side to get deeper, to get more. It’s not enough. I knew it wouldn’t be enough. I knew that with one taste, one touch, I’d be gone. I pull away from her and see her chest rising and falling, her nipples now poking through her shirt, but it’s the whisker burn that she has around her plump lips that I’m staring at. “See,” I whisper, trying to get my mind to finally catch up to what is happening. “Do you see now?”
“You didn’t fuck her?” she asks me again, and I shake my head.
“Not even close,” I tell her. “She was there, and she pretty much said she wanted to, but I …” I close my eyes. “It’s you.”
“Me?” She puts her hand to her chest.
“It’s you, it’s only you, it’s you everywhere.” Rubbing my face, I lean back on the little desk she has in the room before I fall, and she walks over to me.
“It’s always been you,” she says and now she stands in front of me, and we are eye-to-eye, “from the minute I met you.”
“Kellie,” I plead or beg. I don’t even know.
“I want to kiss you again,” she says. “I’ve waited to kiss you for what feels like my whole life.’ She smiles, and this time, she moves first. She leans in and nips my lips and then sticks her tongue out, licking my bottom lip. Her hands go around my neck, and I turn my head just a touch, just enough for our tongues to meet again. This time, the kiss lasts longer. Her hands go from my neck to my face to my cheek to my hair. My hands go from the counter to her hips, bringing her close to me, then to her ass. The ass that has been teasing me this whole time. I slowly move them up her back to her hair again. Our kiss goes from needy to soft to slow, so fucking slow. Hours, we kiss for hours.
We kiss until the bus stops and then the driver announces over the speaker, “We have arrived.” We release each other but neither of us moves.
“I don’t want to leave this room,” she says softly. “If it means never kissing you again, I’m not leaving this bus.”
I laugh. “Let’s go, baby.” I grab her hand, and she pulls me back. “I have to check in so we can make out in a bed.”
She looks up at me, smiling. “Okay, fine. Let’s go then.” She pulls me off the bus, and I follow her. It’s scary to think I’d follow her anywhere.
Chapter Nineteen
Kellie
I’m so warm it’s like I’m wrapped up in a cocoon. I move my face and feel skin under me. Slowly peeling my eyes open, I don’t see anything but a hard chest. His smell makes me nuzzle my face deeper into his chest. “Morning,” he grumbles, turning to his back and taking me with him. I finally open my eyes, looking out the big window at the cloudy sky.
Last night, we checked in, and the room had only one bed with a huge couch, but I wasn’t letting him get away. So we waited for our bags, and then he went to shower. I waited on my bed, and he came to me. We spent the night kissing, just kissing, and it was everything.
“I’m hungry,” I finally say, sitting up, then leaning over him to grab the phone. I order a bunch of food. “I hope that is enough,” I tell him, getting out of bed and walking to the bathroom. I wash my hands and brush my teeth and walk out to see that he put on his shirt. “Why are you dressed?”
“I’m not dressed. I’m wearing a shirt.” He laughs at me. When we were on the bus, and he finally told me that he did want to kiss me, it made all the chasing worth it.
“Can you take off the shirt?” I wink at him playfully and then walk over to him as he sits on the couch with the remote in his hand.
“I’ll take off my shirt the minute the food comes and we lock ourselves in again,” he tells me and then gets up, kissing me on his way to the bathroom. I grab my purse and send Cori a text.
Thank you.
Just those two words, and she’ll know exactly what I mean by that. I owe her big time.
I put the phone aside when he comes back into the room, and at the same time, the knock on the door comes. He walks to it, returning with the tray, and then there’s another knock on the door. He looks at me funny, but I walk to the door, opening it.
“We have a delivery for a Miss Kellie.” The man stands there in regular jeans and a white shirt. He is wearing a green baseball hat and has a scruffy beard. I reach out to take the box from him, and then he turns and hurries away, almost running down the hall, and I know something is wrong. I’m holding the box when I feel Brian push me aside to run down the hall after the guy. But he must get in the elevator and the door closes because he looks back at me.
“Shut the door and don’t open it unless it’s me,” he says, running into the stairwell. I lock the door behind me, but I don’t move from my spot. I wait in case he needs me. I’m not even sure how long I’m standing here before I hear his voice. “It’s me.” Rushing to the door, I swing it open, and he comes inside, his chest heaving. “I missed him. He got into a white van before I could make it outside.” Making a call on his phone, he puts it to his ear and says, “Conference call in two minutes,” and then hangs up. “Did you look in the box?” he asks, and I just shake my head.