"Holy fuck," he groaned when my hands found the hem of his shirt and slipped beneath the fabric. "MK, baby, you have no idea..." He trailed off as his lips met mine once more. This time his kiss was more demanding and needy. Our tongues met in a tangle of desire, and his hands held me firm against him like he was afraid I was messing with him... that maybe I'd get up and laugh, leaving him with aching balls and bruised lips as I took my own ass back to my bedroom to finish off with a vibrator.
I won't lie, the thought crossed my mind.
But then that'd just be denying myself something I badly craved. And I wasn't about masochism. So yeah, I'd see this through. I'd fuck Kody until I had cleared him from my damn mind—at least temporarily—then tomorrow I'd start working out how to get my shit back from Archer.
Who knew, maybe Kody could be convinced to play double agent for me.
Kody pulled back from our kiss, his hand cupping my face as his eyes drilled into mine. "You're plotting," he murmured. "I can practically feel the gears working in your mind."
"So?" I challenged him again. "Is that a problem for you?" I wasn't going to play around pretending like I wasn't. My heart couldn't handle being duplicitous like that, not when I still held real feelings for him. Better that he know from the get go this was sex and nothing more.
"Baby girl," he breathed, his eyes imploring me. "Put it aside for tonight. Please."
Something in his tone made me pause. "Why should I?"
"Put it aside for tonight. Let me show you how much I’ve missed you... how much I've regretted hurting you every damn second that you've been gone. Then tomorrow I'll plot with you. I'll do everything in my power to help you."
I considered his words, running my tongue over my lower lip as I thought. "Why would you do that? You've always been clear where your loyalty lies. Always."
Kody looked pained, his palms stroking down my body until he grasped my naked hips, tight, like he never wanted to let go. "Do you remember what I said to you that night when we fucked in the kitchen?" I frowned, thinking, but he filled in the gap for me. "I told you that I knew we'd spend the rest of our lives apologizing to you. I knew it then and I know it now. So let this be the first of my never-ending apologies to you, Madison Kate. I'm so incredibly sorry."
His voice was hoarse and heartfelt, and it struck a chord deep within me where my fragile, fractured heart lay surrounded in barbed wire and razor blades.
I sucked in a breath, but it caught on the hard lump of emotions sitting in my throat. Fuck.
"We're not okay, Kody," I told him, even as I stripped his shirt off and tossed it aside. "We're really fucking far from okay. I don't even remotely forgive you for keeping such a monumental secret from me." My fingertips trailed down his chest to his belt, directly under my naked core.
He nodded, still holding my gaze captive. "I understand all of that."
I narrowed my eyes at him, suspicious, but I didn't stop unbuckling his belt and popping the fly on his jeans. He was so hard beneath the thick fabric it was almost entertaining.
"But...?" I sensed there was more to his statement. Call it Kody-intuition.
"But I want the opportunity to get there one day. Even if it takes years, I want to do everything I can to fix what's broken here." His voice carried total sincerity, and fucking hell... I believed him.
I bit my lip, thinking on his words as I loosened his pants and freed his huge erection, then palmed it, making him suck in a sharp breath.
"What about Archer and Steele? I thought you three were the inseparable fucking brotherhood. Tighter than blood. Does this come with a caveat that I need to soften towards them, too? Hidden clauses that exempt them from making apologies of their own?" I stroked my hand down his length, reveling in the way his abs clenched and his breath quickened.
"Fuck no," Kody replied on a heavy exhale. "No way. They made their own fucking mess; they can clean it up themselves." His fingers tightened on my hips, and I lifted up slightly, just enough that he could wiggle his pants down and kick them off his feet, along with his boots.
One of his hands left my hip, coming back up to cup my face in a grip that was just a fraction tighter than a loving gesture. Just a step toward dominating. He brought my lips back to his, kissing me deeply like he could push all his apologies into that one kiss.
He couldn't. But damn, it was a good start.
I continued kissing him, but I also reached between us and brought his cock to my core. Fuck foreplay, I needed to feel him deep inside me more than I needed to breathe. Our kiss broke off as I rocked my hips, groaning as he penetrated me, then shuddering as he pushed up, entering me deeper.
"They may be my brothers," Kody told me in a husky whisper as he thrust into me with toe-curling patience. His one hand gripped my hip tight, preventing me from rushing the process, and it was driving me insane. "But you're my girl. I had no idea what that meant to me before. I do now. I won't fuck it up again, babe."
Words failed me as he thrust the rest of the way in, filling me in the most perfect way and making my breathing quicken. He held us there for an extended moment, his tight grip on my face bringing my eyes back to his and locking our gazes together.
He always could read me like an open book, so I wondered what he saw in that moment. Whatever it was, it spurred him into action. Our lips met in a crash, his tongue invading my mouth with assertive dominance, and his fingers massaged my hip as he encouraged me to move on him.
Like I needed encouragement.
Small moans and whimpers escaped my throat without permission as I set a rhythm on him, feeling the delicious, decadent slide and scrape of his huge cock within me. I was an aching, needy mess after almost a month away from him and Steele. I could easily have come within those first few minutes.
But I gritted my teeth and pushed it off. Now that Kody had said literally the exact right things to melt my icy exterior, I wanted to enjoy fucking him. It was no longer me using his fantastic dick to scratch an itch... this was a step toward a new future for us. Even if I wasn't ready to admit that to him, I knew it was true.
Kody's hands found my breasts, palming them and squeezing. His fingers toyed with my nipples in a way that made me gasp and arch into his touch, which just provided access to my neck for him to bite.
"Fuck," I gasped as he nipped me hard enough to leave a mark—probably—and his fingers pinched my nipples. I loved that slight edge of pain, and I could already feel the evidence of it slick between us. I rolled my hips, relishing every inch of him inside me. "Kody..." I trailed off with a moan because I was quickly losing myself in his touch.
He was so fucking right; plotting could wait till the morning. This... being in the moment with him, it was so much better than the functional fuck I had intended.
"You're so close," he murmured, kissing up the side of my neck and nipping my earlobe between his teeth. "I can feel you clenching around me. It's fucking hypnotic." I let out a small, frustrated groan, and he chuckled. "Come for me, baby girl. I want you to come while you ride my dick."
My breath caught, and I moaned when his hands left my breasts. But he was just shifting his grip back to my hips. I fucking loved when they held me like that. Like I was totally under their control.