I draw the soft head of his taut erection into my mouth—the salty taste of his arousal teases my tongue. He pants out a breath and his hand is instantly on my head. Aroused by the very idea that he is this aroused, I draw him deeper.
“More,” he murmurs, and I know, I know he understands that I don’t want him to hold back. That’s exactly what I don’t want. I want him to let go. I want him to let go because I made him let go. I take more of him, my grip tightening on the base of his shaft.
My gaze lifts and there is a grit to his teeth, a taut line above his lip. “Aria,” he whispers, and I suckle him. “Harder,” he orders, his tone rough, urgent. I draw him in, sucking harder, and he pumps against me, thrusting toward the back of my throat, and I have this sense of Kace unleashed, of an animalistic piece of him that he restrains with me, but that I’ve unleashed. The salty taste of him expands, the pulse of his cock intensifies, and just when I think he will come, he doesn’t.
He catches my shoulder, lifts me, and when I would protest, I’m already against the wall, my leg at his hip, and he’s thrusting inside me. I don’t have any sense of him stealing my control at all. He’s filling me and it’s what I need, and it feels like what he needs, too. It’s rough and wild and demanding, and so many things I cannot name. It’s right. So very right. He’s right. We are right.
And when it’s over, we have somehow ended up on the floor of the shower, me on top of him, me in control. My face is buried in his neck when he says, “Tell me that gave you what you needed. Tell me it helped, that I helped.”
I lean back and stare down at him, and this is one of those moments when I appreciate the complexity of this man who can be tender and demanding, sweet and yet hard, and with it his ability to know when to take and give control. “You did,” I whisper. “You so did.”
And in the process, he’s sent me a message. With him, I’m finally able to be any version of myself I want to be. In a lifetime of limits, I have none with him. And that’s how I need to live and how I need to dictate my decisions, and they are mine to make.
***
Post shower, Kace and I are at the bathroom sink, him shaving while I flat iron my hair. I’m in a pink silk robe and he’s in nothing but a towel. He’s shaving and there is this new, raw intimacy between us that I cannot explain. Every time I think Kace and I can’t get closer, we do. It’s rather surreal considering that every time I think Gio and I cannot grow further apart, we do. My mind tracks back to yesterday in the shop, to our fight. I don’t believe a word he said. I’m admitting that to myself now and it’s not a fun place to be.
“Hey.”
At Kace’s gentle prodding, I blink him into view to realize that I’m staring at myself in the mirror with the flat iron in the air.
“You okay, baby?”
I nod. “Yes. Just—I was thinking about Gio.” My cellphone buzzes with a text and I reach for it where it lays on the counter when Kace asks, “Gio?”
“Savage,” I say, reading the message out loud: Gio is back at McDonald’s eating three egg McMuffins and a stack of pancakes and sausage. He’s not coming to breakfast. I don’t like to lose bets. Want me to wrestle the egg McMuffins from him and force him to come to you?
I text Savage back with: I’m best equipped to kick my brother’s ass, and I’ll enjoy it more than you. So just wait, before I glance at Kace and say, “I told Savage to just hold up, but I swear, Kace, I’d go wrestle the food from his mouth myself if I thought I could get there before he leaves.”
“Maybe you should give him a day to process me being in your life, baby.”
If I believed Gio was shocked and didn’t know, I might agree, I think, but I don’t know what I believe right now. “I need to give Blake the go ahead and make plans to be me again. That means I need to talk to Gio now, not later.”
Kace wipes the remnants of shaving cream from his face. “Give him one day. We can go ahead and talk to Blake, and make plans.”
I stand and face him, emotions lifting in my voice. “Screw Gio. He came back to protect me, but won’t even talk to me? I don’t believe he’s here for me at all. He’s here for Sofia. Maybe he’s here for you because he believes she’ll get to you first. I don’t know what he’s doing, but I know we aren’t making decisions based on him. Not anymore.”
My cellphone rings and I glance at the caller ID to find Crystal’s number. “Crystal,” I tell Kace. “I’m going to talk to her and then go and see Gio.”
He leans close and kisses me. “Okay.” With that one word, he heads toward the closet.
For some reason, this makes me smile, and I answer the call with that smile in my voice. That’s the power of this man in my life. “Hey, Crystal,” I greet. “Are you back in the city?”
“I am,” she says. “And unfortunately, this isn’t a social call. I know what happened with Alexander in San Francisco. I still can’t believe he pulled that crap.”
“Yes,” I agree, sinking back onto the vanity chair, and adding, “it was bad.”
“And it’s not over. He showed up here this morning pissed because he said you offered Ed wine he wasn’t offered.”
I facepalm. “I cannot believe Ed did that to me. He declined the wine to avoid a fight with Alexander. Or so he said. Clearly not.”
“Well, here’s the thing. If you want to sell to Alexander, I can make it happen and spare you the torture.”
“You could do that on your own without giving me a commission. And honestly, I’m of the opinion you should get me out of the middle of this.”
“After that stunt that Alexander pulled, Mark wants to ban him from Riptide, but I’m concerned he might lash out at you guys. Especially,” she adds, “since he lives in your building.”
It’s a reminder I don’t need, or maybe I do. This problem with Alexander isn’t going away and he’s too close to us for comfort. “I’m not sure what to do here, Crystal.”
“Let’s just talk it out. Do you have time to come by today?”
“Yes, sure,” I say, without hesitation. She’s offered me an opportunity I value more than ever now that Gio is back and obviously checked out. “I’d like to step up and do more. What time?”
“Any time is fine. Just text me about fifteen minutes before you get here.”
I open my mouth to warn her about Walker shadowing me and think better. She already knows. They saw Savage at lunch. I want to work with her, not scare her off when Alexander is doing a fine job of that himself. Instead, I simply say, “I will. See you soon.”
I disconnect and rotate to stare at the closet door, dreading the moment I speak Alexander’s name to Kace once again but I won’t keep this from him. Stuffing my feet in my pink slippers beside the vanity chair, I shuffle to the closet and pause in the door. Kace is holding a black T-shirt that he pulls over his head, the ripple of muscle beneath taut tattooed skin quickly covered by a lion emblem on the tee.