Once we climb into the shower, she perks up enough to stand on her own, and we take turns lathering each other’s body up and rinsing away the suds. I grow warmer with each and every touch she allows me, and by the time I turn off the water, my skin is overheated.
Her soft hand finds my cheek, and her tired eyes look up at me sleepily, and I’m fucking lost in her. She’s my north, my guidance, my very reason for existing.
“You were made for me, Envy.” A soft smile teases her lips as she looks up at me. “I lo—”
Her fingers immediately find my lips. “Don’t say those things to me.”
“I can’t help how I feel.”
“Don’t tell me. Show me.”
So I do.
I carry her to the bed, and I make love to her for hours the exact way we both need. We don’t stop until my back is bleeding from her fingernails and my own hands have left bruises all over her perfect body.
***
“Baby,” I whisper to Kaci as I push a strand of hair from her sleeping face.
She grumbles into her pillow as her face scrunches up from the hallway light.
“Envy,” I coax, pulling the cover down her back and infiltrating the warmth she’s created by cocooning into the blankets I was remiss to leave a half an hour earlier. I’m freshly showered and hating that I’m going to have to leave her for a few days.
“Why are you so hateful?” she complains and blindly reaches for the blankets.
“You’re grumpy in the morning,” I tease, letting my lips drift over her bare shoulder.
“Mmm,” she hums, turning over so her breast is even with my mouth.
As much as I need to grab my shit and head outside, her naked body is too tempting to resist.
“I have to go,” I whisper huskily before wrapping my lips around her nipple.
When her fingers dig into my scalp, I give her exactly what she’s craving and bite down on the taut bud as it furls against my tongue.
“TJ,” she moans, shifting her hips until the covers fall away from her legs.
The bite marks on her inner thighs lengthen my already half-hard cock.
“I have to go,” I repeat, but my mouth doesn’t leave her skin, and my eyes don’t drift from the slit between her legs.
“Don’t leave me,” she pouts, and I love the sound of her begging. She did it several times last night.
“I don’t want to.” The confession is made as I make my way to her other attention-starved breast. “But I have to work.”
“Where are you going?”
Her hips wiggle, and I lose my restraint as my fingers find the hidden heat of her luscious cunt.
“Jesus,” I hiss when I find her drenched.
My free hand is working open the top button on my jeans when a throat clearing in the doorway pulls my attention.
Ronan is standing just outside of the room taking in the scene. “Briar is looking for you. All the guys are waiting outside.”
“Fuck,” I grunt as he walks away. “I have to go.”
“When will you be back?” she asks as she reaches for the blankets and covers up her delicious body. I swear a wave of depression washes over me. Being gone from her is going to be absolute torture.
“A couple days.”
“Days?” Fear fills her eyes as she reaches for me.
After sucking her wetness from my fingers, I lean over and take her mouth. Her lips, the way her tongue slides over mine, doesn’t help my situation, but I’ll be damned if I leave without it.
“Be a good girl while I’m gone and remember who owns you,” I warn against her mouth.
She nips my bottom lip in retaliation, but there’s a soft smile on her lips when she pulls away.
“Be safe and hurry back to me,” she pleads.
I press one last soft kiss to her mouth. “Stay here where it’s safe. I’ll be back before you know it.”Chapter 37Kaci
The next time I wake up, I don’t know how long it’s been since TJ left. I haven’t slept as good as I have the last two nights in as long as I can remember. There’s something about him, the safety he provides, and the calmness I feel in his presence that calms my soul.
It only takes about ten minutes of lying in bed alone for the boredom to sink in before I’m reaching for my phone to see if he has texted since he left.
The only message I have is from a number I don’t recognize.
Unknown Number: Your mother killed herself yesterday. You will be expected at the services.
I don’t know how I’m expected to feel in a moment like this, but a sense of calm surely isn’t a normal way to react to news of a parent’s death. I knew the time would come when she’d take too many pills, drink too much alcohol, all to try to forget the pain our family has been through.