But with him . . . I felt different.
I felt confident.
Beautiful.
Brave.
Reaching out, I trembled my fingers across his lush, sexy mouth, felt the needy breath he released against my palm.
He wrapped his free arm around my waist, nearly pulling me from the table, his stare severe. “Kiss me,” he demanded, and I did, nearly desperate as I wrapped my arms around his neck, our tongues coiled, winding and teasing and tasting.
While this man drove me straight toward ecstasy.
Pleasure. It gathered from the ends of the earth.
Speeding as it converged.
Tightening to a pinpoint.
Kale curled his fingers.
My frozen world ignited in a burst of flames.
The most intense orgasm ripped through my body. Unlike anything I’d ever experienced.
Wave after wave. Crash after crash.
Staggering.
Kale continued driving his fingers as I rode them. As I let myself completely go for the first time in more years than I could remember. Flying.
I begged for him to never stop. To never let go.
But that was the thing about trusting someone. Wanting them in a way you shouldn’t. You started searching for ways to make them fit into the mix of all your complicated things. Wishing there was a way to carve space for them without sending that precarious balance toppling over.
My chest heaved, and Kale held me steady, edging back to eye me with satisfaction.
While I clung to his shoulders, a gasping, heaving mess.
And just for a little while, I allowed him to hold me up before the weight of my world could come crashing back down.
He straightened my underwear and my skirt while I bit my lip and fought the creeping awkwardness that began to seep into my veins, climbing my chest and heating my cheeks.
Laughing a rugged sound, he gripped me by the chin and forced me to look at him. “You aren’t going to get shy on me now, are you?”
“I don’t know . . . it seems you have me at a disadvantage.”
He laughed lower, pushed back his chair, his grin easy when he gestured to the huge bulge straining at his pants. “You’re the one with the disadvantage? I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Look what you’ve done to me.”
His words were playful.
No expectation behind them.
My hands flew up to my face, and I frantically shook my head, the mortification finally taking hold. “I’m so sorry.”
Kale pried my hands away. “I’m not.”
A line pinched my brow. “You aren’t?”
“No, Hope. The only thing I asked of you was to let me make you feel good.”
A smile pulled at the corner of my mouth. “I think it’s safe to say you accomplished that.”
“Yeah?” he asked, voice winding into a tease.
I couldn’t help but utter my own. “Gold medal. Perfect ten.”
He pulled me onto his lap so I was straddling him. “What, you think this is the Olympics? I know you didn’t get to experience my stamina firsthand, but I was thinking more like this knight deserves a promotion from his princess. Maybe then he’ll get to make her his queen.”
I ran my fingers through his hair and played along, though I couldn’t keep the tenderness out of my voice. “I think you may already be royalty, Kale Bryant.”
Because that was the way he made me feel. Special. Wanted. The girl who got her fairy tale.
But the clock was getting ready to strike midnight. “I’m sorry, but I really should get home. I wasn’t planning on staying out this late.”
His lips flattened, though he nodded in understanding. “Okay then, let’s get you home.”
He stood and gathered my hand, leading me back the way we’d come. Out through the riot of voices that shouted where they played and drank, down the stairs, and through the murky haze.
Confidently, he guided me through the crowds, which again broke for him, by the band that continued to play, the singer’s sultry voice a soft encouragement against my ear.
Someday.
Someday I’ll find what was meant for me.
That day you’ll find me, too.
Just don’t let it be too far away.
“Someday.” I let the silent promise move across my lips as I snuggled into Kale’s side.
He led me out onto the same sidewalk where I’d parted from him a week before. When I’d thought I’d never see him again.
My chest wanted to cave with that idea now.
With the cruelty of that distinct possibility.
But I had to protect what was important, and standing out there with him was a recklessness in itself.
He lifted his hand in the air, hailing a cab approaching from down the street.
It pulled to the curb. Kale opened the door for me.
Cavalier in his perfect, arrogant way.
“Thank you,” I told him, my heart in my throat and tears suddenly burning behind my eyes.
Damn it.
This was the kind of complication I didn’t need. The new kind of trouble this boy had ignited in me.
I climbed in.
Grinning, he slid in beside me.