22
Arjen
After one of the most explosive and fascinating sexual encounters of my life, I lay there smiling as my heavy eyes kept closing. We had decided to take what had started on the dining room table to our bedroom.
Mrs. Kattie had walked in to get our plates and we had damn near given her a heart attack. She had stepped in on one of my powerful downstrokes as both of Mecca’s legs were lifted over my shoulders.
What we did didn’t qualified as sex because there were moments when it went deeper, more extreme, and so physically draining that it was an event.
Mecca expressed a certain level of tenderness with me now, and although I enjoyed it, I had difficulty understanding why. Like now, she had set me in the pocket of her small arms as she teased her fingers through my hair with the gentlest strokes. I had never experienced anything like this and found it was the most relaxing thing in the world.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Sure, ask away,” she replied.
I adjusted, lifting my head to see her face.
“Why are you so tender with me? You’re going to speak your mind. I knew that from the start. I know you’re hotheaded, saw that a few times too. However, your actions with me now are sweeter than I expected.”
She squeezed me, folding me into her caress, before placing a sweet kiss to my forehead. The kiss was an example of what I was talking about. It held an endearing quality that added strength to our connection and made me feel like the luckiest man in the world.
“I like that you’re observant, especially with someone like me. I’m unpredictable. Impulsive. Explosive at times. Every relationship I’ve attempted was destroyed by me because I’m so harsh and abrasive. I think I get off on having the power to shut men down.”
She paused, and I prayed she would continue.
“When you kissed me at our wedding, I’m not going to lie, it scared the shit out of me. It opened a door to something I’d never experienced and wasn’t expecting. There was also the way your eyes always chased after me, observing and studying my every move. No one had ever looked at me that way. It was different and thrilling in a way that made me think about what I had truly gotten myself into. I also had to admit to myself that I didn’t want to lose it. That look. The way it made me feel. Special. I couldn’t help but think that it was an extension of the kiss.”
Who knew talking could bring a person a great sense of peace: the sound of her voice, the depth of this conversation, the feel of her fingertips gliding through my hair, massaging me so delicately?
“I fought my attraction to you because I didn’t understand it, this heavy pull on my senses. The idea of exploring something that was so far outside my spectrum of knowledge had me on edge and defensive. When my uncle presented the idea of the alliance, and that I would have to marry Khane, the notion that we would be a real couple never truly settled into my mind.”
“All I wanted was to make the Black Saint’s stronger and become more than just the niece of Raymond Evans. When Khane married Desiree instead of me, my mind had reset, and I was ready to return to life as usual until you offered me your half-hearted proposal.”
I chuckled. The proposal was horrible, considering how far we had come.
“I went into this fully embracing the notion that we would be an arrangement, business partners, nothing else. I think the wedding kiss changed everything. Even the way we interacted with each other the first time we met. Instead of holding on to bitterness and anger, we laughed together after we had watched the people we were supposed to marry, get married to each other.”
She was feeding my intrigue, giving me more insight into the intricacies of her.
“The power of the gesture you made to Khane and Desiree was a big part of what made me look at you differently and instantly respect you. I saw a man that would do anything for his brother, same as I would do anything for Desiree. I believe the interactions I had early on with you fed into my reaction to seeing you with that woman. I wanted you. I just hadn’t accepted it yet.”
Her fingers continued to massage my scalp as I reached up and placed a tender kiss on her lips.
“I can assure you, she was only here to get you riled up. I had no intention of letting it go any further.”
She pursed her lips. “Are you saying that because it’s what you think I want to hear?”
I slid my palm, with a delicate stroke against her cheek before I cupped it and captured her eyes, the connection pulling strong.
“I would have done any foolish thing to make you notice me. Still would.”
Based on her pensive expression, she cast doubt on my words.
“What’s so different about me that got your attention?”
I could write her a book on the emotions she had the ability to stir up in me.
“You asked me, why you? There is no easy answer as more reasons are being added every day. With you there was this instant sense that I was doing something right. You ignited my senses, Mecca, all of them. I had never had a woman who could bless me with an instant serge of positive energy and spark such wild passion. Every time I hear your voice, I stop and focus on you, no matter what I’m doing because I believe it’s important to hear what you’re telling me. Your taste bathes my tongue in heaven’s nectar, refreshing, delicious, and addictive.”