When she steps back with a growl, I step forward. “Who?” I question again, louder this time. “Who has you so fucking worked up, you’re acting like a mental patient?”
“Jenni!” She angrily wipes at the tears careening down her face. “You told her you love her, but you won’t say it to me!”
I balk, confused. I didn’t tell Jenni I love her, did I?
Oh, fuck, yes I did.
“I didn’t mean it like that.” My raging heart is heard in my reply. “I was trying to comfort her. I don’t see her like that. I swear to you, I didn’t mean it how you’re thinking.”
I clutch the top of her arms to coerce her eyes to mine, needing her to see the truth in mine. She’s not seeing things clearly, and it’s making her unhinged.
When I get her eyes, I wish I hadn’t. They’re so broken. “I tell you I love you every day for months, and not once have you said it back.” She bites down on her lower lip so fiercely, I’m certain my arm won’t be the only body part sporting wounds tonight. “But I just heard you say it to her.”
“Kylie…” I have no words. The pain on her face is too much—it’s all too fucking much.
I love her with all my heart, but the last girl I said those words to broke me, so I swore I’d never say them to anyone ever again. They’re just useless words. They don’t mean anything. I only said them to Jenni because I think of her as a sister. I didn’t mean it in the manner Kylie thinks I did.
“I lo—”
Kylie slaps her hand over my mouth. “I don’t want to hear it now.”
Desperate for her to see through the jealousy clouding her, I place her hand on my chest. My heart is racing, panicked as fuck I’m losing her. “This belongs to you. Everywhere you go, it goes with you. It belongsonlyto you.”
My eyes plead with her to believe me, to see what I’ve tried to show her for months:I love her.
When she remains quiet, I yank my wallet out of my jeans to remove the photo I carry of Serena. Kylie chokes back a sob when I hold the picture out in front of her. I never told her about Serena’s death because she passed nearly eleven years before we met, so the conversation never came up. Kylie and I talk, but it’s never overly serious.
“Jenni is like a sister to me, nothing more.”
Over the next hour, I explain everything to Kylie about Serena and how I can’t help but treat Jenni as if she is my sister. Kylie apologizes for overreacting before begging for forgiveness. No matter how many times I tell her she has nothing to be sorry for, she apologizes over and over again until exhaustion overtakes her, and she falls asleep in my arms. . .
I thought we had worked everything out…until she vanished the very next day. Maybe now seeing firsthand how much Jenni loves Nick, she’ll realize Jenni was never a threat to our relationship.
“I need to tell you one day, though, Slater.” Kylie’s crackling voice exposes she’s on the verge of crying. “Otherwise guilt will eat me alive.”
“One day.” I draw her into my chest, needing her as close to me as possible so she’ll stop the memories of that night re-cracking my heart. “Just not today.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Slater
Idon’t know if she realizes she’s doing it, but every two seconds, Kylie’s tongue darts out to moisten her lips. It’s driving me fucking crazy, because we’re not alone. The fancy ass hotel Rise Up is occupying this week is so elegant, it has an elevator attendant—and attendant whose funky smell can’t weaken the throb of my cock. I’m so fucking hard it hurts.
While glancing up at the elevator dashboard, praying it will hurry the fuck up and get to the forty-eighth floor, I adjust my crotch for the third time the past minute. Just as I stop my zipper from biting my cock, I spot the curve in Kylie’s lips. She’s smirking but trying to keep it on the down low by slanting her head to the side so her hair shelters her face.
Like a freight train crashing into me, clarity forms. She’s teasing me—on purpose.
Two can play that game.
After drinking in every inch of her enticing body, I crowd her against the mirrored wall of the elevator car. I stand close enough my every intention can be revealed without speaking a word, but not close enough her budded nipples can scratch my chest.
She stares at me with lust-filled eyes, her chest rising and falling in sync with mine, her hope just as high. “What are you doing?”
I don’t answer her. I merely increase her breathlessness by running my thumb over her plump, bare lips. I can see the back of the elevator attendant’s head in her massively dilated eyes, but I no longer care that we’re not alone. My lips are on hers before any of the objections in her eyes can be articulated.
When I drag my tongue along the roof of her mouth, her moan is felt all the way to my cock. I push in closer, not wanting an ounce of air between us. The hem of her dress inches high on her smooth, beige thighs when she curls her legs around my waist. I rock my hips, rubbing my stiffened shaft against the heat between her legs. Her kiss shouldn’t make me so hard, but considering it’s Kylie, I’m not surprised. Her kisses aren’t ordinary. They’re the all-encompassing, willnever forget them in a million yearskisses. They’re as sweet as her face and as wicked as the sex fiend she brings out in the bedroom.
A stern cough attempts to interrupt our kiss. I ignore it. I’ve been dying for this for years, so I refuse to let anything stop me from ravishing her mouth right now.
