Page 66 of Kyle

This morning she’d woken up with a groan and could barely sit up right to get out of bed. I knew she was in pain when I insisted we go to the ER and she hadn’t argued.

Four hours later, we were leaving with a prescription for a pain reliever and instructions to rest for forty-eight hours.

So that was the plan: I was taking Anaya back to the house, then propping her up on the couch where she’d stay.

“Do you want to go up and see the babies while we’re here?” she asked.

“Nope. I wanna get you home so you can rest,” I answered.

“I feel better now that I’m up and walking. You heard the doctor, he said they’re just bruised.”

“I did hear him; he said no activity for two days and it would take three weeks for them to heal.”

Anaya stopped and faced me. “You’re one of those people who follows doctor’s orders?”

She looked surprised.

“With you? Yes.”

“What does that mean?”

I grabbed her hand and walked us around the throngs of people in the ER waiting room, not wanting to have this discussion around strangers, and I certainly didn’t want to be in a room full of coughing people.

We cleared the sliding exit doors, made our way across the parking lot, and stopped next to the company SUV.

“It means, if the doctor ordered me off my feet for two days, I wouldn’t listen. If one of the guys had bruised ribs, I’d tell him to suck it up and do his job.”

“Then why are you rushing us home? Everyone’s upstairs visiting little Eric and Mason. All your friends are there. Why don’t we go up—”

“If they’re all at the hospital, that means the house is empty.” Her head cocked to the side in question so I continued. “Meaning, we can be alone.”

“Oh,” she whispered but then she frowned. “But you’re gonna make me sit on the couch and not move, aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Then what does it matter if we’re alone or not?”

“It just does.”

“Kyle,” she whined.

Anaya looked absolutely adorable pouting.

I had no idea how she felt about PDA and I didn’t stop to ask. I lowered my head with the intention of a chaste peck but Anaya had other plans. Her tongue came out and licked my bottom lip. I groaned and tried to stay strong but lost the battle when she pressed her body to mine and slanted her head. My hands moved to her face, then slid into her hair, keeping her where I wanted, and deepened the kiss.

Good God, the woman was a good kisser. She followed my lead but was not timid or shy. She tasted like the cinnamon gum she’d been chewing—spicy and hot. Her low groan made my already hard cock twitch, and unfortunately it was time to stop.

“Wow,” she breathed and I smiled at her endorsement.

Wow didn’t begin to cover it. The first kiss we’d shared had been hands-down the best kiss of my life. The one we just shared? A close second. Very close. The only reason it wasn’t as good as the first was because it hadn’t been accompanied with her sweetest admission she was going to open herself to me.

“Let’s get you home.”

I beeped the locks and helped her in. I took my time rounding the SUV thinking of anything I could to deflate my hard-on. Nothing worked. I climbed into the driver’s seat, cock still rock hard, and drove us home.

Anaya was situated on the couch, TV remote in hand, channel surfing, while I was in the kitchen making us some lunch.

“Hey.” I heard, and I turned from the sink to see Declan.