“It’s the way it should be. She deserves so much more than me, Van. I am a toxic, broken asshole.”
“Well, the asshole part is true enough, but the rest? No, you’re not, Eli. You’re one of the best people I know.”
I shake my head and kiss Kate’s hand. “No, I’m not. I’m your brother. You’re supposed to think that.”
“No, you’re wrong there,” she replies. “But I’m not going to fight you on this today. It’ll keep.”
We sit in silence, watching Kate sleep. She’s so still. Lila returns, and not long after, Declan. He looks as distraught as I feel when he lays his lips on her forehead and kisses her softly, whispering how sorry he is, how we all love her, that she’s going to be okay.
Words I should have said.
“Love you too,” she whispers to Dec and opens her eyes.
“You’re awake?” Dec asks.
“Hard to sleep with you hanging on me,” she says, making Dec laugh.
“May I please come in?” Mr. Rudolph is at the door, looking shy and uncomfortable. I stand and shake his hand.
“Thank you. For everything.”
He nods and approaches the bed, smiling kindly at Kate. “I see that you’re feeling better.”
Jesus, how bad did she look when they brought her in?
“Getting there,” she says. “Tongue is smaller.” Her eyes fill with tears. “Owe you ‘pology.”
“No,” he says, and covers her hand with his. “Beau filled me in. It never occurred to me to tell you about Serena. She’s been sick a long time, and everyone in the office knows. I would have suspected me too.”
“Thanks,” Kate says, and closes her eyes, tired again.
“Get well quickly, sweet girl,” he says, and stands to leave. “I need to get over to see Serena. Take care of Kate.”
“How long are they keeping her?” I ask after Mr. Rudolph leaves.
“Just until tomorrow. They’d let her go today, but she had so many breathing problems, they want to continue the IV steroids to make sure she’s in the clear.” Lila’s gaze never leaves Kate as she relays the information to me. “She scared the shit out of me.”
“All of us,” Declan says. “Is it true that she wasn’t breathing when the paramedics got there?” he asks Van.
She simply nods.
Hilary is going to wish she never stepped foot in Bayou Enterprises.
***
It’s late. The hospital is surprisingly quiet, with just the occasional sound of footsteps walking past Kate’s door. She’s been in and out of sleep all day, and I haven’t moved.
I know she’s going to be okay, but I can’t make myself leave her side. I sent Savannah, Declan, and Lila home hours ago, promising them that I’d stay, and call if there was any change.
Now I just want her to wake up, which is utterly selfish because she needs to sleep and get well.
The swelling in her face has gone down. Now, just her lips are a little puffy, and her eyes look a little bruised. Every once in a while during sleep, she’ll scratch her arm or her neck.
She’s still itchy.
She has one hell of an allergy.
I lean in and whisper, so as not to wake her, but I have to say this out loud, while I still can.
“You are so special, Kate. So beautiful. I’m going to miss you every day. You made the man who’s incapable of love fall in love with you.” My throat tightens, and I stop talking. I simply bury my face in her neck and breathe her in, already missing what she brings to my life. The light. The laughter.
Already missing who I am because of her.
***
“What are we doing today?” Kate asks two days later. And what a difference two days make. The swelling is completely gone, and it seems that she’s back to her old, energetic self.
“Sleep,” I reply, and close my eyes beside her, goading her.
“No. No sleep.”
“You need to rest.”
“Eli, I’m fine. All recovered. You can even have sex with me and I won’t die.”
“That’s not funny,” I reply calmly and turn to face her. “You could have died.”
“I didn’t,” she says, and cups my cheek in her hand. “I’m fine. And you’ve kept me in bed—not for the fun stuff, I might add—for two days.”
“Fun stuff?” I ask and kiss her forehead. “You want fun stuff?”
“Yes.”
“Not yet.”
“Eli, my face swelled, not my…other places.”
I laugh. I can’t help it. She’s so fucking funny when it comes to the swearing.
“These places?” I ask and brush the backs of my knuckles over her nipple, making it stand at attention.
“Yes,” she whispers and closes her eyes. “That’s a good place.”
“What about this place?” I ask and drag the same knuckles down her stomach to her navel, circling it softly, loving that fucking piercing.
“That doesn’t suck.”
I grin and kiss her collarbone. God, she’s soft. And expressive.
She’s addictive.
How am I going to live without her?
Because I will live without her.
But not today.
“And this?” I ask as my fingers drift down between her legs, lightly touching her warm skin. “What about this place, cher?”
“Best. Place. Ever.” Her hips move, wanting me to press harder, deeper, but I hold back, barely tickling over her tiny pink pussy lips, watching in satisfaction as she squirms next to me. Her neck and cheeks pinken; her breath quickens. She grips the sheets at her hip opposite me and bites her lip. “That feels nice.”
“Just nice, huh?”
Oh, we can do a whole lot better than fucking nice.
I kiss down her torso, lick the underside of her breasts, enjoying every gasp and moan that comes out of her delicious mouth. Her fingers find my hair and hold on tight as I nibble down her ribs, kiss a circle around her navel, then travel down between her legs. I spread her wide and growl when I see how wet she already is.
“You’re so pink.” I press a kiss to her pubis. “So wet.” Her clit, making her gasp. “So sweet.” I sweep my tongue through her folds, then pull back and look up into her shining green eyes. “I could do this all day.”
“You’d kill me,” she replies, and lets her head fall back as I grin and press a kiss to the delicate skin of her inner thigh, the crease where leg meets torso, then pay the same attention to the other side. “You are killing me.”
“Just taking my time, cher.” It seems we always take it so damn fast, because I can’t wait to be inside her, can’t wait to feel her come apart at the seams. But this time, I want to enjoy every movement, every sigh, every moment. “You’re quite fun, you know.”
“I am?” She smiles down at me, decidedly happy with that compliment.
“You are.” I lap at her now, from her pussy all the way to her clit and back down again. Her fingers tighten in my hair, pulling in the best way. She’s sweet. Just a bit tangy.
Perfect.
“Eli, I want you inside me.”
“I’ll get there.”
“No, really.” I glance up at her tone. “This is so good, but I really want to feel you inside me. Please.”
I kiss my way back up her delectable body, rest my hard cock against her folds, and prop myself on my elbows beside her head, careful to keep my weight off of her.
She takes my face in her hands and pulls me down to kiss her thoroughly, lapping at my lips, licking every drop of her own juices off of me, and if that isn’t the sexiest fucking thing ever, I don’t know what is.
I pull my hips back, and Kate reaches between us to wrap her little fingers around me, making my eyes fucking cross, then guides me inside her in one long, slow stroke.
“Oh, God,” she whispers, her green eyes never leaving mine. “You always feel so good.”
“It’s all you, cher,” I reply.
She shakes her head and bites my lip. “It’s us.??
?
I close my eyes and lean my forehead against hers, unable to keep from moving any longer. She squeezes around me with each thrust in the most amazing way, making my balls lift and tighten, my spine tingle.
I’m not going to last like this.
“Look at me,” she says softly.
“Bossy thing, aren’t you?” I say as my eyes find hers. She doesn’t reply. She simply lifts her legs higher on my hips and clamps down, hard, her pussy rippling as she comes in waves.
She doesn’t cry out. She just grips onto my arms and lifts her head off the bed, resting her forehead on my chest as she comes harder than I’ve ever felt her. I’m helpless to stop the orgasm that tears through me, also so damn strong, but quiet.
She lies back and smiles up at me, trying to catch her breath.
“That’s the best medicine ever.”
I grin. “You’ll never hear me complain.”
I brush loose tendrils of hair off her sweaty cheeks and kiss her forehead, her nose, and her lips. When I move to pull out, she holds me close. “Not yet.”
I’d move the earth for her right now if I could.
Her fingertips glide up and down my back, to my ass, then up again lazily. “I have to go to the office today,” she murmurs.
I frown. “I thought you were done.”
“I need to put together the last of my reports, then I need to pack.”
Her eyes are sad as she looks up at me, almost as though she’s silently begging me to ask her to stay. “When are you leaving?” I ask instead.
“Day after tomorrow.”
“I want to spend every minute with you.”
She smiles, then shakes her head.
“You don’t have to. We know this is finished, Eli. We can just cut it off.”
“No, I don’t want that.” I kiss her lips softly. “I want to spend every minute with you that you’re here. I’ll take you to the airport myself.”
“Why?”
I swallow hard and call myself a selfish fucking bastard, and a coward, when I say, “Because I’m not quite ready to say goodbye.”
“And if I am?” she asks. I pull up so I can clearly look her in the eye.
“Are you?”
She bites her lip, thinking about her response, and then finally shakes her head quickly. “No.”
“Okay then. When are we going to the office?”
“After you fuck me again.”
She grins naughtily and squeezes my ass, and just like that, I’m hard again.
“You know what those filthy words to do me.”
“No, what do they do?” she asks with wide, innocent eyes.
“This,” I whisper against her lips as I begin moving inside her again. “I’ll just keep reminding you until you figure it out.”
“Maybe I’ll stop using the dirty words.”
“Oh, I think we’ll make sure that doesn’t happen.”
***
“Here.” I walk into Kate’s bedroom and hand her a glass of lemonade. She’s been working most of the afternoon, packing her things. Why I’m here watching, I have no idea. The only explanation I have is I’ve suddenly become a masochist.
Because this fucking hurts.
“Thanks.” She grins, kisses me quickly, then returns to neatly folding her sexier than fuck underwear and placing them in a suitcase.
“I haven’t seen these before.” I retrieve a pair of leopard print boy shorts from the bag and hold them up. “I like these. Put them on.”
“No.” She laughs and snatches them out of my hand, refolds, and returns them to the case, right after I pull a purple, lacy thong out.
“Wow. I haven’t seen this either.” It’s dangling from my index finger when she grabs it and glares at me as she folds and replaces it.
“Stop undoing everything I’m doing.”
“I just want to know why you’ve been withholding sexy underwear from me. You know how much I love it.”
“I haven’t been withholding it,” she laughs with a shake of the head, making her hair move about her shoulders.
My fingers itch to dive into that thick, soft hair.
So they do.
I comb my fingers through her hair and watch it fall back to her shoulders, then repeat the motion.
“I have a system,” she informs me primly. “And you’re messing it up.”
“I am?”
“Yes.”
She sighs and closes her eyes as my fingertips rub her scalp.
“That feels good.”
With her eyes closed, I retrieve a sexy red nightie from the suitcase.
“And who, exactly, were you planning to wear this for?”
She gasps and steals the scrap of lace from my hand.
“Seriously. Stop touching all of my underwear.”
“You don’t mind when I take it off of you, cher.”
“That’s different.” She sniffs, her nose in the air. “And I wasn’t planning on wearing it for anyone.”
“Wear it for me, before you go.” The request is quiet. Sincere. She watches my eyes solemnly as she sets it aside.
“I can do that.”
“You’re good at taking orders,” I comment with a grin. She narrows her eyes at me.
“I’m no one’s submissive.”
“Indeed,” I agree, and run a finger down her cheek. “But I like that if I make a request, you’re eager to comply.”
“Why do I do that?” she asks with a frown. “Is that what got me into trouble with my ex-husband? I was too easy?”
“You didn’t get into trouble with your ex-husband,” I say, and take her face in my hands, making her look at me. “He was an asshole who didn’t know a good thing when he had it. He doesn’t know how to treat a woman, Kate. And wanting to please people you love isn’t a bad thing, when it’s done sincerely.”
“Thanks,” she whispers.
“So, you’ll wear the sexier than fuck nightie?” I ask with a grin, lightening the mood again.
“We’ll see,” she says with a wink. “I don’t want you to think I’m a sure thing.”
“Oh, sugar, that ship has sailed.” I laugh and pull her in for a hug, delighted with her. “You make me laugh.”
“Do I make you want to pack things?” she asks, making my heart still at the reminder of her leaving. “Because I need to finish this and you’re distracting me.”
“You make me want to undress you,” I reply, but she backs out of my reach.
“Oh, no.” She points a finger at me and glares.
“You don’t scare me.”
“No hanky-panky. This has to get done.”
“Hanky-panky?” I ask with a laugh. “What, exactly, is hanky-panky?”
She giggles and backs further away. “You know what it is. I have to get this done, Eli. I don’t have time for shenanigans.”
“Oh, there will be shenanigans, cher.” I slowly saunter toward her. She’s run toward the balcony, caging herself in. “Admit it. You like the shenanigans.”
“No. I don’t.” She giggles.
God, I love her giggle.
“You also like it when I get you naked.”
“Stop it.” Now she stands firm, her hands on her hips, as though she’s a teacher and I’m an unruly student. “I’m serious, Eli. I have work to do.”
I grin. “So do I.”
Chapter Nineteen
Kate
“I never did ask you what happened with Asher.” I’m chatting on the phone with Lila. “I was too busy looking like a blow fish.”
“A lot happened with Asher,” she says.
“Was there sex?” I ask, and throw the last of my things in my carry-on bag.
“Oh, indeed, friend. There was lots of sex.”
“Was it good sex?” I grin and flop on the couch, wishing Lila was still here, rather than back in Denver.
“Maybe the best sex that has ever been had on this planet. Every time.”
“Every time?”
“
Every. Time.”
“So, was there the exchange of phone numbers?”
There’s a pause, and I sit up straight, stare at my phone, then, “Seriously? Lila!”
“I don’t have time for a relationship.”
“Who said anything about a relationship? Just call him up now and again have the best sex on the planet.”
“Impossible,” Eli says as he walks through the door. “We have the best sex on the planet.”
I laugh and hold up my hand, signaling that I just need one more minute.
“He lives in Seattle, Kate,” Lila says with a sigh. “I never go to Seattle.”
“Maybe he goes to Denver,” I suggest.
“I’m not going to be in Denver much longer either.”
“You’re not? Why?”
“Because, while I was in New Orleans, I had that interview with Tulane University, and I have a new job beginning this fall.”
“Shut the front door!” I exclaim, and jump to my feet, dancing around the living room. “I’m so excited for you!”
“Thank you. So, I have enough to keep me occupied for now.”
“It’s not like being occupied by the best sex on the planet is a hardship,” I remind her dryly.
“Seattle, Kate.”
“Fine.” I sigh. “I guess it doesn’t matter anyway, since you didn’t get his number.”
“When do you come home?”
“Tomorrow.” I bite my lip and glance back at Eli, who’s sipping a bottle of water and leaning against the countertop, watching me. “I get in around noon.”
“Want me to pick you up?”
“Sure.”
“Okay, send me your itinerary. I’ll see you tomorrow. Go enjoy your sexy business man. Have the second best sex on the planet.”
“You’re sick,” I reply with a laugh. “Bye.”
“How is Lila?” Eli asks and joins me in the living room.
“Good. She got the job at Tulane.” I grin and stand on my tip-toes, so I can kiss him. He still has to bend down to meet my lips.
“Good for her.” He cups my neck in his hands and takes the kiss deeper, in that way he does that makes my toes curl and my fingertips tingle.
The man can seriously kiss.
“What would you like to do this afternoon?” he asks.
“I want to take one more walk through the Quarter. It’s so pretty this afternoon.”