Page 33

Kenna

Pacing near the front door, watching the clock, waiting on Puck was ridiculous. I was better than that, stronger than that. I wasn’t a damn golden retriever; I was a full grown, independent woman who smelled like strip club, sweat, and Puck. Time to take a damn shower.

The lather of his expensive shower gel was silky, and the scent of bergamot and sandalwood soothed me, leaving me warm and thinking of him all over again. But in a different way, one that left my chest tight.

I’d literally just had the best sex of my life. I was lighter, happier than I had been in forever. David had brought the money back to me. I had a place to live, a job. Puck. Jesus, I was actively fucking Puck Kelly. But it was something more, the way he looked at me, the way he spoke to me.

He’d killed for me.

Drying my hair in the bathroom, I stopped and held my breath, waiting for that little voice in my head to tell me how all this could go wrong, how I would fuck it up.

That voice never came.

I nosed around in the clothes he had in the chest of drawers, pulling out a faded hockey t-shirt. It smelled like him and was soft in that way of cotton that had been washed to the point of thinning. I slipped it on, hugged it around myself, and danced in a little circle.

My whole life had been a desperate search for this feeling. Knowing I was going to lay my head down tonight and wake up in the same place, safe, and…happy.

Really, truly, happy.

I grabbed my phone, curled up on the bed against the window, and opened the book I’d started reading months ago—before the rave in the desert and the frat party after.

“I could fit six of you in that shirt.” Puck’s deep voice interrupted my reading.

I glanced up and excited little butterflies tickling my belly. He gently closed the door and locked it. In faded jeans that stretched across his thighs, he looked good enough to start at his toes and lick all the way up.

“Is that what you want, six of me?” I put down the phone and tucked my legs inside the shirt, resting my chin on them as he strode toward me.

Watching him move was something I’d never get used to. The grace of a man with so much size and muscle reminded me of a lion.

“There isn’t a man on this planet that could handle six of you.” He lowered himself to the bed beside me. The mattress sank just enough for me to slide against him.

“I dunno. I think you could.” I kicked at his thigh with my bare foot. “But I don’t like to share.”

“Me either.”

But he had. He’d shared me with Jester that first time. “Uh -huh .”

“That was then. This is something else.” His voice was quieter than I was used to, more serious than I expected.

He pulled me close then, sliding a hand beneath the shirt and running it up and down my side. The rhythmic warmth of his touch sent desire coiling in my belly. Not hard and fast like before, but a slowly burning ember of it.

“I’ve got some strings.”

“Do you?” I’d never actually considered a relationship with Puck. And this was happening so fast, it was getting harder and harder to breathe. Even when he was away from me, it was difficult to focus on anything other than wondering when I would see him again.

My relationship with Ghost had been a roller coaster from high school onward. Strings pulling me in all sorts of directions that I didn’t want to go, because I’d thought I was supposed to be there.

I needed this to be different.

“If you’re fucking me, it’s just me.”

Relief flooded through me. Easy enough. I actually didn’t want to fuck anyone else anytime soon.

Or ever again.

But he was so serious I couldn’t help tease him. “Jest—”

“If you say his name, one more fucking time…”

I laughed, all the nervous energy expelled all at once, and rested my head against his bicep. “I never really wanted him. He was just a means to get to you, big guy.”

He snorted in disbelief.

“I had to get you jealous to get you away from whatever misplaced sense of honor you had going on.” I sat up, turning and pulling the shirt off my knees so I could straddle his lap and take his face in my hands. “And I’m okay with that. It was fun, I liked it. But I like you more.”

I scratched at the beard on his cheeks, rubbing my thumbs over each side of his jaw. “If I’m not messing around with anyone else, then fair is fair. You can’t either.”

“Not an issue. I’m not the one with hordes of horny fuckers after my ass every night.” He gave my butt a teasing smack, but left his hand there, cupping the cheek.

“Bullshit.” Patch bunnies threw themselves all over the guys any time they could…so long as he didn’t have an ole lady. And some did, despite that. “You could pluck up any patch bunny you wanted, on any given night.”

“I’ve never fucked a damn one of them.” He looked at me, eyes wide, like I’d just accused him of licking a toilet seat.

“Seriously?” The surprise in my voice made him laugh.

I loved that sound and the way his cheeks crinkled just above his beard line when he did. Even in the pale lamp light, his delight was obvious.

“Dead. That’s inviting some trouble I don’t want.”

“So you haven’t screwed around with anyone since Jessica?”

He gripped my ass with both hands now, moving me so that my bare crotch was pressed against him fully. “That’s not what I said, just not them .”

“Oh.” I dropped my hands to his shoulders and studied him.

I might have fantasized about Puck, but never in a million years did I imagine we’d ever end up here like this.

Thinking about his body count left me antsy, unsure of myself.

“Anyone I need to be on the look out for? What about those snooty bitches at Eli’s school? I see the way they look at me, I bet—”

“ Kenna .”

“Yes?” I blinked at him and bit back the slew of questions about who he’d been with. Hell, as confident as I played it, my body count stood at three. One of which I wished I could forget about.

“Nobody you would know or I’d remember and it’s been a long ass time.”

The little thread of panic in my chest evaporated. I remembered when he was with Jessica and I’d seen her a few times since. But I’d never felt jealous…mostly just sad. The idea of anyone else, however, left me itchy in a way I didn’t like.

I reached behind him and tugged his hair down. It hung just about to his shoulders and I ran my hands through it. I half expected him to smack my hands away. When he didn’t, I twirled some of it around my fingers. “We only have sex with each other. Check.”

He leaned in, nuzzling the side of my neck. “It’s more than that. I’m not saying I want to throw all my shit on you, but this is more than just sex for me.”

“Yeah.” And that was damn scary. So much so, thinking about it made me woozy. I needed to change the subject, to lighten the mood. Do something .

“What if I just flirt with someone else?”

He leaned back with a scowl.

“Would you spank me?” I pouted my bottom lip and wiggled my ass in his hands.

“Yeah, something like that.” There was a flash of that possessive darkness in his eyes that I’d seen glimpses of every so often.

I kissed him then, slowly at first. Then his lips parted, and I dove in, letting my tongue dance with his, tasting that heady mix of lust and desire.

With a tilt of my head, he took control, suckling on my tongue.

He kneaded my ass, squeezing and releasing in time with the thrusts of his tongue in my mouth.

And just like that, I forgot about all the important things he’d been saying. It didn’t matter than we’d just had sex, I wanted him like we hadn’t touched in weeks. The man made my head spin.

I loved it.

His hips moved beneath me, his erection obvious through the rough denim that brushed across my bare pussy. I hadn’t bothered with panties, a fact he exploited as one hand slipped down past my ass and stroked me.

A gasp ripped my lips from his. “Oh.”

With his other hand, he pulled my shirt over my head and tossed it, then spun so that I was on my back on the bed. He kissed his way down my throat, to the small valley between my breasts, and lower. His tongue traced my belly button before he left me long enough to shed his boots and clothes.

When he came back to me, he kissed me again, this time with all the heat I could have begged for.

His kiss was torment, the sort of kiss that left me memorizing his tongue against mine and the way he nipped my bottom lip as he broke the kiss. He bent my knees up and pushed my legs wide apart until my muscles strained. I was exposed completely when he looked down at me…all of me.

“Kenna, you’re fucking beautiful.” Then he climbed between my legs, his large body above me blocking out the light from the window. I ran my hands up the muscled arms that bracketed either side of my head, then down his broad chest. I’d never felt so small and safe all at the same time.

I was wet, had been from the moment he pushed me back against the bed. Puck knew my kinks, knew the things I liked.

But this was something different. His deliberate slide inside me was slow and sensual. My pussy clamped around every delicious inch of his cock. I memorized how full he made me feel, how tight he fit.

The muscles of his chest jumped as I stroked down to his hips.

Puck surprised me by grabbing both my hands in one of his and pinning them above my head. His intense gaze held mine as he pulled out to the very tip. The loss of him made me gasp and wiggle, desperate for that return slide.

“Faster.” I groaned.

“No.” Again, that slow slide in. “Not until the only man you remember is me.”

Over and over, he tormented me with the delectable slide in, then back out. His muscles all stayed clenched tight, his eyes on me, watching me. I rocked my hips against him, frantic for more.

Like this, I memorized everything. His scent, the sensations he lit inside me, the way his face softened with pleasure. He was beyond handsome, and surprisingly gentle for someone so large, so demanding. Adam “Puck” Kelly was everything I’d ever wanted and more.

I was falling in love with him.

With a sharp jerk of my head, I looked away, gasping as his swollen cock hit just the right spot. I couldn’t look at him, because then he’d see the one thing I’d never let myself feel about anyone.

“Kenna.” His voice was tense, as if he was barely hanging onto his control, fighting not to fuck me as hard as we both wanted—needed. “ Look at me .”

I did, getting caught up in the swirl of wild desire in his eyes.

He gave me what I wanted then, hard and fast. In and out, thrusting with such force that he released my hands to hold himself above me.

I dug my fingers into his sides, moaning. His mouth was parted, his eyelids heavy, but he held me suspended in an erotic trance.

When I came, it was like being doused in steaming hot water while my entire body contracted. My pussy was so tight it felt like he might rip me in two. “Adam! Fuck!”

He dropped to his elbows, one thrust, two, before growling in my ear and bucking on me. He filled me up before moving again, sloppy sex sounds filling the small apartment.

I closed my eyes finally, riding the pleasure of each motion, relishing it, until he slipped from inside me and rolled beside me, cradling me against his chest.

For a long time I lay there, stunned, not only by my body trembling with aftershocks, but his as well.

“Every time we have sex, I think there’s no way it will ever get better. Then, it does.” My voice sounded too squeaky, too foreign.

His chuckle, however, was warm and very solidly Puck. As was the heavy arm he draped across my stomach. “Surprises the fuck out of me, too.”

I wriggled from beneath his embrace and padded naked to the bathroom. The irony that I had zero qualms about being naked in front of him and fucking him, but the idea of being held freaked me the fuck out, wasn’t lost on me.

Get it together.

Cleaning myself up gave me time to think.

Puck could read me, I was realizing, better than anyone ever had.

He’d known when to come into David’s, he’d known when to meet me and Jester upstairs.

At every turn, he seemed intuitively to know what I needed.

Like now, he didn’t follow me into the bathroom.

He stayed on the bed, giving me the space I needed to figure things out.

The problem was, my heart and brain wanted two very different things? The only people who I’d ever loved hurt me. I could count them on one hand and each one hurt worse than the ones before.

But in my heart of hearts, I didn’t want him to leave. I wanted to ask him to stay the night with me.

That was a hard one. I’d only ever slept over with one guy. And never in my space, my home. I’d used David’s house as a shield. I could trick myself and say that this wasn’t my space, but for the past few nights, it had been.

Puck had done things for me, no one had. From the kindnesses he had shown me to everything else.

And I wanted this, wanted him .

Grabbing a clean towel, I went back to the bed and handed it to him before searching for the shirt he’d taken off of me.

Forming words was suddenly the most difficult thing I’d ever done.

I peeked at him as I pulled on the t-shirt.

He was up and moving, the bed barely even creaked beneath his weight.

Perched on the edge of the bed in the dark, wrapped in his giant t-shirt, I waited for him to come back from the bathroom, grabbing his boxers from the foot of the bed.

“Stay,” I whispered, terrified of my own voice and the words coming from my lips. “I mean, if you don’t have to be home. Or if you want to, ya know.” And there it was, the rush of word vomit that always came when I was nervous. “It’s cool if you don’t want to, I get it, but—”

“If you want me here, I’m here,” he said simply, stepping into his boxers and climbing up from the foot of the bed and stretching out behind me against the wall.

Giving me all the room in the world to run.

I laid down, inching back against him until the warmth of his large body enveloped me, and closed my eyes tight. “I don’t want you to leave, but I’m scared of what happens if you stay.” It was easier to say things when I didn’t have to look at him.

Puck stayed where he was. The even rise and fall of his chest was soothing.

“We sleep, Kenna. That’s it.”

“And tomorrow?”

He curled his knees into the backs of mine, spooning me against him.

“We worry about that tomorrow.” He was so matter of fact that it made it easy to trust in him.

And when his arm snaked around my hip, beneath the sheet I’d pulled up over me, I allowed myself to soak up the comfort his touch brought.