Page 26 of Kai (Alpha Heroes #13)

I hugged her to my chest. Wild heat ripped through my veins and sent my pulse racing.

Our entwined tongues danced to the song of the waves and the melody of the breeze.

Replying to her kisses, I slipped my tongue in and out of her mouth, slowly, teasingly.

A moan lifted from her throat as she gently raked the tips of her teeth over my lips.

She was hungry. For my mouth. For me. A groan escaped me, a rumble of need.

Eliminating any distance between us, she pressed her breasts to my chest and her belly to mine, a contact that throbbed through me. My body molded to her form. As if mimicking her nipples, my dick pushed against the spandex, making itself evident.

I dipped my hands beneath her rash guard and ran them over her soft skin, exploring her form, memorizing the shape of her body.

She felt so good. Beneath my touch, her skin radiated with the day’s warmth.

To be wanted the way she wanted me right now was my fantasy come true.

To be needed by her was a prize from the universe.

I glided up a hand, and fingering the rim of her bra, set aside the mesh. I cupped her gorgeous breast, kneading her mound, but avoiding her nipple, encasing it with my fingers and then strumming it with a feathering touch.

She gasped and arched into my hold, delivering even more of her hot flesh to my palm. Gorging on her mouth, I rolled my thumb around her nipple, making my circles smaller at each pass. Her soft skin contracted under my touch. When she moaned, I trapped a growl in my throat.

The curve of her back jolted into a deeper arch when I caught one of her pebbled buds between my fingers, pulling and twisting until she whispered a plea.

Her ass tensed beneath my other hand. Her hips tilted against my body, and her groin rubbed against my erection in a blatant attempt to seduce me.

She didn’t need to seduce me. It was already done. I knew what she wanted. I needed the same. Fighting the impulse to bury my dick in her, I clung to my wits, but only barely.

This was important to me. She was important to me . I found myself hoping that this could work between us, that the connection that existed between us was true instead of fickle and cruel. Maybe she could be what I was missing in my life, and perhaps I could be what she needed, what she wanted.

I kept my fingers working, moving my hand from one breast to the other, pinching and brushing her nipples while drinking her sighs and moans.

The sounds of her need drove me wild. My dick wanted in on the action, but I held back.

I told myself that Cece was no trivial matter to me.

She could be my destiny, and I could be her fate.

Most importantly, she was someone who deserved pleasure and care. I had to earn her trust.

Is that the truth, Marine ? Or is this only part of the truth ?

My feelings were fucked up and complicated, but I refused to stop to sort them out. I’d spent a lifetime doing that. They should be sorted out by now. Kissing Cece and caressing her body seemed to be the best antidote against the memories.

As I continued to worship Cece’s mouth and breasts, I walked her back slowly, until we reached the tilted boulder that was my destination. I braced her against the rock even as I brushed my other hand down the front of her body, slowly, to make sure she wanted this.

She didn’t balk when I turned my wrist, glided my fingers past her waistband, and slid my hand in her panties. She leaned back for me, scooted her feet apart and separated her thighs, wanting my touch. My dick reacted with a yank that left me throbbing.

Slowly, my fingertips raked through the coarse hair topping her mons.

I curled my hand between her legs and followed the track of her heat until my palm met her sex.

Her pussy swelled in my hold, moistening my skin with her juices.

She felt like a sponge in my hand—soft, heavy, and engorged, a true measure of the need that shook us both.

“Oh, Kai,” she whispered in a soft voice that caressed my senses and stroked my dick without even touching it.

She closed her eyes and lifted her face to the sky, exposing the delicate skin of her neck to my mouth.

I slid my lips down her throat, licking and nibbling as I went.

She tilted her hips back before she rocked them forward again, sliding her pussy over my hand, leaving behind a trail of liquid need.

“Fuck, but you’re wet.” A wave of sexual need flooded my system. It threatened to explode at the bottom of my spine. I almost came in my swimsuit. I clenched everywhere to stop the flood. Not yet . Not until the time was right.

“I’m…” she rasped. “I need…”

Sliding my palm back and forth, I stroked the moist flesh between her folds. “I’m gonna give it to you, sweetheart. I promise.”

Going by touch, I spread my fingers at either side of her folds, and pinning them aside, ran my middle fingers between her inner lips.

She took a sharp inhale, her entire body quaking like a leaf in the wind.

She was soft and plump, silk and oil. With her knees spread, her nipple hard between my fingers, and her pussy dripping in my hand, she was so tempting, so fucking fuckable.

I wanted to thrust in her and unload the heft weighing down my balls.

Instead, I clamped down on my teeth, added another finger to my blind journey, and skated on her moisture.

“Oh, God!” She undulated her hips like a siren.

“That’s it,” I hissed, my voice raw. “Ride my hand. You’re gonna come so hard.”

Following up on my promise, sliding my fingers through the wet space between her legs, I rubbed my thumb around her clit.

She whimpered. My dick responded with another yank that almost left me cross-eyed.

I brushed my thumb over her clit and scraped my other thumb over her taut nipple.

The sound she made shook her whole body and could’ve been a sob of relief or wild need.

“Oh, yeah,” she whispered. “Right there.”

I circled her stout clit slowly, brushed and strummed it, watching her move with me. Eyes closed, body arched, she reacted to my touch with winces and gasps, with murmured pleas and small cries.

Marveling at her sensitivity, I continued to play with her clit and pressed another finger into her slick opening. The response was immediate. Her tight little door contracted before it yielded, welcoming my fingers.

“Good?” I whispered.

“So good,” she rasped, pressing down on my hand.

“Don’t be shy,” I whispered in her ear, deepening my reach. “Ride my fingers.”

She pressed down, moaning as my flesh sank deeper into her wet channel.

Her hips rolled. Her walls squeezed around my fingers with a firm grip I craved around my dick.

I seized her mouth and kissed the breath out of her.

Sliding my knees between her legs, I braced my feet apart and pushed her thighs as wide as her leggings would allow.

I coiled one arm around Cece’s shoulder, and cradling the back of her head in my hand, held her in place. Gliding in her juices, I pumped my fingers and curled the ends, exploring to find the right spot. She kept moving against me, keening in crescendo, chasing her pleasure.

“Kai, I…” Her eyes flew open. Her dilated pupils gave her a wild look.

“You’re ready.” She was so close now.

“But…” Even in her greatest need, she hesitated.

“No buts.” I kissed her mouth. “You’re safe with me. I got you, Sorceress.”

Even if I didn’t join her in her pleasure, I welcomed her pussy’s sorcery, the riveting magic that gripped us both, the heat that melted us into a single candle burning at the top of the ridge, even though it was she who was about to flare.

And then I found it. Her secret spot. Or maybe, as hard as she rode my fingers, she found it herself.

“Oh, Kai.” She shut her eyes, and digging her fingertips into my shoulders, cried out, “Oh, God.”

“Come for me,” I whispered, thrusting inside her. “Come for yourself.”

She threw her head back and stiffened in my arms. Her pussy pulsed, then squeezed and, tight as a fist, locked around my fingers, strangling them in its vise. She cried out again as she came apart in an orgasm that seemed to quake over the ridge and blast over the ocean like a seismic event.

I could’ve come just from watching her orgasm, but I clamped down on my climax and focused on her.

Her eyes, her face, her body. She lit up like a blazing star, trusting me with her pleasure.

Her body stretched, trapped between me and the plane of the boulder.

Her inner walls clung to my digits and didn’t let go.

I kept thrusting, pushing her to climax again, making sure her orgasms lasted for as long as possible.

It wasn’t until after I felt the last of her twitches that I eased the pressure, and still I kept my fingers in her. Undone and boneless, she slumped over the stone. Slowly, I slid my fingers out and hugged her to my chest, caressing her back, trailing small circles on her back.

She dipped her face in the crook of my neck and snuggled in my arms, still breathless and shivering. Her rich moisture clung to my hand. It was as if I’d dipped my fingers in the sea and found the warm current that could take me home.

“Kai?” she whispered. “Do you want me to—”

“No,” I bit out too strongly as the memories slammed into me. It was as if a powerful magnet sucked me into the dark, cold space inside my head where death always waited for me.

“Kai?”

I shook my head and found Cece’s wide eyes fixed on me. They sparkled with emotions I didn’t have time to read as I rushed to hide my secrets, my shame, my pain.

“I’m good, Sorceress.” My attempt at a softer voice resulted in a stifled, fake sound. “I don’t really want to…”

Shut the fuck up, Marine. That’s an order.

What kind of stupidity led me to lie to Cece like that?

Sorrow. Regret. Guilt .

My dick tightened, demanding release, but even though she’d offered, I couldn’t, wouldn’t. My body was primed, but my conscience got in the way. It turned out I wasn’t ready after all. My shoulders slumped in defeat.

I clung to her with all I had, fighting to stay in the present.

For now, her pleasure would have to be enough for both of us.

Cece had allowed me to touch her, to feel her, to bring her to climax.

It was an indulgence I refused to take for granted.

My cock might be frustrated, but at least I’d been able to help give her the release she needed.

Holding her, drunk on her scent, and dizzy with need, I suspected Cece could be the light my grandmother had foretold. I recognized the opportunity before me, but… did I deserve it?

No.

The memories returned to haunt me, vivid and cruel. The weight of my failures punched me in the gut. I shut my eyes and forced my breath into a calming pace, suppressing the memories of another sunset on a different island.

The memories only grew stronger, a nightmare although I was awake.

The roaring surf. The gray face and the empty gaze that no longer held light.

My aching heart pounded against my ribs.

This time around, the nightmare was even crueler, because those empty eyes were silver-blue, and the lifeless face belonged to Cece.

Fuck, fuck, fuck .

Not real . I forced myself to manage my breath. Not happening.

I applied every technique I’d learned to keep the memories at bay, every practice except for one. Perhaps if I told Cece…

My lips refused to work, but I gathered my courage.

I was about to speak when Cece disentangled herself from my arms, pushed me away, and yanked her clothing into place. She didn’t say a word. I watched helplessly as she snatched her cap from the ground. Her back straight as a rod, her eyebrows furrowed, she started down the trail.

Had she heard my thoughts? Did she sense my doubts? Had she caught sight of my agony? Did she already know that, despite trying with all I had, I wasn’t the person she thought I was?

Impossible. No one, not even Dagger, knew about my past.

Shake it off, Marine. She’s off on her own down the steep trail. Move.

Springing into action, I gathered my gear and rushed to catch up with her. I handed her a headlamp, then turned on mine. I tried to make small talk, but she didn’t speak at all on the way down. She never met my eyes once.

Did she regret what had happened at the ridge? What was she thinking? Hell, what was I thinking, feeling?

The old void opened inside of me and swallowed me up. The desolation crushing my chest made me question all the work I’d done to get here, my capabilities to overcome, my resolve to move forward. I was a Marine, for fuck’s sake, trained to fight for what I believed in, for what I wanted.

And yet, as we tackled the steep descent and the dirt crunched beneath my feet, I had to wonder. With the memories so vivid in my head, did I have what it took to overcome my ghosts? Or would the shadows that haunted my mind steal my one chance to live and love again?

The old doubts mounted an all-out assault. What if I couldn’t protect Cece? What if she died? What if I failed her as I’d failed others before her?

Turns out I wasn’t ready, after all. I wasn’t even wise, and everything I’d learned had gone out the window. As today clearly showed, I was an impostor. The nickname Cece used to tease me didn’t fit me at all. I was no Obi-Kai Kenobi. Instead, I was just Kai fucked-up King.