Page 16 of The Pucking Fake Marriage (The Ice Kings #4)

FIFTEEN

WALLS OF GLASS (KEN)

She doesn’t come back to the apartment until three days later.

I’m lounging in the living room, drowning my frustration in a can of Diet Coke and barely paying attention to the show on TV, when I hear the door creak open.

I whip around, and there she is, standing by the door, her hair in her usual loose bun, dark rings under her eyes, and a bag slung over each one of her shoulders…still wearing that too small dress she had on at Thanksgiving dinner.

I’ve grown to hate it. Especially since it’s been appearing in my dreams for the past few days.

“Welcome back, wife .” It’s hard to keep the tinge of bitterness from my voice as I stand to greet her. The irony is not lost on me. Once again, I ostracized my entire family for a woman who clearly wants nothing to do with me.

Except, of course, in those moments she’s suddenly and inexplicably into me.

Not that I care, I remind myself. Charlie Chapman satisfied the voracious lust she awoke in me, and I’m glad for that.

Still doesn’t mean I’m not pissed at myself—and her—because I’ve not grown out of my kneejerk reaction to watching her get insulted.

She looks up at me, wariness etched in her gaze. “Ken, I don’t know what you’re playing at, but…”

“Nothing.” Crossing my arms, I stare down at her, my face carefully expressionless. “Not like I deserve to know why you’d stay back with your parents after the way they treated you. Or why your mother said what she did.”

She sighs, the bag sliding off her shoulder and onto the floor. “I told you how important it was that I celebrated the holiday with my family. It’s been years, and my mother has been a pain in the ass, demanding that I come home. Until this year, I didn’t even feel like I was good enough to go back there.”

Why does her explanation sound like she crafted it to make me look like a petulant teenager?

“Get to the point.”

Her eyes flash with anger. “Fine. I kept my cool back at the house because I didn’t want either of our families suspecting anything about our…arrangement.”

“Are you speaking of our marriage or of the fact that we fucked? Cause I could swear you’d have been fine with me stealing you away to have my way with you while Kali had the room distracted.”

Her cheeks flame red. To her credit, she ignores my jab. “I just wanted things to go well, and?—”

“Sorry I ruined the cute get-together, then.” Now , I’m behaving like a child, and as much as I hate myself for it, I can’t help it. Kali pissed me off enough for me to leave the house and drive back to Philly the next day. Meanwhile, Charlie stayed. In the worst of my imaginations, she got back together with Kali and spent the weekend reconnecting with him.

“I just wanted things to go well,” Charlie repeats doggedly. “But Kali went too far with that little sociopathic comment. I only hung around the house long enough to tell him what a jackass he was. But when I came out into the driveway, you were gone. I ordered a cab and came back to the city. I thought you might need time to think, so I spent the last two nights at my old apartment with Haley.”

My anger deflates out of me like a balloon.

Damn this woman.

Damn the effect she has on me. But I can’t deny I like her version of what happened better than what I’ve been imagining.

“I’m sorry,” she says, looking up at me. “All of this is a little bit too much, I know. I’m sorry you still have to hear Kali talk to you like that. I’m sorry?—”

“That you’ve kept me in the dark all this time?”

Charlie blinks up at me, evidently confused. “What do you mean?”

I let out a sound that is half-grunt, half-growl. Charlie sticking up for me—allegedly—does not change everything else that happened during that awful dinner. Or the last ten years. In a few seconds, I feel my anger seeping back in, furious and more unrestrained than it was a moment ago.

“What the hell did your mother mean by that ‘nice guys finish last’ comment?”

I can tell that she’s going to pretend ignorance even before she utters a word. As sure as rain, she croaks, “What?”

That word breaks the reins of my anger and propels it toward piping hot rage .

Wrapping my fingers around her tiny wrist, I yank her to me. A sound of surprise spills from her lips as she collides against my chest. Her second bag slides over her shoulder, and I’m already pulling at her before it even hits the ground. Away from the door, from my couch and the TV, over to the other side of the living room where the true selling point of my apartment lies—the floor-to-ceiling windows that spread Philadelphia at our feet.

“No,” Charlie mutters. Her dark eyes are wide with fear.

Now this is one of the upsides to screwing someone you’ve been friends with for years. She knows exactly what I’m about to do.

But she’s responding to this situation differently than I expected. I intensify my grip on her wrist, my rage still boiling within me. “What the hell does that mean?” If this woman is going to keep playing the unsure game, I’m going to lose it.

She directs her eyes to the front of my pants. I follow her gaze, mildly surprised to note that my dick has created a huge outline against the fabric. Hell, Charlie evokes so many emotions in me—passion, rage, lust, fury—and apparently, I’ve lost track on how to keep them apart.

But there’s no need to worry about it this very minute, while she’s driving me up the wall.

“I’ve had it up to here with you, Chapman.” My deathly calm voice manages to not betray the depths of my anger. “First you have me promise I’m never going to touch you in our sham of a marriage, and then you’re practically begging me to lick you dry in your own kitchen. And now, I come to learn—from your mother, no less—that you’ve wanted me for far longer than I ever dared imagine.”

Panic rises in Charlie’s eyes, but I pay it no mind. I’ve thought about that inane sentence more times than I’d like to admit, and I know I’m right. Ariel said something about how Charlie had to choose the other guy. I’d assumed that Charlie fell in love with Kali so completely she’d never considered anyone else.

But I was wrong. Somewhere within those four years, she chose.

And she’s kept me in the dark ever since.

There’s no use pretending that doesn’t vex me. That, and the fact that Charlie is set on not admitting how she truly feels about me.

“I don’t know for certain what my mom meant with that,” she starts, but I cut her off.

“I’m positive that you do. And while you’d like to keep lying to me, I’d rather save us some time and cut to the chase. This little game was fun at first, but no more. I’m not going to let you keep pretending that you don’t want me. Since obviously, you do.”

For the first time, her eyes flash with irritation. “So what? You’re going to force me into admitting I like you?”

A smirk forms on my face as I close the gap between us. “Force?” I swipe one of my fingers across the front of her dress, catching her nipple in the process. Charlie closes her eyes, a small sound of pleasure spilling from her lips. “I don’t need to force you, baby. You’re going to be full of words by the time I’m done with you.”

Charlie drags in a harsh, shallow breath. Her eyes are wary, but I can see clearly what I saw back in the house.

She wants me. Bad.

There’s absolutely no need to waste any time, even if I still have an agenda in mind. I look around the house, my gaze settling quickly on a chair by the TV. Going over to it, I plop myself on it. Then, after making sure Charlie is staring avidly at me, I pull my dick out of my pants.

Her response is a dry, ragged breath.

Wrapping my fingers around the hard organ, I start to stroke it. Charlie’s eyes are fixed on my movements, and she seems to breathe harder just from watching me play with myself. It couldn’t be more obvious how turned on she is by it. Her nipples are dotting her dress like two tiny pebbles.

“Ken,” she whispers after a while of staring. “You’re…”

My hand stills. The faster she confesses, the faster I can get to fucking her. “What?”

“You’re…” She takes a deep breath and releases it. “… absolutely crazy.”

My smile widens. “And you’re more scared than I’ve ever seen you.”

Her nostrils flare, her annoyance masking her obvious desire for a second. “I’m not scared of you, Edwards.”

“Too scared to admit what you want, though.”

She’s full-on glaring at me now. “That’s a freaking lie. I’m not walking around here hiding. If I want something, I’m going to damn well let you know.”

Classic Charlie. Throw her a challenge, and she’ll leap right at it before she even knows what she’s running after.

It’s hard to keep a grin off my face when I say, “Then tell me exactly what you feel when you see me getting ready for you.”

I grin even harder against the anger on her face as she realizes she’s just been played. She looks like she’s seriously considering cursing me and storming off. But then, as I continue to stroke myself, I watch as her anger melts off like ice. Her breath grows ragged again, and I’m almost surprised to hear her say, “It makes me want to touch myself, watching you do that. ”

I’d have settled for her talking about sucking me or riding me. But that visual literally makes my heart pound with anticipation.

“Do it.” Every nerve in my body is screaming those words anyway, and I’m plagued with sudden desperation for that sight.

For once, Charlie does exactly as I ask. Arching her neck backward, her eyelids flutter shut. Her left hand moves slowly across her body, up her stomach. I watch as she cups one of her breasts, squeezing gently. And then her other hand comes up, slowly pulling down the neckline of her dress so it can spill free.

She’s perfect. This is worth every second I had to endure Kali’s yapping. Hell, it’s worth even having to decipher Ariel’s cryptic comments. Watching her do that to herself makes my dick grow harder than it ever has been.

Charlie flicks one finger across her taut nipple, moaning. And then, just when my veins are about to burst, she drags one hand back across her body, heading for her center. She slips her hem up her thighs and over her hips.

She’s fully naked underneath that dress. Not even a flimsy pair of panties like last time.

Knowing she came here ready to fuck is my literal undoing.

At least, until she starts to walk over to me. Slowly. One foot after the other. Drawing out my anticipation even more. With each step she takes, I let myself focus on something different about her. Her hair spilling out of that messy ponytail. One tit hanging out of the dress, catching the light in the most sensual of ways. The slickness between her thighs.

I don’t even have time to admire it all before she’s right in front of me. There’s that mischievous look in her eyes again, the one that reminds me of how she was when she was a teenager.

I part my lips to say something, but before I can even get a word out, she turns around and sits herself right down on my dick.

I groan, a shudder running through my body. Being submerged in her wetness like that, all at once and without warning, feels like heaven on earth. Blinded with ecstasy, I press forward, wanting to maintain my grip on her hips and lead her into grinding me.

But Charlie gets off me in the next second. Her laughter tinkles in the air as she floats away. I storm to my feet, intent on forcing her to behave. But she’s already skipping ahead to the glass wall. She turns to face me when she gets there, her eyes burning with amusement and something hotter.

“The first time I came to your house, I thought of this.” Her gaze burns into mine. “What it would be like, you fucking me against this window.”

It is in this moment I know it for sure. That Charlie Chapman is my damn soulmate. There’s no other person on the planet who can read me as well as she does.

I stumble toward her, too tense with desire to even get my limbs to walk properly. Still, I’m right in front of her in a few seconds. Charlie turns her back to me, the globes of her ass up in the air before I even have to ask. Raising her hem, I thrust into her, my body trembling with relief as I sink to the hilt.

Charlie yells, pushing her lower body up against me, wiggling her ass.

I hear myself groan again as I pull back and slam against her even harder. Raising her so we’re in a standing position, I push into her from behind. She’s pressed up completely against the glass, and I thrust into her again and again, feeling my nerves shatter with pure bliss.

“Ken,” she moans, arching her back even further, begging me for more.

Reaching between the glass and her body, I tear her dress off. The material gives way, falling onto the floor. Charlie is now completely naked, while I’m still fully dressed. Something about that multiplies my desire, as does the fact that I’m fucking her where someone could potentially spot us.

I’m finally claiming Charlie as mine. And damn it, I don’t want to ever wonder where her head is at, as long as it concerns me.

“I need to know you want me,” I hear myself growl against her ear. “That you’ve always wanted me.”

Charlie lets out a wordless moan. I plunge into her again, and she screams out my name.

“Not good enough, Chapman. I need to hear you say it. And I need to hear it now.”

“I…want…you,” she mutters through gritted teeth. “I’ve always…wanted…you.”

My final thrust into her comes with an earth-shattering release. The loudest groan yet escapes from my lips. As I spill myself into her, even in the wake of the bliss that follows, a bigger discomfort is etched in the center of my chest.

Because Charlie just confirmed that my love for her was never one-sided.