Page 36

I pull off her nightgown while we’re kissing.

Sometimes, if we’re in a hurry, or in public, I leave her clothes on.

But I prefer skin-on-skin. Kez’s skin is a sensory garden: warm pearl shades and subtle textures.

I explore each one. The delicate curve of her jaw.

The plush bow of her lips. The rose flush of her chest. The soft pebbling of her aureola.

The ombre valley down her midline to the tiny sinkhole of her navel.

I linger over the change in grain of her skin as I reach her pelvic vee.

Kez takes a suppressor rather than shaving, which I’ve started doing, too.

Means she’s bare there, and that the skin is smooth and softer than a baby’s bottom.

I swirl my fingers around and around that soft, fine skin while she mews and pushes her hips up to me.

“Roll over for me, kitten.” I’ve decided how I want her, as I’ve caressed her into readiness. Just ‘cause we’re making love, don’t mean we can’t play.

When she shifts onto her side, I slide in behind her, nice and close.

Rub my chin against the soft shag of her hair.

“I know you miss your dreads,” I tell her.

“But I love your hair like this.” I never have to worry about catching her or having to sweep her hair out from under us.

She has a long, elegant neck, which the black shag highlights.

I stroke and kiss that vulnerable curve as I position myself.

Kez has already spread her legs and lifted one knee.

Probably trying to tempt me with that ass.

But that’s not how I want her. Not tonight.

I reach down and cup her thigh, pull her leg back over mine.

Rub my glans up and down her cleft until I find the place I most want to be and push myself into her.

Fuck, that’s sweet. She gasps and throws her head back against my collar.

I slide my arm under her and pull her close.

Her body’s so fine and soft against mine.

“Kitten,” I whisper to her, bending my head until I can mouth the sensitive join of neck and shoulder. We’re tangled tight now. Hot skin to hot skin. Sweating and sticking. I love this primal element of sex. “My kitten.”

“Yes,” she whispers. “Oh, God, yes. Hale.”

Mmm, I like when she says my name. I reward her immediately. With the arm I’ve got wrapped around her, I reach up so I can cup her throat.

She knows where this is going, shudders and moans.

I hold her, thrust hard and slow, all the while keeping my hand around her throat.

Caressing the soft, sweaty column with my fingers and thumb.

Not tightening. Not until she’s gasping of her own accord.

When I feel her movements become frenzied, I tighten my hand.

I count into her ear. Twenty seconds, then I release my hand.

Kez pants harshly, her body heaving against mine.

Her head’s pushed against my shoulder and I look down into her face to make sure she’s okay.

Her eyes are rolled back, whites showing between the dark arcs of her lashes. Her expression is utterly blissful.

I tighten my hand again. A count of twenty-five this time, each number punctuated by a deep, full stroke.

Kez is thrashing against me. Her hands flail, grab at me.

I release my hand, watch her gasp. Watch the blood-flush rise to stain her cheeks and chest. She’s so beautiful when she comes.

I kiss her hot throat, catch her earlobe between my teeth and whisper to her, “Take more for me, kitten.”

“Yes, yes,” she gasps, her voice roughened to a rasp .

“That’s it.” I tighten my hand again and begin to count.

Feel her go. She shudders, tight vibrations that are the beginning of a second, more intense orgasm.

Grinds her head so hard into my shoulder I hear her vertebrae pop.

Her strong internal muscles grab me like a fist. Grunting with pleasure, I thrust against her contractions.

She feels so good like this. Slick and hot and still soft but behind her softness there’s such strength.

Beautiful. I release her throat at twenty.

She doesn’t need any more and I’m ready; I don’t want to crush her throat while I’m coming.

She screams my name hoarsely, swept up in her orgasm.

I echo her cry as I come. Heat and bliss.

She turns her head so she can look at me, her eyes heavy and hooded. Pants against my cheek. Trembles all over. I wrap her tight in my arms.

She reaches back to slide her arm around my neck. “H-Hale.”

“Easy, kitten.” I’m breathing almost as hard as she is, and I can’t manage much conversation.

But I want to make sure she’s okay, and that she knows how much I enjoyed that.

I cup her cheek in my hand. Spread my fingers against her throat and feel her pulse.

It’s slowing now. I rub my thumb over her chin and look down into her glazed eyes. “Can you breathe okay?”

She smiles, a smile that starts contented and turns beatific. “Yes.”

I stroke my thumb down her throat, testing to see if she flinches. She doesn’t, but there’s too much redness where I gripped her. “You sure? This is gonna bruise.”

“I don’t feel it,” she murmurs dreamily. “I feel like I’m floating. It’s perfect.”

“It is, huh?”

I can relax. The gasping’s extreme. I’ve never done it with anyone. Never even contemplated it until I noticed Kez holding her breath as she was coming one morning. I’m feeling my way along, knowing that I could really hurt her if I get it wrong. But tonight, tonight I’ve gotten it right.

“Mmm-hmm.” She runs her fingertips over my scalp. Smiles when I control a shiver. “Do you remember ... you told me a story about how you knew what you wanted. You were playing with your girl, and you held her down and you knew what you wanted?”

“Yeah, I remember.”

“I never had that,” she says, but she doesn’t sound sad or regretful.

She’s still floating on the endorphin cloud of her orgasms. “I always knew there was something missing, but I didn’t know what it was.

Then you do... the intense stuff, like that, and it’s perfect.

” She sighs. A very happy sigh. “I feel-I feel like you’ve taken out all the bad parts and filled me up with white light. ”

I kiss the tip of her nose. “That’s beautiful.”

She stretches up and kisses me. Settles back down against my shoulder looking extremely sleepy.

“Anythin’ you don’t want me to do? Seriously now.”

Her eyes drift closed as she considers my question. She grins sleepily without opening her eyes. “Don’t come on my feet. Not that I think you would, but I saw it once. On the vloop. It looked really icky.”

I kiss her forehead. “I promise I’ll never come on your feet.” That’s a promise I have absolutely no problem making.

“Promise me,” she begin, but she trails off before she tells me what she wants me to promise. Her breathing trips over the threshold between waking and sleeping. I hold her and listen to her breathe. Decide that finding out what she wanted me to promise is not as important as letting her sleep.

I can always ask her in the morning.

In the morning, Kez has a necklace of bruises and a grin brighter than Acker’s million-K fence.

“They’re gonna think I’m beatin’ you,” I say, watching her light up the room with that grin as she dances around, picking out clothes.

She’s just wearing a scrap of lace around her hips and a bunny across her shoulders.

Several others watch her from the bed, where they’re trying to crowd me out.

I have the bulk, but they have the numbers, and they’re slowly edging me off the bed.

“They think that already,” Kez says gleefully. She does a fancy two-step. Her ankle’s clearly not bothering her anymore. “Do you think they haven’t noticed my ass?”

Since I’m not the only one who has to share the bathroom, I should have expected that. “As long as no one calls the C.P.,” I say.

There’s a scrabble of soft paws at my waist. I glance down to find Baby Bunny Mix scratching at the covers.

Probably trying to get under them. Again.

I scoop him up and lower him to the floor while he kicks in protest. That’ll keep him busy for a few minutes.

It’s not easy for the babies to get up on Kez’s bed.

Kez steps over the kit, lights on the edge of the bed, and drops Ronnie into the pile of rabbits behind me. I get a kick in the back as they shift. Probably Tigger. He’s the most resentful at having to share ‘his’ domain.

She leans over and rubs noses with me. “I don’t care what they think. This is all that matters.”

“Yeah?”

“Yes. Hale, I don’t want to get serious?—”

I grunt. It’s probably time. There are serious things we need to do.

Together and separately. Duncan didn’t come back to the Warren last night, so he doesn’t have any fresh intel to sell.

But he’ll be here for breakfast and the daily divvying up of runs, so I need to eliminate that threat before he can pass on anything new.

And I held off going after Jaxon last night, but nothing’s holding me back today. Today I track that fucker to ground.

“—but I’d like to see Liv today if we can.”

I nod. “You set that up. I want to talk with Gig about the Warren’s security. Then I got fifty million reports from Myhre to read. When’s Doc Gray coming?”

“What time is it now?” Kez doesn’t believe in living life to anyone’s schedule but her own, so she doesn’t even have a chrono in her room. But she knows I’ve got one in my head .

“Ten after seven.” I translate it into civvy time, since Kez gives me strange looks when I start talking oh-hundreds.

“Three hours. He said around ten o’clock.”

“Okay, we’ll meet him at mine.” My place is right on the river, which is easier for the fish-doc to get to than Nock City. “Busy day, kitten.”

She nods. “Can we spend it together?”

Most of it. “Yeah. Only time you’re outta my sight is when you’re with old Blue-Shades,” I say, referring to Mike-the-Merc and his rig. “You got any Crackle stuff you need to do?”

Her expression grows pained. “Yes. Thanks for reminding me. Place-settings at noon. Why do I care what plates she has?”

I chuckle. “Pick the ugliest ones they got.” I’m just teasing.

Neither Kez nor I would sabotage Chiara’s big day.

Several Tyngalings we spoke to last night called it ‘the event of the season.’ Better have some nice fuckin’ plates, then.

“Use the time to find out what you can about what scores Myhre might have to settle.”

Just because I learned what’s behind Myhre’s moves don’t mean I’ve suddenly started trusting her.

“Where will you be?” Kez asks.

Hunting down her runner. “I got some things to do, too. How ‘bout we meet at the Tower around two?”

She smiles. That was the right move.