I See You (22 page)

Wondering why Nina isn’t shooing him off or complaining, I look down. She’s asleep. With me still inside her. She looks so peaceful and beautiful that I don’t move her.

So there we sleep. Steve on top of Nina, and Nina on top of me. My heart clenches when a word shimmers in my head. A word I had given up on a long time ago.

Family.

I wake to the smell of frying bacon and pancakes. My grumbling stomach is apparently more awake than I am when I roll over and land on the floor with a thud. “Shit!” I grumble, rubbing at my forehead.

“You’re bleeding!” Nina gasps from where she’s appeared by the door. I don’t hear what she says as my eyes roam down every perfect inch of her. She’s wearing my white cotton dress shirt—and nothing else. The outline of her perfect breasts press against the sheer material, her dark rich nipples making my mouth water for something other than breakfast.

She hurries over and kneels beside me, grabbing a handful of tissues from a small box on the table and pressing them to the gash on my brow. “And you say I’m a calamity.” She giggles.

I growl at her, my hands gripping her waist. I flip her until she’s completely laid out under me. “Less talk and more worship, woman!”

She gawps at me but when my lips move up her neck she whimpers and stirs beneath me. My cock is already hard and pressing into her stomach. “But I’m hungry,” she breathes.

“Me too,” I murmur as I reach her lips and devour her. She’s as sweet as the pancakes I know she’s making, her taste even better than any food that’s available on this planet.

Nudging her legs open with my knee I’m inside her in seconds, both of us groaning appreciatively at the tight fill. She’s already wet for me and I can feel her juices cover me. “Oh God,” she mumbles, her breath in my ear making me shiver.

“He’s busy right now, so you got me instead.”

She giggles and swats at me but then releases a long moan when I grind my hips against her and push deeper. Her fingertips dig into my bare ass as she tries to pull me in more. Her eyes flutter closed and her lips part.

“You are so fucking beautiful,” I groan as I start a relentless rhythm inside her, my hips bucking hard and urgently.

“Harder,” she moans, begging me. “Harder, Devon.”

She surprises me but I give her what she wants, thrusting deeper and faster until both of us are lost in a haze of erotic moans and words.

“Like this?” I growl as my balls tighten angrily and my spine tingles with heat. “You want it hard like this, Nina?” I’m driving her up the carpet with every fierce thrust, her back taking the grueling torture as her legs clamp around my waist and she lifts her hips with each of my pushes inside.

“Yes!” she cries out as her pussy clenches so hard I swear she’s going to strangle my cock. I explode inside her, filling her up with the very parts of me that have always been reserved for her and only her.

Her nails rake down my back as her own release drives a painful pleasure through her, her teeth bared as her orgasm takes over and brings out her animalistic side. Fuck, she’s even more beautiful right now, her raw beauty mesmerizing when I’m the one who is giving her the ecstasy that is tearing through her system.

“Oh, Jesus Christ,” she puffs out.

“He’s busy too. And to be honest, I don’t think he’d be as good as me anyway.”

She laughs, her twinkling eyes full of happiness. However, they widen when an alarm screeches, fracturing the quietness.

“Shit!” she gasps as she pushes me off her and jumps up. “The bacon!”

“Good job. I like it well done!” I shout after her with a laugh.

“Well done?” she scoffs from the kitchen. “It’s freaking cremated.”

I stand behind her and stare over her shoulder, the pan sizzling under the torrent of water where she’s thrown it in the sink to put out the fire. She glances sideways at me and pouts. “I hope you’re okay with just pancakes.”

Laughing, I kiss her earlobe. “Get dressed. Breakfast’s on me.”

She nods slowly and sighs. “It might be best.” Returning my kiss, she smiles then runs up the stairs.

I can’t keep the grin off my face. I have never in a million years dreamed that life could be this good. She’s more perfect than I imagined, her beauty mesmerizing and her sweet heart an honor to hold in my hand.

“Have you seen my hairbrush? I can’t find it,” she shouts down the stairs. I quirk a brow, pondering her question and wondering why in the hell I would have her brush, but then I hear her giggle when she has the very same thought. “No, I don’t suppose you have.”

Life is good. In fact, life is fucking perfect.

S
HE’S RAKING HER FINGERS THROUGH
her hair again, and grumbling. “Will you stop? It looks fine.”

There are only two other customers in the coffee shop I’ve brought her to to make up for the breakfast I ruined earlier.

She sighs and pouts. “I hate having to go through it with a comb, it makes it all frizzy. And I have to go into work looking like this!”

“Nina.” I chuckle around a forkful of bacon. “You sit behind a desk. Nobody in this dead town will even see you.”

“That’s not the point. It’s my job and I should look presentable.”

“But you do! You’re beautiful. With or without a yeti attached to the top of your head.”

She rolls her eyes and slaps me but the blush that creeps over her cheeks is adorable. Smiling, she shrugs. “But you have to say that.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re my boyfriend.”

My heart thuds so hard that I swear I’m having a coronary. My mouth dries and I struggle to form words. “Is that what I am?” My voice is quiet and I hate that I’m gazing at her with awe, but right now I don’t care if the whole world is witnessing my weakness.

Her blush deepens. “Well, aren’t you?” She seems timid and almost scared of my answer, but when I grin, she smiles that damn pretty smile that makes my heart rate quicken.

She nods firmly as if we’ve settled some major issue and takes a stab at her bacon. “I suppose we should get to know one another better.”

I don’t like where she’s going and I pause with my fork halfway to my mouth. “Oh?”

“Mmm.” She nods. “So, what’s . . . your favorite color?”

I disguise the relieved breath that bursts from me and pretend to think. “Blue.”

“Favorite movie?”

“Oh, that’s easy. Reservoir Dogs.”

She stares at me. “Too gory.”

I laugh. “What’s yours?”

“Don’t judge!”

I shake my head and hold up my hands. “Scouts honor.”

She narrows her eyes when I place the two fingers on my chest. “You weren’t a scout!”

“I so was!” Her gaze is probing and I laugh. “Okay, maybe not. But I wanted to be.”

“Well, how come you didn’t then?”

I shrug, sliding my fork through my pancake. “Just not something my parents approved of.”

She looks at me for a moment then lowers her eyes to her plate. “Do you still see them?”

I shake my head, my body tensing slightly with the way our conversation has gone. “No, they’re dead.”

Her wide eyes lift to me and she reaches across the table to take my hand. The pity on her face is horrifying and I swallow back the need to tell her to stop looking at me like that. “I’m so sorry, Devon,” she whispers. “Do you have any other family?”

Her questions are making the anger in my gut bubble. “I had a sister once, and now just a brother, but I don’t see him.”

“Why not?”

Because he wouldn’t let me keep you
.
At one point I never thought I could live without him. I loved him and knew he was the only one who understood me because he lived what I had, and then he betrayed me and my head’s been a mess ever since. I’m worried he will try and take you from me.

I don’t voice any of this; instead I opt for changing the conversation.

“You know!” I quickly say. “I’ve been thinking about opening a gallery for my photographs.”

Her sadness instantly disappears and her face brightens with my revelation. “Oh, what a wonderful idea. This place gets really busy in the summer season.” She’s clearly excited and I catch the bug. It had just been a lame quick-thinking statement to change the subject, but now I’m actually toying with the idea.

“You could set up a stand near the harbor, you know? Take family portraits for those on vacation who want to document their memories.”

“That’s a good idea. But what I would love to do is display images of you.” I smile but rub at my temples when I feel a migraine coming on.

“What?” she stutters, trying to swallow the piece of pancake she’s just shoved into her mouth.

“You’re very photogenic, Nina. The contours of your face are every photographers dream come true. Not to mention your boyfriend’s.”

She stares at me but then shrugs. “Okay.”

I’ll admit, I’m slightly shocked by her agreement. I expected her to go to war with me over it but she looks nearly as eager as I am.

“Oh!” She gasps as she checks her watch. “I have to get to work.”

I blink when my vision starts to spit blots in front of me.

“Are you okay?”

I open my eyes and smile at Nina, her concern making my heart swell. Throwing a twenty on the table, I take her elbow and lead her out of the coffee shop. “I’m fine. I think I have a migraine coming on.”

“You should go back to bed. You’re probably tired.”

I chuckle and waggle my eyebrows at her as she slides into the passenger seat of my car. “Yeah, I didn’t get too much sleep. This amazing woman with yeti hair kept me up all night.” I shut the door quickly before she gives me one of her playful slaps.

“Really?” she continues when I climb in beside her. “You should have had my morning. God was busy so he sent one of his minions to give me a once over.”

I stifle my laughter as I pull out of the lot. “He did, huh? And did you pass?”

She shrugs and sighs dramatically. “I have no idea. He had to send Jesus down for a second opinion but then he got held up as well so I had to settle with the underling once again.”

“The underling, huh?”

“Mmm,” she murmurs as if bored. “But it’s God’s work so I can’t really refuse him, can I?”

“Oh no,” I shake my head seriously. “You should never interfere with what God wants. In fact, I work for him and he told me this morning that I have a new mission to complete tonight.”

Excitement lights her eyes. She squirms in her seat as her mind relays all sorts of ‘missions’. “Oh, wow. You are so honored. What is this important mission?”

“Well, it involves you, so I’m sure I’ll be okay to share.”

“Oh, you can share. You can definitely share it with me.”

Pulling up outside the Sheriff’s office, I lean across the car and trickle the tip of my nose over the shell of her ear. She’s liquid beneath me, her imagination driving her crazy. “Well, I need your help with this important matter.” She nods, her chest heaving when I gently bite down on her earlobe. “We have to do something together.”

“Oh, Christ,” she murmurs when I dip my tongue out and trail it in a circle behind her ear.

“Yes, he asked me too, so that’s how important it is. You see, Nina.” She nods again. “He wants me to make you happy.”

“Oh, that’s good,” she mumbles. “I agree with him.”