Never Stopped Loving You (15 page)

Chapter Eighteen

Kara glanced up from her bad hand at the sound of her name echoing through the house.

Tasha and Whitney fell over with laughter, their cards lost to the floor. Easy for them to laugh. They didn’t have to face him now.

She stood up with a clearing of her throat and a fluttering in her belly. “Excuse me.”

She hurried up the stairs. Cool sweat hovered on her neck. Hands shook. The hall was dark, but a trace of light shone under his bedroom door. “Wade?”

There was no answer. She let herself in, tapping on his door as she entered, but still no answer. The sound of water running from his bathroom seeped through the door and she stepped on inside his bedroom. “Did you need something?” She licked her lips. “The cake didn’t make you sick, did it?”

“Very funny.” His voice came from the bathroom. Behind the closed bathroom door. What was he doing in there? Taking a shower? Under a stream of hot water pouring over all his defined muscles? She shook her head. It was just on his legs. He wouldn’t be in the shower. Even so, she turned away from the bathroom and faced his bed. The sheets had been jerked back and the jam was exposed.

Laughter started up her throat and she pressed her lips together to keep it in.

The water in the bathroom ended and within seconds, the door creaked open. “All right. You got me and it was earned. Now clean that shit up.”

“I’m not—” She spun around, the rest of whatever she was going to say dying in her throat.

Wade was naked. Completely naked. No towel. Not even a single sock covered his remarkable body. It was transfixing. Amazing. Wade’s body was just plainly put—wow. Ripped muscles shaped his tanned body. A solid chest, flat and firm abs. The
V
of his pelvis and then his member. Strong, firm and jutting directly toward her.

He crossed his arms over his chest. “What are you waiting for, Kara? Strip the bed. There’s another set in the bottom drawer of the dresser.”

She didn’t make a move toward the bed. “You’re naked.”

“I was planning to go to bed.”

“But you’re still naked.”

The corner of his lips turned up. “Well, shortcake, I’m still planning to go to bed. As soon as you change my sheets.”

There was nothing quite worse than sounding stupid, knowing you did, but not being able to do anything about it. “But you’re naked.”

He chuckled at that. “So you said.”

She swallowed, sucked in a deep breath and spun away from him. “I’m not changing your sheets while you’re naked in here with me.”

“I got the snake out of your kitchen that I put in there. Fair is fair, Kara.”

She shrieked, “I wasn’t naked when you did that!”

His arms wrapped around her from behind and she stiffened. “It would have been a lot better if you had been, though.”

She couldn’t move. Not because she was trapped, but because every delicious, yummy inch of him was pressed against her back. All of him, including his very hard cock, which rubbed against her ass.

“Kara,” he whispered and oh, the way he said it, how her name raked over his tongue as though ripped from his gut.

“Wade,” she answered.

He pressed his mouth to the curve of her neck and her vision tunneled. There was nothing but Wade. His mouth on her. His body pressed in the right places. She slouched against him, angled her head to give him better access and reached around, finding his toned hips in her hands.

He whispered her name again and she wanted to scream
YES!
but wasn’t given the chance. He nipped the lobe of her ear and pulled away from her with a pinch to her rear end. “Change my sheets.”

Eyes narrowed, she spun around on him and met his challenge. “No.”

A sparkle touched the dark depths of his gaze at that. “No?”

She licked her lips and, dear God, but she couldn’t stop herself from looking down the front of him. Past his ripped stomach and stopping on the little bead of liquid pearled on the tip. She swallowed and shook her head to answer. That was the best she could manage. Words were gone. Any language knowledge at all was completely wiped from the face of her foggy brain.

There was only her and the fact she was in too many clothes and there was naked Wade.

He stepped in closer. “You change them, or I can make you.”

She tilted her head up to see him better, knowing she was flirting with fire here. “You can’t make me do anything.”

But how she wished he would! Tie her to a chair. Throw her to the floor. Push her against that dresser. It didn’t matter, she was game for it. To be swept away, taken so fast she wouldn’t have time to think twice.

He grasped her arms, lifted her from her feet and dropped her on the messy sheets.

She shrieked and before she could get up, he was on her, rolling her across the bed. The jam smashed from head to toe. Wet and slimy seeped through her shirt. Not what she had in mind, and she tried fighting but was powerless to his strength. “Wade!”

He stopped and eased his knee on the mattress between her thighs. His hands slid up her arms and pinned them over her head to the bed. The last bit of laughter died in her throat. Everything she’d always wanted was here, waiting for her to take it. “I want you.”

The kiss he gave was hot and immediate. His tongue delved past her lips and she opened for him, arched into him, until he was on her like she’d always wanted.

It was crazy. It was insane. It was not at all like she had planned but, screw the damn plan. She wound her legs around his hips and his bedroom door burst open.

He jerked and stood bare-ass naked in front of his sister and Tasha.

“Shit.” He snatched a pillow from the bed and held it across the front of his lap.

Whitney slapped her hand over her eyes and screamed, falling into the hall. Tasha bent at the waist, hands resting on her knees, shaking from her own laughter. Kara could do nothing but drop her head back and laugh.

He cleared his throat. “Could you close my door?”

Tasha nodded. Or it looked like she nodded, it was hard to tell. One, because of Kara’s angle on the bed. And two, because Tasha was still hunched over, staring at the floor, her shoulders jerking with her chuckles. Either way, she must have heard as she eased herself back and pulled the door closed.

“I can’t wait for my own damn house.” Wade tossed the pillow back across the bed and stared down at her. “And what are you laughing about?”

She swiped tears from her eyes and relaxed against the bed. “A little of everything, I think.”

“Wait until you get a look at yourself covered in that jelly.”

She blinked tears from her eyes and found focus on him. Back at all his nakedness. At the jam on his knees, down parts of his arms. The heat between her thighs was more intense than ever. So were second thoughts. Moving forward could screw a hell of a lot up. She sat forward and rubbed her thighs. “I should probably go. I’ve got this all over me.”

One of his brows rose at that. “Not what I had in mind. Not what I think you had on your mind thirty seconds ago.” He scooped her up in his arms and headed for his bathroom. “I was thinking you needed to clean up here.”

She swallowed. That was tempting. Oh, so tempting. “I don’t know.”

“You’ve got jam all down the backside of you. If you drive home, that’s going to be all in your car.”

Definitely tempting. She reached around his neck. “Couldn’t I just put a towel down?”

“Maybe.” He put her on her feet in the bathroom and stripped her shirt overhead. “But it’s also in your hair. Too risky to get that out by yourself. If you miss some and it dries in there, you’ll probably have to cut it out.”

“Like if it was gum.”

“Exactly.”

She hmm’d for emphasis, already knowing good and well she wasn’t leaving. “I see your point. I bet Whitney could help me out.”

He reached behind her and flicked open the hooks of her bra. “I would be willing to bet that Whitney will never enter my room again.” He grinned. “Which kind of makes flashing my sister worth it, now that I think of it.”

She laughed and her bra hit the floor. Cold air rushed over but was quickly replaced by his warm mouth sucking her nipples and his arms backing her up until she hit the wall. She grabbed his hair. Half holding him in place, half trying to decide whether or not she should change her mind and push him away. Pushing away would be smart. It would keep things how they were. Which was safe. Boring and safe. “You didn’t tell me you were going to lick it off.”

“Jam this good shouldn’t go to waste.”

Her nails scraped as he sucked her, nipped at the tip of her. Holding him there, tugging him to her, actually. Definitely not pushing him away. Not while he was doing that tricky thing with his tongue and teeth. A shuddering breath cracked out of her. “I don’t think I have any jam there.”

He dropped to a knee and stared up. The smile that crossed his face was dark, intense and one she’d never in her life forget. He popped the button of her shorts and pushed them down her hips. “I bet you don’t have any between your thighs either, but you can bet your sweet ass I’m going to check just in case.”

She leaned against the wall, speechless.

“These are damn sexy, Kara.” He pressed a kiss to the front of her cotton Princess Peach panties.

She closed her eyes and choked on a laugh. “We weren’t supposed to be doing this.”

This tip of his finger traced along the wide triangle front edging against her thigh. “What had you worn if we were?”

Any last wetness in her mouth was gone. Dried out and left her tongue so thick she could hardly form words. How many times had she thought that scenario? Red satin one day. Blue lace another. Catch her in another mood and she would have said nothing. Now that it was happening, it didn’t matter. With the way he looked at her, just the way his darkened eyes made heat flush through her body was all she needed. No tricks or ploys to look sexy, he made her feel it. “I don’t know.”

He grinned and hooked his fingers in the sides of her panties. “I guess we’ll find out tomorrow.”

“But...” But yeah, they weren’t supposed to, but she really didn’t care what she had thought. What good intentions and plans she’d created. Having him, like this, was better than anything she’d ever imagined. As for tomorrow? She’d deal with that tomorrow. This was the daydream she’d always had; she couldn’t pass up the real moment.

His fingers cupping her calf and lifting her foot were rough on the tips, but gentle to the touch as he removed her panties. His mouth pressed against her ankle, knee. Top of her thigh. As he reached the turn of her hips, her bones were melting from the heat pulsing through her veins.

The palms of his hands skimmed up the edges of her until he was standing. Every last inch of his firm, naked body was against hers. Pushing against her. “If this isn’t what you want, say it. If you want to wait, say it. Please.”

She grabbed his shoulders, already angling him for the shower. “Is that what you want? To stop?”

If she didn’t already know, the choking sound he made before sealing his mouth across hers was clear enough. The way his tongue moved against hers. His grip on her strong, needy, but not painful. The length of his solid erection pressed against her belly and she arched into him.

He pulled away and reached for the shower. “No. Get in if you want this to continue.”

Missing his warmth, muscles, she didn’t go straight for the shower, she went for him. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she pulled him in with her. “I’ve wanted this a long time.”

Water rained down the back of her. Steam wrapped them in a fog and she kept Wade against her. She wouldn’t miss any chances to touch him tonight. By the way he grabbed the backs of her thighs, turned and braced her against the wall, he was thinking the same.

A hot kiss seared over her mouth, reached all the way through her before he moved to the side of her neck and dropped his head to the shower wall. “This isn’t happening in here.”

She blinked, trying to find sense to his words through everything else. Tried understanding despite the weight of his erection rubbing against her wet opening. “It’s not?”

“I just realized condoms are in the bedroom.” He groaned. “In the other room.”

She bit her lip and reached over his shoulders. If they stopped, she might not fall so easily back into his arms. “Does that mean I can’t kiss you from top to bottom?”

The full breath he pulled in pushed her against the wall even harder, caused her to hold her own until he released his and gave her room to breathe.

She leaned back, her legs still wrapped around him, and she eased her fingers down the chiseled front of him. The tip of his erection extended between her thighs and up his belly and she rubbed her thumb across the silky liquid on the tip. “What about here?”

He hissed.

Hesitation eased up her throat, but she pushed it back down. This was Wade. She turned into his neck and shoulder, kissed the wide muscles there. This was what she always wanted. “If you would put me down, I could ease some of your tension.”

His fingers cupping her butt squeezed. “I...”

She smiled. “You should put me down. You were the one naked in the jam sheets. If anyone is at risk for a sticky situation down there, it’s you.”

He rested his forehead against hers. “Kara.”

She left a quick kiss on his lips. “Put me down. I’m up one and we have all night. Surely it won’t take you long to recover?”

A laughed ripped out his throat. “With you? Minutes.”

“Good.” The shower water and the steam circulated around. She stroked her thumb across the top of him and he released her so her legs could unwind. The front of her glided against him, warm tile touched the bottom of her feet, then her knees.

He leaned over her, his hands braced on the shower wall. The spray of the water was blocked by his wide back. She should be cold, being wet without being under the spray, but she wasn’t. Couldn’t be.

She flattened her hands to his lower abs and dropped them down, around the thatch of hair at the base of his member. Each touch. Each caress of her fingers and air blown on his tip caused his muscles to bunch, then release. His breath would catch, then ease out. She drew her finger up the base of him and he shuddered under her touch.