Rocking Kin (The Lucy & Harris Novella Series Book 3) (22 page)

“Oh,” I murmured. “Why didn’t you go with him? Won’t you be alone for Christmas now?” The thought of him alone made me sad for him. No one should be alone for Christmas.

He shrugged. “I knew you would be here tonight and didn’t want to miss out on seeing you. I’ve seen Kassa every year on Christmas morning since she was born. This year I wanted to be with you.”

My pulse started to race, but I lifted a brow like his words hadn’t affected me. The gleam in his eyes told me that he saw through my façade though. “You took a big chance, Jace. What if I’d bailed on this party? Then you would’ve stayed in California for nothing.”

The beginnings of a grin teased at the left side of his mouth. “It was a chance I was willing to take, sweetheart.” He lowered his head and rubbed his nose against mine. The feel of his hot breath skimming over my lips made me shiver and I felt more than heard him chuckle in response. “Besides, if you hadn’t been here I would’ve ditched this penguin suit and gone looking for you. All I wanted for Christmas is five minutes alone with you, Kin, and I was determined to give myself that present.”

I leaned my head back against the wall, grinning up at him. “You’re so cocky, you know that?”

“What’s your point?” He winked and skimmed his nose over mine again. Fuck. Why did that feel more intimate than a kiss? My nipples were diamond-hard in my bra and my panties were soaked from just being that close to him, but having his nose rub so carefully over mine made my heart beat in a way that exhilarated me.

And it scared the hell out of me.

“You look beautiful in that dress, by the way.” I shivered again as he moved his hand off the wall to touch my exposed collarbone from my strapless ball gown. Yeah, a fucking ball gown. I had hated putting the damn thing on, but with Jace touching me so tenderly right then, I was glad I was wearing it. “I’d rather you were in jeans and an old T-shirt, though. That’s my real Kin. Not this made-up, Barbie-doll version,” he murmured. “I mean, you’re hot either way, babe, but I love the other Kin a hell of a lot more.”

Had he just said
love
? My desire-fogged mind couldn’t hold on to that thought for very long.

“Jace…” My voice came out husky, full of everything I was feeling and trying so hard to fight. “We shouldn’t be doing this.”

“The problem is that we should have been doing this all along, baby.” His nose skimmed across my cheek to my ear. “I ache from missing you, Kin. I ache so fucking bad and I need you to take the ache away.”

“Jace,” I whimpered when I felt his lips on my earlobe, his teeth sinking into my flesh in a way he had shown me could send me over the edge. “Please…stop. I-I’m not going to…um…oh, that feels good…Jace, stop. I won’t…ease any aches.” His aches were nothing compared to my own right then. I squirmed against him, feeling his ‘ache’ pulse against my stomach, which only made my own ache that much more intense.

“Bitch!”

I jerked at Angie’s high, angry tone. It was like being doused with a bucket of ice water. Turning my head away from Jace, I saw my stepsister standing toe to toe with Jillian in the middle of her flock. The beady eyes of Jillian’s friends were insulting as they accessed Angie like she was a bug to squash under their Louis Vuitton-ed heels. Jace followed my gaze, his body tensing for a reason other than our mutual need for each other all of a sudden.

The look on Angie’s face was wild. The angelic version was gone, replaced with one hundred percent devil, and the devil was ready to take on Jillian—who was more of a minion from Hell than anyone else I’d ever met.

“Sweet Jesus,” Jace muttered. “This isn’t gonna be pretty.”

I ducked under his arm and headed toward where my stepsister was drawing a large crowd. There was pure malice in Jillian’s eyes—with a hint of glee. Fucking hell, she was enjoying whatever was going on, and that told me that it was worse than I could even imagine, more than anything else could have.

“I won’t sit around while you talk about my sister like that,” Angie raged. “You have no right to judge anyone, you sanctimonious cunt.”

“Angie…” Caleb tried to intervene but one glare from his twin had him holding up his hands in surrender as he took a step back.

“I tell it how I see it, little girl.” Jillian’s smile was in place now and I could almost feel the heat as Angie’s rage built. “McKinley is a—”

Whatever she was going to call me was cut off as Angie took a step toward her, hands balled into tight fists at her sides raising to take a swing at Jillian’s expertly made-up face. Before she could hit the step-monster, Carter was there, pulling his daughter away from her intended target.

“I will destroy you,” Angie seethed. “I will cut off your fucking fake-ass tits and sell the saline bags to the highest bidder.” She struggled against her father’s hold. “Say it again, slut. Say it again, I dare you.”

The crowd around them was only growing bigger and I had to push my way through. By the time I reached them, Scott had appeared as well as both Georgia and Carolina. Georgia had a smug look on her face, but Carolina was frowning back and forth from Angie to her mother. I saw a few cameras flashing and realized that this was exactly what Jillian had wanted all along. She was going to get her Christmas wish when her picture was plastered on the morning edition of every tabloid in the country.

I felt a hand at my waist as I slowed down and realized Jace had followed me.

“Control your daughter, Jacobson,” Scott barked. “She’s making a spectacle of us all.”

Instead of encouraging Carter to deal with Angie, however, it stopped him cold. He slackened his hold on her and she would have gone for Jillian’s throat if Caleb hadn’t stepped between them.

“You’re giving her exactly what she wants,” I heard my stepbrother grumble to his twin. He had to use his full strength to hold her at bay as she struggled against him with triple the strength her little body could possibly have had.

“I don’t give a fuck,” Angie snarled. “She doesn’t get to talk about Kin like that and continue breathing.”

While Caleb’s hold didn’t slacken, his eyes did narrow. “What the hell did she say, Ang?”

I didn’t care enough about what Jillian might have said about me to listen. My attention was pulled from the twins to my stepdad now standing toe to toe with my father. “Control my daughter?” Carter spoke in a voice so calm and collected I knew there was real trouble brewing. Carter only got that calm, dangerous look in his eyes when he was so pissed he was trying to hold himself back. I’d seen it a few times over the years and usually when dealing with business, never in a personal situation like this one was. “How about you control that bitch of a wife you have, motherfucker? Maybe if you grew a set of balls you could stand up for yourself for once in your life and take care of the important things.”

I heard Jace’s breath hiss out of him as he listened to Carter rip into Scott. “Burn,” he muttered with a low chuckle. “Fuck, I’ve missed your family, babe.”

I couldn’t find a reply. It was turning into a war zone around me, and while any other time I would have been standing right beside Carter and Angie throwing my own punches, right then I was picturing the outcome of what was happening. Angie arrested for aggravated assault if she got to Jillian. Carter’s name plastered on the front of stupid tabloids and ruining his business.

I wouldn’t let that happen. Not over me.

Stepping forward I wrapped my hands around Angie’s wrists. She jerked as if I’d electrocuted her, her head snapping back almost like I’d slapped her. Wild blue eyes met mine and some of the rage dimmed. “She said—”

“I don’t care, Angie. Whatever she said doesn’t matter. She doesn’t matter. Stop this before you get into trouble.”

Pain mixed with her anger, making her chin tremble ever so slightly. “She’s evil, Kin. You shouldn’t have to deal with her.”

I pulled her away from Caleb and into my arms, hugging her tight. “She doesn’t matter,” I repeated. “You’re better than her so don’t stoop to her level and give her what she wants.”

She went slack in my arms and I knew what would follow the storm that had nearly turned into an all out hurricane. I felt her tears on my bare shoulder. A sob bubbled up, but I held her head against me, drowning it out so the gossip-hungry vultures around us wouldn’t hear it.

I held on to her for a full minute before looking up at Jace. Behind me, Scott and Carter were still throwing insults at each other and I had to intervene quickly before Carter’s reputation was ruined. As if reading the question in my eyes, Jace stepped up next to me and I handed Angie over to him without saying a word.

Caleb was quiet beside us, his eyes accessing Jillian who was once again surrounded by her flock, which had grown by at least six women now. I knew I wouldn’t have to worry about him doing anything stupid, though, so I turned to my father and pushed between him and Carter. I shoved Scott back, and fuck, but it felt good when he stumbled back a few steps.

“That’s enough,” I told him before looking up at Carter. “Please, stop. You’re better than this, Carter. Don’t let them bring you down. Don’t let him ruin what you have. He destroys everything he touches. I don’t want to see you added to the trash pile that’s already a mile deep, Carter.”

I wrapped my arms around his waist when he lowered his eyes in shame. “Let’s go,” I murmured, my tone quiet and gentle like I’d heard my mother use when she had tried to soothe her husband in the past. “Let’s go get something to eat and chill out in your hotel.”

“I’m so sorry, Kin.” He released a harsh breath. “Your mother would be so ashamed of me right now.”

My arms tightened around him. “Well, I’m pretty proud of you, and since she isn’t here, that’s all that matters.” I gave him an impish grin, which got me a halfhearted smile from him in return. “I’m really, really hungry. Can we have Chinese?”

Behind me, Jillian let out an angry protest that sounded almost like a squawk. “You’re not leaving with them. I won’t allow it,” she bit out. “You came here with us, McKinley, and you
will
leave with us.”

I sighed and turned to face her, my expression blank so she wouldn’t see how pissed I really was. She’d already gotten one show for the night, I wasn’t about to give her another one. “I think we all know that you don’t count by now, Jillian, so what you want doesn’t really matter.” I wrapped a hand around Carter’s much larger one.

“See you tomorrow,” I called over my shoulder as I led them away from the crowd like I wasn’t affected by the shit-storm I was sure would follow the next morning.

Jace, still with his arms full of Angie, followed us. “I could really go for some honey chicken if we’re getting Chinese.”

“Only if you promise to share it.” I shot him a thankful smile as we left the venue and Caleb handed over his valet ticket. He was changing the subject, acting like nothing had happened and I wasn’t scared to admit—at least not to myself—that I loved him for it.

“If you share the noodles, babe.”

He was a tough negotiator, but I really liked sharing his honey chicken. “Deal.”

Chapter 17

Jace

I spent the rest of Christmas Eve and all of Christmas Day with Kin and her family in their hotel suite. As soon as we’d gotten back to their room, we’d rented
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
, Kin’s favorite cartoon Christmas movie, and pigged out on Chinese food. Kin settled between me and Caleb on the couch in the sitting area and before the credits were even running on the movie she was sound asleep with her head on my shoulder and her feet in her stepbrother’s lap.

It was a few hours later before Caleb and Angie went to bed, but I decided to stay where I was, hating the thought of leaving Kin. Carter covered her with an extra blanket and I settled in to sleep sitting up with Kin in my arms. It was the best night’s sleep I’d had in months, even if I did wake up the next morning with a stiff neck.

The Jacobsons were more than happy to keep me around Christmas Day while we stayed in their suite. It was more than I could have asked for, getting to spend the entire day with Kin when all I’d really wanted was just a meager five minutes with her.

At the end of the day, however, Carter told Kin that he and the twins were going to head back to the East Coast the next morning.

“No,” she protested as she shook her head. “You promised me four weeks. I still have at least another week.”

Carter sighed tiredly. “Honey, we’ve caused you enough trouble with Scott and that idiot wife of his. We don’t want to add more to your plate right now.”

I watched helplessly as tears had filled Kin’s eyes, but she had blinked them back, trying to keep them from falling. “I don’t care about them. I don’t want you to leave. I miss you guys so…much.” When her voice broke, I wanted to pull her into my arms and never let her go. “P-please, don’t go.”

The pain on Carter’s face had matched his stepdaughter’s. “Kin…”

“We’ll be back for your birthday, sugar bug,” Angie rushed to assure her. “We aren’t going to miss that. And I promise we will make up for all the trouble we caused.” She clenched her jaw and looked out the window. “That
I
caused.”