When Sparks Fly (26 page)

I realize in this moment that when we kiss, a match seems to light and we ignite in need, in want because she’s straddling me now and the Team Micah shirt I love so much is being removed.

I stare at her olive skin and the red lacey bra that she has on and think she’s lovely. I touch her lips, then the hollow of her neck, down her cleavage and relish in how she breathes from just a simple touch. She reaches behind her back and releases the clasp of her bra, freeing herself for my hands, my mouth. I touch and feel her breasts, perfection in my palm, and when she moans I roll her onto her back and lower my mouth to taste her skin.

She begins to whimper in pleasure and squeeze the hand that is holding my own above her head. My free hand begins to travel her body, touching down her stomach and leg, then back up. Her writhing beneath me has me wanting more, to feel more of her and so I pop the button of her shorts and search for what’s inside. Wet. So wet.

My mouth salivates as I kiss my way up her neck and to her mouth, sucking her tongue into my own as our kiss finds a rhythm that matches my fingers. I didn’t go down on her when we made love before, but I can still remember the way she tastes and I want it on my tongue.

So, I stop my fingers and lean back with them in my mouth. Her eyes darken instantly as she glides those shorts down her legs, leaving her on my couch in a scrap of red lace looking sexy as sin. Sin I want to commit badly.

I stand and stare down at her like she’s a piece of art, trailing my fingertips from her ankle, up her leg and across her navel. Then straight down where I feel her arousal through her panties. I press down with the heel of my palm and she moans loudly. I smirk at the thought of making her come just like this. I move my hand in a circle and her legs fall open in invitation. But I want my mouth on her.

I reach my hand out for her, pulling her up to stand against me. My hand cups her backside, making her gasp as I grind against her. We kiss and I taste the hollow of her neck, down her breast, licking a path down her stomach where I stop and inhale the sweet scent of her. Hooking my fingers into her panties and taking them down her legs where I then kiss my way back up. I meet her eyes just before I taste what’s mine and lust is swirling like a hurricane in her beautiful gray eyes.

I lick the inside of her thigh and smile against her when she shivers. The goosebumps race and I delight in that as well. But it’s nothing to actually tasting her. Her hands are in my hair and my tongue is finding what it’s been craving for years. When her knees buckle, I cup her ass and her legs hook around me as she falls back onto the couch. I fuck her with my tongue and she loves it. She says so, telling me that it’s hot as she leans up and watches me. Then I add a finger and then another. She’s unashamed as she moves against my face, driving me deeper.

“Oh, God,” she moans her head falling back against the couch. I know she’s close. I can feel her like a vice around my fingers. I sit back and begin to thrust them in and out, finding out what drives her mad. She cries out when my tongue adds pressure to her clit and I watch her come undone around me. She’s fucking beautiful when she comes.

When the waves settle she looks up at me and darkly smiles as I lick my fingers clean. Then her hands are in my hair and we’re kissing again. She’s unzipping my jeans and releasing me. Standing up and pushing me down onto the couch where she straddles me and damn… when she lowers herself onto my length… I scold myself for denying us this pleasure for so long.

She rides me like she’s been missing this, too. Kissing me like she’s starved. The sounds she makes will forever be permeated in my mind. This is nothing to the fantasies I’ve conjured up all these years. This is everything. And when we’re breathless, shaking and falling off the edge together… I hold onto her, pulling her into my chest and make a vow to never, ever lose this again.

*

The signing is amazing and I’m relaxed, which is usually not the case and I believe it’s all because of Angel. She’s the calm in my storm. She helps me set up the table, swooning over everything from my stuff to other people’s banners, other authors, books she loves, the model at the table across from us, which I think was more to gauge my jealousy than anything. She’s been wonderfully helpful and I think I might hire her to be my permanent PA. She can be on my team.

I decide as I watch her carry around my book to be signed for a reader giveaway later that she fits right into this world. I don’t know why I ever doubted that. My eyes track her movements as she mingles with other authors and readers with ease. It makes me smile seeing her like this, in my world, but immersed like it’s her own, too.

“Are you having a good time?” she asks, after returning to our table.

“Yes, because you’re here,” I admit and it’s completely the truth.

She smiles and we get lost looking at one another until a throat clears and we break free from our trance.

“I have been dying to meet you,” a rather pretty girl squeals.

I stand from the table and shake her hand. “Nice to meet you, too.” She touches the paperback of Fallen Angel and actually sighs. “Have you read it?”

Her eyes flick up with sparkles. “Twice,” she laughs. “The first time I think I hated you a bit.”

I touch my heart with mock horror and Angel laughs beside me. “Why’d you hate me?”

“Well, I didn’t understand. Aria had a great guy in Landon and she just threw it all away the second Micah came back. I felt awful for him. He needs his own book by the way.”

“So, you’re a Team Landon girl?” Angel asks and the girl glances down at her shaking her head.

“No, not anymore. I re-read the book because there just had to be something I missed. A reason for Micah to leave her in the first place and a reason for Aria to be so easily forgiving and when I felt it, I think I fell for Micah.”

“Oh, I’m Team Micah all the way,” says a second girl saddling up next to the first.

“He’s all troubled and mysterious. I think that he thought Aria wouldn’t understand him. That she’d eventually grow tired of him being reserved and well, the way he was. So to protect his heart and his passion, he broke her heart before she could his.”

I feel Angel’s eyes on me and so I turn to meet them. They are asking me if that’s true. If that is how I felt when I left her.

“Yes, that,” the first girl agrees with enthusiasm.

I look away from Angel and give my attention back to the readers before me. “I’m glad that you understood the book. That I portrayed them enough that you could feel for all three. Listening to readers talk about my stories never gets old,” I explain. “Thank you.”

I sign the books that they purchase and to be honest… though, I love signings, I am completely exhausted once it’s done. We skip the after party, as that is not usually my scene. Angel is rather quite on the ride back to my condo and I can only assume why. She’s thinking about the things she heard today, wondering if she should ask me or not. I give her the time she needs to sort it out in her head because honestly, I’ve already done that. That is the reason I’m here because when I realized how far she went to weave her way back into my life, to the extent of creating a fake identity, I knew that I was wrong. She understands me more than anyone. She gets it. I never have to pretend or hide. I don’t have to apologize for stopping and writing when the mood strikes because she wants me to. She wants to be a part of it and I need her to be a part of it.

“Did you have fun today?” I ask her once we’re back to my place. We’ve unloaded boxes of my own books and extra books she and I have purchased from others in my living room. We have to sort them out so she can take home what’s hers, but honestly… I kind of like her books mixed with my books. I think they will look amazing on my bookshelf… together. The way they once did when we were in New York, sharing space, sharing a bed and sharing everything.

“Yes, it really was amazing. You’re amazing. I enjoyed seeing you like that.”

“Like what?” I ask, handing her a glass of red wine after she perches on a bar stool at the island separating the kitchen from the living room.

“In your element. I think you did great with the readers by the way.”

“Thank you,” I look down at my phone when it begins to ring and curse under my breath when I see Ezra’s name on the screen.

“Calling me from your honeymoon? Man, I feel special,” I say through tight lips.

“Well, you are, but that’s not why I’m calling. I can’t get a hold of Jeremy and the alarm at our house is going off. I’m really sorry to ask, but is there any way you can stop by and see if anything’s amiss?”

“Sure, but how do I get in?”

“Are you with Angel?” he asks and I instantly tense.

“Yes, why?” My voice is like gravel.

“She has a key. I never changed the locks. Just use that one.”

Fuck!
The instant he says these words and I look at her oblivious to them, I feel wound tight, memories flooding like a raging river.

“Sure, will do, man. Is there a code or something for the alarm?” I ask and stare hard at Angel who is looking at me now with concern. I’m sure she probably knows the code, too. I jot down the numbers Ezra gives me and fight the urge to throw my phone against the wall when we end the call.

“What’s the matter? Is everything okay?”

I try to settle my nerves, to calm my temper, but why the fuck would she still have his key?

“Ezra’s alarm is going off and he can’t reach Jeremy to go check it out. They’re on their honeymoon and…”
you have a key to the house he once shared with you.

“Oh, okay. So, he asked you to go check on the house?”

“Yes.”

She sets the wine glass down and narrows her eyes on my face.

“Why do you look like that?”

“Like what?”

“Like really angry, and I think at me. Did I do something?”

“He said you have a key to his place.”

“I do?” she squeaks like it’s new knowledge for her, then she realizes, “Oh, God. I do,” her voice drops to a whisper as her eyes meet mine. I look away from her because I just can’t. “Wait! Kane, I guess I just never gave it back to him. Shit! I never used it. I forgot I even had it. I mean… I assumed, I guess he’d change the locks or that… I don’t know.”

I run my hand over my head and behind my neck. It’s not rational to be upset about this. She lived with him when they were engaged. It’s his home—a home that he now shares with Tenley. Angel’s here with me and I’m just overreacting.

I take a deep breath and another until I’m calm. “I’m sorry. I just… it all came back for a minute and I felt…” I pull her into me and sigh against her hair. “I’m being stupid.”

She hugs me to her, soothing. “It’s okay. I understand.”

We pull up to the house, Ezra’s house and sure enough the alarm is loud as hell. I tell Angel to wait in the car while I check things out. Someone could be in there, but then we hear the dog yelping and Angel hops out. “It’s not a burglar. It’s Bear. I bet he got out and triggered the alarm,” she says walking toward me.

I stare hard at her, hating what she just said, but she’s right because as soon as we open the door Bear comes running straight for the door, barking and jumping on Angel while growling at me. She crouches down and pets him while I turn the alarm off and send Ezra a text to let him know what happened.

“What are you doing out of your kennel? Did Uncle Jeremy leave the cage unlatched when he fed you?” she asks and guides the dog back to the kitchen.

I follow in annoyance at how she’s familiar here, how she knows where the dog crate is, how she knows the fucking dog. She refills his food and water bowl and when he begins to scratch at the back door she lets him out. All more things she seems to be familiar with, like at one time this was her routine.

I’m leaning against the kitchen counter with a frown on my face as I watch her move around the place, tidying up the mess Bear made. I can’t move and my hands are clenched on the counter, my knuckles white. I can’t breathe. I remember being in here. Coming that night to beg her not to marry him. I stood in this kitchen and apologized, asked her to understand, to please listen. To be with me. Choose me instead. My lips tingle, the memory of the kiss on them. My heart aches, the memory of her telling me it was a mistake and never should have happened.

“Kane?” I hear her question, but I can’t look at her. I hear her flip-flops against the floor and I know she’s stepping closer to me, but I can’t meet her gaze. “Kane? Look at me.” I don’t. Her hand is on my cheek and I squeeze my eyes shut. “I remember, too. I remember the night before and then you at my door. I remember standing in this very room and all the beautiful words you said. I remember kissing you against that wall and falling into the other. I remember heading into the living room with our lips connected and all the things I felt. It’s there for me too, Kane. Please, open your eyes and look at me.”

I feel gutted open when my blue eyes find hers.

‡
Chapter Nine