Where the Sun Hides (Seasons of Betrayal #1) (22 page)

Before he could, she said, “It wasn’t your fault, Kaz. Your
friend, whoever it was, he should have been honest with you, or at least not
have put you in that situation in the first place.

Ah, that was what he was hoping she would say. “So do you
think he was a bad friend?”

She sat back. “Of course.”

“You’re right. I was a terrible friend.”

“I don’t understand.”

Kaz sighed, resting his hands on her waist. “I was
him. He was me. I went to the dealer, but didn’t bother paying because the
Markovic name was enough to strike fear in any person, but not in him. I was
naive on that front, thinking myself beyond reproach, and worse, I knew I was
bringing him down with me. And worse than that, someone had to answer for that
child—not just to the mother who lost her kid, but to the police as well.”

He could see it in her face just then, her fear as
different ideas went through her head as to what might have happened to him as
punishment, but as he remembered, he wasn’t the one to suffer for it.

“Vasily made sure that the right people were arrested, but
that dealer wasn’t appeased. He wanted someone’s fucking blood for what
happened. He may be a bastard, but my father was never going to turn me over,
even to teach me a lesson. To him, they weren’t important enough to seek favor
with, but because he owed a boon to their supplier, he compromised. Instead of
me, he gave them my friend—even forced me to stick around and watch as they
took him away.”

He met Violet’s gaze, letting her see the guilt in his own.
“Because of me, two people lost their lives—one of which I care for like a
brother. So these friends of yours, the ones that want to blame you for their
own shit, cut them off while you can. Sometimes the consequences are much
worse.”

“Kaz …”

His name, soft on her lips, was almost enough to make him
smile. “You don’t deserve bad friends, Violet. You deserve better than that.”

The silence stretched between them, a heartbeat, even
longer. Kaz was almost afraid that she wasn’t going to reply, and was probably
thinking exactly what he’d thought of himself since that day.

But instead, she moved toward him, her hands sliding around
the front of his shirt and gripping the material. “Even with what you said,
it’s still not your fault. Now, I have a question for you.”

“Ask.”

“Is story time over?”

V
iolet let her hands
travel a little lower on Kaz’s body until she could feel the jump of his
abdominal muscles against her touch. “Well, is it over?”

Kaz offered her one of his grins, sexy and sly. “It can be
if you want it to be.”

“For now.”

“Oh?”

“I reserve the right to revisit this at a later time,”
Violet explained, tipping her chin up and teasing him with a smile.

Her words came out light, but she was serious, too. She
wanted to know more about him—his past, why he chose the road he did, and how
he got where he was now. All of those things fascinated her because they made
up Kazimir Markovic.

He was far more than what everyone around her always said.

Russian. Savage. Scum.

There was a great deal more to the man behind the last name
and the heritage he came from.

Just like her.

“Another time,” Kaz finally agreed.

Violet reached up and stroked Kaz’s jaw with two fingers,
feeling the light stubble scratch along her fingertips. The motion made his
grin melt into a softer smile, and the sadness lingering in his gaze began to
depart. When he spoke about his friend, and his own mistakes, he was so sad.
She didn’t even think he realized how guilty he looked, like the weight of that
one day wasn’t ever going to leave.

She didn’t want him to be sad.

Not when he was with her, anyway.

“Come here,” Kaz demanded low.

Violet felt his fingers hook into the neckline of her dress
and he pulled. She leaned forward until his lips were brushing against hers
softly. Once, twice, and the third time, his teeth dragged across her bottom
lip.

“There’s a saying,” Kaz began, letting his thumb sweep
across her lax mouth.

“Hmm?”

“Once is a hookup, but twice makes a lover.”

Violet’s gaze snapped to his. “I hadn’t thought of it that
way.”

“You probably should, if we’re going to keep this up, no?”

He had a point, but maybe Violet just wasn’t ready to quite
go that way yet.

“I didn’t actually come see you to fuck,” she admitted.

Kaz laughed. “I’m not going to turn it down, Violet.”

Yeah, she wouldn’t either.

“Not my point,” she told him.

His fingers glided over her lips again, a little firmer the
second time. At the middle of her mouth, he pressed down, like he was asking
her to open up. She did, parting her lips just enough for him to slide two
fingers in. His teeth bit down on his lip as she sucked on his digits, letting
her tongue roll around and flick at his fingertips.

“Shit,” he muttered.

Violet let him pull his fingers free from her mouth, but not
without dragging her teeth along his skin as he did. “My point, Kaz, was that
it really wasn’t my intention, but it’s not like I mind.”

“Clearly.” He grabbed onto her waist tightly, making her
sit a little more firmly on his groin. She could feel the length of his
erection growing under her weight, and the sensation was enough to make her
blood hot. “But you deflected what I said, and I’m not so much of an easily
distracted man that I didn’t notice.”

Violet was pretty sure she could distract him from it if
she wanted. Shifting her hips and widening her legs a little more, the skirt of
her dress drove up her thighs. Kaz helped that along by pushing the fabric up
further until he was staring at white lace.

“Still the same kind of delicate shit, I see,” he muttered.

“I like this pair, too.”

“I’m going to start ignoring that statement if you just
like them all.”

Fuck.

Kaz lifted a finger and circled it at her chest.

“What?” she asked.

“Take it off. I want to see if the top matches the bottom.”

“It does.”

“Still want to see,” he said, entirely unfazed.

Violet laughed when he nodded at her again, as if he were
telling her to hurry the fuck up. She tugged the dress up after he had pulled
down the zipper at the back, discarding the clothing to the floor in a heap.

“Why do I have to be the one who’s always underdressed?”
she asked.

Kaz’s mouth lifted at the corner. “Because the longer I
stay clothed, the better it’ll be for you,
krasivaya
.”

She wisely chose not to push him on that, then.

His fingertips traced a circle around her navel, leaving
behind a slight sheen of wetness from her saliva on his fingers. Up his
exploration went between the valley of her breasts, over the hollow of her
throat, and then against her collarbones.

The longer he touched her like that, soft, slow, and sweet,
the harder it was to breathe.

How did he manage that without barely doing anything at
all?

“It does match,” he mused, his caress falling back to the
top of her breasts. He skimmed his digits under the lacy cups of the bra,
lingering on her nipples until they were tight and hard under his fingers, and
her breaths came out sharper with every swipe and pinch. “Do they always
match?”

“Yes, and I’m not a liar, Kaz.”

He didn’t act like she’d said a thing.

“Lift up,” he said, taking his hand away.

Violet wanted it back. “What?”

“Up, I said.”

She lifted up from his waist, and sighed the very second
his hands traveled from her sides around to her backside. His fingers slid
under the lace boy-shorts, his fingernails dragging across her skin as he
pulled her closer.

Violet blinked, surprised when he fell down lower, moving
his body beneath hers. His hands pushed against her ass again, making her hips
tilt forward until she could feel every pulse of his warm breath hitting
against the lace of her underwear.

“There we are,” he murmured.

Violet’s teeth cut into her lip as she hummed. “Better the
longer your clothes stay on, huh?”

Kaz flashed his teeth in a wicked smile. “So much better.”

He lifted his head slightly, tipping his chin up, and
instantly, Violet felt like she had to find purchase on
something
. He
hadn’t even touched her, she was still covered by lace, but she just
knew
.

And then when his mouth was on her, covering her pussy over
the lace, she was glad she had grabbed the back of the couch, and let her other
hand thread into his hair. His tongue lapped at the material of her panties,
and his teeth scraped over the same spot.

Testing.

Measured.

Slow.

A whine clawed its way out of her throat when she felt one
of his hands move between her thighs. It wasn’t a heartbeat later before he’d
swept the digit under her boy-shorts, his tongue lapped at her clit overtop the
lace again, and bliss raced down her spine.

“God,” she breathed, tilting her hips into his mouth with
another lick. “What are you waiting for?”

Kaz hummed a throaty sound against her body, his lips
brushing against lace as he spoke. “Ask me.”

“For what?”

“You know what.”

Violet wet her lips, and let her eyes flutter closed. “You
want to play the tease, then?”

“Not at all. I just want you to ask me for it, Violet. Ask
for my mouth, my tongue, and my fingers. And I promise that you’ll get it all,
and you’ll scream louder than you’ve ever done before.”  

Jesus.

“Why do you make that sound so good?” she asked.

Because it was fucking filthy.

“Ask,” he repeated.

She let out a hard breath when his finger slipped between
her folds, smearing her arousal over her sex. Instantly, her eyes were back on
him.  He dragged that finger out from beneath the lace and up to his
mouth. Hot all over, and burning up with every passing second, she watched his
tongue strike out to taste her wetness.

The throaty sound of approval that he let loose was sinful.

“Please,” she whispered.

“Not what I wanted.”

Violet’s fingers tightened in his hair, but Kaz didn’t even
react if it hurt him at all. “I want your mouth, and your fingers, and your
tongue. I want you to eat me. I want to come.”

Kaz’s lips split wide, his gray eyes dropping hers and
going right back to her panties. “Now … that’s what I wanted.”

Yeah, her too.

Violet didn’t get the chance to prepare for what he did
next, because she was far too focused on watching his mouth when it came
dangerously close to her body again. His left hand slipped down between her
thighs with his other one. She felt cool air kiss her folds as he yanked the
lace to the side, and then hot breath washed over her center.

The first flick of his tongue along the seam of her sex had
her back straightening. The second made her shout. When his tongue stroked
against her clit, and two fingers buried knuckle-deep into her pussy without
warning, she was lost.

Feeling. That’s all there was.

Sensation.

The roughness of his stubble against her sensitive skin.
His tongue driving into her throbbing clit. Fingers curling on the thrust and widening
on the withdrawl.

Every time she sucked in a breath, his name followed it.

Each nip of his teeth to her folds made her shake.

“There,” she managed to say.

Kaz’s head lifted, just enough for his gaze to find hers.
His fingers worked faster, his tongue flicked
harder
.

The coil twisted in her stomach, a pressure building at the
base of her spine. She knew it was coming because the buildup left her weak and
breathless long before the orgasm even crashed down.

But when it did …

When it did, she did exactly what he said she would.

Screamed.

So fucking loud.

The darkness of the bedroom stared back at Violet as she
blinked awake. For a second, it was unfamiliar, but the feeling didn’t last for
long when a strong arm tightened around her waist, and pulled her into a warm,
hard chest.

“Doing it again,” she heard Kaz rumble behind her.

“Doing what?”

“Moving. You mumble, too, when you sleep.”

Violet tilted her head when she felt his mouth skim the
back of her neck, his fingers threading into her hair to keep it out of his way
as he kissed her there, soft and insistent.

“I don’t share a bed very often,” she admitted.

Kaz chuckled. “Me, either.”

That wasn’t why she woke up, however.

The dreams—nightmares, more like it—were persistent little
bastards that wouldn’t let up.

His lips stopped moving against her neck.

“Stop,” he whispered.

Violet stilled. “Pardon?”

“Tensing like that. Was it me?”

“No,” she said quickly.