Natalie nodded, refusing to meet my eyes, and even refusing to meet Kelly’s. “Okay, we’ll talk in my old room.”
I wanted to roar at them to wait, to talk it out with us first, but I knew that wasn’t my place. They walked off and Kelly and I came out here.
“What the heck are they talking about?” she whispers, a shiver in her voice.
I reach over and touch her hand, squeezing it softly to let her know she can let out some of the tension moving through her. She returns my gesture before moving away subtly.
Her whimpering tells me how difficult she finds the separation, the same way I’m burning up to hold her against me. After turning into Animal to save her, now all my body wants to do is claim her, to ravage every inch of her until she’s lust-red like she was last night… and this morning.
Fuck, when she rode me. When she took control like that, it was like I was in some kind of a dream. All I could think about was how confident she was becoming, growing into the perfection of our relationship.
But now it might implode.
“They’re talking about us,” I say quietly, my voice gruff. “It’s smart.”
“Smart?”
“If they want to try and talk us out of this, they can present a united front.”
She strokes her fingers through her hair, making me want to do the same, but to apply a bit more carnal pressure to make her feel how badly I need to take her, hard and fast and deep, the way she was made to be taken.
“That’s the thing.” She laughs hollowly, glancing at me with a softness in her eyes. “I don’t think it’s possible to talk me out of this.”
“Me neither,” I growl. “Nothing could make me stop wanting you.”
“So what happens if they say we have to stop?”
I turn to the city, studying the horizon. “I don’t know.”
She spins on me, raising her hands like she’s going to grab onto my arm. I feel the need burning through her, coming off of her in shimmering waves, calling out to the primal parts inside of me.
“Do you have any idea how badly I want you right now?” she whispers.
I smirk down at her, a chord of belonging moving through me. She never would have said something so forward even this time yesterday, but her sassiness has flowered into her personality – at least when she’s being all sexy and hot for me – with primal speed.
The same way the animal thundered into me when I needed it.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
“No,” I growl. “I know exactly how you feel. We haven’t had a chance to hold each other since it happened.”
“You went crazy,” she murmurs. “I never knew you could move so fast.”
“I had to protect you.” I squeeze down on the railing. “I had to protect Natalie, your mom… but most of all you. The way he spoke to you, degraded you, I had to make him pay. It wasn’t a choice. It was instinct, the same instinct that’s going to drive me every day for the rest of our lives because I…”
“Dad.”
I love you, Kelly.
The words fade on my lips – but never in my heart – as I turn to find Natalie and Angela standing at the door. Natalia has tied her hair up, her eyes narrowed perceptively. Pride whelms in me as it always does when she looks so capable, so ready to face the world.
“Shall we sit down?” she says.
“Sure.”
The four of us sit around my oak table, sitting on the correct sides this time. I remember the look I shared with my sweet Kelly when we realized our mistake at the diner, back before everything turned to mayhem.
Angela and Natalie look at each other like comrades, and I realize they must be far closer than I realized. But then, that makes sense. Natalie spent a lot of time over at Kelly’s when she was a kid. I never paid much attention to it, always focused on my career, my fighting… as long as Natalie was happy, healthy, and doing well, I never bothered with the minutia.
But my woman has shown me that personal connections aren’t the minutia.
They’re the whole thing.
I just hope that isn’t taken away before I get the chance to fully explore these passages my woman has opened up inside of me.
“We need to know how long this has been going on,” Natalie says, gripping her hands together. Emotion tries to take hold of her voice, but she powers through. “How long have you been sneaking around behind our backs…”
“Nat, this started at that photoshoot thing you got me,” Kelly responds.
“What?” Natalie gasps. “That was yesterday.”
“Yes.” I nod. “We’re still coming to terms with that too.”
“Wait a second.” Angela grips the table as though she thinks she’s going to go flying away, looking at her daughter and then me. “This – the way you two are looking at each other – started yesterday.”