Krae Page 3

  Last, I show her how to get out of a situation if someone’s ever mounted her against her will. With Candice on her back, I hover over her and set my hands against her throat, and her eyes go wide.

  “Is this okay?” I make sure.

  “Yes, Krae. I need to know.”

  I show her how to wrap my waist in a closed guard, then secure my arms and simultaneously lock her legs around my neck then press down with her hips, hard, to essentially hyperextend the aggressor’s elbow joint. Candice does it superbly, making me keen.

  “Sorry!” she says.

  “Don’t be sorry for that, babe. I’m happy to know you’d be effective.” I shake out my elbows then plant a kiss on her nose. She smiles. I give her my hand to help her up and to my surprise she pulls me back down on top of her.

  “I liked you here,” Candice purrs. Her baby-blues darken a shade, coaxing me nearer.

  I brush her wayward hair off her cheeks, then dip my head to kiss her lips.

  “Mm,” she moans, a sound so soft and sweet it makes me hard. “We haven’t been doing enough of that.”

  “I know,” I grieve. My voice comes out husky and deep, a sharp contrast to her sultry feminine noises.

  “Why not?” She frowns.

  “Because every time I kiss you I want more.”

  “Didn’t you already say I’m yours?” she tests. I grunt some kind of affirmation. She whispers, “Prove it,” and slings her legs around me again, jerking our hips into a tight clinch, so that there’s no hiding my erection. I issue a low, low groan. The look her in eyes tells me that was good incentive. She arches her back and her heels cleave to my butt cheeks, her soft little hands skating up from the back of my neck, making me shudder with delight, and with aggravation that I’m not already inside of her.

  “You could actually kill me this way,” I complain.

  “Isn’t that sort of what we’re doing here, Krae?” Candice teases. “C’mon. I’ve been waiting for you.”

  And I’ve been waiting for you, Ladybug—for all my life.

  Seven

  Candice

  If all he needed was my permission, I should’ve piped up days ago! Now just one look in his fervent gaze sends heat spiraling, zipping through me like savage little energy pulses, ravaging every erogenous zone.

  Krae lifts me into his arms, gingerly but effective. His body feels so rigid and powerful against mine, his hands pressed to my lower back as he steadies me on my feet. My fingers entangle with his thick, soft hair. I gasp, and pull him against me in equal measure.

  Closer, closer! I want to cry out, desperately. He claims my mouth instead. We kiss until it’s hard to breathe. We break apart, panting and giggling, and then we stop to take long, slow, necessary breaths.

  “You’ve been waiting for me…how long?” he says, provokingly.

  “Weeks,” I answer. “Months.” Another lie. “Since before I ever knew you.”

  Krae smirks, those twin dimples appearing as he studies me like he’s starving and I’m his next meal. I let my own eyes wander, finding his big ripped arms and rounded-out shoulders. My breath hitches as he slowly lifts his shirt, revealing the familiar broad plane of his chest that tapers to a nice V. A tan line abruptly ends above the waist of his dark fitted jeans. My gaze dips lower than that, finding the outline of his sex constrained between his hard, muscular thighs.

  I gulp in a ragged breath, then flick my eyes back up to his face. My heart crashes against my chest. Krae looks as calm as ever, reposed. His sensual grin sends another hot surge of lust to my core.

  “What else do you have for me?” I tease.

  Krae unzips his pants, keeping his eyes glued to mine, even as he lowers his denim and boxers in one easy move.

  “Wow,” I breathe out, mesmerized and resisting the urge to pounce him. That’s the one I get? He’s simultaneously like the god Adonis, and all man.

  Those whisky eyes darken as he stalks toward me. Nervous flutters ignite in my belly and I press a hand to it. I’ve been so anxious to see all of Krae again, I hadn’t considered he’d be seeing me, too. He’s even yummier than I remember. He does realize I’m pregnant this time…right?

  “I know what you’re thinking,” he says in a coarse whisper, bending his face down to my ear, “and you’re crazy to think it.”

  I wrap my arms over my own chest. He takes them gently and lowers them back down to my hips.

  “Don’t hide your perfect body from me. I want to see every inch of you. I’ve been…very eager,” he growls out.

  I take a step back. I’m not half as graceful at unveiling myself as he was. Even when I’m not pregnant I’m not graceful. He must know how unfairly sexy he is right now. Heart skipping and breath lodged in my bosom, I tear off my clothes like ripping off a Band-Aid. I’m all downy skin and swollen belly, big boobs and pillowy thighs. All the good parts work. Like my sex drive he’s sending into overdrive.

  Krae’s naughty smirk directs a storm of lust into me, and my heart finds a new beat.

  “Sorry my body’s…different now. If you don’t want to…”

  “That’s my baby in there,” Krae says, closing the distance again and placing a hand gently over the growing bump. His other hand reaches around to squeeze my ass. “Don’t ever insult this body again.”

  “I’m sor—”

  He pins a finger to my lips. “Remove that word from your vocabulary.”

  “A’right.”

  “Did you know”—his voice drops lower, a deep bass timbre that’s both admonishing and seductive—“I thought I loved you the first night we were together.” It doesn’t sound much like a question.

  “Oh?”

  “But now, that feeling pales in comparison to the overwhelming adoration, devotion, and love I have for you,” he croons, adding, “times two,” with a smile.

  “You love me?”

  “You know I do.” He roves his gaze all over my face. “Do you love me?”

  “More than I ever imagined possible.”

  “Thank you,” Krae whispers. “You’re a goddess, my love.” He cradles my face in his hands, drawing me into a liquid stare. “Eyes like fuckin’ sapphires…Those kissable pouty lips.” Warmth and whisky travel lower, hands settling against the curve of my waist, eyes zeroing in on places I usually prefer to keep hidden. Not with him. “Damn,” he keens, and by the sight of him, the feel of his cock pressed to the apex of my thighs, there’s no question he means it. “You have the most delicious-looking girly parts.”

  Girly parts? It makes me giggle.

  “The way your tits bounce when you laugh,” he says, so seriously, and I chuckle harder. “Get it out now, babe. You won’t be laughing in a minute.”

  A throaty moan escapes me as his hands skate further south, caressing my thighs.

  “…your sweet little noises that send me into hysterics…”

  He’s got me giddy and horny, torn between busting out in stitches or biting into him.

  “…you smell so fuckin’ good…”

  Next thing I know Krae swoops me up again and lays me down on his bed. I lower into it, melting under his touch and his tight wicked smile. His full lips skitter like feathers all down my flesh, shattering any remaining doubt or insecurity. With no clothing to slow him down, all I can do is writhe beneath him as heat scours my body and wrecks my mind. His breaths linger right there for one ephemeral second, and my eyes roll back.

  When I glance down again, Krae’s peppering kisses back up along my curves, leaving a trail of goosebumps and yearning, and I realize I need him with a shocking, almost terrifying desperation.

  What if I’d never found this man? How could I have lived so long without this?

  Krae smooths his hands up my damp inner thighs. He sits up. He spreads my legs and stays there for a long moment to admire the view.

  “There’s a reason I went after you,” he murmurs, and sends a finger to stoke the flame that’s already lighting me up down there. It feels incredible, but
I don’t need his featherlight touch to get me going—I’m already there, ready for Krae to take me all the way home.

  “I need you inside of me,” I whimper, “please.”

  “Fuck, yeah.” He pumps his cock just for fun, then sinks it into me in one long, slow shove that just about sends me overboard. Somehow my walls yield to his size. Krae drives in and out of me languidly, sweetly, in an amazing self-controlled rhythm designed to draw out my pleasure, riding me toward the very edge, until I’m practically boneless and utterly mindless for release. He is too, I realize, feeling him quiver with the effort it’s taking to hold us both from going off like rockets.

  “Candice,” he moans, and that’s it, just my name and my pussy drenches and clenches hard around his sex, reaching for the end in tune with the sounds of Krae’s release. The man I love. A flood of warmth goes out to my limbs as the rhythm crescendos, vaulting us both higher and higher, closer, harder, faster, deeper, and higher still, until we finally come as one, wet meet wet. Heart meet heart. Soul meet soul.

  “Oh my god, Krae!” I cry out at the peak.

  “That was beautiful, baby.” He smiles. He looks at me for a long time, reverently, as we come back down the same way we climbed to the top—together. He rolls over onto his back, and I roll into him. I’ve never felt so content, so certain, so much in love. My hand falls to his chest like a magnet, rising and falling with the pace of his heart stampeding against my touch.

  When our breaths even out again, Krae turns over, nuzzling his face into my neck. It fits there, warm and sweet, and sexy, even possessive. I’m his, it declares, as if his own words and the earth-shattering finale weren’t enough.

  We’re his.

  And this incredible man making every one of my dreams come true—belongs to us.

  Epilogue

  Emma – 17 years later

  Getting dressed up for junior prom is supposed to be one of the most fun, memorable experiences of my life. But with my dad, Uncle Drake, and my two older male cousins all waiting with me and Mom for my date to arrive… well. It’s certainly off to a memorable beginning, if not a very fun beginning.

  “Do you guys all have to be here?” I snark, as Mom and I hunt for the misplaced boutonniere. It’s gotta be around here somewhere… “Pretty sure Dean got the message loud and clear last week!”

  “Last week?” Uncle Drake asks Dad, in a low voice I can still hear. “What’d you do last week?”

  “It was nothing,” Dad says. Liar.

  I poke my head around the corner. “He texted my boyfriend Dean two emojis—a shotgun and a shovel!” I screech, still feeling beyond embarrassed. I’m sort of amazed Dean still agreed to be my date tonight. Maybe he’s a keeper.

  My cousins both crack up at Dad’s stupid emoji story. Uncle Drake nods, impressed. “Damn I shoulda thought of that.”

  I roll my eyes. Uncle Drake’s done his share of intimidating my cousin Ember’s boyfriends. I swear they only do it for the laughs. The guys know how intimidating they look just sitting together on the couch, all barrel chests and big bulging biceps. But Ember and I’ve grown up with MMA too. If some guy messes with one of us, we won’t be needing Daddy’s shotgun or their shovel.

  Trust me.

  “Get dressed, sweetie,” Mom says, anxiously, “I’ll find it.” Her British accent is thicker than usual, so I know she’s not really sure that she will. I doubt it will matter very much to Dean. But Mom knows…it’s important to me.

  I finish my hair and makeup and slip into my gown. Mom covers her mouth in awe when I step out of my room, then smiles at me. “You’re gorgeous, Love!” she beams, and tears form in her big blue eyes. “My god when did you get all grown up?”

  My own tear lodges in my neck as we walk together to the living room. When I make an appearance in front of the guys, I give a quick twirl in my dress and the lot of them all frown.

  Dad pins a look at Mom. “You’re not letting her go out like that.”

  “Oh don’t be square,” Mom says. “I think she looks ravishing!”

  “Exactly,” Dad growls. “What’s with all the sparkles?”

  “They’re pretty,” I pout, crossing my arms sassily. Dad raises an eyebrow at me, in warning.

  “They’re making me dizzy,” Uncle Drake bellyaches.

  Mom dismisses their objections with a wave of her hand, just as the front doorbell rings.

  “The boutonniere!” I spin toward Mom. “Did you find it?”

  “I couldn’t, baby, I’m sorry…” she says, fetching a little box and handing it to me. “…so, I made one.” She shrugs. “I know it’s not the same—”

  I open the box and peer inside. An apple-green origami rose with hand-twisted curly stems and two darker satin leaves. The stem is wrapped in lux cream satin and tied with a sapphire bow, same bright shade of blue as my dress. My breath becomes caught in my throat.

  Now I’m the one with tears in her eyes, as I look up at Mom. “You. Are. Amazing!”

  She kisses my cheek. “Don’t cry.” She swipes her thumbs beneath my eyes. “You’ll wet your mascara.” She smiles.

  We lock arms and head for the door, where Dad is waiting now, standing tall with arms crossed. His disapproving expression softens the moment I get close enough for him to reach out and take my hand. Dad may have a formidable exterior, but inside, he’s soft as butter. He wraps me in a teddy-bear hug.

  “Have fun tonight,” Dad whispers. Then he says in a deeper voice, “Be careful.”

  “Always,” I say proudly, pulling back from his embrace. Before I answer the door, I reach up to school a tear off Dad’s cheekbone. “I love you, Daddy.” I grin.

  “I love you too, baby girl.”

  The End

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  Table of Contents

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Epilogue