He resituated my leg, propping it up on the couch and tucking a pillow under my ankle. My lungs squeezed in pain, and I was barely able to inhale, wondering how he could put me down and then take care of me so tenderly in the same breath.
That gaze swept up, dark eyes penetrating, and those shallow breaths raking from my lungs completely stalled out.
His mouth twisted up in a way that took my insides with it, everything getting tangled and tight, and he reached up and brushed back a piece of hair that had fallen in my face, his expression different than I’d ever seen it before.
His tongue swept across his plump bottom lip, the words a low, seductive rasp. “Clueless, Clueless Kenna.”
Two
Kyle
Clueless Kenna.
Clueless, awkward, sexy-as-fuck Kenna.
She was killing me.
Breaths coming from her lush mouth in these rough, choppy pants, the girl pinned under me on the couch, those brown eyes wide and unsure.
No doubt, I was making things up, but I could have sworn I saw them flaming with desire, too.
“Please, don’t call me that,” she whispered, her chest shaking.
Did she actually think I was putting her down?
A smile pulled to my mouth, and fuck yeah, I’d teased her growing up. That’s what boys did when they crushed on a girl so hard they went stupid.
“And what would you like me to call you?”
Baby sounded about right.
“My name works just fine. I do at least understand that.”
Apparently, she didn’t have the first clue how damn appealing that she was. Had anyone ever told her?
I’d nearly come undone when she’d opened the door, standing there in what I was pretty sure was a man’s sweatshirt that swallowed her whole.
Instantly, I was hard. Mind running with the idea that she didn’t have a stitch on underneath.
Completely bare.
Tits puckered and needy. As needy as the sweet spot between her thighs. Didn’t even care that she had toothpaste dried on her forehead.
But half the time, it felt like she despised me. Like she wanted to split the second we got in the same room.
Which had always gotten to me since she was the kindest person I’d ever met. I’d spent years watching her give and give and give. Girl would ignore the insults and abuse and snubs that assholes would cast her way, turning right around and pouring out her goodness into the world when it didn’t deserve to receive the genuine inner beauty of this girl.
Was I that bad of a guy that I didn’t deserve any of that?
The fact my sister would cut my balls off if I even thought about touching her best friend only came in as a close second.
Only I thought about it.
A lot.
“How about . . . Cupcake Kenna?” That sounded nice, right? Not too forward? Because I was thinking she might not take too kindly to something along the lines of I want to get lost in your sweet cunt Kenna.
Too far?
Yeah.
She rolled her eyes like she thought I was mocking her.
If she only knew.
And now I was really, really hungry for a cupcake.
Fuck my life.
My tongue darted out to wet my lips, and I hovered, wavered, relished in the feel of her heart beating wild in the bare space between us.
Shit. I wanted to kiss her. Climb onto this couch and crawl all over her. Take her hard and then take her slow.
Like she saw the intention written on me, panic surged through her expression, and she started to fidget and get all flustered in that adorable way that set her apart from everyone.
She pressed her hand against my chest, then she jerked her hand away, like she’d thought better of that, too. “I’m fine now, Kyle. Honest. I’ve got it. You don’t have to worry about me.”
There she went, pushing me away, though when she did it, I swore I heard an undercurrent of sadness lacing the words.
I wanted to grab her hand and lock it to my chest so she could feel the crazy thing going down inside. So she could feel the way she affected me. Desperate to know if there was any chance she might feel the least bit the same.
Had told myself not to think about her on my way back to the States. Told myself it was never going to happen. To fucking forget it.
But that didn’t come close to stopping the fantasies from assaulting me. The feelings that annihilated me the second I saw her standing at the door.
“What if I’ve always worried about you?”
A frown pulled across her brow. “You’ve always been full of yourself, Kyle Love, but I never took you for a liar.”
It was my turn to frown. “You really think I don’t care about you? You’ve been Vanessa’s best friend since you were a little girl. You’re basically family.”
She shifted her gaze away when I claimed it, like maybe she didn’t know how to accept that truth.