Kissing Kendall - Gone Wild

She shut that thought down fast, but nowhere near fast enough. It was all too easy to transpose his pressing her against the wall to his pressing her against a bed. His hands on her body, his mouth kissing her everywhere with the same thorough way he kissed her mouth.

“You should go back to your cabin.”

She blinked. “What?”

“Go back to your cabin, Kendall.” He scrubbed a hand over his mouth, which only served to smear the pink color across his jaw. “You keep looking at me like that, and I’m going to kiss you again.”

“Would that be such a bad thing?” she whispered. Why was she asking him that? He’d given her an out, the exact thing she wanted. She should be fleeing right now without looking back, not peppering him with questions that might lead to him touching her again.

“It wouldn’t be a bad thing.” The growl in his voice had her drifting a step closer to him. He held up a hand. “But I’m not about to contribute to a memory you use to whip yourself with. I’ve done enough of that already.”

She wanted to argue with him, to tell him that he was wrong and she wouldn’t do exactly that.

She couldn’t.

Kendall forced herself back a step, and then another. “I guess this is goodbye?”

He laughed harshly. “Go. Before we both change our mind.”

She made it another step. “What if that happens? We change our mind?”

“If you change your mind, Kendall, really change your mind, then I’m going to take you to bed.” He shrugged his jacket on. “But not tonight. Go, sweetheart. Go get warm and let this shit settle.”

She went.

Chapter 3

Alex spent the night alternating between a truly outstanding case of blue balls and dreams of a certain brunette all wrapped up in him. He still couldn’t believe he’d sent her away. She might have been conflicted, but she wanted him. She wanted more. He’d wanted a whole hell of a lot more, too.

But Pop’s lessons ran too deep to make that particular mistake. Even now, Alex could hear the old man’s voice in his head, rasping from a couple decades’ worth of whiskey and cigarettes. He’d quit both when he took over raising Alex, but the rough tone lingered.

If it’s not a hell yes, it’s a fuck no.

He shoved the covers off and lurched to his feet. One of the few perks of this trip was that Pop had sprung for two cabins, so Alex hadn’t disturbed Lucas with his restlessness. He’d promised to try and enjoy the next week, and he couldn’t do that with thoughts of Kendall dancing in his head. He could still feel her body molding to his hands, her center practically scorching him through his pants, her mouth moving desperately against his.

Alex brushed his teeth, but he swore he could still catch the lingering sweetness he tasted on her tongue last night. So he did it again. And a third time just for good measure.

A quick glance at the clock told him it was barely five in the morning. Too early to go knocking on Lucas’s door, looking for a distraction. Just as well. He wouldn’t make for good company until he burned off some of this energy.

Alex paused by his bag. Yeah, he’d promised to embrace the vacation mentality, but that didn’t mean he’d stopped worrying about the bar. A lot of shit could go wrong in twenty-four hours. Hell, a lot could go wrong in a single hour. They didn’t have much in the way of bar fights these days, not like when he was a kid and Pop catered to a slightly rougher clientele. In the last five years, Alex’s renovations and careful marketing had boosted the atmosphere enough that they now brought in the upper-middle-class folk who lived around Dawson’s Creek. Pops wasn’t quite trendy, but it skirted that edge enough that he’d nearly doubled its annual earnings.

Rationally, he knew a week wasn’t enough to dismantle everything he’d built. That didn’t stop him from reaching for the phone and going through the process to call home.

It rang twice before a cheery female voice answered. “Thank you for calling Pop’s. What can I do for you?”

“How are things going, Cherry?”

“Alex?” Instantly, the welcoming note in her voice disappeared. “What are you doing calling? You’re supposed to be on vacation.”

Guilt flared, but he smothered it. “I’m just checking in.”

“The whole place burned down in the night.”

Even though he knew she was joking, something clamped tight around his chest. There wouldn’t be anything left if that happened. Nothing to rebuild. The insurance money would go to Pop, since it was his bar, and while Pop would never hang Alex out to dry, he most likely wouldn’t want to rebuild.

Alex would lose it.

“Alex?” Cherry sounded worried. “Honey, I was just kidding. You’re being an overprotective papa bear, and it’s cute and all, but you really need to unplug and stop worrying about this place. I have it locked down.”