Effortless (Thoughtless, #2)(10)

He sucked in a breath, his stomach clenching as my lips moved over the old wound.

I smiled and kissed across his back as I thought of one other major wound he’d gotten because of me. True, this one didn’t have an external scar, the fracture having been reset without surgery, but I knew it was damaged, under the surface. My hands ran up his arms, squeezing the left one, where he’d broken it while getting into a fight with Denny so many months ago.

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I leaned forward and kissed that arm and his eyes softened as he watched me. I knew he understood my gesture. “I adore you for all your scars,” I whispered as I leaned over and gave him a soft kiss on the lips.

His hand came up to grip my head, keeping me trapped in the loving softness of his kiss. He deepened it and the fire of anticipation coursed through me when his tongue brushed over mine. My breath sped up and I leaned into the kiss for a moment before I stopped myself.

Skillfully, I pulled away from his hand trapping me to his mouth. With a playful scowl I smacked his shoulder. “You stop that. I’m not done with my inspection.”

He sighed and rolled his eyes. “Well, can you hurry up? So I can make love to you and not this awful mattress?” He pressed his hips against the bed beneath him for emphasis and I laughed. Laughing himself he muttered, “We could switch positions when you’re done?” Ignoring that, I sat back on my seat at the base of his spine and turned all of my attention to his glorious back. He seemed fine, definitely no thin trails of puckered flesh from me tearing into him. I leaned forward to kiss his skin and then I noticed it. I paused as I looked more closely. It was faint, so faint you wouldn’t notice unless you were literally an inch from his skin, like I currently was, but it was there. Thin, white streaks down his back, right where I’d raked him. I smiled inwardly that a part of our crazy, intense night was still with him, maybe forever. As much as I hated that I’d caused him pain, I was a little happy that a reminder would be with him, wherever he went.

“Ah, found ‘em,” I muttered.

He started to ask me, “What?” when I playfully drug the very tip of my tongue over the vague white line. He cut off what he’d been about to say and a shudder went through him. Emboldened, I let my tongue make a trail up between his shoulder blades and up the back of his neck.

Kellan squirmed and dropped his forehead to the pillow, his breath definitely faster. Another old memory seizing me, I very gently bit the back of his neck. He groaned.

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Before I could really process it, and definitely before I could stop it, he twisted underneath me, bringing up his arms to pull me down to the bed. All of the air whooshed from my lungs with the force he used to get me off of him. I giggled when he crawled on top of me. His lips attacked mine, his tongue practically searching for my tonsils.

I pushed him away from me. With desire evident in his smoky bedroom eyes, he growled, “I said don’t tease me.” I smirked and ran a finger across his parted lips. “Payback.” I raised an eyebrow at him. “At least I didn’t do that in a crowded club.” His face startled. It was almost like he’d forgotten about that very intense moment when he’d licked me in the middle of a packed dance floor. Denny and Anna had both been somewhere in that club at the time. His brow scrunched together as his eyes turned recalcitrant. “That wasn’t very nice of me, was it?”

I slung my arms around his neck and shook my head. “No, it wasn’t…but I liked it.”

His guilty eyes turned playful again as he thought about that night. “I couldn’t resist.” His fingers trailed up my arms, raising them over my head and causing delightful shivers to course down my body. “You had your arms up here.” He cocked one over my head and brought the other one above it. Holding both wrists in one hand, he trailed his finger down my nose to my mouth. “You were biting your lip as you danced.” I bit my lip again as I watched his hungry eyes recreate the sight of me that had pushed him over the edge. His finger floated over my lip and down between my breasts. I closed my eyes but he kept going, dragging the finger over my still exposed belly button to my shorts. He played with the waistband before bringing a hand to my hip bone. “And these…these hips…” He leaned over me to lightly breathe on my face, our lips brushing. “These hips drove me straight to madness.” He brought his lips down to mine and released my hands. I wrapped my arms over his head, firmly holding him to me. When we paused for air, I muttered, “You were watching me?”

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He ran his nose along my jaw, flicking his tongue for an occasional taste. “Ceaselessly.” His lips traveled back and forth along my jaw. “I have many things to atone for, and I hate what happened between us later, but I’ll never feel sorry for tasting your skin that night.” I gasped and arched against him, lifting my head so his lips could revisit my neck.

He obliged and feather-light touches made their way down my skin.

His mouth still on my neck, his fingers tore at the knotted section of my shirt. In one smooth move he lifted the dark material up and brought it over my head. His eyes lingered over my body for a second before he harshly unhooked my bra and ripped it off of me. My body pulsed with need as his burning eyes visually caressed me.

With a sigh, he dropped his head to my stomach. “I need this flesh,” he muttered as his tongue ran up me.