Before We Kiss (Fool's Gold #14)(53)

He filled her deeply, making her arch against him. More, she thought hazily. If he did this for a little bit longer, she would come again. If he just—

His hands returned to her br**sts. Her ni**les were still tight, but so sensitive from her recent climax. When he began to massage them, she nearly told him it was too much. Only then he was rubbing and touching her ni**les all the while pressing his fingers in just below them. And he found a spot that connected directly to her very core.

Her eyes flew open and she found him watching her.

“What are you doing to me?” she asked.

He smiled as he pushed in again. At the same time he squeezed and pushed or twisted and—

Who cares, she thought as she lost herself in a second climax. She pulled him in as deeply as she could. Her body convulsed around his. He pumped harder and faster until he, too, came and then they were holding each other and trying to catch their breath.

“Your mother is amazing,” Dellina said when she could speak again.

Sam looked at her and started to laugh.

* * *

“WE ARE SO LATE,” Dellina said as she picked up clothes off the towel rack and ran into the hallway. “Late, late, late.”

Sam knew she was right, but he couldn’t begin to care. Damn, talk about a great way to start the day.

He pulled on his briefs, then his jeans and followed her down the hall. His reward was the sight of her slipping on her bra, then adjusting her br**sts. She shimmied into jeans, pulled on a blouse and wrapped it around her. She turned and saw him.

“Stop it! You have that smile.”

He leaned against the wall. “What smile?”

“The one that says you just got laid. Do you want everyone to know? What time is it? Oh, my God. It’s nine. Fayrene will be here any second. Get your shirt on.”

She was frazzled, he thought with satisfaction. Rattled and scattered and all those other words that describe a woman after she’d had her world rocked. Yeah, that was good and he was the man who’d made it happen.

From outside came the sound of a vehicle pulling into the driveway.

Dellina shrieked and ran into her bedroom. She came back in flats and was pulling pins out of her hair. “Get dressed,” she told him as she raced past. “Fayrene can’t suspect. Do I look guilty? I feel like I look guilty.”

“You look beautiful.”

She paused and smiled at him, then shook her head. “Don’t talk nice to me. We have to be completely normal.”

“I am nice when I’m normal.”

“You know what I mean.”

She walked to the door and smoothed her hair. “Okay. This is fine. I’m ready.” She reached for the handle.

“Dellina?”

She turned to him and raised her eyebrows. “Yes?”

“In case you were wondering, that was your G-spot.”

* * *

KIPLING LIVED A half-life of near-consciousness. Even when he was out, he was aware of the pain, but when the drugs were working, he didn’t care. It hummed in the background but didn’t touch him. But when the drugs faded, then there was the agony of a thousand shattered bones. Shards and swelling and lacerations. The carefully stitched seams from his surgeries.

He’d been moved. He knew that. And he could breathe on his own. The nurses were less quiet, less worried, in this new room. They still monitored him too closely and talked about fluids in and out in such a way that he knew he must be on a catheter. That particular hell was one he didn’t want to think about.

“Kip?”

The soft voice was familiar. Perhaps the only one in the world he had always loved. He forced his eyes open. The room swam at first, then settled and he saw Shelby standing by his bed.

He saw her eyes first. Big and blue. Like his own. They had that in common, along with their dark blond hair. Both inherited from their mutual father. They had different mothers, though. That showed in the rest of their features. Shelby was small boned and delicate. Like a fairy princess come to life. Only no fairy princess should have a fist-size bruise on her face.

“I’m going to kill him,” he said, or at least he tried. His mouth was dry and speaking was harder than he’d thought it would be.

“Kip.” His baby half sister leaned close and kissed his cheek. “Oh, Kip, I’ve been so worried. They said you nearly died.”

She took his uninjured hand in hers and squeezed. “I came as soon as I heard.”

“I wish you hadn’t.”

She’d flown halfway around the world and for what? To watch him lie in a hospital bed? He’d been injured before—they both knew the drill. Although what he would never admit was that he hadn’t been hurt this bad before. He wouldn’t acknowledge the chill of fear that whispered this time was different. This time meant he would never compete again, never ski professionally. This time, maybe he wouldn’t walk.

The doctors hadn’t said anything and he didn’t ask, but he wasn’t a fool. And the possibility of how bad it could be terrified him.

Shelby touched his face. “You look terrible.”

“Always with the compliments.” He freed his hand and pushed the button to raise the bed, then studied her. “Dammit, Shelby, what are you doing back home?”

“You know why I’m there.”

He did. Shelby’s mother had cancer. She’d been in remission for a while, but it was back. Staying with her mom meant staying with her dad. And when Nigel Gilmore drank, he was a mean sonofabitch.