Since I Saw You (Because You Are Mine #4)(83)
No, she hardly felt safe carrying on this way with Kam.
Yet here she was.
What Kam did make her feel, she realized as she opened her eyes and stared at herself honestly in the mirror, was good, and more alive than she remembered feeling in her entire life.
Maybe this wasn’t wise and maybe it wasn’t safe, Lin acknowledged as she opened up a drawer and found a comb. But it was wonderful.
Didn’t she deserve the spotlight for a precious moment, no matter how short that time was? Didn’t she deserve to bask in the euphoria of great sex, risk, and romance instead of always being the efficient, careful, reliable understudy hovering in the wings?
• • •
Kam’s eyes grew warm when he entered the apartment a little less than an hour later and saw her on the floor next to Angus, a computer in her lap and a cup of coffee steaming on the table not far away. Sunlight flooded through the floor-to-ceiling windows and turned Lake Michigan a sparkling teal in the distance. Angus had succumbed to the warm sedative of the sun a few minutes before, when Lin had scratched her behind the ears.
She smiled as he stalked toward her, his gaze lowering over her appreciatively and lingering on her bare, outstretched legs. “You look a hell of a lot better in that shirt than I do,” he said, referring to his gray button-down, which fell on her at midthigh.
“I disagree. I happen to like this shirt on you a lot,” she said, taking a sip of coffee.
He tossed a shopping bag on the couch behind her. “You should, since you’re the one who picked it out.” Lin’s hand jerked, splashing some coffee on her upper lip. “Now we’re trading off. I’m the one buying clothes for you.”
“What . . . do you mean?” she said looking up at him.
He smirked. “You didn’t really believe that I thought Ian picked out all those clothes for me, did you? Or chose the new curtains for Aurore, or all that bedding and linens and the new dishes for the kitchen? Give me some credit for reading him. Everyone knows he relies on you for stuff like that. Everyone knows you have impeccable taste.”
She blushed. “I hadn’t realized you knew.”
“Your mark was all over that stuff. Your reputation precedes you. Ian, Francesca, Lucien, and Elise talk about you as if you could do no wrong. You transformed Aurore. Only you could make that ancient pile start to look not only elegant, but also comfortable,” he said matter-of-factly, kneeling on the carpet and sitting next to her, his back leaning against the couch, one long, jean-covered leg bent, the other one sprawled out in front of him, his hip pressed against hers.
“I’m glad you liked the things. It was hard to choose, never having been to Aurore. Never having met you,” she admitted.
For a few seconds, they didn’t speak. The sunlight brought out the russet highlights in his dark hair. Before she could second-guess herself, she touched the thick waves. He smelled good, like soap and the outdoor air. “Ian described your character a little to me. It guided what I bought for clothing. Rugged. Independent. Nonconformist.” She met his sun-gleaming eyes. “Utterly male.”
His eyebrows went up. “Ian described me that way?”
She smiled as she reflected. “No. But somehow, I got that impression.”
He caught her stroking hand and pressed his mouth to her palm. Warmth spread in places far away from his lips.
“I like your glasses,” he said when he lifted his head slightly, his breath brushing against her skin.
“Thanks. I wear them for reading.”
She felt him studying her intently.
“What?” she asked, grinning, sensing he was analyzing her component parts again like he did a machine’s.
“This is how you should be all the time,” he murmured gruffly. “You can’t take the love of work out of the girl, but you should do it more like this. With your hair down. Sitting on the floor in the sunlight. Wearing one of my shirts . . .”
His lips were suddenly moving on hers, warm and sweet as the sunlight. She held her breath during that kiss, as if by doing so, she could hold on to the moment. His arms surrounded her, molding her back muscles in that delicious, bone-melting manner he had. Their kiss became wet and deep, tongues dueling sensually. She slid her hand beneath the blue-and-white plaid cotton shirt he wore, touching his warm, smooth skin. He groaned into her mouth and tightened his hold. He brought her onto his lap with a flex of hard muscle. She landed, straddling his hips, their kiss barely pausing.
Lin wasn’t sure how long they kissed and touched, their actions simultaneously languorous and hungry. She was wrapped in a cocoon of sunshine with him and she was melting, her body softening and heating, her flesh yielding in a way it never had before. Maybe he felt the need to stretch the moment, too, because while he touched her, he did so fairly chastely, framing her jaw with his hand or brushing his fingertips against the shell of her ear or her nape. He rubbed her back, coaxing her muscles to yield even more. She touched his neck and shoulders, stroking him through the opening of his shirt. At one point, he leaned back and calmly removed her glasses, placing them on the couch behind him, then resumed his sensual kiss. She felt his arousal beneath her spread *, but for once, urgency didn’t ride her as it often did with him. Kam trumped all that. His taste and his molding lips and his sleek, masterful tongue.
Inevitably, their arousal swelled untenably, though. She panted softly, helping him to unbuckle his belt and unfasten his button fly. She came up on her knees, granting him room. He worked his clothing down to his thighs, and then she came back over him. He held his erection in place and she lowered, gritting her teeth as his flesh slowly fused with her own. Her core had gone liquid with sweet arousal, but she had to apply a steady pressure to get her flesh to relent. Their gazes held fast until she sat in his lap and his cock pulsed high inside her. A sharp cry escaped her throat and he caught it with his seeking lips, nibbling at her, calming her as he rubbed her back.