Beautiful Broken Promises(64)

“What is it with you and Audrey pinching my sides?!” I laughed.

“Probably because it’s the only area on your body that actually gives a little bit.”

“Hmm… I’ll have to work on that.”

“You’re ridiculous. If you work on this body anymore, I’ll need my own cane just so I can beat all the women away from you,” she laughed.

I grabbed a hold of her ass in my lap and pulled her even closer to my body. “You claiming me?” The words were practically a growl and I realized our lips were now inches apart.

“Are you saying you’re claimable?” she murmured.

“Depends on the girl…”

“I thought it was just sex.”

“Those were your words, babe. Not mine.”

“I don’t want to just be convenient for you, Lane.” Her eyes shifted away from me, but she continued to speak. “I’m like a mother to Kate so I know she’ll want me around. Kate and Braden love each other so much, and I hope they can always be in each other’s lives. But I feel as if I’m convenient to you, and I don’t want to feel that way. So maybe we shouldn’t…” Her words would have knocked me on my ass if I weren’t already there.

I grabbed a hold of her face and looked directly into her blazing emerald eyes. “The only thing convenient about you is that you’re a woman. Otherwise, you have a saucy mouth, you never let me get away with anything, you jump on problems immediately, you always take the last chip when we share, you hog the covers in bed, sometimes you snore—”

“I do not!” she interrupted.

“Sometimes you snore. And you always use all the hot water. Not to mention, you’re too damn beautiful for your own good.”

“Some of those didn’t sound like problems to me,” she bantered.

“None of those are problems. I just wanted you to know you aren’t convenient. You aren’t easy. I don’t like you because you’re just around. I want you around because of your saucy mouth and the way you attack problems without letting them fester like most girls. I like that you don’t let me get away with anything. I’ll always give you the last chip, and you can take all the hot water you want as long as I can be in the shower with you.”

“You forgot that you like my snoring.” She smiled wide.

“Mmm… debatable,” I teased. As I should have expected, she pinched my side—hard. It only made me laugh. “Okay, you don’t really snore, but you do have this really cute little raspy breathing thing that you start doing sometimes. It’s adorable.”

She crinkled her nose in apparent aversion. “Girls don’t want to be adorable.”

I shrugged my shoulders without care. “Adorable doesn’t mean I still don’t want to f*ck you.”

“Ah, there’s the romantic in you that I adore,” she laughed.

Then, without further thought, she leaned in and pressed her lips to mine. I grabbed the back of her head and pulled her in tighter. Her mouth moved and she pushed her lower lips in between mine. I kept moving my lips against hers, knowing what she was asking for, but not willing to give it just yet.

She whimpered and I broke. I sucked her lip forcefully and then bit down gently on the swollen flesh. Her hips rocked forward and I groaned.

“You have to get off my lap, babe…” I muttered into her mouth.

“I like it here.” As if to show her fondness of her position, she ground into my hardening erection again.

I stood from my position on the wood floor and when I was steady, I made sure she was stable on her feet. Her lower lip jutted out and all I wanted to do was bite down on it. Instead, I ran my index finger across it lightly.

“The tiny search party will be out here soon looking for me. I said I would read to them,” I whispered.

“Later?” she asked.

“You bet your ass, babe.” She smiled, appeased by my words, and I almost moaned at the image of her standing there with a swollen lip and eyes begging me to take her. I stepped back and forced my body to move. I tried to readjust the situation she had given me in my shorts. “No, babe, you are definitely not convenient,” I said as I walked toward the hallway.

I felt a lightness overcome me when I heard her breathy laugh. Before I could make it to Kate and Braden, she called out to me, “Hey, Lane…” When I turned around, she said, “I think I will claim you.”