It's All Relative(57)
Jessie’s stomach clenched into a painful knot, but her mind rewound to when she’d had that naked body writhing underneath her. The passionate look on his face, the heated breaths, the thrusting hips, the way he’d used all of his body to make her explode. Thinking about it made a rush of desire surge through Jessie, and her breath quickened at the memory. Damn it.
Harmony shushed April. “Quiet, that’s Jessie’s cousin you’re talking about, and I’m pretty sure she doesn’t want to hear about you and Kai having sex.” Both girls giggled, and their voices dropped to a level Jessie couldn’t hear anymore.
Closing her eyes, Jessie replayed her night with Kai. As wrong as it was, she let herself relive every erotic thing they’d done. She generally shut her thoughts off when they drifted in that direction, but April had shoved the memories at her, and she couldn’t hold them back. Her body reacted to her thoughts, and a deep ache throbbed within her core as she remembered the way his body felt when he slipped inside her, when he rubbed against her in all the right places. Sucking on her lip, Jessie’s hands drifted under her shirt, to feel the smooth skin of her stomach. She shouldn’t think about him this way. And she definitely shouldn’t live out the fantasy, shouldn’t pretend her hands were his, and shouldn’t relieve the ache growing stronger every long second that she thought about his hard, perfect body. It was so wrong. She couldn’t let herself go there. Even still, she restlessly stirred in her sheets. She needed something, some sort of release. Her hand ran along her abdomen, slipped under the lacey edge of her underwear. Her legs tensed, her skin pebbled, and her breath grew heavy as her fingers slowly trailed downward, to where the painful need of wanting him was the strongest. She shouldn’t do this…but God, she wanted one more time with him, even if it wasn’t real.
Her finger hovered above her, a hairs-breadth from satisfying the ache, when the doorbell rang. Icy shock flooded her senses, dousing any fire she’d felt. Disgust filled her as she ripped her hand out of her underwear. She could not give in to fantasies about Kai. It was so…
Amid her confusion, she heard April brightly exclaim, “Kai! It’s so good to see you again.”
Jessie jerked upright in bed like someone had poured ice down her back. Her breath was still embarrassingly fast; her body was slightly shaky from the sudden shift in desire. Kai was here? Again? Looking over at the alarm clock on her nightstand, Jessie saw that she’d let herself sleep in past eleven. What was he doing here? And oh God…was he here for April?
As she listened to April leading Kai into the house, Jessie glanced down at herself; she was a mess and seriously needed to take a shower before Kai saw her. Jessie could hear his deep voice responding to April as he walked into the living room, but she couldn’t make out what he was saying. Hearing his voice did odd things to her body, started reigniting the spark the doorbell had so thoroughly quenched. Wishing her heart and her breath would calm down, Jessie got out of bed and cracked open her door.
She could see him from the hallway. He had his back to her and was casually talking with April and Harmony like he’d known them for years, not just a day. Harmony was still seated on a couch, looking up at him with polite interest. April was practically attached to his hip with her hand curled around his arm. Thinking to sneak in a quick shower before Kai noticed her, Jessie began tiptoeing to the bathroom. April laughed at something Kai said and her fingers traveled all the way down his arm, until she was holding his hand. Jessie paused; she couldn’t tear her eyes away from the intimate contact.
Almost like he knew she was staring, Kai turned his head and glanced down the hallway. The smile on his face brightened when he saw her, and he instantly released April. Frowning, April followed his gaze to Jessie. Feeling dirty, grimy, and in desperate need of some refreshingly cool water, Jessie awkwardly pointed to the bathroom door. “I’m just gonna… I need…” Cursing her inability to speak, she gushed, “I’ll be out in a minute.”
Kai was nodding when she flew into the bathroom and slammed the door shut. She bit her lip so hard she almost punctured the skin. Jesus. If he only knew what she’d been thinking about just as he’d been arriving. What she’d almost begun… Actually, she really wasn’t sure how he would feel about it. He would probably be just as conflicted as she was. And probably just as turned on by it, too. It was yet another reason why Kai should date April. They needed to end this attraction. Now.
Even knowing that it was a good thing, Jessie hated the idea of April out there “entertaining” Kai, and she took the fastest shower she’d ever taken in her life. Leaving the water just barely above room temperature, it was also the coldest shower she’d ever taken in her life. The chill helped her regain focus though, and by the time she was scrubbing her hair dry with a towel, all of her inappropriate thoughts about Kai were securely locked away in the farthest corner of her mind, never to be looked at again.
After running her fingers through her damp curls, knowing full well they were going to frizz out when they dried, Jessie dashed across the hallway to her bedroom. She dressed just as quickly as she’d showered. All in all, she’d only taken about fifteen minutes getting ready, but the thought of April mercilessly flirting with Kai for that long left a frenzied feeling in Jessie’s stomach. She knew she’d have to firmly deal with that one day, but not today.
As she slipped on some comfortable shoes, she wondered what Kai was doing back here so soon. Surely he would have just called April to make arrangements with her. Cautiously peeking her head out the door, Jessie heard light laughter from the living room. She recognized the sound as both April and Harmony, and she was momentarily elated that Harmony was still here. At least April would keep the PDA to a minimum with her in the room.