“I tried that, too!” Marla says, “They told me all your things were gone, and they didn’t know where you went!”
“I…” Rubbing my forehead, I try to concoct a story that seems believable. “I was on the boat that left a couple of hours after yours. I got my stuff and just… you know. Took off.”
We talk for a while, Marla needing to process what happened to us and me deflecting awkward questions.
“We need to stay in touch,” she says firmly. “Promise you’ll call again.”
“I will. I know no one else seems to understand all of this, but I do. You were so brave, Marla. And we got out.”
“We got out,” she repeats softly, and we say our goodbyes.
“Thank you. So much, thank you.” I hand the phone back to Kai. “I needed to know she was okay.”
“I believe she needed the same thing, aye?” He smiles, gently kissing my forehead. “We MacTavishes keep our promises, little fox.”
Driving home in silence, I rest my head against the window, watching the shoreline turn to a highway, the ribbons of neon flashing past us, growing brighter as we head back into the city.
I’m still trying to comprehend everything that’s happened between us. As much as I hated that acutely uncomfortable ceremony at the registrar’s office, I’m already tucking away the memory of tearing across the waves with my hand on the throttle and Kai’s genuine pleasure in making me happy.
We’re standing in the front hall, my back against the little table as Kai drops his keys and puts his hands on either side of me, trapping me between his expensive handmade furniture and his enormous body.
“Come to my bed tonight.”
I freeze, staring up at his beautifully sculpted face.Hisbed. Notourbed. His. We may be married, but there’s no “we.”
My options are awkward: ducking under his arm or shoving against it. Turning my face away, I look toward the stairway. My guest room is on the third floor. His master bedroom is on the second, an enormous, sprawling suite of rooms that takes up the entire second story.
“No, I’m sleeping inmybed.”
From the corner of my eye, I can see his fingers tighten on the table before he pulls away. “Goodnight.”
Cold, composed Kai is back in the building.
I can feel his blistering stare all the way to the third floor.
Chapter Twenty-Two
In which Kai is punished for his sexy afternoon with a deeply unwelcome revelation.
Kai…
Is it considered stalking if she’s my wife?
I’m standing at the foot of my bride’s bed. I’d like to say this is the first time I’ve slipped in here to check on her in the middle of the night, but that’s a lie.
There’s something about Luna at rest that is mesmerizing. When she’s asleep, all the armor she assembles around herself during the day is gone and she’s at peace, relaxed, and sprawled out over the mattress.
Her nipple is peeking out from her loose tank top and it’s taking all my considerable self-control not to suck on it. Her breasts are gorgeous, fitting perfectly in my hands and her skin is like silk. I can see a couple of bruises already forming from this afternoon, one on her shoulder and another on her inner thigh. Even as rough as I was, she held onto me, lifting her hips to get my tongue deeper inside her.
My cock’s been hard enough to knock a hole in the wall for the last two hours, and watching her sleep isn’t helping. When I’d asked her to come to my bed, there was a flash of somethingin her expression before she refused me, something like hurt or wounded pride.
Was she embarrassed that I went down on her today? My bride has clearly been in a dry spell, she came the first time after just a little finger-play, and I enjoyed every minute of it.
Pushing the heel of my hand down on my erection, I groan silently. The taste of her… I could feast on that perfect little pussy every day and still want more. Her phone is charging on the bedside table, and I pick it up, scrolling through the pictures she took today.
The iPhone is an older one without all the fancy camera lenses the new ones have, but her eye is good; a pristine shot of the village as the lights came on at dusk, several of the waves, the shots are so clear that I almost feel the boat rocking under us again.
There are several of me.
