He moved a hand between my legs, finding my clit and pinching it. With the burn of my nipples and the pressure in my core, my climax crashed into me out of nowhere, andjustlike he wanted, I screamed his name.
My entire body tensed as wave after wave of pleasure pulsed through me. Before I had time to recover, Jackson flipped me onto my back, driving his cock deep inside me, his gorgeous blue eyes penetrating me as he stared deep into my soul.
Tears welled in my eyes as a myriad of emotions consumed me, one feeling more apparent than any of the others: what I felt for Jackson. A feelingthathadneverfully gone away despite the yearsthathad passed.
Brushing a stray tear away from my cheek with his thumb, Jackson thrust a few more times before his warm come spilled inside of me. When he had emptied himself of every drop, he didn’t move. He hovered above me, staring with his brows furrowed, almost as if he was internally questioning how he’d gone from claiming to hate me to…whateverthiswas.
Whateverthiswas, I didn’t want it to end.
I woke the following morning to find I’d fallen asleep on the couch. Much like the time I woke at the cottage, Jackson was nowhere to be seen. The only reason I knew I hadn’t dreamed what happened last night was because of the ache in my nipples and the slickness between my thighs.
Chapter 20
Jackson
After the afternoon I spent with Kiera and Billie, I’d made a decision.
I was going to back away from her.
Go back to pretending she didn’t exist, and get on with my life.
I didn’t know how it had happened, but she’d taken a sledgehammer to the walls I’d spent years erecting around my heart. And I didn’t like it. Not one little bit.
My plan to keep away from her was easy to start with. A contract came through, resulting in James and me taking a trip to Miami to deal with a target. What should have been a quick turnaround ended up taking longer, thanks to the target’s last minute change of plans, but instead of spending the time brooding over Kiera while we waited for the perfect opportunity to strike, James kept me busy.
Itseemedmy best friend had gone from vowing to never love his wife, to becoming somewhat obsessed with her, and had decided he wanted to find out about her past—something she had no memory of.
I’d never seen my best friend lose his mind the way he was over his wife, so when he begged me to help him, of course I wasn’t going to say no. Besides, helping him was a much better use of my time than fretting over his sister.
When the opportunity presented itself to kill our target, James took it. The guy wasn’tevencold before James was heading back to his wife. Needing morespace from Kiera, I told him I was staying put in Miami to watch Brody in an underground fight.
I tried to occupy myself with spending time with the twins, busying myself with work forSmarttech, and doing everything in my power not to think about the woman who was constantly lingering in the back of my head.
To make matters worse, the Little General still had no interest in anyone else, as proven when a scantily clad woman rubbed herself all over me during Brody’s fight, licking my ear as she whispered something about sneaking off to the nearest bathroom.
My cock didn’t stir until the memory of fisting Kiera popped into my head.
I couldn’t stay away forever, though, and when news reached methatJames and Kiera’s mom had died, I headed home, only to discover Kiera had been forbidden to go to the funeral. I repeatedly told myselfthatI didn’t care, so imagine my surprise when I was driving home after the wake, only to end up at Kiera’s.
Sated after fucking her, with her asleep in my arms, her tits on display, and covered in my bite marks. I stared down at her, remembering the moment I gave in to every carnal urge and slammed my mouth against hers.
For several moments, I was in Heaven. For several moments, the only thought going through my mind wasthatKiera was mine, and Ineverwanted to stop kissing her.
Kissing her was my undoing to forget the past, and after I’d buried myself deep inside her, and painted her womb with my come, I’d lost myself to the voice in my head telling methatKiera was exactly where she was meant to be.
With me.
But when I lifted my eyes away from her, they landed on a photo frame on the fireplace, holding a picture of Kiera, Alec, and Billie, the three of them caught in a moment of happiness. Bitterness flowed through me, erasing the contentmentthathad settled in my bones and leaving one startingly obvious question behind.
What the fuck was I doing here?
Kiera was engaged to Alec; it wasn’t like I expected her to leave him for me. Andevenif she did, I couldn’t ignore the questionthathad been continuously churning in my head for the last few days.
Could I forgive her for her betrayal?
The honest answer was no. Perhaps I could have done if we’d been reacquainted and she’d been single. With time, maybe I could have moved on with her. Maybe I could have rebuilt the trust. We werejustkids back when she cheated on me; people made mistakes. Fuck, it wasn’t as if I was perfect.
But I couldn’t ignore how she’d come to be in my life once more. She’d been planning on cheating on Alec. Wasn’t there a sayingthata leopard never changed its spots?
