Then again, I get it. He needs information and he can’t trust me to tell him anything that’d upset Leilani.
I know he wouldn’t let a hair fall off her head. Not just for me, but for Aalyiah, too. He’s got that higher sense of duty toward the women in our lives, and Leilani gets double because she’s a connection to his late sister.
But I’m an overprotective, territorial bastard when it comes to her, and he knows it.
He’s the same with Hailey, and like knows like.
Leilani joins me in the living room an hour later, hair in a high, messy bun, a few loose tendrils framing her face, not a trace of blush on her cheeks or ribbons in her hair. She swapped that monstrosity of a dress for a black t-shirt and high-waist jeans. The way they hug her ass should be illegal.
She stops in the doorway, eyes everywhere but my face.
I can easily guess what’s going through her head. She’s uncertain. Self-deprecating because Anton flipped her back into his doll. How effortlessly he manipulated her with a few words will give me nightmares for fucking ever.
“What are we starting with?” I ask, jutting my chin at the spread of sweets covering the table.
While she took a bath, I raided the nearest convenience store, sweeping the shelves clean until the clerk stared at me like I’d lost my mind. I bought five-hundred dollars’ worth of sweets. Chocolate bars, gummy bears, lollipops, caramel chews: anything I could get my hands on.
“I expect a sugar rush and...” I set a plastic bucket on the table. “I hope for chocolate-colored puke in here before you head to bed.”
She beams, finally looking up. “If I ever puke in front of you, it’ll be an accident.” Crossing the room, she sets the bucket back on the floor. “Not on purpose.”
“Fine.” I push my favorite chocolate her way. “Buzzkill.”
She laughs and that melodic sound resonates inside my heart. It’s mine. I earned it. I earned the way her eyes crinkle in the corner, the way her eyes sparkle.
“I’ll enjoy this even more than the burger,” Leilani says, tearing the candy bar open with her teeth.
She stares at it for a moment, then takes a small whiff and I almost moan at the bliss painting her features. And thenshemoans, soft but filthy, when she takes a bite.
My cock stirs instantly.
“That good?” I ask, unwrapping a chocolate for myself. “What’s your favorite sweet?”
She takes a smaller bite, sucking on the chocolate, her cheeks hollow, smile ever-present. I’ve had women screaming their orgasms out who didn’t look half as satisfied.
“I don’t have a favorite, but I’ve been daydreaming about plain old chocolate chip cookies too often to consider myself sane.”
She grips my wrist as soon as I’m up on my feet.
“Sit back down, Koby. There’s enough here to last months. We don’t need more.”
Damn this girl. She has no idea how much power she holds over me. How much she makes me feel with a single touch. I glance down at her fingers curled around me, her thumb pressed into the vein at my wrist.
“You said you’ve beendreamingabout them.”
“Yes, but you can’t tend to my every whim.”
“It’s a cookie, hellcat, not diamonds.”Though I’d buy you diamonds if you asked. On instinct, I bend down, stamping a kiss on her forehead. “Sit tight, I won’t be long.”
She lets go of me and I head to the bakery down the road for fresh cookies. The sweet scent hits me as I walk in, and moments later, I walk out with five different types.
Leilani waits on the couch, two steaming cups of coffee on the side table, a small selection of sweets neatly arranged on a serving dish. She’s curled under the blanket, picking her nails.
“What’s wrong, hellcat?”
She tilts her head my way. “Are you ready for another story time?”
Always. If it helps her, I’ll listen forever.
