A Little Harmless Addiction(48)
She smiled at him. “Good thing since I’m having your baby and we’re getting married next month.”
He sighed. “He seems to know her so well, and she seems like a stranger to me.”
“Jocelyn? What do you mean?”
“She’s so different.”
“No, she isn’t. You are thinking she is different and she is, from the idea you had of her in your head. But this woman isn’t her. You still see her as a little girl.”
“I do not.”
“Yeah, or at least as a teenager. She’s a wonderfully complex woman trying to get over a whole lot of crap. It is bad enough to go through something like that, but to have it public knowledge would be painful for a woman as proud as your sister. I’m not saying that she doesn’t have scars. Any person who has suffered what she went through would. But she is a survivor in the truest sense of the word. She might be a little gun shy, but she is still that same woman underneath. She might do some things differently, like I know she is enjoying the little things more. But that doesn’t change the fact that she is tough, or that she made it through something most people wouldn’t.”
“I never thought of it that way.”
She smirked. “Yeah, I got that.”
“Smart ass,” he said, but it had no heat in it. “Don’t you think it’s odd that she told him?”
She shook her head. “She needed someone who would listen. Not judge and not try and fix it. You can’t do that because you are the oldest and have been looking out for her for years. And this is someone who didn’t know her before it happened. There would be no expectation of explaining her behavior during or after. Kai is one of the best sounding boards.”
He remembered the way Kai had talked about her that morning. Chris understood the conviction in Kai’s voice when he said he would protect her. Chris sighed. “He’s a goner.”
“Kai?”
“Yeah.”
She frowned as she turned onto their street. “You make it sound like it is bad thing.”
“It’s just, I’m not sure Jocelyn is ready for it, and if she hurts him I think she might never forgive herself.”
“Ahh, you’re going to be such a good daddy.”
She pulled into their parking space, parked the car and then leaned over to give him a kiss.
“Now, why don’t I show you how much I love you?” she asked, her southern accent deepening.
“That sounds like a plan to me.”
Chapter Twelve
Jocelyn greeted Kai at the door with a smile and the scent of tomatoes and garlic.
“You made me dinner?”
“I figured that I sort of owed you a decent dinner since we had only peanut butter sandwiches last night.”
He smiled and stepped into her house before slipping his arm around her waist. “I missed you today.”
Her eyes widened. It amazed him that she had no idea the effect she had on him. “You did?”
He wanted to tell her, right then, just what she did to him. He was just realizing that in a few short weeks of knowing her, she had tugged at his heart more than any other woman. But she would run the other direction screaming. So he settled for part of the truth.
“Yeah. I kept thinking wholly inappropriate thoughts while I was working.”
Her lips curved. “Hmm, that sounds about like how I spent my day.”
“How about we turn down the sauce and spend a little time discussing those inappropriate thoughts?”
“Hmm,” was her only response as she took his ear lobe between her teeth. The little move sent a burst of heat through him. He was already keyed up just from driving here thinking about her.
He bent down at the waist and picked her up.
“Kai, put me down.” She laughed when she said it.
“Naw.”
“I’m too heavy.”
He walked to her room. “Apparently not.”
“Kai.”
He stopped in front of her bedroom doorway and looked at her. “I know you’re uncomfortable with it, but I like romance. I think you are a woman in need of it.”
Her eyes softened. “You’re a sweet man.”
Just that look, and the way her southern whiskey voice drifted over the words, had his heart completely falling on the ground. At that moment, there was no turning back. What the hell had he been thinking? The moment he met her, he had been lost.
He said nothing, just bent his head to take her mouth in a sweet, hot kiss. Then he stepped into her room and laid her on the bed. It didn’t take him long to get her naked. Soft, dark skin, long legs and those gorgeous eyes, he didn’t think there would be a time he would ever get enough of her.
He slipped out of his clothes and joined her on the bed. As he kissed his way down her body, her moans grew and the sound of her pleasure filled the room.