Saving a Legend(69)

“You don’t need to try, flower girl,” he told her before gently swatting her ass. “You just are, and you don’t even know it. It’s insane that you don’t know how desirable you are.”

“Kieran.” His words were the fantasy she’d dreamed of finding, the beauty she’d always wanted to be. Through his eyes, she was everything.

“What? You don’t believe me?”

“Let’s just have dinner.” Her self-consciousness was getting the better of her, so she reached for the takeout.

He grabbed her arm and pulled her back, pinning her to the bed. Flurries of excitement ran through her body as she once again found herself beneath this goliath of a man. “Oh, I plan on eating, flower girl.”

“Wha—” she started, but when he unbuttoned her jeans and yanked them down her legs, she shut her mouth and reminded herself how to breathe.



The scratch of his cheek against her inner thigh caused her hips to jolt off the bed, but his palm landed flat against her pelvis and controlled where she moved. He gripped the elastic of her lace panties and slid them off slowly before tossing them across the room. Pushing her knees up, he hooked them over his shoulders and bowed before her.

“Oh!” she said, and gasped as his mouth landed on her, his tongue perfectly executing small, firm circles over her most sensitive area. Her head fell back and she closed her eyes, moaning under the exquisite pressure of it all. It’d been years since she’d been this intimate with someone, since she’d enjoyed so much. Everything he was doing, and the way he was doing it, made her feel desired and wanted.

Fiona felt herself going over the edge as he added his finger a few minutes later, dipping into her. “Oh, Kieran, please—”

“Let go, Fi,” he spoke against her before returning with a fiercer and firmer pressure, which was all she needed to plunge into ecstasy.

She let go, and her body shook as her climax rocked through her. All she could think of was Kieran’s strong, safe hands on her. She’d spent so much of her life pushing men away, not trusting anyone. Yet here was this man who was going out of his way to give to her, to make her happy.

And she was so happy.

—

“Fi?” Kieran lay down next to her and curled her body into him. She buried her face in his chest, and he couldn’t understand why she was hiding her tears from him. Or why she was crying in the first place. He stroked her arm gently, hoping to ease whatever was hurting her and praying it hadn’t been him. “What’s going on?”



“I’m just really happy.” Her blue eyes smiled despite the tears welling in them.

“That’s pretty common when you have an orgasm.” He kissed the top of her nose before using his thumbs to wipe away the neglected teardrops on her cheek. “Crying, not so much.”

“It’s not that,” she said. “Well, that helps. It’s just being with you. It’s completely unexpected. I’ve spent so long wishing for this, but I’ve been so afraid.”

“Why are you afraid?”

“Trust. Trusting anyone. I’ve had to take care of myself for so long. My father left when I was very young; my mother tried, but she was busy with Shea. Then she kind of got burned-out and just gave up on us entirely and focused instead on my stepfather, who treated her like garbage. I was completely on my own and had to fend for myself. Just as I thought I was getting it together and opened my own shop, I needed to become Shea’s guardian. I know I’ve already said all this before, but I want you to know I wouldn’t change any of it, because it led me here.”

Kieran frowned and kissed her forehead. He could tell she had been holding on to so much for so long, that now, in her post-bliss calm, she was eager to let loose. To finally tell him what was going on not only in her mind but also in her heart—something that had been a mystery to him since the day they’d met.

He’d planned to tell her tonight about his past, about prison, but the words froze on his tongue. She’d just poured out her heart to him, something she’d clearly not done often. Something that took a lot of trust and time for her to do with anyone. He couldn’t destroy this moment for her by telling her of his past.



Tonight should be about her, not him.

He felt a physical pain thinking about everything she was telling him, everything she’d experienced. He wanted to take it all away from her, or erase it so that it had never happened in the first place. “You’re too young to have so much on your shoulders.”

“I have fun with you,” she told him again, but the agony in her eyes was still there.