“Nothing less, sweetie.” Her father’s smile didn’t break when he spoke to her. “Nothing less than crazy love will ever be good enough for you.”
Keira felt the soft impression of lips on her back and she smiled, still caught in that dream, slipping somewhere away from it until she knew Kona was in her bed. Eyes blinking open, that smile grew and she exhaled, released a great swell of satisfaction when Kona moved his mouth to her neck.
“You didn’t call,” he mumbled through her hair. Keira rolled on to her back, catching Kona’s face between her fingers as he lowered over her. She didn’t like the frown on his face and decided to make it leave with her mouth over his. “I was worried,” he said, rubbing his thumb over her forehead.
“I fell asleep. I meant to…” a yawn interrupted her excuse and Keira covered her mouth. “That drive takes it out of me.” Another quick kiss she hoped reassured him. “I’m sorry.”
He moved her head, inching it to one side then the other and Keira laughed at the steely way his gaze moved over her face. “She didn’t…?”
“She was passed out when I got home and Steven wasn’t here.” Keira sat up, brushing her hair off her face as she climbed onto Kona’s lap. “She doesn’t make it a habit, you know, and my life here isn’t an afternoon special.” When he started to argue, she shut him up with another kiss. “You gotta stop worrying so much. I told you, I won’t let her smack me around anymore. You give me a reason not to cave.”
“Wildcat…” whatever Kona wanted to say lay trapped in his throat and he cupped her face, took her lips like he owned them. In the back of her mind was the small worry Kona would catch whatever funk was making her throat hurt and caused the throbbing in her head, but he felt too good, his large arms were too comforting. They fell back on the bed, worked each other up, but Keira felt him holding back; she felt him hesitate, not putting enough of himself into those kisses or lazy rubs against her body.
“Hey.” She brought her hand to his cheek. “Where are you tonight?”
“I’m here, baby.” Kona’s small peck that Keira guessed was supposed to be reassuring only made her worry even more. When she moved her lips away from another attempted kiss, his shoulders fell and Kona leaned on his elbow to hover over her. “Ricky called me.”
“Kona…”
“I know. You don’t have to get mad. I told him I was out, after this last job.”
Keira refused to let that small hint of anger simmering around her mind grow. She took a breath, deep enough to fill her lungs until her body forced it out. It was an attempt at calm. The day had been too good, that dream, too prophetic. She wouldn’t pick a fight with him tonight.
Keira toyed with the hem of Kona’s hoodie, wrapping the drawstring around the tip of her finger just as he’d done all those months in Miller’s class. “When?”
“A week after Christmas.”
She laughed, rolling her eyes at how closely Kona watched her, as if he were waiting for her to explode. “At least he’s giving you the holiday off.”
“It’s the last job,” he said, ignoring Keira passive aggressive jab. He pulled the drawstring off her finger and laid on her chest, tapping her hand once so she’d move her fingers through his hair. “I don’t want to do it, Wildcat, but he’ll hurt… the people I care about.”
She wasn’t stupid and Kona knew it. She heard the lingering threat, the one she knew he tried to hide from her. “He’s all talk, bebe. People like him work off of fear and me getting hurt, he thinks, is your greatest fear.”
Kona sat up, moving his hands on either side of her head. “It is. Nothing scares me more. It would kill me if something happened to you because of me. It would kill me if something happened to you in general, but especially if it was my shit that got you hurt.” Kona lowered over her, hands back on her face, so close she could feel the heat of his breath moistening her skin. “My love’s too thick, Wildcat.”
She couldn’t help herself, she kissed him then, harder than before, wanted to say what had flirted on her tongue for weeks; what her logic and defenses forced back down her throat each time Kona told her he loved her. Kona had never asked her to say it back to him. He waited, like always, never pushed, but just then, when he backed away from her, when he simply stared at her, she saw the question in his eyes, that quick flicker of need she knew had nothing to do with his fear for her safety or the ache for her body. He wanted the words.