Undeniably His(81)

“Kalin, there’s no reason to say anything. We have plenty of time. I want you to heal, and I want us to go slow. There’s no hurry.”

“Go slow. Good idea.” Kalin moves his hand over my back and his other hand wraps around my waist. “Nice and slow.” My body aches while he pushes me close to him, and his lips crush against mine. I feel his arousal against me for the first time in so long, much too long, and my body reacts and goes on auto-pilot. I close my eyes and enjoy his strong embrace, the hot wetness of his lips, and his tongue gliding along the seam of my lip. My lips part for him. He tastes me, gently, slowly, and then with want and need, he slides his tongue into mine. My tongue tangles with his, and his hot breath on me causes me to melt in his hands. I am so ready for him. Kalin pulls back from me, wraps his large hand around mine and tugs me to the dining area. “Come on. My parents are probably wondering about us. If they weren’t here, I probably wouldn’t eat a thing. We’d be making love all day,” he growls.

I look up at him with a naughty grin. “Heaven forbid,” I retort with playful sarcasm.

He cocks his head with a surprised smile. “You must be hungry too?”

I bite my lip before a devilish grin tugs at my mouth. “Yes, very much so.”

His dark eyes shift down to mine. “Naughty girl.” His hand moves to my lower back to escort me into the dining area.

Lauren and Peter are making breakfast.

“Mom, Dad. Good morning.” Kalin hugs them both and kisses his mom on the cheek.”

“Just in time for breakfast,” she smiles.

“You didn’t have to do this.”

“Sweetheart, there was one good part of this. Getting to spend time with you. This is our celebration. The best part of our trip.” Lauren is glowing, and my chest lightens in the happiness of the moment. It is such a joy seeing them happy again after the hell they went through.

“Good morning, Annabelle. You look lovely this morning.” Peter nods at me.

“Good morning, sweetheart,” Lauren says.

“Good morning, Mr. and Mrs. Davis. What a beautiful morning. Breakfast smells wonderful. I know everyone must have been pretty exhausted after last night. I don’t know how you guys pulled that off.”

“The gang at the office kept asking us when Kalin would be out of the hospital,” Peter explains over a cup of coffee. “As soon as they had a date, you couldn’t stop them from getting together. It was pretty self-organizing, actually. We just went along for the ride. Madison organized a lot of it. She really reminded me of Rebecca the way she bounced around organizing everything.”

I peer up at Kalin, and his lips press into a line after taking a sip of coffee. “It was a very considerate gesture. Seeing everyone again was really amazing. I haven’t seen some of them for seven or eight months.”

“Kalin, it won’t be hard to return. They want you back. How are you going to handle this?” Peter asks.

Kalin tastes the blueberry jam that his mom is putting on a plate with English muffins. She smiles with contentment as she fixes breakfast for her family.

Kalin leans back on the counter and licks his fingers. “Our stockholder agreement bars anyone facing criminal charges from serving on the board.”

“No one has been arrested and charged yet, much less convicted.” Peter smiles as he pours me a cup of coffee and hands it to me. I thank him and enjoy the rich smell before taking a sip.

“My lawyer has collected a lot of evidence that the police don’t have yet. As soon as he passes it along to them, they should be arrested and removed from the board. He’s been in contact with the detectives already.” He reaches around his mom, who peeks up and smiles at him, and grabs a napkin to wipe his fingers. His forehead creases slightly as he crosses his arms over his chest. “I only wish we had the truck. If we had that…then we would have everything. Search warrants, arrest warrants, the whole deal.” He is lost in thought for a moment, scraping his jawline with his fingers, then tosses the napkin into the trash and returns his eyes to us. “But I think we do have enough to arrest them.”

“I wonder where the truck is?” I mutter while taking a sip of coffee.

“Have you tried ProEast Energy?” Peter asks. “They have an entire lot of trucks that they use for transporting equipment, big-rig tractors and specialized trucks for transporting fracking chemicals and water.” Peter sits at the table and glances at the morning newspaper. There is no news about Kalin or the investigation, which he seems to notice with a slightly raised brow.

“That’s a good idea, Dad. Dale also has his own truck, but he would have been an idiot to use it for this. Maybe ProEast lent him the truck. God knows they gave him everything else to carry this out.”