My gut twisted at the thought of Eliana marrying someone else. Having someone else’s baby.

  As if Mother Nature agreed with my discomfort of Eliana being with anyone else, lightning flashed outside the window. It caught my attention, and not leaving my position on top of Eliana, I reached for the remote to fully open the curtains.

  It had started raining on our way home, but it was pouring now. Another bolt of lightning flashed, lighting up the city.

  “Wow,” Eliana breathed, her head turned to watch it too, “the storm is scary and amazing from way up here.”

  Crawling off the bed, I pulled her up after me, leading her to the floor to ceiling window. Water snaked down the glass, and Eliana traced one of the trails with her finger, then jerked her hand away as a streak of lightning zigzagged across the sky.

  Standing behind her, I lifted both of her hands until her palms were against the glass. Pulling her hair to one side, I kissed her neck, feeling her pulse jumping under my lips. She shivered when I grazed my teeth against the nape.

  “Cold?” I asked against her ear before sucking on a lobe.

  She met my gaze in the reflection of the glass. Her face was dim and distorted by the water outside, but there was no hiding the desire that had flared at my touch. “No.”

  “Do you trust me?”

  The answer was immediate. “Yes.”

  Slipping my fingers under the hem of her Beasts t-shirt, I pulled it over her head. The bra was next. In seconds, it was on the floor. “Hands back on the window.”

  This time, her response wasn’t so immediate. Her hands were crossed over her chest. “Can people see?”

  I nipped her shoulder. “No, baby. I promise. Nobody gets to see you but me.”

  She jumped when another bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, a bit closer this time, but resumed her position at the glass as the thunder rumbled. I moved my tongue from freckle to freckle, tracing them across her shoulder blade and down her spine until the top of her jeans kept me from going any farther. I reached around her and released the button, then listened to the hiss of the zipper. Hooking my fingers in the waistband, I slid them and her panties down her legs, tossing them away when she stepped out of them.

  From this position, I took advantage of her sweet ass and kissed one side, then the other before retracing my path back up her spine.

  “Kane.” It was a breath. A sigh. A moan. It was almost my undoing.

  Burying my hand in her hair, I turned her head until she was looking at me. “I don’t plan on being gentle.”

  Lightning lit up the sky, and she gasped as my hand came down on her ass in time to the crash of thunder on the other side of the glass. My palm stung while my cock grew impossibly hard. Fingers still in her hair, I forced her to continue to look at me as I brought my hand down again. The sound she made was half-pain, half-pleasure, but the look in her eyes said she wanted more.

  Her nails clawed at the glass as I spanked her until her ass was the most amazing shade of pink. I smoothed my hand over her skin, and she gasped when I moved it lower, pushing my fingers between her soaking slit until I found her clitoris.

  “So wet for me,” I murmured close to her ear. “Ready for more?”

  “Yes. Please, yes.”

  Her body jerked as I pinched the sensitive bundle of nerves, and she keened as I pushed two fingers inside. Twisting her head until our mouths met, we were both breathing hard as I captured her soft lips. When her tongue came forward to welcome mine, it was my turn to moan. Her mouth was pure sin, her lips the richest of silk as I tasted her. Delicious.

  “Turn around. On your knees.”

  Lightning flashed as she faced me and sank down to the carpet, watching me as I slowly removed my clothes. I hissed as her fingers wrapped around me, gripping me tight, her thumb tracing over the tip, spreading the moisture there. She lifted her thumb to her mouth, tasting me, and I cursed.

  “Damn, you’re going to be the death of me.”

  She smiled some secret feline grin before dipping her tongue into the tip. Then her lips closed around me, her teeth scraping the shaft as my cock disappeared into her throat. Her mouth stretched wide as she tried to take all of me, her fist wrapping around the length she couldn’t take.

  It was incredible. She sucked, and with the wet heat, came pressure. The trifecta of pleasure that nearly caused me to blow my load embarrassingly fast.

  I grabbed her hair, pulsing in and out, fucking her mouth until I could no longer stand it. When she looked up at me with those innocent blues, I nearly came and forced myself to pull out.

  Twisting my fingers in her hair, I forced her to her feet, then pulled her head back until our mouths connected again. “I’m going to eat your sweet pussy now,” I whispered, and she whimpered against my lips. “And I won’t be stopping until you come in my mouth.”

  Moving her until her back was against the glass, I fell to my knees, lifting a leg until it was on my shoulder. Thunder crashed as I forced her apart with my thumbs. She opened for me, like the dewy pink petals of a flower.

  “God, you’re so beautiful.”

  Her hands dove into my hair as I breathed in her scent before tasting the unique flavor I’d come to crave. Dragging my tongue through her honey-slick folds, I spread her swollen flesh and proceeded to feast.

  Flattening my tongue, I licked her hard before taking the little bundle between my teeth. Her breath came in rough pants that caused her breasts to heave, rocking on her chest. Reaching up, I took one in my hand, teasing the nipple, twisting it until she gasped.

  “Please,” she begged, whimpering the word over and over.

  “Please what, baby?”

  Instead of words, she pressed down, grinding harder against my face. In one quick movement, I ran my tongue up her slit before capturing her clit between my teeth, then plunging two fingers inside of her, deep.

  Finding the spot that would send her over the edge, I rubbed and pressed it as I stroked her clit hard with my tongue. She screamed, her fingers pulling my hair from the roots. I didn’t care. I ate her harder, faster, loving how crazy I made her. She twisted, her hips bucking violently as I invaded, pumping my fingers in and out of her wet flesh with increasing speed and intensity.

  Her body tightened around my fingers, and I knew she was close.

  “Kane!”

  Another crash exploded outside, and she came violently against my mouth, her breath ragged as the air ripped in and out of her lungs. Licking her softly, I gave her time to recover before standing again, kissing her stomach, her breasts, and her neck on the trip up.

  “Taste yourself on me,” I ordered, and she complied, her tongue tracing the outline of my mouth.

  “Turn around. Hands on the glass.” She was still trembling, but she did as she was told, and I reached for a condom on the nightstand beside us, tearing open the foil and rolling the fucker on. “Without moving your hands, take a step back.” She shifted her stance until she was slightly bent at the waist, her ass out just like I wanted. “Legs wider… wider… perfect.”

  I leaned close, and she hissed as my cock rubbed over her still pink bottom. I cupped her breasts, squeezing them gently as my chest rested flush against her back.

  Our eyes met in the window’s hazy reflection, and something tender within me stirred. I kissed her shoulder, her neck, her ear, keeping my lips busy so that I wouldn’t say something I couldn’t take back.

  Hot silver split the air as I sank into her from behind, taking it slow, wanting everything I was feeling to last, but listening to her moan as I entered her nearly caused me to unravel.

  Her fingers flexed against the glass. “Please, Kane. I need you.”

  I needed her too.

  As her body accepted mine, I covered her hands with my palms, linking our fingers together. I closed my eyes as I reached the end of her, but opened them again so I could watch her reflection.

  I moved slowly, feeling everything as her pussy grasped and clung to my cock. The harder the storm raged, the slower and more deliberately I moved.

  And when I came, it was me who was nearly crying. Me, who was filled with so much emotion I wasn’t sure where it came from or how to let it go.

  So, I just held her against the window, and we watched the city until the storm faded and the night was peaceful again.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Eliana

  For an eighty-three-year-old woman with a tumor lodged deep in her brain, Evelyn “Nana” Steele was a force to be reckoned with when it came to shopping. She might be as slow as a turtle riding on a snail’s back, but she knew what she wanted and wasn’t afraid to ask for it.

  Ever.

  “What do you mean we can’t have five hundred peonies in November? What the hell are hothouses for? I’m contacting Saundra…” It was cute to watch her gnarled fingers tapping at her iPhone as she called her personal assistant.

  I’d been listening to Nana argue with the flower lady for over an hour now. The moment I’d told her and Marsha that I’d love peonies because they were my grandmother’s favorite flower, Nana was on a mission to find them. Not a bouquet’s worth, but hundreds.

  “You’ll feel your Mamaw surrounding you on your special day,” she had told me when she insisted the altar and pews also be decorated with them.

  Gentle hands came down on my shoulders, and I looked up from where I was sitting. “You holding up alright?” Marsha smiled, enveloping me in the warm, motherly aura that exuded from her.

  “She’s a mess,” I said with a laugh as Nana barked orders at Saundra to find my favorite flower. “I really didn’t think I would cause this much trouble.”

  Marsha’s hands moved from my shoulders to my hair, and I closed my eyes as she stroked her fingers down the length. “Trouble? Are you kidding? I haven’t seen Nana so excited about anything in a long time. You, my dear, are making her last few months more special than you’ll ever realize.” She leaned down and kissed my cheek. “For that, I’ll always be grateful.”

  Emotion boiled in my chest. In my throat. In my nose.

  How simple to have a mother kiss my cheek, to stroke my hair, to touch me at all. Why couldn’t my own mother do this? Was I really that unlovable to her?

  “Your hair is the most incredible color,” she was saying as her fingers continued their soothing movement. “Red, but not really. Blonde, but not really. So striking against your fair complexion and blue eyes. Maybe someday, when you and Kane have children, your babies will inherit your coloring. It’s so exquisite.”

  I couldn’t help it. As hard as I blinked. As hard as I swallowed. As hard as I tried to force them back, the tears came in a gush. When the first sob escaped, Marsha’s arms wrapped around me, and I found myself crying with my face pressed into her neck. She just let me hold onto her, and she held onto me, murmuring little soothing noises.

  “It’s okay, sweet girl. Get it out.” She patted my back as if I was a most precious baby.

  Another set of hands were on me, and I felt Nana hugging me from behind. “Don’t worry, dear one. I’ll find those flowers if it kills me.”

  I laughed, and the little sound broke the icy grip of grief and regret from around my heart, and with a big sniff and a swipe of my sleeve across my face, I felt better.

  Marsha kissed my forehead as I pulled away, embarrassed now for losing control so completely. “I’m sorry,” I said, still wiping my eyes.

  “Nonsense,” Marsha said, drying my face with a tissue, “we females need a good cry every now and again. And considering you’ve just gotten engaged and we’re practically running you down the altar at breakneck speed, you deserve a good one more than most.”

  Looking into the green eyes so much like her son’s, a pang of guilt stabbed at me. How could I continue to lie to someone this kind, this loving? Then my gaze shifted to Nana, who was peering at me with worry behind her eyes. How could I tell the truth?

  And the real truth was, I didn’t want it to be a lie.

  I wanted to be married to Kane.

  I wanted to be part of this family.

  I wanted to have my own daughter someday so I could comb her hair with my fingers and kiss her cheek, letting her know every moment of her life that she was loved. Wanted. Perfect exactly the way she was.

  “Thank you, Marsha, I—”

  “Mom,” she cut in. “Please call me Mom.”

  My throat threatened to close again, and I blinked hard, pressing the tissues she’d handed me to my eyes. “Thank you… Mom.” The word felt unfamiliar on my tongue and so very wonderful as it rang in the air between this incredible woman and me.

  Nana clapped her hands. “Enough of this. Let’s go shopping for a dress. Your appointment at the bridal boutique is in twenty minutes. March!”

  With Mom’s arm tucked through my right elbow and Nana’s tucked through the left, we headed out to the limo Mom had hired for the day.

  The women had practically moved to New York, having rented a penthouse they called “wedding central” in the same building as Kane’s. I felt like I was going to hyperventilate each time I looked at the stacks of books and charts and samples on the dining room table. I had no idea so many details went into a wedding.

  But I loved it too. Although they offered a strong guiding hand, they never made a final decision without my blessing. The last few days had been a whirl of activities — venue, guest lists, colors, cake. I’d tried on designer dresses that cost enough to feed a third world country. And I remembered very little of it.

  I hadn’t yet found the dress. Although there had been many I would have been perfectly happy with, Nana insisted I try on dresses until I knew. At the boutique, we were welcomed with champagne and chocolate-dipped strawberries. The silk-covered walls and gauzy ceiling gave the shop a dreamy quality as chandeliers twinkled all around.

  When Nana had made my appointment over the phone, she’d told them of all the things I didn’t want. “If there is a poofy sleeve in sight, we’re walking straight out. Hear me?”

  Marsha — Mom — had only patted my hand and whispered, “You’ll get used to it. If you need me to intervene or you feel overwhelmed, just give me a double wink, and I’ll come running.”

  I laughed. “I don’t think it will get that bad.”

  Mom lifted her eyebrow. “Just wait.”

  “So, I just double wink? One eye or both?”

  “Two winks, right eye, and I’ll come running. If I’m not nearby, text me with a simple ‘x’ and that will be my signal from a distance.”

  I looked at her, my respect growing even more. “That’s a good system. Have you used it before?”

  “A lot. It’s the system I used with the kids as they grew up. You know how it is, you have a friend who’s begging to spend the night, but you don’t really want them to. Or maybe some peers are pressuring you to go to a party that you know is bad.”

  I nodded, though I really didn’t know. Alize couldn’t have been bothered enough for me to have a friend over, and I wasn’t super popular and didn’t go out much.

  “So, as Kane or the girls were asking me, I’d watch their eyes. If they gave me a wink-wink, I knew they wanted me to intervene or say no.” She smiled. “It was really funny with Kristen because, the little drama queen that she was, she would ask if a friend could come over, then give me a wink-wink. When I said no, she’d fly to a ‘you’re ruining my life’ tantrum. That girl. I thought she was going to be the death of me.”

  “What about Kane? Did he wink-wink often?”

  Mom rolled her eyes. “Are you kidding? If he didn’t want to do something, he just told you straight to your face. He was always super honest like that. One time when he was little, maybe first or second grade, I got a call from his teacher.”

  I covered my mouth with my hand. “Oh no.”

  “Oh yes. So the teacher says, ‘Mrs. Steele, I’m concerned because Kane has told me that you have a great deal of marijuana at your house.’”

  I gasped. “You’re kidding. Did you?”

  She shot me a look. “Of course not, but she swore that Kane insisted there were loads of it everywhere. Well, I insisted she come visit my house right then, since school had just let out. I picked Kane up from school, and the teacher rode with me so she couldn’t say that I had coerced him into anything. When we got there, I asked Kane to show the teacher where the marijuana was, but he just looked at me funny.”

  “And…”

  “And the teacher jumped in. She said, ‘Kane, you told me you had weed here. Lots of it. Can you show me?’” Marsha laughed at the memory. “Well, Kane grabbed her hand and marched her to the backyard. And pointed at a weed in the garden. A weed next to the pool. A weed growing beside the fence.”

  I snorted and slapped my thigh. “That little stinker.”

  Mom wiped her eyes. “I know. But he’d been telling her the truth. The teacher was, of course, mortified. We didn’t have any trouble with her after that.”

  ***

  Staring at myself in the mirror, I felt like a princess. This gown was certainly gorgeous. Simple, just the way I liked it. Elegant.

  “Next!” Nana yelled. “Her eyes didn’t sparkle.”

  The saleswoman, Valerie, showed her teeth in what would pass as a smile. “I’m so sorry,” I whispered to her as she led me back to the dressing room for the third time.

  Valerie’s smile was more genuine now. “Your grandmother is right. When your eyes sparkle, it will be the right one. We’ve just got to find it.”

  Two more dresses got a “Next!” immediately. Turning on my heel before I reached the mirror, I didn’t even bother to look.

  We were down to the last one, when Valerie snapped her fingers. “Let’s get you into this one, then I’m going to run to the back. We have a vintage gown that I hadn’t even considered.” She met my eyes. “You have an old soul spirit around you, so maybe…” She lifted a shoulder. “It’s worth looking at, I think.”