Wrapped Up in You Read online

  “It’s okay,” he said. “I get it. For you, it’s all about trust, which takes time. There’s plenty of that. I’m not going to rush you. I’m just asking if you’re interested in me staying.”

  There were a lot of things happening on her inside. Pulse going a little too fast and too hard. Air backed up in her lungs. And then there was her heart, which was squeezed in both hope and fear.

  Kel ran a hand up and down her back, waiting until she remembered that she knew how to breathe. “Too hard of a question?” he asked gently.

  She closed her eyes. “No.” She knew that when he left for Idaho it would hurt. But beyond that? She gave it a thought and knew the truth, even if she couldn’t say it. “I wouldn’t mind seeing where this might go,” she admitted quietly.

  He took her hand in his. “I like the sound of that,” he murmured.

  What she liked was the way he was looking at her, and his confidence in what they might have. Unable to stop herself, she reached out to touch him, running a hand up his chest, around the back of his neck to sink into his hair. “If I kiss you, is anyone going to be watching us out the window?”

  “With my family? You never know.” Standing, he pulled her up as well, turning them to the only tree in the corner of the yard. He tugged on something and a rope ladder fell down.

  He gestured that she should start climbing and she blinked.

  “It’s a tree house,” he said. “It was here when Remy and Ethan moved in. Remy won’t go up there because she’s afraid of heights. Are you afraid of heights?”

  “No, just intimacy, relationships, and true love.”

  His teeth flashed white in the dark and he gave her a nudge.

  So she started climbing. The tree house was one small room with a cut-out window street-side. There was one of those huge beanbag chairs that took up almost all the space, and a shelf on which sat a six pack of beer.

  “It’s Ethan’s man cave,” Kel said. He plopped into the beanbag chair, snagged her hand, and tugged her into his lap.

  “How often does he come out here?”

  “With a new baby? I’m guessing not much.” He turned her to face him and his lips met hers in a kiss that went straight to DEFCON 5. The heat started in her core and spread outward and before she knew it, he had his hands under her clothes and she was practically purring. She could feel him hard and ready beneath her and shifted her legs to accommodate him, and was rewarded by a low masculine groan of pleasure that had her trying to get his jeans opened.

  “Here?” he asked huskily, adding his hands to the cause.

  “Here.” She wrapped her fingers around him and started to rise up on her knees, but he stopped her.

  “No condom,” he whispered, voice strained.

  They stared at each other.

  Then she smiled into his eyes. “I think we can work around that.” She began to slide down on his body but he caught her, pulling her up for a kiss that left her panting. Then he rolled in the beanbag, and it was a testament to his core strength and those delicious abs of his that he managed to tuck her beneath him so that she was on the bottom, him between her legs. He kissed her softly. “Ladies first,” he whispered and shifted lower, adjusting her clothing as he went, freeing a nipple for his hot mouth, then a hipbone, which he nipped, making her jump and then moan when he soothed the ache with his tongue.

  Then he was southbound, his hands moving her turned-to-jelly legs the way he wanted them. And the way he wanted them was draped over his forearms, his hands on her ass. This left her extremely exposed, but she wanted his mouth on her so badly, there was no room for modesty.

  He took the longest moment in history to look his fill. “Gorgeous,” he whispered.

  She squirmed. “Kel—”

  He used his teeth to pull the scrap of lace between her legs aside and then he put that amazing mouth on her.

  They were outside, within shouting distance of his family. It was cold, and she was pretty sure her exposed nipple was going to fall off, but she didn’t care because his mouth. God, his mouth. She tried to hold her breath, not trusting herself to be quiet, but then he added his fingers and she was flying.

  When she came back to herself, she sucked in a breath. “Oh God,” she whispered in horror. “Was I too loud? I’m so sorry—”

  “You were perfect,” he said.

  With desire still pooled low in her stomach, she wanted, needed, to have her wild, wicked way with him. Pulling free, she shoved him to his back and climbed on top of him. Pressing her lips to the hollow at the base of his throat, she began to kiss her way down. Dropping to her knees, she licked her lips and leaned forward and—

  “Kel?” a voice called up from the ground below.

  Remy.

  Ivy startled and fell over.

  Kel picked her back up and then knocked his head back against the wall several times. “No worries on not having birth control,” he muttered.

  “My party has a happy ending!” Remy called up. “Ethan just pulled out a huge chocolate cake! It says Merry Christmas on it, but hey, that’s what happens when you have a baby shower on Christmas Eve eve, right?”

  Ivy’s eyes met his and she put a hand over her mouth to stifle a laugh because she was pretty sure she was thinking the same thing as he—that while she’d gotten her happy ending, he’d been shafted. Because of cake. “Coming,” he called, and Ivy snorted as she fought to right her clothing.

  “Well that was almost true,” she whispered. “You were almost coming.”

  Much later, Ivy and Kel were leaving the party when Remy caught up with them. “Hey,” she said to her brother. “Can I have a sec?” Remy glanced at Ivy. “Do you mind? I’ll be quick.”

  “No problem,” Ivy said and moved down the front steps to give them privacy.

  But it turned out Kel’s family wasn’t a quiet bunch.

  Remy took Kel’s hands in hers—Ivy suspected so he wouldn’t walk away—and looked right into his eyes. “You didn’t say goodbye to Mom.”

  “Sure I did.”

  “You didn’t.”

  “I waved,” Kel said.

  “Lame,” Remy said. “And also pretty rude.”

  He shifted on his feet. “Remy—”

  “I’ve seen you looking at all the family pics, Kel. And I know you realize you’re not in most of them.”

  “Any,” he said. “I’m not in any.”

  “And who’s doing is that?” Remy asked, then pulled him in for a hug before he could answer. “Just think about it, okay? Promise me, Kel.”

  Ivy wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, but she couldn’t help it. The way his sister loved him and had his back . . . it grabbed her by the heart and squeezed.

  Ethan appeared behind Remy with Harper asleep on his shoulder, drooling down his back. He and Kel hugged goodbye, and not one of those silly male half-handshake, shoulder bump things, but a real hug without a care in the world as to what that might say about their masculinity.

  As far as Ivy was concerned, it was the cutest, warmest, sexiest thing she’d ever seen. But then Kel lifted little Harper and kissed her on the tip of her tiny nose before burying his face in her neck and breathing in her sweet baby scent.

  Ivy’s ovaries actually sobbed a little.

  But it was more than that. He had something here, something she’d never had, something she’d only recognized because of movies and TV. And it didn’t make her feel envious so much as . . . warm and fuzzy. And something else too. Seeing him allow his emotions to show, seeing him easily give love and affection to those he cared about . . .

  Yeah. He’d never been as sexy to her as he was right that moment.

  Remy hugged him goodbye and then came down the steps to do the same to Ivy. “Take good care of him,” his sister whispered. “He doesn’t know it, but he could use someone to watch his back for once.”

  Ivy pulled back and met her gaze.

  “He’s always been the one of us to hold it together,” Remy explained. “For the whol