She knew if she answered the knock on the other side of her door that everything would change. She’d run out of excuses. She’d have to apologize. She couldn’t tell him to walk away.
The knock came again, this one harder. Three firm knocks that rattled her insides.
Gia held the knob, telling herself to turn it was a very bad idea. She should just go to bed. But she didn’t want to be alone.
Kai looked older somehow, standing there, his large arms resting on either side of the door frame. His eyes were red rimmed again and swollen. He needed her, she knew that. She’d felt that. How could she turn him away?
“I…” she started, shutting her mouth when Kai frowned at her, shaking his head twice.
Then, he came inside, not waiting for her invitation. Seemingly uninterested in anything but touching her, trapping her against the wall with one hand pressed flat next to her head. She couldn’t relax, not as they were—him glaring down at her, the door still wide open, them vulnerable to be seen by anyone moving down their hallway.
Kai clenched his jaw, cupping her face in one hand, watching, waiting, it seemed, until Gia licked her lips, shooting her gaze to the open door then back up at him.
He pressed his lips together, not taking his focus from her face as he released her and shut the door closed with one hand. Now there were no excuses. Nothing to keep them from touching.
No more boundaries.
“Kai…I’m—”
He didn’t let her finish. Instead, he rested his hands on either side of her head, glaring down at her when she blinked, that look so penetrating it felt like a demand he made with the small movement of his eyes narrowing. Mouth opening a fraction, Kai inhaled, his nostrils widening as he inched closer, teasing her, taunting her when he wet his bottom lip with that wide tongue of his.
She kissed him because he wanted it. It was in his expression, in that silent, demanding stare he gave her. Gia acted first because she wanted to, but it would be the last time she controlled anything.
That night, in Keeana’s guest room, Kai had let Gia lead. He let her take control, she guessed, because she always did. She held an authority, even in that room, that Kai didn’t seem eager to challenge. Now he did. Now Gia was seeing a rarity for her: a man that wanted her and seemed to not care about asking nicely.
Her heart raced so hard Gia thought she might get lightheaded. Her fingers shook when Kai moved in, his large palm touching her cheek, his long fingers twisting to hold her chin, to keep her still. There was something in his eyes she’d never seen before; something that made her feel like lava ran through her veins as Kai moved her chin up, glancing once at her lips before he crushed her mouth with his.
He demanded. Insisted with the fierce movement of his tongue, with the low rumble of noise that Gia thought might be a groan but sounded like a growl. Then Kai grabbed her wrists, holding both in one hand as he lifted them over her head.
She couldn’t move, wouldn’t even if she’d been able to. There was such power in his expression, a fierce tightening of the muscles around his mouth that pulled his lips down, that made the stare he gave her a kind of promise she hoped he’d keep.
Around her, there was the faintest cry of a ship’s horn moving along the river, but nothing else. Nothing but those sounds Kai made and the tug she felt against her hips as he grabbed her. He licked against her neck, using his teeth to tease her skin and his freehand to knead her, to finger the crease the joined her thigh and center.
Then Kai kissed her again, his mouth fierce and frantic, his grip on her hands firm as he took from her lips, as he rubbed his fingertips across her stomach, then down, lower to cup her.
Gia’s gasp broke their kiss when he circled one long finger between her thong and her clit. She knew she was wet, felt the warmth there, felt it getting damper as Kai brushed at her lips, using two fingers now that were strong, that nudged her legs apart with just the simple brush of his hand against her.
Kai shuddered, but didn’t let go of her, kept her trapped there