Picture Perfect Love: A Steamy Standalone Instalove Romance Read online

  And then it hits me.

  He doesn’t recognize me.

  Chapter Four

  Kaleb

  I stare at the woman sitting in the chair, hellfire moving through me, fucking flames like I’ve never felt before.

  I stopped believing I’d find the woman of my dreams, the woman I was destined to be with, the woman who’d awaken the animal need in me.

  Nobody ever came close.

  Nobody ever stoked a hundredth of the fire this woman has ignited.

  She stares back at me with wide emerald eyes, the sort of eyes that make me wonder how wide and innocent and surprised they’ll go when I bury myself up to the hilt, pumping as she moans and shivers on the end of my manhood. Her hair is shoulder length and a deep brown, making me want to run my hands through it. Her face is free of makeup, fresh and innocent and young and mine.

  And her body…

  Fuck…

  As she stands up, I drink in the sight of her gorgeous curves. She’s wearing a cardigan with a tan tank top and black pants, but neither does anything to hide the beautiful shapeliness of her, as though she was made especially to bring my children into this world, to give me a second family I didn’t know I needed before I laid eyes on her.

  I want to bury my hands in those gorgeous round breasts, pull her shirt so roughly it tears in half. I want to rub my hand along her hips, around to her thick ass, burying my hands greedily in her flesh.

  I’m getting hard thinking about it. I can’t stop.

  “Hello.” I turn my gaze when a tall woman with short hair approaches, presumably the photographer. “I’m Janie. You must be Kaleb.”

  I nod, struggling to keep my gaze on the photographer when all my eyes want to do – need to do – is drift back to the woman I’ve already mentally claimed as mine.

  I imagine somebody busting in here and trying to take her from me.

  I would do vicious things to protect her, and I don’t even know her damn name.

  What the hell is happening to me?

  I always thought this was possible, but I never knew it would be so sudden, so violent, so all-consuming.

  “Yes,” I say after a long pause.

  “I’m Janie. I’ll be your photographer for the session. And this is…”

  “Samantha,” the woman says, rising to her feet quickly. “My name is Samantha.”

  Janie and Samantha exchange a glance. Something passes between them silently, but then it’s gone and I wonder if I’ve imagined it. Not that it matters.

  All I care about right now is the way Samantha is walking toward me, nervous like she’s my prey, but with a note of spunkiness in the subtle sway of her hips.

  I don’t think she knows she’s moving her hips from side to side.

  And she definitely doesn’t know what it’s doing to me.

  Janie throws her hands up when her cell phone rings. “Oh, would you look at that? I’m so sorry. I have to take this.”

  I smirk at the exaggerated tone she takes as she reaches into her pocket, striding from the room.

  “What’s so funny?” Samantha asks, her voice wavering, as Janie closes the door behind her.

  I turn to Samantha, staring down at her, my fingers twitching with the need to reach out and touch her, palm her breasts. Fuck, I need to squeeze her nipples until she’s shivering with her need for a release until I can read how wet her young fresh hole is getting from the tension in her face.

  “That was planned,” I growl, my voice gruff with the effort of restraining myself.

  “The phone call?”

  “Yeah. To give us some private time together, I guess.”

  She nods, tilting her head in a cute-as-hell inquisitive way. The base of my manhood throbs and the helm rubs against the inside of my pants, against the zipper. I need to reach down and rearrange my massive throbbing dick, but somehow I don’t think that’d go down too well.

  “Do I recognize you from somewhere?” she asks.

  “Maybe.” I shrug. “I used to be an MMA fighter, but thankfully I got away with more money than fame.”

  “Oh, that’s right. You were a big deal. I knew I recognized you.”

  There’s something in her tone, almost like she’s implying I should recognize her, which makes no sense. I’ve never seen her before. I know damn well I’d never forget a woman like this, with her cascading dark locks begging for me to smooth them behind her ear.

  “So what do you do now, Kaleb?” she asks.

  She says my name in a strange way, forcefully, as though there’s some anger buried within there. I study her for a moment, her cheeks blooming red, as though she’s thinking the same dirty thoughts I am.

  If it wasn’t for the fact Janie could return at any moment, I know I’d grab her by the shoulders and push her up against the wall, moving my hands over her body as she gasped and begged me to fuck her hard, fuck her deep, fuck her like the horny young thing she is and pump my seed into her until she was gushing with it.

  “I own some real estate. And I run a charity that opens martial arts gyms. What about you, Samantha?”

  “I’m an illustrator,” she murmurs. “Or, at least, I’m trying to be. I work as a cleaner part-time at the moment too. I’m still living with my mom, so rent’s cheap, you know.”

  I don’t know.

  My parents were slaughtered like animals before I had a chance to truly get to know them.

  But I wouldn’t dream of taking that out on this woman. It’s not like she has any clue about that.

  “You seem young. You should give yourself more credit. It sounds like you’re on the right track early,” I tell her.

  “I’m twenty.”

  “I’m forty-two. Strange they’d match up two people with such an age gap.”

  Her eyes flit to me sharply, as she bites her lip, glaring. “Do you have a problem with the age gap?”

  Something fires inside of me at her sassiness, surging hotly through me. I take a step forward so my chest is almost pushed against her face. I can’t help myself.

  I need to claim this woman as badly as I need to breathe.

  “I have no problem with the age gap. I like how young and beautiful you are if you want the damn truth. So cool yourself down, you little firecracker.”

  She lets out a gasp, her mouth falling open. “You think I’m beautiful?”

  I grin like the beast I am. “Yes, I fucking do. Of course, I do. You’re curvy and sexy as hell. If I had my way I’d bend you over right here and take you raw. I’d take you until you were slick and didn’t know if you could take any more… and then I’d fuck you harder.”

  This wasn’t part of the plan at all.

  I wasn’t supposed to unleash myself like this so soon.

  But I can’t stop myself.

  She’s awoken the beast inside of me, the monster that used to only come to life inside the cage.

  Except this monster is so much fiercer than my fighting counterpart, because it’s fueled by lust, by need, by primal domination.

  “Really?” she whimpers.

  “Yes, really. Don’t sound so damn surprised.”

  “I guess I just never expected you to say that to me, to want me.”

  I reach up and touch her face, smoothing hair from it. It feels like the most natural thing in the world, like the only thing I can do. “I wanted you the second I walked in here, Samantha.”

  This is too fast.

  It’s risky. The photographer could return at any second.

  But I can’t stop myself as I lean down and crush my lips against hers.

  I smooth my hands down her back, grabbing her ass, driving my groin against her body so she can feel how rock solid she makes me. She gasps through the kiss, too stunned to respond for a moment, and then she starts to moan and shiver against me, the lust reverberating through her body.

  She whimpers as I massage her ass cheeks, as voluptuous and beautifully full as I knew they’d be. I bury my hands, indulging in them, the ti
p of my cock burning with my seed’s hungry to explode in her womb.

  I don’t just want to fuck her.

  I need to impregnate her.

  It’s a primal urge, rising from deep inside of me, compelling me in ways I can barely understand.

  Suddenly Samantha breaks it off, taking a step back.

  “I hear footsteps. She must be coming back.”

  It takes a herculean effort to step away from her, but I know that if I don’t I won’t be able to hold myself back. Her taste is on my lips, and my mind is whirring with the suddenness of what we just did.

  I can tell from the frantic look in her eyes she feels the same shock running through her.

  But I can read something else there too.

  The need to do it again.

  I turn as the door opens, trying my hardest to look civilized and not like the savage beast Samantha makes me.

  “So, how’s it going? Nobody’s slapped, anybody? I see none of the drinks have been spilled.”

  Samantha laughs in an exaggerated way, as though by laughing she can hide what we just did. But she’ll never be able to mask the closeness we just shared, the fire we ignited.

  I want to drag her from here and take her someplace private, someplace where I can finish what we started.

  “We’re fine. We’re ready to get going.”

  That’s the goddamned truth, but I’m not thinking about a photo shoot. I’m thinking about the way she’s going to melt for me when I throw her down on silk sheets, running my hand down her body and bringing it to her sex, rubbing her softly at first, and then harder as I feel her needy wetness squirting over my palm.

  “Okay, let’s start with some casual ones, shall we?” Janie says, wandering over to the studio section.

  With her back turned to us, Samantha and I gaze at each other as though there’s an invisible force tethering us to each other.

  I wonder if she can feel it too, not just the lust, not just the physical need.

  But the primal necessity of being close to each other, the drumming hunger that has ignited deep inside of me, far beneath the civilized façade I wear for the world.

  Her young womb must be desperate for my seed to swell and give me a second chance at being a family man.

  Janie turns, clapping her hands with a smile. “Well, what are we waiting for?”

  I smirk at Samantha, gesturing. “After you.”

  She rolls her eyes, and there’s an intoxicating note of sassiness in her voice when she speaks. “Wow, what a gentleman.”

  Maybe it makes me a little fucked up, but I love it when she sasses me.

  Chapter Five

  Kelly

  I walk over to the white backdrop, my heartbeat thrumming so heavy in my chest I’m sure something’s going to burst.

  He doesn’t recognize me.

  He thinks I’m somebody else.

  He called me beautiful. He said he wanted me. He said he wanted to make love to me.

  No, he didn’t put it in those terms.

  He grabbed me like he was a wild animal and he crushed me in that kiss, and I could feel his rock hard manhood against my belly, the same way I have a thousand times in my fantasies.

  My panties graze my skin with burning friction against my sex, wetness flooding into my pants, screaming at me to leap on Kaleb and grind against him before he finds out who I really am.

  I try not to think about Natalie, about what she’d think if she learned how badly her plan backfired.

  I’m sure she never dreamed I’d be paired up with her freaking dad.

  “So how do we stand?” I ask, achingly aware of Kaleb’s presence next to me.

  I can feel the heat radiating from his skin, the phantom imprint of his lips on my mouth.

  I can feel my skin tingling, sizzling up and down my arms, over my thighs, a thousand buzzing points screaming at me to collapse against him.

  When I said Samantha, there was a moment when Janie looked at me, and I thought she was going to give me away.

  But she’s respecting my right to use a fake name.

  “However you want,” she says, leaning down to adjust something on the camera. “Whatever feels natural.”

  “Alright then.”

  My whole world spins when Kaleb puts his arm around my shoulder, hugging me close to him. I feel like I’m going to melt through his shirt into his muscular burning body. He feels so hard against me, just like I always knew he would, every inch of him carved to sizzling perfection.

  “Is that okay, Samantha?” Janie says.

  I nod. “Y-yes,” I murmur, voice shivering with my withheld lust. “I… It’s fine. It’s good.”

  I was going to say I like it.

  But I love it would be more accurate.

  Or I’ve been waiting for this moment my whole freaking life.

  But what the heck is he going to do if he ever finds out the truth?

  I want to kiss him again. It was so much easier not to think then.

  “Okay. I’ll take a few photos. Smile. Stare. Look at each other. Whatever you want.”

  “Look at me, Samantha,” Kaleb says, a note of gruff command in his voice.

  I turn at his feral tone, staring up into his blazing blue eyes. He consumes me with his gaze, as though he’s been waiting to hold me as long as I’ve been dreaming about him holding me.

  But he isn’t holding Kelly. He’s holding Samantha.

  Janie takes photo after photo, changing angles, moving here and there, but I’m hardly aware of her. All I can do is stare up at Kaleb especially when he loses his shirt and I lose my cardigan. I tell myself over and over again to savor this because this is the only closeness we’re ever going to share.

  When he learns the truth…

  I push it all down, burying it deep, willing myself to live in the moment.

  He moves closer and I can feel his breath on my face, tempting me to kiss him again.

  But something tells me he won’t kiss me in front of Janie.

  I’m relieved.

  I felt how difficult it was for him to stop last time, how his hands made scorching paths over my ass.

  Next, he pulls me to his naked chest and holds me there like a delicate flower he could crush if he holds me too tight. I know without having to ask this is because he doesn’t want to get too excited with somebody else here but I savor the moment closing my eyes as I listen to his strong heartbeat.

  I can feel the possessiveness emanating from him, calling out to something deep inside of me, buried past my nerves and my self-doubt, buried past all the whirring self-loathing that has made me hold back in romantic exchanges for so long.

  Or perhaps I’m imagining it all, projecting onto him what flares up inside of me.

  The rest of the session passes in a dreamlike blur, as we wrap our arms around each other and smile at the camera.

  At least, I smile.

  I’ve never seen Kaleb Keller smile.

  His lips twitch into savage smirks, the sort of configurations that let me know he’s a primal animal as much as a man, ready to claim me in the most beastly ways if I’ll only submit…

  I’d bend you over right here and take you raw, he told me, and simply thinking about it makes my clit rub tantalizingly against my panties, the friction seeming to multiply until I’m worried I might break down into a shivering orgasm just from holding hands.

  Finally, achingly, the session comes to an end and Kaleb puts his shirt back on.

  “That was great, Kaleb… and Samantha,” Janie says giving me a secret smile. “We normally end the session by asking if you’d like to exchange phone numbers. You don’t have to, of course—”

  “Yes,” Kaleb snarls. “We’re going to do that, thank you.”

  “Samantha?”

  Janie’s eyes are kind, open to any subtle signals I may give her. She might think I’m being pressured here when really it’s anything but.

  She has no way of knowing I’ve waited a long time for this.
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  “Can you give me yours?” I murmur, looking up at Kaleb. “And I’ll text you mine.”

  I can’t risk him showing my number to Natalie and…

  But what the heck am I thinking?

  I’m going to run into him at some point. I can’t avoid Natalie forever.

  And I want to see him.

  “Sure,” Kaleb says, stark blue eyes glinting. “Give me your phone. I’ll punch it in quickly.”

  I take out my phone, unlock it, and hand it to Kaleb.

  And then I realize my mistake.

  Fuck, fuck, fuck.

  My background is of me and Natalie, a smiling selfie, taken a few weeks ago when we were at a café together.

  “What the hell?” Kaleb says, his eyes widening.

  He stares at the phone for a moment, then looks up at me.

  Recognition burns in his eyes.

  Something like hate fires through his features.

  “Kelly? Kelly Jones?”

  Chapter Six

  Kaleb

  I look down at the photo, trying to convince myself it’s not real. Maybe her application icons are distorting the image.

  But there’s no way I can convince myself of that.

  I’d recognize my daughter anywhere, and now that I look closely at Samantha – no, at Kelly – I realize what a fool I’ve been.

  But the Kelly I remember was a girl with hair across her forehead, her teeth in braces, an invisible entity I never had cause to think about. She would sometimes come around to visit Natalie… and that was it.

  I rarely spoke to her. I never looked at her.

  How has she changed so damn much in just over two years?

  Suddenly the realization of what we’ve done stampedes through me.

  I kissed my daughter’s best friend.

  I kissed her and I want to do it again. I want to do other things to her, dirty and carnal things, to make her mine in every way imaginable.

  “Why did you say your name is Samantha?” I snarl.

  “Wait, you two know each other?” Janie murmurs from the side.

  “Yes. But I didn’t recognize her. Kelly is friends with my daughter.”