Picture Perfect Love: A Steamy Standalone Instalove Romance Page 6

  Chapter Nine

  Kelly

  I run around my bedroom quickly, pulling on some clothes.

  There’s no freaking way I’m going to face Lennie in just my bathrobe. The thought causes maggots to squirm over my skin.

  As if I didn’t hate the asshole already…

  He made Mom’s life hell for months before she finally plucked up the courage to leave him, and every now and then he feels the need to pop back into our lives, letting us know he can break into our apartment whenever he wants. He’s a shrewd criminal, using whatever trick he has to disable security alarms.

  Stupidly, I thought we might be safe because it’s been several months since he last turned up.

  I hoped he’d moved on with his life.

  Clearly not.

  I pull on a hoodie and some sweatpants and hurry after Kaleb, my heart still pounding from all we just shared, from the way he looked at me like I’m the only person in existence he cares about and he can ever care about.

  I want to scream with the relief of knowing he feels the same as me, of knowing my virginity makes me more appealing to him.

  But then I want to roar out sorry when I think about Natalie and all the pain this could cause.

  “Who the fuck are you?” Lennie snaps, looking up from the coffee table when we enter the room.

  He’s casually rifling through Mom’s notes. Lennie is a big man, even taller than Kaleb, with wide shoulders and a twice-broken nose. His hair is a dusty red and slicked back. I still have no clue what Mom saw in him, but after Dad died she’s had the worst taste in men.

  “I’m the man who’s going to throw you out that fucking window if you try anything stupid.”

  Kaleb’s voice isn’t pitched low in a threatening tone. It’s a matter of fact. I really believe he’d throw Lennie out the window if it came to it.

  He’s predator calm.

  “Oh, is that so?”

  Lennie stands up with a sick grin on his face. His eyes are glassy like when he’s high. He’s wearing a heavy leather jacket and he casually reaches inside.

  Tension moves through me and I freeze, terror trying to stab at me.

  “That would be a very stupid thing for you to do,” Kaleb growls.

  “What, shoot you both? Hello, princess.” He aims his smile at me. “Miss me?”

  Kaleb takes a step forward, and then another so his muscular shoulder is half blocking me. While my body has turned into a battleground of anxiety, he seems completely at ease, bored even, staring at Lennie the same way an eagle would scan the horizon for prey.

  Something about Kaleb’s gaze must throw Lennie off, because he lifts his hands, offering his palms in a sign of peace. “Relax, man. I’m only messing with you. I guess you’re her knight in shining armor, then?”

  “You broke into their home. Why, you sick fuck? What were you hoping to find?”

  “Angie. Wasn’t that obvious? Is she here? Angie.”

  “She’s not here,” I yell, anger making my voice strong. “And you better get going or you’re really going to regret it.”

  “Is that so?”

  “Yes.” I take a step forward. “We’ve installed security cameras in the apartment and in the hallway. You’ve been caught on tape picking the lock.”

  He chuckles. “Not this time. Sorry to burst your bubble, little lady, but the door was unlocked. Plus I don’t believe you.”

  Fuck.

  He might be right.

  I don’t remember locking it behind Kaleb.

  And he’s right. That stuff about the cameras was a bluff.

  “It doesn’t matter.” Kaleb takes another step forward. “You have no right to be here. So if you’re going to make a move, make one. Otherwise, get the fuck out.”

  “Think you’re tough, do you?” Lennie sneers. “I’ve diced up men bigger than you.”

  “What about an MMA heavyweight champion?” I snap. “Have you diced up one of them before?”

  Kaleb glances at me, smirking slightly, as though he’s proud of me for giving as good as I get. My belly swirls under his gaze.

  Lennie’s face drops. “I don’t believe you.”

  “I’m happy to prove it to you.” Kaleb slowly walks around the table, his eyes pinned on Lennie the whole time. He walks forward until he’s within bare inches of the man. “Come on, tough guy. Go ahead.”

  Kaleb spreads his hands, staring at Lennie.

  I can tell by the way Lennie’s eyes flit here and there he’s not used to facing off against men who are almost as tall as him, and he’s definitely not used to people responding calmly rather than with fear.

  He’s a bully through and through.

  “No?” Kaleb says. “Okay. Time to go.”

  Kaleb takes another step forward, his hands hanging at his sides, fingers twitching like he’s ready to spring into action at any second.

  Lennie backs away, bumping into the couch and then stalking toward the door. “Fucking prick. Fucking asshole. Think you can scare me? I know people. Heavyweight champion or not, I know people.”

  Kaleb follows him to the door. “Sure, good for you. But just a word of advice. It’s hard to act tough when you’re walking away.”

  “You wait,” Lennie cries. “I’ll make you pay for disrespecting me. I’ve got contacts.”

  “Bring all the sad lowlifes you want to face me,” Kaleb growls, pulling the door open and nodding to the hallway, “but if I ever get word of you coming close to Kelly or her mother again, I’ll beat you into the fucking earth. Now get.”

  He shoves Lennie into the hallway so hard he crashes into the opposite wall, letting out a whining noise before ducking his head and jogging away.

  It’s only once Kaleb has shut and locked the door behind Lennie that he lets out a savage breath, turning to me with a dark look in his eyes.

  “That motherfucker. Who does he think he is, strolling in here like that? If you were alone…”

  I walk over to him quickly, touched by the pain in his voice, by his need to protect me.

  His words from before are still whirling around my mind, about how he wants to be with me forever, about how he wants to claim me. I would never have believed it if he hadn’t sworn on Natalie’s life, and now this is even more evidence that he meant what he said.

  I grab hold of him, hugging him tightly, stunned by how natural it feels…

  But I’ve also been waiting for this moment for so long, I shouldn’t be surprised, not when I’ve rehearsed it a thousand times in my mind.

  “I didn’t even think you were angry,” I murmur as he squeezes me against him.

  I lay my head against his chest and feel his powerful heartbeat pounding against my ear, picking up speed as his hands tighten on my shoulders.

  “When you’ve trained in martial arts for as long as I have, you learn to keep your emotions in check. I could tell by how he carried himself he’d be easy work if it came to blows, but a fighting man never takes anything for granted. So I had to stay calm. But trust me, Kelly, I’m fucking furious. He’s lucky I didn’t snap his goddamn neck for barging in here like that.”

  I look up into the fury of his expression, touched by his words. “I thought he was done with his sick games. It’s been months since he last showed up. He won’t leave Mom the hell alone. It’s like he can’t believe anybody would dare to break up with him, which is stupid because he’s a terrible person. Of course, Mom would break up with him.”

  He sighs, leaning down to lay a surprisingly tender kiss against my forehead.

  “I can’t stand the idea of him showing up when I’m not here. My job is to protect you, to protect the family we’re going to build together.”

  I shiver under the heat of his words, letting them wash over me. “But what the heck can we do? I’ve talked to Mom about moving and she refuses to. We installed a security alarm, but he has things that can disable them. I didn’t even know they existed before.”

  Kaleb nods. “Yeah, the security c
ompanies use them. He must’ve gotten his hands on a bootleg one.”

  We walk over to the couch, Kaleb dropping down and pulling me into his lap. I slide effortlessly into his embrace, a sizzling warmth moving through my body when I feel how full of pent-up throbbing lust he is, even now.

  “I’m going to hire a security firm to keep tabs on you and your Mom until this bastard is dealt with.”

  “How am I going to explain that to my Mom?”

  Kaleb thinks for a moment, eyes intense and brimming with animal protectiveness. “Tell her you told Natalie about what happened, and she spoke to me and I offered to arrange it, as a friend of the family.”

  “I don’t like the idea of lying to her,” I murmur.

  “Then let’s tell her the truth,” Kaleb says passionately. “And let’s tell Natalie, for that matter. You’re right. We shouldn’t lie. It’s going to be damn difficult, but it’s better than sneaking around.”

  “No.” I’m shocked by how harsh my voice sounds. “We can’t tell her. It would break her heart.”

  He stares at me for a long moment, something like rage entering his expression. “We can’t keep this a secret forever, Kelly. Unless you didn’t mean what you said. Unless you don’t feel the same.”

  I leap up from his lap, the flickering flame inside of me mutating and becoming something darker, meaner, rage-filled. “I didn’t say that, did I? But we can’t…”

  “We have to,” he snarls, rising to his feet, looming over me the same way he did in the bedroom.

  Chapter Ten

  Kaleb

  I stare at my woman, no less beautiful and captivating now that she’s clothed than when she was naked. Even after confronting that Lennie lunatic, my body still roars out for hers, the primal pulse inside of me commanding me to claim her at this moment.

  She gazes at me and then aims her gaze downward. “I can’t stand the idea of telling Natalie and hurting her.”

  My sigh comes out ragged. “What’s the alternative? We’re going to be together forever. We belong together, Kelly. You fucking belong to me. I’m going to take that tight virgin hole when you’re good and ready – and then what… What are you going to say to her when you turn up one day with a swollen belly filled with our child?”

  She spins away from me, her wavy hair flying. “Don’t yell at me, Kaleb.”

  I laugh in disbelief. “I’m not yelling. I’m talking truth to you.”

  She spins back, her eyes wide. “This is all moving so fast—”

  I stalk forward, closing the distance between us, and grip her shoulders.

  I still her words with a kiss.

  She gasps, the sound muffled, and then sinks into it the same way she did at the studio. She moans through the tight press of our lips, as our mouths open and our tongues magnetize to each other.

  I growl and slowly slide my hands down her body, grabbing greedy handfuls of her hips, pulling her so it’s like we could sink into each other and become one right now.

  “I fucking need you,” I snarl, keeping my lips close to hers so I can taste her tempting breath. “Your body needs me. We can’t fight this.”

  “I know,” she whimpers, gazing up at me in that adorably innocent way, the same way she will when she’s on her back and I’m driving my manhood deep inside of her. “I’m not saying that. But the idea of telling her makes me crazy.”

  “The only way not telling her makes any sense is if this isn’t real. And it is.”

  “It is,” she says, voice flaring with passion. “Of course it is. I feel the same. But…”

  She moves away from me, throwing her hands up in the air.

  “I don’t have any amazing reason, okay? I can’t stand here and give you some amazing logic for why we can’t tell her. All I know is Natalie is my oldest, best friend. We’ve known each other since freaking kindergarten. She was there for me when I was a little girl and my dad died. I can’t break her heart.”

  Her words punch into me.

  ,

  It’s like I haven’t properly thought this through, what telling her actually means.

  I know we can’t fight this feeling.

  But at the same time, the truth of her words pounds into me with almost physical force, thrumming around my body.

  Goddamn, she’s right.

  Natalie’s going to have the shock of her life when she learns about the connection I’m forging with her best friend.

  “But what other choice do we have?” I question, honestly asking now rather than trying to persuade her.

  She senses the change in my tone – reading my woman is so damn easy, another sign we’re meant to be together – and some of the tension drains from her body. “I don’t know. Because you’re right. This feeling, it’s not going anywhere. God. Why do you have to be Natalie’s dad?”

  I try to smirk as I walk over to her, taking her hands in mine. “I can’t change that, can I? But maybe you should get into a big fight with Natalie so she’s not your friend anymore… I’m joking, obviously. I love how close you two are.”

  She laughs quietly. “I know. So do I. I don’t want to do anything to threaten our friendship. Which is what makes this so freaking difficult.”

  We’re quiet for a time, standing opposite each other with my hands clasped around hers. The way we’re standing – the way we’re gazing at each other – makes me feel like we’re at the altar ready to say our wedding vows.

  If I had these thoughts about any other woman this soon, I’d run for the damn hills, but with Kelly, it feels right, like the only thing I can consider doing.

  Because she’s mine.

  And a real man puts a ring on his woman’s finger.

  But there’s no way I can think about asking her such a monumental question before we’ve dealt with telling Natalie.

  “Maybe we should try a date,” I muse, with a wry smirk. “I’ll try to make you sick of me. That way we won’t have to tell her.”

  My voice swells with heavy irony. We both know we’re not going to get sick of each other, but she giggles and nods sarcastically. “Oh yeah. I’m sure I can turn you off from me very easily.”

  We’re both joking, not taking this at all seriously.

  We know how badly we need each other.

  Forever.

  This is an excuse, a way to delay the inevitable.

  But a date with my woman does sound like heaven.

  “Where would we go?” Kelly murmurs.

  I can feel us slipping into a different part of the conversation now, tacitly agreeing to table the Natalie discussion… which is bad, which is cowardly, but which is also necessary if we’re going to float in this blissful closeness for a while longer before shattering it.

  The idea of lying to my daughter sickens me.

  The idea of not being with my woman sickens me further.

  This is fucked.

  But when I’m staring down into the shy sassiness of my woman’s eyes – a combination that would be a contradiction in anybody but my queen – I find I’m able to push all of that aside and simply be in the moment.

  “What?” she murmurs when I don’t answer her question. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

  I smirk and smooth hair from her face. She has such messy gorgeous hair, the sort I could spend years caressing and adoring. “Like what?”

  “Like that.” She giggles, reaching up and smoothing her hand over my face. “Like you’ve got something you want to tell me but you don’t know how to say it.”

  I reach up and press her hand against my face, savoring the warmth of her, even as the feral part of me imagines what her hot palm would feel like wrapped around my throbbing dick. I’m getting hot just thinking about it, my body burning up, scorching through me like a wildfire that isn’t going to take no for an answer.

  “You remind me of what it’s like to be in the cage,” I growl.

  She tilts her head, a cute-as-fuck look on her face.

  I don’t think she has an
y idea how captivating she is when she looks at me like that, with so much excitement in her eyes, so ready to face our future together.

  “How’s that?”

  “In the cage, there’s nothing but the moment. Everything else, any worries I had before I got in there, they immediately drifted away the moment my feet touched the canvas. The fight, the immediacy of battle, whatever the fuck you want to call it… I haven’t felt that in years. I’d accepted I was never going to feel it again. But with you, Kelly, nothing else matters. Nothing else exists.”

  She lets out a shivering sigh as I bring my lips down to hers. Kissing her is the easiest, most natural thing I’ve ever done, and yet it’s tinged with a fiery newness that goes right to my center. The base of my manhood throbs and pulses as I grind against her.

  She moans and grabs onto my arms.

  “That was so nice,” she whimpers.

  “The kiss?”

  “Well, yeah.” She laughs. “But what you said too. I feel exactly the same. It’s bad. We should be thinking about—”

  I kiss her again, selfishly, hungrily because I know what she’s going to say. She’s going to tell me we should be thinking about Natalie.

  And she’s right.

  But kissing her is so much better, my body flooding with heat as she shivers against me.

  “You want it,” I snarl, feeling the shivers moving through her.

  “I do,” she moans. “But I saw how…”

  “How what?” I urge, and then I chuckle as her cheeks turn an adorable shade of red. “Are you blushing, Kelly?”

  “Maybe.” She pouts at me. “Don’t mock me.”

  “I’d never mock you… well, maybe a little, for fun. But never for real. What were you going to say?”

  “I saw how big you are. I’m not sure I’d even be able to take you.”

  “Your body needs it,” I snarl. “Your pussy is going to open for me, Kelly. Your tight pink wet hole is going to take my cock because that’s what you were made for. For me. Forever. Say it, Kelly. Tell me who you belong to.”

  She gasps at the sudden ferocity of my words. “You,” she whimpers. “Just you. Always.”