Bad Habits Part 82

Mathew's face reflected his surprise. "You did?"

"Of course I did." Kim took a step toward him.

He nodded. He opened his mouth to say more, but something held him back. He'd been eager before and read more into their relations.h.i.+p than was there. He'd not repeat that mistake.

"Shouldn't you go back? Inside?" Kim asked, with worry in her voice.

"Maybe."

Silence.

More silence.

"Mathew?"

"Why did you come?" he asked. She didn't seem put-off by the question. She actually looked relieved. Instead of running from him or pus.h.i.+ng him away, she stepped forward. She stood right beneath him, staring up with hopeful eyes. "I wanted to be here for you, because, you were always there for me. I wanted to tell them the truth."

"It wasn't your fault, Kim."

"Yes it was, and you have to admit it too. I was wrong, you were wrong and we were wrong," Kim said.

"I see."

"No, Mathew, you don't." Her hand shot up to his chest and then dropped away as if the touch seared her palm. "Together, we were perfect. I just didn't know until it was too late."

"You weren't ready."

"We weren't ready," She corrected. "Were we?"

Mathew smiled. "Darlin', I can't tell anymore. I just can't."

Kim let the tissue drop. Her purse slipped from her shoulder down her arm. She grabbed his face in her palms and kissed him. So sudden was the action, he actually stepped back instead of forward like his mind screamed he should. She held both sides of his face, parting his lips under her command. The kiss was the only pull on his heart needed to make him completely weak. And as sweetly as it began, it ended with her looking into his eyes. "Mathew Donnelly, I love you."

The pressure in his eardrums popped, and his hearing returned, but even if he went deaf for a brief moment in the exchange he could not mistake the words tumbling from her lips. The applause shocked them both. They had an audience. Several others, two of them nurses, stood aside smiling. Kim blushed. She dropped her arms away and tugged down the edges of her suit jacket. Mathew stood there in awe of her.

"I think I shocked him," Kim joked. The other ladies laughed. She picked up her purse, took his hand and led him from the automatic doors. "Okay, so I see you're surprised."

"You have no idea," he chuckled.

"Let me finish. I didn't come here to be Joan of Arc. I came-" She squeezed his hand. He squeezed back, wis.h.i.+ng he could find his voice. But he wanted to hear her speak, hear something from her. She shyly looked away. He feared her bravery had pa.s.sed. He feared the awkwardness had returned. Then she looked up at him again. "I came here because I found out too late that I'm in love with you, Mathew. I know you have your reasons to doubt me, but it's true. I love you. Our love, it's different than what I thought love was. It's made me grow up in a lot of ways. It makes me stronger. I want it back. I'll do whatever it takes to prove the reasons why we should. I will."

"I don't know what to say," he replied.

"Can we go somewhere? You and me, can we be alone together and talk? Really talk. Don't we owe each other that much? Or... is it too late?"

"Mathew!" Heath's hurried steps caused many to make way. "Have you lost your senses? You don't just walk out on the MRB! They're incensed." Heath stopped at the sight of Kim holding Mathew's hand. He looked from her to him then shook his head with a new understanding. "Well, it's out of my hands now. You'll be lucky if you're able to give a friend a Tylenol when Collins is done."

"Yeah well, he can go to h.e.l.l." Mathew winked at Kim. He lifted her hand to his lips and pressed his lips to her knuckles, then spoke into her startled eyes. "I got something more important to do."

The drive was short. She had chosen a hotel not far from the downtown square of Charleston where the hospital was located. At first, she wanted something near the beaches. But she was too anxious and rushed to make a choice. So she settled on a Howard Johnson instead. The boys were to go to the pool with Anne, maybe the park. She hadn't told Mathew they were there. She hadn't told him much of anything. She lost a lot of her bravery along the way. He switched off the engine, turned in his seat and looked to her expectantly. She had said many things too early. Just blurted out her love for him. She should have paced herself so he could really get the meaning. "They have a bar inside."

"I'd rather go to your room. Be alone," he said.

Kim blinked up at him. Oh yes, she wanted to be alone, naked, under him, on top of him, on her knees. She pushed those wanton desires away. "It's been a long time since we talked. We should do it in private," she said.

"Tell me something first."

"Am I sober? Yes, Mathew, I'm sober."

His arm reached the back of the seat. He gave a light squeeze to the base of her neck. "Tell me why you came. Was it because Heath called, or did you come for another reason?"

"I had a bag packed when the phone rang. Heath's call was incentive, but I was motivated to find you the day you walked out of my hospital room," she said in a rush of words so nervous she lost her breath.

"Ditto," Mathew said. "Look in the glove compartment."

She cut her eyes over to it. Couldn't they play games later? She'd rather get him upstairs, undressed and in her bed. She'd rather release all this pent up need on him. She had suppressed the urges waging battles on her body, and she had barely won. The only safe urge was the one tugging her heart.

"Open it."

She did. She reached inside. A white sheet of paper was folded under a car manual and a small flashlight. She removed it first. When she looked to him, those dreamy eyes of his were focused on her b.r.e.a.s.t.s again. He recovered and forced them upward. "Open it."

She unfolded the paper. It was a printout and a receipt for an online flight purchase. The date stamp was for today. "You were coming back to New York?" she asked. "You were coming back to me?"

"The way we left things... I thought we should try, or I should try to talk, explain."

"There was nothing for you to explain. You did nothing wrong," Kim said.

"Not true sweetheart. We were both wrong, remember? You weren't ready and I knew it. I pushed and ignored all the reasons I shouldn't have. I won't make that mistake again."

"You fell in love with me," she said. There was no condescension in the words. It was how it was with them. She felt it before he said the words, and she used it to get what she wanted.

"I'm still in love with you. I had to say that aloud, again," Mathew said.

Kim smiled. "I was so afraid that you would hate me."

"Never." He leaned over to kiss her cheek, but she turned her face to his and captured his lips once more. This time, he returned the kiss with a command of his own that set her pulse rate to flutter. She only parted from him to take a breath.

"Let's talk inside."

"The boys?"

"Inside. Let's talk inside," she said unable to delay it another minute. She pushed open the truck door. He must have been just as anxious because he was out and around to her side of the truck before she could close the door. He took her hand this time, and together they went inside. When they arrived at the door to her room, she fumbled so much; she feared he'd notice. But he didn't say anything. She found the card key and let them inside. Her luggage was tucked away in the corner nearest the window. The boys' toys were about the bed. Mathew looked at them for a moment.

"They're here. I brought them to see you. To thank you."

"Thank me?"

"For the gift. The train."

Mathew smiled. "Did they like it?"

"Why don't you ask them yourself?" She tossed her purse to the bed. When she looked up again, he was staring at the door. "Not now. Later."

Mathew's eyes returned to her. Once she crossed the room to him, his arms were around her. He turned her in one fluid motion to the wall next to the dresser with the cabinet TV. It was as if he was securing her there, preventing an escape. "I have so much to tell you about me. Who I am."

"I'm listening," he said, but she sensed he wasn't. He was so close. She could feel his breathing against her neck as his head lowered and her face turned. She closed her eyes. He clasped her wrists and brought both of her hands up against the wall.

"My family is kind of different. You met my mother, she's different, a drunk. My father is probably something worse. And Simone... is, well, she's different too."

"That's not who you are," he said against her ear, brus.h.i.+ng his hard jaw against her cheek. "That's who they are."

"I know. I'm just saying that there is so much to tell you about me, and my life before-"

"Before what?"

Her b.r.e.a.s.t.s rose and fell in rapid succession. Her nipples grew even tighter as they brushed the fine threads of this s.h.i.+rt. And he was so close that she could speak the words right into his mouth if she chose to. "Before what, Kim?"

"Before you decide if you want to be in our life again and for us to start over. I came here for you to decide if you can trust me again."

He released her right hand to touch her face. His large palm cupped her cheek. "I love you, woman. Don't you know that?"

"It's been weeks and an eternity since I wasn't afraid of that love."

Mathew smiled. "So you aren't afraid?"

"Well, no, and yes. I do have a lot to get better at. But with you, it just feels right." She put her hand to his waist and kissed him gently. "I want to show you again and again. Remember how good it was?"

"Let me remind you how good it was."

She felt the temperature rise between her legs. This fever was to be expected.

Kim had returned, a new and improved version of her former self. He couldn't be more proud of her. This time she was all his. Imperfection in the body of a G.o.ddess, and him with all of his shortcomings, they just fit.

"I want you to stay," he muttered, easing her out of her suit jacket, undoing the b.u.t.tons of her blouse. She shrugged it off so she stood in her skirt, bra, and heels. He undid the front clasp to free her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and filled his palms with them both. Her skin was a rich honey against his paler hands. Delicate, fragrant, her nipples were dark, plump, and taut. Impossible not to taste, his lips parted from the urge. Then her hand brushed his groin and he froze. Bullets of desire shot through his p.e.n.i.s and seized his b.a.l.l.s. He grunted as she eased down the zipper, holding her eyes with his. He figured she'd touch him and he'd lose it, so he made to object, but she went down on her knees after she released him. Mathew put one hand to the wall, and then the other. Kim's tongue and warm mouth took his c.o.c.k in. His head dropped back as the muscles in his a.s.s and the back of his thighs clenched once she swallowed more of him. He worked his hips to and fro in synch with the most powerful suction. But it was the licks in between that almost dropped him to his knees. She pulled on his b.a.l.l.s and sucked him greedily until he was forced to drop his head to the wall and whimper through the shocks of pleasure. If she didn't stop soon, he couldn't be held responsible for what was to follow.

She let him go and he groaned a thanks. Kim eased up between his spread apart arms and hands, her back to the wall, her b.r.e.a.s.t.s bouncing. She was his G.o.ddess.

And he intended to sweep her away with his pa.s.sion for her. His arm went around her waist to bring her forward as he captured one nipple, sc.r.a.ping it against his teeth. She hauled in a whimpered breath, tracked fingernails across his scalp. He turned them both away, his pants at his hip, his c.o.c.k pulsating against the front of her skirt. He could hear her s.e.x kitten moans in her chest and he sucked her nipple hard and fast then soft and slow. Together, they went down.

She tugged down on his pants as he raised her skirt up to her waist and tugged down her panties. There were many positions he liked with her, and she had given him plenty of chances in the past to know them by heart. Now, he couldn't decide on which. When he lifted to pull her panties down her ankle and kick off his shoes, she flipped over to her stomach, giving him the cherry view of her p.u.s.s.y and the perfect round slopes of her a.s.s. Mathew actually licked his lips at the sight of both. He got on the bed, on his knees and reached for the zipper to the skirt and took much pleasure in pulling the material down her curvy hips. She looked back at him, her eyes lit with l.u.s.t. Her reddish brown hair was messy and loose from her tucked braid. She'd never looked more beautiful.

Without warning or condom, he rejoined her, rubbing his thickness between her a.s.s cheeks, letting the head of his c.o.c.k tap her center. Then he eased inside of her until he was b.a.l.l.s deep. She responded with little murmurs and sighs. Warmth stole through him like a thief catching him unawares, plunge after deep plunge. And the receiving, she was oh-so generous. She rolled her a.s.s, and pushed back with a rhythm that put his skills to shame. He tumbled hard with fast strike after strike. Her inner walls gripped him mercilessly. Mathew threw his head back, let go a deep groan, and lost all control. He dropped on her, still moving. She spared him no relief. They turned to their sides, still connected. He grabbed her left leg and threw it back off his hip so he could play with her c.l.i.t as he slipped and slid in and out of her until his d.i.c.k was fully erect again.

For her part, she shuddered under his finger play. Her p.u.s.s.y contractions pumped him dry, and he f.u.c.ked her sideways until they were both reduced to a sweaty mess of release. Lying still inside of her, holding her to his chest he just listened to her breathe until he fell into a peaceful sleep.

"Matt? Matt."

"Hmph?" he answered.

"You awake?"

He woke. She hovered above him with her hair wild and free. She looked ten years younger. "Kim?"

"Of course, baby." She grinned. "You have to get dressed. We'll have visitors soon."

"Oh, yeah? Visitors. The boys, huh?"

"They've missed you," she said as he sat up. She grabbed his arm. "And me too."

He looked back over to her as she lay back on the pillow, and then eased down the sheet. He looked at her, then to the door. "How long before they come?"

Kim giggled. "You better work quick."

"I can do that." He dropped on her and she laughed. He bit her shoulder and pinched her side. "Then I'll take you to meet the Donnellys. Everyone's heard so much about you."

"Oh yeah?" Kim smiled.

Mathew paused at that smile. "You came back to me. You don't know what you are in for."

She lifted her arms around his neck and nodded. "I should have warned you. I can love you with my hands tied."

Chapter Thirty-Seven.

Cain/Keith Tale of Two Men Cain stood outside the door to his home. In seven months he would be a father. Now? Why now? A kid was the last thing either of them needed.

Why now?

The question reverberated through the recesses of his mind. Cain closed his eyes. Rachel prophesized that each man, woman, or child, had a choice. The moment Simone Livingston let him hold her he had made his. He'd done it all on purpose to force a decision he should have made years before Simone came into the picture. He would finally have no choice but to break all ties with the House of Andrew Hollingsworth. And as the dust of Hollingsworth ruins settled, he'd have a baby, the woman he loved, and a new start. There was no going back now.

The doork.n.o.b turned in his hand.

Cain blinked in shock just as the cool steel k.n.o.b s.n.a.t.c.hed free of his hand and the door flew inward. Maryanne stood in the foyer glaring. Her hair was a blonde nest of tangles-her eyes red, swollen, gla.s.sy with the remnants of tears. Snot leaked from her nose. She stepped back, trembling with rage.

"Welcome home, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d," Maryanne said.

Cain had gotten a call, right after making love to Simone. When he checked for the caller, he noticed the number was his house. He figured it to be their housekeeper or worse Andrew had let himself in and made himself at home. Nothing shocked him, save for this. Why was she there?

"Maryanne?"