The Valentine's Arrangement (4 page)

“So how long do you think it’ll take you to finish tonight?” Kale asked as he sat down in the chair, but remained facing her. Her back was to him but he could tell she was still affected by him and he loved it. She was looking at him differently tonight. She was still snarky but her eyes were a little softer. She gave him an inch and he was most definitely taking a mile.

“I’m almost done. I just need to add the names of the fallen soldiers and finish up some of the shading. I would say an hour.” She sat down on her stool and rolled it toward him. “Turn around.”

He roamed over her one last time, allowing her to see him taking her in. He wanted her to know exactly what was running though his mind.

Her hair was down today, and he couldn’t decide if he liked it better that way or the way she had it last night. When it was down it brushed across the top of her breasts and gave him visions of grabbing handfuls of it in his hands, but when she wore it up he could see her long neck and delicate collarbone. It was a win-win either way.

She was wearing a grey and black stripped sweater that hung off her left shoulder and showed off the top of another tattoo and he was sure it trailed down her entire arm. She had on another pair of pants that might as well had been painted on, but these were black cotton, and of course her fuck me heels of the day were the same cherry red color of her lips.

After the full image of her was ingrained in his mind, he turned around and rested his arms on the back of the chair, keeping his face turned to the side, resting on his wrists, so he could watch her.

Ronnie quickly got to work on his back and the burning feeling of the needle tearing through his flesh was a dull distraction, but just barely.

Kale liked to watch her work. She bit the corner of her bottom lip and tilted her head as she concentrated. Her hands were gentle but precise and skilled as she carefully moved the gun elegantly across his back as if she were writing a sacred love letter. She licked her cherry lips every time she leaned back to admire her work and she quietly hummed to herself in what seemed to be the most out of tune hum known to mankind. When she wasn’t spiting fire, the hardness around her softened as if she was lost in her own little world and it sucked him in even more. He liked her feisty, but he could see the calm beneath the storm that consumed Ronnie, and he was determined to stay afloat until he reached it.

*****

Oh hell, this was getting a little intense. She felt the heat from Kale’s stare and she was damn lucky she was able to keep a steady hand. Ronnie didn’t speak to him. Talking would slow her down and she needed the man out of her chair, out of the shop, and out of her mind. She already knew the latter was going to be fucking impossible. His eyes on her were like a drug that was quickly turning addictive and she was only three months sober from men, and it’s been six months since she had a hit to subside her body’s need. Yes, getting him out of her mind was going to be difficult.

“You’re awful quiet tonight.” His voice rolled out of his mouth in a masculine purr that had her involuntarily pressing her thighs together.

“I just want to get this done with.” She bit the words out to keep from screaming at the top of her lungs.

“Ronnie,” he whispered, and the way his lips caressed her name sent a shiver down her spine, one that she couldn’t ignore. One that didn’t just create a path of goose bumps down the center of her body, but one that raised a soft tickle between her legs.

“I need a break; I’ll be right back.” She stood up and walked out of the room needing to put some space between them. Ronnie headed for the back door that led to the alley where everyone at the shop took their hourly smoke breaks. She didn’t stop to grab her coat from the design room and the cold winter air zapped her heated body bringing her down from the mental high she seemed to be on. Ronnie just stood there, breathing the biting air into her lungs, allowing the night to lull her. She never had such raw sexual tension with someone before. Maybe it was because she knew she couldn’t allow herself to give into him, or maybe it was because, for the first time since she was seventeen years old, she was allowing herself to think about being with another man.

Ronnie met Brandon, her fuck face ex-fiancé, the end of her senior year of high school when he rode in on his motorcycle, whisking her away on the back of his bike with promises of forever; just like every other trailer park girls’ fairy tale ending. Too bad Brandon came from the same neighborhood as Ronnie and his juvenile record and GED weren’t getting him into college anytime soon. Ronnie was barely able to pay her tuition at the community college for art classes.

Brandon was determined to make something of himself. He was determined to get the fuck out of that one stop town and do something better with his life, to give Ronnie something better. She was swept away by the idea of it all, and she was in awe of Brandon’s ambition. The Army did him good, too. Six years in and he was a Sergeant fast tracking his way up the promotion ladder, but his roots grabbed hold of him and swung him back down to be like every other piece of shit man that grew up in her neighborhood. He fucked around on her and who knows if it was even the first time. The army had separated them a lot over the past six years.

Good, that was what she needed; to be reminded just exactly why there was no way in hell she was getting involved with a soldier again, even if it was just for sex.

Ronnie took a deep breath and rubbed her hands up and down her arms to get the frozen blood in her veins moving again. She needed to stop being a fucking girl and get back in there to finish her job.

Ronnie pulled the heavy door open, her sweater covering her hand as she gripped the cold handle. The warm air of the shop stung her cheeks when she stepped inside. The moment the door shut behind her she was slammed against it, her back straightening against the pressure. Instantly a pair of hands gripped her waist and at the same time, a pair of lips closed in on hers. Ronnie didn’t have a second to process the chain of events that was taking place before her mind went into a dull fuzz as the blood left her brain and flowed quickly throughout her body, sending every nerve ending into a crazed sensation of complete pleasure.

Her eyes automatically closed and her own hands reciprocated the touch and skimmed up the heavy bare chest that was pressing against her. She felt a shudder unfold beneath her fingertips and it made her heart thud against her ribs. Kale was kissing her. No, he wasn’t just kissing her he was consuming her. He was touching her and everything about the way his hands felt on her body was right, at least right now; and she decided to ignore the annoying angel still perched on her shoulder, giving into the damn devil that was smirking with satisfaction.

Ronnie parted her lips and grazed her tongue across Kale’s bottom lip which caused the sexiest fucking groan to rumble in his throat. The noise had her arching her back, pressing her breasts hard against his chest as she wrapped her hands around the back of his neck, pulling him closer to her. His hands slid down her body and cupped her ass, lifting her up off the floor. Somewhere in the back of her mind, an inkling thought flickered, telling her that she shouldn’t be doing this, but at that moment in time, she didn’t give a shit. He was all hands and mouth and raw fucking desire; and right now, this was what she wanted. She wrapped her legs around his waist, and she could feel the thick bulge in his jeans, hard against the thin fabric of her leggings. Oh, it’s been a long fucking time since her body has felt the invasion of a man and she was trembling from the idea of it, from the idea of him inside her. She tightened her legs around his waist pushing her hips into him so she could feel him more.

Kale swore under his breath and leaned into Ronnie, releasing his hands from under her and moving them to her breasts.

His weight was crushing her against the cold door, but she didn’t care, she welcomed it. The feeling of this man devouring her was enough to make her forget her name, let alone the fact that she was hell bent against doing this very thing.

His hands grasped her breasts with such force that it walked the line of painful; only she liked it and wanted more. She moaned in his mouth, closing her lips around his tongue and sucking hard. When she released it, she nipped his bottom lip.

Kale moved his mouth to her throat, right under her chin. “You’re killing me here, Sweetheart,” he breathed against her skin, sending warm pricks of pleasure cascading down her body until it settled low in her stomach.

She didn’t respond; she couldn’t. She just tilted her head back and allowed him to make her delirious with his mouth. He licked and sucked her tender skin until she was lightheaded.

“Design room, now,” she ordered, finally able to find her voice through the thick wall of seduction that was clouding her ability to remember how to speak.

*****

Kale didn’t say anything. Instead, he braced his hands on the door, one on each side of Ronnie’s head. He pulled away from her neck and looked her hard in the eyes, looking for the slightest bit of doubt. He knew this woman reacted to him, but he sure as hell never would have imagined she would accept him so easily. When he raised his eyebrows at her, waiting for her to waver from her little command, she held his gaze with the most beautiful pair of brown eyes he had ever looked in to.

When he was certain she wasn’t going to jump from his arms changing her mind, he wrapped his arms around her and turned for the design room. She took that small slither of time he wasn’t focused on her body and used it to run her teeth along his shoulder. Her hair bushed across his cheek and he could smell the sweet scent of her shampoo, but with the warmth of her body wrapped around his waist, he couldn’t focus on anything other than the need to get her on the couch. He needed to touch her, to taste her.

Kale made his way into the design room, wading through the dark until his shins hit the couch. He lowered Ronnie down and didn’t hesitate sliding on top of her. Her body was tiny underneath him regardless of her height, and she molded into the black leather as he pressed his lips to her shoulder.

He wanted to pull her clothes from her body and bury himself inside her until she screamed his name and he passed out from pleasure, but he knew that he couldn’t; not yet at least. But making her scream out his name, that he could do right now.

Kale’s mouth traced over the side of her neck until it reached her ear. “I want to feel you,” he whispered, cupping her through her thin cotton pants.

Her breath hitched and he took it as a yes. He brushed his fingers over her smooth stomach, reveling in the feel of her body trembling from his touch. He slipped his hand under the waist of her pants and inched his hand down until it reached the warmth he was craving. He cursed to himself when he felt the small amount of lace that was covering her. He had an urge to slip those damn pants off her long legs so he could look at the tempting material that was covering so very little of her, but he knew he was bound to lose his control if his eyes were involved.

His thumb softly skimmed over the lace and he could feel how ready she was for him. He smiled against her neck, loving the way her body responded to him. He pushed the lace aside and gently slid his fingers inside her. He sucked in a breath when she instantly tightened around him. Damn, she felt good. It had been way too long since he had felt a woman’s body like this.

Ronnie’s head fell back and her body rocked against his hand as he rotated his fingers, finding the exact spot that seemed to drive her senseless. He stayed there, stroking her with the tips of his fingers, begging her to quiver beneath him.

Little breathy moans escaped her lips and with each stroke. Kale’s chest tightened and his resolve started slipping farther and farther away.

“I need to taste you, and I need to do it now,” Kale said, lifting his head from Ronnie’s neck so he could look her in the eyes, all the while keeping his fingers in place.

He drove farther inside her and rubbed the heel of his palm against her. She moaned again, only it wasn’t breathy and quiet this time and he knew she was getting close. He slowed his fingers, keeping his eyes on her, waiting for permission.

“Please,” she whispered.

“Please what, baby?”

“Yes. Now, please,” she begged, and he loved that he made this hard ass woman beg for him.

Wasting no more time, he withdrew his fingers and trailed his hands down her legs until they reached her ankles.

“I hate to see these go,” he said, slipping her cherry red heels from her feet. He lifted her foot to his mouth and licked a path from the inside of her heel to her toe. She giggled softly and it was a sweet sound, one he very much liked making her do, and one he was sure she didn’t do often.

He put her foot down and did the same to the other until both heels were off and he was slipping her pants from her hips.

“Maybe I can get you to keep those shoes on for me sometime,” he said with a smirk planted firmly on his face.

Ronnie glowered at him, her eyes squinting into slits, causing Kale to laugh. “Okay, okay,” he said, although he was damn sure gonna try. Those heels were too hot not to see them paired with her naked body. The thought almost made him put them back on her, almost, but the need to get his mouth on her won out.

He pulled the skintight fabric from her body and looked at her using the light from the hallway to aid his eyes, and fuck those legs were sexy before but seeing them now, bare and beautiful, had him second-guessing his imagination because this was even better than he thought. They were long, delicate, and creamy. The idea of them wrapped around his body again came to the forefront of his mind, but there would be time for that later.

A tattoo on the side of her rib cage peaked out of the bottom of her sweater and continued all the way down her hip and thigh. He wished he had taken a second to turn the lights on so he could admire the art covering her beautiful body.

“Kale,” Ronnie sighed, causing him to break his gaze from her legs. The sound of his name coming out of her mouth in a plea was the sexiest sound he has ever heard. Everything about this woman was causing imperative needs to radiate throughout his body and it was hard for him to stay on track, but he was going to if it killed him.