Kiro's Emily (4 page)

So how was she still a
goddamn virgin
?

“I tried to tell you.” Her voice was so soft I almost didn’t hear it over my mad ranting. I stopped pacing the floor and cursing to look at her. She had drawn her knees up under her chin, and she was watching me. Those eyes that made men want to sin were unsure and nervous.

Why had I gone so fucking apeshit over a woman? I never did this. Ever. Fuck me. I could fuck all damn day and not have to fuck the same pussy twice, if that’s what I wanted. So why her?

She pulled her bottom lip into her mouth and dropped her eyes.

That was my answer. Because I had never had sweet. Fucking ever.

And I wasn’t starting now. Emily deserved more than this. I didn’t even know her. Would I even like her?

“I’m sorry,” she said “If you’ll let me, I can go get Sonya, and we can leave.”

She was apologizing to me, though she owed no fucking
apology to me, and she was still worrying over that slut cousin of hers who needed to be bitch-slapped. She wasn’t stripping off her clothes and trying to suck my damn dick. She didn’t care that I was Kiro Manning. She wasn’t asking for anything from me.

Well, fuck me. Yeah, I liked her. Who the hell wouldn’t? Why was she single? Shit didn’t make sense. This girl should be pampered and taken care of. Some lucky motherfucker should be worshipping the ground she walked on.

“Come here, angel.” I held out my hand to her. She studied it a moment, then looked at my face. Whatever she saw, she trusted. Her small hand slipped into mine. It was so damn feminine. Pretty pink fingernails and dainty fingers. I could see it wrapped around my cock, driving me to the best fucking orgasm of my life. No! I had to stop.

Not with Emily. This needed to end. No sex. She was off-limits. I wanted to preserve this. I didn’t want my angel sullied. She was perfection, and I wanted to be close to that. To breathe it in.

“If I order some food, will you stay and eat? We can watch a movie.” The words were foreign coming out of my mouth. Never in my life had I spoken them to a female.

At first, I thought she was going to say no again. But a small smile touched her lips instead. “OK,” she replied.

June 1992

Emily

T
his was my fourth date with Will Burton, and tonight he had kissed me. Finally. It hadn’t been earth-shattering, but it had been nice. He was a good guy. The kind who fit the white-picket-fence-with-two-kids-and-a-dog mold. I could see that life in his future, but I wasn’t yet seeing me in his future. I had tried several times. I just had to keep giving him time. Things could change.

I set my purse down on the kitchen counter and slipped off my heels before pouring myself a glass of juice. The popcorn at the theater had left me thirsty. Just as I started to take a drink, my phone rang. I stared at it a moment. If that was Sonya wanting to know the details with Will, I wasn’t in the mood. I moved over and checked the caller ID.

Private
caller
lit up the screen. Kiro.

Smiling, I picked it up. “Hello, you,” I said.

“Hey, angel. How has your week been?” he asked, making me feel warm all over. I walked over to the sofa and sank
down on it, tucking my feet underneath me. Kiro called once a week. Some weeks, I got two calls. He liked to check in. He would tell me about the tour he was on, and I would tell him about life here.

“Busy. But I don’t work tomorrow, so I’m looking forward to being lazy all day. I may not leave my apartment. How has your week been?”

“Oh, you know. I sang, women screamed, threw panties at me, and begged me to have their kids. My regular night,” he replied.

I would have laughed, but he was serious. He always left out the details about those women, whom I knew he practiced child-making with afterward. That was something we never discussed.

Since I’d met him earlier this year, we had become friends. We’d found out that weekend that we shared the same love for
Indiana Jones
, so we had watched all the movies in his penthouse while the other band members stared at us like we were an alien species they didn’t understand.

When I left Chicago, I had thought I’d never hear from him again. But that night, he had called me, and our friendship had grown over the months. Now, when things happened that made me happy or upset me, I immediately thought of Kiro. He was the one I wanted to tell.

“Shame you’re sitting home on a Saturday. The guys in South Carolina are idiots,” he said, breaking me out of my thoughts.

I hadn’t told him about Will yet. He didn’t talk about his one-night stands, and I didn’t think he’d care about my dating life. But we were friends, and although I did fantasize about
him at night, I also knew it was just that: a fantasy. Kiro made it clear he wanted nothing to do with an inexperienced virgin in the bedroom.

“I went on a date tonight. His name is Will. It was our fourth, actually.” I tried to sound casual, like this was no big thing. Talking about a guy with him.

He didn’t say anything at first, and I gripped the phone tightly, hoping I hadn’t done the wrong thing. I didn’t want these phone calls to end. Sadly, they had become the highlight of my week.

“Fourth, huh? Guess there’s a guy with eyes and a brain down there,” he said with a chuckle, but his voice seemed tight. “He got a last name?”

“Burton,” I replied.

Kiro was silent again, and then he cleared his throat. “How’s that bitch at work? She still giving you shit?” he asked.

I relaxed. This was what we normally talked about. The day-to-day easy stuff. “She got fired,” I said, still reeling over how that had happened. “Will heard her reaming me out about something that wasn’t my fault. She had threatened to have me fired. Then he walked in and told her she needed to pack her desk up and go home.”

“Will? As in the guy you’re dating?”

I had forgotten to mention that Will was my boss. I worked at a lumberyard, taking orders and dealing with contractor accounts. Will’s dad owned the company. “Yeah, he’s the manager,” I explained.

Kiro didn’t comment, so I decided it was time to shift the conversation away from me. This was awkward. “I bet you’re looking forward to going home. Last stop is tomorrow, right?”
I had a poster of the band with the tour dates on it hanging in my bedroom. I liked to be able to see where he was each day.

“Last stop was tonight. I’m in London. Five hours ahead of you. It’s two in the morning here.”

He never called on nights they performed. He usually partied afterward. “What? No party in London?” I asked.

“Yeah. They’re partying. I wasn’t in the mood. Came back to the hotel.”

That didn’t sound like Kiro. His whole tone seemed off. “Are you OK? You don’t sound like your usual self.”

He let out a sigh. “Yeah, I’m good, angel. Just tired. Long-ass tour.”

And it was two in the morning. “You want to get some sleep?”

“I’d rather hear you talk.”

When he said things like that, my whole body shivered. I loved his deep voice, and any little comment could make me anxious for my bed and my thoughts of him. Because I hated to think of Kiro being sad, I did the best I could to make him smile. I told him every small detail of my day that I thought would amuse him and gave him a recap of the best
Saturday Night Live
episodes he had missed while on tour. With each laugh I got out of him, my insides felt all tingly.

Kiro

I
knocked on the door, trying hard not to be pissed that this piece of shit apartment complex with no fucking security was Emily’s home. This wasn’t where I’d been picturing her. And I pictured her a fucking lot.

Waiting with my hands tucked in the pockets of my jeans, I was trying to remain calm. But fuck it all, I had been waiting to see her face for months. Every time I heard her voice, my entire body went on high alert. I couldn’t rein in its attraction to Emily.

I heard a chain sliding out of the lock as the door swung open, revealing her in a pair of tiny shorts and a camisole. Her hair was tangled, and her gorgeous eyes were wide.

“Kiro,” she said, unable to hide the grin that lit up her face. It was midnight. I had changed my flight from London to come here instead of Los Angeles. I didn’t fucking miss my house. I only missed one thing while on tour, and it was this face. Fuck me.

“I wake you up, angel?” I asked, stepping into her apartment with my hands still firmly stuck in the pockets of my
jeans. I didn’t trust them around Emily. They wanted to touch her.

It was then I realized she had just crawled out of bed. Her hands went to her hair as she ran her fingers through the strands, trying to tame them. But I liked it just the way it was.

“I . . . you’re here. At my apartment.” She sounded flustered. Then her nose scrunched up, and she frowned. “Oh, wait. I’m asleep. This is a dream.” Her face fell.

Fuck it! I took my hands out of my pockets and wrapped her in my arms. She inhaled deeply as I held her to my chest. “I’m very real, and you’re awake,” I told her, unable to keep the thickness out of my throat. She got to me. She was fucking with my head. Seriously fucking with it.

“You feel real.” Her arms came around my waist.

I closed my eyes and soaked her in. Pressing a kiss to the top of her head, I stood there with her in my arms as long as she would let me. Hell, I would have stood there all damn night if she wanted me to.

“I thought you’d be ready to go home. Aren’t you homesick?” she asked, tilting her head back to look up at me.

“I was only missing one thing, angel. And it wasn’t in fucking L.A.” I winked as I cupped her face and felt her soft skin under my thumbs as I brushed her cheekbones.

She frowned a moment. “Do you mean me?”

I hauled her against me and lifted her inches off the floor as I took the few strides to the sofa and sank down with her in my lap. She didn’t pull away, and God, that felt good. “So fucking sweet,” I murmured, as I stared down into her face. I hadn’t made this shit up. She was better than I remembered. Fuck, she was so much better. That voice had gotten me through the
tour.

“I missed you,” she said, and reached up and slipped her fingers into my hair, wrapping a few strands around them. “I’m glad you came to see me.”

On the flight here, I had practiced this. I had prepared myself for how I was going to get what I wanted. And I wanted Emily close. I didn’t want her here. Especially now that I saw where
here
was. This shit was not going to fly.

“Me, too. I’m also glad I got to see you like this. Messy bed hair and cute little pajamas.” I tried hard to keep my face casual instead of needy.

“This was why you wanted my address, then? Not because you were going to mail me something?” she said, a grin on her lips. Loved those lips. Wanted those lips.

“Yeah, angel. That’s why,” I assured her.

She beamed. The delight on her face at me being here was real. Just like my Emily. Real. The most real thing in my life.

“You ever been to L.A.?” I asked, already knowing the answer to this.

She shook her head no.

“You would love it there. The sun and the beaches. It’s beautiful.” I had to sell her on this. Because I wasn’t leaving without her.

She blinked. “I’m sure I would.”

I shifted and moved her to sit beside me so I wouldn’t grab her and take off running if she said no. Also, I was getting a fucking hard-on from her plump little ass in my lap.

“Before I left on tour, I had to fire the house manager. She fucked Dean and got all territorial. It was ugly. So I need someone else to oversee shit. Like the groceries and making sure the
cleaning lady and the lawn man get paid. I also need someone to get the mail and make sure everyone on my payroll is doing their job. It’s a job I can’t just trust anyone with. Salary is two hundred grand and health benefits. Living expenses are covered, since you’d be staying at my house. I’ve thought about this for a while. I’d really like for you to take it.”

She was silent for a moment as she stared at me. I held my breath.

“Did you just offer me a job to move to L.A. and manage your house and get paid two hundred thousand dollars a year?” she asked.

“Yeah, I did.” I had paid the last house manager seventy-five thousand. But Emily didn’t have to know that.

She rubbed her eyes and muttered, “I think I’m still asleep. Crap.”

I couldn’t keep from laughing as I pulled her hands away from her eyes. “Told you once, babe, this isn’t a dream. It’s real, and I’m here. Now I want you to tell me, ‘Yes, Kiro, I accept the job offer.’ ”

She sat there and stared at me with her mouth slightly open. Sticking my tongue in there was real damn tempting.

“I . . . but . . . school starts in the fall. If I leave my job now, I won’t have it when I come back, and I need it to—”

“We have colleges in L.A. This job doesn’t end in the fall. We don’t have a tour scheduled until next summer. We’ve got an album to record this year, but first we have to write the damn songs. I need you there.” I had come prepared for anything she threw at me. I was getting this. I wanted Emily with me.

“But . . . OK, let me think,” she said, looking away as she
frowned.

“I can get you enrolled in classes for the fall. That will be a part of the work perks, too. College tuition paid.”

“I have college loans. I don’t need—”

“I’ll pay those off.” I rushed, cutting her off.

Emily put her hand on my chest and let out a laugh. “Stop. I’m trying to work this out in my head. I don’t expect you to pay me all that money and cover my college expenses. Even if I lose my college loans, I’ll be making enough money to pay my tuition, I think. How much do colleges cost out there?”

Didn’t know or fucking care. “It’s paid. Doesn’t matter.”

Her frown was adorable. “Kiro.”

“Emily,” I replied, just as seriously.

Then she laughed and laid her head on my chest. God that felt amazing. I wrapped my arms around her and held her there, not wanting to let go. Fucking ever. “Just tell me yes. I can do this all night,” I told her, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.