The Keys to Jericho (40 page)

He inhales a deep breath and shakes his head. “Nobody else.”

I modify, “At least until you leave.” If I were sober, I would no doubt be unable to say this to him without tears. Alcohol can also be a deadening lifesaver.

“I promise, Kit Kat. Just you.”

Feeling more turned-on by his assurance, I let go of him and clumsily push down on my underwear. As I lift my ass, he unexpectedly thrusts two fingers inside me, pushing deeper when he feels how wet I am. I whimper and his breathing quickens. “Promise me, too, Kat. I don’t want another man fucking inside you. Don’t do that to me, either. Please, respect
me
that much.”

I nod. “Only you.”

Prodding his fingers, he whispers, “I fucking own you, Katriona Merrick.”

Our eyes lock and I open my legs more. “I know.”
You always have.

Boiling with desire from his declaration, I grab his chin, pulling him to me, and our mouths eagerly greet each other. I whisper onto his lips, “Make love to me, Jared.” I softly beg, “Please, honey.”

I hear his quiet sigh. “Kat…”

I pull him closer, my nipples nudging into his light chest hair. “Fuck me then. I need you.”

He groans and gets onto the couch, and since we don’t have a wide playing field, Jared grabs my leg and holds it against him, his fingers digging into my skin. Hovering close, he gauges how wet I am with his tip, and I moan. Nodding to the wall next to us, he says, “Shh.”

Raising my hips, I unsteadily welcome him, but he still only probes, hesitant to take it further. I’m drunk, yet I feel like I’m more into this than he is.

I reach around and push on his ass, as I lift my hips. “Like this.” I slip onto him and he fully executes, shoving into me. “Fuck,” I moan and he covers my mouth with his. As I frantically try to move, Jared traps me to the couch, settling my speed. He then sets a slow, but firm tempo, pulling out nearly all the way, and then slowly pushing until he’s completely inside me.

“Fuck, go faster,” I slur.

He shakes his head, sprinkling water on me, with a breathless grin. “My way. I’ll use that demerit now.”

“Jared, fuck me.” I think I’m whining again.

“I am, baby.” His calling me that breaks through my haze and I enthusiastically kiss him, and his groans are muffled. He repeats his torturous rhythm as I try to go faster, but each time, he forces me to go slower. I think he’s testing me to see if I’m going to cry foul.

More determined, I manage to go faster than he does, even if it’s a sloppy faster. Breathing over each other’s lips, Jared closes his eyes and tries to suppress a groan. “Slow down.”

I quietly growl, “I said hard and fast.” Pressing my left leg into the couch, I take him in as far as I can, which feels like he’s crashing into my uterus.

Jared utters, “You’re so fucking hot, Kitty Kat.” He hugs my leg to him as his speed dramatically increases, and he bangs into me with fervor. I have to grip the couch cushion above me, so my head doesn’t hit the armrest.

“Oh, Jared,” I repeatedly whisper until my chant turns into a growing whimper, and he hurriedly kisses me as I come. Even drunk, I’m conscious that I want to confess my love for him, but can’t, which is much harder when inebriated. Yet, I succeed.

He loudly whispers, “Kat,” before his grunts fill my mouth as he comes with me, his hips grinding to a halt, but I keep fucking him until my orgasm fades, which is more short-lived than when I’m sober. As he fills me with the only thing he’ll give me of himself, I let his warmth comfort me.

If only for a little while.

CHAPTER 19

Growling into her mouth, I jarringly come, as I have each time with Kat, and gasping for air as I try to curb my booming groans and shouts. However, at this point, I couldn’t care less if I’m heard. Actually, I want everyone to know about what I’ve been doing with Kat, which is unusual for me. From our first time, I haven’t wanted to hide it. I achieved my biggest fantasy of having sex with Kat, but it was more than that. I wanted them to know she’s involved with me, and not available to fix up with any asshole they find, Calder included. So, if Dash and Rio find out, it’d actually work in my favor and wouldn’t be a matter of life or Dash’s death to me, which again, is monumental because I don’t tell them shit about many of my personal issues, sexual or otherwise.

Nevertheless, Kat doesn’t want Dash, Rio, and that yakking cunt of his to know. I understand that. Though, I can deal with the jokes, I’m aware that Dash would also tease Kat about it, which if he wants to keep his ability to breathe and communicate on his own without the aid of machines, then it’d be in his best interest to refrain from doing so.

Therefore, I’ll keep us under their radar, but it’s getting more difficult since I did tell Kat the truth. I’m hooked and obsessed. But that’s not news. I’ve always been obsessed with Kat, except not to this magnitude. Before, I couldn’t keep my hands off her. Now, I can’t keep my entire body off her.

Kat collapses underneath me as her waves cease. Watching her face relax and her chest rapidly rising and falling, I idly whisper, “Damn, you’re so beautiful.”

Her brown eyes glimmer from the effects of her orgasm laced with alcohol, and when she blearily smiles, I lunge for her, tasting Katriona Merrick with traces of wine, running the tip of my tongue along her bottom lip. Then, I sink my tongue into her mouth, lapping at hers, and she brokenly sighs.

Before I kiss her again, I say, “You taste incredible all over, Kit Kat.”

Stifling her response with my mouth, I kiss Kat because I can. When we came back from fishing this afternoon, I wanted to find her for a kiss, but since we wouldn’t have been alone, and she wasn’t even talking to me, I couldn’t. So I went to my room. If it weren’t for Dash’s persistent texts about me being left behind, and that Kat was going to be drunk in public, I would’ve stayed there all night.

I hated leaving Kat this morning in a hurry like I did, but I knew Dash would be excited about fishing and, consequently, be up at goddamned sunrise. I had to stop in the bathroom so I could wait for my boner to fully deflate before going downstairs. I should’ve awoken earlier, but sleeping next to Kat, I fell into a deeper sleep than I normally do. When I woke up to find her gone, I can’t deny that I was hurt. Even if she had mentioned going back to her room so we didn’t get caught, I felt deserted. All over again.

Going into her room, and even though she was asleep, I didn’t feel the loneliness anymore. Instantly, I was on Kat, putting my arm around her, and wanting her to be close to me again, which probably isn’t a good thing, but for now, I don’t give a fuck. I just want to appreciate being with her every day and not think about…

Christ.

Kat’s giggling over my lips makes me raise my head. “What?”

Her responding grin is bright and boozy. “I did seduce you, didn’t I?”

I dubiously smirk. “You wish. I just felt sorry for you.” Slowly, I pull out of her, since I’m falling anyway, and I laugh because she has me by the fucking balls, and she knows it. 

Kat opens her mouth wide in shock, and I dive in, tonguing her again, which makes her laugh into my mouth.

Moving my mouth to her neck, I lick her there and giggling more, she squeals, “Jared!”

Since she’s bombed and probably doesn’t realize how loud she is, I whisper, “Shh,” but continue to run my tongue along her skin, smiling as I do it.

“Haven’t you had enough of me?” she asks with a soft laugh.

I shake my head into the crook of her neck. “I told you. I’m obsessed.”

“With how I taste?”

Lifting my head to look down at her, I truthfully say, “With Kit Kat Merrick.”

Grinning more, she puts her arms around my neck and whispers, “Jericho is my favorite place to be in the whole, wide world.”

I smile and she pulls my head down to kiss her again, which I’m more than happy to do.

Hearing a noise in the hall, reminding me we’re not alone, I end our kiss with a sigh against her lips. “I have to go. It will not look good if I sleep in here, especially while you’re drunk.” I’m only looking out for Kat because otherwise, they could all bite me.

She faintly nods as her smile disappears. “Okay. I… Thank you…”

“Why are you thanking me? For having sex with you?”

Kat scowls. “Noooo. For… I don’t know. For caring.”

Nodding against her damp forehead, I whisper, “I’ll always care. You’re my Kit Kat.”

I feel her smile against my lips. “You’re my Sonic.”

I chuckle. “Just don’t call me that in bed. It might give me performance anxiety.”

I kiss her smiling lips before standing. Holding out my hand, I help her up, making sure she’s stable before grabbing my wet shorts, which I find are colder, and more difficult to put on than to remove.

Kat rummages through her suitcase for something to change into, and watching her as I buckle my belt, I tease, “I’d ask you to take a shower with me, but…”

She slides on a T-shirt and grabs a pair of underwear. “Yeah… Taking a shower might have to wait for the morning for me. I think I’ll fall and you’d be the only one I’d want to help me.”

I pick up my shirt from the floor and say, “See. Shower with a friend. It’s safer.”

Her smile wavers and she turns back to her suitcase, muttering, “That’s what friends are for, I guess.”

“I’m such a good friend that I’ll make sure you get to sleep off your hangover.”

With her back still to me, she shrugs. “I’ll be okay. Wine isn’t as bad as hard liquor.”

“So, there’s a difference in your drunkenness with wine and hard liquor?”

She looks over her shoulder at me. “Hard liquor would’ve given you more of a floor show.”

As I yank down my shirt, my mouth falls open. “There’s a floor show?”

Kat slips into a pair of cut-off sweats. “Maybe just for you, but you did get an express pass to the main attraction.”

Grabbing my shoes, I smirk. “Well, fuck the floor show then.” She laughs as a door closes in the hallway. I mutter, “Shit.”

Kat sighs. “Just say we were talking. That’s all.”

“In wet clothes?”

“We lost track of time.” She glances at the floor and I walk over to her, lifting her chin. Before she can say anything, I bend to give her a long kiss, not getting enough of them with her.

“And it was the best track I’ve ever been on,” I say lightly, but mean it truthfully.

She nods and clutching her arms, I kiss her once more, but have to cut it short before I get worked up for her again. “Night, Kit Kat.”

“Goodnight, Jericho.”

Reluctantly, I let go of Kat’s arms and promptly leave her room without looking back, so I don’t change my mind about staying with her.

I wonder how much of tonight she’ll remember. Will she remember the amazing sex we had, but also the promise we made to each other? I hope she can remember to keep her end of it because I plan to uphold mine, without a doubt. I don’t want anyone else. I never have.

Fuck. She does own me.

“Morning, Jericho.”

I drowsily scowl at the wall as I go to the kitchen counter and grab two coffee mugs out of the overhead cabinet.

“Didn’t sleep well?”

Suddenly suspicious that he heard something last night, I wake up more and glance at him. “Why wouldn’t I have?”

Sitting at the counter, Dash munches on a Pop Tart. His hair is neatly styled, which is fucking ridiculous. “You were in Kat’s room for a while. Did you have an argument with her or something?” Shit.

I grab the coffee pot and pour myself a cup, shrugging. “We talked some. So?”

“She was pretty much pissed off at you all night. What happened?”

“Nothing.” Definitely not up for morning fodder, or any other time of the day.

He mindlessly motions, waving his tart in the air. “She was mad at you, but you have no idea why?”

“I said
nothing
, not that I didn’t know why.”

“Why is it a secret?”

“Because you can’t keep one, and I can.”

He argues, “
Not
true. I can keep a secret.”

“Right. Because I was supposed to know about your mom’s fake beard collection.”

Dusting off his hands, he throws them out. “Come on. That’s just weird. I had to share it with you.”

“And I wish you had shared the bill for the therapy I needed, instead.”

“That was probably a five minute side note in one of your weekly sessions.”

Leaning against the counter on the other side of the kitchen, I frown at him over my mug.

“Well, what did you and Kat talk about last night then? While she was drunk?
And
in wet clothes?” Damn, I’m good.

“We actually talked about talking in wet clothes, the pros and cons. It was riveting. Sorry there isn’t a highlight reel.” Fuck, if I’d share
that
one.

He stares at me as I drink my coffee, not sure if he’s trying to figure out if I’m lying or if he’s going to take my word for it and let it go. Doubt it.

“You can admit it.” Damn. Not shutting up.

“Admit what?”

He looks around the kitchen, and toward the living room, before quietly saying, “You like her.”

I nod. “Yeah… So do you. Shocker. She’s nice and a good friend. I like her more than you, even.”

He scoffs, “Friend. She’s
my
friend. You? I think you
really
like her.”

I scowl and testily roll my eyes. “Are we in middle school? What the fuck? Am I supposed to pass her a note asking her to check yes or no?”

“If it works, but what box would you pick if she sent that note to you?”

“Shut up, asshole. You may look like you’re still in middle school, but I’m not. Fuck sending a note around for votes. I’ll just throw you into the ocean anyway.”

“You can’t say you don’t want to be with her.”

“I
am
with her. So are you.”

“Stop adding me into this equation. It’s not what I’m getting at.”

“Stop with this questioning then. That’s what
I’m
getting at.”

“What are you going to do when you have to leave her? She gets her license, you go, and that’s that?”

“What’s it any of your business what I do about her when I leave?”

He’s like a rabbit fending off a jaguar. “As I said before, Kat’s my friend, one that I’ve kept in touch with all these years. I don’t want you to hurt her.”

“I’m not, and I’m not going to.”

“You will when you leave.”

Setting my mug down, I look in the cabinets. I don’t find any tea, but I do find a bottle of honey. “Drop it, Dash. I’ll still see her when I come back on some weekends.”

“She’s not the type to have a casual fling with.”

Shutting the door, I snap, “And how would
you
know that?”

“Because I know her. She’s a caring person, but she’s not going to take that kind of shit from you.”

“Dash. Nothing is going on, so just lose the lord-and-protector sequence. We’re friends. Stop making more out of it than there is.”

“Then stop denying that there isn’t.”

I slam down the plastic bottle of honey next to the other mug. “Jesus!” I hang my head back, staring up at the ceiling. Hearing the upstairs shower, and not knowing if it’s Kat or the other two, I raise my head to glare at Dash. “When Kat comes downstairs, tell her to drink some coffee and put about six teaspoons of honey into it. That’ll help her hangover.”