My chest swelled because it was a part of him I’d missed.
“When Ream found out there was no money, he went at Vincent. What made it worse was my Vincent laughed the entire time. It took both Killian and Logan to break it up.”
Kat turned to me. “Ream was a little volatile back then.”
“A little?” Crisis strolled outside with a plate of what smelled like bacon. “Hell, the guy was a grenade.”
“Vincent Wesson. Language,” Sophia abolished.
“What?” he asked innocently. “It’s hell. Not even a swear word, Mom.”
Emily, Haven, and Kat laughed. I smiled.
I was introduced to Mr. Wesson, who manned the barbecue flipping sausages. Then my eyes hit Killian out in the backyard with Ream and Logan and a little boy who looked about eleven or twelve.
They were kicking the soccer ball around. Well, Killian was kicking it around, and Ream and Logan were attempting to get it from him.
He easily maneuvered the ball between his feet. It was hypnotic.
I was mesmerized by his agile, lean legs and tousled hair with strands hanging in front of his eyes as his head bent while he effortlessly kept Ream from getting the ball. He glanced up at the kid, who looked to be his partner, and kicked it gently to him near the makeshift goal. Then he bodychecked Ream.
The boy kicked it so hard, he fell backward onto his butt, but it shot right between the chalk markers on the wood fence.
“Score,” the kid yelled, jumping to his feet and throwing his arms in the air.
Killian immediately jogged over and high-fived him then bent and said something to him. The kid smiled from ear to ear, obviously pleased with himself while Killian ruffled his hair.
“We’re fostering him,” Sophia said. “His name is Hendricks, and he’s been bounced around homes since he was five.” God, the poor kid. I knew the feeling, but luckily, it had only been a couple years and not until I was fifteen. I couldn’t imagine being in the system from the age of five. “He loves soccer and the guys. He talks about Kite all the time, and he plays soccer with him every time he comes over. Even in the snow.”
I rested my hands on the railing as I watched Killian, and my heart swelled. I never imagined him being like this with a kid. Or playing soccer. But there was something different in him when he was with Hendricks. Something in his eyes, it was almost… painful. Like it hurt.
He must have sensed me watching him because he raised his head and looked over.
His eyes locked on me, and my heart shot off. Saying something to the guys, he strode across the mowed grass toward me.
It didn’t take long before he stood in front of me. Heated skin from the sun and running around, his hair in disarray… and he never looked sexier.
“You’re really good with Hendricks.”
He hooked my shoulders and pulled me into him. “He’s a good kid.”
I smiled. “You’d be a great dad.”
He tensed, eyes narrowing. “I’ll never have kids Savvy.”
My heart dropped. Killian didn’t want kids? Before I could ask why, he kissed me.
And it wasn’t a quick, sweet kiss. It was a hard, deep, tongue-action kiss that had me sagging into him as my knees weakened.
When he broke away, I wanted to bury my head in the sandbox because everyone was watching.
“Ugh, gross,” Hendricks said as he ran up the steps with the soccer ball under his arm.
The tension gone from Killian, he smirked then leaned back on the railing and positioned me in front of him, so my back was to his front. He looped his arms around me, and I rested my hands on his arms. It took me a few minutes before I relaxed, realizing that Killian had no qualms about letting it be known I was with him. But then, he hadn’t before either.
We joined the conversation, which currently was Logan talking about how Ream threw Vincent in the pool a while back because he’d been hitting on Kat.
This, I found out, was before Ream and Kat were together and their relationship, or rather non-relationship, was combustible.
Brunch was nothing like I expected. Actually, I hadn’t known what to expect, but it wasn’t Killian laughing and joking around. There was still that underlying reserved part of him, but with his friends, the people he cared about, Killian was warm and easygoing.
“You fit,” Killian said two hours later in the car.
“Huh?” I asked, turning my attention to him, although I had to admit it was rarely off of him even when he wasn’t with me.
“You fit. It’s like you’ve known them for years.”
“I really like your friends, Killian.”
“Yeah, but it’s more than that,” he said. “You can like people. They can like you, but you don’t fit. But you do.”
His eyes briefly met mine before he looked back at the road.
He was right. I hadn’t felt like I was on the outside looking in on a group of friends who’d known one another for years. I was on the inside with them.
“I didn’t know you played soccer. I don’t remember you on the team at school.”
He didn’t look at me, but I saw it, the hands tightening on the steering wheel and the clenched jaw. “I wasn’t.”
“Oh.” There was something there, but he didn’t elaborate, and it was the part of Killian that I wasn’t so sure about. “Well, you looked… sexy.”
“Sexy?” His brows lifted as he briefly glanced at me, and I shrugged while chewing on my bottom lip.
“Yes. Incredibly sexy,” I said and ran my hands down my thighs. “And before you ask, yes, I was wet. I’m wet now.”
“Fuck,” he said. Slowing the car, he turned into an alley then stopped the car. “Is your pussy throbbing? Aching? Does it want my cock, orchid?”
God, it was hot when he spoke like that. “Yes.”
He unclipped his seat belt, reached over and grabbed the back of my neck and pulled me toward him.
His mouth slammed into mine.
My stomach dropped. But it was a good drop. It was the kind where you were excited but startled at the same time.