Those hawk-like features fell on me. Jacob was hard, angular and lean and ever languid. Focusing was impossible, I was narrowed in on the building tingles of my release. I tasted my own sweat, my own need. Let them banter; if Kite could do that and get me off, fine.
Jacob's words cut through me like a cold knife. “We don't have five minutes. Kite, you have to stop.”
Stop? Was he insane?
To my utmost shock, Kite started to slow down. Gritting my teeth, I tried to drive myself back onto him. “What the hell, Jacob?” I spat, desperation putting me close to screaming. “Kite, don't you even dare!”
“I hate to do it, but there's an emergency,” Jacob said soothingly.
I wasn't fucking soothed.
“Shh,” Kite said, releasing me. He slid out, and the wet sound should have been humiliating, but I was too furious—too ratcheted up in my lust. I'd been so close! “This has to be serious, Jacob wouldn't interrupt otherwise.”
Shaking my head, I faced them both and bent to pull up my jeans. “I can't believe you two!”
Jacob was black ice. He didn't even need to touch me, I froze just because he was there. The intensity in his crystal eyes made me forget to breathe.
Grabbing my pants, he actually zipped them up. I hadn't expected that. I also didn't expect him to take my hands, to graze the backs of them with his thumbs while he smiled. “Relax, Marina. We'll make it up to you.”
Wrinkling my nose, I pulled away. “How do you figure?”
Jacob swayed closer. It was subtle, but I was too aware of him to not notice every inch of breathing room I lost. His aura was consuming me. He did it so easily, that magnetic pull that promised so much.
He murmured, “After we go take care of the bar, I promise to spend as much time as you want on that sweet body of yours. Far more than fifteen minutes.”
He spoke right into my core. I almost forgot what he'd just denied me, but the ache in my lower belly was a cruel reminder.
I scooped up my shirt. Kite gave me an overtly sad expression as I hid away my chest, not caring I didn't have a bra any longer. “You assume I'll want anything to do with you—either of you—after this,” I said.
Like rich cream, Jacob poured into every crack of my brain, stealing a kiss that I hadn't predicted. When he started to speak—looked me in the eye with that wicked promise—I listened to what he was offering. “Come with us to the bar. You won't regret it.”
He traced my jaw, the shell of my ear, and kissed me once more outside my temple.
Jacob knew how to make me dance like a puppet on strings.
“Fine,” I said, quieter than I wanted to. “But if you ever stop me like that again?” I pointed a finger, and his genuine surprise was invigorating. “I'll smack you right in your damn smile.”
Jacob bowed his head. “I'll make a note of that. Get changed, we need to go.”
We left the apartment while Kite was still stumbling into a pair of jeans and a shirt.
- Chapter 28 -
Jacob
––––––––
It hadn't been an emergency—not exactly.
Anabelle, my prime bartender, had phoned me with some grim news. “I'm sick,” she'd said, mumbling into the receiver. “Like, extremely sick. You don't want details, Mr. Fallow.”
I didn't. I also didn't want her infecting everyone, what a headline that would be in the papers. Corner Velvet Causes Plague. I'd asked her if she was contagious.
“No no,” Anabelle had laughed, hollow as a coconut. “But I'm a mess. If I feel better, I'll come in tonight, but I can't get the bar prepped. You and Kite will have to.”
It amused me how she treated me so formerly, but never bothered with Kite. It definitely bugged him, too, but then... I'd kept things business between me and her.
Kite had never cared about such rules.
Before Marine had swayed into our lives, Kite had been losing himself nightly in booze and women—including Annabelle.
Now, things had changed, more than I'd ever thought possible.
“It's fine,” I'd told Anabelle, finishing belting my pants on with one hand. She hadn't woken me up, I'd stirred at the first hint of gold on the horizon. “Kite and I will handle it. You stay in bed and get better. Bye for now.”
There was so much to do, but first, I had to call Kite and let him know. He wasn't much of a boss, but he was the co-owner of our bar.
And that was when I'd run into the first problem; Kite wasn't answering. I had a strong suspicion as to why.
A quick trip downstairs through the stairwell of our high-rise apartment, a few knocks on the door and another call, and I was positive. Placing an ear on the wood, I heard the stomach tingling, heart pumping noises that only Marina could make.
That woman, she turned my very bones into glass. One tap, and I'd shatter.
With the sun rising over her naked skin, I'd stepped inside and halted their fun.
I could have left them alone for a few hours, given them privacy.
Let Marina come as she desperately needed to.
But I hadn't.
Why not?