Letting go of her other wrist, I rested myself on my elbows and kissed her temple. “You’ll love them. And they’ll love you. They’re both crazy about animals, so you’ll have a lot to talk about.”
Eliana nuzzled her face against mine. “Maybe marrying you won’t be so bad. I’ll gain two sisters… for a while.” She laughed then, although it sounded forced and a haunted look crept into her eyes. “You’re very lucky, you know.”
I thought of her horrible mother. The loss of her father and grandparents. Step-dads coming in and out of her life. “Yeah, I know how lucky I am. I won the lottery at birth. Not just financially but in every sense of the word.”
Eliana’s nose turned pink. “You deserve it. And they deserve you. It’s good that you all have each other.”
I thumbed away a lone tear that fell. “You deserve it too, Eliana. Just because you haven’t gotten it yet, doesn’t mean you’re any less deserving. It just means it will come to you in a different way is all.”
Eliana sniffed and blinked rapidly before taking a deep breath. “Can you believe Nana already has a Pinterest page set up with wedding ideas? That woman is a force of nature.”
I let her change the subject. “Yes, I believe it. She’s probably had this planned in her mind since the day I was born. Remember, those are just ‘suggestions’ as she called it. This is your wedding, Eliana. Even though our circumstances are unusual, I don’t want you to spare any expense. Make it your dream. I’ll buy you anything you want.”
She laughed, a more genuine sound this time. “Oh really? So, if I want a gold-plated, horse-drawn carriage with diamond-encrusted reins to deliver me at the altar, you’re okay with that?”
I wrinkled my nose. “Um, yeah. If that’s what you want.”
Her eyes brightened. “Awesome. Then gold-plated everything it is. The twelve flower girls will toss out rubies instead of rose petals. I’ll wear a diamond tiara and Christian Lacroix dress. The ceremony will be in a castle in Rome, and we’ll fly all the guests in, and of course, pay for their accommodations for the eight-day celebration.”
I laughed. “For eight days, we’ll need a thousand bottles of wine and twenty-four five-course meals, plus receptions with a sixteen-tier white chocolate cake at each.”
“Yes!” Eliana exclaimed, lifting her hips to buck me up again. She really was stronger than she looked. “And speaking of flowers. I’ve heard rumors that William and Kate spent eight hundred thousand on flowers alone for their wedding.”
I fake gasped. “I’m very competitive, you know. No royal will out-do a Steele shindig. We’ll blow a cool million on those.”
The sadness was completely gone from Eliana’s eyes now, and I realized that I would do just about anything to keep it from coming back. “Does that sound like your dream wedding?”
She wrinkled her nose. “It sounds terrible.” She sighed. “I’ve pictured my wedding dress in my head for forever. I guess most little girls have. Simple white silk and lace, nothing fancy. No big poofs or extra-long train. My bouquet would feature blush pink and white roses, dahlias, and peonies. Peonies were my grandmother’s favorite flower.”
“It sounds really pretty.”
She ran a finger down the scruff on my face. “In my mind, it is, but I’ve really never given it serious thought. There was vet school, then building a practice. Maybe traveling and seeing the world a bit first before settling down. I thought I would probably be in my thirties. My clock would be ticking, but I’d still have a few years with my husband before starting a family.”
My gut twisted at the thought of Eliana marrying someone else. Having someone else’s baby.
As if Mother Nature agreed with my discomfort of Eliana being with anyone else, lightning flashed outside the window. It caught my attention, and not leaving my position on top of Eliana, I reached for the remote to fully open the curtains.
It had started raining on our way home, but it was pouring now. Another bolt of lightning flashed, lighting up the city.
“Wow,” Eliana breathed, her head turned to watch it too, “the storm is scary and amazing from way up here.”
Crawling off the bed, I pulled her up after me, leading her to the floor to ceiling window. Water snaked down the glass, and Eliana traced one of the trails with her finger, then jerked her hand away as a streak of lightning zigzagged across the sky.
Standing behind her, I lifted both of her hands until her palms were against the glass. Pulling her hair to one side, I kissed her neck, feeling her pulse jumping under my lips. She shivered when I grazed my teeth against the nape.
“Cold?” I asked against her ear before sucking on a lobe.
She met my gaze in the reflection of the glass. Her face was dim and distorted by the water outside, but there was no hiding the desire that had flared at my touch. “No.”
“Do you trust me?”
The answer was immediate. “Yes.”
Slipping my fingers under the hem of her Beasts t-shirt, I pulled it over her head. The bra was next. In seconds, it was on the floor. “Hands back on the window.”
This time, her response wasn’t so immediate. Her hands were crossed over her chest. “Can people see?”
I nipped her shoulder. “No, baby. I promise. Nobody gets to see you but me.”
She jumped when another bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, a bit closer this time, but resumed her position at the glass as the thunder rumbled. I moved my tongue from freckle to freckle, tracing them across her shoulder blade and down her spine until the top of her jeans kept me from going any farther. I reached around her and released the button, then listened to the hiss of the zipper. Hooking my fingers in the waistband, I slid them and her panties down her legs, tossing them away when she stepped out of them.
From this position, I took advantage of her sweet ass and kissed one side, then the other before retracing my path back up her spine.
“Kane.” It was a breath. A sigh. A moan. It was almost my undoing.
Burying my hand in her hair, I turned her head until she was looking at me. “I don’t plan on being gentle.”
Lightning lit up the sky, and she gasped as my hand came down on her ass in time to the crash of thunder on the other side of the glass. My palm stung while my cock grew impossibly hard. Fingers still in her hair, I forced her to continue to look at me as I brought my hand down again. The sound she made was half-pain, half-pleasure, but the look in her eyes said she wanted more.
Her nails clawed at the glass as I spanked her until her ass was the most amazing shade of pink. I smoothed my hand over her skin, and she gasped when I moved it lower, pushing my fingers between her soaking slit until I found her clitoris.
“So wet for me,” I murmured close to her ear. “Ready for more?”
“Yes. Please, yes.”
Her body jerked as I pinched the sensitive bundle of nerves, and she keened as I pushed two fingers inside. Twisting her head until our mouths met, we were both breathing hard as I captured her soft lips. When her tongue came forward to welcome mine, it was my turn to moan. Her mouth was pure sin, her lips the richest of silk as I tasted her. Delicious.