Shatter (True Believers #4)(35)
Author: Erin McCarthy

I decided that Devon was an evil genius. But he had forced me to see that the supposed simple reality wasn’t that simple, really. Ironic.

So if taking the easy way out wasn’t a guarantee of simplicity, the risk of pursuing option one wasn’t actually statistically as large of a risk as originally seemed.

I stood up, grabbing the present. “Sometimes, I think you actually make sense.”

“You’re welcome. I expect to be named godfather.”

“You’re not even Christian.”

“Neither are you.”

“Rendering that statement even more ridiculous.” I waved to him. “But thanks for the man talk. Don’t wait up.”

“Enjoy spreading your seed with abandon.”

Now there was an utterly creepy way to look at it. I laughed. “You are a poet.”

But despite Devon’s warped view of the world, I did feel better. No matter what I did, there would be a risk involved, so I might as well go for what I truly wanted.

And what I truly wanted was Kylie.

* * *

She looked amazing when she opened the door and stepped aside so I could enter her tiny apartment. There was color back in her face and her hair had a little more volume than in recent weeks. Her lips were shiny, her eyes bright. She was wearing a tight red sweater with a V neck, and her fuller br**sts were bursting out of the top, making my mouth water. Because her chest was bigger the sweater was a little too small now, and it kept riding up on her stomach, exposing a ribbon of flesh that I wanted to lick from one side straight to the other and on down, into her jeans. While her jeans were baggy, they were a step up from the constant workout pants she’d been wearing, and I could see the physical evidence of her morning sickness receding. I was relieved. And turned on. Very turned on.

“Hi.” She smiled.

Without hesitation I bent down and kissed her, for real, on the lips. She was caught off guard, but after a heartbeat, she kissed me back, her fingers hooking onto the waist of my jeans.

“Happy birthday,” I murmured.

“Thanks.” She was blushing a little as she took a step back and that fascinated me, pleased me. I didn’t think it was nerves that made her cheeks turn pink. It was that she was attracted to me, the same way I was attracted to her. More than sexual, though that was pulsing between us. It was more than that.

I handed her the box that Devon had wrapped.

“Oh! You didn’t have to do that.”

I shrugged. “It’s nothing big. But even on an hour’s notice I wanted to get you something. Twenty-one is a big deal.”

She gave me a rueful look. “So I’m a woman now, is that it?”

That would be my dick hardening. Damn. Did she have to say things like that? “Oh, I think you were a whole lot of woman before today.” I kicked my shoes off and peeled my jacket down. Tossing it on the floor, I took her free hand and went to the bed so we could sit down.

She took the bow off the box and stuck it in her hair. “How do I look?”

“Beautiful.”

She rolled her eyes, but she looked pleased. “I did shower and brush my teeth today.”

“What else could you possibly need?”

“An esthetician.”

“I don’t even know what that is.”

“Really? I can’t believe there is actually something I know that you don’t.”

She was carefully undoing each piece of tape and slowly folding back each triangle. My lame gift was going to get lamer if she put this much consideration into undoing it. “I’m sure there are plenty of things you know that I don’t.” Like how it was possible that she could just be sitting there with br**sts like that and not want to touch them.

Finally she was into the box and she gave a laugh and shot me a big smile. “Jonathon! Hot pink chip-free nail polish? It’s perfect.”

“I thought maybe one less thing on your shit list would be helpful.”

“Definitely.” She held up her hands. “I actually went and got a manicure today with a gift card from my mom because I couldn’t stand my wretched nails, but I really shouldn’t have. The gift card was supposed to be for maternity clothes. But now I will be able to do my nails at home, chip-free. Excellent.”

The nail color she had on was almost identical to the one I’d picked out. I felt a little smug that I had gauged her preference so accurately. “I don’t think you need maternity clothes just yet. You’re like a buck fifteen and your stomach is concave.”

“Concave?” She tilted her head.

“Inverted.” I demonstrated with my hand.

“Ah. Well, I’ll be fat before you know it,” she said, but she sounded pretty cheerful about the whole thing.

Feeling better was clearly improving her mood, too. Not that she had ever been grouchy, but she had just sighed a lot. “You’ll be gorgeous no matter what.”

“Holy crap, you are being so complimentary to me. I should have my birthday every day. Why so sweet today? Do you have an ulterior motive?”

“Well, I do want in your pants,” I told her truthfully. “But every word I’m saying is the God’s honest truth.”

She laughed. “Speaking of God, are you Jewish?”

That was a change of subject I wasn’t prepared for. I was more ready to explore the whole getting-in-her-pants thing. “Technically, yes, though neither one of my parents are practicing. I didn’t even make my bar mitzvah. Why?”

“Just wondering.”

Maybe she could wonder that a different day, because I did not feel like having a theological discussion at the moment. “So did you want to go somewhere? Or watch a movie?”

“Whatever.”

I reached out and cupped her cheek. “Why don’t you think about it while I kiss you?”

Her eyes widened. “Okay.”

“I think a lot about the way you taste,” I told her, running my finger over her bottom lip. “I think about you a lot in general.”

“I think about you, too,” she said, her chest starting to rise and fall faster.

When I gave her a soft kiss, she actually shivered. “I want to spend more time with you,” I said. “I don’t want to see other people. I want to see what there is between us, because it’s starting to feel like something real.”

Then because I didn’t want her to reject the idea, I didn’t give her time to respond. I kissed her again, insistently sliding my tongue between her lips, while my hand cupped her breast and teased her nipple. Her arms came around my neck and I tilted her down onto the bed. She stared up at me, her eyes soft and filled with desire.