The One That Got Away (A Finally Ever After Story) Read online

  “I’m sorry I hurt you, Lil. Sorry I couldn’t see then what was so simple to see just days later. I’m sorry I ever walked out of your flat. I thought I had no choice, believed I’d already set out on my future path, and I couldn’t turn back.” His breath escaped in a long, soft sigh. “I was wrong, and I’ve lived with that mistake every day.”

  Kai dipped another finger inside her, stretching her, delighting her. “I fell in love with you as dawn broke across the beach that first morning and I never stopped loving you. Not one minute of one day I was away.”

  Lily’s body went limp. The fight drained out of her. For five months she’d told herself to forget him. To move on. To find someone else. She’d rallied her defenses and forced herself—unsuccessfully—not to think about him.

  Now every one of her secret fantasies were becoming reality, and Lily had no idea how to keep her defenses up. She wasn’t even sure she still wanted them up. “H-How can I trust you? How do I know you’re telling the truth, not hiding something—or someone—from me again?”

  “Listen to my body. It’ll tell you the truth.” He took her hand and placed it over his cock. “There is no one else alive that can do this to me. No one else that I love. Christ, baby, I’m so hard, so aroused, so besotted with you, I think I might explode just from touching you.”

  Suddenly, the drag of his fingers inside her weren’t enough. His hand wasn’t enough. He loved her. Kai loved her. The thought did crazy things to her insides. Made them squirm and melt and shudder.

  She curled her fingers around his erection, wishing his jeans weren’t in the way of his silken flesh. “If…” She took a large breath. “If you’re going to explode, do it inside of me.”

  He stilled. “You want me to make love to you?”

  Make love? She wasn’t sure. Maybe all she needed was a quick, hard fuck so she could work Kai out of her system. Maybe when she had him buried inside her, she’d realize she didn’t love him, after all. Maybe he was just an erotic dream based on something she could never have. Maybe having him would prove to her she didn’t actually want him.

  “I have to understand what I’m feeling. Have to know if my emotions for you are real, or based on something that was out of my reach, making me want you more than I should have. I…” She let her voice drift off, suddenly reluctant to be so open about her thoughts. That was the trouble with Kai. He was so easy to speak to, so easy to confide in, she found herself now in the exact position she’d been in five months ago—wanting to tell him everything about herself.

  “You what?”

  “I also have to see if what you’re saying is true. W-When we slept together that night, it felt…real. Whatever we did seemed to be based on so much more than just sex. I need to know if that’s still there, or if it’s been destroyed by your…dishonesty.”

  A growl escaped from Kai. “If my hesitation in telling you about Liz destroyed what we created that night, I will never forgive myself. What we had was the real deal, Lil. More real than anything I had with Liz—or any other woman for that matter.” Kai’s voice was fierce. “We had something amazing, something that lasted—even if we didn’t.”

  “Show me now. Show me that it was genuine, that it still is.” After five months of wondering about him, of mourning his loss and telling herself to get over him, she didn’t want to wait one minute longer.

  Kai jerked in her hand and she shivered as his fingers plundered her depths. “You want me to take you, here, at a party where anyone could walk outside and find us?”

  “That’s exactly what I want. Just…er, I don’t know. Be quick?”

  He shook his head, and his voice sounded agonized as he spoke. “I don’t think I can be quick. When I do finally make love to you again, I want it to last forever.”

  She dipped her hand beneath the waist of his jeans and ran the tip of her thumb over his warm, spongy cockhead. Moisture oozed from it, precome that he spilled because of her touch. It made her inner muscles spasm around his fingers again. Made her squirm with pleasure and hunger.

  He gave a strangled cry. “‘Okay. Maybe I can be quick. Really, really quick. This time, anyway.”

  “D’ya still carry a condom in your wallet?”

  He nodded. “Old habits die hard.”

  “Find it.”

  Kai slid his hand away from her pussy. “Lose your panties, baby.”

  As she scrambled to rid herself of her g-string, he freed a condom from his wallet. She watched greedily as he yanked down his zip and tore his jeans open. His dick swung out, hard and erect.

  Kai grasped it in one hand and sheathed it with his other. Then he caught her once again in his arms and hauled her against him. Holding her tight, he stepped further back in the shadows, until it was difficult even for Lily to see Kai, and he couldn’t have been closer. If anyone strayed from the party, she and Kai would be invisible for a good few minutes at least.

  He tapped her bottom, and she instinctively wound her leg around his waist, opening herself up for him once again. The last time she’d opened herself to him, he’d buried his head between her legs and taken her to new heights with his tongue. This time, it wasn’t his mouth she sought.

  Kai positioned his cock at her slippery entrance.

  “I’ve waited for this for five months,” he said with a growl. “Had fucking wet dreams about it. Woke up sweating from wanting you. If you don’t believe I love you when I say it out loud, and you’re questioning what we had, listen to my body tell you the truth.” And with that, he thrust once, burying himself deep within her, filling her with one smooth swing of his hips.

  Pleasure, extreme and absolute, soaked through her veins.

  Kai froze. Sweat dampened his back where Lily held him. “Fuck, baby. Ah, Christ.”

  Then he said no more. He chose to speak with his mouth instead. Crushing his lips to hers, dipping his tongue between her parted lips, ravaging her defenses, devastating her senses, and shrouding her in his desire.

  His hips snapped back and forth, plunging his cock inside her then withdrawing, over and over, driving Lily insane, sending massive pulses of live electricity throbbing through her body. That’s how it felt anyway. As though he’d rocked her world with colossal shocks of pleasure.

  Whatever she’d experienced with him five months ago had indeed been the real deal. It hadn’t been a one-off wonder—not when everything she’d felt then seemed amplified now.

  True to his word, he was quick. Altogether too quick. Lily’s world began to spin after mere seconds.

  But this time together was all she needed to know every word he’d spoken to her was the truth. No matter how fast he was, how intent on creating pleasure for her or how determined to shake the foundations of her world with his kiss, he could not hide the violent trembling of his hands. Neither could he hide the millions of goose bumps that covered his skin or the soft keening sound that came from his throat—like a thankful prayer. He couldn’t disguise the way he clutched her to him, as though he was terrified she’d break loose and escape if he gave even an inch. And he couldn’t hide the love that seemed to radiate off him in silent waves of undiluted emotion. It touched her all the way down to her very soul.

  Lily was done for, ensnared in his trap, bewitched by him.

  She came. Her orgasm smashed over her with savage ferocity, rapture knocking her sideways and tilting her world. With no other choice but to succumb to the bliss, she gave herself over to it, falling against Kai, letting him hold and support her while the ecstasy took her over the edge.

  Kai joined her seconds later, his hoarse cry echoing in her ears as he shuddered through his release.

  Long moments passed before Kai’s trembling subsided. Before the tension in his shoulders relaxed and his arms eased from steel bands to hard muscle around her. But the emotion radiating off of him did not lessen one bit. If anything, now that he’d come, now that he’d spent his passion, that emotion seemed stronger than ever.

  Chapter Three

>   KAI’S RAGGED BREATH MATCHED HER OWN as he pressed his lips to hers once more, kissing her thoroughly, leaving her limbs languid and her heart pounding.

  “Don’t move an inch.” His whisper feathered over her neck. “I’ll be back faster than you can blink.”

  And Kai was gone, dashing across the garden to dispose of the condom.

  Lily leaned against a tree, grateful for its support. Her world had just been turned upside down, and her legs did not seem to have the strength to hold her upright. She closed her eyes and inhaled slowly, letting the fresh air wash through her lungs, clearing her senses.

  The unexpected yet gentle stroke of fingers across her cheek stirred something deep inside of her. She nestled her face into Kai’s warm hand. “You really do love me, don’t you?”

  “Yeah, Lil. I really do.”

  She forced her eyes open. “But…but you haven’t seen me for five months.”

  “Five months isn’t long enough for me to forget.”

  “We only spent three days together.”

  “It took a lot shorter than that to fall in love with you.”

  “You hardly know me.”

  “I know you well enough to recognize that you’re the only one my heart desires.”

  “I’m not sure—”

  “Yes,” he cut her off. “You are. You’re very sure. What just happened between us is proof enough that I love you. Questioning me now isn’t going to change that fact.”

  She straightened, shaking her head. “No, you don’t understand. We spent three days together months ago. How can you be sure things will work out?”

  “I can’t. That’s one thing I’ve learned this year. There are no certainties. But what I do know is how I feel about you. That’s real. That’s not going away. In fact, every minute I spend with you makes it more real.” He brushed her hair behind her ear. “I can’t predict the future. I can’t say for sure how things will work out in a year’s time or ten years’ time or twenty for that matter. But I can say how I feel now, how I’ve felt since I met you. And I can assure you that more than anything I want to spend more time together. I want to work on what we started then, and turn it into something more solid. I want…Hell, baby, I just want you to give me a chance. Give us a chance.”

  Nerves twisted her stomach. “That’s what you wanted with Liz. A chance.”

  He shook his head. “That’s what we thought we owed ourselves. A chance to see if what we had was real. It wasn’t. She wasn’t the one I wanted to be with. Not after I’d met you.”

  “I’m scared, Kai. Scared you’ll meet someone tomorrow who’ll shadow your feelings for me, like I did with Liz.” Lily was so scared her hands shook.

  “Bloody hell, Lil. I’m so wrapped up in you, cover models could walk past me naked, and I wouldn’t notice them. Vestal virgins could wrap themselves around me, and I wouldn’t be interested. It was never like that with Liz. Never like that with anyone before you. You did something to me. You moved me. Rocked my world.”

  Lily’s heart stuttered. “You said that once before. Minutes before you told me about Liz.”

  “Then you have to believe it’s true, because five months later you’re still rocking my world. Shaking it up in ways I never knew possible.”

  “I want to believe it.” With her whole heart she wanted to believe it.

  Kai bit his lower lip, looking pensive. “I knew Liz for several years. And in all that time, I never introduced her to my family. Never brought her home to meet my dad. Somehow, it was never important enough to me.” He ran his thumb over her lower lip. “I’d like him to meet you, Lily. Like him to know—before it’s too late—that I found the person I want to spend my life with. I want him to know I chose well. I couldn’t have chosen better.” His breath hitched. “Will you do me that honor? Will you allow me to introduce you to my family?”

  Lily’s jaw dropped at the enormity of his request. An eternity passed as she let the meaning of his words filter through to her conscience. Then she nodded. Very slowly. “I-I think I’d like that. Very much.”

  It was only when his shoulders dropped that she realized he’d been holding them stiff, awaiting her response. “I’d like that very much too.”

  She smiled shyly at him. “Since you’re being so open here, so honest, there’s something you should know.”

  “And that is?”

  “I fell in love with you, too. Five months ago. When the sun rose over the ocean, and even though it was freezing cold, all I could feel was your warmth.”

  He hauled her into his arms, holding her so tight she almost couldn’t breathe. “I swear, I’ll never let you feel cold again.”

  She smiled against his shoulder, once again trapped there. Only this time there was no claustrophobia, no will to get free. There was only a bone deep contentment—and a lingering tingle between her legs.

  “Just stay with me this time, Kai. That’s all I ask.”

  “I’m not going anywhere. I promise you that. Not for a very long time.”

  “Kiss me, then.”

  Kai dropped his face to hers, took her mouth with his lips, and Lily swore she felt the world move beneath her feet.

  About the Author

  Jess Dee lives in beautiful Sydney, Australia, with her husband, their two sons and their insane dog—a ridiculously overweight puggle named Luigi.

  An avid romance reader since her early teens, Jess knew one day, when she grew up, she’d have to write her own love stories. It might have taken a while, but in December of 2005, she finally got “the call.” Her first book, Photo Opportunity, had been contracted. Now you can’t hold her down. She’s completed a whole host of books, and is finally doing the work she loves most—writing romance.

  Jess likes to set her stories in Australia. It’s easy to find romance in this beautiful country.

  You can visit Jess at:

  http://www.jessdee.com