Malta with My Best Friend’s Dad by Flora Ferrari

Chapter Seven

Kelly

“Are you still not feeling any better?” Lena asks me the next morning, standing next to my bed with a concerned look on her face.

Guilt spikes through me in hot embers.

When I returned to the apartment yesterday morning and Lena asked me why I was back, all I could think of was to blurt I wasn’t feeling well.

It’s the first time I’ve ever lied to my best friend.

Sure, I’ve omitted plenty of things – like my lifelong crush on her dad – but I’ve never come right out and told a lie.

I sit up in bed, smiling at her. “I’m not too bad this morning. I might go out on the balcony for some fresh air.”

“You better be quick,” Lena teases. “I’m fixing to do another writing sprint.”

Despite the lust heating up my belly – the same lust that has made every inch of me tingle and shiver with need since Kane kissed me – I can’t help but smile at the manic energy on Lena’s face. She’s in the zone, as she likes to call it, that place where the words are pouring out of her and she doesn’t even want to stop for sleep.

“I will.”

I climb out of bed and together we walk into the living room.

My body feels heavy with tiredness. Sleep was impossible last night, so much weighing on me, so much surging around me.

If I wasn’t thinking about how sick and rotten it is that I had to lie to Lena, I was reliving the way Kane’s lips tasted, the way our bodies fused together, as my nipples tingled with lust.

And then there were his words.

We’re in public.

Shame, or guilt over his daughter?

Not knowing is causing my thoughts to spin around and around like some broken fairground ride.

I wander out onto the balcony, into the early-morning Maltese sun. The city is quiet and the air is fresh, despite the heat. I inhale it and close my eyes, letting the sunlight glow on my eyelids. It infuses me.

And it makes me think of Kane, but then everything does every little thing.

Opening my eyes, I spot something glinting from a building on the other side of the tiny city.

My belly tightens as a thought slams into me. This is the sign Kane mentioned, the sign he’d give me to let me know it’s time to see each other again. My clit throbs, the same way it did all night, but I didn’t let my hands slide between my legs and tease it as I normally would.

I lied to Lena. Was I really going to touch myself over her dad too?

Sure, I’d done it countless times before. But that was never after I kissed him.

The glinting goes on and on, as though somebody is angling a piece of glass in my direction.

It must be Kane, hiding in the window of one of the taller apartments. I narrow my eyes and try to make out any sign of a person behind the window, but all I can see is the shimmering of the light.

Swallowing, nerves boil through me as I turn back to the apartment and join Lena in the kitchen. She’s humming under her breath, completely oblivious to what’s going on.

The crazy urge to tell her bubbles up inside of me… about her dad being alive, about the kiss, about everything.

But then she turns to me with her eyebrow cocked and a ready-to-write look on her face, an expression I recognize well.

I tell myself I don’t want to disturb her progress in her book. It’s important that she takes advantage of these bursts of inspiration when they come because sometimes she’ll go days – or weeks – without writing a single word. She’s that sort of writer.

But truthfully it’s the fear and the shame screaming through me, so loud I can barely hear reason, barely hear loyalty.

This is so wrong.

And yet I can’t stop thinking about Kane and the way he growled, his hands squeezing onto my ass and leaving marks on my skin. It’s only been a day, but it feels like a year since we kissed.

“I’m going to go for a walk,” I say, struggling hard to stop my voice from trembling. “Get some early-morning fresh air.”

“That sounds like a great idea.” She smiles widely. “Have fun.”

* * *

I walk through the city, toward the general direction of the glinting light, but I must take a wrong turning because I end up in a dead-end, bordered on all sides by buildings.

When I turn to walk back the way I came, I let out a gasp and clamp my hand over my mouth.

My heartbeat immediately starts hammering in my chest, pounding against my ribcage like it’s trying to break it.

Kane walks forward with his eyes glimmering, his lips twisted into a feral smirk. He’s wearing a T-shirt with light flecks of sweat on it, causing it to stick to his bulging chest, his arm muscles heaving and shifting as he moves toward me. He looks like a beast, ready to let out a carnal roar and charge at me any second.

“The light was just to make you leave the apartment,” he says, a joking note in his gruff voice. “I knew you’d get lost. This place is like a maze.”

“Is Lena…”

He nods as he comes to a stop bare inches from me, letting his musky scent wash over me, whirling around me with so much temptation I can hardly bear to look at him.

“She’s safe. My contact arrived from the States and he’s watching the apartment. He’s watching the entrance to the city. If anybody tries anything, he’ll have her out of there before they arrive.”

“So are you going to explain why…”

I whimper as he lunges forward, his hands firm and rough on my hips, smashing our bodies together as his lips once again collide with mine.

Frantic rushing need barrels through me, our mouths opening, our tongues clashing as we sink into each other, as my hands move automatically up to his shoulders.

Squeezing down, I feel how firm he is, his muscles rock solid, as hard as his manhood which is pressed against my stomach. I shift back and forth, whimpering as I feel how stiff and eager he is, just like I always dreamed he’d be.

“Not here,” he gasps, breaking it off.

“Because you don’t want to be seen with me.” I can’t stop the bitterness from entering my voice. “Because we’re in public.”

He squeezes down on my ass, causing me to shift against him, grinding back and forth as the euphoric sensations move up and down my body. “What’s got you so sassy, eh?”

“Are you ashamed of me?” I blurt, unable to stop myself.

“Is that why you think I don’t want to kiss you in public?” His hand keeps rubbing my ass, making it impossible to speak. The only noises I can make are moans, whimpers of pure unfettered pleasure. “I asked you a question, Kelly.”

“Yes.” I breathe shakily. “Is that not it?”

“Not even fucking close. It’s because I know I’ll lose control. It’s because all I can think about is how tight and hot your slit is, and how you’re going to cream all over my cock when I slide up inside of you. It’s because…”

He pauses, his eyes seeming to darken for a moment.

“What?” I urge, even if I know it’s wrong, even if I know there’s no coming back from this.

“It’s because you’re mine,” he snarls.

The words thunder through me, causing my insides to sizzle with fireworks, the fireworks I’ve tried to keep repressed ever since I started crushing on my best friend’s dad.

But when his hands are making deep impressions on my ass cheeks, I can’t listen to reason.

“What do you mean, yours?” I whisper.

He shakes his head slowly. “I can’t have this conversation here. I’ll lose control. We’re going back to my apartment.”

“You’re staying in Medina too?” I ask.

He nods gruffly. “I wasn’t planning on it, but I rented an apartment after the showdown with that Bratva fuck.”

“What about Lena?”

“Lena is safe,” he snaps, a primal tone in his voice. “I wouldn’t leave her without help if I thought there was even a one percent chance something would happen to her.”

That isn’t what I meant.

I will myself to say, No, what about when she finds out? We can’t betray her.

But when he takes my hand in his and leads me toward the street, I don’t fight him.

I’ve dreamed of belonging to Kane Konstantinov for so long, and now my dreams are coming true. My body sings at the thought, willing me to leap on him, to slide down him and sit down on his throbbing manhood, taking every inch until he’s buried deep inside of me and ready to explode.

Oh, freaking heck, Lena. I’m so sorry.