Against All Odds

Chapter 14

KILLIAN

"I've got a bone to pick with you."

I glanced up, almost dropping my phone, and found Stella hovering over me. Sprawled on the couch, I had spent the morning as lazily as possible, and since there was a power outage, entertainment had been found in some of my old Netflix downloads on my phone.

And, of course, texting her.

"No bikini today?" I was disappointed, though she did look gorgeous in a soft yellow sundress that was clinging to her curves in all the right places. Presently, however, she didn't seem very pleased as she folded her arms under her breasts and tilted her chin down to frown at me.

"Under the dress," she told me. Then her brows drew together, her gaze becoming sharper. "Don't change the subject."

"I'm not even sure what the subject is," I teased. "Something about bones, in which case..." I made a gesture at the shorts I was wearing. Stella didn't seem to find amusement at my innuendo.

"Don't be cute, Killian. You shouldn't have paid for the salon shit today."

Ah, so that's what this was about. So much for discreteness on the salon's part. I sat up, dropping the phone in my lap, paused on the movie I was watching. I was no stranger to Stella's innate desire for independence- hell, I was half sure that was one of the reasons she left me- but I couldn't help but feel the need to assist her. I wasn't the richest man on the planet, but I was well-off enough to afford a splurge every now and then. My need for stability and structure in life compelled me to be financially frugal, building a career that orientated itself towards just those goals. A stable income, job, future- these were all aligning in just the way I had planned. Money was never really a concern for me, fortunately. "It's nothing," I told her. "I owe you anyway, Stels."

She snorted at that. "I don't need your charity. I'm fine. I shouldn't have spoken to you about it earlier, I was just upset about everything Mia had planned without consulting any of us first."

"Mmm." Sensing her softening, I couldn't help running a hand over the curve of her hip. She seemed to sway into my touch, encouraging me to climb my fingers higher. Maybe I was too bold to touch her as freely as I was, but after the kiss last night and the constant messaging between us this morning... I was struggling to find the boundaries we had erected to keep our distances from each other.

And when my morning had consisted of nothing but text messages exchanged between us, growing increasingly filthier in nature, that line we were never supposed to cross faded into non-existence.

And all I could think about was how it felt to kiss her, the softness of her lips and curves as her body pressed into mine. She was perfect. Every conceivable inch of her felt contrived just for my unending pleasure.

It was a struggle to maintain my distance, to remember all the reasons that stood between us about why I shouldn't be touching her, why I shouldn't be kissing her in the middle of the kitchen well after midnight. She was everything I ever wanted, but couldn't have.

She sucked in a breath, catching my hand before it could go any further. Her eyes were large, her face devoid of her scowl now, and she glanced around nervously. But we were alone... for now, anyway.

"The others-"

"I don't care," I said, and it was the truth. So what if our friends found out Stella and I were... what were we doing? Flirting? Flinging? There wasn't a name for it, all I knew was that I wanted it. I wanted her.

She was driving me crazy each day with her smiles and easy laugh, the cute mannerisms she made when she thought nobody was looking, how her hair was styled today in two long braids over her shoulders... wearing a dress that I could only think about tearing off her. I swung my legs off the couch and pulled her down until she sat on one of my thighs. This close, she was soft and smelled like sunlight and floral-scented massage oils from the salon, her skin still slick from the treatments, and something... else. I sniffed closer, my nose brushing one of those braids, trying to identify what was odd about it.