Love Untouched (Unexpected) (18 page)

“Yes, I’m making strawberry cheesecake today.” Her eyes flitted to the living room and she gasped, “Kieran what happened? Why all the mess?”

I scanned the living room, and yes, it looked like a storm had passed in here with all the boxes, catalogs, and gear scattered on every surface. “Oh yeah. I’m looking at the new swim gear so I can use it and have my trainers evaluate if it affects my performance.”

Her brows bunched up and her lips pursed, she asked, “All of that? That’s a lot of gear. Even Milo doesn’t get that much.” She should know. Her brother constantly received new suits and equipment from his sponsors, too.

I rested my face on my hand as I leaned over the counter of the island in the middle of the kitchen. “I’m also signing some stuff for the kids.”

She stopped stirring the mixture that she was preparing in a bowl and looked at me. “What kids?”

“Hmm... kids.” I replied, a bit evasively.

She stomped her right foot. The act was so cute, so Brynn. “What kids Kieran?”

“I sign shirts and sports items that my agent sends to children all around the country,” I explained, my eyes drifting to all the unpacked gear in the living room. I needed to finish signing them before the end of the week so Evans will have time to pick them up and have them delivered.

“Is this part of your contract?” she asked, curiosity evident in her eyes.

“No. I do this because I want to,” I added, shifting my weight from one leg to the other as I stood, halfway leaning into the island.

Her mouth was agape. “You mean no one knows you do these things? Not even the press?”

Looking right at her, I replied, “No one can make me do things I don’t want, Brynn. I do these things because I want to. My agent takes care of all the details. It’s the least I can do for the fans that I have, especially children who send me cards telling me I’m their hero. I’m nobody’s hero. I am fortunate that I do what I love and I’m successful at it.” Brynn stepped closer to me. She set the mixing bowl on the side of the counter, and without prelude, she grabbed my head and kissed me. Underwater, I could hold my breath for four minutes and thirty-five seconds without any difficulty. When Brynn kissed me, I found myself gasping, needing air, needing oxygen to fill up my lungs.

Her fingers roamed around my lips, and one of her hands was in my hair. Her eyes shining with appreciation and wonder at the same time, she declared, “You’re a good man Kieran Stone.”

I was about to say dissuade her logic, because it really was not a big deal, but she hushed me and said, “I’m also making your favorite fudge pecan brownies today.”

With her dark blue eyes in a teasing glance, her cheeks pink and aglow with arousal, and her lips reddened and plump from our passionate kiss, she had never looked more beautiful to me. Just then, I knew, without a doubt, she was the woman who made me come up for air.

“I’d like to go on a European cruise.”

~H.V., age 19, autoimmune disorder

“Why do you want to be number one in the world Kieran?” I asked as I ran my hands across his naked chest. We were in a cuddly mood since having pigged out on the Chinese food that Kieran ordered after asking me to spend the night with him. I worked half a shift today when I was supposed to be off because we were short staffed. He was a bit disappointed that I couldn’t spend the whole day with him, especially since it was a weekend. I tried to butter him up by letting him know that I’d bake him anything he wanted for the week.

His arms were propped under his head and his brown eyes flickered a bit, before he replied, “So I can prove to myself that I can do it.”

“Be number one? You already have enough medals to rival that Australian legend,” I reiterated. Kieran has accumulated tons of medals and awards throughout the years. I saw and touched all of them when we visited his parents’ house. They were showcased in his parents’ library.

He removed his left arm from under his head and with his fingers, he stroked my chin. “Yeah, but I want the gold,” he whispered, and then continued, “When I swim, I lose myself in the water. I’ve always felt this way. It’s like I’m competing against the ebb and rise, the force of the water. How fast can I out swim it before the next swish comes in? I live for the rush of going under and coming out from a swim, knowing that somehow I beat my own time, my own self.”

“I don’t understand. I thought you like to be number one so you can beat other swimmers?”

He took a long, deep pull of breath. “I am the fastest swimmer out there.” There was not a hint of arrogance in his voice. It sounded as if he was stating a fact, which was, indeed, a fact. “I have to beat myself to win. When I hear that horn, that beep, as soon as I jump off the block, I don’t look at the other swimmers, Brynn. I just
feel
. Under the water. I feel how fast I am going and I just want to go faster and faster, every time. I am the water. The water is me. I’m not sure if you understand?”

I scooted up to kiss the underside of his chin. “I think I do Kieran.” He was born to do this. To be an Olympian. To be a swimmer. He has a natural ‘feel’ for the water. It was his calling.

His eyelids were closed; his hand was still rubbing gently against my cheek, and slowly moving lower to my neck. “What if you don’t get the gold?” I inquired softly. It wasn’t that I doubted him.

His eyes opened, and his gaze was on the ceiling. “There’s no other way for me to go, except to the top, you know?”

“But, what if?”

“I will,” he said determinedly. “I will get the gold. Just like I got you, honey.” How he got me? We were talking about gold and now he’s talking about me? His voice faded inside the room and he tilted my chin up. “You have the most beautiful eyes. They remind me of the ocean. The deep, blue colors... the way your eyes change from light to deep blue. The ocean’s my favorite place Brynn. And now, with all the training that I’m doing, I barely have any time to visit or just hang out close to it. You bring me to my favorite place, Brynn. You are my favorite place.”

He captured my mouth in a kiss. I opened my mouth to welcome his tongue as he slowly bit on my own tongue with his teeth. I let my hands drift down his body. He was hard again. I stroked him slowly and cupped the underside of his erection, letting two fingers graze the tip.

He let out a harsh breath. “Brynn...”

“I like touching you like this.” I gathered my hand into a fist and moved it along his length. He slowly lifted me up and sat me on top of him. The sheet fell away from the lower half of my body and I was now completely naked in front of him.

He removed my hand from his erection as he implored, “I just want you to feel me right now, okay?” I placed both of my hands at my sides, touching the bed, my legs folded underneath me, flush with his legs and my center barely touching his aroused length. His hands drifted down my body and my eyes followed his lingering touches. He took his time feeling my skin and when he reached the raised scars a few inches below my ribcage, he stopped. He took an exaggerated breath, and while I could not fully see his eyes because of the darkness that surrounded the room, I was certain that they had darkened with need.

“Kieran,” I moaned, “Please…” I ground my hips against his, my lips touching his shoulders. It took all of my restraint to keep my hands at the sides and not guide him inside of me.

He lightly massaged the scarred protrusions by my rib cage, and his other hand idled by my stomach. “Your scars, honey, they are
really
so beautiful.” His voice was low and deep, his emotions raw. “They are proof of your strength, what you’ve overcome.”

I felt the tears trickle down from my eyes. Here we were, with no clothes between us, the sheets crumpled to the side, and the darkness engulfing us, as we have been many times before; yet, it felt different. I felt the most bared to him. No secrets. Just Kieran and Brynn. Man and woman. Lover to lover.

The wetness from my eyes fell down my body as he slowly lifted a hand to caress my face. “Without your scars, I might not have gotten the chance to know you. You might not be here with me. You ask me why I need to be on top Brynn? Why I need to have the gold?”

I tipped my head slightly.

“While you were struggling for your life in the hospital, I was finding my own reason to live. When I had swim meets, it was the only time my family was together.” His quiet voice magnified the emotions he was revealing to me. “My dad came home for my meets and with each win, we’d spend time dining out, just doing normal stuff, as a family. And I saw the joy in my mom’s eyes when that happened.”

I could not stop the tears from escaping.

“Honey, my mom’s happiness relied on my wins. I think at one point, my parents were going to get divorced. My dad was always working and my mom was left alone with us. But, he made it a point to watch my meets. I don’t know why. Maybe it was because he was invested in me? He was also a swimmer in college so maybe he’s living his dream through me? I know that it’s changed now. My parents are in a much better place than before. But she, my mom, was my reason to stay on top and be on top. Now I have to achieve what I’ve been working towards for so long. And I’m just happy that you’re with me to celebrate it when I do.”

My tears evaporated, and he was back to his self-assured state. “Oh, you’re that sure you’ll win, huh?”

“It’s just a matter of when and how many more medals I’ll get.” His hips swiveled and his breath got choppier. I straightened and felt his hard length nudge against my entrance. I removed my hands from the bed and let them travel down his body. He was muscled all over. The strength of Kieran’s body might not be obvious to some because he was not a hulking beast, but he was pure muscle. His body was made for wielding powerful strokes, in and out of the water.

“Milo might beat you to them.” I chuckled lightly.

“That’s just wrong. Don’t speak of him in our sacred place.” He cupped my cheek, his other hand was holding his erection, and he rubbed circles around me with it.

A whimper escaped me, “Aahh.” It felt so, so good. I struggled to ask, “Sacred place?”

He moved so quickly that I barely had any time to react. The next thing I knew, I was flipped over, he was on top of me, his body slid down, and his mouth was working on my wetness. His lips probed and his tongue inched its way inside of me.

“God, Kieran...”

“This,” The vibrations in his voice electrified the lust he was evoking from me, he nibbled on the slit that housed the center of my pleasure. “Our bed is a sacred place.” His tongue continued to torture me with purposeful licks. “It’s where I can adore you, worship you, and you call me ‘God’. I’m secure enough to know that you’re thinking of me when you say ‘God’, and Kieran’s a hard name to say when I’m making you tremble in pleasure.”

I giggled. In the heat of the moment, Kieran was still funny.

He adjusted his weight to lean over me, lifted my legs up and pushed inside of me.

“Honey if you’re giggling, then I’m doing a lousy job.”

The giggles were forgotten when he thrust inside me. In, out, in, in, and out. He lowered his body onto mine and I felt his hot breath against my left ear. He slowed down just as I was about to reach my peak, he whispered in ragged breaths, “Not yet...”

I held on to his hair as he ravaged my mouth, the slide of his tongue timed perfectly with his thrusts inside of me. He drove deep and then he came out and lingered. He drove deep again.

The last time he went in all the way, I had decided I had had enough.

“I will murder you if you stop,” I pleaded with a warning.

His fingers curled around my nipples, and in between rugged breathes, he moaned, “Ohh… You feel so good.”

He thrust all the way in and my legs wrapped around his body. My hands twisted around his hair as he set a rhythm that turned me into a yielding creature, dependent on his command of my body. I tightened my legs around him and he tightened his hold on my waist. He brought his head close to my ears and coarsely whispered, “Brynn” He was climbing, reaching for that elusive peak. I bit on the side of his neck that was exposed to me.

He jerked forward and my body bowed to his ministrations.

“Oh... Oh... Oh!” I screamed as heat poured out of me. I kept nibbling on his neck. I have found that Kieran liked this, and as I put more pressure, almost an inch away from the vein that ran along his side, he let out measured gasps. “Going to come, ahh.”

I felt his climax shudder through me. He stayed in place and whispered, “Every time, honey. You feel so good. Every. Single. Time.” He kissed my hair and ran his fingers through it, my body was sweaty against his. I thought he was going to pull out but he remained inside of me and whispered, “You’re my golden girl, you know?”

Huh? How did a girl respond to that? Knowing how much Kieran wanted a gold and for him to call me that, I inhaled his masculine scent and kissed his hair. “I’m just glad to be yours,” I replied, letting the meaning of my words sink into my own thoughts, accepting it unquestionably. That was just it; I was Kieran’s. He had me. All of me.