ONLY FOR LOVE, page 26
part #1 of Only For #2 Series
“There will be no need for that,” I quickly put in. “It’s a game.” They all laugh at me. “And may the best team win.”
“The big question is,” one of them asks me, “what jersey will you be wearing?”
I bite my lower lip, looking up at Kirby. “That would be a game-time decision,” I joke, making them all laugh.
We turn and bump into one of his teammates and his wife. “Lexi,” Kirby says, “this is Knox and his wife, Josephine. This is Lexi.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” I say to Knox and then turn to his wife, who is giving me the fakest smile I’ve ever seen in my life, and trust me, I know fake smiles when I see them.
“Yeah,” she says, holding out her hand and I think she’s only doing it because Knox is here.
“I love that dress.” I decide I’m going to kill her with kindness. I actually do like her dress. It’s a gold jacket dress, the top button is right between her fake breasts and looks like it’s about to pop off and hit me in the eye. I just don’t like her in the dress.
“Thank you,” she says tightly. “I’m going to go and see the girls.” She turns and walks away and I almost burst out laughing.
“Knox spent the summer in Italy,” Kirby says, trying not to let me feel uncomfortable by the whole Josephine thing.
“Oh, that sounds like heaven.”
“It was,” he confirms. “The kids had a blast and they picked up so much Italian, it was cute.”
“How old are your kids?” I ask him.
“We have three: ten, eight, and five. Two boys and a girl.”
“Fun, my sister has three-year-old twins,” I say, smiling at him when his eyes about come out of his sockets. “Boy and girl, both daredevils.”
“I think having two boys first was a mistake. They are all fun and loving and then you have my daughter, who I just knew was going to be chaos personified.” He shakes his head. “The other day, her brothers told her it would be fun to use the top of the plastic bin to slide down the stairs.” I can’t help but laugh. “In case anyone is wondering, it’s not fun. She about broke five bones in her body and her head smashed into the wall.” I put both hands in front of my mouth. “You would think she would learn her lesson, but the only thing she learned is to put on a hockey helmet the next time.”
“Sounds like a smart kid to me,” Kirby pipes up, “unlike her father.”
Knox is about to say something else when Josephine calls his name from across the room. “Excuse me, duty calls.”
He walks away and I slip my hand in Kirby’s, stepping a touch closer to him. “He’s nice, I like him.” He just nods as I stand in front of him. “Is this okay?” I ask, lifting my hand with his.
“Do you not want to hold my hand?” he asks me, and I roll my eyes when he kisses my fingers and then drops our hands to our sides. “You look beautiful,” he tells me softly, “so fucking beautiful.”
“Oh yeah?” I smile up at him and want him to bend his head just a bit to give me the sign he wants to kiss me before I take the big step and kiss him.
“Oh good, you’re here.” Our heads turn to the side where we see two blonde women coming toward us. “Kirby,” one of them says as she turns to the girl beside her. Both are wearing little black dresses, one has red shoes on, the other one has electric blue shoes on. “I want to introduce you to my oldest friend, Belinda.”
“Well, not old.” The blonde looks at her as she tucks her hair behind her ear. “But we’ve been friends a long time.” The minute she says that, I get the feeling she’s trying to set them up.
I let go of his hand and he immediately turns to look at me, and I just smile up at him. “I thought you and Belinda would hit it off.”
“Oh,” Kirby says and I am about to turn around and head away from this conversation because, well, I am not sure I want to be here while he’s being set up with another woman. I take a step to turn away and then stop, turning back and not willing to slink off into the background but instead letting them know that he’s mine.
Turning back to him, I move into his space. “I’m going to go and get a drink at the bar, honey.” I kiss his neck. “Do you want something?” I don’t wait for him to answer before I turn to the blondes. Belinda looks like she wants to die on the spot, and the other one looks at me with a glare like I just ruined her evil plan. “Hi,” I say, moving my hand from his hand to extend it to the women. “I don’t think we’ve met, I’m Lexi.”
“Oh,” the girlfriend says.
“Do you want anything from the bar?” I ask them and they both shake their heads.
“I’m sorry,” the blonde says, “excuse us.”
I don’t say anything to them as they turn to walk away, turning once more to look at us. I stand here staring at them until they disappear into the sea of people.
“What?” I ask when I look up at Kirby and he looks like he’s about to burst out laughing.
“Nothing.” He puts the hand that is holding my hand on my lower back, making my arm twist back. “I was just thinking, I like this Lexi.”
He pulls me closer to him, and the smell of his aftershave makes my knees weak. “Is that so?”
“Well,” he says softly, and even though we are in a room with about five hundred people, it feels like it’s just me and him. His eyes are on mine. “I like every Lexi.” I put my hand on his chest, my finger playing with his lapel. “The kind one, the soft one.” I can see his eyes twinkling, and I know the next thing isn’t going to be as sweet. “The one who lets me—” I put my hand on his mouth to stop him from saying the rest of whatever it is he was going to say, and he laughs under my fingers before kissing them. “All of them.”
I shake my head and I’m about to say something to him when a man comes out rushing toward him. “Kirby, it’s your turn at the blackjack table number seven,” he states, “and there is a lineup waiting.”
“Great, I need chips,” he tells the guy, who nods his head and then looks at me.
“I’ll have them at the table.”
“Want to come with me?” he asks me.
“I guess so,” I reply and he turns, pulling me with him as he looks for the table he needs to be at. I see the line of women there and I about gag out loud. “This is it.” I point to the table. “Your harem awaits,” I joke with him. “If only they knew you snore sometimes.”
All he does is laugh at me as he lets go of my hand once we get to the table. “Hey there,” he says to the chairs that are now filled with six women and one man. “Are we all having a good time?”
“It’s better now,” the lady at the end with red hair and green eyes says. “I’ve been waiting all night to meet you.”
I hold my purse in both hands and I’m about to step away when he says, “Hey, baby.” My head whips to see who he is talking to and I see him staring straight at me, getting a bit closer. “Can you hold my phone?” He takes the phone out of his suit jacket pocket and hands it to me. I reach for the phone and hold it in my hand, knowing that all eyes are on me. He smiles at me. “Thanks.” I take one more step and put my head back and he bends and kisses my lips softly. I raise my hand and wipe the lipstick from his lips.
“Have fun, you guys,” I tell the table of semi-glaring women. “I’ll be over here”—I point to the side—“if not, I’ll be with Kylie.”
“Okay,” he replies, giving me another chaste kiss before slapping his hands together. “Who is ready to lose money?” he asks the table. I watch him for about fifteen minutes before Kylie comes up to me and asks me if I’m going to get something to eat.
We walk away together, going to a table and sitting down. She gets up to grab a plate of food from the buffet and then comes back. “Are you not eating?”
“I’m going to wait for your brother,” I answer, looking over my shoulder at him.
“Friends wait for other friends,” she mocks my words. “I’m not a good friend,” she says, taking a bite of the slider she just got.
Ariella joins us a couple minutes later with her own plate, telling us Jaxon can eat when he wants to, she’s not waiting. It’s about twenty minutes later when Kirby comes to join us, the both of us going to get a plate and then Jaxon comes about fifteen minutes after that.
We spend most of the night at the table, biding our time until we can leave. Eventually, we walk to the garage where we say goodbye to Ariella and Jaxon and they offer to drop off Kylie since she is on the way to their house.
My hand is where it’s been most of the night, wrapped tight in Kirby’s, as we walk in the garage. “Do you want to come to my house or do we go to yours?” I ask him.
“Doesn’t really matter to me, as long as you’re with me. The more important question is are you going to blow me?” he asks me, and I can’t help but laugh because his tone is so serious.
“No.” I shake my head, but the minute he asked me the question, my pussy contracted.
He walks over to the SUV parked in his spot. He opens the passenger door, but instead of helping me in, he pushes me against the back door. “Yes, you are.”
The air leaves my body. “No, I’m not.”
He rubs his nose with mine. “I dare you.”
I laugh and push him off of me. “That doesn’t always work.” I get into the SUV and I’m about to reach for the door when he just smirks at me.
“It will this time.” He winks at me, closing the door for me. “It will this time,” he repeats.
thirty-two
Kirby
I get up the next morning, and when I reach for her, I come up empty-handed. The bed’s still warm from her body as I listen to hear if maybe she is in the bathroom. No noise is coming from there, and when I look at the bedroom door, it’s shut, so I know she’s already up and out of the room. I toss the covers off me, grabbing a pair of shorts from the chair, and seeing the pieces of my suit from last night trailing all across the room, along with her dress that’s in a heap on the floor too. Her one shoe is on one side of the room, while the other is on the other side. I pull open the door and hear her voice.
“It was fun,” she says and then I hear another voice.
“Well, the picture you sent us of you and Ariella looked like you two were having fun.” I walk down the steps and into the kitchen, seeing her on the stool with her phone propped up in front of her. She’s wearing one of my workout shirts that falls to the middle of her legs. “I can’t wait to be there on Friday.”
“I can’t wait for you guys to be here,” she says excitedly. “Mom and Dad are arriving on Friday morning. Matty is getting here Friday afternoon, and now the Sunday lunch is going to be a Friday dinner, since Matty has to leave as soon as they finish the game to head to Vegas.”
“I heard,” her sister says, and I walk in quietly and she looks over at me. I point to the fridge and she just nods. “Hi, Kirby,” she says and Lexi laughs.
“Hi, Zara,” I reply, pulling open the fridge.
“When am I going to meet you?” she asks and Lexi motions with her head to go over to her. I walk around the island with the bottle of orange juice in my hand. “Hi,” she says with a huge smile on her face when I stop beside Lexi, bending to kiss her head. “Aww, so when are we going to meet?”
“Whenever you want,” I tell her and I can see some similarities with the two, but in my opinion Lexi is prettier.
“It would have to be Sunday morning since we have to head back on Sunday afternoon. Colson has to be back in school on Monday.”
“Name the time and place and I’ll be there,” I reply and she smiles at me.
“Okay, it’s time for me to get up and get my ass in gear,” she states. “I’ll see you Friday,” she tells Lexi and then blows her a kiss. “Bye, Kirby.”
“Bye,” I reply, holding up my hand and she disconnects the phone call. “Morning,” I say as Lexi looks up at me, “you snuck out of bed again.”
“I did,” she confirms. “I was going to surprise you with a whole breakfast feast, but my sister called.”
“Want to prepare it together?” I ask her and she shrugs. “How about you tell me what you want, and I’ll make it for you?”
“You would cook for me?” She leans back in the chair.
“Baby,” I say, bending to kiss her lips again, “I’d do anything for you.”
“I need a shower.” She gets up and grabs her cup of coffee. “How about I jump in the shower and then come and help you?”
“Okay.” I know by the time she comes back out of the shower, breakfast will be all done. “Waffles or pancakes?” I ask her as she walks out of the room.
“Surprise me,” she says with a wink and my cock stirs. I think about joining her in the shower and then turn back and start to make my waffles. I take out the waffle iron as I mix the batter, tossing in some brown sugar instead of white sugar and then adding a touch of cinnamon to it.
While the waffles are being made, I scramble up some eggs and then toss some sausage in the pan. She walks into the room twenty minutes later, with her hair wrapped in one of my towels on the top of her head and wearing a pair of her shorts and matching tank top. “It smells delicious.”
“I made waffles,” I toss over my shoulder as she comes over to me and holds my hips in her hands and leans in to kiss my back. “Surprise.”
“Did you know,” she starts, walking over to the fridge and grabbing the bowl of strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries she always has, “that Trent used to watch how many calories I took in?” I look over at her, my hand gripping the fork tighter. “He would do this thing when we first got together.” She puts the bowl down and now leans her hip against the counter and then puts her foot on her other foot. “If my waist was bigger than this”—she hangs her hands down together with her thumbs touching before curling up the three fingers and then extending her pinkies—“it would be unacceptable.” I close my eyes as she laughs at the ridiculousness of it, and I have to be happy that she sees how much of an idiot he was. “I should have done the same to his dick.” The bark of laughter leaves my throat. “I’ll grab the plates.”
I sit down next to her once the waffles are done and the plates are in front of us. Grabbing my waffles and then some eggs, I pass her the syrup as she puts some on her waffles and then some on her eggs. “Did you have fun last night?” I ask her and she nods her head.
“I did, once I got a little bit of confidence in me,” she admits and I chuckle. “People are going to ask you questions.” She takes a bite of her waffles.
“They can ask, doesn’t mean I have to tell them anything. That’s the beauty of all of this. You tell them what you want them to know and keep some things to yourself.”
She nods. “Are you okay with meeting my sister?”
“Yeah, why?” I ask her and she shrugs.
“I’m scared,” she finally says. “Like, I’m so happy, I’m scared it’ll all go away.” She looks over at me and gives me a small almost sad smile. “I’m scared this whole thing is going too fast and then it’s going to crash and burn.” She grabs a piece of strawberry on her fork and then plops it in her mouth. “But it’s like I can’t stop it.”
“I’m scared also,” I admit to her, “scared that I am going to be the rebound guy and then you will just up and leave when you realize how strong you are.” Her eyes look at me in bewilderment. “But living in fear has never served any of us,” I state, and then I don’t know why I say it but I do, “I’m falling in love with you, Lexi.” I put my fork down. “Pretty much I have fallen in love with you. When I met you the first time, I thought you were the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. Then I saw you with Trent and I was so jealous of him because he had you and he didn’t know how good he had it.” She puts her fork down and looks at her plate, and I can see her chest rising and falling. “I felt like a total dick feeling what I was feeling for you, knowing you were a married woman. I barely knew you and yet I knew you were one of those people who would come into my life and leave a mark.” I put my hand on her leg. “Then I really got to know you, and I just fell deeper and deeper for you.”
“Kirby,” she says my name and looks at me with tears in her eyes, and all I can do is shake my head side to side.
“You don’t have to say anything to me. I’m not telling you so you can say it back to me, or telling you to pressure you into anything. I’m telling you because I’ve never in my life told another person, who wasn’t my sister or my mother, that I loved them.” Her breath hitches. “But I wanted you to know, I can be patient with you. With us. With this.” My hand moves from her leg to her cheek as my thumb catches the tear. “I’m going to be patient because you are worth it and deserve the time to figure this out too, Lexi.”
“I don’t know what to say.” Her voice quivers.
“You don’t have to say anything. I just wanted you to know that you aren’t the only one who’s scared.” I lean to kiss her lips. “We can go as fast or as slow as you want us to go. I don’t have to meet your parents this time. Or your sister.” I rub her cheekbone. “You’ve already made such big steps in the last couple of months.” I smile. “It’s a marathon, not a sprint.” I turn and cut another piece of waffle. I can tell she’s not ready to finish this conversation, so I change the topic, hoping one day she’ll be ready. “I’m off today. Did you want to go and spend the day at your house and take a walk on the beach?”
“Yeah,” she says and I can hear her voice quiver, “that would be nice.”
“We can invite Kylie over for dinner, if you want?”
“You are okay to stay at my house?” she asks me and I look over at her.
“You are the one always wanting to come here.” I point at her.
“It’s Ms. Jefferson’s fault. I don’t want her to be all alone.”
“I leave tomorrow,” I remind her, “and I’m already back on Friday.”
“Who is watching her?” she asks me.
“She has food all the time,” I remind her. “She has her own personal water bowl that is hooked up to the bathroom faucet and gives her fresh water. She’s fine.” I push away from the counter. “But if you want to come and check in on her, I can give you a key.”
