It Was Always You by Aliyah Burke Read Free Book Online

hand. She moaned, punching more steel into his cock.
    Bucking his hips, he thrust his dick against her. She curved her leg around his and ground close. He sought her skin, growing impatient when it took him a moment and rumbling his pleasure when it singed his hand. Her flat belly, taut with muscles, moved beneath his palm. He pushed beneath the waistband, seeking her pussy. The smooth lips parted beneath his fingers. He sank into her, eating her responding cries.
    So snug. So wet. Such heat. He wanted his cock in her, gripping him. Moving his fingers, she clenched tight around them.
    Releasing her hair, he went for the button on her pants. Her smaller hand captured his wrist. He readjusted so he could see her eyes. They overflowed with passion and yet, something else lingered there as well.
    “I’m not doing this.”
    He froze. Here he was seconds away from taking her, against the side of her vehicle like she didn’t deserve any better and she said no.
    “Zoë.” Was that his voice? All garbled and gruff?
    He gripped the top of her car with both hands, all the while keeping her trapped between him and the metal door.
    “Stay away from me, Zane. Please.”
    Her saying “please” grabbed him and halted his immediate protest. He took shuddering breaths, her unique scent—the scent of pine on the crisp wind—filled him.
    “Why?” He had to know.
    That one word didn’t want to leave his throat. Asking a woman why she no longer wanted to be with him, hadn’t ever occurred to him before. But hearing that from Zoë…completely different.
    Her laugh was sharp and harsh. “Why?” She fixed her clothes and he longed to remove them from her. “The only reason you made lov—fucked me the first time was because of how I was dressed. But that’s not me. I work in a shop, don’t mind grease under my nails or on my skin, and I don’t want to spend my time struggling to grab your attention away from the next woman who comes along in a short skirt. I’m not that kind of person. I’m not wired that way.”
    It may have begun as a fuck but changed before the night was over. “This…whatever it is between us, is too damn powerful for us to ignore.”
    “I disagree.”
    “Your trembling body says otherwise.” Despite the tension radiating through him at the prospect of losing her, he kept his tone calm. He longed to grip her tight, yet he continued with his hands on the roof of her vehicle.
    “It’s weak. I’m not.”
    “I know you want me to agree and leave you alone. Your brothers don’t scare me. My brothers don’t—”
    “Stop. Please. Let me go.” She pushed on him and he was so stunned by the pain her voice carried, he stumbled back. That was the opening she needed. She drove away, leaving him there trying to make sense about whatever just happened.
    “What the fuck are you doing, Zane?”
    “Leave it alone, Nate.” He continued watching the disappearing taillights until they vanished completely from view.
    “Zoë?”
    He fisted his hands. “It has nothing to do with you. I owe you no explanations.” He wasn’t going to let anyone come between them.
    Nate stood shoulder to shoulder with him. Zane cut his gaze to the eldest Kendrick.
    “Why her? You know we’re hard men, Zane. She was like our sister.”
    “Not mine. She was a pain who trailed her brothers and us. I haven’t seen her in eighteen years. You and Cade continued to and still do continue to see her as a little sister. I see her as a woman. My woman. She is in no way a child.”
    “What do you think she will do for you? This is insane, you touch her and what? You—”
    “For the first time since I left the fucking Middle East the demons I carry with me are silenced. Nothing else has come close to accomplishing that. I will go through hell to keep her. Fuck, I’m there without her.”
    Nate remained silent for a while then grunted. “And her brothers?”
    “You really think they’ll have a problem with it?”
    “We all have