Free Strong Reflection: Book 2 of the Dark Series Trilogy by Cate Mckoy

bedside, praying for you to get better, promising myself that I’d make my move for you if you ever woke up.  Hating myself for all the wasted time, wishing I had done something about us the day after that auction.”
     
    “Kyle, p-please!”  She tried to grip his arms to lessen the effect of his shaking.  “I would—“
     
    “You would what, Ashley?”  He shook her again.  “Fuck my nephew while leaving me panting in the background?”
     
    Suddenly he gripped her ponytail, winding it around his fist, reducing her range of motion.  His other hand went around her throat, his thumb caressing along her carotid.  Touching their foreheads together, he questioned, “When Ashley?  When did you give my nephew your gift?”  The hand on her throat tightened a little bit more.  “Tell me when my  19 year old nephew  popped your cherry?”
     
    Ashley had a grip on each of Kyle’s wrists, trying to pull them off her.  She couldn’t budge them.  Kyle was incredibly strong.  He was aptly named.  
     
    However, the man who had her now was not the Assistant Director of the FBI-HCD.  This was Kyle Michael Strong and he was pissed!  She wanted to knock him upside his head for even thinking such a thing about her and Drew.  Drew was like her nephew.  Nancy was her best friend.  
     
    Several counter moves went through her mind.  But, they all involved physically hurting Kyle.  She didn’t want to do that unless it became absolutely necessary.  He wasn’t hurting her, not physically anyway.  What he was thinking about her and his nephew hurt a lot.  She could get him to think.
     
    She whispered urgently to him, “Kyle, yesterday you said I have a very expressive face.  You said you knew I was hurt when you said your family wasn’t mine.  It’s true, I was very hurt because I think of your sister as my sister and your niece and nephew are like my niece and nephew.   Your mom is like my mom.”  He was starting to listen to her.  He released the grip on her hair and loosened the hold on her neck.  “I could never hurt Nancy or any member of your family in the way you are suggesting.”  She added emphatically, “I’d die first.”
     
    At her last words, the anger left his eyes, being replaced with profound perplexity.  “But, the way he touched you… it looked like…?”
     
    “It looked like what?”  Ashley prompted.  “Did it look any differently than any of the other dancers?”
    He shook his head.  Then his eyes heated up again with something other than anger.  His hands took her waist as he once again tilted his forehead to hers, keeping eye contact in this position he whispered back to her.  “Answer a question.”
     
    Her hands were around his neck.  This time she voluntarily tipped her forehead up to meet his, holding his eyes she asked, “What’s your question?”
     
    His eyes closed and his hands tightened on her waist.  “Are you still a virgin?”
    She leaned her head back and placed a hand on each of his cheeks.  “Look at me Kyle.”
     
    He opened his eyes.  With him staring unwaveringly into her eyes, she told him the truth.  “I am a virgin.”  She stroked his face, caressing until her one hand covered his heart.  “And, there is only one man I ever had a dream about ‘popping my cherry’.”
     
    He crushed her to him, taking her mouth with consummate skill!  Over and over, kiss after kiss, he took her senses on a breathtaking ride.  Their kisses blended one into the other.
     
    They were in a heady fog until there was a hard knock on the door.  “Kyle, is something wrong?”  It was his mother.  “Drew was a little scared, so he came to get me.”
     
    Kyle tapered off his kisses slowly, ending with a small peck to her cheek.  “Ashley Mackenzie, will you go out with me?”
     
    Smiling, she gave the answer she had wanted to give all along.  “Yes, Kyle Strong.”
     
    He gave her lips a quick kiss.  “That’s a yes to us