Neither the story nor the characters belong to me.
Chapter Twelve
TEMARI
"What do you mean they're not here?" mom's face fell. "I bought them toys and coloring books, and I really wanted to spend some time with them." Her shoulders drooped, rustling her cream silk blouse. Her hair was up in a simple chignon, and she rounded out her accessories with a single strand of black pearls. Perfect for the country club she belonged to in Crested Butte, where she now lived.
I'd pushed her brunch for weeks, and now it was time to pay the piper on a Saturday morning.
"We thought it was best to leave them with a babysitter for brunch," I explained in the club's foyer as she brushed a piece of dirt from my arm. "Ino's little sister Natsu is certified, and Shizune did all the checks, so she's home with the boys."
Mom used her fingernail, scraping at something on the light-green fabric of my ballet sweater, which went great with the black pencil skirt and black equestrian boots I'd chosen for brunch. I'd debated heels but changed just in case we were forced to flee from my mother.
"I just wanted to get to know them a little better. After all, they're going to be family."
"Mom, stop. That's…" I glanced down at the whitish spot and sighed. Hoki left his mark. "That's puke. You have to remember that we're only their foster parents. They're not ours. We don't really get a say in what happens to them. Right now, Shizune is still locating their father."
"So you're not keeping them?" Her hand flew to her chest.
"It's not our choice. Nothing about what happens with their future is our choice. We just get to take care of them for now. The goal is to reunify them with their dad."
Wherever the hell he was.
"Well, it would have been nice to have them for brunch. They could have gone swimming or something." She waved toward the window with a view of the pool.
It was barely sixty-eight degrees outside, definitely not pool weather, but I knew she meant well, so I just nodded and prayed that Shika finished parking the truck soon.
"It's too cold for swimming, Mom" Naruto said over my right shoulder.
He passed by me with a quick squeeze of my arm before going to our mother. Considering I'd barely spoken a word to him in the last two weeks, this was going to get interesting.
"Hi, honey" she answered as he kissed her cheek "I'm so glad you could make it. Oh! Shika! Great, now the whole family is here! Or it would be if you'd brought those boys." She tsked before turning to the hostess.
Shika adjusted his bright-blue tie and pulled the cuffs of his shirt down to his wrist as he rolled his shoulders in his suit coat. My whole body clenched. Hot damn, the man was gorgeous. He'd shaved his customary scruff, leaving nothing but smooth, touchable skin. My fingers curled into my palms. Screw sexual frustration, I was at the level of sexual agony. He'd walked down the hall in nothing but a towel this morning when he heard Hoki crying, and I'd been in a drooling stupor ever since.
The definition of irony? I was married to the man. Married, and yet I couldn't even enjoy the honeymoon.
His throat moved, drawing all my attention. How could a neck be that sexy? It was perfect for running my tongue over it. I bet he tastes better than candy. Running my thumb over the inside of my wedding band, I...
"Wait, what?" I blinked as Shika waved his hand in front of my face. "Earth to Temari. Our table is ready. You okay?" He lightly took my arms, stroking over my biceps with his thumbs. "You get enough sleep last night?"
"Yeah, just thinking about dessert"
I lied.
Kind of.
Maybe if I laid out naked on our kitchen island, he'd break down and...
"Let's go, you two," Naruto called back, already following Mom and the hostess.
"Seriously, you seem distracted." Shika's forehead puckered.
Distracted by deep brown eyes and curved lips, definitely.
"We have to go" I managed to say with a tight smile "They're waiting."
"Let them wait. Are you okay?"
Ugh, why did he have to be so freaking considerate all the time? Why couldn't he be an ass like he was to everyone else? Even after we shared that kiss prom night, he'd never been cruel, just distant. It made it impossible to hate him.
"I'm fine" I promised "If you survive brunch, I have a present for you in the car."
"You got me a present?" His eyes lit up like Denki with a new toy.
I fought my smile.
"Don't get too excited. I'm not even sure it's something you want."
I'd almost given it to him on the drive over but didn't want to start the morning off awkward.
"I'll love it. I promise." His lips curved.
That smile. It sent electricity to my thighs, telling them to part and ditch the panties while they were at it. It wasn't just that he was beautiful, that was just genetics. Shika really meant it he'd love whatever I gave him. Under all those yards of muscle, witty mind, and pretty eyes was the skinny ten-year-old I knew who just wanted to be loved and still didn't realize he'd always been loved.
By me.
"Can I show you to your table? The rest of your party is already seated," the hostess asked in that polite, distant way that belonged in tourist towns like this, where it was impossible to know everyone.
"Yes, thank you" I answered.
His hand found my lower back as we walked through the fully seated dining room, and I almost took off at a dead run just to break the contact. It was too much. I wanted that hand on my bare skin... One morning without the kids and I was back to eighteen, attacking him in Mom's powder room. It had barely been a month of living with Shika and I was ready to crawl out of my skin. How was I going to survive…however long this would be?
"Absolutely not" Mom chastised Naruto "Let your sister sit next to her husband."
I didn't miss the glare Naruto sent in Shika's direction. Half of me felt guilty for what this was doing to their friendship, and the other half wanted to smack Naruto across the back of his head and remind him this was none of his business.
We took our seats, Shika sitting across from Naruto at the square table, and made it halfway through brunch before Mom started in.
"So, I was thinking, if July is too soon, maybe we'd do September?"
My mimosa caught in my throat, and I started coughing, trying desperately to keep my lips shut so I didn't spew orange liquid all over the pristine tablecloth.
"For what?" Naruto asked.
"Temari, are you okay?" Shika questioned at the same time.
I nodded, managing to swallow the watered-down alcohol and immediately wishing it was pure vodka.
"Their wedding, of course" Mom said with a pageant-worthy smile. "I'm just so excited to get this going with you guys. Of course, Pastor Hopkins said he'd officiate, and we have access to the chapel whenever you want."
"Uh, Mrs. Uzumaki..." Shika started softly.
"I know it's a good forty-minute drive, but I was thinking of having the reception here, if you two like it" She ran him right over "It's got plenty of room, and I'm sure we could see if we could rent out the lodge, since it would be the off-season. No one wants guests drinking and driving."
I threw back the rest of my mimosa and sought out the waitress with my eyes so I could beg for another one or two.
"Their what?" Naruto snapped.
Shika gave him a nearly imperceptible shake of his head.
"Their wedding!" Mom answered with the same tone "Honestly, Naruto, you think it's okay that your sister, your baby sister, got married in a rushed ceremony at the courthouse with only a few social workers and her ex-boyfriend as witnesses?"
My hand found Shika's under the table, and he wrapped his fingers around mine, somehow calm when I was ready to bolt.
"Of course, I don't!" Naruto hissed.
"Here we go" I muttered, and Shika squeezed my hand.
"Exactly! So, we're going to make sure they get married properly. The entire town's been waiting on these two to carve their names into the wall..."
"Kill me now," I whispered to Shika, turning my head toward him.
That wall was a hell of a lot more permanent than the ring on my finger. I squeezed my eyes shut.
"And I refuse to believe that was their real wedding if I wasn't even in the same room" Mom finished.
"It's okay" Shika leaned forward and pressed a kiss to my forehead.
"It wasn't r... Oh no, don't you kiss her," Naruto growled.
Shika turned abruptly.
"I've had enough, Naruto. Just be glad your mom is sitting here."
I snagged our waitress's attention and lifted my empty glass.
"I will give you anything you want if you bring me another one of these."
There was not enough alcohol in the world for this. I'd planned on dealing with Mom, gently but firmly clarifying this marriage was on paper only, while begging for discretion, but I didn't realize I'd have to handle Naruto at the same time.
"Naruto, what has gotten into you?" Mom asked. "Of course Shika is going to kiss his wife. I would hope there's more of that going on," she said to me with a wink.
Heat rushed my cheeks.
"Not a f..." Shika took a deep breath, and I stroked the side of his hand with my fingers. "Not a word, Naruto. I mean it."
This had gotten out of control.
"Mom, you know we only got married for the boys, right?" I said with a wobbly smile.
"Of course you did. I think what you two did was just so honorable. Giving up your dream wedding so that you could make sure those boys didn't get separated…" She shook her head, and her eyes took on that watery sheen we avoided at all costs. "I'm just so proud of you both. I mean, I always knew we'd end up here. It's not like we couldn't see the way you two looked at each other, right, Naruto?"
His jaw dropped, the same as Shika's.
"Oh, come on." She sipped her mimosa "I'm not an idiot. I'm glad you two finally stopped dancing around each other and took the plunge. A very sudden plunge, but at least now you can cut through all that sexual tension that winds you two up tighter than tornadoes. Seriously."
"My mother just said sexual tension," I whispered as she ordered another mimosa.
"You looked at me?" Shika answered, his attention locked on me.
Slowly, I turned to meet his gaze. He wasn't teasing or mocking me. There was honest bewilderment in his eyes.
"You looked at me?" I countered.
"Really, kids?" Mom sighed. "Always have. Both of you. I just can't believe it took you this long to figure it all out."
"And that's my cue to go." Naruto stood up. "Mom, thank you so much for inviting me. I'll be over tomorrow to fix that sink, so make a list and I'll knock everything out at once." He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek.
"Are you sure you have to go?" she asked, two lines appearing between her eyebrows.
"Very." He looked over at me "Tema, be careful, okay?"
I nodded.
"I love you, Naruto."
His lips flattened, but he nodded.
"I love you too. I can't with you right now," he finished at Shika and walked off, leaving the three of us sitting at the table.
Shika rolled his head back and sighed.
"Don't worry about him. It's hard to lose your best friend to your sister. Once he realizes nothing will change between you, he'll be fine," Mom assured us.
The problem was, everything had changed, and if they went downhill any faster, they'd take the entire crew down with them. If either of them walked away, the crew wouldn't have the needed sixty percent legacies to satisfy the town council. We made small talk for the rest of brunch, avoided the wedding talk like the plague, and when Shika tried to pay the bill, the waitress told us Naruto had beaten him to it.
Man, I loved that jerk. Well, both of those jerks.
"So you looked at me, huh?" We were almost home when Shika spoke, breaking me out of my endless cycle of thoughts that were mostly about him.
I rolled my eyes when I saw his grin was a mile wide. Okay, he was done being all privately distant and back to flirty. I could handle flirty.
"Shut up. You looked at me too."
"Every day," he said softly. He spared me a glance before putting his eyes back on the curvy mountain road. "I lived for the moments I saw you. I could never explain it, especially when I was younger, but just having you in the room brought on this crazy rush of emotions. Kind of like a kaleidoscope, they were always different, but I felt, and back then, I didn't feel much. Naruto kept me sane, but you made me…feel."
My pulse jumped.
"What did you feel?" I asked, bold only because he kept his eyes on the road.
He ran his tongue over his lower lip.
"Happy. You made me happy, and then peaceful, then alive. No matter how shitty everything got when my mom walked out, you were this bright spot of color, like a stargazer lily in the middle of a dead field. It was the same when Dad died."
"Like a friend?" I asked quietly.
"No." His hands tightened on the wheel as he pulled onto the road that would bring us into Konoha. "I mean, sure, when we were kids, but later…"
"What else was there?" My voice dropped, like if I spoke too loudly, he'd realize what I was asking and not answer.
"Don't ask me that." He shook his head.
"Why?"
"Because there are things I can't say to you and keep…" He turned into our little subdivision. "Keep things the way they are. Keep my word."
His word. To Naruto? Was my brother so big he even fit between us when he wasn't in the truck, or the neighborhood?
We pulled into the driveway and Shika killed the engine.
"Wait," I blurted as he reached for the handle. "I wanted to give you your present."
If he didn't like it, I'd rather know now, when I didn't have to act all chipper for the kids.
He turned toward me as I fished the little box out of my purse. The velvet was soft under my fingers as I opened the lid and removed the smooth, hard metal, enclosing it in my fist. Then I turned toward him, thankful the console was down between us, separating the bench seating. Just do it.
"Okay, so I know we have to pull this off publicly for the sake of the boys, and that's been tough on you, especially with the tension between you and Naruto." I sighed and looked at my closed fist. "And I thought this would help with the whole public part."
Without watching his expression, I reached for his hand and dropped the present into his palm. The platinum band matched mine in tone, but that was where the similarity ended. His ring was smooth, wide, and beveled only for the ridge that ran along the center of the band, making it dimensional yet simple. Understated.
His fist closed around the band.
"You bought me a ring?"
It was the gravel in his voice that finally brought my eyes to his.
"We're married," I said with a shrug.
His fist got even tighter.
"We are."
"I figured if we were going to make it believable, you should probably have one." My nerves got the best of me, and I fidgeted with my hair, tucking the mass behind my ears. "Read it," I encouraged.
His fist opened instantly, and he lifted the ring between his fingers, his eyes narrowing to read the inscription.
"As necessary as air."
That's what he was to me... what he'd always been. My heartbeat sped to a gallop.
"Do you like it?"
"Will you put it on?" His voice dropped lower.
My fingers trembled slightly as I took the ring from him and then aimed for his left hand. The metal was warm from his hand, and it slid on easily, only needing a little push to make it over his second knuckle. Then it was home.
My ring was on Shika's hand, the platinum a direct contrast to his tan skin, a giant, flashing neon sign that told everyone he was mine.
"It should be the right size. Your gram helped me with that." I babbled as he sat silently, staring at the ring. "But if it's not, then we can take it back, or get you one of those silicone ones, they're probably safer for the field anyway, right? Or, you know, you don't have to wear one at all. It's not like everyone in this town doesn't know we're married and have an opinion on the matter." Okay, it was time to get out of this truck before I became a total idiot.
"Like the ache will burn you alive" he said softly, spinning the ring on his finger.
He remembered. I inhaled sharply.
"What?" I finally managed to ask in a whisper.
"You asked me if that was what a kiss always felt like. As necessary as air." Our eyes locked. "Then you said, like you'll die if you stop. Like the ache will burn you alive."
My mouth popped open.
"You…you recall the exact words?"
He smiled, and it was the saddest, most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.
"I remember everything, Temari. The shade of your dress, the feel of your hair in my hands, how fucking soft your lips were. I remember the feel of you against me as I backed you against the counter and how badly I wanted to take more, even though you weren't mine to take. I still dream about it, that's how well I remember it."
My nerve endings fired with electricity at every word he spoke, until I was certain I was going to physically combust if I didn't get the hell out of this truck. I wanted him too much, loved him beyond any form of measurement, and needed…air. Now. I reached for the door, and felt Shika's light grip my other wrist.
"Kissing you is the only time I've ever felt like that."
"Shika," I whispered.
"Fuck it."
He tugged, and I went, our mouths colliding. His tongue swept past my lips, and I groaned as my fingers burrowed through his hair. Yes, thank you, God, yes. He gripped my waist and lifted me over the console, never breaking the kiss. My skirt slid up my thighs as I straddled him in the driver's seat. The kiss was ravenous, desperate, and sent me skyrocketing into Lustville so fast I was ready to take him in any way I could get him. In the truck. Against the garage door. On the porch.
Wherever he wanted, whenever.
Holy shit could he kiss. He teased the curves of my mouth like he was learning it all over again, sliding his tongue along mine, then sucking mine past his lips to do the same. He took enough to make me dizzy, then backed off until I demanded more. His phone rang once, then twice, but he didn't answer it. There was just sweet silence and the sound of tech hitting the floor.
He tasted like the sweet orange juice he'd had at brunch. I bit his lip gently, and he groaned, moving one hand to the back of my head and sliding the other down to my ass, squeezing.
"God, Temari," he moaned.
The sound of my name on his lips was an aphrodisiac.
"Say it again," I begged against his mouth.
"Temari," he obliged.
Then he kissed me deep and hard, tangling our tongues, until the moment became the eternity in which I existed. There was nothing outside this kiss, nothing before, and nothing after. I was going to live in every second he gave me.
He broke our kiss, and I almost screamed in frustration, but then he tugged my hair gently, exposing my neck to his lips. My thighs clenched with each kiss he set to the delicate skin, and I knew he felt it because his grip tightened on my ass in kind. I groaned when his mouth reached the high, straight neckline of my sweater.
"Stupid clothes" I muttered.
He laughed, and the sound was so damn sexy all the muscles in my core constricted.
I kissed his jaw, tracing my tongue down his neck, and he stopped laughing. His skin was smooth, and he smelled divine—cologne and Shika. Every time his breath caught, it made me bolder, until I had his tie off and the top three buttons of his shirt undone. His hands slid up my thighs, under my skirt, until he met the smooth skin of my ass, and his fingers brushed the straps of my thong. Score one for not wearing the full-coverage ones I'd debated this morning.
"Holy shit," he moaned as I rocked forward, finding him hard under my hips.
"You want me."
It wasn't as much a statement as it was a revelation.
One of his hands cupped my cheek tenderly, at odds with the other that had a firm grip under my skirt.
"I have always wanted you. I will always want you. You are in my fucking bones, Temari. Wanting you is part of who I am."
He didn't give me a chance to respond with anything but my tongue as he fused our mouths. I kissed him with everything I had, hoping he understood what that meant to me. Tears pricked my eyes, the emotions looking for somewhere to escape, but I blinked them away. There was no way I was going to be that stereotypical hysterical, sobbing girl if this was the only time I got to touch him.
Grateful the windows were tinted, I took his hand and guided it to my breast. He ripped his mouth from mine and pulled back just enough to see the contrast of his hand—his wedding ring—against my green sweater. Then he brushed my nipple with his thumb, and it tightened, pressing against the fabric.
"Fuck. I want…" He ran his tongue over his bottom lip as his gaze darted to either side of us.
I pushed the console up so the front seat was one long, soft, leather bench. His eyes seemed even darker, deeper as he arched an eyebrow. With one smooth motion, he flipped me. My back hit the leather, and he rose above me.
"We have an entire house, and you want to make out in the car like teenagers" he muttered against my neck.
"We should have made out in the car when we were teenagers" I answered.
He shook his head slowly.
"I would have pushed you too fast. I was too young, too desperate to get my hands on you." He lifted my sweater to just above the silk of my bra and hissed. "Damn. I'm still too desperate." He lowered one of the cups and covered my exposed nipple with his mouth.
"Shika!" My back arched as his tongue licked and flicked before he sucked at the raised flesh.
Magical freaking mouth.
My hips rocked up on their own accord, and he lowered himself between my spread thighs. I had one knee bent against the back of the seat, and the other foot braced on the floor of the truck, using it for leverage as I ground against him, seeking friction, pressure, anything that would soothe the spiraling ache low in my stomach.
"Please" I begged him.
The raw need I'd had coursing through my veins since seeing him shirtless this morning spiked to nearly painful. He released my breast and turned his attention to the other, making me squirm until his erection settled exactly where I needed it. He groaned when I rocked against him, seeking relief and finding an even hotter fire instead.
"Fuck. Temari. You. God. Stop." Each word came out like its own battle. His hands shifted to my hips, pinning them still against the seat.
"I don't want to." I couldn't. Any second now, his stupid promise to my brother was going to come roaring between us, and this would end. I wasn't waiting another seven years to touch him. My lips found his, and after a long, drugging kiss, I sucked on his lower lip, releasing it with a flick of my tongue. "Don't make me beg."
Because I would, shamelessly. There was nothing I wouldn't do for Shika.
I saw the moment he decided, felt the give in his muscles, the way he tugged my hips closer to his instead of holding me at a distance.
"No begging" he told me as he shifted and slid his hands up my inner thighs. "So soft." His thumb swept across the juncture of my thighs, lightly pressing in on the thin silk. "So wet I can see it. Fuck, Temari, you want me too."
"Always."
I ran my hands through his hair, needing to touch him in any way I could. I was so far past want that it existed on a different planet. I was a puddle of primal, urgent need. His thumb slipped under the fabric, stroking through my core until he swirled around my clit. My thighs locked, and I cried out, the sensation overwhelming and yet not enough.
When I opened my eyes, I found him watching me, those dark eyes measuring my reactions and shifting his thumb accordingly, but never quite touching me where I needed.
"You're scorching hot, you know that?" He lowered his mouth to mine, brushing a kiss across my lips. "Would you burn me alive if I sank inside you right now?"
The sheer imagery—imagining Shika naked, sliding inside me—was almost enough to make me come. My entire body jolted, my fingernails biting into the skin of his neck.
"Yeah, I bet you would. I bet we'd set the entire world on fire, but I'll settle for watching you burn." He finally stroked my clit, and I moaned.
He covered the sound with his mouth, kissing me with a new sense of urgency as his thumb stroked me higher, wound me so tight I thought I might die from the tension.
My muscles clenched, and I rocked against his hand.
"I," I gasped as he pressed lightly. "I need..."
He slid one of his fingers inside me, and I whimpered. He'd known exactly what I needed without being told. A second joined it, stroking deep, sending incredible bursts of pleasure through every nerve in my body as he curled those fingers within me. I felt it in my toes, my fingers, even my lips before it coiled tight within my belly.
There was a wildness in his eyes, a barely leashed hunger I ached to let loose, to drive him as out of control as I already was. He looked down, watching his fingers slide in and out of me, and I spiraled to the edge, my body tensing with pleasure.
"You're so damn tight, Temari. God, I can feel you coming. Burn for me, baby." His mouth covered mine, as I toppled over the edge of the highest cliff I'd ever reached.
My body arched against his, pulsed around his fingers as white-hot pleasure took me in waves, each stronger than the last as he dragged out every single ounce of bliss I had within me, and when I thought it was over, he used that thumb to kick back a series of aftershocks that left me limp as they finally receded.
Our eyes locked as our foreheads rested against each other, our breathing ragged, his body impossibly hard, rigid above me. I felt like worked-over clay, soft and ready to be molded however he wanted. My hands shifted to his face as he pulled back slightly, his jaw flexing.
"As necessary as air," I told him between breaths. "That's how it feels between us."
My hands stroked down his chest and over his lean waist. It would only take a zip and tug, and he could be inside me for real. I could make him burn just as bright.
He stilled my hands with his and shook his head, the muscles in his cheeks popping before he found words.
"No. I'm not fucking you in my truck."
"I don't care where you fuck me."
"That mouth." That earned me a very tense, shaky smile. "I care, and the first time I slide inside you and fulfill every single fantasy I've ever had isn't going to be outside our house in broad daylight. It's going to be in a bed. A very big bed. My bed, preferably. And I'm going to have hours to make you come again and again. That isn't happening until we have this—what we are together—figured out, because I refuse to feel anything but you. Only you, Temari. No guilt, no lies, just what we are together. No. Fucking. Truck."
What we are together. If my heart could have orgasmed, it would have. Was he saying there was a real chance for us? That we might be more than paper?
A buzzing sound caught me off guard.
"Fucking seriously?" He leaned over and grabbed his phone off the floor. "Kiba's called three times," he told me before answering it. "What do you want?"
He immediately tensed, looking over my head and out the window as Kiba's muffled voice came through the phone. I was suddenly, awkwardly aware of how nearly naked I was.
"Well, fuck. Yeah. Okay. Give me fifteen."
He was leaving. Disappointment tasted more than a little bitter on my tongue. Not that I expected him to carry me upstairs and fulfill that hours- and-hours promise right now, but running off was pretty much the opposite of what I was going for.
He hung up the phone, then tenderly adjusted my bra so my breasts fell back into the cups.
"You're leaving," I said slowly.
His hands tugged my sweater down to cover my torso, and he nodded.
"Yep. Kakashi activated the alert roster. That was the first call I ignored. Happy Saturday." He lifted my hips, and I kept them elevated as he smoothed my skirt down over my thighs.
"And Kiba?"
"Well, Natsu called him when she saw us pull in, thinking she'd need a ride home."
"Oh. My. God." The first time I'd ever made out in a car, and I didn't even want to think about where this was headed.
"Yeah, he's parked at the end of the driveway." He sighed and shifted backward, helping me sit up.
"Good thing it's a long driveway." We locked eyes and started laughing.
What else was there to do?
"What now?"
His face fell a little, squashing a lot of the hope that had taken up residence in my chest.
"Now we get Natsu home and I go to the clubhouse. Everything else… we'll figure out." He stroked my cheek and glanced at his hand. "Thank you for my present. I've never had anything this perfect."
Testing my new freedom, I leaned up and kissed him, letting my lips linger for a second.
"Remind me to buy you stuff more often."
"Ready to do the walk-of-shame with me?" He popped the door handle.
"Any time, any place."