21. Kingman Family Game Night - Now with Kittens!

As my family basically took over the coffee shop and set up for game night, I couldn"t keep the grin off my face. Seeing Willa"s surprise and delight at Jules"s secret plan made all the whispered conversations and covert planning worth it.

"I hope you"re ready for this, sweetheart, because you have no idea what you"re in for. Kingman family game night is intense to say the least."

She laughed, rising up on her toes to press a quick kiss to my lips. "Bring it on, Kingman. I think I can handle a little friendly competition."

As if on cue, a shout rang out from across the room. "Dibs on the lucky pillow!"

I whirled around to see Flynn clutching the faded green cushion to his chest, a triumphant grin on his face.

"No fair!" Jules pouted, her arms crossed over her chest. "You got it last time!"

Flynn stuck his tongue out at her, hugging the pillow tighter. "Snooze, you lose, little sis."

I shook my head, chuckling under my breath. The lucky pillow, handmade by our mother years ago with the words "In this house, we bleed green" embroidered on the front, was the subject of much contention at every game night.

Legend had it that whoever sat on the pillow was guaranteed victory, and my siblings would stop at nothing to claim it as their own.

"Alright, everyone." My dad clapped his hands, his voice booming over the chatter. "Time to pick your teams and your kitten mascots!"

There was a mad scramble as my brothers, all grown men who towered over six feet, dove for the box of kittens like they were fumbling for a football.

"Dibs on the orange ball of chaos!" Everett shouted, scooping up a squirming ball of fur. "And I choose Pen as my partner in crime." Pen blushed and took the kitten from Everett as she sat down next to him.

Chris cradled a tiny tuxedo to his chest, his face softening in a way I rarely saw. "This one"s ours, Trix. He looks like a winner."

She laughed and smiled at him. "Only if we can name him Obi Wan Catnobi."

Even Declan, the most competitive of us all, couldn"t resist the charm of a fluffy orange and white striped one. "You and me, little guy," he murmured, stroking the kitten"s head with a gentleness that belied his size. He turned to his fiancée and said, "Kelsey, meet Winnie the Purr."

She frowned at him. "No, Declan, no."

"Meow-ore?" He gave the cat a sad face.

"No." Kelsey was having none of it.

"Meowl."

Kelsey shook her head again and gave him a warning wag of her finger. "Declan."

"A. A. Mewln?"

Kelsey took the cat from him and cuddled it to her chest. "Why does he tease us like this Tigger?" She mock glared at Declan. "T-I-double Puh-urr."

It was a lucky thing there were nine kittens in the box, because it almost came to fists over the remaining kittens. Willa leaned into me, her eyes shining with laughter. "I never thought I"d see the day when the Kingman brothers were brought to their knees by a bunch of kittens.Is it always like this?" she murmured, her eyes wide with a mix of awe and amusement.

I grinned, squeezing her hand. "Pretty much. Just wait until the games actually start."This was nothing compared to when the competition really heated up. "It"s about to get real. Real crazy."

And start they did, with a fierce intensity that would have put any football rivalry to shame. Teams were chosen, kittens were claimed as mascots, and the battle began.

And real it got, with the first casualty coming mere minutes into a heated round of Footballopoly.

"No!" Isak cried, lunging for his sleek gray kitten as it darted across the board, scattering houses and hotels in its wake. "Vito Catlione, come back!"

Penelope dissolved into giggles, leaning against Everett for support. "Vito Catlione? You named your kitten after the Godfather?"

Isak shot her a sheepish grin, finally capturing the wayward feline. "This is clearly a kitten you can"t refuse."

As the game progressed, so did the kitten-induced chaos.

Jules"s cat kept swiping the dice whenever anyone rolled, and it was hilarious to see her mock outrage. "Now, Marie Purrie, that is no way to win the hearts and minds of the people."

But it was Willa"s kitten, a tiny tan fluffball she"d named Captain Purrcard, who stole the show. With a mischievous glint in his eye, he pounced on Flynn, sinking his tiny claws into my brother"s ass, which had him jumping to his feet, giving Gryff a chance to steal the pillow right out from under Flynn.

"Oh no, Captain!" Willa laughed, trying to detach the cat from his prey. "You must honor the football butts, not destroy them."

Watching Willa with my family, seeing the joy and love that radiated from her, only made me fall harder.

Gryff"s tabby, dubbed Catzilla, made a break for the snack table, upending a bowl of popcorn and leaving a trail of buttery paw prints in his wake. That"s when Willa declared a short break for everyone to feed their charges with the kitten food she had DoorDashed to us.

As the night wore on and the kittens began to doze off in our laps, the trash talk and laughter gave way to whispers and giggles, none of us wanting to disturb their slumber, and we switched gears into a game of silent charades.

It was in those quieter moments, watching Willa cradle a tiny ball of fluff against her chest, her face soft with tenderness, that I felt the most comfortable.She made me laugh, made me think, made me want to be a better man.

"Alright, team," my dad whispered, cradling a sleeping calico against his chest. "We"ve got this. Kingmans see the game through, even at a volume level suitable for napping kittens. But if any of you wake up Catsanova here, you"re out of the game."

The lot of us exchanged silent grins, our competitive spirits rising to the challenge.

What followed was a battle of wits and stealth, with exaggerated gestures and barely suppressed laughter filling the room. Trixie and Penelope proved to be masters of the silent clue, while Jules"s interpretations bordered on the surreal, and Kelsey literally guessed every single charade before everyone else.

But it was Willa who awed me, her face alight with happiness as she acted out clue after clue, her movements fluid and graceful even in the confined space.I"d never seen anything more beautiful.

The final round drew to a close, Declan and Kelsey were declared the winners, and the kittens began to stir, so we called it a night. Everyone gently returned their cats back to the box, now made more comfortable with several scarves to line it.

Isak almost snuck out with Vito Catlione, but my dad caught him and made him put the furball back with the others. He and Jules were the last to leave.

"Thank you," Willa murmured, her arms tight around Jules. "For everything. I"ve never felt so…"

"Loved?" Jules finished, her smile soft and knowing. "That"s because you are, Willa. You"re one of us now."

I swallowed past the lump in my throat, my eyes stinging with sudden emotion. Jules was right. Willa was a part of this family, a part of my heart.

And as we gathered up the kittens and said our goodbyes, I knew I"d do whatever it took to keep her there, right by my side.

Where she belonged.

We drove the few blocks back to my house, the streets quiet and dark, and I couldn"t keep the grin off my face the whole way.This night, this perfect, chaotic, wonderful night, was everything I ever needed.

When we got out of the car, Willa paused at the door from the garage to the house. "I"m not sure how Seven is going to react to having all these kittens around. We might have to keep them in your room and him out."

"Ooph. He isn"t going to like that." When we got inside, the box under my arm, Seven was perched on the back of the couch like he"d been waiting for us all night. Except, he didn"t give either Willa or me a second look. His eyes fixated on the box.

"Let"s see what he does." Willa sat on the couch and had me hand her the box. She carefully opened the lid and Seven looked down and then very carefully crawled inside and laid in the middle of the sleeping fuzzbutts.

"Well, would you look at that," Willa laughed, shaking her head in amazement. "I think someone"s feeling paternal."Seven began to groom the nearest kitten, his rough tongue smoothing over downy fur.

"I"m pretty sure he"s decided those kittens are his."

I knew the feeling.

There was something about tonight that had me feeling possessive of Willa. Not like I thought anyone could ever steal her away from me, more like I wanted to make sure she knew she was mine and that I was hers.

She made me feel so damn alive, and didn't want to lose that feeling. Tonight, having her by my side, being a part of my family, and bringing a whole new excitement to our fun was like a trip to Oz where everything was colorful, and bright, and crazy in all the ways I didn't even know existed.

No way I was ready to go back to Kansas.

I wanted something special that was only between the two of us, something to hold onto when I had to go back to the responsibilities of my everyday life. I didn"t yet know what that was. Maybe she would.

I led her upstairs and pulled my shirt over my head the moment we were in the room, tossing it into the laundry basket. Her sweet smile turned spicy as she licked her lips and motioned with her finger for me to come to her.

I stalked toward her. It was fun and a phenomenal turn on when she took charge, but that wasn"t what I needed tonight. I grabbed her wrist and pulled her to me and crashed my mouth down on hers.

"Strip for me, Willa. I want to watch you as you show me every inch of what I want to fuck tonight."

A new blush I hadn"t seen before rushed across the tops of her cheeks, and she drew in a sharp breath. For a second, I thought I"d made her mad, but then she blinked, and her eyes sparkled like starlight on broken glass. "I think it might be your turn to be bossy in the bedroom, because that was sexy as hell and definitely just flipped a switch for me."

Well hot damn. There was something so perfect about the way, without even saying a word, we were on the same page. I let her go and then sat in the chair across from the bed. "Take it off, slowly. I want to see every single inch of you."

I also knew what she wanted. I unbuckled my pants and pulled my dick out, giving it a few short strokes. Willa"s eyes flared and her lips parted. "I"m going to fuck that pretty mouth later. Now stop stalling and let me see what else I"m going to fuck."

She smiled and undid her jeans, wagging her hips back and forth as she pushed them down her thick thighs. I swear to god, I wanted to drop to my knees and sink my teeth into that first curve of her inner thigh, right where it was the widest, below her soft pussy. But that wasn"t the game right now.

Willa was giving me what I wanted, and it was my turn. I spit in my hand and gripped my dick harder, sliding my hand up and down. Her eyes were transfixed on me, and she clenched her legs together.

"That look on your face is doing things to me, Hayes. In my belly and between my thighs."

"Show me. Take off those damn panties."

Instead of just shoving her undies down her legs, she turned around, and then she looked back at me with a cheeky smile.I was already feeling feral for her, but when I realized, once again, she was wearing my jersey, my number, my name on her back, something darker and needy broke free inside of me.

Willa did that same hip waggle, scooting her panties down inch by inch, going slowly like I"d told her too, but I was done waiting. I stood, shucked my pants and boxers, and then I was on her, bending her over the side of the bed.

"Oh god, Hayes." She let out that soft whimper that drove me crazy. "I don"t know what"s gotten into you, but I"m loving it."

"I"m glad you are, sweetheart, because I don"t think I can hold back. Not tonight." I wanted to mark her, claim her, make her mine. But I wasn"t an animal, and I took a couple of deep breaths to find my control. "But if I push a boundary you"re not ready to cross, just say so. Okay?"

"I will. But I trust you. You know that."

I did and it made me want her even more.

I shoved one of my thighs between hers and pushed her legs open wider, but they would only go so far. Her damn underpants weren"t even past her knees. I grabbed the soft material and was this close to ripping them off her body but decided I wanted to keep these ones for later. They were special and I was going to take them with me to games when she couldn"t be there so I could jack off in them.

I yanked them down and tossed them onto the chair. Then I grabbed each of her butt cheeks, one in each hand, and scraped the tips of my fingers along her skin, opening this part of her body to me.

"Fuck, I love your ass. I have dreams about this ass."

She dug her fingers into the blanket and took a couple of shuddery breaths. "You know that"s weird, right?"

"No, no. These dreams are definitely not weird." Nothing felt weird with Willa. It all felt abso-fucking-lutely perfect. "They"re very, very erotic."

"Tell me."

My girl wanted some dirty talk? I could provide that for her easily. "I dream about licking my way between these cheeks and getting you nice and wet. I dream about sliding my fingers into your cunt and drawing your juices back to make you even wetter and then pushing my fingers inside your tight little asshole."

I grabbed one of her arms and moved it so she had her own hand on her ass, helping me hold her open. "Have you ever done that before?"

My name and number stared up at me as I waited for her answer. I was going to fuck her from behind while she wore my jersey all the fucking time. She was my girl, and I was going to prove it to her over and over.

"No. Never." Her voice was little more than a whisper.

"No one has ever fucked you here?" I slid two of my fingers between her butt cheeks and flicked them across her asshole. Her body instinctively clenched and my dick begged me to take her fast and hard. I wouldn"t, because if we were going to do this, I wanted her body ready, and I wanted her to come harder than she ever had before.

She shook her head again.

"Then I"m claiming this for myself, Willa. This is just for you and me. I want to fuck your ass so we can both see what it"s like for the first time, together."