Read Online Intimate by Kate Douglas - Free Book Online Page A

year ago, shortly after my seven-year-old sister died in a car accident. It took a number of sittings, but I did it for Jilly.” She ran her fingers over the upper wing. “The piercings, too.” She touched the silver loop in her navel and then brushed over the matching loops in both nipples.
    Jake clasped his fingers into tight fists to keep from touching her breasts, following where Kaz had so casually stroked.
    She glanced away, sighed softly, and then looked his way again. “She’d wanted so badly to get her ears pierced, but Dad said she wasn’t old enough, that she had to wait until she was ten. I’d gotten mine done when I was seven, but Mom was still alive, and she wasn’t as strict as Dad.
    â€œI was nineteen when Mom died, but Jilly was still a baby, so I raised her. I always figured I was the closest she had to a mom, and I didn’t agree with my father’s decision. I’m so glad that I went against his wishes and took Jilly to get her ears pierced. I knew he’d get mad at me, not her, and he did, but he got over it. It wasn’t long after that when she was killed. She was gone so quickly. Later, Dad thanked me for taking her when I did.”
    She shrugged. Then she touched the tiny turquoise stud in one ear. “We got matching earrings. It was my one act of rebellion, but Jilly loved those turquoise studs, almost as much as she loved breaking the rules with her big sister. She’s buried with them.”
    Kaz turned closer to the bed and sat, throwing the gown across her lap, covering her lower half. But her breasts were bare, and the tiny silver loop in her navel winked at him in the low lamplight.
    He’d never seen more perfect breasts in his life. High and firm and not at all large, they were absolutely right for her.
    She smiled and glanced away. “Doing that, going against Dad and doing something totally special was a good lesson, a reminder to take whatever joy we can find in life whenever the opportunity exists.”
    Was she trying to tell him something? She cocked her head to one side and looked at Jake. Still on his knees, he sat back on his heels, touched his fingertip to the loop in her navel, and lightly tugged. “This wasn’t for Jilly, was it?”
    Shaking her head, she laughed softly. “No. Well, yes and no. Growing up without a mom turned Jilly into an old soul. She would talk about things most seven year olds aren’t interested in, about dying, about the things that Mom might be missing here and what she’d found in heaven. Jilly wasn’t all that sure that heaven really existed, so she made me promise that if anything ever happened to her, that I would still have a wonderful life, enough for both of us, and do lots of exciting, outrageous things so I could share them all with her.”
    She glanced away, eyes sparkling with tears, then a moment later she seemed to shake off the emotion. “Now I wonder if somehow she knew her time in this life would be cut short, but heaven or not, I truly believe I’ll see her again. She was such a powerful force. I can’t believe her energy died with her body. When Wilhelm pierced our ears, he was so kind and gentle with her that I went back to him for the tattoo. I told him what Jilly had said. He’s the one who suggested the nipple and navel piercings. He said they were outrageous enough that Jilly would probably love the fact I had them. She would have, too, mainly because they were something that Dad wouldn’t approve of. She loved to push his buttons, but she adored him. When he finally told Jilly that her earrings were pretty, she was as thrilled that he liked them as she was that we’d broken the rules and gotten away with it.”
    She smiled at Jake. “My father still doesn’t know about the nipple or clit piercings. There are some things fathers really don’t want to know about their daughters.”
    â€œWhat made you