Love Op: A Spicy, Cat-And-Mouse, Thriller Rom Com (Love and Other Jobs Book 5)

16. Mattie

It had never occurred to me that Kael’s “bite” to his bark might take the form of slow, delectable sexual torture. But it did, and fuck, he went for blood.

Kael worked my nipples for a bit, circling each nub before pinching lightly until I squirmed in protest, and then moving to the other one. The sensation prickled, tapping down my body to my clit where I throbbed with need. When I let loose an accidental whimper, he flicked my increasingly sore nipple, and it caused me to flinch.

I suddenly understood the safe word offer he’d given me just now. Not that I’d use it, but damn. This was torture. He continued his assault on my breasts, finally freeing them from the constricting lace fabric and cupping my breast in his hand. He squeezed, pressing his hips into my ass and causing the ache between my legs to clench into a painful need. He freed the other breast, rolling his thumb over the tip of my nipple and then palming my breast again. Heaven… no, Hell? God, I didn’t know. It was madness.

Moisture coated my panties, soaking the thin cotton and seeping through to my thick tights. I squeezed my thighs together. If he didn’t touch me soon, I was going to light on fire. The closet had become our shadow realm where desire and pain had mingled together into a secret spell, and just outside of it, the housekeeper worked steadily to clean the windows. I wanted her to hurry, and at the same time, to never stop.

As Kael played with my breasts idly, taking his time and finding new ways to circle and palm, roll and pinch, he grazed his lips along the edge of my jaw. His teeth nipped my earlobe, and then he moved to the curve of my neck. He pinched my left nipple hard, and then his mouth clamped over my neck. It wasn’t just a love bite or a hickey. His teeth sank into me, and then he sucked. The pain and heady arousal played in perfect harmony with each other until I thought I might trip an octave and sing. But he kept his hand firmly over my mouth, reminding me to be a good girl. To not make a sound.

I retaliated by pushing back against his cock, but it didn’t seem to affect his ability to slowly work me into a frenzy. He released my neck and kissed down the curve to my shoulder. His hand sank too, finally blazing a path to my skirt. My breathing picked up and my pulse went wild. When he unsnapped the button of my skirt, chills erupted along my arms and down my legs.

Rather than pushing my skirt and tights down, Kael worked the skirt up so it bunched around my middle. Then he teased along the edge of my tights, slipping a finger beneath the elastic band and slowly drifting south. I let loose a little growl of frustration into his palm. He bit my shoulder. “None of that,” he whispered.

I knew Marta had her earbuds in, and she was listening to music, but it would be just my luck to get caught with my bodyguard’s hand down my panties. I bit my tongue and tried to breathe through the aching need. He chuckled softly against my skin and eased my tights down my hips. Then I was standing there in my black lace thong with my tights down to my knees and my skirt hiked up. Kael traced the lace pattern on the triangle of fabric, sliding down and following the line of my slit.

“Kael,” I begged against his hand, but it came out muffled and garbled, and he only pressed his hand to my mouth tighter, pinning me hard against his unyielding body. He followed the line of my thong, hooking his finger on the thin strip of fabric and pulling it away from my skin. Then he let it loose, not enough to make a sound, but just enough to cause me to jump as the elastic snapped against my clit.

“If you’re wondering if I’m punishing you,” he whispered brazenly in my ear. Kael did not give a fuck about Marta catching us. But he knew I did. “The answer is yes.” I coughed out a soundless puff of pain and desire. Kael licked the sore spot he’d bitten on my neck. “And you’re feeling it, aren’t you, Bunny?”

I nodded fast.

“Good.” He swirled a finger over my panties where my clit begged to be touched. “Remember this next time you disobey me.”

I swallowed hard, spreading wider to give him better access. He dipped a finger under my soaked panties, and the touch of his skin on my feverish skin nearly undid me. Kael slid his finger along my outer labia, slicking his finger in my moisture and following a wide circle around my pulsing pussy. When he came up to where the bundle of nerves at the apex of my arousal screamed for attention, he pressed and rolled right past it. I twitched, breathing hard and leaning against him. But then he moved on, sliding around the folds and denying me what I really wanted.

I wanted so desperately to be filled, to be pumped and worked until my legs ached and my pussy felt raw. But Kael only wanted to play with me. To explore each petal of my sex, to dip into my drenched pussy with one finger and then withdraw, smearing the moisture around in lazy circles. I didn’t know how long it had been, but soon, each time he grazed against my clit, it ramped up my arousal to a level I wasn’t sure I’d ever felt before. My legs trembled, and I begged him silently to just destroy me.

Kael bent his head over my shoulder, hunching in the enclosed space and watching his fingers as he silently ripped my flimsy underwear along each seam until my pink pussy was exposed. His fingers parted me, and then as he pinched my clit between his first two fingers, stroking in a slow tempo. I released a shaky breath of surprise when the jolt of arousal that shot through me nearly took me off my feet. Kael watched his fingers work me, and it was enough to drive me mad with desire.

I shut my eyes as an orgasm built, climbing to a height that I knew would shatter me to pieces when I fell from it. Kael dipped two of his fingers inside my pussy, and I clenched around him in delirious gratification. As he moved his fingers in and out, sliding them knuckle deep and then retreating to his fingertips, he pressed with the heel of his hand on my clit. The rhythm was perfect. Insanity. It drove me to the point of hysteria as I held my breath and my thighs trembled.

“Breathe, baby,” he reminded me.

I exhaled hard, sucking in another breath through my nose. I’m going to pass out. I can’t take this.

“Are you going to cum all over my fingers, Bunny?” Kael whispered against my ear. His warm breath tickled the hair that had escaped around my temples, and I got another shiver of pleasure from the sensation.

I nodded. “Yes,” I whispered.

“Good, because I won’t deny you orgasms,” he murmured, kissing just under my ear. “But you’ll give them to me over and over again, little rabbit. You’ll come and come until you beg me to stop, and I’m not going to.”

I moaned softly against his hand.

“So come for me, Bunny. Let go and show me how obedient you are.”

His words acted like a hairpin trigger. I detonated, clenching my teeth together to keep from crying out as an intense tremor of pleasure shook through me. My pussy pulsed and clenched, releasing wave after wave of such euphoric bliss, I thought I saw stars behind my closed eyes. Kael worked my orgasm smoothly, drawing it out and pressing hard against my clit to massage the orgasm as it wound down. It seemed to go on and on, each pulse of pleasure more satisfying than the last. And then I turned to goo, melting in his arms.

Kael released my mouth, kissing my neck and my jaw and wrapping me in his arms in a way that caused my heart to follow my body into a liquid state. The lights in the study turned off suddenly, and then the door closed with a soft snap.

Kael exhaled, letting his head fall back against the wall behind us. “Jesus, Mattie.”

Breathing hard, I sucked in oxygen like I’d been held underwater. Kael held me up, turning me in his arms so my forehead rested against his chest. I did my best to pull my tights up and my skirt back down, and Kael toed my ruined underwear up to his hand before shoving it in his pocket. I gave him a questioning glance, which he simply returned with a heated look that made my insides burn like I’d swallowed a mouthful of bourbon.

The closet had become unbearably hot and muggy, fogged over with our labored breathing. I reached for the door, but he stopped me, trapping my arms against him. “Give it a minute.”

Nodding, I went boneless in his embrace. “Your bite was literal.”

“Just wait until I get my teeth on your clit,” he whispered against my temple.

I shivered, smiling against his button-down. “Always threatening me with a good time, Kael.”

After a few minutes, my eyes closed and I rested my cheek against Kael’s chest, listening to the steady drum of his heartbeat. His chest rose and fell in a soothing rhythm, and if I wasn’t standing up and crammed in a wardrobe, I might have been tempted to fall asleep. But then he moved me, gently easing me away from his firm body so he could maneuver us out of the closet. We stepped back into the stiflingly quiet study, swathed in shadows and glowing faintly from the city lights beyond the glass walls.

I surveyed the glass panels with my hands on my hips. “Gosh. Look how… tidy those look.”

Kael came to stand behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist and nuzzling under my ear with his nose. “You realize I’ve still never even kissed you?”

I turned in his arms, laying my hands on his chest. “You didn’t buy me dinner first, either. You’re such a slut, Kael.”

He laughed softly, and I admired how the darkness suited his features. How it cut across his sharp cheekbones and down his straight nose. Even the shade of stubble around his jaw matched the dusky silence around us. He lowered his head and teased his lips across mine. “I realize I’m not a fifty-thousand-dollar prostitute,” he teased, “but I’m absolutely dying to fill your mouth, anyway.”

I pulled in a short, surprised breath. Then I smiled, slow and sultry, and he caught it with his lips. I expected Kael to claim me, to demand and plunder, but he did just the opposite. He offered—one kiss, two, and then a soft slide of his lips over mine before changing the angle and coaxing my mouth open with deliberate slowness. I flicked out my tongue to graze his teeth, and he met it with his own, exploring my mouth like he was unlocking hidden drawers and taking his time exposing my secrets.

In the past, whether I had kissed a woman or man, whether I’d made out with someone soft and yielding or hard and demanding, I’d almost always let my mind wander to dirty territory. But kissing Kael didn’t lead me down that road. It stopped me dead in my tracks. He stopped me dead in my tracks. Each searching kiss and gentle nip wound down my logic, my reason, my breathing, my heart. He captured me, body and soul, with his kiss, and I was helpless to run from it.

When he finally pulled away, his hands bracketed my face, wrapping around to the back of my head where he sifted his fingers through my mussed hair. He smiled faintly. “We have things out of order. I should have done that first.”

“If you’d done that first,” I whispered, “I would have fucked you in front of Marta, consequences be damned.”

His teeth flashed in the darkness before he bent down to kiss my forehead. “We should get back upstairs before we get any extra visitors.”

“Yeah,” I whispered, dazed.

Kael took my hand, and with one last look around the study, he led us out before locking the door again and closing it. Then he walked casually across the bottom floor, his fingers wrapped around mine and features calm. Like we hadn’t just snooped through an office, and he hadn’t finger fucked me with a housekeeper ten feet away.

I ducked to the side to get a better look at his face. “Does anything phase you? Or are you just not afraid of anything anymore?”

His lips pressed into a ghost of a smile. “Do I seem fearless?”

“Completely,” I said frankly.

We weaved through the living room, feet shushing softly over the polished floors. Kael squeezed my hand. “I guess, after some of the things I’ve done, sneaking around with an heiress does seem more entertaining than dangerous.”

I puffed out an incredulous breath. “Well sorry for my boring, four-million-dollar gig, Mr. Ghost.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t call it boring,” he smirked, tugging me close and stopping at the foot of the stairs. He pressed my back into the metal railing and cupped the back of my neck. Pressing his hard body into mine, he lowered his head and found the bruised hickey on my throat. He skated his teeth over it, causing me to draw in a sharp breath. “Nothing about you is boring, Ms. Thorne.”

“So glad to hear it,” I gusted out. I was going to have a seizure if he kept stealing my breath like this.

Beep, beep, beep, beep. The combination to the front door sounded through the quiet space. From where we stood, we were directly visible from the entrance, and as the door opened, letting in a golden rectangle of light, two figures walked through the doorway. Kael shifted his grip suddenly, circling his hand around my throat and twisting both our bodies so the steel band of his arm clamped around me from behind.

As the two guards came through the door, Kael kicked my legs behind my knees and forced me to the ground. It didn’t hurt, but I let out a real gasp of surprise as my body went down. He wrenched my hands behind my back, pinning them to the base of my spine. The guards ran over as the front door shut.

“Did she escape?” one of them asked.

“Marta said neither of you were in the suite when she went to check on you,” the other added.

I let my forehead fall to the freezing marble. Of course, she would go up there to check on us. My parents are paranoid assholes. The shock of having Kael’s hands twist my wrists painfully after being so gentle moments before was giving me mental whiplash.

“She did, but I found her,” Kael responded smoothly. “She tried to find a way out through the terrace.”

The stockier guard snorted. “Right. Like that would get her anywhere.”

I pressed my cheek to the floor. Fuck off, asshats.

Kael hefted me to my feet, keeping my hands firmly behind my back, and I made sure to bow my head so I looked defeated. He shoved me toward the stairs. “I’ve got things handled, gentlemen. Thank you.”

“You got it,” one of them said with a nod. They left to exit the front door again, and Kael led me up the stairs, his body rigid.

“That was close,” I whispered softly when we reached the top of the stairs.

Kael didn’t respond. He kept up the pretense until he put in the code for my door and had me inside. As soon as it shut, he released me and let his hands fall to his sides. I blinked, squinting against the bright light from my apartment after being in darkness for so long. The TV was still running, already on a different episode, and I’d made a mess with my hoodie and popcorn when I’d discarded them in a rush.

“Well, at least it looks like I ran on a whim,” I offered with a weak smile. Kael stared at me, glacial eyes hardened with speculation. I panned my gaze across the room uncertainly, crossing my arms. “What?”

“I’m not doing this anymore,” he stated. Like he’d made up his mind, Kael passed me, going for the kitchen and taking out his phone. “We didn’t find anything in the study, and I’m not putting you in a position like that again.”

“Like what?” I demanded, following him.

“Like the one where I just used a takedown maneuver on you and could have easily hurt you in the process,” he shot back. His dark brown brows formed a slashing divot between them, and he pressed a button on his phone.

I lunged for it. “Whatever you’re doing, stop. That was totally fine!”

“It is not fine,” he snapped. Kael grabbed both my hands in his large left one, and the screen said “Tabitha” as it made the call. “There’s no reason for you to be here, Mattie. We can help you get away from them, and I’ll make sure they don’t attempt to follow you anymore. I’m more than capable of persuading them to back off.”

“Don’t you dare,” I seethed. I pulled against his hold on me, although I knew it was useless. “Kael, this is my life. I’m telling you to stay and finish what I hired you to do.”

Kael ignored me, putting the phone to his ear. “Tab, extraction plan. Now.”

“No!” I shouted into the receiver. “Tabitha, don’t! He’s overreacting.”

Kael slanted a derisive look my way. “I don’t overreact.”

“You are most definitely overreacting. You’re hurting me more now than you did downstairs, you sasquatch.”

Kael spun me so my back hit his side, and then wrapping his solid arm around me, he pinned my wrists between my breasts and locked me to his body. “Tomorrow morning is fine,” Kael said into the phone. “No, don’t find one here. We can regroup in Denv—”

“I’m not going,” I cut in hotly.

Still ignoring me, Kael made a low “mhm” sound, and then he added, “No, if we fly out of JFK, they might notice. Yeah, that would be better.”

“Kael,” I growled, struggling.

“Keep me posted. Thanks.” Kael hung up and slid his phone into his back pocket. “What were you saying? Sorry. Rude of me.”

“Kael,” I grunted, fighting and chaffing my wrists against his hold on me. “You’re hurting me.”

“Then relax,” he murmured, bringing his right arm around to tuck me into a bear hug from behind. “Relax, Mattie. I have you.”

I didn’t have many choices. I forced my muscles to loosen in his hold, and it went from uncomfortable restraint to comforting embrace. “Kael,” I repeated more evenly. “You’re doing fine so far, and I’m not in any actual danger here. My parents need me alive, anyway.”

“Why?” he asked. His voice reverberated from his chest and into my back, and it was like holding a purring cat.

“Because I’m their daughter… obviously,” I muttered.

“That’s not how you said that,” he argued. “You said it like they needed you for something transactional.”

Ope. Too close. “They already told you—the people they deal with are family-minded. You told me to relax. I did. Now, it’s your turn. You need to chill, Kael. Everything is fine here.”

Kael bent his face next to mine, pressing his jaw to mine and tickling my sensitive skin with his five-o-clock shadow. “I tried to teach you to lie,” he hummed, low and soft. “You should have listened.”

I closed my eyes, letting out a sound of disgust. My teeth worked my bottom lip, chewing nervously while I thought through my options. I could do what he had suggested. I could go with him and disappear again. But…

“I can’t keep running,” I admitted softly. I leaned back against him, and tears gathered under my lashes. I swallowed a ball of emotion in my throat. Being honest might kill me, but running away again would destroy me. “I don’t want to be here any more than you do, but the other option is worse. I can’t live like that anymore.”

His thumb caressed my arm idly. “What do you mean?”

“I mean I’m—” I paused, my throat working. I hated crying. It gave me a headache. “I was scared, Kael,” I whispered harshly. “Every day. I couldn’t sleep. I barely ate. I had nightmares and panic attacks. No matter where I went or how clever I thought I was, my parents have limitless resources. I knew they would find me. And the fear of my inevitable fate tortured me every day.”

“So, all this time you’ve been laughing in my face and teasing me, I had you terrified to the point of panic attacks?” Kael sounded faintly horrified.

I closed my eyes. “You were just doing your job, Kael. I didn’t hold it against you personally. Not really.”

Kael rotated me in his arms until his hands locked at the small of my back and he had me fitted firmly to the length of him. “I’m on your side now, you know that, right?”

I sniffed, blinking away the moisture hanging onto my lower lashes. “I know you are, but you’re not listening to me.”

“Just because you aren’t getting your way,” he pointed out dryly, “doesn’t mean I’m not listening to you.”

“I can’t run, Kael,” I repeated, holding his light blue eyes that bounced between mine searchingly. “It’ll haunt me for the rest of my life. And I don’t think they’ll take it well. They might give up… but what if they don’t? Their resources don’t have an end. They’ll just hire someone worse than you. More cutthroat. You want me to live my life like that?”

Kael looked away, sighing. “It would help if you told me what you’re keeping from me.”

“Look at me, Kael.” I bunched his shirt in my fists and tugged. “It’s not relevant. I promise. Whatever you think I’m keeping from you, it’s mine to keep. It’s something from my past, and it doesn’t have anything to do with you doing your job.”

His jaw ticked. “If you stay, you’re going to regret it.”

“I won’t,” I insisted. It was a lie. I had a sinking feeling he was right.

“Your parents are going to hear about this ‘stunt’ we staged,” he went on, gesturing out wide with his arm toward the door, “and they’re going to want to know for sure that I have a handle on you. The guards think you ran from me, and it won’t look good for us. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“I hear you,” I shot back, my voice fierce but my insides writhing in agony. “That’s why you gave me a safe word, isn’t it? It wasn’t for closet fucks. It was so I could show you that I can take what you dish out. I will see this through. Do your worst, Kael. Be an abusive asshole if you need to, but see this through. Please. It’s the only way I can live and be truly free without looking over my shoulder every three seconds.”

He looked away again, scrubbing a hand across his mouth. The silver rings on his fingers glinted in the gold light overhead, and he looked every inch the pirate with his top two buttons undone, hair a disheveled mess, and expression harder than steel. He returned his gaze to me, finally. His scowl nearly made my resolve wither. “Why don’t you trust me?”

If he’d backhanded me, I would have been less surprised. The last thing I expected from the enigmatic, quietly terrifying Ghost was a vulnerable question. I drew back, blinking. “I… do.”

“No, you don’t,” he argued softly, angling his face. “You don’t trust anyone, Mattie. And it’s going to get you hurt.”

I lifted my chin. “I can’t get hurt if I don’t trust in the first place.”

Kael regarded me quietly for a few seconds. Finally, he shook his head and stepped away, leaving me cold. “That’s the most honest thing you’ve said yet.”