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

19. Kael

Ibrought Mattie to orgasm twice more before I even thought about undressing. Watching her squirm and pant, eyes closed and features tight with need before they melted in euphoria was my eighth Wonder of the World. I could do it all day. I wanted to do it all day. But Mattie wasn’t really a sub—I’d thought she’d had some experience with this kind of scene play, but clearly, she didn’t. So, I wasn’t going to push her past her limits too far.

Although, the revelation that Mattie wanted to be submissive in bed was enough to tilt me entirely off my axis and throw my gravity out of whack. Apparently, a brat in the streets and a sub in the sheets was exactly my type, because I’d never craved a woman as much as I was craving Matilda Thorne. My need for her spread through my veins like an injection, sliding along my pulse and filling me with such burning desire, I was in danger of spontaneous combustion.

As she lay on my bed, boneless and gasping for air, I wiggled my arms beneath her and lifted her into a sitting position. Mattie’s eyes fastened on mine as I brought her bare breasts against my chest, and then I dipped down to claim her lips with a slow, teasing kiss. She sighed into it, melting in my arms and bringing her hands to rest against my neck. “Kael,” she murmured, pulling away to hold me captive with her wide, almond eyes again. “I want you.”

Fuck. Me. I’d just made her orgasm four times, and that’s what she had to say? I wanted that more than I wanted breath, but I had a job to finish first. I backed away, easing off the bed and sliding her across the dark blue sheets with me. When I stood between her spread legs, I took her hand and placed it against the pocket of my chinos. “Reach into my pocket.”

She cocked her head in question. I held her gaze, twitching my brows up meaningfully. Licking her lips, Mattie patted over the object in my pocket before slipping her fingers down to search for it. She pulled out the sheathed butterfly knife, and her throat worked as she held it between shaking fingers. The sleek, black metal glinted in the dim light that filtered through the closed shutters behind her.

I took it from her and with one deft motion, flicked it open. She flinched, trying to scoot away, but I cupped the back of her neck and held her in place. With me standing and her sitting on the edge of the bed, I rested the open knife on my flat palm and held it out to her. “Cut off my pants.”

Her mouth opened and she flicked a shocked look up to me. “What?”

I shifted the knife, holding it out handle-first. I released her neck and ran a finger along the dull spine of the knife. “This side isn’t sharp.” I hovered over the wicked sharp edge. “This is. You’re in control. Cut away my pants.”

She released a shuddering breath, shaking her head. “I’ll cut you.”

“You will,” I agreed, bending over to take her hand in mine. I placed her palm on the handle. “I don’t care.”

“No, Kael,” she argued, her voice trembling as badly as the rest of her.

I took her jaw in my hand and forced her gaze up to mine. “Now.”

Her throat worked, stretched taut as she swallowed. Her dainty fingers grasped the bite handle and safe handle together, and I flicked the latch closed to keep them locked. As Mattie took the knife in her fist, she stared at my pants uncertainly.

“Any day,” I prompted, folding my arms.

“Why are you doing this?” she muttered, looping the first finger of her left hand through my belt loop.

“Because you won’t tell me who hurt you,” I returned easily. “And you shoved me against a door and ordered me to make you feel again.”

“I didn’t want to feel this,” she whispered, bringing the tip of the edge to the side seam of my pants. “I feel sick.”

“You’ll feel what I want you to feel until you opt out, which you can do anytime. If not, then let’s go, Bunny. I want to fuck you until you stop thinking so hard. I can’t do that until you take my pants off.”

She hesitantly worked the knife against the side seam of my pants. She managed to loosen a few threads, but she was obviously worried about hurting me. I took her hand in mine, and with a deft stroke, forced the blade to pierce through the fabric and slide down my thigh. A soft rip sounded through the bedroom, punctuated only by her labored breathing. “Oh, fuck.” Mattie drew away, staring at the torn fabric.

I glanced down. The tip had nicked the spot where the blade had dragged from my boxers to my skin. “So?” I forced her hand to continue down the leg of my pants. “Keep going.”

Still shaking, but gaining some confidence, Mattie finished the side of my left leg. Then she moved to the right side, and copying the way I had done it the first time, she managed to slice the sharp blade down the other seam. She didn’t nick me that time. When she reached the hem, she eased the ruined pants away from my body, leaving me in a pair of black boxers.

I took the knife from her calmer grasp, and with one flick, closed it so the handles encased the blade safely. I used it to tilt her chin up. “How do you feel, Mattie?”

Her breasts rose and fell with each deep, slowly settling breath she took. “Uhm,” she closed her eyes briefly. “I don’t know.”

I increased the pressure, forcing her head back. “Try again.”

“Powerful,” she admitted. Her eyes opened again, holding mine with feverish intensity. “I felt powerful. I liked it.”

I took her hand in mine again and wrapped her fingers around the handle. “Do not let go of this.” She barely had a chance to nod before I hauled her up, spun her around, and bent her over the edge of the bed. When I spanked her, she moaned, letting her head fall to the blue-patterned comforter. “That’s it, Bunny. Moan for me. Do you want my cock inside of you?”

“Yes,” she groaned. With her head on the bed and her ass between my hands, I smoothed my palms over her soft skin.

I spanked the other cheek, just hard enough to leave a handprint that made my dick twitch. “Get the vibrator.” I didn’t have so much hubris to think that after four orgasms with a vibrator, my teeth, and her fingers, she would have an easy time getting there a fifth time with my dick alone. She wanted to feel, so I would make sure she did until she had nothing left.

Mattie reached across the bed, scrambling around until she had the wand. She brought it to her side, but she didn’t turn it on or use it. I smiled to myself. Fuck, if stubborn Mattie wasn’t learning. Even better, she was letting go. I spanked her again, and she yelped, but then it ended in a lusty moan. “Kael, please.”

I grinned crookedly. “Say it again.”

“Please.”

I’d have chuckled if my own desire didn’t have me in a chokehold. I had taken my wallet out of my pants before I’d gotten on the bed with Mattie, and I reached over to the walnut bedside table and slipped a condom out of it. As I ripped it open with my teeth, Mattie looked over her shoulder at me. Her eyes had hooded with desire, and she shifted restlessly. “Turn it on,” I said.

Her thumb clicked the vibrator, and to my continued surprise, she didn’t bring it between her legs. She waited. I stared at her with lust slamming through my veins. “Such a good girl, Bunny. Put it against your clit.”

Her eyelids fluttered closed, and she did as I’d said, bringing the vibrator against her tender sex. It made her jump, but then she moaned and pressed her forehead into the comforter. By the way her ass twitched, I knew she didn’t have much time before she hit her fifth. Which suited me just fine. Mattie could come as many times as she wanted—I’d draw that shit out until she couldn’t stand.

I slid my boxers off, and after fitting the condom in place, I smoothed my hands over Mattie’s ass again. After delivering two slaps in succession, causing her to gasp and cry out with a sound that went right to my balls, I fitted the head of my dick against her soaked entrance. “Say it again, Mattie.”

“Please,” she gusted out again. “Kael, I need you. Please.”

“I’m never going to get tired of hearing that,” I managed to get out. My entire body had been tightened like corkscrews fitted to my nerves. It was a wonder I could say anything coherent at all. She was so beautiful, from the soft curve of her hips to her waist to her delicate, sweet features that had contorted with pleasure. I wanted all of her.

I wrapped an arm around her, lifting her hips to me and pressing my erection a fraction into her heat. She let out a strangled, happy sound, and I almost keeled over from the gratification. She was so warm and so tight, I could feel her squeezing, pulling me further in. I’d given Mattie some grief for her lack of sexual activity earlier, but the truth was, it had been a hot minute for me, too. At the moment, it felt like I’d been waiting all along. For her. For this.

I eased my arousal further inside of her, and I had to mash my teeth together to keep from losing all control and filling her to the hilt. Mattie seemed to want that, though, because she pushed back against me. The vibration from her wand spilled over to my dick, making it that much harder to keep hold of the thin thread of control I’d maintained. Mattie’s legs tensed, and before I’d even sunk half my length inside of her, she suddenly cried out with a release, her pussy clenching around me. She pulsed around my dick in a beautiful rhythm that pulled me deeper until I pressed hard against her ass and bottomed out.

Trembling, she panted, letting the wand fall and grabbing the comforter for dear life. I reached down, and grasping her hand in mine, I forced the toy back against her clit. I covered her thumb with mine and ratcheted up the strength of the toy three times. “Fuck, Kael, I ca-I ca—” I retreated from inside of her and then slammed back into her. She shrieked, curling inward. “Fuck me. Fuck, fuck, fuck!”

“Come on baby,” I gritted out, my focus spiraling down and focusing on how incredible it felt to be this deep inside her tight heat. “One more. You can do it.”

She screamed, toes pointing and body trembling all over. I slammed into her, retreating and filling her with punishing strokes that brought me straight to my edge. I’d felt the way she tensed before her orgasm, and I knew now what it felt like with her around me. I waited, listening to the cadence of her increasingly frantic yelps. And then, at last, she was there. She tightened, pulling inward and popping one foot up as her orgasm took control of her movements. I supported her weight, letting her give in to the orgasm as I chased my own release.

I was pretty sure my vision blurred, but then I closed my eyes as my orgasm tore through me like a knife. It stole my breath and robbed my reason, and I pounded Mattie’s pussy relentlessly, dragging out the best orgasm of my fucking life. We both slowed, easing through the pulsing release that had suddenly turned my well-honed body into warm clay. I fell over her, supporting my weight with my elbows on either side of her. Her chest rose and fell like she’d sprinted a mile, and she switched off the vibrator.

I pressed my forehead to her sweaty shoulder blades. “Jesus, Mattie.”

“Jesus, Kael,” she puffed. She still had the butterfly knife clenched in her left hand.

I withdrew from her, and with gentle hands, I lifted her until she lay on her back against my pillows. She stared at me from beneath tired, heavy eyelids, and I kissed her lips softly. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”

She lifted a floppy hand. “I’m dead. I can’t move anyway.”

I chuckled and headed for the bathroom. After cleaning myself off and finding my boxers, I grabbed a towel and a warm, wet washcloth and returned to her. Mattie’s eyes flared wide when she saw me. “What are you doing with that?”

“Do I really need to mansplain aftercare?” I teased with a smile.

She tucked her bottom lip between her teeth before muttering, “I know what it is.”

“But you’ve never had anyone do this for you?” I guessed.

“I slept with a really sweet girl in my undergrad class once,” she admitted, sitting up on her elbows. “She showered with me after. It was cute.”

“Lucky her,” I smiled faintly, sitting next to her. “And I could dunk you in the shower, but I like this better.” I smoothed the warm washcloth up the inside of her thighs, and she watched me with rapt interest. I flicked a glance up to her surprised expression before focusing on cleaning her off. “I was a little hard on you. Are you alright?”

“You weren’t hard on me,” she replied in a quiet voice. “I like a good spanking as much as the next traumatized girl.”

I huffed a laugh. “Even still,” I countered, washing between her legs and drying her off with the towel. “If there are things you didn’t like, that doesn’t take away from the fact that you’d wanted it.”

“Needed it,” she corrected. She stroked my arm, and then she glanced at the butterfly knife still in her hand. “Not that I understand it.”

I threw the rags on the floor and then stretched out on my side beside her. I propped my head on my hand and traced a line from her sternum to her stomach idly. Her skin was like silk. “I’m not your shrink, Bunny. But I’ll be your escape if it helps.”

She rolled onto her side as well, facing me and running her eyes all over my bare torso and back to my face. “You’re really fucking hot, you know that?”

I grinned cheekily. “Yes.”

She rolled her eyes, fighting a smile. Then she balanced the knife on her open palm. “How did you know that would help me?”

I shrugged. “A guess. Trauma understands trauma. Although,” I added with a hard look. “I wish you would tell me.”

She averted her gaze. “It’s not that big of a deal.”

“Mhm.” I closed her fingers around the knife. “Keep it. Just be careful with it. It’ll take off your finger if you’re stupid about it.”

“Have you taken off someone’s fingers with it?” she queried with a bounce of her eyebrows.

Yes. Oops. “Nah.”

She peeled it open with both hands and peered at the blade. “Wicked.”

“Quite. I’m now having serious reservations about giving you a weapon, you devious little rabbit.”

She bared her teeth. “Fuckers keepers.”

I rolled until she was forced to flop onto her back, and I caged her in. “And what do I get to keep?”

She swallowed visibly, eyes dancing over my face only an inch from hers. “What do you want?”

You. “Number seven?” I teased.

She laughed, and I tattooed the sound into my brain so I wouldn’t forget it. “That’s greedy.”

“I am greedy,” I agreed. Like I couldn’t help myself, I bent down to stroke my nose along the edge of her jaw. I loved this part of her face. It was sharp like her, but her silky skin softened it. “But speaking of my greed, my sexy, infuriating employer,” I said, lifting my head to stare down at her. “I had a thought.”

“Was this before or after you gleefully tortured six orgasms out of me?” She arched one brow.

“Before. My brain is oobleck after torturing six orgasms out of your perfect body.”

She sank her teeth into her bottom lip, smiling. “What’s the thought?”

“Even if we stuck this assignment out and found something interesting in your parents’ study—and I don’t think we will—I think I have a better idea of how to free you from their scheming.” She waited patiently, listening with interest. I picked up her wrist, kissing the inside of it and noticing for the first time that there was a little silver scar running along her forearm. “I’m going to call in some outside reinforcements. If your parents aren’t keeping papers lying around, then we can get what you need digitally.”

“No, we can’t” she shook her head. “You think I didn’t consider hiring a hacker? There’s no point because they don’t keep that stuff in digital records. That’s how I saw the compound and second name, because they left a stack of papers lying around the house once. My parents started working with someone a few years ago. Someone who told them to use paper records.”

“Nexusum,” I nodded. “I know them. Your parents are also supplying them with cathynol.”

She blinked several times. “How do you know that? Do you just inherently know everything?”

“Yes,” I said with mock solemnity.

Her nose crinkled in suspicion. “Well, whoever they are, they don’t keep that stuff online.”

“No,” I replied slowly, pinching her nose briefly. “But I know these Nexusum people. And my outside sources are well-versed in how Nexusum operates. We can get the information one way or another if you let us. Do I really need to continue elaborating on this?”

She glanced at the knife that lay on the comforter benignly. She returned her gaze to mine, and with absolute sincerity, said, “Fingers.”

I laughed, scratching my upper lip. “Sure. Fingers. Either way, I might be able to get some evidence. It won’t be anything amazing, and I doubt the feds will do anything with it as-is. But if we were to broadcast it at a certain important event they’re holding, well,” I shrugged. “That could get messy for them.”

Her eyes rounded. “That’s a little brilliant.”

“Tabitha can easily rig up an accidental projection of incriminating images, especially because your parents are doing some kind of ode to their lovely daughter. Right? A slideshow?”

She nodded, eyes falling to trace the tattoos on my chest. “Right.”

I cocked my head, trying to catch her gaze. “Why does this feel like a wedding, by the way?”

Her eyes flew to mine, carrying a hint of panic before she slammed down a mask of calm. “I don’t know. Rich people are weird.”

“Does it have something to do with why you turn into a scared little bunny rabbit when you see a knife?” I pushed. She shook her head mutely. “Are you going to tell me who hurt you?”

“No,” she said automatically. And then like an afterthought, she added, “—one hurt me. I’m fine.”

I nipped her chin. “Stop lying to me.”

“No.” She sighed, threading her arms around the back of my neck and pulling me down into a hug that nestled into my heart in a dangerous way. “I don’t want to talk about it. It’s in the past.”

“I have a lot of things in my past, but it doesn’t mean I don’t talk about them,” I replied, kissing her shoulder. “The strongest people are usually the ones who carry the most weight. It’s good to talk about it.”

“You’re so very enlightened Mr. Ghost. What the fuck is your last name, anyway?”

“Casper,” I murmured against her skin, kissing down to her collarbone.

“No, it’s not.” She smacked my bicep.

“It’s not,” I grinned, kissing back to the other side of her neck. I wanted to bury myself in her bubblegum-scented body.

“Ugh, Kael,” she moaned, writhing beneath me. “I don’t think I can even walk after what you just did to me. Please do not turn me on again.”

“Well,” I smiled, kissing the corner of her mouth, “since you said ‘please.’”

Her dark blond eyebrows bounced up. “You won’t?”

“No, now I have to.”

She shrieked, and I laughed before I kissed her until she lost her breath again.