24. The Unicorn Horn
The Unicorn Horn
SARAFINA
Three minutes earlier…
I punched in the door code a second time, and it beeped at me in warning.
“Come on.” I muttered, knowing full well it was user error as I squinted at the keypad in the darkness.
“Please, please, please open.” I tried again, my shoulders sagging in relief as the locking mechanism finally whirred and the keypad flashed green. Thank God.
I looked over my shoulder where my creepy Uber driver was still waiting, parked in the courtyard, and bolted inside the grand entry.
The ornate door thundered as I slammed it shut, plunging me into eerie darkness as I promptly locked it, triple-checking that it was definitely locked, before I stumbled under the Kensington coat of arms and into the massive manor.
Fucking creep.
My footsteps echoed as I blindly made my way down the dimly lit corridor.
I thought I was doing pretty well, until I crashed straight into a table, nearly knocking an antique vase off its surface in the process.
Wide-eyed, I gripped the intricate ceramic piece, settling it back down on the tabletop.
I didn’t even want to know how much that thing was worth—probably a one-of-a-kind, gifted to some royal, somewhere at sometime.
I peered into the darkness behind me with an uneasy shiver, feeling the shadows move as I quickly darted towards the stairs in the back.
I practically crawled up each slippery step.
The deep green marble staircase blended with the shadows, making it next to impossible to see where one step ended and another began—where the carpet runner had suddenly gone, I had no idea.
I made it to the top in what felt like three business days and then promptly ate it, realizing I was on the second to last step.
Still cursing at my throbbing shins, I braced a hand against the wall to steady myself.
The carved wood was smooth and cool under my palm until I rounded the corner into the last narrow hallway, and my fingertips rippled over the embossed wallpaper—I gasped as I inadvertently knocked a priceless painting clean off the wall.
Narrowly missing it falling on me , it fell to the unforgiving marble floor with a sickening crash. Ahh!
Hardly able to keep myself upright, I propped the painting up as carefully as I could, desperately hoping it wasn’t damaged before I headed past the first five, widely spaced bedrooms to the only one that was made up.
I gripped the brass doorknob, wondering if I was going to vomit as the thick door swung open with my weight, but there was no time to figure out how I was going to cross the long distance to the bed, because just then, the door to the ensuite bathroom ripped open.
Murderer!
A growling blur came barreling through the sitting room, directly towards me.
No! Murdering bear!
I clutched my chest and screamed, waiting to be mauled to death. This was it. I’d escaped the creepy Uber driver only to become bear jerky. “Sara?” I was still screaming as a deep velvety voice sounded from across the room, coming closer. “What are you doing here?”
I cracked one eye open and then the other. “Carter?” I blinked slowly, registering the miles and miles of wet, sculpted chest in front of me. Oh my. The tanned muscles were coming closer by the second, and if I wasn’t dizzy before, I certainly was now.
Carter was completely and utterly naked. Except for one thing. A thin pink hair tie around his wrist. Had he been wearing it since last Thanksgiving? That couldn’t be right. I clearly wasn’t thinking straight, but how could I—in front of me was the most astonishing thing I’d ever seen.
I grinned, wide-eyed, as I tracked a bead of water all the way down those sinfully sloped obliques, straight to heaven’s door, watched that lucky little droplet dance over his muscular legs like an absolute tease before finally disappearing into the lush carpet.
Now that was a rare piece of art, a sculpture fit to display for one very lucky queen. Might as well call me Your Highness, because giddy up, this knight had a horse all of his own, and I was ready to skip the carriage and ride him.
“You’re naked.” I whispered, staring at it in all of its proud, hard glory. I blinked, wondering if I was seeing things, but no, it was definitely getting bigger by the second.
I swallowed hard and forced myself to avert my eyes from the incredible specimen in front of me, craning my neck up to meet Carter’s gaze as he came even closer.
My mouth formed and unformed words with no success, because there were no words.
Nope. None. I’d seen him naked before, but not like this.
No, no, no. Not. Like. This.
“What are you doing here?” Carter looked as shocked as I felt.
“I mean, I’m glad to see you and all, I just uh, what are you doing here?
” He raked a hand through his wet hair, and I realized he’d grown it out again.
Even wet, it had that effortless, old-money, sexy can I, look that made me want to rake my fingers through it.
“It’s the middle of the night. Are you okay?
Are you hurt?” he asked, with nothing but pure concern in his voice.
I swayed in the doorway. “I was, uh, I just came over because…” How the hell was I going to explain this? I had no idea he’d even be home this weekend. I motioned towards the bed. “I was just sleeping here until—” I gasped !
My pink dildo was sitting erect on his nightstand, sparkling translucently under the lamplight in all its veiny glory, an absolute atrocity amidst the elegant decor of his bedroom.
When I looked back, Carter’s gaze locked with mine, and we both realized the same thing at the same time. His eyes glimmered with wicked realization, and that was all I saw before I took a flying leap to apprehend—what would undoubtedly be—the source of my eternal shame.
“No!” I screamed, diving for the contraband.
Carter got there first, grabbing it out from under me with a wicked chuckle. He full-fisted it; his eyes darkening to a color I’d never seen before.
He grinned, looking back and forth between it and me. “What is sweet, little Sarafina Amara Devereux doing in my bedroom with this ?” he asked, a cocky grin plastered across his face while the thing wobbled around in his massive hand, with total disregard for the situation.
I practically clawed my way up his sculpted chest, frantic to get that thing back, but it was no use.
He yanked it higher, higher, higher, out of my reach.
I was never going to live this down. I had to get it.
I lunged, and the back of his legs hit the bed, sending us flying backwards onto his luxurious sheets.
When we finally stopped moving, I gasped for an entirely different reason, realizing every inch of me was draped over the top of every inch of him .
Oh God.
Now, there was only one dick in this room I could think about because it was snugly nestled between my thighs, my short dress now conveniently bunched up around my waist.
Carter’s eyes flared darkly, and heat surged through me as my stomach did the flippy thing. Shit! Say something! Anything! “I’m sorry.” I whispered at the same moment his cock flexed against me and everything emptied out of my brain. “ Ohhh God. ”
Carter’s hands flew to my hips, gripping them as he swore, grinding out, “You shouldn’t make those kinds of sounds while you’re sitting on my cock, sweetheart. ”
Palms on his chest, the heat of his body was deliciously warm against my damp skin. I wasn’t wearing any underwear, and I knew if he so much as flexed , he’d slide right in. “Why is that?” I whispered with a hard swallow.
His Adam's apple bobbed, chest rising and falling rapidly as he gritted, “Because, if I had any less self-control, you’d be on your back right now, taking my cock like a good girl.” Carter’s voice dropped even lower, practically vibrating out of him and into me.
“Keep making sounds like that and everything you were imagining while you were using your cute little unicorn horn in my bed,” he trembled with restraint, his voice dark and raw.
“Well, it wouldn’t hold a candle to all the things I’d do to you, sweetheart. Is that enough of a reason?”
Oh God, was I even breathing? I sucked in a deep breath, remembering I needed air, and that was enough to shift us, forcing the tip of his head to graze across my oh so very slick clit. Bah-zing-gah!
Carter groaned gutturally, as if he were in pain, and I whimpered as heat flooded my whole body with throbbing, desperate need, all while I fought the dangerous urge to slip low enough to let it happen again.
Carter’s eyes flared as he gripped my hips with more strength than I’d ever felt in my life, keeping me lifted , and his every muscle rippled beneath me with the exertion.
I realized I was digging my red lacquered nails into his chest, but I didn’t dare move a fraction of an inch.
What I said next was the alcohol speaking, surely, because I was never this bold. “Tell me why I shouldn’t let you do all those dirty things to me.” I whispered, desperate for him to brush against me just once more. At least. Ten times ten would do nicely too. With a nice hard?—
“Don’t ask questions I know you already know the answer to.” He rasped, every vein in his arms flexing as he gripped me, determined to keep me from sinking down onto the one thing that I desperately wanted him to skewer me with.
I searched his eyes, feeling confused—he was hard as a rock underneath me, there was no denying it, but I swallowed thickly, suddenly realizing that maybe this was just a physical response for him. I mean, I didn’t blame him, I too was having a very physical response.
“I should put some clothes on.” He said tightly.