Chapter 18
You Lose, Naughty Kitten
TWO MORE WEEKS PASSEDwith little progress on the investigation. The police had removed the yellow tape, and she was free to return to her apartment, but her renter’s insurance was taking their own sweet time processing her claim. For safety, and out of necessity, she and Noah were essentially living together.
Also, out of necessity, he’d returned to her apartment and packed the rest of her clothes. He did so alone, sparing her the trauma of seeing it again.
When he got home, he was in a foul mood. After dropping her bags by the door, he came to her, picked up her phone from the end table, and handed it to her.
“Call your insurance rep and give her permission to deal with me from here on out.”
Privy to only one side of the conversation, she listened to his calm, professional tone as he asked about the status of her claim. When he didn’t like what he was hearing, it changed. Still calm, but with unmistakable authority, he laid out his expectations.
“I’m through with delays and excuses. Miss Delacour’s policy outlines response times for issuing funds for emergency housing, living expenses, and more when there is a loss of residence. Also, for reimbursement once the claim and supporting documentation, including the police report, are filed. She has been timely with all of your requirements, but you have met none of your obligations. This is unacceptable. You have three choices: release the funds immediately, transfer me to your supervisor who can do what her policy promises, or speak to her lawyer about this. Which will it be?” After a brief pause, he replied, “That’s what I thought.”
When he hung up, he dropped her phone into her hand and went back for her bags, the entire time muttering about incompetence.
“Noah, what did she say?”
“What I expected her to. She’s overnighting your check. You’ll have it tomorrow.”
As he carried her belongings down the hall to his room, she grinned. When she imagined the look on the agent’s face trying to figure out what just hit her, Fiona laughed.
Sure enough, the check arrived before 10 a.m. the following morning. By that afternoon, she had an agency scheduled to come out and give her an estimate for her crime scene cleanup. They tacked on an additional biohazard charge when in the prescreening call, she had to answer yes to the question, “Does the scene contain chemical or biological toxins?”
Ew! Just thinking of someone maliciously doing that on her bed made her sick.
Within two weeks, the agency had the apartment cleaned, all the broken furniture removed, including the DNA-laden mattress, and the walls painted. But Noah didn’t release her to go home. His security made his place far safer for her to live in.
So, she continued to sleep in Noah’s bed every night and wake in his arms every morning. A fact she wasn’t about to complain about.
While Fiona worked with her kids close to fifty hours per week under the watchful eye of a Rossi Security specialist, Noah kept busy with consultations at the hospital for his group. If, coincidentally, he was around at noon when she took her break, they had lunch together. The rest of the time he wasn’t with her, he helped with the investigation, which had stalled.
At quitting time every day, when her bodyguard du jour handed her off like a baton in a relay race, she’d look at him expectantly and ask the same question, “Any news?”
He’d shake his head, a muscle jumping in his cheek the only outward sign of his frustration, but she knew it was there because she felt it too.
“Maybe he’s moved on to his next con with someone else’s identity,” Fiona suggested during the first week.
“Mmm, maybe...” he echoed, not sounding convincing.
While Noah worried, Fiona fully embraced her new life with him, finding it a little taste of heaven. For the first time since she was seventeen, she had someone to come home to. She slept in his arms every night and woke to his kisses every morning—so much better than a cat. They had breakfast and dinner together and actually talked while they ate. And they went to the club two nights a week.
They might have gone more often, but her late shifts twice a week made for long days. When she came home and yawned through dinner, Noah would tuck her in bed directly after. If she made it through the meal without falling asleep in her plate, they would cozy up on his big comfortable couch to watch TV. But the moment she stopped moving, her eyes would grow heavy, and she was out. When she woke in bed the next morning, it was without memory of how she got there, but she suspected Noah carried her. It was so romantic, and she hated she missed it.
One night, when she woke past midnight needing to use the bathroom, she found his side of the bed empty and cold. She went looking for him and found him in his office.
A single floorboard creaked as she stopped in the doorway. Noah glanced up from his laptop, his eyes meeting hers. “Kitten. Did I wake you?”
“No. Something else did. What about you? Couldn’t you sleep?”
“I don’t need much; four or five hours seems to be enough. It’s not healthy, but that’s how it’s been all my life.”
She yawned, unable to help it. “If I don’t get a full eight, I’m practically nonfunctional.”
“I remember when you went two days without sleep. You were so woozy, you couldn’t think straight.” He rolled back from his desk and beckoned her over with the crook of his finger. “Come here.”
Fiona approached slowly, glancing at the notes and files scattered over his desk. “You were working and I’m disturbing you.”
When she was close enough, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her into his lap. Leaning her back over one arm, his free hand slid up her leg and under the hem of her short nightgown.
“You should be.”
She blinked in surprise. “What?”
He grinned. “You apologized for disturbing me, remember?”
“Oh... Well... That’s what people say when they’re trying to be polite.”
“Your presence disturbs me.” He bent close, buried his face in the bend of her neck, and inhaled deeply. “And your scent drives me wild. What is it?”
“Vanilla-lavender aromatherapy body wash.” She gasped as he nibbled her throat. “It’s supposed to be relaxing.”
“False advertising,” he groaned, grabbing a fistful of her hair and breathing it in. “Your hair smells like it, too.”
“It came in a gift set.”
His head came up. “Since you disturbed me, it’s only fair that I return the favor, but I don’t plan on being polite.”
Sliding his hand farther up her nightie, he hooked her panties and pulled them down then lifted her and plopped her bare butt on the edge of his desk. “Lean back, heels to ass, and spread your knees wide.”
He made a few adjustments, pressing her legs down to the surface of the desk, which opened her pussy. The AC in the room wafted cool over her hot, wet skin.
“Mm, mmm,” he growled as he stared into the heart of her. “This is my idea of the perfect midnight snack.”
One finger ran through her slit. Although she was expecting his touch or his tongue, she jumped. When he slid the same finger inside her, a soft sigh escaped her lips. Soon, another finger joined the first, moving in a slow, rhythmic motion. Restlessly, she shifted on the desk, her body stretching and undulating with each sensual glide.
“Be still,” he directed, as he lowered his face to her splayed center. “Moan, whimper, and purr all you like, but don’t you dare move.”
“If I do?”
He raised his head and peered at her over her bare belly. “What was that?”
“I asked what happens if I dare move?”
“Is that a challenge?”
Since they’d been together, he hadn’t once punished her. The flogger, the way he used it, sure as heck didn’t count, and she wondered what being disciplined by Master Noah would entail.
Her answer was a teasing and vague, “Maybe.”
He inverted his hand, palm up, and massaged the ultra-sensitive spot in front with the two fingers inside her.
“How does the expression go?” he asked, as his thumb rubbed her clit. “Fuck around and find out.”
“Now that,” she panted, “is most definitely a challenge. Because I’d give anything to find out.”
Not to be left out, his other hand joined the fun. After gliding through her wetness, it moved downward, until his thumb pressed against the smaller hole in back.
“Ungh,” she whimpered as the tip penetrated. Combined with the stimulation of her clit and G-spot, the triple sensation was overwhelming. Her back arched, lifting her hips off the desk, and her thighs trembled.
Without warning, his fingers vanished, and a harsh, grating noise filled the air.
Fiona’s gaze darted downward between her spread thighs, her eyes widening as she watched him retrieve a wooden ruler from the pencil drawer.
“You lose, naughty kitten.”
“How? What did I do?”
He leaned over her, one dark-blond brow arched. His lips hovered just above hers, close enough for her to meet them with a slight lift of her head.
“You fucked around by moving,” he explained an instant before he pressed his mouth against hers in a hot, intense, all-too-brief kiss. Then he straightened and pushed her knees to her chest. “Now, you get to find out.”
A crack echoed through the room immediately followed by another. It shocked more than it stung. By the time he repeated it ten more times, with Noah holding her legs in place as he moved the improvised paddle from side to side, heat exploded in a fiery swath across both cheeks. After he’d delivered a dozen stinging strokes, he glided the smooth side of the ruler over her hot skin.
“Challenge met?” he asked. “Or does my naughty kitty need more?”
Fiona panted, her butt on fire but incredibly turned on at the same time. She didn’t want to test him or the tolerance of her tender backside further and yielded. “I’m good. You win, sir.”
He dropped the ruler into the drawer and shut it.
“No, Fiona. We both do. Hold your legs for me.”
Her hands curled behind her knees, obeying his command without question, no matter how revealing, and salacious, the position. Then she heard crinkling and the unmistakable creak of the lid to a bottle of lube.
She’d inquire later why he had supplies in his desk. For now, she didn’t care. She just wanted him inside her.
“To the victor belong the spoils,” he murmured as he sheathed his cock in a condom and applied a translucent drop of lube to the tip. “A confusing outdated phrase for some,” he continued. “Reward is a more fitting term. And this, without a doubt, will be a gratifying reward for me.”
His thumbs parted her cheeks. She felt cool slickness then pressure against the tight pucker. She sucked in a breath as the smooth, broad head stretched and tested the ring of resistant muscles as he sought entrance.
“Breathe,” he urged as his thumb returned to her clit and his two long fingers curled into her center once again. “Anal wasn’t a hard limit on your list, kitten. You have done this before?”
“Once. Years ago,” she half panted, half whimpered. “I didn’t care for it much.”
He grunted, squirted more gel where they joined, before resuming his slow penetration. “Then your inept partner wasn’t doing it right.”
Pausing his advance briefly, he pulled back, spread the lube over both of them, then leaned into her, stretching and filling her to mildly anxiety-producing extremes. He did it all one-handed. His other still busy rubbing and arousing. There was so much going on down there, she found it hard to think, much less breathe.
As her pleasure increased with every flick of his thumb and rhythmic massage inside her, he sank in farther. Suddenly, she cared for it a lot and sped headlong toward climax. “I don’t...” she gasped.
“Something wrong, pet?”
She licked her lips and tried again. “I can’t—” she began, but halfway through it morphed into a moan.
Filled with almost all of him now, his thumbs and fingers ceaselessly driving her wild, she didn’t know how she’d keep from coming.
“I won’t be able to—” she tried telling him, but he pulled back, and on the verge of losing him, he reversed direction and filled her again. Fiona groaned because in no way, shape, or form could he be considered inept at this—or anything.
“I can’t wait, sir,” she finally got out as he retreated and surged inside again and again.
“You don’t have to, kitten. Come whenever you’re ready.”
His gruffly spoken words were still echoing in the room when an intense orgasm rocked through her. Fiona arched and shuddered hard. Noah leaned over her, using his body to keep her from flying off the desk. With her muscles rippling and contracting around him, he groaned, slowing but not stopping as he drove relentlessly inside her. And his thumb and fingers never stopped.
On the heels of one mind-blowing climax, another built. This time, as her body tensed, he kissed her fiercely, mouth and tongue claiming as insistently as the cock in her ass. His weight pinned her legs to her chest and her back to the desk. Folded in half like a taco shell opened her farther, allowing him to glide deeper. When waves of pleasure crashed over her for the second time, his deep groans mingled with hers, as he also found release.
Breathing heavily, their bodies clinging together, admittedly, feeling a bit sticky, a thought suddenly struck her.
“I hope these files weren’t important.”
He pushed up on his forearms and looked down at where they were joined. “They’re not originals, but the notes I made for Jonas and Trey are.”
“I guess they’re going to find out that we fucked around when they try to read them,” she said straight-faced then giggled.
He hissed and grimaced. “Don’t laugh with me still inside you.”
“Sorry,” she immediately replied, but the look on his face only made her laugh harder.
It faded an instant later when he withdrew, slipping from her body before she was ready to let him go. But just as she began to feel the absence, he scooped her up in his arms.
Surprised, and enthralled by his gallantry, she wrapped her arms around his neck, asking with a sigh, “Where are you taking me?”
“We’re hitting the showers.”
She rested her head on his shoulder, okay with that. Warm water, soapy wet skin, and Noah were a combination she thoroughly enjoyed.
“Don’t get sleepy on me, Miss Delacour. Afterward, you’ll be taking dictation and helping me recreate the work I’m supposed to turn in to the team in the morning.”
“Right,” she agreed drowsily. Good sex always made her sleepy. She could add a good spanking to that now. “Just so you know, I’m not good with clerical stuff. At work, I’m usually dictating, not the other way around.”
“Well, you’re about to get good. If it takes all night.”
She didn’t have the excuse she had to work in the morning, and he knew that.
“I suppose that’s the least I can do after finding out—twice.”
With a half snort, half laugh, he drawled, “I’m showering with you, kitten. Prepare to make that thrice.”
NOAH WAS THE BEST SLEEPaid ever, or she should say, Noah-induced orgasms were. He’d given her four that night, including another in the shower, and one more for each of them when they finally finished work at 4 a.m. and he put her to bed. She’d slept like a baby until he woke her for lunch at noon the next day.
At forty-three, the man had incredible stamina, especially considering he slept so little, but it explained how he accomplished so much, including juggling multiple jobs for the past several years. Not to mention the club.
He consulted at the hospital and kept limited office hours, things he could do while she was at work. But he didn’t pick up any extra duties for Rossi, SVI, or volunteer to DM at the club while assigned to protect her. They played, working on her BDSM to-do list, and also to take her mind off the crazy man still on the loose.
Being half naked in the playroom got easier each time. Only half because Noah was still taking it slow. He still left her panties in place, and except for getting her off in front of the crowd, he hadn’t taken her in public yet. It happened all around them, and she wouldn’t have needed her safewords.
She felt ready and told him so. But he wasn’t willing to sacrifice her progress.
“Good to know I have the green light, kitten,” he’d told her. “That leaves when up to me to decide.” He caught her chin and angled her face to his. “That’s how these D/s things usually work.”
“Of course, sir,” she replied dutifully. “You’re in charge.”
But she hoped he didn’t wait too much longer. She wanted to prove to him, as much as to herself, she’d gotten beyond her fear of public scenes. Sure, she was eager for a warm subbie blanket to snuggle into and hide behind afterward, but in the heat of the moment, and leading up to it, with Noah’s desire-filled gaze on her, she didn’t care in the least.
The highlight of her club visits would always be her time with Noah, but a close second came after the scenes were done—stopping by the lounge. Invariably, one of Noah’s Rossi buddies was at a table with his submissive. Several were married couples, Val with Eric, Esme and Keiran, and a pair from out of town, Commander Flynn Dalton—such a kick-ass name—up from Coronado with his wife Cassie, a civilian who also worked on the base.
The group—owners and patrons, doms and subs, and good friends—shared a comradery she envied. She enjoyed listening to their good-natured banter, not only the men with one another but the subs who seemed to know just how far they could push their dominant men.
Fiona became more at ease as the group welcomed her in. They represented the promise of something she hadn’t had enough of in her life—girlfriends.
And always a constant was Noah. If she didn’t have a madman with a grudge out to get her, life would be pretty close to perfection. That alone should have set off a blaring alarm in her head. Never had her life come anywhere near perfect. But as soon as it sounded, she switched it off, unwilling to consider what else could go wrong, and probably would, derailing her chance at happiness like it always did.