Chapter 19
19
If he is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him.
THE ART OF WAR , SUN TZU
Chase led Bella out into the foyer of the Pulham Hotel, his mind so full of her, he didn’t even know where they were going. Her scent, her gaze, her breath, her hand in his and the feel of her skin.
Mindless. He was mindless with want.
He saw the elevators and remembered.
‘Give me your purse,’ he asked.
She handed it over to him without question. He opened it and found the key and gave her back the purse, before leading her over to the elevators.
He held her hand in his, but couldn’t look at her. Couldn’t, because if he did, he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from kissing her. From consuming her.
The doors opened and he gestured for her to get in. He turned to face the young couple who had come up behind them and glared at them until they walked to another lift and he didn’t care. He pressed the button for the third floor and waited until the lift began to move before pressing the stop button.
The lights dimmed to emergency lighting and somewhere in the background was the faint sound of an alarm.
Finally he turned to her, pulling her towards him, taking her face in both hands, seeing the open desire staring back at him, and did what he’d been wanting to do pretty much since he’d first set eyes on her.
There was no gentle way into what was going on between them. It wasn’t pretty kisses and gentle sups, this was everything, all at once and still it wasn’t enough. They met, open-mouthed and desperate, her moans clashing with his groans, tongues, seeking, filling, wanting, fingers desperate for skin, slipping behind clothes and grasping at whatever they could find. He was going to burst out of his body. That was how she made him feel. But no matter what kind of madness this was, he forced himself back.
‘Fuck,’ he cursed, ‘that was better than I’d ever imagined.’
He bit his lip, to stop himself from kissing her again, and tried not to feel a crowning glory at the way Bella looked. Ravished. Her lips puffed and pink, her glorious hair tangled from his hands, her breath coming in pants that matched his own – but it was her eyes. They glowed silver.
He held up the key between them. ‘You can take this,’ he said. ‘You can take this, and go to the room, and I’ll take the elevator back down to the foyer and we’ll never have to speak of this again. Not if you don’t want to,’ he promised her. ‘Or I can keep it. And we’ll both go to the room. And you won’t be going home until the morning.’
Bella’s gaze flickered between him and the key he held up. He needed her to know that this was her choice. He needed her to make that choice. And whatever choice she made, he would honour it and accept it. But for the love of God, he hoped she chose him.
He watched the tension fill her. Saw it in the line of her jaw and the stiffening of her shoulders. She closed the distance between them and her arm reached forward and he closed his eyes, regretful but understanding. Only for them to spring open when the lift jerked back into action. She’d released the stop button on the elevator and come to stand by his side.
Leaving him with the key.
He let out the breath he’d been holding and gripped the key so that Bella couldn’t see the way his hands trembled. He was like an addict already, unable to control his body or his desire.
The elevator arrived at the floor and he followed her out, closely, as if just the heat from her body was enough to sustain him. She reached the door as he lost himself in the curve of her neck. She waited as he remembered himself and passed the key over the lock. Bella pushed open the door and crossed the threshold.
He held himself back by the doorframe, casting a quick glance at the spacious room that had a small living area over by the window on the opposite side of the room to the bed and the open-plan shower and en suite. Jesus, the things he wanted to do in that shower. With her.
He’d read too much of that damn book. It had made him debauched.
Bella reached the middle of the room and turned to face him and dropped a match to every single coherent thing in his mind, when she politely asked, ‘Would you like to come in?’
More than fucking anything.
He nodded, slowly, surely, and came into the room, closing the door behind him without taking his eyes from her. Some of the hysteria had burned from the edge of his need, like alcohol fumes into the air, but in its place, mindlessness had become conviction.
He needed her.
He crossed the room, her hungry gaze on his every move, making him feel powerful, making him feel wanted, making him surer of this than he had been of anything else he’d ever done. He didn’t stop to give her space, he got right in there, scooping her up into him, against him, needing to feel her around him.
He went to kiss her, and the leash of restraint yanked him back barely an inch from her lips.
‘You deserve words and poetry,’ he admitted, knowing he wouldn’t be capable of pretty words right now.
‘I don’t want words and poetry,’ she said, her breath coming in short pants, her eyes alive with the same need he felt. ‘I just want you.’
Christ , he was lost.
* * *
The words were barely out of her mouth, when Chase’s lips found hers. She opened for him, wanton and wanting, delighting in the way his tongue filled her, sought her, found her. That’s what it felt like. As if she’d been found, after wandering lost for years. Seen after being overlooked.
His hands were everywhere: lifting her up, holding her as she wrapped her legs around him, one fisted the skirts of her dress, the scrape of his knuckles against her thigh sending shivers across her body.
Bella pulled at him and pressed against him, against the hardness she felt at her core, the feeling releasing a moan she hadn’t realised she was fighting. She’d never felt like this before, and she was half terrified that even skin to skin wouldn’t be enough. What she wanted from him felt endless. Unstoppable, insatiable.
He could kiss her for an eternity and she’d never grow bored. Each second felt like a revelation, a new learning, a new feeling. His finger teased the hemline of her panties, and she ached for him. Her breasts strained against the neckline of her dress, and she cried out when he grabbed her ass. The only thing stopping her from begging for more, was his mouth on hers.
Chase was entirely different to anyone she’d been with before. He took, filled, consumed, but nothing that cost her. He made her feel powerful. He took only what she would give and she would give him everything if he asked. She knew it with the kind of startling clarity that stole her breath.
He pulled back, concern in his gaze as he asked her, ‘What’s wrong? Did I?—’
Bella shook her head, unnerved by the fact he’d sensed the turn of her thoughts, and pulled him back into a kiss that made them both forget. She pulled at his shirt, tugging it loose with clumsy fingers and tried to free buttons, as Chase simply reached up and pulled the top of her dress down, exposing one breast. He wrenched his mouth from hers and pressed open-mouthed kisses to that breast, igniting a line of fire from there to her core, stealing her breath and making her wet. Her heart pounded and her skin felt electrified as she shifted in his hold.
When he stared moving, she thought he’d take her to the bed, but instead, he stalked backwards to the large armless chair that faced the room. He sat down with her still wrapped around him.
‘I want to see you like this,’ he said, looking up at her.
Her hair fell like curtains about them and he reached up with one hand to fist it before his wicked tongue teased the nipple of her exposed breast. Unable to help herself she ground down against the hard length of him between her legs and moaned as he growled against her skin.
He drew the rest of her dress down and palmed one breast as he sucked on the other and she felt ravished . He feasted on her and she loved it. He was skating the edge of control, they both were, and instead of wanting to run it made her want to rush headlong into it for more.
She teased herself again and again against him. Chase’s hands flew to her hips and he thrust beneath her, letting her know how affected he was, letting her know what was to come. Her pulse thundered in her ears and throbbed beneath her skin as she bowed her head to kiss him and groaned as he thrust against her.
His hands slipped beneath the skirts of her dress, and clutched her ass and thighs, thumbs creeping towards the seam of her panties.
‘Christ, Bella.’
His words fell against her lips, and she knew he’d discovered how wet she was for him.
Need hung in the thick air between them.
‘We can still stop here, Bella. If you want,’ he offered, his hands on her skin, burning brands she’d feel for days.
His eyes were deep dark bitter swirls shining near gold when he looked at her. Bella knew that this was crazy. For so many reasons, she could hardly count. They should absolutely be stopping here. They could still walk it back. But the way her heart ached at the thought of it…
Bella shook her head, her eyes on his, knowing that the seriousness she felt was etched across her features.
‘I don’t want to stop.’
‘What do you want?’ he asked.
Everything .
Whether she answered out loud, or whether he read it in her eyes, Chase wrapped an arm around her and met her in a kiss, chest to chest, core to core, tongue to tongue.
He yanked her thong, the thin silk snapping and Bella cried out when his fingers slipped into her, teasing and touching and pressing. He drew her to her knees and told her to stay there, while he worked his trousers and briefs down and off his legs, bringing her back down while she tried to release the zip of her dress.
‘Wait,’ he commanded and her fingers stopped. ‘I want to be the one to take it off you,’ he confessed, his eyes on her body as if he were waiting for secrets to be revealed. Her hands dropped to her sides and she watched his careful study of her with fascination.
He released the zip and gathered the dress in his hands, lifting it over her head and casting it aside. He looked over her entire body, frantically almost. As if he were worried she’d disappear. But then she became distracted by his body, the dark swirls of hair across his chest she remembered from his apartment. His body, lean, strong, not bulky, with muscles from the gym, and doing things to her she’d never experienced before. Her skin felt too small, as if she’d jump right out of it if he touched her.
His lip quirked into a smirk and she looked up to find him staring back at her, his eyebrow raised. ‘Like what you see?’ he teased.
She nodded, biting her lip, and his eyes burned.
‘You look truly debauched, Bella Carmichael. It suits you,’ he said, pulling her down to him and Bella felt as if he’d told her that she was the most beautiful woman in the world.
He reached for the wallet he’d put on the table by the lamp and retrieved a small foil packet and tore the corner with his teeth. She shifted back as he rolled the condom onto his length, her fingers itching to take him in her own hand. But when she looked back at Chase, the intent in his gaze burned not from frantic, drastic need but relentless want.
With one hand he lifted her gently onto her knees, positioning himself beneath her, his gaze never leaving hers. She felt watched, observed. Seen. His thumb circled her entrance, teasing her, leaving her wanting, until one finger, then two, thrust into her and she cried out. Her legs trembled as she held herself there, wanting to push down on his hand, pulse racing as he filled her with fingers that were just a taste of what was to come. It wasn’t enough. She wanted more. She wanted it all. As if reading her body, he gripped his cock with the same hand he’d brought her to near orgasm with, and teased her entrance with the tip. Every pulse point in her body throbbed with anticipation.
Until finally, he allowed her to lower herself onto him slowly, in control of the way he stretched her muscles, sinking around him to take him in. All of him. Her head dropped to meet his, their foreheads pressed together in a shared pleasure that words couldn’t capture, until finally she whispered, ‘Fuck,’ and she felt his smile against her lips.
‘I love it when you talk dirty, Carmichael.’
She smiled as he pulled her down around his length even more and he groaned while she sank into the feeling of completeness. It was as if she’d found something in herself that she hadn’t known she was missing and she never wanted to move ever again. Until Chase anchored her against him and rolled his hips.
* * *
Bella cried into his mouth and he’d never heard anything more incredible. It had been a while since he’d last slept with anyone, but he knew, instinctively and instantly that this was different. It was some alchemical reaction bonding them together even if he was resistant to it.
Dragging his mouth from hers, he looked up, her hair having fallen around them, golden strands encasing them, his eyes fastened on her, unable to look away. His gaze devoured her, every nip she made on her lip, every moan that fell from her mouth, the way that her eyes closed as if trying to hide her pleasure from him, but was utterly unable to.
The way she felt around him, the way she felt above him, he worshipped her with his hands and mouth, the taste of her indelible on his tongue. Every nuance, every moment was different, a cacophony of moments of her that he wanted to capture on canvas, in paint, pen, pencil, charcoal, anything he could get his hands on.
And then he felt her begin to tighten around him and all coherent thought fled. They became pure sensation, as he lifted her ever so slightly, allowing him to thrust into her in chaotic pumps that took them close to the edge of something as inescapable and inevitable as it was incredible.
Her moans of pleasure filled his ears and his groans became growls as he pushed them both to the brink. Sweat-soaked skin slapped against sweat-soaked skin and when Bella thrust out her hand against the window behind them, holding herself in place above him just where she wanted him, just where he hit that spot, it shoved them into the path of an oncoming orgasm that crashed over them in a wave that washed everything away.
‘That was…’ she tried, her voice harsh from her cries. ‘That was…’ she tried and failed again.
‘I don’t know what that was,’ he whispered, his own throat dry, ‘but I want to do it again.’ His heart turned when she laughed. He pulled back so that he could see her and kiss her and simply explore her. His cock pulsed from that simple contact and he knew they couldn’t stay like that for much longer.
‘I’m going to have to move you.’
Bella shook her head and he felt his own reluctance.
‘I know, but I need to deal with the condom,’ he said, pressing a kiss to her lips. He reached for the throw on the sofa and pulled it across her, before heading to the bathroom.
He disposed of the condom, washed his hands, and looked at himself in the mirror. What they’d shared… it wasn’t just something that could be one night. He didn’t know what it meant, but he knew it made him worried. Worried about her. Worried about what it meant for him. She wasn’t someone he could see himself walking away from.
Bella knocked on the open door, something like nervousness in her gaze. And he understood it. Christ, he felt it himself. But instead of facing it, he leaned into the shower stall and turned on the hot spray of water, pulling her gently with him to stand beneath it.
As the water cascaded down over them, he took her mouth, the slick slide of their tongues merging with watery caresses. Christ. Already he was hard for her. Already the fire stoked by just one touch burned through the water. His lips hungrily consumed the skin on her neck as he pressed open-mouthed kisses to her collarbone and chest. His hands palmed her breasts and her cries urged him on.
What was this madness? he wondered, his entire body burning with need.
‘Condom,’ he said against her skin, groaning just from the thought of leaving her.
She stilled in his hands, frustration etched on her face.
His forehead dropped to hers. ‘I only had one in my wallet,’ he admitted.
‘That’s okay,’ she said, smiling softly as if that was it. That was all he was after. He frowned, wondering at what the hell the guys she’d been with before now had been up to.
‘That doesn’t mean that I’m done with you,’ he warned her, eagerness spreading through his body at the way her eyes lit up.
He kissed her with the fervour of a dying man, before turning her in his arms and gently pressing her against the shower wall. She shivered as he pressed a kiss to her neck and trembled when he told her to hold on.
He dropped to his knees, and parted her legs, drawing her hips back towards him.
‘Chase—’ She shook.
‘Don’t worry. I’ve got you,’ he promised her. ‘Just trust me.’
And then he leaned forward and pressed open-mouthed kisses against her core. His fingers found her clit as she cried out, her body tense and near fraught with need.
She tasted incredible, but it was the way she shifted in his hands, as if unable to keep still, unable to bear her own pleasure. His tongue delved into her folds, teased her entrance as one hand palmed her ass cheek and the other teased her clit. Hot, wet and sweet, he’d never been so turned on in his life. He was at risk of coming just from the sound of her pleasure.
She pressed herself against him and he smiled, tonguing her thoroughly, spreading her just a little wider for him, until finally, spectacularly, she came undone on his tongue, her breath rhythmic sobs that he felt right down to his balls.
Tremors wracked her body as he took her into his arms and out of the shower. He dried her carefully, while the daze slowly receded from her gaze and led her back into the dimly lit room. He drew her beneath the covers, tucking her against his body, knowing that his own needs could wait. Would wait, until they knew exactly what was going on between them.