Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
Cassius
I stood on the threshold of Naomi’s office, watching her in the aftermath of her conversation with her father. Whatever it entailed, it hadn’t gone well. And I had no doubt it involved me.
She wiped tears from her cheeks and then pressed the pads of her hands to her eyes.
An ache grew in my chest as if I should prepare for the worst.
“Want to talk about it?” I asked, stepping through the doorway.
She lifted her weary gaze to mine, and she shook her head. “No. I’d rather go home.”
The last thing she needed was to brood about the argument with her father.
“I have a better idea. Why don’t we call Akari and make use of her clubs?”
“I’m not sure if I’m up to it.”
“Come on, Kumar. You’re the one who said a night out on the town is the best way to let off steam.”
A half-hearted smile touched her lips, and she shifted from her chair, standing and moving in my direction.
When she reached me, she cupped my face and ran her thumb over my lips. “I miss Ibiza. Things seemed so much simpler there.”
“I’ll take you back soon.”
Something like sadness flashed in her eyes, and she said, “For now, let’s take advantage of our connections to Akari.”
Sliding my arms around her waist, I tugged her flush against me and then walked her backward until I had her trapped between the edge of her desk and me.
“Before we go anywhere, I need to take care of something.”
“And that is?” she asked as arousal filled her dark irises, replacing the sorrow from moments earlier.
I brought my mouth down to hers, grazing my teeth along her lower lip. “Since my attempts at impregnating you failed and will continue to fail, I need to fuck you and mark your pussy with my cum.”
“You seriously are a Neanderthal,” she responded. “Most women don’t like your type of possessiveness.”
“Good thing you aren’t most women.” I lifted her onto her desk and stepped between her legs.
She wrapped her arms around my shoulders and brought her lips against mine. “You’re right. It’s a good thing.”
* * *
“I need you to come clean with me, Naomi,” I said as I entered her penthouse. “What is going on with you?”
I’d held off on this conversation for the last two weeks, hoping she’d let me in on her thoughts. But it had never happened, and now I had no choice.
She stood by her kitchen island in a tank and lounge pants with her hair piled on top of her head.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Cut the bullshit.” I strode in her direction and caged her with my arms. “Ever since you had that call, something has been bothering you, and you won’t talk about it.”
It was more than that. She’d grown distant. As if she’d put a wall between us, something stronger and completely different from the one I faced when I’d encountered her when we first arrived in Vegas.
She kept her gaze on the counter in front of her. “I have a lot on my mind. The project, Mia and Tarak’s upcoming visit, just things.”
“Liar. What happened with your father?” I slid a palm over her abdomen, up her ribcage, and between her breasts, and then cupped her neck, tilting her jaw upward so she faced me.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Of course, it matters. Your father is a permanent part of your life, and when we marry, he’ll become the same for me. I need to know what issues he has with me.”
She winced and said, “Why do you keep talking about marriage?”
“Are you telling me you haven’t thought of our future, of what’s next? I’ve made it clear from the beginning what I want.”
“What if I don’t want what you want?”
I released her, stepping back. Everything inside me clenched as if she’d gut-punched me.
She turned, bracing her back against the granite counter.
“You said you love me.” I resisted the urge to move toward her again.
“I do.”
“But?”
“It’s better if you don’t look for more. I’m not sure I can give you more.”
She wouldn’t do this without a reason.
“Your father made you choose between him and me.”
And, as always, I lost when it came to someone picking me.
“Cassius, I’m giving you what I can.”
“So, what you’re saying is that despite the fact you’re in love with me, you want to keep us a casual, fuck-when-the-itch-hits thing?”
She looked away. “It’s the way it has to be.”
“I see. Then I have four words for you.”
Her attention returned to me. “They are?”
“Get on your knees.”
Everything inside the room grew quiet except our breaths. We stared at each other. The anger and hurt pulsed between us, and the now increasing lust.
My dick throbbed, hard and hot, ready for Naomi’s lips to wrap around it.
“You want to punish me.”
“If sex is all we have, so be it. Besides, you like sucking my cock, so what’s the problem?” I stepped closer to her. “Plus, that flush on your cheeks tells me this arouses you.”
Setting my hand on her shoulder, I held her dark brown gaze and pushed her down. She slid to the floor, setting her wrists behind her at the hollow of her lower back, and waited.
Fuck. No woman compared to her beauty. Everything about her pulled at me, drew me, made me crave, and her keeping us apart drove me crazy.
I slid one palm into her hair and then freed my cock with the other. I fisted myself up and down before bringing my dripping tip a fraction from her plump lips. Before I could tell her to open, she licked a bead of precum and hummed.
At the same time, she pressed her thighs together and shifted side to side, trying to give herself some relief.
“Take me in deep, just the way I like.”
I’d barely finished my order when she engulfed my rigid length deep and then contracted the back of her throat.
“Fuck,” I groaned, throwing back my head and clenching my eyes tight. “God, I love when you do that.”
She hummed again, telling me she enjoyed it as much as I had. She began a slow, meticulous rhythm designed to drive me to the verge of losing control. She licked and sucked, hollowing her cheeks and working the thick vein under my erection with each pass of her tongue.
Low, guttural sounds escaped my lips, and my breath grew ragged as my hold on her hair grew almost brutal. A whimpered moan vibrated from her, telling me that my desire pushed her arousal higher, and I did not doubt that beautiful pussy of hers was soaked through and through.
It was always like this with us. So in sync with the other’s desires, knowing without trying. And for some reason, the act of giving pleasure got us off as much as receiving it.
Knowing I couldn’t let her control the pace any longer, I took over, pistoning in and out of her mouth in hard, measured thrusts. “Now it’s my turn.”
Unable to respond, she stared up at me with her dark midnight eyes. Tears spilled from them, and sweat tinged her skin.
“You’re going to take every drop, and you aren’t going to look away,” I ordered through clenched teeth as my cock swelled, growing thicker and harder.
I pummeled her mouth, my fingers flexing against her scalp, then, with a loud moan, I came in hard spurts, holding her down onto my cock until I worked every last drop of cum out of me.
She never once looked away.
A surge of unexpected emotion pushed forward, burning deep in my chest, and at the same time, I saw it well up in her dark depths.
That’s right. I wanted her to feel it. I wanted her to suffer, hunger, yearn, break down, and beg. Then maybe she’d understand how much it hurt to love so hard and have nothing to show for it.
I pulled free of her mouth, tucking myself back into my pants, and then wiped her swollen lips with my thumb, pushing my residual essence onto her tongue.
I offered her my hand, not saying a word.
Her face glowed with arousal and need. Everything inside me screamed to satisfy my woman, but that wasn’t the point of this.
“What we just did, would you qualify that as just fucking or something else?”
She remained quiet, the intensity in her irises revealing more than she realized.
“Just as I thought.” I shifted to turn but then paused. “Before I leave, I need you to think about this.”
She waited for my words.
“No matter how dirty, how hard, how raw, how filthy we fucked, was it ever emotionless? Was it ever meaningless? Was it selfish or one-sided? Was it without feeling?”
Her lips trembled.
“No matter how much you deny it, sooner or later, you’ll have to accept the truth.”
“What’s the truth?” she asked.
I moved to the door. “What we have is love. No matter how we push the boundaries, we make love. And that is only a small part of our lives together. We are a couple. We talk, share our lives, and know each other’s secrets.
Hell, we practically live together. It was the same while you were in Mykonos.
I understand your father is your family. But you’re my family.”