Chapter 9
CIPHER
When I woke up, Bex was cuddled against my chest, a warm thigh draped over my hips and her face tucked into the hollow beneath my shoulder.
Sometime during the night, she had worked a hand beneath my shirt and spread her fingers over my stomach.
My arm remained locked around her waist exactly where I’d put it.
Her hair covered my chest and half the pillow, carrying the faint citrus-and-vanilla scent that had been fucking with my self-control since Stryker’s wedding. The only thing I regretted about putting her in my bed was that the perimeter alert had interrupted us before I finished what we’d started.
My cock had been hard before I fully opened my eyes, trapped under the soft curve of her thigh while every shift of her sleeping body dragged warmth over the rigid length.
I tightened my hand at her waist and watched the early light move across her face, taking in the faint flush still lingering along her throat from my mouth and the softness around her lips after I ravished it again before going to sleep.
I wasn’t sure how I’d convinced myself before that leaving Bex alone was the only reasonable choice. Now she was in my bed, wearing one of my shirts, carrying my marks on her slender throat, and there wasn’t a single part of the situation I intended to reverse.
Her lashes fluttered when my thumb slid beneath the hem of the shirt and traced the warm skin of her thigh just below her panties. Her eyes opened slowly, unfocused at first, then brightened when she found me watching her. “You’re staring.”
“Trying to understand how you can look that innocent while lying on top of my cock.”
Bex’s mouth curved into an impish smile as she fit her body tighter against mine, pressing her thigh more firmly over my erection. “Natural talent.”
“It’s a dangerous one.”
“Oh?”
I nodded as I caught the back of her neck and rolled her beneath me, settling my weight between her open legs while her surprised laugh dissolved into a soft gasp. “I suffered most of the night.”
Heat spread across her cheeks as her palms moved up my chest, but she didn’t look away or pretend the blunt answer embarrassed her enough to want less.
Her legs widened beneath me, accommodating the heavier lines of my body while my cock pressed against her warm center.
When I rocked once, grinding the thick ridge along her, her lips parted, and the sound that escaped went straight through my balls.
“Poor Corbin,” she breathed.
Hearing her say my real name in my bed hit even harder than it had the night before.
“You can make it up to me now.”
I took her mouth before she could say anything else, swallowing her gasp while my hand threaded through her hair while the other closed around one of her breasts.
The soft weight filled my palm, her nipple tightening instantly against the center of it before my thumb dragged over the sensitive peak.
Bex whimpered and arched beneath me with her fingers digging into my shoulders.
“That’s it,” I growled against her lips, rolling the tight little point between my fingers while her hips lifted toward the hard pressure of my cock. “Let me hear what my hands do to you.”
Her answering moan came out breathless and sweet, feeding every filthy image I’d been carrying since the wedding.
Bex rolled her hips again, catching my erection hard enough to drag a rough sound from my chest. Her hand moved down my stomach, slipping beneath the waistband of my sleep pants before her fingers wrapped around the thick base of my cock.
The first stroke nearly destroyed the reason I’d promised myself I would stop, and I caught her wrist against my abdomen before she could do it again.
She stilled beneath me, confusion mixed with hurt filling her pretty eyes. “You want me to stop?”
“No.” I brought her hand to my mouth and bit lightly at the pad of her thumb, watching the concern turn back into heat. “But I have shit I’ve gotta handle, and I don’t want any other interruptions when I finally get you naked.”
I lowered my mouth to the pulse beating beneath her ear and let my teeth scrape lightly over it, giving myself one more taste before control became a memory. “First time I take you, I’m going to need hours, baby. Once I start, not gonna stop until I know every inch of this sexy body.”
Bex’s skin turned pink again, and a visible shiver moved through her, tightening the hand I still held while her legs slid higher around my hips. “Okay.”
I ground my cock against her once more, hard enough to make her breath break, then forced myself off the bed before the heat in her eyes convinced me otherwise. “Get in the shower before I change my mind.”
She pushed herself up on her elbows, my shirt hanging off one shoulder while her hair spilled around her flushed face. “You could join me.”
“I could also fuck you against the tile before we make it past the soap.” I caught the shirt where it had slipped and dragged it back into place, although covering her did nothing helpful for my throbbing cock. “Not gonna do that our first time, Bex. Separate showers.”
Bex smiled as she climbed from the bed, brushing her body deliberately against mine while she passed. “For someone who insists on making all the decisions, you don’t seem very happy with this one.”
“I’m not,” I growled as I caught her around the waist, pulled her back against my chest, and put my mouth beside her ear while my cock pressed into the curve of her ass. “But you’re not gonna change my mind, baby.”
Apparently, my warning had accomplished the opposite of discouraging her. Her eyes brightened with challenge, and I growled again as I turned her toward the bathroom and smacked her ass to get her moving.
Years of honing self-discipline were all that kept me from joining her in the shower.
I used one of the guest bathrooms, then headed to the kitchen to start breakfast. Bex entered a little while later in fitted jeans and a soft green shirt, with her damp hair falling in loose waves around her shoulders.
She set the tablet she was carrying on the table and squinted under the recessed lights, which were on full brightness.
“Does your kitchen always look like it’s trying to force a confession out of breakfast?” She slid onto one of the stools at the island.
I stopped and looked around. The black counters, steel appliances, and hard white lighting did make the room look more suited to extracting state secrets than scrambling eggs. “Fuck. You’re right.”
Bex laughed. “You never noticed?”
“Usually looking at the food.” I set her coffee in front of her and let my gaze travel slowly over her. “This morning, I had a better view.”
“Can’t complain about the view from over here either.” A grin slipped onto my face, and she paused with her mug halfway to her mouth. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile like that before.”
“Never had a reason to before now.”
Her eyes brightened. “I’m just going to go ahead and assume that reason is me.”
“Thought that was pretty clear, baby. Now stop distracting me so I can make you breakfast.”
Her laugh followed me as I cooked, warming a room I’d never considered cold before she entered it. She searched through the tote beside her stool, frowned, then checked the side pocket again. “I can’t find my charger.”
“Side pocket of the smaller suitcase.”
She sighed. “That would be more useful if the suitcase wasn’t upstairs.”
I opened a drawer by the pantry and retrieved one of the charger cables I kept stored there. Then I plugged one end into her tablet and the other into the outlet at the end of the island.
Bex’s eyes were warm when she murmured, “Thank you.”
I shrugged and began plating our meal, my mind already shifting to make a mental list of tasks I needed to complete. Most of them centered around making Bex feel like this house was her home.
After breakfast, I led Bex down the rear hallway to the part of the house I used most when I wasn’t sleeping.
The study came first, a broad room with built-in shelves, two deep leather chairs, a large desk facing windows overlooking the back of the property, and a long worktable positioned beneath them.
I handled household security, personal accounts, reading, and anything else that didn’t need to disappear behind steel in there, while the reinforced door set into the far wall led to the secure office housing Black Castle systems, club intelligence, and information belonging to people who trusted me to keep it buried.
Bex stepped farther into the study, turning slowly as she took in the shelves and the security monitor mounted beside the windows. Her attention eventually caught on the biometric lock built into the reinforced door across the room. “What’s through there?”
“My secure office. Black Castle and club systems.” I placed her class materials on the worktable and met her curious gaze. “Nobody goes through that door but me, Stryker, and Hawkeye.”
“That explains why it looks capable of surviving a siege.”
I moved the chair at the window out for her, then opened my hardened laptop at the opposite end of the table. Sitting at my desk, across the room from her, felt like too much distance between us. “Use whatever space you want.”
Her brows rose as she looked from the chair to me. “In here?”
“In the whole house.” I leaned one hand against the table and held her gaze. “You don’t ask permission to use a room, move something, or change anything that doesn’t work for you. That door is the only exception because the secrets behind it aren’t mine alone.”
Warmth filled her hazel-green eyes before a mischievous smile curved her mouth. “You realize I have opinions about your kitchen.”
“Fix it.”
Her laugh changed the room before she’d added a single thing to it. “That is a dangerous amount of freedom to give me.”
“You’re not a guest, Bex. I brought you home.”