19. Chapter 19
“Ms. Darling will see you now,” the receptionist behind the desk called to me.
Ready.
I was ready.
I followed the receptionist as they led me down a hallway, past numerous offices with large windows and smartly dressed people.
I wore the same thing I wore nearly every day to the clinic, it was all I had, and it was me, but it didn’t even matter. What I was about to do would change the course of everything.
When Millie Darling looked me over without blinking an eye at my outfit and shook my hand like an equal—I liked her instantly.
A pang of regret went through me, but then I thought of Justin. The way he held me, looked at me…it filled my chest with warmth. I was doing this for us. For me.
“Please,” Ms. Darling gestured to a chair. “Have a seat. Thank you for meeting on such short notice.”
“My pleasure.”
She was younger than I expected. Ageless in that way where I couldn’t tell if she was in her thirties or forties.
She folded her hands on top of her desk.
“I’m not going to mince words, I’m very interested in your program, Ms. Malone.
I was nervous at first, given your age, but your reputation proceeds you.
Outstanding grades, multiple jobs, and outstanding references. ”
She picked up a piece of paper, and without looking, I knew it was Justin’s testimony. The one he thought condemned me.
“I’d like to do much more than buy your idea, I’d like to purchase the whole package, and that includes you.”
My jaw hit the floor.
“I understand you’ll be graduating soon? We would have to work out logistics, but I would very much like to bring you on to my team immediately while you’re still completing your studies. What do you say?”
There was so much I wanted to say, mostly hooting and hollering with joy, but I kept that to myself and snapped my gaping mouth shut.
Wiping my palms on my thighs, I looked Ms. Darling straight in the eye.
“I would love that, but there’s something you need to know.
Something that might change everything, but you didn’t mince words, and neither will I.
I’m in love with a man, a man that is so worried about me ruining my future that he doesn’t think we can be together, and in a way he’s right.
This man is Justin Kingston. He’s a plastic surgeon that’s trying to open a clinic in Eastern Los Angeles to help low income families. ”
Ms. Darling stared at me, the letter from Justin still held in her grasp. I watched her start to put the pieces together. Her eyes drifted to the paper in her hand and back up. “It says here that Justin is your stepfather?”
I lifted my chin. “He is. That doesn’t change how I feel about him.
And what you should know is that someone close to him is holding our relationship over his head.
They will go to the press because they’re petty and spoiled, and I know how that would look.
It looks like I slept with Justin to get that letter, but I’m telling you, woman to woman, that that is not the case.
I would love to go into business with you Ms. Darling, but you needed to know everything.
I can’t have that hanging over my head. I won’t let someone else determine what I can or can’t do. ”
The whir of the air conditioning was all I heard for what felt like eternity.
Finally, Ms. Darling put the paper down and with it, my hopes and dreams. She skewered me with her dark eyes, peeling me apart, layer by layer.
And I let her. I had nothing to hide anymore.
Another eternity later, she leaned back in her chair and tapped her chin. “It takes guts to do what you did, Ms. Malone.”
“Thank you.”
“But that kind of press is bad news.”
My stomach sank. “I know.”
“Then it’s a good thing I pay my lawyers handsomely, because if any slander about you comes up in the papers, I’ll slap a lawsuit on it.”
My head whipped up. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t dare believe it.
Ms. Darling smiled at me and extended her hand, “so, what do you say?”
I rose from my chair and clasped her hand. “I do have one question.”
Her perfectly sculpted brow rose.
“Do you happen to be interested in broadening your philanthropic endeavors?”
The sun was setting by the time I got back to Justin’s. I’d texted him before getting in my car, asking him to meet me at his place.
Despite the traffic of LA, I beat him to his house by a few minutes.
He pulled up as the sun started to set, everything cast in gold.
He looked rough around the edges, stubble lining his jaw, the collar of his shirt undone. It looked as if he’d gone to war, but the spark in his eye when he saw me was undeniable.
His steps took on a new purpose.
He stopped less than a foot from me, I could feel him through his clothes. My body came to life.
Without a word, he wrapped me in his arms and kissed me. He held nothing back and I ended up gasping for air.
“I need to tell you something.”
“Me first,” I put a hand over his mouth, his stubble scraping against my skin causing goose bumps to rise.
I didn’t know what it was about this man that made me yearn so badly.
It used to frighten me. It still did. I wasn’t out of the clear yet.
It was time to ask Justin what he wanted, to give him the choice without repercussions.
He either picked me to keep in his life or he didn’t.
Butterflies took up residence in my stomach.
Here went nothing.
“I met with my buyer today and told her everything—about us.”
His expression fell, but I didn’t let that deter me.
“I know what Midge did, and what she plans to do, and I took that power away from her. I knew it was a risk, but it was worth it because I wanted to give you the option of choosing me without you thinking that you were taking my future away.”
I put my hand over his heart, warmth spreading through me when I felt it beating as fast as mine.
“Do you know what she said to me?”
He shook his head.
“She offered me a job, Justin, a good one. She wants to buy my program, keep me on her payroll and make me a key member of her developmental team. There was some legal jargon thrown in there as well if Midge decides to come after me, but that’s not the point.”
The smile on his face was brighter than the sun.
I yelped as his arms scooped me up and spun me.
“Katie, that’s amazing.”
When my feet touched back down his lips seared mine, his tongue slipping past my lips.
“I haven’t even gotten to the best part yet,” I gasped.
“You mean there’s more?” The blue of his eyes reminded me of the ocean at sunset. I leaned into his lean swimmer’s body, inhaling the scent of him that had a touch of chlorine.
“Ms. Darling is interested in your clinic. Her niece suffered a bad burn during a freak house fire, and it turns out that she’s been looking for a worthy cause to get involved in.”
His eyes darted back and forth between mine, brimming with so much emotion I couldn’t even begin to decipher it. “You’re remarkable, you know that?”
I beamed at him.
“You know what else?” he whispered into my ear. “I love you.”
My breath caught and I stepped back to stare up at him.
“I was going to tell you that I was done worrying about my clinic, Midge and her shit for brains brother-in-law can keep their money. I want to be with you. If you’re willing to brave whatever shit storm they unleash, then so am I.”
“You were going to step away from your clinic for me?”
“I would give up the world for you, Katie Malone.”
I jumped him.
He groaned, arms going around me, dragging me against the hard muscles of his body, his cock pressing into my belly, thick and ready.
I think I would always be indebted to Justin Kingston, no matter how much I tried to fight it. He fixed something inside of me I hadn’t realized was broken in the first place. He brought life and light back into my day.
And when he scooped me up and brought me inside his mansion, I’d never felt happier.
He took us all the way up his stairs, to his bedroom, unceremoniously dropping me on his bed with a grin.
“Justin,” I laughed. But the rest of my words were cut off as he descended upon me, his hand making quick work of my slacks, reaching inside to the front of my panties where I was hot and soaked.
He growled low in his throat as his fingers dipped below my panties to feather over my damp sex. He brushed my clit, traced my folds, his fingers spreading me, coating his finger in my juices.
I moaned.
He pushed a finger inside me. I arched off the bed.
“I’m going to make love to you until you can’t see straight,” his tongue traced the outside of my ear.
“Yes,” I cried out as his teeth grazed down my neck, another finger pushing into me, this thumb circling my clit.
“Does this feel good?”
“So good.”
“Take your shirt off,” he nipped where my shoulder and neck met.
I lifted the material up and over my head. His other hand traced up my stomach, dipping into the cup of my bra to squeeze my breast. He pinched my hardened nipple and I gasped. His fingers rolled my nipple while his other hand worked my pussy and clit.
Pleasure built low in my gut, his fingers dragging along my inner walls, sending frissons to every nerve ending.
I lifted my hips to meet him. His lips grazed my cheek. I turned my head and he claimed my mouth. His tongue thrusting into my mouth, twining around mine.
I couldn’t think.
His fingers pumped harder, faster. My mouth opened and he took advantage, plundering it with his own until I could hardly breathe.
He pinched my clit and I screamed, my sex clenching around his fingers. He kept up the assault until I was a quivering mess.
“Fuck, you’re gorgeous. I can never get enough of that.” He pulled his fingers out of me, the sticky juices still on him. He brought them to his mouth.
My pussy clenched as I watched him lick his fingers clean, eyes never leaving mine.
“You taste delicious, Katie.”
“Do I?”
He paused with a finger half in his mouth. My heart hammered in my throat as he studied me and then offered his finger. I took it into my mouth, tasting myself on him. I ran my tongue up the side of his finger, imagining it was his cock, swirling around the tip before pulling back with a pop.
He had me on my back in two seconds flat, hands ripping my pants from my legs. I reached for the hem of his shirt.
I kicked off my pants while he worked the belt of his slacks, jumping off me to push them down his hips, leaving him gloriously naked.
I took him in, every tanned, toned inch.
I’d never seen him completely naked and I was going to take every second, and every minute of every day from this moment onward to admire it.
He had a build made for gazing at. The powerful expanse of his chest, the swell of his shoulders, the flat planes of his abs, the cut of his hips, the strength of his thighs, and at his very center, his thick, swollen cock.
I ached from staring at it.
“Lay back,” he instructed, crawling up the bed toward me. His hot hand pressed against my chest. “Lay back,” he chuckled when I didn’t do as he said.
I followed the pressure of his hand. He reached for the nightstand and rolled on a condom before settling himself between my thighs, the tip of his cock poised at my entrance.
“I love you, Katie. I can’t imagine a life without you, without your wit, your brilliance, your humor.
” He licked his lips, hips arching so his cock brushed against me, back and forth but not penetrating.
I gripped his hips to try and drive him into me, but he grinned and took my hands off him, pinning them with his own by my head.
“Not yet, we have all the time in the world. I want to savor every inch of you. Why rush?”
“Because I want your cock in me.”
His fingers squeezed my wrists.
“I want you Justin,” I watched his resolve slowly melt. “I’ve wanted you for so long. I want to feel your cock tunneling in and out of me. I want to feel you stretching me to the point of pain. I want you fucking me—”
He slammed into me and I cried out with the pleasure, fingers curling, brushing his.
Hips flush against mine, eyes half lidded, he stared down at me and smiled.
He shifted so that both my wrists were cuffed by one of his hands. His other hand trailed down my chest, toyed with my nipples, grazed along my stomach, pressed on my clit, slipped away to glide down my thigh. He gripped me under my knee and started to lift my leg.
“What—?”
But my words stuttered in my chest when he pulled out and pushed back in, the angle driving him deeper.
I shut my eyes and moaned.
His fingers tightened on my thigh, and he set a rhythm that had us both gasping and moaning.
“Justin,” I struggled against his hold. “I’m going to come. I’m going to…”
He pounded into me, each inward thrust brushing against my G-spot. He released my hands to press hard on my clit.
I exploded. My pussy clenching around him. He continued to thrust, his cock jumping inside me until his body stiffened, and he roared my name.
We stayed like that for a long time, wrapped up in each other.
“I love you Justin Kingston,” I whispered into the night.
“I love you, Katie Malone.”
That night I fell into a blissful sleep, more content than I’d ever been.
I was no longer alone.