Chapter 2 Jonas
TWO
JONAS
She’s in a mood tonight, I immediately thought to myself the moment she stepped foot inside the room and the door shut behind her. I wondered for a moment if it was because for the third night in a row, I hadn’t been the one to escort her here.
Or did my bouncers say something to her?
Did someone make her uncomfortable?
My hands clenched tightly around my cell phone, and I needed to mentally force them to relax. I had been on a call and asked Dom and Brady to walk her to me. They were the security I trusted the most, but if they so much as looked at her, I wouldn’t bother Lucas with gauging their eyes out.
No, that would be a job I would be more than happy to do myself.
Katarina Ortega stepped forward and stopped.
I had to do everything in my power not to stand and rush toward her.
Kitty’s definitely up to something. I dragged my gaze down to the screen of my phone to make her think I was distracted, maybe too busy returning emails or some shit to acknowledge her, but it wasn’t that.
Not even close.
I was watching her stare at me through the cameras I had installed in this room.
Kitty didn’t immediately walk over to the couch where I was sitting.
Didn’t take the seat next to me that had her Kindle fully charged and ready like she’d been doing these last few months.
And I didn’t like it. Something was definitely up.
Walking in and looking around like she didn’t know the place like the back of her hand. Watching me. Waiting for me to say something. To tell her to do my bidding.
But I didn’t.
Instead, I sat and stared at my cell phone even though everything inside of me wanted to order her to sit her perfect ass on my lap so I could read her favorite book to her.
Or ask her to dance for me. Watch up close and personal as that sexy, curvy, tantalizing body moved just for me before having her sit on me, straddle me with those luscious thighs I would more than happily use as earmuffs so that little pussy of hers could rub up against my length with a couple of layers of clothes between us.
But I didn’t say any of that.
I never said much.
Instead, I watched her on my screen as her brows furrowed with what I could only describe as unfettered frustration. Kitty crossed her arms over her chest and tapped those sexy-as-hell shoes she had on against the plush rug beneath her feet.
“If you’re busy tonight, I can leave,” she said with an attitude I’d only seen her give others, breaking the silence in the cozy room, all while getting me fucking hard.
The fucker behind my slacks didn’t care about the slight pain when he pressed against the metal teeth of the zipper.
I swallowed slowly to keep my composure.
I wouldn’t have guessed attitude would work me up like that, but fucking hell, everything about Kitty Ortega put me on edge, ready to hammer nails with my throbbing cock.
“Never too busy for you,” I said, setting the phone down next to my thigh. I sat on the couch with a look on my face that said I had all the time in the world.
And for Kitty, I did.
“Coulda fooled me,” she mumbled under her breath. My gaze narrowed. I took in every detail about her, and my mouth suddenly went dry.
She’d chosen a new lingerie set tonight.
Or at least new to me.
One I’d never seen before.
The little blue number she had on was sheerer than she normally wore.
The pretty panty and bra set was something out of my fucking wet dreams. Kitty looked like a mouth-watering pinup doll with the royal-blue-trimmed bra with blood-red roses embroidered around the cups, sewn on to cover her nipples.
Those same roses and greenery were sprinkled against the sheer material of her high-waisted blue-trimmed panties.
She looked like a goddess.
Mine, the beast inside of me growled.
The icing on the cake were the matching blue garters around her thick thighs connected to white, almost innocent sheer thigh-highs and matching blue shoes. The shoes were fucking gorgeous. Something she probably designed herself.
Not that she had any idea I knew about her little hidden talent for designing shoes and lingerie sets for dancers.
“That new?” I tipped my chin as my eyes helplessly roamed down her body once again with nothing but clear appreciation.
Yeah, my self-control was slipping, but a man could only keep his hands to himself for so long. Kitty didn’t miss the way I looked at her. Her eyes widened for a moment before a slight barely-there tinge of pink painted the apples of her cheeks.
“Maybe.” She shrugged, that sexy-as-hell attitude of hers still in place.
“It’s beautiful,” I complimented before shifting against the couch, settling back, trying to give the illusion I wasn’t right on the edge of snapping. “Where did you buy it?”
“What?” Her voice was slightly huskier than usual.
“Where did you buy it?” I asked again, slower this time.
“Oh.” She pressed her lips together.
“Tell me, baby, trust me,” I silently goaded, hoping she could feel the request in my gaze.
“I made it,” she answered, and I smiled on the inside.
“Talented and stunningly beautiful is a dangerous combination.” This compliment made her roll her eyes like I knew they would.
But it didn’t make that pink tinge on her cheeks lessen.
If anything, it seemed to start creeping down her neck and chest. The beast in me started to pace. “Why are you all the way over there?”
“Are you bored?” she blurted out, and it took me a moment to process her question.
“Excuse me?” I asked, because there was no way I could have heard her right.
“Bored,” she repeated fearlessly. My brave, strong girl. “Are. You. Bored?” she enunciated each word carefully. Of me. What she was asking was if I was bored of her.
My head tipped to the side. Shit, she was refreshing as hell.
No one ever spoke to me like that. My eyes never wavered from hers.
I could see the hundred-foot titanium walls she’d built throughout her life in order to protect that soft heart she hardly ever showed anyone staying strong around her.
If she only knew I intended on demolishing them into a heap of dust.
“With what?” I asked calmly, not letting her see how her questions were eating me up inside.
How the hell could she ever fathom I’d be bored with her? How could she ever doubt that she was my favorite part of my day? Because you’re too fucking quiet for your own damn good, dumbass!
“With me,” she blurted, and I swear that pink tint brightened. “I mean…” The cutest little lines furrowed deeply at her brow. “You and… well, with this arrangement.” She might have nervously tripped over the words, but she got them out.
She was magnificent. Mine, the animal inside of me she’d brought to life growled. Mine.
No more waiting.
The thing inside me had me standing, unable to sit quietly any longer.
Something I hadn’t done in our time together.
I was a big motherfucker, and she was so damn tiny, I never wanted to intimidate her with my size.
But hearing her call it an arrangement had messed something up in my head.
Kitty’s eyes grew wide, and she took a step back.
“Our arrangement?” I asked, ever the image of patience.
“This.” My stupidly brave girl stomped her pretty foot. “You and me. Reading,” my beautiful stubborn kitty cat pointed out. “I don’t know why you’re doing this. Or if I’m the first of the huge line that will follow me, but—“ Before she could say another fucking word, the beast took over.
My arms reached for her all too easily.
Gently but with a firm grip, I pulled her in front of me, wrapping one arm around her small little waist in order to keep her in place. Her place was right next to me, where she belonged.
“This isn’t an arrangement, Kitty,” I said, shocking the hell out of myself with how calm I still sounded.
“What?”
“An arrangement would mean clear boundaries. Set limitations. That’s not us. Do you understand?”
“No,” she whispered, shaking her head slowly as her eyes left mine only to land on my mouth. I could feel her pretty stare so much my lips tingled to steal a taste from her.
“You and I? We don’t have any kinds of limitations or boundaries between us.”
“What? Jonas—“
“Fucking love hearing you say my name, Kitty cat—“
“Don’t call me that,” she muttered half-heartedly, but I didn’t miss the way her soft body pressed closer against me. My woman’s hand was now not only resting on my chest but stroking me. The heat of her touch seeping through the material of my shirt had the lion inside me start to rumble.
“Let’s be clear. An arrangement would have a clear start and end date. You and I don’t have the latter, baby,” I explained clearly. She blinked like a deer caught in headlights. Slow. Unbelieving. And who could blame her? I hadn’t said this much in our time together combined.
“Jonas—“
“If you’re tired of our reading time…” My hand moved up, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear.
I couldn’t stop myself. I leaned forward and inhaled her sweet scent deeply, letting my lungs fill with her smell.
She smelled so damn good it made my head spin so much I could have sworn I was drunk.
Kitty drunk. “…I’m sure we could find other things to do with our time together.
” My voice sounded hoarse in my own ears.
Her sweet body trembled, and goose bumps covered her skin.
“You’re not going to kick me to the curb?
” I could hear the vulnerable underbelly in her words.
She might not know it, but she was letting me in, giving me a peek at what was behind the titanium walls she had erected around herself.
It made me feel like a fucking Viking, ready to go to war to claim what he wanted.
What he deserved. A sound I’d never heard bubbled up from me, something between an animalistic growl and unworldly rumble as a punch of possessive need almost knocked me onto my knees.
“Never, baby.” I pulled away, tipping her chin upward so our eyes locked. “You’re mine.”
I was done waiting. Done trying to be the good guy and keep my hands to myself.
Kitty deserved better. She deserved man who could give her whatever she wanted without having had to get his hands dirty in the past, but he’d have to lose her because I wasn’t giving her up.
Katarina was completely and utterly mine.
Technically, she was my employee, but I didn’t give a shit. I’d never made my interest in Kitty a secret, and I’d be damned if I started now.
“Yours?” she asked. Her chest rose and fell as I nodded.
“Mine. Only mine.” I was coming on strong, and I could tell she agreed by the look she was giving me.
“How… I mean…”
“Come here,” I ordered, but she didn’t move. “Katarina, do not make me repeat myself,” I warned, using her full name for the first time, a name I’d never called her. No one called her that ever.
But once again, she didn’t move.
Kitty didn’t look like she was breathing.
And fuck me, I couldn’t wait for her to move.
I lifted her tiny, curvaceous body up in my arms, loving the way her thick thighs instinctively wrapped around my middle, fitting against my body like she was made for me.
Because she was. The thought made my palms grip her golden-tanned thighs a little tighter to keep her in place, loving the warm heat that radiated off her.
Holding her, finally having her in my embrace, was the closest I deserved to get to heaven.