Chapter 9
She was running on a plane. For a hysterical moment, Leia wondered if she was screwing up her body’s chemistry by running toward the back of a plane that was racing forward at hundreds of miles per hour.
The sound of heavy footsteps behind her propelled her even faster away from the overwhelming force of nature that was Noah King.
“Leia.”
She’d been crazy to think she could handle him.
Beyond nuts to think the first time she attempted to break out of the fear-lined box she’d allowed herself to be placed in would be with someone like him.
But something in his eyes had answered a need in her, had called to the broken part of her that was too damaged to be fixed but needed acknowledging nevertheless.
What she hadn’t anticipated was that he’d see right through to the core of her so fast. So precisely.
“Leia!”
She turned blindly down a hallway that looked vaguely familiar. Desperately hoping her radar wasn’t completely skewed, she headed up the stairs she prayed would lead her to her suite.
“Dammit. Stop.”
No. Way.
He saw too much. Battered the foundations of her walls too easily.
Avoiding confrontation is not a sign of weakness. Know when to walk away from a fight.
She shook her head, for the first time uncomfortable with Warren’s well-mannered voice in her head.
Seeing her door ahead, she sprinted to it and keyed in the security code. Firm hands seized her arms before the light turned green.
“Stop.” His voice had softened from the harsh command. But the panic escalating within her didn’t abate.
“No. Let me go.”
He loosened his hold and turned her to face him, but he didn’t free her. “You’re upset. Tell me why.”
“It doesn’t matter. I think I made a mistake.”
Sizzling blue eyes narrowed. “Excuse me?”
“I made a mistake thinking you were what I wanted. I was wrong. I’m going to bed now. If I’m in the mood, I’ll find someone else to hang out with tomorrow. Or I’ll catch a flight back home when we get to Switzerland. Frankly, I think this whole trip was a mistake.”
“No, you don’t think you made a mistake. What you’d hoped for was to find someone to fuck you into oblivion, no questions asked.”
She snorted. “Well, you’ve just proved you’re not the right candidate. So what the hell are you doing here?”
A hard smile lifted one corner of his mouth.
“You think now that I’ve found you, I’m going to stand with my dick in my hand and watch you come on to someone else?
You panicked because I saw a little deeper than you wanted me to.
But that doesn’t change anything. Whether you want to admit it or not, you saw me and you chose me.
You can pretend otherwise and walk away.
But if you stay, I get to fuck you. Exclusively.
And if I think that digging a little deeper into who you are will make the fucking all the better, then I’m sure as hell going to dig. ”
“You can dig all you want. You’ll get nothing more from me than you already have.”
He tilted his head slightly, that infuriatingly sexy smile playing over his delicious mouth once again. “Are you sure you want to issue that challenge?”
“I’m pretty sure I want you to take your hands off me and leave me the hell alone.”
Cobalt blue eyes lit up with sizzling fire. His hand dropped from her arm, and he pushed the door open before taking hold of her again.
“Do you really want me to go?”
She opened her mouth to speak, but no words emerged. His eyes gleamed.
“Invite me in, Leia,” he murmured softly against her lips.
It took all her willpower, but she overcame the screaming need to say yes. “No.”
“You want a mindless fuck. I’ll give you one. But it’ll be nowhere near as satisfactory as it can be if you let me in a little.” He leaned in closer, making her feel the hard evidence of the gift he could offer her. A gift she could accept at a cost she couldn’t afford to pay.
“Do you take the time to get to know every woman you sleep with? That redhead who was eyeing you at the bar. Would you have taken the time to get to know her before you… you…”
“She ceased to matter the moment I saw you. And she mattered way less before I saw you. Trust me, baby, what I have in mind is dirty, filthy fucking that will make you scream your throat hoarse. But to get it you need to invite me in.”
Evocative images bombarded her senses, but she shook her head. “I’m not inviting you in, Noah.”
Her stomach churned at the calculating gleam that narrowed his eyes. His hands smoothed up and down her arms, waking tiny shivers that made him smile with pure male satisfaction.
He dropped his head until their lips were a whisper apart.
“I’m not fucking you out here in the hallway, baby. Your clothes stay on in public. That’s non-negotiable. Another non-negotiable fact is that you’re not fucking anyone else on this trip. Everything else I’m willing to negotiate.”
“Negotiate your hands off me. Right now. Before my knee negotiates itself between your legs.”
Something in her voice must have finally gotten through to him. Eyes narrowing further, he dropped his hands and took a step back.
“Do I frighten you, Leia?” he asked, a tension seizing him that made a twinge of shame suffuse her.
He overwhelmed her. He made her stomach cave in on itself with a hunger that defied reason. He made her clit throb and her pussy clench with desperate greed. But he didn’t induce fear in her.
She should know. She knew what real fear looked and felt like.
Compelled to be truthful, she shook her head. “No.”
He exhaled, his shoulders relaxing a touch. But the tension didn’t completely leave his face or his body. He stared down at her for another handful of seconds before he speared a hand through his hair.
“We seem to be tripping over the right way to do this. What can I say to convince you that I want what you want?” Frustration bit through his voice.
“We can agree to keep this… light.”
He stared at her another several minutes. Then his eyes dropped to the pulse beating in her neck, then lower to the agitated rise and fall of her breasts. Even lower still, until even her soles tingled with the look in his eyes.
By the time he raised his gaze to hers, she was ready to abandon all reason and throw herself at him.
“I don’t do light, baby. Not when it comes to kissing and not when it comes to sex. It’s the deep end or not at all. But I don’t want to walk away, so I’ll make you a promise.”
“Wh-what?”
“Invite me in, and I promise to keep my clothes on until we land.”
“What happens after we land?” she asked, noting shamefully that her voice had grown husky and breathless.
He shrugged. “We go skiing.”
Acute disappointment scythed through her, but she stopped herself from blurting out a sharp refusal to his proposal.
Leia found herself moving from the wall into the doorway, walking backward as he stalked her into the room. Her heart rate tripled when he nudged the door shut with his foot.
For several seconds, they stared at each other with that insane electricity arcing between them.
Noah breathed in deep, drawing her attention to his massive chest. She’d felt that chest up close, briefly explored the rock-hard muscle beneath his shirt. The knowledge that she was allowing fear to take away the chance to explore him again cut like a knife through her.
And yet, changing her mind again would make her the nut job he no doubt believed her to be.
Whirling around, she entered the small living room adjoining her bedroom. An extensive drinks cabinet stood next to the entertainment center.
“Would you like a drink?” She turned to find he’d followed her, stood mere feet away.
“I don’t think another drink is a good idea.”
She floundered. “Okay…”
He took pity on her, grabbed the remote on the coffee table, and pressed a button. A large screen slid forward from behind a recessed panel.
He strolled to the wide gold and cream striped sofa and lowered his lithe body into it. Like all the seats on the plane, it was large and comfortable enough to double up as a fuck space. Looking over at her, he patted the space next to him. “Sit down, baby. I won’t bite just yet.”
Walking on slightly unsteady feet, she sank down next to him.
Immediately, he curved his arm over her shoulder and pulled her close.
The unexpected move upset her balance. She fell against him, and he sucked in a breath when her breast pressed into his side. He nuzzled her cheek lightly before he turned his face back to the screen.
“What are we doing?” she asked.
“We’re choosing our location highs for the next seven days. Assuming, of course, you still want to spend them with me?”
Swallowing, she nodded.
He shook his head. “Vocalize, baby. I need to hear the words so there’s no room for misinterpretation later.” The hard, low demand gave no quarter.
“Yes, I want to spend the next seven days with you.” The moment she said the words, the last of her doubts fled.
She was here. She was doing this. With a man who could well create a whole new set of problems for her. But she was banking on the pleasure to come far outweighing the risk.
She’d done extensive research on the Indigo Lounge before she’d decided to take the trip.
Its owner, Zachary Savage, was single-mindedly scrupulous about safety on his planes.
And her own instincts, fine-tuned through a brutal test of fire and grit, weren’t screaming the kind of danger she’d learned to stay away from.
She relaxed a little more. He felt it and those intense blue eyes gleamed with satisfaction.
“Good.” He flicked the screen on, and the distinct Indigo Lounge logo appeared.
He forwarded through the corporate spiel until the list of activities came up.
“We’ve got your first high in the bag—skiing on the black run in Zermatt.
Next, a half hour session with a band during a live jazz concert or meeting the conductor after the opera in Vienna? ”
“What bands are playing?”
He pressed another button and the names flashed onto the screen.
Excitement spiked through her. “ Omigod . Definitely the live jazz concert.”
He slanted her a narrow-eyed glance. “Something I should know about?”
“ Fused Realms is one of my favorite bands.”
His mouth compressed. “As long as you don’t throw your panties at anyone, I’ll try not to lose my shit.”
Leia wasn’t sure whether he was joking or not.
“The masked ball in Prague or the private zero-gravity chamber in Cannes?” He looked at her, his eyes predatory and all-consuming. “Do you like the idea of getting fucked in zero gravity, baby?”
Laughter bubbled up beneath all the crazy hyperawareness. “I can honestly say it’s never occurred to me. Is that even possible?”
“We can certainly give it our very best shot.” He clicked the button to add it to their itinerary and moved to the next one.
“If you want, we can add a couple more? Private villa or private boat in Bermuda?”
The rod of tension lanced too quickly for her to disguise it. Those astonishingly perceptive blue eyes started to narrow. Breathing out, she forced her body to relax. “Villa, please. I don’t like boats.”
“Sea sickness?”
“Something like that.” She deliberately kept her tone light and scrambled to banish the ugly images that threatened to flood her mind.
His expression told her he’d noticed her evasion. But he nodded. “Villa it is.” He entered the request and glanced back at her, his eyes zeroing in on her mouth. “Shall we leave the rest for later?” he murmured, his head dropping closer.
Reading his intent, her breath evaporated from her lungs. She started to nod and remembered his warning.
“Yes.”
He pressed another button and soft R&B wafted through the suite. The beats held enough of a throb to vibrate through her body. Or maybe it was just her heartbeat going into overdrive at the thought of kissing Noah King again.
Whatever.
Anticipation inundated her as his lips touched hers. This kiss was different from the first. For one thing, she hadn’t given herself the time to stop freaking out about the electrifying effect of his mouth before she’d bit him.
His tongue traced the outline of her mouth and breached her open lips to graze over her teeth. She barely managed to curb the overwhelming need to bite him again.
What the heck was wrong with her? When had the thought of biting anyone become a turn-on? But she’d bitten this man. And he’d bled.
She touched the tip of her tongue to the tiny cut on his lip. His shudder echoed hers.
He broke away and stared at her, his breathing harsh and uneven. Pure, unadulterated lust arced between them, setting off sparks she could almost see dancing in the air.
“God.” She realized she’d vocalized the wonder burning inside her.
He nodded once. “You see how this could never be light between us, don’t you?”
“Yes,” she said huskily.
His hand crept over her nape and gripped her harder as he pressed closer. Sprawling back against the seat, he tugged her over him until she straddled him.
He explored every exposed inch of her. Her neck. Her arms. The small of her back bared by her forward-tilted stance. She gasped with each touch of his warm, rough hands.
Then his hand circled her throat again. That possessive, powerful hold did things to her she couldn’t coherently describe. It was a statement of control, of ownership that was also oddly soothing. He pressed gently, until she could feel each heartbeat through his fingers.
Any thought that she would be in control in any way because she was on top evaporated when his other hand curved over her waist, imprisoning her against him.
Slowly, he pulled her down and took her mouth again. But this time he controlled the kiss. He gave her just enough to make her whimper shamelessly.
“Please.”
He gave in to her plea, deepened the kiss, let her hands wander feverishly over his chest and shoulders.
Her fingers speared through his silky dark hair before he pulled his mouth from hers with a deep groan.
“Jesus, baby. Kissing you is like standing in a field in the middle of a fucking lightning storm.”
She emerged from a sensual haze long enough to notice her strap had slipped off one shoulder… that the upper crests of her breasts were exposed to his hungry gaze.
He traced a finger over her left breast and snagged it in the corner of her top. She noticed the faint trembling in his hand and her breath caught.
“Take it off.”
“I thought our clothes were staying on?”
“I said my clothes would stay on. I didn’t say yours would. I didn’t say I wouldn’t spread you over me and let you ride me until I came in my pants like a fucking teenager. And I sure as hell didn’t promise not to finger you to orgasm and taste your sweet cunt as you lost your mind. Did I?”