Chapter 11 #2
“Hmm, how is this?” He slid in a second finger, testing her tightness and her hips arched.
“Warmer.” But she wasn’t done playing and the muscles in her throat stood out in stark relief.
“I guess you need something more?” He worked his fingers in and out, a gentle thrusting motion and her lips parted.
“More…would…b-be—better.” The broken quality of speech told him more than anything else just how ready she was. Giving her clit another soft kiss, he eased his fingers out then stood. Shedding his clothes quickly, he pulled a condom out of the drawer next to the bed.
She stared, openly studying his body and he resisted the urge to puff out his chest. His cock ached with so much need it bordered on painful. Rolling the condom on, he barely noticed the shaking in his hands.
“That’s—definitely more.” This time, her words held a provocative invitation and he grinned.
“So you’ll let me know if I get to hot?” He couldn’t wait until her shoulder was healed. They could really play then.
“C’mere,” she whispered and held out her arms. Unwilling and unable to deny her anything, he settled back into the cradle of her thighs and braced his weight on his arms. He didn’t want to hurt her.
But instead of lying still, she wrapped her arms around his neck and dug her nails into his back. “I’m not that fragile, Richard.” The rebuke was both passionate and serious.
Easing forward, he teased both of them, rocking his erection against her. Her legs wrapped around his hips and she dragged his head down for an impatient kiss. He shifted his lower body and her thighs clamped against him.
Breaking the kiss, he reached between them and nudged inside her an inch. She’d been so damn tight while he played and he didn’t want to—
Kate’s legs crossed behind him and she anchored him, arching her hips and locking him down at the same moment. He slid into her all the way to the hilt.
The overload damn near had his eyes crossing.
Fisting his hand into the covers, he tried to glare at her, but she caught his face in her hands and whispered, “Move.”
The last rational link in his restraint snapped and the only thoughts he had were how exquisite she looked and felt, pulsing around him as he rocked into her.
She stroked his shoulders, her nails biting into his flesh.
Her mouth opened and he wasn’t sure who claimed who, because she became everything.
The world crashed around him in a wild tidal wave of lust, and need, and something far more indefinable that a part of his heart recognized as love.
Then there was nothing but Kate and he came with a surge that left him shaken to the core.
Sometime during the evening, he woke to the feel of her mouth on him.
The slow, sensuous torture turned into the longest—and definitely the second most erotic—experience in his life.
By the time she’d wrenched every drop of an orgasm from him and snuggled back into his arms, he thought he could die happy.
Waking to her sound asleep against his chest, her hair spread out against him and her leg nestled securely between his filled him with a very rare contentment.
The buzz of his cell phone intruded and he stretched to grab it, careful not to wake Kate. George’s Pizza flashed on the caller ID and he answered immediately.
They didn’t call on the weekend if they could help.
“What’s wrong? Is everything all right?”
“She’s ready to talk, but I don’t know if she’ll stay that way.” Diane Fowler’s response was blunt and on point. “Can you come out to see her today?”
“I can try.” He frowned. It would be harder to elude Armand’s security during the day. Tracing his fingers along Kate’s spine, he considered his options. “I’ll be there later tonight. I’ll call when I’m on my way.”
“Thank you, you made an impression yesterday. She’s just scared.”
“I know,” he murmured, his voice still low. “It will be fine, I’ll be with you as soon as I can.”
Diane said her goodbyes and the call disconnected with a soft click.
After returning the cell phone to the nightstand, he smiled at the morning sunlight playing across his ceiling.
Apparently they’d never gotten around to closing his curtains.
Not that he cared. Kate ran her palm up his side and he heard her yawn before she lifted her head. “Good morning.”
“Good morning.”
“Who was on the phone?” She smothered a yawn.
“Nobody.” No one she needed to know about anyway. He could so get used to sleepy, soft, doe-eyed Kate. Indulging his pleasure at finding her plastered against him, he ran an exploratory hand over her hip
“Hmm, you do wake up chipper. I was afraid of that.” Her eyes closed and she pressed her ear to his chest. His heart thumped hard against his ribs.
“Nothing wrong with being a morning person,” he chided her. Not that he really was, but waking up to Kate in his arms? That gave a man a reason to be happy.
“Hmm,” came her grunt of a response.
“Oh.” Surprise filtered through his enjoyment. “You aren’t a morning person?”
Another grunt. She petted him. “More sleep.”
Pleased by the wonderful new insight, he rolled her over and nuzzled the corner of her mouth. “You go ahead and sleep,” he murmured and began another lazy exploration of her neck and dipped lower. “You might lay still this time for me to play.”
But she didn’t.
And he really didn’t mind.
It took them another two hours before they managed to roll out of bed, then they broke more rules in the shower.
Fortunately, he’d gotten a good look at her stitches and the shoulder actually looked better rather than worse, though the bruise managed to be uglier.
Still, he’d been pretty aggressive with her the night before and she’d not been remotely shy about returning the attention.
Some wounds hurt worse a couple of days later.
“I told you I was fine.” She watched him over the rim of her coffee cup.
“I know, but I also know you have a legendary pain tolerance and I wanted to make sure you weren’t sore from last night.
” He on the other hand, ached beautifully and had the scratches on his back to prove it.
The look on her face had been priceless when she’d spotted them.
When he’d teased her about going out to pick up the mail sans his shirt, she’d actually looked so mortified he’d left it alone.
“Oh, I’m sore.” She shifted in the chair and reached for the Sunday paper. “But in all the right ways.”
Smug, he tugged out the business section and let her have the rest. “Good. Anything you want to do today?”
“I already did who I wanted to do today.”
Glancing up from the paper he met her wicked smile and waggled his brows. “Well I hope you don’t mind when he wants to do you again.”
“I’m impressed by your commitment to stamina.”
Laughing, he reached for his coffee cup. “When your woman is as physically fit as you are, a man has to do what a man has to do.”
Shifting forward, Kate put a hand on his arm. “I like what you can do.”
Catching her hand, he lifted it to kiss her fingertips.
“Ditto, sweetheart. Ditto.” He watched her a moment longer as she curled back into her chair, one leg crossed over the other and the news section opened.
She didn’t go for the lifestyle, but he did see the comics next in her stack and grinned to himself.
He could definitely get used to this.
They spent a leisurely morning on the deck, enjoying the sunshine and the paper.
Occasionally she showed him an article she found interesting and they debated the editorials.
He conned her into another round of Call of Duty after lunch and she fell asleep against him on the sofa an hour after dinner in the middle of A Few Good Men.
Content, he let her sleep and roused her only enough to get her up to bed.
His bed. With regret, he tucked her in and slipped out quietly.
This late, the house was dark and he knew where Armand’s security was.
He avoided them on his way around the house and then down a series of steps till he reached the beach.
The moonless night was the perfect cover.
Four hours later, he crept back into the house the way he had gone out.
Exhausted, he stripped and slid into bed. He didn’t want to wake her, but when he went to sleep, it was spooned up against her back.
Monday arrived with a fresh dose of reality. “So.” Kate poured coffee for both of them. She’d been quiet in the shower, quieter still why they dressed.
“Chickening out?” he asked quietly, aware of the distance she’d already put between them.
“No.” She wrinkled her nose and held out a mug to him. “Just working out how we’ll do this.”
“Which part? I thought what we did in the shower worked really well.” He couldn’t help but tease her. He didn’t like the cool, professional wall she’d begun erecting after she came apart in his arms all slick, wet and soapy.
She paused, coffee cup halfway to her lips. “I do believe you were more than adequate. However, I was referring to your morning schedule.”
“Adequate?” he repeated. “Adequate?”
The corner of her mouth twitched. “It’s after eight, Richard. Do focus. We’re on the clock which means it’s my job to keep you on time. I can stroke your ego later.”
Hardly mollified, he gave her a dirty look. “Adequate.” He’d show her adequate.
“Focus.” She walked over to the table and flipped on her digital tablet.
“You have four conference calls scheduled this morning, one starting in about thirty minutes. Do you want to take it here? Or in the car? Or would you like me to reschedule it? Unless something changed last night when you went out.”
The last sentence echoed with a question, but he focused on the first part instead. “The call in thirty minutes is Kravitts, isn’t it?” Grimacing, he pushed away his irritation at her businesslike tone. They did have work to do and she was his assistant.
“Yes, it’s regarding the Masterson deal he’s trying to curry with the EU.
What he wants is for you to represent the corporate interests and provide second chair support to his in-house counsel when they present their deal to the commission in Belgium next month.
” The succinct summary covered most aspects of what Kravitts had scheduled the call for.
“I can’t represent their interests. It would be a direct conflict with the Spherecast deal.”
“A conflict of interest he wants to put you in. It’s most likely a fishing expedition to see if you’ll tell him no so he can pursue why. It also allows him to play the ‘in negotiations with Andraste Enterprises’ card.” Since he’d said the same thing a couple of weeks ago, he had to grin.
“So why did I agree to the call?” He dared her to remember because he’d only told her to set it up. He hadn’t said why.
“To mollify him while you finished negotiating for Mr. Voldakov and His Highness.” She tapped her nail against the side of the tablet. “Which means you can cancel this call because it’s already served its purpose simply by being on the books.”
“That would be a calculated and cold move on my part.” He sipped his coffee.
“How much notice of the cancellation would you like me to give him?” Understanding lit her eyes.
Moments like this reminded him exactly how much he adored her mind. “Two minutes.”
“You are a mean man, Mr. Prentiss.” But she checked her phone for a time and marked out the call on the tablet.
“You have a call thirty minutes after that with His Highness and Mr. Voldakov. They’ve both confirmed their availability.
Mr. Grange, Mr. Voldakov’s attorney, will be placing the call.
Do you want to take that one in the office? ”
“I think I should take that one naked while you’re sitting in my lap.
” He stared at her across the table. Rattling her in the office would be a hell of a lot of fun, but once they were there, he’d need to behave.
It was one thing to tease her across a breakfast table, something else entirely where he met with his clients.
Of course, the idea of going down on her while she sprawled across his desk held a great deal of appeal.
“I hardly think nudity will be conducive to a successfully negotiated business arrangement.” Her face flushed and her tongue skated over her lip. Recognizing the signs of her arousal, he stroked his finger around the rim of his coffee cup.
“It’s a done deal, Kate. This is the notification call and I won’t have to do any talking at all.
Imagine listening to all that formal protocol as Daniel and Armand dance around their family connection and Martin has to play negotiator while I slide in and out of you.
They’re all tense and proper with their blood pressure on the rise and your legs are wrapped around my waist and we’re having a good time. ”
She set the tablet down with a thump. The rapidly escalating rise and fall of her chest betrayed her. “You do not fight fair.”
“No, I don’t, but you keep thinking about that ‘adequate’ time I gave you while I take this call in my office.” He rose and drained his coffee cup. Leaving it on the counter, he pivoted to give her a wink. “Be sure to sit in. I wouldn’t want you to miss a moment of it.”
The dishtowel caught him in the back of his head as he walked away.
His good mood lasted all the way out to the car and even having to let Armand’s security give them a ride to the office, he still managed to enjoy himself.
She retaliated, however, by sucking on a pen the whole ride and pretending interest in whatever she read on the tablet.
No, being with Kate would never be boring.