THOMAS
Striding out of the lift into the penthouse flat, I hurried down the corridor to Katie’s bedroom suite, dismissing Andrew Evans from her personal security detail with an abrupt nod while brushing past him.
“I’ll stay on the monitors. Ring if you need me,” he said with a hint of commiseration in his tone. He understood the darkness that clouded a man’s soul after he’d taken another life, how it changed him, what it took for a man to move beyond it.
I would thank him later.
Getting back to Katie was my priority.
I stepped inside her dark bedroom and locked us in, staying near the entrance.
The fucking curtains were open.
She was standing in front of the French glass doors, peering out at the sky, watching the stars shine, as she often did when she was too restless to sleep.
That was what she had become to me. The stars. Every single last one of them.
“Katie,” I said, my tone low, unintentionally guttural.
One word—the name she’d given me at the coffeehouse. A name that hadn’t been her name at all, although now, it belonged to me. The sound of it, the sense that it was all mine, made my cock twitch.
In response to my voice, a sharp inhale. “You were gone,” she then half-whispered, gripping the white-painted doorframe, leaning into the fluttering sheer draperies.
City lights illuminated her white nightdress, outlining the shape of her curves beneath it.
“I’m here now.”
“I don’t want the others here. I trust you.”
“You can trust my brother. I wouldn’t have gone otherwise.” I wanted to cross the room and pull her into my arms to reassure her that she would always be safe. Tell her that I would never let her down. I wanted to kiss her mouth, touch her body.
“Why are you here now, tonight?” she demanded.
“I gave you my word that I’d come back.”
“You’ll leave again.”
“I should go now.”
“Go then, Thomas. Get the hell out of my room.”
She’d spoken softly, but the tension in her body projected anger. Good. That was good. I wanted her to be furious with me. It was the least of what I deserved for what I’d done to her before leaving, for the hunger boiling in my blood in that moment.
“If that’s what you want.”
I’ll do anything for you, even when it hurts. Even if it kills me.
Her forehead touched the glass, her face reflecting on the pane. Closed eyes, long lashes touching her cheeks, lush pink lips. “I want you to stay. I want more from you.”
“Be certain, Katie. Understand what that means.”
While Katie was lost in her thoughts for a moment, quietly, I prowled to the center of the room.
Her eyes opened wide, staring out at me from the glass, and her back straightened. “I’m not sure I do understand,” she said, lying.
The pretty lie on her lips only strengthened my desire to have her in my bed, to control her.
She was many things, but never a fool. She knew how her challenge would affect me, that I was a selfish prick, yearning to take everything from her.
I accepted her invitation. “Remove your clothing, Katie. Keep your eyes on the stars.”
Slowly, she pushed the nightdress off her shoulders and let it fall to the floor, pooling round her feet. She stepped out of her knickers.
“Good girl. Show me how you pleasure yourself.”
Katie slid a hand down the front of her body, pausing to feel her pebbled nipple. Her head dropped back, and long blonde locks fell onto her arse, touching what was mine. Her breath quickened. Moaning, breathy, she slid her other hand between her thighs as well.
Christ, she hadn’t hesitated to indulge me.
My cock grew harder, kicking out for her as I watched. I was desperate to bury myself inside her, to have her warm body writhing beneath mine.
Unable to stay away any longer, I ended the physical distance between us, moving in close behind her. “Stop touching yourself, Katie.”
“Please, no,” she breathed, full of desire and need, her hair tumbling against my chest.
I captured her hands and pulled them to her chest. “Katie,” I warned, stroking her nipples with the back of my thumbs while holding her wrists, my lips on her neck. “You’ll do as I tell you.”
“Thomas, please. I need—”
“You’ll give yourself over to me when we’re together this way. You will obey me.” I pulled the fingers she’d used on herself into my mouth and sucked on them. Sweet, salty, addictive. One taste wasn’t enough. More. I wanted, needed more of her. Needed her to heal me. “Say it,” I ordered.
Katie relaxed, allowing her body to fall against mine. “I’ll obey you.”
I rewarded her trust by releasing her other wrist and caressing her curves. She shivered, goose bumps rising on her soft skin wherever my fingers touched her. I kissed her neck, licked it, tasting more of her, and then tugged on the rim of her ear with my teeth. Lowering my palm, pressing it against her clit, I pushed my forefinger into her, and she drew in a sharp breath.
“I want to do things to you too,” she said hoarsely.
Another finger. “Close your eyes and feel me.”
She moaned. “I want to go down on you, the way you did to me in the shower.”
Fuuuck.
My cock pulsed, as if her mouth were my home.
I bit her shoulder. “Careful, little bird.” My fingers moved inside her little cunt. So tight. I would destroy her. “What you’re asking me for might not be as you imagine.”
“Oh God … Thomas …” Whimpering, she turned her head, offering me her mouth.
Her orgasm was coming on quickly. Watching her luscious lips form a circle, her nails digging into my flesh—it was making me mad with desire. I wanted to throw her on the bed and fuck her until she couldn’t walk, live inside her velvet softness, feel her orgasm clenching round me.
She would be perfection.
I was too worked up. I would hurt her.
As my fingers moved in and out, my thumb caressing her clit, I kissed her.
“Thomas,” she cried onto my lips, reaching her climax.
“Mine, baby. They’re all mine now.”
Her body trembled as she let go, trusting me to keep her safe in my arms while she remained in the orgasm. I held her, kissed her, gave her time to catch her breath. Her breasts rose and fell, slowing, slowing. She twisted in my arms to face me, and I pushed into her mouth with my tongue.
Our tender, deliberate kiss changed, becoming my confession. It was rough, merciless, my mouth devouring hers, taking over, taking everything, conveying to her the way that I would love her.
After I broke the kiss, her gaze searched mine. I wanted to fall into the loveliness of her eyes. Moonlight poured over her features, giving her an ethereal appearance. A beautiful, mystical creature, imprisoned in the arms of a selfish beast.
Katie smiled. A playful, inviting smile that made me want more, compelled me to lose my shit.
My craving for her consumed me. I wouldn’t take her, not yet. But that mouth. She wanted to blow me.
I grabbed a fistful of her hair. “Unzip my trousers.”
She obeyed, taking her time with the button, sliding down the zipper, running her fingertips below the waistband, dragging them over my skin. Quite innocently, she smiled up at me from beneath her lashes, unaware of the fire her fingers ignited within me. How it tortured me.
“On your knees,” I growled.
“I’ve never done this.”
“I’m going to teach you. Down.”
Katie lowered onto her knees, one at a time, holding my gaze, and pulled on my jeans. Her eyes widened as my hard length fell into her hand, thick and heavy.
I wrapped my hand round hers, guiding her long, hot fingers, slowly sliding our hands together. She tracked the motion with her eyes for a moment and then pushed my hand away. My good little student.
“Come closer.”
She leaned in. I captured her other hand and showed her how I wanted her to handle my bollocks.
She explored me on her own then, cupping, stroking, and pumping.
I let her go, groaning, my hands in her hair. Christ.
She was already doing quite well. More. Always, I wanted to take more from her.
I brought my hands round to cradle her face. “Now, kiss me.”
Ease her into it. Go slow with her, just this once.
Before I could give another command, her lips touched the head of my cock while she continued pumping with her fist, and then her little pink tongue swiped across and then swirled through the droplets of pre-cum. My breath caught. I hissed.
“Show me your eyes, Katie.”
She looked up. Swirling. Licking. Killing me. Pride in her stormy-gray eyes. A rumble in my chest climbed to my throat. She would be the end of me.
“Take me into your mouth.”
Alarm flickered in her features.
It was quite a lot for her to take into her mouth. But I was too far gone to let her off the hook.
My hands in her hair, I tugged. “You won’t disappoint me. Now, finish what you started.”
Katie’s eyes lit with an innocent curiosity, with trust. The words, my command, had given her confidence. She licked her lips and then opened wide.
Fuuck. Me.
I pushed into her beautiful, plump circle. She tightened her lips, wrapping velvet heat round my cock, and I breathed her name. She tightened more, making me mad with want. I pushed in deeper, pulled back, in again, knotting fistfuls of her hair.
She let out a moan as she took over the motion, sucking, sending me over the edge. Her hand pumping. Tightly sealed lips. The mind-blowing friction from her hot tongue.
The first jolt of orgasm hit me. “Ah Katie. You’re killing me.”
I couldn’t hold back any longer. Keeping her head still, I rocked into her mouth, fucking it with desperate thrusts. I pushed in and out of her sweet mouth, pumping harder and faster than I should have, using jerky primal movements.
She took me into her throat, tears welling in her eyes, and held on to the base of my erection with one hand, clinging to my leg with the other.
The climax rushed through me, throwing my body into delicious spasms, filling her throat. For a fleeting moment, I reached an altered state of consciousness, and my mind began healing, cleansing my soul of the blood I’d spilled for her.
While catching my breath, I looked down. Katie’s hands were on my thighs. She’d swallowed down quite a lot, but a bit had spilled onto her chin. I pulled her up from the floor, wiped it away with my thumb, drew her against me.
“I’ve been harsh with you. I’m sorry, Katie.”
“No, I liked it.” She wrapped her arms round my torso, the side of her face resting on my chest. Then, she asked quietly, “Was mine as good for you as the others?”
“What? Goddamn it, Katie.” I caught hold of her chin and pulled her face up, so I could see her eyes. “Don’t do that. Don’t make comparisons. No one has ever made me feel as good as you do.” I sucked hard on her bottom lip to punish her.
She bit mine as I released her and then pulled back with a smile. “Ever?”
I grinned for a second, pleased with her courage. “Yeah. But don’t ask me about that kind of shit again. Instead, you look at me, see me, feel me.” After kissing her lips softly, I pressed her face back to my chest, her ear positioned over my pounding heart. “Hear me.”
Christ, I’d never spoken that way before.
I loved her.
Truly.