Thinking of Vaughan caused Kate to remember Lisa. Although Kate hadn’t shared the details of the attack yet, she had let her friend know she’d be away for a few days and not to worry. She’d told her to put Rod in charge of the New Horizons meetings until she got back. She didn’t want to keep her friends in the dark about the attack, but didn’t relish the idea of rehashing it just yet.
However, she did want to talk to Lisa about seeing Donny at Vice. Nervous, Kate retrieved her phone from her purse and began typing a text. Changing her mind, she dialed Lisa’s number, wanting to hear her voice instead.
Voicemail.
Lisa always picked up when she called. But as the recorded message ended, Kate couldn’t help wondering if her friend might be avoiding her.
“Hey Lisa. It’s me. I really need to talk to you. A lot’s happened.” She paused, not wanting to elaborate over voicemail. “Please call me back. Take care.” She felt a twinge of unease in her stomach. Within seconds, her unease turned to all-out worry.
She didn’t have much time to contemplate the sensation. As she held her phone, it buzzed and she picked it up quickly, hoping Lisa was on the other line. “Hello?”
There was no answer.
“Hello?”
Still nothing, but the memory of Hugo Vaughan’s face haunted her.
“Did you say something, Kate?” Liam called from the other room.
She fought to master her erratic breathing and shaky voice. “Just making some calls.” Liam nodded and went back to work.
“Who is this?” she whispered into the phone.
The line went dead. She browsed the call log and found the last number, no caller ID. She dialed it and waited, but a recorded voice came on, providing no further information. Even still, she called Detective Baxter and gave him the number, in case it should lead to Vaughan.
She knew in her bones the loan shark had called her. However, her reasonable side reminded her it could very well have been a wrong number.
Nevertheless, she turned off her phone and slipped it back in her purse. She knew she should tell Liam about the call, but couldn’t bring herself to disturb him. She’d taken him away from his work long enough as it was. Besides, he continued to choose to withhold information from her. Now she felt like doing the same.
Instead, she turned on the TV, curled up on the sofa, and stared at the screen.
As morning sun gave way to a rare drizzly afternoon, Liam closed his last document, eager to finish his work. It had taken all his willpower to focus on emails and make decisions, when all he wanted was to retrieve Kate from the other room and drag her into his bed. Now he could. He ignited the fireplace. The warm glow from its flames cast a soft light over his darkening bedroom. It might be piss-pouring outside, but inside it was toasty warm.
He moved to the bedroom door and poked his head around the corner. Kate sat quietly, watching some sort of documentary on space in the other room. She stared at the screen, clearly not absorbed in the content, fiddling with the ends of her hair. Watching her, he shed his clothing, feeling his cock swell and thicken in anticipation of the hunt.
Despite the fact their bodies seemed so in tune with one another, he knew he’d alarmed her the last couple of times they’d fucked. He could be a willful son-of-a-bitch and the reticence in her gaze had not been lost on him. But it was only in coming with her that he managed to forget himself for a while. When he lost himself in her body, he forgot about his present obligations, past sins, and future mistakes. He even forgot those damn chest pains.
The moment she tightened under him, lost to the pleasure he created for her, was the closest he’d ever come to heaven.
And quite frankly he was better at fucking than talking about his emotions.
Kate had seen right through him the night he confessed his past to her and he hadn’t been at ease since. He’d never let himself be so vulnerable in front of anyone, not since he poured his heart out to his stepmother… and look at the travesty that had caused.
It scared him shitless.
He knew Kate wanted more, wanted honesty and openness. Hell, he wanted those things too. But he also knew if he allowed himself to be vulnerable with her again, he might fuck it up and lose her altogether. He’d already lost everyone who ever meant anything to him. So the primal beast inside him told him to keep her numb with ecstasy. If she couldn’t walk, she couldn’t walk away.
Flawed logic to be sure, but right now it was all he had.
As soon as he was nude, he pumped his cock, and sucked in a deep breath, then strode into the room.
Kate looked down to his crotch, then slowly back up to his face. Her face lit up with strange emotion. Need, it had to be need, because he felt it too.
He leaned over, picked her up and carried her into the bedroom, depositing her on his bed. “Now. Take it all off.”
She did, not breathing a word. Liam walked over to his closet to retrieve one of his ties. Once her nude form was illuminated by the dancing flames of the fireplace he whispered, “Trust me.”
She hesitated, but nodded.
He placed the tie around her eyes, making sure it wasn’t too tight. The deep blue of the silk complimented her red hair and the skin that grew pinker with each fraught moment. Everything about her made him want to push his boundaries and explore hers. He wanted to tease her into sexual submission, to take total mastery over her mind and soul.
He wanted to make her his.
“Liam,” Kate whispered, tilting her head as if to catch his scent.
He spread her legs, savoring the sight before him, and slid between them. “I’m here,” he said, as he licked at her inner thigh.
He drank her essence, losing track of where they were altogether. She tasted perfect, so bloody perfect, and he could never get enough of her. To have her blindfolded, at his disposal, gave him a heady rush that made his cock swell even more.
He glided his tongue along each sweet fold, savoring her. Kate’s body shook and she made a strangled noise. He looked up, ready to encourage her to shout out her pleasure. However, what he saw made him pounce back up the length of her body so he could see her better.
His tie was wet at the edge where it covered her eyes. A slow trail of tears rolled over her skin. Panicked, he removed the blindfold. Had he freaked her out? “Kate, sweetheart. What is it?”
“I got a call before. I think it was Vaughan.”
Fury blazed inside him like the flames in his fireplace. He pulled her into his arms and hugged her. In a hushed voice, she told him about the call and that she’d already phoned the cops. He was glad about that, but enraged Vaughan would try his scare tactics again.
He wanted him dealt with. Yesterday. He urged her to lie down on the bed and held her in his arms. Their bodies felt so right together, and as much as he wanted to be inside her, he held back. Even still, their bodies seemed to have their own minds. Each time one of them moved, the other responded. His cock hardened. Her nipples pebbled. As soon as his hand met with her moist pussy, he could no longer hold back. She whispered his name, so quiet and full of mystery, as he thrust his fingers inside her.
He wanted so much more of her. He wanted to take her and shake her and break her, until she was ruined for any other man.
She reached out with a shaking hand and rummaged inside his bedside table, producing a condom. Ripping the package open with her teeth, she pulled it out and sheathed him herself. One kiss, two kisses. A deft turn of his hips, and he penetrated her, thrusting deep.
“I’ll keep you safe,” he promised, murmuring into her fragrant hair. “Just stay with me.”
She clutched his backside and wrapped her legs around him as they crashed into each other, orgasms ripping through them with simultaneous violence.
As her body quaked, he whispered again, “Stay with me.”
Two days later, Liam sat in a wing chair in his office suite while Kate slept, dressed only in boxers. Despite spending every hour together in the past…fuck, he’d lost track of how many days it had been, and despite how much his body craved sleep, he couldn’t seem to close his eyes. Even now, at 2am, it was all he could do to stare out the window at the city lights and listen to the sirens of emergency vehicles as they raced down the Strip.