Knight's Game (25 page)

If she hadn’t had a month to recognize how powerfully she craved him, if she hadn’t realized in Missoula that sex with just any man wasn’t enough, if she didn’t know that a month from now, or a week or even less than that, she might never see him again, she might have had more pride. Instead, she raised her face to him. ‘I’ll unlace your boots, but let’s not stay here long. If that’s all right with you,’ she added so deferentially, he quickly scanned her face to see if she was taunting him.

Then she slid down on her knees, which effectively answered that question.

‘Ten, fifteen minutes,’ he said. ‘How’s that?’

It was her turn to study his face.

Their eyes met.

‘I just want to fuck you, baby,’ he said gently. ‘I don’t want to fight. And look,’ he added with a sigh, lifting her to her feet. ‘I can undress myself.’ He ran his palms over her mounded, lace-covered breasts, slowly smiled. ‘But keep that on.’

‘Control freak.’ But she was smiling too because she was astonishingly happy when he smiled like that, when she knew he wanted her as much as she wanted him.

‘Yeah. No shit.’

‘I might
want
to undress you, though.’ She held his gaze, touched the soft cashmere sweater. ‘Maybe I won’t
let
you undress yourself.’

He smiled. ‘Go for it, baby. Either way, I win.’

‘We can argue about who wins the most later,’ she said, feeling purely forgiven and recklessly happy. She slid her hands under his sweater, up his ripped abs and taut ribcage, past his hard muscular pecs. Then he helped her pull the sweater off because she couldn’t reach high enough even after he’d dipped his head.

He stood perfectly still after that, with the exception of his erection that had a mind of its own. And he watched with pleasure as she knelt at his feet, unlaced his boots, tapped first one ankle then the other and slipped them off. He raised his feet again so she could take off his socks. And he sucked in his breath when her hand brushed his dick as she slid his jeans and boxers down his hips.

She lifted her gaze, smiled at him. ‘I really wish we were home.’

She’d said home. He couldn’t remember ever feeling this good. ‘Same here,’ he said. ‘We won’t stay long.’ Then he took her hand, led her to the chaise that overlooked the courtyard, sat, pulled her down so she straddled his legs, adjusted his palms over the taut lace covering her creamy breasts and said, ‘Tell me when you’ve had enough. Then it’s my turn and we’re out of here.’

She placed her hands over his and said in a very small voice because she was beginning to tremble. ‘How long do we have to stay at the party?’

‘An hour at the most … less,’ he said when he saw her pout. ‘I promised Nicole a chess game and if the game’s over in ten minutes, she’ll know it’s bogus. Come watch me.’

‘I suppose I can’t be completely selfish.’ Leaning in, she took his face in her hands and kissed him because he was ridiculously beautiful and she couldn’t resist.

He smiled when she sat back, wanting to give her the world when she kissed him like that. ‘Except for your orgasms,’ he said, knowing he could give her that right now. ‘You can be selfish there, baby.’

‘You’re so sweet.’

He laughed. ‘Let me get that in writing for the next argument.’ Placing his hands on her waist, he gently raised her, his twitching dick pretty much done with talking. And when she slowly lowered herself down his stiff cock, when they felt the fucking earth move, when they shut their eyes
against the stark, raw, incredulous pleasure, they both wondered how one person could so completely and utterly change the world.

Once she was brim full and he was maxed out, and the warm, sumptuous pressure was sliding up their spines like velvet heat, he grabbed her bottom, flexed his fingers, held her firmly in place and rolled his hips upwards hard.

She gasped. ‘Again.’ A breathy, suffocated, muted sound.

Only audible to the man who was watching her like a hawk, feeling her quicken around him, knowing her hot-headed impatience. ‘Sure, baby.’

Harder that time because he really wasn’t sweet.

Her sharp cry added inches to his dick.

She was shaking.

‘Too much?’ he whispered, moving his hands up her back, gently stroking the dip of her spine. ‘Rest a minute?’

She dragged in a breath, nodded and he lowered his head and kissed her lips, softly, softly, soothing her jittery nerves. Then he bent his knees to offer her a support, eased her back and traced her compressed nipples through the confining lace in slow, circular motions, his fingers exerting enough pressure for her to flinch.

He stopped. ‘Does it hurt?’

‘Not very much.’

He breathed in hard. ‘Jesus Christ, Katherine.’ His words emerged in a strangled rush of air, edgy, a white-knuckled voice. ‘No one else can have you.’ He rested his thumbs on her nipples. ‘What do you think of that?’

She looked up at him from under her lashes, the green of her eyes equatorial. ‘I don’t want anyone else, Dominic.’

He’d never heard his name spoken so beautifully. With challenge in every whispered syllable. And an undertone of possession as unfettered and unconditional as his.

‘Thank you.’

She took a small breath and he felt his thumbs slide over lace. ‘Pleasure’s all mine,’ she whispered, her gaze flickering downwards.

Slipping his thumbs under the rim of her bra, he pried her nipples free, added his index fingers and gently squeezed. ‘Tell me if I should ease up.’

Her eyes were shut, her breathing shallow, the world dissolving from view.

‘Or not,’ he said under his breath and, flexing his hips, he thrust upwards, jacking his erection with ruthless intent at the same time he brutally compressed the soft flesh of her nipples.

She shrieked, then panted in explosive little bursts, then moaned, low and whisper-soft as the most shocking pleasure battered her senses.

Dominic waited for his brain to stop detonating.

He didn’t ask again after that.

He drove into her hot, slick sex over and over again, hard, then harder still, holding her captive, his fingers clamped on her nipples, not caring at first who came when or first until he heard the familiar gasping sound she made just prior to orgasm, felt her tense around his dick and he
dragged himself out of the savage fantasy swirling hurricane force through his brain.

He paid careful attention to those small pre-orgasmic whimpers he’d replayed over and over in his dreams that month in Paris, the same ones he’d heard for real the past two days, the sights and sounds that were etched so deeply in his psyche that they’d probably be the last thing he’d think of before he kissed off.

He smiled at the thought.

Then her high, thin wail began.

‘Here, baby, we’re here,’ he whispered, moving his hands to her hips, locking his fingers hard to hold her in place, arching his back and giving her everything she needed. Holding himself where she wanted him most, feeling her convulsions ripple up his dick, watching her, gratified and content, as she climaxed with her usual unmuzzled, freewheeling abandon.

With Dominic her orgasmic pleasure was so ungodly intense that she always came down off her high harbouring the faintest melancholy, knowing he’d always be her gold standard for pleasure, knowing he’d be impossible to replace.

Knowing she’d be without him some day.

And bereft.

But a moment later, with the warm, shimmering tremors still cutting a rapturous swathe through her senses, she dismissed her pensive thoughts. She had Dominic now, and tomorrow, perhaps longer. So
carpe diem
 – until she ran out of road.

‘That was fabulous as usual,’ she said with a gratified sigh. ‘But you know that, don’t you, Mr Knight?’

‘I didn’t,’ he lied, his smile radiant enough to bathe the entire world in sunshine. ‘Thank you, Miss Hart.’

Her lashes drifted lower. ‘So …’ she whispered.

‘Your call, baby.’ He moved inside, delicately, slowly, in a masterpiece of sensual finesse.

She sucked in a breath. ‘God damn.’

‘You like?’

Such expertise was the result of a lengthy apprenticeship, she thought heatedly when she had no right to take issue. And she debated her peevish resentment at his impressive sexual skills against their personal value to her. ‘Tell me you’re a virgin,’ she said sulkily.

‘I’ll need a similar assurance from you,’ he said, his voice suddenly razor-sharp, his jealousy limitless.

‘I am.’

‘Good.’ Gruff and unyielding. ‘From this point on, we both are. My attorney will have the exclusivity contract ready for us to sign tomorrow.’

‘You’re serious?’

‘Did you think I wasn’t? Did you think I ask any fucking woman to sign an exclusivity agreement with me?’

He was glaring. ‘Sorry,’ she breathed.

‘You’d better fucking be sorry. Jesus, Katherine, when the hell are you going to get it? I’m not screwing around here. This is for real.’

‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered. ‘I understand.’

‘It’s about fucking time you do.’ He dropped his head back against the chaise with a thud. Shut his eyes. Counted to ten enough times not to frighten her. Then he opened his eyes and quietly said, ‘Sometimes you’re real stupid for a genius hacker.’

‘And sometimes you don’t understand that I’m looking at a man who hasn’t been serious about a woman since – when? How many years, Dominic? What the hell do you expect? Why would I think you’ve changed?’ She gasped. ‘Jesus, does he ever go limp?’

‘Not with you around. You’re signing those papers tomorrow. End of discussion. Now, how many more times do you want to come?’

‘I don’t want to come at all when you’re talking like – oh, God … Jesus.’ She shut her eyes against the exquisite, spiking ecstasy. ‘Oh, fuck.’ Pleasure lit up her brain as he thrust deep inside her again; rapture flared like wildfire through her body, melted hot and lustful through her sex, made her weak with longing and insatiable with desire and reduced her to a sordid mass of horniness.

‘Change your mind, baby?’ he murmured, straightening his legs, pulling her up so she was straddling his thighs, ruthlessly changing the subject, selfishly changing the subject, making sure Katherine would accommodate him now, on the contract tomorrow, always.

Fully aware of her taste for wild, audacious sex, when she was panting hard and flushed and glowing, he said, sharply so she’d hear him through her frenzy, ‘First, you have to
make me come, Katherine. That’s an order. Don’t you dare come first. Open your eyes, tell me you understand.’

She struggled to open her eyes. ‘I don’t know … if I can … wait.’

‘Of course you can. Because you know what will happen if you don’t?’

Her eyes flared wide. ‘No, please.’

‘Yes, Katherine. Do it or I won’t let you come for a week. Only a week this time, Katherine. That’s not as bad as a year. Now I know you can do it if you try. You learned how to wait in Hong Kong, didn’t you? I need an answer.’

‘I’ll try.’

‘That’s not good enough, Katherine.’

She took in a deep breath. ‘I won’t come.’

‘There you go, baby. I knew you could do it. Now, take your time. I’m not in a rush to climax. Jesus, Katherine, don’t get all pissy. Don’t I get a turn?’

But two minutes later when it was obvious she wasn’t going to be able to stem her orgasmic momentum, he slid his finger along the top of his erection, found her clit, pressed gently and whispered, ‘Here, baby, let me help you.’

She tensed, shook her head.

‘No rules, baby. I’ll come with you, OK?’

Throwing her arms around his neck, she dropped her head into the hollow of his throat, whispered, ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you,’ and began shuddering.

‘Everything’s good, baby,’ he whispered, feeling her spasms begin. ‘We’ll go together.’ Holding her hips, his fingers
splayed wide, her orgasmic screams echoing in his ears, he forced her thighs wider, rammed further up into her, grunted with each successive thrust and quickly came like he’d never come before, like he’d been starved for sex, like there was nothing in the world but need, sensation, then spectacular, fission-level relief.

For a man who’d had enough orgasms for ten lifetimes, he knew he was operating outside the normal perimeters of his life with Katherine. All he could think about was screwing her again. Wanting more. Right now. This second.

But she was shaking so he caressed her shoulders, her back, comforting her, stroking her, soothing her. He kissed her lightly on the top of her head, her temples, on the curve of her cheek until her tremors stopped. Then he turned her face up to him and kissed her mouth, gently, then deeper when he shouldn’t, when they should get dressed and join the party.

She started to tremble again.

His cue to be sensible. He raised his head, softly sighed.

‘We better make an appearance.’

She groaned. ‘Do we have to?’

‘I wish we didn’t. I’d rather take you home and screw you again.’ He ran his hand through his hair, stared out the glass door to the darkened courtyard. Frowned. ‘Come on, baby.’ He sat up a little straighter, lifted her away from his shoulder, smiled faintly and kissed her once on her pouty lips. ‘We’ll make our excuses and leave as soon as we can. I promise.’

They were backing out of the bathroom kissing when they heard a disgusted, ‘Ewww! Kissing again!’ Quickly disengaging, they found six children staring at them: the two older girls smirking, the boys clearly revolted, Ellie wide-eyed in her pyjamas, clutching a teddy bear.

‘Ready to play chess?’ Nicole said with a world-class grin.

Dominic wanted to ask,
How long have you been here?
but didn’t really want to know. ‘Give me a couple of minutes, Nicole. We have to check in with your mother.’

‘How long?’ Nicole did a teenage eye roll that was part sass and part know-it-all. ‘We’ve been waiting
quite
a while.’

He gave her a bland look. ‘I’ll be up in five minutes. Now go back upstairs. You shouldn’t be here in the first place.’

‘Mom didn’t know where you went so we looked for you, that’s all.’

No shit. Stop grinning.
‘Fine, good. Set up the board. I’ll be there soon.’