Knight's Game (8 page)

‘No way. I’m thanking my lucky stars you fell into my life. And now that you have, I’m locking the door behind you.’

‘So I’m your captive?’

‘Something like that. You’re also the best thing that’s happened to me in a very long time and I’m not stupid enough to let you go.’

‘What if I want to go?’

He smiled. ‘Then I wouldn’t be doing my job.’ His smile faded. ‘Look, if and when that happens, we’ll talk about it.’

‘If I didn’t want you so badly, I’d take serious issue with your views.’

‘Then I’ll count my blessings and stay hard for you. How about that?’

She sniffed. ‘You’re impossible. But I want you anyway.’

‘I think we’ve both played that card before. But we’re working with a new deck now, baby – new times, better
times. We’re not going to screw this one up. So let’s see what we can do about making each other feel good for the foreseeable future. OK?’ He smiled. ‘Gimme a yes.’

‘Yes, sir,’ she said, smiling back.

He grinned. ‘There you go, baby. You’re playin’ my song.’

He slid the blouse off her shoulders, down her arms, over her hands, pulled it aside and let it drop from his fingers. ‘Now, what do we have here?’ he whispered.

His erection answered first, surging higher.

She took notice. ‘He likes me,’ she murmured.

‘Oh, yeah.’ He held her gaze, his flame hot. ‘He’s missed you – and these,’ he murmured, sliding a fingertip over the pale swell of her breasts. Her sumptuous tits were more beautiful than he’d remembered, ripe, plump, ostentatious, her nipples already hard and peaked, waiting to be kissed. He gently touched first one taut crest then the other, the pad of his finger feather light – a grazing caress, delicate.

Riveting. She sucked in a breath, moaned, spiking pleasure melting downwards in a warm, blissful flood.

He was instantly overcome with jealousy at the familiar sound, at her hair-trigger arousal, at her lack of restraint. ‘No one’s seen these since Hong Kong, right?’ His dark brows were angled in a frown. ‘Humour me, baby. This is a whole new world for me.’

‘I should say no,’ she whispered, wishing she could, wishing some other man could make her feel this explosive lust and free her from her inconvenient, insatiable, burning desire for the elusive Dominic Knight.

His anger instantly drained away, his gut-tightening jealousy faded. ‘No, you shouldn’t,’ he said gently, his fingertip gossamer light on her nipple. ‘Because I want these to be mine.’ Then he cupped her chin, raised her face so their eyes met, so he saw her smouldering desire and she his unflinching resolve. ‘Tell me they’re mine,’ he said quietly. ‘And I’ll let you come.’

‘Sorry, too late.’ Her green gaze was playful, the flush of arousal pinking her skin. ‘I don’t think I actually
need
you.’

He laughed. ‘God damn, I’ve missed you, baby. Who else but you makes me irrelevant? Then again,’ he said softly, bending his head, giving her a quick glance from under his lashes, ‘maybe I can change your mind.’ His mouth closed gently over the tender tip of her nipple and he set about showing her who needed whom.

As the warmth of his mouth drew in her nipple, she felt her body open in welcome, as though he had to only make that first small overture, delicately touch her sensitive crest with the tip of his tongue, and every combustible sexual nerve she possessed instantly ignited. Although it was one of his many gifts and accomplishments – his incredible tactile finesse. Whether hands, or mouth or his perfect dick, he handled himself with a kind of professional artistry. And if she wasn’t feeling the delicious heat sliding downwards from his mouth to her quivering, throbbing sex, she might take issue with what was clearly the catchphrase here: experience is the best teacher.

But he was nibbling now, his teeth leaving little jolts in
their wake that tingled at first, then stung, then ravished her senses and stole her reason and reminded her so violently of the nipple clips in Hong Kong, she cried out in a frenzy of need.

He lifted his head, the air suddenly cool on her nipple. ‘Soon, baby. Try to relax.’

‘I can’t!’

‘Sure you can.’ He touched her cheek. ‘Try.’ Then he dipped his head and gently bit her other nipple.

It was no contest; it never was.

Because he could make her feel so fine it didn’t matter if she was needy or self-willed, free or not when the pleasure was so flat-out awesome and wondrous.

As for his advantage in terms of experience, he understood it only worked to a point with Kate’s hot-blooded libido. So he carefully gauged her response as he teased first one nipple then the other, as he deftly brought her up to the explosive brink before releasing the pressure of his mouth, letting her hysteria slowly wane. Then beginning again, sucking gently at first then not gently at all, masterfully restoking her arousal.

Saturated with prodigal sensation, wallowing in bliss, dizzy with pleasure, Kate forgave Dominic all his transgressions. Forgave him for all her weeks of misery because only he had the gift to make her feel this good: glowing, insatiable, deeply in love. She didn’t even care that he flinched at the word
love
. She was beyond reason and logic, her body tingling, pulsing, melting inside, slick, liquid, desperate.
‘Dominic, please,’ she said on a suffocated breath, pushing his head away. ‘You win. I want you, I need you.
Now, this instant
.’

He took her face between his hands, his gaze close. ‘We need each other, baby. Give me a few seconds. OK?’

She nodded, or tried, his fingers unyielding.

‘I don’t want to miss this. So hang on. Please?’

She loved him contrite, although she loved him every possible way. ‘Maybe, probably, hurry …’

His fingers slid away from her face and he pulled off her shoes, slacks and panties in one fell swoop. Coming to his feet, he picked her up as though she were weightless, carried her to a chaise where he deposited her with a super polite, ‘I’ll be right with you.’

He stripped off his clothes with astonishing speed, she thought grudgingly, her resentment at all that swift efficiency honed in countless situations just like this momentarily distracting her from her impatient desire. Then he took the condom he’d pulled from his pants pocket and put between his teeth, ripped the foil open and rolled it down his erection like a fucking professional, she thought petulantly, further irritated enough to snipe, ‘You’re good at that.’

He looked up at the umbrage in her tone. ‘At what?’

‘Putting on that condom.’

‘Is there some reason I shouldn’t be? Don’t answer that. I don’t have time to argue.’ Suddenly he was towering over her. ‘Would you like to spread your legs or should I do it? You’re not the only one in a hurry.’

‘Do I have a choice?’

He suddenly laughed. ‘You don’t really want a choice do you?’

‘I suppose not with that really fabulous dick about to make me happy.’

‘Smart girl.’ He put one knee on the chaise, she opened her thighs and a moment later, he was positioning himself between her legs. ‘A word of warning. This first time isn’t going to break any records for endurance. As soon as you start coming, I’m right behind you.’ He didn’t wait for an answer; she was panting and so slick with longing, condom or not, he glided in with only the slightest resistance.

She climaxed almost instantly, he caught the wave like the surfer he was and after an oppressive thirty-six days, the brute force of their tempestuous orgasms, the heavy-duty, explosive jolts to their nervous systems, the sheer, blinding pleasure left them momentarily stunned.

Was it possible to actually feel an out-of-body experience? Empirical evidence was making Dominic a believer.

Was it possible to fall hopelessly, head-over-heels in love again, with a man who didn’t want to be loved, because of an outrageously grandiose orgasm, Kate wondered?

The mind-boggling affirmation was direct, razor-sharp and terrifying to them both.

He should withdraw, he thought with alarm – to Paris or beyond.

She should politely say thank you, as if none of this was
out of the ordinary, she nervously reflected, and take the first plane home.

But neither moved because the sensational pleasure was still of cosmic proportions.

‘I’m losing it,’ he said half under his breath, his eyes slits as though to contain the raging turbulence within.

‘We should … stop,’ she said, gasping.

‘Later.’

‘When?’ Someone had to be rational.

‘Talk to me in a year.’

She went rigid in his arms despite the heady mix of devout and zealous ardour warming her senses. ‘No!’

‘Yes,’ he growled.

‘No, no, no—’

He covered her mouth with his, defiant of reason, heedless to all but hotspur desire, his ravaging kiss ignoring her resistance, the brute force marking her with an inexplicable stamp of ownership – like Attila the Hun with a new concubine.

As rash as he, she capitulated with indecent speed, gave herself up to his plundering mouth and tongue, wanting what he wanted, wanting more. Wanting his love; wanting what she could never have.

As her resistance melted away and she responded with her familiar tempestuous passion, met his fevered kisses, impulsively bit his lip in her frenzy, he bit her back with the same reckless fervour. They were both out of control, their nerve endings on fire, their cravings so intense they could taste them, their need for each other irrepressible.

And where Dominic had been uncertain about his plans – actually, he’d had no plans – suddenly his roadmap to the future was clear. He lifted his head marginally, smiled at her, feeling as though truth and goodness and all the virtues of the world were within his grasp. ‘You make me insanely happy, baby, but bite me that hard again,’ he said with a grin, licking the blood off his bottom lip, ‘and you’ll get the spanking of your life.’

‘Then it might be worth it,’ she whispered, stretching upwards; his bite having been more restrained, only teeth marks reddened her lip.

Shoving her back down, he circled her wrists with his fingers. ‘You’ll have another chance later,’ he said lightly, dropping a kiss on the bridge of her nose. ‘Right now, I have a semi-serious proposition. So don’t say no right away.’

‘I wouldn’t dream of saying no to you after that dynamite orgasm.’ She smiled faintly. ‘Does this have anything to do with my next orgasm? Please say yes.’

He smiled back. ‘Yes. But give me a minute first. I hate these things.’ Withdrawing from her body, he sat on the edge of the chaise, yanked off the condom and tossed it in the jungle of plants. ‘Don’t lecture me,’ he warned her. ‘My staff doesn’t give a shit.’

‘I wouldn’t think of it,’ she murmured.

Her reply was so amenable, his gaze narrowed. ‘Is that sarcasm? Forget it,’ he quickly said. ‘I don’t care so long as you’re not getting up to leave.’

Her green-eyed gaze was balmy with content. ‘I don’t feel like leaving just yet.’

‘Perfect. Because I have something to make the sex better.’

‘You have my full attention, Mr Knight,’ she purred.

He laughed. ‘I thought I might.’ But he drew in a quick breath before he went on because her temper was unpredictable, and while he could always talk her around, particularly to sex, it would save time if she agreed with him. ‘Here’s my proposal and don’t shoot me down until you hear me out.’

She grinned. ‘It must be super kinky.’

He gave her a flinty look.

She mimed a locking motion across her mouth.

‘Now, first, I’m perfectly willing to use condoms for as long as you want, but with the multiple orgasms you prefer, along with, shall we say, the marathon fucking sessions you like, condoms would be a real pain in the ass. So’ – another quick breath – ‘if you’re interested, I have an alternative. Since your period is just ending – don’t give me that look – I read the interview brief on you in Hong Kong and remembered because it mattered to me at the time. Am I right about your period?’

‘Jeez. Is that kind of invasive detail legally allowed?’

‘I never asked. So am I right or not?’

She made a face, then nodded.

He smiled. ‘Since when did you get shy?’

She ran her fingers through her copper curls in a quick restive gesture, then stared at him. ‘That’s kinda personal.’

‘Unlike fucking.’

‘Hey, keep it up and—’

‘You couldn’t do it, babe. Honestly. You need it more than I do.’

‘Maybe I could.’

‘And maybe I could find religion, but I wouldn’t bet on it. So, can I get back to my plan? It’ll make you real happy – guaranteed.’

She wrinkled her nose in a little bunny twitch.

‘I’ll take that as a yes. One more thing and don’t be squeamish. It’s just a simple question. Is this the fifth day of your period?’

Her brows flew up. ‘How the hell did you know that?’

‘I told you I read the brief. I have a good memory: once I see something, it’s here.’ He tapped his head. ‘Anyway, the timing couldn’t be better for a contraceptive shot. The shot would be effective immediately. And if you recall, birth control pills were a problem for us in Hong Kong.’

She glowered. ‘Don’t try and sidetrack the conversation. How would you know about effective immediately?’

‘General information. Don’t get pissed. I read about it.’

‘Why?’ Her glare was undiminished, her jealousy unreasonable but stubbornly persistent.

‘Because it happened to be on
The Times
health page I was reading,’ he said, keeping his voice super calm. ‘And birth control impacts me. OK?’

‘Yeah, I’ve heard that.’

‘Come on, babe, I’d like to say I was a virgin when I met
you, but I can’t. If it matters, I haven’t been with a woman since Hong Kong. And that’s major for me.’

‘I suppose,’ she grumbled.

‘You better suppose,’ he grumbled back. ‘It’s in the category of moving mountains with my history.’ He briefly shut his eyes as though reconfiguring his past against the present, then looked at her and smiled. ‘This is a whole new wonderland, babe.’

‘Thank you,’ she softly said.

‘No problem,’ he said as softly. ‘It was worth it.’ He leaned forward and brushed a kiss across her mouth. ‘So what do you say?’