Only Pleasure (Bound Hearts 10)

"Are you certain?" He frowned and looked over her shoulder to the dance floor, to Chase, no doubt.

"I'm positive. " She nodded decisively. "I need the rest. "

She hugged her parents and her aunt and uncle before moving through the room, keeping her eyes averted from Chase. It was nearly impossible. If she looked at him, she just might weep.

Her fingers ached to caress him, her body tingled with the need for him. Beneath her dress, her juices spilled into the fine lace of her black panties, new panties, bought with Chase in mind.

As the doorman helped her on with her cape and returned her purse to her, Kia turned back and looked.

He wasn't dancing. He was leaning against the wall as he chatted with Ian Sinclair. His eyes were on her, though. His look called to her, urging her to come back, to take the pleasure he was offering her.

A few hours in his arms, and no more.

Was it worth walking away? Letting go of what she could have in exchange for the loneliness awaiting her at home. She could take him and Khalid, hold on to Chase, and pretend they were alone.

No, she couldn't. She knew she couldn't. As much as she had enjoyed those stolen encounters, she didn't want to revisit them.

She turned slowly and moved from the ballroom into the hotel lobby and to the doors that another doorman held open for her.

The limo waited outside beneath the portico, and the snow was falling once again. Huge fat flakes that promised to pile high and once again cover the city with the magic of winter.

She stepped into the limo and settled into the seat with a heavy heart. She could watch the snow from the couch tonight. By herself with the gas logs lit to keep her company. She would push Chase from her heart eventually, and then it wouldn't hurt anymore. And when it didn't hurt anymore, perhaps then it would be time to reprioritize her life.

She was spending too much time alone, and a girl could only go shopping so many times. She needed a hobby, perhaps a job. Her father had offered her a job several times and she had refused. Perhaps it was time to take him up on it. Almost anything would beat the loneliness. Working as a consultant only didn't take up nearly enough time.

Chase stepped out of the hotel entrance as the limo pulled away and the valet pulled in with his car. He slid behind the wheel and accelerated, following the Rutherford limo.

He should have stayed at the party, he told himself. He was a fool to follow her like this, to do what he knew he was going to do.

But he needed her, one last time. Alone.

Just the two of them.

The thought of it had tormented him since the moment she told him not to return to her unless he was alone. That thought, and the permission she had given him to come inside her.

He had never come inside a woman until Kia. From his first sexual experience, to Kia, Chase had always worn protection.

He rubbed at his jaw absently. With Kia, the thought of anything between them made him insane. He wanted to bury himself inside her, bare, feel her clenching and tightening around his cock with each ripple of pleasure that went through her.

Following the limo he let the warnings against a relationship with Kia flow through his mind. He had a lifetime of habit behind him, and it was disintegrating at the thought of Kia's wet, snug flesh surrounding him.

That should be a warning in itself.

The Rutherford limo pulled up at the sidewalk in front of Kia's apartment, and the chauffeur jumped out to open the door for her.

"Thank you, David. " She let him help her out, then turned and looked to her side as a familiar form moved into her peripheral vision.

She stared back at him silently as he leaned against the hood of his car, uncaring of the snow that drifted and flew around him.

Kia pulled her cloak tighter around her as she stared at him.

"Is everything okay, Miss Kia?" David asked her, obviously bristling at the sight of Chase.

"It's fine, David. You can leave now and return to my parents. "

He gave Chase a warning glare, which only succeeded in the slight tug of amusement at Chase's lips.

David moved back to the vehicle and closed himself in as Kia moved slowly to where Chase waited.