Did it make me a dick that I was glad to hear that? Somehow it was minimal validation that Kennedy hadn’t been with another man. Absurd conclusion, but I wanted that truth. I wanted her untouched. Unloved. I wanted her free to be mine.
The bell dinged and the doors retracted.
“You can put on an offended act for the staff that you don’t want to go upstairs with me.” I saw the goosebumps on her flesh when I whispered in her ear. “Or you can do what you and I both know you want. Step in the elevator.”
Her eyes flashed to mine. “I don’t take orders from anyone,” she hissed. “I haven’t for a long time. I no longer have to submit.”
My hand curled around her wrist. I pressed my fingers into her tender skin. “You could change that for one night, couldn’t you?” I winked. I thought she was going to slap me, but she wrenched her hand free and marched into the elevator.
“Are you coming?” She eyed me.
Without saying a word, I joined her, turning the key inside the elevator.
I had planned strawberries dipped in chocolate. A second bottle of expensive champagne. I had planned filling the original claw-foot tub with scalding water. Bubbles. Candles. Roses. Pulling out all the stops. But every fucking plan went out the window when we walked in that suite.
The door closed and the world became ours.
Kennedy spun and I took her mouth with a sensuous kiss. Long. Slow. Her mouth opened a quiet moan escaped from here throat. My tongue probed, remembering how her tongue liked to tangle with mine. I pinned her against the wall, savoring the taste of her. The beauty of her. I nipped behind her ear, trailing her throat back to her mouth. The kiss was deeper this time. More punishing. Brutal. But who was the predator and who was the prey?
My fingers dug into her shoulders, rotating her toward the wall. Her palms slapped against the hand-painted wallpaper as I began to drag her dress to her hips. Her skin was covered in goosebumps. I grinned. My mouth covered her ear, the side of her neck, the softness of her shoulders.
“Knight,” she rasped.
I felt the heat between us. The undeniable chemistry that always raged when I was near Kennedy. My fingers dug into her exquisite curves. She mewed and I wondered if it was possible to end up on my knees before I even carried her to the bed.
She did things to me. Unspeakable monstrous things. She’d haunted my dreams. Plagued me with promises of what could have been. Another life. A richer life. A complete life with nights that ended in fucking each other senseless.
Tonight, could drown out the mistakes of the past. I would make sure it did. There would be no question tomorrow when we awakened that we had burned something permanent on each other’s souls.
22
Kennedy
Midnight. That was the color of his gaze. I saw deep midnight eyes when I tried to sleep at night. Those lashes. His strong jaw. The way he used to say my name with a growl. Five years of fantasy was unraveling in this moment. Five years of imagining when and how we’d finally be able to fan the ember that smoldered between us. It had never been extinguished. If this wasn’t proof of that, I didn’t know what was.
Knight’s powerful frame held me close to the wall while his hands had free reign of my body.
I turned my head, catching his lips. It was a blistering kiss. Hot. Possessive. I gulped for air when his hand slid between my body and the wall.
His hand flattened against my navel as it made a slow purposeful descent. He took his time, imprinting the memory on my skin. I hissed when he slid farther, prying my heat open. Seeking my clit to torture and please.
My knees quaked, but Knight wrapped his hands to my chest, yanking the cocktail dress out of his way. He wanted access to my entire body. My nipples were bare for his fingers to take, pluck, squeeze. He was possessive and determined.
I reached behind me, running my fingers into his hair, drawing his mouth to the crook where my shoulder met my neck. He sucked my skin. Licked and lavished it.
His finger slipped inside me, followed by another. I whimpered and heard the approval reverberate in his chest. I was soaking wet. But he knew that the instant he touched me. He plunged another finger in my entrance until I felt stretched and filled. My mouth opened to protest, but he covered it with his.
He began pumping inside. Rubbing my nipples. Kissing me. It was as if the first lick of a flame started in my core and began to pour through my limbs. I raged with burning heat. The orgasm blazed while I panted and begged. I didn’t know what I was begging for. I didn’t know if I was forming words or only making sounds.
But Knight spun me in his arms and scooped me against his chest. He carried me through the suite into the bedroom. Our eyes met and I wondered if he was thinking the same things I was. Would this erase the pain? Would this be the start of something new? Or was this just tonight?
He lowered me to the bed. He worked the zipper on the side of the dress and peeled it off my body.
“Much better.” He grinned, admiring my body. He continued to undress me until I was practically panting.
“What about you?” I teased.
“You want to play? That’s fine. But me first.”