Sinful Secrets (Mine 4.5)

“Because no one else was you.”

He heard the rush of her breath, then she asked, “But what about the Playhouse? They knew you there…”

Did she think he’d lie, about this? About her? “From before. Charles knew me before you.” Because that was how he thought of his life. The days before Cat. The days after.

He put his knee on the bed. Put his hand on her thigh. He loved touching her. Loved the feel of her smooth skin beneath him. Loved being in her even more.

Cat shook her head as if she still didn’t believe the words that he’d said. They’d work on that. Soon, she’d believe in him completely…because he would accept nothing less from her.

Cat would be his. Body, mind, heart. He would take all of her because that was what he needed.

“Spread your legs for me,” he told her.

She did.

“So pretty, love…” He stroked her. Had her arching her hips toward him. “So very…mine.”

Jason slid himself between her splayed thighs. His hands caught hers and he pushed them back against the bed. He could feel the gold band of the ring against his fingers. His band.

His.

He thrust into her. She was slick and swollen from her orgasm, from him, and a moan broke from her lips.

Her body arched beneath him. A smile curved her lips, the same smile that she’d flashed a year before when he’d had her beneath him in bed. The smile that told him she liked what he was doing. Liked it rough and wild. Liked it hard.

He gave her what she liked.

The bed thumped into the wall. The mattresses—fucking expensive—squeaked, and her legs wrapped around him. He thrust into her again and again, endlessly, and his hands held hers.

His orgasm pressed closer and his movements became even rougher as he drove for fulfillment.

She cried out his name.

She came for him.

He exploded within her.

***

He’d shut out the light.

Cat lay in bed, all too aware of Jason’s strong form beside her. She felt marked, taken…because she had been. Again and again, and she’d reveled in every moment of pleasure.

Darkness surrounded them, but she knew dawn had to be close. There weren’t any clocks that she could see in his bedroom—his bedroom!—but they’d been together so long, the last hours of the night must have slipped away.

Just as she had to slip away.

She’d stayed with him, given herself to him, because she’d wanted him for so long. Cat had thought that, surely, sex with him couldn’t possibly have been as good as she remembered.

It had been. Dammit. No, it had been even better this time.

After the near run-in with that motorcycle, an adrenaline rush had made her shaky and her desire for Jason—well, that was a weakness she seemed to carry all the time.

And I need to leave him. It can’t be safe to want a man this much.

She had to go and contact her brother. Cat knew she had to warn Cameron about the PR nightmare that would soon be falling on her family. Because of her. Another Cat screw-up, as her father would say. She seemed to make those often, at least in the eyes of her father.

She slid toward the edge of the bed. The sheet was cool over her skin as she rolled carefully off the mattress. Her feet touched the carpet and she held her breath as she tip-toed toward the door. But, helplessly, she glanced back over her shoulder. Jason was—

Watching her. In that flash, he’d flipped on the lamp’s light and she could see him perfectly. Just as he could see her.

Oh, crap.

Her heart stopped right then.

He was supposed to be sleeping.

Instead, he was glaring at her. “You think you’re just going to slip away from me again?” He’d sat up in the bed. The sheet pooled near his waist.

Maybe she should lie and say that she had just been going to the bathroom…except that the bathroom door was on the other side of the room.

“My scent is still on you. Your lips are still red from my mouth.” He rose from the bed. Totally naked.

Um, so was she. Cat tried to cover up as best she could with her arms.

He glared harder. “I know every inch of your body.”

His hands and mouth had certainly done plenty of exploring. So had hers.

He was closing in on her. “Jason, listen—”

“Were you leaving me again?”

The question cut right through her heart. “Yes.”

Fury flashed on his face. Right. She definitely should have lied.

“Good enough to fuck, but when the light of day comes, you’re ashamed to be with me?”

“That’s not fair!” She wasn’t ashamed of him. “I’m not the one trying to destroy your family! I’m not—”

“I have no family! No one matters to me! No one but—” He broke off and strode closer. His nostrils flared and his golden eyes burned with a fury to match the rage that tightened his expression. “They’re not saints, Catherine. Your father. Your brother. You think you owe them for being blood? Because your brother did something right once in his life when he was a boy? You don’t know them, not the fuck at all.”

She had a furious, naked man stalking her. And he was right-about some things. His scent was on her. She could still feel him. She still ached for him. But… “They’re not the only ones I don’t know.” That was why she was leaving him. When she was close to Jason, she felt too much, too fast. “

Who are you?” Cat asked. “The man who acts as if he wants me so badly…or the man who set out to coldly seduce me a year ago?”

He started to shake his head.

Her rough laughter stopped him. She should have learned from the past. She hadn’t. When it came to Jason, she had a serious weak spot. Or maybe she was just blind. “When we met a year ago…it wasn’t chance, was it?”

His lips compressed but after a moment, he said, “No.”

Right. “Why did you approach me in that casino?”

“Because I wanted you.”

She waited for more and wished she had on clothing.

A muscle flexed in his jaw. “And I wanted to fucking destroy your family.”

Those were the words she’d expected all along. So why did they hurt so much? “We’re done,” she told him simply. Then she turned away. She would not cry in front of him. Had she seriously deluded herself during the hours of the night? After the motorcycle incident, he’d…he’d seemed to care.

No one else was you.

He was such a good liar.

And she sucked at the games men played with women. Cat fumbled with the doorknob. Stumbled out of the bedroom. Her bag was near the couch. Her panties…her panties were on the floor. Shame burned through her because she’d reveled in being with him during the night.

Only to have him slam cold reality into her face once more.

She grabbed for her clothes. Jerked them on as quickly as she could. There was no way she was running buck naked out of his penthouse. With her luck, a reporter would be outside, waiting to snap a picture.

“Stop!” Jason grabbed her arm and swung her around to face him. “Let me explain!”

“You just did!”

“No!” He gave a jerk of his head. “I wanted to hurt them, not you. I never wanted to do anything that would hurt you.”

She could only stare at him. Didn’t he get that hurting her family—by association—hurt her?

A hard knock sounded at his front door. Cat glanced toward that door.

“Whoever the bugger is, he can screw off,” Jason snapped. His hold tightened on her. “Your father and brother…they smash anyone in their way. Every day, they ruin businesses, families, and they never hesitate.”

“That’s not—”

“My father came to the States fifteen years ago. He’d opened his restaurant. Scraped and saved and my mum and I were working round the clock with him.”