Since I Saw You

by BETH KERY

  “I was being stupid last night. I want you to stay,” he said. Her gaze leapt to his face. He looked fierce and very beautiful to her.

  “Okay,” she whispered.

  He took her hand and pulled, so that she slid up the duvet closer to him, still in a sitting position. He slipped the straps off her shoulders and lowered the gown over her breasts. He pushed the silk down into her lap and palmed her hips. She experienced that melting, heavy feeling in her lower belly. He not only turned her body into a syrupy mush with his touch, but her brain.

  “I also want you to spend the rest of the weekend with me. Until Monday morning.” One hand feathered up her rib cage. She inhaled sharply. He cupped a breast in his hand and ran the pad of his thumb over the nipple.

  “I’m not sure those are fair tactics for convincing me,” she said softly.

  His gray eyes flickered up to meet hers. “I wasn’t aware there were any rules.”

  “You would like that, wouldn’t you?” she whispered when he lifted his other hand and cupped both her breasts at once. He finessed both nipples with his thumb and forefinger. She bit off a moan. Her breasts were still very sensitive, but the gentle pressure felt good. “No rules. No right or wrong. Only pleasure.”

  He paused in his caresses. “That’s a problem?”

  For a few seconds, she didn’t respond, just studied his handsome, rugged features. His gaze narrowed as he peered at her closely.

  “I thought it wasn’t,” she admitted shakily. “But as it turns out, I’m not built like you, Kam.”

  Her low voice, and all it implied, seemed to reverberate in her ears in the silence that followed. Slowly, he released her breasts. She missed his warmth. She missed it sorely.

  “You mean you’re not built for a casual affair?” he clarified.

  She nodded, holding his gaze.

  He seemed to consider. “So I would be a real bastard if I insisted you stay after you told me that?”

  She smiled. “I don’t know if you’d be a real bastard, but—”

  He placed his hand along her jaw. “I’m not a bastard. Not when it comes to you. Stay.”

  Her heart seemed to stall in her chest. Not when it comes to you.

  “You’re sure?” she asked, her voice sounding a little shaky.

  He wrapped his arms around her and lifted her over his body. When she landed, she was next to him, her breasts pressed against the side of his chest. She stretched along his length. His mouth covered hers, firm and insistent. Her toes curled against the duvet as that delicious sensation unfurled and spread at her core like a flower made of heat. A dazed moment later, he sealed their kiss, laid her back against the pillows and leaned down over her.

  “Do I look sure?” he asked.

  She searched his face in the dim light. “You do.”

  A small smile shaped his mouth. “You don’t have to look so surprised. I wouldn’t have asked if I wasn’t serious about it. So you’re mine until Monday?”

  She smiled and nodded her head. For a heady few seconds, they just grinned at each other.

  “So what are you going to tell Ian?”

  She blinked, a sudden alarm sounding in her brain. “Tell Ian about what?”

  “What’s your excuse for skiving off that brunch meeting tomorrow? Ian mentioned something about it when we talked on Friday. I remember, because he gave me quite a look when I told him he overworked you,” Kam said, the hint of amusement in his tone saying loud and clear that he wasn’t overly concerned by Ian’s annoyance at his observance.

  “He doesn’t overwork me. I do it because I want to. And I don’t think I need an excuse. I’ll just call and cancel. Say something came up,” she said, entranced by the warmth in Kam’s eyes. She felt herself sinking. Flying. She didn’t know which. She could so easily lose herself to this. To him. Did he realize that? He’d sounded so certain about telling her to stay after what she’d revealed to him, but that didn’t mean he was feeling the same way as she was.

  She immediately forced her thoughts away from figuring out precisely what she was feeling. It was too complicated, and too difficult, especially in the presence of Kam. He overwhelmed her senses and completely eradicated rational thought.

  “You don’t think you need to make up an excuse for canceling on work? Let me guess,” he said, leaning down to kiss her neck, sliding his lips over her pulse. She sighed. He knew exactly where to kiss to get that reaction. “You’ve never called in and said you weren’t coming in for personal, selfish reasons before.”

  He scraped his teeth against a patch of skin just behind her ear. A puff of air flew past her lips. “I’ve never had to before.”

  “No. You never wanted to,” he corrected her, his voice muffled against her skin. His hand lowered, caressing a breast and feathering her belly. “But you want to for this?”

  “Yes,” she whispered, turning her head and seeking him out with her mouth. “Very much.”

  “That’s what I wanted to hear,” he growled softly, capturing her lips with his. He cupped her sex. She moaned against his mouth. He shifted, placing his mouth next to her ear.

  “I’m saving this little pussy for tomorrow,” he rumbled. “It’s going to be all mine on the first day that Lin Soong ever plays hooky.”

  She laughed, shivering at the impact of his low, rough voice in her ear. “You don’t have to wait, Kam. I’m fine.”

  “No,” he said firmly, almost as if he was saying it to himself more than her. “I know how hard I rode you last night, again and again and again.” She felt his cock leap against her as he repeated the word, and knew he was remembering their frantic, wild lovemaking last night just like she was. He swept her nightgown over her hips and down her legs. He reached behind him and the room was plunged into blackness.

  Lin sighed in comfort and pleasure when he pulled her against him, spooning her, and she was surrounded by a wall of lean, hard muscle that resonated heat. She felt his cock throbbing against the lower curve of her ass. Despite being aroused by the sensation, a wave of lassitude overcame her. She was warm and content and satiated from phenomenal sex.

  She was in Kam’s arms.

  “Lin?” Kam asked, his voice sounding thick with sleep.

  She blinked open heavy eyelids.

  “Yes?”

  “Are you on birth control?”

  “Yes. The pill,” she murmured into the darkness.

  Again, she felt his cock swell.

  “If I swore to you that I typically religiously practice safe sex, and that I’m clean, could I—”

  “Yes,” she emphatically.

  “You trust me that much?” he asked, sounding a little stunned.

  “Well you are a doctor, after all,” she said drolly. She laughed when she heard the indignant sound he made. “It’s not just because of that. I don’t believe you’d lie to me about something like that,” she added softly, meaning it. “I can securely assure you, too. I had a doctor’s appointment two months ago, and there hasn’t been anyone since then.”

  He cupped her sex in that possessive manner of his.

  “You just made me a very happy man,” he said. She started to turn in his arms to make love, but he stopped her by kissing her shoulder. “Tomorrow,” he said succinctly near her ear.

  Her racing heart and Kam’s throbbing erection made it extremely difficult for her to slide into sleep.

  • • •

  She swam in a cocoon of heavy, warm pleasure. A mouth pulled gently on her nipple, and she felt the sweet tug all the way to her core.

  “Oh, that’s nice,” she muttered, her words slurred with sleep. She blinked open her heavy eyelids. The faded light of early morning glowed around the curtains. She lay on her back. Kam’s shadow loomed over her. His body separated her thighs.

  “Guess what?” he asked, his deep, accented voice
causing her skin to roughen.

  “What?” she whispered.

  “It’s tomorrow.”

  She snorted softly. “You’ve been waiting to say that, haven’t you?”

  “All blessed night. You have a lot of nerve, sleeping like a baby.”

  “You didn’t?” she murmured in amazement, pushing her hair out of her eyes.

  He pushed back her thighs. She gasped when he pushed a thick finger into her slit. “Not much. You think I could sleep when I’ve been craving to be naked inside you since I first saw you?” He removed his finger and she felt the moisture he brought with him against her thigh. He grunted in satisfaction. “You must have been having sweet dreams at least. You’re nice and slick. Tight and soft. This is going to feel so good.”

  Excitement rippled through her at the sound of his illicit words in the near darkness. He shifted, bracing himself on one forearm, his other hand between his thighs. The head of his cock felt warm and hard, probing her slit, insisting upon entrance. She whimpered. “That’s right,” he said thickly. “Open your thighs nice and wide. Let me in.”

  He flexed his hips, his cock stretching her, carving through her slowly, melting her flesh with his power and heat. She believed completely in that moment that he’d been up a good part of the night. His cock was huge and heavy with sustained arousal.

  “Oh yeah, that’s so good,” he muttered. “You’re so hot, baby. You’re squeezing me so tight.” He paused. She sensed his pitched alertness. “I can feel your heart beating inside you.”

  “Kam,” she whispered, moved by the tinge of wonder in his voice. She ran her hands over his shoulders and chest, loving his hardness and strength. He began to rock her. She made a soughing sigh of surrender. He flexed his hips and seated his cock inside her completely.

  “So tight but so wet,” he hissed. “You’re going to have a time of it keeping me out of this pussy.”

  “You’ll have no fight from me. It feels so good,” she whispered.

  He withdrew and sunk back into her, a groan tearing at his throat.

  “Lin?”

  “Yes?” she asked. It was hard to catch her breath with him throbbing so high inside her, filling her to the brim.

  “When we made love before,” he said gruffly. “It’s never been like that for me. I thought you deserved to know. It’s never felt like this.” He stroked her again and groaned. She gasped, overwhelmed by sensation, stunned by what he was telling her.

  “No. Not for me, either,” she admitted shakily, her fingers digging into the dense muscle of his shoulders. He drove into her. Her head fell back on the pillow as she gasped.

  He left her no choice. There was no guarding of her heart in this raw, honest place where he took her. She couldn’t say no to the wild, fierce ride that was Kam.

  Chapter Fifteen

  She awoke later alone in the bed. She blinked several times, trying to figure out what it was that had awakened her. The memory of their early morning lovemaking lapped over her like a sensual, warm surf. She’d watched Kam fall into a deep, peaceful sleep afterward, unable to look away from his face. Finally, she’d roused herself from her trance to call Ian and apologize for not being able to attend the brunch meeting with a visiting CEO of one of Noble’s subsidiaries. Then she’d finally joined Kam in a satisfied sleep.

  Now he was gone. The bedroom door was closed. In the distance, she heard the sound of male voices. She sat up quickly, clutching the sheet to her breasts. The voices were similar in timbre and volume, but one was French accented, the other British. Ian was here. Her glance landed on her leather cuffs on the bedside table. Anxiety swept through her, which was ridiculous. Of course Ian wasn’t coming back here. Kam would never let him. She leapt out of bed and approached the closed door. She tilted her head, trying to make out their words over her pounding heart.

  “. . . unfortunate what happened with Jason. I’d have never guessed it of him, but some men will turn into idiots around a woman as beautiful as Lin,” she thought she heard Ian say, the direction of his voice making her think he stood near the hallway in front of the foyer. “No wonder she wanted to take the day off to recover after something like that.”

  Kam spoke, but it was as if his back was turned in her direction. She heard her own name several times, and then he spoke vehemently in French.

  “I understand,” Ian said. “I’m only sorry I ever suggested the meeting. I would have done the same if I came upon someone holding Francesca against her will.”

  Lin’s breath froze in her lungs. She pressed her ear to the door, but all she heard was silence. Ian had drawn a parallel between his protective feelings for Francesca and Kam’s for her. Had Ian been opening a door for Kam to talk about her—Lin? If he was, Kam wasn’t taking the bait. She was thankful.

  “I stopped by to officially ask you to dinner on Monday night. Lucien and Elise are coming, and Mrs. Hanson is making roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. I’d ask Lin, but she’s out of town for the night.” Lin frowned. Ian certainly kept linking Kam and her together. How much did he really suspect about them? “And we’re meeting for the demonstration of your device with Gersbach on Wednesday. Lin says you two are ready for that?” Ian continued.

  “We’re ready.”

  “Maybe tomorrow night, you can tell us all what you’re really planning for your future,” Ian said.

  Lin’s breath froze in her lungs at the unexpected comment. She pressed her ear closer to the door when Ian resumed in a more subdued tone. “Don’t give me that look, Kam. I know you’ve been planning something all along for this business trip, and it wasn’t that you ever expected to sell your patent to any of the luxury watch companies that Lin and I have arranged for you to meet.”

  “I haven’t ruled anything out. I like Gersbach, and I look forward to meeting the people from Stunde,” Kam said neutrally, foiling Ian’s attempt to get him to open up. The two men continued talking, but they must have shifted positions, because their voices were more muffled and unintelligible.

  By the time Kam rapped on the bathroom door five minutes later, Lin was drying off from a quick shower.

  “Come in,” she called, tucking the edge of the towel between her breasts.

  They stared at each other for several seconds when he opened the door and stood in the entryway, one arm extended on the frame. He really was a sight to behold first thing in the morning.

  “Hi,” she said, stepping toward him and yanking her gaze off the thin trail of hair that bisected his ridged abdomen and disappeared below the low-riding waistband of his jeans. My, she had guessed his size perfectly. What Kam did to a pair of jeans would be considered illegal in some parts of the world. She yanked off the vision of him with effort. She noticed his flared nostrils and vaguely dissatisfied expression when she finally met his stare.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  “Damn Ian,” he muttered. “I was hoping to wake you up myself and keep you in bed.”

  “You can’t keep me in bed indefinitely,” she teased him, a smile breaking through.

  “Who says?” he asked, scowling at the same time he stepped toward her, his arms surrounding her. “Now let’s just get rid of this,” he murmured matter-of-factly. He tugged at her towel and it fell between them. “That’s more like it.” He pressed close against her naked, shower-warmed body. It felt decadently good. He hadn’t showered yet. Ian’s arrival must have got him out of bed, either that, or he’d gotten up to take Angus out. He smelled like soap and sex and man. Without thinking, she sunk her teeth gently into what was in front of her—a dense pectoral muscle covered in thick, smooth skin. She sampled his skin with her tongue and felt his cock twitch behind his jeans. His hands moved in her hair, releasing the restraining clip she’d put in it for her shower.

  “Now that’s much more like it,” he growled, delving his fingers into the loose strands and tugging.
Her head fell back and he swooped down, claiming her mouth. By the time he lifted his head a minute later, Kam’s cock had stiffened next to her belly and Lin’s flesh—to say nothing of her brain—had turned to warm goo.

  “I’m going to make you into a complete hooky addict,” he stated smugly as he nipped at her lips.

  “You’re off to a good start,” she murmured, nibbling his mouth back hungrily as she spoke. “There’s only one problem.”

  “There’s no problem,” he corrected, pulling her closer in his arms. She pulsed her hips against his cock. He hissed and bit at her a tad harder.

  “I don’t have any clothes here except for an evening dress,” she reminded him.

  “You won’t need them.”

  “I will so. I’m not doing the walk of shame in my rumpled evening dress tomorrow morning. Plus, I told Ian when I called I’d get a few things to him by the end of the evening.”

  He lifted his head and arched his brows, looking down at her. “You are not going to work today.”

  “You can be awfully dictatorial for a man who lived alone for so long and had nobody to boss around. I feel a new kinship to Angus,” she complained without any real heat. He gave her a bland look. “It’s just a few things.”

  “You’re a grown woman. When will you learn to live a little? There’s more to life than work, little kitten,” he coaxed, running his firm lips along her cheek and temple.

  “There’s an important memo I need to draft.”

  He lifted his head and scowled.

  “At the very least, I have to check a few e-mails this morning and answer them.”

  “You can use my computer for that, but after that, you’re done with work,” he said, his hands running over her back, massaging her . . . influencing her. He knew precisely what he was doing, she admitted as her flesh softened and warmed even further under his touch. “And you’re only going to need one set of clothes, because otherwise, I’ll want you naked,” he murmured near her temple. He undoubtedly felt her shivers of pleasure beneath his stroking hands at the sound of his rough voice in her ear. “I’ll shower in the other bathroom and run out right now to one of the stores on Michigan Avenue. I’ll get you some dog-walking clothes.”