Pulling the car door open, she slid into the front seat beside James, still wondering why she had never recognized her yearning for the company of a male.
Because it wasn’t there. Not until I met Simon. It’s him. I don’t want just any male.
Damn it, it was true. She knew it. There was something about Simon that called to her, beckoned her to bring him closer, so close that she may very well get burned. Nevertheless, the lure was there and it was seductive; Simon’s come-hither vibrations were enticing and impossible to ignore.
Why am I so drawn to him? We’re nothing alike.
Shaking her head against the supple leather of the seat, Kara admitted to herself that in some superficial likes and dislikes…they were different. But in many ways…they were so very similar.
After being burned by Chris, she was wary…just like Simon. The causes might be different and she was fairly certain that Simon’s were much more traumatic, but the two of them circled each other like frightened children, not quite sure if they wanted to be friend or foe, whether they wanted to trust or not.
She knew Simon had given her a valuable gift when he had trusted her enough to take her without his usual procedure of bondage and blindness. She just wished she knew what caused his distrust. And why the blindfold? The man had a body to drool over.
She shivered and shot a weak smile at James as he pulled the vehicle into traffic, weaving his way slowly toward the condo.
She blew out a long, shaky breath, desperately hoping that she wasn’t inadvertently putting her head on the chopping block by getting so involved with a man like Simon.
Just go with it. Relax. Enjoy what you have while you have it.
She bit back a self-deprecating laugh. She didn’t relax, she didn’t roll with the flow, and she had never, ever lived in the moment. Those were all difficult things to do for a woman who needed to worry about where her next meal was coming from and if she could scrounge up enough money to pay her rent every month.
But you don’t need to worry about that now.
No…she didn’t. It might not last very long, but for a brief time, she knew she had a bed to sleep in, a roof over her head, and plenty of food to eat. Because of Simon, she had time and space to actually breathe.
Her heart stuttered as she pictured him, as he was last week on the couch, vulnerable, yet so very strong. How could she not admire that strength and determination to beat whatever phantoms of the past were haunting him?
He did it for me. Because I wanted it.
Drawing power from her memories, Kara gathered her backpack. She was home. James had delivered her to the front of the massive building. “Thank you, James.” She gave him a sheepish grin, suddenly noticing that she hadn’t spoken a word to the driver on the short trip home.
“You’re most welcome, Ms. Kara. As always. Have a nice evening.”
“You, too.” Sliding out of the seat, backpack in hand, she closed the door and jogged toward the entrance.
She would have a nice evening. How could she not? She had a dark, sexy, handsome man waiting for her. He might want dinner, but she was determined to give him something more than just food. It was time to give back to Simon. After all, he had trusted her, sheltered her, made her feel like she was someone special.
She hoped he was hungry, and not just for food.
Waving at the watchful doorman, she slipped silently into the elevator that went to the penthouse.
Live in the moment. Don’t think about the future.
It might feel totally alien to her, but she was going to try.
Chapter Four
Simon cursed as he wrapped a white towel around his waist, pissed off at himself for forgetting to bring clean clothes. After his workout, he had headed straight for the shower that was attached to his gym, completely forgetting to grab something to wear from his bedroom. The damn towel barely covered his family jewels.
He scowled at his sweaty, stinking workout clothing. There was no way he was putting them back on after he had just washed the stench from his body.
Kara wasn’t home yet. He should have time to make it to his room. Finger-combing his wet hair, he opened the bathroom door, ready to sprint down the stairs and to the master bedroom.
Cold air blasted him as he left the steamy bathroom behind. Shit. The gym was freezing. He’d cranked the temperature down for his workout, and he was feeling the chill.
“Simon, are you-”
The light, feminine voice startled him. Halfway across the gym, he froze, his heart thundering as Kara came breezing into the room.
He flinched as her eyes roamed over him, ready for her look of distaste…or worse. The scars on his chest and abdomen were glaring, something that he went to great lengths to hide from the world…especially from women.
He tried to get his feet to move, to turn around and take him back to the bathroom. But as his eyes met Kara’s, he was paralyzed.
She advanced slowly, her eyes huge and round, but she didn’t look appalled. She looked…hungry. Her tongue darted out to lick her lips as she said reverently, “God, you’re huge. Muscular. I knew you were ripped, but you make male strippers look like a joke.”
Simon swallowed hard as she reached him and dropped her backpack on the floor. “I’m scarred.” Fucking brilliant, Hudson. Like she hadn’t noticed?
She was close enough that Simon could smell her sweet scent. He inhaled, his cock rising as she craned her neck to glance up at him with a look of longing that slammed into his gut like a freight train.
Her voice trembled as she said in a breathy whisper, “Please don’t ask me not to touch you, Simon. I need to touch you. I think I’ll die if you don’t let me.”
He’d expected any number of reactions from her, but not this. His whole body flooded with heat, with the need to feel her small, capable hands on his body. How could she look at him with this sort of need?
“I don’t like to be touched,” he said, his voice husky.
“Don’t like it, or aren’t used to it?” she queried softly.
Fuck. He was such a liar. There was nothing he wanted more than Kara’s hands on his body right now. Right. Fucking. Now. “I don’t know,” he answered honestly, shaken by her reaction to him.
“You have a beautiful body, Simon,” she told him as she lifted her hands to his chest.
He braced himself as her hands caressed his chest lovingly, gliding over his skin, setting his whole being on fire. The contact felt like pure sex, so erotic, so sensual. Gritting his teeth, he willed his body to relax…but it wasn’t listening. Her fingers slid slowly over his abdomen and he heard her breath catch.
“You’re so hard, Simon.”
Yeah. He was hard. Everywhere. “Fuck! Kara.” His breath started coming in hard pants as her moist, warm lips joined her roaming fingers, her tongue lapping at his chest.
“Mmmm…you smell so good. Taste even better.”
He nearly came in the towel as her teeth latched onto one of his flat nipples, followed by a soothing lave of her tongue.
Holy Christ! His whole body was trembling, ready to go up in flames. “Stop,” he groaned. No, don’t stop.
She grasped the towel around his waist and tugged. The material gave way easily and she dropped the towel to the floor. “You feel so good, Simon. Don’t make me stop,” she crooned as she palmed his engorged member in her small hand. “I want to taste you.” Seriously? Did she mean-
“Everywhere.”
Oh yeah, she did.
Her blue eyes darkened as she looked up at him with a pleading glance. Dear God, he couldn’t turn away. He wanted those luscious lips on his cock more than he wanted to take his next breath. “Kara…I haven’t. I don’t-” He’d always needed to dominate, to tie women up. He had never wanted to shove his cock in their mouths while they were lying helplessly beneath him. And none of them had ever wanted him to.
“Good. Then you won’t know if I don’t do it well.” Her look of vulnerability floored him, makin
g him forget his own insecurities about his scarred body, and he had the sudden urge to pound her ex into the ground.
“Not possible that it wouldn’t be incredible with you,” he told her harshly, his voice graveled with rampant desire. He snaked his hand behind her neck and brought her mouth to his, his other hand splaying over her ass to tug her closer to him.
She doesn’t care about my scars. She still wants me. There’s no woman on this earth who could fake her reaction.
He took her mouth over and over, wanting to somehow show her how much her acceptance meant to him.
She returned his kiss with a fire that heated his blood. Her tongue entwined with his and she moaned one of her sweet little noises into his mouth, a needy sound that nearly made him lose it.
She pulled her mouth from his and slowly lowered herself to her knees, trailing her tongue along his chest and over his abdomen as she went. Jesus Christ! He wasn’t sure he was going to live through this.
Sweat beaded on his forehead, dripping slowly down his face. Blood pounded through his ears, the swooshing noise of his heartbeat deafening him. All he could do was feel.
The first touch of her tongue was sublime. It twirled over his sensitive tip, licking a drop of pre-cum like it was her favorite candy.
“Shit. Kara.” He pulled the clip from her hair and buried his fingers into the silken mass, shuddering as the soft waves flowed over his hands.
He inhaled sharply as she closed her mouth over his cock, taking him into the moist, hot clasp of her lips, pulling the swollen shaft as far as she could possibly take it, bumping the back of her throat.
Fuck. Fuck. Heaven. Hell. Bliss. Agony. He’d never experienced anything like the exquisite sensation of that talented tongue sliding over him, tasting him with an erotic pleasure that was about to make the top of his head explode. She sucked and glided, twirled and tugged, until Simon thought he was losing his mind.
“Oh, Christ.” The words exploded in a tortured voice that he could barely recognize as he looked down at her, watching her devour his cock with obvious enjoyment. Her eyes opened, her look scorching as their gazes met and locked.
Simon felt his balls tighten and the gathering pressure at the base of his shaft. He was going to come…hard. Their eyes lost contact as he threw his head back, his hands guiding her head in a rapid rhythm along his pulsating shaft.
Her hands cupped his ass, her nails scoring over his sensitized skin. “Oh, hell yeah. I’m gonna come,” he grunted, unable to verbalize anything else, knowing he needed to give Kara a warning that he was about to erupt like a fucking nuclear explosion.
She didn’t move away. She moaned around him, the vibration sending him over the edge. Her nails dug into his ass and she practically swallowed his cock as he released himself with an agonized cry, his muscles screaming as they tensed and released from his violent orgasm.
Simon panted heavily as Kara continued to lave his cock, licking every drop sensually, languidly.
He wanted to kiss her, needed to kiss her, but his pants were coming so heavily that he couldn’t catch his breath. Hauling Kara up and into his arms, he simply held her, his arms wrapping around her body, her face in his neck.
He gulped, trying to force air into his burning lungs as he molded her sweet body against his.
“Was it good?” she asked him quietly as her mouth nuzzled his neck.
Simon laughed, wheezing as he replied, “Sweetheart, if it was any better it would have killed me.” God, this woman was special. So sweet, so sexy. So…his.
Mine.
A hard wave of possessiveness swept over him and his arms tightened around her.
“I actually was coming up to ask you what you wanted for dinner,” she informed him in a matter-of-fact voice, her apparent nervousness about not performing well seeming to have vanished. “But seeing you gloriously nude took away my appetite for food. I wanted to take a bite out of you.”
Her hands swept over his body and his chest ached with the realization that she really did lust for his body, scars and all. “I wasn’t nude until you stripped me of my towel,” he reminded her.
“How do you expect me to resist? You’re a walking temptation. A testosterone menace in a tiny little towel,” she sniffed, but there was humor in her voice.
Simon chuckled softly against her hair. He couldn’t help it. Kara was a fucking miracle. His miracle. “How about I take a bite out of you, now?” he murmured warmly, his body more than ready to start rising to the occasion.
She broke away from him and picked up his towel, snapping his abdomen with it as she demanded, “Oh no, you don’t, mister. I’m starving now. Put that thing away. It’s dangerous.” She tossed the towel at him with a delighted giggle that struck him right in the chest. Catching the towel in mid-air, he wrapped it around his waist, his cock already half hard again for her.
It was strange, how comfortable he was with his body exposed around her. He was still shaking his head over her obvious delight in seeing him nude, but he wasn’t going to question something that had him happier than he had been in…well…ever. “Come on, sweet thing. Just a tiny nibble,” he growled as he stalked her.
“Nope. No way. Put it away. I need food.” She laughed out loud as she scampered for the door.
He roared and lunged, chasing her down the stairs and into the kitchen, her laughter ringing through every corner of his empty house.
And filling every inch of his empty heart.
***
What in the hell am I doing in this dress?
The next evening, Kara stood in front of a full-length mirror in her room, contemplating her appearance.
Simon didn’t want to go to this party, had admitted that he hated Sam’s annual birthday bash.
Who hated birthday parties?
Kara frowned at herself in the mirror as she turned one way and then the other, trying to decide if she was overdressed. Or underdressed. The burgundy dress was beautiful, but the clingy silk material draped every curve, ending at mid-thigh and leaving a considerable amount of her legs on display. The nude silk stockings that ended in delicate lace at the tops of her thighs did little to warm her long legs and the drape across only one shoulder left the other one completely bare.
She had flinched when she pulled the dress from the closet, shocked by the price tag still attached to the garment. Holy crap! Who wore a dress that cost as much as her previous grocery allowance for six months? Seeing the outrageous price had been enough to make her want to shove it back in the closet. The only reason she hadn’t was because she had nothing appropriate to wear.
She slipped her feet into a pair of matching shoes, the stiletto heels high enough to ensure that she would be as tall as some of the male guests.
Except Simon. No shoes would ever put her eye-to-eye with Simon.
Nervous, she shoved her long hair over her shoulder. Leaving it loose might not have been the best plan, but she had no idea how to do fancy styles. Her long, dark hair was generally more of a nuisance than anything else, making her think about cutting it short more than once over the last several years.
Staring back at herself in the mirror, her eyes looked enormous. She had added make-up, something she rarely bothered with because of the cost and time involved, the result not something that she was sure she liked. Was the red lipstick a little too much? Oh hell, she just didn’t know. It wasn’t like she attended parties or gatherings of this type. Actually, she hadn’t been to a party of any type for more years than she could remember; probably the last one had been when her parents were still alive. After that, her life had been a constant cycle of work and survival.
She shoved her sagging shoulders back, trying to tell herself that she would not be intimidated. Simon had asked her to go, wanted her to be there, and she wouldn’t let him down. It would be so much easier to play chicken and tell Simon she wasn’t feeling well and couldn’t go, but she couldn’t do it. Simon was good to her, had literally saved her life.
Tak
ing one last look in the mirror, Kara scooped a small black bag from the bed and headed for the kitchen. She shifted one hand to her belly, trying to quiet the swarm of butterflies that seemed to have invaded her stomach.
Calm down, Kara. It’s just a birthday party. No big deal.
Stopping at the entrance to the kitchen, she saw Simon dressed, ready and none too happy. He was standing near the cupboard, handsome as sin in brown dress pants and a gorgeous cream-colored fisherman’s sweater. Hair neatly groomed, his evening dark whiskers already showing, he looked good enough to eat.
You already did that. Yesterday.
Kara flushed, the room suddenly way too warm, as she remembered the day before. Her behavior had been so out of character. So brazen. But it had been difficult to see Simon, in all his glory, looking slightly insecure and trapped. It had kicked in a protective instinct, a bold and audacious behavior that had surprised her. When had she become such a bold seductress? She was sexually repressed, totally not the type of woman to come on to a man like Simon. His look of uncertainty had spurred her on, made her determined to show him how incredibly sexy he looked, how tempting he really was. And he was tempting. Sure, he had some scars on his chest and abdomen, some small, some not so small, all white from age and standing out on his olive complexion. But Lord, it had been impossible to walk away, to not touch that ripped, muscular body. The scars did nothing to detract from his sex appeal. Simon was simply…splendid.
“Oh good. You’re here. I was just-” Simon stopped in mid-sentence as he looked up at her.
“I’m ready,” she told him, trying to sound confident as she stepped into the kitchen.
His eyes turned dark, his gaze roaming her body. She wanted to squirm when his perusal continued, his jaw firming as his eyes lingered on her exposed lower limbs.
“D-Do I look all right?” Oh, shit. Maybe she was dressed all wrong.
“You’re stunning,” he answered in a husky voice, his eyes finally landing on her face. “But you’re showing way too much skin. And your hair is down.”
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