“I need you to fill me, Kaine. I can’t be empty anymore.” Her words seemed to take the last of her effort. She was helpless in my arms. Beautiful, wanting, helpless. She was finally ready. Ready for the power I could offer her. Before she knew what had happened, I had lifted her, supporting her weight with my hands as I slipped her down... down over the egg-shaped bedpost. Her eyes shot up to mine in utter shock, but her body did what I knew that it would. Her feet rested on the carpet, enough bend in her knees to move. She exhaled completely, the need to be filled finally satisfied. I could see the struggle behind her eyes. This was nothing like what she’d ever imagined. But then she’d never imagined me…
“It’s fine, sweetheart. It’s clean and smooth. It can’t hurt you. You’re the one in control.” I said the words quietly, soothingly. I didn’t want her to be frightened. I wanted her to have what she needed. And she needed to be filled.
“You can move, as little or as much as you like.” I kissed her, letting my mouth ease her, wanting her body to relax. I cupped her breasts, lifting their weight, teasing her mouth with mine. “I won’t move you. That’s up to you.” I kissed her neck, moving downward to take her nipple. I sucked and rolled it, and her body started to sway. Gently at first. Back and forth. Her movements small, tentative. I ran my hands down the curve of her belly and down to her pussy. She was so wet, the wooden shaft already slippery under her. Only the small rounded top was inside her. But I could tell her body wanted more.
My jeans were open and my cock was raging at the sight of her. I stripped off my sweater and let the head of my cock nudge her swollen clit. “Take me in your hand, Grace.”
I watched, so close her breasts were only inches from my chest. I held my breath, bracing for her touch. Her tiny hand reached for me and I heard her breath catch too. “It’s alright, sweetheart. I want this too.”
Her hand wrapped me, tight and hot. My own hips bucked at the contact. Everything was moving faster than I’d intended. Maybe faster than it should be. But the touch of her skin was incredible, addictive. “Don’t stroke, sweetheart. Just hold me. I don’t want to come.”
I could see her struggling to understand. I slid back and forth in the circle of her hand. “I need to control this,” I said gently. “It’s the only way.”
I kissed her, long and deep, and she kept her hand still for me. I pulled a steady breath and worked my cock slowly in her hand.
“That’s right. Just like this. Just like this.” I roamed her body with my hands. “You’re perfect, sweetheart. Beautiful and strong. Let yourself take what you need. Let it build up inside you. It’s beautiful, Grace. That power that you’re feeling.” I pumped myself easily back and forth, kissing her, stroking her, letting it build. She was gasping now, and watching my face as I spoke. “Show me, Grace. Show me how much you’re holding inside. I need to see you come…”
In one move, I slipped her off the post and had her in my arms, my thick fingers greedily filling her instead. She writhed against my hand as my cock throbbed against her naked belly. I wanted nothing in the world except to feel what was about to happen inside her…
I held her as her climax hit, and I bit into my own lip, tasting blood. The need to feel her coming on my cock threatened to overwhelm me. She was so wet and warm, her walls pulsing powerfully as release took her. I wanted to be inside… feeling everything as I came too, filling her the way she deserved to be filled. Utterly… completely… with my hard, unforgiving shaft…
“Kaine, oh god, Kaine…,” she gasped out. She was flushed and beautiful, her eyes closed as her body still moved and her pussy still gripped my fingers. I felt the last waves of her orgasm begin to soften. She was soft and ripe, luscious as her body pulsed. So relaxed… so vulnerable… It would have been so fucking easy to take her. And I’d never wanted it as much as I did at that moment. I eased myself into bed beside her and waited for the familiar ache to subside. I wasn’t sure it ever would.
I hadn’t fucked a woman in the last decade. And I didn’t dare now. I couldn’t trust myself…
My teen years and most of college had been almost nothing but women. I’d thought I could fuck the pain away. And I’d tried. But the feeling of failure had always won out. No woman could take it away. My brother was dead and my father had died in jail only a few months later. Fucking was only a distraction. The pain always came back. Worse still, I left a string of women in my past, who’d wanted more… who’d wanted something real.
Something that I was incapable of giving them.
All that ended when I turned twenty-one. Since the pain never left anyway, there was no reason to hurt innocent women along the way. It was my father who had taught me not to lose control. And for the last ten long years I hadn’t. I gave pleasure, once a year, in this place. For one short week. And I took nothing for myself, but the pleasure of watching the woman experience what I would deny myself.
I dropped a kiss on Grace’s forehead and shifted us both to the center of the bed. I pulled her close and tucked the blankets around her. She’d fallen asleep in my arms and didn’t wake. The last two days had been more than she’d ever imagined, I knew. So many of her thoughts were plain on her face. Like what she’d felt about my scars. I hadn’t expected her to be willing to stay after that. I’d never intended for her to see them in the first place… I brushed her hair back. It was silky and golden in the moonlight. I’d never seen such beauty.
I’d make sure she never saw those scars again. It wouldn’t be easy. But somewhere over the course of the day I’d made the decision.
16
Grace
“But I don’t remember, Ting. I told you. Shit, I told them. I know I had too much, but wouldn’t I remember something?”
“You’ve forgotten lots of things, Evelyn. Things like paying bills, going to work. Christmas, one year. And most of my birthdays…
“And I’m sorry for all that, baby. Really. But a crash like that. It’s got to be different… How would I have made it all the way home, if I’d been that far gone?”
I woke with a start, and fell back against my pillows. I was still in the Citadel, and I was alone again in the big bed. I dreamed about Evelyn pretty often, but she’d never called me Ting in any of them. The last time I’d heard that name was the day Gran died. I had been about five, and that was when everything had started to change between me and Evelyn. She’d always been irresponsible, but Gran had been there to smooth the edges. Without her… well, it had been very different.
I sat up, pulling the covers back and breathing in deep. I caught a glimpse of the bedpost and felt myself flush red from my head to my toes. I was shocked at myself. Shocked at Kaine…
But I sure as hell couldn’t deny that I’d liked it. I flashed to the climax I’d had. Like nothing I’d ever experienced before…
Last night had opened my eyes to a whole new world of experience. I’d known all along that would happen at La Laisse. I just hadn’t known it would be like this. That I’d be awakening to a new understanding of my feelings, my body. That I was even capable of the kind of desire and need I was feeling now. I’d thought that I’d be regretting the loss of my virginity by now. Instead, after two days in a brothel, I was still a virgin. And more and more eager not to be…
I wondered if Kaine had slept on the sofa again last night. For a moment I thought of going to find him, but the memory of seeing his scars…
I sat on the edge of the bed and stared out the window. I’d always thought I’d had it rough growing up with Evelyn, and my friends had certainly agreed. But if my instincts were right… if Kaine had been hurt like that when he was just a boy… What he’d gone through had been so much worse than I could even imagine.
The images had been grinding in my subconscious since yesterday. Those marks weren’t new. Not by a long shot. They’d had time to soften and fade. They were still clear, but they were pale and flat. Those cuts had healed up years ago.
And yet Kaine wouldn’t talk about it. And h
e wouldn’t let me touch him. He’d given me so much pleasure. So much feeling. But as far as I knew, he hadn’t taken anything for himself. He hadn’t asked me to do any of the things my friends had told me about. I didn’t know for sure if he’d even come yet. But one look at his face, one glance at his hard, thick cock and I knew he wanted me. Why hadn’t he just taken me?
I shook my hair back, suddenly tired of wondering. We still had five more nights together and my skin was tingling all over at the prospect. He wouldn’t hold out forever. It was going to happen. It just had to.
Twenty minutes later I was showered and dressed, still no Kaine in sight. I had no idea what to expect, no clue what the day would bring, but I couldn’t resist the soft, dark denim and crisp white cotton top hanging in the closet. I’d have to remember to thank Mrs. S later.
I took my time drying my hair and brushing it out. Then I made a thick braid and tossed it back over my shoulder. There was only so much time I could waste, waiting for Kaine. I had to go out into the living room sooner or later.
I opened the door and was halfway down the hall when I heard his voice. It wasn’t loud, but the intensity struck me. I stopped, listening.
“What kind of damage?” He was quiet then. I could tell he was on the phone.
“Did he say it was consistent with those types of injuries?” There was a long pause. “And what did you get on the Marks connection?” Another pause. “No, not now. But I want you to get it, Brian. There’s something about the name and my gut’s telling me that’s not the entire picture.”
I leaned back against the wall, feeling guilty for listening to something that was clearly none of my business. I was about to head back to the bedroom when I heard Kaine’s voice again.
“I’ve been hoping for something to break for months. Rance needs to be leveled and it can’t wait any longer. We’re too far behind now, and I want the whole street clear by the time I get back. I want it gone. I want all of it gone. This could be the leverage I need… No, not just for the company… it’s not just about the fucking house anymore.”
I wanted to walk right in and ask. There were so many questions just under the surface.
Whose injuries was he concerned with? And who, or what was Marks? Why did he want a whole street demolished… and why did his voice sound so cold, so vicious?
17
Kaine
I hung up with Brian, my mind working with everything he’d just told me. He hadn’t found the link yet, but I knew damn well it was there. A connection between Carlson Marks and Bastien Cole. I’d spent most of the night trying to remember. And trying to keep my thoughts from straying back to Grace, just down the hall.
Images of how she’d looked last night, the feeling of her in my arms had haunted me till the early hours. My body and mind had been charged, fueled by the sheer power of need she created in me. I’d pulled it in, collecting it, letting it build, using it to drive me forward. I’d learned years ago that sexual power unleashed creativity, energy, and unlimited success. So long as it was kept in carefully in check. During my youth I’d wasted it, chasing one hot woman after another, leaving myself empty and spent. But by my twenties, I’d learned better. I’d learned to harness that power by letting it build. Build to near explosive levels. And then to deny my body what it craved most, so that I could use that energy in building an acquisition and demolition empire. I needed every drop of power I could summon now. To fight Bastien’s political games to stop me.
I ground my teeth thinking of the shit that asshole had put me through. Five long fucking years to put together a plan for demolishing Rance Street and putting in a housing project, and this fuck was voted in by the narrowest of margins.
Cole headed the one committee that had blocked ARC Developments again and again, and it was time for it to stop. This was the last fucking straw. I didn’t give a shit that those houses could be historic landmarks. I wanted the entire street taken out, and it was looking more and more like I was going to have to leave La Laisse earlier than I’d planned to make sure that it happened. No matter what, that fuck wasn’t going to win this time…
I paced the floor, my cock still hard from last night and my adrenaline pumping. This was the way I always felt here. Sharp, tense, charged and ready for whatever I had to go back into the business world to face. And that was exactly the way I’d always wanted it. I didn’t come to La Laisse like the others, to waste my energy and my power. I came here to build it. To charge myself. And the price I had to pay in frustration had always been well worth the outcome. I was thirty-one with a multimillion dollar company. And I was always the one in control.
I shifted uncomfortably and walked over to the bar to pour myself a glass of mineral water. I took a swallow and felt it go down in a lump.
Everything had been easy here until the last few days. Before Grace, I’d always gone in with a plan and stuck to it. With all the others, I’d just watched them, keeping any real physical contact to a minimum. I’d used them for their beauty, for their sexuality. But I had never gotten so close. I felt my body jolt as the memory surfaced… rubbing my cock against Grace’s slick little pussy… Christ, I’d been so fucking close to slamming myself inside her and losing control completely…
For a second I allowed myself the indulgence, and imagined her writhing under me. My fast, impatient couplings as a youth would be nothing next to the kind of experience I could give her now. With her, I would use all the control I’d learned to make it last for hours. I’d learned how exquisitely sexual every part of a woman’s body was, and with Grace… Fuck, I wanted to learn every inch of her. Every breath, every movement, every sound, every response I could draw out of her… In the last two days with Grace I had felt more… normal than I had in my whole life. And I was beginning to like that feeling…
I slammed the glass down, spilling what was left of the water. It simply wasn’t possible. It would never be possible. Not for a man like me. The simple fact that Grace made me want to lose control was bad enough.
There was just too much inside me to ever risk that. Too much pain, too much regret. Too much fucking guilt. I was just too goddamn dangerous to the people close to me.
There were just too many scars from the past.
“Kaine?”
I heard her and turned. She was dressed, her hair in a long golden rope over her shoulder. Something tight inside me seemed to tighten more as the light caught her hair and showed that blush of strawberry I’d noticed the first time I saw her.
“I didn’t know… so I showered and dressed…”
“And you’re lovelier every time I see you,” I answered, careful not to move closer. My body was all too anxious to betray my best intentions.
“I was going to order breakfast before I go. The kitchen is exceptional here. What would you like?” I headed for the house phone.
“I… you’re… leaving?”
I turned to see her face darken slightly. She didn’t understand. And I couldn’t explain. As a fucking matter of fact, I wasn’t sure I could have even explained everything I was feeling to myself, let alone to her.
“Business is all,” I offered abruptly. “I should be back in a couple of days and Mrs. Sparr can see to your needs. Anything you wish and you only have to ask. Now, what would you like for breakfast?”
18
Grace
“Cinnamon toast,” I answered, hardly aware I was speaking.
Of all the things I’d expected after last night, this wasn’t it. Not even close.
I watched as Kaine turned his back on me and placed the order. The toast for me, Eggs Benedict for himself. “Juice?” he asked, and I nodded absently.
He hung up and pulled out his cell, absorbed. Lost to me.
After we’d been so close. So absolutely close last night. After all the things we’d done… I felt myself flush. And this morning he was cold as ice, all business, like nothing had happened between us at all. And now he was leaving me here alone.
I w
atched the muscles moving across his back and shoulders as he typed into his phone. Had I been a disappointment somehow? A man like Kaine must have had every girl here, all of them experienced. What did I know, about giving a man pleasure? Maybe that’s why he hadn’t fucked me yet. Maybe that’s why he was leaving now… to have his needs taken care of by one of the others here. Maybe even a girlfriend at home. I flashed to Dalia’s generous curves and seductive smile and felt foolish. For being here at all. For thinking I had anything to offer, worth the crazy amount of money Kaine had paid…
I headed back to the bedroom and found a soft pink cardigan and pulled it on. Wrapping it around myself, I couldn’t help but remember the feeling of being in his arms last night. I’d gone to sleep with them around me and I’d felt safe. It was the last thing I’d ever expected, but it was true. Kaine had felt solid, and warm and… real. His heartbeat had been like a lullaby. Soothing, reassuring. Something in the darkness reminding me that I wasn’t all alone.
I went back down the hall only when I heard the doorbell chime. Breakfast was left quickly and discreetly. I wondered briefly about the shocking variety of things a server must see in these rooms. No wonder she’d kept her eyes down.
“Please.” Kaine pulled out my chair and I sat. “Are you sure toast is enough? Try this…” He scooped up a forkful of his eggs and held it out to me expectantly. I reached for the fork.
“Uh uh,” he pulled back. “Let me…”
I opened my mouth and he smiled, feeding me gently, watching me lick my lips and chew. His eyes were glittering. “Do you like the taste?” he asked. His voice was quiet, his eyes were on my mouth. I saw him bite into his own bottom lip.
“Tell me what you taste. What it feels like in your mouth…”
The Baby Contract Page 25