by Kim Knox
“What you were missing.”
He grinned against her neck, his gaze still fixed on her. “I knew what I was missing, Fade. I was aware. Every second.”
His fingers brushed against her backside and her pulse jumped. He wasn’t touching her, he was doing something to himself. She sucked in a breath as his dick teased against her sex and her fingers bit into the stone of the sink until the bones hurt.
“Foster…” Raw pleasure wrapped around her and she fought to keep her eyes open, to watch him, to see his reaction as he sank into her willing body. But he didn’t move, and his sly fingers continued to torment her, ramping the growing need in her flesh. “If you knew what you were missing. Please.” She wasn’t above begging, not at that moment when she would have everything she wanted, for however brief a time.
“Say you want me.” His gaze was dark fire, angry and possessive. “Say it.”
“I want you.” The words came out on a rush, her lips and throat dry. “Please.”
He pushed forward one delicious inch, just one, but it worked for Fade’s heated flesh. Fire and light and joy flared over her in a quick, tumultuous wave and a cry broke from her…but it wasn’t enough. Nowhere near.
And Foster, controlling bastard that he was, hadn’t moved. He simply waited, his eyes narrowed, that wicked smile lifting a corner of his firm mouth. “So easily pleased, Fadeyka.”
“With you.” She closed her eyes and the deepening blush burned across her cheeks. This wasn’t anything more than a quick fuck. For him to take something always on offer. Nothing more.
“Look at me.”
Fade bit at the inside of her cheek and let that distract her from the sudden, tight pain in her chest. She opened her eyes and her gaze flitted across his. “I’m looking.”
“Look. At. Me.” His order was a low growl. Fade lifted her chin and glared at him. “Better. I want to see you when I fuck you.”
She blinked, her belly tightened and the quick sweep of fresh want darted into her flesh. She pressed her lips together and fought to breathe. Foster gripped his dick, his knuckles brushed against her ass as he eased into her, and his eyes—his eyes burned with need. A muscle jumped in his clenched jaw.
“You’re tight.”
“It’s been…” The automatic words fell away and something sour twisted in her gut. But it hadn’t been. He’d caught her with two sated and unconscious men not an hour before. “It had been a while.”
“I have you now.” The possessive murmur skittered heat under her hot skin, his mouth brushing against her ear. His hand bit into her hip, his fingers pushing harder against her clit as he continued his inexorable slide into her body. “Mine.” It was a growl that swept down to her toes and little sparks of light danced across her vision. “Say you’re mine, Fadeyka. Only mine.”
Chapter Five
“Just…” She groaned as he sank deeper, her body gripping him, wanting and aching for him. “Yours.” She gasped the word as he drew back as slowly as he’d stroked into her.
The strain of his control was there on his face. On the sweat that beaded his hairline, the tight clench of his jaw and the tremor that rippled through his frame. What he was waiting for, she didn’t know. She wanted him to fuck her. Hard. Bend her over the sink and take her like they both needed.
Foster’s eyes narrowed. “Need me?”
She wanted to swear at him, point out that she could walk out the door and get any dick she wanted. But she didn’t…because he was right. She needed him. More than she had any other man in her life, but she didn’t want to pull apart that thought. Didn’t want to examine the uncomfortable emotions attached to her need for Foster. Fade held his gaze, willing a hardness to disguise her nerves. “Fuck me or don’t. Up to you.”
His smile was dark. “Such a hard little thing. Is that how you survived?”
Her mouth fell open and he stroked forward, forcing a half-cry from her. The spike of quick pleasure cut with the shock of him knowing so much more about her than she suspected. “You’re here for sex.”
His fingers flicked hard at her clit and she saw stars, her hips jerking back to take him deeper again. His other hand teased a slow line up over her stomach to her breast and she sucked in a breath as he tugged on a peaked nipple. The live wire connecting her nipples to her sex forced her spine to arch. She had never been so sensitive to touch before. Not like this. Was it Athanasios or was it simply Foster?
He groaned as he slid into her again, his teeth gazing her earlobe, his breath hot and quick against her skin. “I’m also here for sex.”
“Bastard.” She couldn’t tell him about herself. He was right. She had to survive. And opening up to him was wrong on more levels than she could name.
The rub of material against her ass, against her spine pricked her skin and the heat of his body, of knowing it was Foster who crushed himself against her rioted, increasing need. She pushed back against him. She had to lose herself in his touch, in this moment. When he was done, she could resurrect her armor. But in this moment she was more exposed to him than simply being naked. He could find the truth of her.
“I watched you. Watched you watching me.” His gaze in the mirror was hot and sparked with desire. “Did you imagine my fingers when you fucked yourself, Fadeyka?”
“Did you?”
He licked a line along her shoulder, the sensation pushing liquid joy through her flesh. “Every time. My daydream? Bending you over one of the balcony railings, stripping off your suit and giving everyone a fucking good show.”
Her breath hitched, the reality of him doing just that burning up through her body. He had her bent over his sink. Was he playing out his fantasy now? She had to push it. It would pull his thoughts away from her past. “Are you recording this?”
He licked an earlier bite on her shoulder and lifted an eyebrow. Her heart missed a beat at the delicious wickedness she found in him. “What do you think?” He increased his rhythm and the sudden shift caught her, made her cry out. “Nights are cold and lonely here on this rock. To see myself fucking you over and over again.” He growled against her skin. “How could I resist?”
“You’re really…?” Pressure built low in her belly. The thought of him watching her, them, of his hand closing around his dick and finding his release… “Please. Say you are.”
“Kinky, Fadeyka.”
She tried to tell herself this wasn’t her, that the aliens who had played with her flesh had twisted her mind. But that would be a lie. This was her.
“Straight ahead. Behind the mirror.” His low growl skittered under her skin. “In the walls. And they’ll catch every whimper, every wet slide as I fuck you.”
Fade’s heart hammered, her chest tight and every inch of her flesh on fire. She held his dark gaze. “I want to see it.”
“As I fuck you again?”
“Yes.” The thought of that, of him driving pleasure into her flesh as the wildness of their first time surrounded her quickened the pleasure. She was so close to coming. So close.
Foster ground against her and the intensity flared. She shook, only his hard body and firm hands holding her up. “Your mouth or your ass?” He squeezed her breast, the pleasure-pain rioting through her veins and he stroked into her harder and faster. “He’s had his claws all over you, but did he make you like this?”
“No…” This was Taras Foster. A man she’d ached for. Promising more, promising to have her again and if it was more than sex, more than a fuck he could watch over and over—
A white wave of joy smashed over her, thick and hot and unending. Her body was hardly her own, Foster wrapping his arms around her as he chased his own release. His touch, the brush of his hands, the smooth silk of his shirt pressed to her skin bringing with it the delicious heat of his body whipped up the remnants of her orgasm and she groaned as he stiffened against her.
His moan of her name against her damp neck twisted her heart. She loved this man. Had since almost the first moment when she’d stoo
d in his office. Scared of what lay beyond the club doors, of what she would have to do to survive. But not of him. Never of him.
Fade let out a long breath, her body sated. Being with Foster felt…right. Almost as right as Athanasios. A lazy smile touched her mouth and she looked in the mirror to find Foster watching her. “Have you decided?”
He frowned and a darkness shadowed his eyes. “Decided what?”
“Mouth or…” She rolled her backside against him, his still-hard dick darting fresh desire into her belly.
Foster shut his eyes. His chest lifted and he simply breathed. When his gaze met hers again, it was the old Foster. Cold. Distant. Her heart turned over. He pulled back from her and buttoned up his trousers. “That wasn’t supposed to happen.”
Fade looked down to the sink, the sour burn of rejection pushing tears. She didn’t want that on his recordings, to witness her humiliation, her grief at his ability to turn away. Foster was a bastard. Fuck, she wished she could run. But she was trapped with him as her protector. And she was stupid to think that she could mean anything to him. Completely stupid.
“Fadeyka, I will protect you, but that’s all I’ll do.”
The sour self-pity in her belly roiled into anger. She turned, not trying to hide her nakedness, even though Foster had picked up her towel and was offering it. If he had no interest in her, a slice of bare flesh wouldn’t bother him. She tilted her chin up. In the angled light of the bathroom, his face had cut into stark shadow. As always she couldn’t read him. “Why? Why bother to protect me?” Her bitterness was a tight pain in her chest. “What do you want from me if not my body?”
He winced, the expression of a moment. “Fadeyka…”
“Or was I simply a wet and naked woman and, hey, that’s a tempting hole—”
“Fuck, Fadeyka.” He pushed the towel at her and turned away, but she let it fall to the floor. “It isn’t like that.”
“Then tell me…”
But she was talking to empty air. Foster had strode out of the bathroom. Fade swore to herself, cursing him, her life and everything else she could think of as she followed him. He stood before the expanse of reinforced windows that overlooked the mesh of buildings, platforms and the canyons of black rock that formed the small planet. Theta-Scorpii was a brilliant binary yellow glow just over the dark horizon. A new day was starting, but not it seemed for them.
“Why, Foster?”
He tensed before glancing back at her. “Put clothes on, Fadeyka.”
She shrugged and caught the quick track of his gaze down her body. A vein in his temple ticked. “You have no interest.”
His gaze fixed on her face and the darkness there caught her breath. He wanted her. She could almost feel the pulse of it in the cool air. “You don’t understand.”
“Try me, I’m amazingly unstupid.” A wry smile tugged at her mouth. “Most of the time.”
“I know about you and Dolon. What you were to him, I don’t know, but I’m aware that you saw something, overheard something that made your life forfeit. And that you’ve used the club to hide out.”
Fade pulled in a breath and the cool air suddenly chilled her skin. She shivered. Foster moved to drag a throw from a nearby couch and wrapped it around her. His fingers skimmed her skin, but it wasn’t a rush of pleasure chasing through her flesh, but comfort and regret. Foster wanted to fuck her. He didn’t want anything else.
She gripped the edges of the soft material, working it between her fingers. “I didn’t think you’d have something like this.”
He frowned and his expression cleared. “The throw? Last occupant. Not me. Taciturn ex-military man, remember?”
Fade gave him a quick smile. Her world was shifting beneath her and now even his hints of humor felt strange. “How did you find out about me?”
“The owners of the club hired me for a reason. I’m thorough. I found…discrepancies in your files.”
“But you didn’t mention anything.”
He shrugged. “I wasn’t ready.”
“Ready?”
A light curve swept over the window behind her, the red screen and the dull drone announcing an incoming connection. Foster swore under his breath and guided Fade to the couch. “Sit. Filters are on—so whoever it is will only find me on their screen—but we should still be careful.”
Foster moved to stand before the curve and waved a hand. The tech burst to life and Mercer’s reddened face filled the rectangle.
“Where are you, Foster?”
He glanced behind him and turned back to the screen. “It’s my night off. I’m at home.”
“You can be facetious later. That cleaner of yours—”
“She’s not mine.” He broke into Mercer’s pressured words and gave him a slow smile. Something almost wicked, and Fade’s heart jumped. It was so similar to how he’d looked at her. She tightened her grip on the soft throw and willed herself not to make a sound. “Is this your reason for interrupting me?”
“The bitch stole it!”
Foster’s face hardened. “I will not tolerate members of my team being insulted. Or false accusations made.”
“False?” Mercer slammed his hand on the desk. The curve of light rippled. “She took the money, went to the beast…and now it’s gone.”
Foster frowned. “Gone?” His whole body had tensed. “It can’t be gone, Mercer. Is the data corrupted? Has Gallagher gone over the data with you?” His gaze narrowed. “You sent her down? You wanted to see her get fucked.”
“The beast is gone. Rotherham will have your hide for this!”
“You put Fadeyka Bryce in with the beast. Against my express order.”
There was a chill to Foster’s voice and Mercer paled, even inching away from the screen. Fade wasn’t surprised. The cut of anger in Foster’s voice had her own gut twisting.
“That’s irrelevant now.” Mercer found his bile again, his face flushing. “I’ve put out a bulletin for her. She will be found and arrested. This won’t fall on me.”
Foster snorted. “Rotherham has my written recommendation that she should not be put in to cleanse the system. My staff will testify to the discussions I’ve had with you concerning her. And that you chose my day of absence to act.” His fingers moved, streaking through light until he brought up her money records. “And here, payments authorized by you.” He let out a long, slow breath. “Have Gallagher run a full diagnostic. I’ll be in shortly.”
He waved his hand and the screen died. He swore, long and hard. They were screwed. And he knew it too.
Fade was already on her feet, her heart panicked. Mercer had blasted her trace—a portion of her bought Fadeyka Bryce DNA—across the planet. It would be on every official channel. And it was only a short time before more of Dolon’s people picked it up and tracked her down. “I have to get out. They’ll find those two men…then they’ll come here.”
“I said I’d protect you.”
Fade stared at him, solid, strong, and she wanted more than anything for him to pull her into his arms and hold back the insanity that was her life. Even for a few minutes. But he wasn’t that man to her. “I need to get a full gene swipe. Not like the partial I grabbed in London. That’s what I was hoarding my money for. That’s the only way—”
Foster put a finger to his lips and her babbling stopped.
In the sudden silence, the strange blips stood out. Her heart turned over. She’d heard that series of sounds before. It was a key, an override to a security system.
It was too late. Dolon’s men had found them.
Chapter Six
“I can solve your problem.” Athanasios’ voice rolled between them, the heat of breath seeming to caress Fade’s skin. Her chest lifted at the scent of coal, sharp in the air. She tried—and failed—to deny the sudden and unwanted flare of desire their multitude of voices and the lurking promise drove into her flesh. “Open yourself up to me as Fade has.”
Color slashed across Foster’s cheeks and his fingers curled int
o bloodless fists at his sides. “I turned your deal down then. I’m turning it down now.” He bit the words out and the brush of air against her changed, soured.
“She’s ours.” The hint of possession in their voice jumped her pulse. Athanasios had always wanted her. They’d had no qualms, made no apologies for their desire. A clawed hand cupped her breast through the throw, rough, scaled skin drawing against her aching nipple. “We could fuck her right here.” Sarcasm rose. “You do like to watch, after all, don’t you, Foster?”
Foster’s breathing quickened and the sudden shine to his dark eyes, the way his fingers flexed said he wanted it. Wanted to see her at Athanasios’ mercy. Her pulse drummed. It was insanity. The series of sounds grew heavier and faster, proving that whoever was trying to breach Foster’s system was succeeding.
And yet there she sat on the couch, her fingers loosening the material around her body, wanting to expose herself to her strange and invisible lovers and the man she couldn’t get enough of…
The sounds stopped.
Foster cursed and flowed into action. From the desk by the window, he drew out small, short-barreled weapons and pushed them into his trouser pockets. A heartbeat later he grabbed her arm, hauled her to her feet and pulled her with him through the flat.
She snatched up her bag from the table and slung it over her shoulder. Everything she was was stored inside. Foster barely spared her a glance. He stopped halfway down a bedroom corridor and pressed his palm to a smooth run of blank metal wall. A blue glow drew around his hand and a low groan followed. The floor beneath her bare feet shuddered.
“The previous owner’s panic room.”
Foster pushed her inside the compact room and remained at its threshold. “You’re not coming in?”
“I will be shortly—”
“They have disabled your vehicle.” Athanasios’ voice warmed the air. “Seven men. Armed. Killers.” A heavy silence fell and when the rush of voices returned their tone in her mind was hard and bitter. “What they have done. What they will do…”