by Nashoda Rose
“No. But he will be retracting what he said about you.”
My chest swelled and I wanted to crawl into his lap and kiss him. Instead, I leaned over and kissed his cheek. “Thank you, Killian.”
“You’re welcome.”
Five minutes later, he pulled up to a warehouse down by the docks and parked.
“Why are we stopping here?” I asked.
“My place.”
I stared at the ominous building. “The entire building?”
He chuckled. “It’s not as big as it looks.” He climbed out of his car and I followed.
I wasn’t so sure about that.
It was an industrial area, and the building was old, like one of those hundred-year-old factories. A lot of them had been converted into livable lofts, but not in the dock district as there was nothing around, and no one wanted to live here.
Except for Killian, it appeared.
He met me at the front of the car and slid his hand in mine, squeezing. “It’s safe.”
I half laughed. “You had my car taken to a wrecking yard because you deemed it unsafe. I doubt you’d walk me into a building that wasn’t,” I said as we walked across the gravel to a large metal door. “Still, it’s a warehouse.”
“I had it converted to be a living space. The building was in pretty good shape and empty. It used to be a storage place for ships’ cargo. But it’s been ten years since it was used, so I got it for a good price.”
The more I thought about it, the more I realized this was exactly where Killian would choose to live. Private. Exclusive. Different and yet simple.
He opened the heavy metal door.
“You don’t lock it?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Nothing to steal.” He moved down the hall to a cage door where he parted the gate and shut it behind us. Then he pressed a button and the elevator clunked and groaned as it made its way upward.
It jerked to a stop, and he opened the gates that led right into his place.
I immediately noticed the distressed hardwood floors and a massive open space. And I meant massive. At least three thousand square feet of floors and nothing else. A dancer’s dream. All it needed was a mirrored wall.
The walls were brick with substantial windows along the south side and looked out onto the water. The ceilings had exposed duct work and pipes, which was at least fifteen feet high.
But I didn’t have time to take in much more as he shut the gates and moved into me. He backed me up against them, and they clanged.
“Two days is too long.”
It was. I hadn’t stopped thinking about him. It didn’t help that he kept sending me dirty texts reminding me.
His hands locked around my wrists and he raised my arms above my head and pressed them against the gate. “Grab hold.”
I did.
Then his mouth took mine.
I moaned against his lips. My heart pounded as his body leaned into mine, my back digging into the hard rungs.
His kiss was bruising and harsh, but in the intensity was sweetness, as if he couldn’t get enough of me, yet it wasn’t invasive.
It was finding what was lost.
He pulled back, hand cupping my jaw. “You on anything?”
“Yeah.” I’d been on the pill for years. “And I had a physical after my relationship ended.” I’d gone to the doctor immediately after I’d caught David cheating on me.
Killian bent as he kissed my neck and along my collarbone. “I don’t want anything between us, orchid.”
“Have you been checked?”
He lifted his head and his eyes locked with mine. There was something there, but like other parts of him, it was hidden. “I’m good, Savvy.” He ran his hands down my body to my ass and lifted me up. I hooked my legs around his waist.
“Fuck. I’m starved for you.” His voice vibrated against my skin, and I arched my neck, hands in his hair.
“Killian.”
Like a tidal wave crashing into the rocks, all control disintegrated as clothes ripped off and it was a frenzy of mouths and hands.
My body was alive with thrums and electrical pulses, and I couldn’t get enough of him.
God, I wanted him. All of him. Every single piece.
My panties were the last shred of clothing to be torn off before he slid his cock inside me.
“Jesus. Christ,” he growled as he pushed his length inside me. “I fuckin’ never knew… I never fuckin’ knew.”
“Killian.” He held me up against the elevator gates, my thighs locked around him, arms looping his neck with my fingers in his hair.
He thrust while his mouth savagely took mine.
It was a wild, raw need. As if it had been eleven years instead of a few days since we’d been together.
“Bed,” he murmured against my lips. Then while still kissing me, he carried me across the warehouse where I was lowered onto a mattress, and he followed. “Never wanted anyone else. Never.”
His words were a haze as I arched into him and he tilted his hips and thrust into me, his hands on the mattress spanning just above my head. I ran my hands down his chest, his abdomen, then around to his back, discovering every crevice and hill beneath the palms of my hands.
“You’re all I ever needed.” His words were harsh from his raspy voice as he thrust again and again. “Just you. Just my orchid.”
My body tingled and tightened at his words, and I came hard and fast. “Killian,” I screamed, fingers scraping his back as my body convulsed.
“Fuck,” he grunted then came with me.
Our bodies were taut and unmoving as we panted.
He collapsed his forehead onto my shoulder, and I slowly withdrew my nails from his back.
Neither of us said anything.
After a few minutes, he trailed kisses down my neck to my nipple where he dragged his teeth over one then the other before he rolled off me, taking me with him, so I was tucked into his side.
“Eleven years,” he murmured.
I rested my cheek on his chest and absently drew circles on his abdomen. If I’d ever done drugs, I imagined this was what it was like. The high, as if nothing were real, just a haze of euphoria.
I tilted to look up at him. His eyes were closed and he appeared so peaceful. It was strange as with his friends he was relaxed and casual, but the look on his face now… the outer corners of his eyes drooped, the subtle lines above his brows gone—quiet.
Killian used to remind me of a hurricane raging over the ocean, with so much built-up intensity. But after all these years… it was like he’d found his way to the eye of it and it circled around him.
But at this moment the hurricane was silent.
I reached up and traced his lips. Soft, pliant to my touch. It was complete peace. And when he opened his captivating green eyes, the hardness and pain swimming in the depths was gone.
He opened his mouth and bent forward slightly to take my finger into his mouth. His lips closed around it and he made a low growl deep in his throat. “Put your finger in your pussy. I want to taste you again.”
My heart pounded and I hesitated. When I didn’t right away, he teeth clamped my finger. I withdrew it abruptly from his mouth, and his brows rose while he waited for me to do as he asked.
I slid my hand down my chest, abdomen, then to my sex while my eyes remained on his. Then gliding it between the wet folds to my entrance, I pushed my finger inside.
“Two,” he said in a raspy voice as he watched me.
I adjusted and pushed another finger inside me, moaning.
Killian enveloped my wrist and gently pulled my hand away then lifted it to his mouth. “Come closer,” he ordered.
I did.
“Put one finger in your mouth. Taste us. Your pussy’s juices and my cock’s.”
I swallowed and did as he asked. He leaned forward and took my other finger in his mouth so our lips were almost touching as we sucked on my fingers.
“Fuck. I hope you were thinking of a porno tonigh
t, baby. I don’t think I can watch a chick flick.”
“What about a drama?” I teased.
“Jesus. No.” He fell back onto the bed, arm over his eyes.
“You said it was my choice.”
“No, I didn’t respond.”
True.
His arm came around my shoulders and tugged me closer. “You can watch whatever you want as long as I get to play with you.”
“And what does your play entail?”
“Whatever I want.”
I remember Mars saying he was into kink and I wasn’t too sure if his play differentiated from my idea of play. “Does your play hurt?”
He chuckled. “No, Savvy. Not tonight.”
I bit my lip. “But sometimes it does?”
His hand lightly stroked up and down my back. “If that’s what you want. If pain turns you on, Savvy.” I didn’t know. I liked when he was rough and when he tied the belt around my wrists. “Every person is unique in what they like.”
“So you’re into… BDSM?”
“I’d call it kink, but I used to go to a BDSM club. Although, it wasn’t for sex, Savvy. It was a release of another kind.”
“What kind?” I wanted to know more. God, I wanted to know everything about him. Yet, that scared me too because I was pretty sure Killian didn’t want what I wanted. He’d never had a girlfriend. He lived in a warehouse. He had unresolved issues with his dad and told me he’d never have kids. Though I’d seen how amazing he was with Hendricks.
He sat up. “Stay. I’ll order us food. Thai good?”
I nodded. “I love Thai.” I was still thinking about the BDSM club he’d gone to and the fact that he’d avoided answering my question.
He was completely unabashed as he slid from bed naked and walked across the room. I watched his tight ass as he went to the washroom. He flicked on the light and only half closed the door.
He was such a contradiction. Completely open with his body, direct, honest, but much of him was hidden and private.
He came back to the bedroom and snagged his jeans off the floor to take his phone out of the pocket.
“Killian?”
He lowered the phone and like he always did, he gave me his full attention. “Mmm?”
“Are you really okay with dating? I mean for real.”
The corners of his lips curved up. “Savvy, we’re way past the dating stage.”
I frowned. “How do you figure? Technically, this is only our second date. What stage are you referring to?” I asked.
He knelt on the bed and hooked the back of my neck, urging me closer to him. His lips an inch away from mine, he drawled, “The stage where there’s no escape.”
He kissed me, and I melted. God, this man could ruin me. He’d already ruined me for all other kisses when I was fifteen. But now… he could end this, and there’d be no one else for me. No one I’d want more than him. No one who could even come close.
And that was terrifying.
“I need to feed you,” he said and climbed off the bed. He then walked into the kitchen as he called the Thai restaurant.
I leaned up against the headboard, holding the gray sheet to my chest as I peered around his place. I hadn’t had the chance to before and I was a little shocked at the emptiness of it.
The living room, if you could call it that, consisted of an L-shaped, charcoal gray couch facing a big screen TV on the brick wall, and a metal coffee table.
To the right was the kitchen, with stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, and black cupboards. Simple, uncluttered, and it looked as if he’d just moved in. Except there were no boxes to unpack.
I crawled off the bed, wrapping the sheet around me as I walked toward the kitchen where Killian poured two glasses of wine. The sheet dragged behind me as my bare feet padded over the hardwood.
I realized what was missing. It wasn’t just furniture; it was that there was nothing personal. And I mean nothing. No pictures or artwork. No accessories like throw pillows or statues. The only personal items visible were a set of drums over in the far corner of the warehouse-slash-loft.
The only thing that said anything about who Killian was.
“No time to decorate?” I asked.
“I’ve had time,” he replied.
“Then you have something against furniture?” The two stools at the island, a couch, and a bed didn’t constitute a living space.
He walked over to me on the other side of the island and passed me a glass of red wine. “I’m not particular about where I live, Savvy. It’s not important to me. I like being able to walk away at any time.”
I frowned, my heart pounding. That didn’t sound like someone who wanted a home. A place where you smiled when you drove down the street knowing you were home. A place with memories scattered throughout.
“Walk away where?” I asked.
He took my hand and led me over to the couch. “It’s just four walls that make up a shitload of bills, Savvy.”
No home. That was what he meant. He could walk away because this wasn’t a home. Nothing important was here and why he didn’t bother locking his door.
No attachments.
“Your drums.”
He shrugged. “They’re replaceable. Everything in here is replaceable, except you.” My breath hitched. “Sit.” He held my wine as I sat on the couch. He handed it back, eyes trailing over me. “You’re losing the sheet once the food arrives. I want you naked until you leave here.”
“And when is that?”
“When I let you.” He smirked, but I had a feeling he wasn’t kidding.
The Thai food arrived, and Killian put on a pair of plaid pajama pants to answer the door, and I heard him speaking to the guy, but it wasn’t English.
And holy shit it was hot as hell listening to him.
“You speak another language?” I asked as he set out the containers on the coffee table.
“A few words here and there.”
“Of Thai?”
“Mmm. I love Thai food. Savvy, lose the sheet.”
I released the luxurious material and it pooled at my waist. He eyed me for a second because the sheet still covered my lower half, then he turned and finished opening the containers.
Picking up the controller he turned on the TV, scrolled to Netflix, then passed it to me. “Whatever you want, orchid.”
I smiled. While he went to the kitchen to grab napkins, I put on one of my favorite movies, Guardians of the Galaxy.
He came back and didn’t even glance at the TV as he settled in behind me, so I sat between his legs, my back to his front. He positioned us so he leaned against the armrest and our legs were up on the couch.
Then he leaned over and pulled the coffee table closer. “What’s your preference?” He gestured to the food.
“Anything.”
He kissed the back of my neck, and I shivered. How the hell was I supposed to eat like this? His cock was hard and pressing into my butt while his one arm looped around my waist, fingers gently caressing.
He reached for a container and a pair of chopsticks. I thought he was going to pass them to me, but instead, Killian fed me a mouthful of curry pad Thai.
The music came on when Chris Pratt walked through the cave. Killian lifted his head and glanced at the screen.
He nibbled on my ear. “Fuckin’ perfect.”
And that was how we ate. Sitting on the couch, wrapped in one another’s arms as he fed us curry pad Thai, mango chicken, rice noodles, and a few items with names I didn’t know, but everything was delicious.
“Enough?” he asked when I shook my head to another spring roll.
“Yes, thank you.”
He bit into the spring roll over the top of my shoulder so the crumbs would fall into the container. Who would’ve thought the sound of a crunch could be sensual.
But it was. Everything about this was. Him expertly using the chopsticks was attractive.
My sex throbbed and my body thrummed with anticipation wh
en I considered his idea of play as we finished eating. But Killian set the container down and leaned back, his arms around me, one hand flat on my stomach and the other lower, inches away from my sex.
“Breathe,” he whispered next to my ear. Then his pierced tongue ran the length of my neck and my belly flipped.
But he didn’t do anything more than hold me and kiss my neck as we watched the movie. And eventually, I relaxed and snuggled into him. He threw his leg over the top of mine, and I loved the weight of it on me.
His chest vibrated as he laughed at something in the movie and I realized it didn’t matter that his place was empty and bare.
Killian was what made this place warm and inviting.
It was him. The way he was. Who he was. I just wasn’t sure if that who was right for me long term. If he was even thinking long term.
I noticed the punching bag over in the far corner. It was red and hung from a thick chain. I wondered if he used it and then remembered his bruised knuckles. Had his knuckles been due to punching the bag or his father?
I looked at his right hand and ran my fingertips over his knuckles. They were calloused, and there was a hint of a scab still on the right index knuckle. I circled it, then slipped his hand in mine and lifted it to my mouth and kissed the wound.
He stiffened. “If you want to ask me something, ask, Savvy.”
I lowered his hand and tilted my head to look at him. “Did you hit your father the other night?”
“Would it bother you if I did?”
I thought about it for a second. I didn’t like fighting, but Killian had never done it for fun. There’d always been something driving him, and his father was part of that. “No. And yes.” I rested my hand on top of his. “No, because after seeing Lucifer, I think he deserves it. And yes, because I don’t want to see you hurt.”
He snorted. “He could never hurt me, Savvy.”
“But he has.”
His chest rose and fell, and his arms tightened around me. “Yes. And now I’m hurting him.”
“Compass? And the horses?”
“His clubs can’t compete with Compass. We made sure of it. Best dancers. Brett’s name. Safe. Clean. No drugs. He goes under, he loses everything.”
No drugs. Killian had always hated drugs in school. “Why do you care? I mean if you don’t like him, what does it matter?” I stroked his knuckles. “He makes you angry. Like when you were a kid.” It wasn’t a question. He’d already told me his father blamed him for his mom’s death.