Her mind drifted to Julius, again. He had to know she’d left New York without a word to him—not that she owed him anything—and without her bodyguards. She had a touch of guilt over ditching Scotts, but not the other one. The bait and switch hadn’t even been hard. Who did they think they were playing with? A novice? Phleeasse!
But, yeah. He hadn’t called again, and she’d checked her phone a hundred times since turning it back on. Alright. Maybe, she should’ve called and told him her plans. Maybe, it was a bit irrational to skip town like a fugitive. Maybe, she should be the bigger person and call him to inform him that she and his child were still alive.
And maybe she wouldn’t.
Okay, maybe later, after her bath and a good night’s sleep, she’d call him and hear how unconcerned he was about her welfare. That would definitely suck balls.
“Stop. Just stop thinking. Get off the merry-go-round and just stop,” she murmured to herself and pressed the button for the jets to start. It even had a timer. Thirty minutes should be enough.
As the jets pummeled her body, she relaxed and made plans to remodel her bathroom. At some point she drifted off, not quite asleep, but not awake either. The timer chimed and the jets ceased. Still, she drifted in the water.
The click of a door opening and closing peeled her eyes open. She froze, not certain if her imagination had created the sound or if it was real. Until the heavy tread of footsteps gave her the answer.
Calista would never claim to be psychic. However, the distinctive tread gave the intruder away before he filled the bathroom doorway. She loved him in a suit and tie, a Master of Commerce, a wolf of Wall Street. She loved him in jeans and a tee. The material tight around his biceps, the front clinging hungrily to his pecs and hinting at the shadowy outline of a six pack.
Wow. It had only taken twelve hours, flight time included, to find her. She would be impressed if it weren’t for the fury on Julius’ face. His nostrils flared with each breath and a muscle ticked at his temple. Tension came off him in waves. The spacious room shrank in his presence. She would’ve backed away if she could’ve but there was nowhere to go in the jacuzzi. Nowhere to hide while he towered over her glaring hotly.
She had two questions. “How did you find me, and how many people did you bribe?”
“GPS tracker on your phone. And everyone I needed to. Now. Get. Up.” The dark edge to his voice coiled around her body.
She could’ve said no. Could’ve snatched a towel off the rack that was within reach. Any other man, the answer would’ve been “fuck you” and followed up with their asses being handed to them in pieces regardless of her wet, naked state.
But it was Julius, and she’d be a damned liar not to admit he was exactly what she wanted, precisely what she needed at this exact moment. The little girl in her squealed, He came! He came! and jumped up and down while the grown woman inside her muttered, It’s about damned time.
She climbed to her feet, the water sluicing off her body in slick, oily rivulets. She waited while he studied every curve and dip, hill and valley, his pupils blown wide, his mouth a hard line, until he settled on her bump. In an instant, tension bled from his body and relief swam in his all-consuming gaze.
She gasped. “You… You thought I came here to…” She was never more surprised when he approached and dropped to one knee, grabbed her hips, and pressed a soft kiss on her bump. His arms circled her waist and he held her close, his face pressed to her bump as if listening for a secret message. It was the sweetest thing she’d ever experienced. He sighed, his breath tickling her flesh and leaving goose bumps in its wake. Her fingers threaded his hair and brought him closer because she needed more of him. His touch, his scent, the love that was promised and snatched away.
When he rose, she was in his arms, cradled against his chest. She hadn’t a single complaint when he strode into the bedroom and lay her on the bed. No protest when he ripped his shirt over his head and tossed it aside. His boots were kicked off. An H&K came from the small of his back to rest on the night table. Jeans were unzipped and shoved down his legs with his underwear.
Her gaze caught on the angry scars marring his torso. One on his flank, the other an exit wound an inch below his right collarbone. They were badges of survival he should be proud of, which he seemed to be, judging by his shirtless state.
She’d seen him at his lowest, unconscious and unable to defend himself, tubes and catheters in his body, keeping him alive. For a while, the doctors didn’t know if he’d survive. Their connection had started there. With the two of them alone with only a bank of machines, beeping and whirling, she talked to him, telling him about daily events, keeping his mind engaged. She’d touched him, letting him know he wasn’t alone. Someone cared even when they said he didn’t know she was there, and even if he did, he didn’t know her. She’d watched the specter of death retreat and Julius return.
Her gaze dipped lower, past the muscles, directing her attention to his erect cock. She’d seen him flaccid, and semi-hard, and was impressed with his size. She’d never seen him like this and, wow. Her breath punched out of her lungs. He was large, circumcised, the crown bulbous with a drop of pre-cum gathered at the slit.
A prominent vein snaking down the left side if his shaft caught her attention before he fisted his length. His hand slid up and down, pumping. The act, carnal. The lust on his face, blatant. It was the most erotic thing she’d ever seen. Her pussy throbbed.
He followed her down to the bed and muscled his body between her legs. She took his weight and loved his hot skin against hers, his hard pecks, hard abs, his hard cock between her slippery folds. He wasn’t much taller than her and she had too much going on the top and on the bottom to ever consider herself petite, yet beneath all that masculine perfection, she felt dainty and vulnerable in a way no man had ever made her feel.
Julius kissed her, his mouth attacking her in a sensual foreplay, leaving her aching for more. He moved to her nipple, sucking it hard while rolling the neglected nipple between his knuckles. Pleasure zinged her nerve endings.
He scooted down her body and his head dipped. A cry of pleasure ripped from her throat at the first lick. Her hips bucked, an involuntary reaction, not to get away, but to silently beg for more.
He chuckled darkly, a rich purr, a threat of no mercy. Lust ignited in her veins. If mercy meant she couldn’t have him, she didn’t want it. Heavy palms slapped her inner thighs and gripped. Startled at the sting and the ensuing heat that zinged her core, she gasped, then moaned when he licked her again, and again, his tongue prying her flesh apart and feasting. He lashed her clit with swift flicks, each an assault on her flesh. Her core clenched, fluttered, already on the brick of release. Jesus.
Her hips rocked, bucked. He snarled something unintelligible and the vibrations shook through her. A mangled moan slipped from her throat and she latched onto his hair. He released her thigh to shove her hand away and licked from her core to her clit in long, rough strokes, each one ending on a roll over the sensitive bundle of nerves.
The hard clench of her muscles was a surprise. Bliss rolled through her body in brutal waves, cresting and retreating, over and over because Julius refused to stop. He palmed her ass, brought her to him as he dined on her clit, keeping her right where he wanted her, lost in pleasure. Her overloaded senses drowned in a sea of bliss as violent rapture shivered through her.
The return was just as swift as the release when he plunged two thick fingers into her core. “Yes,” she hissed and looked down the length of her body.
His eyes burned into her, searing in their intensity.
His fingers stroked her walls with each plunge and retreat. It wasn’t enough. She needed something thicker, wider, deeper. He curled his fingers, pressed on that spot at the top of her channel, and glided his thumb over her clit. His name was a drawn-out wail as she fisted the sheets and arched her hips. She was there, right there again, and on the brink of losing her mind and her body to the pleasure. Julius latched onto
her clit. One gentle tug, one soft lap, and she fucking babbled his name along with a string of curses. Her vision went dark, then blinding white. She lost all sense of time, reality slipped away, leaving her adrift until the rasp of his stubble against her too sensitive flesh yanked her back to the present.
Weak, she looked down the length of her body once more, into his burning eyes set deep in his glistening face. He’d bathed his cheeks, jaws, and mouth in her essence. Panting, his blatant carnality sent a shudder down her spine and into her core. With a predatory grin, Julius crawled up her body. The muscles in his shoulders and arms tensing and releasing as he stalked closer to cage her body beneath his.
She spread herself wide, eager for him to settle in the cradle of her hips. He kissed her, made her taste herself on his lips, on his tongue. Sandalwood and a tart muskiness that was erotic when mixed with the taste of his tongue. She had yet to taste him, yet to have him in her mouth, her tongue on his bulbous head slick with pre-cum, yet to drink him down. Soon. Soon, she would have that. Soon, she would have all of him.
She sighed at the first touch of his blunt tip to her wet core. The breach stole her breath. The first thrust into her body stole her mind. A ragged sob torn from her throat mingled with his deep moan.
He wasn’t bigger. His cock hadn’t grown in the weeks since they were last together. Lord knows she hadn’t regained her virginity. But somehow, everything felt different, better, fucking exquisite. Every nerve ending zinged, ricocheting off each other in a chain reaction bent on drowning her in ecstasy. He fucked her so good, surging into her body, each thrust deeper, harder than before. His head dropped to her breast and pulled the rigid tip into his mouth.
Oh God, the hungry sounds he made around her breast. The sloppy wet sound her core made on every downstroke. She snapped her hips to drive him deeper and fed him her breasts, one at a time. He moaned into her flesh, a guttural version of her name. Her core fluttered as he pounded into her body. Not content to lay there and take it, she arched into each thrust, giving as much as he gave. She bucked, scratched, hissed at the lust licking her insides. When it became too much, she wrapped one arm around his shoulders, her fingers threading his hair. The other hand slid down his back to grab his sculpted ass. For a second, his control slipped, and his strokes faltered, then he ground into her, his pelvis to her clit. He was so deep, it hurt so good. A hard rotation of her hip made the grind on her clit sweeter, rougher, perfect. His groan morphed into a growl, more animal than human, and he grabbed her hips, his fingers deep in her flesh. She’d find bruises later, right now, all she cared about was his lengthening strokes and his wicked pace and the clawing ecstasy ravishing her senses.
With a shout, body shuddering, limbs flaying, she broke into a billion pieces. He wrapped himself around her, held her as the world fell away and all that remained was him and her. She felt him thicken inside her followed by the hot spurts of his orgasm. His tongue invaded her mouth almost as deep as his cock in her body. He kissed her senseless, then kissed her back to her senses.
“W
hy did you run?”
His voice rumbled through her body. With him wrapped around her, his bicep pillowing her head while his other arm curled around her body ending with his hand splayed over her lower abdomen, she was too content to move. But he waited for an answer and he wouldn’t wait forever.
“I came to the Cayman’s—”
“That’s not what I asked.” He cut her off. “I would’ve brought you here if that’s what you wanted. I’ll take you anywhere in the world. You had no reason to run when telling me where you were going and why shouldn’t have been an issue, yet that’s precisely what you made it. I want to know why.” Anger simmered in his voice.
Could she admit to feeling bitchy and whiny and ignored. Add territorial over her loss of freedom and uncertain about herself. She needed to come here to settle her father’s accounts. She wanted to come here without his knowledge to punish him. Have him worry and wonder. Possibly miss her.
Instead, she muttered, “Sorry. I should’ve informed you I was flying out, but…” Yeah, she had a but. “You stuck two bodyguards on me without so much as a single word. As if I can’t tell when I’m being watched. I do not need two bodyguards. I don’t even need one.” She tried to shift and face him, but he wouldn’t let her turn. He kept her where he wanted, pressed against the length of his body. The hand cupping her bump was now between her thighs, cupping her intimately, possessively.
“Lynda and Alezandar Karpovilov took out a contract on us.” His breath was hot on her neck.
This time he didn’t stop her from turning in his arms. Blood chilled, she studied his face, hoping this was a lame attempt at a joke that wasn’t in the least funny. Deadpan brown eyes stared back at her. Alezandar Karpovilov was a big fish in a big pond. A threat coming from him couldn’t be ignored. This was deadly serious. “Us?”
He nodded once. “Me. Joshua is to be kidnapped.”
Her hand went to her bump as her mind scattered. Karpovilov had taken a hit out on Julius, which was bad, extremely bad. But what about her? What about their baby? “Do they know?” she whispered.
His hand covered hers. His brown eyes burning into her. His tone threatening. “Not certain, but it’s a matter of time. I will kill anyone to protect you and our child. Anyone.”
Other than Laverne, Calista didn’t have a lot of faith in people. Not the unshakeable faith where you knew that one person had your back, no matter what. Letting someone into your body, your heart, your life, was all a leap of faith. A leap she had partially taken with Julius. With a threat bearing down, a threat to themselves and their unborn child, it was time to stop quibbling.
She needed him. Damn it, she still loved him. But that wasn’t important. What was important was their baby, and that meant working together until the threat was over. Afterward, their relationship would fail or survive on its own merit.
“Good answer. So how do we play this?”
He gave her the rundown on Emmet, Harden, and the extra guards. “Karpovilov isn’t opposed to using family to get to a target, especially once they realize how important you are. I have a man guarding your mother and Laverne’s home. We have to get everyone to safety.”
“Agreed.” Can’t wait to have that discussion with Laverne. “But where?”
“Long Island. My house. While we live in the penthouse.”
“Um…yes to Long Island. No to the penthouse.” She was not living with him.
“Either you’re living with me or I’m living with you. Your choice. Choose now,” he growled, his hand tightening on her hip.
She didn’t appreciate the pressure. “Look!” she barked. “I’ve never wanted to shack up with a person. That was never my goal in life.” Neither was being a single mother, she didn’t add because the point was moot. She sighed heavily and accepted that her life was on a different track and to just get over it. “Even though I don’t like your penthouse, I’ll move in until Karpovilov’s dealt with.”
“Agreed.”
“Good.” She pushed him onto his back and climbed on top. Lord, the view from her perch was impressive. All those taut muscles on display. She ran her nails down the center of his chest and his pecs clenched and released under the attention. A moan rumbled from his mouth as she murmured, “You’re going to agree to this too. I’m going to work at Bryn Co.”
“And if I told you I want you working with me at Morgan International or JMI Capital instead of Bryn Co?”
She side eyed him. “That’s not something you ever offered or even suggested. You’re doing it now out of a misguided attempt at control. I don’t like it.”
He didn’t deny it, for which she was pleased. If their relationship had any chance, deception in any form couldn’t be tolerated.
“You’re telling me you want to work with Erica?” he said, heavy on the sarcasm.
She had to come clean. “She called you a vulture.”
His grin was feral, his ga
ze hooded. “That’s a compliment. You haven’t answered the question.”
She met his hooded gaze with one of her own and waited for his reaction, which was silence. Why did she want to squirm under his silent perusal and feel the need to explain? “I think it wise to learn about the company I’ve inherited. And there’s still so much to learn.”
She could see his brain working. The concerns about safety were understandable, but she couldn’t live in a bubble and this couldn’t be put off.
“Not a good idea.”
“I didn’t ask for permission.”
He flipped her on her back with speed she hadn’t expected and fisted her hair. He silenced her with a drugging kiss. His tongue licked into her mouth, went deep, subduing her protest in a smothering wave of passion. And just as her thoughts began to scatter, he reversed their position and stretched out once more beneath her body.
Before things spun out of control, she had to make him understand. “I don’t know her. I don’t trust her. I know you. I trust you. Tell me you’re not destroying the company and I’ll believe you.”
“I’m not destroying the company.” His rough voice had an angry edge.
“Good. What are you doing?” she asked.
“Saving it, and Morgan International. Both companies are in the same boat.”
“The Titanic?”
He barked out a sharp laugh. “No. The situation isn’t that grave…yet. There’s an iceberg up ahead. I know how to steer the ship around it. Understand?”
Not quite, but she would get there. “I’m staying at Bryn Co. because I want to learn the job. I want to learn everything. Will you help me?”
“It is my pleasure to help you do anything and everything. But, I’d like you to continue to split your time between Morgan International and Bryn Co.”
She wasn’t opposed to the idea. She did want to learn both companies, and she had nothing better to do. She held out her hand and waited until his hand enveloped hers. “I’ll do a couple days at one company and a couple of days at the other.” It was the best offer he would get.
Plain and the Billionaire's Seduction (Plain Jane Series Book 3) Page 14