“Fucking love hearing you say my name, Kitty cat?—“
“Don’t call me that,” she muttered half-heartedly, but I didn’t miss the way her soft body pressed closer against me. My woman’s hand was now not only resting on my chest but stroking me. The heat of her touch seeping through the material of my shirt had the lion inside me start to rumble.
“Let’s be clear. An arrangement would have a clear start and end date. You and I don’t have the latter, baby,” I explained clearly. She blinked like a deer caught in headlights. Slow. Unbelieving. And who could blame her? I hadn’t said this much in our time together combined.
“Jonas—“
“If you’re tired of our reading time…” My hand moved up, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear. I couldn’t stop myself. I leaned forward and inhaled her sweet scent deeply, letting my lungs fill with her smell. She smelled so damn good it made my head spin so much I could have sworn I was drunk.Kitty drunk.“…I’m sure we could find other things to do with our time together.” My voice sounded hoarse in my own ears. Her sweet body trembled, and goose bumps covered her skin.
“You’re not going to kick me to the curb?” I could hear the vulnerable underbelly in her words. She might not know it, but she was letting me in, giving me a peek at what was behind the titanium walls she had erected around herself. It made me feel like a fucking Viking, ready to go to war to claim what he wanted.What he deserved.A sound I’d never heard bubbled up from me, something between an animalistic growl and unworldly rumble as a punch of possessive need almost knocked me onto my knees.
“Never, baby.” I pulled away, tipping her chin upward so our eyes locked. “You’re mine.”
I was done waiting. Done trying to be the good guy and keep my hands to myself. Kitty deserved better. She deserved man who could give her whatever she wanted without having had to get his hands dirty in the past, but he’d have to lose her because I wasn’t giving her up. Katarina was completely and utterly mine.
Technically, she was my employee, but I didn’t give a shit. I’d never made my interest in Kitty a secret, and I’d be damned if I started now.
“Yours?” she asked. Her chest rose and fell as I nodded.
“Mine. Only mine.” I was coming on strong, and I could tell she agreed by the look she was giving me.
“How… I mean…”
“Come here,” I ordered, but she didn’t move. “Katarina, do not make me repeat myself,” I warned, using her full name for the first time, a name I’d never called her. No one called her that ever.
But once again, she didn’t move.
Kitty didn’t look like she was breathing. And fuck me, I couldn’t wait for her to move. I lifted her tiny, curvaceous body up in my arms, loving the way her thick thighs instinctively wrapped around my middle, fitting against my body like she was made for me. Because she was. The thought made my palms grip her golden-tanned thighs a little tighter to keep her in place, loving the warm heat that radiated off her.
Holding her, finally having her in my embrace, was the closest I deserved to get to heaven.
