Page 47

But that was the thing. She had a point. If Mom or Isobel were behind this, it was because of me. There wouldn’t be any threat or danger if I weren’t in the picture. “I’m staying here tonight,” I decided. “I can sleep out here on the couch.”

Her faint smile told me I hadn’t broken anything between us. “Don’t be silly. You can stay with me in my room. I think Mom would understand me having an overnight guest.”

This was different. Whispering to make sure we didn’t wake anyone up as we got undressed in her room, where a queen-size bed meant we’d have to sleep closer together than we did in my king-size at the hotel. Not that I minded the excuse to be nearer to her. No, I couldn’t be close enough. Someone out there wanted to hurt her or at least scare the shit out of her, and I had no doubt it was because of me somehow.

Knowing that only made me want to hold her tight in the dark, to bury myself in her until we both forgot everything but what mattered most—the connection between us, that undeniable pull that had never gone away over the years.

“We’re going to get through this,” I whispered, my lips close to her ear as I held her from behind, the two of us staring out the window overlooking the street where someone would spend the night watching over us.

“Promise?” she whispered back.

“I do.” I would’ve promised anything she asked and given her anything she wanted, no matter the cost because there was nothing in the world worth more than this. Holding her, letting the rest of the world melt away in the heat between our bodies. She was mine, she always had been, and I was going to protect her if it was the last thing I ever did.

It didn’t take long for my thoughts to start moving in another direction, mostly thanks to the way her ass brushed against my dick. “Oh, you’re feeling brave,” she whispered, giggling when my hand slid up her smooth thigh, working underneath her thin nightshirt. “Like a couple of teenagers sneaking around.”

“It’s kind of hot,” I pointed out, grinding against her ass, working my hand between her thighs and finding her hot and getting wetter with every stroke of my fingers. Easing her panties down, I grunted, “Sneaking around. Having to be quiet so nobody overhears.”

She arched against me, filling one of my hands with her tit, moving her hips to hump my other hand. Slowly, sensually. “Being quiet isn’t something I’m good at when you’re involved.”

“Maybe you need something in your mouth to keep you quiet,” I suggested. She laughed softly, but her hips moved faster, grinding harder. I wasn’t kidding when they said there was something hot about stealing this moment, moving carefully so the bed wouldn’t squeak too much.

“But then, how do I know you’ll be quiet?” she asked before gasping when I ran my finger over the tip of her clit, sliding my tongue down the side of her neck, playing with her ear. Her body came alive in my arms, writhing, pressed against my rigid length until it dripped with excitement.

“You’ll have to keep my mouth occupied too.” Her soft, frustrated groan when I removed my hand from her pussy didn’t last long once I rolled her to face me. Beautiful, so beautiful, flushed and breathless in the moonlight. I could have stared at her until the sun rose, but my cock wouldn’t be ignored. It sprang free once I lowered my waistband, swaying and twitching.

She reached for it, only for me to shake my head. “Turn around,” I whispered, guiding her until she was positioned on her side with her head at my crotch and mine at hers. Lifting her leg, I savored her intoxicating aroma, letting it wrap itself around me before my tongue picked up where my fingers left off.

“Ohh!” she whispered, lifting her leg higher, spreading herself open for me to feast on. Her plump lips wrapped around me, sliding down my length, engulfing me in heat that threatened to make me come down her throat on the first stroke.

Instead, I focused on her, making her writhe and moan softly around me. With two fingers, I entered her, working them in and out in time with firm licks against her pulsing bundle of nerves. The pressure from her mouth increased, but it was the way she rocked against me that destroyed my control. The touch of her hands running over my body overloaded me with sensation. I pumped faster until her muscles tightened around my fingers, hips bucking against my face.

That was when I let go, filling her throat with spurt after spurt as she drenched my fingers, shaking and quivering. There was nothing like the satisfaction of coming together. It went deeper than anything physical, bringing me a sense of peace and contentment I had always sought with other partners but had never found with anyone else, except her.

Soon, we both went still, with only the sound of our breathing breaking the otherwise perfect silence. She rolled onto her back, stretching languidly with a satisfied sigh, while I admired her moon-drenched beauty and knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I’d move heaven and earth to keep her safe. To keep her with me.

No matter what the rest of the world did to get in my way.

18

WINTER

Winter: Wrapping everything up now. Heading out soon.

I sent the text to Jackson, something that had become a habit over the past several days. It had been a week since somebody left those photos for me, and there hadn’t been any more messages or threats, but he insisted on my keeping him up-to-date on my movements.

On the one hand, it was slightly irritating. I wasn’t used to having to report to anybody, at least not since I was a kid with a curfew. There was something slightly infantilizing about reporting my every move.

On the other hand, he cared. God, was the bar really that low? It didn’t exactly say much about me. Nothing good, anyway.

But he did care, and he was paying his friend, Grayson, to keep men outside the house, working in shifts to make sure everything was okay. As for me, there was a very large, muscular man waiting in the back row of the theater after I’d spent the afternoon with my dancers, warming up with them, talking over a few issues that had popped up as the show progressed—minor things, small tweaks to help everything run smoothly. The work was never done. It was something that surprised me in the early days when I first started dancing professionally. The opening of a show was a milestone, for sure, but there was no resting on our laurels.

“You must be bored stiff,” I told Luke, today’s lucky guard who spent hours observing the activity on stage.

“Trust me.” He chuckled as we walked into the lobby, and the sound brought to mind a freight train engine. It was that deep. “I’ll take being bored stiff over a lot of things. There are worse ways to spend a day than watching people dance.”

At least Grayson’s guys were nice. They might have looked like they could rip somebody’s head off, and maybe they could—that was kind of the point—but they seemed sweet and respectful. “Thank you for being patient and not trying to hit on any of them.”

He cast a look over his bulging shoulder, his gray eyes narrowing thoughtfully as he watched a few of the girls warming up through the open doors. “Oh, I didn’t know that was an option.”