by Violet Paige
“Still cold?” I growled.
She sought my lips and my tongue pushed deep inside her mouth.
My lips brushed over hers, taking my time to touch every corner. Suck every edible inch of her fucking delicious lips. My tongue twined along hers, dancing in a new rhythm. One that wasn’t desperate, but one that was content with what we had found. A fire that never burned out. A fire that could easily be flamed into a raging blaze.
She moaned against my tongue. Her hands trailed along my shoulders. Her nails raked under my shirt, moving lower to my hipbone. I growled when she wrapped her slender fingers around my cock. It throbbed against her palm.
“Knight,” she pleaded, trying to gather my T-shirt in fistfuls. I smiled, helping her yank it over my head.
I loved hearing her call my name. How much she wanted me. How much she wanted us. Could she hear all that when I said her name? Did she know I would go to war for her? That I would kill for her? Protect her. Shield her.
She raked her bottom lip under her teeth as she began to slide off my lap. I watched in awe as she dragged the athletic pants with her, throwing them as far as the T-shirt had landed. She wiggled between my knees. Damn. She did something to me. It wasn’t only the physical way she made me want her. Every time I touched her, I was it was like I was sliding off a cliff. There wasn’t a harness strong enough to keep me from falling over the edge. It was every kiss. Every touch. Every breath.
“What do you think you’re doing in front of the Pichon?” I tilted my head sideways.
“Taking something I want. Again.” She smiled wickedly.
She only had eyes for my cock. She licked her lips before leaning forward, touching her tongue to the tip. I wrapped my hands in her hair as she licked my shaft and then sucked it lightly, before I pushed it in her hot wet mouth.
“Shit,” I growled. I never expected it to feel as good as it did. Not this fucking incredible.
She never stopped surprising me. Never stopped pleasing me.
Her tongue moved with expert precision over the head and then down the length before moving back again. I thrust against the back of her throat. She moaned, sending a vibration along my dick that made me gasp for air. How the hell did she do that? I was in awe. In lust. In love.
I looked down into her eyes. They sparkled with the kind of thirst for me that drove me crazy. After everything we had been through maybe Kennedy was right. We did deserve to celebrate. We had created our own occasion. Our own victory.
I fucking loved this girl. Did she know I’d go to the ends of the earth for her? I’d do everything in my power to make her happy. I pumped inside her again, before grabbing her by the arms and lifting her to the leather couch.
“But I wasn’t…” she protested meekly as she slid along my body. Her skin blistered with heat.
“Shh.” I silenced her. “My turn. I’m taking what I want.” Giving her something in return. Promising her that this was only the beginning of a lifetime of nights like this one.
“In front of the Pichon?” she teased.
“Oh yeah, I’m fucking you in front on the Pichon.”
My hand slid between her legs, swirling and flicking over her clit until she rocked into my fingers with an urgent hiss. I strummed against her pussy, teasing her, toying with her until she could barely take a breath.
“Please,” she begged.
“Please what?” I taunted her. It was my favorite part. It never got old. It never would. Hearing what she wanted was a turn on. Dirty words dripping from her lips.
I nuzzled my face into her neck, inhaling her scent. The woman I knew now I couldn’t live without. Not again. Not ever. I lifted her hips, knowing she was wet and ready for me. I brought her just to the head of my cock. Slick from her mouth. Pulsing and swollen from needing her. Needing this.
“You know exactly what I want,” she whispered.
“But it’s so much better when you say it.” I’d already fallen in love with the Kennedy who looked at me with wide-eyed innocence, but falling for this assertive independent woman was a new experience. One that continued to surprise me.
“Fuck me,” she demanded.
“So damn bossy.”
She nodded. “Yes.” She held on to me with a strong grip as I brought her crashing down on my shaft.
She screamed out and I growled. But it only fueled our passion. Kennedy began to ride me with hunger. Her tits bobbed and brushed against my chest. Her head flew back. This woman was made to fuck me.
I filled her, thrust deeper, consumed every part of her lips, licked her throat. I wanted to be buried inside her like this the rest of the night. My fingers dug into her waist while her hips moved with magic rhythm. A fucking sinful rhythm. Was there music she could hear that I couldn’t? Her hands moved from my shoulders to the back of the couch where she could use the traction for a deeper angle. A profound angle. I didn’t know if her body had started to consume mine or if it was the other way around. It didn’t fucking matter. We belonged together.
“Oh, God, Knight,” she whimpered. But we couldn’t stop. We couldn’t hold back. Our eyes locked on each other and I knew what she was thinking. I could feel it. See it. It was running through my veins too.
I didn’t need much to send me over the edge with her. Her body was my drug. My addiction. She was my craving.
“You feel too good,” I groaned. We’d lost control. I’d lost my damn mind once I was inside her. I’d lost the chance of ever being happy without her.
“Yes,” she moaned a ragged breath, grasping at my shoulders. Her nails dug deep.
I couldn’t hold off. She sank over my cock and my spine clenched with power as I spiraled into blackness, taking her with me.
She breathed heavily against my ear before convulsing and panting from her own orgasm. I held her tightly while her body vibrated with the aftershocks. I loved it when she came like this. Our mouths found each other again. I kissed her hard, pulsing through the end of our climaxes.
Kennedy smiled. She ran her hand against the side of my face. “I’m going to have to take you back upstairs to shower.”
I nodded, trying to gulp in air. My heart still pounded. My entire body pounded.
“But first, we have to open this bottle.” She tossed a look over her shoulder.
“You’re not serious?”
“Of course we’re opening it.” She nipped at my bottom lip, dragging it between her teeth. “It’s for us. After what it just witnessed, we have to drink it. It’s the right thing to do.”
I chuckled. I always liked the playful side of her when she let her guard down enough for me to see it. “You realize there are only a hundred of those in the world.” It didn’t want to dissuade her, but she should know how rare the Pichon was.
“I know exactly what it’s worth.” Her finger made a circle on my shoulder and along my bicep. Our palms met and she threaded her hand against mine. “Do you want to open it?” I spun her off my waist, depositing her on the couch. She squealed. “I guess that’s a yes.” She laughed.
I had already twisted the cork from the bottle. She brushed against my back. “Well?”
I smelled the cork. “So far, it’s a good investment.”
I didn’t know if she cared. She scrambled to her feet, lifting her robe off the cellar floor. She wrapped it around her and walked to the cabinet for a couple of glasses. She didn’t bother tying the belt. I admired her body as she sashayed toward me.
“Here.” She deposited them on the table.
I poured a few splashes and tasted the wine. Fuck. It was good.
I filled both halfway to the top.
“We need to toast to something.” She looked at me expectantly.
“Agreed. But nothing dramatic.”
“Oh, no. We don’t want dramatic. We’ve had enough dramatic situations to last the rest of our lives. Don’t you think?” She smiled.
“Then what should we toast to?” I eyed her.
“How about to finally g
etting what we want?”
I kissed her slowly before drinking the wine. Her lips were warm. The kiss was knowing, as if we had both finally come home, but neither of us quite knew how to say it. I met her gaze.
“I like that one.” I winked. “To finally getting what we want.”
I don’t know what time it was when we finally left the wine cellar, but there wasn’t a drop of the Château Pichon left in the bottle.
15
Kennedy
There wasn’t enough coffee to keep my eyes open. It didn’t help that my entire body was sore in new delicious places. Every time I crossed my legs under the boardroom table, I was reminded of how Knight’s thumbs pressed into my thighs, his fingers digging into my flesh. The heat of his breath blowing over my skin. It was an inconvenient time to think about being in bed together, the wine cellar, or the shower. I was in the middle of meeting with the legal team about the Crescent Towers project.
Renee stood to reach for the pot in the center of the table. She had to stretch for the handle.
“I think we wait until the bill can be added into another one. We’ll tie it with a piece of legislation that can’t fail.” She placed the giant pot on the tray.
“I think you know we can’t afford to wait that long,” I corrected her. “It has to be this bill. This round. We need another vote.”
Crew’s head was buried in his tablet. I saw a smile spread across his face. I couldn’t remember a time when he had looked happy at the office. I usually tasked him with too many projects for him to display any expression other than constant concentration. His forehead furrowed. His brows angled outward when he tried to solve a problem for me. This was a different look on him. I wondered if it was because of Seraphina. I still hadn’t wrapped my head around their relationship or helping them. I pushed back when Knight wanted a solution. One crisis at a time.
“What’s the update from Victoria Banks?” I asked.
Renee stopped stirring creamer into her mug. Her head lifted. “We spoke this morning.”
“And? She told me there were ways to get the votes.”
“There are. She’s working those angles.”
“I need the specifics. Tell her I want an update this afternoon.”
Renee nodded. Crew tore his eyes from the screen. “Construction is on schedule.”
“At least there is that.” I sighed. We all knew without the casino licensing, there wasn’t a chance in hell the Crescent Towers would survive the first year. I wouldn’t be the only one impacted by the success of the project. Everyone in this room needed to understand how critical it was the bill passed.
I rose from my seat. Kimble was waiting for me in the hallway outside the conference room.
I tilted my head. “Do we need to talk?” I asked.
He nodded. “In your office.”
Kimble was a fixture at work. No one batted an eye when he walked through the offices. I knew there was something different in his demeanor.
He closed the glass door behind him.
“What is it?”
He folded his hands in front of his waist. “I think you should slow down with Knight Corban. I need to vet him.”
I blinked. “Excuse me?”
“You don’t know what he did the five years he was in France. I want to do a full background history on his time there.”
I leaned against my desk. “Kimble, that’s crazy. I trust Knight. You can trust him too. I know neither of you is a fan of the other, but you don’t need to look for things to dig up on him. He and I actually had a conversation about you. I told him about the kidnapping. I think it might help things between you two.” It was an event I rarely mentioned to him.
His face muscles didn’t move. “I don’t trust him. You shouldn’t either. At least not until we know everything he was up to in France.”
It wasn’t a conversation I was interested in having with Kimble, or anyone else. Kimble had access to a view of my personal life no one else did, but that didn’t give him the right to interject. Our arrangement worked because he stayed silent. He seemed to want to make a change that I wasn’t sure I could allow.
“What he was up to? That’s absurd. He was busy running his family’s vineyards. He wasn’t allowed to come back to New Orleans. You know that.”
“I could have started the investigation, but I thought you should know I plan on telling you what I find.”
I shook my head. “Even if I order you not to?”
“My job always has been to keep you safe. I’m following those instructions.”
I huffed. He was stubborn. He had a single focus. I paid for the focus to be keeping me alive.
“I don’t want to know.”
“You say that now, but you don’t know what I’m going to find. You’ll change your mind.”
I cut a stare at him meant to injure. “I know I can’t stop you from digging into his past, but I don’t want to see the file. I need you to know that. Leave me out of it.” I peered at him. “Tell me something. Why now? What are you trying to do?”
“Are you asking for my opinion about bringing him back into your life?” I didn’t like his tone. The constant insinuation that where Knight was concerned, I couldn’t make a good decision.
“No. I’m not.”
He nodded, but I had left enough room for him to start sifting through Knight’s life in France. It was a sliver that he would use to create an entire canyon of distrust.
“Ms. Martin.” One of the office assistants cracked the door to speak. The interruption was jarring.
“Yes?”
Kimble barely moved to let the poor girl in.
“There was a delivery for you.” She came forward and revealed a courier package.
I smiled when I saw Knight’s handwriting on the front of the box.
“Should I inspect it?” Kimble offered. His voice was gruff.
“No,” I snapped. “You can go. I have work to do.” I was tired of his insinuations. Of the constant distrust that simmered between him and Knight. I didn’t like that he was trying to turn over stones that should be left alone.
The girl hurried out. Kimble paused as if he was going to say something before he left, but decided not to. I was happy for his silence.
As soon as I was alone, I circled my desk. I cut open the end flap of the envelope. A small box fell onto my desk. The small cube was tied with a velvet ribbon. I held my breath as I flipped open the lid. There was a note folded on top.
You left this behind. I thought it was time to Carpe Noctem again.
I lifted the necklace from the cushion. He had kept it. I had been too afraid to ask him after the way I had stormed out of the suite. The diamonds sparkled as the pendant spun in the sunlight. I thought all the days I had worn it. How careful I had been with it. How close it had made me feel to Knight when I had nothing else to hold on to. I fastened it against my neck, feeling the coolness of the engraved side brush just below my throat. The twinge of guilt I had for leaving it behind eased slightly. I wouldn’t leave it again. I’d keep it this time.
I blinked when I looked at the box. There was something poking out from the lining. I lifted the edge. It was a key. I flipped the note over in case I had missed Knight’s explanation for the key, but there wasn’t anything on the other side.
Before I could pick up my phone to text him, it beeped. I saw his name on the screen. I reached for it, reading his message.
Ready for your surprise?
I scowled.
Don’t you know, I don’t like surprises.
I could almost hear his laugh at my response. That beautiful rich laugh that stirred something in my belly I couldn’t describe adequately.
Too bad. I smiled at his answer.
The tiny dots flashed on the screen. I stared at the address that popped up in the text bubble. Where in the hell was that?
I waited for the next message.
Are you already in the car?
I laughed.
; You think I can drop everything right now?
I know you will.
I blushed. The words shot a thrill through my body. How did he do that? I didn’t have to time to shoot back something biting and sexy. Knight was waiting, and the key in my hand would let me in. I tugged my bag over my shoulder and strolled out of the office.
“Ms. Martin, should I tell Kimble you’re headed out?”
I paused in front of the young assistant’s desk. She had a notepad and pen in her hand.
“No, don’t do that. I’ll be back later this afternoon.” Although, I wasn’t sure if that was true. Kimble was probably already interrogating someone about Knight’s past. I’d rather leave him behind than have him tag along on the scavenger hunt. “He knows how to get in touch with me.” I walked briskly past the girl. I spun on my stilettos. “I’m sorry. I don’t remember your name.” I glanced at her. She wasn’t that much younger than me. All my new hires were business school graduates. She had to be at least twenty-two and twice today I had treated her like a fourteen-year old babysitter.
“It’s Val.” She grinned.
“Val? Hmm.” I used to do a better job of remembering the names of everyone on the staff. I had let other things distract me lately. “Thank you, Val. When did you start here?”
“Two months ago, Ms. Martin.”
I pressed my lips together. “Maybe we could have coffee sometime. You can tell me what your goals are with the company.”
“Really?” Her eyes widened to the size of saucers.
“Yes. I think it would be a good idea. Let’s try to schedule that tomorrow.”
She paused as if she was about to curtsy before she was interrupted by the phone. I’d let my mentoring commitments slide. I’d let a lot of things slide since we broke ground on the Crescent Towers.
I tapped the button on the elevator door when Crew hurried toward me.
“You’re leaving?” He looked confused.
“Yes.” I was irritated my whereabouts were suddenly everyone’s concern.
“I’ll ride down with you,” he announced, hopping in the elevator with me. I was jostled to the side.
