by Laura Kaye
Colton still stood at the side of the bed, watching her.
Her whole body flashed hot. “What?”
He shook his head and lay down on top of the covers. “Nothing. Ready?”
When she nodded, he clicked play and the movie resumed.
She’d been all worried that sharing a bed with Colton would be awkward, but really, she was completely comfortable lying next to him. The only thing that would’ve made it better was if he reached over and tugged her into his chest. Though she was pretty sure that the contact of his cock against her ass—even through clothing—would probably make her spontaneously combust. So maybe the no-man’s-land between them was for the best.
…
Colton was going out of his mind.
The woman of his fantasies lay on a bed next to him wearing his clothing. Every one of her throaty laughs reverberated down his body and settled a growing ache into his balls. Every little thing she did drove him crazy, from the way she twirled loose strands of hair from that appealingly messy bun around her finger to the way the slit in the back of that tight little black skirt taunted him with what lay beneath to the shapely curve of her calves whenever she bent her legs and crossed her ankles behind her.
And now the skirt was off. Jesus, when he’d realized what she’d been doing, it had taken everything he had to keep his feet planted where they were and not yank back the covers to help.
He still wanted to yank back those damn covers. He’d slide the pencil out of her hair and watch the black silk fall around her shoulders. And then he’d cover her body with his.
Colton heaved a breath and forced his mind to focus on the movie. With limited success at best.
Because, beyond the way her proximity tormented his body, he felt so damn comfortable hanging out with her that it was becoming disconcerting. He’d always known she shared his interest in all things computers and his appreciation for sarcasm, but spending this night with her also made it clear they clicked in other ways, too.
First, she was totally low maintenance. This whole day, she’d just gone with the flow, never complaining, never sulking, never taking the frustration of their situation out on anyone else. After eight years in the army, Colton knew the value of those qualities, because there were plenty of guys who’d spent all their time grousing about the heat or the sand or last-minute changes in orders. And they became as big a pain in the ass as whatever irritant had set them off in the first place. As far as Colton was concerned, life was too damn short to let every little bump in the road throw you for a loop.
Second, Kady had a fantastic sense of humor. He’d always known that to an extent, but all through the first movie, she’d done impressions and laughed until she snorted and never once seemed the least self-conscious about any of it. And it was so fucking sexy.
God, but every new revelation proved what an utter dickhead he’d been to her three years before. Because she’d been right. He hadn’t really seen her then, but he sure as hell did now.
And Colton liked what he saw. A lot.
What the hell he did with that, though, he didn’t have a clue. Liking and wanting Kady Dresco weren’t the problems.
Next to him, Kady was fighting the lure of sleep. Her eyelids drooped and lifted, drooped and lifted, each time staying down just a little longer before she tried to pull herself back into consciousness. And then she was out. “Kady?” he whispered.
No response.
Though the movie still played, Colton’s eyes remained on the woman lying next to him. They were both always so touchy around each other that he’d never before had a chance like this to just look at her. The way the waves of her hair curled around her face. The contrast between the shiny black and the pale porcelain of her skin. The pouty set of her lips and the little tilt of her nose.
She was cute and sweet and so damn gorgeous it was hard to take a deep breath.
But staring at her like this was absolutely pointless. He was just torturing himself with something he couldn’t have.
Trying not to rock the bed, Colton rolled off his side and grabbed his laptop. Kady remained sound asleep, her lips parted and her face relaxed. Pausing the movie as he crossed the room, Colton settled the machine on the table and debated what to do. His internal clock said it was on the early side for sleeping, but he didn’t want to disturb Kady, either. Might as well call it a night.
Rounding the table to double-check the door’s lock, Colton’s foot caught on something and he tripped. He bit back the curse sitting on the tip of his tongue and cut his gaze toward Kady. Still asleep. Turning, he found her laptop case lying flat on the floor, its contents half dumped out. He threw the dead bolt on the door, then knelt to put her things away.
Colton pushed a file folder, a notebook, and a few loose sheets of paper back into the bag, revealing a paperback with a dark-red cover. He flipped it over. And froze.
The image made him immediately hard. Or maybe it was that Kady owned a book with a cover that depicted a heavily muscled man holding a woman trapped against a wall, one hand binding both of hers above her head, the other resting on her collarbone this close from wrapping around the bottom of her throat. Only the placement of the man’s forearm kept her breasts from being visible to the camera, otherwise the couple appeared nude. The woman’s expression was part pain, part pleasure, and the man’s was harsh, unforgiving. The book was called Into the Dark.
What. The. Fuck.
Peering over his shoulder to make sure Kady remained asleep, Colton flipped the book around in his hands and turned back to skim the description. The story was about an underground fighter who introduces a woman to the gritty worlds of his boxing circuit and of role-playing nonconsensual sexual scenarios.
Colton’s heart was a pounding sledgehammer in his chest.
Why did Kady have this? Why was she reading this?
He turned the book over and over in his hands, taking in the curled cover, the bent corners of some of the pages, the cracked spine, an array of dings and scuffs and little tears. Signs of a well-read book.
And it was clear that certain pages were the most frequently read because of how the book was almost trained to open to them. Colton picked one toward the beginning and scanned his gaze over the words.
Holy shit.
He needed more light. And some privacy.
Turning out all the lamps in the bedroom to encourage Kady to stay asleep, he found the bathroom in the dark, quietly secured the door, and flicked on the light switch. He flipped the toilet lid down and sat.
Letting the book fall open by itself again, Colton started reading at the top of page sixty and couldn’t tear his gaze away. It was all about the fighter trying to scare an interested woman away by coming on hard and strong. He’d tried to warn her away from him several times before, but since that hadn’t worked, he was taking it up a notch. In the alley that led to one of the underground fight clubs, he got all in her space, barked questions and taunts at her, handled her roughly, and exposed her body by tugging her skirt up over her hips. When none of that seemed to chase her off, he yanked down her panties with a threat to fuck her right there in the alley where anyone coming to or leaving from the fight might see them. Imagine the guy’s shock when he not only found her dripping wet but heard her beg him to do it.
Problem was, he liked the woman. He didn’t want anyone else seeing her. And he wasn’t convinced she understood that this behavior wasn’t a game for him. It was who he was. What he did. What he needed. Instead, he roughly re-dressed her and handed her a card with an address. As he walked off, he challenged her to show up there in two nights, but only if she was sure she wanted and could handle the kind of sex he dished out.
Colton’s hand was shaking as he turned the page.
Kady Dresco reads books about rough sex.
“Jesus,” he whispered, the room spinning around him. He flipped a bunch of pages looking for the couple’s next meeting, and finally just let the book fall open where it wanted. Annnd bin
go.
He skimmed until he found the point at which the woman arrived at the address, found a note that said only “Come in” taped to the door, and entered the apartment. The lighting inside was dim and the place was quiet and still. She called out his name as she slowly moved around the space.
Out of nowhere, he was on her. He grabbed her from behind and hauled her tight up against the front of his body, one hand clamped over her mouth, the other strapped across her breasts and securing her arms.
“Curious little thing, aren’t you?”
Whimpering under his hand, she nodded, her heart racing and body vibrating with arousal. Four different times, he’d told her that she didn’t want any part of what he had to offer. But when she was in his presence, she felt more alive than she had in years. The gritty rasp of his voice was like water, and the harsh press of his touch like air. Her body recognized in him something it needed very much, and she had to know one way or the other what he was, what he did, and whether she liked it.
“Do you understand what’s about to happen here?” he asked, grinding his cock against her ass. “And I don’t mean fucking. You walked through that door. That’s a given.” When she nodded again, he slid his hand from her mouth to her throat and said, “Tell me.”
She swallowed hard and licked her lips. “You’re going to be rough with me,” she whispered.
His chuckle was hot in her ear and full of malice. “I’m going to be very rough with you. You can’t handle it at any point, you say the word ‘sunrise.’ I’ll stop immediately, and you’ll walk out that door and never come back. Understand?”
Heat roared through her body. A slippery wetness already pooled between her legs and he’d barely touched her. “Yes.”
Before the word was even fully formed, he shoved her forward, his grip still tight across her breasts, and pushed her down over the short end of the console table behind the living room couch. “Hands behind your back,” he said, his hand anchoring itself around the back of her neck, forcing her chest and face against the cold, hard surface. He stood right in front of her face, which the height of the table perfectly aligned with his crotch. He undid his belt and tugged the buttons apart, baring his cock and letting it fall free against her cheek. “If you want it anywhere else, you’ll take it here first. All of it.”
As his eyes scanned over the demanding blow job that followed, Colton tugged his fingers through his hair, his thoughts in an utter whirl of cognitive dissonance, his body so tight with arousal and need that it was nearly painful.
He sat reading Kady’s apparent favorite scenes for so long that his butt fell asleep.
Every explanation he imagined for not just her possession of this kind of story but her obvious repeated reading of it seemed more impossible than the last. That she was just curious? Maybe. That she was fascinated by it? Possibly. That it turned her on and got her off? Boggle. That she wanted to try this for herself or already had someone who gave her this kind of sex?
Possessiveness and protectiveness roared through Colton’s blood and hauled him onto his feet so he could pace the length of the small space. He held the book in a death grip until he finally dropped it to the counter. Bracing both hands against the edge, Colton leaned forward, dropped his head, and closed his eyes. His breathing was rough and he forced a deep in-and-out that failed to calm.
Break it down, Colton. Right.
On some level, Kady was interested in the kind of sex that was normal for Colton, the kind he never thought in a million years she’d go for. How interested was a complete unknown.
What else?
If she was actually interested, that removed a major fucking excuse he’d always had for keeping his hands off. God knew he didn’t want to corrupt her, scare her, or hurt her. Ever. But if this was her thing? That changed everything.
Didn’t it? Or maybe not. Because it didn’t alleviate his concerns about what Tyler would think if he ever learned what Colton was like. Granted, Colton wasn’t a kiss-and-tell type of guy and these days, Tyler was often away saving the world one patient at a time, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t hear something through the grapevine.
Kady’s interest also didn’t resolve his concerns about where something between them might lead if he actually gave it a chance. He wouldn’t want to lose her over a night of great sex, that was for damn sure. Which argued for giving something more real, more lasting a fair shake. But that required opening himself up to the possibility that an affair could turn into a relationship that would become serious. Could he deal with that? Because if he couldn’t, then what this book meant to her should mean absolutely nothing to him.
Easier said than done. The thought of another man—any other man—roughing her up, holding her down, or fucking her until her legs could no longer bear her weight made him want to smash something with his bare hands. Repeatedly.
Hell, just imagining some other guy having sweet, tender, missionary sex with Kady Dresco made Colton’s chest squeeze and gut sink.
Question was, what was he willing to do about any of it?
Chapter Five
Kady woke up slowly. She was so comfortable that she didn’t want to move. Her brain had a different idea, though, because it was immediately firing thoughts that tugged her into consciousness. Like, that she no longer heard the constant drumming of rain on the roof. Like, that she had no idea what time it was. Like, that she’d slept with Colton last night…and didn’t remember a thing about it.
That one jolted her upright onto her elbows. Looking to her left, she found the other side of the bed empty. She frowned. The covers were all flat, like they’d never been rumpled because they’d never been slept under. Shifting into a sitting position, she gasped.
Colton sat staring at her from the chair in the corner, arms crossed over his chest, long legs out in front of him. He must’ve inserted his contacts, because he no longer wore his glasses. And sadly, he’d tucked his T-shirt back into his dress pants and secured them again. He looked gorgeous, but he didn’t look happy.
“Hey,” she said, shaking off the fog of sleep.
His eyebrows hitched and an unreadable expression passed over his face. “Hey,” he said in a low voice.
She smoothed her hands over her hair. “It stopped raining?” He nodded. “What time is it?”
“Eight thirty,” he said, his jaw ticking.
He was irritated with her. Why? What could she possibly have done? “Everything okay?” she asked.
“Just peachy, cupcake. Why don’t you get dressed? You won the bet, so I owe you breakfast.”
Kady’s stomach squeezed and an icy dread slithered down her spine. Nothing about his tone or his eyes or his expression was playful. Normally, she’d be bragging about winning and he’d be doubling down on a new bet to regain the upper hand, but none of that seemed right with the way he was acting. “Uh, sure,” she finally said. Sliding her legs off the bed, she ensured that his dress shirt covered her before she retrieved her skirt from the floor and stood. “Just give me a minute,” she said as she scooped up her blouse and purse and made her way to the bathroom.
She freshened up and made herself presentable. Since he seemed to be in a rush for breakfast, she’d shower when they got back. When she was done, she gazed at her reflection in the mirror. Good enough.
Colton hadn’t moved at all. Still just sat in that chair with that implacable look on his face. Finally, when she stepped into her still-damp heels, he pushed himself out of his seat, and that was when she noticed that he already wore his shoes, too.
Kady frowned. “Did you not sleep last night?”
Collecting the key chain from the little table, he shook his head. “Couldn’t.”
“I’m sorry. Was it me? Did I do something to disturb you?”
His eyes narrowed and his lips pinched. Just for a moment. And then his expression was neutral once more. “Just had a lot on my mind,” he said.
Something was seriously wrong, but what could she do if he wou
ldn’t open up about it? Regret and disappointment chased away her appetite. She really thought they’d connected and clicked yesterday, but he must not have felt it. “Okay. Well, maybe a yummy diner breakfast will help,” she said, hoping to cheer him up and bring back even a little of the comfortable companionship and good times they’d had the night before.
He opened the room’s door and gestured for her to go first.
When she stepped outside, the air was so humid it literally sat on Kady’s skin. Dark clouds hung low in the sky as if the storm wasn’t yet sure it was done. As they made their way to the diner, she sidestepped all the huge puddles that filled the low spots in the parking lot. Great lakes of water also sat on the road and on the scrubby field of grass on the other side of the street. What were the chances that the roads that led to the airport were clear with so much standing water everywhere here?
Yesterday, they’d run across this parking lot, Colton holding her tight against his side, the rain hitting them despite the big golf umbrella. They’d laughed and teased and had a good time. Now, the four feet between them felt like a world, as distant as he was being. Kady just didn’t get it.
Inside, they joined about a half dozen other diners and chose a table by the front window. Colton grabbed the plastic menus from behind the tiny jukebox and slid one her way.
“Thanks,” she said.
He didn’t even look up from his menu. She’d just thanked him and it didn’t even seem to have registered.
“Any chance you’re going to tell me what’s bothering you?” she finally said.
His gaze cut to hers. “I told you.”
“Mmkay. Have it your way.”
The same waitress as last night, an older woman with big blond hair, brought them coffees without them even needing to ask. “What can I get for y’all this morning?”
“Some rye toast with butter and a fruit cup,” Kady said, returning the menu to the rack behind the jukebox. She grabbed two packets of sugar for her coffee.
Colton frowned at her. “Thought you were getting the pancakes or Belgian waffle?”
