He grinned. “I have just the thing.”
This time, he disappeared on the other side of the sheet. When he returned, she recognized the bulky TENS unit he carried. He set it on the floor below the exam table.
“I’m going to clean you up first, Ms. Legato. You’re quite wet.”
She closed her eyes and enjoyed his ministrations. The pads felt sticky against her skin. He placed two where her butt muscle met her pussy, two on either side of her freshly shaved mons, and two on her lower stomach, just above the belt holding her hips in place.
He smacked her clit with the crop. “Let’s see if we can’t keep you from climaxing this way. Tell me when you feel it.”
The tiny pricks grew in intensity until they felt like miniscule mallets thumping away at her. It felt good. “I feel it.”
He turned the machine up a little more. “Tell me when it becomes unbearable.”
The thumps came harder, which still felt good. Then they turned into something unpleasant. “There. Not that. Please not that.”
He dialed it back. It was more than she wanted, but it didn’t hurt.
“Doctor, please turn it down, just a tad. It felt so good a moment ago.”
“No. You’re not supposed to climax, Ms. Legato. We talked about this. It’s inappropriate. I’m attempting to cure your ache, and you’re behaving in a decidedly wanton fashion.” He ran his hands over her flesh, exploring from the palms of her hands to the soles of her feet. That seemed inappropriate behavior for a doctor, but she was too busy trying to deal with the riot of sensations running rampant in her body to point out the hypocrisy.
When he got to her nipples, he rolled and pinched them. Then he clamped something on them that felt like it had spikes.
“Clover clamps, Ms. Legato. They’ll help keep your mind on your treatment.”
The TENS unit abruptly cut off, and her whole body relaxed. She hadn’t realized how tense she’d become. She closed her eyes. He peeled off the sticky pads, but she could still feel the electricity stimulating her muscles. Every cell buzzed with anticipation.
When he pushed his cock inside her, she wasn’t surprised. She was amazed he’d held out this long. She opened her eyes to find him watching her face. She felt like she’d run a marathon, and she hadn’t moved an inch. Still that didn’t dampen her brazen side. “Do you fuck all your patients, Doctor?”
“Internal massage.” He winked and thrust hard. “There’s a difference.”
Because this was the part she’d been praying for, she didn’t argue. “Yes, Doctor.”
“No orgasms, Ms. Legato.”
She wasn’t in control anymore. If it happened, it happened. “Yes, Doctor.”
She kept her gaze on him, though. He was sinfully handsome in that jacket. It gaped open at the bottom, revealing that he’d done nothing more than shove his pants out of the way before entering her. Seeing him clothed, looming over her as he pounded his cock into her, filled her with gentle powerlessness.
Pressure built, and she didn’t bother fighting. Gazing into his emerald eyes, she surrendered to everything she felt. “I love you, Keith.”
His eyes blazed brighter. He came, pulling out as he ejaculated and spraying her pussy with his seed. The hot mess seared her tenderized flesh. She whimpered at the sensation, but she didn’t protest the way he marked her.
Leaning down, he captured her mouth with a hungry kiss. It overwhelmed her, as did his cock when she felt it elongating against her back entrance. Like a good patient, she hadn’t climaxed. If he fucked her ass, she had no hope of controlling herself. Though, to be honest, if he had lasted a minute longer, she would have come with him.
She felt his fingers on her sphincter, rubbing in the lubrication. Then he eased his cock past the tight ring of muscle. “Now you’re in trouble, Ms. Legato.”
He moved at a leisurely pace, but it didn’t matter. Molten heat tingled at the base of her spine. She panted and struggled to move—with him, against him, it didn’t matter as long as she could release some of this energy.
Then he slid two fingers into her vagina, curving them to find her sweet spot, rubbing it to the slow slide of his cock, in and out, in and out. “Give it to me.”
With a long, loud cry, she came. Her orgasm burst slowly and violently, like the birth of the heavens. He kept thrusting into her, making her ride that stardust to the crest of another orgasm. This time he removed the nipple clamps as she came. Heat radiated through every cell in her body, and her vision went black.
Keith loosened the straps binding her head and arms first, but she didn’t open her eyes. He shook her shoulder. “Kitty Kat?”
No response. Her eyes weren’t completely closed. He could see the whites peeking out where her lids didn’t quite meet. Worried, he pried them open and checked her pupils. They responded to light appropriately, but she still didn’t stir. He’d never driven a lover to this place before. They’d passed out, gone to sleep, whatever. But they always roused when he told them to.
He freed her shoulders and hips, but he kept her legs bound while he cleaned her up. As sensitive as he knew she was, she didn’t flinch at all. When he finished, he wrapped her in a warm blanket and lifted her into his arms. He didn’t have a sofa in his dungeon because he didn’t want to encourage cuddling.
It looked like he was going to have to get one.
He carried her up two flights of stairs and into his bedroom. He had a very comfortable armchair there, so he settled in and held her in his arms.
Time passed. The digital display on his alarm clock changed fifteen times before she made a small whimpering noise that put him on high alert.
“Kat?”
Her cheek was against his shoulder. She stirred, shifting so that her nose touched his neck. Her hand came out of the flap in the front of the blanket, and she grasped at his shirt in a jerky, panicked twitch.
“I’m here, honey. I’ve got you.”
She settled down and mumbled something, but he didn’t catch what she said.
“What? Can you say that again, Kitty Kat?”
Seven more minutes passed. At least he knew she was all right. Then she stirred again. “I said I need to talk to you. I have to tell you something.”
She sounded worried, so he smoothed his hand down her spine. “We have all night. I’m not going anywhere.”
“It’s serious.” Now she was rousing. Her voice was stronger, but she didn’t move a muscle. “And not about sex.”
Iciness crept through his veins. “Okay. Do you want to get dressed?”
“No. I don’t want you to let go. I feel like you’re holding me together, like if you let go, I might break apart.”
It had been a more intense scene than he’d originally planned, and it had left her vulnerable and emotionally wrung out. His ill-timed orgasm hadn’t helped either. He’d heard her utter those three heartfelt words. He wanted to say them back, but the chance had passed him by, and his courage had gone with it. The least he could do was hold her.
Her voice was scratchy from all the yelling she’d done, and he didn’t have water nearby to offer her a drink. Yep, he was going to have to tweak the setup in the dungeon to better meet her needs. A sofa and a small fridge went on his mental shopping list.
“Okay. I won’t let go.”
“You have to promise to listen to everything before you get mad at me.”
That really didn’t sound good. “What did you do?”
She tightened her grip on his shirt, her fist pressing against his stomach. “Promise first.”
“I promise.” He hated making a promise when he didn’t know if he could keep it.
“Last Thursday, when I was late getting to the parking garage?”
He nodded, and he wished she would sit back so he could see her face. Right now, he only had a view of the top of her head.
“Your mom came to see me.”
Fury boiled in his core. That bitch had no business going near Kat. “She what?”
“Keith, you promised.”
He took a deep breath and slowed his temper to a simmer. “Go on.”
“She told me that your sister was in jail and the state was going to put her kids up for adoption.”
Though he’d known she was in prison, and he knew the conviction was triple manslaughter, he hadn’t known that Savannah had kids. The fact he stayed silent was more a testament to shock.
“She really didn’t say much more than that, so I did some digging. I looked up the charges. She’s serving three consecutive eight-year sentences for manslaughter. The details don’t matter that much. I went to see her, and she told me that she wanted me to make sure nothing bad happened to her kids.”
Keith felt nothing but pity for those children. No doubt Savannah had been a shitty mother and they were better off with another family.
“So I looked up the social worker who is handling their case. Her name is Mrs. Daley. She wouldn’t talk to me over the phone, so I went to go see her. That’s where I was today. It’s why I couldn’t meet you in the parking garage.”
Kat twisted her fist tighter in his shirt, and he heard the seams pop. More than that, he heard the distress in her voice. He wanted so badly to interrupt, but he’d promised, so he buried his questions and kept stroking his hand up and down her back.
“Mrs. Daley said that Corey stands a good chance of being adopted because he’s eleven months old and has no health issues. But Angelina, who’s three, has some behavioral problems. Mrs. Daley doesn’t know if she’ll be able to find a permanent home for Angelina, and she’s pretty sure she’s going to have to split them up.”
She was crying now, her shoulders shaking with the weight of her sobs. He tightened his hold and rocked, tipping back her head so he could smooth kisses over her face.
“You’re not mad?”
How could he get mad at her for doing something that was the essence of what he loved about her? “No. You have a soft heart. I can’t imagine you not following through on finding them and making sure they’re okay.”
She searched his face the same way she had earlier. Finally she continued. “Mrs. Daley is going to set up a time for you to meet them, if you want.”
He felt his eyes widen and his eyebrows lift, an outward manifestation of his shock. “Why would I want to meet them?”
“They’re your niece and nephew. Your parents don’t want them. This might be your only chance to be a part of their lives.”
He didn’t know whether to be stunned or angry. “Kat, they’re strangers. They don’t know me, and I don’t know them. You said their caseworker was working on finding homes. Why would I interfere with that?”
She sat up and pushed away, not bothering to hide her disappointment. “I’m not asking if you want to interfere, you thickheaded man. I’m asking if you want to be part of their lives. You could be a positive influence. I’m sure whoever adopts them won’t bar them from seeing you, not if you asked nicely.”
With a scowl, she got to her feet and grabbed her overnight case. She shoved a nightgown over her head, which mollified him a bit because it meant she wasn’t planning to leave in a huff.
“I can’t believe you’re not even curious. I know you hate your sister, but I don’t see how that translates to innocent little children.”
With that, she marched into the bathroom. He heard water running and decided to leave her alone. He didn’t know what he’d say anyway. Was he curious about the kids? Not really. They were a foreign concept, and he was still stunned, both by the bombshell Kat had dropped and by her expectation of a different reaction from him.
He caught her as she exited the bathroom and headed toward the bed. Her body vibrated with fury. “Kat, I know you’re angry, but you’re being thoughtless about this. By my count, you’ve had five days to think this through. I’ve had five minutes.”
Just like that, the tightness drained away. She threw her arms around him. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I just… I think about those poor little kids out there in the big, bad world with no stability whatsoever.”
“If they lived with my sister, then they never had it to begin with.”
She looked at him with a wealth of sadness darkening her deep brown eyes. “At least think about it. I won’t go against whatever decision you make.”
Chapter Fourteen
When Katrina started her period the next day, she understood the reason for her tears. She’d cried way too easily, both in Mrs. Daley’s office and in front of Keith. It wasn’t like she didn’t know when to expect it. Those color-coded pills were pretty exact. She just hadn’t been paying attention.
However, that wasn’t the worst of her problems. Coming into contact with countless strangers each day put her at risk for any number of illnesses. In addition to her monthly visitor, her sinuses left her head feeling cottony. Because she didn’t normally suffer from allergies, she figured on the flu. It had been going around in the Health Care Fraud Unit, and now it looked to be making a home in the WCCU.
Keith frowned at her when she had plain toast and weak tea for breakfast. “Kat, you can’t survive on just that until lunch. At least have a bowl of cereal.”
The idea of eating anything else made Katrina’s stomach churn. “I’ll be fine.”
“You don’t look fine. Was last night too much?”
Starting her period and getting the flu all in the same morning was too much, but she had a lot to do at work today. She couldn’t let those problems get in her way. “No. Last night was wonderful. I started my period this morning, so I’m a little tired. Maybe we can just hang out tonight.”
The calculating squint to his eyes didn’t give her much hope that he completely bought her story, but he didn’t say anything, so she let the matter drop.
An hour later, she reached her desk to find Aaron angrily packing his things into a cardboard box. Two security officers stood watch. Her jaw fell open. “What happened?”
He looked up briefly, long enough to deliver a glare. “I got suspended, thanks to you.”
It felt like he’d punched her in the stomach, and that area of her body was already pretty battered. “Thanks to me? I don’t understand.”
“I asked you for one simple favor, and you turned me in for it.”
Katrina shook her head. Chief Alder had known where she’d been and what she’d been doing the whole time. She’d been taken to task for it as well. “I still don’t understand. You shouldn’t be fired because I did some digging for you. When the chief called me into her office yesterday, I—”
Aaron held up his palm. “I don’t care, Katrina. You got me suspended so you could take second chair on the Holbrook case. Don’t think I don’t know about that.”
His aggressiveness didn’t make sense on so many levels, but Katrina forced herself to let it go. She couldn’t imagine how angry and hurt he must feel right now. She was going to schedule an appointment to talk to the chief. Then she would call Aaron and try to explain what happened. There had to be more to the story than either of them knew. Vaguely, she wondered if the person who was forging names in the evidence logs was targeting Aaron.
As she watched the officers escort him to the elevator, she bit back tears. It wasn’t fair. Aaron had been a good, supportive friend. She felt horrible for him. And to top it off, she had to be in court in half an hour, so she couldn’t do anything to help Aaron right that second. She fired off a text to Jordan as she headed to court, asking him to look into Aaron’s suspension.
She didn’t get a chance to talk to Chief Alder until her boss stopped by after lunch to assign work related to the Holbrook case. Even then, the chief dumped a series of tasks on Katrina’s lap and walked away.
Katrina ran to catch up. “Chief Alder, I know I’m overstepping my bounds, but I wanted to ask about Aaron. It wasn’t my intention to get him in trouble.”
Half of Chief Alder’s nose scrunched up. “I’m not at liberty to discuss the particulars.”
She walked a
way, and Katrina knew better than to push the issue until she knew more about what had happened. She’d ask Keith if he knew what was going on. While he probably didn’t, he’d have ideas. And contacts. The man had an amazing amount of contacts. This turn of events made no sense to Katrina.
When she spotted Dustin coming toward her with a tight expression on his face an hour before the end of the day, she almost ran for the door. She didn’t want to deal with more stress, and with Dustin involved, the news couldn’t be good.
“Hey, Trina.” He stopped in front of her desk. “Is there somewhere private we can talk?”
Good news could be delivered with other people around. It was no secret that she had a stalker or that the FBI was investigating the case and all the ways it might be related to the DOJ. The sick feeling that had been simmering on the back burner all day became bothersome, and that did not mix well with the achiness in her limbs. Damn flu. Damn period. Damn stalker. Damn everything.
She rose from her chair and pointed toward the hall to the conference rooms. “Five is open.”
He followed her across the room, past all the desks of people looking at her. She wondered what they were thinking about as they watched.
When they arrived—those fifteen yards seemed like a mile—Dustin reached around her to open the door, and he closed it behind them. “You look like I could knock you over with a feather. Have a seat, and breathe. I have some good news.” Ever the gentleman, he pulled out a chair.
“Good news.” She tried for a smile, but it wasn’t forthcoming. She didn’t want to get her hopes up too high. “I could use some of that.”
“Someone broke into your condo today.” He had to know full well that his delivery made her squirm, and his easy smile mitigated the butterflies somewhat. “Because your brother had the place wired with cameras, we have the crime on tape. We’re running the pictures through facial recognition right now.”
She stared at him as she processed what he’d said. Suddenly she felt much better. The effects of her flu seemed so paltry now, like she would wake up in the morning and be completely well. “So you don’t know who it is, and you haven’t made an arrest.”
Re/Paired (Doms of the FBI Book 2) Page 29
