by Karin Tabke
His phone vibrated again. He ignored it. Again. Their drinks arrived. Raising his glass of Scotch, he said, “Here’s to us.”
Smiling, Katy said, “To us.” And sipped her wine.
His cell phone vibrated again. Frustrated, he threw back his glass of Scotch, grabbed his phone, and said, “I’m sorry, I need to take this.”
Crestfallen and feeling foolish, Katy nodded. As he walked away she heard him say, “I told you I was working.”
Ten minutes later she was still sitting at the table. Alone. Her wineglass was empty and so was she. Grabbing her purse, she walked to the bar, and caught the bartender’s attention. “I’d like to pay my bill, please.”
“Allow me,” said one of the men who had been staring at her earlier.
Katy smiled politely. “No, thank you.” He was tall, good looking, well dressed, and he smelled good. BS—Before Simon—she would have been intrigued. Now she was annoyed.
“It’s the least I can do for a stranded beautiful lady.”
“Again, thank you, but no.”
“Can I at least buy you a drink? I promise not to desert you.” He smiled and moved in a little closer. “A woman like you deserves a man’s undivided attention.”
Katy shook her head. When her suitor moved in closer and touched her bare arm, she shivered. Something he probably mistook for excitement rather than anger. The man she wanted was outside calming a woman down, a woman he claimed he had no feelings for, while she was forced to sit at a table feeling like a total reject. Then she had to be hit on at the bar when all she wanted was to pay the damn bill and go back to her room.
“You feel it, too?” Romeo breathed, his wine breath insulting her senses.
“I don’t want to make a scene,” Katy started.
“I have no problem making one,” Simon said. Grabbing Romeo’s hand, he twisted his arm behind his back and slammed him face-first into the oak bar. Simon leaned over him and said menacingly, “Touch her again and I’ll break every fucking bone in your body.”
The guy said something, his words muffled. No one moved to defend the guy including his buddies or the bartender who stood silent. Simon reached into his pocket with his other hand, pulled out a hundred-dollar bill and tossed it onto the bar top, shoved the guy harder into the oak, grasped Katy by the elbow, and escorted her from the building. As soon as they were free of prying eyes, she yanked her arm from his grasp.
“Don’t touch me,” she spat.
Simon blinked like an owl, confused by her treatment.
“Don’t touch you? That guy touched you!”
“At least he was there, paying attention to me, not outside on the phone with a woman he claims he has no feelings for!”
She pushed past him and strode away angrily.
He caught up with her and reached out, but when she threw him a murderous glare he retracted his hand.
“I’m sorry, Kat. I didn’t mean to be on the phone so long.”
She stopped and whirled on him. “You should not have answered at all.”
“I can’t not answer.”
“You won’t not answer!” She turned and kept going. “What is it, Simon? What does she have on you?”
“Nothing.”
“Bullshit. She’s using your guilt like a choke collar and you’re the obedient puppy. She jerks it and you come to heel.”
He had no rejoinder.
“Hah, I’m right! Well, guess what, Simon who won’t even tell me his last name? Go to hell!”
“Katrina!”
“Don’t Katrina me! You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, Simon. For God’s sake, I’m falling in love with you!” His eyes widened at her declaration. It surprised her, too, but hell, it was true and she wasn’t going to play games. “Puleeze, don’t act so surprised. I’m sure that isn’t the first and it certainly won’t be the last time that a woman has said that to you.”
“It’s the first time I wanted to hear it,” he said roughly.
She stopped, her knees trembling. What did that mean? He reached for her again but she waved him off. He wasn’t going to charm his way back this time. She was going to say what she had to say.
“I can deal with the fact that you won’t tell me your last name. I believed you when you told me you weren’t married, even when you have a ball and chain icon named Jen on your phone and she told me she’s your wife!” She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Good God, how stupid does that make me?” She poked him in the chest. He winced. She didn’t feel bad about hitting his wound; it seemed only fair. “Well, I may be stupid, and I may have naïve stamped all over my body, but I will not, not even for you, take a backseat to another woman regardless of how innocent, complicated, or platonic your relationship with her is.”
He stood staring at her as a mixture of emotions flashed across his face. Confusion, frustration, and, of course he would not be Simon if he didn’t look at her with a desire that said he wanted to slam her against the glass storefront and fuck her to the moon and back on Main Street.
esire, hot and demanding flared in his eyes. His chest rose and fell as if he had just run a marathon. He was back on the hunt. Shaking her head, she backed away, knowing that if he touched her, pressed his body against hers and whispered how much he wanted her, she would succumb—and when they were sated, nothing would have changed.
“No, Simon, sex isn’t going to make it better. Not this time.” Darting past him, she didn’t look back. Tears blinded her as she stumbled and nearly fell. Reaching down to slip her heels off, she looked up as Simon rounded the corner. The impassioned look on his face combined with his angry stride terrified her. She had never seen him more furious. Or determined. Stumbling in the grass, she lost a heel. She kicked the other one off and ran.
It was late, the Victorian quiet when she breathlessly opened the front door. Soundly closing it behind her, Katy caught her breath at the bottom of the winding stairway that would take her to the bedroom. When she was halfway up the stairs, the door opened behind her. She hurried.
“West,” Simon said.
She kept moving.
“My last name is West,” he said more loudly.
Nearly stumbling over her bare feet, she hesitated. His last name wasn’t enough. She continued her climb.
“I work for the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department, but am part of a multiagency task force. I’m currently undercover; part of my cover requires a wife.”
Katy stopped completely at the bottom of the second flight of stairs. “I could lose my job for telling you that,” he said, coming ever closer to her.
She swallowed hard, and took another step.
“I’ll risk my job, but I won’t risk losing you, Cinderella,” he said.
Katy closed her eyes. Her heart fluttered as if she were a captured sparrow in a gilded cage.
He stood on the step below her. Wrapping his arm around her waist, he pulled her against his chest. Burying his nose in her hair, he inhaled. “Not when I just found you.”
Trembling, afraid she was hearing things, she didn’t know what to say. He had told her everything except what happened with his brother and his relationship with his brother’s widow. “Am I part of your cover, too?”
“No, princess. You’re real.”
“Simon,” she breathed, melting in his arms. “I won’t share you.”
“I told you once before, I don’t share either.”
She swallowed hard as he kissed the sensitive place behind her ear. His free hand slid up her thigh, bunching her little dress in his hand. Cool air wafted around her bare bottom. “You are such a naughty princess, Kat. Where are your panties?”
“I forgot—” Her breath hitched as his fingers strummed her soft thatch of pubic hair. “To put them on,” she gushed.
Pulling her harder against his chest, h
e nibbled her ear, then slowly slid his tongue around the outer shell. She was putty in his hands. “Simon West?”
“Yes, Katrina Winslow?”
“Don’t break my heart.”
“Only if you promise not to break mine,” he murmured.
“Never.”
As she said the word he slid a finger deeply into her. “Simon,” she breathed, clamping her muscles around his thick finger. He had become her constant craving. It didn’t matter what time of day it was, where it was, or how, she simply craved his touch, obsessively.
“I can’t stop touching you, Cinderella. It’s all I think about, it’s all I want.”
Spreading her legs, giving him greater access to her, Katy reached her hands around to his thighs and slowly ran them up and down, in and out, teasing his burgeoning cock. The roughness of the denim against her smooth bottom stimulated her sensitive skin. Everything about Captain Simon West excited her.
One by one, she popped his button fly jeans open. Two-handed, she grasped his swollen cock and in a slow, firm cadence she pumped him. His deep moans of pleasure, the slow deliberate grind of his hips against her ass, combined with the lethal slip and slide of his finger in and out her as he circled her slick clit with his slicker fingertips drove her insane. Her knees buckled, and she released his cock so that she didn’t crash face first into the wooden stairway. Breaking her forward fall with her hands, Simon added support with his steel-banded arm. He dropped to his knees behind her, spread her with one knee and with one arm still around her waist, he pulled her back and impaled her from behind.
“Jesus, Kat,” he groaned. “I love the feel of sliding into you.”
Her pussy grasped possessively onto his cock as she struggled to compose herself. Emotions crashed chaotically in her chest. Simon made her feel prized. It was a new and wondrous feeling.
With a measured pace, he moved against her. His hard, powerful cock pistoned slowly, deeply in and out of her. The ache he created in her heart and womb combined, making her feel small and vulnerable but oh so cherished.
“Simon,” she sobbed, the emotion overwhelming.
“Tell me, princess. I’ll give you everything I have.”
She sobbed louder, deeply, unable to convey in words what he meant to her.
He pulled out from her and gently turned her over. His eyes locked onto hers as he pressed her back against the stairway. “You make me fucking crazy,” he said hoarsely as his lips caught hers in a hungry kiss. She wrapped her legs around him as he slid deeply into her. Their bodies reveled in the feel of the other. Perfect. Yin and yang, Adam and Eve. They were meant to be, and she was not going to allow any man or woman come between them.
The sound of the front door opening startled them.
Katy bit her lip to keep from shrieking. Simon smiled, kissed her quiet, and with him still inside of her, he picked her up and walked with her wrapped around him to the attic landing. Setting her down, he pushed her against the wall and proceeded to fuck her senseless. She moaned.
“Is there a problem?” Mona’s worried voice called up.
Giggling, Katy, called back, “No, Mona, I’m fine.”
“I thought you hurt yourself.”
Katy giggled some more. “I’m okay.”
She reached back for the doorknob, turning it, and Simon pushed her through the open door. He turned, using her back to close it, then impatiently thrust high into her, pinning her against the door. Katy’s head spun. He was so big and thick. And he was all hers. Powerful, virile Simon. She bit the spot where his neck and shoulder met. He growled.
“Mine,” she said possessively. She nipped him again and this time he threw his head back and came in a wild torrential release. Katy quickly followed. They stood, clinging to each other, their breaths mingling as they huffed and puffed, fighting to regain control of themselves.
Gently lifting her off him, Simon strode to the bed then tossed a limp, sated Katy onto the bed. Grabbing a tissue from the nightstand, he proceeded to clean himself up, never once taking his eyes off her. Her hair was a wild mess around her shoulders, her skirt bunched up around her waist, her lips bruised and swollen, his cum oozing from her slick pussy. “You look so hot right now, Kat. I want to fuck you again.” He buttoned up, then yanked her up to him and kissed her. Releasing her, he said, “And I’m going to, in about three hours.” He picked up her bag. “Pack up, I’m taking you home.”
“It only takes an hour to get to my apartment.” And she didn’t want to go home to the mess.
“We’re going to my house. Now pack.”
s they came down the stairway after packing, Simon picked her heels up from the front vestibule, where he had left them. He stuffed them into her bag. “You lost your glass slippers again, Cinderella. You need to be more careful.”
Smiling up at him, Katy caressed his arm. “I like losing them because you always find them and I enjoy paying the price for my wayward shoes.”
“So long as I’m the only one you reward.”
“Hah! You released the Kraken, Simon. Be careful. I might wear you out!”
“As long as I have breath in my body, I’ll be able to rise to the occasion.”
“If all else fails, I’ll put you on life support.”
“Am I just sex on a stick to you?”
“The best ever sex on a stick.”
“You wound me to the quick.”
“I have to keep you on your toes, Captain West.”
“You lady scientists are mean.”
As he helped her into his Jeep, he leaned in and kissed her. “I’m hungry.”
“I noticed a burger joint right around the corner.”
“Perfect.”
They stopped at Gott’s Roadside, where they overdosed on bacon burgers, garlic fries and shared the world’s most delicious chocolate milkshake, before making a beeline for Simon’s house in Santa Clara.
Katy was dying to ask Simon about his brother, but she didn’t want to spoil their comfortable mood. He had offered far more information than she thought he ever would, and for that she was grateful. She hoped that in time, he would trust her enough to share what had happened. For now, she was content to let things lie. But the sister-in-law issue would have to be addressed more immediately. Katy didn’t want to be a bitch about it. She got that Simon felt responsible, but his responsibility only went so far.
Besides, she had enough on her plate to deal with. Just knowing that Simon was willing to trust her with his job info and now take her to his home was all she needed to get through the hell she was about to go through with Genomtec. Having Simon and Veronica on her team was a godsend.
They both seemed to have a lot on their minds as the Jeep ate up the miles. Katy was exhausted mentally as well as physically.
“Being your lover is exhausting, Simon,” she said, yawning.
He grinned and looked over at her. “I’m insatiable when it comes to you. I can’t keep my hands off you or my dick out of you.”
“Yeah, I know. I can barely walk.”
Simon reached over and grabbed her hand. “I’ll take it easy on you the next few days.”
“Don’t you dare!”
He brought her hand to his lips and kissed her palm. “We’ll see how you feel in the morning.”
It was late when they pulled into the garage. Katy must have fallen asleep because she woke to Simon carrying her up a flight of stairs. The cool linen sheets felt good on her skin. As she snuggled deeply into them she thought she detected the scent of roses. She also thought she heard Simon swear.
“You okay?” she murmured.
“Everything’s fine, princess,” he said, stroking her cheek. Sweeping his lips across hers, he whispered, “Go back to sleep.”
Reaching out for his hand, she grabbed it. “Come to bed.”
“In a few. I hav
e to bring our bags in.”
Katy woke to the sound of running water and the aromatic scent of freshly ground coffee. But what drove her from the warm empty bed was her full bladder. She slipped naked from the bed into the steamy bathroom where Simon was showering, peed, hurried back to the bedroom, saw his denim shirt on the floor, and slipped it on. The coffee smelled too tempting to resist.
She’d pour him a cup, then join him in the shower. As she walked to the bedroom door, she noticed something on the floor. She bent down and picked it up. It was soft. She smelled it. A rose petal.
Odd; why would a rose petal be on the floor? She slipped back into the bathroom and when she looked in the trash can she saw dozens of rose petals.
What the hell?
Maybe after a cup of coffee to clear her head, she’d figure it out.
“Hey,” Simon called from the shower. “Get that sweet ass of yours in here right now.”
Smiling, Katy peeked in the large walk-in and smiled. “Coffee first!”
“I don’t think I have any!” he called to her retreating back.
It sure smelled like it.
As she made her way down the hallway to the stairway, the sound of a woman humming broke the morning silence. Maybe it was his housekeeper?
Katy stopped just shy of the large, open concept kitchen. There, looking as lovely as her picture, was Manic Mandy putting the finishing touches to what looked like a breakfast tray for two. Instinctively, Katy knew she was not part of the pair the lovely spread was intended for.
Was Simon aware of his sister-in-law’s presence? All indicators pointed to no.
“Why are you here?” Katy asked, startling the happy humming woman.
Mandy cried out in alarm, almost dropping the tray. Her big blue eyes widened as she beheld Katy’s disheveled state and realized she was wearing Simon’s shirt.
“Why are you wearing Simon’s shirt?”
“Why are you here?” Katy asked again, coming closer.
