Kade was good and bad for her. A safe sort of guy to work out her many needs with, but the kind of person who wouldn’t be easy to forget.
They had to work together, but after this—
“Oh—Kade.” She gasped his name, spine bowing.
His fingers plunged deep, twisting inside of her, rubbing the walls of her channel.
“I like hearing that.” He chuckled against her cheek.
He slid his fingers into the cup of her bra and around her stiff nipple. She shifted her hips, but he moved with her, nothing hurried at all about the way he finger fucked her.
“You like it fast, rough, and with feeling, don’t you?” He gently squeezed her nipple between his fingers.
Shelby sucked in air.
He pressed his thumb over her clit and worked his fingers, in and out, stroking the bundle of nerves with each pass.
She turned her face toward him, hungry. Needy. Seeking.
“I want you.”
Those three words set Kade off.
Or rather, surging to his feet.
Her legs weren’t ready and she stumbled, nearly pitching forward, except—Kade.
He caught her around the waist and threw her over his shoulder.
She might have laughed, except her head was spinning and her skin was still too tight.
The whole caveman routine wasn’t one she’d been fond of. Ever. But she had no issue being slung over his shoulder like some sort of prize. Especially because she had a pretty damn good idea that the real winner here was her.
Kade bent and rolled her onto the bed.
She sat back on her elbows, taking him in. The smooth planes of muscle. The dark hair. The way he stared at her.
Shelby sat up, unhooked her bra and tossed it over the side of the bed.
Kade continued to stand there, watching her.
She slid off the mattress and grasped him by the shorts.
“Did you hear me?” she asked.
“I did.”
He grasped her by the wrist and turned her toward the dresser, her back to his front.
Oh, look, another mirror.
He pressed her to the dresser and yanked open the top drawer, rummaging around in an assortment of odds and ends. She’d pictured a ready basket of condoms. Judging by his muttered curses, he might be just as hungry as she was.
Shelby braced her hands on the edge and pushed her hips back, the hard ridge of his erection nestled between her cheeks.
“Stop that,” he growled and popped his hand against her ass.
She yelped, more from surprise than anything else.
He absently stroked her ass with one hand, while the other finally found a condom.
“Stick it in already.”
“I’ll stick my finger in your ass.”
“Go ahead.” She was growing less and less picky about what went where.
Kade stared at her reflection. Caught off guard.
She snagged the condom from him and ripped it open, only for him to steal it back.
“You’re a brat,” he growled.
“Tell me something I don’t know.” She leaned forward, cooling her heated skin against the wooden dresser while Kade rolled the condom on.
This wasn’t like her. Well, not the new her.
His big hand splayed against her lower back, keeping her bent over the dresser. She could just barely see his reflection at this angle, the way he stared and then—
The blunt head of his cock pressed against her. He slid through her folds. She groaned and pushed back.
“God damn it,” Kade muttered.
Shelby didn’t quite have the powers of conversation at her disposal anymore.
His thick cock slid into her, eased by anticipation and an extreme case of arousal. She pressed her cheek against the dresser, her internal temperature soaring. He gripped her hip with his other hand, effectively holding her exactly where he wanted her.
“Fuck, you feel so good.” His voice was strained.
She mumbled something.
He’d orgasmed once, and he could still talk?
She hadn’t come yet, and thinking was a chore.
The hand at her back slid to her ass, gripping her. He pulled out. His thumb swiped along the crease of her ass. She gasped and tensed, but he went no farther.
His cock—on the other hand—thrust deep and hard. She rocked up onto her toes.
“Oh—yes,” she hissed.
He had her nailed, literally and figuratively. She’d never been one for soft lovemaking or long moments spent staring into a man’s eyes. She preferred action, bodies joining, sweat.
Kade kneaded her ass, keeping her up on her toes. He thrust, again, nothing gentle about the motions. Shelby chanted words. Curses. Encouragement. Whatever kept him going. She didn’t care about the edge of the dresser cutting into her hip, where his fingers were or the weight of him pressing into her. None of it mattered.
She reached blindly for that invisible current. Her muscles were wound tight. She didn’t know how much more she could take.
Kade roared her name, sounding less human, more feral.
He pistoned into her, pushing her up off her toes.
Lights blossomed behind her eyelids. She held onto the very edge of the dresser as her internal muscles clamped down, pleasure snaking through her until she thought she might break apart.
Holy. Fucking. Shit.
Kade froze over her, his groan seeming to go on forever.
She slumped over the dresser.
She was done.
Finished.
Exhausted.
Wrung out.
Kade leaned forward, covering her hands with his.
She shivered and smiled.
“I told you I could make you scream,” he whispered.
12.
“I did not scream.”
Kade kissed the back of Shelby’s neck.
Her words were slurred and her body boneless.
Adrenaline drop. He was feeling it too, in the jelly-like quality of his limbs, though that might be due to adrenaline and multiple orgasms. It stood to reason if they’d been adrenaline high, they now had the opposite end of the spectrum to wade through.
Let her believe what she wanted—that screaming, squeal of a noise counted in his book.
Kade scooped Shelby up and deposited her in his still-rumpled bed. To think, a few hours ago, he’d lain there, thinking his biggest problem would be staying focused at work. Now…he had a whole host of things vying for his attention, but she had to come first.
Shelby rolled to her side and threw an arm over her face. When was the last time she had rest? From how worn down she’d looked this morning he’d bet it’d been a while.
There wasn’t a lot of time before he had to go on shift, but there was a little. They could both squeeze in a catnap.
He hurried through washing up in the bathroom and then slipped into bed behind Shelby. She was still right where he left her, her head tilted at a nearly broken-looking angle.
“Did you put your finger in my butt?” Her voice was mumbled, her tone sleepy.
“No.” He chuckled and pulled the blanket up.
“I thought you were going to there for a minute.”
“If you want me to next time I can.”
“I dunno how I feel about that.”
Kade stroked her hair back and kissed her cheek. She still hadn’t opened her eyes.
“Sleep,” he whispered.
“You have to work.”
“I can nap for an hour. You need it.”
“Do not.”
“Are you going to argue with me about everything?”
“Yes.”
Shelby tugged his arm around her more, treating him like a human blanket.
It was easy to forget what they were doing, what’d brought them together. When it was just the two of them, he couldn’t deny the magnetic pull. They had chemistry, but that was all it was. Pheromones and animal attraction. Their simil
arities strengthened that pull, to a point.
They were still fundamentally different people.
Kade watched Shelby’s features relax. She was worn out. Exhausted from playing two sides of the field.
He hoped he was making the right choice, that he wasn’t getting conned this time. She’d already proven that she could con the con man, which made her dangerous. Could he ever fully trust that she was being honest with him?
What about the heist this morning?
Come to think of it, he hadn’t even looked at the paperwork she’d said was there.
Shit, if his brothers had come in and seen it…
Kade gently pulled his arm from her grip and rolled out of bed. She didn’t move, shift or anything, so she really had to be out.
He padded into the kitchen.
No paperwork.
Anywhere.
He bent to pick up the scattered menus and magnets.
If she’d lied about the paperwork—what about this morning?
Fuck.
He straightened and his gaze caught on the junk drawer slightly ajar, some paper sticking out of it.
What the hell was that?
He opened it and stared at…some sort of flier? A stack of fliers?
Kade picked up the stack and flipped through it.
On one side was an advertisement for an art exhibit…on the back were lines of text. He turned the stack over—
CONFIDENTIAL was stamped in big, bold red letters.
Well, damn.
His cell phone lay forgotten on the floor. He grabbed it and stared at the screen. Before he signed on the dotted line, he had to be careful. Because this wasn’t just about him or Shelby, this was his brothers. His parents. He couldn’t afford to play with their lives, to be taken in by a woman who knew how to get what she wanted.
Why the hell was he thinking that way?
Everything Shelby had told him up to this point had played out.
He couldn’t shake the rotten feeling eating at him.
The simple truth was, no matter if he wanted to trust her, he couldn’t. Not really. Because that was just how it was.
Kade fired off a text to Owen. The detective could at least verify that Rusty was FBI, that there was a criminal named Ogden, and something of Shelby’s past. If that was even her real name.
Kade knocked his forehead against the fridge.
If he followed his heart—he could risk more than his neck.
If he played it safe—he was betraying the woman who’d trusted him.
If he walked away, if he turned a blind eye, if this, if that… He quite simply didn’t know what to do.
Normally this was when he’d break down and call Mom.
He didn’t believe in her superstitions, but when he asked her to read the cards for him, she always told him the truth. She didn’t always tell her customers what they didn’t want to hear, but she wouldn’t sugarcoat it for him. But if he called, there would be questions, and he had no answers.
Fuck it.
He marched across the room to the coffee table. He kept his tarot decks in a little drawer, their worn cases long since replaced. He’d picked up a couple plastic deck boxes somewhere.
There was no magic in the cards themselves, they were simply a device to assist in interpreting life. Possibility. Dreams.
Kade held his hand over the boxes.
He had three decks, one he rarely used, one that was good for pulling out when someone wanted to see a trick and another he’d had for ages. Their boxes were identical, but he could always tell which was which by a touch.
The box on the left seemed appealing, which was odd. The rarely used deck was one he’d bought on a whim. It was designed to appear old, the artwork of bygone eras.
He shuffled the cards, letting his mind wander.
The heart of his problem came back to Shelby.
He liked her, yet he shouldn’t. They were attracted to each other. They worked well together. And still, he couldn’t pretend she was trustworthy. The way they’d met set the tone for their friendship.
It was like with the guys.
Kade had met Ryan when he’d stopped by the physical therapy center to pick up some paperwork. They’d struck up a conversation and Ryan had mentioned heading out to a bar to hang with friends. Kade hadn’t gone that time, but he and Ryan kept in touch, and eventually he’d shown up one night. Ryan and his friends had been a few pints into the night, laughing, carousing, and the blonde woman he now called Aunt Liv was telling them a story.
That was how it was with the guys.
They laughed. They had a good time. And they talked a lot of shit.
Was he fated to always distrust Shelby?
He didn’t want to.
Everyone around her wanted something from her, but who looked out for her? Was he blinded by his lust?
Kade held his breath and laid out the cards in a simple spread. Mom would smack him for it, but he needed quick and dirty answers.
“I’ll be damned…”
He frowned at the cards.
No answers greeted him, only more questions…
Shelby pushed the back door to the store front hide-out open and stared into the darkness. Something didn’t feel right, but it could simply be her. The job this morning, sex with Kade, the continued off-beat of this whole operation—it was wearing on her.
“Gil?” She stepped into the building, one hand on her gun.
She’d been told to be ready to deliver the thumb drive at exactly one o’ clock.
Rusty hadn’t been able to make heads or tails of what was on it, so they’d made a copy and sent her on her way.
Now what?
“Anyone here?”
Shelby cocked her head to the side, listening for a noise, the scrape of a boot.
No one was that silent.
She was alone. Why? What was going on?
Part of her wished Kade were there. But he’d had to work. He’d stomped around frowning the whole time.
Now was not the time to be thinking about Kade. She had a job to do.
Shelby tip toed through the darkened building so she could peer up at Gil’s apartment. It was dark, and she had zero intention of going up there right now. Not with all the warning bells in her head going off at the same time.
The seconds ticked past one o’ clock.
What the fuck was going on?
If Gil or someone else didn’t show up soon, she was leaving. She’d done her part, she’d gotten the drive to and from the location, and she’d been punctual.
“Move the mouse,” a voice said in the darkness.
“Who the fuck is there?”
“The laptop.”
Shelby squinted and turned in a circle.
There.
Tiny green light.
“What the hell is going on?” She edged closer. So much for hoping to get eyes on the delivery vehicle.
“The mouse,” the voice said again.
She reached out and dragged her finger across the track pad. The screen flickered, blinding her in too-bright LED light.
That face.
She knew that face.
She took two steps back, as if a digital picture of a person were a danger to her.
“Hello, Shelby. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
She swallowed and stared back at the face watching her.
She’d seen him in photographs and surveillance clips, but never face-to-face. Even like this.
The plan had been to feign ignorance all along if he asked her about the connection with her parents. She had to hold onto that. Stick to the plan.
“Who are you?” Shelby’s voice wavered.
“I’m your employer.”
“Your Gil’s boss.” She couldn’t make herself ask the obvious.
“Correct.” Ogden sat back in a desk chair. “My name is Iestyn Ogden. I’ve been a fan of your work.”
She made herself look away from Ogden’s piercing gaze to take in the r
oom he was in. Were there windows? Anything hanging on the wall? Could she surmise where he was based on anything she could see? Was there other noise? People talking?
“Thanks.” She shifted her weight from foot to foot. This was weird. Handoffs like this weren’t normal, and she hadn’t begun to wrap her brain around the idea that he was aware of her. “I’m supposed to deliver a thumb drive?”
“Stick it into the USB port on the laptop.” He swung from side to side in his chair. “You know, I once knew your mother?”
“Is that so? She was a very popular lady.” She pulled the thumb drive from her pocket and stuck it in the port. The last thing she wanted was to talk about her parents to him. She wasn’t sure what she’d say or how that would go down.
“They called her the Queen of South Beach, you know? You look a lot like her.”
“The thumb drive is in. You see it on your side?” Shelby did not want to talk to Ogden about her mother.
“Yes, it’s registering. Any problems procuring it?”
“Nope.”
“Your hair, is that natural or a fashion choice?”
“I was born this way.” Yeah, because there were women who just naturally sprouted a stripe of frosted blonde hair down the middle of their head.
Shelby had an even worse feeling about this.
Why was Ogden singling her out? Gil already rode her ass, now why the extra attention? Did they know? What was going on?
The sooner this virtual face-to-face was over, the better.
“Anything else, sir?” Shelby took a step back. There were no identifying marks about the room, no unique sounds or people. Just a gray wall and him staring at her.
“How’s Gil treating you?”
“Fine.” She shrugged. The last thing she’d do was rat out the guy she was directly working for.
“Remember, you’re working for me, not him. If there are issues, please bring them to my attention.”
“Sure. Yeah.”
“That will be all for now, Sharon.”
What—the—fuck?
Shelby side stepped the laptop and strode toward the back door. The skin between her shoulder blades prickled, as if Ogden were staring at her. She didn’t quite run out of the building, but she didn’t stop to poke around, look for more clues or anything. She hauled ass out of the building, down the alley and to the parking lot a block away.
Her Prince (Twisted Royals #2) Page 11
