by Cassie Ryan
His cock rose to full attention, and she wanted him inside her again.
Not for the explosive release, but to feel as close to him as possible.
Dex almost seemed to understand what she needed as she reached between them and wrapped her hand around his hot length. He cupped her ass and lifted her gently onto her knees so she could lay her hands lightly on his muscled shoulders for balance.
Dex kept his open gaze locked with hers as he positioned himself at her entrance and then guided her down as he filled her.
The sensation was exquisite. Better than anything she had ever felt in her life, and it was only as she sat flat against his lap with him fully buried inside her that she realized they hadn’t stopped for a condom.
She met his gaze, and she watched his expression change as he realized it too.
“Kate, I…”
She laid a finger against his lips and smiled. “You feel amazing. I’m glad we were both distracted. I wouldn’t have missed being this close to you for anything.”
Dex’s expression slowly softened until he returned her smile and tugged her forward so he could kiss her again.
She gently bucked her hips, moving him inside her tight sex enough to torture them both. Heat slowly built between them, not fast and furious, but a slow, searing burn that Kate thought might consume them both.
With her eyelids heavy with arousal and emotion, she slowly began to move on top of him.
Dex held onto her waist, gently guiding her, but letting her set their pace.
Her body slowly tightened around him until she felt the telltale tingling low in her pelvis that told her she was close to orgasm.
Dex’s expression looked strained as if he was just as close, but needed a little more to fall over that sharp edge.
Staring into his intense gaze, and impatient to feel him spill inside her, she made her movements more deliberate.
It was just enough to tip the scales, and within a few more strokes, the tension in her pelvis gave way, and the walls of her sex rhythmically contracted around him, pulling a groan from Dex as she felt him pulse and spill inside her.
Bliss stole through her, as well as the knowledge that she was in love with this amazing man.
Chapter 23
Dex smiled at the tenderness that curled inside his chest as he looked into Kate’s beautiful green gaze. What they had just shared had been amazing, and he wished he could carry her off to his suite of rooms down the hall and convince her to never leave.
But there was still the case, and he still had to find the evidence to clear her.
He had no doubt he would, but before he could tell Kate how much he had come to feel for her, that was a necessary first step.
Once that was out of the way, he would make her his, no matter what it took.
He pulled her against him, cuddling her close and trying to bring himself to regret being too caught up in Kate to stop to put on a condom.
He didn’t even know if she was on the pill, but he didn’t care. The thought of Kate pregnant with their child filled him with happiness, not dread.
“My suite of rooms is just down the hall. Would you like to stay with me tonight?”
Or forever…
Genuine regret marred her expression. “As much as I want to, I need to get home. I need to take care of Rusty, and I also have projects to get out before tomorrow morning.” A sad-sounding sigh broke from her, and her bottom lip quivered. “I hadn’t planned on seeing you here tonight, or even staying very long. My plan was to see if I could get a tour and find out about membership, then come back later for anything else.”
She dropped her gaze, as if she couldn’t look at him, since the implication of coming back later was that she would have found someone besides him to play a scene with.
Just another reason Dex wanted to make her his. He never wanted to think about Kate playing with anyone else again, in any capacity. She was his, and only his.
Slowly, he nodded. “Can I drive you home?”
She slowly shook her head, and disappointment sat heavily on his chest.
“I wish I could say yes. But I know myself, and how easily I could get sidetracked by you.” Her expression was strained, as if she were deciding whether she really cared if they got sidetracked. “If you drive me home, I won’t want you to leave. We’ll get lost in each other for the rest of the night, and I won’t get my projects done.” She sighed.
He nodded, conceding that she was probably right. “Fair enough. Why don’t you come by tomorrow and I can show you any parts of Club Desire you’ve missed, and we can talk about membership.”
He couldn’t help the smile that curved his lips as he thought about her here. Especially once the case no longer stood between them.
“I’d like that.” She brushed another soft kiss over his lips. “I really need to get cleaned up and head home before I lose the will.”
He debated the merits of tempting her to stay, and finally decided to let her go.
For now.
Chapter 24
Dex sat in the leather office chair and wheeled it forward a few inches so he could boot up Club Desire’s on-site computer network and security monitors.
He had commandeered one of the guest rooms on the fourth floor of Club Desire, just next door to his own suite of rooms, and turned it into his dedicated office, since he spent so much time here.
No one used this room when he was gone, and it could be secured separately from his living quarters. Even the cleaning crew could only enter if they were accompanied by Dex, Jake, or Brent.
He missed Kate, and hadn’t heard from her yet, but his analyst team had sent him some documents he wanted to study, so he hoped they would take his mind off her.
Just as he laid his iPhone next to the keyboard, it started to ring, and Jason Tanner’s name flashed across the screen.
Dex pressed the green button on the screen to answer the call. “Alexander.”
“Dex, I’m here with the analyst team. We may have come up with something, and we wanted to touch base right away. Have you spoken to Caldwell yet?”
Surprise slapped at Dex. He hadn’t spoken to Merrick since they touched base early yesterday morning. “I haven’t heard from him. Was I supposed to?”
“He was headed to Phoenix and should have contacted you as soon as he got there.”
Sounds of a glass or cup being set on a hard surface carried over the line, and Dex could picture the analysts and his boss sitting around a conference-room table with a speakerphone between them.
A knock sounded, and Dex glanced over his shoulder toward the small foyer. “Hold on, Jason. Someone’s at the door.”
Dex made it to the door just as the knock sounded again. He pulled it open to reveal Brent, accompanied by Merrick Caldwell.
Brent stepped forward. “Sorry to disturb you, Dex. Mr. Caldwell said it was urgent he speak with you.”
Dex nodded and motioned them inside as he headed back toward his desk.
“Merrick, good timing. I just got on a call with Tanner and the analysts. Come on in.” He led Merrick forward and glanced back over his shoulder at Brent. “Thanks, Brent. I appreciate you bringing him up.”
Brent gave a mock salute. “No problem. I have to go soothe a client. I’ll talk to you later.” Brent left, and Dex laid his phone on the desk and touched the button to switch it to speakerphone as Merrick pulled up another chair.
“Jason, I found Caldwell. He just showed up at my door.”
“Good.” The sound of a squeaking desk chair came across the phone line.
Dex shifted so he could reach the keyboard to type up any notes he might want to take. “All right, Jason. What’s up?”
—
After two failed attempts to find the elevator that would take her to the correct floor without an elevator key, Kate stepped out on the fourth floor and headed down the hall toward Dex’s rooms. She had asked him where they were last night since she didn’t want to risk him taking h
er there.
Although waking up in her bed alone made her wish she would have blown off her projects and spent the night with Dex.
There was no one up here at this time of day on a Sunday, since most of them were probably still asleep, so it was quiet as she followed the curving hallway around.
As she came closer, she nearly ran into Brent.
“Good afternoon, Kate. Are you looking for me?” Brent’s lopsided smile told her he knew better, and was teasing her.
She returned the smile. “I’m trying to remember how far down Dex’s suite is,” she hedged. “I’m worried I may have passed it.”
He shook his head. “You haven’t missed it yet. I just came from there.” He motioned behind him. “Keep going. It’s almost to the end of the hallway. He’s on the phone for work, so you may want to give him a few minutes.” Brent’s phone rang, and he fished it out of his pocket. “Speaking of work, I’d better be off.”
“No problem. Thank you.”
Brent nodded and hurried off, already answering his phone as he rounded the bend back the way Kate had come.
Kate took a deep breath and stopped walking, to give Dex some time to finish his call.
A few minutes later she neared his rooms, but heard his voice as well as others at the door just before his.
She frowned and stopped. The door hadn’t been pulled fully closed, so if she stood just to the side, she could hear most of the conversation.
Kate scolded herself and was about to step away and come back later when she heard her name from a voice on the phone.
“We found some code in one of Miss Fretwell’s latest programs that used an algorithm to change the bank account number. That’s how the terrorist funds ended up in those other nonrelated accounts.”
Ice crystalized inside Kate’s veins, and she caught herself before she slammed open the door and demanded to know what the hell was going on.
Bank accounts? Terrorists?
She clenched her hands into fists, as anger, betrayal, and fear coursed through her.
Merestone had told her those were customer account numbers. She built that piece of code to their specifications, to pay their vendor accounts. Or so she’d thought.
“I haven’t found anything that would tell me that Kate knowingly participated in the plot. Everything we’ve seen is circumstantial.”
Dex’s rich voice may as well have plunged a dagger into her heart from the pain that exploded inside her chest.
He was some kind of cop? Or agent, if terrorists were involved.
FBI? CIA?
She wasn’t sure which agency dealt with terrorism directly, but either way, he had lied to her.
Had his entire purpose for coming to L.A. been to investigate her? Her throat tightened at the very real prospect.
“You may be right in this instance, Dex,” a fast-talking man on the phone said. “You said she and her father were estranged.”
Kate clenched her teeth as thoughts of all the information she had freely given him flashed through her mind. And then she realized they had just mentioned her father…
“Merestone had a large influx of cash from a new investor two years ago, just before all the money flow started and the front pages of their sites began having regular updates.”
Kate sucked in a breath, as cold dread settled in the pit of her stomach. Somehow, she knew what was coming.
“Richard Fretwell the Third?” Dex’s question echoed her thoughts, and a quick affirmative answer from the man on the phone made her stomach heave.
Anger, hurt, betrayal, despair, and a dozen other emotions she couldn’t name threatened to swamp her. Her eyes burned, and the tears began to flow.
It was all too much. She couldn’t deal with any of this right now.
Kate turned back toward the elevators and ran.
Chapter 25
With anger still sizzling inside her veins, Kate stormed into her father’s corporate office in downtown L.A.
His receptionist, Carolyn, who had been around much longer than Kate had been alive, tried to stop her, but Kate waved the woman off.
When she reached the door to her father’s office, she turned the knob and slammed it open as hard as she could. She enjoyed the loud bang when it hit the wall, and the cursing that came from inside the office.
It was an almost comical scene to have caught her father with his feet up on his desk, now trying to quickly stand without falling on his ass.
His gaze zeroed in on her and then his eyes narrowed. “Kathryne! What’s the meaning of this?”
She scowled and stepped inside, ready to do battle.
Kate reached for the door to slam it shut so she could have it out with her father in peace, when Carolyn rushed in and stood in the way. “Do you want me to call security, Mr. Fretwell?”
Kate glared down at the older woman in an “I dare you” fashion.
“It’s all right, Carolyn.” He waved her concerns away. “I think my daughter has something she’d like to discuss with me.”
Carolyn seemed ready to argue, but then she backed down like she had for as long as Kate had known her. The woman ducked her chin and backed out of the office, pulling the door shut behind her with a loud click.
Kate was oddly disappointed she hadn’t gotten to slam the door closed too, and that Carolyn had broken the flow of her temper.
Her father cleared his throat. “Kathryne. What did you want to discuss?”
Her anger flared back to life instantly, and she turned her burning glare on him, refusing to break eye contact first. He had aged since she’d seen him last; the lines around his eyes and mouth were etched deeper than she remembered. It had been only two months ago that they had met face to face.
Finally, he sighed and dropped his gaze. His shoulders sagged, and the tight line of his mouth relaxed for the first time in a long time. “I apologize. Kate. What did you want to discuss?”
She nearly did a double take to make sure this was actually her intractable father. He rarely gave in on any point to anyone. She wasn’t sure how her parents had stayed married for fifty years with her father being so stubborn.
She tried to hold on to her burning anger. It was still there, but his capitulation with her name had calmed her some.
She sat heavily in the chair in front of his desk and looked up at him, anger still simmering in her stomach as she thought about what she’d heard outside Dex’s rooms.
“I’m going to ask you something, Dad. And I want the truth. The whole truth.” Her words were clipped, and she knew her anger carried clearly, from the expression on her father’s face. But what surprised her most was that his expression showed concern rather than the anger or contempt she was used to.
His unexpected reactions threw her off guard, and she gritted her teeth. She would not allow herself to be sidetracked. He had things to answer for.
He stood stiffly on the other side of his desk as he watched her. “I’ll answer you to the best of my ability, Kate. What would you like to know?”
“What do you know about a company called Merestone?”
By his expression, she knew her question had caught him off guard.
“It’s a global time-share company that I invested heavily in a couple of years ago. It was a good investment for a while, but I’m thinking of selling all my shares. The return has been falling steadily.” His manner turned wary. “Why?”
She bristled as she remembered the conversation she’d overheard back at Club Desire. “What exactly is your involvement in the company?”
His brow furrowed. “As I said, I’m an investor. I’ve never even stayed at one of their properties. Why?”
She growled in the back of her throat, frustration churning in her stomach. “Did you have anything to do with them hiring me for graphic design or coding work?”
His expression pinched like it usually did when she had confused him over some point. “I didn’t know you were doing work for them. Were you concerned I got you that
business? Is that what this is all about?” He gestured toward the door she had slammed open to get his attention.
“Kate, I know I’ve been single-minded, and put what I wanted for you ahead of what you wanted. But I do respect your independent streak, and believe it or not, your willingness to stand up to me and make it on your own.”
His statement caught Kate off guard. She couldn’t remember one time in her entire life her father had said he respected her, or that he thought it was a good thing when she stood up to him.
He shook his head. “Honestly, I thought you would’ve caved by now and done what I wanted. Purely because you always have in the past.” He actually looked contrite, which surprised the hell out of her. “I apologize.”
Kate was wary of his apology. After years of his disapproval, this overture was hard to swallow.
He ran a hand through his thinning salt-and-pepper hair. “Look, let’s cut to the chase. You got all your clients on your own, without any help from me. What else can I tell you?”
She frowned. “That’s not the only thing I want to know, Dad. Are you working with terrorists?”
Her father looked like she’d slapped him. He recoiled, a large crease forming between his eyes as he sucked in a few large breaths. He sat down hard in his office chair and then leaned forward so he was at eye level with her. “Why would you even think that?”
“The FBI is investigating the two of us, and our interactions with Merestone Resorts. The changes Merestone asked me for on the front pages of their sites, along with the functionality they asked me to build for their front desks. My code apparently transfers money to different accounts, which are being used by terrorists.” Her voice nearly cracked as the backs of her eyes began to burn with unshed tears.
I will not cry in front of my father, damn it!
“Dad, look me in the eye and tell me you had nothing to do with that. That you aren’t working with them to increase the vast Fretwell empire.” She raised her palms toward the ceiling. “I’ve seen you pass cash to politicians in the past and urge them to change the wording on some piece of legislation, all so you could make more money, or expand your businesses. So, honestly, it’s not too much of a leap for me to believe you’re embroiled in this.”
