The corners of my mouth turned up in a small smile. “Maybe that’s what I want.”
He groaned and pressed his lips to mine, his tongue sweeping across mine in a deep kiss that sent a dizzying wave of arousal from my head down to my toes.
I was pinned against the door by him, our bodies perfectly aligned. My breasts pressed against his solid chest and my hips instinctively arched against him. His thick, rigid erection against my belly reminded me that I had some control over him, too.
“You smell so fuckin’ good, Viv,” he said, his breath hot on my neck. He pressed a soft kiss to my collarbone, his soft beard brushing over my skin.
“I want you,” I said, a note of desperation in my tone. “I want that leather and cedar smell of you all over me. I want to taste you and feel you and hear you say my name when you come.”
With a low growl, he hiked my leg up around his hip. The pencil skirt of my suit strained and my leg fell back down. Kane grunted his frustration and picked me up, his hands squeezing my ass as he carried me to his large wood desk.
My heart raced with a hot, heady sensation. Kane’s hungry gaze made me forget all my inhibitions. When he set me on the floor and hiked my skirt up around my hips, I moaned softly.
“Sit on my desk,” he ordered.
I slid myself onto the edge, my eyes never leaving his. He pushed my thighs wide apart and brushed his thumb down my slit through my wet panties.
He groaned. “So fucking wet for me, Viv. Lean back on your hands.”
I did, and when he reached for the sides of my panties, I raised my hips so he could work them down. Cool air washed over my exposed skin.
Kane slid the panties past my heels and bent down, his warm breath on my thighs making me shiver. He wrapped his big hands around my hips, pressing against the skirt bunched around them. When he kissed my sensitive inner thighs, my back arched into the air and I cried out.
He kissed and licked and even nipped a little at my thighs. By the time his tongue eased inside me and he grunted with satisfaction, I was already on the verge of coming.
“Kane . . . oh, God. Yes. So . . . ohhhh.”
He licked and sucked for a couple minutes and then held tight to my hips as I came hard, his tongue still working me into a frenzy. The orgasm seemed to last and last, and I was panting when my back relaxed against the surface of his desk.
“That almost killed me,” I said with a low laugh. “My God. I’d ask where you learned to do that, but that would just make me jealous.”
He stood and extended a hand to help me to my feet. I slipped my panties back on and pulled my shirt back down as he pulled up the bottom of his t-shirt and wiped off his face, giving me a flash of his defined ab muscles.
“I have to get back,” I said. “Marcus is bringing me onto a big case and we’re discussing it.”
Kane’s eyes darkened. “Is he coming on to you?”
“No. This is just work.”
He nodded, his expression still on the verge of a scowl. “I’m gonna need to see you this weekend.”
“Oh, are you?” I ran a hand through my hair, trying to fix it. “Maybe you should apologize for walking out on me, then.”
“Wasn’t that apology enough?” He gestured at the desk.
“No. You hurt me. I need words. One in particular.”
The scowl made its appearance and he heaved out a sigh. “I’m sorry, alright? I fucked up.”
I smiled and kissed him. My taste still lingered on his lips.
“You’re forgiven. I’ll make you dinner Friday night.”
I smoothed out my clothes and we left his office. When we got to the end of the hallway, he held my eyes for just a second before we went separate ways.
“Hey,” Marcus said when I got back to the table. “Long line?”
“Yeah. Sorry.” I sat down and took a cleansing breath, trying to get my mind off of Kane and back on the case.
“You feeling okay? Marcus asked. “You look really flushed.”
“I’m fine. Let’s get back to it.”
He shrugged and pulled the paperwork back out. I couldn’t help looking over at the bar, where a dark gaze on us caught my attention. However innocuous I’d told him this meeting was, I knew he’d be watching. And I was more than okay with it.
FINALLY, FRIDAY ARRIVED.
Dinner was ready and so was I when I answered Kane’s knock on my door.
Tonight he’d ditched the dress pants and collared shirt in favor of his usual attire–dark, worn jeans and a black t-shirt. He wore a weathered black leather jacket and what looked like steel-toed black boots.
“You look good,” I said, reaching through the doorway and grabbing the two open sides of his jacket. “Really good. Get in here.”
His dark eyes swept me up and down as he grabbed me around the waist. I leaned up and he kissed me softly, his hands gripping my waist firmly in a reminder of our orgasmic make-out session in his office.
“Smells good,” he said, looking toward the kitchen. All I smelled was his the leather of his jacket.
“You’re thinking about eating?” I looked up at him and ran a hand over his big, muscular shoulder and around to his neck.
“Fuck yeah, I am.” He ran his hands down to my backside and squeezed. “You gonna let me have dessert first? Spread those legs for me again like a bad girl?”
My body warmed and I felt myself getting wet. His touch, his words . . . his very presence turned me on and made me bolder than I’d ever been.
“If that’s bad, I don’t want to be good,” I said in his ear. He squeezed harder, until I moaned.
“To the bedroom, then,” he said, his commanding tone inciting me further. I was hot everywhere, my arousal burning beneath the surface in a simmer that would probably boil over as soon as his mouth touched my skin.
Boil . . . wait.
“Do bad girls turn off the heat on dinner first to avoid fires?” I whispered.
Kane’s low laugh made me smile. He relaxed his hold on me.
“Let’s go have the dinner you made first. We’ve got all night, right?”
My stomach flipped with excitement. All night. Hell yes.
I turned toward the kitchen, giving him a coy look over my shoulder. “We have until ten. I’ve got another date coming then.”
With a single, unamused note of laughter, he smacked my ass, making me jump.
“Not fucking funny, Viv.”
“You like chicken parmesan?” I asked, smiling.
“I’ll like anything you made.”
Chicken parm was my standby. I’d made it many times and gotten compliments. But I still felt a twinge of nervousness as I plated it and set the dishes on the table. I passed Kane a corkscrew and he opened the bottle of wine I had chilling on the table.
He poured us each a glass of wine and we sat down. I couldn’t keep my eyes off him. There was something different about him tonight. Wearing the clothes he was comfortable in, sitting casually across from me in my kitchen, he seemed more comfortable. More himself.
We both took a bite and he remarked about how good the food was. Then we ate in silence for a bit until I asked a question that had been nagging at me since the last time I saw him at Six.
“How did you know Marcus’s name?”
“Marcus Anderson?”
I nodded. “You said his name but I hadn’t told you his name.”
“I know him. He’s a client.”
“Oh.” I considered that for a second. “So he rents suites at the club?”
“He’s got one in particular that he likes best.”
“What does he do there?”
Kane smiled. “I don’t ask, remember?”
“Not asking is different than not knowing.”
He grunted and arched his brows. “You sound like a lawyer.”
“I’m so curious. Marcus seems really . . . bland. He’s just all blond and friendly. He plays tennis and reads The Wall Street Journal.”
Kane hu
mmed skeptically. “He might seem bland, but he’s not.”
“He’s kinky, isn’t he? I knew it!”
“I didn’t say that. You inferred it.”
I finished the last bite of chicken I had room for a pushed my plate a couple inches away.
“Well, is he?”
“I don’t talk about clients, Viv. Not to anyone. Not even to Jeff, unless there’s a good reason for it.”
I sighed and gave him a mock frown. “I respect that. I’ve got the same deal with my clients.”
“I’m glad you’re not involved with Marcus, let’s just say that.”
“I thought you were glad because you want me.”
“I am. And I do.” He held my gaze and my body heated as I remembered our last encounter in his office.
I finished the last of my wine and picked up Kane’s still-full glass.
“You don’t like the wine? Do you want something else?”
“Water would be good. The wine’s fine, I just don’t drink much.”
He stood and started clearing dishes from the table.
“Let me do that,” I said, handing him a bottle of water.
“Nah. I can help.”
We stood side by side at my sink, him washing and me drying and putting away. Seeing him elbow-deep in dishwater made me smile.
“What’s funny?” he asked.
“I’m not laughing.”
“Viv, what’s so damn funny?” He scowled at me.
“Just you washing dishes. It’s cute.”
Now he was smiling, too. “That’s the first time in my life I’ve been called cute.”
“You just aren’t a man I picture washing dishes.”
“What, you think I just smash ‘em all against the wall when I’m done eating?”
“No.” I shook my head and laughed. “I don’t know.”
“I really don’t have many dishes at home. I usually eat at the club.”
“Where do you live?” I asked him.
He hesitated for a split second before answering. “I actually live in a really unimpressive back room of a gym near the club.”
“Sounds convenient. But why a gym?”
He shrugged. “Just because I own the building.”
“Nice,” I said. “So you’re managing to live rent free in New York City? That’s like a miracle or something.”
“Pretty much. The rent I make on the building covers the taxes and insurance and then some.”
“That building had to cost a mint.”
“I actually got it by assuming the tax bill.”
My lips parted as I looked up at him in admiration. “Very savvy.”
He grunted skeptically. “I don’t know about that.”
I watched as he picked up a pink checkered dishtowel and dried his hands off on it. His hands were big, the dark hair on his corded forearms ending just past his wrists. There was something very sweet and sexy about seeing those hands on such a dainty towel.
He hung the towel back up and leaned back against the counter, arms folded. Excited anticipation swirled in my stomach.
I was suddenly self-conscious as I stood before him. I sensed he wasn’t a novice in the bedroom. I wasn’t, either, but still . . . would I measure up? Not just to the other women he’d been with, but to his vision of what I’d be like. When he looked at me, his dark, fiery gaze full of hunger for me, I felt sexier than I ever had. He made me feel like I could undo him with a single touch. And I wanted to, more than anything.
“You’re nervous,” he said, reaching a hand out and wrapping it around my hip. He pulled me close and slid his other hand around to my backside. “Don’t be.”
I rested my palms on his solid, warm chest. I’d never been so overwhelmed by my attraction to a man, and I’d also never felt something so undeniably right. Kane had let me inside his walls. He’d shed his armor of intimidation, exposing himself to me in an intimate way. I didn’t know him extremely well yet, but I knew he was letting me see the real him. The non-defensive, non-pissed off at the world him.
Sometimes I felt like I was still finding the real me, even at the age of twenty-eight. Whoever I was, I wanted Kane to see me. When he touched me and spoke in that low, sexy voice of his, I felt a little closer to knowing myself. I wanted him. I didn’t care how right or wrong anyone else thought we were together.
He kissed me, nipping at my lower lip and brushing the tip of his tongue against mine. Everything else disappeared as I let myself get consumed by him. There was only the hard warmth of him, the sweet smoky smell of him and the minty taste of him. He’d slipped a breath mint in somewhere. Sneaky.
I let my hands wander up the bottom of his t-shirt in front, over the ridges of ab muscles to his taut, defined chest. It was hairy and I liked it.
The low rumble of his groan reached my fingertips and I pulled back, about to suggest we go to my bedroom.
But a series of sharp knocks on my door made me jump slightly instead. I gave Kane a puzzled look. No one ever came to my apartment but Cara, and she knew he was here so there was no way she’d show up unannounced.
“I’ll be right back,” I said, running a hand over my hair to make sure it was still in place.
I rounded the corner to the living room and opened the front door, still slightly breathless from Kane’s kiss.
“Viv, you’re here.” My brother Grayson stepped through the doorway. “I need some money.”
“Again?”
“Yeah. I can’t explain right now.”
His dark, usually neat hair looked unwashed and his shirt was wrinkled. Though it was cold outside, he didn’t have a coat on. But none of that worried me as much as the dark circles beneath his eyes and his frenzied expression.
“What’s going on?” I demanded. “You’re worrying me.”
He looked from side to side. “Look, I can’t. I don’t have time.” He saw my purse hanging from a coat hook near my door and grabbed it.
“Hey, I don’t have another five hundred dollars to give you,” I said as he reached into an open pocket of the bag.
“I’ll take whatever you’ve got.”
“The hell you will,” Kane said in a deep, ominous tone. I turned to see him coming toward us. “Grayson.” He said my brother’s name in a familiar, disgusted tone, his dark gaze fixed on him.
“Kane,” my brother croaked. My purse slid through his hands to the floor, its contents spilling onto the carpet. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“A better question is what the hell are you doing here?” Kane said, looking back and forth between me and Grayson.
Grayson turned to me, eyes wide with fear.
“He’s my brother,” I said. “How do you know him?”
Kane’s expression hardened. “How do I know you, Grayson? Want to tell her?”
Grayson sighed and shook his head. “I just need some money, Viv.”
“You need to stay here and come down,” Kane said, still looking at Grayson.
“Man, fuck you,” Grayson snapped. “This is between me and Viv.”
“Fuck me?” Kane covered the last few steps between himself and Grayson. “Watch yourself, asshole. You’d be swallowing your own fuckin’ teeth right now if you weren’t her brother.”
Grayson turned to me. “What is he doing here? Are you . . . is he your boyfriend? Oh, Jesus. Tell me you’re not seeing him, Viv.”
My mind was spinning with confusion and questions.
“What’s going on here?” I said, my voice raised. “How do you two know each other?”
Kane looked at Grayson, his lips set in a thin line.
“He owns a club and I used to go there.”
“Till you stiffed me for six grand. Haven’t seen you since, have I?”
Grayson narrowed his eyes at Kane. “Not since you almost broke one of my ribs, no.”
“Pay your fuckin’ bills and you won’t have to worry about that anymore. Stop chasing the next high. It’ll never be enough?”
&n
bsp; “High?” I cried, glaring at Grayson. “Are you using drugs?”
“No,” he scoffed. “Kane’s a lying asshole.”
“Asshole I’ll own, but I’m not a liar,” Kane growled.
I grabbed my brother’s arm and looked into his eyes. “Don’t lie to me. Why are you such a mess? Are you on drugs or not.”
“I told you, no.”
“You’re so lit right now,” Kane said, shaking his head in disgust.
“You’d know, wouldn’t you?” Grayson shot back.
Kane shrugged. “I would, yeah.” He turned to me. “Don’t give him any money.”
“You need to mind your own fuckin’ business,” Grayson said, his expression so desperate and angry I didn’t even recognize him.
The tic of a muscle in Kane’s jaw gave away the fury behind his cool expression. “You’d better get the fuck out of here, man. Consider yourself lucky.”
“I need the money.” Grayson turned to me, his plea nearly a whine. “I owe some people money, Viv. Please.”
I looked at Kane, who just shook his head.
“I don’t have any money to give you,” I said to Grayson. “But you need to stay. We’ll figure this out. Maybe Mom and Dad can help you repay this debt.”
Grayson pulled his arm back and punched the wood frame of my front door. I jumped with surprise and Kane stepped in between me and my brother.
“I can’t ask them,” Grayson said, hanging his head.
“You’ve got two seconds to get the fuck out of here,” Kane said. “You’re scaring her.”
“But I don’t want him getting hurt,” I said. “If he owes bad people money, maybe he needs to stay here.”
“No.” Grayson reached for the door handle and opened it, his shoulders sagging with defeat. “I have to go.”
And without another word, he did. I looked up at Kane helplessly. When I moved to follow my brother, he grabbed my forearm.
“Don’t,” he said softly. “He’s not himself right now.”
“No, he’s not. But I have to help him.”
“You can’t, Viv. All he wants is money for another hit.”
I swallowed against the lump in my throat, my eyes burning with tears. “You really think he’s using drugs?”
Kane closed the door and looked down at me. “I know he is. I’d bet my bank account on it. He can’t think about anything but getting high right now. His body won’t let him.”
Barely Breathing Page 8
