On Her Terms (Premiere Companions Book 2) (5 page)

Giving into the primitive instinct to mark what was his, he bit down on the soft flesh under her ear, and Nicoletta jerked anew with a deep throated groan, as the action appeared to trigger another mini orgasm.

“You’re mine now, girl.”

Chapter Four

Nicole had died and gone to heaven. Surely, as clichéd as that sounded, that was the only explanation for what had just happened to her. With Sir’s heavy weight on top of her, she felt deliciously sore and used, and above all deliriously happy. Far too happy for what was in effect a one night stand, and one she had paid a lot of money for, nonetheless. His heavy breaths ghosted across her neck, and she groaned when he licked the place where he’d bitten her.

As shocked as she had been at that action—and even more so at the possessive words he’d uttered in a deep, guttural voice full of barely suppressed need—she’d been even more taken aback at her body’s wanton reaction. Nothing could have prepared her for this. The need to please him, the sense of belonging, the utterly unexpected surge of emotion which made her want to burst into tears even now and utter foolish words that could never be.

Surely, all these things she felt, this connection, which seemed to vibrate between them like a living entity, that was just her reading too much into this moment. She winced when Sir moved and took the thick shaft filling her with him. Her over sensitized tissues protested that move, and she tensed at the soreness it caused.

“I’m sorry, relax. There.” He lifted his head and kissed her nose in an affectionate gesture that proved her undoing. The tears she’d been trying to hold onto burst forth, and Sir swore under his breath. The bed dipped as he withdrew. Something wet hit the floor, and seconds later he was back. Before she could even comprehend what he was doing, she was freed of both restraints and clamps. Cradled in Sir’s strong arms, she sat on his lap, while he massaged her sore arms, and murmured all sorts of soothing nonsense into her hair. Of course his concern just made her cry harder, and by the time she finally got herself under control, his chest was wet with her tears, and she was sure she must look horrific. Not that Sir seemed to think so. When he gently lifted her head by her chin to make her look at him, she read nothing but affection and concern in his midnight blue gaze. They darkened the longer he studied her, and when he ran his thumb over her lips, every feminine molecule in her body simply melted.

“There now, my sweet, feeling better?”

He bent his head to kiss the remaining moisture off her face, and Nicole blurted the words out.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me. I’m not normally such a crybaby. You didn’t sign up for this. I should just…”

She tried to extricate herself out of his embrace, but Jamie was having none of that.

“Where do you think you’re going, girl?” he asked, and burying his fist in her hair, pulled her back on top of his lap.

The slight tug grounded Nicole, and she swallowed hard when she looked at him. One eyebrow quirked in that devilishly sexy way he had, he studied her, and she hastily dropped her gaze to his Adam’s apple.

“I’m sorry.”

“What for, girl?” he asked, and his deep sigh meant she had to look at him. “That’s better,
bellissima.
I was hard on you, so your tears are not a huge surprise to me. I would have been more concerned had you not cried, and simply brushed what we did under the proverbial carpet. Never be afraid to show your emotions in front of me, okay?”

“Yes, Sir.”

Her murmured reply made him smile.

“Good, now that we cleared that up, I’m going to run you a bath. You’ll be sore, and a long soak will help with that. Stay here and don’t move a muscle.”

Nicole nodded her confirmation, which earned her a swift kiss, before Sir left the bed. Seeing him bend down to pick up the used condom off the floor brought heat to her cheeks, and caused her pussy to tingle anew. It was really quite ridiculous the effect he had on her, but seeing him in all his naked glory … lord, that was a visual feast for sure. His buttocks clenched as he moved, and even in his flaccid state his cock looked huge to her untrained eye. No wonder she was sore, though not as sore as she’d imagined she would be. She wrenched her gaze away from that part of his anatomy with some difficulty, and only because Sir cleared his throat.

“You keep looking at me like that, girl, and I shall not be held responsible for my actions. You’re not up for round two yet, so behave yourself.”

He was smiling, but some strain showed around his eyes and mouth, and when she glanced down she saw his cock harden slowly. Try as she might she couldn’t tear her eyes away from that spectacle.

“Oh, that is … oh.”

Even to her own ears that sounded an extremely stupid comment to make, and sure enough Jamie laughed.

“Yes, oh.” He stepped closer, his cock bobbing up and down with every move, and she licked her lips, when he was so close that she could smell his musk. Unbidden she gently touched the head with her fingertips, and Sir’s resulting groan meant she grew wet yet again.

“Minx, I mean it. Stop.” 

Jamie gently slapped her hands away, and laughed at her pout.

“I don’t mind … you know … if you want me to, that is.” Her cheeks were flaming by the time she got that out.

“Nicoletta, you can’t even bring yourself to say the words, so—”

“Let me suck your cock, please, Sir.”

Where that had come from, Nicole would never know, and she wanted the ground to swallow her whole, when Sir sat down next to her, grasped her chin to make her look at him and shook his head.

“No, only good girls get my cock, and besides, the next time you do, I will claim your sweet virgin ass.”

Her mouth fell open in stunned silence, and Jamie laughed.

“What, no smart comeback for me this time?”

Unable to form the words, Nicole shook her head, and Sir got up and walked away, chuckling to himself. She ought to be appalled, shouldn’t she? He had mentioned that before, but she hadn’t really taken him seriously, and besides… Drawing her legs up to herself made her wince, as her sore pussy protested and mortification filled her anew when she saw the bloodstain on the sheet. Try as she might she couldn’t look away from that telltale stain.

She had actually done it. The reality of what exactly she had done hit her with the full force of a sledgehammer. Oh God, Papa would be furious when he found out, and as for the man she was supposed to marry… Anxiety twisted her insides into knots, so much so that she didn’t hear Jamie’s approach until he swung her up into his arms.

With a screech of surprise, she made a grab for his shoulders, again struck by the sheer strength of the muscles under her fingertips.

Jamie followed her line of vision, and he shrugged. An action that made her screech and grasp hold of him tighter.

“It’s okay, I have you. As for that…” He turned his focus on her and winked. “I’ll get housekeeping to come up and change the sheets, while you’re in the bath. Don’t worry, they’ll have seen it all before.”

“Yes, well.”

Nicole mumbled the words and settled for burying her head into his neck, while he carried her the short distance from the bed to the bathroom. She gasped anew when they entered the opulent bathroom.  A huge claw foot bath stood on the black and white marble tiles, filled to the brim with heavenly smelling bubbles. The warm water stung her sensitive parts when Sir first lowered her into it, but that initial soreness soon gave way to soothing pleasure and she relaxed into the bubbles with a sigh of contentment.

“There, you’ll just rest and have a good long soak now, girl.”

Sir’s deep voice in her ear, as he kissed a path from her earlobe, and along her jaw to her mouth, before he bestowed a tender kiss on her, made her feel truly cherished, and she smiled up at him.

“Won’t you join me?” she asked.

He flicked her nose with his finger, and shook his head.

“That wouldn’t be the wisest move. I’m going to have a cold shower instead.”

Nicole’s gaze strayed back to his very much erect cock, and the imp in her made her grin.

“Well, I did offer to help with that,
Sir.
”

Something hot and dangerous flashed across his features, when she looked a long way up at him. A heck of a long way in fact, and once again Nicole was struck by the sheer masculine beauty of this man, especially, considering how much older than her he must be.

“How old are you, Sir?” She blurted that question out before she could censor her mouth, and wanted to sink under the bubbles to hide from view, when he visibly tensed in front of her.

After what seemed like ages, he finally replied.

“Why? Does it matter?” The curtness of his tone made her feel all kinds of wretched inside, and she tried her best to smooth the sudden tension between them.

“No, of course not. I just wondered, that’s all.”

She risked a peek up at him and instantly wished she hadn’t, because he looked far from pleased. A muscle ticked in his jaw, and she could see his hands ball into fists in her peripheral vision.

“Clearly it does matter, otherwise you wouldn’t have asked. After all, I vividly recall your
distaste
at being married off to an old man like Jamison, who for your information is, I believe, the same age as me.”

There was a curious undertone to that statement, almost as though he was hurt by that, which made no sense at all.

“I couldn’t possibly have come to that conclusion because Papa refused to tell me how old Jamison is. I know next to nothing about the man, and like I said, I don’t even have a picture, so—”

“Ah yes, which is why you automatically deduced that he had to be old and ugly, right? Nothing at all to do with the fact that he might have very good reasons to keep his identity hidden. The man works in security after all, and if he struck a deal with your father, chances are he’s used to dealing with
clients,
” she swallowed hard at the air quotes he made around that word, “who value their privacy, shall we say.”

“Criminals, you mean, like my father was…” She let her words trail off and frowned into the distance. “Still is for all I know. I’m not stupid. I know I’m a target. Sometimes I wish he’d just left me to it. I didn’t have much, but at least my life was my own.”

She bit back yet more unwanted tears, and sank further into the bubbles.

“I never thought you were, stupid, that is,
bellissima.
”

He grasped her shoulders and heaved her up into a more upright position. It meant her breasts lost the protection of the water line, and his sharp intake of breath meant her nipples—traitorous little things that they were—throbbed and tightened. Still sore from their earlier torture that action sent a stab of arousal straight to her clit, and she squirmed under his silent scrutiny. How she could still be turned on was beyond her right now, but one heated look from this man and she was all but ready to climb him like a tree, soreness between her legs be damned.

“Naïve, certainly, but not stupid.”

That shook her out of her lust filled thoughts, and shaking his hands off her shoulders she glared up at him.

“I’m not naïve. Don’t confuse me with my mother.”

Thoughts of dear Mama brought the never far away grief at her far too early passing back to the forefront, and she was extremely grateful to him for not questioning her further on that.

“She married for love, I understand, and—”

“Yeah, and look where that got her.” Nicole slammed her mouth shut, horrified at not only having interrupted him, but also where her thoughts were taking her.

“Meaning?” he asked, looking more forbidding than ever.

“Nothing, nothing at all. This is not getting us anywhere. Go and have your shower, you…”

Her words trailed off when she noticed he wasn’t hard anymore. Why was this subject so important to him? She looked up at him to find him assessing her. It was disconcerting to say the least, because, gone was the passionate and affectionate man she had given her virginity to. This man she almost didn’t recognize, considering the cool disdain he showed her, and a horrible suspicion dawned on her.

“I was right before wasn’t I? Did Papa send you? Are you working for him, or perhaps Jamison?”

Had she blinked she would have missed it, but it was there in his eyes, a brief flicker of something, before the man in front of her schooled his face into an expressionless mask. One that she recognized only too well. It was the same professional mantle that her bodyguards adopted around her.

“No, I’m not working for either man, though I’m familiar with them and will be working with Don Cabrizi in the future.”

Her heart splintered into a gazillion pieces at that bit of news, but she’d be damned if she let him see how much those words affected her. Surely this shouldn’t hurt so much? When had he become so important to her? This was a simple business transaction after all.

“I see, well if you don’t mind. I want to be on my own now. You’ve done what you were paid to do, so, I would appreciate it, if you just left.”

She put her hand up to ward off anything else he was likely to say, and much to her relief he nodded.

“Very well, but I’m not going anywhere but out of this bathroom. You paid me for the whole night, after all.”

He stalked from the room and slammed the bathroom shut with so much force the light fittings rattled, and Nicole took hold of the bar of luxury soap in the holder on the wall and threw it at the door. It made a satisfyingly loud plop, before it slid down the door and across the marble tiles, leaving a slimy trail behind.