She almost laughed at that thought as the elevator doors opened and she moved to her apartment.
At least it was a dinner club, she thought as she let herself into the apartment and rushed for the shower. Because she was starved. And she missed Chase more than she thought it possible to miss anyone.
He hadn't realized she was a pawn of such value. Of course, there had been talk, two years before, when Drew and Kia Stanton divorced. Talk that Chase Falladay was too interested in the girl's welfare, talk that something could have been brewing.
He had been watching Chase, seen the girl with him and Khalid, but he thought she had better sense. He had thought she wasn't so easy for Falladay to manipulate. He should have known better.
The other night, when he had followed them, watched her spread for him on the hood of that car and take him, he had known she was a pawn, not a child.
He'd been waiting. Waiting so patiently to find a way to hurt Falladay. To destroy him. Waiting was often the hardest part. Forcing himself to patience, forcing himself to wait, not to strike. He didn't want Chase dead. Oh no, killing him was much too simple.
He wanted to destroy him. And this girl. She was the first in many years that Chase Falladay had been known to take alone. It was obvious she meant something to him.
He watched her dash into her apartment and made his plans. He would have to be careful, very careful. He would have to arrange things just right. And when the opportunity came, he would destroy Chase Falladay through this beautiful, vi
brant young woman
.
It was such a shame that she would have to pay the price for her lover's sins. But wasn't that the way of the world? Justice must be served, and he would serve it through her.
She was right on time.
Kia approached her father's table, ignoring his shocked look as he caught sight of her clothes. The dinner club was trendy, new wave, and filled, as she had known it would be, with the best and the brightest of the happening business crowd.
After work it was time to relax and time to have fun. Jordain's was becoming the place for a little business mixed with a little fun, and Kia dressed the part.
The black leather skirt was short enough to be flirty without being indecent. The bronze silk blouse was stylish and undecorated. But it was the boots that got the looks. Black leather, snug, over the knee, and with killer three-inch heels that made her legs look miles longer than they actually were.
The club was warm, filled with laughter and chatter, and nearly every person she knew in Alexandria was there, she was certain.
"I'm three minutes early, I should get a bonus," she told her father as he stood and held her chair for her, glaring down at her balefully.
"I should dock you for your attire alone," he growled.
"Timothy, leave her alone. She's gorgeous," her mother said, laughing. "I love the skirt."
Her father's expression was one of complete male frustration at that point as he turned to a grinning Ian and Cameron. "Boys, have sons, not daughters."
Kia laughed back at them. "Yes, do. And make certain they're complete workaholics so they don't endanger any more female hearts than necessary. We'd hate for them to follow in their father's footsteps, of course. We enjoy boring lives."
Courtney Sinclair swallowed her wine with a little cough and an astounded expression before she burst out laughing.
"Kia, warn me before you make comments like that, please," she ordered her fiercely. "Spewing my wine across the table would have been humiliating."
"Not to mention messy." Jaci laughed as she turned to Kia. "You bought the boots when we went shopping, didn't you?" The amusement in her eyes was wicked.
"And a few other things." Kia smiled.
Jaci looked at the silk blouse, then pursed her lips to hide a smile. "You're wearing all the bronze?" she asked, leaning close so the men wouldn't hear.
"Every thread." Kia wrinkled her nose playfully. "Was that one of the pictures Courtney sent him?"
Jaci's eyes widened. "You knew about the pictures?"
Kia rolled her eyes. "I caught her taking them. I'm not completely dense."
"It's too bad he isn't here." Jaci looked around. "You're driving him insane, you know."
Kia leaned back and crossed her legs negligently at the comment. "Actually, I'm not. I haven't seen him in days."
"Don't count on it to last." Jaci snorted.
Kia was counting on exactly that. She shook her head and leaned forward, following her father's conversation with Ian and Cameron as they discussed the property Ian Sinclair wanted to sell and a security issue in another area.
She listened to the sociable negotiations disguised as polite conversation and, as always, her father's business world both fascinated and amused her. She had never been able to keep up in a social setting. Her mother had taught her one thing: talking business required the appropriate locale.
Besides, the dance floor was filling up, and the quarter glass of wine she had allowed herself to consume had her foot tapping as Cameron and Jaci moved onto the floor.
"Kia, remember to pull up the projections of that warehouse when you get to the office in the morning," her father stated. "I want a full account of projected profits versus the outrageous price Ian wants." He cast Ian a mock fierce glare.
"The property is worth every penny I'm asking for it," Ian argued with a grin. "You're just as tightfisted as you ever were."
"Can you believe him?" Timothy waved his hand toward Ian with playful fierceness. "Tightfisted, greedy kid. I can't believe I'm attempting to do business with him."
"And you're loving every minute of it." Kia laughed.
A forced laugh. She was sitting here, watching, listening, and she was remembering Chase. Which was worse? Knowing he didn't want to be seen in public with her or being in public without him?
"Se
ň
orita Rutherford, I fear I must demand a dance."
She turned, staring up at Sebastian de Laurents, the Spaniard Ian had hired as his club manager.
Sebastian was from one of the elite families in Spain, a rogue, a renegade, and a black sheep. She'd liked him the moment she met him more than a year before.
"One dance." She rose to her feet, the fast beat of the music racing through her blood, joined with the wine, making her brave.
Sebastian was dark blond, so unlike Chase. His eyes were brown rather than green, his body broader, his features less defined. But the club was dark, and she was desperate. Two days, two sleepless nights. She wanted to pretend, just for a few moments, nothing more.
He pulled her onto the dance floor, graceful and adept as they moved together to the quick beat. He touched her waist, her wrist, her fingers. He smiled down at her, and she wondered if his gaze was as knowing as it appeared. If he knew as much as he seemed to when he looked down at her.
"As graceful as the breeze itself," he complimented her as the music ended. "One more, and then I will have mercy on you."
One more. Another fast beat and they were moving within the crowd. Kia felt the energy of the dance fill her. She had always loved dancing, but Drew hadn't. He refused to even slow dance or to hear of her dancing with friends. This was like a balm to her femininity even as she ached.
Turning, twisting. Her eyes swept over the tables—and locked with light green eyes.
The music faded. She felt the rhythm of her body, she was aware of Sebastian behind her, but in that, moment she saw only Chase.
Unblinking. Hunger filled her, gnawed at her. Sleepless nights and aching need swirling through her. She forced herself to turn her eyes away. Hearing the end of the tune, she thanked Sebastian for the dance and began to move back to the table.
"Not yet."
She turned. Chase's arm wrapped around her waist as a heavy Latin beat fired up, and she stared into his eyes.
She felt his body move to the dance, and she followed. Her hips twisted into his, swayed. One hand gripped her hip, the other clasped her hand. Sensuality washed between them with tidal force, locking them together as she felt him around her, moving her.
The hard beat of the music flowed between them like sex, like the hunger raging between them. They were hip to hip, then she was turning, twirling him, his arm going around her waist, bringing her back to his chest as his other hand gripped her just beneath her breast, and they swayed. Hips rolled and rubbed and against the sensitive tip of her nipple she caught the quick flick of his thumb.
She felt lost within him. When the music slowed and spilled into a slower tune he turned her in his arms, locked her to him as he brought her hand to his neck and clasped it to him.
"I need you." He half snarled the declaration, his eyes narrowed and fierce. "It's going to happen, Kia. You know it is."
Her lips parted as she forced herself to breathe, tried to fight past the raging arousal spreading between them. She could feel him hard, thick, against her lower stomach. His body was tense, his arms possessive and strong around her as he bent his head to her.
"I'm dying for you." He brushed the words against her lips.
"You're going to kill me," she whispered back, swaying with him, helpless in his arms.
"I'm dying to touch you." He moved his lips across her cheek as her lashes closed. "I dream of taking you again, Kia. Thrusting inside you. Spilling inside you. It's more pleasure than I've ever known in my life."
"Don't. Please," she murmured the plea as she felt herself melting into him, felt more than the wine and the dance filling her.
She felt Chase. Felt him over her, inside her, caressing her, taking her. The memories washed through her, and she had to blink back tears.
"You can't keep doing this," she half sobbed as his lips caressed the soft skin beneath her ear. "You pull me to you, then push me away. I can't do this, Chase."
"I can't let you go." His hands tightened at her back. "I won't let you go, Kia." He lifted his head, his expression savage.
"You don't have a choice." She was breaking apart inside now. "I'm not a toy, Chase. A pretty little doll. I can't be that for you."
The music eased and broke, struck into a hard, violent clash of sound and lights as she turned away from him and rushed from the dance floor.
She could feel him watching her, feel his eyes on her, feel him following her. She felt him, even when he wasn't touching her, and that sensation speared through her, tightened her womb and spilled the silky warmth of arousal between her thighs.
I need you
, he had whispered. If only it
were
need rather than mere want. Need she couldn't have denied him. But want? Wanting was a hidden little fling, nothing of substance, nothing to warm either of them. She would rather do without want. She dreamed of need. Because she needed—
He watched them. He had followed, just to be certain. To see them together. He couldn't be certain unless he saw them together. And he saw them. He watched the dance, the sensuality in their movements, and in Falladay's face he saw something that evidently the woman had missed.
As she walked away from Chase, he saw misery flicker across his face, then determination, then savage possessiveness.
And he nodded, his chest heavy, his heart filled with grief.
Chase followed her. He hadn't meant to be here tonight. He had meant to stay as far away as possible. Nothing good could come of it, he told himself, even as he drove to the club. Hurting Kia further wasn't fair. He was hurting them both, and he couldn't turn back.
She was his. She would have to learn to live with the consequences of that, because tonight he had every intention of claiming her, of holding her through the night and waking with her come morning.
God help them both. Living with him wasn't easy; he'd been assured of that time and time again.
For now, he'd let her run while he followed. She deserved that, to be able to hurt him back, for a time. And fuck if it didn't tear at him, seeing those tears in her eyes, the suspicion, and the lack of trust.
He told her he needed her. He wondered what she would think if she knew he had never told another woman he needed her. That he had never asked another woman to live with him. The few times he had managed to share homes with one, it had been at their insistence, not his.
He intended to insist this time. He would have her in his home, and in his life, and she would just have to learn to deal with him, wouldn't she?
He followed her back to the table, taking the seat beside her that Jaci vacated, despite Kia's look of promised retribution.
He eased into the chair and caught the waiter's attention. He ordered his drink, and sipped at it as she ate the light dinner she had ordered. And tried to ignore him.
Timothy Rutherford was watching him suspiciously, knowingly. Man to man, they both knew what the hell was going on here. The other man would have to learn not to interfere in it, and he would learn that nothing mattered more to Chase than having Kia in his life.
Commitment wasn't something Chase went into lightly. And it still had his guts tied in knots. Hell, he was a fool for her and he knew it. He always had been.
She refused to dance with him again, but she didn't dance with anyone else.
Sebastian tried to cajole her into returning to the dance floor and she refused.
Daniel Conover was there minutes later, only to be turned away.
"Why aren't you dancing?" Chase asked her, watching as she played with her glass of wine.
She shook her head. "I'm tired."
"You enjoyed dancing earlier. Do you think I'm going to get angry because you dance with other men?" he asked her carefully. "I won't be jealous, Kia. But when the night is over, you'll be leaving with me, not with them."
She stared back at him in surprise.
"You were made to dance," he said quietly. "Your body loves the music. I wouldn't take that from you."
"And I won't let you." She lifted her glass and finished the wine quickly before rising to her feet and leaning down to whisper something to her father.