Only Pleasure (34 page)

Her eyes were open, but unseeing. She was in a place no man could join her, a place few men could take her to. The complete searing intimacy, the knowledge that he held her in the palm of his hand right now, burned into his brain.

Completely vulnerable, she was completely open to him. She would agree to anything here, believe anything he told her. At this point, her heart, her soul, her mind belonged to him.

"Be mine," he whispered, knowing she was his already. The moment she reached this plateau, he had known, Kia belonged to him.

"Do we finish this, Kia?" He kept his voice soft, soothing, a rough croon. "Do we finish this, sweetheart?"

"Finish me," she sobbed, dazed, her voice thick and driven. "Now. Now, Chase. Please."

Barely coherent, the sobs tightened his balls to agonizing need. He drew in a hard breath, closed his eyes, and gave himself a second. Just a second to maintain control. When he opened them, he knew she was there. Ready to peak, to lose, for a few precious seconds, the last hold on reality once her orgasm exploded inside her.

He eased back, feeling her clench around his retreating cock until only the thick crest remained. He paused again, feeling the tension ratchet, feeling it drive inside him like a spike of pure ecstatic hunger.

He gripped her hips, his thighs bunching, then impaled her in one long, hard thrust.

She screamed, arched. Her stomach rippled, shudders began to tear through her muscles.

He paused. A second. Two.

"Mine," he whispered. "Fucking mine. Mine, Kia. You'll always be mine."

He was barely aware of the words, lost in his own pleasure now. One hand moved between her thighs, the other clung to her hips. He found her clit, laid his thumb over it, and then began thrusting.

Hard. Deep. Powerful, forceful thrusts as he slammed inside her.

The slow rise to ecstasy quickened, hardened inside Kia. She could hear herself screaming, trying to scream. The pressure on her clit stroked her to ecstatic, glorious release as the hard, furious strokes inside her sent her into a realm of exploding planets, brilliant colors, and pure, blazing white-hot orgasm.

She was coming, exploding, the release tearing through her over and over again, throwing her, tossing her through space and light until the final explosion sent her careening into the dark.

She was still flying. She could feel it. She knew it. But reality ceased and there was only sensation, liquid, heated, overwhelming sensation that drew a dark, pulsating blanket of pleasure around her.

For long, intense moments, Kia didn't exist. Just the dark. Just the blanket. Just the pure, undiluted wash of sensations that filled her senses and tore her past reality for long, desperate seconds.

He had won. She had won, because she felt him slump over her as she blinked, fighting to focus, feeling him shudder as his release spilled inside her with hard, white-hot pulses of semen.

They had won.

She collapsed beneath him, exhausted, weightless now. She had, for those few blinding seconds, lost consciousness, but while she had been there, while he had done as he had dared her he would, she hadn't been lost. She swore, just for that moment in time, she had been a part of Chase.

She had felt his claim on her. Unspoken. Silent. Not even fully acknowledged by him. She had known the possession and the possessiveness. She had seen the darkness, and it was her as well.

Chase eased from her slowly. The feel of his cock, so sensitive, still throbbing with sensation, withdrawing from the tight grip she had on him, brought a groan from his chest. He eased back, turned off the vibration in her rear, and felt spikes of pure sensation race through his body at her moan when he released the inflated plug and eased it from her.

He collapsed beside her, tossing the toy to the table beside the bed, barely finding the strength to pull her into his arms, to hold on to her with a strength born of desperation.

Had he ever felt anything like that? Hell, he thought he might have passed out himself as his cum spurted inside her, filling her body as he swore she had filled his heart for long, endless seconds.

He didn't know where she had taken him during those endless seconds of release, and he wasn't certain if he wanted to know.

He breathed in long and deep, forced his heart to slow, to ease, then somehow found the strength to rise from the bed and lift her into his arms.

Carrying her into the bathroom, he couldn't believe the weakness in his arms and his legs. He sat at the edge of the tub and flipped the tub stopper before turning on the water and adjusting the temperature.

He gave it a minute to fill the bottom of the tub before he eased into it, holding her against him as he settled them both into the comforting liquid.

"No," she muttered, obviously put out as he adjusted her between his legs, her side resting against his chest. "I want to sleep."

"You sleep, baby." He grinned as he pulled a washcloth from the small shelf by the tub and gripped the bottle of shower gel he had put in the bathroom the day before.

The sensual scent of jasmine didn't smell so good on his skin, but damn if it didn't smell good on hers. He poured a thick amount on the wet cloth, sudsed it, and began to bathe her.

She deserved this. She had deserved it that first time he and Khalid had taken her together, and he had been terrified of sharing it with her. Of being this close to her. Somehow, he had known this would be different with Kia than it had ever been with any other woman.

She was going to end up owning him, if she didn't already. And he couldn't even find the strength to let it concern him.

He would know soon if she could handle the darkness in him. A few days, a week, if she stuck it out, then there would be hope for it. Because possessiveness was nothing compared to what he was feeling for her. He had nearly lost her the other night. He couldn't chance that ever happening again.

As she dozed against him, the warm water rising around them, he washed her gently, kneading her trembling muscles, washing the sweat from her body.

He detached the handheld shower, washed her hair, and let a grin tug at his lips as her expression became sensual, almost catlike in her pleasure.

As he finished, the water was lapping at her breasts, warming her as she snuggled against him. He kept her there, holding her, careful not to arouse her. She would be sore tomorrow, and he wanted to ease the worst of the effects of the loving he had given her.

The loving. Damn, that thought should have had him panicking. Instead, it filled him with contentment.

"Ready to get out?" He let his lips caress her brow as he whispered the question.

"Hmm. Only if I have to." Amusement lightened her voice, made it sparkle around him. Damn, he was a goner, that was all there was to it.

"You'll turn into a prune."

"So will you." She smiled, her fingers threading through the damp hair on his chest as he grunted at the reminder.

"Come on, vixen." He lifted them both out of the water, wondering which was getting more important, that nap or the need for food.

"You're treating me like a baby," Kia told him as he helped her out. He dried her hair with a towel before bending and drying the rest of her body.

"You deserve it." He stared at her as he dried himself quickly.

"Why? All I did was lay there."

He looked too sexy, standing there naked, still half aroused. Hell, maybe he had stayed aroused. He was definitely fine to look at with all the muscle and bronzed skin. Black hair fell around his face and sprinkled over his chest and thighs. He looked the way a man should look, she thought. Sexy, dangerous, and completely confident.

He shook his head at her comment. "You did more than lie there, Kia."

"Yeah, I came like I was dying." She laughed as he lowered his head and whispered a kiss over her lips. "I should be bathing you for the experience."

He shook his head as it lifted. He wanted to tell her exactly what she had given him, but he couldn't find the words. He felt strangely helpless, and that was a feeling that didn't sit well with him at all.

"You pleasured me," he whispered instead. "More than you know."

Her eyes brightened, the gemlike glow deepening as pleasure flushed through her.

"I can feed you then." She smiled. "I'll find my legs again in a minute. I can cook, you know."

Chase nodded. "After we eat, we'll get some of your stuff and start moving you in here."

Kia paused. She froze, actually, and watched him carefully. She wasn't certain now that that was a good idea at all. It had taken her too long to find her balance in the face of his disregard to start with. She had finally settled herself into the idea of being alone, living alone, sleeping alone.

And she didn't fully trust him, she realized. Not with her emotions.

"I was just learning to do without you. Now you want me to move in here?" She pulled a towel around her, suddenly uncomfortable with her nakedness. "Isn't this a bit quick, Chase? Weren't you the one who told me just last week that I didn't want this with you?"

She was scared, she realized. Afraid to let herself believe and to risk his changing his mind in a day, a week, whenever.

She couldn't do this. She could feel the panic rising inside her. The risk to her heart was too great right now.

"It's not negotiable." His expression hardened as he stared down at her, obviously more comfortable in his nudity at this moment than she was.

At his statement, her brow arched. "Not negotiable?" she asked him softly. "Then it had better get negotiable, Chase, because this isn't happening. I'm going home today. Period."

She moved to sweep from the bathroom, determination welling inside her. She was willing to be his lover; she wanted to be his lover. But the past weeks had been brutally hard on her. She wasn't willing to chance that sort of upset again. Not this soon.

His fingers wrapped around her arm as she moved by him, the hard depths of those light ice-green eyes glaring down at her.

"This was what you wanted," he rasped. "Don't deny it."

"It was what I wanted, emphasis on the last syllable of that word, Chase. I'm not willing to risk this much, this fast, with a man who until two days ago wanted nothing more than a few casual fucks from me. A man who walked away when I all but begged him to spend the night with me." She pulled her arm from his grip. "I don't want to lose you, but neither do I want to risk a broken heart again. Not this soon. Not until I know you want more than just the pleasure."

"And I haven't shown you that?" He moved in front of her, his expression creasing with a flare of anger, of male arrogance. "What more do you want me to do?"

"I don't know, Chase. Try winging it. That's what I did," she said calmly. "Because until I feel more confident about whatever it is you want from me, then I'm not giving you any more of myself than I have already. You could destroy me. It's a risk I'm not taking lightly."

He watched as she moved around him then, her chin lifted, defiance glittering in her eyes, in her expression, as he clenched his teeth and acknowledged she was right.

This was supposed to have been only for the pleasure. Now the pleasure wasn't enough for him, and she didn't trust his need for more. How the hell had he managed to fuck this one up?