The Truth (8 page)

esire, hot and demanding flared in his eyes. His chest rose and fell as if he had just run a marathon. He was back on the hunt. Shaking her head, she backed away, knowing that if he touched her, pressed his body against hers and whispered how much he wanted her, she would succumb—and when they were sated, nothing would have changed.

“No, Simon, sex isn’t going to make it better. Not this time.” Darting past him, she didn’t look back. Tears blinded her as she stumbled and nearly fell. Reaching down to slip her heels off, she looked up as Simon rounded the corner. The impassioned look on his face combined with his angry stride terrified her. She had never seen him more furious. Or determined. Stumbling in the grass, she lost a heel. She kicked the other one off and ran.

It was late, the Victorian quiet when she breathlessly opened the front door. Soundly closing it behind her, Katy caught her breath at the bottom of the winding stairway that would take her to the bedroom. When she was halfway up the stairs, the door opened behind her. She hurried.

“West,” Simon said.

She kept moving.

“My last name is West,” he said more loudly.

Nearly stumbling over her bare feet, she hesitated. His last name wasn’t enough. She continued her climb.

“I work for the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department, but am part of a multiagency task force. I’m currently undercover; part of my cover requires a wife.”

Katy stopped completely at the bottom of the second flight of stairs. “I could lose my job for telling you that,” he said, coming ever closer to her.

She swallowed hard, and took another step.

“I’ll risk my job, but I won’t risk losing you, Cinderella,” he said.

Katy closed her eyes. Her heart fluttered as if she were a captured sparrow in a gilded cage.

He stood on the step below her. Wrapping his arm around her waist, he pulled her against his chest. Burying his nose in her hair, he inhaled. “Not when I just found you.”

Trembling, afraid she was hearing things, she didn’t know what to say. He had told her everything except what happened with his brother and his relationship with his brother’s widow. “Am I part of your cover, too?”

“No, princess. You’re real.”

“Simon,” she breathed, melting in his arms. “I won’t share you.”

“I told you once before, I don’t share either.”

She swallowed hard as he kissed the sensitive place behind her ear. His free hand slid up her thigh, bunching her little dress in his hand. Cool air wafted around her bare bottom. “You are such a naughty princess, Kat. Where are your panties?”

“I forgot—” Her breath hitched as his fingers strummed her soft thatch of pubic hair. “To put them on,” she gushed.

Pulling her harder against his chest, he nibbled her ear, then slowly slid his tongue around the outer shell. She was putty in his hands. “Simon West?”

“Yes, Katrina Winslow?”

“Don’t break my heart.”

“Only if you promise not to break mine,” he murmured.

“Never.”

As she said the word he slid a finger deeply into her. “Simon,” she breathed, clamping her muscles around his thick finger. He had become her constant craving. It didn’t matter what time of day it was, where it was, or how, she simply craved his touch, obsessively.

“I can’t stop touching you, Cinderella. It’s all I think about, it’s all I want.”

Spreading her legs, giving him greater access to her, Katy reached her hands around to his thighs and slowly ran them up and down, in and out, teasing his burgeoning cock. The roughness of the denim against her smooth bottom stimulated her sensitive skin. Everything about Captain Simon West excited her.

One by one, she popped his button fly jeans open. Two-handed, she grasped his swollen cock and in a slow, firm cadence she pumped him. His deep moans of pleasure, the slow deliberate grind of his hips against her ass, combined with the lethal slip and slide of his finger in and out her as he circled her slick clit with his slicker fingertips drove her insane. Her knees buckled, and she released his cock so that she didn’t crash face first into the wooden stairway. Breaking her forward fall with her hands, Simon added support with his steel-banded arm. He dropped to his knees behind her, spread her with one knee and with one arm still around her waist, he pulled her back and impaled her from behind.

“Jesus, Kat,” he groaned. “I love the feel of sliding into you.”

Her pussy grasped possessively onto his cock as she struggled to compose herself. Emotions crashed chaotically in her chest. Simon made her feel prized. It was a new and wondrous feeling.

With a measured pace, he moved against her. His hard, powerful cock pistoned slowly, deeply in and out of her. The ache he created in her heart and womb combined, making her feel small and vulnerable but oh so cherished.

“Simon,” she sobbed, the emotion overwhelming.

“Tell me, princess. I’ll give you everything I have.”

She sobbed louder, deeply, unable to convey in words what he meant to her.

He pulled out from her and gently turned her over. His eyes locked onto hers as he pressed her back against the stairway. “You make me fucking crazy,” he said hoarsely as his lips caught hers in a hungry kiss. She wrapped her legs around him as he slid deeply into her. Their bodies reveled in the feel of the other. Perfect. Yin and yang, Adam and Eve. They were meant to be, and she was not going to allow any man or woman come between them.

The sound of the front door opening startled them.

Katy bit her lip to keep from shrieking. Simon smiled, kissed her quiet, and with him still inside of her, he picked her up and walked with her wrapped around him to the attic landing. Setting her down, he pushed her against the wall and proceeded to fuck her senseless. She moaned.

“Is there a problem?” Mona’s worried voice called up.

Giggling, Katy, called back, “No, Mona, I’m fine.”

“I thought you hurt yourself.”

Katy giggled some more. “I’m okay.”

She reached back for the doorknob, turning it, and Simon pushed her through the open door. He turned, using her back to close it, then impatiently thrust high into her, pinning her against the door. Katy’s head spun. He was so big and thick. And he was all hers. Powerful, virile Simon. She bit the spot where his neck and shoulder met. He growled.

“Mine,” she said possessively. She nipped him again and this time he threw his head back and came in a wild torrential release. Katy quickly followed. They stood, clinging to each other, their breaths mingling as they huffed and puffed, fighting to regain control of themselves.

Gently lifting her off him, Simon strode to the bed then tossed a limp, sated Katy onto the bed. Grabbing a tissue from the nightstand, he proceeded to clean himself up, never once taking his eyes off her. Her hair was a wild mess around her shoulders, her skirt bunched up around her waist, her lips bruised and swollen, his cum oozing from her slick pussy. “You look so hot right now, Kat. I want to fuck you again.” He buttoned up, then yanked her up to him and kissed her. Releasing her, he said, “And I’m going to, in about three hours.” He picked up her bag. “Pack up, I’m taking you home.”

“It only takes an hour to get to my apartment.” And she didn’t want to go home to the mess.

“We’re going to my house. Now pack.”

s they came down the stairway after packing, Simon picked her heels up from the front vestibule, where he had left them. He stuffed them into her bag. “You lost your glass slippers again, Cinderella. You need to be more careful.”

Smiling up at him, Katy caressed his arm. “I like losing them because you always find them and I enjoy paying the price for my wayward shoes.”

“So long as I’m the only one you reward.”

“Hah! You released the Kraken, Simon. Be careful. I might wear you out!”

“As long as I have breath in my body, I’ll be able to rise to the occasion.”

“If all else fails, I’ll put you on life support.”

“Am I just sex on a stick to you?”

“The best
ever
sex on a stick.”

“You wound me to the quick.”

“I have to keep you on your toes, Captain West.”

“You lady scientists are mean.”

As he helped her into his Jeep, he leaned in and kissed her. “I’m hungry.”

“I noticed a burger joint right around the corner.”

“Perfect.”

They stopped at Gott’s Roadside, where they overdosed on bacon burgers, garlic fries and shared the world’s most delicious chocolate milkshake, before making a beeline for Simon’s house in Santa Clara.

Katy was dying to ask Simon about his brother, but she didn’t want to spoil their comfortable mood. He had offered far more information than she thought he ever would, and for that she was grateful. She hoped that in time, he would trust her enough to share what had happened. For now, she was content to let things lie. But the sister-in-law issue would have to be addressed more immediately. Katy didn’t want to be a bitch about it. She got that Simon felt responsible, but his responsibility only went so far.

Besides, she had enough on her plate to deal with. Just knowing that Simon was willing to trust her with his job info and now take her to his home was all she needed to get through the hell she was about to go through with Genomtec. Having Simon and Veronica on her team was a godsend.

They both seemed to have a lot on their minds as the Jeep ate up the miles. Katy was exhausted mentally as well as physically.

“Being your lover is exhausting, Simon,” she said, yawning.

He grinned and looked over at her. “I’m insatiable when it comes to you. I can’t keep my hands off you or my dick out of you.”

“Yeah, I know. I can barely walk.”

Simon reached over and grabbed her hand. “I’ll take it easy on you the next few days.”

“Don’t you dare!”

He brought her hand to his lips and kissed her palm. “We’ll see how you feel in the morning.”

It was late when they pulled into the garage. Katy must have fallen asleep because she woke to Simon carrying her up a flight of stairs. The cool linen sheets felt good on her skin. As she snuggled deeply into them she thought she detected the scent of roses. She also thought she heard Simon swear.

“You okay?” she murmured.

“Everything’s fine, princess,” he said, stroking her cheek. Sweeping his lips across hers, he whispered, “Go back to sleep.”

Reaching out for his hand, she grabbed it. “Come to bed.”

“In a few. I have to bring our bags in.”

Katy woke to the sound of running water and the aromatic scent of freshly ground coffee. But what drove her from the warm empty bed was her full bladder. She slipped naked from the bed into the steamy bathroom where Simon was showering, peed, hurried back to the bedroom, saw his denim shirt on the floor, and slipped it on. The coffee smelled too tempting to resist.

She’d pour him a cup, then join him in the shower. As she walked to the bedroom door, she noticed something on the floor. She bent down and picked it up. It was soft. She smelled it. A rose petal.

Odd; why would a rose petal be on the floor? She slipped back into the bathroom and when she looked in the trash can she saw dozens of rose petals.

What the hell?

Maybe after a cup of coffee to clear her head, she’d figure it out.

“Hey,” Simon called from the shower. “Get that sweet ass of yours in here right now.”

Smiling, Katy peeked in the large walk-in and smiled. “Coffee first!”

“I don’t think I have any!” he called to her retreating back.

It sure smelled like it.

As she made her way down the hallway to the stairway, the sound of a woman humming broke the morning silence. Maybe it was his housekeeper?

Katy stopped just shy of the large, open concept kitchen. There, looking as lovely as her picture, was Manic
Mandy
putting the finishing touches to what looked like a breakfast tray for two. Instinctively, Katy knew she was not part of the pair the lovely spread was intended for.

Was Simon aware of his sister-in-law’s presence? All indicators pointed to no.

“Why are you here?” Katy asked, startling the happy humming woman.

Mandy cried out in alarm, almost dropping the tray. Her big blue eyes widened as she beheld Katy’s disheveled state and realized she was wearing Simon’s shirt.

“Why are you wearing Simon’s shirt?”

“Why are you here?” Katy asked again, coming closer.

“I live here,” Amanda said curtly. “Now please take my husband’s shirt off and leave before I call the cops.”