Unlawful Attraction: The Complete Box Set: Alpha Billionaire Romance (41 page)

“I don’t want to play tonight,” I warned him. “I need this – need you – too much.”

“I’m not playing.” His voice had that low, authoritative note to it that made my insides squirm. Then he drove inside me with one single thrust. I cried out from the suddenness of it.

He didn’t give me any time to adjust either, simply withdrawing and then surging forward again, deep and hard and fast. Bracing my heels on the floor, I lifted up to meet him. I wanted it to ride that line of almost-pain. I wanted something that would obliterate everything else. Shatter everything that wasn't him and me.

Arik kissed me then, a bruising, carnal kiss that filled all the dark and cold places, eased every unspoken fear. His cock filled me, the kiss, savage as it was, soothed me. It was almost too much for me to handle, but I clung to it. Clung to every sensation.

He was here. I was here.

We were together and that was what mattered.

He tore his mouth away and lifted his head, staring at me with eyes glittering with something dark and somehow...full.

“Don’t ever scare me like that again,” he said, his voice harsh, commanding.

I nodded, nearly whimpering as I ground against him.

He kissed me again, just as hard, just as deep. Just as fierce and hungry.

“Say it, Dena. Say it,” he rasped against my lips.

“I won’t scare you like that again.” Then, before he could break the kiss, I bit his lower lip, hard. His hips jerked against me, driving deeper. He made a sound like a growl.

“Now you,” I said, the words breathless.

He understood. His body covered mine fully as he murmured against my mouth. “I won’t scare you like that again.”

His strokes slowed, gentled, and he let go of my wrists to push up onto his knees. I was warmer now, but I still missed the warmth of him. His large hands cupped my breasts, thumbs circling my nipples while he rolled his hips lazily against the cradle of mine. His cock, thick and hard, pulsed inside me, and I could feel the climax building.

He slid his hands over my legs, then his hands between my thighs to where we joined. “I’ve missed this,” he murmured, stroking my sensitive skin. “Having you with me, feeling you wrapped around my dick. I’ve missed that smart mouth, those beautiful eyes.”

I wanted to say something to him, tell him I’d missed him too. But the feel of him pumping inside me, the way he watched me, and the way he spoke – he shattered me in ways nobody else ever had, ever could.

“Arik...”

I came then, a slow, sweet climax so at odds with the vicious need that had fueled this.

As though he’d just been waiting for it, Arik bent over me again, and thrust hard, once...twice...three times before he joined me, his entire body shuddering with the force of his orgasm.

I wrapped my arms around him and held tight, wanting to keep his body curled around me. For those few moments, all the insanity of the day faded.

This was all that mattered.

We – whatever we were – were all that mattered.

Chapter 5

Arik

It ought to have been downright criminal to be awake at this hour, especially considering I hadn’t even managed to get to sleep until after two. But the silvery moonlight coming in through the window fell on the antique clock hanging on the wall, clearly showed me the ungodly time of four fifty-two.

I might have had a little over two hours of sleep, and I was now wide awake. There was absolutely no chance in hell I’d be getting back to sleep either. My brain was already working overtime.

The soft, warm body next to me stirred, and I turned my head, staring at the shadowed outline of Dena’s face. I had one quick glimpse of her before she shifted and wiggled deeper into the covers. A low, unhappy sound escaped her, telling me that while she was still sleeping, her rest was far from
restful
.

That bothered me more than I thought it would.

If I stayed there, I was going to wake her.

I blew out a breath. There was no point in both of us being tired, exhausted messes when we finally managed to have our talk.

Climbing out of bed, I rummaged through the dresser in the dark. Although I rarely came here, I'd always kept clothing on hand. With only a little difficulty, I managed to find a pair of jeans and an old T-shirt. After I pulled them on, I moved to the window and stared out into the early morning. I'd grown up in the city and it still amazed me sometimes how different things looked in the dark when there weren't any city lights around.

I'd had a relatively easy life. A happy one, even. There had been one dark period, a mar in my teens, and that was what had driven me to law.

That dark period was also tied to this house, and coming back here was never...easy.

But that one incident hadn't permanently scarred or warped me, turned me into a closed-off loner. It hadn't even really made me hate this place, even with the darkness. Things had always been fairly easy for me too. I was smart, successful, and never looking for anything even close to romantically complicated.

The emotions I was dealing with now, however, were the kind I'd never had to deal with before, at least not on this level.

Rage, fear, doubt...guilt wanted to come in and play too. Not to mention all the self-recriminations for everything that happened, but I wasn’t going to start beating myself up over what I couldn't change. I couldn’t afford to, because if I let anything trip me up, next time I might not come out on top.

Next time Dena and I might not survive.

Dena…that single thought pushed me into an ugly spiral, and I dropped into a chair, staring at nothing while I relived each and every moment from the night before. I didn't know how long I spent trapped in my own thoughts, or how I might have stayed there, if Dena hadn’t stirred, a soft, shaky sigh coming from the bed.

Pulling myself out of the reverie, I looked over at her just as she started to stretch.

Fuck, she was hot.

When she rolled onto her belly and turned her head toward me, one hand sliding down the empty space where I had been sleeping next to her, I rose from the chair. I wasn't about to let her get the wrong idea.

She was pushing herself up onto her elbows as I settled down on the edge of the bed. I caught her hand in mine and lifted it to my lips. Some of that white blonde hair fell into her eyes as a sleepy, sexy smile curved her mouth.

It was in that moment, as I felt all the fear inside me melt away, replaced by a gut-wrenching warmth and need, that I let myself finally admit the truth. I had gone and fallen for her.

I could have lost her. Just the thought made me feel sick. Turning her palm upward, I pressed a kiss to the center and whispered her name.

I crawled across the bed toward her and caught her up against me, holding her. Her back to my front, I buried my face in her hair and just held on tight, needing that vital, physical reminder that we were both here, that she hadn’t been hurt. That I hadn't lost her.

That it wasn’t too late to figure out what was going on with us. After all we'd been through, I couldn't lose her just because I'd been an ass.

Rubbing my cheek against hers, I said softly, “We need to talk.”

“I know.” She craned her head around and pressed a quick, soft kiss to my lips. “That’s why I came over last night in the first place.”

For a second, I didn’t get what she meant, and then I laughed, pressing my face into her hair as I understood. Dammit. At least she wasn't still pissed at me. That meant what I had could wait.

“I’m talking personal stuff. I get the feeling you aren’t, are you?”

“No.” She wiggled around and stared at me, her face solemn in the dim light. “Personal stuff? Did last night finally convince you that this really
is
a bad idea?”

Her voice was light, teasing. But there was an edge to her words. My heart twisted in a way I'd never felt before.

“No.” Leaning over, I pressed my lips to hers. “No.”

A shaky sigh escaped her lips, but I couldn't tell what it meant.

“Then you must want to have a...relationship talk.”

“You’re a sharp woman, Dena Monroe. That’s really sexy.” I grinned.

She bit my lower lip. Heat tightened in me, but before I could do much about it, she pulled away, taking most of the covers with her as she slid off the bed. As she moved over to the window, I drew one knee up and braced an elbow on it, watching her.

Fuck, I could spend all day just watching her.

“I’m going to go first,” she said softly. “You’re right, you know. We do need to talk, but there’s...shit. Things are a fucking shit-storm, and personal things will have to wait. Especially after last night.”

When she turned to look at me, the expression in her eyes made the tension inside me expand. Instantly, I pushed everything else aside and focused on whatever it was she needed to tell me.

“What’s going on?”

Dena tipped her head back. “What’s going on?” she murmured, echoing my question. “Where do I start?”

She rolled her head back and forth, then reached up to rub at her neck. The blankets she had gripped in one fist sagged, allowing a glimpse of one small, firm breast. I had to force my eyes back up to her face. I knew whatever she had to say was important, but I was only human.

“I’m about to do something that’s toeing the line on some ethical boundaries, Arik. We're not going to talk about the case, so we're not quite at that crossing point, but what I'm about to tell you...”

She lapsed into silence then, and when she didn’t say anything else for a couple of minutes, I cleared my throat and she lifted an eyebrow.

“Maybe you could sit down with me while you talk,” I suggested. Sliding my gaze down, then back up, I added, “You did kind of steal all of my covers.”

“You’re dressed,” she said easily.

But then she shrugged and came back to me, so I was content. I tugged her down to straddle me and she wrapped the blankets around us both, curling one arm around my neck. She didn’t lean into me, though. She kept a few inches between us and her eyes stayed on mine.

“I knew the guy in your apartment,” she said, worrying her lower lip with her teeth. “I saw him and I knew him. The cops, they told you who he was, right?”

“Yeah,” I said. I was really hoping that the reason she knew him was because he was a wanted criminal and that was sort of her department. I brushed her hair back from her face. “I might be from Chicago, but I've never had to deal with the mafia before.”

“You don't understand, Arik. It wasn’t the first time I’ve seen him.”

Now she leaned in, pressing her forehead to mine. Her voice, her eyes, everything about her was intense, and I had a sudden flash of how she would look in court. Damn, if she put that much passion into her cases – and I knew she did – she'd be a formidable foe.

Then she was speaking again. “It took me days to place him, but last night, I figured it out.”

Again, she stopped.

I knew the expression on her face. It was the one somebody wore when they were piecing together a puzzle, and it looked like hers had a lot of pieces. Resting one hand on her thigh, I stroked up and down, and told myself I was doing a damn good job of not letting her see that I wanted to ask clarifying questions.

She’d
seen
him?

What the fuck, and where the fuck?

Had he threatened her?

Would he have hurt her?

The thought made something vicious, something I'd never felt before, rise up inside me.

Caught up in my own thoughts, when Dena started to talk again, it took me a minute to process anything she said.

“…late, almost everybody was gone…”

Giving myself a mental shake, I focused on her words. Her skin was soft under my hands, but her eyes were distant.

“When was it?” I asked when she paused.

“Just a couple of days ago. Wednesday, maybe?” She rubbed at her temples like she was getting a headache and I didn't blame her. “I was ready to just go home, call it quits.” She sighed. “I’ve been thinking more and more about just quitting.”

The expression on her face was near desperate, and I hated it. Hated all of the reasons why she was wearing it.

“I’ve always wanted to be a prosecutor. Taking some of the monsters off the streets, keeping them off so they can’t hurt the innocent.” She laughed then and it was an ugly, bitter sound. “But nobody’s innocent. Not if you ask Bethany.”

“Bethany can get fucked,” I said, irritated. I didn't want to talk about Dena's bitch of a boss.

“She does. A lot.” Dena looked at me, her eyes turbulent. “Sometimes by mafia hitman.”

I stared at her, thinking I had to have misheard her.

“Okay, can you...” I stopped and cleared my throat. “Dena, I think you need to explain that. In detail.”

“Are you asking for positions or facts or what?”

“Dena...”

“I saw them, Arik. Bethany was with
that
guy. I went by her office to talk to her – maybe to quit, I don't know – but she was fucking that guy. Or rather, she was being fucked by him. A distinction, I know...”