God, she’s gorgeous. Those sky blues pull me in, and I don’t ever want to let her go. Sliding my hands up to her neck, I tug her back down until her forehead rests against mine. “Sweetness, I have to go speak to him. This is only the beginning. Once we make contact, things are going go one of two ways. Either he’ll back down now that you have us, or he’ll up his game.”
“I don’t like this,” she whispers, her breath fluttering across my lips as she breathes.
Pushing her hair out of her face, I stroke her cheek with my thumb. “It’ll be fine, I promise. I’m not an amateur, going into a situation I can’t handle.”
She sighs and rolls back to my side, snuggling into my chest. One hand rests on my hip, the other under her cheek like a pillow. “I still don’t like it.”
Rubbing circles on her lower back, I decide I should give her the reassurance she needs. “Before I started Alpha One, I was in the military for over a decade. I ran black ops missions for the last four years of that. I know what I’m doing, Lissa. I need you to trust that much.”
The hand on my hip glides over my stomach, tracing the lines dividing my abs. “Over a decade?” she asks. “So, how old are you exactly? Am I sleeping with an older man?” She gasps theatrically. “Are you a cradle snatcher, Mr Jamieson?”
I squeeze her arse. “I’m not that much older than you; don’t go getting excited. I’m thirty-three. Not old enough to be considered your sugar daddy. And we haven’t ever slept together. Today doesn’t count; that was more like a power nap.”
She chuckles. The vibrations of it flow through her chest into mine. God, I love it when she laughs. “Damn,” she sighs again. “I thought I’d scored myself a free ride.”
Grabbing her wrist from my stomach, I roll her to her back, coming down on top of her. “You know I can take care of you, right? I’m not in the same league as your father or the people that usually surround you, but I have enough. Actually, I have more than enough,” I tell her, my gaze drilling into hers, hoping she sees what I’m trying to say.
Her forehead wrinkles as she blinks up at me. “Why would you say that? Why would you compare yourself to him or any of them?”
Now I’m confused. Isn’t that why she stays within her father’s grasp? Because of the money? I don’t judge her for that; it’s all she’s ever known. I just want her to know that I can give her that too. If she’ll let me.
My silence must encourage her to elaborate. “I don’t want a life like that. I don’t want to be somebody’s trophy, their possession. That’s all that I am now, and I hate it. I just don’t know how to change it,” she says with a hitch in her voice.
I feel like a dick for assuming that was what she wanted. “I’m sorry,” I tell her sincerely. “I thought that was one of the things holding you back. That maybe you didn’t think I had enough to support you. I don’t want to own you, Kalista—not like that anyway. The only way I want to own and possess you is in the bedroom.” I drop a kiss to her parted lips.
Her hands tangle in my hair, holding me to her needy mouth. “You already do,” she whispers, then pushes her tongue inside my mouth, making me want to fuck her for real this time. Forget the foreplay—that’s all it was before this moment. I want inside of her more than I’ve wanted anything.
Clutching the flimsy knot at the top of her towel, I yank it open, exposing her gorgeous pale tits. “Fuuccckkkk,” I groan, dropping my head, sucking one of those perfect rosy buds into my mouth. Squeezing the other with my free hand, I pull my knees up to straddle her hips.
Her eyes are liquid heat, hot blue flames of desire and need. “Birth control,” I grunt, releasing her breast to rip my towel away from my body, throwing it on the floor beside the bed.
Kalista squirms. “Uh-huh, I’m covered,” she whimpers, her hands still planted in my hair.
“Good.” The word comes out as a curse from my lips as I line my cock up with her slick entrance. I push all the way in with one long thrust, encasing my cock in everything that is this woman. Kalista lets out a squeal and grapples for my arse as I pound into her relentlessly. She’s so fucking hot and tight around my cock I can’t stand it.
I want to come, but it’s too soon. Yet I can’t slow down; I won’t slow down. I ram my cock harder and deeper than before. “So, fucking good. I’ve missed this pussy,” I rumble against her sweat-covered brow.
“Abe, please,” she begs.
“Please what?” I grunt into her hair.
“More, fuck, please, more, Abe. I need more,” she whines, her nails embedding in my arse, pulling me in to her.
Sitting with my feet under my arse propping me up, I dig my fingers into her lush hips, dragging her arse up my thighs. Changing the angle, I pound into her harder.
She screams, “Yes, God, yes!”
Her back arches up into the air, her tits bouncing with each push and pull of my cock.
Her pussy locks down around me and I come. Hot spurts of semen fill her pretty cunt, and I slump over her, exhausted and more satisfied than I have ever been.
After our second shower, I tuck Kalista into her bed. “Go to sleep, sweetness.” I kiss her forehead as she dozes in and out, every bit as spent as I am.
When I turn to leave, she grabs for my wrist and pulls me back. “No. Stay with me tonight, please.”
I can’t refuse her, and sleeping with her is a lot more appealing than sleeping alone in her guest bedroom. Bending down, I drop a kiss to her temple. “Okay, I just have to talk to Zak for a minute. I’ll come back. Go to sleep.”
Mumbling something incoherent, she rolls on her side and falls asleep.
Making a quick stop in the guest room I grab a pair of cotton pyjama shorts then go in search of Zak. Finding him in the lounge room with the devil’s spawn, again, comes as no surprise. I knock on the wall to gain their attention. “Kalista’s sleeping. We need to talk,” I tell Zak.
The possessed pixie glares at me. “Don’t think we didn’t hear all that, because we did. And it was extremely awkward.”
I shrug. “And that’s my problem, how?”
She flips me the bird and turns to look out the window. The city lights shine through, painting a beautiful picture that on another night, I would stop to appreciate. But right now, plans need to be made, so it can wait.
“Sweetness, we went over this last night. It’s fine—everything will be fine. I’ll text you when we’re done, if it will make you feel better,” I assure Lissa again, for the third time this morning.
Miss Gene got Trisha, her assistant, to text me the meeting details early this morning. We’re meeting Bradshaw at his estate an hour out of the city. Kalista is freaking out. She thinks he planned the meeting out there so he could knock us off and hide out bodies—her words.
Her arms are crossed under her breasts, and I know it’s a dick move, but I’m staring. “Ahem. Eyes are up here, stud,” she chastises.
That’s the first time she’s ever called me anything other than my name. I can deal with stud; I take it as a compliment to my stellar abilities in the sack.
Kalista slaps my shoulder. “Snap out of it!”
I shake my head. “Sorry. Flashbacks.” I waggle my brows at her. She grins sheepishly as her cheeks turn a soft shade of pink.
She narrows her eyes having, snapped herself out of her own flashback. “Oh my God, what is wrong with you? You’re about to go do something very stupid and dangerous, and you’re thinking about sex?” She throws her hands in the air like she doesn’t know what to do with me.
My grin is so big, I couldn’t hide it if I tried. “Not just sex. Phenomenal sex,” I correct with a wink. I’m hoping that joking around will get her to relax a little before I leave but she’s not having any of it.
Shaking her head, she pins me with her ice queen glare. “You’re ridiculous, you know that?”
Shrugging, I nod. “It’s a guy thing.”
Alec backs me up. “It really is. Sex overrides everything else. It’s just the way our brains are wired,” he says. “And look, I’ll be there with him the whole time, watching his back. If he went in alone, yeah, that would be stupid. But he’s not. He told you what we did before he started the company, right?”
Kalista eyes my brother sceptically. “We? As in, you were in the military? Him”—she points to me—“I believe, but you?” She shakes her head. “No way. You’re too childish and immature to handle that kind of strict, regimented routine.”
My brother’s jaw drops. He blinks at Kalista once then turns to look at me. “You need to get your woman under control. She’s mean and hurtful,” he complains like a little bitch, then storms to the door. “I’ll be waiting in the hallway,” he tells me, shooting Kalista a glare.
Lifting both her shoulders, she holds her hands up. “See? Childish and immature. And that’s your back-up?”
Taking her hand, I lead her into the lounge room, nudging her until she drops down into the overstuffed couch. I turn on the TV.
Grabbing my hips, she leans around to see what I’m doing.
“Stop it,” I say, blindly waving a hand behind me to push her away. Finally, I find a movie she can’t resist on Netflix. “There,” I say, stepping out of the way. “Watch your movie, eat some popcorn, and I got a bag of Mini Peanut Butter Cups on my way home last night for you, too.”
Her eyes well up. Ah shit.
“Red!” I call. She’s in the house somewhere; she hasn’t left Lissa since the bomb incident. I respect her for that, but she’s still the devil’s advocate.
“What do you want, twatsicle?” she calls back.
Case in point. I look down at Lissa, sitting on the couch, her eyes shining with unshed tears. “Popcorn and peanut butter cups, now!” I yell to Satan’s mistress. “Lissa’s in the lounge. Keep her here until I get back.”
“On it,” she replies from the doorway, glancing at the TV and seeing what movie I put on. “Nicely played, but you’re still a wankstain.” She turns on her heels to retrieve the items needed to comfort my woman.
Kalista sniffles. “I love this movie. How did you know?”
I wink. “Stalked out your Facebook, like any good boyfriend.”
She freezes. “Boyfriend?”
I raise a brow. “Yes, you got a problem with that? ’Cause I ain’t going anywhere, even after all this is over. I’ve been pretty clear about that.” I won’t apologise for claiming her; she’s mine. There’s no going back now.
Lissa blinks up at me for a minute, then launches herself into my arms. “No problem, you can be my stalky boyfriend if that’s what you really want,” she says, pressing kisses all over my face.
Peeling her off of me is an effort. I’d rather drag her back to her bedroom and show her just how good a boyfriend I am. But I’ve got shit to do.
Pushing her back until she plops on to the couch, I lean down with her and kiss her temple. “I’ll be back in a couple of hours. You can start panicking if you get through all the Harry Potter movies and I’m still not back. But not before then, okay?”
“All of them? Do you know how long that is?” she gasps, “I’m not waiting for that long.”
Rolling my eyes, I concede, “Fine, at least the first two. I’ll call or text you by the end of that movie, promise.” I kiss her temple again, straighten, and head for the door. Red is standing just outside the lounge room with Zak when I exit. “Can I help you?”
Leering up at me, she shuffles the junk food in her arms to free a hand then pokes me. Here we go again. “If you hurt her, so help me, I’ll detach your balls in a very unpleasant way. I’m talking locking those suckers in my vice then taking to them with my favourite set of bolt cutters. Or, I have this Span—”
Slapping my hand over her mouth to shut her up before my balls retract inside my body permanently, I tell her, “Jesus, you’re a little freak, but since you’re protecting Lissa right now, I’ll let it slide. But you talk about my balls and your equipment again, we’re going to have a problem.” Then a thought occurs to me. “Why do you even have a vice and bolt cutters?”
Wetness glides across my palm, and I yank my hand away from her face. “Did you just lick me?”
Her devilish grin just backs up my theory of her origin. “Yep, and that’s not all I’ll do if you cut me off in the middle of a threat again.”
Shaking my head, I wipe my hand on Zak’s tee. “I’ve got shit to do. Keep Lissa happy,” I tell the midget from hell. “And you keep her safe,” I instruct Zak, who nods in response, then I’m out the door.