Текст книги "All or Nothing "

Автор книги: C. C. Wood

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Текущая страница: 8 (всего у книги 13 страниц)

Chapter Eighteen

‡

I sighed heavily and rolled over in the surprisingly comfortable bed, punching my pillow into submission.

I couldn’t sleep.

The only think on my mind tonight was that King’s bed was on the other side of the wall, with King in it. It had been six long months since a man touched me and held me, and King had been that man.

Over the last few days, he’d dropped his guard completely. He talked to me, telling me about his past and so many things about him I’d never known. He told me about growing up an only child with an incredibly strict father and a mother who couldn’t stand up to her husband. I found out he enlisted with the Marines as soon as he was old enough and spent the next five years in the military. To my surprise, this was where he met Wick.

When I finally relented on the silent treatment long enough to tell him that I had difficulty believing he was in the military, King laughed. He admitted he had trouble believing it himself.

It was as if he realized that the quickest away around my defenses was by lowering his own. All the things I wanted to know about him six months ago, I learned in the matter of days without having to pry or continuously ask.

I wanted to hang on to my anger because it would protect me from further heartbreak, but my defenses were slipping. God, I was weak.

Now, in this guest room, all I could think about was climbing out of bed and walking to his room. My body ached with the desire to do that, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t take that step until I figured out if I could trust King again. I’d told him that I didn’t, but now I wasn’t sure I even cared if I could or not.

Unfortunately, that uncertainty was probably due to the rioting hormones taking over my brain.

Groaning, I rolled over again, cramming the pillow beneath my neck. I had to stop thinking about this or I wouldn’t be able to resist the urge to make that trip to King’s bed.

When the door opened, I sat up, watching with equal parts excitement and uncertainty as King entered the room as though my fevered brain had conjured him out of my imagination. My emotions were snarled and twisted until I wasn’t sure if I hated him or loved him or if I just wanted him to fuck me.

Neither of us spoke. My eyes moved over his body and I sucked in a sharp breath when I realized he was naked. He walked toward me in the dark, mostly in shadow, but he didn’t say a word.

My muscles tensed as King came closer. Suddenly, he reached out and yanked the blankets down my body.

“King-”

“Shut up,” he commanded, his voice low and rough.

I scooted back on the bed until my shoulders hit the headboard. King didn’t stop his forward motion, placing a knee on the bed and crawling toward me.

I lifted a hand, which glanced off his hot, bare shoulder. I was no longer uncertain, just excited, but that didn’t mean that this should happen. This insanity had to stop now because I refused for my head to be overruled by my body.

“Alaric!” I snapped.

By then he loomed over me, half his face in shadow, but his eyes glittered menacingly even in the dark. “I said, shut up.”

Kneeling over me, his hands went to the neck of my t-shirt. My torso jerked as he ripped it down the center, baring my body.

Something about the sound destroyed the last of the resolutions I’d created to hold me back. I didn’t care any longer if he hurt me or if I hated him. I desperately needed what he was going to give me. I lunged upward, my mouth crashing against his so hard that our teeth met. The pain didn’t matter. All that mattered is that the emptiness within me would be filled, even if it was just for a little while.

But the pain did matter. It made me feel invigorated and alive. I bit his lower lip and sucked away the sting. I dragged my nails down his spine, and his back arched as he hissed. I knew he liked it, so I did it again.

King’s fingers dug into my hips as he clutched the material of my underwear and yanked it free of my body. He wrestled me out of the tattered remains of my shirt and panties, throwing them off the side of the bed.

King lowered his head and closed his lips around my nipple, sucking hard and deep. My head fell back and I moaned. It ached, but in the best of ways.

I reached down between us, wrapping my hand around him tightly. The edge of King’s teeth closed around my nipple and tugged as I stroked him. It was happening so quickly, the fire building between us until I worried we would both combust.

Impatiently, he shoved my thighs apart with his knees, his hips crowding mine. He reached down and grabbed my hand, pulling it away from his cock. I struggled, but King pinned both my hands above my head.

“Stop,” he growled.

I moved restlessly beneath him, eager to free my arms. “No.”

He pressed me harder into the bed, his lips opening so that his tongue tangled with mine. The kiss was out of control, just like the two of us.

I wrapped my legs around his hips, trying to pull him closer.

King gave me what I wanted. He released my hands and reached between us, guiding his dick inside me. In one quick lunge, he thrust into me completely.

I cried out, my back arching off the bed. King’s chest pressed against mine as he took quick breaths, but he didn’t move. He stared down at me, but I couldn’t see his face clearly.

Lifting a hand, I traced the tips of my fingers over his cheekbone. The air changed then. The wild desperation was suddenly gone, leaving behind nothing but the weight of his body on top of me and the sensation of his breath mingling with mine. I was utterly in the moment.

King withdrew gradually before sliding home just as slowly. He was no longer rough, but it was no less electrifying.

He kept the pace excruciatingly slow until I was shifting restlessly beneath him, trying to urge him on with the movement of my hips. King wasn’t having any of it. He continued to do what he wanted.

“King,” I breathed. “Hurry.”

“No,” he answered.

I frowned at him. “Move faster.”

“No.”

My head lifted and I sank my teeth into the top of his shoulder. He chuckled against my neck.

His lips touched my ear. “Forgive me, Jena.”

My muscles went rigid and I stopped struggling with him. I stared up at him, my eyes wide. Was he asking me what I thought he was?

“Let me back in,” he insisted, punctuating the demand with a sharp thrust of his hips.

My body shuddered beneath him, but I shook my head. I knew what he wanted but I couldn’t give him that. “I can’t.”

“You can. Let me in, Jena. I’ll give you everything.”

He shifted so that he knelt in front of me, my thighs draped over his. As he continued to move inside me, his hand came between my legs.

My hips jerked as his thumb rolled across my clit, firm and quick.

“You can trust me. You can always trust me. I’ll never hurt you like that again.”

Twisting my head on the pillow, I glared up at him. “What is this? You won’t let me come unless I tell you what you want to hear?”

“No,” he growled. “I want you to listen to me, to hear what I’m saying. I want back in, Jena.”

“Well, this isn’t the way to go about it!” I snapped.

His thumb continued to circle my clit, faster now, as the tempo of his thrusts increased.

That’s when it came over me. The orgasm stole my breath, my thoughts, even the anger that overwhelmed me moments before.

As it faded, King’s lips met mine in a gentle, sweet kiss. It was so unlike him, so rare, that my breath hitched in my chest. He continued to kiss me as his own release took over, the movement of his hips slowing.

When it was over, we lay motionless, King’s cock still buried deep while we stared at each other.

I bit my lip as he withdrew from me. Though he’d been gentle in the end, the motion stung.

King smoothed my hair away from my face. “I’ll be right back.”

I watched his shadow move to the bathroom door and disappear inside then I looked up at the ceiling and sighed.

I’d just had sex with a man who used me, hurt me, and lied to me. Not once, but repeatedly over the past three years. How could I sink so low?

King came back out of the bathroom, a washcloth in his hand, and I realized we hadn’t used protection. My blood ran cold. I hadn’t even thought about it.

“Whatever you’re thinking about, stop,” King commanded, climbing up on the bed and pressing the cool, damp cloth between my legs.

Since it felt good, I didn’t fight him when he held it against me instead of letting me take it.

“We didn’t use protection,” I muttered. “I’m on the Pill but I still haven’t been tested since I found out that Justin was fucking around on me.”

King grunted and I could see his chin jerk in the dark. “You don’t have anything to worry about from me. Had a test a couple months ago.”

I rolled my eyes, knowing he wouldn’t see it. “Then you probably need another one. Besides, I’m sure you’ve had at least a couple, uh, dates since then, so…”

“Actually, I haven’t,” he replied evenly.

I scoffed. “You don’t have to lie to me, King.”

In the blink of an eye, his face was right over mine. “I realize I haven’t given you much to believe in when it comes to me, Jena, but I wouldn’t fucking lie to you about something like this. If I tell you that I haven’t fucked anyone else since the last time I had you, I’m telling you the goddamn truth. My days of screwing every hot woman I want ended a long damn time ago. I don’t let my dick do my thinking for me anymore.”

“You haven’t had sex with anyone but me in the last six months?” I asked, my mouth hanging open.

King rolled over onto his back, throwing his arm over his eyes. “Jesus fucking Christ.”

I turned toward him. “Seriously, King. I wanna know.”

He peeked at me from beneath his elbow. “I haven’t fucked anyone but you in the last six months.”

“I don’t understand. Why?”

“I’m the kind of man who knows what he wants. Once I see it, nothing else is worth the effort.”

I had no idea what to say. This confession was so unexpected that I was speechless. If I was going to be honest with myself, I thought that King was a manwhore, sleeping with any woman who caught his eyes.

Apparently I didn’t know King Sloan as well as I thought I did.

“Okay, I’m inclined to believe you,” I stated.

King gave me a disgusted look.

I shrugged. “Don’t get mad at me. I always thought you were, uh, kinda promiscuous, so this is a surprise to me.”

He shook his head, but chuckled. “I would never tell anyone else that I haven’t fucked a woman in six months, and the one person I do, doesn’t believe me.”

“I didn’t say I didn’t believe you. I’m just in shock, I guess.”

When he didn’t respond, I asked, “What exactly did you mean when you said you wanted back in?”

“I want what we had before.”

The small beacon of hope burgeoning inside of me died. What we had before hadn’t worked out so well. I couldn’t take just part of him. I wanted it all. All or nothing.

“I don’t know, King. You weren’t exactly forthcoming with personal information before now.”

“I had things to hide, Jena. Now you know everything. I don’t have to hide any longer. It won’t be the way it was before.”

He was saying all the right things. He’d even demonstrated his willingness to talk about his past the last few days, but I was reluctant to be convinced.

As he was prone to do, King read my mind. “Don’t decide tonight, darlin’. Let’s just get some sleep and you can think about it tomorrow.”

Because that was exactly what I wanted to do, I didn’t argue. “Okay.”

I got out of bed and went into the bathroom to finish cleaning up. I pulled another pair of underwear and a t-shirt out of my suitcase and dressed. When I returned to the bed, King reached out and tugged me closer.

I rolled into his side, my head resting on his shoulder, my arm across his stomach, and my leg thrown over his.

“Go to sleep, darlin’. I’ll still be here in the morning.”

I wasn’t sure why, but I found that comforting enough for me to close my eyes and drift away.

Part Three

The End Game

Chapter Nineteen

‡

The next morning, after King woke me up in the most delicious way, he insisted I move my stuff into his bedroom. Yet again, I didn’t bother to argue. I wanted to be there, plus I could tell that I wouldn’t have much of a choice anyway.

He drove us to King’s in his truck around eleven that morning. After two awesome orgasms, I felt particularly mellow, so neither of us spoke much during the trip.

When we got to the bar, King went to his office and I went to the little room I’d taken over the day before. As I was getting my laptop out to get started, my phone vibrated on the desk.

I glanced at the screen and froze. It was Katie. Except for the one nasty text, I hadn’t heard from her since the night of her meltdown. All of my attempts to contact her since had gone unanswered.

I’d messaged her once a month for the last three months, but she hadn’t responded. Even my relationship with Ashley changed. There were no more girls’ nights out. Instead we met for lunch every couple of weeks but neither of us had suggested inviting Katie.

After the phone rang for the third time, I rejected the call. I didn’t want to talk to her right now. Especially since the knowledge of her betrayal was so fresh.

Suddenly, I remembered the night I met Justin and how she suggested she’d fight me for him. I wondered if she’d pursued him or if he’d come on to her. Not that it truly mattered. She knew that I loved him completely. Justin may not have given a shit about me, but she should have considering she was one of my best friends.

She and I would be having a talk. Maybe not this week or the next, but I had things to say to Katie. I only hoped I could act like a grown up and not give in to the desire to punch her in the face repeatedly until she cried like the little bitch she was.

I shook my head to clear the nasty thoughts from it. I didn’t need to dwell on this. I had other things happening in my life that needed my full attention.

Ten minutes later, I had the desktop computer booted up, not completely surprised to find that Albert’s records were a mess. He was a smart man, but he clearly had his own way of doing things, which meant I had my work cut out for me.

I smelled the coffee first and looked up to see King standing in the doorway, two mugs in his hands.

He walked into the office and set one of them on the desk.

“Thank you,” I murmured.

King shrugged and sat in the chair crammed on the opposite side of my desk. “So, how bad is it?” he asked.

“I may be here for more than a week to get this organized.”

He smiled. “I’m sure you’re worth every penny.”

Frowning at him, I retorted, “That makes me sound cheap.”

“Darlin’, you are not cheap.”

“Okay, it makes me sound like a prostitute.”

He raised his cup to me. “Well, if you were, you’d be very, very expensive.”

Squinting at him, I answered, “If you think that is a compliment, you’re hanging around the wrong type of woman.”

He laughed outright, something I didn’t see him do often, but when he did it was a treat. “Well, I am spending time with you.”

I sat back in my chair, sulking a bit and drinking my coffee. “You’re lucky I need this coffee so much or you’d be wearing it,” I mumbled.

Despite my pouting, our banter made me feel better. After the tension between us the past few days, it was nice to be able to make wise cracks.

My phone rang again and I looked down. Katie. Damn, she was persistent. King saw it too, because he swept it up and hit the red button to reject the call.

His eyes were cold when he looked back at me. “Are you still talking to that bitch?”

I shrugged. “Not really. I’ve texted her a few times but she ignores me. Now that I’ve seen the video, no way in hell.” I paused. “I take that back. We’re going to have one more little chat, then I never want to see her again.”

“Chat?” King asked, his eyebrows going up as though he were surprised.

“Oh hell yeah, I have some questions I want to ask her.”

“With your mouth or your fists, babe, because you do not look like you’re ready to talk to her without getting into a catfight.”

“This is why I’m not answering her calls,” I replied sarcastically. “I’m too angry to have a productive conversation with her.”

“Productive conversation?” he repeated, another smile spreading across his face. “Damn, I knew you were funny, but this is hilarious.”

Frowning, I asked, “What do you mean?”

He set his cup on my desk and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. I was momentarily distracted by the sight of his biceps and shoulders stretching the black material of his t-shirt almost to the breaking point.

“You do not have a productive conversation with a bitch like that, Jena. I don’t know how long you’ve considered her a friend but she is bad fuckin’ news. Not only is she bad news, but she’s not your fuckin’ friend.”

“That’s not the first time you’ve said that,” I stated. “Other than the obvious, what do you mean?”

King shook his head. “I’m not sure you really wanna hear it.”

“Oh, I sure as hell am,” I snapped. “Quit acting like you’re a Man of Mystery, and just tell me shit instead of dancing around it.”

He shook his head again, but this time there was a smirk on his face. “Feisty, as usual.”

“King!”

His expression abruptly turned serious. “She is so jealous of you she can’t see straight, Jena. What you have, she wants. No, it’s not even that. It’s not that she wants what you have, she wants to be you. I’ve seen bitches like that before and they will do whatever it fuckin’ requires to take down whoever they see as their rival. I’m not gonna tell you what to do, but I know, in your position, I wouldn’t have anything to do with her. She’s completely whacked.”

I nodded, appreciating the fact that he wasn’t trying to tell me what to do, but sharing his opinion.

My phone buzzed again, this time a single short burst. It was a text from Katie.

We need to talk. Call me.

I rolled my eyes.

“What now?” King asked.

“Now, she’s texting me.”

“I’ll take care of it,” he said, rising from his chair.

I took one look at his face and my blood turned cold. “King-”

“Jena, I said I’ll take care of it.”

I pointed a finger at him as he walked out. “Do not do anything illegal, Alaric Sloan! I refuse to bail your ass out of jail!”

He winked at me. “Wick’ll do it.”

“Seriously, King, don’t hurt her or anything. I may be pissed at Katie, but I don’t want anything to happen to her.”

“I won’t lay a finger on her,” he promised.

I nodded as he walked out the door. Then a thought came to me. I stood up and ran out into the hall, calling out after him, “And none of your goons either.”

He kept walking away, only lifting a hand and flicking two fingers at me. I assumed that was an affirmative and ducked back into the office.

I took a sip of my coffee, smiling because King was considerate enough to bring it to me, and got back to work.

*     *     *

I got three more calls and numerous texts from Katie until mid-afternoon when they abruptly stopped. King must have done whatever he intended to do. Though I usually preferred to take care of my own problems, in this case I was willing to let him do the heavy lifting. I wasn’t equipped to deal with the insanity that had become my life.

A little after six, King came into the closet that was once Albert’s office. I had files spread out in front of me on the desk and both my laptop and the desktop running.

He leaned against the doorframe, crossing his arms over his chest. “Making progress?”

“Barely,” I grouched. “When was the last time Albert updated your software?”

He shrugged. “No clue. I left him to whatever he thought he had to do.”

I shook my head and growled under my breath. “It’s going to take me at least two weeks to straighten all this out. I sent Marilyn an email. We’ll see what she says.”

“I have no problem with that,” King stated with a wink. “I kinda like bringing you to work with me. Are you ready for dinner?”

I sighed and backed up my work. “Hell, yes. I have to take a break or I’ll be dreaming of spreadsheets and numbers all night.”

King chuckled. “Does that happen often?”

“No, only when I’m faced with this kind of mess during the day.”

After I finished saving the work and reorganizing the files on the desk, I shut everything down and packed my files and laptop in my bag. As we walked out, King waved to the bartender and Jack, who were chatting behind the bar. There were a few customers scattered throughout the tables but not many. I knew from experience that the crowd would build after the dinner hour. After looking at King’s financials all day, I knew that business was booming.

“I’ll be back later.”

They both nodded and went back to their conversation.

“Are we coming back later?” I asked.

“I am. You’re staying home.”

“Um, I hate to be a stickler here, but how exactly how are you protecting me if you leave me alone in your house until the wee hours of the morning?”

King laughed. “You? Hate to be a stickler? That’s priceless.”

I scowled at him. “You make it sound like I bust your balls twenty-four seven.”

That got me a look.

Huffing out a sharp breath, I stopped in the middle of the parking lot and put my hands on my hips. “I am not a ballbuster!”

King put his arms around me, lacing them through the space between my elbows and waist. I left my hands on my hips and glared up at him. “Darlin’, you are a ballbuster and I’ll have a man on the house tonight. You’ll be safe.”

I made a low, angry noise in my throat and it sounded suspiciously like a snarl.

King grinned down at me, tenderness seeping into his eyes that made my hands move from my hips to grip his biceps because my knees were suddenly weak.

“I like it,” he whispered, leaning down to take a little nip at my bottom lip.

His mouth opened over mine and our tongues tangled together, slow and sexy. My ability to stand on my own disappeared and I gave him my weight. King gathered me closer and somehow managed to make the kiss deeper.

I felt dizzy when his head lifted. “Wow.”

When he smiled down at me again, I felt as though a band was wrapped around my chest, squeezing tight.

I suddenly realized I was making a colossal mistake. I was falling in love with King, which could only end in one way. My heartbreak.