Текст книги "Knight and Day"
Автор книги: Kitty French
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Текущая страница: 6 (всего у книги 15 страниц)
Chapter Fifteen
“Throwing yourself a party, Sailor?” Kara sat down at the bar a couple of evenings later, the bangles around her wrist clattering against the mirrored surface. Dylan was working late again, the mellow sound of Bob Marley low in the background as he studied an array of rainbow coloured liqueurs and bottles of spirits lined up across the bar. Sophie and Lucien had left together an hour or two before, leaving Kara and Dylan behind to lock up.
“Every club needs its signature cocktail.”
“It does?” Kara turned the closest bottle towards her, reading the label on the deep amber liquid. “Hierbas?”
Dylan nodded.
“Top of the list. It’s locally made.” He took the bottle from her and opened it. “The taste of Ibiza.” He held it out for her to smell. She inhaled, catching notes of fresh lavender and herbs.
“It smells like summer,” she said as Dylan reached for a shot glass and poured out a little for her to try. The flavours burst in her mouth: sweet aniseed, fragrant herbs, and smooth, warm alcohol. “Wow,” she laughed. “That’s… potent.”
“Yes it is,” Dylan murmured, setting the bottle to one side and opening a bottle of Cava from the fridge.
“This is turning into my kind of Friday night,” Kara said, as Dylan reached down a champagne flute from the overhead rack and poured her a glass. She watched him as he studied the bottles on the bar, selecting the odd one and either shortlisting it next to the Hierbas or else putting it back in its place behind him on the shelf.
“You’ve done this before, huh?”
He shrugged. “Some.”
“Can you toss the shaker behind your back? Please say yes,” Kara giggled, halfway towards a Tom Cruise fantasy already.
Dylan rolled his eyes. He’d cut his teeth on all that stuff, it was second nature.
“For sure. But I’m not doing it for you now.”
“You so are,” Kara placed her Cava down. “I’d like a Sex on the Beach, please barman, followed by a Slow Comfortable Screw.”
Dylan shook his head, the trace of a laugh on his face.
“Predictable.” He measured Hierbas into a glass cup and then into a silver beaker.
“A Screaming Orgasm then?” She tilted her head to one side winsomely and batted her eyelashes. “Please?” Just saying the words warmed the pit of her stomach, because Dylan Day was capable of exactly that with just a few flicks of his fingers. It was verging on embarrassing how easily the man could make her come.
He lifted his amused eyes to hers, and then reached for a mortar and pestle. She sat for a few seconds as he plucked fresh mint from a plant on the back of the bar then set to work. She watched his hands, the slow grinding motion as he crushed the leaves. She wanted them on her instead.
Reaching behind her neck, she pulled the ties of her halter necked sundress open and let it fall to her waist.
Dylan ran his tongue over his lips. He paused, then seemed to think better of it and continued to add a little Cava to the crushed mint.
Kara unclipped her strapless bra and peeled it from her body, holding it up for a second and letting it fall fluidly from her fingertips. She didn’t need to look down to know that her nipples were hard. Her body was screaming for him.
“Slippery Nipple?” she said, her eyes on his as she slid her hands over herself, tweaking her nipples lightly for his benefit. She had him and she knew it. His eyes darkened. He set the cocktail equipment down to one side and walked slowly round to her side of the bar.
Swinging her stool around to face him, he opened her knees and moved to stand between them.
“I think I’d better test that claim, English,” he said, and Kara sighed into his mouth as it covered hers at the same time as his hands covered her breasts. He rolled her nipples slowly, his tongue sliding over hers.
“You lied,” he murmured. “Not slippery.”
He reached for the bottle of Hierbas and tipped a little into his mouth, then lowered his head and closed his mouth over her nipple. His hands spanned her ribcage above her pushed down dress, holding her steady as he kissed his way over her curves to give her other breast some attention. Heat, and the slide of his tongue around her sensitive nipple, then delicious suction.
“Now they’re slippery,” he said as he raised his head. “Slippery, and sexy, and delicious.”
His mouth tasted of warm, sweet summer sunshine when he kissed her again, a sensual assault, his hands sliding into her hair.
“If I fucked you right now, would you be slippery there too?” he breathed, pressing the hardness of his cock into the silk of her knickers below her rucked up skirt. Just as Kara decided that Hierbas was her favourite drink in the whole wide world, he pulled back, dropped a kiss that lingered on the hollow at the base of her neck, and then returned to the other side of the bar.
She stared at him, her breath coming in less than regular gasps.
“I’m working,” he said, steadily. “And you’re a beautiful distraction.”
He strained the mint infusion into the Hierbas in the metal shaker. His eyes ran over the coloured spirits in front of him.
“Which one, English?” he said. “Which one would you choose?”
Did he actually expect her to have a lucid opinion on anything other than how much she wanted him to get naked? In the background, Bob Marley helpfully suggested she should stir it up as she scanned the bottles quickly.
“The blue one,” she said, at random.
He frowned thoughtfully, then shrugged and picked the blue curacao out of the line up. Lurid as it was, its bitter orange flavour might just harmonise well. He measured it out and added it to the mint and Hierbas in the shaker.
Kara crossed her legs and picked up the glass of Cava he’d just topped up for her, learning patience, now beginning to enjoy his slow game because she was pretty certain that it would end with what she so much wanted. She held out a cautionary hand as he screwed the top onto the cocktail shaker and hefted it.
“Take your shirt off before you do that.”
“Before I shake the cocktail?”
“You heard me, Sailor.”
He sighed for effect, but she didn’t mistake it for genuine boredom because his eyes told her how hot he was for her. He was as into this as she was.
She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and held it there as his fingers worked the buttons on his shirt open, revealing inch on inch of golden goodness. His shoulders gleamed as he rolled them to shrug the shirt off and dropped it.
“Better?” He lifted his hands to the side, palms up.
She slowly released her lip, now plumped from having been bitten, and watched his eyes follow the movement, with satisfaction.
“For now.” She sipped her wine. “Now, toss things.”
He looked away, shaking his head, half laughing.
“I don’t do this stuff anymore,” he protested, picking up a bottle of neon yellow liqueur by the neck and flicking it in a graceful arch over his head. Kara watched, wide-eyed, as it somersaulted a couple of times then landed neatly in his other hand. She clapped with delight.
“Wow!” The display of his body moving under the bar’s spotlights and the way he made his showmanship look so easy was thoroughly intoxicating.
“Topless barmen. Write that down for your next business meeting with Lucien.” She rolled her gaze deliberately over his body. “A winner every single time.”
“Sexist, English. So sexist,” he chided.
She shrugged, not in the least bit sorry.
“Now, make me a cocktail. Something sexy.”
She sat back, unselfconscious with her body on display. He was in her thrall and he knew it. He studied her for a few seconds, and then seemed to make his decision. He turned his back on her, and she caught her breath, admiring him all over again. He was a man at home in his skin, from his lithe, sun-kissed shoulders to the lickable dip at the base of his spine revealed by the jeans slung low on his hips. Tawny lights gleamed in his hair when he moved, stretching for a bottle. There was a grace and a strength to the man that stopped her breath for a few seconds.
And then he tossed a cocktail shaker over his shoulder and caught it as he turned about, flipping a bottle from the bar so a little of its peachy nectar went into the shaker. Rum flew overhead next, the bottle spiralling into his hand to be tipped into the shaker too. It was like a well-rehearsed circus act, as natural as walking the tightrope for the acrobat. Bottles rolled from his wrist to his shoulder and back into his hand again in a blink, ice cubes jumped one, two three in the air before hitting the tumbler. And then he was done, screwing the lid on before shaking the concoction high then low. He slid a glass along the bar and tipped the cocktail out with a final flourish, crushed ice suspended in glittering golden liquid.
“One Naked Lady.”
Kara gave him another burst of applause, her eyes round with delight. His hand caught hers as she reached for the glass.
“Not until you’re a naked lady too.”
She paused for a heartbeat, then kicked off her shoes and shimmied down from the stool. Her dress didn’t take much encouraging to fall down her hips, leaving her standing in the briefest scrap of midnight blue silk.
“I’m afraid I’m going to have to insist on full nudity, lady. House rules,” he said, his fingers still around her glass. The gravelly edge to his voice told her that he appreciated what he saw.
“I really do want to taste that drink,” she murmured, running one finger inside the top edge of the silk.
“I really want you to taste it,” he said. “Take your panties off, English. Be naked for me.”
Kara glanced behind her at the deserted dance floor, at the luxurious booths set around it which would very soon be filled with pleasure seekers. She was completely certain that no matter what happened in this place after opening night, no one would feel more filled to the brim with boiling, molten lust that she did at that exact moment. She burned with it. Burned for him.
Walking around the bar to where he stood watching her, she paused close to him and brushed her hand down the centre of his body, lower to give his crotch a light massage, then sashayed past him to run her hand over the elegant supportive column that rose from the bar to the ceiling. Covered in tiny mirrored tiles that reflected the colours and lights around it, it created a sparkling, soaring cascade of light when the club was in full flow. The bar beyond it wasn’t stocked yet, and the surface was clear. Perfect.
Using a nearby upturned crate as a step, she hopped up onto the bar and leaned her back against the glittering column. Dylan picked up the cocktail he’d made for her and walked slowly towards her as she stepped delicately out of her knickers and slid down to sit on the bar, one leg stretched out in front of her, the other bent to rest her elbow on. She cupped her chin and smiled artfully.
“Do I get my drink now?”
Wordlessly he passed her the glass, his eyes moving over her body. He chose the moment she raised the glass to her lips to glide his hand down the outside of her raised thigh, moving beneath to stroke between her legs as the drink filled her mouth.
“What can you taste, English?”
“Apricots.” Touch me. “Lemon.” Open me. “Rum.” Fuck me.
“Very good,” he murmured, kissing her kneecap then lowering it towards him on the bar, opening her legs.
“Anything else?” he whispered, mouthing her nipple as his fingers moved inside her folds.
All she could think of was the heat. In her mouth and between her legs.
“Warm,” she said, taking a little more into her mouth and leaning her head back against the pillar, arching her back with pleasure when Dylan pushed his fingers inside her.
“So warm,” he said, his breath hot against her ear. “So warm, and wet, and open.”
His low, sexy drawl sent long, delicious shivers through her body.
“Say something else,” she said. “Keep talking.”
Kara felt the curve of his smile as his tongue traced her earlobe.
“You like dirty talk, English?” The involuntary yelp that left her body was confirmation enough for both of them. “You want me to tell you how good it feels to spread your legs wide open and fuck you with my fingers?” He crooked his fingers inside her, finding her g-spot and massaging it. “You want me to tell you how much I love watching your mouth when you’re excited, and feeling your clit swell when I touch it? How much I want to lick it right now?” He used his thumb to demonstrate, the pad of it flat on her clitoris, massaging. “To taste you, to feel you come in my mouth?”
He had her so high she could almost see stars. “Or maybe you want me to tell you how hard my cock is for you, and how it’s actually fucking hurting me because I want to screw you so badly? Is that it, Kara?”
He had a way of only using her name at the very best moments, and she instinctively reached down and covered him with her hand, kneading him. The feel of him rigid beneath her fingers excited her almost beyond reason.
“You see how hard you’ve got me?” he said, sliding her closer and lifting her off the bar with one arm as he unbuttoned his jeans.
He turned her and bent her over the bar. The tear of foil was music to her ears, and seconds later he was against her, rocking his cock along the length of her sex. The mirrored surface of the bar chilled her nipples, and Dylan was oh so hot between her thighs.
And then he was inside her, hard and thick, making her gasp his name and look for something to hold onto.
His hand lay splayed between her shoulder blades, pinning her down as he thrust into her. Hard. She wanted harder still.
“More,” she gasped. “More.”
He paused, then moved back a fraction and lowered them both down until her knees felt the cool, hard floor behind the bar.
“Like this?” he ground out, throwing his hips forward so his cock hit home again and again. He wound her hair around his hand when she dropped her head back. “Will you come if I touch your clit now, English?”
She was pretty sure she was going to come just at the sound of his rasped words. Her stomach muscles jumped when he slid his hand over them, gliding down between her spread legs.
Greedy for him, she spread her knees wider, and he responded with an intensely sexual, guttural moan. His steady, hard thrusts pounded faster, harder, and she met him slam for slam, taking him to the hilt, trembling as her orgasm happened beneath his fingers and around his cock.
“Fuck,” he gasped, his body juddering behind her once, twice, and then again before he finally slowed.
Dylan crouched over her, pulling her down with him when he collapsed sideways onto the bar floor. He surrounded her, his heart beating hard against her back, every bit as erratically as her own.
Bob Marley crooned in the background. Is this love, he asked? ‘No,’ Kara replied in her head, euphoric, dreamy. ‘It’s not love, but it sure as hell is the best sex ever.’
Dylan wrapped himself around the warmth and softness of Kara’s body, filling his hands and his mind with her to keep it from all of the bad stuff. Bob Marley suggested putting his cards on the table, as he closed his eyes and inhaled the scent of her.
No way. No fucking way.
Chapter Sixteen
Blissful didn’t cover Sophie’s joy when Tilly and her nanny arrived in Ibiza the following weekend. The little girl shattered the peaceful vibe of the villa into a million pieces, much to the satisfaction of her daddy. Sophie watched them from the kitchen window, Lucien lifting a shrieking Tilly over his head in the swimming pool, that big baby laugh shaking her entire body when he splashed her down again into the water.
Of all of the changes she’d witnessed in him over the years, the way he’d embraced fatherhood had been the most profound. To the rest of the world he was still the charismatic, uber-glamorous poster boy of the adult entertainment industry; it was only within the confines of their home that he relaxed his guard. Sophie alone knew his intricacies, the fears that drove him and kept him strong.
He was a different man in many ways these days. He’d turned the hot glare of danger to a lower simmer; the heat was still there, but quietened by the safety of being loved. In other ways he’d become stronger still. He was a warrior for his family, their strength and their protector.
She watched him climb out of the water with Tilly on his shoulders, her sweet limbs wrapped around the lone wolf tattoo inked over his shoulders. Sophie knew it by heart. She’d traced her fingers over it countless times, reminded each time of his heritage, his dark days, and gladdened that Lucien was no longer lonely.
“I think I’ve tired her out.” Lucien walked inside a couple of minutes later, the sleepy child, wrapped in a towelling robe, resting on his shoulder. Tilly’s flopped arm and relaxed fingers told Sophie she was already snoozing, and a peep over Lucien’s shoulder confirmed it.
“I’ll put her down if you like,” Kara offered, walking in from poolside and pushing her sunglasses up on top of her head. She wasn’t a woman who went mushy at the sight of a baby, yet something about Tilly had got under her skin. They seemed to connect, probably because Tilly was showing signs of being every bit as precocious as her mother’s best friend.
Lucien dropped on the sofa as Kara left the room with Tilly in her arms, and Sophie flopped beside him. The sun had dried the pool water from his skin, leaving him warm to the touch and smelling of holidays and good times. She looped her arm over his bare midriff and snuggled into him, grabbing the moment to be alone.
“I’ve been thinking about the wedding…” she said, enjoying the weight of the arm Lucien slung across her shoulders.
“And?” he said, rubbing the top of her arm.
“I thought Norway?”
He turned his head and looked down at her, thoughtful. “I thought here.”
“Here? In Ibiza?” Sophie said, surprised.
He nodded. “At the end of the summer.”
“As in… the next couple of months?” she said, even more surprised. They hadn’t talked about timescales, she’d just assumed that it would be some time the following year.
“Just you, me, and Tilly.”
Sophie paused, struck by the romantic image of the three of them in the sunshine, daisies in Tilly’s hair.
“We’d need witnesses, at least,” she said, uncertain if she loved his idea or not.
“Kara and Dylan,” Lucien said, slotting the pieces into place. “I’d like to take you home to London as Mrs. Knight,” he smooched the sensitive skin below her ear. It was the first time he’d ever said the words ‘Mrs. Knight,’ and a slow zing of happiness spread a smile across her face.
The more she imagined it, the more she loved his plan.
“Okay,” she said, laughing, turning into his kiss. “Okay. Ibiza it is. And soon.”
The next couple of weeks slipped by with alarming speed, each day a day closer to launch night at the club. Kara’s heart flipped whenever she drove past one of the huge, sexy roadside hoardings for Gateway Ibiza. VIP guests were invited, a celebrity DJ had signed on for a residency, and the press would be out in force. Lucien’s PR machine had swung into full assault; there couldn’t be many people on the island who didn’t know they were there.
With twenty-four hours left to go, they were ready. Kara had spent her days over the last fortnight almost continually at the club, and her nights in bed with Dylan aboard the Love Tug. Her body ached pleasurably from being used in every way possible, and from using him right back. Had it really only been a few weeks since she’d first laid eyes on him? It felt much longer as the essence of him seeped under her skin, into her bones. He made her laugh, he made her moan, and he made her scream.
He made her happy.
To: mollymk@toscanomail
From: mmk@toscanomail
Hey mom,
Thinking about you, be strong. Billy wouldn’t want you cry today, okay? It’s launch night here for the new club, I’ll raise a beer to him tonight.
M x
To: mmk@toscanomail
From: mollymk@toscanomail
I’m not sleeping son, I was just looking through some old photographs of you boys. I doubt your brother will even register the date. Three years without Billy already. It feels like so much longer.
Hope your day goes well. I rest easier knowing that you’re out of it.
Mom xx
Dylan pushed his mobile into the pocket of his jeans, hating the image of his mom sitting alone late at night going through photos of her children in happier times. Scabbed knees and awful haircuts aplenty, no doubt, Billy always the joker with the biggest smile in the room.
Familiar, unsettling pain jostled his heart at the thought of Billy, his older brother by two years and his best friend as they grew up. He scrubbed his hands over his face harshly, trying to erase his melancholy mood. He owed it to Lucien to give this day his all. He was more than aware that without this job he’d most likely have had to move on weeks ago to someplace else, with no clear plan in mind. Drifting didn’t suit him. He’d grown up in the heart of a big, bustling family; he wasn’t accustomed to being cut adrift. Somehow he’d fallen on his feet here, into a job that consumed him, with people who invited him to bask in the warmth of their family.
And then there was Kara. Everything about the girl was pure gold, and every day the seeds of fear embedded themselves deeper into his gut. He was letting her invest her feelings, and he was investing his own, but it was all built on a house of cards. One push, and it would all fall in. Bitter experience had taught him that he could live through pretty much anything, but now, when it came to Kara, he wasn’t so sure. If he was any kind of man he’d call a halt to it, but she had him enthralled. His brain said back off, but the rest of his body refused to listen. His cock stirred at the scent of her, and his mood lifted whenever she was near.
When it came to Kara Brookes, he feared he was a very selfish man.
