Her hands flew back up and locked around one of the pillows on the couch. Her hips were arching, so he grabbed them and held them tightly. And he kept tasting her. Licking her. Kissing her. Taking her breath away as she gasped.
Every muscle in her body seemed to tense. Claire heard herself crying out Noah’s name.
Her release was close. She could feel it. No roughness. No fast groping.
This was sex. This was what it should be like. Hot. Consuming.
His tongue thrust into her.
Claire screamed when the climax hit her. Her eyes squeezed shut, and her body bucked beneath him. The pleasure rolled through her, seeming to crest again and again, and Claire shuddered with the powerful release.
“That’s a good start.”
Her eyelashes lifted. Her breath heaved out.
“I like it when you scream for me, Claire.” He put on protection. Settled right back between her legs. “Let’s see if you can do it again.”
He drove into her. His hands lifted and pinned hers in place. His eyes locked with hers.
He filled her so completely. Stretching every inch of her, and Claire froze, caught between pleasure and pain.
“I wanted to fuck you from the first moment we met.”
She tried to suck in a deep breath.
“You feel so good.”
He still had his clothes on. She was naked. In only her heels, and he was fully dressed.
That knowledge made her feel vulnerable, exposed and—
“Will you scream for me again?” He withdrew.
She wanted him back inside, as deep as he could go. Her legs flew up and locked around his hips.
“So…damn…good.”
He thrust into her again.
Withdrew.
She met him, thrust for thrust. The rhythm became wild, so hard. He was in her so deep.
No pain.
Only more pleasure.
So much pleasure that the whole world seemed to explode. She wasn’t sure if she screamed or not. She only knew that after years of being cold, it felt as if she were in an inferno.
One that swept her up, hollowed her out, and left her aching for more…more pleasure.
More…of Noah.
His hold tightened on her. He drove into her again. Her sex was contracting around him, aftershocks from her release.
“Nothing like this…never like this…” He heaved into her. Tensed.
She was staring into his eyes when he came, and Claire actually saw his gaze go blind with pleasure.
“Claire!” He kissed her. “Mine…” Noah whispered against her lips.
His hands still held hers pinned. She was spread beneath him. Filled with him.
Surrounded by him.
Mine.
***
Claire woke when she heard the squeak of the bedroom door. Noah had carried her to the bedroom after he’d given her that mind-numbing, world-altering orgasm.
He hadn’t undressed. He’d put her in the bed. Held her.
She’d fallen asleep with his arms around her.
Only now he was…leaving?
“Noah?” She sat up, pulling the sheet with her as she glanced over at the bedside clock. The numbers glowed, showing her that it was close to midnight.
He was a shadow in the doorway. “Go back to sleep, Claire. I just have a little business to attend to.”
“Wh-what kind of business?” Business at midnight?
“I have to meet with the manager. We need to upgrade the security here.”
Because of her.
The sheets felt cool against her body. I’m still naked.
“Harrison won’t ever be let in this place again, and I want to make sure every staff member knows that. Chuck is waiting for me now.”
Chuck would know—as would everyone else who’d seen them enter the elevator—that they’d slept together.
I don’t fuck my employees.
“Thank you,” Claire softly said.
“You don’t need to thank me, baby. If I’d realized that SOB was in the city, hell, I never would’ve let him get within thirty feet of you.”
What had brought the man back to D.C.? She’d thought Colby stayed close to his place in Alabama these days.
“Get some sleep,” Noah told her from his position near the bedroom door. “I’ll be back soon.”
She climbed from the bed. The lush carpeting swallowed the sound of her steps as she went to him in the darkness.
“Claire?”
Her hand lifted. Pressed to his chest. She would’ve liked to see him naked. His shoulders were so wide. So built. He probably had a six pack.
She swallowed. “Thank you,” she said again, and she rose onto her toes. Her lips skimmed the hard line of his jaw.
But then his fingers sank into her hair. He tilted her head back. Took her mouth. Kissed her long and deep.
Her nipples tightened as they pressed into his chest.
“If you really want to thank me,” Noah rasped when his head lifted, “you’ll stay in that bed and be ready for me when I come back.” He let her go. “I will be back soon, Claire.”
She believed him.
She stood there, in the darkness, and a few moments later, she heard the sound of the suite’s main door closing.
Her body was so sensitive. He’d touched her—everywhere. Claimed her. Marked her.
Taught her about pleasure.
Claire knew she wouldn’t have much time, so she dressed quickly. She yanked her hands through her hair. Rushed to the smaller room she’d been given when they checked in.
She grabbed her bag. Wrote him a note. Because she suspected that he would look for her, and she didn’t want Noah to worry.
She also didn’t want to throw her troubles onto his doorstep. He’d been too good to her. He didn’t deserve to be yanked down into her hell.
Her note was simple. Short.
Then Claire rode the elevator down to the lobby. Even at midnight, there were still plenty of people milling around the hotel. She didn’t see Noah or Chuck, so she dashed across the lobby and hurried outside.
She paused to talk with the bellman, just for a moment. When he offered to get her a taxi, Claire refused. Why waste the money? Claire turned away and marched down the sidewalk.
And she didn’t look back.
***
A hard knock pounded against the hotel room door.
Colby Harrison jerked at the sound. Who the hell would be coming to see him at this hour?
Muttering, he climbed from the bed. He’d just gotten to sleep a few moments ago.
He shuffled toward the door.
The knocking came again. Harder. Almost…desperate.
Colby weaved a bit as he reached out for the knob. He’d been drinking. The drinks helped him. They always did. Without them, he couldn’t sleep at all.
When he tried to sleep, he thought about Ethan. Poor Ethan. Wasting away in that prison.
He squinted as he tried to see through the peephole on the door. He couldn’t see a damn thing.
A rough knock had the door shaking.
Furious now, Colby jerked open the door. “What the hell do you—”
His visitor’s hand flew away from the door. Had that hand been over the peephole?
Colby frowned. “I sure as hell didn’t expect to see you here—”
A gun was shoved into his face.
Terror flooded through Colby as he stumbled back. “Y-you can’t do this!”
Laughter. Then… “I can do anything.” The door was kicked shut. They were sealed together in that room.