“Thanks for the lift,” I shoot Dante a small smile. “I’ll send Archer out to escort you home. He probably needs a change of scenery after being stuck here all day.”
“Maybe,” Dante scoffs lightly and reaches out, grasping my arm in farewell, then I climb out of the car and jog up the steps to the front door.
“Archer?” I call as I step inside.
“Boss,” Archer greets me as I enter the lounge.
“How’s everything?”
“Quiet,” Archer replies, and he stretches his arms back and forth as if the lack of activity has made him stiff.
“Thank you for staying here and watching over her,” I say, but Archer raises a hand and waves my words away.
“Don’t mention it.”
“Dante’s outside. He needs an escort home.” I shrug off my suit jacket and toss it onto one of the lounge chairs as Archer nods and moves past me. His farewell falls on deaf ears though as I hear a creak on the stairs, and all my attention snaps to that.
“Killian?”
My stomach gives a surprising flutter at the sound of her voice, and I close my eyes to enjoy the sound. When I open them, Cara is standing in the doorway, her ankles crossed and her fingers pressed together at her abdomen as she watches me with those wide, dark eyes. The sight of her steals my breath away, and I drag my gaze up from her dark pants to the coral blouse resting lightly over her body.
Fuck, how quickly she’s become like a drug.
I take a step closer and she remains unflinching. She looks a lot calmer than she did yesterday, which brings a swell of comfort. Anything I can do to make her feel better and safer, I will. The blouse she has chosen to wear covers most of the marks I left on her, minus the ones encircling her wrists that cover the bondage marks left behind.
“Sienna came to see me.” She takes my silence as a prompt to continue, and as I stop within arm's reach, she chews on her lower lip.
What is she expecting?
This close, I can smell the mint from her shampoo, and it immediately drags me back to the night before when I was buried deep inside her, greedily marking her neck as her freshly washed hair draped down her back.
Her cheeks flush a light pink and I see the bob of her throat as she swallows. Her lips part, likely to deliver a smart remark at my silence, but I get there first.
“Did she see the bruises?”
The light pink gracing her cheeks darkens immediately. The sight twists my gut and my fingers ache with thewantto gather her back up into my arms.
Why shouldn’t I? She’s mine, after all.
I step closer and she mirrors me, stepping back until she hits the wall with nowhere else to go. I place my palms flat against the wall, caging her in with just my body, and her breath hitches sharply. That soft, sweet sound sends heat coiling down my spine, and I sink my teeth into the inside of my cheek to smother a groan.
Not yet.
Leaning in, my nose brushes over her jaw and she jerks her head up, exposing her throat. “What did Sienna say?” I ask, letting my breath ghost over her throat but not kissing there, not yet. This time her swallow is audible and the tremble in her voice ismuchmore evident.
Cara places both her hands on my chest as if that will keep me at a distance.
It won’t.
“She thought they were from the kidnapping,” Cara replies finally. My right hand skims her throat and gently pulls down her collar, revealing a love bite that I press my lips over. Her skin is hot, silky soft against my lips and as I slowly kiss upwards, I can feel the slight swollen rise and dip of all the bruises I’ve left here. This close, I can smell the hint of vanilla underneath the mint. She floods my senses with each breath, and I’m suddenly very aware of how hard my heart is beating. Her hands curl into fists against my chest, bunching up my shirt against her palms.
“Did she now,” I purr and feel her throat bob against my lips. Just a taste and heat courses through me like a wave, my cock swelling rapidly in my pants and pressing hard against the seam of my zipper. It almost hurts, but I like it, and I graze my teeth back down to the junction of her shoulder.
Just being in her presence and all thoughts of alcohol flee to the back of my mind.
“Killian,” Cara tries again, her voice firm like she wants to talk to me about something important, but I don’t care. I drop my left hand to her narrow waist and grip lightly, holding her in place to continue my loving exploration of her throat. “Sienna told me the wedding is in a few days. Are you planning on keeping me locked up here until then?”
“So demanding.” I pull the collar of her blouse back further with my right hand, skimming the material past her shoulder and grazing my teeth over her collarbone. She rises up against me on her tiptoes and shocks like lightning flash through my chest the moment her body presses into mine. It’s so sudden that I sink my teeth into the hot flesh of her shoulder and she jolts against me with a gasp.