I eyed her. “You know Louis and Margaret. I’m assuming you know them well. They have money. They have influence. They’ve never been master manipulators. They’re too focused on their grandchild. When’s the last time Louis took out a hit on someone?”
She pulled out a chair and sat. “Never. That I know of,” she answered.
“Exactly. It’s not his style. He’d rather hike up interest rates or accumulate properties to trade for debt. I don’t think he would have gone after you and Crew.”
“But Crew said…” she stopped. “What I mean is, what if this is about Seraphina? What if they discovered the affair? It’s all personal to them. That changes things. The humiliation after the kind of fuss they’ve made about the baby. I got a shower invitation delivered by someone who was holding a live stork. They have lost their damn minds.”
“It would change everything if they knew, but they don’t. I read that room tonight. They are living in ignorant bliss. So is their son. Right now, that’s a blessing for Seraphina. And for me. It means she’s safe tonight.”
Kennedy opened one of the white cardboard boxes. “I’m starving. I could eat all of this.”
“Good.” I smiled, watching her twist her fork in the pasta. She lifted it toward her lips. “Did you say a live stork?”
She giggled. It was the first time I’d heard her laugh since our morning meeting in the office. There was suddenly warmth and light in the cabin. For a second, I thought everything was going to be okay and we weren’t at the epicenter of a dark and sinister world.
Chapter11
Kennedy
There was no way to tell what time it was. With the windows shuttered by boards and the cabin located in the part of the woods closest to the edge of the bayou, light didn’t find its way here. But Knight had. His arm wrapped around my waist and for a moment I tried to appreciate the rhythm of his chest rising and falling with deep solid breaths. I didn’t know how we slept that way all night. I couldn’t remember when my eyes finally closed. There was no measurement of time, there was no promise or threat of tomorrow. We found sanctuary in each other, eventually falling asleep our fingers wound together and our limbs in a pretzel.
Guilt slipped between my ribs when I remembered that Crew was still missing, and we weren’t any closer to finding him. Knight exhaled against my neck. The warmth of him. The heat from his body lit something different inside me and I wanted to hold on to this for a little longer. To grasp and claw at the place we had found in the middle of this ugly darkness. We had to protect it. Fortify it. Or it would swallow us whole. I had come so close yesterday to shutting down. To shutting Knight out. But, he had pulled back from the edge of the cliff. It had taken one word at a time. One breath after another. One foot in front of the other to lead me away from a darker place than this one.
“You’re awake,” he growled against my ear.
“Mmhmm,” I answered, feeling my body respond to his. I wondered how long he had waited for me to awaken. Our bodies were covered by a thin quilt. We’d crawled into bed without much thought about clothing. Everything was dropped at the floor when we climbed under the covers.
His wide palms slid from my waist to my thigh. He took his time. I wiggled gently, leaning into the space that separated our bodies. His fingers dug into my skin, drawing deep lines with every touch as he worked to the inside of my thigh, igniting fire along my leg. How did he do that? How did he always do that to me?
My head pressed back against his shoulder. If I could have crawled beneath his skin I would have. To mold my body into his. For a little while, we could help each other forget that this cabin in the woods wasn’t a romantic getaway we had planned. For now, it was all we had.
He reached between my legs and drew a finger along my slit. So slowly. So painfully slowly. I whimpered, needing more than his teases.
I spun, catching him off guard. With a shove, Knight was on his back and I straddled his waist with my legs.
“Fuck,” he groaned when I began to lower myself over his swollen cock.
“Yes,” I whispered. I loved this part. The feeling of his body meeting mine. The first second his body slid inside me. The electric charge. The ember that burned when his shaft first stroked my walls.
I lifted my hips, hovering against the pressure, reveling in this moment of fire and lust we shared. His cock always did this to me—made me lose my fucking mind. It felt so good. Knight’s hands circled my back. My breathing was erratic. My palms felt seared to his chest. Every touch between us burned with decadent sensations. Irresistible temptations.
“If you don’t fuck me,” he growled.
“What?” I taunted. I was losing it too. I needed this as much as I needed the next step, the next graze of skin. The next blaze between us. Maybe I wasn’t as good as accepting the way he tortured me as I was at giving it back.
“You’ll be on your knees in about three seconds.”
I huffed. “Who said I didn’t want that next?”
He chuckled, but his laughter quickly turned to a long, drawn-out hiss as I sank onto his shaft with control.
“Ohh, God,” I moaned, taking in the fullness of him, the way my body had to accommodate his, the way he felt so fucking good buried inside me.
One more carefully positioned stroke like the first one and then the forces that rule us took over. My body lashed against his and he pumped in and out of me. I tried to ride, but I felt the first wave of the orgasm starting to crest. I mewed, trying to stave it off, but Knight knew my tricks. He knew my body. He felt the way I squeezed him viscously. He knew it was seizing every limb and every muscle. His hands coasted along my sides, cupping my breasts. I thought the friction his thumbs created over my nipples would be too powerful for me to handle.
I couldn’t deny the climax any longer. It was too powerful. He was too powerful to resist. My body flung forward on his chest as it tore through me. I clung to him. My lips buried in his neck. My body shook and vibrated. His sculpted arms circled my body. His timing was always impeccable. As soon as the last shudder had ebbed, everything changed.
Knight eased out of me, finding his position behind me. I expected him on his knees, with me on mine, but he wedged a pillow under my stomach and my hips lifted for him just as his cock pushed inside me. I moaned with the intensity. The full weight of his body sprawled along my back. His fingers threaded through mine above my head.