Shaking her head she let him pat the sweat from her body, then clean her with a curious attention to detail before drying the folds of her sex gently.
She almost shook her head at him as he straightened. Bending, she picked up her panties and drew them up over her legs.
"At least you didn't tear them this time," she told him with a light laugh.
As she adjusted them over her h*ps and restraightened her stockings, she caught the questioning look on his face.
"What?" she asked, almost uncomfortably.
"Are you going to shower again?" he asked her.
Kia ran her hand over her stomach, feeling the dampness of him and her mingling, a small spot he had missed. There were others, of course.
"No." She stared back at him before swallowing nervously. "I like the feel of you on me."
Chase had to clench his teeth to hold back some kind of primitive growl of ownership. He had expected her to shower but a part of him had been regretting the hell out of it.
Every woman he had ever lived with had insisted on showering after sex. As though they couldn't sleep unless they washed the lust from their bodies.
He realized Kia had rarely showered afterward. The few nights he had slept with her, she had fallen asleep in his arms after their release, content with the ministrations he performed on her.
It was a small act, cleaning the sex from her, after the pleasure she gave him, the pleasures he needed from her. But it was one she was always content with, and always seemed faintly confused over.
"Why?" he asked her.
Her lips pressed together softly before a small, mysterious smile quirked at her lips. "You don't answer my questions, Chase. When you can answer mine, perhaps I'll answer yours."
His lips pursed. She liked challenging him. That realization surprised him. Kia enjoyed pushing at his dominance. And he realized he liked the little surprises. She rarely did exactly what he expected her to do, no matter the situation.
Her tender emotions weren't offended when he became moody. She met his passions, whether they were dark and forbidden or wicked and hungry. She would read a book while he worked, and he knew, in the future, she wouldn't depend on him for her entertainment.
She was more content here, enjoying the peace and quiet the apartment afforded them, than at a party or social event. She fitted him. She completed him.
She was going to be stuck with him. With all of him. The dark needs, the sometimes prickly temper, but he had no doubt now that she could handle it.
"We need to talk soon," he told her as she turned and with shaky hands began to try to repair her makeup.
She paused and glanced at him. "Will you answer questions then?"
He nodded slowly. "We'll both answer questions then."
Kia laid down the makeup applicator and watched him with the glimmer of hope that always warmed him.
"I could call my parents. I might feel a headache coming on." There was also a hidden shadow of fear.
But she wasn't stepping back. Kia hadn't run two years ago; she had fooled everyone. She had let her wounds heal, and she had strengthened, and when she stepped back into society, she had stepped back as a fighter, a woman stronger inside than Chase suspected even she knew.
"Soon," he stated. He had to rub his hand over his chest to ease the dull ache there. "If you miss this party, your dad will do more than just hurt me."
Her lips quirked. "Daddy is fairly particular about this party." She gave a small laugh. "Last year, he nearly drove me insane getting it ready."
His eyes narrowed. "You weren't there last year."
She reapplied her eye shadow, checked it, and glanced over at him. "I've coordinated all the parties Rutherford's has ever thrown since I was eighteen years old," she told him. "Drew didn't like it after we married, so I gave up the official job, just as I gave up my position in the company." She shrugged and looked down before glancing at him again with wry amusement. "I was a bit immature when it came to my ideas of what a good wife should be, I guess."
There was a warning there, and Chase caught it fairly easily.
"So you've always kept your pretty little fingers in that pie?" he asked her.
Kia shrugged. "The whole pie, I would say. Rutherford's will be mine one day. I wasn't willing to be completely ignorant, nor was I willing to turn it all over to Drew, no matter what he wished at the time. If anything ever happens to Daddy, I'll run it. Hopefully as well as he has."
Son of a bitch. He stared back at her. It hit him then. She hadn't been in society, she had quit her official position at the job, but for years club members had listened to Drew Stanton bitch about the amount of time his in-laws demanded of his wife.
She had been keeping both hands in that pie and Drew never had a clue.
"You could be a scary woman if you wanted to be, Kia," he finally told her with a grin. "Remind me to never try to tie you down."
She shrugged at that. "You make your own ties, don't you think, Chase? No one can tie you down. You can only tie yourself. I haven't done anything that I didn't think was best at that time. I hope I don't change that in the future."
Pure steel. Sweet and soft, silken and warm. But inside she had a will to match his.
"Get out of here." She nodded to the door. "You need to dress and we need to leave. I promised my parents we'd be on time, and we're already going to be a bit late."
Chase shook his head, but he went. He should have guessed, he thought. She had stepped back into Rutherford's as though she had never left it. Because she hadn't left it, not entirely. And she had stepped back into society with her head held high and her chin raised, daring comments.
She was tiny, fragile. A man could break her with one hand, but Chase knew that the indomitable spirit he was glimpsing would never be broken.
And he didn't want it broken. He wanted to see how strong she could get, how much she could challenge him, and he wanted the woman, the confidence, and the sheer adventure of loving her, of learning her day by day.
Damn, he was in deep here, he thought, as he stepped into the shower. He wished he had showered before going to her. He could have worn the scent of her flesh on him as she was wearing his on her.
Damn cock. It sprang up as hard as it had been the first time he had taken her at that thought. The thought of her wearing him, his seed still lingering inside her, marking her. He had to clench his teeth and force himself to shower rather than taking the additional time to jack off.