She tasted him.
Chase bent his head, touching his forehead to her br**sts and fought. For the first time in his life, he had to fight the emotion, and he knew, if he wasn't careful, this delicate affair would become more than just the pleasure. And when it did, it risked breaking both of them.
Chapter 6
Khalid eased from the bed and came slowly to his feet as he glanced at the dark window of Kia's bedroom. Dawn hadn't yet come, was several hours away in fact. He never slept well outside of his own bed for some reason. Deliberate habit, he told himself as he searched for and found the articles of his clothing.
As he dressed, he stared back at the bed, his lips almost easing into a grin. Kia was curled against Chase like a tired little kitten, her head against his chest, her arms over his waist as he enclosed her in a very intimate embrace. His arms were wrapped about her, and her legs were tucked between his.
It was a surprisingly innocent picture, he thought, considering the sexual excesses that had been played out in that bed.
Long, champagne-blond hair flowed over Chase's arm. Chase's hair was mussed, lying over his forehead, giving him an almost boyish look. As though a Falladay could have a boyish look, he thought with a soundless snort as he sat down on a chair and pulled on his socks and shoes.
It was wickedly cold outside. Temperatures had fallen to the teens even before they left the party; it would be even colder now. If there was one thing Khalid hated, it was the late-night cold. It brewed around him, within him, reminding him too much of things best forgotten.
He shook his head and rose to his feet, sparing one last look for the couple before moving through the silent apartment.
He stopped at that couch, his eyes narrowing at the small gas fireplace on the other side of the room, the wall of windows beside it, and appraised the couch. There was a pillow, and along the back of the cushions a thick spread.
This was where Kia slept, she had said. Did she stare into the darkness and feel the pain it held? Did the warmth of the fire ease her ache for Chase as he held so stubbornly onto his heart?
Chase, it seemed, refused to acknowledge what even his friends knew. Kia Rutherford would not be easy to walk away from. He might wish she was. Khalid had no doubt Chase would try, but he would never let her go.
Khalid shook his head at that as he let himself out of her apartment and pulled his cell phone from his jacket.
"Abdul, I am ready to leave," he stated as the chauffeur answered.
"Yes, sir, but I should inform you, I have company."
Khalid's brows lifted. "What company could you have, Abdul?"
Abdul sighed heavily. "It is her, sir."
Khalid paused at the elevator, then stared back at the apartment as he smothered an oath. He didn't have time for her.
"And she is with you why?"
"Because she brought with her a Thermos of excellent dark coffee and some rather fresh donuts." Abdul cleared his throat. "But her ride left."
"Then she can get a cab," Khalid snarled.
Abdul cleared his throat again. "It's very cold, Mr. Khalid. Her hotel is not far from here."
Khalid stepped into the elevator, grinding his teeth.
"Does she not have a coat?"
"No, sir." Abdul did the throat-clearing thing again. "Well, yes, sir, but it is very thin."
He felt his nostrils flaring. "And I should care about this why?" he snapped.
"Mr. Khalid," Abdul's voice was shocked. "It is very cold tonight."
"He's being a bear again, isn't he?" Martha's voice sounded through the phone. Too damned cheerful and too f**king perky. "Tell him to get over it."
"Get over it?" he snarled.
"Now, Mr. Khalid, her hotel, it is just down the street."
"Go," he said harshly. "Get her out of my limo, immediately. Take her to her hotel, give her her coffee and her donuts, and get your ass back here. Are we clear?"
"I drank the coffee and donuts," Abdul said mournfully.
Khalid was forced to massage his temples as he heard Martha making compassionate sounds in the background.
"Abdul, ten minutes," he said furiously. "You had best be back in front of this building within ten minutes, without her. Are we clear?"
"I am going now, Mr. Khalid," Abdul promised nervously. "Ten minutes. Should I, umm, replace her coffee and donuts?"
Khalid swore he would have to make his first trip to the dentist ever if he didn't stop grinding his teeth.
"Let her get her own," he growled slowly, just to make certain Abdul understood. "Ten minutes, Abdul."
Abdul cleared his throat. "Ten minutes, Mr. Khalid."
And in the background, Martha, damn her hide, laughed.
Chase awakened as Khalid left the apartment. His eyes opened and he stared around the bedroom, feeling strangely content. And content wasn't a feeling he should be experiencing in Kia's bed. His arms wrapped around her. His legs encasing hers. Her head against his heart, her breathing deep and even, as though she belonged there.
He had to force himself not to jerk away from her, to jump away as though in fear. He didn't fear anything. He hadn't feared anything since he had stared down the woman whose finger was tightening on the trigger of a gun aimed at his brother, Cameron.
He forced the memory, the thought, back and closed his eyes, allowing himself to hold Kia just a few moments longer.
During the years when he had been his brother's third in his relationships, sleeping with a woman hadn't bothered him. It had been his responsibility to make certain more than their sexual needs were fulfilled.
Hell, now he knew why Cam had fought sleeping with Jaci, or in taking her without a third. Because there was this intimacy. He could feel it, working its way inside him, filling him with something so damned unfamiliar he couldn't make sense of it.
The feeling that if he didn't get the hell out of that bed now, then he might never make it out of her bed, and then he would never keep her out of his heart.
Like Khalid said, women were gentle creatures with fierce desires. And one of those desires was the need to be touched and held outside sex. It had never bothered Chase to be the one to supply that, until now. Now it frankly scared the shit out of him. Because the longer he held her, the more he. felt her.
He turned and stared down at her in the darkness. Thick blond lashes lay against her cheeks; her lips were relaxed in sleep, though they were still swollen from his kisses, from the thrusts of his cock.