A Pound of Flesh (A Pound of Flesh #1) (46 page)

He’d been such a damned fool to think he could ever get away without speaking those three words to her. The three words he’d never uttered to another human being in his entire fucked-up life. They’d taken his ass by surprise, but the relief that came with them was more freeing than any parole board’s release letter could ever be.

He moved his mouth from her lips to her jaw and down her neck. She bent backward, curving under him so that he could access any place he wanted on her gorgeous body. He began with her chest, yanking the straps of her bra down the tops of her arms so he could pull at the cups, releasing her to his eager hands and demanding mouth. With his eyes closed, Carter began to lick, suck, and tease, tugging her between his lips. He moaned when she scratched his back, pulling him closer while whispering her need for him.

Carter let his lips caress her hip, the soft flesh of her belly, all the way to her panty line peeking temptingly from beneath her shorts. He wanted her on his tongue. He wanted to feel her in his mouth and make her come so hard she’d see stars. He wanted to devour her, bury his entire face in that shit and never come out for days. He wanted her gasping and soaked. He wanted—

“I missed you,” Kat breathed.

Astounded by the pained expression on her face, Carter rested his chin against her hip.

“I missed you while you were gone.”

Carter’s heart fractured. “I missed
you
.” He brushed away the stray hair lying on her cheek. He shook his head. “God.” He kissed her. “I was a fucking fool to walk away from you.”

Walking away from her was as close to being burned alive as Carter imagined he would ever get. The pain had crippled him, rendering him immobile.

When the boys had visited him in Kill and tried to explain how Max had fallen apart when Lizzie left, Carter had struggled to understand. Now he knew exactly what pain his friend had been through—was still going through.

Carter never wanted to feel that pain again. He doubted very much that he would even survive it a second time.

“I know why you did it,” Kat whispered. “And if you walking away helped you realize that you love me,” she continued in a hushed tone, “then I’m happy you did.”

Christ, she was right. He’d walked away and cracked into a thousand pieces, bare, with nothing to hide behind. Realistically, Carter couldn’t refute admitting his true feelings had been inevitable. And now that his finely executed punk-ass demeanor had been thoroughly fucked, Carter at last accepted just how exhausting it had been.

“Carter.” Kat reached for his hand and placed his palm flat against her heart. “Show me,” she whispered. “Show me how much you love me.”

As his eyes scoured her face in question, Carter’s brain flashed back through all the times they’d come together, thinking about the ways in which he’d touched her, kissed her, moved inside of her.
Show me.

At the beach house.

On the sofa.

The very first time they were together, soaked from the rain, desperate, on his bed until dawn.

He’d loved her so much even then.

Without even knowing it, he’d shown her what she meant to him by using his body instead of his shitty, inadequate words. When the sensation of having his body inside of hers had been so overwhelming and he’d been unable to find his rhythm through the thick clouds of need, he’d simply breathed her in, kissed her languidly, or touched her in places he knew made her moan his name.

Those had been his favorite moments. Connected together but not moving. No frenzy. Just being. Those were the moments Carter was most at peace.

He brushed her hair back and kissed her. He was gentle, his mouth pressing into hers only a little, while his tongue whispered across her lips, tender and loving.

You’re so beautiful
, his kiss said.
You make me breathless
.

The moan from Kat’s throat told him she heard it, felt it. He placed his hand on the back of her neck, lifting her to his mouth. She never resisted. She was incredible in her generosity. Pulling off his boxer briefs, he moved over her, shifting down her chin, kissing her throat, and licking her chest. He nibbled and grazed his teeth across her stomach. His hands slid up her thighs, opening them.

I’ve wanted you forever.

Her hands fisted the bed when he laid small kisses from one hip to the other. Kat bent her knees and rested the balls of her feet on his shoulders. He caressed the crease where her thighs met her body and spread her legs farther, as they beckoned Carter forward, her bare skin aching for his mouth. He kissed the top of her cleft, seeing the sparkle of the wetness lying there. Gently, pushing her lips back with his mouth, he let his tongue seek out her swollen heat and began winding it in slow circles that made her eyes roll and her spine arch.

Holy fuck. She was the most delicious thing he’d ever tasted. His fingers moved, slipping easily along her sodden skin, teasing and asking for more with every dip, twist, and stroke. Little by little, Carter pushed two long fingers inside her and moaned into her skin when she cried out and swiveled her hips against his face. She was so warm. He pulled them out and pushed them back in while he sucked and licked her.

“More.”

I’d give you the fucking world.

He hummed and pushed his face closer, shaking his head from side to side, purring against her flesh when her nails scratched deeply across his scalp. His tongue moved faster and his fingers slid deeper, as sounds started to erupt from her, breathless and begging.

“Oh my God. You’re going to make me come.”

Yeah, he fuckin’ lived for it. She pulled at his shoulders, tugging and pushing while her hips ground against him, drenching his chin. She whimpered and called out, nonsensical words pouring from her mouth until her orgasm snapped and shook through her body. Carter gripped her thighs when they slammed shut around his head and she tried to move away from his voracious mouth. He devoured everything she gave him until she was begging him to stop.

I’ll never stop loving you this way.

Eventually, Carter lifted his head and gazed up at her and the glow washing across her gossamer skin. Her chest heaved heavy, spent breaths. He prowled up her body, lathering her skin with kisses, needing the warmth to keep him grounded. He knew he had to be gentle, tender. The fog of lust had started to descend, hot, frenzied, and hard, but he breathed through it. Right then, chest to chest, her hands gripping his shoulders and her thighs around his waist were enough to calm him.

He moaned into her mouth when she kissed him, tasting herself on his lips. He rested his hands on the bed next to her ribs with his cock trapped between their bodies, wet, wanting, and thick. Every time she moved, she rubbed its entire length, driving him insane, making his hips shift and rotate. He grunted when she bit his neck.

I’m yours to mark.

She lifted her legs and placed her heels on his ass. They both grabbed for him, their desperation slipping through. Carter let go first and watched as Kat guided him, rubbing the tip of his cock along her wet flesh. He sighed, furrowing his brow, enraptured. Coming together that way made Carter’s bones weak. She was soaked and so soft. Carter pushed his hips a little closer, a little harder.

Carter pulled her face to his, nibbling on her plump bottom lip. Kat’s hand pushed so that—for one incredible moment—he slipped inside. The euphoria that always came with their unions blazed up his back and sent his hips into a frenzy.

“My sweet girl,” he whispered across her throat and slowly began to push into her tight warmth. “That’s it.” A little farther. “Oh fuck.”

He lifted his head and pushed, little by little, until he was completely enveloped by her. He was home. A small sob escaped her, but Carter caught it between his lips. The urge to thrust deep and hard clawed at the base of his spine, and his knees moved upward, pushing her thighs wider apart so he could get farther inside. Their fingers entwined by the sides of her head as Carter pulled back, releasing a long groan of breath. He chanced a look down to where they joined and panted at the sight of her all over his cock, glistening and beautiful.

He gasped, sliding back in. “Do you know I’d do anything for you?” he asked. “Do you know I think about you constantly? Sometimes I think I’m crazy. You make me crazy. I’m insane when I’m not with you. Jesus, Kat, I ache.”

She grabbed at his neck.

“I need you so badly,” he continued, breathlessly. “I need us. I need to feel us like this, because I swear to God, my heart, it beats only for you.”

She squeezed his hands and kissed his neck. Their foreheads fused together and he lost himself in her heavy lidded eyes. He continued to move, slow but firm, tilting his pelvis so he reached the spot inside of her that made her breath catch. A small tightening began deep in the depths of his stomach. He gave a sharp thrust and gripped her hip harder than he probably should have. He grunted when she licked his jaw, nibbling on his Adam’s apple in reply.

She held him close, arms around shoulders, holding tight. Never had Carter been so close to her. She was all around him, and he was at her mercy, defeated but entirely victorious. But, above all, above his need to come and his slow descent into euphoric bliss, Carter felt totally and unequivocally loved. The sensation wrapped around him in the same way Kat was, warm and safe, and it crushed him in ways that were entirely fantastic and impossible to describe.

It was the weirdest, most incredible thing.

It was so much more than making love.

It was erotic, passionate, naked, soul bearing—which ordinarily would have terrified Carter.

But not now. Not with his woman in his arms. With Kat, he could take over the fucking world.

Never had Carter been so exposed but so safe.

Never had he given himself to someone so freely and expected nothing in return.

His body lifted higher and higher. “I can’t get close enough,” he confessed with a frustrated growl. He pushed harder and harder, gritting his teeth and making sounds entirely alien to him, quickly being pulled under. He held on tighter. “I’m coming. Kat.”

Carter’s neck snapped back and he shouted and cursed. His cock pulsed with blinding force, as his orgasm ricocheted through him—leaving flashes of white behind his eyes and thundering in his ears—pulsing, hot, and relentlessly hard, into her body. He snarled into her shoulder while his entire body throbbed, writhed, and twitched.

He breathed easier. He felt free. He felt good. Could he dare to believe he was good enough?

Carter clenched his eyes shut, fighting back the salt water threatening to fall, overwhelmed once again by the woman in his arms, overwhelmed by what he’d shared with her, what they’d shared together. He kissed her collarbone and breathed through it. Carter’s body shivered. He buried his face under her jaw and removed his sated cock from her warmth, cocooning himself within her arms and legs, the only sound being Kat’s heart echoing in his ear.

His heart beat back in reply.

I love you
, it thrummed.
I’m yours, but please, for the love of God, don’t break me.

“Thank you,” he whispered. “Thank you for forgiving me. For loving me. I don’t deserve any of it, Peaches.” He held her close. “Thank you.”

Kat murmured sleepily by his forehead, “I guess that makes us even.”

Carter closed his eyes. He knew that wasn’t true. As hard as his time away from Kat had been, Carter had had a lot of time to consider his options, and the one option that was simply impossible to comprehend was the one that saw them separated permanently.

He would not, could not walk away. He’d tried and it had crushed him.

Which left only one option.

He lifted his head and brushed her hair from her sleeping face. “Peaches.”

“Mmm.”

He drew an invisible circle under her lashes and across the flush of her cheek, considering his next words. There was no use in denying it anymore. He was responsible for the animosity between Kat and her mother. Of course, Eva hadn’t given him a chance and would no doubt laugh in his face should he try to explain his feelings for her daughter; nonetheless, Kat had already lost one parent, and he didn’t want her to lose another.

“We have to do something—something important—before we fly back to New York tomorrow. I have to do something.”

She snuggled into him. “Yeah?”

Carter cleared his throat. “I need to talk to your mom.”

* * *

Austin Ford paced like a caged lion in his office, gritting his teeth so hard Adam was convinced they would shatter. Hell, it would match the four-thousand-dollar vase that lay in a million pieces at their feet. Following Ben Thomas’s impromptu visit, the much-anticipated fax had come through from the WCS board. Its message was clear:
Pack up your shit, boys. Your presence at WCS is no longer required.

Adam, for one, hadn’t been surprised, and, in many ways, it had come as a huge relief. For too long he had followed his brother through the valleys of aggressive mergers and bullying acquisitions. He’d stood back and watched in humiliated and embarrassed silence as Austin bartered and harassed people and businesses for his own gains.

Yes, he was one hell of an executive and he had made himself and those around him exceedingly rich. But over the years, he’d grown cocky. His manner was less genteel and more arrogant, and the wry smile of disappointment had now become a sneer of disgust that anyone would dare to refuse or stand up to him.

Nevertheless, Wes Carter had done just that.

Despite it being Thanksgiving week, Austin had put every lawyer and favor he had at his disposal on the fax the minute it slid through the machine. He wanted to find a loophole, a lose end, a clause, a fuck-you. He needed to find one. Adam knew that Austin would rather die than let Carter take over WCS, but that was exactly what was happening. There was no way around it, and one of Austin’s cronies had delivered the news.

The vase had been the first casualty.

Adam watched his brother continue his furious journey around the office.

“You’re telling me,” Austin growled, “that there is no way to stop this?” His index finger smacked against the desk, pressing down hard into the fax.