Deadly Desire (14 page)

“You’re so eager for me. Aren’t you, Emma?” he asked as he stood and slid his pants to the floor. His boxers went next, and all I could do was lie there and stare at his naked body. He was so hard and so big, my pussy squeezed from desire. I wanted him so bad. He could take me over and over again, and I would never want him to stop.

He climbed on top of me and pinned my wrists over my head. Gasping, I squirmed under his touch, but he shook his head with a smile. “I’m the one in control here, Emma. You will do everything I say. Tell me you understand.”

“I understand,” I whispered, my thighs tensing as he shifted his length inside me. He went slowly at first, sliding easily in and out of my wet sex. I arched my back and groaned. He felt so good. Better than anyone had ever felt before. Now that I had Pierce, no one else would ever do.

“You feel so good, Emma.” His words were a whisper against my ear. “So tight. Your body is perfect for me.”

His words sent thrills along my skin and into my heart. He was being so gentle, so kind, even as he was clear that he was in control. I’d never felt more wanted and needed in my life, and all I wanted was to fulfill his pleasure any way that I could. I lifted my hips in the air to meet his thrusts, my heart racing, my breath heavy, my body aching for more.

He let out a light laugh and tried to slow my frantic pace. “Easy now. I want to take my time with you. I want to fuck you so long that you can no longer remember your own name.”

“Please do,” I gasped as he thrusted deep inside me. Before I could stop it, an orgasm poured through me, leaving me panting and trembling underneath him.

He smiled, pulling back and flipping me onto my stomach. “That’s just the beginning, Emma. The first of many times you’ll come tonight.”

My breath quickened even more at the thought. Pierce lifted my hips in the air and slid his length back between my thighs. I moaned hard as my mouth pressed against the sheets. Already I was ready for more. His pace became quicker as he took me hard from behind, my butt smacking against him. Every thrust drove the need inside me higher and higher until I felt as if I might fall from a cliff. I came again, crying out his name as the tremors shook through me.

He paused, kissing my shoulder and murmuring against my slick skin. Every part of me was hot and wet and trembling from a satisfaction I’d never felt before. Pierce slowly caressed my body with his strong and calloused hands. He flipped me over again, holding himself over my body with strong and bulging arms.

“You are so beautiful,” he said in a rough voice that caught me off guard. That wasn’t the kind of thing Pierce Donovan said to women. Or maybe it was. Maybe I’d had him wrong this whole time, and there was more underneath his cool exterior than he liked to let on. Maybe he was starting to let me see some of it. Whatever was going on between us had turned into much more than a one night fling after all.

“I love your body,” he murmured as he lowered his head and brushed his lips against my hard and swollen nipple. I gasped and shuddered against him. My thighs tensed, and I felt my need rise up inside me once again.

I would never be satisfied. He could take me over and over and I still would want more.

“I want you to come again, Emma.” His mouth trailed down my stomach, and he began to lick between my thighs. It only took moments for me to come again, like he had opened up some unknown box of pleasure inside my body, and all he needed to do was touch me for only a moment, give his command, and I would orgasm every time.

I couldn’t catch my breath after the shuddering subsided, panting hard as he gazed down at me. His eyes were dark, and his smile gone, but I could still see something shining in his face. I told myself the look he held was only because we were in bed together. A man would look at a woman any sort of way when he wanted to fuck her. It didn’t mean anything.

But all that was inside me wanted it to mean everything and more.

He entered me again, slow and steady, filling me up with each sensual thrust. His hands found my face as he rocked against me. He caressed my cheek, and my whole heart felt as if it might burst as he stared deep into my eyes. I’d never felt closer to anyone in the world than I did in that moment. It was if I was not only his but he was also mine.

Pierce kissed me hard as he began to pick up his pace. His hands stayed on my cheeks, and he moaned against my lips. I couldn’t hold back anymore, not with the way he made me feel, as if I were the most precious woman in the world. The only one who could make him feel quite like this.

I came again around his hard length, and he followed close behind, emptying his seed into my shuddering body. He kept his arms tight around me as he panted into my hair. My own breath was ragged, and my entire body felt weak and spent and ready for sleep.

A moment later, he stretched out on the bed beside me and pulled me close. I fell asleep on his chest, feeling more safe in his arms than I’d thought I ever could.

In the morning, Pierce woke me with a kiss. He was pressed up against me, his cock hard against my thigh. Smiling, I looked up at him as he settled over me. He slipped inside me and began to rock against me, the morning light haloed around his head. Moments later, we both came, gasping and panting. I couldn’t help but smile so big my cheeks hurt.

“Good morning,” he murmured as he gave me a lingering kiss. “That was the perfect way to wake up.”

“Morning,” I said, heart lifting at the lightness in his eyes. “Was that just a warm-up?”

He gave me a lazy smile in return and opened his mouth to speak, but the ringing of his cell phone from the bedside table interrupted whatever he was about to say. He reached for the phone and glanced down at the display, his face immediately clouding over.

“What is it?” His voice went hard and cold as he answered the phone, Pierce’s usual stony demeanor sliding easily back into place as he climbed off the bed, his phone tight to his ear. My heart sunk. Something about his sudden change was difficult to see, even though it wasn’t directed at me. He’d just been so soft and caring the night before, I wished he could stay like that always. But it was gone in the blink of an eye now that the outside world had invaded our time alone together.

Maybe whatever we’d shared was fleeting, only for that moment in time. I wanted to believe it was more than that, but seeing how stiff and straight his back had become, I wondered if maybe I was just fooling myself into believing he might change for me. I was just Emma Berry after all. A girl who was only in his life because she needed his protection.

“I asked you to do one simple thing.” His voice began to rise. “I don’t understand why you can’t manage to find her.”

A moment later, he growled and threw his phone to the floor. I jumped and snatched the sheet to pull it around my shoulders. “What’s wrong, Pierce?”

He must have heard the fear in my voice, because he sighed and turned to face me with a false calm plastered across his handsome face. “I’m sorry, Emma. You didn’t need to hear that. Everything is fine. I’m just going to have to leave this morning to go take care of something. It seems if I want it done right, I have to do it myself.”

“This is about Rachel, isn’t it?” I asked, eyes wide. “You don’t know where she is.”

“The men I hired don’t know where she is,” he said, settling down on the bed to take my hands in his. “But I can find her. You don’t need to worry.”

“But what will you do if you manage to find her?” I asked. “Take her to the police? Shouldn’t they be the ones handling this?”

“Emma,” Pierce said with a sigh. “I know you don’t understand, and I can’t expect you to. You may have taken those photos of her, but I have a feeling she’s only doing this to get to me. I’ve pissed her off. She probably wants something. Money maybe. Knowing her, that’s what she’s after, and it probably has nothing to do with the murder even if she did it.”

“Wait,” I said, my heart skipping a beat as the pieces began to shift together in my mind. “She’s seen the photos, hasn’t she? And you think she’s the one who killed Michael Astor?”

Horror flooded through me. No wonder she’d called me up and tried to turn me against Pierce. She was the murderer, and she’d tried to take care of me since she knew I’d seen her with Michael Astor that night. My body began to tremble, all the fear from the night before crashing down around me like an avalanche. I’d been the only witness, and she knew it. No wonder she’d tried to have me killed.

“I am so sorry I brought you into this, Emma,” Pierce said, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me close. “But you’ll be safe here while I go take care of things. I’ll pay her whatever she wants if that means she’ll leave you alone.”

“Pierce.” My voice was sharp as I pulled back and looked into his eyes. “We have to go to the cops with this. I can testify what I saw. And I have a copy of the photos on my hard drive.”

“That’s not an option.” Pierce stood from the bed, his eyes and face going totally blank. He pulled away from me, both physically and emotionally, and my body yearned to reach out and pull him back. I didn’t understand what was going on.

“Why don’t you want me to go to the cops, Pierce?” I stood to follow him, but he shook his head.

“That’s just not an option, Emma,” he said, his face devoid of all the affection he’d been showing me only moments before. “The cops can’t get involved in this. I won’t allow that to happen.”

I blinked, trying to rein in the tears that threatened to spill down my face. His harsh reaction to my reasonable suggestion felt like a punch in the gut. He said he wanted to keep me safe, and yet he wouldn’t allow me to do the one thing that was guaranteed to keep Rachel Donovan away from me forever. If she was in prison for murder, she’d never be a threat to me or Cynthia again.

“If you’re not going to let me go to the cops, then you can at least tell me why.” I crossed my arms over my chest and stuck out my chin. “And it had better be a good reason.”

Pierce turned away from me, taking a piece of my heart with him when he did. “I’m sorry, Emma, but I can’t tell you. It’s non-negotiable.”

A moment later, he was gone.

I spent the next hour taking a hot shower and trying to wash away the hurt I felt from how quickly Pierce had turned himself off to me. Last night, I’d been convinced he was actually opening up and letting me in. I’d sworn I saw something in his eyes, something that suggested there was more between us than he wanted to admit. But as soon as morning came, along with our twisted reality, all of his emotions toward me had disappeared faster than I could blink.

And he was hiding something important.

I
did
trust him with my life. I knew I could now without a doubt. But something more was going on than he wanted me to know. It all tied back into Rachel Donovan, Alison Meadows, and the mysterious person he was trying to protect. And since I was so wrapped up in it now, too, it hurt that he wouldn’t tell me what it was.

I was stuck there in his swanky apartment, totally helpless to do anything but feel sorry for myself and wonder if he’d ever look at me again the way he had last night.

Sighing, I got out of the shower and dried myself off. I wondered if Cynthia was awake yet, and I had to hope she hadn’t heard my screams of pleasure the night before. My face flamed as I got dressed and thought back to how I’d cried out as Pierce made me come. There was no way she hadn’t heard us. I hadn’t held back at all.

As soon as I stepped inside the living room to find my roommate, I knew something was wrong. The couch had shifted sideways, and an end table had toppled to the floor. Heart hammering, I glanced around the silent and still room. Not the slightest of movements met my eyes.

“Cynthia?” I called out, listening hard for any sign of an intruder. Where were Pierce’s bodyguards? Shouldn’t they be standing beside the door?

“I’m so sorry, Emma,” Cynthia said, stepping out of the hallway. Just behind her, Rachel Donovan smiled, a pistol held in her white-knuckled hand.

“Emma Berry.” Rachel Donovan lifted the gun and pointed it right at my heart. “Nice to finally meet you. You’re coming with me.”

“What the hell is going on?” I gasped, my heart thumping hard in my chest. Rachel Donovan eased out from behind my roommate, smiling as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening.