The Satin Sash (29 page)

She stared at his throat. His pulse beat there; he couldn’t control it. He let go a breath and flicked one button of her robe open.Then a second one. Her breasts moved with her breaths. Heath wanted her with every burning cell of his body, but suddenly he could not unbutton more. He felt beaten and pummeled and defeated. He burned and throbbed, but inside he was nothing but a mass of aching.

Nevertheless, he clamped his jaw and yanked up his shirt. It fell at his feet, and his hands went to his belt. “How do you want it? Hard? Soft?”

She straightened her spine, shoulders firming. “Don’t bother.”

“If you two will just relax,” Grey injected lightly. “Come on, darling. I’ve got to make some points with you. Let’s have fun tonight. It’s our last night in Cabo.”

“You get three points if you leave me alone,” she said petulantly.

With a quiet laugh, Grey bumped his nose along her neck, lowering her arms at her sides and stroking her wrists with his fingers. “Not the number I was aiming for.”

How easy that she loved him, that she would forgive him anything. Grey could screw up, and minutes later be touching her. And chuckling. And everything would be all right. He wouldn’t feel ripped or beaten. He wouldn’t feel like shit.

He wouldn’t leave tomorrow and never see her again.

“As far as I know, I’m still in the doghouse until Heath kisses you,” Grey was saying.

“Think only of yourself, Grey, why don’t you?” she accused.

“Eat your words, Toni; you know I live for that little smile of yours. Be a good girl and kiss and make up.”

Heath clenched his hands tight.There was no order to what he wanted to say, to what he felt. So many emotions, he didn’t know what to do with them. He wanted to spill them all back into her and to be left alone. Like he was before. Before the first time he’d ever heard
Toni
.

“Do you want me or not?” he demanded.

Her silence grated on him.

His temples throbbed when he ground his teeth, his legs tensing with predatory power, ready to tumble her down. “Grey, I’m feeling a little viperous.”

“
Viperous.
Is that your new word of the day? Must use
viperous
in a sentence.”

Heath no longer tried to hide the fact that he was panting. “Take off your robe, or I’ll tear it off with my teeth.”

“I like this robe very much, Heath, and I do believe I paid for it.Toni loves La Perla.”

“I’ll pay you back.”

Toni wrapped her arms protectively around herself. “Don’t you dare!”

Heath manacled her hands and moved them aside so fast she gasped. “Take. It.The fuck. Off.
Damn you!
”

It was an almost imperceptible movement, Grey sliding from behind Toni, rising to his full height, saying in a low, dangerous voice, “Heath?”

It was all the warning he got. The next second a fist smashed into his gut, and when Heath doubled forward, he was being yanked back by the arms until Grey’s lethal murmur poured into his ear. “Apologize.”

Heath bucked his arms up, ready to tear free, but Grey tightened his hold, his voice once more ringing in his ear. “Fucking. Apologize.”

He made a strangled sound, his tormented mind registering that it was Grey speaking, his voice of reason, his common sense, and it demanded he calm down. Another voice spoke, this one soft as a whisper.

“Let him go, Grey,”Toni said.

The breath tore out of him when Grey rammed an elbow into his back, pain shooting up his neck as he dropped him down a notch. “He apologizes first.”

“Fuck you.”

“You either get yourself under control, or I take care of it for you, Heath.”

Heath slammed his head back, intent in breaking his nose, but Grey was fast, ducking to evade the blow while Heath managed to yank free. A wide distance crept between them as they faced each other, their gazes colliding with conflict.

Heath clamped his jaw tight. Grey was not what he wanted. “I’m not going to fucking hurt her,” he snapped, his attention shifting to Toni.

Heath glared past Grey’s shoulder, his lungs burning for air, his eyes holding a pair of vivid green ones in the darkness. In a hoarse, broken voice, he said, “I still want to fuck you until you scream.”

Her reply was what he’d expected, but her words held no force. “I still want to claw your eyes out.”

Grey stood guard beside the bed, his tension palpable as Heath approached her. Deliberately slowly, he lifted her hand and set it against his cheek. “Do your worst to me,” he whispered.

She was panting softly. God, would his cock stop coming up for her? How many times must he screw her? A dozen, two dozen? Her hand lay motionless on his jaw. He was trying to be calm, drawing in big gulps of air, taking her fingers and raking them across his face. “Hurt me.”

She was staring at him.

“Hurt me
.
”

She tried drawing her hand back, but he flattened it to his skin, digging his fingers into the back of hers until her fingertips bit. “I’m asking you to hurt me.”

“Stop it.”

And he groaned in anguish. “Fuck, do something to me.”

“Heath.” One second she was staring up at him; the next she was grabbing his face and crushing his mouth, and he was growling, opening, stealing inside.

Like taking a bite from a ripe peach, her taste exploded in his mouth. He tasted Baileys . . . mint . . .
Toni.
His chest expanded, his lungs stopped functioning, and he poured every ounce of himself into that kiss. It soothed his soul, all of the anger in him, and left in its place something mellow and supple and hers. And for the first time in his memory, he wanted to weep in joy. He had never felt so connected, so free.Through his rioting mind, amid the hunger and longing spreading like a firestorm through him, he held on to one thought alone:
I’m home.

It was for all the times he hadn’t kissed her . . . and it lasted an eternity. It lasted until her lips felt puffy and red and violated. It lasted as he grabbed her pretty La Perla robe and tore at it. And she whimpered when he did, no longer caring about the gown, only wanting to feel his hands on her, his mouth everywhere, wanting to feel Heath . . . one last time. Heath. His hands shook as he pulled at the tatters, yanking every scrap of fabric off her. And then he was grabbing at her head again, delving for her mouth. “Fuck, Cat, forgive me. I’m losing my mind.”

She fondled his face, his mouth so forbidden, so delicious, so hungry on her. “I’m losing mine, too.”

His tongue blistered her lips, her tongue. He was so hot. His hands were hot, his mouth, his skin. Sweat coated his every lean inch, smearing her with his fever.

Then she was lying back on the soft bed, and it was Grey in her mouth.The taste of wine and the cool, fresh savor of Grey invaded her. Her heart soared with love for him. She was in a daze, floating, dying, living. Her hands clutched at his hair, holding him to her while she plunged her tongue into his sweet mouth. Heath bit at her breast, stroking wetly across her nipple. Then hands rolled her to her side, bodies flanked her. Hot, naked bodies. And Heath was behind her, stroking a finger down the crevice between her buttocks, his voice terse.“I feel like deflowering you. Right here. Right in this tight, warm little passage. Give me something that’s mine, Toni. Something just for me.”

Grey was snaking his tongue into her mouth even as she breathed, “Yes.”

Grey’s hands traced the contours of her hips, his cock rubbing up her thigh. “Can you take us both, princess?”

Toni undulated between them, wanting to be as close to them as she could. “Yes.”

“Slowly, Heath,” Grey said, shushing her noises. Petting her pussy with his hand while she heard the slick sounds of Heath lubing himself. Heath’s hands clamped her waist like manacles. His cock probed.The breath shuddered out of him, fanning the back of her neck as he entered. Pain sliced her, stretching her. A burn flared from her core and she sobbed. She wanted it, wanted more. It was a startling pain, a sweet pain. She wanted to give it to him.

“More,” she gasped. Grey wound her leg around his hips, bringing his column against her pussy.The position opened her ass to Heath.

Heath pulled out, and her heart protested with a jarring beat. She cried out when he came back in. She cried into Grey’s mouth as Heath thrust deeper. She slid her hand around Grey’s waist, clutched at his buttocks, mewling helplessly against him.

Grey’s thumb circled her clit, then searched deep into her pussy. Two fingers parted her, probed, and readied her engorged opening for another cock. “Think you can still take this?” Him. Grey. Fat and long. Easing inside.

She gasped and flung her head back, agonizing in pleasure. Heath stopped moving, his cock pulsating within her anus to give Grey entry.Their exerted breaths echoed in her ears. She did not seem to be breathing herself when the two of them were embedded deep. Grey groaned when she bit his neck, and he began to move.A careful slide that brought a staggering wave of ecstasy through her.

“Move slowly, Heath. See if she likes it.”

Heath moved. Slowly. His fingers sank into her skin at her waist and his rocking motions gained pace as he set a rhythm. It was merciless; each time he was fully seated, he was tearing her apart. She liked it. She wanted it. Grey licked her lips, his breathing arduous on her face. “I can feel every little ripple of your pussy.”

She tossed and wormed and bucked, pushing at Grey with her hips, her noises. “Fuck me. Fuck me like Heath.” He thrust faster. Both of them plunged faster. Heath in. Grey out. Then together. Fattening her, spreading her, swelling her. She had never thought it possible to feel so full. Her body tensed. Heath’s mouth was on her shoulder, moist on her ear. “Cat, baby, you’re so tight here.”

Toni writhed, her mouth finding places to lick, her hands searching, one behind her, one in front, one for Heath, one for Grey, and she was chanting, chanting in doughy, breathy murmurs, “I love you
.
”A chant to Grey, to Heath, to what they did to her and to how they made her feel.

Heath was hammering, grunting as he took that tight, hot, dirty place, and Grey went taut when she began to scream. Coming, Heath twitched inside her as he was drained of air and strength and his juice. Toni bellowed exultantly, her orgasm overtaking her, tremor after tremor. Heath continued to push into her ass, stimulating her nerve endings, while Grey went motionless inside her. He grabbed her head, bracing himself for climax. He gave his cry into her mouth, his body spasming, three shots of milk blasting against her walls, drenching her with his heat. And finally, they fell, and swam into a deep black sleep.

Chapter Twelve

She woke with the sheets tangled around her ankles, and the bright sunlight pouring through the parted drapes.The room was cheery and quiet—and the bed was empty except for her.

Pushing her hair back, she brought her knees up beneath the blanket and sat up. Physically, she felt comfortably relaxed, but inside she felt like she’d been punched. She could not shake the sensation as she stepped into the shower, lathered her hair, scrubbed her body. One thought alone seemed to overtake her mind: Heath was leaving today.

She’d known him so little, and yet at the same time, she knew him so much!

How could things change so fast? How could you meet someone and give so much of yourself so soon?

Petulant, selfish, or greedy as it may seem . . . she did not want him to go.

When she stepped out of the shower, she dressed in one of the embroidered cotton dresses he’d given her, hoping he would remember her in it. She knew she was not going to forget him.

Emerging from the closet, she spotted Grey out on the terrace, his posture relaxed, arms crossed as he scanned the blue horizon. Water lapped at the dark ocean rocks, morning yachts floating in the distance.The breeze played with his hair, and she felt a wrench of longing so deep she had to pause to take a breath before leaning on the banister next to him.

He eyed her profile with a furrowed forehead. “You all right?”

Her smile was weak, but at least it was a smile. “Of course.”

“Heath’s gone. He took a commercial flight, wanted to get a head start.”

Something fragile and new threatened to break inside her. Hiding the bleak expression on her face, she circled a pattern with her finger on the banister. “I expected I would get to say good-bye.”

Grey watched her with a calm but intent gaze. She wished he weren’t so perceptive. “He doesn’t like good-byes.That’s Heath.”

Her arms went tight around herself, almost meeting at her back as she tipped her head to his. “Where is he flying?”

“Chicago, to pick up his things.Tomorrow to Vancouver.”

She turned away, attempting to clear her thoughts. Down on the beach, a couple strolled past, holding hands. She clung to their image like a lifeline and watched them in silence. “And what time do we arrive in Chicago?”