Unbind (22 page)

“You’re beautiful,” he said, pointing to my heart, “in here.”

He took my breath away, saying something like that, his deep eyes never leaving mine. I slid my legs around his body and he lifted to position himself, entering me slowly.

He began gently making love to me because we were both pretty raw from earlier. His kiss was powerful and desperate while he clung to my body and I urged, “I’m not going anywhere, Cai.”

He feared it would never last; I wanted it to go on forever.

“I have to make love to you, Chloe.” He held my breast and kissed my flesh.

He brought us both to sitting, me across his lap. I quickly got the feeling my arse was something he liked, his hands all over me there.

“Hmm,” he groaned, kissing behind my ear while we lifted up and down together, “tell me what you like.”

“Your kiss… the way you taste me with your nose.”

“Oh yeah? Oh god… I’ll never get used to how good you feel around me.”

I picked up the pace a bit, jamming my feet in the mattress behind him to gain more control. I lifted my hands over my head and shut my eyes. I wasn’t of myself then, I was floating and free. He latched onto a nipple and didn’t let go.

“I love how protected you make me feel. With your arms around me, keeping me safe, holding me even when I’m wild like this.”

He moaned, close to climax, his arms wrapped around me what felt like twice over.

My back snapped back as ecstasy neared and when he flicked his thumb over my clit, I soared. He barked his own release against my chest, begging for mercy.

“Hot damn, woman.”

We both fell back on the mattress laughing, laid facing one another. I threw a leg over his body and linked one of my hands with his, kissing his fingers. I sighed and briefly closed my eyes, hanging onto blissful moments, storing them delicately between folded sheets of tissue paper.

He touched my face and gave me one of those looks… a man in love, appearing shy and in pain. He tucked some hair behind my ears and stroked my cheeks while I stared at him. Whatever needed healing in him—I wanted to heal.

“When did you know that you loved me?” I asked him with a grin.

He groaned and buried his head in the pillow, flipping onto his front. “Fuck… why do chicks gotta be knowing all our shit?”

“Ha! Cos, that’s why!” I giggled and laid my head in the dip of his back, clutching his hands in mine, my arms resting on top of his.

He turned his head slightly and I pecked his mouth.

“You really wanna know?”

“Yeah. Why not?”

He coughed to clear his throat, his voice gorgeously timid. “In the Savoy. When I understood it wasn’t about the mark… that it was something more.”

“You could see the mark?” I frowned to myself.

“I couldn’t see it but once… when we were kissing, I touched it.”

“I feel… confused.” I felt sure I’d remember that but then I didn’t know much about anything, every time he kissed me.

“I did, too. Until I understood why you go round like you don’t give a damn… it’s really that you’re just so fragile inside.”

“Cai—” I began but didn’t know what else to say. I couldn’t believe the things he was saying. Was I so transparent?

“What I should’ve said was… that was the moment I let myself love you. Maybe before then, I just… thought of you as a threat to me.”

“A threat?”

He breathed into the pillow. “Another person who might leave me.”

I stuttered and began to cry, really ugly cry. He quickly whipped onto his back and held me against his chest. Nobody had seen that I was fragile, not in such a long time. It was a relief.

AFTER we cleaned up in the shower, I attempted to make the best of what was left of my earlier preened self.

“New York always gets this hot in the summer?” I asked while I tried to smooth the creases in my dress before putting it back on.

I saw he had air conditioning installed but it wasn’t switched on as far as I could tell. He was happy suffering the heat.

“It does get hot,” he said, pulling a clean shirt on from the walk-in closet, doing up the buttons. “But I have Latin blood. I like the heat and grew up roaming the outdoors, until I was 14 at least.”

He went downstairs and into the kitchen at that point and I knew it was because there was something he was going to say next, but didn’t want to. Something about the look on his face.

I followed and stood in the doorway, fanning myself with a hand. I’d lost all my make-up and my kit was back at the hotel.

“When you left London, the temptation to read about you on the net was too great.”

He turned with a glass of water in his hand and seemed anxious, his lips in a tight line. He replied wearily, “Everything but the truth is online.”

“Don’t worry,” I walked forward, my arms out ready to stroke his shoulders. “I don’t believe anything until I see or hear it for myself. Working in this business long enough, you get to realise how stuff can become so mixed up. Always better to seek the truth from the source.”

He put his glass on the side and lifted his hands to holds my cheeks, ignoring what I said. He pressed a soft kiss to my lips and sighed, pulling me into his tight embrace. I burrowed against his chest and sighed too, until his hand came up to the exact place I didn’t want it to.

“Are you gonna tell me
this
story?” His voice was quiet while he traced the scar.

“One day,” I murmured, as I held the muscles of his back, taking succour while I could. I wondered if he’d hate me when he found out.

“One day, I’ll open my wound too,” he assured me, kissing the top of my head. “Not right now, though.”

“Okay,” I breathed against his chest, taking in his spiced scent.

“You’re the boss. What shall we do tonight?” he asked, pulling my chin up between his thumb and forefinger. I could see what was happening between us was making him feel mightier, giving him the assurance he craved. He stood taller and didn’t avoid my eyes anymore.

“I thought I’d know but… now I’m here, it’s kind of daunting.”

“Hmm,” he looked thoughtful. “You’ll crash here this week? Yeah?”

I wanted to, but wasn’t sure it was right. “What and tell Trevor I am staying at Kincaid Matthews’ place? It’ll be all over the newswire within seconds.”

Cai laughed loudly, his amusement echoing around the apartment. He pulled me tight into his arms again and I snuggled, right under his chin. His hugs weren’t shy, but strong and possessive, and the most comforting I’d had in years. He didn’t want to let go. Not now.

Cai whispered, “Empty your room but don’t tell him. Let’s keep it hush-hush.”

“And waste a whole hotel room for a week? The maids will know nobody is staying there!”

“Oh yeah,” he conceded, “hadn’t thought of that. Hmm. Well, you know, I’m shooting on Tuesday and Wednesday. Late shoots, too.”

I reached up and kissed his throat absentmindedly, taking his taste into my mouth. I nuzzled and mewled, scraping my lips across his stubble.

“What are you shooting?”

“Keep doing that, we’ll never leave this place,” he warned, squeezing his hands on my arse. I kept on though, tasting his skin. “Hmm, yeah, I’m shooting a bunch of models who all wanna hit this.”

I punched his chest and he stumbled back to the counter, caught off guard. His eyes wide. “Jealous?”

“No,” I tried to convince him. I was. I was so jealous.

“
Okay
,” he stepped back to me, taking me gently in his arms, “perhaps what I should’ve said was I will be forced to spend time with a bunch of preening posers who don’t interest me because they don’t have your eyes, or your smile.”

I hit him harder and he chuckled. Between his laughter, he demanded, “Better?”

“You know I don’t give a shit. I am what I am.”

“That’s the best thing,” he replied, and kissed me hard on the forehead. “Some must hate you a little for it… you don’t care what they think.”

He took my hand and led me out into the apartment again, talking as we walked. “Shall we say… you stay at your hotel Monday and Tuesday night, it’ll put Trev off the scent. In fact, I might rough it with you Wednesday night. Though it’ll be a job sneaking in without paps snatching us.”

“Thursday is my last night,” I reminded him.

“Well, then,” he took his keys and phone off the hall sideboard as we left, shutting the door behind us, “we’ll make a night of it. I’ll organise a thing for your last night.”

Last night.
The words made my stomach roil, the thought of leaving him unbearable.

“Okay,” I grinned. Or tried to.

We kissed hard in the elevator as we rode back down to his car. He pulled back, gripping my waist. “You’ll stay tonight and tomorrow? Yeah? Please say yes. My cock will pine if not.”

“Ugh. Such a boy!” I mock-thumped him, and he shot me a set of desperate eyes that soaked my underwear. “Hmm. Alright, if you can swing by the hotel so I can get some things?” Namely some clean undies. It was a good job I carried a spare pair, but I knew there was no guarantee on those lasting either! “Then drop me downtown by nine a.m. sharp Monday?”

“Can do.” He kissed me again.

“Then… I’ll stay.”

“Good. I can spoil you.”

I narrowed my eyes and warned, “I’m not the kind of girl who needs
that
.”

“No, you’re just the kind of girl who doesn’t know it’s good to be spoiled… now and again,” his eyebrows wiggled.

A compromise? I could deal with that.

I squeezed his buttock hard and he had to tell me off, again. “You’ll kill me doing that all night. Behave!”

I laughed raucously and wondered where the hell I was—in a dream? It was so easy between us. So wonderful. We walked to his vehicle and climbed in.

“I love your car.”

“You’ll love it better when I fuck you in it upstate one time.”

“I thought your thoughts needed to be off sex,” I giggled and squeezed his cock over his jeans. He was semi-hard. It was admirable after our workout earlier.

“We’ll get arrested doing this in public,” he warned.

“Oh, would that be bad?” I sucked my finger, retracting to show him the moist digit.

“Chloe,” his voice warned, “I
will
toss you over my shoulder and take you back up there.”

“I’m stopping. I’m too hungry!” I spluttered with laughter.

He took a deep breath and shook his head from side to side, his eyes squeezed shut. “Old lady pants… wrinkled hosiery. Shit, it’s not working.”

I doubled over with laughter in the passenger seat and he gripped the steering wheel as we left the underground garage. “Chinatown, hmm?”

The sound of that had my mouth watering. “Then?”

“The night is ours.”

I reached across and kissed his cheek and while we rode to Manhattan, I watched other cars and their occupants. I pictured their lives and wondered, were our true destinations other people?

WE ATE THE best dim sum I’d ever tasted while sat at the counter pressed together, kissing and murmuring in each other’s ears. I wondered what Kayla might say if she could see me, or what my Dad would come up with to let me know it’d not last, so I might as well give up now.

My father hadn’t ever told me he disapproved of my life choices, but his lack of compliments and grunts over the years had sealed my belief that he thought I was barking mad for pursuing a career in writing. For pursuing anything outside our hometown, in fact.

Cai broke my reverie when he slid his credit card across the shiny red countertop, nodding to the attendant.

“I want to pay half,” I pouted.

“No way,” he shook his head and handed me a fortune cookie.

I broke mine in one hand and slid the paper out with the same fingers, managing to keep both halves from falling while I slid the paper into my free hand.

“What talented fingers my missus has,” he joked, in a bad put-on English accent. He’d been making fun of my accent all night. I secretly adored it however, and I adored his accent.