Page 29

His gaze dropped to her ass. He let out a groan. Long red welts covered her from her lower back to the top of her thighs. He’d been excruciatingly careful not to break her gorgeous skin, but some of the streaks were raw enough to make him uncomfortable. Fuck, he hadn’t been careful enough. Regret coated his mouth. He was about to apologize when he caught the look in her eyes.
Raw, filthy, hunger.
“Jesus, you love being fucking sore, don’t you?”
She stared back unapologetically. “You woke something inside of me. I don’t see the point in denying what this does to me.”
He released his grip on the edge of his desk, reached blindly behind him until his fingers closed over what he wanted. He fumbled with his phone until he found the right app. At the sound of the camera clicking, she spun around, shock widening her eyes.
“Oh God, you took a photo of me?”
“Specifically of your ass, yes.” He turned the camera and showed it to her.
She stumbled toward him. “Noah, please delete it.”
“It doesn’t show your face. No one would know it was—” His insides froze. “Tell me you don’t think I’d ever violate your privacy like that asshole did.”
Her eyes squeezed shut for a second and shook her head. “The way you feel about me right now, I don’t know what you’ll do next. That’s my honest answer.”
Noah forced himself to keep breathing until he had himself under control. “Come here.”
He made space between his legs, and she stopped a few inches from him. Having her this close, her skirt around her waist and her sweet pussy within touching distance, was fucking torture. But he resisted the urge to slide his fingers between her thighs.
Shifting his position, he adjusted the pressure on his cock and angled his phone toward her. “For the last six months, I’ve been working with a couple of grad students from MIT with a view to King’s Ransom backing them. Without going into technical and confidential detail, they’ve developed hack-proof software that can be used to store sensitive data.”
“No software is hack-proof.”
“It is if it’s developed by two of the world’s best hackers. It’s triple-password protected and encrypted. No one will see this picture but me. But let me ask you this—if you had a compromising picture of me, would I be able to trust you with it?”
She bit her lip. “Yes.”
He nodded, then gave up trying to resist touching her. He slid his thumb over her lips and nearly groaned when she parted them. “Do you want me to delete it?”
“Not if you’re sure… No.”
He stared at her, saw the unadulterated need in her face and quickly made up his mind. Jesus, if she wanted him even half as much as he wanted her, surely they could find a way? He slid one hand into her hair and the other gently over her ass. “Does it hurt when I touch you?”
“A little but… Noah?—”
“Shhh, just let me soothe you for a minute.” For reasons he hadn’t yet been able to fathom, she wanted him but was denying herself the chance to be with him. He wasn’t ashamed to use sexto sway her. What they had was too powerful, too potent, to let it go.
Sexy mewling sounds purred from her throat as he petted her. Her eyelids drooped and she stepped closer.
He leaned forward to kiss her… and cursed when a loud noise buzzed from his desk.
Letting her go, he stabbed the intercom.
“Maddie, I told you I didn’t want to be disturbed.”
“I know, Mr. King, and I’m sorry, but your private line has been flashing for a while and I answered it. It’s… it’s the specialist, confirming that he’s able to see you and Miss Maitland first thing tomorrow for the DNA test. Shall I tell him it’s okay?”
Jaw clenching, he looked up and saw the pale horror on Leia’s face. He half expected her to clamp her hands over her ears to block out the conversation.
Any hope he’d been harboring about how she felt about him died a painful death.
Jerking away from her, he spoke into the intercom. “Yes, confirm it.”
He hung up and faced Leia. Her skirt was back in place, her handbag on her shoulder. “Do you hate kids? Is that it?” he asked.