Page 20 of Gilded

I step out of my sandals and crawl onto the bed until he wraps a strong arm around me and pulls me close. I rest my head against his shoulder and watch the storm rage through the windows.

I realize I’ve never felt whatever it is I’m feeling now, which makes it hard to explain and understand. It’s also unnerving. I know I shouldn’t let my barriers drop, but my heart has been aching for connection my entire life.

He’s silent, absently playing with my hair, and with every quiet minute that passes, my angst over being in bed with him lowers and my body settles.

For an unfathomable reason, tears leak from my eyes. I don’t know if they’re from loss or pain or fear or even happiness. I just feel emotion winding through me, pushing tears out.

If you cry with Soren, he’ll beat the shit out of you.

His words just weeks ago seem so foreign. So unlike the man I’m lying with now. “What happened between the time you came here and now? You’re different.”

“I guess I have a better perspective on the situation here.”

I don’t understand, but I also don’t really care what changed. I just want to keep him this way. “I like this version of you better.”

Outside, more lightning and thunder rumble, but much farther from the island, and it helps me relax a little more.

“Have you always been afraid of storms?” he asks.

“No. I used to love them. In fact, in summer storms, I often wander the island and come back soaked to the bone. It’s one of the only things that makes me feel truly alive.”

“What changed?”

“The dock.” I decide to just get it out there instead of having the incident hanging between us. “I tried to leave during a bad storm. I guess it’s a little PTSD.”

“You can’t swim, and you can’t operate a boat, but you tried to leave during a storm?”

“It was…impulsive.” To say the least. “I’m surprised they didn’t tell you.”

“They must not think you’ll try again.”

“The guards keep an extra close eye on me now. They’d never let me leave.”

“What happened to make you so desperate? Was it marrying Soren?”

“No. That all happened after.”

“After what?”

I take a breath, still feeling so foolish over the whole thing. “After I found out what my father does and didn’t want to be part of it.”

He shifts and turns my head so I’m looking into his eyes. An off-centered vertical line dives between his brows. “Are you telling me that before last month, you didn’t know your father is a trafficking mogul?”

“I know I’m naive, but it felt glaring when I learned that.”

“What did you think he did all this time?”

“He said he ran an import-export business. I understood that to mean he imports goods from other countries and sells them in the US, but I never knew what those goods were. I thought it had to be something valuable, given his extreme security measures. Precious metals or stones. Maybe diamonds or coins or artwork. Finding out it was people…” I shake my head. “I feel so stupid.”

“How did you find out?”

“I got a letter from a federal prosecutor telling me the charity was being investigated for money laundering. I wanted to get all the information I could before I brought it to my father, so he didn’t blow up.

The charity is the only thing I live for, and the thought of him taking it away from me was terrifying.

I thought if I could solve the problem, he would see I’m competent.

“When I was acting as the charity’s director, before my father took the job away, I found discrepancies in the charity’s deposits, withdrawals, payments, and transfers that I didn’t understand.

The closer I looked, the more I found. Hundreds of millions of dollars paid out to organizations and people I’ve never heard of. Dead ends that didn’t make any sense.”

He’s attentive, soaking in my every word. I’ve never felt so engaged with someone. Yari was nice, and we talked about a lot of things, but this is different in a way that’s hard to describe or even understand.

“The more I dug, the murkier it got, and I realized I couldn’t do it by myself, so I hired a forensic accountant and a private investigator without telling anyone.

The accountant was able to follow some of the largest payments to an organization that looked legit at first, but one he discovered had deep ties to trafficking rings in several countries.

At that point, I didn’t even know what trafficking was.

I still had internet for the business at the time, and a search told me everything I didn’t want to know.

I held on to denial at first, telling myself it was all a mistake. Crossed wires. Something.”

Now that I’ve started talking about it, now that I have someone who will listen, I can’t wait to get it all out.

“As soon as I told my father about the letter, I knew it was all true. The look on his face, his instant fury to cover for the fear, frantic calls to Soren and the lawyers, then to people in the field. I had to sneak around to overhear their conversations, but it all confirmed my worst fears.”

I sit up and twist toward him. “Listen. You need to make sure you don’t show any favoritism toward me. They’ll pick up on it. I don’t care if they kill me, but I don’t want anything happening to you.”

“Why do you think they’d kill either of us? This is business, and we both have something they want and need.”

I can’t go there. Not tonight. I’m too wrung out to hash out all the details. They don’t matter to Luka anyway. “Neither of them handles anger well. And it’s easy to make them mad. Me breathing, for instance.”

A smile flickers over his mouth before it dies, and his expression goes serious…and dark. Dark in that sexual way. My body lights up like a sparkler, but a pinch of fear squeezes too. Fear of the unknown.

He cups my cheek, but instead of kissing me, he just scans my face as if he’s trying to memorize it. When he pulls me in, his kiss is hungry and instantly sets my banked need on fire. He pulls me on top of him as he lies back, and I stretch against his body, reveling in the hard, warm feel of him.

When I shift to find a comfortable fit, his erection sinks into my lower belly, and a wild craving I could never have imagined before this sings through me.

His tongue is doing wild things to my mouth, and I lose the ability to think.

He strokes my back, grips my ass, and pulls me in, rubbing his cock between my legs.

The pleasure that blasts through me makes me moan.

He hums in return and rolls, flipping my body underneath him. My thighs automatically part, but he lifts his hips, and I lose the delicious pressure. I whimper in complaint, wanting to beg for something I don’t understand and can’t put into words.

His mouth breaks from mine, moving to my neck as he shifts his body lower and farther out of reach.

I’m aching with the loss until his mouth presses against my shoulder and his hand covers my breast. I let myself get lost in the feel of his hands on my body, and the way my insides fizz at his touch.

My dress rides up, and his hand presses against my thigh. I’m absorbed by all the new and wild sensations when his mouth drops against my belly, then moves upward, taking my dress with it, exposing my body.

I’m panting and squirming when his mouth covers my breast. His movements are strong and deliberate, whipping up a firestorm. His body pins mine while he kisses, bites, licks, and nuzzles until I’m dizzy with passion. My body feels heavy but alive. As alive as the wild storm.

As he moves lower, my hands slide into his hair, and I move restlessly beneath him.

“Did you do what I told you to do while I was gone?” he asks.

I fight to find context.

“Touch yourself?” he adds.

“Oh.” I can’t think. “I, um, kind of.”

“Were you able to climax?”

“Climax?”

“Orgasm.”

“Oh.” My face heats. “I don’t know.”

“If you’d had an orgasm, you’d know.”

With his shoulders forcing my legs open, he sinks his teeth into my inner thigh, making me gasp. Then he licks the sting, and molten lava spreads through my pelvis.

I’m already throbbing when he slides my thong down my legs, then stands to pull it off my feet. And he stays there, looking down at me while I swear I’m going up in flames.

He eases back down to the bed, pushes his hands under my ass, and lifts me as he drops his head. I don’t have time to get words or questions out before his mouth covers my pussy, and the storm outside sneaks inside my body to ravage me.

I fist the shoulder of his shirt in one hand, his hair in the other.

“Fuck.” I breathe the word around a throat tight with a thrill I’ve never even imagined. My brain is trying to function, but Luka is turning it to stardust with every lick and suck.

Whatever he’s doing is thrilling and pushes my body into a place it’s never been. The wicked intensity obliterates all thought and forces my body to work off pure physical need.

He varies the pressure, pushing me until I arch, then backing off until I throb. His fingers join his mouth, tugging and rubbing to create exquisite torture. Then his fingers push inside me.

My eyes fly open to the ceiling. But before I can get my mind around anything, he’s moving, his fingers creating delicious pressure. Both of my hands find their way into his hair, my back arches, and my body erupts in a wave of sensation that could only be what people describe as ecstasy.