The Dare Collection January 2020. Lauren Hawkeye
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swallowed, trying to breathe properly. ‘Are you saying I’m subtle and mysterious?’
‘You’re definitely mysterious.’ His mouth brushed behind my ear once more, heat washing over me. ‘Thea.’ It sounded as if he was tasting my name, turning it into something sensual rather than just the first name the nun who’d found me on her doorstep had given me.
My head fell back against his shoulder, my eyelids feeling heavy. They wanted to close, and my body wanted to lean into his heat and strength, let him touch me any way he wanted. Take as much pleasure from him before the hard slap of reality came again—because it did; it always did.
You’ll go back to being a ghost in the walls again.
‘What are you doing here?’ Damian’s fingers spread out, cupping my breast gently in his palm. His thumb teased my already hard nipple, making me gasp. ‘Who are you?’
Why not tell him?
So many reasons, not the least being Mr Chen’s business. He’d treated me like a daughter and that required that I protect what he’d built. Even though he’d decided against formally adopting me in the end.
‘You’re not my blood, Thea,’ he’d told me. ‘And, anyway, you’re too unstable. Too wild.’
It had been hard to hear that, to know that no matter how hard I’d tried to force my feelings down to take on the lessons of calm and silence that he’d taught me, I still hadn’t been good enough for him. But that was okay.
He’d left me his business and that was a pretty major gesture of trust all on its own. And if looking after that legacy meant I remained alone, well, so be it.
I’d always thought I was okay with it, but now, with Damian’s arms around me, I wasn’t so sure. Would it be so bad to share a few things about myself with another person? I’d already given him my name, after all.
His thumb brushed steadily back and forth over my aching nipple and I shut my eyes. ‘I’m Thea Smith.’ My surname another name the English nuns had given me. ‘And, yes, I’m here to steal the Red Queen. But it’s not for me. It’s for someone else.’
‘Who?’
That teasing thumb brushed over me again, pleasure an electric shock through my system. I sighed and leaned back into him. ‘I don’t know. Everything is done through a middle man. I never know who I’m reacquiring for.’
‘Reacquiring?’
Another electric touch, firmer. A soft pinch that made my breath catch. ‘That’s what I do. I reacquire items that have been stolen.’
Are you sure telling him this is a good idea? You don’t know what he might do with the information.
No, of course it wasn’t a good idea. But I was sick of being in the shadows, sick of not being seen. Sick of not being known.
Sick of not existing.
The sun was against my closed lids and Damian’s fingers on my breast were light, teasing. ‘Reacquisition,’ he echoed. ‘Interesting thing to call it. But there’s no record of the Red Queen being stolen.’
‘It must have been at some stage in its history otherwise I wouldn’t have been asked to reacquire it.’
‘Hmm.’ His hand spread out, cupping me, while his other hand slid down over my stomach, his fingers tangling in the curls between my thighs. ‘I guess I need to look into that.’ He pulled on the curls very gently, then his finger moved, finding my clit and grazing it lightly. I stiffened, pleasure lancing through me sharp and bright. ‘You need to tell me more about this reacquisition business.’
‘Do I...have to do it now?’ My hips lifted against his touch, restlessness and need filling me.
His laugh vibrated against my back, a deep, soft rumble that somehow made everything hotter. ‘Getting desperate, hmm?’
I shifted again, pressing back against him, the hard ridge of his cock digging into me. ‘Can you stop talking for once?’
Another sexy laugh and then I felt his teeth against the side of my neck, the sensation making me shudder in delight. ‘Can you blame me for being interested? I like a mystery.’ His finger slid around my clit and then over it, and I sucked in a ragged breath as the fierce pleasure of the sensation gripped me tight. ‘And I’ve never met a mystery like you.’
He might feel differently when he finds out how very un-mysterious you are.
The thought drifted through my head like smoke, but I let it dissipate. Of course he would, but I couldn’t think about that now. Not with his hands on me and the pleasure that was gradually building.
‘Why didn’t you tell me you were a virgin?’ The finger between my legs was stroking slowly, sliding over my slippery flesh and finding the entrance to my body, teasing me. ‘I would have been more careful with you.’
‘Because...’ I gasped as he slid his finger inside me, making me arch against his hand.
‘Because?’
‘I thought...you might stop. And I didn’t want you to.’ It wasn’t the entire truth, but it was all my brain was capable of.
‘Bad girl.’ The hand on my breast tightened, his fingers pinching my nipple harder, scattering bright sparks of pleasure through me. ‘You need to tell me about this stuff. I want it to be good for you, understand?’
But my brain was starting to lose the capacity to listen, let alone understand.
‘Damian.’ His name escaped on a ragged breath as I shuddered against him.
‘What? You want more?’ His teeth closed around the cords of my neck, biting down gently, making me gasp. ‘You want me to fuck you, is that what you’re trying to say?’
‘Yes.’ The word escaped on a hiss as he bit me again, his finger sliding out then into me in a long, slow glide. I didn’t even have to think about it, my body was aching for him. ‘Oh, please...’
‘But that’s not the real question. The real question you should be asking is whether you’ve answered all the questions to my satisfaction.’ He worked me with his finger and then added another, stretching me lightly as he kissed and nipped my neck and shoulder. ‘And I’m not sure that you have.’
‘Stop.’ I groaned as his other hand tortured my aching nipple. ‘Talking.’
He laughed again, his hands reducing me to a trembling, gasping mess. ‘I said you couldn’t come until you answered my questions.’
But I could feel the demand rising in me and I didn’t fight it, grinding my butt against his hard groin in response, turning his laugh into a curse then a growl. He propelled me forward to the huge windows that looked out over office towers and apartment blocks, the teeming traffic and crowds far below, and I shook as he gently pressed me face-first against the window, the glass cool against my burning skin.
‘But I want to see you,’ I protested as I looked out over Kowloon, suddenly feeling exposed. When I’d realised I wanted to be seen, I hadn’t meant pressed up against a window naked in full view of all of Hong Kong.
But then he was behind me, a wall of heat as he pressed his body up against the length of mine. ‘The window is reflective. No one can see in, I promise.’ His hands ran lightly down my sides, making goose bumps rise all over me, and I groaned, shifting against him. ‘Restless, Sugar? You’re so watchful and still, but you’re not really, are you? Not when you want me.’
No, I wasn’t still now. I was hot, desperate, needy. All the things that I couldn’t be in the kind of business I was in. All the things I wasn’t allowed to be.
And right now I didn’t care. The only thing that mattered was him and his hands on my body.
‘Damian...’