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Eleven
IAN COULD FEEL THE NEED, the inferno of lust, tearing through him as Kira exploded around his fingers. It tempted his control, control that had never been tempted, and tore through his mind with the razor-sharp edge of agonized hunger.
And he was running out of time.
Ian blinked the sweat from his eyes as his gaze lifted to the tinted windows that looked out beyond the Hummer. A half hour maybe, before they hit the villa. Not long enough for him to explain what seeing her with Missern, watching the bastard just touch her hair had done to him. It had made him insane with the need to claim her. Kira was a strong woman, an alpha female if he had ever met one. It made it harder for her to understand his need to protect her.
He wanted her fiery, challenging, and defiant, but he also wanted her to recognize the fact that he was in control. She had to. Her life might well depend upon it.
He didn't have the time to reach that inner woman, but he did have the time to let the hunger inside her free. To a point. God help him if he got his dick inside her; he'd be there for the rest of the night. There would be no leaving the vehicle because he'd be inside her for the rest of the night.
As her orgasm eased through her, he released her arms, slid his fingers from her giving flesh, and tore at the leather belt cinching his hips.
He couldn't take her, but he could have her mouth on him again. He needed that. The sight of her taking him with primitive pleasure, tasting him, working for his pleasure.
He watched her expression shift from satiation to renewed hunger as he pushed his pants to his thighs and drew the hard length of his cock into his hand.
"Do I get to have fun now?" Amusement filled her tone as she came slowly to her knees.
Ian braced his hand on the ceiling of the vehicle and clenched his teeth to hold back a snarl. He tightened his fingers around the shaft and watched as she licked her lips.
Then she slowly bent. Sweet God, which did he want to watch more? Her mouth taking his cock, or her tight ass as it lifted behind her?
He compromised. He watched as her lips sank over the pulsing, dark head of his cock, and he let his hand fall in a light smack to her ass.
She flinched and stilled, her eyes lifting to him. Defiance sparkled in the witchy depths, but so did pleasure and arousal. He tapped the side of her ass once more, smiling at the sharp, involuntary response that had her lifting into the sharp caress.
She didn't know if she should allow herself to enjoy it or not. That bit of feminine confusion had every possessive and dominant instinct inside him howling in pleasure. He gave her rear another light tap.
"Suck my cock, kitten. I'll take care of the rest."
She obviously didn't like the pet name either, but that was what she reminded him of. A brave little cat, hissing and spitting when challenged, even as she ached for a touch she had never had before.
It made his lust burn higher, knowing no man had ever stroked her as he did, had never taken her past her own control as he had. It was addictive, challenging, and made him want her with a desire that frankly scared the shit out of him.
His teeth clenched as the moist heat of her mouth surrounded the head of his cock. She was still watching him, wary, uncertain. He liked her like that. It would make each touch sharper, brighter for her. Keeping Kira off guard might turn into an addictive hobby. If she didn't manage to throw him off guard first.
Damn it to hell!
She tucked the throbbing crest of his cock against the roof of her mouth and beneath it, her tongue undulated, rippled over the sensitive underside and sent spears of need slamming into his balls. His scrotum drew up hard and tight as the need for release had his cock swelling further in her mouth.
His hand landed on her rear again, then he cupped the blushing globe, caressed it, stroked it as he watched her eyes. The gray deepened, the bluish rings around it darkened. Witchy eyes. Seductive eyes. Eyes that threatened to trap his soul.
"Have you ever been taken here?" He let his fingers caress the narrow crevice between the taut mounds of her rear. "Have you knelt for a lover, Kira? Let him work that pretty ass open and fill it with his cock?"
She jerked. Her eyes dilated, and he knew she hadn't. No, it would have been giving control rather than taking it.
"Haven't you imagined what it would be like to be taken there?" His body tightened at the knowledge that this was an intimacy she hadn't shared with any other lover. His cock throbbed at the thought, clenching with the warning of impending release.
Insecurity flickered in her gaze.
"I bet you're tight here." He let his finger massage the hidden little entrance as it flexed beneath his touch. "Tight and hot. Would you scream for me? Would you beg me to fuck you harder there?"
Sweat formed on her brow as he pulled her hair back with his other hand and worked his cock against her rippling tongue. He was so close to coming it was all he could do to hold the hard ejaculations back.
As he pulled the long strands over her opposite shoulder, he let his fingers twine in them, tighten.
"Suck my dick. Don't just lick it. You know what I want."
Just as he knew what she was doing. Applying direct pressure to the most sensitive spot on the hard flesh, hoping to break his control. She cupped her fingers around his hard balls, massaged and eased farther back.
The next little slap to her rear was harder, hotter. "Don't fuck with me, baby," he said softly. "Not unless you want to face the consequences."
A frown worked at her brow even as her fingers slid back to his scrotum and her mouth began to work over the head of his cock.
His gaze flickered to her blushing butt as he laid a lighter little slap to it. Pleasure, a slow heated burn that would lead her across the threshold between pleasure and pain. "You're going to lift your sweet ass to me. Just a little higher, baby. Lift to me, so I can make it burn so good."
She moaned around his cock, her suckling mouth drawing on him deeper as her eyes seemed to glaze. But she did it. Pulled her knees in tighter and lifted to him.
Sweat dripped down his back as he fought to hold on to his control just a few more minutes. Just a little longer. He wanted her to come with him. He wanted her to know, in this instance, that he controlled her body, her response, and her orgasms.
He guided her mouth with his hand in her hair, pulling at the thick strands, his cock fucking her mouth as he delivered the little slaps to her ass, drawing closer to the saturated flesh of her bare pussy, making her burn. Inside and out.
She was weaker to this form of pleasure than she knew. He could see it on her expression as she tried to fight it, feel it in the suckling heat of her mouth as she tried to push him over the edge before he managed to push her across the threshold.
His. She belonged to him. He felt it in his soul; she defied him, challenged him with her eyes, pricked at his control with the fierce, heated draws of her mouth. She licked and consumed him until the need to breathe was pleasure and pain, until sweat coated his body and his lungs labored for oxygen.
Her moans echoed around his erection and filled his head, just as the sound of his hand meeting her ass began to match the moaning breaths.
"That ass is mine. That sweet pussy is mine." He laid his hand to her rear again and again, feeling her burn in the cries that surrounded his cock and seeing it in the darkening of her eyes.
She belonged to him.
Just a little more, he knew. He clenched his teeth, allowed his hand to fall harder, closer to her soaked pussy, brightening her flesh and throwing her past the boundary of pleasure and pain. To a place where the two merged. Where they blended in a chaotic storm of hunger and need.
"You're going to come for me, Kira." Her eyes were nearly black, her mouth tight, hungry, as she drew on him, taking him nearly to her throat now, her ass lifting for him, her moans urging him on.
"Feel it, kitten." He kept his voice low, grating. Working easily toward the blissful zone he knew he had drawn he
r into. A place where nothing mattered but the sensation, the burn of the pleasure and the coming release. "Feel how hot and wet you are." He laid a gentler though burning caress between her thighs. Once. Twice. Back to her ass. Then to the bare flesh of her pussy.
She was shaking now. Shuddering. And God help him, he couldn't hold back. He could feel the cum boiling in his balls, threatening to overflow.
"Come for me, Kira." He delivered a firmer tap against her pussy, then back to her ass. "Give me what I need, baby."
Back to her pussy. Once. Twice. He moved back to her ass then, the little slaps gaining in speed and strength until he felt her explode, heard her scream on his cock. His head fell back as he forced back a shout of release and filled her mouth with his come.
Each jerking, shuddering ejaculation tore a throttled cry from his lips even as he plunged his fingers into the tight depths of her convulsing pussy to feel the release that flowed over his fingers.
She consumed him. Sucked the seed from his balls, and left him so damned weak he nearly collapsed over her. He caught his weight on the back of the seat, his breathing labored, jerky, as the final spurts of his semen filled her mouth.
As soon as he could think, move, Ian eased back from her, pulled his pants to his hips and found his seat before pulling her into his lap. He couldn't give her time to consider what had happened until he gave her body time to ease into the implications of it. Surrender to a woman like Kira was as much about pleasing the mind and the heart as it was about pleasing her body.
"I didn't like that." Her voice was husky, uncertain, as he tucked her head beneath his chin and let his hands caress the rippling shudders that raced through her body. "Not at all. And you call me kitten again, and I'll kill you in your sleep."
"I could tell you just hated it when you drenched my fingers with your orgasm," he mused with a smile. He kept his voice gentle, allowed her to hear and to feel his complete approval of her response.
She was silent as she lay against him then, her arms looped around his neck and holding tight to him.
"Don't do it again," she finally breathed out weakly.
A smile curled his lips and he bent his head over hers and held her to him. God, he loved holding her. Having her in his arms, soft as a sleepy kitten with its claws still extended.
"Maybe I'll do something different next time," he drawled, finding himself wondering at the amusement and sheer pleasure he felt in just this. Just holding her, teasing her.
"Maybe I will too." She nipped his jaw, but he felt her smile.
"You probably will." He pressed her head against him, his heart finally easing its frantic beat as he stared outside the Hummer.
She was a match for him, he had known that all along. Was that why he had avoided beginning a relationship with her? Kira would never stay home, safe and secure, while he fought, and he knew it now. She would always be at his back whether she was supposed to be or not and that was a frightening realization.
He hadn't been lying when he told her he was the worst chauvinist she would ever meet. He was. Protecting her was a part of who he was, ingrained in him during the years he had fought and nearly failed to protect his delicate mother. Women were to be protected, cherished, not placed in the front lines of a dirty, underground war.
"You have to be careful," he told her quietly, staring outside the Hummer rather than at her. "Diego won't hesitate to kill you if he feels threatened." Or if he felt she threatened Ian. That knowledge sliced at him.
"I'm trained in covert ops, Ian," she reminded him again. "I know what I'm doing."
He nodded slowly. He had to give her that. She had survived in the covert underworld for a decade now. A woman couldn't accomplish that unless she knew exactly what she was doing.
"Mistakes happen when emotions get involved," he told her quietly. And, boy, were his emotions involved. "Stay on guard. We're running out of time here. We are and Sorrell is as well. He needs the Fuentes connections to pull off the strike he has planned effectively. We need his identity to stop it. When things go from sugar to shit, and I know they will, I want you safe."
"As safe as you are?"
And that terrified him.
"Safer," he whispered. "I want you safer."
He tucked her against him once again and stared at the black partition that separated the back from the driver's area. They would be close to the villa now. The villa where Diego had no doubt already heard about the confrontation with the Misserns, as well as Kira.
The bastard had been desperate for Ian to find a woman. Not for any softer reasons such as his son's happiness. No, he needed a weakness he could exploit, and Ian knew it. And now, Ian held that weakness in his arms. One neither Diego nor Sorrell would hesitate to use if he gave them the chance.
KIRA WAS DECENT WHEN THE Hummer drew to a stop in front of the Fuentes villa. Her dress was no longer around her hips, and her hair was hastily smoothed out.
If only Ian's demeanor could be fixed as easily.
Five minutes from the villa and he had grown silent, cold. His clothes were restored and the icy façade was back in place. She was only now realizing how much she hated that façade.
As Deke opened the back door and helped her from the vehicle, the villa's front door opened, and Diego Fuentes leaned lazily against the entrance, his head tilted as he watched her curiously.
For a man in his fifties, nearing sixty, he was in excellent shape. His black hair was mostly gray now, his face lined, but his silk slacks and white shirt covered a body that was well toned. There was no doubt he took excellent care of himself.
And she could easily see now that Ian had taken some of his looks from his biological father. But she had already known that. The heavy brows, the strong slash of cheekbones, the sensual lips.
Ian moved past him, his fingers locked on Kira's arm as he pulled her into the foyer.
Diego's smile faltered. "We need to discuss a few things before you retire, Ian." Diego's voice sharpened as they passed him.
"It can wait—"
"This cannot wait." Diego overrode Ian's objections. "I will meet you in my study in twenty minutes. This will give you time to escort your friend to your room or wherever you intend for her to spend her nights and to meet me in my study. I will be awaiting you there."
Diego turned on his heel and stalked through the foyer to the back hall, leaving Kira and Ian standing just inside, surrounded by the bodyguards.
This was a mess. How in the world did Ian survive the daily tension that she could sense between him and his father?
She looked around the opulent entrance, glimpsing the high-ceilinged main room to the right and the dining area that opened behind it.
"It's a very nice villa." It was one step down from an elaborate mansion. The Fuenteses definitely lived well.
"It's something," Ian muttered. "Come on, I'll show you to my room and then go see what the old man wants."
The shadow of bitterness in his voice wasn't lost on her, though she doubted anyone could have caught it unless they had studied the shades of his voice as she had each time she heard him speak. A mix of regret, sadness, and fury. It gave his voice a grating edge, deepened it. And broke her heart.
He led her across the foyer to the curved wooden staircase. With his hand firmly at her back, his fingers rubbing almost imperceptibly against the silk of her dress, he led her up the stairs.
Along the hall, double doors were opened by a housemaid with a shy smile before she retreated in the opposite direction. Behind them, the three remaining bodyguards trailed like ghosts.
He pushed open the doors into a wide sitting area complete with a wide-screen television, a wet bar, and a wide, comfortable couch. "The bedroom is in here." He led her across the room to another set of doors. Pushing them open, he stood back and allowed her to step into the room. She almost wished she had stayed in the sitting room.
The huge, larger-than-king-sized bed dominated the room. It was surrounded with shimmering panels of
netting, and the massive posts and thick mattress were intimidating. But the metal rings set in the corners and the middle of the headboard and footboard had her swallowing tightly. She knew what those rings were for. She had been in the fringe clubs and on the periphery of the BDSM clubs long enough to know how easily those rings would hold the slender chains attached to wrist and ankle cuffs.
Across from the bed was a heavy mirrored chest, a dresser off to another side of the room. There were metal rings set in one wall as well.
"Interesting." She tried for nonchalant as she murmured the word. "Did you decorate it yourself?"
A sharp laugh left his throat. "Not hardly. It came this way. Make yourself at home, I shouldn't be long. One of my men will bring your things when Daniel arrives with them."
"Daniel is staying close by, Ian." She turned as he moved to leave the room. "Make certain he's given a room."
"We'll discuss this when I return." His expression hardened. "And before you argue, hold the thought. We can fight it out after I get finished with Diego. Just try to stay out of trouble until then."
She gave him a brief, quick nod, even as her teeth clenched to hold back the very argument he was talking about. Daniel was nonnegotiable though. He and Jason both would likely have a stroke if he wasn't close enough to keep an eye on her. It had been bad enough when she worked the Atlanta mission and ended up shot. Damn, it had taken her months before she was allowed to go to the bathroom without one of them standing outside the door.
"I'll see you in a bit," he said, and before she could react, he cupped her neck in his hand, jerked her to him for a brief, hard kiss, then turned and left the suite.
Kira lifted her fingers to her lips, an involuntary smile touching them at the tingling feel of that forceful kiss. She wondered if he was aware of the expression on his face when he had delivered it. It wasn't just sexual. Something else had been brewing in his eyes, almost a promise.
She turned, stared at the bed again, and let her eyes drift closed in regret.