High Stakes (The Kingdom Book 2) (28 page)

He laughs. “Well, you look pretty sick to me. Your skin is the palest I’ve ever seen it and Lottie said you’ve thrown up all of your lunch.” He sits next to me and starts to squeeze strands of hair gently with the hand towel.

I need to tell him everything. I want to tell him, but I can’t risk it.

“You’re tired,” he says, before standing with me cradled in his arms.

“I am tired. But I can use my legs.”

“I want to carry you.” He kisses my nose and walks out of the bedroom to the huge couch. He places me down and covers me with a throw. “Stay here,” he orders before flicking the TV on. I haven’t watched TV in forever. “I have some calls to make, then we are going to snuggle.”

“Snuggle?”

“Yes, snuggle.”

He kisses my cheek and strokes my hair. Then he goes into his bedroom and shuts the door, and before long, I’m asleep.

“GOOD MORNING, STUNNER.”
Denham’s low voice breaks through my sleep and I open my eyes to his handsome face looking down on me.

“Morning.” I smile.

“I made you coffee,” he says, placing a steaming hot mug of caffeine on the nightstand.

“Thank you,” I mumble, pulling the covers over my head and closing my eyes.

“Oh no, you don’t.” Denham chuckles before whipping the covers clean off me.

“Denham! Give me that back now,” I groan, and try to cover myself with my hands, which makes him laugh harder. But it’s a useless attempt at making him do as I wish because he tosses the sheet aside and hops on the bed, straddling me, and trapping my hands at my side. And it’s only now that I notice he’s only wearing his boxers.

“Fuck, you’re sexy when you’re sleepy,” he growls into my neck.

“I haven’t even brushed my teeth yet.”

“I’m getting deja vu. I thought I told you before that I don’t care. If I want to kiss you, Stunner, then I’ll kiss you.”

I don’t protest any further as his lips feel too good against my skin.

“I missed you yesterday,” he murmurs.

“I was here all evening,” I murmur back.

“No, you were sleeping.”

He continues kissing until he’s moved around to that really sensitive spot just behind my ear, and I only just manage to continue talking to him.

“Why did you wake me up so early?”

His lips leave my skin and he props himself on his elbows, hovering just over me.

“I wanted to have you to myself before I go to work.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. I’m selfish. I don’t want to share you with anyone or anything for the next half hour.”

“What if—” He shuts me up with a kiss and I don’t know why I even wanted him to keep talking, him kissing me like this is so much better than idle chit chat. He kisses me long and slow, making the tingles radiate out from my belly until every part of me is hyper aware of him. His lips are on my neck, my shoulder, my chest, down between my breasts, until he reaches my belly button, then he follows the same path back up. I manage to wriggle my hands out from being trapped between his knees and my hips, and I bring my hands up to splay my fingers across the expanse of his back. Silky, smooth skin. Dips and ripples of muscle. I’m lost in the feel of him. Then he kisses softly under my chin and I groan. My hands leave his back and I cup either side of his face to pull his mouth to mine.

“I want you, Ari,” he groans against my lips.

“You can have me,” I answer.

“Not just your body, Stunner. I want all of you.”

“I’m yours.” His body stills and his lips cease their exploration of my skin.

“Arianna,” he breathes out.

“Yes.”

“I … I want to tell you something but I don’t want to scare you away.”

“I know,” I say, because I know he’s about to tell me he loves me. I’ve felt it a few times and each time he’s held back.

“You do?”

“Yes. I do. So, don’t say it. Not yet.”

He rests his forehead on mine and closes his eyes tight.

“Show me,” I whisper. “Don’t tell me how you feel. Show me.”

I tilt my head up to kiss him, and I’m met with the hardest, most genuine kiss I’ve ever had. He pours everything he has into me through his lips. He breaks away from me momentarily to rid himself of his boxers and to take off my boy shorts too. So it’s just us. Skin on skin. No need for anything else but each other in this moment.

“I want to
feel
you, Ari. Nothing between us, that okay?” he rasps.

“Yes,” I reply, because I want that, too. So badly.

“You’re on birth control …” he checks.

“Yes.”

“You’re beautiful,” he murmurs before dipping his head and sucking one of my nipples into his mouth. I groan, and arch my back. My hands plunge into his hair and I tug gently which elicits a groan from him that reverberates through my body.

He runs a hand down my body, over the curve of my waist and the length of my leg until he grips firmly behind my knee with one hand and cups my jaw with the other. The pad of his thumb strokes my cheekbone, as his heated eyes bore into mine and he lifts my knee so it’s bent up. His eyes don’t leave mine as he positions himself at my entrance and inches into me. Slowly. Torturously. It’s consuming and frustrating all at the same time. I want to hook my legs around his and pull him deep into me but I can’t as he’s holding my leg firm. I want him to come close enough that I can kiss him, but he wants to look me in the eye.

“Holy shit,” he gasps, then composes himself quickly.

Just when I think he can’t go any deeper, he grinds his hips and proves me wrong.

“Oh fuck,” I cry out, and his lips twitch knowing he’s hit the right spot. He dips his head so he’s just in teasing distance from my lips.

“You feelin’ me yet, Stunner?”

“Yes.” My voice sounds all breathy, and I can’t form any more words. I feel him. I feel every inch of him, and I feel everything he’s conveying with his body.

His hips grind in a circular motion left, then back in a figure eight, right. It makes my head spin, and my body surrenders to him. I stop trying to fight with him to kiss him. His hand leaves my cheek to push my other knee up. When he thrusts upwards, I think my vision goes hazy.

“Eyes on me,” he orders gently, before he pulls out and slams back into me again “You understandin’ me, Stunner?” he says as he moves. His jaw is clenched tight and his voice sounds strained, his hips continue grinding in slow, delicious circles. “You’re mine, Ari. From the minute you walked into me. I knew it.”

“Yes,” I agree.

His movements are still torturous but this time he pulls out slowly, waits, then slams in fast and hard.

“Mine to kiss.”

Slam.

“Yes.”

“Mine to protect.”

Slam.

“Yes.”

“Mine to love,” he whispers, leaning into me as my legs wrap around his waist and he kisses me softly.

“Yes,” I whisper back. “Yours to love.”

He smiles against my mouth before picking up the pace again. This time, there’s no waiting in between thrusts. He relentlessly moves fast and hard. Solidifying his declarations, and making unspoken promises I know he’ll keep.

Coming down from the high, for just that moment, then being hurtled back up there makes every sensation magnified. I pant, trying to form words, but they come out as gasps and moans. When his skin breaks out in a light sheen of sweat, I know he’s close to the breaking point.

“Take me with you,” I say, having held back as much as I can up until now but wanting to go with him.

“Oh yeah, Stunner. One way or another, always with me,” he replies, his voice more gravelly than before. He tilts his hips, and thrusts at an angle, which is all it takes to tear my orgasm from me. It comes upon me fast, and although I expected it, I never expected it to happen as fast as this.

“Denham,” I cry.

“Let it go, Stunner,” he urges between clenched teeth as his orgasm hits him hard too. Our voices mingle in a series of cries and groans, which seem to go on forever yet when they start to subside it doesn’t feel long enough. I could do this forever. Shivers travel through my body, making all my muscles spasm and shake. An orgasm has me rendered stunned.

He lets my legs down gently, placing them on the bed before laying down next to me and tucks me into his side. We lay there for a couple of minutes, letting our breathing regulate and coming back down to earth.

He’s just told me he loves me, with his body. I felt it. That emotional connection that you can’t fake. The feeling you can’t pretend is there, if it isn’t. And, I did my best to tell him that, too. My throat closes, just for a second and when I breathe in, a sob escapes through my chest and a tear slides across my cheek.

“Ari?”

I turn my cheek and bury it into the crook of his arm.

“Hey,” he says, coaxing me to come out of hiding. “What is it?”

“Nothing … you just make me happy, is all,” I squeak out.

He laughs and brushes my cheek with his fingertips. “Now who’s being cute?” he chuckles.

“I am not cute, I’m stupid.”

“Ari, you are not stupid,” he says, laughing a little harder now.

“Yes, I am. What kind of girl cries after having the best orgasm of her life?”

Denham then chokes on the air that he breaths in, and sits up, still laughing. “My girl, Stunner. That’s what kind of girl. Come here,” he orders, pulling me up by my arms. He’s stopped the tears from coming, and I just feel plain stupid. He turns me so I’m plastered against his front, and encased in his arms. Not a bad place to be at all.

“Best orgasm ever, eh?” he says smugly and I can feel him smile against my hair.

“Hmmm, did I say that?”

“Yeah, you sure did.”

“Is your head gonna swell?”

“Maybe, just a little. But, you know what?” He pulls back to look at me.

“What?” I narrow my eyes at him, waiting for a smart comment that I guess is coming next.

“I’m all about smashing targets, so if that was the best ever, next time I’m aiming for bigger and better.”

He kisses my cheek, winks and hops off the bed. Leaving me shaking my head at him and wearing a goofy grin.

It’s finally here. The Las Vegas Summertime Ball. The event that everyone seems to be waiting for. Even though I have no idea how prestigious it really is or what all the hype is about, I’m feeling a mixture of nerves and excitement. There’s no commandos on duty tonight. I know I’m going to have Lottie and Tara there to hold my hand, and of course Denham. But, I can’t help thinking that I’m going to be on display as the girl who is on the arm of Denham King. In the last two weeks I’ve been witness to the effect he has on women. Old and young. It seems he was quite the eligible bachelor. He was seeing Amy, but their ‘thing’ was never exclusive and she never managed to make him hers. Beyond her, I don’t know if he played the field or not. Morbid curiosity is bubbling beneath the surface and makes me want to know every little detail, so I’m prepared for anything that can be thrown at me. The logical part of my brain however, tells me that what I don’t know won’t hurt me. And this is the one I’m running with right now. Denham will be my prince charming. My knight in shining armor. Untainted by gossip and small talk from his past, because after all, this is who he is now. I can hardly say the same. I feel like a hypocrite as my past is tainting our future and he’s taking it all in his stride and making it his job to deal with it for me.