Nix. (Den of Mercenaries Book 3) (17 page)

Robert swallowed, his cards forgotten. “I can pay it back. Right now, I’ll pay back every dime.”

“Edward told you to pay it back months ago, and yet here we sit.”

“I-I didn’t have it then,” he said with an almost involuntary shake of his head. “I have it now.”

Kit tapped his card with a finger. “You sure about that?”

Robert may have nodded, but the uncertainty on his face showed. “Flush,” he said displaying his cards.

Kit made a noncommittal sound in the back of his throat. “Four of a kind.”

Kit barely had his cards on the table before Robert was bursting from his seat and dashing for the door. He had a few seconds head start, but it didn’t matter—he couldn’t outrun a bullet.

In one fluid move, before Luna was sure he could even get an accurate aim, Kit had his gun brandished and pointed at Robert a second before pulling the trigger, the silencer attached to the end muffling the sound.

His hand had barely touched the knob before there was a hole in the back of his head and he was face down on the floor.

In the blink of an eye, it was over.

Luna didn’t even flinch.

L
una’s feet
ached by the time they were arriving back at the penthouse, to the point that she had kicked off her heels in the elevator and carried them as she stepped off.

As Kit ventured off in the direction of the kitchen, she entered the bedroom, leaving her shoes by the foot of the bed as she climbed onto it, letting out a sigh as she stretched out.

The heels were nice—
beautiful
to look at, but they were an absolute pain.

They were momentarily forgotten when Kit popped his head in. “What time is it?”

Though she found the question odd—he usually wore a watch on his right wrist—she still glanced over to the digital alarm clock on the bedside table. “Half past twelve.”

It was the slight grin on her face that should have told her he was up to something, but she wasn’t thinking about that once he came fully into the room because her gaze snared on what he held.

“Oh, you didn’t have to do this,” she whispered, though secretly pleased as she felt a tightening in her chest that only he could cause.

There hadn’t been any time, or at least she hadn’t thought there was considering all he had to do to prepare for this night, but as he came toward her with a glass plate in his hands and a rather large square of chocolate cake resting in the center of it, he obviously had found the time.

A lone candle flickered and danced as he walked, the flame casting a mute glow over his face.

“Come now, when was the last time you were able to celebrate a birthday properly. You deserve this.”

What could she say to that, that wouldn’t turn her into a blubbering mess?

“Make a wish,” he said, setting it onto her lap, drawing back to gaze at her face.

She didn’t have to think about what she wanted—she had it.

It wasn’t the freedom that Uilleam had provided her, it was Kit.

If she could pick one thing to wish for, she would always pick Kit.

But she could wish that she could keep him always, so with that thought in mind, she smiled before blowing out the candle.

“Thank you,” she whispered, the gratitude she felt bleeding into each word.

“It’s the least I can do,” he returned with a smile, plucking the plate from her hands as he picked up the lone fork on the plate.

But he had been thinking of her, even in the middle of his work. She had only told him the day before about her birthday.

She loved him for it.

Loved …

Even as the word filtered through her head, she tried to dismiss it as quickly as it formed.

She couldn’t possibly love him, but there was no other word she could think of that adequately described what she felt.

“Thank you,” she said again.

“Don’t thank me yet, you haven’t tried it.”

He speared a bit of cake, holding it out for her with an unreadable expression, but it quickly changed when she leaned in and opened her mouth, closing her lips around it.

His eyes were rapt on her, pupils dilating once she pulled away, chewing slowly. If she was asked, she wouldn’t be able to say what that cake tasted like, though she could appreciate the burst of chocolate on her tongue.

For someone that showed very little emotion, she could see exactly what he was thinking now.

She was baiting him.

It was curiosity, maybe, that made her want to know what he would do once she pushed him beyond that careful control he was known for.

“Good?” he asked, a hint of strain in his tone.

“The best.”

And as his gaze followed her tongue as she swept the last bite of chocolate icing off her lip, he’d had enough.

As he set the plate down with little care, Luna froze in anticipation, shivering once she felt the heat of Kit’s hands as he undid the zipper of her dress, sliding it down as far as it could go, but he didn’t brush the sides open as she thought he would. Instead, he took a step back.

“Take off your dress,” he said in a tone that brokered no argument.

Kit had a tendency to demand things, always in that authoritative way that made her rush to comply, but now with lust threading through every word, it skipped her brain entirely and went right between her thighs.

As she spun to face him, she slowly pulled the straps down her arms, his tantalized gaze following every new inch of skin she exposed. She’d never felt power quite like this as he watched her without blinking.

Kit looked enraptured—and the sight of him like that was only made better by the rigid outline of his cock through his trousers.

When the dress slipped free of her hands and dropped to the floor, she was acutely aware that she stood in front of him in nothing more than lingerie while he was still fully dressed.

He seemed to make a decision in his head as he came forward, turning her until she was facing the bed and pushed her down onto it. There was only a second to catch herself on her hands before he was positioning her the way he wanted—her knees on the bed and slightly parted and her chest pressed flat against the bed with an encouraging hand in the center of her back pushing her down.

She should have been afraid for what he intended,
knew
she should be, but only excitement thrummed through her at the idea of what he planned to do to her.

There was a moment of suspended silence before Kit said, “Not all pain is bad.”

And as that dark promise hung between them, her fingers clenched harder around the sheets in her fists.

“It hurts,” he went on, “make no mistake, but it’s a
good
kind of pain.”

He was staring, she knew—she could practically feel his gaze burning a path down the curve of her back as his fingers followed the same route until he was at the curve of her backside, but he stopped there.

While the tips of his fingers dragged over the edges, he didn’t delve any further, ratcheting up the need she felt for him.

“You’re going to ache in the morning,” he promised on a whisper, “but it’s going to be a
blissful
fucking ache, you understand? And when you feel it, I want you to think of me.”

His words didn’t startle her, instead they made the ache she was already feeling worse. “
Please …
”

“Please, what?”

Finally,
finally
, he ventured down further until she could just feel the slightest touch of his fingers against her covered sex—and when he pressed his fingers harder against her, the material of her panties rough but welcome, he groaned, a low sound that was enough to make her pussy contract.

“Don’t worry,” he said, rubbing his fingers there, drawing a breathless moan from her. “I’ll give you what you need.”

But as quickly as those words left his mouth, he was removing his touch entirely as he shifted and disappeared out of her sight.

“Manners maketh man, yes?”

She didn’t know what he was going on about, her mind clouded with lust as she concentrated more on the aching spot he’d left abandoned.

But when his hand cracked down on her ass, not hard enough to hurt, but with enough sting that she felt him there, Luna was quick to nod.

“Then use your manners,
mi pequeña luna
,” he said, finally working his fingers along the edge of her panties and started to pull them down.

The kiss of air on her exposed sex had an appreciative sound reverberating in his chest. Could he see the proof of her desire for him? Could he see just how wet she was?

“I have remarkable patience,” he noted and she could almost
hear
the smile in his voice. “I’ll keep you like this all night.”

“Kit, please …”

“Please,
what
?” he asked and she felt his fingers now sliding up her inner thighs, touching everywhere but where she wanted him.

The heat in her face prevented her from answering as shyness overtook her. There were so many things she wanted him to do, yet she couldn’t find the words to tell him a single one.

“Please, touch me,” she finally managed to say, her throat feeling tight.

“I
am
,” he said punctuating the words with a squeeze of her thigh, his thumb so close to her opening that she squirmed to get him there, but Kit held fast. “Ask for what you
want
, Luna, or I’ll take what
I
want.”

She knew what she wanted, was practically screaming it in her head, but at his threat, she didn’t forget what she wanted to say—she just didn’t say it, biting her bottom lip to keep from even opening her mouth.

She wanted whatever he would give her—however he gave it.

When she didn’t respond for several seconds, Kit sighed like he was disappointed, but then he was rubbing circles over her clit and she couldn’t care less that he wasn’t pleased with her.

“You could have asked for anything,” he said on a whispered breath. “If you would have asked me to make you come, I would have—because that’s what you really want, isn’t it? You’re so fucking wet it wouldn’t take anything to get you off.”

God, she was almost there right then, like his words were directly linked with her pussy. And as he said it, that was
exactly
what she wanted, then maybe she could finally think clearly.

“But now I have to drag this out because you want to be fucking stubborn,” he said, though he sounded as though that was exactly how he liked her. He was still circling those fingers, dragging her higher until sharp moans were clawing their way out of her throat as she ground her hips against his hand.

Before she could lose herself in it, however, his free hand came up to wrap her hair around his fist and pulled. “How long do you think it will take before I break you?”

Luna tried to answer, but even she didn’t understand what had left her mouth.

At first, he was contented with rubbing over her clit, but then he was going lower before pushing two fingers into her dripping sex.

Every part of her hummed with pleasure as her body jerked and she pressed back against him. She had never imagined it could be like this—that there was no cloying pain and he was completely focused on
her
.

And when he pressed against that wondrous spot inside her, she gave him what he wanted. “Please, make me come.”

“Then be a good girl for me and count,” he whispered a moment before he pulled his fingers free, and pushed her back down onto the bed.

Shoving her hair back out of her eyes, Luna tried to make sense of what he meant, let alone
see
him, but he was just out of her line of sight.

“Don’t worry,” he said softly, wet fingers gliding over her ass. “I’ll go easy on you this first time.”

He gave no further warning before his touch was gone, only to come back down with a sharp crack, one that sounder louder than it was painful.

“
Count
, Luna, lest you make me forget how old you are.”

Was that how many times he planned to …

Her cheeks heated at what he was about to do to her, even as she stammered out the number he wanted. And the moment she said it, anther landed.

And another.

Until she was mindlessly keeping track, her eyes squeezed shut. He never hit the same spot twice, nor did he let up in intensity, but she realized all too quickly with each third hit that he landed, his touch would move between her legs, playing with her until she was a writhing mess beneath him.

Only then did he continue.

And as the last hit rained down on her already sore ass, he moved down the bed until he could get his face between her legs.

She could hear him, that groan of male satisfaction making a flush of heat sweep through her. Kit was tearing at his clothes, not caring where they landed so long as they were off.

Knowing that his need for her was as great as hers for him, her stomach fluttered with anticipation. She could already imagine the feel of him inside her—the way he would stretch her to the point that she was achingly full.

And the thought of that, coupled with the expert way he moved his tongue over her had a high cry spilling from her lips as she came.

Even as blood rushed in her ears, she could hear the satisfied noise he made in the back of his throat before he was gone.

And only a heartbeat later, he was back, the blunt head of his cock dragging between the folds of her pussy until he was nicely coated before he eased inside, the hand he had at her hip squeezing to keep her in place.

“
Fuck
.”

The word sounded like it came from somewhere deep inside him, but she couldn’t fully appreciate it before he was pulling out of her in one fluid, jagged slide before slamming back in again.

“Come here,” he ordered, even as he helped to draw her back against his front, his lips at her ear, but he didn’t thrust his hips—he didn’t give her more, Kit just seated himself there. “Ask me nicely and I
may
let you come again.”

Luna knew what he wanted, but she was determined not to give it to him. Instead, she reached for his hand, dragging it around until she had it where she wanted.

He teasingly made tight circles, whispering about how good she felt, how she was milking his cock, but he kept up that maddening slow pace.

Luna just couldn’t take it any more. “Please, Kit
harder
.”

“
Finally
.”

She only had a moment to brace herself before he was slamming into her exactly how he wanted. There was no longer any hesitation as he filled her completely.

There was no restraint—no careful movements to make sure she could take what he was giving. He just
fucked
her, over and over until his name was falling from her lips in increasing increments.

But it was
his
words that caused the unbridled pleasure she felt skyrocket.

That’s it
, he said with breathless wonder,
take my cock
. And only when she was begging him not to stop, nearly screaming at the top of her lungs before she felt his teeth at her throat, and the moment she did, she came again.

He cursed, the sound dark and filled with painful need as he didn’t slow down, but he wasn’t unaffected by the way her pussy clamped down around him.

And with one last brutal thrust, he stilled, pressed hard against her as he spilled inside of her.