“You’re going to be late if you keep that up. And I’m sure your mother will be very upset with you if you are.” Bobbie handed him a swath of material then took it from him. He was glad because he was drawing a complete blank on everything but Kasey.
They were suddenly walking to the door. He was happy to see that Kasey looked as dazed as he did. When they were ready to open the door he looked down at her again. He realized then that the material had been a cape of sorts. He was both glad and disappointed that she was covered up. He wanted to hide her away from what he was sure was going to be every male in the gallery and he wanted to admire what was all his.
The trip to the gallery was noisy. His brothers kept a steady stream of conversation with Kasey and him, mostly Kasey. She laughed and joked with them as if she’d known them forever. Royce tried his best not to appear jealous, but he was. He found himself wanting to pound his brothers and then do it again. When the limo slid to a stop they got out ahead of them. When Jesse started to reach in for Kasey, Royce knocked his hand out of the way.
“Hey, I was just trying to help a pretty lady.” Royce glared at him as Jesse winked at him.
“Take care of your own dates, thanks. This one is mine.” Royce flushed when he turned to see Kasey out of the limo and staring at him. “Are you ready?”
His tone was sharp and he knew that she’d heard it. He wanted to tell her he was sorry, but they were being ushered inside by the doorman. When he reached to take her wrap, she stepped away from him. He wanted to roar with frustration, but knew that would only make him look stupider. He needed to make this right, but wasn’t sure how.
“Oh my God,” he heard Curtis whisper just behind him. “Christ, she’s going to cause a riot. It’s hard to believe she’s pregnant.”
Royce nodded and reached for her. When she started to step away again he pulled her to him. “I know you’re mad at me, but I need to touch you,” he said close to her ear. “Please, I’m so sorry for what I said, but…well, I was jealous. I didn’t mean to embarrass you.”
Before she could answer him his mother came up beside them. She took one look at Kasey and nodded. Royce wasn’t sure what it meant, or for that matter why she approved, but he didn’t ask. He was in enough trouble tonight and he didn’t want to end up on the wrong end of a gun. He wasn’t sure where Kasey might have hidden one, but he wasn’t willing to find out.
They wandered around together for about twenty minutes when someone needed to speak to him. As much as he hated to leave her, he had to. She still hadn’t said anything about his comment about being jealous. He left her in one of the front rooms with a promise he would return as soon as he could. He brushed his mouth over hers before he left.
~~~
Kasey looked at the work in front of her without really seeing it. She was still trying to wrap her head around Royce being jealous. Of her? She couldn’t figure out why he’d say something like that unless it was to warn his brothers off. Off what she couldn’t figure out, but that was the best she could come up with.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone look at art quite like that before. Do you like it or are you trying to figure it out?”
Kasey turned to smile at the man beside her. “It’s very lovely. I love Mr. Gleason’s work. I think his work with porcelain is my favorite, but this is amazing. I love the cobalt blue glaze.” And it was pretty, she realized as she turned back to look at it. “I don’t know a lot about raku firing, but this is an amazing piece.”
“Raku firing? Isn’t that a different process of kiln firing pots? I remember now, the pieces are removed from the kiln at a high temperature and then something happens and the body starts to craze, I think it’s called. It immediately starts fracturing when the pot is removed from the heat.” She nodded. “I don’t know a whole lot about this stuff. I just know that my late wife enjoyed the arts and I come because she liked them so.”
Kasey thought there was more, but didn’t comment. When she moved to the next piece, he walked with her. Kasey didn’t mind. There were enough people around if she got into trouble, but she really didn’t think she would. He seemed like a very lonely nice man.
“I’m actually here to see your boyfriend.” She must have looked confused. “Royce Hunter. He wants to buy my building and I…I have to sell, but I just don’t want to. It was my first business that my wife and I put together.”
“Mr. Hunter isn’t my boyfriend. We can barely tolerate each other under the best of circumstances. I’m just his date because I love this man’s work.” She wasn’t going to think about Royce being jealous, nor was she going to think about the kiss he’d given her before they’d left her apartment. “If you don’t want to sell then why are you?”
“Because he’s not giving me a choice. He’s forcing me out and all my employees are going to not have a job as soon as I sign the papers.” His voice was bitter. She turned to look at him when he apologized.
“Forcing you out? I don’t know…is that a normal way to do business? I’ve worked with Mr. Hunter for years and I’ve never known him to force anyone out before.” Which was true. She’d only been on his security team, but she was reasonably sure that didn’t sound like him.
The man seemed to take several deep breaths before he looked at her. “I didn’t…he’s not. I’m a bitter man. I’m sorry, miss. I shouldn’t have…” He started to walk away.
“Wait. Don’t leave. Tell me why you said that. It’s a horrible thing to say about someone and you don’t strike me as the type to say things like that normally. Please, come back and tell me.” He stood staring at her and she thought she’d gone too far. “I’m Kasey York. You’re…?”
“Fredrick Klingner.” He smiled at her. “You’re a very beautiful and smart woman. Does Royce appreciate you? If he doesn’t, you come to me and I’ll straighten him out.”
They talked for another hour before Royce came back. He looked upset and more so when he saw her with Freddy, as he’d asked her to call him. Before Royce could say anything Freddy spoke up, his voice very strong and full of confidence. “You have yourself a very wonderful woman there, Hunter. You going to make an honest woman out of her?” Freddy smiled and held up his hand before Royce could answer. “Never mind. I’m an old man and I like to see people happy. If you’ll come by my home sometime tomorrow, I’ll have those papers signed for you. You should have sent her to me and this would have been over several days ago.”
“All right. I’ll do that. And she is something, isn’t she? Thank you.” Royce wrapped his arm around her again. “Is there anything you’d like to change in the contract? I realize now that we didn’t give you a lot of options. And I wanted to tell you that your employees, they’ll all be well taken care of.”
“Thank you for that. And no, the contract is perfect the way it is. But I do have one favor. I’d like to buy Kasey here that piece in the other room. The blue raku thingy. Consider it a signing bonus if you will.” Freddy leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. “That’s for not letting me get by with it.”
After he walked away she looked up at Royce. He looked…well, he looked pleased. When he started to guide her toward another room, she started trying to explain. “I didn’t do anything. He came up to me. I don’t…he was talking about how you were going to force him out of his business and… Where the hell are you taking me?”
They were just walking up to a door she’d never noticed on her first trip through this room. When he opened it and started to take her inside, she stopped him. He leaned down, took her earlobe into his mouth, and nipped. She felt her knees wobble.
“Either you go inside willingly or I throw you over my shoulder and take you in.” He buried his face in her neck and gave her an open-mouthed kiss there. “Of course there is always option three.”
Her panties soaked. She could feel the dampness of them and shifted so that she could try and alleviate some of the pressure she felt in her pussy. She’d gone from trying to explain something to him to needing him to touch her in a matter of seconds.
“And that would be what?” she asked him huskily.
He pressed his cock into her belly before he answered her. “I take you right here.” She went with him.
The door barely closed when she was pressed up against it. His mouth was eating voraciously at hers. His tongue speared in her mouth, dueled with her own, and tortured her in ways she couldn’t believe.
His hands were everywhere. He cupped her ass, bringing her flush against him. He was at her breasts, lifting them up and plucking at her nipples. When his hand slid up the slit in the side of her dress, she felt him growl low and her body flooded with need.
“How do I get you free?” he asked as he tugged at the top of her dress. “I want to suckle at your nipple, take it into my mouth.”
She reached up and pulled the tiny eye hooks loose. The dress fit her so tightly all it did was open and drape at her breast. Royce peeled it from her slowly, kissing and laving her skin as he exposed it. When her breast was bared her nipple puckered tight and she felt herself swell with need. Royce took the hard tip into his mouth and worried it with his tongue before he began to suck.
“Royce,” she shouted before she remembered the people on the other side of the door. “Please. Please, you’re killing me.”
“I need to be inside of you, Kasey,” he said near her ear. “I want to take you right now, but I have to taste you. Your scent, Christ, woman, I can smell how aroused you are, and I’m nearly ready to burst.”
He lowered himself to the floor, taking her dress down as he went. He pressed kisses and bites all the way down as he went to his knees. When she was standing before him with just her thigh-high stockings, panties, and shoes. She lifted her hands to cover herself. He stilled her with his hand.
“Don’t. You’re much too lovely and sexy to cover any part of you. I want to see you when I lick you. I want to see your face when I drink from you.” He slid his hand up the inside of her thigh and he moaned. “You’re so wet your thighs are soaked with your juices. Will you come when I lick you with my tongue?”
“Immediately. I ache, Royce. Please, help me.” She wrapped her hand into his hair to bring him to her heat. “Please, you have to give me relief.”
“Gladly,” he said as he leaned in. When she felt her eyes flutter closed before he touched her, she opened them again when he told her to. She watched as he licked her thigh, nibbled at her hip bone, and touched her legs. When his hand ran up the back of her knee she trembled. When he kissed the top of her mound, she whimpered.
“Kasey, I don’t want to marry ever. But for now, just until the baby is born, you’re all mine,” he commanded of her. “All mine. And so is this child. Mine.”
He moved the scrap of lace away and suckled her clit into his mouth. Kasey put her hand over her mouth and screamed. Her climax was overwhelming. She felt as if an electrical wire had been touched to her skin. Molten lava felt as if it spread over her body and surged though her veins. Screaming out again when he entered her with his finger, she began riding the waves; over and over she rocked against his mouth and his fingers. Her fingers gripped his hair as a lifeline. She would have agreed to anything if he’d asked.
Her body was still jerking and riding the climax when he stood. She was too dazed in her own release to realize what he was doing. Her back was on the floor and he was between her legs. When he freed his cock, she reached for him, wanting to taste him as he’d done her.
“You touch me and I’m done. I need to be inside of you now. I don’t know how long… Christ, Kasey, I’m ready to come just looking at you.”
For all his urgency, he filled her slowly, softly almost. And when he was seated inside of her he leaned down and took her mouth. His kiss was hungry yet not demanding, hot but not consuming. He moved in and out of her as if he had all the time in the world, as if he was cherishing her. It was then that Kasey realized she was in love with him, in love with Royce Hunter.
His release brought her again. He rocked in her over and over until she nearly screamed again, her body so close to coming. When he settled over her then rolled to his back, taking her with him, she wiped at the tears. She didn’t want him to ask her questions right now. She wasn’t sure how she’d answer.
“We should get back,” he said. “Will you come home with me tonight, Kasey? I’d like to make love to you in a proper bed.”
“Yes. Tonight. I’ll go home with you tonight.” She pulled away to get dressed and he let her. For some reason she couldn’t fathom that made her heart hurt.
Chapter 15
Annamarie watched the couple wander about the room. She smiled when Royce ran his hand down Kasey’s back and nearly burst out laughing when the little chit smacked him and glared. The two of them were going to be a lot of fun to watch. She wondered how long it would be before either of them figured out that they were in love.
“They ever figure out what you did and they’ll be really pissed at you, Mom.” She turned to look at her son. “Do you think they’re in love yet?”
“Yes. And Curtis Hunter, I have no idea what you’re talking about. I did nothing at all to either of them. What a thing to say to your own mother.”
He laughed. “Of course, how silly of me. You didn’t tell Royce not to marry her because you really didn’t want him to. And you didn’t convince us that it was true as well. Mother,” he said with mock sternness, “you try that on me, and I’ll see you for the fraud you are.”
She only smiled. She knew she already had someone picked out for him. Curtis hadn’t been easy to match up. Well, for that matter, neither had the girl. If Curtis thought Kasey was a hard nut, wait until he… That was down the road. She wanted to see Royce married and happy first. She decided to change the subject.
“What have you found out about that White person? Is he still making noises about suing Kasey?” Annamarie smiled when she noticed Royce usher Kasey to a dark corner. She wondered if they’d make it home before they had to pull over to a dark street.
“Yes. He seems to think she was the reason he’s being sued. There are now six other women that left because of his poor treatment. And so far only two of them aren’t going to come forward.” She glanced at him when he seemed to hesitate. “One of them claims he forced her into having sex with him that resulted in a child. She is willing to have a DNA test done next week.”