A Pound of Flesh (A Pound of Flesh #1) (32 page)

She lifted her head. Her eyes hooded, dark, and full of passion. “Kiss me.”

So he did. With his nose crushed against her face, Carter smashed his mouth to hers, sliding his tongue in and out, fucking her in every way possible. She responded almost instantly. Her arms tightened around his neck, and her legs jerked at his sides as her thighs held his waist in a bone-crushing grip.

“Yes. Yes,” Carter growled, trying like hell to keep his erratic pace.

Kat’s head fell back and Carter watched her take a huge breath and cry out at the top of her lungs as her orgasm crashed into her. “WES!”

At the sound of his name ripping from her throat, Carter’s spine snapped, and he exploded inside of her with such force that he fell over, landing on Kat’s body. Waves of euphoric release crashed over him, leaving him breathless, groaning, and crying out for his Peaches while she mumbled unintelligible words into his sweat-covered neck and shoulder.

Nothing had ever felt that fucking good. Nothing would ever come close. No woman would ever come that close. With a strange feeling of contentment, as he rode the best orgasm of his life, Carter realized he’d been ruined. Kat had ruined him. And he couldn’t have been fucking happier.

“God. God. I can’t.” Carter slowly returned to Earth, not entirely sure all his limbs were attached and in working order. He did realize, however, that his full weight was pressing Kat hard into his bed, and that was just unacceptable. He made to lift off her on shaking arms and knees, but she held him fast, crushing him to her.

“Not yet,” she murmured. “Don’t leave me yet. Just stay a while longer.”

Carter was without the energy to argue. “Mmkay,” he managed into the pillow at the side of her head, to which Kat laughed, a sweet, high sound.

Her hands and fingertips danced lazily across his back. He fought the urge to fall asleep. With a sigh and a small kiss to her neck, Carter slipped his softening body from hers. Despite still being on top of her, he was instantly bereft.

“Damn, woman. That was …” His mouth came to a grinding halt. He opened his eyes, needing inspiration.

“It was,” she finished for him. She was lovely in her postcoital glow. Carter kissed her again.

“You know,” he said, releasing her lips and gazing down at her. “Maybe Donne had it right.” He let his index finger trail down her nose to her gorgeous beestung lips.

Kat tried to suppress her smile, clearly recollecting their session in Central Park. “Oh yeah? About what?”

He tucked her curling hair behind her ear and traced her lobe with his thumb. “About being with someone,” he murmured. “About it being like heaven.” Kat’s eyes closed at his words. “Too much?” he hedged with caution in his voice.

She shook her head. “No,” she replied. “It was exactly like that.” She reopened her eyes.

Carter let his gaze wander from her forehead to her chin, taking in every line and soft edge. He realized that her smile had widened.

“It’s rude to stare,” she chided.

He chuckled at her using his words from earlier that day and rubbed the tip of her nose with his own. “I’m not sorry.” He watched her carefully for a while, looking for any signs of regret. “Are you okay?” he asked. “I mean, about what I told you? About who I am.”

“I’m more than okay.” She pulled his lips to hers and kissed him.

Carter’s eyes closed and he exhaled in contentment. Their tongues touched briefly, tenderly, and Carter’s lips were still moving when she pulled away. His eyes fluttered open to see her gazing adoringly at him. His heart halted for one beat.

Physically and emotionally exhausted, Carter shifted down Kat’s body and rested his ear against her damp chest, smiling when he heard her heart thumping behind her ribs. Her fingers moved leisurely from his shoulders to his scalp. He was almost asleep when he heard her whisper his name.

“Carter?”

“Yeah?”

Her hands stilled. “Thank you.”

He frowned. “What for?”

She didn’t reply or move.

He lifted his head and rested his chin on her sternum. “Sweetheart, what are you thanking me for?”

A lone tear slipped down her temple. She swallowed hard before answering. “For saving my life.”

Carter froze, his rough chin resting on her smooth, soft skin. His lips twitched with a response, but, for the life of him, he had no clue what to say. With a soft sigh, he moved back up her body and cupped her face in his hands, resting his weight on his forearms at either side of her head.

“Kat,” he whispered with his nose inches from hers. He waited for her to look at him. “You’re here.” He let his thumb trace her pink cheek and watched the color deepen under his touch. “That’s all that matters.”

There was conflict in her eyes: fear, affection, hurt. Carter felt a sharp twist of unease. He knew she didn’t regret what they’d done. The way she’d held him, ridden him, whispered delicious words into his ear assured him of that. But he was hopelessly aware of the dangers surrounding her because of their actions.

The fact that he cared for Kat would make no difference to how people, her mother specifically, regarded him. He was an ex-con and, as such, was an untrustworthy bottom-feeder. No pretty words or fancy declarations could change that shit. She would never see him as anything else. Her fear and narrow-mindedness would blind her to what he truly felt for her daughter.

Carter’s heart squeezed. He had to pray that whatever the two of them had found together was enough to keep Kat with him for as long as possible. He wanted more with her, from her, and he was willing to step up to get it. She was worth all of the shit that would come his way, and he would be there to protect her as best he could.

Once Kat had been to the bathroom, giving them both a chance to clean up, she crawled back into bed, allowing him to wrap his arm around her shoulders, pulling her into his side. She held him snugly around the waist. His palm rubbed across her back in comforting circles while her fingertips danced around his nipple. As new as the sensation was of cuddling a woman in his bed, the familiarity of it with Kat was as warm as the blankets around them.

Carter pressed his lips to her scalp. “Where did you go tonight?”

He didn’t want to upset her, but he was aching to find out what had led her to his doorstep after she’d screamed such hatred. What had triggered the realization that he had saved her rather than holding her back from helping her father?

“I wandered for a long time.” Her fingers gripped Carter’s side. “I didn’t know what to do. I was just— I just hurt. Everywhere.”

Carter held her closer.

“I eventually got home.” She paused. “I think I got a cab.” Her lips moved against his skin. “I called my mother.”

Carter’s hand halted its movement against her shoulder blade. “What?”

Kat scoffed. “I know. I must be fucking stupid to call her, huh?”

“Peach—”

“As soon as she heard it was me,” she interrupted fiercely, “she started telling me how disappointed she was about what happened at my grandmother’s. She said I was ungrateful for the people around me, the people that cared about me. That she only wanted what was best for me and I was too self-involved and caught up with you to see it.”

He swallowed. “She knows about me?”

She lifted from his shoulder to look at him. She was so close Carter had to shift his head back into the pillow to see her better.

“She knows I care for you.” Her index finger moved along his bottom lip. “She knows that we kissed.”

A cold shiver darted down Carter’s spine as the last seven days began to fall into place. “That’s why you left your family and friends. That’s why you came back from Chicago.” He smiled wryly. “They know.”

Kat shook her head. “They think they know what’s going on, but they don’t. They have no fucking idea.” The anger was clear in her voice. “Carter, you have to understand, my own mother thinks my choices are wrong and that I’m still a kid who knows nothing. She doesn’t know how much I love my job, how much I love what I do every day, how much I love—” Her eyes burned with fury. “You’re the only person who treats me like I’m me, who makes me feel like what I’m doing is right and meaningful. There’s no bullshit, no hiding with you.”

Her lips twitched with the beginnings of a smile. “And I began to see how hard it must’ve been for you to tell me about who you are.” Her palm slid down his jaw. “Carter, I know the only reason you didn’t tell me was because you were scared. You’re the only person on this planet who knows what I went through. And do you want to know something really ironic?” Her eyes blazed. “My family, my friends, the cops, my fucking therapist, they all said you weren’t real, that you were a figment of my imagination, a result of post-traumatic stress.” Kat nuzzled his cheek. “But you’re the most real thing in my life.”

Carter couldn’t answer. He was speechless and crazy for her touch. “Kat” was all he could utter before their mouths met. Three little words whispered relentlessly through Carter’s psyche, bubbling furiously, whipping away his breath. Swallowing them and the fear that forever accompanied them back down, Carter rolled Kat onto her back and settled at her side, lifting one of her legs over his hip. Although she moaned, the movement was not sexual in its intent. He wanted her again, but he wanted to reassure her more that he was real and that he would always be that way with her.

“Stay with me tonight.” He pushed her hair back, needing to see her whole face. “Please, Kat, just … just for tonight.” He searched for an answer in the depths of her eyes. “But don’t stay because you’re upset. Stay with me because you want to.”

The pleading words came from nowhere. All Carter knew was he meant them, and he needed her to say yes.

The smile that appeared on her face could have lit up Broadway. “I’m not going anywhere.”

* * *

The lobby of WCS Communications was just how Carter remembered it: pretentious, repugnant, and reeking of money. Even the damn furniture looked uncomfortable, as if the shit had been stolen from a torture chamber. Carter scoffed at the irony of that particular thought. The fact that he was in the building at all was torturous in itself. Fuck’s sake, he was ready to crawl out of his skin.

With a deep breath, he walked toward the raven-haired woman at the reception desk, hating the loud sound of his booted steps on the shiny wood floor, and waited patiently for her to finish her call.

“I have a two o’clock with Austin,” he grumbled when she did, rubbing his hand across his jaw.

“Mr. Ford.”

Carter blinked. “Excuse me?”

“Mr. Ford,” she repeated. “You have a two o’clock with Mr. Ford. Not Austin.” She smiled contemptuously.

“Whatever,” he snapped. “Just do your job and tell the prick that Carter’s here, will you?” The sound of her mouth dropping open bounded around the large room. “Thanks, Buttercup.”

He turned toward the heinous cream sofa situated ten feet from the desk and slammed down onto it. He adjusted himself to try to get comfortable, but the postage-stamp-sized cushions were about as cozy as having glass up his ass. The whole place appeared constructed just to make its occupants feel uneasy, and it was working. No wonder the receptionist was so fucking uptight.

“Wes.”

The hair on Carter’s neck stood on end and his lip lifted into an animalistic snarl at the sound of his cousin’s voice. Fucker knew Carter hated his given name, but he still insisted on using it frequently whenever they were in each other’s company.

“We’re ready for you,” Austin said, his poker face in full play.

Carter followed Austin into his office and immediately tried not to vomit at the elaborate artwork on the walls, the ostentatious desk, and the ridiculously incredible view over the rest of New York’s Financial District.

Fucker was totally compensating for something.

There were three other men standing in the room: Adam, who nodded cordially at Carter when he entered, and two others he’d never met before.

“Take a seat,” Austin said, gesturing to the high-backed leather seat situated by the humongous desk.

Carter sat down ungracefully, placing his ankle onto his knee. He blew out an impatient breath and tapped his fingertips against his thighs.

“So,” he drawled, glancing around the room. “Who are you?” He pointed to the suits standing by the window.

“This is Steve Fields, WCS’s lead attorney, and David Fall,” Austin answered. “He’s head of accounting and finance.”

“’Sup, Dave?” Carter smiled when he got no response. “I’m Carter.” He pointed to himself before whispering loudly, “Your boss.”

Austin coughed. “Well, actually, Wes—”

“Save the ‘Wes’ shit, Austin,” Carter barked, losing his patience. “Just explain to me why the hell I’m here so I can leave as soon as humanly possible. There’s only so much pretense and dick-sucking I can handle.”

Anger flared in Austin’s eyes. “Fine,” he replied. “You’re here so we can discuss the immediate dilution of your shares in WCS Communications.”

“Is that right?” Carter asked with a backward tilt of his head. Austin raised his eyebrows in reply and walked around his desk to take his leather-and-wood throne. “And just how do you think that shit’s gonna fly, Austin?” Carter continued. “The shares are in my name. They were given to me by our grandmother. The contract that was drawn up is legally binding on a scale that even your pathetic excuse for a law team can’t change it.” He waved his hand indifferently toward the lawyers. “You can’t dilute the shares because of the provisions on them. Granddaddy tried for years. It ain’t gonna happen.”

Austin looked at Steve and David. The two men sat down at Carter’s right. Adam remained standing to his left. Carter was being cornered. They were using blatant intimidation tactics.

“That’s why you’re here.” Austin smiled tightly. “So we can discuss the provisions in detail.”

Carter smirked. “You mean you wanna discuss how much it’s gonna cost you assholes to get rid of me, right? Can’t have an ex-con owning a billion-dollar company, now, can we? What would the papers say?”

Carter shook his head and turned to look out of the window. “It must really bug the shit out of you that I have the biggest share-holding in the company you were primed to take over, huh?”