Darker the Release (2 page)

She whimpered helplessly, overwhelmed with so much hunger and heat that she was afraid she might melt. Then she remembered the challenge and made herself answer, “As long as we both acknowledge that you’re cheating.”

“How am I cheating?”

“I turned you on without touching you, and you’ve got your hands all over me. So it hasn’t been a fair fight.” She met his eyes in the mirror, feeling a kind of connection that went far beyond physical touch.

There was pleasure in knowing her mind was a match for his, as much as in how good he made her body feel.

Something changed on his face as he acknowledged the words. Then he stepped back, causing her body to tense in disappointment. He was still watching her face in the mirror.

“Giving up?” she asked, smiling at him in the mirror, even as her skin felt chilled where his hands had just been.

He gave her a feral smile. “You know me better than that.”

He moved forward, his warm chest pressing into her back and his erection rocking slowly against her. For a moment he surrounded her—his heat and strength impossible to escape. But then he slowly eased back until he wasn’t touching her at all. “We’re going to make this an even challenge. So if you want to be touched, you’ll have to touch yourself.”

Her whole body clenched with a strong pulse of lust, but she gave a little huff of amusement. “I’m pretty sure I can resist.”

“Not for long.” His eyes were crawling over her body in the mirror again, as warm and lingering as a caress. “Remember when I had you bent over the desk in my office?”

Her body tightened again at the memory. “Of course I remember. That was more of your ego.”

“I had you bound, just by the sound of my voice. You wouldn’t move until I told you. That’s how much you wanted to surrender control to me.”

Her pussy was throbbing so deeply it actually hurt. Her cheeks were flushed hot, and she could see her breasts rising and falling with her fast breaths. “But you couldn’t hold out that day either. You released me prematurely, if I recall correctly.”

“Remember when I turned you over the table for a spanking?” Caleb murmured thickly, his eyes hot and dominant the way they’d been that other day. “Your tight little ass was aching for more. I know how much you wanted it. My fingers were in your pussy, so I could feel how wet you were and how hard you squeezed around me every time you felt my hand.”

Her breath hitched and she clenched her fingers around the edge of the dresser. She was so turned on, just from the sound of his voice and the memories, that she was trembling now.

“You couldn’t even wait for my cock. You were so eager you came all around my fingers as I spanked you. Your body knew exactly what it needed, even as you tried to hold out then. Just like your body knows what it needs right now. Doesn’t it?”

She closed her eyes, making one final effort to shut out his voice and hold on to her resistance.

“Open your eyes,” he murmured behind her.

She did.

“Let your hair down for me.”

She’d twisted it into a formal updo for the party, but she reached up and pulled out the clip. The hair fell in long waves down her back and around her shoulders, and she saw the awe awaken in Caleb’s eyes as he noticed it.

He’d always responded that way to her unbound hair.

“Now you can touch yourself.” His voice rasped, clear evidence that he was deeply aroused.

But she was like a lit fuse, and there was no way she could hold herself back from reaching down between her legs.

“Not yet,” Caleb said. “Touch your breasts first.”

With a little moan, she made herself raise her hands to cup her breasts. She chafed her nipples through her bra and sighed at the resulting sensations. Her head fell back, and her pussy clenched hard around nothing. But Caleb was reacting too. She saw his body give a little twitch in the mirror as he watched her.

“Very good. Tell me how it feels.”

“Good,” she gasped, tweaking her nipples. “But not nearly enough.”

“Then you can rub your pussy too. But if you come, then I win.” He was smiling, but his expression was very tense.

She slid one hand down and rubbed her clit through her panties, and she couldn’t hold back a groan of pleasure at the relieving sensations.

“You’re so close to coming, aren’t you?”

She was. She was so close she could feel the pressure of the orgasm threatening to overwhelm her. She managed to hold it back, though. “And you’re just about to lose it.”

“You first.” He smiled again. Then in a gruff voice he said, “Bend over. Show me your ass. But don’t stop rubbing yourself.”

She did as he said, bending down over the dresser, bracing herself with one arm and rubbing herself with the other. The position exposed most of her bottom, barely covered by her little panties. She felt vulnerable and slightly embarrassed by her shameless eagerness and so turned on she was making little whimpers.

She closed her eyes, trying to shut out the sexy sight of him standing behind her, staring down hungrily at her bent body.

“Open your eyes,” he told her again. “I want you to see how much you want this.”

When she opened them again, she was confronted by her flushed, eager face. She had to stop rubbing her clit because she almost came from the reflection of them in the mirror.

“I told you not to stop.”

She gripped the dresser with both hands, trying desperately to hang on to control. “And I say that’s cheating, unless you’re going to touch yourself too.”

He smiled, as if he admired her response. “Fair enough.” His stared down at her body again. “Damn, your ass is the hottest thing I’ve ever seen. And you’re just dying for me to spank it, aren’t you?”

The most frustrating thing was he was right. She was so aroused that her juices were dripping down her inner thighs now, and her bottom kept pushing up toward him very slightly.

“You always did like a firm hand.” He reached out toward her but held his hand still just over her butt. “Just ask me, and I will.”

She panted desperately, trying to resist. This man wasn’t just her lover. He was also her enemy. But it didn’t seem to matter at all. She heard herself gasping, “Please. Please, now.”

He gave her bottom a firm spank, and the pleasure uncoiled from the sharp impact.

“Again,” she cried, pushing her bottom up toward his hand.

He spanked her again, the smack loud in the room and the sensation stinging.

“Again.”

On the third spank she came, all the pressure unleashing around nothing.

“Oh, fuck,” he muttered, as she shook and moaned. He dropped the towel and pulled aside her panties to slide himself inside her.

The penetration was thick and substantial in her already tight pussy, and she cried out loudly as the pleasure erupted again.

He fucked her through the orgasm, hard and fast and rough. And then he lifted her upper body, wrapping one arm around her, and they rocked together tightly as the angle of penetration shifted.

She watched as her face twisted with helpless pleasure, completely letting go of any restraint she’d intended to cling to.

“Oh, blossom, you feel so good when you come for me,” he was murmuring against her ear. “Oh, fuck, nothing has ever felt as good as you.”

And her heart and her mind and her body all let loose, overwhelmed by him, unable to resist the power of his claim on her.

She couldn’t look away from his face behind hers in the mirror. His eyes were hot and possessive as they crawled over her body, and occasionally he would clench his jaw and suck in a wet breath through his teeth.

Kelly was breathing erratically too, but the deepest of her pleasure was already past. Her hair was all over the place, strands sticking to her back, her arms, and her warm, damp face. And she had the most overwhelming feeling of ownership as she watched and felt Caleb claim what he needed in her body.

“Yeah, Caleb,” she urged him huskily, her eyes never leaving his face in the mirror. “Yeah. You come too.”

He was beyond words now, just making primitive sounds of pleasure and dominance in rhythm with the slapping of his pelvis against her ass.

Then he suddenly bared his teeth and his whole body clenched like a fist.

And Kelly saw it—every detail. Saw the intense pleasure slam into him, saw it overwhelm the tension on his face with waves of release. Saw the way his nostrils flared and his neck arched back as his body thrust forward one last time.

She was whimpering in pleasure, both from the physical sensations and from the power of his climax.

When Caleb finally slid his softening cock out of her, Kelly felt warm, limp, and replete. But she had enough wit about her to slant him a teasing look and quip, “Well. I guess someone is feeling macho and cavemanlike this evening. But I declare, just for the record, that you still cheated.”

He gave her a smug look of satisfaction. “I don’t think so.”

“I didn’t come until you touched me.”

“You would have. But you were begging me to touch you, and I’ve always had a soft heart.” The irony in his tone was obvious. Caleb Marshall had never been known for having a soft heart.

She couldn’t help but laugh. “As good as that was, now I’m all messy to go to the party. And I’ll have to redo my hair and makeup.”

“You don’t need to redo your makeup.” He looked sated and slightly flushed but otherwise in better shape than her. He’d reached for the tuxedo he was going to wear this evening. “Or your hair.”

Drawing her brows together, Kelly peered at herself in the mirror. Her cheeks were deeply pink, and her skin was a little too dewy. And her hair was a tousled mess, cascading all around her. “You have got to be kidding. I at least need to powder my face. And my hair—”

Caleb had put his pants on, but now he moved up behind her again. His body was relaxed now, but she could still feel heat radiating off of it. “Leave your hair like that,” he said huskily, skimming the side of her face with a few kisses.

She rolled her eyes. “I never wear my hair like this. You just want me to go to this party looking well and thoroughly fucked so people will think you’re a real stud.”

He didn’t object to this sentiment. Instead he walked over to open a drawer of his nightstand and he pulled out a box.

“What’s that?” she asked as he carried it over to her.

She really had no idea, but it looked about the right size for a necklace or maybe a bracelet.

Caleb handed it to her. “This is for you.”

Drawing her brows together, she accepted the box and opened the top. Inside was an oval pendant on a platinum chain. The pendant was a polished stone—made of deep, compelling swirls of gray and silver.

“It’s beautiful,” she breathed. “You got this for me? Why?”

He gave a half-shrug. “Because I wanted to.” He lifted it out of the box and moved to place it around her neck, moving aside her hair so he could clasp the chain. “Do you like it?”

She raised one hand to the pendant, surprised and touched and confused. “I love it. Thank you so much.”

“I wanted you to have something that I gave you.”

“And now I do.” She stared at the pendant in the mirror, telling herself that Caleb was so rich that the cost of this necklace would be trivial to him. It was just a little thing. Not meaningful at all.

It felt meaningful to her, though.

Caleb was watching her face closely, and she smiled at him. “You must still be feeling like a caveman, wanting to place your brand on me.”

He laughed and kissed her, and they fell back into their normal interaction as she went to clean up a little and pulled her dress back on.

Kelly liked feeling this way. She liked being this person. A woman who might get fucked over a dresser on the way to a party. Simply because they wanted each other so much.

She stared at herself in the mirror and wondered if she could ever be that person for real.

Not long afterward, they were ready to leave. Kelly was wearing the red dress. Her face was still a little dewier than she preferred, since she hadn’t redone her makeup. And her hair was loose, falling in tousled, messy waves, all the way down her back.

Caleb was looking very pleased with himself.

The cocktail party was an engagement celebration for an acquaintance of Caleb’s. Evidently the man was big in the local business scene, so the guest list included quite a few important and influential people. It was being held in a nineteenth-century mansion that had been converted to an upscale event venue, and Kelly had a hard time even beginning to estimate the price tag for this evening’s festivities.

Only in the last couple of weeks had Kelly started going out in public with Caleb as his girlfriend, so she was a little self-conscious as they circled the ornate ballroom. Her adoptive parents had been wealthy by most people’s standards, but they hadn’t been anywhere close to this league.

Her dress wasn’t cheap, but it was off the rack—which wasn’t true of most of the evening gowns she saw. And her only piece of expensive jewelry was the pendant at her neck. She could feel the weight of it as she moved—as if it were Caleb pressing against her skin.

She stayed mostly quiet, drinking the excellent champagne and letting Caleb take the lead as they circled. He worked the room like it was a battlefield, a thing to be conquered. She tried to keep the perspective she needed by reminding herself how fake it all was—how fake Caleb was as he schmoozed all of these important people—but he really was impressive, and it was hard not to recognize that. He charmed the women and created bonds with the men and generally made sure everyone he encountered had a favorable impression of him.

“What are you thinking?” he asked her in a low voice as they moved on from someone who was evidently a former UN ambassador.

Letting him guide her to a quiet corner of the room, Kelly smiled up at him. “I was trying to keep up with everyone’s names.”

“That might be true, but it’s not all you were thinking about.” He eased closer to her, his eyes holding hers with that magnetic gaze that was so hard to resist. “What are you thinking about me?”

“What makes you think I’m thinking about you?” She kept her smile flirtatious, but it was deeply troubling that he could read her so easily, that he’d been able to see the direction of her thoughts from the expression on her face. She was playing a dangerous game here, and it was so hard to be
on
all the time. She was so tired of always being careful, always leading conversations the way she wanted them to go so she could get the information she needed, always guarding every expression of her face and nuance of her voice. She was getting so tired of all of it.

She took another swallow of champagne, starting to feel the relaxing buzz from the alcohol. She was on her third glass, and she better stop with this one. Being relaxed was good—was necessary—but being too relaxed would be a mistake.

“You keep watching me.” His smile was intimate beneath the characteristic cool smugness. He reached to run a hand down her hair, which was still loose and tousled from before. “I think it’s because you can still feel me inside you.”

She
could
still feel him inside her, and she was very aware that she probably looked like she’d just been tumbled in the back room. Her pussy gave a little clench at his sexy tone, but she shook her head. “Maybe you should dial back the confidence a little.”

His smile broadened. “If you say so. But you were thinking about me, weren’t you?”

“Yeah. I was just watching you conquer the room and wondering how you got so good at it.” It was safest to stick to the truth whenever possible. It was always the most convincing, and it was always easier to remember than the lies.

But more and more it was making even these little interactions between them feel like the real thing.

Caleb gave a nonchalant lift of one shoulder, although she thought he was pleased with her comment. “People are easy.”

Her eyes widened. “Really? You think so?”

“Well, most people. On this level.” He gestured out at the mingling, well-dressed crowd. “It’s all surface. It’s just a skill you can learn.”

“I’ve never found making small talk easy.”

He took her empty glass from her hand and put it with his own glass on the tray of a circling server. “That’s because you haven’t had as much practice as I have. It’s all politics—parties like this—and that’s a skill. People are easy.”

“I hope the implication isn’t that I’m easy too.”

He made a sound in his throat and slid an arm around her, pulling her closer to him. It wasn’t an inappropriate touch for public, but it felt private, tender—like it was something that other people shouldn’t witness. “Nothing about you is easy, blossom.” His eyes met hers without wavering. “I have no skill to fall back on with you.”

Her breath hitched, and her hands clenched in his jacket, holding on to him in the only way she could. Her heart was beating wildly, but she managed to conjure up a sexy, teasing tone as she replied, “No skill at all?”

His eyes went hot. “Well, maybe—”

Before he could respond, a voice interrupted from just over Caleb’s shoulder. “If I was prone to clichés, I might say something about getting a room.”

Both Kelly and Caleb jumped at the unexpected interruption of a conversation that had felt so intensely personal.

Caleb’s expression was briefly annoyed as he turned to see who had broken in, but it immediately transformed into a genuine smile. “Wes. I should have guessed it was you barging in where you’re clearly not wanted.”

Wes was evidently a real friend, if Kelly was to go by Caleb’s demeanor. He looked to be around Caleb’s age—early forties—and had a pleasant face, soft hazel eyes, and a warm smile. He wasn’t the powerhouse and sex god that Caleb was. Not even close. But he looked intelligent and rather nice. “Ah, but someone had to save your reputation. Gloria Cannon was starting to tsk her tongue at you.”

Caleb was grinning as he made the introductions. He liked this man. Kelly couldn’t help but see it, and it intrigued her, since he didn’t seem to be close to anyone.

Except her.

“We were friends at school,” Caleb explained, drawing her to his side, his arm resting on her waist.

“I guess you’ve known each other a long time, then.”

“You don’t have to make it sound like we’re ancient, but yeah, it’s been quite awhile,” Caleb responded.

“What do you do, Wes?” Kelly asked, genuinely curious and wanting to make sure she acted like a normal girlfriend would.

“I make cars.”

She was processing this as Caleb interjected, “Not with his own hands, just to clarify. He sits at a desk like I do.”

“I’m a corporate executive with the company, but it sounds more impressive if I just tell people I make cars.” Wes smiled at her. He seemed to be genuinely pleased to meet her, which wasn’t true of a lot of the other people at this party.

“You live in DC?”

“No. I’m in Paris, actually. But I’m back in town for a little while for family reasons.”

Kelly suddenly made the connection. The mother of one of Caleb’s friends had needed to go to the hospital for treatment several weeks ago. This must be the friend.

That day had evidently been rough on Caleb—he said he hated hospitals—so she figured he would only have done it for someone he was really close to.

It was strange to meet a friend of his, connections going back to his childhood. It made Caleb somehow seem more fully human.

They chatted for a few minutes, but then Caleb went to round them up some more drinks. As soon as he stepped away, Wes said with another smile, “Now that he’s gone, you can give me the real scoop.”

She lifted her eyebrows, but her heart gave a little leap, since it sounded like Wes believed there was some secret about her to be known. “What scoop?” Her mind was buzzing a little from the alcohol. She shouldn’t have drunk the third glass of champagne. She wasn’t as sharp as she needed to be.

“How did you and Caleb meet?”

She let out a breath of relief, trying not to reflect it on her face. “We just ran into each other by accident. At a park, actually. He was there with Ralph—his dog.” Wes evidently knew who Ralph was, so she continued, “I thought he was a client I was supposed to meet, so we started talking. We just hit it off.”

What had actually happened was they’d fucked each other like animals before they knew each other’s names, but no need to be quite so detailed about their first encounter.

“What do you do?” he asked.

“I paint pet portraits. It sounds kind of crazy, but there are a surprising number of people who want to have their pets memorialized that way.”

Wes chuckled. “I guess so. So you’re from the area?”

“Yeah. I grew up in DC, and I still live here.”

“Where did you go to school?”

Kelly was starting to get uncomfortable with all the questions. Wes appeared to be just acting friendly, but he was obviously curious about her, and she preferred to avoid a lot of personal questions.

The more information she gave about herself, the easier it would be for someone to find out who she really was.

She was safe—because her mother had gone to great lengths to hide any connection between her and her biological parents when she was adopted as a child—but still, she didn’t want to give anyone any clues that could be followed.

No one was perfectly safe.

In response to his question, she mentioned the private high school she’d gone to and glanced around for Caleb, hoping he would come soon and rescue her. But he’d been waylaid by an elderly woman and clearly couldn’t get away immediately.

“That’s a really good school,” Wes said.

“Yeah. Don’t get the wrong idea, though. I’m not that smart.” She was feeling trapped and rattled, although the conversation shouldn’t have been particularly dangerous. She really wished she hadn’t drunk so much, since her mind wasn’t working as quickly as it needed to. “The Watsons were donors, which is the only reason I was admitted.”

“The Watsons?”

Kelly blinked, trying to figure out what he was asking. Then she realized her mistake. Most kids didn’t call their parents by their last name the way she did her adoptive parents. She froze for a moment, a wave of terror overwhelming her at the idea she’d somehow given herself away, but she pushed through it.

She’d given away nothing. She just needed to focus again.

“My folks,” she explained, trying to make it sound casual.

“You call them the Watsons?”

Damn it. Why didn’t he just let it go? “I was adopted. I just got in the habit.”

“You must not have been adopted as a baby if you don’t think about them as Mom and Dad.” Wes looked even more curious than before, and his eyes were scanning her face closely. “How old were you when you were adopted?”

He must just be one of those people who ask a lot of questions of new people they meet. That was the only explanation for his interrogation. He probably thought it was natural, normal, but it left Kelly feeling naked and exposed. “I was…” For just a moment her mind went blank with the kind of blind terror she’d felt in an oral exam her senior year in high school, like her whole future rested on one answer that she just couldn’t think of.

“I was…I was a kid,” she finished lamely. “What does it matter?”

Her tone must have been too snippy because his brows shot up. “It doesn’t. I was just curious. Caleb has never been serious about a woman before, and I wanted to know more about who had managed to enthrall him.”

“Sorry.” She looked again for Caleb and was relieved to see him approaching them again, three glasses of champagne in his hands. “I just don’t like to talk much about the time before I was adopted. I didn’t mean to sound rude.”

It was a good answer. It sounded convincing. She gave Wes what she hoped was an ameliorating smile, and he returned it, but she still felt like there was an unanswered question in his eyes.

Like she’d triggered a suspicion in him that was going to be a problem.

Caleb gave them both a glass and then pulled Kelly against his side again. She burrowed against him instinctively, feeling safer, almost protected, now that he was back.

He leaned down to give her a soft kiss on the lips. “What’s wrong? Has Wes been harassing you?”

“No,” she said with a smile, trying to hide her mood from both men now. “He’s been telling me that you’ve never been serious about a woman before and that I’ve enthralled you.”

Caleb shot a look at Wes, but he was smiling down at Kelly when he said, “Enthrall? Is that what we’re calling it?”

“It’s what I’m calling it,” Wes said, looking friendly and unconcerned, although his eyes kept going back to Kelly with that same lingering question. “There’s a mystery here, and I’m going to uncover it.”

His eyes met Kelly’s and his expression shifted just a little, as if his words were meant as much for her as for Caleb.

Kelly swallowed hard, realizing she’d messed up. A lot. She’d made Wes suspicious, and he was going to keep asking questions she didn’t want to be asked.

She bit her lip, feeling like cursing and wishing she could go back in time just a few minutes so she could fix that conversation.

It had been such a silly slip. Hardly anything. A person just couldn’t pursue perfect strategy every moment of the day. It wasn’t natural. But she might have ruined her entire plan in the one moment.

Caleb laughed and shook his head. “Good luck with that.”

Kelly was desperately relieved when a couple of other people moved their way and the conversation broke up. She wanted to get away from Wes. She wanted to never see him again.

She wanted Caleb to never see him again either, even though he was evidently one of the few real friends Caleb had.

Things had been going so well. She hadn’t made any mistakes that really threatened to expose her. Until now. And now she was vulnerable. Now it all might be on the verge of falling apart.

She took a deep breath as Caleb introduced her to someone else, and she reminded herself that, even if Wes wanted to find out who she was, the evidence of her identity had all been hidden.

She was okay. She would be done with this whole thing before he could uncover her identity.

She had to believe she hadn’t lost everything in one slip of the tongue.

Her mind returned to the situation at hand with a hard bump when the name of the man she was shaking hands with suddenly clicked.