Possession (3 page)

He brushed his mouth over hers. “Your hiatus from sex exempts you.”

He trusted her too. That helped her relax and enjoy the moment. “Huh, an upside to being out of practice.”

Sloane’s Mercedes pulled up.

The valet jumped out, jogged around the front and opened the passenger door. “Here you go, Miss.”

Sloane moved away, and Kat took a step. Her focus locked on the way the valet stood holding the door…. She stumbled, slapping her hands down on the warm hood of the car. Icy terror stabbed at her. A buzzing filled her ears. Thick gray lines waved across her vision. Kat squeezed her eyes closed, fighting the attack.

A car sliding to a stop, someone holding the door open. A man stepping out.

Something covered her mouth. Kat couldn’t breathe. She struggled, but her arms were locked behind her back.

“Stop! Oh God, Stop!” David screamed.

“Consequences, Dr. Burke.”

A baseball bat swung toward…

No. She wouldn’t give in to the panic and snapped her eyes open. Shoving upright, she tried to get her bearings.

The valet rushed toward her.

She jumped back, not wanting him to touch her, and nearly stumbled. An arm wrapped around her shoulder. “Kat, easy.”

Sloane.
His warmth radiated through her terror, calming the wild panic.

“I’ve got her.” He walked her past the valet and settled her into the seat.

Seconds later, Sloane sealed himself in the car with her and closed his big hand around both of hers. “You’re cold.” He yanked his black sweater over his head and tucked it around her like a blanket. Then he started the car, flipped on the heater and got them on the road.

Sloane’s warm sweater smelled like him. It helped soothe her, just as his voice and touch had cut through her panic. Even now, she wished he’d pull her into his arms and hold her. Craved it and hated herself for it. Determined to conquer her weakness, Kat tried to make sense of what just happened. “Consequences.” She tested the word softly, but it made her stomach twist.

“What?”

She wasn’t ready to talk about the details. “It was a flashback. A bad one. So sudden, I tripped.”

He took her hand. “Are you okay? Your leg?”

“Freaking fabulous.” Disgust and frustration with herself brewed in her chest. Hadn’t she just been silently applauding her almost mental health? Yet here she was, shivering like a scared child. “Publically humiliating myself and the man I’m with are the perfect end to my night.”

His jaw bunched, his shoulders strained the white T-Shirt, and the veins stood out against the hard muscles of his forearms.

She jerked her hand from his. “You’re pissed.” Of course he was. Couldn’t she hold her shit together for one night? “You can drop me at home.”

Silence.

Wasn’t that all too familiar. The silence that screamed disappointment in her. Her parents excelled at that. They were ignoring her now for seeing Sloane and demanding that they keep David away from her. Kat leaned her head back, determined to leave Sloane alone. He hadn’t done anything wrong, had even tried to be nice. She was the one having the bitch attack.

“You need a fight, I’m happy to give it to you.”

Her throat tightened, and she ground her teeth against the urge to cry. She needed to feel, to fight against the helplessness, and Sloane saw that in her. It was so much easier when she just withdrew and didn’t feel the pain of rejection and failure. Had she really thought she could be something close to normal? “Sorry. I’m taking it out on you.”
Way to ruin the night.

“Now I’m getting pissed. You don’t apologize for needing that from me.” He sucked in a breath. “And for the record, I’ve fought in front of thousands, and sometimes I lost. After that, very little embarrasses me.”

Her breath hitched, and the air in the car thickened as she tried to decipher what he was telling her. Suck it up and deal as he had? Or was she the one thing that could cause him humiliation?

“You do something to me.” A passing streetlight illuminated the intensity carved into his face. “But you don’t embarrass me.” Sloane guided the Mercedes around a corner. “We’re here.”

The car slowed and turned. A huge wrought-iron gate slowly opened, revealing a sweeping driveway that led up to a huge house framed in soft ground lights. The modern-looking building boasted brutal right angles and clean, hard lines.

Just like Sloane.

Chapter Two

Inside his spacious garage, Sloane struggled to get his fury at himself under control. He’d been so anxious to get her to his house and naked, he hadn’t taken a goddamned minute to walk Kat around to her side of the car.

“Why didn’t you take me home?” She clutched his sweater against her stomach, staring straight ahead.

That did it. He got out, rounded the car and yanked open her door. Taking her hand, he tugged her out while being careful of her leg.

She stood there beneath his garage lights, her face pale and clutching his sweater against her belly. Like it could protect her from what she had seen in her flashback.

Fear was riding her hard, dragging her to that numb gray place. He wasn’t let her retreat now, and he slapped his hands on the roof of the car, caging her between his arms. “Eyes on me.”

She jerked her head up.

Now that he had her attention, he gentled his tone and told her the truth. “I want you here. But if you want to go home, I’ll take you. Talk to me.”

Keeping her back stiff, she twisted the sweater in her hands. “I was doing better.” She paused. “Until tonight.”

Her haunted eyes cut him. She didn’t see what he did. “You pushed off the car and went right into a fighting stance.” The one that he had taught her. She’d almost had the panic controlled until she’d seen the valet coming toward her.

She stilled her hands. “I did?”

“That’s exactly what we’re working toward.” Even with something like a flashback, the fight response would give her control over panic. Pride in her fueled his grin. “You’re my fighter.” Threading his fingers into her silky hair, he worked to contain the fierce longing to have her in his bed all night long. After three days of waiting for her to decide, and dealing with all the other shit going on in his life, he craved her. Touching her fed that empty pit inside him. “And you’re my lover. That’s why I want you here. Now answer my question, do you want to stay?”

Some of the tension in her drained. “Yes.”

Relief glided along his nerve endings. “Good.” Fisting the sweater, he eased it from her hands and tossed into the car, then slammed the door shut. “You need something to hold on to, you got me tonight, all night.” He wanted her to hold on to him, not a damn sweater.

“You want me to stay the night?”

Bad idea.
He never risked having a woman stay in his home. And now? Worst time ever. Shit. But one look at Kat, and he couldn’t change his mind. “Yes.”

“So are we going in the house?” She glanced around then added, “Or are we sleeping in one of these cars?”

Oh they were going inside and right to his bedroom. But first, he intended to clear the panic attack from her head. “We need a few minutes of privacy.”

Drawing back, she clutched his forearm. “Someone’s inside your house? I thought you lived alone. You told me your driver lived in a guesthouse on your property.”

“Not Ethan. A friend moved in recently. He’s…not well.” Damn it, Sloane was not thinking about that right now. “What made your flashback a bad one?”

Twisting her hands together, she frowned. “Seeing that valet tonight tripped a quick memory of someone holding a car door open and a guy getting out. Then another flash and my arms were held behind my back.”

Gently, Sloane tugged her white fingers apart and pressed her hands to his sides. “Hold onto me.” Once she squeezed his waist, he asked, “You’ve never remembered that before?” A darker thought punched him. “Did you recognize that valet?”

She shook her head. “I don’t think so. I didn’t see faces, nothing like that.” She took a breath and locked her eyes on his. “David knew them. They showed up and told David
Consequences.
That part is like my other flashbacks, except this time I saw the bat.”

The bat.
Christ. What they had done to her… Why hadn’t her rich parents put an army of private investigators on the case and found those motherfuckers? If Kat had been his, he’d have tracked them to the ends of the earth.

And killed them.

“David’s hiding something, and whatever it is, it’s bad.” Anger narrowed her eyes.

Shit. He couldn’t get sucked into this. Not now when he was close to his own goal. The one that had driven him since he’d discovered Sara’s body.

“That morning at the bakery, David said, ‘You have to leave this alone. I’ve been trying to protect you. Keep your mouth shut and accept that we were mugged that night.’” She swallowed then hit him with the full force of her furious expression. “He doesn’t want me to remember. Whoever attacked us that night is still a threat.”

Sloane’s gut knotted. “David fucked with the wrong people. Stay away from him.” At least she didn’t work at SiriX anymore. Her parents had completely cut her out of even the profits of the family business when she quit. She’d be safe. Had to be.

“For now.”

He glared at her. “Kat—”

Iron determination dragged her chin up. “Not your decision. I’m training because I want to be free to live my life. Not hide from David and his secrets.” She smiled, transforming her entire face. “Then I’m going to kick his ass and make him tell me the truth.”

Her strength and resilience sucker-punched him. She’d been slapped with a flashback less than an hour ago, and here she was ready to fight back. This was the deal he’d made, teach her to defend herself. Why was he getting tangled up in worry about anything else when he had this beautiful woman in his arms? “As long as I’m there to watch.”

Kat was his for the night. Cupping her neck, he ran his thumb down the smooth skin of her throat. “Are you numb? Or are you feeling?”

Warmth blossomed in her face. “Feeling.” Swallowing, she rubbed her palms up his sides. “I want to keep feeling.”

Her eyes begged him, beseeched him, and most of all, saw him. She didn’t look through him like people had when he was a kid, or with the calculating edge his other plus-ones had. She hadn’t asked him for a damn thing except to teach her to fight and make her feel.

He was all over that and brushed his mouth against hers. Tangy berry and rich chocolate. Pulling her tighter to his chest, he sank into her mouth, tasting and savoring her. Still not enough. Tunneling beneath her shirt, he spread his hands on her taut belly to caress her silky skin.

Damn, he wanted all of her. But not here.

Breaking the kiss, he groaned at her flushed face, swollen mouth, her eyes wide and soft with desire. He rubbed his thumb over her bottom lip. “I’m not fucking you against the car in my garage.”

Heat flared in her eyes. “That would be wrong.” She sucked his thumb into her mouth.

Her hot, wet tongue licking him wrenched another groan from him. But he hadn’t missed that heated flicker in her gaze. “You want it against a wall? Want me to drive my cock into you so hard, you’ll feel nothing but me until I make you come? Think you can handle that?”

She shuddered, her fingers digging into his sides. “Yes. I can take it.” Her breath hitched. “And want it.”

Fuck. His blood boiled and swelled his cock brutally against his zipper. Just as he reached for her, he remembered his blood work. “Shit.” Shoving his hand into his pocket, he dragged out his phone and quickly found the screen he wanted. “My blood test results.”

She skimmed the screen. “You had the test done Monday.”

First thing that morning. “You can’t take chances with the metal in your leg.” Infection or illness could be more serious for her than most people. “Your decision. I can use a condom.” Kat had told him she was on birth control, and unlike most women, he trusted her. He held his breath, struggling with his raging desire to slide into her body with no barriers, nothing between them.

She handed him the phone back. “No condom.”