He flipped her over like she didn’t weigh a thing, settling her on his lap. “Relax. I want to play for a minute. You can tell me no, but I don’t shift quickly. I like to spend a little time in aftercare before I have to go back to normal. You can stop me at any time with a simple no.”
His hand was at the exposed portion of her thigh, skimming up toward her pelvis. Even more disconcerting was the little nest his arm and chest made. He’d situated her so she was oh so close to his body, her head naturally resting against his shoulder, nestling into his neck until she could smell the soap on his body, the clean smell of his skin. She brushed her forehead against his cheek, feeling the roughness of his whiskers against her.
“I like you like this, Karina. Soft. Sweet. I even like the way your jeans hold your legs together. I’d bind you up and then I would have to work to get at your pussy, but don’t think I won’t. I could tie you up so tight and I would still find a way to get inside you.”
He was almost there. She couldn’t stop the way she shivered in his arms because it was so much more intimate this way. She was so close to him. His cock pressed against her still-sensitive backside. His lips hovered above hers. All it would take was a slight twist of his head and his mouth would cover hers, his tongue licking along the seam of her lips as his fingers played in her pussy.
“We can work together, Karina. We can make this work,” he murmured as he turned his face down.
Like gravity calling to her, she moved with him. Her legs opened as much as they could, her lips turning up to meet his.
They could make this work. They could be good for each other.
A loud knock cracked through the air.
Karina was jarred back to reality and practically jumped off his lap. Her heart was pounding, her whole body aching for something that wasn’t going to happen. Oh, god, she’d been just about to spread her legs and let a man who didn’t even like her inside. Years and years of chastity and faithfulness to her husband’s memory had almost blown out the door.
Tears blurred her eyes. She’d almost kissed another man.
Derek caught her around her waist before she fell over. “Hey, baby, it’s all right. The door’s locked.”
She shook her head. “Don’t. You can’t call me that.”
She’d been Kevin’s baby. Sometimes she could still hear him calling her baby and telling her everything would be all right. She forced back tears. She’d been naked with Doms at Sanctum, but none of it had touched her the way the last few minutes with Derek had. Not in all the floggings and spankings and demos had she ever once laid in the Dom’s arms and reveled in how he smelled and how his arms had sheltered her.
For just a few seconds, she’d felt safe.
Derek stepped back and his face went to that blank mask she knew so well. “Of course. You should get dressed, Karina. I’ll be at your place tonight at six to go over the specifics of the case. If Sean and Liam have to leave, call me and I’ll arrange to leave here early. I don’t want you alone.”
She managed to get her jeans up and with shaking hands, pulled the zipper. What had she just done?
Derek reached over his desk and pulled a box of tissue. He handed it to her with the politeness of a stranger. “You’re crying.”
She probably looked horrible. She wasn’t a pretty crier. Unlike a lot of other women she knew who could look gorgeous when they teared up, she inevitably went a blotchy red and her face puffed up. She grabbed the box, taking a couple of tissues. “Thank you.”
“Derek! I know you’re in there, lover. Open the door,” a feminine voice demanded.
Karina felt her eyes go wide as she looked back at Derek.
It seemed to be his turn to go red. “It’s my ex and she is most certainly not my lover, Karina, so wipe the indignation off your pretty face and you might want to flee. She’s a raving beast underneath all that Prada.”
She huffed a little. She knew exactly what she looked like when she’d been crying. “You don’t have to be mean. I know I look terrible.”
He frowned and his hand came out to force her to look at him. “You’re beautiful when you cry because I know you mean it. You cry like a woman, not a manipulative little girl. It pleases me, Karina, and at least for the next few weeks, I hope that means something to you. Now go home and don’t look her in the eyes. She’s like Medusa. She will turn you to stone.”
And she was apparently impatient. There was another volley of knocking. “Derek! I’m not kidding. Quit fucking whoever you’re fucking and open the damn door.”
“She sounds lovely.” Karina forced herself to stop shaking. It wasn’t Derek’s fault that she felt so damn guilty. He’d done everything he should have done. He’d given her every out. Well, he’d also threatened to take her off the case, but she could almost forgive him for that. He was an old school “protect the women” kind of guy. It was just she was pretty sure up until today, he hadn’t considered her a woman.