When she’d settled into me and finally let me hold her, I’d felt that was the defining moment for her – when she had realized I wasn’t going to hurt her. To have her run to me instead of Beaver or Ed last night spoke volumes. Kat found safety with me. Thinking about that brought me back to watching her sleep. Looking at her now, one would never guess that she was nearly as broken as I was.
Kat started stirring. When her stunning hazel eyes opened and she looked at me, I reached up and touched her face. Every one of her features softened. I traced my finger from her temple, across her cheek bone, then down to her chin. She was holding perfectly still, allowing me to explore her. When my finger lightly moved over the curve of her upper lip, her mouth opened slightly and her tongue darted out, tasting my skin. My eyes widened at the sensation and I couldn’t control the tightening in my briefs.
“Careful, Kat. I need you to trust me, but I can only maintain so much control here.”
Her sleep filled voice said, “So don’t have any.”
I shook my head. “No, you’re not ready for that.”
“How do you know what I’m ready for?”
I sighed and rolled over onto my back. “It’s what I did in the Army, Kat. I read people. Aside from shooting guns, I was trained to analyze other’s reactions and know my surroundings.” Turning my head to look at her, I said, “And you aren’t ready.”
She rolled her eyes in frustration. “You know nothing.” She got up and started climbing over me to leave the room.
Grabbing her hips, I pulled her down so she was straddling my lap. I felt her push down slightly to grind on my dick. I grunted and her breathing picked up. I could feel the heat of her through the thin cotton separating us. “I know more than you think, now quit tempting me. I’ll be all about testing limits with you, believe me. But after what happened last night, you’re not ready. And I’m not in the right mindset to control myself. If I took you right now it would be hard and rough. The need to claim you is running rampant through me, and I won’t do that to you. The first time I take you, it will be slow and sensual. I need you to know I won’t hurt you.”
I heard a small gasp come from her perfectly shaped lips. “I know you won’t hurt me.”
“Do you?”
“Yes,” she simply stated.
“We’ll see, won’t we?”
Kat wiggled a bit more to create friction. I had to stop this now before it got even more out of hand. I picked her up by her hips, moving her off of me, and slapped her on the ass. “Go cook me some more of those fabulous eggs, woman. I’m going to need a cold shower.”
She yipped and walked out of my room, giggling. I ran my hands down my face, releasing a frustrated growl. Fuck, she’s going to be the death of me.
After Kat and I had breakfast, we headed over to The Hole so I could have a look around. Beaver was planning to meet us there and I wanted to ask him if he had found anything out of the norm. When we walked in, everything was seemingly the same. There weren’t any broken bottles or glasses, all of the tables were the same with the chairs turned upside-down on top of them, the liquor bottles were still lined up neatly behind the bar, and there wasn’t a hair out of place. I scanned the room, hoping that my eye would catch something amiss, but so far I saw nothing. Growing more and more aggravated, I stepped away from Kat and moved towards the hall that cased the stairway to Kat’s apartment. I had come to the conclusion that whoever had been here had been here for one thing. And that one thing was following behind me up the stairs.
As I opened her door, Kat tried to take a tentative step around me. My arm shot out to prevent her from moving any further.
“No, I want to make sure the place is secure first before you go looking around.”
She peered up at me with frightened eyes. “Do you think that someone could still be here?”
“It’s a possibility, but highly unlikely. I think when you ran out, they did too.”
She stayed in the kitchen while I made quick work through her room and bathroom. The closets were empty and there wasn’t anyone under her bed. When I stepped out of the bathroom, I gave her a nod that she could go ahead.
“Start in here. You said your brush had fallen on the floor. Show me where you normally keep it.”
She came in and I stood off to the side as she explained where she kept everything. I listened and did some work in my head. Kat was right. There was no way the brush would have landed where it had been lying if it had fallen from the shelves. We even tried tipping it off one of them just to see. It never once landed near where she’d found it. That meant that someone had been, in fact, here with her, while she had been showering. My blood had already been simmering since last night, but being here and knowing she had been naked and helpless while some fucker was digging around in her stuff, probably biding his time until she got out, made me so angry that my hands were shaking.