THREAT (The Billionaire's Rules, Book 5) (4 page)

I’m
outside.

It was from an unknown number.

She blinked, suddenly feeling awake as a
surge of adrenaline rushed through her system.

Outside?
 
Who was outside?

Ivy got out of bed, shivering, and went
to the bedroom window, looking out onto the street in front of her building.

Cullen Sharpe was standing there, bathed
in darkness, but the nearby streetlight revealed just enough of him for her to
know it was Cullen and not some strange man.

A wave of relief hit her as she realized
it was Cullen.
 
Of course, she knew
she couldn’t trust Cullen, but somehow she did despite herself.

What’s
he doing here?

She opened her window and craned her head
outside as the cool air blew against her face.
 
“Cullen?” she called out.

He looked up at her.
 
“Buzz me in,” he said.

She shook her head.
 
“I can’t do that—“

“Buzz me in, Ivy.”
 
He walked up the steps and disappeared
from view under the overhang of the building.

“Fuck,” Ivy whispered, closing her
window.
 

She didn’t have time to change or put on
makeup, nothing.
 
Nor did she have
time to gather her wits.

There were so many reasons why she knew
it was a bad idea to open her door to Cullen Sharpe right now.

So many reasons, and yet not one of them
seemed powerful enough to truly stop her from letting him into her home.
  

Ivy padded out of her room and into the
hallway.
 
By the front door to her
apartment was her intercom and she hit the button to buzz him through the main
entrance to the building.

She unlocked the deadbolt and waited next
to it.
 
Moments later, she heard his
steady footsteps coming up the stairs and then he was knocking.

Here
we go.

Ivy took a deep breath and opened the
door.

Cullen stepped inside.
 
He was wearing baggy workout pants,
sneakers, a t-shirt and a light jacket.
 
He looked much more casual than she was used to.

“I woke you,” he said.
 
It was a statement, not an apology.

“Yeah,” she admitted, folding her arms
self-consciously over her chest.
 
She was, after all, wearing nothing but a flimsy white nightie.

Cullen shut the door behind him and
looked at her soberly.
 
“I’ve been
thinking about you,” he said.

She licked her lips.
 
“What about me?”

“About what you said earlier today.
 
When you accused me of being a hypocrite
who never tells you anything.
 
It’s
true what you said.”
 
He ran a hand
through his hair as if he was distraught.
 
“I’m a hypocrite.
 
And I’ve
treated you badly.”

A thrill went through her chest.
 
“Cullen,” she said.
 
“You don’t have to do this.”

He made eye contact again, and his cold
blue eyes were smoldering.
 
“It
might look as though I have the perfect life,” he went on.
 
“A successful neurosurgeon who starts a
drug company that sets the world on fire with a highly marketable drug and more
on the way.
 
Fame,
millions of dollars, women throwing themselves at my feet.
 
Acclaim, awards, the respect of my
peers.
 
Everything most people want,
right?”

“Right,” she murmured, although she knew
only too well just how far from that ideal Cullen Sharpe was in reality.
 
After all, he had colleagues saying that
he might have murdered one of his former patients, and an FBI agent claiming
that the U.S. government considered him an enemy.

That didn’t sound like something to be
envious of.

Cullen’s eyes suddenly bored into hers,
and for a split second, she thought—
Oh
my God, he knows.
 
Somehow, he found
out that I know what he’s been accused of.

But then Cullen spoke.
 
“None of my current success means
anything.
 
I’m trapped in the past,
Ivy.”
 

“How do you mean?”

He shook his head.
 
“I can’t expect you to understand.”
 
His head dropped and he stared at the
floor.
 
“This was a mistake.
 
I shouldn’t have come here.”

Cullen started to turn away, and Ivy knew
that perhaps the wisest thing to do would be just to let him leave her
apartment.
 
After all, the deeper
she became embroiled in his life, the more problems it caused her, and the more
dangerous she potentially became to him.

But she simply couldn’t bear to let him
go.

As he turned, she reached out and grabbed
his hand.
 
“Cullen, don’t leave,”
she said, her voice trembling a little.

He turned back towards her once more and
his eyes were tortured.
 
His face
looked as though it might break apart from the strain.
 
“You deserve so much better than me,” he
said.
 
“Look at you.
 
You’re beautiful, and intelligent and
soft and perfect.
 
I need to protect
you but I know I’ll only destroy you, just like…” his voice trailed off.

She knew that beneath the surface, he was
hiding terrible secrets.
 
Secrets that could possibly ruin them both.

Let
him go, Ivy.
 
Get as far away from
him as you can.
 
 
He’s trying his best to warn you.

Yet nobody had ever looked at her and
spoken to her the way Cullen Sharpe did.
 
No man had ever made her feel the way he made her feel.

How could she turn away from this man?

The truth was, she simply couldn’t.

“What can I do?” she asked, squeezing his
warm hand.

“The things I keep inside me, I keep for
a reason,” he said, his voice halting.
 
“You need to realize that I do it for your protection.”

If
only you knew that you can’t protect me from your past
.
 
Your past is already haunting me.

“I know,” was all she said.

And then Cullen leaned down and his lips
met hers, and his tongue was sliding gently into her mouth, and she was falling
into his strong arms.

His hands slid down her arms and to her
hips, rustling across the thin material of her nightgown.
 
Her skin broke into gooseflesh and her
nipples stiffened as his warm body pressed against her.

Cullen’s lips were so soft and yet they
were strong, passionate, speaking more to her than all of his words and
explanations could ever hope to say.

His lips said that he needed her, wanted
her,
desired
her like nothing else in the world.
 
His lips said that he trusted
her, that
he was counting on her not to let him down like
the rest of the world had done.

She could feel his emotions radiating off
him and seeping into her skin and bones, soaking her in his very essence.

Cullen Sharpe wasn’t easy
,
he wasn’t normal
.
 
He was dangerous and frightening and
mysterious.
 
Going deeper with him
could put her future in grave danger, because there were larger forces at work
that Ivy was powerless against.
 

But she wasn’t able to turn away from
him.
 
 

Her body was saying yes, as his mouth
worked and worked, his tongue subduing her with its sensuality, and his hands
promising even more seductive possibilities.

One hand slid down to her bare thigh and
then up, beneath her nightgown, grabbing her ass and squeezing.

He breathed in deeply through his nose
and then broke off their kiss, looking into her eyes.
 
“Show me your bedroom,” he said.

“It’s kind of a mess right now.
 
I wasn’t expecting company.”

“I don’t care about that.”

She turned, as his hand slid to her hip
and then trailed off, letting her go ahead of him down the hallway.

She could feel Cullen walking behind her,
perhaps watching her butt sway as she went.
 
And everything felt dark and quiet and
liquid, like she’d been soaked in sex and let loose into a new world.

They made their way into her bedroom.
 
Luckily, the light was still off, so
Cullen wouldn’t be able to see the pile of clothes in her closet, the shoes on
the floor, the beauty products spread out across the top of her bureau.

She turned and faced him now, as he
crossed the threshold and looked at her, his nostrils flaring.
 
“You shouldn’t wear such skimpy clothing.
 
A man can’t be expected to control
himself if you show so much of yourself to him.”

Ivy smiled.
 
“I was sleeping, Cullen.”

“You should wear a suit of armor when you
sleep.”
 
He grinned a little, but
his eyes were hungry, devouring her.

“I’ll wear whatever you want.”
 
Her heart beat a little faster as she
said the words.

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” he
murmured, moving closer to her.

She looked down momentarily, and Cullen
put a finger under her chin and raised it, forcing her to make eye contact
again.
 
She trembled beneath his
intense gaze.

“I just want to make you happy,” she
whispered.

He grimaced.
 
“You know that’s not possible.”

“Then whatever comes closest to it,” she
offered.

“Lay down on the bed, on your back.”
 
He folded his arms and nodded at her
bed.

Ivy went to the bed and then slowly lay down
on it.
 
Her nightie rose up, sliding
up her bare thighs, revealing much more than she’d normally have been
comfortable with.

But tonight, she didn’t care.
 
Everything was falling apart and all she
could think of was letting this moment matter.

Letting Cullen Sharpe have his way with
her, and forgetting everything else outside her tiny apartment.

Cullen walked forward until he was
directly in front of her, and then suddenly knelt down, grabbing her by her
legs and getting between them.
 
She
gasped, as his hands pushed her nightgown up to her waist, revealing her
completely shaven, bare pussy.

“Damn, look at you,” he said softly, his
eyes widening slightly as he looked at it.
 
“You look good enough to eat for days.”

Ivy moaned softly, biting her lower lip
and allowing her body to remain languid, loose and completely open to whatever
he intended to do.

Her center was so wet, so ready for him
in every way.
 
She allowed him to
run his hands along her calves, up her thighs, grabbing her ass cheeks.
 
Cullen grunted as he leaned down,
kissing first her right thigh and then her left.

His lips burned like hot, sultry fire.

She closed her eyes and moaned again as
his kisses came more frequently, trailing up and up her thighs, coming ever
closer to her shaven mound.
 
He was
licking now, licking and kissing as he made his way there.

Ivy writhed, uncontrollably, because he
was tormenting her.
 
“Please,” she
begged.
 
Her hips thrust up, and she
spread herself open for him as she arched her back.

But Cullen stubbornly remained at the
uppermost area of her thighs, kissing and licking so close to her wet slit, but
staying just out of reach.
 

Cullen’s hands grabbed her hips,
positioning her perfectly for his tongue to minister to her wetness.

“Please, I need to feel you,” she cried
out.

“Tell me you’re mine,” he said.

“I’m yours,” she agreed breathlessly.

“You’re always be mine,” he continued.

“Always.
 
I don’t want anybody else to fuck
me.
 
Ever.”

He grunted.
 
“Like that little shit I saw you eating
hotdogs with?
 
Lucas whatever?”

The mention of Lucas’s name sent her into
a near panic.
 
She sat up straight
in the bed.
 
“Why would you talk
about him at a time like this?” Ivy said.