Unleashed: Volume 3 (Unleashed #3) (17 page)

I cleared my throat.
And I told her, about how I was born in Billings but moved all over
the state. Sometimes my mom and I crashed with a friend of hers, or
sometimes she’d pull together enough cash for an apartment. Meth
always stole it from us, though. Before long everything would be gone
and we’d be out again, showing up on someone’s doorstep with our
bags in our hands. I hated the look on their faces the most, the
judgment, the resentment. As if I had anything to do with the whole
mess, as if I wanted to be their burden.

Then there was the
fire, a small one but if that was small I couldn’t imagine what
people considered big. It was everywhere, in the middle of the night.
Everyone got out in time because, after all, it was just a small
fire. But it was enough. My mother landed in jail and at 12 I got
kicked into the foster system. One home after the other, I’d bumped
around during my teenage years like a pinball in a giant machine,
finally hitting the jackpot when I landed in a juvenile detention
center.

Kara listened to it
all, lying in the crook of my arm, her leg over mine, her palm on my
chest over my heart. She nodded her head from time to time. When she
turned her face into my shoulder I felt the wetness of her cheek.
She’d cried while listening, but kept quiet, maybe worried about
disturbing or embarrassing me.

I kissed her on her
head and she let it out, sobbing against my neck and wrapping her
arms around me. Soothing her, holding her, it felt like I was getting
some of it out, myself. As if her sadness unlocked some of my own.

“Oh, Declan.” Kara
wiped her cheeks and kissed my face. “So you never even met your
father?”

“No.” It felt
strange to talk about my father. I never did.

“And where is your
mom now?”

“She’s dead.” The
words sounded cold and hard spoken out loud, but there was no getting
around the truth of it. “Overdose, a few years ago. Bound to happen
sooner or later.”

“I’m so sorry.”
Kara wrapped herself around me again, giving me her softness and her
warmth.

“She’d just gotten
out of prison.” I gave a short laugh. “I’d just started making
real money. I was going to buy her a house.” I found I couldn’t
talk anymore right then, my throat real tight and hot.

Kara kissed me, more
tears on her long eyelashes. She understood. Somehow, she knew what
I’d gone through, what I needed. I held her to me, close.

“You’re such a good
man, Declan.” I couldn’t help but laugh at that, this time with
some honest humor. “I’m not sure why you’d say that, Kara. I
should remind you I’m a convicted criminal, back when I was 17.
Grand Theft Auto, and I’m not talking about the video game.”

“You couldn’t help
it. You had it so rough.”

“No one held a gun to
my head and forced me to do it.” I’d been young and stupid, drunk
on a heady cocktail of desperation, hunger and recklessness. Just
about every teenage boy I’d run with back then had had that same
poisonous concoction running through their veins. But that was no
excuse.

“You’re too tough
on yourself.”

“You’re too easy on
me.”

She shook her head,
refusing my self-condemnation. “You’re a good man, Declan, even
if you don’t believe it yourself. You were going to buy your mother
a house. You wanted to take care of her, even though she hadn’t
ever taken good care of you.” I hadn’t thought of it that way
before. Words stuck in my throat.

Again, she seemed to
sense what I needed. “And here, all along I thought you had a black
heart,” she teased me, lightening the mood, her bewitching fingers
moving up and down my chest.

“I remember.” I
caressed her side, my hand fitting perfectly along the curve of her
waist. “You gave me a piece of obsidian.”

“I can’t believe
you remember that!” She sounded delighted.

“I named my company
after it.”

“What?” Her fingers
stilled.

“Obsidian Investors.
It stuck with me, how you’d given me that chunk of rock and told me
‘It’s cool and black. Like your heart.’”

“Did I say all that?
That’s horrible!”

“You added some other
things, like that’s what I wanted people to think. As if you knew
otherwise.” I pulled her against me tight.

“So you named your
company after that?”

I nodded. “It fit me.
You were right. I have a black heart.”

She shook her head
against me and I could feel her fight it. She’d always thought I
was more than that, always seen more to me than even I had, myself.
Then I felt her sigh against me, as if her whole body deflated.

“You did break my
heart, you know.” She spoke, quiet and sad though without reproach.
“When you left.”

Here it was, the
conversation I knew we’d have to have at some point. I didn’t
know how much she knew about why I’d left, if Harlan had told her
at some point, or if she’d guessed. Right then I realized she had
no idea.

“I had to do it.”
The words felt hollow coming out and I knew they must sound even
worse to her. But at the time, I’d really felt that way. “I did
it for you.”

“Bullshit.” She
said it low and certain, not angry, just calling my bluff.

“Well, your father
certainly saw it that way.”

“My father?” She
pulled herself up, sitting now. I liked her naked, her pretty pink
breasts out and exposed for me, but I missed her wrapped around me,
our mingled body heat.

I pulled myself up to
sitting as well. “That last night, the night you came down to my
cabin.” She nodded. “Your father knew. He was watching and saw
you leave my place.”

Her eyes grew round and
she brought her hand up to her mouth.

“He was waiting for
me when I came out of the shower,” I continued. “He fired me.
Kicked me out and told me never to set foot there again.”

“He did?” Kara
asked, shocked.

“So he never told
you? I figured he might do that.” That was cruel of him, but smart.
It really sealed the deal, made sure Kara thought I was the trash he
knew me to be. As if I’d up and leave her after those nights
together with no note, no explanation, like it all meant nothing.

“Why didn’t you
tell me? Why didn’t you ever…” She held up her hand, her palm
upturned as if holding all of the phone calls and text messages and
love letters and visits I’d never made.

“Because Harlan was
right. I wasn’t good enough for you.”

“Bullshit.” This
time she sounded angrier, more defiant.

“He never said
anything to you about why I left?”

“Never.” She shook
her head.

I swore. “He sure as
shit said something to me. He told me I wasn’t good enough for you.
I wasn’t going to treat you right, give you the future you
deserved.”

“No.” She shook her
head, refusing this version of the story, tears stinging her eyes.

“Yes,” I insisted,
and she knew I was telling the truth. “Thing was, he knew what he
was talking about. What did I have, back then? I had nothing.”

“It didn’t matter!”
Kara insisted, leaning toward me.

“It did matter.”

“Not to me.”

“You have to remember
how it was for me back then. I had nothing. He pissed me off when he
pointed it out, but I knew he was right. I had no business pulling
you down into the gutter with me.”

“Declan, you’re all
I’ve ever wanted.” Her eyes, wide and luminous, her lips pink and
parted, I didn’t know how I’d ever lucked into her falling back
into my life. After all the crap I’d been through, all the many
years alone and fighting my way through day-to-day, maybe it was
time? Maybe it was time to finally have what I’d always really
wanted?

I wrapped her in my
arms and crushed her to me, kissing her breathless, worshipping her.

Room service. Damn it.
I heard it again, a knock at the door. Reluctantly, I stood and
pulled on a robe. My woman needed to eat. Shutting the bedroom door,
I let them into the suite to set the trays down. After giving them a
good tip, I sent them out and locked the door. No more intrusions.

She enjoyed her
breakfast. I just wanted to feast on her. Once she was done, I did
just that, licking and tasting every inch of her body and bringing
her yet another orgasm. A man could get addicted to it, the feel of
her shivers and shudders, her needy pants and groans.

After a while we
drifted off again, relaxed and sated and happy. That’s how we
passed the rest of the day, in bed, naked, chatting, stroking,
coming, snoozing, eating from time to time. It might have been the
best day of my life.

Late afternoon, I
scooped her up in my arms and carried her to the shower. She needed
some hot steam, warm water pounding on her sore muscles. I was
working her hard, I knew that. My lust for her knew no bounds. I
wanted her again, all the time. I had to pace myself so she could
keep up.

But once we were in the
shower, I couldn’t help myself. Naked, in the heat, I cupped my
hands underneath her ass cheeks and pushed her up against the wall.

“I need to taste
you,” I breathed into her, then knelt down to bring my face to her
pussy.

“Ahh! Declan!” She
cried out as I brought my tongue down between her folds, slick and
hot, licking her most intimate, private places. I loved how she
tasted, her sweet juices. I could feast on her every day. The sounds
she made, the desperate moans and gasps, the sighs of pleasure, the
jagged feel of her breathing as she started to pant. The twist of her
fingers in my hair, agitated, needy, pulling at me, pushing me into
her slit. I loved driving her wild.

“I’m going to—”
At the sound of her words, I thrust my tongue hard up into her, using
my hands to spread her wide apart, giving me all the access I
required. She shuddered and came on my tongue, screaming and clawing
at me with raw animal pleasure.

Before she even
finished coming, I stood up and positioned her right where I wanted
her up against the wall, my hands still firmly under her ass. I
plunged my raging hard cock directly into her wet, quivering pussy.
She screamed and exploded all over again, another orgasm wracking her
as I filled her completely, spearing her without warning.

“Yes!” she cried
out. “Oh, yes!”

Her hands up at my
shoulders, I pressed her against the wall and began to fuck her
deliberate and slow, burying my cock into her deep again and again up
to the hilt. Moaning, her eyes closed, she melted into me, groaning
with the leisurely feel of it. I wanted it slow, wanted it to build,
never wanted it to end.

“Kara,” I whispered
in her ear. She leaned toward me, her eyes still closed in pleasure.
I remembered her question from earlier. I knew how to answer it now.
“You asked me what feels like home to me.” I drove into her, full
and hard and she took me in, every inch, warm and slick and groaning
with delight. “You feel like home.”

“Declan!” she
called out, overcome. “I love you.”

Senseless, I drove into
her, wanting nothing more than this, nothing more than her. She felt
so tight and hot and wet.

“Kara!” I called
out as I built up, my balls tightening, filling with my come.

“Come in me, Declan!”
she screamed. I drove into her, hard and deep and filled her with my
come, thrusting and spurting all of it into her. She shuddered around
me, her screams melting into sighs, her arms resting now around my
neck, our heads touching as we panted together in the heated steam of
the shower.

She was why I’d done
all of this, I realized. All of the money, wealth, power. Every
property I acquired, every investor I secured, every new success—it
was all for Kara, to prove I could be the right one for her. And now
I finally had her. She was mine.

I wanted to give her
the necklace I’d bought for her. Once I’d seen the dress she’d
wear to the party tonight, I knew I had to get it for her. She’d
look radiant in nothing at all, but I wanted to drape her in jewels,
make her shine and shimmer like the goddess she was.

Dreamily, she wrapped
her arms around my neck as I picked her up, turned off the water and
carried her out of the shower. I put her down gingerly, tenderly. I
knew her legs might not be feeling so strong. I wanted to make this
woman weak with orgasms, leave her powerless in my bed for weeks. But
that would all have to start tomorrow. Tonight we had a gala at the
Met. Technically, I had to be there in 30 minutes. I could pull that
off, all I had to do was put on my tux, but a woman would want more
time to get ready for a black tie affair. Especially after what I’d
done to her all day long.

“Why don’t you take
your time getting ready?” I smiled at her and took a towel down
from the rack to dry her soft, creamy skin. She was going to look
amazing in the strapless dress tonight, the one that made her look
like Venus rising from the half-shell. Of course Venus wore nothing
but her long hair in that famous painting. I’d like Kara in that
look.

“I have to get there
early and take care of some business,” I explained reluctantly.
“But you can take your time and have Vladimir drive you over when
you’re ready.”

“Sounds good.” She
looked up at me, smiling the slightly dazed, blissed-out smile of a
woman who’d just experienced several intense orgasms.

“I have something for
you to wear tonight. With your dress.”

“What a dress that
is.” She shook her head in amazement. Earlier that day the
dressmaker had had it delivered to the hotel wrapped in tissue paper
and plastic, two people carrying it into the room.

I ducked into the
bedroom and pulled out a large, black velvet case. Offering it to
her, I stepped back. I wanted to see her face.

Smiling shyly at me,
she lifted up the top. Her jaw dropped open. “Declan, I can’t!”

“Oh, yes, you can.”
I stepped toward her. I couldn’t help it, I needed to touch her
again, feel her, clasp the necklace on her myself.