“Like what you see?” He gripped his erection, pumping from the root to the tip, precum beading the head.
What I wouldn’t give for just a taste of him. There was no doubt he’d be addictive, a forbidden pleasure.
“When you come home with me tonight, I’ll let you suck me all you want. Right now I want to bury myself deep in your cunt.” He tore open the condom, and just as he began to roll it on, a phone rang.
“Ignore it,” I gasped. “Please.”
He growled, glancing over his shoulder while fisting his weeping length. “They know better than to disturb me unless it’s an emergency.”
“Nik, please. I’m fucking desperate.” I clasped him with my thighs, urging him closer.
That’s when my phone rang, and I stiffened.
“How the fuck does your phone work in here?” Nik’s voice went from sex god to ice cold.
I swallowed, inhaled deep, and pushed him back before jumping off the table. “I’ll explain later.”
I rushed to my clutch. Every fiber of my body continued to rage with need for the man watching me with predatory curiosity.
I wanted to scream at him to answer his own fucking phone instead of staring at me.
While trying to calm my breath, I pulled out my cell and read the bombardment of text messages coming through after the ringing stopped. I followed up with a few coded responses.
The weight of Nik’s gaze was heavy on my back as was the incessant ringing of his phone.
Setting my cell down for a second, I grabbed my long hair and fastened it into a loose knot with a band from my purse.
When I couldn’t take the ringing of Nik’s phone anymore, I shouted, “Nik, answer your damn phone. Shit’s about to go down. And I need you to handle things on your end and to stop watching me, for fuck’s sake.”
He growled something under his breath before barking, “This is King.”
The rustling of clothes told me he was dressing in between murmured responses to whoever was on the line, then I felt the press of his fingers as they traced the length of the tattoo climbing up my exposed back.
I should have left my hair down. I’d revealed enough secrets tonight.
“Your man is making it very clear that it is time for you to leave and that I need to shut down for the night. How the fuck does he know this? Want to tell me what’s going on?”
Ignoring how amazing his fingers felt, I glanced over my shoulder and said, “Your first-timer, Peterson on table fifteen, lost big tonight and decided to become a police informant. My contact sent me a message.”
I showed him some screenshots on my phone of the guy in question and other details. “You’ll have all of this information on your computer within the next few minutes.”
“I would have heard about this.”
“Nik, we don’t have time for a detailed discussion on what you should have known.” I turned back to my phone, pulling up an app I’d developed with a few friends that wasn’t technically legal. “I’m accessing their servers to adjust their information and also to piggyback the locations of all the places called The Library across the city with the same MO. By the time they come here, the only thing they’ll find is the cafe and the storage area underneath. Are we clear?”
That came out bossy, but I was saving his ass and there was no way around it. He’d just have to deal with it.
When I turned, suspicion filled his dark eyes as they bore into mine. “Who do you work for, Danika?”
“Everyone and no one.”
“Why are you protecting me?”
Without hesitation, I gave him the truth. “Isn’t that what I’ve always done?”
“Protecting me is dangerous.” He stepped closer, gripping my waist and drawing me toward him. “And it could bind you to me in a way you may regret.”
Pretending he hadn’t spoken, I braced my phone and hands on his chest. “You need to clear this place. You have an hour. If that.”
A line formed between his brows. This wasn’t the time to discuss anything serious other than the fact he was about to be swarmed with cops.
“Wednesday, we discuss business. Then we finish this,” he emphasized by biting my lower lip.
I resisted the moan that wanted to come out at the light sting.
Before I could respond, he continued, “And when I say finish, I don’t just mean the sex.”
“Fine. Wednesday. Now do as I’ve told you.”
He held me, not giving even a sense of urgency at the situation he was in. “Danika. I believe I need to make something very clear to you.”
I glared up at him. “What?”
“You’re mine. I’m not pretending anymore. Fifteen years we’ve played this game. No more.”
“And let me make this clear. I belong to no man.”
At that moment, a pounding started on the door.
“Nik, time to turn over the building,” one of Nik’s men shouted. “The crew is arriving.”
“I’ll see my way out.” I slipped from his hold and moved to the wall panel we’d entered through.
“Danika. What about your clothes and jewelry?”
“We’ll see each other Wednesday. I can pick it up then.” Pushing open the wall, I stepped through it to find Rich waiting for me with my coat. A crease formed between his brows as he took in my appearance.
I slid my arms into the coat, followed him to the exit, and slipped into my waiting car.
Neither of us said a word. I’d hear a lecture later, but now wasn’t the time.
Besides, I had enough on my mind.
And most of all was the fact that there was no going back to the way things were with Nik, with him at a distance.
I’d revealed too much, too soon.
It was supposed to be sex. Hell, we hadn’t even had sex. Not in the conventional sense, and my body was still on fire for him.
Then there were the many questions I’d seen in his eyes. Questions I knew he was going to push for me to answer until he was satisfied.
And would I give him the truth or a version of it?
I was well and truly in over my head.
I should have stayed home, drunk wine, and watched K-dramas.
9
Nik
I entered my penthouse at a little past three in the morning. I was bone-tired and ready for a stiff drink. What should have been a night ending in losing myself over and over again in the curvy body of Danika Dayal ended up being a cluster fuck of smoke and mirrors to keep The Library the illusion it was.
And when it came to illusions, that’s exactly what Danika had become. The second her car left the street of the club there’d been no trace of her.
My men insisted her car vanished.
Which was bullshit.
They were supposed to be the best. Then again, they’d never gone against former CIA operative, Richard Kade, when he was protecting his ward.
Instead of handing my crew their asses when they returned, I’d let them deal with the turnover of the club, something they’d trained to do within a twenty-minute time frame but never actually had to pull off until tonight.
This also meant I owed one to Danika.
Would she put this in the jar of debt she’d collected from me when we were kids or add it to a new one? Back then, the beat cops who strolled our neighborhood viewed Danika as the nerdy, quiet girl. If she said something did or didn’t happen, it was the truth.