She is quiet as she watches the scenery outside the windows change from her familiar stomping grounds to mine. I don’t know what she’s thinking, but I can only imagine this will inevitably invite more questions. Questions I can’t answer.
“You never told me what you did for a living.”
My jaw flexes, and I think I hate this question more than anything. “I do odd jobs.”
“Like what?” she presses.
I glance at her as the car comes to a stop in my driveway. “I can’t tell you the things I do, Kat. That’s the deal, and it’s something I can’t negotiate on. If you want to back out now, it’s not too late for me to take you home.”
She frowns as her gaze moves to the one-bedroom stone cottage beneath the tree canopy that this area is known for. It doesn’t look threatening, and it’s not. Nobody but my uncle knows I live here, and I’ve been content to keep it that way, until her.
“I guess I just have one question then.” She folds her hands into her lap, obscuring the scars as she often does without thinking about it. “Can I trust you?”
It would be a lie to give her an unequivocal yes, but I suspect she already knows that. Intentions are only as good as the moments they are spoken in, and those moments are often fleeting. I have a feeling Katerina understands that better than most.
“You are safe with me tonight,” I tell her. “What happens now is up to you.”
Her shoulders relax, and she lets out a shaky laugh. “Then I want to go inside. Show me your world, Lev.”
I shudder at her choice of words, relieved she could never understand the full weight of her request. The only part of my world she can ever see is this small space where I sleep at night. This is all that can ever be ours, and it’s a limited-time offer.
After shutting off the car, I walk around to open her door and help her out. The gravel crunches beneath our shoes as we walk to the front door, and I can feel her sudden nerves as I turn the key in the lock. When the door opens, I gesture inside for her to enter first. It needs to be her decision. She was brave back in the car, but I don’t know that she will remain that way.
Once the lights are on and she can see the space for herself, it doesn’t take her long to relax. I take her coat, and she tests out the sofa while I drop my keys and wallet in the kitchen.
“Would you like anything to drink?” I offer.
“No thanks,” she says. “Did you choose this furniture yourself?”
I meet her gaze with a smirk. “Does it look like I did?”
She eyeballs the neutral tones and pieces that seem to fit together naturally. “Not really. Doesn’t seem like your style.”
“It came with the rental,” I tell her. “I wanted something that was move-in ready. It’s just more convenient.”
I leave out the part that I intentionally chose a place I could leave behind in a hurry if it ever came to it. Clothes, furniture, cars… these things are all disposable in my line of work. They have to be. The only thing of value I’ve ever kept is the metalwork my father and I used to work on together in his shop. And when it comes down to it, that’s the only thing in this house I’d ever need to take with me.
Kat nods as if my explanation clears up her own suspicions as I flip on the gas fireplace and kick off my shoes. I take a seat beside her on the sofa, and without thinking about it, my arm comes to rest around her shoulder. Kat leans into me like it’s the most natural thing in the world, and it chokes some of the air from my lungs.
I can’t keep her.
She turns to me and looks up, and I know what she wants. But if I only have tonight with her, I intend to take my time. I want to experience every inch of her, with nothing left on the table.
“Kat.”
“Hmm?” she murmurs, eyes soft and warm.
“You are so fucking beautiful. You don’t even realize it, do you?”
My words light the match to the slow-burning flame inside her, and her response is to crawl onto my lap and grasp my face in her palms. I groan as my lips collide with hers, and my hands come to rest on her hips. She rocks her pelvis against my swollen dick, arching her body into mine, and it’s the most erotic thing I’ve ever seen.
Her hair is a mess from my hands. But right now, she’s mine. My tongue slips between her lips, and our teeth clash as the hunger in my veins demands more.
Kat peels off my coat as I kiss my way down the sensitive flesh of her throat. She shivers for me, so alive, so responsive, and I know I’m already half done for. When I get inside her, once isn’t going to be enough. I have every intention of fucking her until the sun comes up, and I tell her as much when I reach for the hem of her shirt.
She responds in kind, frantic, scrambling to eliminate the obstacles between us. At some point, she removes my belt, and then I get her shirt off. She unclasps her bra and tosses it aside, and I freeze.
“What?” She glances down in panic as though I’m seeing something I shouldn’t.
Before she can get too much in her head, I dip forward and suck her nipple between my teeth and then release it before moving to the other side. Her fingers thread through my hair, digging into my skull as she arches into me. She cries out when I tug on her jeans, loosening them enough to slip my hand into the cotton band of her panties.
“Lev!” She squirms as I make contact with her swollen clit, soaked with want for me.
I toy with her slowly, building her up and then backing off as I rub her beautiful tits against my face. It’s torturous and not just for her. I want to feel her body wrapped around mine, but not until she comes for me at least once. It won’t take much. I can feel it in the tightening of her muscles and the hiss of her breath every time I stop. Before she even realizes it, she’s pleading with me, gasping stuttered words between breaths as she begs me to free her.
I flip her onto her back, tugging her jeans and panties off and pausing to admire her one more time. She’s completely naked, and she’s never looked so vulnerable… or so sweet. My dick throbs when I realize that I was right about her freckles. She does have a few more scattered across her creamy skin. I want to connect all the dots with my tongue and devour her like the wolf she thinks I am right now.
“Spread your legs for me,” I command.
She does as I ask, her eyes never leaving mine as I position myself between her thighs. I kiss my way up the delicate expanse of skin until she’s a writhing, panting mess.
“Oh my God, Lev… please.”
Her words fall short when I bury my face between her legs and eat her like she’s my dessert. Katerina rewards me with everything I want to hear. Her body quivers and tenses as she claws at my back and mumbles incoherently. There is no coming back this time. She’s too far gone, and I only realize it when she spasms around my tongue and cries out in agony.
The orgasm seems to go on forever, scorching her every nerve and completely wrecking her. When she finally opens her eyes again, she is breathless and exhausted, but she understands what I need from her.
“Don’t stop,” she whispers. “Don’t ever stop.”
There isn’t time to think about it. I’m acting on autopilot when I tug down my briefs and drag my aching cock against her wetness. I close my eyes, and she digs her fingers into the base of my spine as I sink into her warmth. Pure. Fucking. Heaven.