As it turned out, her ex-husband wouldn’t be back to her office. Her father had barred him from the main offices, and Drew had sent word his resignation would be forthcoming.

Rutherford’s would lose a talented security and Systems analyst when that happened. Drew didn’t just sell the products his talents protected, but he had devised the most exacting measures in making certain Rutherford’s offices and warehouses were secure.

She shook her head as she carefully arranged her hair into a soft style that flowed around her face and shoulders rather than pinning it up. Her head was still too tender to pin it up.

She wore the violet and silver-threaded bra and matching thong. She had her stockings on, and her violet and silver dress hung on the door behind her as she checked her makeup carefully.

She smoothed a finger over the smoky shadow on her eyelid, adjusted the shadowing and turned back to check the look.

She didn’t wear much makeup, but tonight she needed the added confidence. She had fought to push back the knowledge that someone out there wanted to hurt her. It wasn’t easy, unless Chase was holding her.

She fiddled with a few strands of hair at the top of her head, arranging them over the stitches and making certain the wound didn’t show.

Vanity. She almost chuckled at the thought before her gaze slid to a shadow of movement in the bedroom. Chase stepped to the doorway. His eyes held her. That look in them.

When he was hungry, his eyes became just a little darker, but still a pale green so light as to be icy. And he was hungry now. The color glittered in his dark expression.

Kia licked at her lips nervously before reaching for her robe.

“You don’t need that.” He slipped into the bathroom, staying her hand before she could reach the silky garment.

“Cameron’s gone?” She breathed in roughly as his hands gripped her hips and pulled her back against him.

“The men of the club don’t touch other women when they’re in relationships,” he told her.

Kia almost rolled her eyes. “That wasn’t what I was referring to.”

His gaze met hers in the bathroom mirror. “I want to bring Khalid back, or another if you prefer someone else.”

Her heart rate spiked. “The sharing doesn’t stop?” she whispered.

“Not unless you want it to.” His lips smoothed over her shoulder.

She stared back at him, and she saw that hunger raging in his eyes, reaching out to her. Flashes of memory, in the back of Khalid’s limo, in her bed, raged through her. Both of them touching her, taking her.

“What—what if Khalid finds his own woman?” she whispered.

His expression became darker, hungrier. “If I had my choice, it would never be the same man, Kia. Each third brings his own strengths to any encounter. A different type of pleasure.”

Her heart was racing, and she couldn’t help it, her nipples were spiking.

She watched as his lips parted, his teeth raking her shoulder.

“That’s the strength of the club. A trusted member, someone who will never speak of the encounter, that you never have to be embarrassed to meet in public. Men who know a woman’s body, how to pleasure her in different ways. Some are incredibly gentle. Some are rougher, some know the very boundaries of pleasure and pain. I want to give that to you.”

“Or to yourself?” Her lashes fluttered closed as his fingertips slid beneath the band of her panties. “It doesn’t work that way for a woman, Chase.”

“To both of us,” he whispered at her ear. “Your pleasure is mine, Kia. All of it. And I want to know all of your pleasure.”

Her head fell back against his shoulder as his lips moved to her neck, gentle kisses, rougher kisses. She felt herself sinking into that pleasure despite the confusion rolling through her mind.

“And later?” she finally asked, barely forcing the words past her lips. “Where does that leave us later? When you decide you want a woman who knows only your touch, who has no experience taking another man after you’ve had her? Where will that leave me?”

“Look at me, Kia. Look at me, sweetheart,” he ordered her roughly.

She opened her eyes and stared at him miserably. He was asking her to accept a darkness, even within herself, that she wasn’t certain she was comfortable facing.

“Do you think that will ever happen? That the day will ever come when it wasn’t something I wanted?”

“Wanted, or needed?” she asked as she felt his fingers moving ever closer to the swollen bud of her clit.

He was arousing her, tempting her. And he knew it. She could see the purpose in his eyes, to make her think about it, to make her want it.

“I need it. Sometimes,” he finally told her. “Sometimes, Kia, there’s something inside me I can’t control. That darkness, that hunger, it finds its outlet only one way.”

“And when you don’t have that outlet?” she asked him.

His lips quirked. “I’ll never hurt you, Kia. You know that.”

His fingers curved over her pussy, a finger sliding into the syrupy wetness gathering between the folds.

“Feel how wet you are,” he crooned. “So wet and ready. Just thinking about it.”

“You want me to have sex with strangers,” she moaned. “That isn’t something I want, Chase.”

“Never strangers. For now, just Khalid. For now I want you to trust me. Trust me with your pleasure, baby.”

His finger slid inside her, thick and rasping as her legs parted and a moan left her lips.

“I want to watch you as I did the night in your bed. Watch you taking him, staring back at me, your eyes darkening in arousal and lust as you held on to me. I want to watch you give yourself to it, ache for it.”

He nipped at her ear and she nearly came on his fingers. Her hips were moving totally against her will, grinding her clit into his palm as she fought to draw in another shaky breath.

“What if I were to love you?” she asked huskily. “How does this fit into love, Chase?”

“Do you remember when you told me what love was?” he asked her then.

And she did. Being free even as you’re being held? Knowing you can reach for the stars, and someone’s there to share it with you? Or to give you a boost if you need it? Someone to laugh with, love with, cry and argue with? Someone you know will be there when you’re moody, when you’re dark, or when you just need a hug. Isn’t that love? And she remembered when she whispered those words, how everything inside her had reached for him.

She felt her panties slide from her hips as he used his free hand to push them down. His fingers were still buried in her sex, stroking, massaging her.

“Would you trust me, Kia?” he whispered. “To know your pleasure? To know your limits?”

She whimpered as he turned her to him and lifted her until she was sitting on the sink cabinet and he was pushing between her thighs.

He brought the finger that had been buried inside her to his lips and took it into his mouth. His gaze flared at the taste of her and she felt more of her juices spilling along the head of his cock.

How the hell had he managed to get his pants open so quickly?

“Lean back, baby. Watch me take you. Fill you. Just watch for a second.”

She watched, watched the thick, ruddy head part her intimate lips and press forward. Her juices coated the thick flesh as he pulled back, then eased inside her.

She watched the silken, intimately bare flesh flush deeper, becoming a rosy pink as the darker knot of her clit pulsed.

“Do you know what I see?” he whispered as her head lifted.

Kia shook her head.

“I see sweet nipples that need to be sucked, lips that need to be kissed. And you ache, don’t you, sweetheart?” His fingers slid from her thigh, below where he was taking her, to where a sweet, dark ache filled her. “Right here.” The tip of his finger pressed into the hidden entrance. “You like that. You like being taken there as I take your sweet pussy.”