away from the wall to reveal the safe. The lock was biometric so I put my thumb on the pad and the lock flashed green as it disengaged. I pulled open the door and reached inside for the sleek black jewellery case that held the necklace.
She watched me, her expression opaque, but I could tell by the way she blinked that she was surprised. That was a mannerism I remembered from last night, just as I remembered everything about last night—from the way she’d moaned when I’d licked her, to the sob of release when I’d made her come all over my cock.
The way I was going to make her come again. Maybe soon. And all I could think about was how that guarded gaze of hers had splintered under my touch like a cheap paste jewel, revealing heat and passion hot as lava. She was like my safe. Only the right touch could open her up.
I held out the box to her. ‘This what you’re looking for?’
She blinked again, rapidly, glancing at the box then back at me, but made no move to take it. So I flicked it open so she could see the intricate loops and coils of diamonds that formed the neck piece and the rubies that fell from it like red rain on silver chains. The Red Queen, finally.
Her eyes widened as she glanced at it, then back at me.
‘Beautiful, isn’t it?’ I took the necklace out, discarding the box onto the floor, and held it up, the weight heavy in my hands. ‘It was made for a queen, which is what gave it its name.’ The light caught the rubies, sending them burning, glittering in the fascinating way jewels did, but she didn’t stare at it.
She looked at me instead. Which told me something else about her: it wasn’t jewels per se that she was interested in, not the way some people were. I’d seen enough of that to recognise the glint some people got in their eyes when confronted with a piece they wanted. Greedy. Possessive.
No, my little thief wasn’t looking at the jewel like that at all.
That greedy, possessive glint in her eyes right now was all for me.
Something hot clenched tight in my chest.
I always gave a lover diamonds as a goodbye gift and I’d never had any complaints. In fact, once the diamonds were in their hands, they never looked at me again, which I was completely happy with. I didn’t want anyone getting close. I was in it for a good time, not a long time.
But apparently not Thea. I had the Red Queen glittering in my hand, all brilliant rubies and diamonds, and she was ignoring it as if it didn’t even exist.
She was greedy for me, not the necklace.
Fuck, it turned me on. And it shouldn’t, because I didn’t actually want a woman to be greedy for me. But that didn’t change the fact that the way she looked at me just about stole my fucking breath.
And it told me something else too: she wasn’t here to get the necklace for herself.
‘You’re supposed to be looking at the necklace, Sugar,’ I said gently. ‘Not at me.’
Colour rose in her cheeks. ‘But I—’
‘The Red Queen isn’t for you, is it? It’s for someone else.’ I took a step towards her, then another, stalking slowly closer. ‘Is that what you do? Steal to order?’
She didn’t move, didn’t back away, just watched me advance, her chin lifted. And she didn’t look at the necklace in my hands either; her gaze stayed glued to mine. ‘You seem to know everything already. Do I even need to answer?’
‘I do know everything, it’s true.’ I circled round behind her. ‘I even know that last night you were a virgin and you didn’t tell me.’
She was silent.
‘In fact, there are a lot of things you haven’t told me, Thea.’ I could hear her breathing getting faster and, when I leaned forward to brush my mouth over the delicate shell of her ear, the sweet, musky scent of her arousal caught me, making my already hard cock twitch in response. ‘Any particular reason for that?’
‘No,’ she whispered.
‘Well, you can’t just break into my apartment to steal something of mine then seduce me into bed without telling me vital things about yourself that I might have liked to know in order to enhance your experience.’ I lifted the Red Queen over her head and draped it around her slender neck. ‘Not if you don’t want consequences.’
She went still as the jewels settled on her skin. ‘What...are you doing?’
I fastened the catch, letting my fingers graze against her nape. ‘You wanted the Red Queen. So here it is.’
‘But I—’
‘But you what?’ I brushed my mouth over the sensitive spot just beneath her ear, inhaling her scent. ‘This is what you’re here for, isn’t it?’
She shivered. ‘You said something about consequences.’
‘So I did.’ I reached around to the buttons on the front of her shirt and began to undo them as I kissed my way down the side of her neck, because there was only one way this particular scene was going to play out. ‘You answer every single one of my questions, or...’
‘Or...?’ Her breath hitched as I pulled apart the cotton.
‘Or you don’t get to come.’
Thea
THE JEWELS AROUND my neck were heavy and cold compared with the man standing at my back. He felt like the sun blazing away behind me, bathing me in heat.
His hands deftly got rid of the shirt I’d pulled on when I’d woken up that morning, slipping it from my shoulders so it fell onto the floor, leaving me standing there naked but for the necklace.
I shivered, and not because I was cold. I could never be cold with Damian Blackwood around.
His hands settled on my hips, his touch blazing through me like sunlight, his warm mouth nuzzling against my neck.
I should never have risked coming into his office like this, but when I’d woken up that morning and found him gone, it had seemed like the perfect opportunity. I’d been planning to stay awake, to wait until he’d fallen asleep and then go back for the necklace, but some time after that fourth orgasm he’d put his arms around me, bringing me up against his hot, hard body, and I’d just...fallen asleep. I’d slept like the dead, something I never did, which wasn’t the best when I was here for a reason.
It was only that he’d been so...dirty, pushing my boundaries, making me want things I’d never thought I would. Try things I’d never thought I’d try. And, more than that, he’d made me feel so good, like a goddess. Beautiful. Special.
I shuddered against him as his mouth found the sensitive place where my shoulder met my neck, trying to get my stupid brain into gear. Of course he’d figured out I was a virgin—I’d been stupid to forget about that—but it was difficult to think when he kissed me.
It
