CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Morning slipped into afternoon in the blink of an eye. It happened so quickly, I barely had time to register that half the day was gone and I was still staring down a mountain of paperwork. I had enough sense to text Cooke and ask him to take Blue food before I was back to listening to Vance describe every detail of Go's opening night in three weeks.

The majority of the club's electrical work was complete, but there was a plumbing issue stemming from the key shop next door where the owner was never there and unreachable.

"Break the wall down and get it done," I said, done with the conversation already. My hard on was still throbbing even if it had gone down some. It was no longer scraping the teeth of my zipper. "He had his chance, and we did what we could to alert him. Call Tommy. Tell him you smell gas next door or something."

Vance made a note. "There's also the issue of the floor lights. There was an incident at the loading bay and three of the boxes hit the floor."

My patience was waning at an alarming rate. Blue was upstairs waiting for me in my room, possibly on my bed, and I was talking about floor lights.

"Jesus Christ, Vance, are you fucking kidding me? Get new lights."

Dark eyes lifted to meet mine. "These are matters you need to sign off on, Thoran. We're nearly done."

We were not.

We didn't stop until supper time when both my temper and hunger threatened to upend the desk.

"We're stopping here," I said, already shoving to my feet. "It's dinner time and I want to see Blue."

Without waiting to hear just one more thing, I stalked out of the office. My feet took wide strides through the corridor and up the stairs. My heart was leaping in my chest by the time I shoved the door open and stepped into the still darkness. The kind that held secrets and monsters. The murky shimmer of things hiding in corners.

But no Blue.

I slapped the light on just to be sure. Part of me hoped she was asleep in the bed, riot of curls cascading across my pillow, but the bed was empty save for her shoes discarded on the floor.

"Blue?" I called, hoping she was just in the bathroom.

Silence echoed back.

Abandoning my room, I stalked to the room next door and knocked.

Seconds passed. I was about to knock again when the doorknob twisted and the door opened, and even fully braced, my chest tightened at the sight of her in a satin, teal dress with a deliciously plunging neckline and a hem that swirls seductively around her upper thighs. A fat bow held the strips of fabric covering her perfect chest, taunting a man to give one tug to free them into his hands.

I had to ball my fists to keep from trying.

I forced my eyes back up to her face. Her darkened eyes. Her nude, glossy lips. Her pale curls pulled back at the temples and pinned at the back of her head.

Fuck, she was killing me.

"I'm sorry," I murmured. "It took longer than I expected."

Blue's chin dipped only slightly. "It's okay."

I didn't miss the weight behind those two words. The softness.

Something was wrong.

I knew it straight to my core.

"You look beautiful," I murmured, watching her eyes flit away. Her lips curled inward to get punctured by her teeth.

This wasn't her usual shyness.

"I'm really sorry, love," I tried again. "I'll make it up to you. I swear."

She shook her head. "It's not ... I'm not upset. You were working. I understand that."

It was hard to tell if she meant that when she was avidly studying her pumps. Her lip was still getting chewed into as if she were trying to keep it from saying what was actually on her mind.

I offered her my elbow and she took it. Her attention remained on our feet the entire way to the bottom. It was only then it hit me.

Shit!

I should have seen it. How could I have been so stupid?

"I scared you." I stopped, pulling her to a stand still with me in the middle of the foyer. "Earlier. I fucking scared you, didn't I?"

She blinked at me. Her eyes actually fixed on me with confusion. "What? No. I ... I liked it." Her lashes slipped between us, blocking me from her. "A lot."

My dick hardened at her timid declaration before I told it to shut the fuck up. He was the reason we were in this mess. If I had just controlled myself and gone slow ... she wouldn't look as if her heart was broken.

"Did I hurt you then?" I guessed, unwilling to let it go.

She pulled in a shaky breath. "It wasn't you. I ... it's me."

It was my turn to stare at her dumbfounded. "What? What are you talking about?"

She never got the chance to tell me when Oliver bounded down the stairs and caught sight of me.

"What are we standing in this drafty corridor for? Come along. Dinner is lamb and I've been smelling it all day."

Without warning, my uncle slid his arm through Blue's and propelled her away from me. Our eyes met briefly before she was swept in the direction of the dining room with Oliver telling her about his time in France and the lamb he'd eaten along the river Thames.

He'd already helped her into her seat by the time I joined them. Vance must have gone home for the night, but Cyrus stood in his usual place. Oliver had moved into the seat opposite Blue, his hands moving animatedly with his story of the dog who stole his lamb chop and took off. Blue was smiling. All signs of her earlier distress carefully hidden from everyone but me.

The pain of whatever happened after I left lingered in the smile that didn't quite make it to her eyes. In the way she nibbled on her lip when Oliver paused in his retelling. She was trying but I wasn't fooled.

"Have you ever been to France?" Oliver asked.

Distracted, Blue shook her head. "I haven't really been anywhere."

Her first slip.

Where Vance would have immediately caught the mistake and thrown it back at her, I said nothing, nor did Oliver — if he caught it.

"It's gorgeous in the spring," Oliver went on. "Abigail and I would spend every summer there with our parents. That was before she met Aerys and started a family, of course. Abby loved Paris." Oliver's mouth twisted up at one side in a wistful grimace. "She loved the art and music."

"I'm so sorry," Blue whispered.

Oliver nodded. "It's never fair."

Blue seemed to be on the verge of saying something but thought better of it. Her attention fell on her plate, and I waited for her to play with the meal the way she always seemed to but was surprised when she cut a small chunk and brought it to her mouth. It went in and she chewed.

Good girl,I thought to myself, pleased.

As if sensing my gaze, hers lifted and meet mine. But it was fleeting. I pulled in a breath and willed myself to be patient.

Oliver and Blue kept the conversation going throughout dinner. They talked about art and music, and literature. She seemed very well versed in the classics and had the skills of someone who knew just what to say.

Denika had been like that. She had been trained to entertain. She could keep the room buzzing and laughing without trying. The life of every gathering.

Blue didn't strike me as a social butterfly, but I could see her in a beautiful gown, hair and face done, chatting with some rich tight ass.

"Do you have plans for the rest of the night?" she asked Oliver.

"Maybe a chapter of Island of Dr. Moreau before bed. I'm too old to stay up all night like I used to."

The conversation seemed endless but couldn't have been more than an hour before I finally had Blue to myself. My hand on the small of her back. Her skin warm through the satin fabric as I led her to my office.

Once I had her safely tucked away where it was just her and I, and all the ideas in my head, I closed the doors and turned to her. My fingers undid the two buttons at my throat and the links on my cuffs. I pocketed the silver heirlooms with the family crest and rolled up my sleeves to the elbows.

Blue hurried away from me to the shelves, mind set on finding a new book and pretending she hadn't twisted me up the last hour.

"Do you have work or—?"

Blue ceased speaking as I started towards her. Her attention slid down my chest and along my arms. A pink tinge appeared on her cheeks that almost made me grin.

"Up here, sweetheart," I teased, pointing two fingers towards my eyes.

Blue blinked and tried to focus on my face. "What?"

"You're staring."

"Oh," her squeak was followed by an unsteady shuffle backwards. "I'll ... I'll just find a book and—"

Her gaze bounced up in a panic when I stole another step forward.

"Or you can come here and let me finish what I promised."

The smooth column of her throat shifted. Her eyes dropped to my chest. To the V.

"I don't think that's a good idea. It's ... I can't ... we shouldn't..."

I was nearly on her. "I disagree with all of those things."

She edged back. "I ... I don't think I want..."

I raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure?"

I undid another button on my top, deepening the V and drawing her eyes further down my chest. Her lips parted. Her tongue slipped over the curves.

"Blue?" I coaxed.

"Hm?" she rasped.

"You were speaking," I reminded her.

Her gaze slipped to the hollow of my throat. "Oh ... what was I...?"

"Saying?" I backed her into a row of shelves, eliciting a delicious whimper. "Something about not being sure you want this."

"Oh!" she wheezed as I forced a knee between her thighs. "This isn't ... isn't a good idea. I don't think—"

"Then don't." I trailed my lips along her jaw. "Don't think, Little Blue. It's better if you just feel what I'm going to do to you."

To emphasize, I bumped her pussy with the top of my thigh. I rocked against her gently until her eyes were closed and she was making weak, helpless sounds.

"It's ... it's ... it's not going to work," she whined, meeting my grinds with slow rocks of her hips.

"Are you sure about that?" I coaxed, reaching between our bodies for the fucking bow that had taunted me all night.

Blue nodded. "I tried and nothing happened."

I paused. Head cocked as I took in her perfect features. "You tried? Tried what?"

I didn't think she could get any redder, but her complexion was the very shade of a tomato.

But it didn't matter because I understood exactly what she was trying to say.

"Did you touch yourself after I left, Little Blue?" I drawled, both delighted and annoyed. "Did you finger your wet pussy?"

She tried to pull away from me. To run. But I wasn't done with her.

"Thoran," she pleaded.

I captured her right hand. Her dominant hand and brought the fingers to my lips. My eyes never left her wide ones.

"Which finger did you use?"

Her face was stubbornly defiant, but her middle finger jittered up.

Smirking, I leaned in and drew the digit into my mouth and sucked. Blue's face morphed into one of pure rapture. My name may as well have been an orgasm the way she moaned it.

I pulled back.

"Tell me what you did."

I raised my thigh higher against her mound to incentivize her. She sobbed, head falling back against the shelves.

"I ... I got on your bed and—"

I growled deep in my throat at the image of her on my bed, knees wide, fingers plunging into her cunt.

"Go on," I commanded, voice demonic even to my own ears. "You got on my bed, spread your pretty pussy and ... what?"

She was breathing so hard I half expected her to faint at my feet. Her pussy was leaking all down my leg. The hot rush of liquid burned soaking into my pant leg.

"Nothing happened," she panted.

"Nothing?"

She shook her head, her face a mask of pitiful regret. "I'm broken."

I froze.

My head jerked back as if she'd struck me. "What did you say?"

Her blue eyes glimmered in the soft light of the fireplace behind me. "I'm broken."

Indignation shot through me white hot. The sheer audacity of her words had me pulling back. Not because I believed that bullshit for a second, but to show her the pussy juice darkening my leg. But that wasn't enough.

I captured her wrist, and I dragged her to the armrest. Her sputters of protest were ignored as I tore the buttons on my dress shirt and pitched the thing aside. She quieted for several seconds as she stared at my chest. I took the distraction and her when I sat in the cushion and dragged her into her my lap.

"Quiet!" I hissed when she yelped my name. "I will never allow you to talk about yourself like that. You are not broken. Now, shut up and let me prove it."

She went quiet, but not still as I ran my hand up her inner thighs. I forced them apart as wide as she could take it.

"You're not broken," I whispered into her ear. "I can feel how fucking close you are, Blue. Your cunt is practically vibrating to cum. You ruined my pants. It's soaked because of you." I took her hand and brought it to the wet patch in the material.

"I did that?" she panted.

Rather than answer, I dragged the same hand between her legs and let her graze the crotch of her panties.

"That's all you, sweetheart." With her hand in mine, I slid the scrap of fabric aside to reveal her perfect, swollen lips. "Touch her. Show me how you did it."

She hesitated and I didn't push. When she finally drifted a finger through her folds, I almost groaned at the sight. My cock twitched under Blue's ass. She must have felt it because she glanced over her shoulder at me.

"Ignore him. Keep going."

I wrapped an arm around her middle and watched as she rolled her finger over her clit and down in uncertain circles. Her body would shudder but she would immediately stiffen like she was resisting the urge.

I slipped my hand down the front of her dress and cupped a naked tit. Blue jumped but didn't stop me as I squeezed the spongy mound and skimmed a thumb over the hard peak.

"Thoran..." she panted, back arching into my palm.

"Keep going," I urged. "I want to watch you cum."

She was there. I could feel her teetering right on the edge. It was a miracle she wasn't already crumbling.

"Let go, baby," I whispered. "I got you."

She shook her head, but no words followed her refusal.

Carefully, I added my free hand to her efforts. Our fingers slipped over each other, playing a game neither of us had any guidelines for. We teased her clit until she was bucking wildly in my lap, head against my shoulder as she begged me not to stop.

She was a mess.

Her cunt was a sopping channel of heat begging to be fucked. My finger slid in as if sucked in by her walls.

Blue wailed. Her head jerked up to watch as I fingered her hole in slow, even pumps.

"What are you doing?" she whined, sounding delirious. Her hips rose in time to my thrusts.

"Finger fucking your greedy little cunt," I told her simply. "It's so hungry for a cock that it's milking my finger."

Blue made a sound that could have been a sob or a prayer. All I heard was my name and the flutter of her walls.

"Stop," she cried, thrashing in my lap even while her hips were grinding against my palm. "Thoran ... Thoran, wait. Wait. Oh God ... stop. Please..."

I didn't.

I didn't because I'd figured out what was happening. I knew what had to happen and stopping wasn't it.

"Are you sure, baby?" I pinched and rolled her nipple. "But you're so fucking close and I want to hear you cum, Blue. I want to hear you scream my name. I want to feel what it'll feel like when I put my cock in you and you cum all over him."

She was shaking her head while her hand was digging into the back of mine, pushing me deeper into her tight opening.

"That's it, sweetheart. That's it. Cum for me. Let go. Next time, it'll be my tongue in here fucking you until you—"

She came with a haunting howl of raw, feminine passion. She came apart in my arms. On my finger. She came screaming my name and I kept fingering her, drawing out every last fucking tremor as she bucked and flailed wildly. beautifully.

Before starting again.

I made her cum again and again. I fingered her cunt until she was crying and shuddering hard enough to break a bone.

Only when I was satisfied I'd taught her a lesson did I ease out of her. I cupped her pulsing mound. Gave her a gentle pat that was met with a pleading whimper.

Hand sticky with her essence, I brought the fingers to my lips and sucked her sweet flavor off. Blue watched me with sleepy eyes streaked with eyeliner and mascara.

"If you ever need me to prove my point again, I'd be happy to, sweetheart. Next time, I'll keep you cumming until you faint. Wake you up and keep going. I'll make sure you can't walk right for a week."

Her answer was to press her face into the side of my neck. Her warm, sated body snuggled into mine and I pulled her closer. I let her yawn and sniffle as exhaustion tugged her to sleep against my chest.

I stroked her back. Her naked thighs. The curve of her tit. I slid the satin material aside to expose a high, firm globe. The peak was a swollen cap that shriveled with just a skim of my finger.

The woman in my arms moaned.

I rolled the nipple under my thumb.

"Thoran..." she groaned, arching into the touch like a kitten seeking heat. "I can't again."

I smirked to myself. "Is that a challenge, sweetheart?"

She shook her head even as her knees opened to my searching hand, but I kept it high up near her sex without touching her again. Instead, I sat and studied her exposed breast. Her stretched and damp panties barely covering her lips. Her sensitive clit just peeking out.

I had no idea what the next day would bring. I didn't know if Blue might wake up and decide she didn't enjoy any of it and ask me never to touch her again. I wanted to take my fill of her before it was too late.

"Will you touch me again tomorrow?" my blue eyed temptress asked, voice sluggish with sleep.

"Do you want me to touch you tomorrow?" I counted.

She hummed quietly. "You promised something with your mouth. I'm so curious."

Despite everything, I heard myself laugh. "Oh, love, I will absolutely eat your pussy until you're fucking my face and squirting in my mouth."

Blue's breath was unsteady against the side of my neck. Her knees opened.

"One more?" she begged.

I smirked. "I thought you were too tired."

To my absolute devastation, she reached under her skirt and peeled her panties down her legs and let the white cotton stretch around her ankles.

"I'm so tired, but ... one more. Please?"

Who was I to argue?