“No lover? Not in nine years?” He stood about five feet away from her.
Claire shook her head. “The people in the lobby—”
“I told you, what they saw doesn’t matter.”
“They saw you kiss me. The other—the other York Towers employees. They’ll all think—”
He took a step toward her. “That I’m f**king you.”
“Yes.”
He took another stop. “I told you, I don’t f**k my employees.”
He had said that but… “You kissed me.”
Another step. “Nothing would have stopped me from kissing you then.”
He hadn’t turned from her in shock or disgust. Hadn’t been embarrassed. After everything, he’d…wanted her. “You don’t think I did it? You don’t think I seduced Ethan Harrison into killing for me?”
“No.”
Her lips trembled. They’d crossed a line downstairs. She knew that. She also knew exactly what she had to do.
They saw us kiss. I can’t keep working for him now. Coming to Noah…taking the job…it was a mistake. One desperation had led her to make.
And perhaps she was about to make another mistake. But Claire found she didn’t care.
“I want to kiss you again,” Noah told her.
He took another step toward her.
So little space separated them. Claire shook her head.
Noah’s face hardened.
“I want more,” she told him, then Claire pulled in a deep breath, grabbed tight to her courage and asked, “Will you f**k me?”
***
“You shouldn’t have gone to the hotel,” Vincent murmured. “Th-that was a mistake, sir.”
“The mistake was made years ago,” Colby snapped back at him. “When that girl wasn’t charged along with my son.” Sure, Ethan had been troubled. He’d been a little wild, but he’d never killed.
Not until he’d gotten involved with Claire Kramer. A little cheap piece of ass who’d destroyed Colby’s world.
Vincent shifted uncomfortably beside Colby. They were in the back of a cab, heading to their hotel. Once, Colby had only ridden in limos. He’d had the D.C. folks jumping to do his bidding.
But he’d lost his congressional seat after the trial.
Nearly lost his fortune in the legal battles over the years.
He would have lost it all, if it hadn’t been for his other son. Austin has saved him.
Austin was the only good thing he had left.
Because Claire took my life away.
“Uh, sir, I read the newspaper articles. Ethan tried to kill Claire—”
The bastard dared to say that to him? “Because he couldn’t live with what she’d made him do! Ethan told me the truth. He couldn’t stand what she’d done, how she’d used him, and he was just trying to stop her from hurting anyone else.”
Claire Kramer. Not some sweet innocent girl. She was a lying, manipulative whore who’d destroyed his boy.
It was a good thing Colby’s wife hadn’t lived to see the tragedy that hit his son. But Lily had died when Ethan was just three years old. She’d slipped from Colby’s life too soon. His perfect Lily—gone.
Lily was in the ground, but Claire Kramer was still walking around, living the high life. That was so unfair.
His hands were shaking. His gut twisting. He yanked out his phone. Vincent was a damn idiot. He didn’t understand anything.
Colby’s call was answered on the second ring. “You were right,” Colby said, the words heaving out of him. “She was here. York brought her here. The bastard is probably screwing her.”
Because Claire always used her body to get just what she wanted.
The tremor in his hands got worse as his rage swelled. “It can’t go on any longer,” Colby said. “I’m going to make sure she suffers.”
As his boy suffered, every damn day in that prison cell.
Ethan had nothing.
Claire deserved the same fate.
***
Noah’s hand lifted and curved around Claire’s chin. “You need to be very sure. There will be no going back.”
There wasn’t any place for her to go back to.
“I want to be with you.” Her words were the truth. She wanted him for tonight because tomorrow, well, then she’d begin running again.
A new city.
A new job.
Maybe this time, it would take Colby Harrison longer to find her.
Maybe.
He leaned toward her. “I’m going to make you scream for me.”
She shook her head. She wasn’t the screaming type. Ethan had fumbled with her in the dark, and it had hurt, but she knew there had to be more to sex than rough touches. Others found pleasure in the act. She would, too.
I want the pleasure.
But Claire didn’t think she’d scream. Not even for a lover like Noah.
“Yes, I will.” His lips pressed to hers.
Her eyes closed. She leaned into him.
His tongue glided over her lips. Into her mouth. Noah knew how to use his tongue so well. He wasn’t wet or rough. He was…savoring her.
She wanted to devour him.
His hands slid over her shoulders. Touched the straps of her dress.
Then the dress was sliding down to pool at her feet.
And he was kissing his way along the line of her jaw. Down her throat. Over the pulse that raced so frantically. His tongue licked over her skin. She felt the light score of his teeth on her.
Claire gasped.
“Like that?”
She liked everything that he was doing.
“What I like…” Noah muttered, desire heavy in his voice. “I like the fact that you didn’t wear a bra. Claire, I like that a lot.”
A bra wouldn’t have fit under the bodice of that dress and—
He eased away from her. Stared down at her. The lights in the suite were on, shining all around them. There was no darkness.
There was only Noah.
“So perfect.” He lifted his hand. Caressed her right breast. Her ni**les were hard. Aching. And his touch sent a surge of arousal straight to her sex.
I’m wet for him. Already.
She reached out to Noah. “I need you now.” Her fingers fumbled with his belt. “Noah, we can—”
“No.” He caught her hands. “Not yet.” He pushed her hands back to her sides. “I’m just getting started with you.”
Sex with Ethan had been fast. So quick. In the back of a car or—
“Claire.”
Her lashes lifted.
“Claire, I’m going to give you so much pleasure you won’t ever think of anyone else.” Then he lifted her into his arms. The move surprised her and she grabbed tightly to him.