Heartless Knight (Sins of Knight Mafia Trilogy Book 2) Read online

  “Just how did you think I would react when I found out what you had done?” I wanted the truth.

  “We’re really going to talk about this?”

  “Yes.” I put a hand on my hip. “You aren’t leaving in the storm. There’s no power. What else are we supposed to do?”

  His eyes traveled to the bed.

  “Oh no. I’m not sleeping with you. Is that what you thought?”

  He chuckled. “Isn’t that our go-to?”

  “Not anymore.”

  He exhaled, lowering himself on the edge of the bed. I would have preferred if he had used the small sitting area at the end of the room. It was easier not to picture him tangled in my sheets.

  “All right. Kennedy. You want to know about the PAC.”

  “I do.” I leaned against the chaise, afraid that if I stepped any closer to him the new drop in temperature would be disrupted. “I deserve the truth. Especially from the man who swore he had waited five years to be back in my life. The man who had claimed me so many times the other night, I’d lost count.

  A shutter slammed against the window. It had come loose in the storm. I hopped upright.

  “Want to sit next to me?” he offered. The sexy smirk on his face should have been illegal.

  “I’m fine. I’m not worried about the storm.” I pressed my lips together. “You were getting ready to tell me why you stabbed me in the back.”

  Knight rubbed the side of his jaw. “Words like that hurt, you know?”

  “Do they?” I eyed him.

  “Shit, Kennedy. What happened to business and pleasure staying separate?”

  I glared at him over my cocktail glass. “Business is one thing. Destroying my organization is something entirely different. Blocking the Crescent Towers deal will do exactly that. I know you’re angry about the loan your father took from me. But that’s between you and your family. He made that decision. He came to me. It wasn’t the other way around.”

  “The payments are outrageous,” he argued.

  “See? It goes back to the same thing. You’re angry that he made a bad business deal and I’m the one who bailed him out. Your ego can’t take it.”

  “Who said anything about my ego?” He stood tall. I had to stop the way my body responded to his athletic frame. It seemed as if every muscle in his arms rippled when he took a step toward me. I had nowhere to go, pinned against the chaise. I stood my ground, jutting my chin forward. I dared him to try to kiss me again.

  I huffed. “Believe me. As the only women on top in this town, I’ve dealt with plenty of male egos. Yours isn’t new.”

  “You know nothing else about me? You’re going to paint me as any other mobster? Really?” He stopped inches from me. Close enough I could smell the cologne on his skin. Damn it. He smelled incredible.

  “Why can’t you separate business from us? It seems messy for you. Why is that hard for you?” I wondered how mean I could be. How far I could tear him down. How far I could push him from me.

  “Because it should be the same thing.” His hand curved against my cheek. My eyes never left his. “We should be on the same side for once. Not fighting. Not carrying on the fucked-up legacies our fathers left behind. Weren’t we supposed to be different? We’re we going to change everything? Couldn’t we still?”

  The rain pelted the window while the broken shutter clattered against the house. The sound distracted me. My head jerked to the side. Knight slid into place, his hand snaking around my waist.

  “You haven’t told me why you did it.” I stared at him, wanting this to be different so badly it hurt between my ribs. My head hurt. My body ached. He had wounded me over and over. I couldn’t believe him now, no matter what he said.

  “For the tech,” he answered. “It’s all I have. The only way to rebuild the Corban empire. It wasn’t about you. It was for me. For my family. For my name. I had to have a way to make something out of what my father destroyed.”

  I blinked. “What?”

  “My father invested in a small tech firm before he died. It was unorthodox for him. He never did shit like that. I started looking into it with Paul. Do you have any idea what this tech does?”

  I shook my head. It was something I’d been trying to find out. “No.” Was he going to tell me? Crew had come up empty for days.

  His thumb stroked the side of my cheek. I tried to ignore it. Cut myself off from the spark it ignited in my blood.

  “It’s going to sound crazy. I thought my father had lost his damn mind, but I did the research. I had Paul do even more. It’s a radar device used on shipwrecks.”

  “Shipwrecks?” What the hell was he talking about?

  “I know. Crazy, right? But, oceanographers use this stuff for studying reefs. Anyway, there are hundreds of sunken ships in the Gulf. Whoever uses the tech to identify what’s on the ships owes a percentage of the findings’ profit to me.”

  I blinked. “Are you saying you’re in the treasure hunting business?” It sounded absurd. Like something out of an adventure book. It didn’t seem like something Knight would invest in. Why did he stand so close to me? Why was he touching me? His breath seemed even, while my pulse was erratic.

  “You have a way of sounding like a non-believer.”

  “Excuse my skepticism.” I raised an eyebrow.

  “Hey, I’m not the one out there on dives. I just fund the production. I sign contracts and take in a hefty profit if they find anything, whether it goes to a museum or a private collection. You want to call me a treasure hunter. Okay. I’ll take that.”

  I twisted my lips together. “Why did your tech investment have to block the Crescent Towers? Why take out the senators I need for my gambling license?”

  “Honestly?”

  “Yes. That’s what I’m looking for. An honest answer, to a dirty deal.”

  He sighed. “I found out too late about where those guys were on votes. It was unrelated. But it came down to what votes I needed, versus what you needed. I needed the bill to pass that said tech had a right to discovery. It was the only way to secure the investment.”

  I bit the inside of my cheek, knowing I would have made the same decision. I would have done anything to pass my own bill, damn anyone who got in my way. Was that the truth? Could I believe him?

  “Did I answer all your questions?” he asked.

  Did it even matter?

  “For now,” I responded.

  “Good.” His eyes lit the way the lightning canvassed the room. “I’m done with business for the night.”

  I shook my head. “I didn’t say I was.”

  “Too bad.” He grabbed the empty glass from my hand and tossed it on the floor. “I think there are better ways to spend a tropical depression.”

  I moaned the instant our lips met. I wrapped my fingers around his neck as his tongue found mine, tangling and flicking more possessively than before. I leaned against his body, knowing it by heart. I tried to forget it, but it was impossible not to remember how we aligned. How I fit against him. With him.

  He kissed me harder and longer. I lost my breath.

  His hands threaded through mine, drawing them from his shoulders. He maneuvered me to the bed. The plan was going off the rails. It probably had the instant Kimble showed him into my apartment.

  8

  Knight

  Did she have any idea what she was doing? I doubted she knew the effect her body had on me. Her voice. Her long hair. The scent of her shampoo. The back of Kennedy’s legs hit the bed. I lowered her gently to the mattress, pulling the tie on her belt. It made a swish sound as I release it from her waist.

  The fabric fell to the side of her chest. I growled, realizing she wasn’t wearing a bra. I quickly lowered my head to her right nipple. Lashing over it with my tongue. Teasing it with my teeth. Kennedy seized in air, gripping the back of my head. She pressed hard against the back of my head. I wanted to inhale her.

  “Shit,” she murmured. “Knight.” I fucking loved it when she called my na
me.

  I smiled with her tit in my mouth. I’d always loved her breasts. Perfect. Round. Full as I cupped them with my hands.

  But she caught me off guard when suddenly she wiggled out from under me and was planted on top of my body.

  “What the fuck?” I stared at her mischievous smile.

  “Something wrong?” she purred.

  “No,” I answered. “Not at all.” I folded my arms behind my head.

  I watched in amazement as she shimmied out of the layers she wore. I finally realized it was a one-piece ensemble, wrapped and tethered to her body with a single band. It landed in a pool of fabric at the foot of the bed. I inhaled deeply, taking in the pure beauty of her naked body. She was the most gorgeous woman I’d ever been with. Nothing had changed.

  “Kennedy,” I growled, but she hushed me with a single kiss before she began to slide along my body, dragging the athletic shorts she had given me with her to the floor. Shit. My cock bobbed forward. Hard and aching for her. There was no way to hide the want I had for her.

  The woman was on a mission. Her eyes were hungry. Ravenous. She crawled toward me. I moved backward on the bed, giving her space to operate. I threaded the T-shirt over my head and tossed it across the room.

  “Fuck, you’re perfect,” I groaned as her lips began to hover over my dick. It was throbbing. The vein along the side pulsed with the rhythm of her breath. She leaned forward, her tongue lightly caressing the tip, tasting, hesitating. Driving me fucking wild. She licked the full length from root to tip, like she owned me. Owned my fucking cock.

  “Mmm.” She opened her mouth with a slow kiss.

  I watched in awe as she assessed what she was dealing with. My shaft was wide, but Kennedy was ready for it. Her gorgeous lips opened as I fed her the width, pushing farther with each breath. She sucked, taking me deeper each time. There was a sexy determination in her eyes. She wasn’t intimidated. The storm raged on outside her bedroom.

  My head rushed with blood as she swirled her tongue with precision, slowly building pressure. Sucking. Dragging me deeper in her throat. I grunted, knowing I was getting to a dangerous place on the scale. It wouldn’t take much to tip me toward coming in her mouth.

  But I wanted to take my time. I wanted her. I wanted her body in new ways. Under mine. I wanted to see the fire in her eyes when I made her come. It couldn’t end this soon. I had to fight off the pleasure.

  “Fuck,” I groaned as she pushed her lips over my full length, sucking on the rigid lines of my erection. I thrust upward in her mouth. Enjoying every second. Her throat relaxed and I found new depths. New ecstasy.

  I grabbed the back of her hair, twisting it in my hands. I tugged against her as I pumped wildly, knowing I had a limit. A threshold I couldn’t break if I wanted the night to last. We could outlast the tropical depression. The power outage. The breaks in the dams and the levees. It was always supposed to be us against the world. What happened to those plans we made?

  My spine began to tingle. She moved over me, taking me in and out. Was I at her mercy, or was she supposed to be at mine? The bullseye in my back told me I was running out of time to make that decision.

  Our eyes locked and I watched her go wild with my cock in her mouth. Fuck me. She was gorgeous on her knees. I’d craved this for years. I’d dreamed it. Imagined what my cock would look like between her lips, sliding along her tongue, grazing her throat one thrust at a time. I gave her a few more seconds, before I took control of the situation. I had another objective.

  She sputtered with shock as I repositioned her, popping my shaft from her mouth.

  “Wh-what are you doing?” she questioned my motives as I pinned her beneath me on the bed.

  I smiled. “You didn’t think the night was going to end like that?”

  Her eyes betrayed her. That was exactly what she intended.

  “I see. That was your plan?” She didn’t answer.

  I laughed, kissing the crook of her neck. She shivered. “How could that make you cold?” I teased. “It was fucking hot,” I growled, teasing her nipple between my fingers. She arched toward me. I plucked her flesh until she was writhing under me.

  My hands canvassed her body while my mouth explored the warmth of her lips. I spread her thighs. She let out a long sigh. My fingers sank into her flesh, pushing her knees wider until I settled between her legs.

  Her breath was ragged. I ran a finger against her clit. Shit. She was soaking wet. So ready for me.

  “Oh, God,” she hissed.

  I kissed behind her ear, swirling the head of my cock against her heat. I felt the electricity surge between us at the contact. Kennedy whimpered as I pushed against her pussy, stretching her enough for us to feel the intense pressure our bodies created.

  Her eyes flickered open, catching my gaze. I pressed my palm against hers as I eased inside her with a slow thrust. Her hips rocked forward, drawing me deeper. Fuck.

  I wouldn’t let her close her eyes. I wanted her to watch what it meant when I took her body again. I meant it the other night at the Vieux Carre, and I meant it tonight—she was mine—she was always meant to be mine.

  From this moment on, we weren’t going to be on different teams. We weren’t going to be enemies. We were going to have to find a way to build on this. To let the magic that existed between us be the tie that bound us whether we were in bed or in the office.

  Our mouths met and I kissed her wildly. Our tongues thrashed as the frenzy built.

  I moved to my knees. She questioned my every move, but I flipped her quickly on her stomach.

  “Oomph,” she squealed, but I pressed her into the expensive sheets, lifting her hips just enough to thrust my cock deep inside.

  “Oh, God,” she moaned, her head falling back. I caught her lips, lowering my chest to her back. There wasn’t much space, but I worked my hand between the covers and her navel, navigating my way over her silky skin to her clit.

  Kennedy sighed, when I began to circle her sensitive nub, drawing more sensation and pleasure from her body. Her hips began to lift and rock. The higher she lifted off the bed, the deeper I slammed inside her. I kissed the soft skin at the nape of her neck, brushing the hair off her shoulders. I kissed her back, licking, sucking, imprinting my way across her body.

  She begged for release. “Please,” she whimpered. “I’m so close.”

  I smiled, nipping at her lips, biting her ear. “Feels good.” I thrust roughly, matching her pants with grunts of my own.

  Our bodies were slick with sweat. I wasn’t exhausted. I could never be tired of Kennedy’s body. The lines. The curves. The sounds she made. I’d waited for her for years. And again, when I thought I had fucked up every chance we had. I’d never tell her I’d wait another five years if I had to, but I would. I was that in love with her. I probably always had been.

  Now? This? There was power running between us. Surging in the energy we created. I lashed behind her ear with my tongue.

  “Knight.” She gasped for air. My fingers continued to play with her clit. Her hips moved at a feverish pace. As the strokes from my cock slowed, so did her pleas. I calmed her. Tamed her. I moved deeper each time, binding us together. Our bodies rocked, slowly, intentionally, until we were on the same plane. I curled my hand under her chest, gripping her breasts.

  I grunted, knowing the moments were numbered. Kennedy turned her cheek toward me, and I kissed her. Out tongues lashed and our lips melted together. The orgasms weren’t independent, but one long, explosive climax vibrating between her body and mine. I hilted myself inside her, letting the release take control. I felt the tightening in my spine finally subside with the final thrust. One. Two. Three. I howled at the ceiling and the world faded to black. She was my light. My nirvana.

  Despite all the misunderstandings and hurt, we were still us. Still able to love each other back together. Able to be whole. To heal. To share an incredible fire.

  “You’re still mine, Kennedy,” I gasped as our bodies quieted.


  “Yours,” she breathed before she went silent.

  Her eyes closed. Her fingers tightened around my knuckles.

  I wasn’t ready to move. I wanted to sleep inside her. To tell her I loved her. I just didn’t know how.

  It could have been twenty minutes or an hour before we stirred. Our muscles started to cool.

  I kissed her temple. “I think the storm is letting up.”

  She nodded.

  I rolled on my side, drawing her back against my chest, but she spun to face me. Her palm flattening against my chest, right over my heart. I drew the sheet to our shoulders. The candle wax had dripped to the mantle. A few of the wicks sputtered for air. That damn shutter had finally stopped banging against the house.

  “Is this how it’s going to be?” she asked.

  “What do you mean?” I searched her eyes, brushing a damp tendril from her forehead. God, she was even more beautiful now.

  “We fight. We have sex. We wake up and destroy each other tomorrow.”

  I shook my head. “No. That’s not the new normal.”

  “It seems like it is.” Her lashes lowered.

  I tilted her chin toward me, kissing her, long and hard. Our tongues twined. We finally broke for air.

  “It can’t be like that. I don’t want that. Do you?”

  “No.” She winced. “It seems like a pattern. Like something we’re falling into.”

  I gave her a half-smile. “We are the ones who determine the patterns now. It’s all us. No one else. Everything that happened between our families ends now. We can decide that once and for all.”

  Kennedy shook her head. “You really have been gone a long time.”

  “Hey, there’s no one standing in our way. I’m not going back to Paris.” I could feel the heat rolling in waves off her body. I moved my hand to the curve of her hip. “I’m here. That means we have to deal with this together. No one else has a say. No one else has power. It’s you and me. That’s it.”

  “Then I need to ask you something,” she responded quietly.