Free Demand by Lisa Renée Jones Page A

he kills them.” His lips thin. “I’ve long believed that he killed Elizabeth and Kevin.”
    â€œI thought you had no idea who killed them?”
    â€œI have reason to believe Kevin had contact with Niccolo frequently, leading up to the murders. Does that mean he did it? No. Do I believe he did it? Yes. The point is, he will do whatever’s necessary to get what he wants.”
    â€œAnd he wants the necklace.”
    â€œOr you.” His fingers gently tangle in my hair, lifting my mouth to his. “And he can’t have you.” He lowers his mouth to kiss me, but I firmly press my hand on his chest.
    â€œNo. Stop. You can’t kiss me. We can’t do this.”
    â€œOh, I assure you we can,” he says, leaning in again.
    â€œNo. No, Kayden.” I push back and his hands catch my waist before I can escape. “Don’t you see?” I demand. “I am now irrefutably connected to the man who killed the people you loved most in this world. And we don’t know why. We don’t know my motivation, or his leverage over me. You don’t know and I’m in your bed and your home.”
    â€œOur bed. Our hom e , now.”
    â€œI want it to be, but we have to be realistic. We don’t know who I really am. We need to talk to Nathan. Could I wake up one day and be changed? A different person? I don’t think I can; I feel like this is me. I do. I feel like this is me.”
    â€œEasy, sweetheart. I did talk to Nathan, long before I found out about your connection to the necklace.”
    â€œAnd—”
    â€œAnd it’s time to go to bed.” He scoops me up and starts walking.
    â€œDamn it, Kayden, I want to talk about this!”
    â€œI talk better naked, and so do you.”
    â€œWe don’t talk better naked.”
    â€œWe do a lot of things better naked.”
    â€œI’m trying to protect you.”
    â€œProtect me naked,” he says.
    â€œThis isn’t funny,” I object.
    â€œI don’t remember laughing.”
    â€œWe have to talk about this.”
    â€œWe will.” He enters the bedroom and kicks the door shut. “Eventually.”
    I open my mouth to argue, but he sets me down beside the bed and starts undressing me. And I don’t know how I go from being desperate to talk this out, to being desperate to be naked with him, but it happens. Suddenly, I’m tugging on his clothes and he’s tugging on mine, and I end up on my back, his thick erection between my thighs, the delicious weight of him on top of me.
    â€œWhat if we’re enemies?”
    â€œIf we’re enemies, sweetheart, you’re killing me softly, and I like it.”
    â€œKayden—”
    â€œWe choose what we are, Ella. We choose. No one else.” He reaches under me and cups my ass. “In the meantime, just in case we suddenly decide we hate each other, we should take precautions and use my no-fail strategy.”
    I instantly know what he’s talking about. “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”
    â€œExactly,” he concurs. “That’s our plan. To stay close. Real damn close.” His cock is nuzzling my sex, and then pressing into me, stretching me, sinking to the deepest part of me, before he says, “How do you like my plan so far?” He doesn’t give me time to reply, kissing me with one deep, possessive stroke of his tongue, followed by another, and he doesn’t taste like a man with doubt. He doesn’t taste like a man who’s sleeping with his enemy. He tastes like a starving man who wants more of me, who takes more of me, and in a blink we’re in a frenzied rush of hot, possessive passion—touching each other, kissing each other, fucking each other every way we can, all of which comes with his silent promise that, right or wrong, he is nowhere near done with me, nor me with him.
    But a long time later, I lie in bed with Kayden