Free His to Hold: A Billionaire Romance (His to Have Book 2) by Piper Hayes

pull him tighter against myself.
    I think for a moment about our first time together, how great the difference was between us, how Blake seemed intent on possessing me. Back then I felt like he was imposing his will on me, showing me what to do each step of the way. Now, as we press ourselves against each other, things are different. They’re better. He’s still firm and sure, but I don’t feel like I’m under his control. I feel like we belong to each other in equal parts, that we’re becoming something more than either of us could be with anyone else. We’re entwined, connected. We are one.
    And we move as one, rocking faster and faster, until I can barely control myself. Our mouths lock, our bodies tangle, and I can hear our breaths race in and out in perfect rhythm. I close my eyes and bite Blake’s lip as we draw closer to climax. He pushes harder against me, until we cry out at the same time. I can feel him throb inside me as I come. My heart is racing, and I feel breathless and complete.
    We lie there for a long while until he shifts his weight off of me and slides behind me in the bed. He traces his finger up and down my side before he brushes my hair back and kisses my neck. “I meant what I said earlier,” he says. “I want to give you everything you want in life. I want you to know that I mean that. I want to be the man you deserve. I don’t know if I can, but I’m going to give it everything I am.”
    “I only want one thing,” I tell him.
    “Oh yeah?” he asks.
    “Hold me, and don’t let go,” I tell him. He wraps his arms around me and kisses my neck again. Everything else in our lives is so complex, but this, the feeling I feel when he holds me in his arms, it’s simple and pure. I can’t help but smile. I close my eyes and focus on the warmth between us. Blake kisses my neck again and nuzzles his nose against me. I can’t see him, but I know he’s smiling, too.

CHAPTER 13

    CATHERINE

    “I need to tell you something,” Blake says. It’s close to noon, and we’ve been lying in his bed all morning. I run my hands against the soft sheets. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t good to be back in the lap of luxury, but the only thing that really matters is that I’m with Blake.
    “I wanted to tell you earlier, but I couldn’t help myself. We kissed and I couldn’t think about anything but how much I want to be with you. I owe you an explanation,” he says. “I avoided telling you this because I didn’t want to get you in trouble too, but you deserve to know the truth. What Ben is saying about me is true. I broke the law. I found out what was happening at Carlisle Capital and I used the whole thing to cover up my own plan. The man who hurt my sister, Jacob, he hired investigators to look for us. One of them found us, and I guess he took pity because he came to me and told me what was happening.
    “I had been working at your father’s company for a few months at that point, and I had already started my rise. He told me that it wasn’t the first case he had worked for Jacob, and that the last person had disappeared shortly after. I guess he had a crisis of conscience, because he offered to pretend he hadn’t found us in New York. He offered to lead a false trail to California for a price.
    “What does this have to do with coming clean?” I ask.
    “I’m getting there,” Blake says. “After he left, I realized I might not get so lucky a second time, and I decided to start digging into Jacob. If I ever wanted Alex and myself to be safe, I’d have to do something about it. I thought about the options. I considered everything, but while I was figuring it out, I stumbled across M-CORE. I had found my answer. Carlisle Capital was already manipulating stocks and faking trades. I figured I could do the same thing to Jacob, except I wasn’t going to simply make money, I was going to drive him into bankruptcy. I was going to take away his ability to ever come after us again. I told