Page 45 of Beyond Repair
‘I’m sorry,’ he said simply. His hair was as ruffled as she’d ever seen the short style, like he’d been running his fingers through it all evening. Katie guessed that sorry was not a word that passed Sam’s lips very often, so, pushover that she was, she started to soften. Yes, he’d embarrassed her; yes, he’d lost his temper; but she was beginning to see that when it came to her safety he was deadly serious, and she couldn’t help feeling touched by that level of concern.
‘Okay,’ she said slowly, not prepared to let him off the hook altogether. ‘Now I want to know why you didn’t tell me you were paying for all that security, and why you told me that Rob’s, I mean yours and Rob’s, company was giving out freebies. And why on earth are you stealing my post?’
Sam shrugged, looking uncomfortable. ‘After I read the first note I just … well, I just freaked out a little. I … Katie, I didn’t want you to read any more, okay? but I should have, I know that now. I’ve … um … I’ve got them here ... all of them.’
Katie made her way over to the sofa and sat down heavily at the other end after taking the bundle of cream letters Sam was holding. She spread the notes out on the coffee table. All the words merging in her mind – ‘Remember’, and ‘careful’ – featured regularly in a rather ominous way. She’d been so relieved that they had stopped coming that it felt now like a heavy weight settling back on her shoulders. ‘I gave them to the police as well,’ Sam told her.
‘I want to know …’ Katie paused and took a deep breath. She would not let her voice shake; she would not give Daniel that power over her, not any more. ‘I want to know how much the security systems were and how much you paid Goodie.’
‘Why?’ Sam asked carefully, and Katie just stared at him. He sighed. ‘Katie do you know what I’ve been doing for the last six years?’
She frowned. ‘Well … I know that you sometimes worked for Rob and I know you were away a lot … in Somalia?’
He nodded slowly. ‘Yes, and other places. Look, I’m a partner in the business with Rob because I put up some capital about three years ago. Up until now, though, I was mostly a silent partner.’
‘So, whatwereyou doing?’
He shifted uncomfortably before shoving both hands through his hair and staring intently at her. ‘I did … jobs. Well-paid jobs. Abroad … mostly.’
Katie stared back. ‘I’m guessing you weren’t a chalet girl?’ she said drily, and one side of Sam’s mouth hitched up.
‘No. There was a reason that the jobs paid well. I went to parts of the world that not many people would be keen to go to, and I did things …’ He trailed off, breaking eye contact with her for a moment. ‘Look, the point is that I can afford security systems, to pay Goodie (although she’s now working for free, something that must be a first), anything in fact. Katie, I can afford anything I want.’
Katie’s eyebrows shot up. ‘You’re loaded? But your flat is so … um, how to put this diplomatically? … So minimalist.’ In her innocence Katie had assumed that the freelance work meant he just scraped along; she had no idea that taking the risks he took could be so lucrative.
He let out a bark of laughter. ‘Not all of us are quite as into home comforts as you.’
‘Well, okay,’ she conceded, feeling one of her fluffy throw pillows. ‘But your flat is like a prison cell. If you’ve got money you could start to –’
‘How are we onto my interior design skills? I swear having a conversation with you is like being a human puck in a game of ice hockey. Listen, I can afford it: end of story. Now, do you forgive me for being a twat earlier?’
Katie growled and Sam’s smile broke free; weirdly she thought she heard him mutter ‘kitten’ under his breath. ‘It is not end of story about the money, you bossy bastard, and no I don’t forgive you.’
Sam sighed. ‘When will you forgive me?’
‘I haven’t decided.’
In one swift movement Sam had moved along the sofa, closing the distance between them. His hand went into her hair and he pulled on the clip holding the heavy mass of curls up at the back of her head.
‘Hey,’ Katie snapped, and tried to stand, but Sam’s other arm snaked around her waist and pulled her back. He ran his fingers through the soft curls, then pulled on one and let it spring back before tucking it behind her ear.
‘I’m sorry I shouted,’ he told her, moving his hand now to cup her face and resting his forehead on hers. ‘I don’t think you’re gullible. I just can’t bear to think about what could … just please, please be more careful.’
Instead of answering, Katie moved her mouth to touch his. His head jerked back for a second and he scanned her flushed face before he moved, sliding both hands into her hair, pressing her back into the sofa and covering her mouth with his.
Katie had never actually taken drugs. Apart from the time she tried hash brownies at uni and couldn’t control her giggling or feel her legs for four hours (a weird combo); never anything that could truly mess with her mind. But with Sam’s heavy weight on her on the sofa, his mouth moving on hers, she felt more of a high than she would have considered physically possible. She wasn’t surprised: his sheer beauty and masculinity probably meant he gave off enough pheromones to make the average woman high on lust from across the room if all his attention was focused on her. No wonder with him in this close proximity Katie lost her head.
She plunged her fingers into his hair and then under his shirt to pull it up, making a low moan in the back of her throat. Crikey, a few glasses of wine, a bit of tension, Sam’s hard body in reaching distance, and she was some sort of sex-starved crazy-woman. But all she knew was that sheneededSam. She was tired of waiting, tired of holding back. It wasn’t just wanting or quite fancying a bit of a tumble, it was an all-consuming, tearing need. And she knew,she knewthat however beautiful he was, however far out of her league he would have been normally, she knew that for some bizarre reason he needed her too.
‘You’re so beautiful,’ he murmured as he pulled back a little to scan her face. His weight settled on her and couldn’t hold back a small moan. He gave her one long hard kiss, before one of his large hands went under her thigh, the other around her back and he lifted them both up.
‘Oh my God,’ she whispered as she wrapped her legs around him and he strode through her small living room before taking the stairs two at a time. They fell onto her bed and his weight settled on her again. Katie moved instinctively against his hardness and he let out an almost feral sound as his hands went to her top. She lifted her arms for him as he pulled it over her head, thanking the Powers That Be for her good underwear choice this morning, and that her bra was pink and lacy and not grey and cotton. His shirt came off next and she let out a moderately embarrassing ‘Wow!’. In her defence his body was definitely wow-worthy. All hard planes and sinewy muscle.
After he’d thrown his shirt away and he looked down at her mostly-naked torso, his pupils dilated and his jaw clenched. She could almost see the last of his control fall away and the rest of their clothes weren’t far behind.
‘Sam, I’m ready ple - .’ She was cut of as he filled her and all breath was driven from her lungs.
‘Are you okay?’ he gritted out, framing her face with his hands, his eyes wild. Katie couldn’t speak. She didn’t know if she’d ever be able to speak again. So she nodded as vigorously as possible and flexed her hips against his. He let out a breath, and then he moved. Every jolt of their bodies on the bed drew another moan from her until she could feel herself climbing higher and higher before falling off the cliff. After that his rhythm grew choppy until his whole, deliciously hard body tensed up and he followed her over.
