Page 34 of Heart of Stone (Dark Billionaires)

“I know. Prices are bloody extortionate.” The kettle boiled behind her, and she turned, filling the mugs first with hot water and then milk. “So when did you see Kate again?”

Ah. He’d been hoping she wouldn’t ask this question. “Recently,” he said truthfully. “It was quite unexpected.”

“Despite all the years that have passed, I still expected her to be a small girl in your shadow,” Sarah said, sipping at her tea.

“So did I,” he confessed. “She’s quite… different,” he eventually decided upon, choosing his words carefully.

Bewitching would have been more accurate. Mouth-watering. Irresistible.

“Sarah,” a rough voice from the living room rasped. The voice of a heavy smoker. “Bring the biscuits in.”

“Coming, Andy,” she replied, quickly piling the cups of tea and the aforementioned biscuits on a tray and hurrying out the door to tend to her husband.

Warren followed slowly, frowning as he watched Sarah waiting on Andy hand and foot. Mattie and Kate had disappeared, and he found them back in Mattie’s gaming room. He smirked, leaning against the doorway, as he watched Kate sitting in the gaming chair, controlling a character.

“So I can’t turn into a cat yet?” Kate was saying. She looked down to see Leo at her feet, wagging his tail. “Sorry, Leo. No offence.”

“Not yet,” Mattie shook his head. “You have to be Level 20.”

Kate caught his eye, grinning tentatively up at Warren.

“There is a good book about druids actually.” Mattie stood, bustling out of the door. “Hang on,” he called back to them, “I’ve got it upstairs.”

“Are you having fun?” Warren asked, his voice low as he approached the desk. He leant on the back of her chair, enjoying the hitch in her breath as it tilted back beneath his touch.

She nodded up at him tentatively. “The game actually seems quite fun.”

Warren bent down, taking Kate’s hand in his own. “Thank you,” he said softly, lifting it to his lips. “You’re such a good girl.”

The phrase rounded her eyes. Slowly, the tips of her lips edged up into a relaxed smile.

Ensuring they were alone, Warren let his hand snake up her neck, coming to rest just below her ear. “Mygood girl,” he whispered possessively.

“Yes,” she nodded, as though she couldn’t get the word out quick enough. “Yours.”

Warren closed the gap between them, taking her lips in a dominating kiss. He cradled her head with both hands, demanding more with every pass of his lips. She pulled back for air, but he seized control once more, tilting the chair back until it was in danger of toppling over.

“I can’t control myself around you,” he gasped between kisses. “You’re this unquenchable madness in me.” Andfuckif he didn’t want to punish her for it. He swept a hand down between her breasts, daring lower—

Footsteps thundering down the stairs wrenched him back from insanity, and he stepped back, leaving them both breathless.

“Here’s the book,” Mattie bustled into the room, none the wiser as to the tension their kiss had left. He plonked the book in front of her, letting it fall open.

Kate followed Mattie’s instructions, but she spared Warren a brief glance. A bite of her swollen lip. A squeeze of her thighs.

And he smirked.

7

Kate

Katedepositedthesuitcasesfull of new clothes back in Warren’s vast bedroom with a sigh. They were home. The table she’d artfully decorated with tablets loomed in the corner, but she ignored it. The move back to Warren’s house was vastly different from their departure. For one, she had two suitcases full of clothes. And two suitcases. By Porsche. Who made suitcases as well as cars, apparently.

She also didn’t have a band of bruising around her neck from someone trying to strangle her.

“Holy shit, this bedroom is enormous,” Saffron said from the doorway.

Kate turned to face her. “I know. I think this room alone is bigger than the house I grew up in.”

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