Naked & Unleashed Read Free

from nothing.” The housekeeper clucked suspiciously but didn’t say anything else. Her footsteps receded.
    Halfway down the block, Callista raised her hand to hail a cab. Mikal watched her until she ducked out of sight in the back of a yellow sedan. Unsettled by something he couldn’t quite name, he turned away from the window and sat at his desk. Virtual meetings occupied the remainder of his afternoon but he had difficulty concentrating. Callista had no reason to run from him…unless he was slipping.
    He replayed the few words they’d exchanged after she finished shaving him and cursed himself. Some women were sensitive to suggestion. While some ignored subtle hints, others added layers of meaning where none existed. He didn’t figure Callista for the type of woman who’d manufacture intent but she was sharp enough to pick up on subtext. He wanted her helpless in his hands and powerless in his bed. That kind of desire spooked women who valued their safety.
    “Hell.” Damning himself, he stood abruptly and left the meeting without a word of explanation.
    In the shower, Mikal tried to scrub some sense into his flesh. Urges had no place in his life because he wouldn’t endanger himself by acting on them. The kind of women who enjoyed being hurt and terrified, who got off on the combination of fear and sex, were not the kind of women who could be trusted. As the Steele heir, he was too vulnerable to accusations of assault, public or otherwise. One woman with a plan to ruin him for her own gain, or one woman who thought she wanted something she didn’t truly understand, and not only would Mikal be ruined, but his whole family with him.
    Abuser. Woman beater. Rapist.
    He wasn’t any of those things, but if he allowed himself to indulge in the kind of relationship he wanted with a woman, he could be labeled all three. Grabbing an abrasive bath brush from a hook on the shower wall, he turned the stiff bristles on his groin and tried to scrub the perversion from his flesh. Callista wouldn’t have fled in fear if he hadn’t given her a reason to run. Even if he hadn’t voiced his desires, he’d felt them. Just the idea of scaring her brought him close to orgasm.
    Grasping his cock in one hand, he angled the brush and scrubbed harder.

Chapter Two
     
    Almost a week later, Callista disentangled herself from the flow of foot traffic and ducked into Ciao Bella, a popular Manhattan café. The icy blast of air dragged a sigh of relief from her lungs. Thank God for the Upper East Side. Manhattan’s finest wouldn’t tolerate a broken AC in the middle of August.
    As she joined the line to place her order, the twenty-eight-year-old Vermont native plucked at her sweat-sticky clothes. Ciao Bella’s Manhattanite clientele showed no signs of being affected by the heat. Fashionably dressed and impeccably groomed, young women and men flashed their pricey white smiles alongside their Tiffany accessories.
    Callista knew she wouldn’t spot any of her clients in the café. Her clients didn’t leave their penthouses for coffee or manicures. They had their lattes and their technicians delivered.
    As one of those technicians, she had behind-the-scenes insight into the imperfections disguised by the glossy veneer. Her sense of discretion was worth her weight in princess-cut carats. She didn’t earn anything close to that kind of money, but her career choice did have its perks. Some of that imperfection suited her just fine.
    She added a quad Americano to her order and contemplated her biggest perk. Hours after she’d fled Mikal’s apartment last week, she’d regretted the decision to turn him down. So maybe he didn’t give her everything she needed. No man would, not if she didn’t ask. And she was not going to ask. Not for that.
    It was ridiculous that she even privately entertained her recent interest in violent sex. A healthy woman didn’t get off on threats to her life. A healthy woman enjoyed a man with an enormous cock and