by Bella King
As far as she needs to know, I’m just a cartel boss on the run from the police and the other cartels. There’s nothing more to my story. For her, it’s exciting enough already.
Chapter Twenty
Marybeth
Rey is already in the river by the time I step out of the car. I lean against the door frame, watching him remove his clothes in the water and wade over to a sizeable rock sticking out by the shore. He lays the clothes out to dry and wades back into the clear running water.
That’s a good idea. The clothes will dry quickly in the arid Texas heat, but I’m shy to remove mine. Even though Rey already saw me mostly naked last night, that was in the dark. I don’t feel as comfortable exposing myself in broad daylight.
But Rey isn’t watching me. He’s throwing water into his face and running his fingers through his curly brown hair, looking just as carefree as any man can be. There are plants and bugs close to the water, and the sun is dancing off the ripples he’s making. It’s a beautiful sight after the dry heat of the desert we drove through.
I’m still shy, but I’m not going to get clean just standing by the riverbank. Rey still doesn’t look over at me, so I step into the water, removing my clothes as I get deeper. I don’t wait to be fully submerged before I remove my bra, letting the breeze wrap itself around my breasts and cool the sweat beneath them.
There’s something freeing about not wearing a bra. I like having my breasts bare in the late-morning sun. The rays feel spectacular against my skin, and I’m sure they’ll feel even better once I cool off in the water for a bit.
I carry my pile of soggy clothes through the water, rinsing them off as best I can as I approach the rock where Rey laid his. I lean over the rock, stretching my clothes out and turning around to join him.
I glide through the cool water, and I feel so free. Today is the first day in years when I haven’t thought about work or worried about social obligations. I might be a captive, but I feel freer than I’ve ever been. It’s funny how that works.
“I’m glad you decided to join me,” Rey says, bobbing up and down in the water as I approach him.
“I can’t stand being so dirty,” I reply, scrunching my nose at the thought of how much sweat and dust was caked onto my body before I got into the water.
“I can help you clean your back,” he says, his blue eyes sparkling from the sun’s reflection on the water.
“Really?” I ask, tilting my head at him and lowering my eyelids.
“Really, really,” he replies. “Come on, turn around.” He twirls a finger around in front of him.
I laugh and turn around, giving him access to my back. I shouldn’t give in to his games this easily, but being here with him feels like magic. It’s as though he’s transported me to a completely different world.
Rey’s large hands run across my back, up and down, around and around. He rubs the skin on my back, loosening the dirt and sweat so that it can flow off downstream.
The water isn’t that cold, but I get goosebumps when Rey splashes water on the back of my neck. I raise my shoulders to the feeling, but he places his strong hands on them and gently presses them back down.
“Relax,” he says, beginning to rub my shoulders, digging his thumbs deep into my sore muscles.
“Oh my god,” I sigh, letting my head roll forward as he works the tension out of my back. “That feels wonderful.”
“Good,” he replies, his voice flowing slowly like the lazy river water around us. “I know yesterday was tough, but as long as we keep ahead of the police and the cartel, we should get to the border in good time. You don’t have to worry.”
I’m not worrying. In fact, I’m sinking deep into Rey’s hands as he works magic on my shoulders. I don’t think I’ve ever had anyone touch me like he’s touching me, sending shivers through my body every few seconds.
The water ripples slightly, but enough for me to know that Rey has moved closer. Neither of us is wearing clothes, so I assume he’s going to be careful about touching me, but with the way his hands are moving, my brain is turning to mush.
Should I care? Yes.
Do I? No.
“You were very warm last night,” Rey says into my ear, his breath hot against my lobe.
“So were you,” I reply.
“I liked the way your skin felt against mine,” he says, keeping his voice low as his hands start to move across my back, heading toward my ribs.
I tense up, knowing where this is going. Even with that knowledge, I’m unable to stop myself from letting it happen again. Every time I step further into this disaster, I know that it’ll be harder to go back. I talk a lot of shit, but honestly, I’m afraid of what will happen if I surrender to Rey completely.
“Nobody else is here,” Rey whispers, his lips brushing the edge of my ear.
I gaze into the water at my reflection. Even though the water is cold, my face is flushed, and my heart beats like I’ve been running. Maybe I have been running, in a way. I’ve been running from my feelings because they’re too confusing to figure out with all that’s going on.
A jolt moves through me, and I jump as the tips of Rey’s fingers make contact with the sides of my breasts. He doesn’t wait once he has them in his hands, scooping them up and squeezing them in the water like they belonged to him.
Maybe they do.
I lean back into him, letting out a sigh as his warmth overtakes me. His cock prods against my lower back, stiff and hotter than his hands are, even under the water. I gasp as the heat alone sends a wave of euphoric pleasure through my body. I wasn’t expecting this.
“What are you doing?” I ask, looking down at his hands as they sink into my breasts beneath the clear water.
“Massaging you,” he replies, his voice turning into a deep mumble as he speaks into my ear. “Do you like it?”
“I guess so,” I answer, but my body knows for a fact that I like it. The excitement of his touch is melting away everything that I hate about him and replacing it with a singular desire that I shouldn’t want, but that’s growing stronger by the second.
“I like the way your breasts feel in my hands,” he says, pressing his lips against my ear while he speaks. His lips are hot and soft. “I like the way your body feels when I hold it.” He places his chest against my back, pressing his skin against mine.
“This is wrong,” I say, but I don’t try to pull away. I imagine that we’re all alone in the world, and I like the feeling. There’s no one chasing us, no drive-in that I have to go back to, and no consequences for what I’m about to do with Rey.
There’s an old saying – the devil made me do it.
Well, the devil is Rey, and I just can’t say no to him anymore.
I push my back against Rey harder, feeling the sturdiness of his broad chest and the shape of his abs on my back. He’s like the rock we laid out clothes on, so firm and unmovable. I’m convinced that after all he’s seen in life that he’s invincible. How could any mortal man make it through all that and live to corrupt me with his touch?
“Is this okay?” Rey asks, still massaging my breasts beneath the cool surface as he presses his cock harder into the soft flesh of my ass. The pulse of his throbbing erection is like a beat that is luring my body into a dance of seduction. I’m swaying with it now, dancing to the music of nature.
I bite my lip, trying to keep from moaning as he pushes harder and asks me again, this time with more gruffness to his already throaty voice. “Is this okay?” he repeats, looking for permission to take me.
But he already had it long ago. Maybe I didn’t know, and he didn’t either, but my body was aroused the second I laid eyes on his face on the wanted posters in town.
This was long before I met him, but my body knew that he was the only man I could break my promise with myself for. He was the one who was destined to turn me to the dark side.
I move my head up and down in a slow nod, finally answering his question. “Yes,” I say softly.
Rey�
�s hand snakes down my leg, finding my pussy easily and rubbing against my clit. It’s like he already knows everything about my body and how to pleasure me. It’s more than I know, and I can’t say how many times I’ve laid awake at night, exploring myself to the thought of men much different than all the ones I knew in my hometown.
A moan rumbles in my throat, and I let it free from my lips as Rey rubs tight circles on my clit. He knows exactly what to do to send me into a state of bliss, and I lean back into him to accept his touch. There’s no use trying to fight the feeling anymore. It’s here to stay.
“I could have let you go before,” Rey says, pinching my nipple with one hand as he massages my clit with the other. “But I figured you might like to ride with a bad boy. How does it feel?”
“Fuck,” I gasp, unable to form a coherent sentence.
He knows that he has me wrapped around his finger, and he’s using it to his highest advantage, toying with my mind as I sway in the water to the beat of his heart. I can’t help but fall for it.
What is it about bad boys that make them so damn sexy? I was supposed to be a well-behaved woman, and now look at me.
“Maybe we should go to the shore,” he suggests, pulling his hand out from between my legs.
“Should we?” I ask. My mind is sluggish, trying to make sense of what I’m doing. This is wrong, and I know it, but it feels too good to stop.
“Come,” Rey says, taking my hand and pulling me along through the water.
I’m not even all the way clean yet. Our clothes aren’t dry, and we’re not ready to leave, but that’s not why he’s pulling me back to shore. I move with him like a kite in the air, so naturally and free, yet strung to him with an invisible string. The force is greater than it seems, and I’m compelled to go wherever he wants me to.
I stack up the reasons in my head as to why I shouldn’t be doing this, but they fall down just as quickly on the uneven ground. He’s a criminal, one of the most wanted in two countries, and there’s no telling what he’ll do to me after he’s had his fun. I could end up in a ditch somewhere off the highway, and it would be days before anyone found my body.
But part of me wants to believe that there’s good somewhere deep inside of him. Under that scarred and grizzly exterior, there’s a soft heart and a caring embrace. I know because I’ve seen it in his eyes, even if it was in such small amounts, and I’ve heard it in the way that he speaks to me.
I want to know him better, but I still feel like his soul is hidden beneath those thick pecs and serious scowl he wears. What would it take to uncover the real Rey? Is sex the only answer?
We step onto the shore, the water on my bare skin drying quickly under the judgmental glare of the midday sun. I walk in stride with Rey, as an equal, confident in what we are doing like when I first hopped into his bright-red Mustang at the drive-in.
I glance down at his cock, which is standing proud and tall between his legs. It’s perfect, but what more could I expect from a man with so much power? Everything about his body and attitude screams authority, and I’ve always been a bit inclined to submit to it, even if it wasn’t the best thing for me.
But this is a different sort of authority. This time, it feels good, and it tells me to do things that are thrilling and different. I’m inclined to go along with it until it destroys me.
Rey’s fingers have woven into mine, interlocking our hands as we approach a small patch of grass beside the river. Normally, I would feel strange being naked in public, but there isn’t anyone around. Nobody is here to stop us from doing whatever we want.
“You’re beautiful, Marybeth,” Rey says as we come to a slow stop on the grassy spot of earth.
I look up at his face, admiring the way the sun cascades over the lines in his forehead. “Do you really think that, or are you just saying it to flatter me?”
He smiles, like he knows much more than I ever could, and shakes his head. Droplets of water fall from his thick hair onto his broad shoulders. “I don’t think you understand me,” he says. “You seem to think I’m some kind of terrible person, but in actuality, I’m just a guy trying to find a way through life like everyone else.”
I laugh. “Just a guy? I thought you were a notorious cartel boss.”
“Well, that too,” he says with a chuckle. “But, there’s more than me than what I do for work.”
“I’d like to know more about that side of you.”
He leans forward, brushing the damp end of one of my braids over my shoulder. “I’m going to share everything with you, Marybeth. I’m going to share my body and my soul.”
“You’re going to… have sex with me?” I ask, my heart fluttering even though I knew that was his intention all along. Somehow, speaking the words makes it real. It wasn’t real before.
Rey nods, wrapping his hand around the base of his penis. “I’m going to slide this cock inside of you.”
“Says who?”
“Says me,” he replies in a throaty growl, leaning in quickly toward my mouth.
My lips part, accepting his as they crash down on me. His kiss is softer than I expected it to be, warm and passionate. I thought he’d be too rough, too aggressive because of his nature, but he’s not. He’s the total opposite.
No man, no matter how good he was, has ever kissed me like that. Eddy used to talk up a storm about how respectful he was and how much he cared about me, but his kisses were hard and sloppy, and not in a nice way.
Rey pushes his tongue into my mouth, tasting me deeper. I have a flashback to the way he tasted his fingers after I came, and it makes my lower half swirl with excitement. I’m about to have something better than his hand, and that blows my mind already.
Rey wraps his arms around my waist, holding me in place as he mixes his passion with mine. His hands grip me firmly like he’s afraid that I might slip away like the dust in the wind, but I won’t. I’m glued to his body as though my life depended on it.
I place both of my hands against his chest, feeling the heat, almost scalding against my cold hands. I want to explore more of his body. I want to touch every inch of his tattooed flesh and trace my fingers over the intricate patterns that adorn him.
I’m fascinated by his appearance, and I deeply desire to learn more about it, but he doesn’t give me the chance. He pulls his lips away from mine and scoops me up into his arms.
“Rey,” I yelp, laughing as he holds me high in the air.
“Relax,” he says, taking a knee and placing me down on the soft grass.
With the sound of the river streaming by, I look up at the blue sky. There isn’t a single cloud in sight as Rey places his hands on my legs, gently pressing them apart. He spreads them like he’s opening his favorite book, ready to enjoy what’s waiting between the pages.
Chapter Twenty-One
Eddy
“Motherfucker! What do you mean you don’t know? It’s a bright red Mustang!” I slam my fist into the counter, the ash from my cigarette falling onto the peeling yellowed plastic laminate.
“I said I don’t know, man. Chill out,” the gas-station clerk says, stepping back.
“Then check the fucking tapes,” I snarl.
“I can’t do that, but if you’d like to report a crime outside this station, then you can call the –”
“Everyone below the bible belt is looking for this motherfucker, and you can’t check the goddamn tapes?” I ask, leaning over the counter and lower my voice to a whisper. “Check the tapes.”
“Sorry, sir, but I can’t.”
“Check them, or I’ll come back there and check them myself,” I say, yanking the gun from my waistband and raising it in the air.
“T-they’re in the back, hooking up to the TV,” the clerk stammers, immediately changing his tone.
I like the way a gun can change a man’s mind. In this case, it’s for the greater good. I’m sure Sheriff Wesley will understand the necessity of my actions. This moron clearly doesn’t.
I jump over the counte
r and flick my cigarette at the cowering clerk. “Scram,” I tell him as I step through the door into the backroom.
He runs from the building, leaving me alone with the security footage. It shouldn’t take me more than a few minutes to fast forward through the footage. A bright red mustang is hard to miss.
I grab the remote from the desk and mash the buttons, cursing under my breath as I point it at the TV. This damn thing won’t rewind. Do they not record the security camera or something? That has to be against the law.
My finger finds the rewind button, and suddenly the tape footage starts flying backward. Good. Now I’ll be able to see if Marybeth was here with that ugly bastard.
I squat down in front of the TV, eyes wide as I crack open a beer I snatched from the cooler when I came in. A thin mist of cheap yellow liquid sprays across the TV screen, but it doesn’t block my view enough to warrant removing it.
I slurp the foam off the top of the can and spit it onto the floor, my eyes never leaving the TV as the day zooms by on the screen. There isn’t much to see, as this place doesn’t get many visitors, but that only makes my job that much easier.
In a fraction of a second, my eyes catch something red flashing by on the road. Nobody is stopped at the gas station, but in the film, I clearly see red. I hit the pause button, playing back the tape in real-time.
Again, a blur of red moves past, but it’s too fast to be anything more than that. Still, there aren’t very many red cars out here in the desert. Most people drive white or silver to keep their car from bursting into a ball of flames in the parking lot if they couldn’t find the shade of a tree to park under.
I take a sip of my beer and light up another cigarette, taking a long drag as my eyes dart from the red blur to the timestamp in the top left corner of the screen. The Mustang passed this station at ten-fifteen this morning.
I look down at my watch. It’s only noon, which means Marybeth and Rey are just under two hours ahead of me. If I drive fast, I’ll be able to catch up to them by the time the sun sets.