by Sybil Bartel
The second I pulled her into my arms, my lungs filled with air.
“Fuck, you feel good.” Her back to my chest, I snaked an arm under her head. “You okay?”
“Yes.”
The soft breathiness to her voice made my heart ache for a reality where she wasn’t beaten and I wasn’t tied to a criminal. “Your leg?”
“The bandage is a little tight.”
I reached down, unwound the bandage and threw it on the floor. “Your wrist?”
“It’s good.”
I wrapped my arm around her waist and buried my face in her neck. If there was a heaven in my fucked-up life, she was it.
“Talon?”
I inhaled deeply, committing her scent to memory. “I’m sorry ’bout earlier, ’bout what I said. No matter what happens, know you’re worth more’n that.” This girl was better than being my landing zone.
Her hand settled on my arm. “Are you okay?”
I didn’t want to talk or think anymore. I just wanted to lose myself in jasmine innocence. “Go to sleep, beautiful.”
She turned her head just enough to meet my mouth with a tender touch of her lips. “Goodnight, Talon.”
Jesus, I didn’t deserve this. I grabbed her face and slipped my tongue in her mouth to taste her sweetness, just once. Forcing myself to pull back, I tightened my arms and curved my body protectively around her. “Night, Siren.”
She settled into me like she belonged and minutes later her breathing evened out.
It was the fix I’d been looking for.
I fell asleep.
I KNEW SOMEONE WAS IN the house before I opened my eyes. Pitch black except for the alarm clock reading four-seventeen, I untangled myself from Siren and listened.
It was faint, but the sound was distinctive. Someone opened a cupboard. I grabbed my 9mm and moved to the kitchen without making a sound.
Not stupid enough to keep his back to me, André sat at a kitchen stool, his eyes trained on my bedroom door. He held a mug up in greeting. “Layna’s alive but Blaze’s body count went up. Dead sniper.” He took a sip. “Your coffee sucks.”
My mind on Siren, hoping she didn’t hear us, I processed what André just said but I didn’t react. “Your point?” I lowered my piece and set it on the counter.
“You need to get with the program. Cuban coffee’s the way to go.”
“I got more respect for my body than to drink leaded dirt.” I reached for a mug.
“Lead and dirt. Huh. Not an inappropriate conversation starter. But first, when did you start wearing boxers? Not that I mind. Although, pants work too.”
“You show up unannounced, you get what you get.” I inclined my head at his black polo with his company’s logo and his black cargo pants. “Besides, who the hell are you to talk clothes? You ever wear anythin’ besides the uniform? You probably fuck with that shirt on.”
“Poor baby.” André smiled wide. “Are you cranky when you get woken up? I would’ve called but I know how much you like your beauty rest, being so pretty and all.”
“You’re here why?” I was pissed he hadn’t called.
His smile dropped and he turned serious. “Had a little situation in Sunset Key last night. We need to… Dios mios,” he muttered.
Siren walked into the kitchen wearing one of my T-shirts.
André cleared his throat. “Didn’t know you had company.”
Fuck. “Nicole, André Luna. André, Nicole Archer. You want coffee, Siren?”
“Yes, please. Nice to meet you, André.”
André dragged his eyes away from the stab wound on her thigh she hadn’t bothered covering up. “Likewise, ma’am.”
I handed Siren a cup of coffee. When she turned to the fridge to get cream, André looked at me and mouthed, What the fuck.
I smirked. “Hey, Siren.”
André started furiously shaking his head.
I ignored him. “André wants to know why you’re cut up.”
Siren turned around. “I want to know why he’s here before sunrise.”
I took a sip of my coffee. “She’s got you there, bro.”
“Sorry, ma’am. I was in the neighborhood,” André lied.
Siren strolled over next to me. I wrapped an arm around her neck and kissed her temple. She leaned into me and warmth spread through my chest. I trailed my hand through her soft hair and brought my lips to her ear. “You got another coupla hours, darlin’. Why don’t you go back to bed?”
She set her coffee down and snaked her hand across my bare stomach as she turned into me. Her breasts pressed against my chest, her scent filled my lungs and suddenly the air between us was so fucking charged, I couldn’t see past it.
Eyes stormy, cheeks flushed, her face tipped up. “I want to be with you,” she said softly.
“André,” I clipped, not taking my eyes off Siren. “Wait for me in the livin’ room.” My dick straining against my boxers, I didn’t know how much of her sentence was literal and how much was insinuation but I sure as shit was going to find out. The second I knew André was out of eyesight, I pushed my hands into her hair. “I love hearin’ those words pass your lips, but you need to tell me what’s goin’ on.”
Despite me holding her head firm, she managed to look away. “Do I have to?”
“No games.”
Her hands gently braced on my chest. “Last night I felt safe. It felt good…being with you.”
My muscles tensed, my jaw ticked and I shut everything down. “I’m no fuckin’ hero, I told you that.”
“I like you,” she whispered.
The weight of her words went straight to my heart and for one second I let myself breathe it in. Her quiet strength pushed out all the shit in life and filled the voids with her unassuming resilience. That alone should’ve had me running in the other direction but three words and I was sinking. I wanted to drag her into my arms and never let go but she deserved better. If she knew what I’d agreed to last night, she wouldn’t be standing here. “You don’t know me.”
Her hands dropped and she stepped back. “I’m sorry. Forget I said anything. My mistake.”
I was on her before the last word left her lips. I slammed my mouth over hers and sank my tongue into her heat. Pulling her against me, I gripped her hair, pressed her sweet little ass into my hips and kissed the motherfucking word mistake out of her mind.
Stroking her tongue with mine, filling her mouth with my dominance, I took more than she was offering. I palmed her breasts and stroked her hard nipples until she moaned. I pushed her against the fridge, bent my knees and thrust up. My hard dick rocked against her heat, and I growled. I wanted to make her come so bad that I didn’t care about anything else.
“You wanna know what was a mistake?” I shoved up her T-shirt and sucked her nipple.
“What?” she groaned.
“Walkin’ into my kitchen in nothin’ but my T-shirt and fuck-me underwear.” I spun her around and held her against my raging hard-on. “You wanna know what else was a mistake?” I rubbed up and down her ass, dragging my tongue along her neck and biting her ear. “Thinkin’ I wouldn’t follow through just because we got company.”
Her hands flattened on the fridge and she pushed back into me, grinding her hips. “I didn’t—”
I slipped a finger under her thong and her words dissolved into a moan. “You want me inside you?”
“Talon.”
She was so fucking wet, my dick surged painfully. “You want out, say so right now. Otherwise, I’m done holdin’ back.” My lips on her throat, my palm rubbing over her nipple, I fingered her wet pussy and let my hands and tongue show her what she was getting herself into.
“Don’t stop,” she pleaded.
I picked her up. Carrying her into my bedroom, I kicked the door shut and gently laid her on my bed. “The stitches?” I reached into my nightstand for a condom.
Her fingers feathered across her thigh. “They’re fine.”
I threw the condom on the bed and c
limbed over her. Studying her in the blue cast from the alarm clock, I looked for any sign that she’d regret this but I couldn’t see a fucking thing past the controlled expression I wanted to wipe off her face.
Slow, I dragged my hands up her waist, taking her T-shirt with me. She lifted her arms and I pulled it over her head. Fighting the urge to flip her and pound into her from behind, I leaned down and touched my lips to her flat stomach. The smell of her desire almost threw me over the edge. I swirled my tongue across her hip bone, swearing to myself I was going to give her a slow burn she’d never forget. I didn’t give a shit about the problem waiting for me in the living room. I was going to take all day tasting her, touching her, sinking inside her every which way I’d imagined.
I hooked my fingers in her thong and looked up. Her hair wild, her lips wet from my kiss, she was stunning. Stunning and not casual.
“I’m not makin’ any promises. Here and now, that’s what I’m offerin’.” I hated myself for saying it. More, I hated the thought of it. I wanted this girl more than I wanted my next breath but I didn’t have shit to offer except making her come. And I’d be a fucking idiot if I ignored the fact she was in my bed only days after walking away from the years she’d given her ex.
“I know.”
“Do you?” I challenged, no longer sure who I was trying to protect.
Her eyes dark with need, she covered my hand with hers. Holding my gaze, she used my fingers to pull her underwear over her hips.
Blood rushed to my dick and I dragged the silky material down her legs. I stood up to drop my boxers, but when I took in the sight of her on my bed, all the air left my lungs.
I stared.
I couldn’t count how many women I’d slept with—but the number of women who stole my breath? The first time I laid eyes on my wife and the night Blaze brought Layna to my house. But right now, seeing Siren on my bed, I couldn’t remember what those two other times felt like.
My heart pounding, my body throbbing with desire, Siren didn’t just take my breath away, she stole my reason. “You’re so fuckin’ gorgeous.”
Her knee fell open a few inches.
The small movement had the effect of a tsunami. Need, sharp and painful, surged through me. I didn’t fall at women’s feet. I didn’t want women like this. I kept my shit in check. Always. But this?
Jesus fuck.
I wasn’t keeping my distance. There were no bullshit compliments rolling off my tongue. I wasn’t half in the game, waiting to get off. I was ripping my boxers off and crawling up her like my dick was seeing pussy for the first time. Trailing hurried kisses up her thigh, I went straight for her pussy and drove my tongue into her.
Her loud gasp echoed through the bedroom and her whole body jerked in response.
I pushed her uninjured leg wide open and fucked her with my mouth. Perfect and tight, she tasted like a kind of heaven I didn’t deserve.
“Talon.” Her breathy voice called my name like a fucking plea.
I sucked her clit between my teeth and dragged my tongue across the sensitive nerves. My scent all over her from last night mixed with the taste of her arousal and I fought for control. “So fuckin’ perfect,” I growled, feeling possessive as hell.
She grabbed a handful of my hair and shoved my head closer.
I chuckled. “You like that, Siren?” I did it again.
Her back came off the bed and I couldn’t wait another second. My balls drew tight, the nerves at the base of my spine threatening to let go; I needed to be inside her. Flipping her over, fisting my hard-as-shit cock, I ran my tongue up her scar.
“Stop.” Her whole body stiffened.
Taken completely off guard, I froze.
Fists clenched, chest heaving, she twisted to her side.
“Siren?”
She curled in on herself.
Alarmed, I reached for her but she shrunk away from my touch and hid her face behind her hair.
Then suddenly I got it.
“Hey, hey, darlin’. Deep breath.” Slow and deliberate, I leaned down and kissed her temple. “I’m not gonna hurt you.” I wrapped my hand around her thigh and grasped just tight enough to reassure her. When she didn’t pull away, I moved my hand up and held her hip. “You hear me?”
Her nod was clipped and tight.
I gently pushed her hip down and rolled her to her stomach. “Lotta people hide their scars.” I brushed my lips across her flesh. “They bury them deep on the inside, where you can’t see ’em.” Praying she wouldn’t push me away, I ran a finger over the raised flesh that’d saved her from a life of pain. “But do you know what’s truly beautiful?” I traced a tatted flower, leaving three more kisses before moving my lips to her ear. “Do you know what really turns me on?”
“No,” she whispered.
“This.” I ran my palm down the entire length of her incision. “You’re stunning, Nicole Marie Archer.” I held back my accent, letting her full name roll off my tongue with reverence. “I want to sink inside you and watch that gorgeous tattoo as you come all over me.”
She shivered.
I grabbed the condom and used my teeth to rip the foil. “You hear that, beautiful?” I sheathed myself.
“Yes,” she murmured.
“Do you want me to stop?”
“No,” she breathed.
I used first my tongue then my teeth along the outside edge of her ear. “You know what’s going to come next?” I dragged a finger through her wetness.
She leaned into my touch and a moan escaped her sweet lips. “No.”
I slipped my hand under her right thigh and lifted. “Yes, you do.”
I pushed inside her from behind.
Fuuuuck.
Hot and tight and perfect, I sunk to the hilt and every second of this fantasy I’d imagined crashed into me. My chest seized up and my mind went straight for a path I was never going to travel again. All the blood rushing to my dick, I pulsed sharp and hard, and her muscles clamped down around me.
It was my undoing.
I pulled back then thrust deep and my fucking mind fell apart. Holding her waist, sliding in and out of her tightness, she was so perfect that the wall around my heart I’d spent two years building crumbled into a million pieces of jasmine innocence.
“Jesus, Siren.” I didn’t have words for this shit. Nothing compared.
She braced her hands against the mattress and pushed back into me. Guttural moans, riding me slow like she was feeling every inch I buried inside her; she was a fucking gift.
“Goddamn, you feel good.”
“Hold on to me,” she begged, breathless.
I moved to my knees behind her, swept her hair into my fist and gripped her hip. Her sweet ass in the air, she slammed back into me.
“Shit,” I growled. “That’s it, darlin’. Don’t hold back on me.”
She did it again and I tightened my hold on her hair. I let her thrust back two more times but then I took control. Swirling my tongue over her tattoo, grazing my teeth up her spine, I filled my hands with her heavy breasts and squeezed her already tight nipples.
A rush of wetness hit my dick and I lost it. I dug my fingers into her hips and started pounding into her. Her pussy began to quiver and I slammed deep, forcing myself to hold still.
“No no no, don’t stop,” she pleaded.
I dropped my chest to her back and curled my body around hers. Dragging my fingers up the insides of her thighs, I grazed the soft flesh of her ear with my teeth then kissed her neck. “You know what you’re gonna do for me, Siren?”
The whimper coming out of her mouth as she shivered from my touch made me smile.
“You’re gonna come.” My thumb swirled across her clit and she fucking detonated.
“Aaaahhh!” Hot and pulsing and soaking wet, she came all over me.
“Fuck yeah.” Hard as shit, barely holding back, I bit down on her neck and rode her orgasm out with her. When her muscles started to go slack, I caught her and turned her in my
arms. “Round one, darlin’, you’re just gettin’ started. Wrap your arms around my neck.”
“Please.” Her hands settled in my hair.
I sat back on my knees and cupped her ass. “Please what?” I pushed her down on my cock as I thrust up. “You beggin’ already?”
“I can’t— Please.” Her fingers tightened in my hair and her head fell back. “No,” she panted. “I can’t do that again.”
“Can and will.” I sunk my tongue into her mouth and drove into her. Holding her in my arms, pounding into her slickness, dominating her mouth with my tongue, it felt so fucking good that I didn’t want to think about the crazy shit trying to take up residence in my lust-hazed brain.
Rising up to my knees, I wrapped an arm around her and lowered her to her back. With the change in position, I rode her torturously slow, feeling every inch of this siren underneath me. Pulling almost all the way out, sliding back in, I went deep, so fucking deep. Her lips parted with a shocked inhale and her body turned to liquid around mine as I buried myself completely inside her. A connection I’d never felt before broadsided me.
Words started flying out of my mouth unchecked.
“You’re perfect, so fuckin’ perfect. Hot and tight and wet, Jesus, I wanna crawl inside your heat and never fuckin’ leave.” I sucked in air through closed teeth and cursed the rubber between us. “Fuckin’ condom, I wanna come inside you so damn bad.”
Her back bowed, her arms fell away and she gripped the sheets for purchase.
“So fuckin’ sexy.” I ground my hips against hers. “That’s it, baby. Show me how good it feels.”
“Just like that,” she panted. “Don’t stop.” Her muscles straining, her eyes closed, her beautiful face tense with need, she showed me the emotion I’d been craving to see from her.
“Never,” I promised. My hand under her knee, I pushed her good leg up and did it again. Her sweet moan going straight to my balls, I sucked in a breath and pulled out.
Her eyes popped open with surprise. “Wha—?”
My mouth closed over her clit and I sunk two fingers inside her. Thrashing her with my tongue, curling my fingers, I went for broke.