This morning when Carlos had picked us up, it was worse.
Miss Jacobs had given me permission to work from home when possible, and I would get what needed to be accomplished finished today, but Carlos needed me.
“Who bothers you at your office?”
I started at the question. How did he know?
“I don’t want to talk about work.”
“If there is a problem, I can eliminate it.” The hard edge to him that softened occasionally whenever he smiled or relaxed was sharper than ever.
“I appreciate all you’re doing to help me out, but I don’t need you to fix my life.” Sometimes the words he used startled me, though I had a feeling Carlos was a hardened man. There was more to him than I knew, I was sure of it. But I wanted to let him do something. Wave a magic wand and poof—burdens gone. Everything I’d been carrying for the past six years was so heavy, and sometimes, I felt like I couldn’t handle any more. There was no other option. And now I had an overwhelming urge to take on whatever Carlos had on his shoulders too.
An image of the two of us working together to carry a heavy basket popped into my mind. He was on one side and I on the other, sharing the weight. I pushed the thought away before I latched onto it and the feeling it brought tried to stick. In the end, I had to be able to carry whatever load was placed in my hands by myself.
He drummed the steering wheel, jaw set in obvious displeasure. I placed my hand on his thigh in hopes he’d like it as much as I did when he’d done it to me.
There was no more talking for the rest of the ride.
When we pulled into the underground garage of our apartment building, he parked, shut off the engine, and wasted no time getting out of the car. He grabbed my hand as soon as my feet hit the concrete and led me to the elevator with determined steps.
Once inside, he punched the button for my floor. I watched the digital display, his grip on my hand tightening as we ascended. Second. Third. Fourth. He hit the STOP button, and the car jolted.
He had me pinned against the wall before I could blink. “I'm going to fuck you in this elevator because I can.” He didn’t touch me, yet I felt him everywhere. “If you want to come, make it quick, because as soon as I get inside, I'm going to explode.” My heart rate accelerated in excitement. “Any objections?”
Carlos waited for an answer, his dark eyes penetrating straight into places I’d only dared go in my dreams.
“No. Hurry,” I begged as I fisted his sweater and pulled him closer.
He kissed me like a man who knew exactly how to do it. My reaction was beyond my control. My lips moved against his because he coaxed them to do so. They parted so he could slide his tongue into my mouth. The way he licked with precision had me automatically thinking about what he could do with that tongue somewhere else, a place that was soaked for him, and he'd barely touched me.
I writhed against him, but he only moved his mouth, directing all that intensity to one acute point of pleasure. This was a kiss of fantasies. I gripped his neck. Carlos had muddied my senses, and I wasn't sure what was right anymore. I stopped trying to figure it out, stopped trying to resist, and simply enjoyed this man while I had him. Except he had me, fully and completely, and like all the fairy tales I'd spun in my head as a girl, I was in the midst of something that felt real, a whirlwind that would sweep me up and carry me away.
He shoved my skirt above my hips, dug a condom out of his pocket, and took out his cock.
I shimmied my panties off and offered them to him. He paused in the madness and looked at me with an indecipherable expression before he put them in his pocket.
Then he lifted one of my legs and hooked it around his waist. I clung to his neck when he plowed into me like we’d done this a thousand times. A scream of pleasure tore from my mouth. The first feeling of him filling me, demanding I become part of him . . . my raw lust transformed into something deeper.
“Touch your clit, Beauty.” He thrust at a brutal pace and pleasure flowed through me. “Christ almighty.”
My inner walls clamped around his shaft, and that was it. An orgasm raced through me and hit like an unexpected wave. I yelled his name, triggering his release. I'd never come so hard in my life. It was impossible to catch my breath.
The phone in the elevator rang, and he scowled before he picked it up, letting security know everything was all right while he was still inside me. He hit the STOP button again, and the car jolted into motion. He eased out of me and tucked himself away. I slumped against the wall, dazed and sated. He smirked, and I giggled. I could not believe we’d just done that.
“Are we avoiding a bed?” I didn’t mind, but I had to tease him. Carlos appealed to my adventurous side. Screwing in an elevator was something best left to the imagination, yet he’d made it happen, and I never felt unsafe. On the contrary, I was feeling so much more.
He pulled my skirt back down, but he didn't give me my underwear back. With my arms still looped around his neck, he scooped me up under my knees to carry me. The elevator doors opened into the quiet lobby. He swiped my purse off the floor on our way out. I caught sight of the security camera in the corner. My face got hot, but I decided to heck with it. We’d had fun.
“Keys?” he asked at the front door.
“Purse.”
It was nearly impossible for him to hold me and rummage through the bag at the same time, but he made it seem easy and had the door unlocked in mere seconds. The purse and keys landed on the floor, and he stalked to the kitchen without putting me down as he retrieved a bottle of water from the fridge.
He twisted off the cap and held the opening to my lips. I drank greedily, downing nearly half the contents, and he polished off the rest. He disposed of the condom in the trash can under the sink, then we were off to the bedroom.
“I'm not sure if I want to kiss or kill whoever invented this skirt,” he said, lowering the side zipper.
I laughed as he slipped off one of my heels and threw it over his shoulder. “What's your hurry, Carlos? You just had me.”
“I thought that might cool me off, but I was wrong.” My other shoe landed somewhere in the room. Or maybe it was out in the hall. He wrestled my skirt the rest of the way off. “The blouse needs to go, Beauty.”
He whipped his own sweater over his head. My eyes bulged, and he looked down to see what was the matter. He was physically fit in a way most men weren’t, but it was the scars that marred him that captured my attention. There was one on his left side that looked like he’d been cut with a knife. And two misshapen circles, one on his shoulder and another on his bicep . . . were those bullet wounds? These weren’t scars derived from illness or an operation . . . these were battle scars.
I swallowed hard and then unbuttoned my shirt. Slowly, I let it and my bra slide to the floor. “Get the rest of it off,” I commanded. I needed more of this man in so many ways. Seeing his abused body hurt my heart. At whose hands had he suffered? What had he survived? I didn’t know where to start and got the feeling Carlos wouldn’t share much if I asked.
“I have never seen anything more beautiful in my life,” he breathed, taking me in.
I wanted to squirm under his gaze, but instead, I let him have his fill before I reached for his open slacks.
He grabbed a gun from the waistband and laid it on the dresser. Holy shit.
“Have you had that all morning?”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Carlos
“I always have it.”
“Around my son?” Oh, fuck. Holly was about 2.1 seconds from going nuclear on me.
“I have to be prepared.”
“This isn't the Wild West where you go around shooting people.”
“Have you seen me shoot anyone?” Keep calm. I had her naked. I got why she was upset, and I needed to fix it and fast.
“No, but you've held my son in your arms while that thing was on you. And what if it accidentally goes off?”
“Then I'd have two ass cracks.”
Her eyes hardened. So it was a terrible joke at an inappropriate time. “I'm serious, Carlos. I don't want that weapon around Gabriel. If your life is such that you need a gun on you at all times, this isn't going to work for me.”
I stepped out of my pants and placed both hands on her shoulders. “I would never put you or Gabriel at risk. The part you need to concern yourself with is the fucking. So far, I don't think you have any complaints.”
“When you have a weapon around my son, it's a problem.”
“I understand that, Beauty, but I'm not some punk. I know how and when to use it.”
“I don't doubt that. It's an unnecessary risk,” she argued, and in her position, it was hard for me to disagree.
“How about I make you a deal? I won't have the gun on me when we're here, but when we go out, it comes with us.” This was as good a compromise as I could make.
“Fine.”
That had been too easy, and I didn't like her tone. “What do you mean, fine?”
“That it's fine.” She shrugged indifferently over a subject that only seconds ago had been important.
I studied her for a moment, but it was impossible to tell what she was thinking. I knew for certain the issue wasn't fine, and the mood had taken a definite turn for the worse.
“You are sexy as hell when you're pissed off, but I don't like you being upset with me,” I said.
“Then don't do things to make me mad,” she returned defiantly, chin jutting upward.
“What about things to make you scream?” I asked.
“We're getting close to that, but it's not the kind of screaming you want.” Though she was serious, that made me smile, which only pissed her off more. “Are we fucking? Or are you leaving?” That was a play out of my own book, and I didn't like being on the receiving end.
“Fucking.”
I pushed her back on the bed, not gently but not hard enough to alarm her. She landed on the mattress with a surprised squeak. Up on her elbows, tits out, pussy glistening . . . I couldn't do anything but stare.
I swallowed. Her skin was flushed and glowing in the dim light. Some of her irritation drained. I gazed up and down her body. The gold cross necklace rested on her throat. It never seemed to come off. She had a few scars of her own, ones she'd gotten from childbearing, and I loved that. I'd seen all kinds of women. None of them came close to Holly. She was one of a kind. Important to me.
I backed toward the door, and worry lines creased her eyes. “I'm not leaving you for a second.” I only had a few hours. I wasn't wasting any time.
I pushed a few buttons on the keypad by her bedroom door until “Turn Into the Noise” by Patrick Watson played on the built-in stereo system.
I stalked across the room, shedding my charcoal gray briefs when I was beside the bed. Her eyes rounded when they took in my cock.
“That was inside me?”
“It's about to be again.” I rifled in my pants pocket and took out a condom. “You can thank my sister for these.”
I bent over her. Her blonde hair fanned out, and she looked perfect. I crawled on top of her. Holly didn’t seem as irritated. This was light-years from where we’d been a few minutes ago.
“Don't be angry with me.” I brushed her lips with mine before inching up her jaw.
“You keep telling me that, and it won't always work.”
I sucked gently on her neck and nudged my erection against her clit. Her hips lifted off the bed. “How about now?”
“Only a little,” she said in short pants.
“I can work with that.” I kissed her temple, her eyelids, and the tip of her nose until I was back at her mouth.
“I might be mad again afterward.” The warning died on her lips as I covered them with my own. I figured that and wasn’t ignoring it, but I’d make her see the sense of it all. She was mine. I was her protector. She’d get it.
Kissing her . . . damn, the things it did to me. One taste of her, and my dick was as hard as it had been before the gun meltdown. Not too bad of a recovery time for a man my age.
To think I'd only known her a little over a week. She had changed my soul. Except I’d tortured and killed a man only a few days ago.
I shoved that aside, compartmentalizing it with all the other shit I'd done. I stretched her arms above her head, pinning her wrists to the mattress with one hand. Excitement flashed in her eyes, and I slid my cock through her silky folds without entering her.
“Today, I do what I please with you, Beauty, but I want you to think about the things you'd like to try. Whatever you want, I'll give you. And don't hold back because you've already shown me how adventurous you can be,” I said, hovering above her, loving that she was in my grasp with no way to escape.
“A threesome?” she suggested tartly, and I growled.
“Another man will never touch you, and I don't think you'd like another woman getting some of my attention, even if you got some of hers.” It was her turn to growl, the look in her eyes downright possessive. Jealousy worked for her.
“Fine.”
“Don't move your hands,” I said, releasing my hold on them.
There was so much of her skin I hadn't tasted yet. I started with her neck, that creamy column had called to me from the second I’d laid eyes on her. “I'm going to give you a reason to hide this from me.” I sucked in the crook, and her back arched, pushing hard nipples into my chest. “I take it you don't object.” I moved to the other side, giving her an identical mark. Something about seeing that on her flawless skin strengthened my claim on her.
“Carlos.” Her voice was hoarse as she spoke my name.
“That's not loud enough, Beauty. We'll have to do better than that.”
I whispered my way across her chest, murmuring she was beautiful, that she'd never get rid of me. That I'd never known anyone like her and pleasuring her had become my new mission. I spoke between kisses, so low she couldn't hear me. I wanted her to feel.
When my mouth closed around her nipple and sucked none too gently, her hands flew to my head, holding me in place. “Uh-oh,” I admonished, tutting at her. “You were supposed to keep your arms in place.”
“I can't help it,” she said, and I gave her a look of grave disappointment, though she'd done exactly as I'd wanted.
“We're going to have to start over.”
“Start what over?” Holly blinked, and I smiled like the devil I was.
“I'm working my way down your body. Every time you move your hands, I have to go back to the beginning,” I explained, and her lips parted, a puff of frustrated air blowing out.
“You didn't tell me.”
“I did. I specifically told you I would do as I pleased.”
I kissed her objection away, this time lingering on her mouth, our tongues doing a delicate dance. She met me halfway, not holding back despite being trapped beneath me. Holly took what she wanted from me and accepted everything I gave. “Don't move,” I said when I'd worked my way back to her breasts. I ran my tongue around her areola, her nipples puckering in response. I clamped my teeth on the hard bud and watched her eyes to see her response—if I was pushing too far or being too rough. Her lids were at half-mast and she struggled to keep her hands above her head.
I smoothed the bite sting with the flat of my tongue. The moan that escaped her encouraged me to repeat with her other breast. She couldn't stay still under my ministrations, and I smiled as I bit down again. She succumbed to me; with every touch, another inch of her became mine. I claimed her ribs by running my tongue in circles along the bones. Holly wiggled, attempting to get away, but I held her in place, keeping her locked against my mouth.
“That tickles.”
I ran my thumb in a circular motion on her hip bone in tandem with my tongue. My Beauty was meant to be savored, and that was exactly what I was doing. I'd been brutal and barbaric earlier, and I would be again, but now I was taking my time. We had all day. My patience would benefit us both.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
>
Holly
I wanted him to hurry up, but he continued to tease his way down my body at a snail's pace. It was a direct contrast to the way he'd taken me in the elevator. The elevator. I'd never be able to ride in it again without thinking about how hot that was. Possibly the hottest moment of my entire life. It was daring; we so easily could have been caught. We were in essence when the doorman called to check on us. But I wasn't ashamed. I felt liberated, like some part of me had been suppressed, and Carlos had let it out.
“Where are you?” he asked, looking at me from his position at my stomach.
Damn, he was so in tune with me, paying attention to everything. “In the elevator.”
Carlos smirked. “You're going to want me to fuck you every time we ride in it, aren't you?” His directness turned me on, and I was soaking wet for him. Carlos would do exactly that if I wanted him to.
“Yes,” I said unabashedly. He grinned wolfishly, and I forgot to keep my hands above my head. I was over being polite, the ache for him too much to bear.
He slid up my body, and I groaned when he repositioned my arms above my head. “What am I going to do with you? One simple little instruction,” he said regretfully.
The bastard wasn't sorry at all. “I know what you can do with me. You could fuck me,” I suggested. This man was freeing, made me want to be as bad as I could be.
“I'm not sure I like your tone,” he said, but he was fighting a smile. “We have to start over again.”
* * *
Three more times I moved my hands. By the time he kissed my sex, he had me so primed, I nearly exploded. I was hot. And achy. And desperate. I cried out with relief when his finger slipped inside me. I screamed and came when he pressed it against my G-spot.
My hands twisted in the duvet, but I was a good girl and kept them above my head, mostly because the only part of me that seemed capable of moving was my hips. All my energy was centered between my legs, building again as Carlos relentlessly sucked on my clit. He refused to let me come down from one climax before giving me another.
Dangerous Redemption: A Single Parent Forbidden Romance Novel (Paths To Love Book 4) Page 14