by Sybil Bartel
With feigned disinterest, she answered my question with a question. “What do you want from me?”
I wasn’t buying her sudden indifference. “I want honesty.” The scent of her desire all around me, my dick pulsed, but I forced myself to ignore it. “Telling me to leave isn’t gonna work. I’m not leaving you alone, chica. But if you want me to stop, just say the word.”
She didn’t respond.
I leaned into her personal space and caught her gaze. “If you don’t answer me, I’m gonna read into every single thing you don’t say.” I gave her three seconds to respond, and when she didn’t, I grasped her ankles. One swift pull, and her sexy legs were on either side of me as she slid to her back.
She didn’t fight me, but she crossed her arms over her chest. “How’s this for honest? Quit being an asshole.”
Madre de Dios, I’d dreamed about having her under me. “You want me to stop?”
A look of defiance was her only answer.
I lost my fucking temper. “Words,” I barked.
“No!” she barked back.
My dick fucking rejoiced, and I pushed her thighs wide. Leaning over her, my weight on my forearms, I kissed the side of her face. “Was that so hard?”
“Yes.”
“Then we’ll work on it.” I kissed the other side. “You think I’m an asshole?”
She turned her head away.
I gently tugged one of her wrists and brought her arm over her head. Threading my fingers through hers, I kissed her cheek, but I didn’t give her my mouth or my cock yet. “It’s a simple question, chica.”
Her voice turned quiet. “Why are you doing this?”
Losing my resolve, I fisted myself and dragged the head of my cock through her heat. “I don’t want you afraid of us.” Or afraid of hoping for a fucking future.
She sucked in a breath, and her legs opened wider, but she didn’t say anything.
“I need words, beautiful.” She was so fucking gorgeous, but her eyes haunted me. They radiated a pain I didn’t know how to fix, and Dios mio, I wanted to fucking fix it. But I wasn’t fool enough to think she’d simply let me. Her pain wasn’t the only thing I saw when I looked into her eyes. She was determined. So damn determined that I saw the resilience that’d kept her alive this long. And it was sexy as hell.
“You seem to have plenty of words.”
Jesus, I wanted to sink inside her. “I can’t speak for you, chica.” Slow and measured, I forced myself to hold back and only stroke against her.
“You want my permission?” Her body bent toward my touch, but she still wasn’t looking at me.
I used our combined hands to tilt her chin, then I gave her answers she didn’t fucking ask for. “I want your honesty and your trust, and I want you to be fucking hopeful.” My thumb brushed against her bottom lip. “I want you looking at me when I sink inside you.”
She stared up at me, no defiance, no barriers, and for a second, I’d thought I’d broken through. Then her expression shut down and she spoke with zero emotion. “Fuck me.”
Using every ounce of training that’d been drilled into me, I didn’t react. I stroked against her once and lowered my voice. “Tell me how this feels.”
Her lungs drew air, her face twisted and she unleashed. “Like a goddamn dream, is that what you want to hear?” She mocked me. “You want me to tell you I like you? You want reassurance that I’ve never felt like this before? You want me to beg you to make love to me?” Anger bled into her tone. “Or do you want me to tell you I’m pissed off and a part of me hates your fucking guts?” Her nostrils flared on an inhale. “Why don’t you tell me, marine, what you so desperately want to hear? Because that’s what this is about, isn’t it? It’s all about what you want.”
Shocked, I stared at her.
Then I thought about shoving into her and fucking her. Hard.
But I wasn’t a damn animal. I wasn’t raised to disrespect women, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to fuck her in anger.
I also wasn’t gonna take her shit. “You know the difference between a man and a boy?”
“Chest hair?”
My jaw ticked. “A man knows when to walk away.” The second the ultimatum left my mouth, I realized my mistake.
Her legs fell away from me. “Then walk.”
Inhaling, I let go of my dick and grabbed her other hand. Except I didn’t thread my fingers through hers. I wrapped them around her wrist and shoved her arm above her head. “You push every man away or am I special?”
“If you’d wanted to be special, fucking me in the shower wasn’t the way to go.”
Jesucristo, a knife to my ribs would’ve stung less, but there it was. The fucking thread I was waiting to unravel. “Why the hell do you think I brought you in here?”
“Score one for you.” She tipped her chin toward the windows. “Great view.”
It took every fucking ounce of self-control I had not to yell. “I’m not gonna hurt you,” I ground out.
Her chest rose, her body stilled and she stared at me. Then the anger disappeared completely from her voice. “One of us will get hurt,” she said quietly. “That’s how this ends.”
Ten words. Two sentences. Six and four.
I digested every nuance.
Then, because it was the first real thing she’d said to me, I gave her honesty in return. “If I knew how to guarantee it’d be me, chica, I’d do it.” Madre de Dios, I’d make her that promise. “But I don’t.”
HE HELD MY STARE. “LETTING me in is a risk.”
“Then why should I?” I knew why. I wasn’t stupid. This man was unlike any other man I’d ever met. Principled, honest, putting up with my crazy shit, he was everything I didn’t deserve.
“Because I want more than just a fuck from you.”
My heart kicked at my chest, and I stared at him. Then I opened a door I had no business opening. “Tell me one thing there is to like about me.” If he said my body, I was walking out the goddamn door.
He unconsciously licked his full bottom lip. “Unintelligent women don’t have smart mouths.” His rough voice didn’t caress the compliment. “You don’t take shit, and expect nothing less from the people around you. Even before I knew what you came from, I saw your strength and determination. But more than that, the second I laid eyes on you, you changed my focus. My business is my life. I’m driven to succeed. But a mouthy brunette crossed my path, and for the first time ever, something more than the mission became important.”
I blinked.
“You want more?” he challenged.
Sucking in a stunned breath, I swallowed past the emotion in my throat and flexed my hands under his hold. “Let go,” I whispered.
He immediately released his grip. “Chica—”
“Stop.” My arms wrapped around his neck because I was done holding back. I was done trying to do the right thing, and I was done pushing him away. “No more talking.” I brushed my lips against his.
He grabbed a handful of my hair and held me just far enough back. “Don’t be insecure about who you are.”
His persistence, his steadfast stubbornness, it made me almost smile at the irony of being in a man’s arms who was just like me. “I’m not.” My breath against his mouth, I moved my hips against his. “I wanted to make sure this wasn’t just about you thinking you needed to save me.” Because when he failed, he’d blame himself, and I didn’t want to die with that on my conscience.
Both of his strong hands cupped my face as his ridiculously huge arms caged me in. “Chica,” he breathed. “I will protect you.”
But not save me. I grabbed his wrists. “Don’t do it at your expense.”
His frown deepened but his voice gentled. “Trust me?”
It was the second time he’d asked, but he didn’t need to. He deserved the truth. “I trusted you the second you walked into a bar full of pissed-off LCs and retrieved me.”
“Then feel me.”
Those three words were all the warning I
got.
With one single thrust, he drove into me.
My mouth opened with a gasp, and he sank his tongue inside. His groan crawled from his chest and spilled into my mouth, mingling with my cry. Impossibly hard and thick, stretching every glorious inch of me, his cock stroked deep into me. Every single piece of my world collided as shattering anxiety splintered into a thousand nerve endings of need.
My nails scraped across his flesh and I grasped at his arms for purchase. My thighs as wide as I could spread them, I arched my back and cried against his mouth. “Oh my God, yes.”
He pulled back a few inches then slammed into me. “Fuck, chica.” His eyes closed. “You feel so damn perfect.”
“Harder,” I begged.
He gripped the side of my face with one hand and grabbed my hip with the other, but he didn’t pull out and slam back into me. He didn’t go harder at all. His jaw clenched, his expression fierce, his intense, dark eyes zeroed in on me.
Staring, he slowly eased back.
Chills rippled across my flesh.
Just barely still inside me, he slid his hand under my ass and lifted my hips. Then he thrust deep and pressed me up into him.
Oh my fucking God.
His unyielding gaze focused intently, he watched me as his thick cock pressed directly against my G-spot.
I fucking saw stars.
Then my head fell back, my legs shook, and I started to come. Guttural moans coming out of me, my nails digging into his arms, tears slid down my face.
Spanish cascaded out of his sexy mouth as he slid back an inch and rubbed past my G-spot again.
“André,” I cried.
“Right here, chica, I’m right here.” His tongue swept through my mouth then he sucked my bottom lip between teeth. “That’s it, beautiful. You’re so damn gorgeous.” He slid out just past my G-spot again then thrust back in, hard and slow, grinding against me. “Show me how you let go.” The hand holding my face slid down my neck, and over my aching nipples. His thumb landed on my clit and circled as he repeated his deep, angled thrust. “Come for me, chica.”
Color, light, a thousand pounds of pressure pressing down on my core then launching me into the stratosphere, I came. My pussy contracting, my body shaking, I could barely breathe. Wave after wave of release wrecked me as unintelligible screams ripped from my throat.
With a fierce growl, he reared back, then slammed into me. Gripping two handfuls of my hair, he crushed my mouth with his as his tongue drove deep.
He started pounding into me.
Dominant and possessive, he fucked me.
His thick cock filling every inch of my pussy, his hard thrusts, his aggressive kiss—I never had a chance. I spiraled out of control as another orgasm, harder and faster than the one before, surged through my body, taking me from the outside in. “André!”
“Fuck.” He jerked out of my body. His fist gripped his shaft and he pumped hot cum against my clit.
Oh my God.
Oh my fucking God.
Rubbing his cock over my shaved pussy and through his cum, he growled out words in Spanish.
Still contracting, I ached for more. “English,” I panted, grabbing his cock and bringing it to my entrance.
“Chica.” He rasped out a warning. “I’m covered in cum.”
Oh my God, that was sexy. So fucking sexy. “Please,” I begged. “More.” I needed more of him, so, so much more.
The hand holding his cock let go, and he brought his fingers to my mouth. His other hand released my hair and found my entrance. “Open,” he demanded. Fingers covered in his seed slid into my mouth the same time he shoved two fingers deep into my cunt.
My back bowed off the bed.
“Chúpame.” He pressed down on my tongue. “Suck, beautiful.” He twisted his fingers deep inside my cunt.
Oh God.
Wanting to come again, I sucked hard.
His tongue swirled against the sensitive skin under my ear before he kissed a tear away on my cheek. “Estás bella.” He pulled his fingers out of my mouth. “So fucking beautiful.” His thumb drew a slow circle around my clit.
I grabbed his still-hard cock and brought it to my aching pussy.
His hand instantly captured my jaw and throat. “Let go,” he ordered.
The dominant move only made me more desperate for him. “No.”
Unexpected and brilliant, a smile spread across his face.
“What?” I demanded, stroking his still-hard cock.
Even though we were lying naked and entwined, his muscles flexed, his chest puffed and he crowded me. Overwhelming my personal space in a completely different way than how he’d just ruined me, he pressed closer.
Curling the fingers he still had deep inside me, he stroked exactly where he knew to make me unhinged. “Tell me,” he demanded.
My mouth opened with a gasp as my eyes fluttered shut.
“Tell me how good this feels.” His breath fanned across my ear.
I shivered and managed one word that was such an injustice, I should’ve been ashamed. “Good.”
“Is that the safe answer?” His thumb pressed down on my clit.
I’d never come three times. The safe answer would’ve been to run, but God help me, I didn’t want to. Every ounce of self-preservation had disappeared the second he’d shoved into me. Every touch since, I broke a little more. There wasn’t going to be any compromise with this man. He wasn’t safe, and I wasn’t thinking straight. The only thing I knew for certain? I was going to get hurt. Badly.
Reluctantly, I grasped his wrist. “Stop,” I whispered.
“Too much?” His soft lips feathered kisses across my neck as he gently pulled out of me.
Unguarded, traitorous words spilled out of my mouth. “Everything about you is too much.”
His arms wrapped around me, and he rolled to his back. I landed on his chest and he drew my thighs up around his sides.
He cupped my face. “Chica.” He stared into my soul and stole my thoughts. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
I put my head down on his chest. Smoothing my hands across the ridges of his abdominal muscles, I inhaled the intoxicating scent that was all him. Soap masked some of the intensity, but it was there. I didn’t have words for how he smelled, but it was like summer rain. Fresh and pure and strong. He could wash me away if I let him.
I traced a cross tattoo on his arm as I struggled for words that would say nothing and everything.
“Don’t think, beautiful. Just give me honest,” he quietly rasped.
Inhaling, I closed my eyes and whispered my truth. “I feel small next to you and this already hurts.”
His fingers ran through my hair. “The closeness?”
I’d never felt this way about anyone. “I’m not what you want.”
“Que no es verdad.” His rough hands ran down my arms.
It was the truth. “I’m not made for this.” It was the only way I knew how to explain.
He tipped my chin up and brought an arm under his head. “For what?”
“Belonging.” I couldn’t say belonging to him.
With an intelligence I would never have, he searched my face. “If you don’t want to be mine, then what do you want?”
The question was the last thing I was expecting, but I should’ve known better. André Luna had training and schooling and more experience with life in one hand than I did in my whole head. I’d spent my life hiding. He’d spent his protecting. I ached for the life he was hinting at, but I was too afraid to reach for it. I’d survived the emotional devastation of my own damn father wanting to kill me, but I wouldn’t survive giving my heart to this man and having him not keep it.
Cornered, I threw out the one thing he couldn’t give me. “I want to be Decima.” I wanted to be the child she once was. The child who’d believed in hope and the love of her brothers and sisters. That Decima would know how to give her heart to an ex-marine who made her feel beautiful.
André tucked my hai
r behind one ear as a line creased between his eyebrows. “You told me she was dead.”
“She is.” She’d died a long time ago.
SHE ROLLED OFF ME, AND I let her.
“Kendall.” Purposely using her name, I reached for an in.
“André.” She mimicked my tone perfectly as she got up and grabbed the backpack.
Mierda. “How many men have you been with?” She had to fucking know how explosive we were together.
She spun and gave me attitude. “You want a scorecard?”
Christ, she was stunning. “This isn’t a competition.”
She smirked. “Not until someone loses.”
I didn’t know how to fucking break through with her. “You want to know how many women I’ve been with?” No way in hell was I giving her a number.
“Do I look like a masochist?” She unzipped the backpack.
My dick pulsed, and I smiled. “You really want me to answer that?” Because damn, if it wasn’t short, black, or tight, she didn’t fucking wear it.
She ignored me.
I got up and took the backpack from her. “My point is I’ve been with enough women to know that what just happened isn’t something you turn your back on.”
No response. She wouldn’t even look at me.
I grasped her chin. “If you’re not feeling it, chica, then say the word. I’ll back off.” Her expression weary as fuck as her gorgeous eyes stared at me, I dared to hope she was feeling me. “I’ll see you through this. I’ll protect you with my life.” I forced myself to say what I didn’t fucking want to. “But I swear on my honor, if you don’t want this, I won’t touch you again.”
She didn’t move. She didn’t even blink.
Dread settled in my chest.
Fuck. Fuck.
No choice, I stepped back and turned.
“Wait,” she whispered.
My eyes closed, and I bit back the shit I really wanted to say because I knew words pushed her away. “What?”
The air shifted and her breath landed on my back. “I’m not good at this.”
No fucking shit. But I still wanted to pull her into my arms and take her every damn way I could. Instead, my hands went to my hips and I waited.