Year of the Scorpio: Part One

by Stacy Gail

  “Knives is a careful guy.” Polo crossed his arms over his chest as he considered all the angles. From the moment Dash and Konstantin entered the penthouse it was obvious they were both upset. So, after welcoming Dash with a kiss, he’d taken a step back to let the two friends sort out their business. He’d stationed himself at the wet bar, leaning back against it while Dash sat on the edge of the sofa and Kon prowled the room like an animal looking for things to kill. “I’ve heard he’s stepping up drug distribution while also actively recruiting muscle—enough for a decent-sized army, if you can believe what Indigo’s been digging up. I know Knives. He can’t stand being vulnerable in any way, so he has to make sure he doesn’t have any personal shit out there hanging in the wind. Dash is the only chink in his armor, so it’s understandable he’d want her to be as protected as possible. That means knowing everything and everyone in her life.”

  “Like I said—creepy.”

  Polo’s mouth tightened. “Yeah.”

  “What I want to know,” Dash muttered, looking fierce, “is who the hell’s running to my brother to tattle on me like I’ve done something wrong? Being with Polo isn’t wrong, or a secret, but it’s also no one’s business. Who’s decided they want to be the best and brightest ass-kisser in Knives’s new army of doom?”

  That was what Polo wanted to know, and while he had some ideas it could wait for the moment. “We’re not going to figure anything out now, so we’re dropping it for tonight. You two make sure you shake hands before I kick Kon out of here, and we can all get on with our lives.”

  “I can do better than a handshake.” Dash’s fierce expression turned mournful, and she pushed off the sofa to launch into Konstantin’s arms. “I’m so sorry I suck, Kon. I’m a terrible person for thinking you were some dirty snitch pretending to be my friend just so you could play informant with my brother.”

  “Idiot.” Konstantin gave her a big squeeze before stepping back so he could look her straight in the eye. “I am your friend, but first and foremost I’m your protector, you understand? You need that more than a friend, so if you ever get involved in anything over-the-top stupid, or I feel something’s not legit, the first person I’m telling is Knives so I can get instructions on how to proceed. But when you’re with Polo, none of that shit applies so I keep my mouth shut about it. Your safety and your happiness are pretty much guaranteed whenever you’re with him, so that’s all I—and your brother—need to know.”

  “Konstantin has every right to be furious with me,” Dash said as Polo returned from walking Kon out to the elevators. Her tone matched her expression—stressed and gloomy, and the sight of it pissed him off even worse than Knives sticking his damn nose in where it didn’t belong. When they were in the same room together, stress was the last thing she was supposed to be feeling.

  It was high time he turned that boat around.

  “Kon’s good, Fearless, and you’re good too, you hear me?’ As he spoke, Polo took both her hands in his, pulled her off the sofa, and walked her down the hall toward the closed door of his bedroom. “This needed to happen, this clearing of the air. You needed to know what to expect when it comes to dealing with both Kon and Knives on a professional level. That way you can separate that out from all the personal shit, and not get yourself tied up in knots over everything.”

  “Easier said than done, separating the professional from the personal.”

  “No, it’s not. For instance, when we’re alone, like we are right now, that falls under the heading of personal. That means no one’s allowed in, not even in conversation. So I’m not going to listen to any more bullshit about Kon or Knives. All that matters right now is you and me.”

  Her sad eyes began to warm in a way that made every muscle in his body tighten, but she lifted a dubious eyebrow. “It’s not bullshit.”

  “If it doesn’t have to do with you—you being happy, how I can make you happy, or every moment of happiness you deserve to experience in the future when you’re with me—I’m calling it bullshit. Now.” He stopped by the bedroom door and pulled her against him. When her body rested against his as if she’d been waiting all her life for him to pull her close, he nearly lost his train of thought. “Tell me that you’re going to let the bullshit go and just be happy we’re spending time together. Say those words out loud for me, beautiful. Say... you’re happy we’re together.”

  “I’m happy we’re together.” Despite the stress he could still feel thrumming through her, a smile began in her dark bedroom eyes. “And being happy does sound pretty good right about now.”

  “Your happiness, your smile, your joy, you...these are the treasures I protect. Making sure you never lose your happiness is my mission in life.” He opened the door while keeping his attention riveted to her face. Only her reaction mattered, because what he’d said was true—he’d do just about any damn thing he could think of to make her smile. If she was happy, and he’d made that happen, then that was a good day in his books.

  “Oh...Polo.” The breathlessness of Dash’s hushed voice brought his attention back to her, and the shock widening her eyes quickly followed by delighted wonder hit him square in the chest. Damn, it wasn’t fair how easily she turned him inside-out. “This is amazing.”

  “It’s not that big a deal.” Once again he took her hand and led her across the threshold into his room. It was a minimalist’s dream, complete with the clean lines of a platform king bed, a contemporary headboard in gleaming black with floating nightstands, a large screen TV on the opposite wall, and a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows that had a great view of Chicago’s sprawling cityscape. But it wasn’t the view she was staring at; her gaze was laser-locked on the ruby red rose petals scattered on the pale gray comforter and the dozens of thick, squat candles throughout the room. The candles had burned down some, thanks to the time it took to hash things out with Konstantin, but the effect was just as stunning with the entire room bathed in a soft golden glow. He took his phone out of his pocket, and with a few taps on its screen, the slow, pure-sex strains of Barry White’s “I’ve Got So Much to Give” whispered from the room’s built-in surround-sound speakers.

  “If this was how you pictured the scene when I’m inside you, then this is what you get—flowers, candlelight, music. Whatever you want, you get. I’ll make every one of your fantasies come true, Dash. Every single one.” Unable to resist any longer, he brushed his mouth over hers, then caressed the line of her lips with his tongue. Damn. Her taste was so addictive it chased away even his ability to think. “So? I didn’t leave anything out, did I?”

  “It’s perfect.” Her arms twined around his neck, and she lifted her lips in the sexiest damned invitation he’d ever seen. “Everything is perfect.”

  “Not everything.” With his pulse beating insistently in his cock and his balls feeling so heavy he nearly groaned, he took that mouth up on its invitation and kissed her with all the hunger burning in his blood. But no matter how much he drank from her or how deeply he delved, it wasn’t enough. Nothing would be enough until he was buried inside her. “You’re wearing too much for it to be perfect.”

  Her pelvis rubbed against his, as if testing to see how hard he could get before he exploded. “You can fix that, can’t you?”

  “Fuck yeah, I can fix that.” With quick efficiency he found the zipper of her skirt, released it, and pushed it over the flare of her hips. He toyed with the idea of ridding her of her little thong as well, but he held off, prolonging the fun of unveiling his prize. “Step out of your shoes, beautiful, and let’s get you naked.”

  “Naked’s good.” To his delight, she seemed eager to level the playing field by getting him out of his jeans and boxer-briefs as if she was playing a game of Beat the Clock. “I’m a big believer in naked.”

  “That’s why we get along so well. We think alike. Raise your arms.” His heart skipped several beats at how readily she followed the order, and after he pulled her shirt up and over her head, he rewarded her with another devouring k
iss. As he did, he reached behind her and unhooked her bra with an expert twist of his wrist.

  “Oh, you’re good.” Her breath shallowed out, and her excitement was reflected in her sparkling eyes as she worked on the buttons of his shirt, and she didn’t stop until he was as naked as she was. “A one-handed bra release. How long did it take you to master that?”

  “At the risk of freaking you out, your father was a big believer that a man needed to know three things to win at the game of life—how to clean and care for a gun, how to hold your liquor, and how to undo a bra one-handed.”

  “You’re kidding.” Her expression was priceless—torn between being appalled and amused—before she laughed. “He had three absolute necessities of life for me as well. How to clean and care for a gun, how to hold my liquor, and how to change a tire. Your list is so much more interesting.”

  “I’m grateful you’re so self-sufficient, but you’re never going have to change a tire as long as I’m around.” Without giving her any warning, he scooped her up to lay her in the bed of petals. The girlie squeak that escaped her charmed him, while the perfume of the petals and Dash’s own scent filled him up until it he was drunk with it. “You get a flat tire, I’m the one who changes it for you to make sure my Fearless is safe. You got a fantasy about making love on a bed of roses, I’ll make it your reality. Whatever problem you have, I’ll be the solution. This is how it goes, for now and always.”

  “Polo.” Her eyes were softer than he’d ever seen them, and the odd reverence in the way she cupped his cheek cut him to the bone. “That’s the sweetest thing anyone’s ever said to me.”

  “I’m just getting started.” The warmth in her eyes enveloped him, cradled him, making him feel so much it almost scared him. He dipped his head to kiss her once more, trying to regain a semblance of control while his hands smoothed over her better-than-fantasy body. Greedily he filled his hands with the firm flesh of her breasts, so tantalizingly perfect she almost didn’t seem real, and as he squeezed that amazing, rounded flesh, his cock swelled with throbbing need.

  “All those years I watched over you...I don’t know how I kept my hands off of you.” His head swam as he blazed a trail of open-mouthed kisses to a breast, savoring her flavor as he went. “Seeing you day in and day out and not being able to touch you, or know what your skin tasted like... Honest to God, I don’t know how I stood it.”

  “Touch me now. Taste me now. Every part of me is yours, Polo. Yours.” A shiver went through her as he tongued a taut nipple into his mouth, and when she pushed against him like she couldn’t get enough, he sucked fiercely on the pebble-hard nub.

  “Oh...yes.” She arched so fiercely her head pressed down into the mattress. “Please, keep doing that. I love that.”

  “I know you do.” With a predatory chuckle he gave her what she asked for—more attention, more pleasure, concentrating on what she needed while keeping his own urgent hunger at bay.

  She was the only thing that mattered.

  “Keep telling me what you want, and keep saying that you’re mine,” he murmured against her silken flesh. “Keep saying it until it’s the only truth you know.”

  “I’m yours. I’m...” A gasp interrupted her as his fingers tweaked her nipples with gentle roughness. “Oh God, I’m yours, Polo.”

  “Fuck, yeah, you’re mine. And I’m yours.” He took his time worshipping the un-fucking-believable perfection of her breasts, and he loved how she was so turned on she couldn’t seem to be still. Her legs moved to make a welcoming cradle for him, and her hands roamed down as far as they could reach to his ass, coaxing him without words to get inside her where he belonged.

  He’d get there. Hell yeah, he’d get there.

  But first...

  “I’ve got a little something that I’ve been waiting to try on you.” He moved back up her body to plunder her mouth once more, while trailing a hand down her taut stomach to cup her thong-covered sex. When her hips jumped off the bed, pushing into his hand in needy desire, he couldn’t help but smile in anticipation. “I call it amnesia. You’ll forget every other man who’s ever touched you after I’m done with you. You want that? You want me to give you amnesia?”

  Her heavy-lidded eyes and her kiss-swollen mouth all rounded, and she looked so aroused and hungry he almost lost it right there. “If I say that no one’s that good, will you take that as a personal challenge to prove me wrong?”

  “You know it.”

  “No one’s that good.”

  “That’s my Fearless.” He dipped his hand under the thong while his mouth dominated hers, delving deeply for the taste of her before breaking it off to look into her eyes. “Open your legs wider for me, beautiful.”

  She did, her eyes on him as if he were the only man in the universe. Fuck, he loved that. And he sure as hell loved the hand that slid down his ribs, along his abdomen, and finally came to a rest at his dick, her fingers wrapping around the throbbing, ready-to-fuck length of him.

  “That’s so good, baby.” For a second he closed his eyes to savor the feel of her stroking him, and he shuddered when her thumb toyed with the hypersensitive ridge near the head. “Fuck, so good.”

  She made a purring little sound that was pure sex. “You like?”

  “Hell, yeah, I like.” It took most of his strength to open his eyes and not focus on the spine-melting pleasure of her hand milking his cock. He’d promised her amnesia, so that was what she was damn well going to get. “Every part of you feels good on every part of me. I want you to feel the same way.”

  “I do...oh.”

  His fingers slid deeper into her cleft, thrilled that the wisp of silk that she still wore was sodden. Her hand on his shaft pumped a rhythm his entire body rocked to, so it was that same cadence he used to stroke her intimate valley, from her threshold to her clit. Her hips caught the pace he set, pulsing to meet his caresses with an eagerness that set his world on fire.

  “Yes,” she whispered, her eyes half-closed in an expression so blatantly erotic he wanted to keep that well-fucked look there forever. “Oh yes, Polo.”

  “We’re just getting started.” Every time he approached the hard little nub of her clit, he pressed a fraction harder, making her squirm. He brought another finger into her slick, hot folds, increasing the pressure until she whimpered and her body writhed so restlessly he knew she couldn’t stop herself from moving if she tried. “You like this, don’t you, Dasha? You love it when I play with you.”

  “Yes.” It was a lusty moan, and he had to bite his lip to keep from making a similar sound. “Don’t stop, baby.”

  “Never.” It was becoming increasingly impossible to ignore her hand working his cock, her greedy, knowing touch sliding over him from base to tip and giving special attention to squeezing the sensitive ridge the way she’d learned he liked it. “I’ll never stop wanting to make you come. And come. And come.”

  With his fingers thoroughly drenched in her wetness, he shifted the angle of his hand to push his fingers past her threshold while his thumb landed solidly on her clit. He tormented it with relentless circles, his excitement building to a near-frenzy when she cried out, her eyes closing as her pleasure became almost unbearable.

  “Time for amnesia,” he whispered roughly and pushed his fingers inside her as far as they would go. With his gaze never leaving her, he pushed up against the interior wall underneath her clit, felt the spongy lining, and rubbed her without mercy while simultaneously rotating his thumb over her slick, hard nub.

  “Polo.” Her gasp was jagged, almost agonized. “Oh, baby...”

  “God, you’re beautiful.” He knew she was coming almost before she did. Her body tightened, while her depths clenched around his fingers so ferociously he could feel it in his cock. Her eyes widened as if stunned by the purity of sensation engulfing her, before at last the tension inside her broke in spectacular fashion. A breathless scream burst from her, her head digging into the petal-strewn mattress even as her back arched off of it. He cover
ed her breasts in feverish, tasting kisses since they were offered up so wantonly, and wallowed in her taste. Blindly he reached for the nightstand and the condoms awaiting him, all the while trying to keep her pleasure at its crest. With his body now in an agony of need, he rolled the protection in place and ripped off her thong while her gasps still rang in his ears.

  Then he was inside her, settling into the soft embrace of her thighs where he was meant to be. He was beyond talking now, beyond thinking. There was only the need to plunge into her as deeply as he could, trying to embed himself so completely into her that she’d never be free of him again. The giddy wave of pleasure began to overtake him immediately, surging to overtake him like an outwardly billowing explosion. All at once he came, a massive, never-ending ecstasy that had him pounding into her while he groaned through the barrier of his clenched teeth.

  He’d never get enough of this. Not when it was with Dash.

  There could never be an end to this.

  Never.

  Even after the shuddering waves of his orgasm began to fade, he still moved inside her, refusing to let heaven go without a fight. Her legs had come around his waist to lock him to her, and he knew without words that she was just as reluctant to let him go.

  “So? Did it work?” Breathless and feeling wrecked in the best possible way, he brushed her lips with his and reveled in how breathless she still was. “Do you have amnesia?”

  The smile that touched her mouth was both sleepy and wicked. “I’ll let you in on a little secret. From the moment you kissed me, every man disappeared from my mind. Everything about you gives me amnesia.”