by Tess Summers
“Who knew I’d be in love for the first time on my fortieth birthday,” he quipped softly while studying her carefully for her reaction.
And for the first time since he ran into her outside the bar and she uttered, “Discúlpame,” did Ruby Rhodes screw up.
“Who knew I’d be in love for the first time at thirty-six.”
He cocked his head and narrowed his eyes, even though he already knew that. “You’re thirty-six? I thought you said you were twenty-eight.”
She could certainly pass for it, but he’d doubted from the beginning that a twenty-eight year old would rank high enough in the CIA to be given the assignment she was in. When he was given the initial information on her and learned her real age, it made more sense. He liked her being closer to his age.
To his shock, she didn’t try to lie her way out of her admission.
“Um, yes?” She bit her bottom lip as she poised her answer as a question with a grimace. “I’m sorry I lied.”
Dante decided to push her, just to see how much she’d confess. He was hoping for everything, if she really did love him. She’d already fucked up royally, admitting her age. Ruby’s background check said she was twenty-eight, how was she going to explain that?
To his disappointment, she went back into character. “I didn’t want you to think poorly of me. I haven’t exactly accomplished much with my life, other than live off my father’s money.”
She chose to continue the lie, and that pissed him off although he tried to mask it with a closed mouth smile. He’d played this all wrong. His plan had backfired because he was in love with her—at least the woman she’d let him fall in love with.
The one that’s fake. Still, he couldn’t help but think about the determined little girl from Fargo who’d gotten herself out of poverty. He’d loved her even more, knowing that about her.
Yet she’d revealed a part of herself tonight—something real—and that meant something, as far as he was concerned.
“I don’t think poorly of you. But I am disappointed you lied to me.” And continue to lie to me. He gripped her hair tight and murmured in her ear, “What do bad sluts get, Ruby?” He emphasized her fake-name purely for his satisfaction—saying it out loud somehow made him feel like he wasn’t getting played.
“Punished,” she whispered.
He pinched her nipple, hard. “Punished, what?”
“Punished, sir.”
“Good girl.”
He then released her hair and nipple abruptly, massaging where he’d just been tugging, and with a smirk, lowered his mouth inches from hers.
“Now let’s talk about that other thing…”
Chapter Eight
Ruby
She’d been scolding herself all week for being so dreamy-eyed around him. She needed to keep her head in the game and focus on the mission. She’d already been censured for not planting any surveillance equipment in his house.
“I’m not risking it,” she’d told the agency when they gave her grief about it. “He’s already said he sweeps his place regularly for that type of equipment. If something were to show up now, his suspicions would be focused squarely on me. He’s just starting to trust me; I don’t want to jeopardize that.”
Kennedy really didn’t want to risk what was building between them, but the truth was, she didn’t want the CIA to be able to gather evidence against Dante either. Especially not from the sanctity of his home. She had come to cherish the estate as well—invading that just felt… wrong.
“Agent Jones, you need to be sure you’re separating yourself from your Ruby Rhodes persona,” her handler warned.
“That’s not a problem. I’m a professional,” she said dismissively. “I am, however, going to be making a large purchase on my persona’s credit card. Dante’s birthday is coming up, and I need to get him an expensive present.”
“You’ve been given carte blanche with your expenses on this assignment, you know that.”
“Just want to make sure there’s no misunderstanding.”
She couldn’t afford to pay for the TAG Heuer she was planning on buying him. Well, she could afford it, technically, she’d just rather not be on the hook for the purchase.
She’d bought it the next day and had it engraved with, Happy 40th. She couldn’t bring herself to have the name Ruby engraved on it, so she left it at that. She was originally going to say something about Macallan Cask but decided to just buy him a bottle instead, and almost gave it to him a day early, on his private jet, when their flight attendant came back after taking their drink order, shaking her head.
“I think you finished the bottle last time and flight services replenished it with regular Macallan.”
Dante chuckled. “I’ll have to make sure they only charged me for regular then.” With a nod of his head, he added, “Macallan is fine for me. Ruby, do you want something else?”
“No, I’ll have the same.”
His jet was beautiful, and she tried acting like it wasn’t her first time on a private aircraft. She’d flown commercial for what felt like hundreds of times—even first class if the assignment required it, and of course, during her time in the Marines she’d done her fair share of jumping out of planes, but she’d never been up in the air in something so luxurious. However, an oil heiress would have, so she couldn’t gawk.
Still, he asked, “Is this your first time on a private jet?”
“Oh, no,” she said dismissively. “My daddy’s company has two. But they’re supposed to be for company business, so Daddy doesn’t use them much for personal use.”
“Yes, I’m sure there’s a lot of tax laws one has to follow the U.S.” He didn’t sound convinced.
Changing the subject, she asked sweetly, “So, you said to bring my passport, where are we off to, Birthday Boy?”
“Birthday Man, sweetheart. I’m all man,” he corrected with a grin to let her know his offense was in jest.
“Mmm, yes you are,” she purred in his ear and squeezed his inner thigh while rubbing her tits against his arm.
“Careful, princess. We’ve got a four-hour flight—I will have no problem taking you to the bedroom and fucking you the entire time.”
“I know you’d have no problem. You’ve proven you’re quite capable of that. But you still haven’t answered the question—where are we going?”
“Belize. I’ve rented a bungalow that walks out to the beach. There’s snorkeling on the reef, rainforest excursions, or just lounging around on the beach or by the pool. Whatever you want to do.”
“Baby, it’s your birthday. We’ll do whatever you want.”
“What I want is to see you happy and having a good time.”
His kindness only made her feel more conflicted. Her guilty feelings for betraying him had her stomach in knots. She was falling in love with a criminal—the man whose uncle she was sent to assassinate. She either didn’t go through with her mission, effectively ending her career, or she completed it and ruined any chance she might have with Dante.
Not that she really believed she had a chance. Even if she didn’t go through with killing Enrique, she highly doubted Dante would want to be with her if he found out the truth, and the CIA would most definitely have her working behind a desk somewhere like Podunk, Alaska. There was only play here—complete her mission. With renewed determination, she dozed off next to him thirty-five thousand feet in the air.
It was late when they got to their bungalow, but it was a beautiful night, so they took a walk by the ocean to decompress, and the next thing she knew—they were having sex on the beach.
Then Dante had to go and tell her he’s in love with her, and she found herself blurting out the same, divulging some truth about herself in the process.
Revealing her true age had just slipped out, momentarily overwhelmed with his admission, and how happy it made her. It scared her how easy it was to sometimes forget that he was the cartel’s moneyman, and she worked for the CIA, and this was all a big lie.
&n
bsp; “When did you realize you were in love with me?” he asked with a cocky grin.
She was so fucked. And not the good kind like she had been for the past ten days. It was the between-a-rock-and-a-hard-place kind.
“Ruby?” his voice brought her back to reality, and his question he was still waiting on an answer to.
“I think I’ve slowly fallen for you from the start, but I knew for sure Wednesday night.”
The corner of his mouth lifted in a smile at the memory. “Ah, Wednesday night. I was hoping you’d say that. That’s when I was certain, too. I almost told you, but it felt like you already knew.”
“I did.”
Wednesday night he’d made love to her. Not his usual dominant, aggressive style that she was starting to crave, but slow, stare in her eyes and kiss her passionately while he tenderly took his time and savored her kind of lovemaking. Afterwards, he’d held her like he always did, kissing her hair and murmuring words of adoration, but things between them had been forever changed—and she knew they had both felt it.
She’d almost confessed everything right then, but each time she’d started to form the words, she stopped. He would never forgive her for betraying him and all coming clean would do is compromise the mission. And now, here she was, with an ass crack full of sand and not a clue how she was going to fix the mess she’d just made.
There really was no fixing it. This was going to end with a terrible betrayal—there was no other way. All she could do was enjoy the ride while it lasted and be grateful for the memories of her time with him.
He rolled off her and stood, pulling his shorts up then brushing the sand from his elbows and knees before extending his hand to help her up. “Come on, baby. Let’s go back to the bungalow.”
“Yeah, we probably should get some sleep. We have a big day of celebrating tomorrow.”
“Who said anything about sleeping?” he asked with a wink.
Ruby smirked. “Whatever you want, Birthday Boy.”
“Man,” he corrected.
She stood on her tiptoes and whispered huskily in his ear, “Your wish is my desire, Birthday Man.” Wiggling her butt uncomfortably, she added with a cheeky grin, “But I really need to shower first. I have sand in places no one ever should.”
****
Dante
They stayed up until the early morning hours fucking, talking, and making love. He could feel her internal conflict as she lay in his arms, her head on his chest while he told her about his childhood and in turn, asked her about hers and especially when he projected about their future.
She played along, but her tone was wistful when she whispered, “That sounds perfect.” He noticed his chest felt damp before she ran her tongue along his pecs with a seductive smile, then trailed down his stomach to his cock where she distracted him with another epic blowjob.
“Fuuuck, woman,” he panted when she pointed his cock at her tits herself and finished him off, smearing his seed into her skin like a fucking porn star would.
He decided to dangle Enrique in front of her right before they fell asleep. He’d learned of her mission earlier this week—the day before he learned her true identity. Fortunately, her mission actually worked into his and Ramon’s plans, and he would probably tell her as much when she finally confessed to him. If she finally confessed to him.
“Maybe I should have a belated birthday party, so I can introduce you to my family. I’m sure my father and uncles will be instantly smitten—just like I was, and the women will love you even more than Rosa or Maria, if that’s possible.”
Instead of snatching at the bait and running with it, she hesitated. “I think we should wait before I meet your family.”
Yeah, she really loves me, he thought smugly. She was going to be spilling her guts before the weekend was over.
“Why do you want to wait?”
“I don’t know. I guess things are going so well between us, I don’t want to jinx it.” She lifted her head with a smirk. “Because then you’ll want to meet my family, and they’re a train wreck. And my daddy will hate you, and then I’ll have to choose between you or him.” She rambled on theatrically, “And it’ll just be a disaster because I’ll choose you, and then I’ll be cut out of the will...” She laid her head back down on his chest and snuggled closer. “Let’s just stay in our little bubble for a little while longer.”
He could read between the lines—her ‘daddy’ was really the CIA, and she was going to have to choose between her agency and him.
“Don’t worry about being cut out of the will, baby,” he murmured with his lips to her hair. “I’ve got more than enough money to take care of you.”
Dante meant that. He’d love to take care of her, if she chose him.
“It’s not really about the money, Dante. I have plenty in savings.”
“Hey wait…” he cut her off. “Why would your father hate me? Is he racist?”
Ruby lifted her head again. “What? No. He sent me to Mexico, didn’t he?”
“Why then?”
Her smirk was back. “Because you sell drugs, remember?” Throwing his ‘joke’ from when they first met back at him.
“Oh, yeah. That.” He sighed dramatically like he was going along with her act. Yet, it felt like, somehow, they were communicating the truth through this game. “Would it make a difference if my company were more reputable, and we owned other businesses besides our illegal ones?”
She traced her finger along his shoulder. “No. Just the fact that you sold drugs will make him not like you.”
“Darn it.”
“Yeah,” she agreed, melancholy in her voice.
“I guess we’ll have to figure something else out.” Dante squeezed her shoulders. “Okay, baby. We’ll stay in the bubble until we do.”
She sounded sleepy when she murmured, “Maybe we can just live here forever.”
If he thought that was all it would take, he’d make it happen. But he knew better. It wasn’t going to be that easy.
Chapter Nine
Dante
He was roused from his slumber with his cock hard as steel. It took a minute for him to register why, until he realized it was her warm mouth sliding up and down his shaft.
Touching her hair softly, he opened his eyes.
“I could wake up to that sight for the next forty years,” he quipped with a sleepy smile.
“Good morning,” she murmured, pulling his shaft from her mouth to stroke him up and down while she looked at him from between his legs with a smile. “Happy birthday.”
He put his hands behind his head to watch her. “It’s starting out pretty damn good—ever since the clock struck midnight. Best birthday yet.”
She swirled her tongue along his helmet. “Oh, baby. We’re just getting started.” She paused and lifted her head. “Unless you’re too old to keep up now?”
He was on her in an instant, flipping her onto her stomach on top of a pillow then pinning her body in place with the weight of his. Grinding his cock against the crack of her ass, he growled in her ear, “What do bad sluts get, Ruby?”
He felt her lift her hips and press back against him. “Mmm, punished,” she purred.
“It’s not punishment if you like it, baby,” he said with a chuckle.
“What if I love it?”
He closed his eyes and let out a low groan. “You are so fucking perfect.”
She lifted her hips again—well, as much as she could with his body on hers.
“What do you want, princess?” he teased, pushing his cock against her ass.
“To get fucked.” She waited a beat then added, “Sir.”
“Where should I fuck you?”
“Oh, god. I don’t care. Just fuck me, please.”
There wasn’t any coconut oil handy, otherwise, he’d take that as an invitation and be inside her ass in a heartbeat. Coconut oil was definitely going on the shopping list for later today.
Dante rolled on a condom he’d grabbed from the nig
htstand and slid inside her soaked pussy as they both moaned in unison. Her closed legs heightened the sensation, and in a plank position, he slammed into her hard and deep.
“Oh my god, baby! That feels so good,” she moaned.
Thankfully, he worked his core a lot, so he was able to maintain his plank while he thrust into her rapidly. She lifted her ass slightly, and he dropped to his knees and slapped her pale skin until her butt was a nice shade of pink, before sliding inside her again.
“Yessss,” she cooed.
Her pussy was extra tight in this position, and he dropped to one knee for leverage. He wasn’t going to last much longer, and judging by how wet she was, she wasn’t either.
“Don’t stop,” she begged. “Oh, god, please don’t stop.”
He gave her ass another hard slap. “Please don’t stop, what?”
“Please don’t stop, sir.”
“Are you going to come, little slut?”
“Yes,” she whimpered.
“Good. Come for me. Come all over my cock, baby.”
He felt her body tense up, then completely relax as she let out a long moan.
Thrusting hard and fast, his orgasm was right behind hers, and he held her hips tight while he came balls deep inside her.
Dante dropped his forehead on her back as he caught his breath.
“You really have no idea what you do to this old man.”
He felt her giggle when he went to pull out. Except she squeezed her thighs together, so he couldn’t.
“No! Don’t go!”
“Baby, I’d like nothing more than to stay inside your sweet pussy all day.” He dropped onto his forearms and enveloped her body with his. “But I need to take care of the condom.”
She relaxed her thighs, grumbling, “Fine. But hurry back.”
He returned and spooned her tiny body tight against his. They lay like that for a few blissful minutes, and Ruby let out a contented sigh. “I really do love you.”
Dante believed her—and he also believed it was causing her a great deal of stress.
He kissed her shoulder. “I know. I love you, too, princess.”