by Christa Wick
"Shh...baby." He looked as if he had forgotten how to read me, as if he was sure he was losing me all over again and would never get me back this time.
Smiling, I took Dante's face in my hands. He captured the left one and drew it to his chest as his other hand fumbled in his pants' pocket. In the sunlight rippling through the tree, I saw the soft glint of gold, followed by the flash of a modest diamond. Instantly, I recognized the setting even though I had not seen it in two decades.
Gabriella's words of a few days before surfaced in my mind.
He sold everything to pay that woman off...
My chest swelled, knowing then that Gabriella was wrong. Dante had not gotten rid of everything. He had held the ring back, unable to let go, to move on, to forget me.
Sliding the ring over my finger, he rested his forehead against mine. I could see his eyes were just as wet as mine, that his hand trembled just as hard as the one he held.
Hooking and holding my gaze, he made his confession. "In my heart, I've always been married to you, Liv."
I nodded, feeling the same but robbed of the capacity for speech. Smiling, he kissed me then stood and coaxed me in joining him. I looked at the drive, realizing once again he had put himself at my mercy by having someone drop him off. Laughing, I asked him where we were going.
"Inside." Grinning, he pulled the key to the boathouse from his pocket.
"You own it?" Stunned, I stumbled over the words. "How long?"
"Ten years."
I stopped, dizzy and with fresh tears blurring my vision. "The flowers…"
"From your bouquet," he answered. "Every spring for the last ten years I've put a fresh coat of blue and white on the building and replanted the roses and delphiniums to fill any gaps."
Cradling my face, he kissed me. "I hope those are happy tears, love."
I nodded, struck speechless once again.
Guiding me to the door, Dante unlocked it and we entered. He touched the tip of my nose lightly. "Stay right here."
I obeyed, watching the graceful way he walked over to the folding couch and flipped it.
"You're quite fast, Dante Serrano," I teased as he drew a white linen sheet from a side cupboard and spread it across what was now a bed. A quilt of white eyelet and blue ribbons followed and then he crooked a finger and beckoned me to him.
He kissed my neck, his fingers stroking my hair. "Gives me more time to drive you crazy."
"I'm all for that." I yanked the bottom of his t-shirt out of his jeans and drew the fabric up his magnificent body. He moved to do the same to me but I gently blocked his hands. "Oh, no. I want you completely naked first."
Grinning, Dante interlaced his fingers and rested his hands atop his head, leaving me to finish the task. I dropped lightly to my knees and looked up at him. He drew a shaky breath in, the grin growing dead serious as I unthreaded the buttons on his jeans. I tugged the denim and cotton briefs halfway down his hips, just enough to free his fully erect cock.
"Talk about achy," I teased and wrapped my fingers around the thick shaft.
"Very," he moaned.
I looked up, batting my eyelashes at him. Once again, I felt beautiful in a way that only Dante had ever drawn out. I wet my lips, my chest swelling at his mesmerized stare. "Would you like me to make it all better?"
He nodded, solemn as a church confessional, which only made me feel more naughty and daring. I tugged at him, drawing the fat head closer to my mouth. He started to reach down as my lips brushed its top.
"Oh, no. Those hands stay on your head." He obeyed, immediately compliant. After a week of not being the one in control, I wanted a full measure of him moaning and helpless.
I licked the slit, my tongue capturing the translucent pearl of pre-cum. Looking up again, I smeared the drop against my top lip then licked it away. My head dipped again, my lips capturing the entire head and starting a slow bob. Dante rose up on his tiptoes, groaning.
"Let me see you," he pleaded with me.
Sinking a little closer to the floor, I arched my head back, my eyes locked on his as I ran my tongue along the sides of his shaft. He bit at his lip, his cock twitching with need in the tight sleeve of my fingers. Too long to take all the way to the base, I slid my lips halfway down the length, the head already pushing against the back of my throat.
Still holding onto his head, his elbows met in front of his face, tension straining his whole upper body as he curled toward me. His lips parted and then he shook his head. "Baby, I want to come inside you."
I pulled away long enough to tease him. "This is inside me."
Sucking him in a little deeper, I ran my fingertips down his shaft to tease his balls. They were wonderfully heavy, each one big enough on its own to fill my palm. I squeezed one gently as my mouth suctioned harder around Dante's cock.
"Liv, baby, please…"
Releasing him again, I tugged his jeans a little lower and ordered him to sit. "You can rest your arms behind you."
I waited until he complied then stripped his boots and the last of his clothes away. Standing in front of him, I started to undress. He made a move to help me, but I pushed him back and issued a stern-voiced warning. "Stay."
He chewed impatiently at his lip as I removed my blouse and bra. Cupping the bottom of my breasts, I tested their weight, noting how swollen and tender they felt. Releasing them, I stripped my bottom layer of clothing away and knelt once more on the floor. I pushed Dante's thighs apart. Reaching between my legs, I drew a thick coating of my moisture along one fingertip.
My other hand wrapping around his shaft, I pulled Dante forward until his ass hovered at the edge of the cushion. I trailed the wet finger along his exposed perineum, the slick pad finding and teasing his ass as my lips sealed around his cock once more. He almost shot off the couch, his thighs and ass muscles flexing as he groaned and lifted. He tossed his head back, letting me do exactly as I would.
Sucking him deeper into my mouth, my fingertip took a shallow dip inside him. Seeing his whole body shiver, I pushed a little deeper.
"Baby, I'm going to come in that sweet mouth."
I moaned, my approval vibrating along his shaft as I made little dips in and out of him, never sinking past the end joint. He came quickly, filling my mouth twice as I swallowed him down.
His seed spent, he seized me, lifting me quickly and placing me flat on my back. He nuzzled my neck, his hands everywhere as he whispered in my ear. "So very dirty, Liv. I'm going to enjoy taking you like that."
Goosebumps rolled in waves over my skin at the thought of him stroking inside me back there, with his fingers or the long, fat cock I'd just sucked to climax.
Moving down my body to kiss my breasts, Dante chuckled. "Oh, yes. I'm going to enjoy it very much."
He brought my feet closer to my bottom, his body nestled between them so that my thighs were spread wide open. Pushing three fingers into my throbbing cunt, he kept his thumb pressed against the clit. Sunlight filtered through the white eyelet, the small even row of holes sprinkling brighter light over my breasts and stomach like small diamonds.
His fingers still in me, Dante palmed a breast, milked it until it was deliciously sore and swollen and my cream flowed steadily between my legs. Looking down, he grinned. His hands shifted, the fingers in my cunt moving down to trace circles around my ass while the hand at my breast moved down to keep my pussy primed and wet. Slowly, he pushed into both holes simultaneously. My back arched, my climax almost upon me.
I closed my eyes, opening them again to look at him as he spoke to me.
"You're so beautiful, Liv."
I blinked, my lips rolling against one another as I fought a fresh surge of emotion. Reading me perfectly, Dante shushed me, his gentle fingers as effective as his tender tones in relaxing me.
"That's it, baby. Just feel me."
I nodded, my hips starting to wiggle, my ass pressing and squirming against the cushion as my pulse took up a heavy throb through my cunt and ass. He stroked slow
but deep, both sets of fingers curling and twisting inside me, the thickness of their position making twin knots of pleasure.
"Yes, love, ride it." His thumb found my clit again -- my mind shattering at the contact of its calloused pad against the sensitive, swollen pearl hiding under the hood. He stroked inside and out, his whole body part of the sure and steady rhythm. His thumb ran fat circles around the end of my clit that slowly narrowed down once more to land firmly on that kernel of pure pleasure.
"Dante--" My release broke over me, hard and fast but unabating. I gestured at him, my hands making little "give me" squeezes because I wanted his cock filling me.
He entered me, driving deep. His arms wrapped under and around my shoulders, he held me close as he buried his face against the curve of my neck.
"I love you." My lips whispered over the crown of his head while my fingers stroked the dark silken strands. "I never stopped loving you."
He moaned, the sound as wet as the tears against my neck as his lashes brushed against my skin. He came with me then, whispering his love against my flesh as our bodies strained toward one another, ripples of pleasure widening the further they spread from the hot core of our joining until, panting and moaning, we ground to a halt.
Relaxing on his side, Dante slid down and kissed the rise of my belly as he looked up at me, his gold-green gaze intense with the heavy fringe of black lashes. He brushed his fingertips over my stomach, the context of his question clear. "Do you think it's too late, Liv?"
A baby -- a green-eyed, dark-haired, golden skinned baby. I smiled and shook my head. "It's never too late when there's love."
Captive Curves
Sometimes going the extra mile to help a friend or stranger can bring the reward of a lifetime. Other times, it can get a girl killed. Visiting the rundown west Phoenix apartment building of a sick student to deliver his homework for the week, I wasn’t expecting any better, or worse, than a simple thank you.
Thank you in the form of an enthusiastic hug from eleven-year-old Jaime Gutierrez was exactly what I got -- until I took a wrong turn through an unmarked door on my way out of his building. I thought I was stepping into the stairwell. The dead body sprawled on the peeling linoleum floor in front of me suggested otherwise.
A single bulb hanging at the end of a frayed cord cast its feeble light over the body. Blood black as ink where the shadows touched it pooled along the right side of the chest. At the end of the corpse’s out flung arm, a young Latino brushed onto a piece of newspaper the lumpy brown powder spilling from a busted plastic bag.
Realizing my wrong turn had landed me in the middle of a drug deal gone bad, I sucked in a lungful of air.
"¡Coño!"
The door slammed shut behind me. The man kneeling by the body rose. His hand went to his side and I heard the snick of a blade. His hand reappeared, gore glistening darkly over the surface of the knife he brandished.
I tried to take a step back. Fingers knotted in my hair as an unseen hand captured and immobilized my head.
Scream, you idiot, scream, scream, scream…
My lips moved wordlessly, their effort ineffectual from the fear constricting my throat muscles. That same fear numb my fingers and I dropped my book bag. It landed at the feet of the dead body. Only my legs seemed capable of still functioning and I tried again to take a step back. The hand in my hair twisted, forcing me up onto my toes.
"Quiet, chica, and I promise to kill you fast." The man in front of me rolled the handle of the knife between his fingers, his chocolate brown gaze darting between the overly generous curve of my stomach and the exposed skin of my throat. Giving one last dismissive look at my soft belly wrapped in a thick rain coat, he nodded at the person behind me. "Hold her head back."
Shoving a hand between my shoulder blades, my invisible captor pushed against my back at the same time he jerked my head toward him to hyperextend my neck. A squeak escaped me -- the best I could manage in the last seconds of my life.
"Don’t touch her."
The command came from the lightless area at the end of the corpse. A third man stepped forward. Like my soon-to-be assassin, he was Latino. Only, where the man with the knife was wiry and a few inches shorter than me, this one was a mountain of granite.
"Fuck that. She’s seen my face -- and now she's seen yours. Are you fucking stupid?"
Hearing a murmur of agreement behind me, my hope of getting out alive evaporated. Only the mountain standing in front of me seemed inclined to let me live. Staring into his cold green eyes, I wasn’t sure why -- or whether I would be better off dead.
I blinked. What kind of nonsense was that? Of course I wanted to live!
"Please," I whispered. On the verge of crying, my vision blurred. The quiver vibrating along my lips distorted my plea as I begged for my life. "Please, I don’t want to die."
"You won’t -- not today." My savior stepped around the dead body, his hand closing on the wrist of the man holding the knife. "I’m going to teach you pendejos how to train your bitches to do anything you want."
Placing one big palm against the knifeman’s chest, my rescuer pushed him away from me. A smile just as cold as his gaze spread across his face. "Hello, little dove. I’m Dino."
"If this bitch screams--"
Dino shook his head, immediately silencing the man behind me. "She can hardly breathe right now, let alone scream. Isn’t that right, blanca?"
I nodded. I was scared witless and knew one of them would try to slit my throat the second I opened my mouth. When I did scream, there had to be someone other than these thugs to hear me.
"She'd run straight to the cops if we released her now." Pulling the red sash from my raincoat, Dino grabbed my wrists and bound them together. "A week from now, she’ll do anything I tell her. If I need a mule or money laundered, blanca will do it for me. Why kill a bitch who can make you money."
The man with the knife wouldn't back down. He elbowed Dino, trying to push the bigger man aside. "She’s seen my face!"
Dino’s green eyes slid left, the reflection of the room’s single light giving them a murderous glint. He fisted a handful of the smaller man’s shirt. A moment’s combat ensued, their movements too fast and the room too dark for me to discern who did what. When it was over, Dino had possession of the knife, its blade pressed lightly against the other man’s cheek.
His voice dropped dangerously low. "How about I give you a new face, Feo?"
A shiver rolled through me. Everything about Dino looked deadly. Tall, with a muscular body, he oozed menace and ultimate control. His face had a masculine, chiseled beauty softened only a fraction by the long dark hair that fell in waves to his shoulders.
A tall, dark angel with soulless eyes.
Glancing my way, he caught me staring at him. "Like what you see, blanca?"
His smile froze the blood in my veins. A stone cold killer stood before me and he apparently thought he could make me a slave and bend me to his will. I didn't like what I saw -- not one bit.
His gaze narrowed further, his cheek twitching as if he'd just read my mind.
"Get the van." Dino nodded at the man behind me before his attention cut left to my would-be killer. "Wait in the hall."
"Pinche chingaso--"
A warning growl shut Feo up fast. Bending down, he put the plastic bag on top of the newspaper and loose powder then folded the paper over it. Leaving, he slammed the door behind him.
Still holding the knife, Dino scooped up my book bag and shouldered it before looking at me. "Face the door, little dove."
I obeyed him, my brain desperately forming a plan of escape. I would be in the fourth-floor hall of the apartment building in a few seconds. To my left, the building’s single, out-of-service elevator waited. Somewhere to my right would be the door to the stairwell, the one I had thought I was opening instead of the door into hell I’d stepped through five minutes ago. Feo would likely be covering the stairwell door.
If there was another stairwell at the
opposite end of the hall, I didn't know about it. Even if there was, it could empty into the basement, leaving me no way out.
If I screamed once we entered the hall, maybe someone would hear and call the police. Or they might open their door to see what was going on. My chest tightened at the prospect. The only other person I was sure was in the building right then was a defenseless eleven-year-old boy. If I screamed and Jaime opened his apartment door, we would both die.
Pressing his chest against my back, Dino used the blade of the knife to push a lock of hair from my ear. His voice husky and unnaturally sensual, he whispered a warning. "Don't think about running, little dove."
I shook my head. I had been thinking about running, but I wasn’t going to have a dead child on my conscience. I’d die first. Wrong -- I’d be tortured first, probably gang raped, and only then would they allow me to die. It that’s what it took to save Jaime, so be it.
"I can't protect you if you run or scream."
Protect me?
Dino’s lips brushed my ear. A shiver rolled through my body, replacing my confusion and fear with a reluctant arousal. His body was an inferno. I could feel his heat sinking into my bones, sapping more of my will to scream or flee.
He stroked the tip of his thumb along my jaw line. My trembling stopped, and I drew my first calm breath. He smelled of warm spices -- ginger and cinnamon. The most dangerous kind of predator -- Dino's whole body was designed to attract.
"You run -- they chase. It's in their blood." His thumb trailed lightly down my throat to stop at the collar of my blouse. "What they catch, they rip and tear until nothing’s left."
Dino’s hips shifted. The hard bulge of an erection pushed against my bottom. "Obey me and you'll make it back to your cozy white girl suburb in one piece."
I nodded. I had no doubt I was in the hands of a sadist who thought he could brainwash me into doing his bidding. To survive, I had to convince him he could.
********************
I spent the next hour in the back of a van, my hands kept bound at the wrist. Curtains blocked the front seat, but the gravity of too sharp turns told me the driver had started a sequence of right turns zeroing back in on a final destination. Knowing they were trying to confuse my senses as to the location was almost a comfort.