Once he quieted down, Cherone stepped away from the bed to remove the remaining strips of clothing from her body.
His gazed blazed, roaming over every inch of her.
She slowly unsnapped the front clasp of her bra. Crowned by pebbled dark berry tips, the generous globes of her breasts bounced free. Gazing at him through her long eyelashes, she lowered the straps of her bra and let it fall to the floor.
“Bellísima,” he said, his cock enthusiastically pulsing and erecting to full mast in seconds.
The lust in his gaze gave her courage to continue the seductive striptease. Cherone hooked her fingers on the edge of her panties, rolled her hips, and sensually shimmied out of the scrap of lace. She threw the bit of material at him.
He caught it and brought it to his face, inhaling her feminine scent. “Dulce, so sweet,” he growled.
Cherone giggled and carefully climbed onto his bed avoiding his plastered broken arm and leg. With her thighs on either side of his hips, she gingerly saddled him.
Rico palmed her ass and pulled her over his pulsing length. He groaned as her pussy lips opened over him, her juices coating his cock as she grinded against him.
“Rico!” she cried out, her clit throbbing with each sensual glide of her hip up and down the hard pole. She gazed into Rico’s feverish eyes as his swollen tip edged into her tight core.
He gripped the silky strands of her hair and pulled her down for his kiss. Sucking her tongue into his mouth, he impaled her with his bruising rod. He swallowed her cries as she felt the erotic glide of his thickness deep within her sensitive inner walls.
They both went rigid with a shocking jolt of sensation at their joining.
“Oh God,” Cherone breathed.
“Dios mío,” Rico wheezed.
With her hands in the middle of his chest, Cherone raised her hips off his cock and then slid back down his steely length.
He groaned huskily with each lusty downward glide of her hips. “Ah, baby.”
The raspy timbre of his voice made her stomach tighten further in sizzling awareness. She increased the rotation of her hips and rode him with unrelenting lust, loving the feel of his cock deep in her, her clit scraping erotically against the veiny hard ridges of his shaft. Tears leaked from her eyes and tremors raked her body as she splintered in mind-numbing ecstasy.
“Ah, mi amor!” Rico drilled up into her, feral with rampant need. With ravenous insistent strokes, he growled as he plunged into a stunning release.
Cherone woke to sunlight streaming through the hospital window. She was shocked to see Rico lying on his back, peacefully sleeping. God, I can’t stay here, loving him the way that I do. I can’t endure making love with a man who doesn’t know me. Another night of that and I will forget my principles and jump him for real!
Cherone knew that she couldn’t let this happen again. Their souls remembered each other and went roaming as soon as they lost consciousness. Her thighs were sticky with evidence of their nocturnal activities. She crept from the tiny bed and made it as far as the bathroom door before she heard him.
“Good morning. Where are you going?”
Cherone reluctantly turned and looked at him.
He looked at her with such searing intensity, Cherone was hard pressed to act cool and not respond to that heated gaze. It was obvious that he was remembering their lovemaking. “Good morning. I’m just going to the bathroom. How are you feeling?”How can I act “normal” and carry on a “normal” conversation when we screwed each other’s brains out last night in his dream?
“Surprisingly, I’m feeling great.” He stretched lazily, never looking away from her. “You lied to me, by the way,” Rico said with an amused look on his face.
“Lied?” Cherone was scrambling for an explanation. How did she explain why they shared each other’s dreams without revealing exactly what they were to each other?
“Yes, lied,” Rico said. “We had to be lovers. I had the most vivid dream last night. For me to have such a clear vision of us, we must have made love before. I know the shape and color of your breasts, the round, smooth plains of your ass, and the supple softness of your skin.” His eyes darkened with desire as he continued to look at her. “I know how you smell, how you taste, how you respond to my touch.”
“Rico…”
“No, don’t even try to deny it.” Rico sat up straighter in his bed. “Dios, I’m getting hard just remembering how incredible you felt wrapped around me. Your kisses were wonderfully sweet. You love me, querida. It’s there in your touch, in your kiss, and how completely you surrendered to me.”
“I don’t think this conversation is productive, Rico.” Cherone tried desperately to hide how affected she was by his revelation. She had never denied loving him before, but until she understood why he forgot her and no one else, she no longer trusted the strength of his love.
“No? Personally I find this conversation very enlightening.” He grinned. “Come here and greet me properly.”
Cherone rolled her eyes and turned to go into the bathroom. “You have an overactive imagination.” She closed the bathroom door behind her.
Rico laughed. “Funny how you haven’t denied anything I said. Don’t think I didn’t notice.” He laughed again.
Cherone breathed a sigh of relief, because at least he didn’t know that she was also privy to and an active participant in his erotic dream. She would never admit that to him now. Let him speculate, she thought. He will never guess the extent of his absolute power over me.
When she exited the bathroom moments later, a male nurse was assisting Rico from his bed to help him complete his morning ablutions. Dominic, Neo, and Sean came in as they were having breakfast.
“How did the night go?” Sean asked with a huge grin on his face.
“I can’t stay overnight any longer,” Cherone said.
“His snoring was that bad?” Neo teased.
“You guys need to go on stage, y’all so funny,” Rico muttered.
“Can one of you take me back to the hotel so that I can shower and change my clothes?” Cherone asked.
“You look fine,” Rico said. “You don’t need to change.”
“Regardless, I’m going whether one of you escorts me or not.”
“Ah, there is that stubborn streak we all know and love,” Dominic drawled.
Cherone ignored him and walked out of the room. She was at the entrance when Sean caught up with her.
“Better let’s make this quick, before Rico starts freaking out.” Sean smiled.
Cherone was happy to arrive back at her hotel a few minutes later. She was in the middle of her shower when Rico reached out to her telepathically.
Where are you?
Taking a shower.
When are you coming back to the hospital?
I’ll be back shortly.
When?
Rico, we went over this already.
Yeah, well, tell me again.
I’ll get dressed and be back in twenty minutes.
Who’s with you?
Cherone sighed. No one is with me. Sean is in the living room of the suite waiting for me to finish.
I told those bastards that I don’t want Sean alone with you!
I’m not sure I want to ask, but why don’t you want Sean to protect me?
He has a dick!
And Neo and Dominic don’t?
You call Neo, Uncle Neo, and you can barely tolerate Dominic.
You can’t see me, but I’m rolling my eyes right now. Just because I call Neo “uncle” and don’t appear to like Dominic, that doesn’t mean anything. I find both men extremely attractive. But you’re right. Sean is different. He is ruggedly handsome: that dirty-blond hair, greenish-blue eyes, Aussie accent with an amazing sense of humor and a hot body. Yes Lord, Sean is like having a drink of cold water after a long walk in the hot desert. He is so refreshingly fine!
Rico didn’t respond.
Five minutes later as she toweled off her body, her ce
ll phone rang. It was Dominic on the other end.
“What the hell did you say to him?” Dominic demanded when she picked up.
“Say to whom?” Cherone asked.
“Don’t play games, little one. Neo and I have had a hell of a time stopping Rico from leaving the hospital and coming after you.”
“That lunatic! I’m coming back now.”
“But what did you say to set him off?” Dominic persisted.
“He is being a stupid male as usual.” Cherone disconnected the call and quickly dressed. She walked into the living room of the suite a few minutes later.
Sean stood as she entered. “Why is Rico threatening to dismember me?”
“Would you take me to the hospital, please?” Cherone asked. “I have to bash an idiot man over the head.”
Hours later, Cherone gripped her hair at the root in agitation. Nothing she or any of the other men said had swayed him. Rico insisted that only Neo or Dominic should guard her.
The idiot Sean kept egging him on. “I always thought Cherone had a thing for me. Rico is right. I’m not sure I will be safe from her advances.”
“I won’t be laid up here forever, Sean,” Rico warned.
“I didn’t know you were into brown sugar anyway,” Sean said. “I’ve never seen you dating one. While I on the other hand, know the delights to be gained from the darker berries.”
“Sean, stop being a dick!” Cherone hissed. “You’re not helping the situation.”
Sean barked with laughter, but no one else found his joke funny.
They all suffered through Rico’s unreasonable demands never to let her out of his sight.
“They will come after her,” Rico insisted. “I want her here with me.”Even though he had no idea who they were, Rico was adamant that Cherone was not safe. If he hadn’t seemed genuinely terrified every time she was out of sight, they might have ignored him, but his anxiety was a tangible, living, breathing thing.
“Look, Neo and I will guard her with our lives,” Dominic promised. “You just concentrate on getting better, and we will have your six like we always do.”
Cherone never slept at the hospital again, no matter how pissed Rico got. She stayed with him until he fell asleep and tried to return to his side before he woke again. Rico made her efforts difficult by staying awake as long as he could, fighting sleep every step of the way.
“What are you, two?” Cherone asked him. Thank God there is a sedative in his pain medication that forces him to sleep!
Two weeks later, with his internal injuries adequately healed, Rico was sent home to Miami to complete his recovery.
And he didn’t recognize a thing.
Chapter Sixteen
RICO DIDN’T RECOGIZE the house and nothing in it triggered his memory. Dr. Chou was not convinced that his memory loss was permanent because the injuries to his head hadn’t been that severe. But Rico was beginning to have doubts. His memory of the past few years was like a dark void. Every time he felt something tingling on the fringes as though it was just there within reach, the memory would slip away and he was back to a blank page again.
Rico sat at the granite-top island in the kitchen watching Cherone cook. He knew she thought he was acting irrationally, but he couldn’t help the piercing fear that gripped him every time she was away from him. Ever since he woke up from his coma two weeks ago, he would lose his shit if she wasn’t with him for more than an hour. So here he sat on an uncomfortable barstool, watching her like a hawk.
Cherone moved around the kitchen with a graceful confidence he found sexy has hell. He thought everything about her in this room a real turn-on, especially that damn frilly white apron. He couldn’t help picturing her in that apron and nothing else, her lush brown ass left bare for his nefarious enjoyment. Just thinking of the contrast of his hardness against her silky skin, and his hands palming her flesh further ratcheted up his lust.
His short pants became increasingly uncomfortable. He shifted in his seat to relieve the growing discomfort. To distract himself from his lustful thoughts, he started asking mundane questions.
“Neo said that he offered you a job at Silo,” Rico said.
“Yes. He said I couldn’t begin until you were fully recovered.”
“Damn straight. Since none of you would tell me how I ended up in this position, I can only surmise that I got this way trying to protect someone. Every instinct in my body tells me it’s you. You’re not leaving my side until that danger has been eliminated.”
“Well, your instinct is misguided. I’m not in any danger. I don’t understand why you don’t get that into your thick skull.”
“So you don’t want to talk about who is after you. Can we talk about our relationship?”
“Awk, awk!” Clara made choking sounds.
Rico looked at her. “What? Are we not allowed to talk about that either?”
“You don’t have that kind of relationship with our Roni!” Clara shouted.
“Is that true?” Rico stared at Cherone in disbelief. “None of them know about us?”
“You know the rules, Rico. We’re not supposed to talk about what you don’t remember.” Cherone frowned.
Are we secret lovers or something? Rico persisted.
We are not discussing this!
Why does everyone act as though we’re not a couple sexually but treats us like husband and wife?
Rico, we’re not having this discussion!
Why the hell not? I want you, and I know for damn sure you want me, too.
It’s pointless to discuss any of this until you regain your memory.
And if I never regain it, what then? Are you going to continue to pretend your nipples don’t tighten in arousal and you don’t get wet for me every time we’re together?
Rico!
“Would you excuse us please, Clara?” Rico watched as their housekeeper stumbled from the room, leaving them alone in the kitchen. He grabbed his crutches and stood on his uninjured foot. He hobbled over to where she stood leaning against the kitchen counter.
Standing with barely an inch separating their bodies, he gazed down at her with a steady regard. “I know the dark berry color of your nipples, that little mole on the left cheek of your ass, and the taste of your essence. Don’t ever try to tell me we’re not lovers.”
“Do you think this is easy for me? I’m the only one you forgot.” Her voice grew husky with emotion. “You forgot me.”
“It’s not intentional, querida.” Rico crowded her against the counter, wanting desperately to hold her, but his arms were busy holding himself up.
“Rico, please.”
“I…”
“Hey, Ghost!” Sean shouted as he and Neo sauntered into the room.
Rico turned to glare at them.
“Did we come at a bad time?” Sean grinned and sank lazily onto a barstool around the island.
“What are you two doing here?” Rico demanded.
“We’re moving in,” Neo said as he sat.
“What the hell did you say?” Rico yelled.
“Safety, remember?”Sean said. “Until you can protect you and yours, we’re all over this mudder.”
“You’re not sleeping here!” Rico turned on his crutches and hobbled to stand over Sean.
“Look, man, I know you would do the same for us if we were in similar situation,” Neo reasoned. “Trust me when l tell you, the danger is enough that you would want all hands on deck.”
Rico’s dark gaze drilled into Neo. “You have to tell me more than that. That one over there tries to pretend no danger exists, but here you are on red alert, telling me to never let my guard down. We’re in America, for Christ’s sake! What the hell is going on?”
“Get healed and get your fighting skills back,” Neo said. “We’ll tell you everything you need to know, doctor approval or not. Telling you when you can do nothing about it will achieve nothing.”
Rico stared at him silently for a few tense seconds. “What about your jobs? I
can’t see the government letting both of you off to play babysitter.”
“Stop trying to get information from us and concentrate on getting better,” Neo said.
Rico hung his head. His hair, which had grown back considerably, fell about him wildly, obscuring his face. He hated not knowing what was going on around him. He felt like lashing out at someone but knew it wasn’t fair to do that to his friends.
Soft hands suddenly cupped his cheek, and Cherone looked up at him. “You have to trust them, Rico. I agree with Neo. You need to get better. The thought of you in their hands again is intolerable.”
His dark gaze tangled with her hazel ones. The love she felt for him was clear for him to see. He had to admit that it soothed his battered emotions greatly to see the evidence of her caring so visibly. He needed this. Rico swooped down and captured her lips, wanting desperately to gorge himself in her love.
She melted into him.
He shuddered as her familiar taste exploded through his senses. The exquisite feel of her against him reverberated through him, sending him reeling with lust.
I remember this. I remember the feel of you, the sweet taste of you.
Oh God. Cherone wrapped her arms around his neck and clutched him tightly against her.
He angled his head and deepened the kiss further.
“Ahem!”
Rico ended their kiss as Sean cleared his throat loudly for the third time.
“Look, man, can you spare us the PDA?” Sean grouched. “Especially since we’re not getting any while we babysit your ass.”
He was about to blast his friend, but Cherone beat him to it.
“First of all, you’re not babysitting us,” Cherone said. “You know damn well we’re not this guy’s target.”
“What?” Rico asked.
“And second of all, you should have left the room,” Cherone said. “That would have been the polite thing to do.”
“What do you mean, we’re not the target?” Rico persisted.
“Cherone …” Neo cautioned.
“I don’t see how knowing that part of this will harm him,” Cherone insisted.
“If it was up to me, I would tell him everything,” Neo said. “But Dr. Chou says that it would do more harm than good.”
Twin Souls (The Guardians: Book 2) Page 14