by Rose Croft
“Blueberry vodka and ginger ale.” He had the rack set. “You break first.” He handed me a stick.
I set my cup on a side table and chalked the tip. I broke the rack and one of the striped balls fell into a corner pocket. Roman watched with a lingering grin and his eyes were on me the whole time as I tried to make a show of studying the table, contemplating my next shot. I walked to the other end, and he followed, moving next to me as I leaned over. I peered up at him. “Are you trying to make me miss my shot?”
“No. I’m just watching.” He tipped back his beer. “You gonna take that shot today?”
I shook my head and willed myself to concentrate. I took the shot, and the ball wavered near the hole and stopped. “Aww too bad,” he teased and stood behind me, crowding me in. He leaned down, nuzzling my neck. “You wanna move so I can take my turn?”
He had me crowded in, but I was able to squeeze around him. He chuckled while my nerves were on edge, senses filled with him. This was a game, but it felt more like a seductive dance between the predator and his susceptible prey. Roman had a smug look as he easily knocked the next three balls in the pockets. He was going to win effortlessly at this rate. When he reared back the stick for his next shot, I casually walked by bumping the end of his stick causing him to hit the side of the cue ball and miss the target.
“Oops, sorry.” I had to fight to keep from laughing.
He slowly glanced back at me with a playful glint in his eyes. “You’ll pay for that.”
I guess my drink was starting to go to my head because I knew when I did it Roman would get his retribution, but I didn’t know how or when it would happen. I set my cup down and trailed my finger along the wooden edge of the table before lining up to take my next shot. “Maybe I’ll make you pay,” I said, leaning over, lining up my stick, and knocking a stripe in the corner pocket.
Roman watched me with a casual stance, but he ran his tongue over his bottom lip. “I’d like to see you try, Corazón.” His words came out like a sweet seduction and it seemed like we were dancing around something sensual and yet tense that soon something would have to give. I knocked in my next shot, and as I rounded the far end of the pool table, I concentrated on my next move. The only viable option was to try to bank the ball off the edge and hope it went near the corner hole. I leaned over and studied the angle I was going to take.
I heard him moving close and willed myself to focus on the game. Focus on the shot, Theodora. You got this. Suddenly, I felt the heat of his body and two large hands on either side of me as he craned over me, his chest covering my back. His rough, stubbly cheek touching mine. “I wouldn’t take that shot if I were you,” he said lightly, matter-of-factly as though trying to get in my head. As though him covering me with his body like a hot, plush blanket that smelled divine wasn’t already messing with my mind.
“If I wanted your advice, I’d ask.” I kept my eye on the white ball and nudged the end of my stick into his gut, which did nothing to make him move.
“I’m giving you my advice whether you like it or not.” His words were heavier and I felt him move in even closer if that were possible, but I guess it was because something hard pressed against my butt. I knew deep down I was going to miss this shot.
“You’re not giving me advice. You’re trying to make me miss.”
“No. I’m not trying to make you miss,” he whispered against my cheek. “I think your alignment is off.” He ran his hands over my hips. “Let me help you with that.” He pressed into me ever so subtly, and I bit my lip, holding in my breath. One hand slid over the small of my back, pushing me lower over the table. In a position better suited for something besides playing pool. “Now, I think you’re ready.” His words vibrated against my skin.
The chemistry in the air was unbearable, and the shot was forgotten. This game was a new one entirely and he was more than ready to play me and conquer. My thoughts were jumbled. “I don’t think we’re talking about the game anymore,” I got out slowly as I felt warmth pooling in my lower abdomen.
“Oh, but we are, Theodora.” The hand on my back slid around until I felt his fingers travel under the hem of my shirt, touching my bare skin. His other hand loosened my hair that was in a ponytail and strands fell around my shoulders. “That’s better,” he murmured and his fingers curled around my chin, tilting my face to his. “This is the game I prefer. This is the game I’m going to dominate.” His mouth claimed mine, and I gasped as I relished his consummation.
His lips ravished mine with possession and a need that had been building for weeks. His tongue thrust through my lips while his hand slid up my stomach until it covered my left breast. “Your heart is pounding. You want this too. Tell me you do.”
His words fell into my mouth as I dropped my stick and tried to twist my body to face him, but he held me trapped between him and the table. His teeth captured my lower lip. “Say it, Theodora.” His voice was rough. “Tell me you always wanted me and don’t fucking lie because I can read you so well. Sense your need. Your body tells the truth. It craves me, and I’ll fucking prove it.”
He was blunt as always, but his words rang true. Whatever happened in the past seemed like a small object in the rearview mirror. No matter how his father had warned me off. I didn’t care. I’d always loved him. I didn’t even give two thoughts that Taylor was in the picture at the moment. I was high on the moment and drunk on his kisses. “Roman,” I moaned as his lips traveled down my cheek to my ear.
“Say the words,” he warned huskily, taking my lobe between his teeth.
“I want you,” I exhaled shakily.
“That’s what I wanted to hear. Was it so hard to finally admit it?” He flipped me around, spreading my legs wide and closing over me until I lay prone on the pool table. “You lied before. Now it’s time to atone for your sins, Corazón.” He tugged my shirt up exposing my bra and soon my tee was pulled over my head. I could feel his erection pressed into my pelvis. His eyes were dark with lust.
“I-I never wanted to hurt you.” I palmed his cheek because I could also see there was conflict brewing on his face.
“And I never wanted to see you again after what you did, but all I can think about is you and what we had. I hate myself for it sometimes, but at this moment, I don’t fucking care anymore.” Like a man chasing his demons, he reached behind me and unclasped my bra, yanking the straps off my arms, tossing it aside. “Fuck, you’re so goddamn beautiful.” He plumped up my breasts between his hands and leaned low taking a nipple in his mouth biting down and sucking hard.
I hissed and arched into him. He kissed and licked and bit until I thought I was going to climax on that alone as he continued to press against me. I ran my fingers through his hair. “Yes, like that.”
“You like that.” Roman ran his lips over my other nipple, doing the same. “I’m going to mark you everywhere so you’ll always know you’re mine. Every fucking person will know you’re mine.” He clamped his teeth around my sensitive skin, causing me to cry out. He then lapped softly over the pain with his tongue. “Do you realize how crazy it makes me when I think about another man touching you? Much less looking at you?”
“Roman,” I moaned. It’s as though I didn’t know how to speak in complete sentences when I was around him. My thoughts were consumed with pleasure while he moved down my stomach, nibbling on my skin.
His fingers closed over the button on my shorts, unbuttoning it and drawing the zipper down. “I’ll kill a man who ever touches you.” He slid my shorts down my legs and I heard them drop to the floor.
I flushed pink as he hooked his fingers over my underwear. “Don’t be embarrassed, Theodora. Never be ashamed around me. Own your sexuality. Own this moment. Because you were always made for me.” He kissed me so profoundly, it nearly robbed me of air.
Theodora
Our lips pulled apart with a smack, and he dragged my panties down my legs, removing the last remnant of armor I had against him. “What happened to finishing the game?
You’re not even giving me a chance to set the rules.”
His fingers trailed against my inner thighs, spreading my legs as wide as they would go while he licked a path down the column of my throat. “That’s where you’re wrong. You’ve already won.”
I felt his thumbs at the juncture of my thighs and pussy. He stroked teasingly as his dark head made its descent down my body. “In the end, Theodora, we both win at this game, so stop trying to be so stubborn.” His thumbs moved in pressing against my center opening me up. His head was between my legs as he studied me in fascination. “Your pussy is glistening, it’s so wet. It knows. It knows my touch, and I will gladly give it what it needs. What you need. What I fucking need,” he whispered the last words harshly and licked a path from my center to the top of my clit.
I clenched my thighs against his broad shoulders. “Ohhhh.”
He smirked as he licked his lips. “You taste better than any fucking thing in the world. Now I’m going to gorge myself on you.” He pressed a thumb inside me, and my nails dug into the felt table. “God help you if you’re not ready for me because I’m not fucking stopping this time.” With that, he dove into me, shoving his tongue in my core along with his thumb.
I writhed under him as he moved inside of me ruthlessly. “Your body will only know and crave me.” Roman’s teeth scraped my clit, adding more sensations while he fucked me with his mouth.
“Oh God. It’s too much.” My orgasm was building up and every sensitive part of skin he touched was quivering with this tortuous pleasure.
“It will never be enough.” He groaned against me. “I will devour you until you beg.” He replaced his tongue with two fingers going even deeper and his mouth covered my nub. “You’re so fucking aroused. I can smell it too. It smells like…victory.” His fingers drove into me furiously, and my body started to rise and swell, knowing I was about to burst into tiny particles. He stretched me even more with a third finger as he flicked my clit under his tongue. “Come, Theodora. Scream my fucking name.”
I rolled my hips into him and the muscles in my thighs tightened to the point it was painful; I was at my breaking point. “Rooommmaaann!” I cried out as I crested and let go—clenching and jerking against one of the most intense orgasms I’d ever experienced in my life. I watched with half-closed eyes and curled my nails into his shoulders as he continued strumming relentlessly, making certain I rode this wave all the way through.
He licked and lapped up my pussy. Removing his fingers, he lifted his head and leisurely drew them between his lips savoring my taste. His eyes held both passion and triumph. He wasn’t lying when he said he was going to win the war of wills between us.
Somehow, I should’ve been more cautious of him, but he leaned over me and his mouth claimed mine. “I love to see you come apart. Break you into a thousand pieces,” he growled against my lips and drove his tongue deep in my mouth. I clumsily struggled to keep up, still drained from the consuming pleasure he’d drawn out of me. He was the torrential storm that destroyed everything in his path. The lie I couldn’t sustain. The truth I tried to hide.
My palms clung to his chest, and his heart strum furiously as he took one of my hands and brought it down between us, over his erection tented shamelessly in his athletic shorts. “Feel what you do to me.” He clenched his hand over mine and moved it up and down his length. “I need to be inside you.”
He lowered us back down on the table with his mouth on mine, and I could feel him pulling his shorts and underwear down. I felt the wetness at his tip. The desperation in his kiss. The tenseness in his body. The way his veins protruded in the arm flexed beside my head. I wanted him. I wanted him more than anything in the world.
“Well, this is nice and cozy,” a deep voiced pierced our bubble, and I scrambled beneath Roman who pressed closer to me, shielding me with his body. The voice was laced with derision and sounded very familiar. “Glad I’m financing a place where you can entertain your whores.” The derogatory words scraped against me painfully.
Roman shrugged and righted his shorts nonchalantly. However, his fist clenched beside me as he glared over my head with a coldness that would have made me shiver if I wasn’t flaming with embarrassment. “That’s a little hypocritical coming from you, father. By the way, I don’t recall giving you an invite.” An imperceptible sense of dread fell down my spine at his words. A slap to the face would’ve hurt less.
The older man scoffed humorlessly. “Believe me. My tastes run much finer than yours, son.”
“That’s right,” Roman responded coolly. “You only fucked your secretaries in your beloved office, while mother was wasting away at home in her bedroom.”
“Watch that mouth. You keep this up, and you’ll see exactly how high and mighty you are. Don’t ever forget I made you and I can unmake you with the snap of my fingers.” As the sound of footsteps grew closer, I helplessly peered over at his father and brother. I tucked my arms over my chest, hoping this moment would disappear. Hoping this was all a bad dream. Desperation fell over me. I had to get out of here.
“Big brother, you would’ve thought you’d learn by now,” Antoni added in a light voice.
Roman shifted, and I saw as he tilted his head, and his tan neck pulsed, ignoring his brother’s comment. “Why are you here?” He directed his attention to Mr. Martinez.
“You know why I’m here. I’m checking on your progress.”
“I’m making progress,” he said tightly.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Antoni step forward. “Wait. Is that our little Theodora? All grown up,” his brother mused. “I don’t blame you, man, for falling into temptation again. If you need my help, I’m here, bro.”
“Antoni,” Roman snarled. “Get the fuck out!”
“Enough,” Robert Martinez said in a calm command. “We need to talk. Get her dressed and send her on her way. I’ll be waiting in the kitchen.” He was still as arrogant and dismissive to people he considered beneath him as ever. Not that catching us together was a good look. Regardless, I was mortified and hurt. Not to mention, everything felt wrong. I felt like the idiot in the room.
Once I heard the door click shut. I glared at Roman, who still stared across the room with jaw clenched. His brows vee’d down in a scowl.
I struggled to sit up, but he didn’t budge. “Get off me.” I shoved at his chest.
He glanced down at me with his mask of indifference and didn’t move.
“Let me up.” I lashed out again with all my might and he finally let up, rising slowly. Scrambling off the table, I shouldered by him as I frantically picked up my discarded clothing.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“Are you serious? You brought me here to humiliate me.”
“You didn’t seem too humiliated earlier.”
I yanked my panties on and shorts. My hands shook because I was so angry. “I don’t know what game you’re playing, Roman. You want to get me back for something you supposedly think I did to hurt you deliberately.” I bent down retrieving my bra off the floor shoving my arms through the straps.
“What we did wasn’t a game.” He reached behind me, catching my trembling fingers and clasped my bra. His face still revealed nothing, yet his gaze was intense on me.
I stepped away from him and quickly shrugged into my shirt. “Stop. Just stop.”
“I already told you. I won’t stop.”
“Then I will.” I stalked off to the door, and I could hear his heavy steps right behind me.
He matched me move for move, as we climbed the steps and clutched my upper arm as we reached the top. “For the record, we’re not even close to being finished.” With that, he led me forward like a lamb to slaughter until we entered the kitchen.
Both Roman’s father and brother had on black slacks and dress shirts with glass tumblers in-hand leaning against the kitchen island.
Antoni had a smug look on his lips as he watched me and took a casual sip of his drink. He’d always been somewh
at aloof around me and seemed to dress like a business executive, even at an early age. Not to mention, he carried the stoic Martinez mannerisms. He was definitely his father’s son. “How have you been, Theo?” His eyes lingered on my chest a second too long with the restaurant’s logo in bold letters. “Looks like you’re stepping up in the world.”
I ignored him and turned to Roman’s dad. I did not like the man, but I would never let him see my own humility. “Mr. Martinez, it’s been a long time.” My words sounded foreign and robotic to my own ears.
He raised his brows slightly without responding and tilted his head as he gazed at me dispassionately. “I’ve called a car to have her picked up.” He threw back the contents of his drink.
“Then cancel it because I’m taking her home.” Roman had his hand at the small of my back trying to rush me forward, as though I were a problem he needed to rid himself of.
“We need—”
Roman cut him off. “We will talk. When I get back from dropping her off.”
“Don’t argue with me,” his father warned in a low voice. Roman paused and father and son stood in a stare off that was both uncomfortable and full of tension. Robert was a tall, stately man who had an air about him that commanded your attention. He was in his mid-fifties, I assumed, and looked like he worked out and kept himself in shape, judging by his broad shoulders and trim waist. His inky hair was laced with gray, but it made him seem more distinguished.
With that being said, Roman had an inch on him in height and was more muscular being a football player who trained every day. I knew he would never go against his father, although I do remember the two of them butting heads a few times in the past. Roman had made no secret about not wanting to be a business-suit-wearing tool and following in the footsteps of his dad. If anything, Roman had wanted out to break from his mold. I guess the clash in personalities had grown over the years.
His father glanced down at me and I could see the hate in his onyx eyes. “Hurry up. I don’t have all day to wait for you. Your brother came home from UT for the weekend. And we find you slumming it with…”