by Lily Harlem
“It’s none of your damn business.” Roper tightened his grip and his knuckles whitened.
Franz chuckled. “You don’t fancy sharing then? We could both do her, one in the ass, the other in the pussy. I’m not fussy…both work for me.”
Roper pressed his lips together and his eyes narrowed. “You’d be taking on more than you could chew with this one.”
“Oh, I could chew on her all night.” He threw a wink Beth’s way. “Delicious.”
“Yeah, well you’ll just have to jerk off to those photos of Kempton ’cause this lady is off limits.”
“Huh, you really think this lady is into you?” Franz tugged his arm, and Roper released it. “She could have some pretty jock with a respectable career ahead of him. Why the fuck would she get dragged into your sordid world?”
“You know shit.” Roper reached for Beth’s hand. “I’d say it’s nice doing business with you, but you always manage to leave a sour taste in my mouth.”
Franz chuckled. “I’ll try not to take offense at that, but I will take my business elsewhere if you insult me.”
“No, you won’t.” Roper spoke matter-of-factly. “You know damn well we’re the best.”
“Except for the fact you need to learn some damn customer relation skills.”
“No need, my worst customers only respond to a bullet in their heads.”
“Or a finger thrown their way.” Franz set his hands on his hips.
“Yeah well, every business needs a calling card.” He tugged Beth. “Come on…we’re outta here.”
She followed him toward the door, pausing only when he scooped up the gloves from the table. She was glad their time with Franz was coming to an end. Without the previous protection of the Rammada name, she was considerably more vulnerable in the underworld.
“Have fun fucking the old guy,” Franz called after her. “I’m sure your parents will love him.”
Chapter Ten
“Your friend’s a charmer,” Beth said when they reached the bike.
“Not my friend.” He grunted.
“Okay, business associate.”
“You hungry?” He handed her the gloves.
She poked the stuffing back into the ripped material. “Yeah, starved.”
“There’s a diner a mile down the road in town.” He swung his leg over the bike and started the engine. “We’ll refuel.”
Beth climbed on behind him, her head swirling with questions about Lou Kempton and what Franz would demand from him with his bribe material. Would it make any difference to her family?
Roper navigated into town. There were several icy patches on the road, and he reduced his speed. Beth eyed the enormous drifts and was glad when they reached a small diner with a one-story motel attached.
They wandered in, Roper holding the door open for her, then setting his hand in the small of her back as they found a booth away from other customers.
Coffee was quickly put in front of them.
“Damn, I need this,” Beth said, stripping off her gloves and wrapping her hands around the white mug.
“Yeah, and food.” He glanced at the waitress. “Bring us each your breakfast special. If you have one?”
“Yeah, how do you want your eggs?”
Roper glanced at Beth.
“Over easy,” she said.
“Same for me.” He nodded at the waitress.
“Coming right up.”
As the waitress turned away, he set his attention on Beth again. “I wouldn’t have let him touch you.”
“I know that.” She suppressed a shudder at the memory of the lust in Franz’s eyes. She had no doubt that if she’d been alone he’d have just taken what he wanted.
“You know?” Roper frowned.
“Yeah, actions speak louder than words, and you had actions.”
“I should’ve broken his fucking arm. Guys like him should be castrated.”
“Has he ever actually…you know, done anything?”
“He went down for assaulting a woman about ten years ago. Been out a while, though, and causing trouble every which way he turns.”
“So why do you do business with him?”
“He pays when he says he will and what we ask him. Besides…” He rubbed his temple. “This could get interesting.”
“What could?”
“Lou Kempton. These photographs.”
“Why?” She hardly dared hope it might be something positive for her family. That there might be a connection.
“That buddy he was talking about is Eastman’s VP, Garth Bowman.”
“Shit, really?” The guy her father had ratted out.
“If my memory’s correct, Bowman was arrested the night before your family was paid a visit by Eastman’s gang, right?”
“Yes, and it stands to reason. The minute they found out it was Poppa Rammada who gave Bowman up, they hot-footed our way.”
Roper sipped his coffee, his attention on her.
“My father gave him up to Lou,” Beth said, almost able to feel the cogs of her mind working as she repeated that fact.
Roper nodded. “Yep.”
“Which means if Franz gets this leverage.”
“Blackmails the FBI agent, you mean.”
“Yeah, that’s it.”
“Which he will. Lou Kempton ain’t gonna want to see his marriage and career go down the sewer.”
“And if that happens, if Kempton drops charges, then Bowman could walk free?” Which meant her father’s actions would be undone.
“Dirty bastard should be behind bars, but yeah, that’s what Franz is hoping.”
She paused. “You really think he’ll be successful?”
“Damning photographs Conner got hold of. And like I said, Kempton’s spent years building his career. He won’t throw it away on a fuck.”
If Bowman walked free, it could be the end of the mess her family was in, providing, of course, Bowman considered her father’s life had been fucked up enough already and didn’t come after him again.
She rubbed her hand around the back of her neck, over her Rammada tattoo. Something she’d been so proud of for so many years. Would she ever be again?
“Franz should never be underestimated, Beth. He’s like a goddamn dog with a bone when he wants something. And getting Bowman off is his latest bone.”
“But why is he so keen to help Bowman?”
“Childhood friends. Doesn’t surprise me…both got the same sick tastes when it come to their idea of fun.”
“What’d you mean?”
“You don’t wanna know.” He reached out and stroked her cheek with the back of his finger. Unlike when Franz had done it, Beth didn’t want to pull away. If anything, she wanted to lean into Roper’s touch.
“Food order.” The waitress was at their side.
Roper sat back.
She missed him being close.
“Fuck, this looks good,” Roper said, reaching for cutlery.
Beth didn’t answer. She was salivating at the sight and smells of the loaded plate before her.
They ate in silence, with the only sounds the low hum of conversation from other diners, their forks on the plates and the odd slurp of coffee.
When he’d finished, Roper rested his spine against the cushioned booth and wiped the back of his hand over his lips. “Needed that.”
“It’s heaven.”
He chuckled. “Gonna take a while for you to get used to having regular meals again, eh?”
“I guess. But I’m not complaining. Regular meals are good.”
“It must’ve been shit.”
“What?”
“Living on the streets.”
“If you’re asking if I preferred being a pampered princess with everything I wanted to me handed on a plate, then yes, I did, but…”
“But what?”
“I don’t think I can go back to that.” She half shrugged.
“Honey, even in the best case scenario of Bowman considering your pop
has paid enough for ratting him out, that ain’t gonna happen.”
“I know. And I’m glad. I want to be more independent. When I was in New York, I watched people going to work, smart-like, focused, intent on success. I want that, too.”
“What? A job?” He looked surprised.
“Yeah, something. A career even.”
“You get good grades?”
“Yeah, of course. Expensive school.”
“Naturally. So what do you want to do?”
“I’ve never really thought about it. Didn’t need to.”
He rolled his eyes.
“What?” She paused. “You filled in your career form saying you wanted to be a damn mobster with specialties in blackmail, fraud and extortion?”
“I dropped out of school at fourteen.”
“Why?”
“Family business needed me.” He finished the last of his coffee.
“Bit young, don’t you think?”
“It is what it is.”
“I guess.” She set down her fork. A final strip of bacon had beaten her.
Roper reached forward, took it, then popped it in his mouth. “That’s what I like about you?”
“What, that I leave food?”
“Nah.” He grinned. “You get it. Your roots are planted in the same shit as mine.”
“It’s life. All I know.”
“All I know, too.”
“You ever want to get out, Roper? Live a normal life, with a white picket fence and all that?”
“Honey, I could work all year to earn what I made in one transaction today. Why the fuck would I change that?”
“I dunno.”
“Makes no sense. Hell, I could feed a family ten times over on what I get when I rake around our patch.”
“In Chicago?”
“Yeah.” He reached for his phone and checked the screen. “And I’m gonna have to get myself home in the next few days. Conner’s just arrived in Chicago. We got work to do.”
“You can leave me wherever. I’ll figure it out.”
“No, no, no.” He shook his head. “That ain’t how this works.”
“What?”
“Us.”
She hesitated and studied his dark eyes. “So how does us work?”
He bit on his bottom lip and gazed intently at her for a moment. “Come on. I’ll show you.”
He stood and dropped several bills onto the table.
“Where are we going?”
“Next door. To get a room.”
“A room.” Beth stood, and he came closer, making her feel small, as if only he existed.
“Yeah.” He cupped her face in his hands and stared into her eyes. “There’s something I need to do.”
They exited the diner and were immediately sprinkled in a fresh fall of snow.
Beth pulled her gloves on, and a wave of excitement rippled through her. That look in Roper’s eyes was sexy as hell, and she didn’t dare imagine what he needed to do.
Roper wrapped his arm around her waist and held her close. “Shit, it’s cold enough to freeze a guy’s balls off out here.”
“Wouldn’t want that.”
“Nah, we wouldn’t.”
He hurried them into a small reception area and handed over cash to get them a key to room twenty-eight.
Within minutes, they were pushing into the small but warm room that had a large double bed with a cream-colored bedspread and a summery picture of an English country manor on the wall.
Roper shucked off his jacket and laid it over the back of a chair.
Beth did the same with hers, but hung it on a hook behind the door. When she turned, he was in front of her with that same flash of sexual hunger in his eyes.
Was he going to fuck her against the door again? Grip her neck? Bend her over the bed and take her ass the way he’d said he was going to? Or maybe he’d give her some entirely new kinky experience that her imagination couldn’t even conjure?
“I should take a look at your arm,” she said, a flutter of nerves tickling her belly.
“Later.” He licked his lips. “I’ve fucked you, Beth,” he said, slipping his fingers over her ears and into her hair.
“Yes.” She couldn’t deny that. “You have.”
“And now I’m going to make love to you.”
Make love?
“But you don’t love me.” She rolled her eyes. What was he talking about?
“No…” He rubbed his thumbs over her cheeks. “I don’t.”
He kissed her. A soft, gentle kiss that spoke a thousand words, telling her how much he wanted her. That she was safe with him. That everything was going to be okay.
She leaned into his body, taking what he gave her. Damn, she shouldn’t be doing this. What they’d done already was bad enough—rival families just didn’t hook up. It was a big no-no.
He steered her to the bed, running his hands down her back to her ass as he did so.
The covers were soft beneath her as he laid her down, settling himself over her. Still possessing her mouth, he began to undress her, peeling off her leggings, then stripping away her top layers.
“So damn sweet, baby,” he said, kissing the angle of her jaw, lower, lower still, over her collarbone and to her chest.
She ran her fingers over his short sharp hair as he took her right nipple into his mouth and flicked it with his tongue.
“Mmm…” she said, closing her eyes. “More, Roper, more.”
He massaged her opposite breast, then switched his attention from one nipple to the other, not leaving any inch unadored, unkissed.
She was relaxed yet turned on. She shouldn’t be lying beneath a Hermanus man all naked and wanton, but she couldn’t help herself. She wanted him. Whatever he was going to give, whether it was fast and furious, kinky as hell, or sweet lovemaking, she wanted it.
She wanted Roper.
He sat back on his haunches and tugged off his sweater.
She reached for the button on his fly, popping it open.
He kept his focus on her, not letting it drift for a second as he freed himself and pushed his jeans off.
“We shouldn’t be doing this,” she said, parting her legs so he could move between them.
“Nah, we shouldn’t.” He rested over her, his chest touching hers. “But what the hell.”
“’Cause you’re going to hell anyway?”
“Yeah, and you’re coming with me, honey.” He shifted his hips until his cock head was at her entrance, then eased in.
She held her breath.
“Relax,” he said, supporting himself on his elbows and again holding her face. “Let me inside you.”
He carefully gained more entry.
She could feel every inch of him, the smooth dome of his glans parting her delicate tissues and pushing up to her G-spot. “Roper…”
“Beth…” He clenched his jaw and shut his eyes. “Fuck.”
She guessed it was taking all of his self-control not to surge in the way he usually did.
Sliding her hands down his back, she cupped his hard buttocks. “You feel amazing.”
“So do you.” He opened his eyes. “Worth burning in hell for.”
“You reckon?”
“Yeah.” He opened his eyes. “Any day of the week.”
She stared up at him as he bottomed out and his balls pressed up against her ass. She was so full of him, so consumed.
And he was drinking her in with his eyes, his gaze unwavering. “I’m gonna make it real good for you.”
“I know.” She hooked her legs over his and pressed his ass. “I trust you.”
“Now that’s crazy chick talk.”
As he’d spoken, he’d ground up against her clit. Now not only her internal hot spots were being stroked, but also her external ones.
She groaned.
“Feels good, huh?”
“Yes, more, like that…” She angled her pelvis to increase the connection.
He rotated his hips, smoothi
ng over her clit.
“Oh God, yeah, fuck…” She’d never felt anything like it. The sensation so dense, so incredible. It was a fast, one-way ticket to orgasm.
“Jeez, give me strength. You’re such a hot little thing.” He touched the tip of his nose to hers, but didn’t stop what he was doing with his hips.
“I’m going to…oh…Roper…don’t stop…” He couldn’t stop, not now. She was sure she’d die of frustration if he did.
“I won’t. Come…let me see you come.”
She surrendered to it, allowing the pleasure that had built up so quickly to explode in her pelvis. She shook, trembled, spasmed around him, her pussy hugging and releasing him. “Oh, yes, yes…” She panted for breath.
“Oh, God, yes…” He moaned, then sank harder into her. “Fuck.” He came with several deep thrusts and long, low groans, then buried his head in the pillow, his cheek against her ear, and stilled.
She let her legs flop to the sides and reveled in the satisfaction soaking through her body. Her thoughts were a soup of contradiction. Roper was the first man who’d made her feel like a truly sexual being, showing her different sides of her erotic makeup.
He’d saved her from the street and the woods, then a predatory bastard, set her up with an ID, and now he was taking her to her family.
But despite all that, she shouldn’t be lying on this bed with him. Hell, she shouldn’t even be in the same room as him. Her father and cousins would bust a blood vessel if they could see her now.
She released his buttocks and traced her fingers up his back, enjoying the dampness of his sex sweat and the wide expanse of his shoulders. He was one damn fine specimen, and fuck, he knew how to work it. How could this be so wrong?
He raised his head and looked down at her. His cheeks were flushed, his eyelids heavy. “What’re we gonna do?”
“About what?” She touched his scar, smoothing it as though rubbing it away.
“About us.”
“I don’t know why you keep saying that. There is no us.” There couldn’t be. It couldn’t happen. Her thoughts were full of the reasons why it could never be their reality.
“Honey, my cock is buried deep in your pussy, and you’re full of my cum, so yes, there’s an us.”
“What if we’ve made a Rammada-Hermanus baby?”