by Bethany-Kris
A source that had been right under her nose.
“I was thinking that since you’re already going to be gone, and on the move for a couple of weeks or so, maybe you could take Cece with you.”
Catherine glanced up at her husband again. She could hear it in his tone, but also see it in his face. He didn’t like that idea because he hated being away from Cece for long periods of time.
“Keep her on the move, too, you mean,” Catherine said.
Cross nodded. “Smart, isn’t it?”
“Harder to hit a moving target, that’s for sure.”
“I can focus on just one thing at a time—making the threat disappear. It’ll be easier if I’m not also needing to worry about where you and Cece are, or if someone is doing a good enough job watching your back.”
“You only say that because—”
“No one does it better than me,” Cross interjected with a smirk.
“Arrogant boy.”
“Man.”
Catherine leaned up, turned just a little, and kissed Cross. Instantly, his tongue was already slipping between her parted lips, deepening the kiss and making her breath catch in her throat. Her fingers curled around the arms of the chair while his hands palmed her ass. She pulled away just far enough to rest her cheek to his.
“Still my arrogant boy,” she whispered.
Cross smiled against her cheek. “Your turn.”
“Aw, but you were doing so well talking about your problems.”
His laughter coated her like sweet, rich honey. Then, his fingers tickled down her sides.
“Nope, your turn, babe.”
“Awesome.”
“Start talking,” Cross demanded.
Catherine started ticking things off. “Lack of cocaine. No supplier. Andino and John are pissed off at me because I didn’t let them in on the little secret from the jump. Ma still hasn’t accepted my apology, but I basically know now that this is a teachable moment for me. So, I still have to figure shit out on my own. Someone is stealing clients, and not just any clients, big name clients. Ones that are not easy to get to, you know?”
“A-list?”
“Yep,” she said, popping the word out of her mouth.
It still left a bitter taste behind.
“About John and Andino,” Cross started to say.
“No, you cannot get in between us and play the deflection game for me. I’m already aware that they’re only going to allow me so much time to figure out a new supplier and get a shipment in before they step in and do it.”
“Well, okay,” Cross said.
He sounded anything but okay with that.
It was what it was.
“What do you have figured out?” her husband asked.
“Things you probably won’t like.”
Cross scowled. “Do tell.”
“Well, I think I have access to someone who can get me a face to face with the cartel boss.”
“Would you be opposed—”
“To you going with me, yes.”
Cross grunted under his breath. “Christ, don’t even let me get it out.”
“I can do it alone. I need to.”
“You need to take someone.”
“Miguel,” Catherine said.
“All right, that’s … better.”
“Mostly to keep Cece in a safe place while I do business.”
His scowl was back in an instant.
“So that’s that,” Catherine said, deciding to move on to the next issue before this one could start a fight. “I’m going to approach one of the high profile clients, too.”
“Like full-on public contact?”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t you think that’s a little … stupid?”
“I’m not concerned about losing them—I already have.”
“True enough,” Cross said quietly.
“But one thing at a time,” Catherine murmured. “Cocaine first, then the client issue. I need to knock this shit out one thing at a time.”
Cross pressed his lips to Catherine’s head, and gave her a kiss. “You’ll kill it, babe.”
“You think?”
“I know.”
“All the while, you’re stewing because I won’t let you help or step in.”
Cross hummed under his breath. “It’s always been like this with us, though. Sometimes, yeah, I have a different opinion about your business than you do, but it’s not my business. You asked me not to cross that line once, and I haven’t.”
“Thank you.”
He pulled her up higher in his arms to kiss her cheek. Then, her chin. The line of her jaw. The column of her throat. And finally, her mouth. Sweet, hot kisses with little flicks of his tongue that made heat pool between her legs.
“Tease,” she whispered against his lips.
Cross’s grin turned sinful. “It’s only a tease when you don’t get what you want in the end.”
“I don’t think that’s how it works.”
“I said so, Catty.”
And he wondered where their daughter got it from, honestly.
“So what exactly do you plan on giving me this morning, then?” Catherine asked, sitting straight up in his lap.
He turned her so that her back was resting against his chest. Strong hands grabbed tight to her thighs, and his hips lifted, grinding into her ass. The length of his erection dug into her backside, making Catherine shiver.
“Exactly what you feel, babe.”
“Mmm, that does sound nice.”
“Nice?”
Offense colored his tone.
“Try again,” he ordered in her ear.
“Crazy. Hot. Perfect. Sexy. Fantastic.”
“And …” he drawled, trailing off.
“Oh, my God. You are terrible.”
“Come on, indulge me, Catty. You know I like it when you indulge me a little.”
“You just want me to beg, Cross.”
“Entirely.”
He wasn’t even ashamed.
Frankly, neither was Catherine.
She liked it, too.
Cross’s hand drifted up from her thigh, between her opened robe, and along the column of her throat. A ghost of a touch—barely there at all. Yet, she swore those were the kinds of touches she felt the most when it came to him. Those were the touches that left her shivering all over.
When his palm flattened to her throat, and his lips were back at her ear making his sinful promises again, Catherine sighed.
“Come on, babe. Say it for me.”
“Please.”
His fingers tightened around her throat. “Again.”
“Please, Cross.” She squirmed in his hold, making sure to grind her ass along his hard shaft. “Please. Don’t you want to fuck me, Cross? Don’t you?”
“Catherine, that’s not—”
“Don’t you want to fuck me crazy, and make me scream? Don’t you want that, Cross?”
He grumbled her name under his breath before saying louder, “I see what you’re doing, babe.”
“Cross.”
“Stop trying to turn this around on me, Catherine.”
She hummed a sweet sound. “But it’s working.”
She tried shifting on him again, to tease him a bit more, but Cross held her firmly in place. She couldn’t move a damn inch.
“Tell me how bad you want it, Catherine,” he murmured in her ear.
Fuck.
Well, she had a good run.
But his voice was enough to break any resolve she had.
“Tell me, Catty.”
“So bad, Cross. I want you so fucking bad.”
“Of course you do, my girl.”
“Arrogant pr—”
Catherine’s insult died on her lips when Cross’s fingers slid into her mouth. The hand on her thigh dipped between her legs. She sucked on his fingers while he slipped three under the gusset of her panties, and then deep into her pussy. One stroke, then two. The third came harder. The fourth, dee
per. And on the fifth? He curled them hard into her G-spot.
Knowing, sure, determined thrusts.
One reason Catherine loved being pregnant?
Her body felt everything.
Every. Little. Damn. Thing.
She suddenly had nerves in places that never existed before. She could come faster, and harder, than before.
It was wonderful.
Another slide of his fingers inside her sex, and Catherine rocked her hips to match the beat. It wasn’t going to take long at all—she wasn’t going to last long.
Cross likely knew it.
And he probably knew exactly what she needed to help …
“Fuck those fingers, babe,” Cross urged in a husky murmur. “Get that pussy so wet it’s dripping down my hand. Come on, Catty. Give it to me.”
Yep.
“Cross. Oh, my God,” Catherine gasped. The first tendrils of an orgasm wrapped around her nerves. She didn’t even get the chance to take a full breath, and it was ravaging through her body. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”
“Up,” she heard him demand.
When Catherine didn’t move as fast as Cross wanted her to, he simply shoved her up to her feet, yanked her panties down her thighs, and bent her forward. His fingers dug into the cheeks of her ass as he buried his face into her cunt from behind. His tongue tunneled against her clit relentlessly. Again and again until she was a shaking mess once more. She couldn’t even catch her breath that time around, not that she really minded.
Catherine’s cries of Cross’s name bounced off the walls.
Her heart thundered.
Just as that second orgasm started to lift her back to heaven, he pulled away. Catherine didn’t have time to consider the loss of his mouth on her clit before she was yanked back into his lap. Already, he had his cock in his fist, and he pulled her into it.
She was already so wet between her thighs that sinking down on his length was nothing but bliss. Cross’s mouth was back at her ear, his lips drifting over the shell and leaving her wetness behind as his hips flexed upward. It forced his cock deeper into her pussy, and all Catherine could do was moan.
“Like that, babe?”
“Just like that.”
He tugged her silk robe down over her shoulders until it was gathered at her wrists. He pinned her hands to her lower back, widened his legs, and let her put her feet to the floor.
“Are you going to let me fuck you now?” he asked.
“Please.”
“Please, what?”
“Please fuck me, Cross.”
Her husband lifted her just enough that she was balanced between the hold he had on her wrists at her lower back, and her feet on the floor. It kept her maybe an inch or two off his lap, but it was enough for him to fuck her with a brutal pace that both ached and made her absolutely crazy.
He lifted and then pulled her body into his cock again and again. She didn’t have to do a damn thing but let him work her the way he knew best.
That orgasm Catherine had been so close to was fast approaching all over again. Cross simply fucked her through it without stopping.
Catherine figured this was going to be the last time she got to enjoy Cross like this for a little while. At least, until things calmed down, and she was back home again.
Cross probably knew it, too.
She tossed her head back, and sucked in air, needing it for her burning lungs and overheated body. Shit, she just wanted to come again.
“Harder,” she managed to whisper.
Cross obliged.
He always did.
“Hey, Haven.”
Andino Marcello’s wife passed Catherine a smile as she handed over a cell phone to the ten-year-old girl sitting beside her on the bench. The young woman was the same age as Catherine, but that was where the similarities ended.
Haven, a blue-eyed, blonde beauty, had lived a life far removed from the one Catherine grew up in. For the most part …
“Catherine,” Haven greeted.
“How’ve you been?”
“Tired,” Haven replied with a laugh.
“I bet.”
Two kids could do that to a person.
Not to mention, Haven was heavily pregnant again.
In fact, Andino had pretty much managed to keep his wife pregnant from about a year after the moment she said “I do” one quiet afternoon. Haven seemed to like it, though.
To each their own …
“Maria, go play with the girls, huh?” Haven said.
The ten-year-old nodded, and darted off to play with the other girls. Compared to Haven’s daughters’ light complexion, blonde hair, and blue eyes—all of which they took from their mother—Maria’s tawny skin tone, russet eyes, and black hair really set her apart from the others. Compliments of her Hispanic heritage. Most people assumed the girl was adopted because she spent so much time with Haven and Andino’s family, but that wasn’t the case. Maria’s mother was simply a very good friend of Haven’s—close friends.
Catherine knew part of the truth … and that’s why she had come to Haven today.
“What can I do for you?” Haven asked.
“Some direction or a contact without you letting your husband know I asked for it would be a great way to start.”
Haven raised a single manicured brow high. “Go on.”
“Maria. Her mom—”
“Is working today,” Haven interjected.
Catherine nodded. “What about her dad?”
Haven passed Maria a quick glance. “As far as I know, he’s dead.”
“Oh, I thought he was still alive and had a hand in the cartel down in Mexico.”
“Used to, but you know, shit happens.”
Haven offered nothing else.
Catherine didn’t ask.
Well, damn.
There went Catherine’s chance at an inside contact with the Mexican cartel. She had hoped to use whatever lingering connection Haven’s friend might have to Maria’s family. It could help Catherine with her little supplier issue. Catherine didn’t know a lot about Maria’s mother, or what happened all those years ago because the information wasn’t offered out.
It wasn’t polite to ask, either.
“Okay, well, I’m sorry I bothered you,” Catherine said.
“Wait,” Haven said, putting a hand on Catherine’s knee before she could stand. “Is this about the cocaine thing?”
Catherine folded her arms over her chest. “What do you know about that?”
“I know Andino has been weighing the risk or reward of contacting the Gomez family for the last month, but given our previous history with some of them …”
“Maria’s grandfather and father, you mean?”
“Even though they’re dead, there’s still quite a few that would happily take a pound from Andino for the shit he pulled. Maria’s mom saved our asses back then. An eye for an eye is real with that kind, let me say.” Haven shrugged. “It might not be good for him to invite a possible problem in, that’s all.”
“I get that.”
“But you …”
Catherine gave Haven a smile. “What about me?”
“You’re not Andino. You don’t have history with them. You even have a different last name than my husband, now. You guys really need a supplier, huh?”
“He talks to you a lot about business, doesn’t he?”
Haven laughed lightly. “Who the fuck else is he going to talk to?”
“Point taken.” Catherine rested back on the bench. “Do you know someone I could use to get a face to face with … well, anyone worth talking to down there?”
“I know someone,” Haven replied. “She’ll answer.”
“She?”
“She.”
“And we keep this between us?”
Haven smirked, saying, “Listen, Catherine, the last thing I need or want is my husband bulling his way down into Mexico. I like him alive, thanks. I intend to keep him that way. Trust that he will not learn I helped
you along here.”
Catherine chose not to ask or say more.
She got what she needed and wanted, after all.
“She didn’t even say goodbye to me. Not properly.”
Catherine gave Cross a fake pout just to bother him a little bit more. She couldn’t help but tease him.
“Seriously, Catherine.”
“She’s excited to fly and see Miguel when we land.”
He still sulked. Although his sulking was still quite handsome, and mostly brooding. He tried not to glare at the private jet where Cece had disappeared without as much as a wave to her father.
“She didn’t even tell me she loves me,” Cross said.
Catherine reached out, caught Cross by his jaw with her hand, and turned him toward her. She kissed him hard, and only pulled away when she felt him smile against her lips.
“I love you,” she told him. “There, someone’s told you. Stop being sad, Cross. We talked about this, and it’s the best option. Safety, remember.”
Cross’s dark eyes drifted over her face, and then he stroked her cheek with two fingers. The windy, cold airstrip blew the skirt of Catherine’s dress all around her bare legs, but she barely felt it at all.
She was too busy staring at life and love.
She felt nothing but him.
“Be smart, huh?”
Catherine nodded. “Of course.”
“Keep her moving.”
“I will.”
“Tell Miguel I will—”
“Cross.”
He smirked. “Yeah, he already knows.”
Catherine spun to face her husband completely, and kissed him one more time. “I’ll call when we land, I promise.”
“You better.”
“Take care of business here,” she said, poking him in the chest.
Cross grabbed her fingers in his warm hand, and smiled. “Take care of your business, too.”
“You know it.”
Before Cross could convince her to stay, Catherine stepped away and let him go. She gave him a little wave over her shoulder as she headed up the few steps leading to the private jet. Once she was inside, and sitting down beside an overly excited Cece, she glanced out the port window.
Cross hadn’t moved.
Catherine pointed for Cece to see. “Say goodbye to Daddy, bambina.”
Cece waved until she caught Cross’s eye. His brooding mood flew just long enough for him to flash a wide smile for their daughter. He waved, too.