“So do you have some big Sunday dinner to go to tonight?” He was fishing for information again, and she sighed.
“No.”
“Then you’re free? Let’s have dinner.”
“You want to see me again?”
“Well, yeah, that’s why I called. I thought after we spent twenty minutes getting hot and heavy you would’ve figured out how much I like you.”
Annalise couldn’t deny she wanted to see him again, so she agreed to dinner. “I’ll come into the city.”
“Come on, Annalise. I feel like a jerk meeting you all the time. I asked you out on a date. I should come pick you up and bring you back home.”
“I’d really rather just take the subway in. With traffic it’ll be a lot faster anyway.” She heard Marcus’ grunt through the phone and knew she had him.
“Fine. I’m not going to argue with you about it. At least let me meet you somewhere near your house instead of you traveling over here. Take me to your favorite place.”
My favorite place? No way in hell. That’s how rumors get started and I don’t need everyone talking about me.
She thought for a few seconds and said, “Okay, how about Ray’s? It’s Italian.” Ray’s was a huge café in the heart of Queens that she’d been to a few times, and it was far enough away that there was a good chance none of her friends would be there.
“Sounds good. Where is it?”
She rattled off the address and heard him writing it down. “All right. I’m gonna grab a cab, so I’ll see you there in about an hour if that’s okay?”
“That’s fine.” It would give her a chance to take a shower before hitting the subway for the ride from the Bronx to Queens.
They met and had dinner and were thankfully left alone for the most part. As Marcus paid the check he asked, “Will you come into Manhattan with me? It’s still early. We can go see a movie or rent one at my house. I’m not a huge fan of being out all the time.”
She knew she shouldn’t, but she found herself saying yes. Marcus caught another cab and took her to his apartment in the Meatpacking District. It was hard not to gape as she looked around at the high-end kitchen and expensive furnishings. They sat down on Marcus’ taupe leather couch and she couldn’t help but run her hand down the arm of it, noting the soft, buttery texture. Marcus picked up a remote that had more buttons than some cockpits she’d seen on planes in the movies and pressed a series of them. The lights dimmed, the television turned on, and she half-expected a steaming cup of coffee to appear.
“What are you in the mood for? I’ve got tons of DVDs, or we could rent something through the on-demand system.”
“Whatever you want to watch is fine.”
“Come on. Give me a hint at least. Drama? Comedy?”
She had enough drama in her life already. “Comedy.”
Marcus picked a comedy that had been in the theater not long before and they settled back to watch. He put his arm around her and she leaned into the warmth of his solid body. It was nice to feel taken care of, even if only for a few hours before she had to go back to her lowly life.
She let him turn her head before kissing her, and when his lips touched hers she forgot he even owned a television as sensation built up inside her. He pulled away and looked at her, his eyes pools of molten desire.
Marcus touched the hem of her sweater. “Can I?”
Annalise bit her lip before nodding. Grinning, Marcus pulled her sweater over her head and she had a few seconds of mortification about her serviceable, well-worn white bra, but he just groaned and buried his face between her breasts before kissing and licking his way back up to her neck. Her head fell back and he attacked the sensitive patch of skin near her ear. A moan escaped her.
“You like that, huh?” he murmured, reaching up to push her hair behind her back before showering more kisses along her collarbone.
“Yes, so much.” She arched into him and he took the opportunity to slide one arm around her and begin to lean her back. Her prosthetic leg hung off the cushions of the couch and he pushed her other one fully onto the cushions so he could slide his long, lean body between her thighs. His erection made itself at home in the juncture of her legs and he groaned as he pressed in. Wave after wave of passion washed over her as he kissed her again, deftly unhooking her bra before taking it off and dropping it on the floor beside them.
Annalise shuddered when Marcus looked up at her as he took a hard nipple into his mouth. He tugged gently with his teeth and then licked over the spot before moving to the other breast. Then he pushed both together and went back and forth between them, ravaging each with lips, teeth, and tongue, and she began to writhe underneath him. Her very limited experience with men hadn’t prepared her for the onslaught of feelings she was experiencing now. Marcus was playing her body like a finely-tuned instrument and she marveled at how good she felt. Finally she began to understand what the big deal was about sex.
Marcus caught her breast in his mouth and took in more and more, pushing it between his tongue and the roof of his mouth, and she came off the couch again. She could smell her own arousal, and while it should’ve embarrassed her, instead it fed the carnal flame even more. His weight was pressed into her, holding her down on the couch, and Annalise had to force herself to take deep, even breaths, afraid she’d hyperventilate from the excitement of feeling all those pounds of hard-packed muscle and sinew flexing and moving over her.
Marcus slid down, kissing his way down her belly before sliding clumsy fingers over the zipper of her pants. She panicked and pushed him away hard enough that he landed on his butt in front of the couch. He looked up at her, surprise evident in his expression. “What’s wrong? Did I hurt you?”
“No.” Annalise swallowed thickly. She wanted this—she wanted to have sex with him in the worst way—but she couldn’t. She just couldn’t. “I should go.” Stumbling to her feet on shaky legs, she bent down to fumble in the dark for her bra.
“Annalise, honey, what’s going on? Did I do something wrong?”
“No. It’s not you, it’s me.”
“What does that mean? Talk to me!”
“I-I can’t. I have to go.”
Marcus grabbed her hand. “I’m not letting you leave like this. I’ll take you home if that’s what you want, but you need to tell me what happened. I thought everything was going okay.”
“It was. It was great. I told you. It’s not you.” She found her sweater and slipped it over her head.
“Then what is it?” She could hear the note of frustration he was unable to keep out of his voice, and she spared a glance at his groin, knowing she shouldn’t because it would only make her feel worse.
Marcus took hold of her face and forced her to look at him. “Don’t worry about me. That’s the least of my concerns. If you don’t want to have sex right now, that’s fine. Just say so. I can wait.” Annalise turned away from him, wiping away a tear before it had a chance to fall. He pulled her back to sit on the couch and she let him. She was so weak, but feeling his arms around her, knowing he wasn’t rejecting her, made her feel unbelievably warm inside. The last time she’d even allowed things to progress this far was years ago, and when she pulled away the guy had left her apartment in a huff and never called her again.
She closed her eyes, as another tear threatened to leak out, but couldn’t help the sound of distress that forced its way past her lips. Marcus kissed the knuckles of her hand, whispering nonsense to her. He was too nice. He deserved better than a poor, uneducated cripple like her. Her heart breaking, she stood up. She couldn’t believe how much her heart hurt. Even though they’d only gone out a couple of times, she’d gotten in deep with Marcus. Stupid. “I really need to go.” He began to stand with her and she waved him off. “Don’t get up. I can see myself home.”
“But—”
“Really, don’t worry about it.” She moved as quickly as her prosthesis would allow her to and had slipped out the door before he was able to get more than a few
more words out. Luckily, he didn’t chase her, and she made it down to street level before the tears began in earnest. She couldn’t afford to cab all the way home and was moving through the lobby, trying to figure out how many subway changes she’d need to make to get home, when the doorman stopped her with a gentle touch to her arm.
“Miss? I’ll get a cab for you.”
“I don’t—”
“Mr. Mitchell instructed me to get you a cab and pay the fare.”
“Oh.” Another tear fell and she just stood there like an idiot.
The man’s gave her a small smile and she wondered how often women came out Marcus’ apartment in tears. Probably not often. “I’ll get that cab for you.”
Soon the doorman had bundled her into the cab and she was on her way back to her own life. Her walk on the other side had ended in disaster and, though she tried to convince herself it was for the best, the image of Marcus sitting there on the couch looking so confused ate at her insides. She rubbed her forehead as a monster headache made its presence known.
When she got home, Hector was there. “Annalise? Pobrecita? What happened? Who made you cry?”
“Nothing happened. I just had a bad day.” The lie had slipped out almost without her even being aware of it. Hector’s temper was famous and the last thing she needed was him finding out about Marcus and going after him. “I’m going to take a bath and then go to bed.”
Her brother narrowed his eyes as he regarded her, and she had to force herself to meet his gaze. “You sure there’s nothing going on?”
“I’m sure. My leg hurts and I’m tired.”
“Hey, I’ve got some money for you.”
Her eyebrow rose. “From where?”
“Don’t you worry about where.”
She knew better than not to worry about where Hector’s money was coming from. “Is this blood money? ’Cuz if it is, I don’t want it. I don’t want drug money, either. It’s dirty and I don’t want any part of it.”
“I did some odd jobs for a guy I know. Nothing illegal. Okay? Now will you take the money? You know what’ll happen if you don’t.”
She did. He’d spend it on booze, drugs and other crap. Reluctantly she accepted the roll of bills. If she used it tomorrow to catch up on a few bills maybe it wouldn’t have time to poison the house. Sadly, at this point she couldn’t afford to be too picky about where the money was coming from, much as she’d like to keep Hector out of trouble.
“Thanks. I’ll pay some bills with it tomorrow.”
“Good. I’m trying, pobrecita, I really am.”
She didn’t believe him, but she nonetheless gave him the biggest smile she could manage. “I’m glad to hear it.” He let her go without asking about her tear-streaked face again, and she thanked the heavens for small favors.
Chapter Five
Marcus sat on his couch for a good twenty minutes going over the time he and Annalise had spent there to try to figure out what the hell had happened. She’d been into it, he was sure of that, but then she’d suddenly freaked out. As he thought back, he realized it had happened when he’d started to undo her pants. But why would that cause such a reaction?
His mind flew in a million different directions. Was she a virgin? She was certainly responsive, but not in the way he thought a virgin would be. Did she have a disease? Possible, but that didn’t seem likely for some reason. Then he remembered the slight limp he’d noticed a couple of times. Maybe she had a scar on her leg she didn’t want him to see or something.
He thought of his own body, which was liberally decorated with scars from all his years playing hockey. If she thought a scar would gross him out, she was mistaken, but he could see where she might feel ashamed. A lot of people were self-conscious about stuff like that. He vowed to call her tomorrow to try to see her again. Maybe he could convince her he didn’t care what her leg looked like.
Marcus considered why he was pursuing Annalise so heavily. There was something about her, something that drew him in. He wanted her, yes, but he genuinely liked her a whole hell of a lot, if he was being honest with himself.
He went to bed that night sorry about how the evening had ended and resolute to set things right first thing in the morning. When he awoke the next day he found the optimism he’d had the night before had waned a little, but he was still determined to get to the bottom of whatever was bothering Annalise.
After dumping some coffee in the fancy combination coffee grinder-maker he’d been talked into by a beautiful woman in a store, he sat and put his cell phone down on the table. As the smells of the rich French roast started to fill his apartment, he went over what he planned to say, much like he went over each opponent before a game. Marcus tried to come up with possible objections Annalise would raise so he wouldn’t be caught off guard. When the coffee finished perking he added cream and a little sugar and sat back down again.
Now or never…
He dialed Annalise, and one of the contingencies he hadn’t even thought of made itself apparent immediately when a male voice answered.
“This is Marcus Mitchell. Can I talk to Annalise?”
“She’s out right now. Who the hell are you?”
Marcus didn’t like the guy’s tone and was getting a real bad feeling. “Who are you?”
“Her brother, and she’s never mentioned any Marcus to me. I know all her friends.”
“Apparently not all of them,” Marcus mumbled. In a louder voice, he said, “Your sister and I have gone out a couple of times. Can I leave a message for her?”
“Hold up. You guys have gone out? Like on a date?”
“Very much like a date, yes.”
“Are you the reason she came home crying last night? I’m pretty protective of my sister—”
Just then Marcus heard a muffled curse and a bunch of noise on the other end of the phone. He said, “Hello? Is anyone there?”
“Marcus?”
“Annalise?”
“Yeah. Sorry about that.” She must’ve put her hand over the mouthpiece then because he only heard snatches of what sounded like a furious conversation in Spanish. “Please forgive my nosy brother.”
“No problem. Can I see you?”
“Today’s not good.”
“I thought you weren’t working today.”
He heard a sigh. “I’m not, but I need to run errands…”
It didn’t surprise him she was trying to put him off and he plowed forward. “I need to do some stuff too. Let’s go together and then I’ll buy you lunch. We need to talk.”
“I think it’s better if we just forget about seeing each other.”
“Today or ever?”
She paused for a few seconds and his heart beat staccato in his chest. How did this woman tie him into knots? “Forever, Marcus,” she answered in a whisper.
“I won’t accept that.”
Her voice rose. “What do you mean, you won’t accept that?”
“I mean that I have no intention of letting you off that easily.” He could feel panic rising and tried to hold onto it. He didn’t want to scare her, but dammit—this wasn’t fair! “I know we don’t know each other that well, but when I’m with you I feel something I’ve never felt before. And I refuse to just forget about that. Meet me and tell me to my face you aren’t interested.”
Annalise blew out a breath so loudly it sounded like a wind gust over the phone. Marcus knew he had her then, though. “All right. One lunch.”
“Great! I’m coming to pick you up this time. What’s your address?”
“I don’t want you to come here, Marcus. And with Hector around, we’ll never get out of here.”
He raised his gaze to the ceiling and counted to three before answering. “Fine. Where should I meet you?”
“At the Latin Kitchen on Tremont in the Bronx. I’ll be there at noon.”
“Sounds good. I’ll see you then. And honey? Don’t be scared. I just want to talk.”
Marcus scrambled to shower and run a few
errands before grabbing a cab for the haul up to the Bronx. When he arrived he saw that the Latin Kitchen was a large bistro-style restaurant with white cloth-covered tables. Annalise arrived shortly after and they were shown to a table. Before he let her sit down he planted a kiss on her lips and then pulled away, smiling. Plopping in the chair, he perused the menu and quickly found he had no idea what any of the food was. He heard a snicker and looked up.
“What’s so funny?”
“You,” Annalise answered. “You look very confused.”
“I am. You’re going to have to explain all this stuff to me.”
She turned her menu so he could see it. “This section is all seafood. Then there’s pork over here, their signature dishes here…”
“Okay, but what’s in the food? I don’t speak Spanish, which is what I assume this is.” He felt like a total goober, but after some not-so-pleasant experiences with food on the road he’d learned to ask what was in the dishes he ate.
“Puerto Rican food isn’t necessarily spicy, despite what a lot of people think. There are a lot of spices used, but not all of them are hot. You might want to start out with one of the more basic dishes like Arroz Con Pollo, which is basically just rice and chicken.”
Marcus made a face. “I eat a ton of chicken already. What about the seafood you mentioned?”
“If you like garlic there’s a shrimp dish with garlic sauce.”
“Maybe not garlic…” He was hoping to resolve whatever was bugging Annalise and then spend a few hours worshipping her body, so garlic didn’t seem like the best option.
She rolled her eyes as if she knew what he was thinking. “One of their signature dishes is a pork dish. It’s pretty popular and it doesn’t have any garlic in it.”
“Great. I’ll try that.” They ordered and he found himself leaning over the table and grabbing Annalise’s hands. He released a silent breath of relief when she didn’t pull away. “Now tell me what’s going on with you. Why did you freak out last night?”
Her eyes shuttered and he thought for sure she was going to clam up again, but she just shook her head slightly before sticking her leg out from under the table. “Because of this.” Pulling her hand out of his grip, she raised the hem of her jeans and he saw that she had a prosthetic leg.
Going All In Page 3