Knight in Cowboy Boots: International Billionaires X: The Latinos

by Caro LaFever

  The surprise cleared from his expression to be replaced with pure delight. He pushed himself onto his elbow, and he threw his head back and laughed.

  “This is awful,” she blurted before she could stop herself. Throwing the duvet and sheets off, she attempted to escape.

  But no one escaped Nick Townsend, it appeared. Not from the coils of his charm, nor the heat of his bed. “Nope.” He captured her arm. “You’re going nowhere.”

  “I’m leaving,” she announced, even though she was again, flat on her back and staring up into his eyes. “I’m out of here.”

  “Do you think, mi querida, that I will let you go when I’ve dreamed of this since the moment I met you?”

  Once more, the soft j before the you caught her attention, easing her embarrassment. The way he looked at her too, stopped her from moving away. Intense and aroused, his eyes glittered with wicked resolve.

  “Querida?” She grabbed at the first thing she could think of to center herself. “What does that mean?”

  “Wanted.” His fingers ran along her side, across her stomach, and down. “Desired.”

  “Wait—”

  But it was too late for her. Too late to object to this beautiful man taking everything she had and twisting her into what he wanted. His mouth dropped to suckle her nipple as he played with the petals of her need and made them weep.

  Sighing, falling, Jess did what he wanted.

  She let go and let him in.

  The grace of him, as he slid on his protection and slid into her body. The dance he led her on, this time no two-step, but an intricate dance made for only them, only the two of them together.

  “Nick,” she breathed into his neck, as his hips began to move in and out of her wetness. “I should—”

  “No shoulds, Jessie love,” he said, his gaze lifting to stare at her. “Only wants, needs.”

  “I want to make you happy.” Raising her hands, she smoothed them across his shoulders and chest. “I want to give you pleasure.”

  He laughed again, a young, joyful noise that made her heart sing although she was still confused and worried. “How can you think you are not making me the happiest man on the planet?”

  “I don’t know—”

  “Jessie.” He closed his eyes and groaned softly as he moved inside her once more. “Relax, querida. Stop worrying and enjoy.”

  And somehow, someway, he drew her into his glory. Her brain stopped buzzing, and her emotions drifted into bliss. Using his mouth and his cock, he pulled her closer and closer to the burning center of his desire and yanked her across the line of reason.

  “Dios,” he husked on her lips, the driving force of his pace making her pant. “Come for me.”

  Just as he demanded, she came. A swamping, enormous blast of acute pleasure so overwhelming the room faded, reality faded.

  Only Nick stayed in the center of herself.

  Arching into his rhythm, he moaned, a low, animal sound. By the stiff, tautness of his body above hers, she knew he had found his pleasure also. He slumped, hot and sweaty, hard and salty, into her arms.

  Jess had known all her life what it was like to be odd. Out of place.

  That was gone now. Completely and utterly gone.

  She didn’t know if she should cry or laugh.

  So she did neither. Instead, she stuck her head into the crease of his neck and shoulder, and breathed.

  Chapter 21

  “You can laugh in bed, Jessie.” Nick’s eyes laughed at her, and his grin encouraged. “Really. It’s not a sin.”

  “I’ve laughed,” she grouched, pulling the sheet up.

  The city lights sparkled into the bedroom, laying little bursts of starlight onto the ceiling and carpet. When he’d finally slid off her and to her side, they’d both lain together silently, only their hands touching for a long time. The last rays of the sun had slipped away, and slowly, the city had come to life around them. Yet, to Jess, it seemed as if they inhabited a little slice of heaven here in this attic bedroom. A little place where only the two of them belonged.

  She hadn’t gone further than that in her thinking. No looking at her emotions for this man, or any thoughts of the future.

  And then, this infuriating man had broken the silence with his odd comment about laughing.

  Just when she’d begun to feel some peace. Some joy.

  “When was it that you laughed?” He broke into her thoughts once more. “I must have missed it.”

  “I’ve laughed with you before.” Throwing him a frown, she began to roll away from his teasing. “I should take a shower.”

  Beds and sex weren’t about teasing or laughing.

  Were they?

  Nick grabbed her before she could slink out of the bed, tugging her into his embrace. He threw a hairy leg over hers when she huffed. “I think we need to talk.”

  She glared up at his smile. “Men don’t talk in bed.”

  “ So many rules.” Curiosity filled his voice. “Where did you learn all these absurd rules about bed?”

  “They aren’t absurd,” she blustered. “And there aren’t a lot of them.”

  “But they exist in your head.” Leaning down, he nibbled at the end of her too-big nose. “That’s what’s interesting.”

  “It’s not interesting.”

  He stopped his teasing touches, rearing up to stare at her. “Jessie.”

  “Nick.” A glare of defiance was all she could muster. Because she sensed he was going to dig, and she didn’t want him to do that. She was precarious enough in her confidence about sex. The last thing she wanted was this gorgeous man plodding through her dazed mind, trying to find out what made her tick. “We had sex. It was good. That’s the end of it.”

  “The end of it? Only good?”

  Flustered, she hated the rush of heat rising on her neck. The neck that likely sported two rough patches of skin she’d have to cover for days on end if she didn’t want to be laughed at. Laughing. Everyone around her laughing.

  Yet a curious pride swelled in her. He’d wanted her enough to make his mark.

  Nick bumped his hips on her side, a slight smile on his face. Apparently, he still did.

  A tiny grin of her own eased onto her mouth.

  “Ah,” he murmured, drawing close to nibble once more. “A smile. That’s just a step away from a laugh.”

  “I’m not going to laugh.” She scrunched her nose at him because his touch tickled.

  “Sure you are.” His lips moved across her cheek to her ear. “And Jessie?”

  “What?”

  “That wasn’t just good sex.”

  “No?” She didn’t like the wary, fragile hope in her one word, but she couldn’t deny it was there.

  “No,” he said decisively. “That was amazing, astounding, astonishing sex.”

  “There you go with your alliteration again.” A bubble of amusement gurgled in her throat.

  “And Jessie?”

  “What now?” The bubble bloomed.

  “That was far from the end for us.” Lifting his head, he zeroed in on her eyes, his own intent. “Far, far from the end.”

  The bubble turned to bliss. “Yeah?” she whispered.

  “Yeah,” he whispered back. “For example…”

  His hips bumped at her side once more, his hard erection wet at the tip. His expressive brows rose and his eyes twinkled like the city lights outside.

  She giggled.

  “Oh, ho!” he crowed. “What was that I heard?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Right.” Long fingers swept across her chest and down her sides. “I think I need to hear that again.”

  “No.”

  His busy hands brushed her ribs. “I love a stubborn woman.”

  Love.

  The word floated between them, the softness of his light accent making the plain and simple word serious and significant. Jess thought for sure this man would withdraw after spilling such a claim. Yet his gaze didn’t waver and his body drew neare
r. Closer, encircling her with his heated passion and wicked scent.

  She didn’t have a clue what to say or do.

  “Necesito hacer reír,” he said after a long pulse of silence.

  “What?”

  “You say that word a lot, don’t you?” His dark lashes fell, while his hands drifted along her skin. “I need to teach you how to say it in Spanish.”

  He was hiding something again. She didn’t want to dig right at this moment, though, she was too happy and relaxed. Jess allowed herself to just lay there, lax and warm, letting his touch smooth over her like the gentle lap of water. “Go ahead, cowboy. Teach me some Spanish.”

  “¿Qué.” The clipped word was layered with little of his accent for once.

  “K,” she mimicked.

  “Excellent.” He smiled, his real one. “You got it exactly right.”

  His fingers circled on her ribs and by the sudden look in his eye, she caught a clue. “Don’t you dare.”

  “¿Qué?” Innocence flooded the celestial blue.

  “Tickle.” Grabbing his hands, she tried to protect her tender ribs. “No way.”

  “Sí, sí, sí. I need to hear your laugh.” With an easy flip, he held her hands above her head with his superior strength. With that, he commenced his attack. For several seconds, she managed to hold onto her discipline by sheer will, but then he found a particularly weak spot.

  She yelped.

  Then, she laughed. Howled. Roared as he kept going.

  “Stop,” she panted between rolls of laughter. “Stop!”

  “No es posible.” His fingers probed. “You are too beautiful when you laugh. Necesito más.”

  “What?” she croaked.

  “¿Qué?” he corrected her, before digging into her ribs again.

  Before too many minutes went by, she was heaving. She couldn’t possibly be anything this man would want to have sex with. Not with her hair in a messy tangle, the hickeys probably beaming red like a stoplight, her body ripe with sweat and leftover sex.

  “There.” He finally quit, pulling her into his embrace and sipping on her lips. “I’ve had enough of your laugh—”

  “Thank God,” she gasped in relief.

  “For now.”

  Groaning with a mixture of exasperation and embarrassment, she tried to pull away. “I need a shower.”

  “Okay.” He jumped out of bed, a cheerful expression on his handsome face. “We’ll shower together.”

  Jess had never taken a shower with a man. Showers were private.

  Weren’t they?

  “I don’t think—”

  “Come on.” Before she could articulate her worries, he tugged her to a stand. “This will be fun.”

  “Fun?” Showers weren’t about fun. Showers were about getting clean. “What do you mean fun?”

  He didn’t appear fazed by his nakedness or hers. Which was diametrically opposed to how she felt. She never walked around naked with a lover. Her sexual experience was about getting into a bed with a man and then, when he fell asleep, getting out.

  Pulling her along, he shot her a teasing glance over his broad shoulder. “The definition of fun is amusement. Enjoy. Play.”

  It suddenly struck her that she’d never really had any fun at all. Her childhood had centered around her father and his business. Important business. Since she’d been very young, she’d known her behavior reflected on her dad and the McDowell hotels. Consequently, she’d been a good girl and the behavior pattern hadn’t changed.

  Until now.

  Until Nick.

  Because she’d never dreamed of getting on a dangerous bike with a wicked man and flying out to the desert. She’d never thought the fantasy of cooking in a cozy kitchen would become a reality. And she’d never, ever thought to be walking into a bathroom naked with a lover.

  Ready to have fun.

  “I don’t know,” she muttered.

  “You say that a lot, too.” Reaching into the glass-enclosed shower, he flicked on the water. “I suppose I’ll need to teach you how to say that in Spanish as well.”

  Steam poured from the small cubicle. “We’re never going to both fit in there.”

  “No sé.” His accent rolled the words. “That’s I don’t know in Spanish. Repeat that.”

  Before she could repeat or protest, he yanked her under the hot water, slamming the door behind them.

  A stream of heat spilled over her face. “Hey!”

  “Hey back at you.” His palm swished the water away, letting her see the gentle expression in his gaze that always made her tingle. “Isn’t this nice?”

  It was nice. More than nice. The mist coated his olive skin, making it gleam in the low light coming from above the bathroom sink. Water droplets glistened in his long, black lashes, and when he blinked, they sprinkled on his cheeks. His biceps curved with delicious power, and the dusting of dark hair on his chest beckoned for her attention.

  He was so damn beautiful. And she wasn’t.

  Even though apparently, he wanted her just as she was. Folding her arms in front of her, she grimaced at her lack of self-confidence. She knew it would irritate him and for once, it irritated her. “This is uncomfortable.”

  “Is it, querida?” His hands clutched her tense shoulders. “You need to relax.”

  “It’s hard to at the moment.”

  At her tight confession, his gaze shot up from his fascinated focus on her breasts to her eyes. “Jessie. There isn’t anything to be afraid of with me.”

  All her doubts, those nasty thoughts she’d pushed aside when they’d fallen into bed, crowded back. “No?”

  “No.” He met her wary look with an almost stern one of his own. It wasn’t something she’d ever seen on his face. Usually, it was alight with charm and laughter. Only occasionally had it darkened with anger. But neither of those expressions was what she saw.

  Serious purpose. Sober pledge.

  His hands slid down her arms to her hands. With a soft tug, he pulled her into his embrace, lacing his fingers through hers. “Guess what we’re going to do?”

  Her head still buzzed with doubts, except layered into the mix was that strange bubble of amusement he extracted from her without her agreement. There was also lust and happiness and a whole welter of emotions she was going to have to analyze at some point.

  But maybe not right at this point.

  “¿Qué?” She let the amusement coat the one word.

  His eyes immediately went sparkly and he grinned. “We’re going to fuck.”

  The harsh word should have offended her. Instead, she saw it for what it was—a teasing demand, a provoking dare. “Oh, really?”

  “Yeah.” Using his big body, he shuffled her back two steps until she leaned on the blue-tiled wall. “Let’s see,” he murmured. “Where should we begin?”

  “Do you need my guidance?” The bubble expanded inside, making her feel giddy with an indescribable joy.

  She was having fun again.

  Having fun while having sex. Something she’d never once contemplated could happen.

  His husky laugh turned her joy into bliss, and before she could laugh with him, he’d slid his hands under her ass and lifted her up. “Legs, Ginger Snap.”

  “Sí,” she teased some more. “I have legs.”

  Chuckling, he leaned in to nip at her nose. “Around me, joker. Put those long legs around my hips.”

  “Yes, oh master.” Doing as she was told, she slung herself around him and felt his excitement slide into her cleft.

  She hissed in a breath.

  He grunted, his mouth going slack and the celestial blue turning hazy. “That’s it. That’s where I want you.”

  “Only here?” She managed another mocking verbal poke through her growing need. Her hips arched, emphasizing the taunt. “No farther?”

  “You’ve become a regular comedian, haven’t you?” His mouth latched onto hers before she could answer.

  Words and thoughts went straight out of her head,
replaced with lust so fine and shimmering she felt like a star had split apart to filter dusty sparks of fantasy around them.

  Whatever had been bothering his Jessie appeared to drop away from her like a hard, cold chain unlocking. Her body turned languid in his arms and her wide mouth became sultry with sin.

  Nick had never been happier in his life.

  Which stunned him.

  Happiness was something he’d left behind at his mamá’s grave. After trying for fruitless years to gain his father’s approval, and happiness once more, he’d decided to pursue something he could obtain. Things like money, like willing women, like winning. Instead of happy, he’d pursued power and pleasure, prestige and privilege. But none of his experiences in the last dozen years could replace the pure joy he felt at this moment with his Jessie.

  “Smile for me,” he coaxed.

  Her lips did as he instructed and yet, what entranced him was the way those mixed eyes of her lit with the smile, too. The moonlight from the small sky window danced across the creamy skin of her shoulders and breasts, turning her into a fairy tale creature.

  His heart twisted into a knot so tight it caught his breath.

  “Well, cowboy,” she challenged. “Are you going to take me?”

  Sí, he was. Take her trust and hold it like a precious gift. Take her hotels and gift them back to her when he could. More than anything, though, he was going to take this moment in time and enjoy it with every fiber of his being. Because he knew, the luck he’d taken for granted during these years of gambling and gallivanting around the world—that luck could run dry.

  “Are you?” Her wispy eyebrows rose.

  “Sí.” His fingers tightened on her fine ass and his cock bumped right at the wet entrance to her core. Then, he remembered. Feeling only slightly lucky earlier, he’d slipped just one condom in his jean’s pocket. Not two. “Mierda.”

  “What?” Her legs and arms stiffened but didn’t let him go. “ Or I mean, ¿Qué?”

  Laughing at her jibe and his idiocy, he slid his hands along the length of her legs. “You need to stand here on your own for a second.”

  Surprisingly, she obeyed, still, she frowned in clear distress, as if she expected him to suddenly change his mind about being with her. If it was the last thing he’d do for this woman, he’d banish this damn insecurity of hers.