by Cassie Wild
“I’ve got things I want to do to you,” he whispered against my lips.
“Then do them. Quit teasing me,” I demanded, reaching for him again.
He caught my wrists and pressed them to the island by my sides. “Be still,” he said. “Otherwise, I might have to get your cuffs out.”
He swatted at my hip playfully as he said it and winked at me.
Heat burst through my belly, and my breath caught.
He saw the reaction too. His hands returned to my wrists, and he dragged them over my head, our torsos once more aligned. “You like the idea of that, Ravenna? Want me to cuff you? Maybe bend you over the bed and fuck you from behind?”
The heat that came then was molten, like lava flowing through my veins, and I couldn’t even form the words to tell him, so I just mutely nodded yes.
He made a noise low in his throat. “You want to drive me crazy. You were put on earth to do it.” He kissed me, hard and fast, pulling back just as I opened my mouth. “Next time,” he muttered. “But this time…we’re taking it slow.”
I would have told him I didn’t want slow, but my mind was already going through a melt-down.
As he dragged his chest over my bared nipples, I arched up, needing a deeper contact.
He denied me though, letting go of my hands and straightening so that he stood over me. He trailed his hands down my arms, along my shoulders, then down over my breasts, leaving shivers of sensation in his wake.
The tips of his fingers brushed the edge of my jeans, and I arched up, instinct driving me.
He didn’t stop, though, not until he reached the apex of my thighs.
There, he pressed both thumbs to the groove between my legs.
I cried out, startled, delighted by the touch. Rocking up against him, I tried to deepen the contact. My jeans impeded him, but I could feel my panties sliding wet and slick against me.
“Are you already wet for me, Ravenna?” he asked, massaging me through my jeans.
I nodded, panting as I continued to move against his touch. Reaching down, I caught one of his wrists, holding him as I rocked my hips.
“Tell me. Say it out loud.”
My cheeks burned, but modesty was quickly dying. “I’m wet for you, Nicco.”
A saturnine smile lit his lean face, and he shifted, one hand falling away, the other moving to cup me completely. “Just how wet are you, Ravenna?”
I gasped as he pressed the heel of his hand to me. “So wet, Nicco. I want you.”
He crushed his mouth to mine, yanking me upright until our torsos were plastered together. I felt his heart racing, pounding against mine, despite the layers of clothing still separating us. His layers. I grabbed the jacket he wore and shoved it off his shoulders. Once it fell away, he reached up and fought with his tie, jerking at it until he could pull it free. I moved to work on the buttons of his shirt, and soon, he was as bare from the waist up as I was.
He brought our bodies together. His heat collided with mine and I shivered in response, curling around him and pulling his head down so I could kiss him.
He reached for the waistband of my jeans, suddenly as impatient as I’d been.
Tugging at the tight denim as they tangled around my legs, they eventually broke away, and he knelt in front of me, dragging them the rest of the way off.
I braced my hands on the island behind me, because even though the jeans were gone now, he was still kneeling.
He had his eyes locked on the curls between my thighs, and he flicked a look up at me. “I taste you in my dreams,” he muttered. He cupped my hips and tugged.
My knees went a little weak as I spread my thighs for him.
He licked me, a bold, decisive stroke of his tongue that opened me for him, bottom to top. Bracing one hand on his shoulder, I shoved the other into his hair. “Nicco…” I whimpered as he shifted and flicked his tongue against my clit.
He did it again, and again, making me shudder.
“That’s it,” he muttered against me, his voice thick.
He cupped my ass and pressed his face more completely against me. “I want to eat you up.”
I couldn’t complain. Assuming I could even speak. All I seemed capable of were weak moans and a few pitiful attempts at his name as he worked my clit, using teeth and tongue.
When he pushed two fingers inside my cunt, I wailed out his name, my knees almost giving way underneath me.
He caught me, twisting and moving, easing me down onto the floor where he pushed my thighs wide and grabbed my ass, shoving it up in the air as he feasted on my wet, slick flesh.
He stabbed his tongue into me before stroking it over my clitoris, again and again.
Tiny chills raced through me, and I scrabbled at the floor, desperate for something to hold on to. But there was nothing and the orgasm was almost on me.
It hit me hard and fast, and I moaned out his name.
He seemed to be waiting for just that.
In the next breath, he rose up over me and tore at the button of his pants, then his fly, dragging it down and revealing the heavy, veined weight of his shaft. He palmed himself once, stroked up and down, then he gripped his length, arrowed the head between my legs and covered me. I reached up, bracing my hands on his shoulders as he wedged his cock at my entrance.
His mouth took mine as he thrust deep.
A second later, we both froze.
“I didn’t put on a rubber,” he whispered against my lips.
I stared at him, wide-eyed. He felt…different inside me. His cock was ridged, hotter, rubbing me in ways he hadn’t before. He shuddered, and it made me shiver because I felt his cock pulsate inside my cunt.
He rolled his hips slightly, his neck arching, the veins standing out. “Do I need to stop, Ravenna?” he demanded.
I whimpered, unable to keep myself from clenching around him. “I…I don’t know. Do you?”
His eyes met mine. “Logic says yes. But I’m clean. And I don’t want to stop. I will if you tell me to. But make up your mind…now…”
Logic told me the same thing – he should stop.
I hated logic. Twining my legs around his hips, I arched closer and clenched around him. “Don’t stop.”
He shuddered again, one palm slapping down on the tile beside my head. “Fuck me…” He breathed the words out slowly, almost reverently. He came down on me, slowly spearing me with his thick cock. I shuddered, feeling myself stretch around him. It felt so different, intense, felt every ridge, every flutter.
His mouth sought out the curve of my neck, and I cupped the back of his neck as he bit me, urging him on.
He seated himself deep inside me, and I caught my breath, groaning as he started to withdraw. I moaned his name, catching him behind the hips and pulling him back to me.
He came to me, his mouth hungry and hot. I opened for him as he thrust his tongue past my lips, echoing the rhythm of his hips.
One hand skimmed up and cupped my breast, his fingers plucking and working my nipple until it throbbed.
Heat coiled in my belly, all-consuming. My heart raced so hard, it felt like it might explode inside my chest.
As the orgasm loomed closer. Nicco moved faster, shoving up onto his knees and catching my thighs, pushing them wide, palming my butt in his hands. “Ravenna…” It shuddered out of him in a harsh groan. I grabbed his wrists, twisting against him.
His cock swelled, scraped over the bundled bed of nerves buried inside me, and I exploded. He was right behind me. I felt it as he climaxed, the way his cock jolted, then the wet splash as he came inside me.
“Nicco…” I whispered his name against his lips, pushing my fingers into his hair.
He rubbed his mouth against mine and wrapped his arms around me, sliding down until he could rest his head between my breasts.
He nuzzled me then, and it made my heart flip over. I wrapped my arms around his head, holding him tight as I lifted up and pressed a kiss to his crown. “Stay?” I whispered.
He caught one of my hands and brought it to his lips. It was answer enough.
Thirteen
Ravenna
“Hi.” Nervously, I stared at Suria. I wasn’t entirely certain about this. Nicco had assured me that Suria wanted to talk to me, so I’d given in to his comments and come along with him.
I still wasn’t sure what we were going to accomplished.
With Gabriel Marks living a few hours away, he was more than a little out of my jurisdiction.
But we had to do something, and the people who were most likely to have some idea on what or how to handle him was going to be his kids.
Suria stared at me, her eyes dark and unreadable. After a moment, a bit of a smile cracked her face and she gave a short nod. “We want the same thing, don’t we?”
“I want Gabriel Mark behind bars.”
She cocked a brow. “I want him where he can’t cause problems for my sister,” she said softly.
It was telling, the way she said my sister. But I didn’t ask her for details. “If he’s behind bars, he can’t cause problems for anybody. Not her, or you.”
Suria curled her lip. “I can take care of myself, but she’s…”
A sound behind Suria had her turning.
I’d already caught sight of the girl who’d slid into the hallway, but apparently, Suria hadn’t been aware of her until that telltale noise.
“Joelle.”
“I’m what?” Joelle looked from her sister to me, then back. When we’d met, she’d watched me with a hesitant gaze, but her expression had been open, easy to read.
Not so much now. She didn’t have the hard-edged glare that her sister had managed, but it was a more serious look than I’d expected to see from her with that fresh-faced innocent thing she had going on.
Suria looked a little caught off-guard, I thought, but if she was, she hid it fast enough.
“Joelle, can you go make some coffee? I’ve got to talk to…” She looked at me, her eyes guarded. “Officer Sinclair and Nicco for a while.”
“If it’s about Dad, then I need to be in there too.” She folded her arms and leaned against the wall, bracing herself on her shoulder. “This all involves me too.”
Suria’s lips pressed down tight.
She blew out a sigh and stepped back. “We’ll talk about this in a minute, Jo.” Her gaze slid back to me. Nicco and I were still standing on the stoop, and she gestured. “We can’t do this out here.”
Once we were inside, she led us into a large, formal sitting area. “This isn’t my place,” she said, waving a hand around to encompass the area. “We’ve been staying with Nicco’s mom since…” She stopped and sighed, passing a hand over her eyes. “Man, this is complicated.”
She looked frustrated and pissed, but I got a feeling it wasn’t directed at me. Looking around, I gestured to a chair. “Mind if I sit?”
Nicco was still standing behind me, silent.
“Go ahead.” She took the seat opposite mine and met my gaze levelly. “I have no love for my father. You should know that up front. I’ve heard you got issues with him, and I get it. But trust me, I’ve got more than a few issues with him too. Me and Joelle.”
“I can speak for myself,” Joelle piped up from the doorway.
“Joelle…” Suria slid her a look.
The younger girl shook her head and stepped into the room, pushing her long hair back from her face. She looked young but determined. “He did just as much to me. Hell, Suri, he did more,” Joelle said, shaking her head.
Curiosity pricked at me, and I slid Nicco a look. He wasn’t looking at me, though. He was staring at Suria with a closed expression.
Joelle’s support came from a different direction though.
I looked over at the sound of an unfamiliar voice and spied a tall, lean blond standing in the door. “This concerns her too,” he said.
“She’s a kid,” Suria said.
“I’m not saying you have to let her lead the charge, but you should at least listen to the things she has to say.” His longish hair flopped into his eyes, and he shoved it back, a negligent, almost second-hand gesture. “You’re right. You both have issues with him. But she’s right too. She can speak for herself. You should let her.”
Suria opened her mouth like she wanted to argue, but then she deflated. She slanted a look at Joelle and waved at her. “Come on, Jo. You’re right.”
As Joelle came in, she looked at me and waggled her fingers. “How are you doing?” she asked, a friendly expression on her face.
It was nice, seeing a friendly expression around here.
Granted, I could look at Nicco and see more than friendliness, but the easy warmth on Joelle’s face was welcome.
She sat down on the couch angling toward me, half-turned toward me. “What’s the deal with you and my father?” she asked softly.
“It’s complicated,” I said, hesitant.
“If it involves him, it’s going to be.” She rolled her eyes and leaned back into the couch, crossing her legs. She wore an outfit of jeans and knee boots, a cute pink sweater topping it off. The sweater played up her golden skin. She was a beautiful girl. Really. “You probably wouldn’t believe some of the shit he’s done.”
Leaning forward, I braced my elbows on my knees. Linking my fingers together, I met her eyes. “I don’t suppose you want to tell me what kind of shit, do you?”
Her eyes held mine for a long moment, then she flicked a look at her sister.
After a few seconds, she said, “You have to understand…our life was…hell. It’s all we knew. There were things he taught us, things he had us doing, that just…well, it wasn’t cool.”
Something told me that she was putting it lightly when she said, it wasn’t cool. Was that paraphrasing, it wasn’t legal?
Shooting Suria a look, I took in the carefully blank expression on her face and wondered.
But my gut was telling me the answer was yes.
“We need to figure out a way to get your dad to admit to some of the illegal things he’s done,” I said softly, looking between the two sisters. “The more recent, the better. And…evidence or witnesses would be nice.”
Suria grimaced. She reached up and rubbed between her eyebrows where a thin line had formed. “I guess it was too much to hope you all had already built a case against him,” she murmured.
“I don’t have a case,” I admitted. Frustrated, I got up and paced over to the window. “What I have is a friend whose family was defrauded by him, and her father ended up committing suicide.”
I looked back at them as I delivered those words and watched varying expressions of horror and shock flit across their faces. From the doorway where he still stood, the blond said, “Son of a bitch.”
Suria got up and went to him, leaning against him with her arms wrapped around his waist. “Every time I think I’ve heard the worst,” she said.
He kissed her hair. “You’re away from him now, babe. Remember that.”
“I know, Kian.”
I tucked that name away in the back of my head as I pulled my gaze away from them. They were a unit. It was written all over them, from the way he skimmed a hand down her back to the way she straightened up and brushed a hand across his cheek.
Something close to envy slid through me.
But then Nicco came over and passed a hand across the back of my shoulder. I looked up at him as he sat down on the arm of the chair and took my hand. “Are you okay?” he asked, his eyes intent on my face.
I nodded, pulling my eyes away from him so I didn’t get lost in them.
“I’m sorry,” Joelle said, meeting my eyes. “That’s just…lousy…”
“Yeah.” I couldn’t help but laugh. Lousy was one way to put it. “Yeah, it’s pretty lousy.” I drew in a deep breath and let it out. “It’s been years, but…lousy is still a good if short way of putting it.”
“I’m sorry too.” Suria took her seat again, meeting my eyes. “That’s… rough. My dad’s always been a
n asshole.”
That made me break out into an outright laugh.
“That, too, is a good way of putting it.” I managed to smile.
Nicco cupped the back of my neck in his hand and rubbed his thumb in a small circle over the base of my neck. “You need evidence of his crimes. Witnesses. What if there are witnesses who might have been involved in some the crimes themselves?”
Nobody looked at Suria, but I could feel the tension gathering in the air.
“Would he admit to the crimes?” I asked.
“Admit to the cops?” Suria laughed. “Hell, no. But would he brag? Depends on who it’s to.”
A few seconds of silence passed, then Nicco said calmly, “Me.”
I whipped my head to look at him.
He glanced down at me before rising. He circled around the room, looking restless. He rotated his neck, left, then right, turning back to look at us. “I can talk to him.”
“After what we did?” Suria asked, her gaze incredulous.
Curiosity piqued again.
“What did you do?” I asked, keeping a flat voice.
Joelle was the first one to look at me.
The glance didn’t last more than a second before she shifted her attention to her sister. “She should know.” With a shrug, she added, “Who knows, maybe it will make it easier for her to…you know. I mean, we talked about me going to the police if I had to.”
Now it was more than curiosity. “I think maybe you two should tell me whatever this is,” I said, trying to keep the edge out of my voice.
I didn’t think I entirely succeeded, judging by the way Suria turned her eyes on me, an appraising look on her face. But she focused on the man standing in the doorway. He made a move with his shoulders and said, “It’s up to you two. He screwed you two over, not me.”
Suria rubbed her brow, then looked back at me. “Do you know that we’re Romany?”
I flicked a look from her to her sister, then glanced over at the man next to me. “You mean like…what…Gypsies?”
“Not exactly the PC term.” Joelle made a face. “But yeah, that’s what she means. Dad belongs to a clan near Los Angeles. We grew up there. To outsiders, there are things in the clan that will seem…odd.”