What amazed her more was the amount of steam coming off her body considering she barely used any of the hot water. She needed the cold to wash away the pangs of wanting him again. What was she? A sex addict. Was it even possible to be addicted to someone after one night?
“You’re crazy, Tomasello,” she mumbled, opening the door by its silver handle. Her eyes glanced over the counter where she left a fresh change of clothes on the sink counter in front of the mirror. The tube of toothpaste she laid near the sink fell to the plush deep maroon carpet. She bent over, legs straight, back flat, and stretched her legs while she picked up the tube. Her muscles stilled ached but it was a good ache. She smiled on her way up.
The smile froze at the sudden reflection behind her in the mirror. Dante stood behind her, his arms by his side, but no mistaking the gun holster strapped on top of his fitted black shirt to his bulging muscles on his shoulders. Harley blinked, in case she was hallucinating. Black utility boots covered his feet and black jeans encased his thick thighs. Even in the dark there was no mistaking the bulge between his legs. How many beers had she had?
In case this was a hallucination, Harley spun around to face him. He stood so close, the friction between them caused her towel to drop. Not forgetting her nakedness she leapt into his arms. His bulky arms crushed against her frame. She unfastened the snaps of his holster at the nape of his neck and let his weapons hit the floor. Wet hands snaked beneath the fabric of his black T-shirt, feathering her fingertips up his abdominal muscles while he backed her up to the counter. The cold marble froze her ass against the contrast of her warm crotch steaming with anticipation.
“What are you doing here?” she said through a stream of kisses against his bearding throat.
“I had to see you again,” he whispered, returning the kisses along her forehead. His large hands cupped her cheeks. “I needed this.”
A breath choked her lungs when his hand caressed gently down her face, between her breastbone, to the soft cushion of her belly, and into the forest. Her spine straightened when his fingers found her nest.
“How’d you find me?”
“I am always going to know where to find you,” he dipped a finger into her flesh, “I can’t explain it.”
“You’re uh, FBI-spidey senses brought you here?” She stared at him. One brow rose knowing the next thing to come out of his mouth would be a lie. But considering the fact she was going along with her own lie to him, how important was his version of the truth when the man could kiss like the devil.
Dante surprised her and turned her on at the same time with a lazy lopsided grin instead of an answer.
“You could have been shot trying to board.”
“The crew is drunk, very careless,” he replied with a shrug. “Given the fact they can’t protect you or your niece, I have every right to be here.”
Goosebumps prevailed against her better judgment. “I can take care of myself.”
“Mmhm,” he hummed, squatting like an umpire in front of her. With his hands covering most of her upper thigh, he used his thumbs to coax her legs open.
The mirror chilled her back and the subconscious fat of the back of her thigh moved across the marble. A warm tongue darted in and spread her lips apart. Harley took in a sharp gasp of air. His broad shoulders became a resting spot for the back of her knees. “We can’t keep doing this.”
“Why debate? We’ve got nothing but time to kill.”
Harley gave in to the desire rising from the pit of her belly. For such a big man his kisses and tongue knew how to guide through her with such delicacy. He feasted on her like a hungry man with a peach. Harley’s eyes rolled to the back of her head. She gripped the faucets on either side to control her orgasm. How in the hell was he so magical? The right side of her eye began to twitch with the swirl of his tongue. Her toes popped and the back of her knees curled against his shoulders. When the first wave hit her, Dante swiftly pulled her off the counter. Dazed from the racking orgasm, she did not realize what was happening until another wave rocked her body. The counter where she sat was now warm against her belly. Dante entered her from behind full tilt, his cock filled her and her walls hugged him tight so he felt every quiver of her next orgasm. He pulled out giving her a moment to catch her breath, and then thrust forward. His arm dipped down and caught her right leg while his left pressed against the curve of her lower back, and dipped his knees for further penetration.
“Oh my God!” Harley gave a breathless cry. She rolled her neck around and absorbed the pleasure. With her leg cradling in his hand, he worked her like a fine oiled machine. She squeezed, lowered her body, and tried everything she could to take control, but he held on. She liked it. When he lifted her other leg into his other hand using her body like a wheelbarrow, a flash of excitement and panic clamped down in her belly. Roars accompanied his climax.
They both were seconds from catching their breath when the bedroom door crashed open. Guns pointed at them. Dante, pants at his ankles, wedged Harley’s naked frame behind him and pulled up his pants as well as extracted his weapon from the holster and brandished it toward the door. Harley reached for her hidden pistol between the towels on the sink and aimed as well. Tai stepped around one of her crew members while Harley peered around Dante’s shoulder.
“We thought someone was getting murdered in here,” Tai said with a shrug. “What in the hell are you doing here?”
Dante nodded his head back toward Harley, “I made a vow to keep her safe.”
Tai chuckled. Harley hid hers by pressing her lips together. When were they going to end this charade? “Ah, Tahiry,” Harley spoke up and enunciated her friend’s name, “would you mind giving us some privacy?”
“He is a stowaway,” Tai snarled with her upper lip raised.
“Well, it’s not like we’re going to make him walk the plank,” Harley countered.
“Because you’ve already walked his plank?”
The men surrounding Tai snickered. Harley rolled her eyes and waved her friend off with a smile. Tai went unwillingly but not without giving Dante a warning glare before closing the door behind her.
“Nice you had my back,” Dante said turning around to face her.
“Don’t read too much into it,” she said. Faced with his broad chest, Harley bit the right corner of her bottom lip and inhaled. The scent of their lust permeated the air. “I need another shower.”
“We should conserve water.”
Harley looked over her shoulder as she went into the bathroom without denying his proposal. Eagerly he shrugged out of his shirt and slipped down his pants, but not before kicking out of his boots.
The cool water streamed onto her body, chilling her when the white shower curtain opened for Dante. Because of the cramped quarters, they stood close under the flow. Harley faced him with his bare broad chest and swallowed the desire boiling inside.
“Allow me,” he took the bar of soap into the wet wash cloth hanging over the rail and began to bathe her body starting from her neck where he kissed her, between her breast where his tongue trailed, and against her nipples where he suckled.
No one had ever bathed her, at least not since she was a child. Dante ran his fingers through the cloth and managed to seduce and clean her entire body at the same time. She moaned when his fingers tipped her head back into the stream of water and began massaging her scalp with mango shampoo. When he used the conditioner, he used the recommended two-minute time for the hair treatment to feast on her neck. Water poured between the two of them like a thin barrier. Through the warm shower flow she felt his tongue against her neck. Her knees felt like buckling.
Her hands couldn’t move fast enough over his shoulders, arms, chest, and legs. With soapy fingers she reached between his legs and fumbled with his erection. She tugged him close to her, evoking a moan from him. Something about the purr escaping his throat made her want to hear more. Carefully she got to her knees, the water at her back. She took all of him into her mouth. Dante’s hand s
lammed against the slick wall and his other grabbed the shower rod. Harley concentrated on the erection growing larger in her mouth and hand. She pulled him out and ran her tongue around the tip a few times before sucking the tip. Dante inhaled deep. His knees dipped. Harley enjoyed the power over him. When she gripped tighter at the base of his cock she made his toes crack. When she pulled her hand closer to her mouth, his backside would thrust forward. But when she used her mouth, fully taking him to the hilt, his entire body shook. She worked him until he couldn’t take any more. His fingers tangled in her silky hair. His cock bobbed in her mouth with a drizzle of pre-cum. Quickly he pulled back, lifted her into his arms and forced her back against the wall and guided him into her for four maybe five good deep thrusts. Harley tried to hold on to him but he pinned her hands close to the shower head. His chest held them glued together while every ounce of him poured out into her.
The sleep she felt earlier disappeared. Dante wrapped her arms around his waist and carried her like that, with him still in her, to the bed. They made love on top of the covers in every position imaginable. Harley’s long black hair was nearly dry by the time they satisfied all their cravings.
“So tell me how you became a Crime Scene Photographer?”
Harley relished in Dante’s arms, snuggling her head into the crook of his arm. She faced him and his nine o’clock shadow—because it was more than fuzz but not quite beard. Hints of gray sprinkled the lines of his goatee. The coloring gave him a distinguished look, something that demanded respect.
After what they shared over and over, guilt riddled her for continuing the lie, but it wasn’t like he was being truthful himself. “Oh, well a girl takes a few photography classes in school and it suddenly becomes a career.”
“Art or studio?”
“Huh?”
The bulge of his muscle flexed against her neck, “Abstract or a bowl of fruit? I bet you’re more of a freelance hoping to win a Pulitzer?”
Not like she thought Dante was stupid but she hadn’t expected him to be so worldly in the photography world. She searched her mind for a reasonable answer. “I wanted a job that kept me close to town so I could be near my niece and this fit the bill.”
His lips pressed together as he digested her answer. “I understand. You two are close.”
“Are you close to anyone in your family?”
“I was close to my sister, Allegra.”
Strings pulled at her heart. Harley sat up a little. “Was?”
“She died a while back.”
“And since then?”
Dante brought his hand up to stroke the slope of her nose. “Are you worried about me?”
“No.” She kissed the tip of his finger when it touched her lip. “I have my folks and my brother and his family. Who brings you birthday gifts and that kind of stuff?”
“Aren’t we family now?”
His words were meant to be a joke, but deep down inside Harley couldn’t help the nagging feeling she’d failed at something. Why? She had no idea. They’d known each other a span of twenty-four hours. “Temporarily.”
“Aw, you still want to divorce me?”
“Sorry, but I like my privacy. I know how you FBI guys are chained to the desk and to the home.”
Playfully Dante reached for her wrists and held them over her head. “Chained to the desk? Sounds kinky. Ever been?” He offered one of his lopsided grins. He let her go with a frown. “Forget I asked.”
“Don’t act like there haven’t been other women before me,” she teased, pulling his arm around the curve of her waist. Fingers splayed across her backside. She squirmed under the ticklish touch, enjoying the sensation he sent over her body. Her nipples hardened, begging to be touched as well. He may have looked like a wolf man, but right now he had the potential to be as cuddly as a teddy bear.
“There may have been men before me,” Dante said huskily, “but I mean to be the last.”
“We just met.”
“You deny what’s between us.” To further prove his point, Dante tipped her chin upwards to kiss her lips. “I’ve never scaled a boat to be with a woman before.”
“For sex.”
“You’re in my system, Harley.”
Harley pulled away leaving his body an arm’s length away from him. “I can’t deny you being in my system either. Physically we’re drawn to each other. We’ve had some awesome sex but we’re strangers. You, other than you work for the FBI and you have some climbing skills. You’ve been to my house yet where do you live?”
A part of her willed him to tell her the truth about himself. Now would be a good time for her to tell the truth, too. Didn’t this make her a hypocrite since she was aware of his career? If she waited any longer, things could blow up in her face.
Dante reached for her hand, their fingers splayed against each other. His dwarfed hers. “I have a place in Washington Heights in New York. I was raised in Bensonhurst with my sister, mom and my pops. Got into the military to get away from my pops and I learned a trade to fix things. Oh and I can’t cook but I love to eat, my friends tease me.”
“And the FBI?”
His shoulders shrugged lazily. “It sort of happened. I guess you could say like how you ended up on the police force with an affinity for weaponry.”
Harley took her turn shrugging her shoulders, “What can I say? I am a single woman living alone and I capture brutal through a camera.”
“A Sig Sauer?”
“What?”
“It’s a pretty powerful gun.”
Harley squeezed her fingers around his. “I am a pretty powerful woman.”
“Damn straight!” His lips spread to a slow smile.
“I also to carry a .22 for safe keeping in case I can’t get to my real gun.”
His chest rose with a deep breath. “I like a woman who comes prepared. I also admire the lengths you’ll go to be around your niece, even if it means putting up with a crappy paying job with a boss who, if he’s not hitting on you, insults you.”
The muscle over her left eye shot up in question. “What are you talking about?”
“I had Lundy pegged the minute he tried to mark his territory when he saw us together. A dumb ass cop like him can sense our chemistry.”
“He’s a detective.”
“He’s an ass,” Dante tucked his free hand under his head to prop him up more.
Harley rose on her elbow and admired the hair on his chest, her finger circled his nipples then followed his happy trail. “Well, what do you propose we do about our situation?”
“I’m in no rush to end things, are you?”
She shook her head. “No.”
“Then I say we ride this wave out.”
A wave hit the side of the ship and the turbulence pushed her on top of him. Harley’s eyebrows rose. “Maybe Poseidon agrees with you.”
The sheets rustled together as he circled his arms around her waist and flipped her onto her back. He rose up on his elbows and gazed down at her, brushing her hair from her forehead. “Do you agree with me?”
“I’m not convinced. There’s something you’re not telling me.”
Dante used his knee to spread her legs apart. “We have a lot to learn. That’s the point of us sticking things out.”
“What if I don’t like what I learn?”
“What could you not like?” Dante centered himself at her apex, hovering and taunting her body. She throbbed for his entrance.
“After you find your guy, where do you go? Are you going to work on the Parkway?”
“Huh?”
Harley pulled the white sheet back over his naked body. “The FBI office.”
“The main office is there,” Dante touched the tip of her nose, “there are lots of satellite offices around the states.”
He had a point there. STB did not have one main office but several around the world. She grew irritated with his lack of truth. How far did he plan on taking this lie, especially with the talk of not ending this sham o
f a marriage? Or was it part of the lie as well. At the end of the day, Dante was using her and his lack of truth proved her right.
“Tired?”
The concern in his voice touched her, but solidified her feelings. Harley gave a slow blink. In truth, her lids were heavy. “Yeah.”
“Sleep, we’ll talk about our future tomorrow.”
****
Dante awoke at the sound of Harley stirring and propped himself on his elbow. He couldn’t help but trace the odd tattoo on her back on each shoulder blade, not able to make out what it was, broken glass he guessed. A shadow passed under the door, darkening the room for a millisecond. The slightly opened window curtain provided enough light to expose the mess on the floor. In their haste for another round of sensational sex, a pillow flopped to the floor and moved the material. Harley turned and faced him. He averted his eyes to the floor, then brushed a strand of hair behind her ear.
“You’re smiling early,” Harley noted groggily. “What’s on your mind?”
“I’m trying to decide what kind of moan I want you to make right now.”
“How about the moan of hunger?”
He smiled and kissed the softness of her cheek. “Hungry for what?”
As if on cue, someone knocked on the bedroom door. Dante covered Harley with the sheet up to her neck. “With any luck it’s room service.”
“Ask and you shall receive.”
Dante moved to the end of the bed, searching for his jeans. He spotted them closer to the bathroom, his boots still in the hem. The bed shifted for Harley to sit up and lift herself to her elbows. The sheet folded just above the swell of her breast. Breakfast be damned, he wanted to eat her.
Mr. and Mrs. Rossi Page 9