Booze and Bullets (Brooklyn Brothers #3)

by Melanie Munton

  But in all my years of experience, it had never felt like this.

  What a cliché.

  Maybe, but it was also the truth.

  This time, the act didn’t feel like an obligatory pit stop on the way to ultimate release. This time, it felt like the beginning of something life-altering. Like if I didn’t consume her inside and out, starting with that kiss, I would croak right there in my own pool. After being such an epic dick to her, I was goddamn lucky she was even allowing it. It was a privilege to be kissing her.

  Especially when her lips parted and my seeking tongue thrust inside her welcoming mouth.

  Then it turned very sexual.

  My tongue flicked against hers, eliciting a whimper from her velvety lips and wrenching a hungry growl from mine. She was soft and pliant all over. We ate at each other’s mouths as though we had been deprived of sustenance for years. I suppose, in a way, I had been. I was certainly no stranger to the one-night-stand, but true sexual fulfillment was almost a foreign concept to me.

  Sex was never emotional for me.

  It was something to keep me balanced. Focused. Something I enjoyed, of course. And I enjoyed women. But it had become nothing more than a task I checked off my to-do list. I needed to keep my head on straight for work, and sex filled that role.

  And I knew I was up shit creek when one kiss from Lexi had me feeling like I’d do anything to have this for the rest of my life. To bottle up this euphoria like my favorite whiskey, put it on the shelf, and drink from it whenever I damn well pleased.

  It started the moment I’d set foot inside my house tonight and immediately sought her out. After the events of the day, I’d needed to see her with my own eyes and make sure nothing evil had touched her. I’d needed to hold her in my arms—I’d actually told her as much—just to assure myself that she was safe and whole. I’d needed to return the favor from the week before. The prospect of finally getting my mouth on her pussy had driven me through the house and straight into the pool like a man possessed.

  Frankly, I couldn’t decide which set of her lips tasted better.

  The surge of possession, the staggering compulsion to lay claim to every part of her—to own her completely—was rising up like an indestructible force inside me. A siege of primal desires. A battleground of greedy demands. Everything about the way in which I needed to mark this woman was the very definition of carnal.

  I was the shade to her sunshine. And yet…

  I was selfish enough to want to hold the monopoly on all things Lexi.

  With our mouths still sealed together, I ripped her top down below her tits, freeing them to the chilly October air. And I wasn’t nice about getting my hands on them. My grip was demanding and propriety when my palms covered them. Her nipples had instantly hardened, as I knew they would. I actually felt the stirrings of annoyance that it had taken me this long to see and hold them. I should have stripped her naked the second I had her legs spread on the edge of the pool.

  I tore my mouth away. “Tell me you want this.”

  Her breath left her in a sarcastic puff. “Isn’t it obvious?”

  I felt my mouth spread into a wolfish grin. When I pinched her tiny rosebuds, she arched into my hands, seeking more. “Make my cock harder and say the words anyway.”

  Turning her head, she said against my neck, “I want this, Nico.”

  My eyes rolled back in my head at the sound of my name coming out all breathy through her swollen, thoroughly-kissed lips. “And did you like the way I ate out your pretty little cunt?”

  I felt a shiver travel down her spine. “You can still taste how much I came for you, can you not? What do you think?”

  I took a nip of her earlobe. “Your goddamn right I can. Tell me you’ve never come like that before. Tell me no one’s ever driven you so mad that you saw stars.”

  A lusty moan escaped her. “Never. I’ve never needed it like that before.”

  Me. Fucking. Too.

  That night in the cellar, I would have lost ten years of my life if she had stopped before I’d emptied myself down her talented throat.

  “Do you want me, Lexi?” I whispered. “Beyond right now. Beyond a buzz and a blowjob by the fire. Do you want me?”

  I shuddered when she wiggled her ass against my throbbing dick. If it didn’t get wrapped up in her slickness in the next thirty seconds, the ache would catapult well past unbearable and into the catatonic stage.

  “Yes,” she breathed. “I want you so much.”

  I didn’t realize the feral growl I heard came from me until I had her shoved up against the edge of the pool, my arms caging her in. I used the leverage to grind my pulsing erection against her pert backside. And here I thought I couldn’t be driven any lower toward succumbing to my primordial needs. But hearing that this goddess of a woman wanted me back? That she shared this insatiable, indefinable need?

  Just go ahead and call me a fucking caveman.

  Because I was about to drag her back to my cave and stake my claim. Already images of us rutting together on all fours like animals assaulted my mind until I thought I’d be stricken blind. Fantasies that vivid were toxic to the mind. I’d be able to think of little else until I’d taken her exactly like that.

  “I’m gonna fuck you, Lexi,” I said gruffly. “Right here, right now. You ready to feel it?”

  She panted like I was already pumping inside her. “I’ve been ready.”

  “Goddamn.” Plunging my hand into the water, I went for the button on my slacks with jerky movements. “Yeah, give me more of that. I want to hear more.”

  Her hips undulated, clearly anxious for me to take this vicious edge off. “I wanted you even when I hated you. I think I actually would have been okay with hate-sex if I’d known how good it would be. Like the night at the club. I was ready for you to fuck me on that dance floor.”

  Have to get inside.

  “I wanted to.” I freed my shaft from its soaked confines. “I had every intention of bending you over in front of that asshole you danced with. To teach both of you a lesson.”

  Her head fell forward, her hair curtaining her face. “And what lesson would that be?”

  Pulling her back up, I wrapped my hand around her throat. Not tightly, just meaningfully. “That you’re mine.”

  Holding her in that spot, I shoved her bottoms out of the way and guided my engorged head to her entrance. Just as I was about to thrust inside her waiting channel and end the torture, my security system near the patio door alerted me that someone had entered the house through the front door.

  We both froze.

  The sounds from the system echoed through the otherwise still night. The water around us ceased its sloshing, our breaths slowly evening out as we both took stock.

  “Someone’s here?” she whispered, sounding a little uneasy. “They didn’t break in, right?”

  That slight tremble in her voice was the only reason why I didn’t push my luck and fuck her before whoever was here could make it back to the pool.

  I roared my frustration as I jerked away and carefully zipped up my painful hard-on. Whatever higher force was at work here, it had taken my punishment for all my past misdeeds a little too far this time.

  “No,” I bit out, annoyed beyond hell that anyone had dared interrupt one of the most intense moments of my life. “Whoever came in used their key. And only my family members have keys.”

  Springing into action, she quickly pulled her top back up, concealing my favorite little toys. I could have almost found humor in the situation, watching her fumble with her meager clothing, straightening her mussed-up hair. It was like we were a couple of curfew-breaking high schoolers who were about to be caught by her parents. Not that it would have been a first for me. I’d angered many a father over the years.

  Funny enough, in this case, it was the father who’d thrown his girl at me.

  Lexi looked up at me with a heartbreakingly beautiful expression of vulnerability and coyness. Enigma. With a heavy exhale
, I laid a soft kiss on her lips and pulled away before I wasn’t capable of doing so.

  “Stay out here and relax some more,” I told her gently. “Enjoy the jacuzzi. I’ll be a few minutes. Gotta go kill someone and dispose of their body.”

  I climbed out of the pool, clothing dripping wet and sticking to me. The suit was beyond salvageable, and it was so fucking worth it. Until our happy ending was thwarted by someone with a lot of nerve and a death wish.

  “Try not to open any more of your stitches, will you?” she called out.

  I looked over my shoulder and winked at her. “If I do, I’ll let you play nursemaid and patch me back up. If you’re lucky, I’ll even let you kiss it better.”

  She smiled.

  I put that smile on her face. Me.

  “Deal, pretty boy.”

  Walking with the worst case of blue balls in history was a piece of fucking cake compared to having to turn away from that smile.

  Which settled it. I was taking everyone’s keys back.

  If they wanted to drop by unannounced, they were going to have to wait outside until I was done fucking my wife and good and goddamn ready to let them in.

  I quickly changed in the guest house where I kept extra clothes. Entering the house, I found Cris standing in my kitchen, pouring two glasses of Henry McKenna bourbon whiskey from a bottle I’d left open on the counter.

  I stood on the opposite side of the bar, arms crossed, and just waited. We knew each other well enough to know how the other operated.

  Sometimes you needed a drink before you walked into fire.

  He tipped his head back and swallowed down his two fingers. Swinging his somber gaze over to me, he said in a grave voice, “We need to fucking talk.”

  I had never felt so anxious and out of sorts.

  My God, you’d have thought one orgasm would have satisfied me for the rest of the night. But Nico grinding himself against me in the pool like that had worked me up into another frenzy, the likes of which I’d never dealt with before.

  The only thing I could think of to alleviate the throbbing ache between my legs was my handy dandy arsenal of toys that yes, I’d managed to fit inside one of my three suitcases, as Nico had eluded to the day we left Moscow.

  I didn’t know how much longer he was going to be downstairs with Cris.

  Didn’t know if we’d even pick up where we’d left off.

  And I needed relief immediately.

  I didn’t even bother going for one of my fancier dildos. I just swiped up my trusty bullet that I’d kept in the nightstand drawer, fell onto my bed, and spread my legs wide on the comforter. My imagination quickly went to work as I turned the vibration setting up as high as it would go and placed the toy right over that magical bundle of nerves.

  Nico sucking my clit into his mouth.

  Nico ravaging my neck as he dry-humped me against his car.

  Nico’s rumbly voice telling me I had a virgin-tight cunt, that I was the most gorgeous woman he’d ever seen, that he’d wanted to bend me over and fuck me in the middle of that club in Rovinj.

  “Christ, please tell me that’s because of me.”

  I jerked backward on the bed but didn’t remove the bullet from its sweet spot. Nico stood in the doorway of my bedroom, white-knuckling the frame, heated gaze locked on my hands. He looked crazed, wild. Like he was going to take the whole wall down if he didn’t let go soon.

  “I wasn’t lying about being able to take care of my own problems,” I panted.

  “I’m sorry you felt the need to.”

  I grinned. “Do you see me complaining?”

  He still stared at my center, appearing dumbstruck. “I’m a little hurt I wasn’t invited to this party.”

  My tone turned placating. “I couldn’t wait.”

  He nodded slowly. “I know the feeling.”

  “You know”—I pulled the bullet away and pointed it in his direction—“you did tell me you know how to use these toys on my body better than I do. Care to prove that?”

  He took a step inside the room, then another. Measured steps, as if he didn’t trust himself to go too fast. “As much as that idea appeals to me—and you have no idea how much—I think right now I’d rather watch you finish yourself off.”

  I got the sense that sex wasn’t going to happen tonight. Our moment was ruined, and it strangely didn’t feel like the right time to go back and try to reclaim it.

  Masturbating in front of him, however, I could more than do.

  I returned the toy to my clit, eyes locked on his. This was even better because I had the actual man right in front of me. Standing at the foot of my bed in black sweatpants and a gray T-shirt, he rubbed his palm over his growing bulge as we watched me.

  “Fuck it,” he hissed.

  He shoved his hand inside his sweatpants and began to jack himself. My eyelids went heavy at the sight, and I pressed the vibrating toy harder against my flesh. I bit my lip as my heels dug into the bed. I wouldn’t last much longer.

  I jerked my chin at him. “Lose the shirt.”

  His mouth twitched at my take on the command he’d given me last week in the booze bunker. Lose the jeans. He happily obliged, drawing the shirt over his head and exposing his ripped torso to my lecherous gaze. His muscles rippled as he continued to pull on himself, his abs flexing with every stroke.

  “Fuck yourself for me, Lex,” he rasped. “Fuck yourself to me. I want to know that your little toys aren’t enough anymore. You have to think of me when you pet yourself now, don’t you? You have to picture me, hear my voice in your head, when you need to cream. Don’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  I moved my hand faster. He moved his faster. Our gazes never strayed from one another.

  “Seeing me half naked and jerking myself while I watch you makes you drip, doesn’t it? You’re drenched. I can motherfucking see it.”

  “Yes, yes, yes.”

  That coiled tension inside my belly was about to snap loose. The pulsing began as the throbbing intensified to the point I almost couldn’t stand it. It was coming on too fast and not fast enough. I was having difficulty catching my breath.

  “You need me,” he growled. “Don’t you, Lexi? You need me, you want me, you can’t fucking stand not having me anymore. Tell me I’m right!”

  “YES!”

  “Then soak the goddamn sheets and come for me!”

  I threw my head back and jackknifed off the bed. My screams were met by his thunderous bellows. It was so ridiculously intense that tears leaked out the corners of my eyes. By the time I drifted down back to earth, Nico had wiped himself clean with his shirt and looked seconds away from clawing my sheets to shreds until he got to me.

  He swung his shirt over his shoulder and dropped his arms to his sides, hands clenching into fists. His gaze lasered in on my sex, his tongue dragging across his lower lip.

  He nodded. “Soon.”

  Then he walked out and closed the door behind him.

  I found myself surrounded by a horde of children the next day.

  Because all I’d been able to do at Nico’s house while he was at work was fantasize about the man.

  Deciding I needed to be more productive at something other than giving myself orgasms, I’d called my new mother-in-law. Val had been all too excited to have me join her at the One Heart One Hand Center, a foundation that assisted the homeless population, offering various job training and placement programs, as well as financial advisement. In addition, they also ran several youth programs, including child care. I was told the foundation started in Washington, D.C. years ago and now had branches in several major cities along the East Coast.

  “You’re good with them.”

  I had just finished reading a story to a group of six-year-olds, who felt the need to hilariously discuss it at length afterwards, and sent them off to enjoy snack time with a few other volunteers

  “Children are much easier to work with than adults,” I mused to Val. “Less complicated and more
innocent. What you see is what you get.”

  She nodded. “Children are rather simple creatures. All they really want at the end of the day is to be loved. My heart breaks every time I see a child who doesn’t even have that.”

  It felt like she’d hit a bruise on my heart with those words, as they were so terribly close to home.

  “Isn’t that what we all want at the end of the day?” I asked. “To be loved?”

  She inclined her head knowingly at me. With her warm chocolate eyes, olive skin, and stylish bob that had only a few streaks of gray, Val was a very beautiful woman. And with Enzo being so handsome… I could see where their sons had all gotten their good looks from.

  “I think most people do, yes,” she answered. “Even commitment-phobic thirty-three-year-olds who’ve sworn up and down they’d never get married, yet who wed themselves to lovely, kind-hearted women purely for business reasons.”

  I lowered my head, blushing. “Why do I feel like that comment was a little on the nose?”

  “Because you’re an intelligent woman.”

  Taking pity on me, she suspended her scrutinizing stare to help me clean up the play area where I’d read to the children.

  “I know Nico has his faults, but he truly is a good man. Even if he doesn’t think he is.”

  I cast her a side glance. “What do you mean?”

  She sighed. “No one has greater expectations of Nico than Nico himself. He sets the bar higher than anyone else would. I know everyone thinks he’s a lackadaisical goofball, but I think he works himself far harder than anyone sees. In fact, I think he pushes himself too hard.”

  Considering the fact that I’d rarely seen him not working since I’d met him—except during our frenzied masturbatory sessions, of course—I’d have to agree with her.

  “His work ethic does seem to be…demanding.”

  She finished reassembling a wooden puzzle and placed it on a stack with all the others. “I’m afraid his father put too much pressure on him when he was younger, being the first-born and all. Nico felt the weight of his future responsibilities and somehow got it in his head that he would never rise to the level of achievement we expected. Of course, that was never the case. All Enzo and I have ever wanted for our children is for them to be happy.”