Tank (Dark Falcons Book 2)

by Em Petrova

  With that, she hurried to her car and jumped behind the wheel. Her hands trembled as she turned the key and backed out. The look on Tank’s face…one of absolute devastation…

  What have I done to him?

  She stepped on the gas and headed straight for his house, hoping like crazy that she could catch him and explain.

  Explain what?

  She’d figure that out when she saw him.

  Chapter Five

  “Son of a bitch.” Tank slammed the refrigerator door. He didn’t want food anyway. Or drink.

  He goddamn wanted Catarina—but the woman was too fucked up to realize it. Instead, she ran to the arms of that asshole motherfucking douchebag again and again. What did she see in him? Hell if Tank could ever figure it out.

  He scraped his fingers through his hair and stared at his surroundings. He didn’t have much, but what he did he took care of. He worked hard for it. He’d work hard for her.

  Pressing his lips into a tight line, he stomped to the couch and collapsed to it. He bent to remove his boots. He unknotted the laces and kicked the heavy things aside. Then he leaned forward with his head in his hands.

  “Son of a bitch,” he muttered again, this time with less heat. Resignation trickled over him, bowing his shoulders. He dragged in a deep breath, trying like hell not to recall the scent of her shampoo or see her beautiful face in his mind’s eye.

  He could fucking fight for her, but what good would it do? He’d given her plenty of chances—either she felt something for him or didn’t. And she continually referred to him as her friend, which was as far from lover as possible.

  Yeah, he was her friend, all right—a friend who wanted to strip her down, shove her against the wall and plunge his cock inside her.

  And wake her up with breakfast in bed, even though he could only do eggs and toast.

  Fuck. How many times could he let his heart get ripped out by seeing her with Chad? He couldn’t go on in this masochistic manner. If one of his brothers was in the same boat, he’d tell him to jump out and swim fast for shore. Why couldn’t he?

  Because I love her. Goddammit, I do.

  For a split second in the garage that night, he thought he saw a glint of emotion in her eyes. Something that had his heart sailing high. Now this. Again.

  He shoved to his feet and started to take off his cut. His fingers barely skimmed the leather when a knock came at the door. Issuing a growl of irritation, he stalked across the room and whipped open the door.

  His heart shattered into a million pieces at the sight of Catarina standing in front of him. Her eyes, big, wide and filled with sadness, tugged the last shred of control from him.

  “Fuck this.” He grabbed her. Yanking her inside, he kicked the door shut behind them, cupped her face and kissed her.

  If the hard slam of his mouth didn’t say all the things he wanted to and couldn’t, he didn’t know what else to do.

  With her curly head cradled on his palm, he increased the pressure of his mouth over hers, sinking deeper and deeper until she parted on a gasp, and he thrust his tongue inside.

  Sweet, sweet heaven. She tasted of everything he ever wanted in life and never knew how to get.

  She parted her lips further, drawing a growl from the core of his chest. Suddenly, he realized she was letting him kiss her—and she was kissing him back.

  He started to pull away to look into her eyes, but she looped her arms around his neck. When he tightened his hold on her, she hitched herself up and wrapped her thighs around his waist.

  Jesus. Was he dreaming? He turned for the living room, seeking any horizontal surface to lay her down on and do all the dirty things he’d been battling since day one of knowing Catarina.

  Using his fingers in her tangle of curls, he angled her head to sink his tongue deeper into her mouth. His cock throbbed against his fly, fully hard and ready to roll. They toppled to the couch. He stopped dead. Braced on his elbows, he ripped his mouth free to stare down at her.

  “Cat—”

  She cupped his jaw, her eyes filled with those lights he thought he saw in the garage that night. She searched his face. “Tank…Rob…I’m so damn sorry you saw me with him again. That look on your face—it gutted me. It’s still gutting me. Tell me you forgive me for not seeing what was in front of me this entire time. For hurting you.”

  He couldn’t even swallow the lump formed in his throat. Even shaking his head didn’t clear it. “You’re serious.”

  She scuffed her thumb over the beard growth on his cheek. “I’ve been blind. I…I want you.” The words came out as a breath but had all the force in the world. A hot and tight knot formed in his guts.

  “Say it again, darlin’. I want to know if I’m hallucinating all this.”

  A soft smile spread over her angelic face. “I…want…you.”

  He forced out the breath he’d been holding and dropped his forehead to hers. “You ask for me, you get all of me. Not one night. Not even one week, month or year. Can you commit to that?”

  Before she answered, he claimed her lips again. A hard stamp of his mouth and a swirl of his tongue that left him aching. A quiet moan escaped her lips, and he swallowed it on a groan of his own.

  She dug her fingers into his shoulders to draw him back down over her. As soon as he felt her soft body against his harder one, he almost lost it.

  She scrabbled at his vest to shove it off his shoulders. He nibbled on her lower lip, tasting each bit of her mouth that he wanted to all these long, torturous months. When she got his vest off and went for his shirt, he pulled away to stare at her.

  “We gotta slow down. I’ve waited too long for this.”

  Their gazes held. A sound broke from him as he lowered his mouth to hers again, more gently this time, plundering with all the slow, lazy flips of his tongue that he dreamed of during every long-ass, lonely night.

  God, he couldn’t believe he was touching her. He molded his hand against her tiny waist and learned the shape of her in a brand-new way. As he walked his fingers up her ribs and cupped one breast, she moaned out. The throaty sound stole his damn control, but somehow, he clung to it and continued to take it slow.

  He kissed her again, long and deep, and then dragged his lips down her delicate chin to her throat. When he inhaled her perfume and tasted her skin, he let his eyes slip closed. Dropping kisses in a line to the hollow of her throat where he’d watched her pulse flicker countless times and wanted to do this exact thing, he finally settled his palm over her breast.

  Soft. Plump. A perfect fit for his palm.

  She moaned, and he felt a shudder tear through her.

  He kneaded her gently and drew all five of his fingers up the crest of her breast to pluck at the hard peaked tip. Crying out, she threw her head against the cushions. He went for her throat, kissing and sucking until she writhed. Christ, he wanted to see her undone for him, dewy with pleasure and her skin glowing from his touch.

  He wanted to see his cock glistening with her juices.

  Rocking his hips into hers, he drew a louder moan from her this time. And again. She gripped his shoulders. “Rob!”

  “You never call me that.” He captured her mouth again. Plunged his tongue in and out in a mimicry of how he’d fuck her pussy. His erection throbbed for release, but thank God he had control.

  “I want you in my bed. Do you understand what that means, Cat?”

  The confusion on her pretty face stole some of his steam. She shook her head.

  He stared down into her eyes. “Once I touch you—really touch you—we can’t go back. We stop now, we can pretend this never happened and go back to being friends. But once I claim your body, we won’t be friends anymore—we’ll be lovers. There’s no coming back from that.”

  Her throat worked as she swallowed. “I know that, Rob. I still want it.”

  Without realizing how tense he was waiting for her response, he relaxed now. Gathering her up into his arms, he lifted her and carried her to his bed. />
  The feel of Tank’s stubbled jaw and rough hands moving over her skin set Catarina on fire. She couldn’t think of why she never thought to let him touch her this way before. Now, she couldn’t think of a thing she wanted more.

  As he snaked out his tongue to lap at her cleavage, her breaths came faster. “Please,” she heard herself say, closing her fingers in his hair.

  Soft, so soft—yet hard and rough-edged at the same time. The man was a mystery. One of the most tenderhearted men she’d ever known and yet he could crush a person with diabolical strength.

  She sucked in sharply as he dipped his tongue into her bra cup. With her top off and his hands scorching over her torso, she only wanted more. She watched him move his lips across her breast to the straining point under the thin cup of her bra.

  He slipped his hand around her spine to her bra clasp. Suddenly, her bra fell away, and he wasted no time in shoving it off her.

  “Jesus Christ. You’re beautiful,” he breathed out.

  Shivers coursed through her. Arching her spine, she offered herself up to him.

  With a fierce growl, he cupped her breast and swallowed the aching bud in one move. She cried out and lost herself to his burning lips and tongue as he pulled on her nipple. Then grazed it with his teeth.

  “Oh God. Rob!” She’d always thought of him as Rob. Tank was what she called him, sure, but everybody did. Now it felt totally normal for her to cry out his name while in the throes of bliss.

  He teased her bud, plucking it with his lips and teeth, stroking it with his tongue, drawing it up tight. Her pussy clenched and a deep throb in her core alerted her to the fact that she hadn’t felt pleasure like this in…well, forever.

  Cupping her other breast, he drew the tip to his mouth and bathed it with the same attention as the first. She shuddered and curled her fists into the covers of his bed. It smelled like him—musk, leather and the cologne she’d helped him pick out at the Mersey Drugstore. Not one of the most popular scents like the ones that men always went for, and it suited him perfect.

  She tipped her head down and watched him linger over her breasts, loving them with his kisses and licks that sent her to the verge of screaming for him to thrust his cock into her.

  This is my friend. My best friend.

  About to be my lover. If I stop him now, we’re still only friends.

  But she didn’t want to put a stop to any of it. If anything, she wanted to dive in deeper.

  Bringing her hands up, she dug her fingers into his thick, soft hair and dragged him in. He sucked her nipple until her eyes rolled up in her head. He moved his hands down her waist and found the button of her jeans. How unfair that he got to take her clothes off while he remained fully dressed in T-shirt and the low-slung, worn jeans that were her favorite.

  Breathing in hard pants, she drank in each flick of his tongue and stroke of his callused fingertips over her skin. He worked her button loose and eased the zipper down.

  Suddenly, he raised his head and pierced her in his gaze. “You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting to eat your pussy.”

  A thrill hit her system like a bolt of lightning. She almost swallowed her tongue and found nothing to say in response to those hot, dirty words.

  He dropped his head again, moving down her breasts to her ribs, making her arch upward, and then to her lower belly.

  When he scraped his rough bearded chin downward, he shimmied her jeans and panties down in one bulk of fabric. Somewhere along the way, she’d kicked off her shoes. He helped her fold one knee up and slipped the jeans off her ankle. Then the other.

  She shivered at the cool air on her skin as well as his smoldering gaze as he looked at her naked for the first time.

  He closed his eyes and slowly opened them. “I’m not fucking dreaming.”

  Her heart flexed. “No. You’re not.” She let her thighs fall apart to reveal her slick center. Settled in her wet folds, her clit was hard and throbbing.

  “Hell.” He lay down between her legs with his head positioned at her center. When he dragged in a deep breath, her belly dipped with wanting. “Beautiful. So wet. I never thought…” He broke off, battling with words she never heard because the next second, he lowered his mouth to her pussy.

  She grabbed for his shoulders and rocked her hips to get closer to that exquisite, mind-blowing heat. He slipped his tongue up and down her folds, dragging it oh-so-slowly to her soaking entrance, where he dipped his tongue inside briefly before moving up to suck her nubbin into his mouth.

  She screamed out in ecstasy. Every lash of his tongue and each circle he drew over her trembling flesh pulled her to the very edge of sanity. Why hadn’t she seen how much he cared? Why hadn’t she ever added everything up—all the comforting words he provided, the times he refused to let her alone with her sadness after a breakup—to realize that he cared for her?

  Maybe even more than cared for. That glow in his eyes was something she only saw in movies.

  Her inner thighs shook. He spread them wider and she felt the tip of one thick finger probe her entrance. Clenching her muscles, she waited for the invasion of a finger.

  “Please!”

  He didn’t tease or hesitate even one second—he thrust his finger deep into her pussy. Her walls tightened around it, gripping him even as he pulled it free and plunged it in a second time, fucking her as he sucked her clit and rumbled with pleasure he got from doing these things to her.

  She bucked into his hand. As her buttocks dropped to the mattress, he caught her in his free hand, suspending her. Holding her in place as he shoved a second finger inside her.

  With hands as big as his, two fingers might as well be a small man’s cock. It left her wondering what she was getting into once they got down to the actual deed, but her pussy drenched his fingers as if begging for more.

  He stabbed both fingers high into her and stroked her in a spot that had her twisting and turning in his hold to get more of the same.

  He didn’t withdraw his fingers this time—he continued to strum that deep, needy inner spot. To her shock and extreme pleasure, it gave a hard thump of a never-before-experienced contraction. Then another.

  Pushing his mouth firmly over her clit, he sucked at the same time he owned her G-spot in a way no man or sex toy ever had. A wild whirlwind whipped her up, and she lost her mind in sensation as he commanded that she come for him—and come now.

  Her flavors, her cries…all of it stole Tank’s damn mind. He groaned along with her as her orgasm hit. When she rocked, he thrust in again, and when she trembled, he refused to let her wiggle free until the final contraction stopped.

  His mattress was drenched from her juices, and fuck if he didn’t love that. He loved her wetness dripping down his jaw and soaking his beard. And he couldn’t wait to get his cock inside her.

  One last thing separated them.

  Lifting his head from her pussy, he stared into her eyes. The depths were blurred with passion and the shock of her release. He hoped to hell she never experienced an orgasm that even came close to what he’d given her—and would again every minute of every day for the rest of their lives if she let him.

  “Darlin’. I won’t have you with a barrier. You’ll feel me or nothing at all.” His words came out grittier than usual, showing just how close to the edge he rode.

  She shuddered and slipped her leg around his shoulder, her small foot against his spine to lock him in place.

  He moved up her body to hover over her. Their gazes locked, and all the tenderness he’d ever felt for the woman surfaced. Gently, he brushed the curls out of her eye and leaned in to lightly brush his lips across hers.

  “Do you hear me? I want you without a condom.”

  “I’m on birth control.”

  He nodded. “I know that. And you’re clean. I’m telling you that I am too, and I want you—just you and me. Understand?”

  Her eyes cleared of some of the sexual haze, and she focused on him.

  “What I�
�m asking is for you to give yourself to me—totally. But only if you want to. If you want to stop here, we’ll stop.”

  Though it would fucking kill him to stand up and walk away from her.

  For a heartbeat, he wasn’t sure what her response would be. Then she leaned upward and kissed him, gently placing her lips over his and not moving. He went still, waiting for more from her.

  She bunched his T-shirt in her hands and yanked it up and off his head.

  He started breathing again.

  This time he gave her reign over his body. She touched his shoulders, his pecs and ran her fingers across his nipples, raising a groan from him. As she explored his abs and down to his belt buckle, he watched her face.

  When she popped open his belt and his jeans to her questing touch, he held his breath. She breached his underwear and touched his cock.

  The mushroomed head was thick, he knew from comparing it to other guys in locker rooms during his teen years. And he’d call himself above average in size. The ladies never complained, but he worried about hurting Catarina, who was much smaller in size.

  Her eyes flared as she felt along the swollen head of his cock, learning the shape of him. She followed the length deep into his underwear, and he helped her out by shoving his jeans down.

  When she continued following the line of his rigid cock all the way to the base and his big balls nestled there, a shiver ran through her.

  “Rob…”

  He waited for her to deny him. His guts clenched.

  “You’re big. And I want you so bad.”

  A deep growl rumbled up his throat and he stripped the rest of his clothes off. Leaning away from her, he took his shaft in hand. She watched him pump a bead of thick, white pre-cum out of the slit and moaned.

  “I want to fill you up until my cum’s running out of you. I want to make you mine,” he rasped.

  In answer, she tipped her hips up, aligning her pussy with his cock. Holding her gaze, he held his breath. There was no going back now—he’d own her or he’d lose her.

  With a slow, steady shove, he filled her up, stretched her—and settled balls-deep.