“Screw you, Carter. Honestly… just… screw you,” she spits, arms flailing around. “All of this is your fault. All of it!”
The fuck it is.
I back off a step, giving myself some room, and watch as she paces the lot.
“I never would have known if you hadn’t taken me there, and then I wouldn’t have been…" She pauses, "I wouldn’t have been taken to that hellhole with those men and this…” She points at her chest, tapping the gauze. “I mean, what the hell just happened? And now I've got to what? Deal with it somehow? As if it's normal? You, it's all you. Everything is changing because of you and your…"
My head quirks, wondering where she's gonna take those last words because if she keeps on with this line of thought I might just, well ...
“And now what? What do I do? Tell me. Jesus Christ. He’s manipulated me my entire life and now he’s going to turn something I’m passionate about into another way to make money from the lives he’s already ruined. Look at this place,” she says, waving her hands at the burger joint. “I’m here because you made me see that. And I’ve ended up on the floor crying, cuts on my feet and slash marks on my… I’m a fucking mess, Carter, and it’s all your fault, and this deal, and—”
“We’re here because you couldn’t keep your prissy little mouth closed. Close it this time before I lose my shit.”
Her mouth snaps closed, but not before I see that Vico-fucking-venom flare across her features. Everything explodes in an instant. Her arms move, both of them aimed at me in fucking attack mode. I wait for something to land. Whatever it is, I’m ready for it this time, and the second she lunges, I grab at her wrist and spin her back to the car without any fucking care for her back slamming against it. Air puffs from her lips, a small yelp coming with the force of my body covering her. She struggles fiercely, one arm braced out by my hand and the other trying to push me away.
It’s too fucking close, and I can feel my dick waking up at the friction between us. I can smell her, almost taste her on my lips. Her continued struggle does nothing to dampen my thoughts as my other hand catches hold of her wrist and my leg braces her.
“Stay the fuck still before I hurt you.”
So close. Eyes. Mouth. Breasts squashed up between us. I look down at her lips, licking my own until her struggle becomes less violent.
I shouldn’t.
Won’t.
But that fucking mouth is so tempting. Her body under mine, the feel of her pressed so tightly and her chest heaving breaths in and out, is arousing as fuck.
“Get off me,” she murmurs, as her eyes rise to look at me.
Her pupils are blown and all I can see is darkness and sin. Nothing about her says get off me. They’re screaming the opposite. Her wrists have slackened in my hold, her body relaxing with every passing second. Bowing to my authority. My dominance.
“Is that what you really want me to do, Fia?”
Her mouth opens again, and I crawl my eyes back up to hers for goddamn permission. I want that from her. Want her to tell me, show me. Her dirty brown eyes lock onto me and I can’t find the pools of innocence she’s shown me in the past. Anger and passion blink at me, waiting for me to make a move. “You ask me for it,” I mutter, rubbing my dick into her thigh. Her breath gasps out at the feel of it against her, lips opening and closing with words she can’t find. “Ask me to kiss you.” I move, pushing my dick so I can rub it against her pussy and watch the way her eyes widen.
“We’re in a parking lot,” she splutters out, trying not to squirm.
I smile. I know. And it’s all the more dirty because of it.
My hands ease their hold on her wrists, and I drop them slowly down to the curve of her waist to slide them round to her ass. Two ripe handfuls slip into my grip, ones I could easily lift and dump onto the hood. I could forget who she is. Just enjoy the scent of her as she spreads her legs and tightens them around my back.
“Carter, I…”
Whatever fucking permission I was waiting for gets lost as my mouth closes in on hers. I want a taste. Just one. If I'm going to get killed for letting her in on his secrets, for letting her get kidnapped, then I want to feel her in my mouth before that happens, sense those nerves jittering about with my tongue. She shivers and exhales, eyes flicking between mine and my mouth closing in, and it’s all I can do not to make my hold so fierce she squeals. One breath away, two, all the time feeling her tremble and quiver in my arms like a new, unbroken thing.
Fuck.
She tastes like strawberries and sin, soft, plump lips shaking as I slowly devour her mouth. My body pushes in harder, smothering her as I get carried away with the moment and my dick keeps rubbing against her. She gasps and stutters, as if she’s never kissed anyone before, and that just winds me into a fucking frenzy, desperate to taste more, to feel more.
I lift her ass and dump her on the hood. The movement makes her break away from me and pant, giving me a chance to glance down at heaving breasts pushing from the top of her dress. My damned lips drop to them, arms pulling her body down the hood to rest on my dick again.
“Carter, I can’t. . .”
No, I don’t suppose she can, but that isn’t going to stop me from taking a taste of everything I want in this time we have. My dick continues to rub against her, enthused by her breathy little moans and groans, and I lick across her chest, desperate to grab a nipple and suck on it. I’d drop to my knees, push this dress out of the way, and get my tongue up inside her if I wasn’t so interested in kissing her mouth again.
“Please, Carter.”
I look up and watch as she starts grinding down onto me delicately, hands barely touching my shoulders because of what she’s doing.
“Hold onto me. Make yourself come, Fia.”
The gasp that comes out of her is exquisite, and it turns my dick to steel. One scrap of material and I’d be inside her, buried deep and fucking her like she’s never been fucked before. The least I’m getting for my attempt at chivalry is the sensation of feeling her come. I might not be inside her, but a few more minutes and she’s going to explode. I bite gently back up her chest, neck, earlobe, savouring every morsel of flesh, all the time pulling on her ass to give her more traction on my dick through these pants.
Fucking suit. I want a bed. A room. Anything but this parking lot where I can’t rip this goddamn dress from her skin.
“Please,” she mewls, her fingers grasping onto my suit jacket.
My mouth covers hers again to contain the voice that’s starting to build in her. If she wants to beg me, she can do it with her body, use it to bring herself off while I drive my tongue in and think about fucking her. I can see it now, feel it through my body. Delicate bones, silky skin ripe for marking and enjoying. My dick aches with the thought, and her shifting against it in gentle little moves, rubbing in all the right places, is making the thought of the end result all the fucking sweeter.
Everything fucking stalls in my hold. Her ass, her pussy on me, even her mouth stops kissing. I break away slowly, feeling the vibrations from her all over me. It’s hypnotic, and I can’t help but look up and watch her face as she comes. Mouth open, eyes hard and focused on mine, breath panting in and out quietly. We just look at each other, my mind a million miles away from the parking lot, and my hands still grasp her ass like I’m never letting go.
My dick keeps grinding against her core, wishing it could get inside and flood her with my own orgasm. So close. Too close. She'd let me, too. I can tell by the way her trembling thighs still grip me, by the look of sin travelling over every inch of her skin.
No.
A dose of cold reality chills me as I stand and watch her coming down from the high I gave her. No fucking. That's a step too far.
As if this wasn't a step off the goddamned cliff already.
I go to move away, shaking my head. Stupid. Fucking idiotic. Of all the women on the planet to go near, she isn’t the one, but she sinks her nails into my shoulders to hold me still, legs c
lamping around me.
“No, you don’t get to move after that,” she says quietly.
A slow grin spreads over my face. Fuck knows why. I should be telling her how stupid she’s just been. Showing her that this was a mistake, that no one goes near someone like her, but those words out of her mouth and I’m hovering like a school kid waiting for a compliment.
“You okay?” I ask. I don’t know why I ask, but I can’t keep my eyes off her mouth and the way it moves. I’m a fucking child. I’ve never asked that question after something has happened between a woman and me before.
“I think so.”
She tilts her head at me as if she’s trying to work out what just went down. In my mind, we absolutely just fucked. I need to sort my goddamn head out. That is not happening again.
No.
I hitch my dick and break out of her hold, unsure what the hell to do now. I find myself reaching for her to help her off the hood.
“You’re unfair,” I mutter, looking her over. A small smile laces her lips as her feet drop back down to the dusty ground. “And dirtier than I imagined.”
“I’m a virgin. I wouldn’t know anything about being dirty,” she replies, finding her balance.
Fuck.
Her fingers smooth her dress down, her neck cracking out as if she’s fully relaxed all of a sudden. Guess she is after coming on my dick. Can’t say the same for myself. I’m ready to jack off for a month.
“That was all you, Carter. And it's all on you.”
What was a mess of panting and adrenaline a few minutes ago, her body quaking under orgasm, gently pushes me away as she crosses to the passenger side of the car. “I'll take the blame for earlier, but this was all you.”
Don't hear her complaining, though.
I nod and open the door for her, a smile returning to mirror her own before I do the only thing I can to make this situation calm the fuck down. “This didn't happen, Fia. You're all kinds of trouble for me, and I'm not entertaining it again.”
The slow smile she gives me, fingers running over the doorframe like she's itching to get a damn sight closer than we've already been, is fucking unnerving.
“Me? Trouble? What could a nineteen-year-old do to cause trouble for a man like you?”
Be nineteen.
A virgin.
And Vico's daughter.
I watch her slide in, casting one last glance at her legs as they slide up into the car, and then slam the door shut.
I'm done. Have to be. What I just let myself get involved in is not a game I'm playing, especially with someone's virginity involved. Besides, I'm a Cane first. Business needs to be my priority. And currently, that business is getting her safely on a plane back to Chicago.
Away from the shit she’s caused.
And my wandering thoughts.
I move round to the other side of the car, grab her takeout, and get in, reaching for my phone to call Danny as I pull away. He reels off the information all the way back to the hotel. Times, amounts, the new cutting process I made him push in so we could show the losses were made while in Miami, not on route here from Chicago. At least Cane is covered that way, even if my ass is still way out there in the open. The other part needs discussing with Quinn. I can’t keep that from him, even if he chooses to keep it from Vico.
Inopportunely, the second I end the call, Quinn's name starts flashing on the screen. I ignore it and look at Fia as we pull up outside the hotel. I’m not having that conversation over the phone. What I do need before that conversation happens is an idea of what Fia wants to do—what she’s going to tell her father.
“How far do you want to go?” I ask, cutting the engine.
She tucks her hair behind her ear, shooting a coy glance at my dick. I didn't mean that, but now she's looking I can't help but smirk. Might even bend her over and… No. “Fia, I have a face. Look at it.” The rush of colour that flushes her chest and cheeks is cute as fuck and everything I shouldn't notice. “I meant about confronting your father.”
“Oh. What's that got to do with you?”
“You just came all over my dick. You wanna tell him about that, too?”
The blush increases, and her head turns as she grabs at the door handle, probably embarrassed. “He'd kill you if I told him that,” she mumbles, getting out of the car. My brow rises. She's damn right, but it happened, and if she's going to mention it, I need to know.
For both our sakes.
I stop her rushing feet before she gets to the entrance, planting my body in front of her. I got my taste and fucking stupidly I know I'd do it again a thousand times over, but if it’s something we're gonna take heat for, along with everything else, I want to be ready when he comes.
“Don't worry, Carter. I won't tell him. I know it was only…” She doesn't know what it was, and honestly, neither do I.
My hand goes up, shutting her mouth. If she thinks I'd let my dick rule my head if something wasn't worth it, she's wrong. There's too much Cane in me for complete stupidity, and she was worth every minute she spent in my hands. Her lips quiver as she waits for me to speak, wrapping her arms around herself as anxiety takes hold. Perhaps she thinks she's not enough for me. She might even think I'm not interested in her now I know she's a virgin.
She couldn't be more wrong on both counts.
But this dick isn't meant for stealing virginity.
“You tell him whatever you want. There's only one thing stopping me from going further, and it has nothing to do with your age or your father. I'd do it all again, every fucking minute. I just need to know if you want to tell him.”
“Why?”
“Because if you do, he can take the anger out on me, not you.”
She frowns and rushes past me back into the hotel towards the elevators. I damn near have to run to keep up with her. The silence as we rise through the floors is deafening even for me. I pace, uncomfortable with her close proximity in the small box. One step and that barrier’s gone between us. My self-control has never been tested before. Never like this. That's all my head and dick can think about the entire journey up the floors. One hard push and her body would be crushed into the elevator wall. She could be held up against it, ass in my hands and pussy spread wide.
“That's kind of you.”
What? I look at her, a scowl of confusion on my face. There's nothing kind about my thoughts.
“Protecting me from my father?”
“Yeah, well. I've never been one to run away.”
The doors open just as she's walking towards me, and my last sentence hangs in my mind as I do the one thing I never do. I run, metaphorically at least. My pace picks up along the short corridor, and I'm through the lounge and heading for my bedroom before she gets a chance to talk to me. There's nothing more to talk about. She can tell me whether she plans to tell her father what happened between us in the morning before we leave. For now, I'm gonna lock myself in this room and find some of that fortitude I should have held onto.
Perhaps strangle my dick, too.
But I'm not coming out of this room, at least not until I know she’s asleep. Then I’ll do my job again. I’ll sit and stare at the fucking main door until morning, making sure no other fucker tries to take her.
And then, when the night is done, she's going back home.
Twelve
What the hell just happened?
I stare at the closed door to Carter’s room. My mind races and my body is in overdrive at what just happened between us, and now he’s walked away?
My bruised and cut feet are rooted to the ground as I stare in disbelief. Every atom in my body came alive tonight. First in terror, and then with desire. Desire for this man who has ruled my thoughts since we were introduced. What happened in that parking lot earlier shook me to my core. I’ve never even come close to being with a man before. My father’s rule over my life has always ensured that any contact with boys didn’t arise easily, but honestly, with my focus on my studies, boys never really appealed. At
least not until I met Carter. Then everything in my brain scattered, including my intellect.
That’s exactly what happened earlier. All my brain cells evaporated under his lustful eyes. His proximity set a wildfire burning through my body that obliterated anything else in my mind. My body took over and made my choices for me. Choices that led to my first orgasm from anywhere except my own hand and proceeded to melt me to my core.
I would have never let that occur under normal circumstances. Although, ever since I met Carter, things have been far from normal.
There was a part of me that was prepared for him to block me out and treat me like nothing had ever happened, but he didn’t. He didn’t clam up and act like what we’d done was a mistake. He admitted that and gave me hope that on some level he might want me as much as I want him. But no matter how hot I was, how flushed and wound up, nothing prepared me for the frigid reaction Carter just gave me.
I clench my jaw and march to my own room, slamming the door the moment I'm inside, even though he probably won’t hear it. I shouldn’t be so angry. After all, I have no illusions as to why Carter did what he did. He saw an opportunity, and he took it. A guy like him would never have any trouble getting a girl to go to bed. My stupid schoolgirl heart should just be pleased that he noticed me. But what he said to me in the car got to me. He didn’t need to say those things about my dad, and the cynical side of me still wonders if his own self-preservation was ruling his mind when he spoke, but what if he meant it?
What if he does want to protect me from my dad?
For the first time in my life, I felt like a woman and not just a silly girl who struggled to fit in wherever I went. I’ve never felt like I belong because I’ve never been allowed to. Being sheltered means that none of my childhood experiences have been normal. Carter isn’t normal either, though. He lives in the same world as me, in a way. He’s seen what living under my father’s rule has led to. I’m still working out a big part of who I am, but who I am has been blown away by Carter. He saw me, knew what was at stake, and took the risk anyway.
Forbidden Eyes: A Cane Novel 4 Page 12