Between Heaven and Hell

by Erin Trejo

  “The eyes of an angel.”

  The words fall from my lips as a whisper. Those are the same eyes that have haunted me for a year. The eyes that only my dreams have held. How are those eyes hers? How is this her?

  The woman looks at me strangely after what I said. I can’t say that I blame her, it was strange.

  “May I?” Gesturing to my arm, I remove my jacket before rolling the sleeve of my dress shirt up my arm. She squirms under my gaze, but I can’t pull my eyes away from her. It’s her. The girl with the eyes of an angel. I would remember them anywhere. I watch her as she works at finding a vein. So meticulous and professional.

  “You’re going to feel a prick,” she says. Her little fingers move with ease as the needle makes its way into my veins.

  “Are you ok?” Her eyes come to meet mine and I’m lost. I’m in enamored with her. I give her a slight nod before she looks back down at my arm. The air is trapped in my lungs, thoughts swarming my head. Pulling the needle free, she holds pressure before reaching across me for a bandage.

  “Excuse me.” Her words are a whisper, but her scent intoxicates me. I inhale deeply taking in all of her that I can before she pulls back.

  “Sorry, we only have pink bunnies.” Her smile is infectious as she places the little pink bandage on the area.

  “Real men can wear pink bunnies,” I assure her with a grin on my face. She laughs lightly, making my cock twitch. So perfectly made, her long blonde hair and those piercing blue eyes. I want more; I want to see more of her. I want to know what makes her tick. What excites her? This is unusual for me to even give a shit about a woman. When she starts to pull away, I reach up and grasp her hand in mine. Her eyes move to lock with mine before I lick my lips.

  “I want to take you to dinner this evening,” I blurt out. She narrows her eyes as she lets that sink in.

  “I can’t. I have to work.” I can see the way I affect her. It’s the same way I affect most women I come in contact with. That lust, that intrigue but with her it’s different. It feels different.

  “I’ll wait,” I tell her as I relax, bringing my leg up and casually resting my ankle on my knee.

  “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.” Her lips say one thing, but those eyes say another. I can read people like a book and she is interested.

  “And why not? I’d like to have dinner with you. No strings attached.” I watch those eyes like they may call to me. Hell, they are calling to me.

  “I... I don’t know. I mean, I guess I can.” The stutter in her voice does nothing more than make me harder by the second. What is it with her?

  “Great. I’ll be here.” She smiles before she turns and leaves the room. I look to Angelo where he stands near the door and say, “Angelo. Cancel my meetings for tonight.”

  Chapter 9

  I glance at my watch as the minute’s tick by. I’ve paced the sidewalk in front of her work for almost an hour now. When I finally see Angelo opening the door, she walks through it. Her hair blows around her shoulders as she shakes her head to move it out of her face. I plaster a smile on my face as I walk towards her, extending my hand.

  “Shall we?” Ava swallows nervously, taking in the limo that sits in front of her. I never used to like the limo’s all that much, but my uncle would always insist that I go everywhere in it. Now it’s just a part of who I am.

  “I have my car,” she says softly, trying to pull her hand free of my grasp. I don’t give her the chance.

  “Give me the keys.” Holding out my free hand, she looks at me as if I’m going insane. Too bad for her, I’ve already been there.

  “What? Why would I give you my keys?” Again she tries to pull her hand away, but my grasp only tightens.

  “I will have one of my men bring it to the restaurant, Miss Sinclair. I can assure you they won’t harm it.” Her eyes dance with the unknown before sliding her hand into her pocket brandishing the keys. She gently sets them in my hand as her own trembles.

  “Angelo. Get Roman to drive Miss Sinclair’s car please.” Angelo steps forward taking the keys before I usher Ava into the waiting limo. I can’t stop watching her ass as she climbs in either. I’m only human. A man has needs. I slide into the seat next to her before the door closes and Ava jumps.

  “Are you nervous?” She’d be lying if she said no. I can practically feel her tremble from across the seat.

  “I don’t know you. It’s a little strange for me.” Catching her gaze with mine, it strikes me that I’ve never introduced myself.

  “Please forgive me for being rude. I’m Cordae Vitale. You can call me, Cord.” Her eyes sparkle before the car starts up.

  “I would introduce myself, but it seems you already know who I am,” she says, trying to remain as calm as possible. I can tell that makes her nervous. The fact that I know all about her before she knows about me. Those eyes might have shaken me when I first saw her here, but I do know of the daughter of the Governor. Although I never realized that this woman was her.

  “This is true. You are Ava Sinclair. You are currently going to the local nursing school. You are the daughter of the Governor of this state, although he means nothing. You live with your roommate Taren, whom you’ve known most of your life,” I rattle off a few of the things I know about her. I can hear her gasp as she scoots slightly towards the door.

  “How do you know all that?” Her voice quakes, which does little more than give me pleasure.

  “I’m Cord Vitale. I know everything about everyone that crosses my path.” We arrive at the restaurant where I help her out of the car and usher her inside. Sitting in the back of the restaurant, Ava can’t seem to sit still. She nervously shifts and fidgets in her seat while I watch. Angelo cleared the restaurant before Ava and I came in, so there wouldn’t be any interruptions. I placed our order before the waitress that has been eyeing me sets my bourbon on the table in front of me.

  “Miss Sinclair, do I make you nervous?” Her eyes jerk to mine as her mouth opens and closes.

  “I don’t understand why you know so much about me,” she replies with a tremble in her voice. Clasping my hands together, I rest them on the table in front of me.

  “I told you, it’s my business to know things. If I cross someone that intrigues me, I learn about them. That shouldn’t make you nervous. Besides, I didn’t technically know about you per se. I knew of you being that you’re the daughter of the Governor.” Her eyes never leave mine. She wants to get a read on me but that won’t happen. I’m a closed book. No one gets to turn my pages anymore. I went down that path once but never again.

  “When did we cross paths?”

  “Well, today of course. I also saw you around a year ago.” Confusion etches across that beautiful face of hers before recognition hits her.

  “I remember you.” Her voice is no more than a whisper, her eyes slightly smiling.

  “You were a fighter. You look so different.” Her pouty lips curl into a small smile as she remembers me from the past.

  “That was me,” I agree. Her eyes come back to meet mine before she gives me a genuine smile.

  “You hit my ex-boyfriend.” Ava brings her small hand up to cover her mouth as she remembers and laughs a little.

  “He deserved more. I didn’t realize that he was your ex at the time.” Ava lowers her hand as she nods her head.

  “He was. I never saw him after that.” I know she hasn’t. I made sure of that. He was to take the orders to stay as far away from her as possible. Clearly my threat wasn’t taken lightly which makes me happy. She was not a bargaining chip when business between us and the Gambino family was going on.

  “Are you still a fighter?” Her eyes tell me stories of her past. A haunted one. Not one that I’m sure she would share openly but I find myself wanting it anyway.

  “When needed but not in a ring anymore.” She licks her lips as our dinner is set in front of us. She’s clearly intrigued, and I find myself comfortable in her presence. This should be interesting.

/>   Chapter 10

  Dinner was nice. I don’t think I’ve had an enjoyable dinner in quite some time. Especially one with conversation not related to business, but the more I talked with Ava, the more comfortable I was.

  “So did you know about Amelia?” Ava’s eyes find mine once again as she sets her glass on the table.

  “Amelia?”

  “The little girl that is being tested. She’s beautiful.” Ah, she has seen her. I wondered if she had been the one that tested her as well.

  “I wasn’t close with my father. My mother passed away when I was born. I knew my father was a piece of work, but I never imagined having a sibling.” For some reason I want to tell her everything. Every last shitty detail of my depraved childhood but I know there is no point. That has little to do with why I’m here with her today.

  “She seems like a good kid. She’s just had a bad start in life. It would do her good to be with a caring family.” Leaning my elbows on the table, I examine the woman in front of me. So lost in her own fairy tale of life that she forgets I know who she is. Her life wasn’t perfect. I may not know what happened behind closed doors in her home, but I know what I know of her father.

  “I’m not so sure that’s what she’d be getting. A family yes, the caring part, I can’t be sure,” I say. She cocks her head to the side to study me for a minute.

  “You seem caring enough.” Shrugging her shoulders, I don’t smile.

  “Caring for someone and actually caring about them are different things entirely. Can I care for her as in provide, of course but to actually care? Those emotions aren’t ones I have anymore.” Her blue eyes fill with regret. Regret for asking? Regret for bringing it up?

  “Maybe you just need the right person in your life to make those emotions emerge,” she says sweetly. I’ve pondered that question many times before. Having a woman that actually cared about me in another form than what I’m used to. Right now, they all want to be fucked by the demon himself. They want to hold onto the thought that they and only they are the one that will break me. The one that will make me see that I want a family but they’re wrong. The only thing family has done for me is ruin me. From the day I was born, my life was ruined.

  “Perhaps, but I don’t think we can ever be sure.”

  The rest of dinner Ava changed to casual conversation. After the look in her eyes, I know there was far more she wanted to know about me, but she quickly closed that line of questioning.

  “Thank you for dinner.” She turns to me as I walk her to her car.

  “It was a pleasure. I’m sure we will have another soon.” Her eyes immediately snap to mine. So many questions float in those beautiful eyes of hers. So many unknowns that she may never have the answers to.

  “I’d be lying, Miss Sinclair, if I said I didn’t want to take you home and fuck you right now.” My hand comes to rest on her cheek as she sucks in a breath. “I know that isn’t your style though. For now, I want to leave you with this.” Pressing my lips to hers, I savor that sweet taste.

  I never knew someone could taste as good as she does. My tongue slides across the seams of her mouth until she parts her lips for me. Diving my tongue deep, so deep that she won’t forget this moment, I fuck her mouth with mine. All the pent-up stress, I release onto her sensual lips. When I finally pull away, her lips are swollen and beautiful.

  “Until tomorrow, Miss Sinclair.”

  Chapter 11

  Ava and I have fallen into a nice routine over the last week. I show up and take her to dinner every night and just talk. The normalcy scares the hell out of me but it’s also a welcomed reprieve from my daily life. It’s a chance to feel normal or at least as normal as I can.

  “This is beautiful, Cord.” Ava grins from ear to ear as I walk her inside the front doors of my home. Something about her makes me want to lie down and give her the world. She’s easy going and full of life. Maybe that’s why I’m attracted to her. The life that she has inside of her is something I lack in myself. I see it in her, and I guess a piece of me wants to hold onto that. I follow behind her with my hands in my pockets as she takes in the beauty of everything in this place. Her eyes sparkle as she regards the million dollar paintings that hang on the walls of the great room.

  “Those are amazing.” I know she’s mumbling more to herself than to me, but I love seeing it and hearing her voice. Her father may be the Governor, but Ava has barely experienced the finer things in life the way I have. The Governor shadowed her in many ways. Kept her locked away from the outside world in her own personal hell. The expensive paintings, the hand-blown crystal glasses. It’s all a new world to her and my cock gets hard watching her enjoy herself.

  “You really have a gorgeous home.” When she finally turns to me, there’s an electric current that runs from her body to mine. It sparks and sizzles waiting for the perfect moment to burn. And when it burns, I have a fear that it’s going to ignite into a full blown flame that I won’t be able to put it out.

  “Come here,” I say seductively. Needing more than anything that contact with her, I nod for her to come to me. I want so much to feel what she feels; to know what she knows. Ava moves slowly towards me as my cock strains against my zipper. She stops right in front of me, but my hands stay planted in my pockets.

  “What if I told you that I wanted you to touch me?” Ava gasps as my eyes burn into hers. I want to hear her answer, yet a part of me doesn’t. The part that knows if I touch her and she touches me that there will be feelings that she sets free from deep within me, I don’t want that. I don’t want the added stress or burden of feelings coming in the way of my life, but Ava is something else entirely and I don’t know that I can stop myself from wanting her the way I do.

  Ava’s hands come to touch my chest as she licks her lips. I close my eyes at the shear feel of her through my shirt. So warm and inviting. I don’t like women touching me, not in this way anyway. I like to be in control and do what I please but Ava, she stirs things in me that I’m not used to, and I find that I want her hands on me.

  “If I told you, you could do whatever you wanted to me, what would you do?” I ask her, opening my eyes and looking down at her through my hooded desire.

  Her fingers travel to the buttons of my shirt, slowly taking each one into her small fingers. Delicately but with purpose, she slowly unbuttons them one by one before she finishes, never a word leaving her lips. Her hands roam over my chest as I tilt my head back, closing my eyes once more. Her soft hands touch and trace every muscle before trailing lower. When I feel her hands near the waist of my pants, I grab her wrists. Jerking my head back to look at her, her eyes are full of lust.

  “I don’t make love, Ava. I’ve never had that power. I fuck. I fuck hard and long. Do you know why they call me demon?” She bites her lip before shaking her head.

  “Once I’m inside of you, all bets are off. I will take you the way I want without reserve. When I’m finished and you go home, you’ll be surrounded by the darkness that is the demon.” Her chest rises and falls as she looks into my eyes. So determined, yet afraid, as she should be. I ruin women. Everyone that I have touched in the past has been ruined, and Ava will be no different.

  I release her wrists and when her fingers twitch slightly, I groan. But as soon as her hands go back to working the button on my pants, it’s all over. All bets are off. Her touch is igniting my skin with a fire that I shouldn’t allow myself to feel, yet I can’t stop it. There is no way. I grab her roughly, taking the stairs quickly before carrying her to my room. I peel her out of her clothes, each layer revealing more and more of her soft flesh. Having her lying naked on my bed is killing me. Her body screams for me to touch it, to violate it in every way humanly possible, but that little voice that I always felt was my mother says not to ruin this poor girl.

  My mind, body, and heart are at an internal war that’s wearing me thin. In the end though, my body wins, as it typically does. I climb on the edge of the bed before sliding her legs up, bending her
knees. Lowering my face to that sweet spot between her thighs, she gasps loudly.

  “This is so beautiful.” My breath traces a line from her clit down her slit and back up. My heavy breathing coupled with the scent of her obvious arousal is sending me to places I’ve never been before. My tongue slides from between my lips slowly trailing a line between her wetness as she arches off the bed.

  “Sweet Ava. I’m going to make you come.” With those words, I slam my face between her legs before sliding a finger inside of her. I work her clit with my mouth as I violate her pussy with my finger. The harder I suck and flick my tongue the louder Ava’s moans become. I’m so hard right now but I will make good on my promise. Feeling her walls clench around my finger almost has me coming in my boxers as I get her off. I look up to see her eyes on mine which only excites me more. She’s propped up on her elbows, her eyes piercing into me. I nod my head slightly, letting her know she better keep her eyes on mine as I suck and flick my tongue at her clit faster. Seeing the way her breathing has picked up, doubled with the way she’s clenching around me, I know she’s close.

  A few more rough strokes inside of her and I’m lapping up all the juices that she lets me have. Her orgasm nearly rips in her half as I slowly ease up on her but only slightly. I suck a little more as I clean her pussy of everything that she’s just given me before I pull back.

  “You taste like heaven.” I reach for my nightstand, grabbing a condom and sliding it on in record time, my body too excited from tasting what she had to offer. I climb up her body as it still shudders beneath me, a lasting effect of her orgasm. Leaning down, I cage her head with my arms before touching my lips just barely to hers. Loving the way, she responds to me, tasting herself on my mouth.

  “Once I start, I won’t stop. I don’t care if you beg or scream,” I warn her. My voice is husky, but she needs to understand the demon inside of me gives no room for anything aside from what it wants. Ava raises her hips slightly and that’s all the acknowledgement I need. I let one of my hands travel down to grasp her thigh, hiking it up around my waist before she does the same with her other leg.