by Pam Godwin
“She doesn’t know.” He gripped her waist and covered her stomach with kisses.
His scent invaded her nose, clean and woodsy. If testosterone had a fragrance, he was it. Ineffable, potent, distracting man.
“Luke, if you don’t start talking—”
“I teased her with words.” With a sigh, he rested his cheek on her abdomen and met her eyes. “I made her believe I would fuck her if she gave me something. A vulnerable piece of herself. A secret. Anything that would prove she would choose me over the cartel.”
“Miguel said you were groping and going at it on your way into her room.”
“Miguel said he would pay off your debt and make you a legal citizen in the States.”
“Fine. Point made. So what happened? Did she refuse your offer?”
“We went back and forth for over an hour. Lots of talking. Negotiating. Mind games. I really thought I had her.”
“Because she wants you.”
“Like a bitch in heat.”
Her molars crashed together. “Had she told you the location, you would be fucking her right now.”
“No.” The sharp planes of his face turned to limestone, like a fairy-tale villain carved by a demented artist. But his skin, the blood beneath, and his entire aura were alive and real with a vengeance. “Had she given me what I wanted, I would’ve wrapped my hands around her throat and snuffed the life from her body.”
“Brutal.” She blew out a breath.
“Brutally honest. I’m going to end her, Vera. Her and her brothers. But first…” He nudged her naked thighs apart, bent, and ran his tongue along her slit. “I’m going to end this agony between us.”
Vera swelled so hard and fast between her legs she went mad with her need for him. Luke. The only man who had ever held this much power over her.
He wasn’t so cruel to make her beg. Dipping a wicked finger inside her, he sent rivulets of pleasure everywhere. A second digit compelled her hips off the ground, her entire body reaching for more, harder, deeper… Oh God, right there.
Fingers thrusting and lips trailing a line of fire to her clit, he buried his face and smothered her senses with his devilish mastery.
She clamped her legs around his shoulders, the delicious ache intensifying as she drank in the vision of him with new eyes.
This proud, virile, intimidating alpha had been forced to perform sexual acts with another man. But he also knew his way around a woman’s body. A skill that could only come from experience.
Jealousy sank in its teeth, but more than that, she felt a kindred connection. He knew what it was like to be a slave. He’d experienced the terrifying loss of freedom. He understood her in a way no one else could.
And she understood him.
He’d raped her, not out of self-serving cruelty, but out of necessity to maintain his ruse. A ruse that followed justice.
“I forgive you.” She quivered and heated beneath his attentive touch.
“I don’t deserve that.” He lifted his face, his expression blanking as he removed his fingers.
“I’m about to change my mind.” She bucked her hips. “Don’t stop.”
In a tailored suit, tie tossed over his shoulder, red hair tousled, and gaze fixed upon her, he stole her breath. Her sanity. Then he smiled, and she lost her dignity.
“Fuck me, Luke.” She squeezed her thighs around him. “Right now.”
As she pulled on his shoulders, firm muscles rippled beneath her hands. He lowered his grin and kissed her deeply, claiming every inch of her pussy. She stabbed her fingers in his hair, gasping and weakening at the hum of his hungry groans against her sensitive flesh.
He lifted her legs with gentle pressure beneath her thighs, spreading her open and sinking his tongue. Her heart burst into a sprint, flooding thick, languorous sensations along her limbs. Dizzy energy and heat, crackling static and syrup, all of it spiraled through her blood and rocked her to her core. Wave after wave of stimulation slammed through her, centering in the bundle of nerve endings at the apex of her thighs.
His lips ground against her, firm and demanding. Then his fingers penetrated her achy depths, curling, pumping, freeing the last of her tension, and sending her tumbling into oblivion.
Strength left her body as she came, moaning and trembling through the stunning, blissful high. Then she crashed, clutching at the grass beneath her, anchoring herself back to reality.
He lowered her knees and removed his jacket and tie. Unbuttoned his shirt. Gave up halfway and tore open his fly. Removing a condom from his pants pocket, he rolled it on in record time. Only then did she notice his hands shaking.
“Luke.” Dazed, she reached for him and opened her legs.
“Christ, you’re a vision.” His gaze traveled over her nudity as he lowered himself in the cradle of her thighs. “There’s no place I’d rather be. I want to spend eternity inside you.”
Where her heart had been, there was only him. A thrumming stronghold of love and raw intensity.
“Touch me.” He held his hips above hers, his hand wrapped around the root of his cock.
She eagerly did as he asked, her questing fingers finding him hot and rigid, rubber over steel, twitching against the slide of her touch.
“Someday soon…” Hips rocking in her grip, he lowered his mouth to the hollow at the base of her throat and released a vibrating groan. “I’m going to feel you without a condom.”
“I’ll hold you to that.” She teased the thick length of him, her thumb roving over the tip, her fingers squeezing.
“Enough.” He grasped her wrist, stopping her. “You make me crazy, woman. So utterly outside of my control I fear I might burst.”
She knew the feeling.
Repositioning, he took his time lining up. Gliding the plump head between her folds, he teased and tormented until sweat broke out on her brow.
By the time he pressed against her opening, the world had narrowed to the rapid hammering of her pulse. Then he pushed, sinking, stretching her body, taunting her with every agonizing inch in one unhurried stroke.
Once he was seated, his breath rushed out on a strained grunt, his face so close she could see flecks of gold in his green, dilated eyes.
“You’re beautiful,” she whispered.
“I was just thinking the same about you.”
They were still. Throbbing, tingling, clinging to each other with their arms, their gazes, and the heavy rhythm of their heartbeats.
“It’s never felt like this.” She stared up at him, searching for the right words. “Like a surreal dream. I’m afraid to blink.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
“Why is it like this with you?”
“It’s us. We fit, and not just on a physical plane. It’s molecular.” He began to move within her, drawing back, pushing forward. Tight, shallow strokes. “Indescribably elemental.”
“Our souls match, and I don’t think it’s accidental. It’s as if they were merged together long ago, separated, and are finally reconnecting.”
“Maybe we were born for this exact moment. Deliberately designed to find each other and bind on a level that we can’t comprehend.”
“Fated. You believe that?” She slid a hand beneath his shirt and touched his chest, the muscle there hard and ridged with definition.
“With you, anything is possible.”
A sense of peace washed over her, but with it came a spike of fear. She wound her arms around his neck and pressed herself against him. “This scares me.”
“Us? Together?”
“Us, not together. I’m terrified to lose this. Everything good in my life is taken away. I can’t lose you, Luke.”
He didn’t make promises he couldn’t keep. He knew the risks, the dangers they faced ahead, and seemed hellbent on keeping her in the present. Sheathed in her wet heat, he thrust hard and deep, setting a toe-curling rhythm and effectively ending all thought and conversation.
His tongue swept between her lips, drawing hers to him
. The kiss deepened, and he palmed her backside, gripping her possessively while guiding her to meet his strokes, not too soft, not too hard, but so damn hot.
He surrounded her, filled her, moving in and out as if to satisfy a desperate craving to have her in every way, beyond sex, deeper than flesh, to own her once and for all. She needed no encouragement, lifting her hips, bowing her back, and riding the tide of elation.
The temperature rose, in the air, beneath her skin, between their lips. He rubbed his tongue against hers, and she gripped his shoulders, holding him, keeping him near, aching everywhere with a thirst that couldn’t be quenched.
“Christ, Vera, you feel sensational.” His hands found hers and held them against the grass above her head. “You’re my salvation. My heaven. An unbelievable dream.”
Strong fingers closed around her smaller ones, cradling her in the warmth of his palms, thumbs caressing with an intimacy that sent heat roiling through her body.
Her breasts felt heavy with it, her belly shimmering with butterflies. His eyes never left her face, except when he kissed her, which he couldn’t seem to do enough. Her lips welcomed the slippery, warm caress of his tongue, and she opened to him, always, delighting in his rumbled grunts and panting groans.
Flattening a palm between her breasts, he slid it to her throat. Rather than fight him, she gifted him with a vibrating moan beneath his hand, followed by her joyous laughter.
He lost his rhythm, his smile blinding as it tripped across his beautiful face. Then he pressed his advantage, tightening those powerful fingers and controlling her airflow. She saw stars, and amid the burst of light, his gasps joined the sounds of her strangling breaths.
The man had a mean streak, but she wasn’t scared. Not anymore. Her body danced for him, writhing in a wordless plea for his pain and his pleasure while trusting him to know her limits.
That realization only fueled her hunger. Liquid heat simmered through every extremity, welled in every hot crease, and sparked flames in all her pleasure centers.
Kissing her harder, he drowned her in his heat and dominated her with his tongue. He knew how to kiss so well it turned her brain inside out, his technique fluctuating between the exquisite softness of his licks and the ferocious bites of his teeth. All she could do was hold on and arch against him, thrusting her breasts against the hard press of his chest and whimpering her cries for more.
He sought, and she gave, mindless against the unstoppable pull to fuse everything of theirs into one—breaths, bodies, souls. He dragged her hips tight to his and clutched her ass with a bruising hand, fingers splayed, owning her over and over.
Nothing in his touch hinted at uncertainty. Only conquering demand and desire. She tasted it in his mouth, felt it in the frantic grip of his fingers, and saw it burning the green depths of his eye contact.
God, she was wet. Rivers of arousal ran hotly between her thighs, squelching where he thrust, lubricating when he drew out and rammed in. Each time he left her, she felt a cold, horrifying emptiness. When he pushed back in, he was like gravity between her legs, a pressure so heavy and intense, so agonizingly wonderful that everything inside her clung to him.
“You’re squeezing me. Strangling my fucking cock.” He embedded himself deeper, a groan breaking from his chest. “Milking me before I’m ready.”
“Stop whining.” She laughed, shifting her hips and bearing down to torment him further. “Try to keep up.”
“Witchy woman.”
“Filthy ginger.”
“That mouth… You wreck me.” He captured her lips, his tongue sweeping in and devouring her next breath.
She could anticipate him now—the tempo of his quickening gasps, the slicking heat of his skin beneath her pressing fingertips, and the building of his thrusts into a rhythm that was entirely his own.
His hand cupped and caressed her breast, making her all the more grateful that he’d taken the time to remove her clothes. She moaned her body’s acceptance with each impassioned kiss, touch, and grind of his hips.
She loved being naked with him, and as the excitement in her blood grew hotter, so did pulsations between her thighs. He was still kissing her, wielding his tongue like an instrument of seduction, licking her deeply, wildly, until she hurt with the need to come.
The hot friction of his cock grew sharper, more centered, and her breath burst forth, giving birth to shooting stabs of pleasure.
It started in the deepest, darkest, most untouchable recesses of her body and spread outward, the unbearable ache peaking and exploding within her.
Her cries were lost to his mouth, her fingers anchoring in hard muscle and knotting in the sweat-dampened hair at the base of his skull. She felt him in her soul, swelling, pulsing, shattering into a million pieces as he surrendered with her.
“Vera, Vera, Vera.” He panted and shook, driving his cock into the back of her cunt, spurting, groaning, and digging himself as deeply as he could possibly go. “It’s never felt like this. Ever.”
They clung to each other long after the tremors dissolved. With his weight on one arm, he held her hand with the other as they lay in a pile of entwined limbs, catching their breaths and floating in their starlit high.
She drifted off to the gentle caress of his lips kissing her face and his fingers tracing the lines of her body.
When she woke, he was sitting up, his attention locked on something behind her.
Approaching footsteps.
As she moved to turn, he caught her shoulder, stopping her from exposing her nude front. “Get dressed.”
Her clothes landed near her head.
He rose and stepped over her, his tension palpable. “What’s wrong?”
Blindly reaching for her underwear, she stole a glance over her shoulder and locked onto Tomas’ golden eyes.
Face pale, posture stiff, he looked like he’d seen a ghost.
“I need to talk to you,” he said to Luke, his fingers clenching around the phone he held tight to his stomach. “Privately.”
Unease trickled through Luke as he took note of Tomas’ stark expression. “Start talking.”
“This requires…” Tomas glanced at Vera while white-knuckling the phone in his hands. “Discretion.”
“Speak freely in front of her. We had a breakthrough. Didn’t we, Vera?” he called over his shoulder, watching Tomas’ eyes bulge.
“Sure, Luke.” Her clothing rustled behind him as she dressed. “If by breakthrough, you mean we had a come to Jesus, where you underwent the difficult but amazing realization that the reason you’re here is for me, and therefore, I’m in charge from this point forward.”
“We’re still working on her listening skills,” he said to Tomas. “Obedience training takes time.”
She made a sound of exasperation. “I don’t know what fantasy world you live in but—”
“If you don’t cover your ass in two-point-five seconds,” he said, stabbing a finger toward her naked lower half. “I’ll blister it red.”
“Fifteen seconds.”
“Five.” Slightly irritated and overly amused, he turned back to Tomas and nodded at the phone. “Tell me what’s going on.”
“Okay, just… Hang on.” Tomas scrubbed a hand over his head, his gaze fixed on Vera. “I’m still processing. She is Vera?”
“Eyes up here while you process.” Luke shifted, blocking Tomas’ view of her getting dressed.
“I have something to tell you.” Growing agitated, Tomas looked away. “But first, you’re going to fill me in on what I missed.”
Luke spoke quickly, hitting on the critical details about Vera’s identity until she interrupted, expanding on his bullet points and overtaking the briefing. She zipped up her jeans and pulled on her shoes as she finished talking.
Tomas looked at Luke for confirmation.
“That about sums it up.” His chest swelled as he regarded her, unable to hide the untenable adoration he felt for this woman. “Hector’s sons suspect that Tula Gomez is protected by
Matias. They’re expecting a rescue party to come for Vera.”
“So Silvia assumed Vera’s identity and is waiting around for the rescuer to reveal himself.” Tomas scratched his jaw. “It’s smart. I mean, Silvia and Vera look a lot alike.”
“That so?” Vera’s eyes turned to threatening slits.
“You’re prettier.” Tomas shrugged.
She flexed her hands, temper fuming through her hot little figure.
“Calm down.” Luke hooked an arm around her, pulling her against his chest. “Tomas, has that phone left your possession?”
“Not once since we arrived. The microphone is disabled. Physically disconnected. There’s no way the cartel can hear us.”
“All right. What’s going on?”
“I fucked up.” Tomas’ expression emptied as he looked at the device in his hand. “In light of Vera being on our side, it makes it a little easier to say this… We need to leave. As soon as possible.”
Dread curled in Luke’s stomach. “I’m listening.”
With a glance at the empty field behind him, Tomas began to pace, dragging a hand through his hair, fidgeting and restless. His uncharacteristic behavior put Luke on edge.
“When I was boy…” Tomas stopped and stared off at nothing, his eyes clouding over. “I fell in love.”
Stunned, Luke jerked his head back. That was the last thing he expected to hear from Tomas Dine. His friend had never brought a woman home for longer than a few hours. In fact, Luke had never heard a romantic word pass Tomas’ lips.
“She died.” Tomas bent at the waist as if overpowered by sudden, excruciating pain, and his voice took on a harrowing tone, making Luke’s blood run cold. “She fucking died.”
Vera reached for Luke’s hand, her silence as heavy and bewildered as his.
“I was three years older than her.” Tomas straightened, composing himself. “Her parents forbade her to see me. So I created an email account for her, wrote the address and password on a piece of paper, and gave it to her at school. She never had a chance to use it. That night, she and her entire family died in a car accident.”
