by Bethany-Kris
As he was learning, there were few times when he could get Valeria alone like this—she was so protected, so sheltered. Someone was almost always around to keep an eye on her, and that put Chris in a bad position when he needed as much time with this woman as he could get.
And not just for this.
Not for moments like these, even though he needed them, too. No, because this plan—which he hadn’t even figured out yet—would not work unless she trusted him. Inexplicably, and completely. This woman needed to trust him.
“Shhh,” he whispered against the seam of Valeria’s lips when he pulled away, and she opened her mouth to speak. “Just relax, yeah?”
Valeria let out a shaky breath, her dark eyes darting up to his. “Kind of hard, so excuse me.”
He grinned crookedly, a thumb sweeping the line of her jaw. There was something silky about her skin—warm and inviting. She had to feel the hard ridge of his erection pressing against her body tucked into his, but she said nothing about it. That was the proof, though, about just how much this woman affected him, even if he didn’t understand why.
All it took was kissing her.
Stroking her jaw.
And all of him wanted to discover as much as he could about the rest of her. Peel off these thin, soft bed clothes she had put on, lay her back, and explore. With his mouth, and his hands, and his cock. Learn how she enjoyed being loved, and the kinds of sounds she would make when he found what she liked the most.
“You shouldn’t be here,” she mumbled, her bottom lip trembling when he dropped a soft kiss to her mouth again. “What are you doing?”
“I shouldn’t be, you’re right.”
He could do the job without this. God knew he had no business messing around with a married woman, even if said woman didn’t want to be married, or in her current situation. There were vows in life a man didn’t need to break, and this was one of those.
The problem for him was that it wasn’t the forbidden that drew him back to Valeria, or even the thrill. No, it was simply her.
Something about her had him coming back, wanting more, and willing to risk it all.
Was it stupid?
Entirely.
It also might be worth it.
Chris would chance it.
“Jorge took off in one of the Jeeps with a woman,” Chris said, still stroking the line of Valeria’s jaw with his thumbs as he spoke to keep her calm, “and said he wouldn’t be back until morning, likely.”
Her gaze drifted away from his. “The servant?”
“Seemed so.”
“Hmm.”
“Sorry,” he said quickly.
Valeria barked out a laugh, her dark stare coming back to his with a fire lingering there. “Look at me—in a bedroom with a man who isn’t my husband, with his hands on me, and still able to taste him in my mouth. What are you apologizing for?”
“That look in your eyes,” Chris responded, “that sadness I wish you didn’t feel.”
She stiffened, her chin quivered, but just as fast as that threat of her vulnerability came on, it left. Replaced instead by something colder, and stronger. Life had a funny way of doing that to people—of shaping them into a better version of themselves, even if it hurt a lot along the way to get to the end result.
Chris was proof of that.
“There are still people—guards—in this house that could get me in trouble for this,” she said.
Chris shrugged. “They’re busy.”
“What does that mean?”
“Seems like when the king is away, the court will play.”
Valeria’s gaze burned. “He is no king.”
“Agreed.” Chris sighed, tipping Valeria’s head back so he could stare down at her, and enjoy the sight of this woman in his hands for a moment. “You understand, don’t you?”
“Understand what, Chris?”
Her words were a whisper.
A caress.
“That you’re safe with me, Val—I’m not like him, and I won’t hurt you, or take from you when you don’t want to give it to me. I’m not a perfect man, but I am a good one.”
“I like to think I do understand that.”
Chris smiled. “But?”
“Life has taught me to be wary.”
Right.
He would be concerned otherwise.
“But I think I always knew anyway,” Valeria said, her tongue snaking out to wet the seam of her lips as she spoke. “You were soft and sweet with my daughter, and I saw it in how you treated me. So, I do get it, but—”
“Life,” he interjected.
“I have to be careful.”
“I want you to be.”
“Oh?”
He nodded. “And I also want you to trust me. This can’t work otherwise, Val.”
She let out a hard breath. “I’m not convinced it will work at all, if I’m being honest.”
“Why?”
“You see my life, don’t you?” A bitter laugh fell from her lips, and he instantly wanted to kiss it away. Somehow, he refrained, but it was hard. “Don’t blame me for thinking freedom is a dream I’ll never see come true, Chris.”
“Except it will, and it starts with tonight.”
“What does that mean?”
Chris chuckled. “Well, it means whatever you want. You run this show, sweetheart.”
Valeria gave him a sly smile. “Does that mean you’ll share all your secrets with me?”
“I don’t have many of those, but what do you want to know?”
A quick shake of her head answered his question, and she looked away. “I was kidding, I didn’t—”
“I have four siblings—all brothers,” Chris said. “We’re French-Italian Canadians, but only a couple of us can speak fluent French. All of us are fluent in Italian. My twin, well, this job was almost his, but he’s ... married isn’t the right word, but he needed time off, and so I took the job for him instead.”
Valeria’s brow lifted. “A twin?”
“Identical, too.”
“Like ... the same?”
Chris made a noise under his breath. “On the outside, yeah. Corrado. He’s always been my best friend, so I have to look out for him, that’s all.”
“Like taking this job?”
“Yeah, like this. We’re one set of two twins, and we have an older brother who was the only singleton of our siblings. My mother was also an identical twin.”
“It’s a genetic thing, then?”
Chris laughed. “Seems so.”
Valeria’s smile softened. “And you love them. I can hear it in your voice.”
“All of my family,” he agreed, “to the ends of the earth and back. I would do anything for them, and they would do the same for me. That’s how our parents raised us.”
Chris shook his head, thinking about his family, but more specifically, his twin. “I joined The League—an organization that trains assassins—because I didn’t want my twin to go it alone. I thought he needed me there to watch his back. That’s what my family taught me; no matter what, we look out for each other.”
“And did he need you?”
“Not for that, but it didn’t change what I felt. It’s like this, too, though. I need to fix things. It’s what I do, it’s who I am. All I want to do is fix this for you, to make it better, so you can be happy again. Safe again.”
“I was happy once.”
“When?”
“In New York.”
“Not before?”
Valeria sighed. “When I was a girl, too, I guess.”
“Were your parents good to you?”
That earned him another smile, but it faded fast. Chris hated that, and wanted to get her smiling again, but she was already talking.
“I was an only child, but my papa and mama spoiled me. We didn’t have a lot when I was younger, and my father had grand ideas about all the changes he thought our country needed.”
“That’s why he went into politics?”
Valeria shrugged one shoulder, her gaze dimming. “I don’t know if he thought he would be untouchable because he made it clear his loyalties didn’t lie with those who could buy him, but it didn’t matter, did it? The cartel got what they wanted when they went after the things that meant the most to him. And what good did it do to him—he’s dead, too.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I ... don’t want that to be the lesson my daughter learns.”
“She won’t because her mother is better.”
Maybe it was the strength in his tone—the truth ringing out—but Valeria was quick to nod before meeting his gaze again. “I want to be, yeah. Know, no matter what happens here, or how this ends up ... if I am put in a position where I have to leave without my daughter, I won’t go. I can’t.”
His hands that had slid down to her waist tightened. “I would never put you in that position. If it can’t be done my way, then we will figure out another way.”
“And what is your way?”
Well, that, he hadn’t figured out yet. Chris figured now was not the time to say that.
“And he’ll kill Maria,” Valeria added when Chris stayed silent, “if he even thinks I am planning to leave with her. It would mean hurting me, but also teaching me that if he cannot have me, no one can. She doesn’t matter to him. She is a pawn for him to use.”
“Not for much longer.”
“You say that, but—”
“I get that, Val.” Chris leaned in, and pressed a featherlight kiss to Valeria’s lips as he murmured, “I made a promise to her—and to you, in a way—and I intend to keep it. But trust me. Just trust me.”
With each graze of his lips against hers, her kisses answered him back. Soft, at first. Tentative, before each one of her kisses became more and more hungry. He hadn’t intended to come to her room for this, but her demand was a loud echo—despite their silence—as her hands grabbed at his shirt with enough force to pull the buttons from the loops.
Chris didn’t need to stop and ask Valeria if this was what she wanted with him, or if she was just reacting from her high emotions. This woman had been gaslighted and abused enough in her one relationship—he hadn’t forgotten what she told him that first time she let him touch her, after all—that she didn’t need another man to make her wonder if he was underhandedly second-guessing her.
She was a woman.
Capable of attraction, lust, and desire.
If she wanted to fuck, then that’s what she would do. He was more than happy to give her whatever she wanted because that meant he was fucking her.
It was a win-win, really.
“I ... I want you,” Valeria mumbled against his mouth, her voice a needy whine that had his cock hardening, “please.”
“Abso-fucking-lutely,” he told her in a groan.
He pulled the six-pack of condoms he had bought for this trip to keep on him as a just in case from the back of his slacks, tossing them to the bed while kissing Valeria with enough force to have her walking backward. She only stopped when the backs of her knees hit the edge of the bed.
He’d never seen someone be as graceful or sexy as she was undressing him one piece of clothing at a time. Her intent, as heady as her determination, had Chris checking his more dominant nature to be the one to control during sex.
And then, as she pushed his boxer-briefs down his hips, the last stich of clothing on him, she stilled when his hard cock jerked out in her direction. Chris grinned at the color flooding her cheeks—a delicious red, innocent in some ways, and yet that want in her eyes made it seem so fucking sinful, too.
He thought, a walking complex.
That’s what this woman was.
She was many things.
Alone, or together.
Sinful and innocent.
Harsh, and soft
It amazed him.
And turned him all the way on.
“What do you want, huh?” he asked. “You get whatever you want, Valeria, I need you to use your words, and tell me. I’ll always give it, if you tell me. So, what is it, babe? I can lay you back on this bed, feast on your pussy, and then fuck you until you can’t take it anymore ... or I can let you climb on me, and ride until your heart is content. You can bend over this bed, and let me worship your pussy and your ass, or you can—”
“I want to touch you.”
Chris audibly swallowed.
Damn.
He didn’t mind making this all about her. Regardless of what other men liked to bullshit about when it meant busting a nut during sex, he got off on getting someone else off. And yet, to hear her ask to pleasure him almost had his fucking knees buckling.
What was she doing to him?
“Yeah, Val,” he murmured, “fucking touch me. Get what you want, woman.”
She did, deft fingers curling around his length after he’d stepped out of those boxer-briefs. Light tugs really stroked him awake, but it was the way she tightened and loosen her grip with a faster speed that had his head falling back for a moan to drag from his lips.
“You look so good like that.”
Her whisper woke up his senses.
Every fucking one.
“All for you,” he rumbled.
She did just that, taking her time to tease him into a tight ball of hot need with her hands while she watched him with hooded, lustful eyes. He about fucking died when she leaned in to press a featherlight kiss to the middle of his chest before subsequent touches of her lips lowered with each one.
“Fucking hell.”
Valeria’s light laughter lasted only long enough for her to get the head of his dick in her mouth. And if there was a heaven, it was Christopher watching this woman on her knees for him, learning the way he liked for her to suck his dick, while his hand tangled into her hair, and her gaze locked on him.
“Look at you, huh?” he uttered, jaw clenching from the way her lips kept tightening around the head of his cock when she came back up to the tip. “So fucking pretty on your knees for me. Do you like that, Val, do you want my load down your throat, babe?”
He swore her throat flexed at the head of his dick, an instinctual swallow, that about had him coming. He wasn’t a fourteen-year-old boy getting his first pussy here—he would not bust a nut in two minutes—but she sure as fuck made him feel like it.
His hand left her hair long enough to snake in under her jaw. He held her still, his cock still stretching out those pretty lips of hers, as wide eyes looked up at him with the need to please, and be pleased.
“Let me fuck you,” he whispered.
Valeria released his cock from her mouth, the heat of her breath a contrast to the sensitive skin of his length when she breathed, “Please do.”
“God, yes.”
It took Chris all of a minute to have her standing naked in front of him after he’d stood her up and pulled every piece of clothing keeping her from him off her body.
Had he mentioned how beautiful she was?
All her lines, and curves.
Hips that spoke of a woman who carried a child, shapely and sinful, and a round ass that made him want to take a bite. Golden skin with undertones of red and brown that made his fucking mouth water. That dark hair of hers fell over her shoulders in a wave, still a contrast to her skin, and shiny under the dim lights of the bedroom.
An angel.
Wicked as she was.
“You’re beautiful,” he told her, “it fucking hurts, Val. That’s how beautiful you are.”
She sucked in a jerky breath, breathing, “Show me. Show me how beautiful.”
He said nothing, only moved forward to get Valeria to her back on the bed. His hands slid under her thighs, lifting her legs high and wide as his head dipped between her legs. Oh, he’d spend lots of time eating the juices from her slit later after he’d had her coming on his cock for a while, but right then he wanted her flavor on his tongue.
Chris licked her from her slit to her clit.
One tease.
Then,
his lips worked up her body, past her navel, her stomach, and the valley of her breasts. He reached for the condoms he’d tossed aside earlier as he hovered above her, breaking open cardboard to get to the foil packets inside. Valeria panted beneath him, chest rising and falling while he sheathed his cock in latex.
Her hands found her knees, and she pulled her legs up, and open for him as he leaned back, and her head fell to the pillow to give him a beautiful view of her willingly spread out for him. He teased her with his fingers for a moment, enjoying the sight of her moaning into the pillow while her slick arousal coated his hand.
“Feel how fucking wet you are for me?” Chris asked. “I can’t wait to get another taste of this after you’ve been praying to my name.”
“Please ...”
This sweet woman.
He didn’t deny himself, or her, longer.
The sound she made when he worked his cock into her tight pussy was raw. So hot, and needy all rolled into one sexy woman. When he seated himself deep inside her walls, Valeria let out a hard breath, those lips of hers a perfect O while she stared up at him.
His hand pressing into her lower stomach kept her trembling hips from being able to seek more of him as she tried to move against him. “You like that?”
“Oh, God, so much.”
“You want more?”
“Please.”
He loved how the word slipped from her lips. Airless, and yet so sure. Desperate in her want, but assured in her need.
Chris fucked her slow at first, his hands flattening to her sides to grab tight and pull her into every flex of his hips. And then when she whined, the broken cries she tried to hide muffled into the pillow, he fucked her faster.
A little harder.
Deeper.
Until she trembled, her skin flushed, and her lips a bitten-red from her teeth as she shook through her first orgasm from his dick. And just as fast, before she had even finished shaking through that orgasm, he moved them on the bed.
Him on his back.
Her on top.
“Ride me until you come again,” he told her, thrusting his hips up, so she sat deeper onto his cock while her breaths burst out of her chest, “use me like you want to Val, and I’ll get what I need, too. Fuck me, woman.”
