by J. J. McAvoy
We couldn’t get enough of each other.
DECLAN
I was selfish.
But I knew that already. I just didn’t realize how selfish I truly was until I met her. I wanted all of her and by God, I was going to have her one thrust at a time.
“…Declan.” She moaned when I slowly entered her from behind, as my hand slipped down to her breasts, where I pinched and pulled on her nipples.
Our days were divided between her exploring the world and me exploring her body in every fucking humanly way possible. I wanted her body to only know me…to fit only me.
“Fuck,” I hissed as I held on to her. I pulled out almost all the way before…
SLAM.
“Ahh!” She shivered, completely unaware of how sensual she looked with her eyes closed, her mouth slightly parted, as the water dripping down her face and back. Releasing her breasts, my fingers drifted up her neck as I held on to her and buried myself inside of her.
SLAM.
“Open your eyes.” I bit her ear.
She didn’t listen to me, as the waves of pleasure enveloped her body. Pleasure that made her toes curl, her mouth water, and her eyes roll back. Pleasure that I had given her.
“Coraline,” I said softly. My hand rubbed her ass as I bent her over even more.
SLAP
“Now.”
Her brown eyes opened slowly, and her heavy breathing caused her breasts to rise and fall.
“Good girl.”
SLAM
“Declan.”
I savored each of her moans as I kissed her ear.
“How many times do you want to come, Coraline?”
SLAM. I thrust deeper.
“One?”
SLAM. Harder.
“Two?”
“Fuck.” She reached back and gripped my hair.
SLAM. I moved faster.
“That’s not an answer.”
“Declan!”
I grinned. “Now that’s an answer.”
I was already at the edge, but I wouldn’t stop until she came at least twice. Pulling out of her, I turned her back around, lifted her up, and thrust into her with no forgiveness.
“Jesus!” Her mouth dropped open.
“Has nothing to do with this.” I bit her bottom lip hard, and when I let go, she kissed me back, and her tongue brushed and swirled over mine.
She placed her hands on my shoulders balancing herself.
“Do you hear yourself? This is what an amazing fuck sounds like,” I whispered as my face hovered over hers, and my dick slammed into her wet pussy so hard that I was surprised the glass didn’t break under the force of my thrusting.
“Yes!” she cried out as her nails dug into me. “Please don’t stop!”
“Mine,” I grunted. “You are mine.”
“Yours,” she repeated as she matched each thrust.
“What was that?”
“Yours! I’m fucking yours! Yes!” she screamed and grabbed her own breasts as she came for the second time.
Her voice, her body, it drove me fucking insane. Hugging her close to me, I kissed her hard against the glass, as I thrust forward once more, then held her still as I came.
“God, Cora,” I gasped. My vision was slightly blurred.
“He has nothing to do with this,” she whispered.
Smiling, I pulled out slowly, but I didn’t give her any room to escape me as I stood directly under the shower. The water was now running cold, but I didn’t mind as my body was on fire. Opening my eyes, she rested against the glass…thoroughly fucked and beautiful. She stayed there for a second before she turned and grabbed the soap. Stepping towards me, I realized that her intent wasn’t to wash herself, but to wash me.
Taking the soap from her hands, I rubbed it against her body, spending more time then I needed to on her breasts. I wanted ten minutes to pass by quickly so that I could take her again…and maybe one more time after that for good measure.
“What am I going to do with you, Coraline?” I asked as the water rinsed us both.
“Fascinate me. Feed me. Fuck me,” she replied. “Basically everything you’ve been doing.”
“I can do that,” I said, as I flicked the water off of my face and hair before I turned off the water. Taking her hand, I pulled her to me and kissed her forehead before I led her out of the shower.
As we wrapped ourselves in towels, we moved into the master bedroom. I could see from the window that we were already at the dock.
I still had work I needed to do, and it couldn’t wait for sunset.
“Cora.” I turned back to find her searching through the bag she’d packed before we left the villa.
“Yes?”
“I’m going run into town to drop something off for my uncle. Do you want to wait here or would you prefer to go into town and shop?”
“Shop.” She grinned.
And I nodded as I reached for my wallet.
“Declan, it’s okay, I have—”
“My card is already out.” I took her hand and placed it into her palm. “So accept it. Besides, whatever clothes you buy, you’ll be wearing it for me anyway.”
“Fine,” she said with a sigh as she shook her head.
“Do you want me walk with you?” I asked as I slid into a pair of jeans and grabbed a black shirt.
She shook her head, and lifted up a blowdryer and flat iron. “I don’t want to make you wait. I wouldn’t be surprised if you came back before I finished getting ready. Go ahead, I’ll be fine.”
I didn’t like just leaving her, but I didn’t have a choice.
“I’ll have two men here, Eric and Patrick. They’ll take you into the city, and back to the villa.”
She placed her hand on my face. “Declan, I’ll be fine. Besides, you brought way more security than we needed. If anyone saw us they’d think you were some sort of big shot drug dealers or something.”
“Ha! Yeah.” It was all I could think to say. Part of me wanted to ask her ‘so what if I am?’ But I simply kissed her forehead and walked towards the door. Glancing back, I could see that her attention was already back on her things as she tried to unwind the cord of her blowdryer.
At the bottom of the stairs and at the back of the boat, both Eric and Patrick stood waiting. Eric handed me my jacket, gloves, and a gun, which I quickly placed behind my back and out of sight.
“You two will both be staying here.” I took second pair of keys and pulled out my phone.
“What?” Eric questioned.
“I want you both to stay with her and follow her as she goes shopping. Watch over her while I take care of business, and remember—she’s the woman in my bed, while you’re the men on my family’s payroll. The order of importance should be clear. Do you understand me?”
They both nodded.
Patrick spoke out when I climbed out of the boat and onto the docks.
“Are you going to do this alone?”
“I have a lot more friends in Cancun than you realize.” And where there were friends, there were also enemies. Which was why I needed them with her.
“Check-in in thirty?” Eric asked, and I nodded, already moving towards the old, black Sudan parked behind the Range; I preferred her in that one.
Once I started the engine I dialed the number of my contact. The phone rang exactly three times before he answered.
“Miguel. I’m cashing in a favor.”
“After five years?” his husky, voice questioned.
“Were you hoping that I would forget?”
“You Callahans can sure hold grudges. What do you need?”
“It’s a skill. I need your boys for a raid.”
“It sounds like you’re doing me another favor.” He coughed, proving that all those damn Cubans were finally killing his lungs.
“When you and your boys arrest them, I want you to leave me half of the drugs and Slasher.”
“Declan.”
Speeding past the light, I drive further from the
coast. “Miguel, how many times has our family helped you snatch the incoming coke from the Giovanni family? Or told you if the Valeros were rolling through?”
“The Giovanni family hasn’t come through in four years. Good thing too, I heard Iron Hands has gotten even more merciless over the years. Right before they left Cancun, they gave us a parting present, four of our largest dealers’ heads on police cruisers, with ladrón carved into their heads.”
Ladrón …thief. I wondered how much they must have stolen from Orlando Giovanni for him to go that far. Four years ago, they were dying off, begging to make peace with the Irish. Now they were well on their way to being just as strong as us. If Liam didn’t marry Orlando’s daughter, God only knew how bloody the future would be. The reason why the Seven Bloods and Slasher were now our problem was because the Giovannis had left a void in a prime trade route.
“Either way, Miguel,” I said, as I gathered my thoughts. “It’s a win-win for both of us. I get a thug, and you get to look like you’re cleaning up the streets again.”
It was a useless mission. No one could clean up the streets because people didn’t want them to be clean.
He sighed. “Where?”
“Cinco Motel, rooms six through nine. How soon can you get here?” I said, as I pulled up and parked only one block away.
“Seven minutes.”
“Perfect.” I hung up, stepped out of the car, and began making my way over towards the old, grey building with the flickering motel light.
In the parking lot, a few Mexicans were very obviously noticing the out of place white boy as they worked on their cars. Up on the stairs, three of their whores waited, their breasts barely covered in old bikinis, and wearing jean skirts that had so many holes, they shouldn’t have even bothered. I knew the men in the parking were watching me.
“Ay, Papi!” Two of the women tugged at my clothes.
“Cuánto cuesta?” I forced myself to smile, asking for the price, as I wrapped my arms around two of them.
They looked at my watch, then my shoes, and I took off my watch.
“Solamente efectivo! Cash, white boy!” one of the men sitting on the roof of his old black Cadillac in the parking lot demanded.
God, I hated pimps.
I looked at the dark haired women to my side.
“Three hundred.” She popped her gum. “For one of us.”
Three hundred? What was I getting, the deluxe service?
I nodded and let go of the other girl before I followed her up to room number five. The moment door closed, she already dropped her skirt.
“You can pay—”
Clasping my hand over her mouth, I held the gun to her skull.
“Don’t yell and your brain stays in your head,” I said in Spanish. When she struggled, I pushed her up against the door.
“Sweetheart.” I held the gun right between her eyebrows as she turned to face me. “I’m giving you a chance here. Don’t push it or you will die. If you scream, you will die.”
“You got no idea who you’re fucking with. I work for Slasher. He ain’t gonna let any of his girls get treated like this with—”
“You sure?” I questioned. “You think he would feel that way if I drop a kilo in front him? Or maybe a mil? You aren’t a person, you’re a machine. You take it up the ass and he gets the bills right out of you. Now you can shut your mouth and wait two more minutes.”
“Fuck yo—”
I smacked her over the head with the butt of my gun and she fell to the ground. With a sigh, I picked her up and dumped her on the bed. Dropping three hundred beside her, I glanced at my watch.
Three.
Two.
One.
I heard the sirens followed by the start of engines as the sounds of people running outside the door reached my ears. I opened the door to see a squad coming up the stairs dressed in full riot gear. They rushed past me, as I leaned in the doorframe and saluted them.
Miguel came up last, still as short, round, and tan as ever. He glanced into the room then back at me.
“She’s alive. We had a little disagreement about her lifestyle choice. Go on,” I said to him.
He shook his head at me and followed his men.
“Room eight!” he yelled back to me. I hated the police, but that didn’t mean that they weren’t useful.
I moved past them as they pulled thug after and thug out of the rooms, along with their half-dressed hookers. I stepped in front of room number eight and peered inside. One Emilio Guerra, aka Slasher, sat zip-tied to a chair with duct tape over his mouth.
“Emilio!” I called to him as I stepped inside. The two officers who were in the room nodded to me as they left. “You and I need to talk. I got a Seven Blood problem in my city.”
He shook his head and glared at me.
I pulled out a knife and held it in my left hand while I weighed my gun in my right.
“Emilio, we can do this clean, or I can be dirty. Believe me when I say that I’d rather not be here right now. But business is business and I will do whatever I need to for however long it takes for me to get what I came for.”
He lifted his neck, signaling for me to kill him.
Dirty it was then.
CORALINE
“Oh my gosh!” I stopped when I saw the white, satin Christian Louboutin crystal-embellished peep-toe slingback sandals that had been brought out on a pair of pillows, as they clearly deserved.
Following them, I stopped when I saw a woman dressed in a blood red dress. Her long wavy back hair shifted to the side, as a white coat hung on her olive skinned shoulders. She wore her gold Cartier Paris sunglasses as she scrolled through her cell phone. She didn’t even touch her own feet, as a woman beside her, who could use a nice makeover, kneeled and took off her white Jimmy Choos to grab the Louboutins.
“Stare any longer and you might lose your eyes,” the woman said to me, without even looking up from her phone.
“Sorry. I just really like your shoes.”
She nodded without speaking.
One of the three guards around her stepped up to me.
“Excuse us, miss,” one of them said with a thick Italian accent.
Nodding I backed up.
“They look amazing, good choice. Sorry for bothering you again,” I said to her before I walked away.
Was Cancun really that dangerous? I had asked Eric and Patrick to wait outside, but maybe I shouldn’t have.
EIGHT
“Sometimes we want what we want even if we know it’s going to kill us.”
―Donna Tartt
CORALINE
It was our last night here and I hated the thought of leaving. We had spent the day as complete tourists; going through the city, eating from street vendors, and having our portraits drawn by street artists. And for his closing act, Declan was making dinner—chef hat, apron, and all.
“You still haven’t told me what you’re making.” I leaned over the counter, but he closed the lid before I could see.
“I said it was a surprise.”
“Aren’t you tired of surprising me?”
“Not even a little bit.” He blew on the wooden spoon and lifted it to my lips for me to try.
I moaned. God, it was good.
“And here I thought I was the only one who could make you moan like that,” he pouted, as he licked the spoon.
“Apparently, it’s not just you, but everything involved with you. So far you’ve proven that you’re fearless, bilingual, a master chief, a devil in bed—”
“A devil? Really?” He grinned and wiggled his eyebrows. “I’m honored to have pleased you so well. What put me over the top? The second night I took you from behind? Or was it the fifth day when you rode my tongue—”
“And you are gentleman, for the most part, with a good family,” I cut him off without answering.
He snickered to himself, as he turned his attention back to his pots.
“Come on, you’ve gotten to know some of my flaw
s. You know I snore, I run away from commitment, I don’t drink, I don’t party unless I’m dragged out of my house and I don’t really have an adventurous bone in my body despite having enough funds and resources to do pretty much whatever I wanted… you’re almost too perfect, you must have a flaw of some sort. So tell me, what is it? Are you secretly a serial killer? Do you not want kids? Do you have dirty thoughts about family members or perhaps some weird fetish?”
“The only person in the world who thinks those are flaws is you, Coraline, and that doesn’t count. And regarding all of the questions you asked afterward, the answer is no.”
“Hey, my flaws are crimes against my twenties, okay?” I replied, and he laughed at me while stirring the vegetables.
“Fine.” He sighed as he put the burner on low, and wiped his hands on the dishcloth that was draped over his shoulder.
“Fine?”
He nodded and walked over to me with the same virgin drink we’d had on our first night. Handing it to me, he leaned in.
“I have a fear of clowns.”
I stopped and looked him over, his face was serious, but I saw his the corner of his lip twitch.
“You’re lying, aren’t you?”
He nodded and I lightly smacked him on the shoulder.
“Seriously, what’s your biggest flaw, Declan Callahan?”
He thought for a moment, as he leaned against the counter.
“I have nightmares,” he said softly. I waited for him to go on. “My parents died in front of me when I was nine, which is why I live with my uncle and his family now. The nightmares were worse when I was younger. I even used to wet the bed too. Now I just wake up shaking and covered in a cold sweat.”
“Every night?”
He took my cup and sipped at its contents. “For the most part. I can usually only get a good night sleep after staying up a couple days or pills. But I prefer to stay awake rather than take pills.”
“So…” I tried to think back, but each night I usually ended up going to bed before him. “You haven’t slept since we’ve been here?”
“On the contrary, I’ve never slept better. And it’s all because I have you next to me. I haven’t even thought of my parents. At home, it’s obvious. I love my family, Sedric has always made sure that I knew he thought of me as his son. I told you that before. He even takes me out to Cubs games for father-son bonding. I’m so grateful. But—”
