by Mandy Rosko
He stood before her bare chested, and holy abs, the only thing missing from this picture to make him look like a contestant for Mr. Universe was a Speedo and some oil to really give those muscles some shine.
Okay, maybe he wasn’t that big, but it was still a sight to behold, nonetheless.
Once again, Isla got to see the excellent definition of his chest and abs. Once again, she got to compare the color of his budded nipples to the rest of his subtly tanned skin, and once again, she noted how the scar that ran down along the side of his left pectoral and straggled down and over in an unnatural line, all the way to his hip, did nothing to deter from that beauty.
Maybe one day he would let her ask him how he got it. Though, the rumors were so terrible that she might just back out from that one indefinitely.
Arturo Calendri didn’t seem like the type who dealt with another person’s curiosity very well. She figured she should at least get to the friend-making part of this arrangement before she pried into what had to be something incredibly personal.
She followed him to his bedroom. Weird for that to be going through her mind since this entire place was his bedroom, but well, the part of his room that had the bed, that’s where she went, and Isla was determined to go there before he had to call her forward.
She kicked off her shoes on her way, losing a couple of inches when the heels came off, but she never took her gaze off Arturo’s dark eyes.
They were molten lava hot as he stared at her. There was something animalistic and predatory in his stare. A look as smoldering as that could only come from a man who knew how to get what he wanted, and then frequently did.
Isla felt his gaze all over her skin, as though he were physically touching her, and a pleasurable shiver rippled through her body. Goose bumps followed close behind.
When she stepped up to him, she never felt so small in her entire life. He was tall, she knew that, but now that she was right in front of him, almost toe to toe, she really felt tiny. She wouldn’t have to get up on the tips of her toes to kiss him, but it was going to be pretty close.
He lifted one of those thick, dark brows. Not a lot of guys looked good with thicker brows like that, but they were amazing on him.
He said something she didn’t catch, and she blinked and shook her head. “Sorry, what was that?”
His eyes widened for a brief second before he stood straight and looked incredibly put-off. He crossed his arms. “I’m sorry, is this not holding your attention? Maybe we should try again later.”
“No, no, I’m fine. I was just thinking about your eyebrows.” Might as well tell the truth.
And those intensely expressive brows shot halfway up his forehead. “My eyebrows?”
One of his hands twitched, as though he was just about to lift a couple of fingers to touch them, maybe find out what was so special that they held onto her attention, but he held back and kept his hands at his sides.
“Sorry.” She tried not to smile at how casually funny this had become. “I just like them. They’re nice, and I got distracted.”
He still stared at her like she was a tiny bit insane and he might have made a huge mistake by making this arrangement with her.
“Of all the compliments I’ve ever gotten in my entire life, I don’t think anyone has ever told me that I have nice eyebrows.”
She continued to smile. “Well, I always thought eyebrows were half of the expressiveness people saw in another man’s eyes. I bet you scare the hell out of a lot of junior executives when you glare at them.”
He half smiled, half smirked at her, and she couldn’t really tell which one was more dominant. “Yes, that has definitely happened before, but if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were trying to butter me up with this weird eyebrow crush you supposedly have to keep from getting undressed.”
He said it with such a sweet smile on his face that it took her three whole seconds before her brain processed what he’d just said, and another two seconds after that for her entire body to flush with humiliation.
Five seconds was a lifetime when she was embarrassed about something.
Oh, God. She’d basically just flirted with him by complimenting his eyebrows, of all things. No one did that. She just made herself look like a complete and utter idiot.
“Forget it. I don’t think I can do this tonight.” Isla spun around to make a mad dash for the door.
Screw the arrangement and being all sexy and friendly and whatever else her plan had been. She’d come back and implement all that stuff after she’d recovered sufficiently from being a moron.
Her hand just grabbed onto the door handle, turned, and opened it maybe one inch before Arturo’s palm slammed on the wood, shutting the door back on her.
She jumped and glared at him. “What are you doing?”
That amused smile she wasn’t sure she liked was back on his face. He leaned in closer to her. Down, down he came, until she could smell the spicy scent of his cologne, until she was nearly kissing him.
And from her new vantage point, his mouth looked pretty kissable.
“I didn’t say you could leave.”
That got her imaginary hackles raised up high. “What do you mean I can’t leave? I can come and go whenever I want! This isn’t some kidnapping thing you’re pulling off here.”
“Don’t be an idiot.”
The soft way he said those words stung a lot more than they should have, and Isla found herself shutting up very quickly.
Arturo wasn’t pinning her against the wall or anything, but with his arm outstretched like that and his large body so close, she kind of did feel like she couldn’t move at all.
“Of course you can come and go whenever you want, but we did have an agreement.” That smile again, the one that she liked but was also starting to hate because it made her heart flutter.
“I know about the agreement. You made me sign a contract for it.”
“And?”
“And I don’t feel like being insulted and embarrassed before hopping into bed with someone. It kills the mood.”
“Trust me, I know how to get your mood in a better place really quickly.”
Fuck. Even the way he smiled, so confident in himself, was doing wonders to get her mood in a much happier position. Bonus points for being bare chested, smelling nice, and having that velvety voice tell her how everything was going to be okay.
Well, she had told herself she was going to do this. Isla wanted to have some fun of her own, and a good portion of the thrill from this came from the fact that they were both going into it knowing full-on and flat out that there were going to be no strings attached. This was just fun sex.
She couldn’t have her fun sex locked away in a billionaire’s home if she ran away from him, could she?
“All right, Mr. Calendri. Wow me,” she said, smiling back at him as she crossed her arms.
She shrieked in surprise when he crouched down and curled his arms around her knees. He hoisted her in the air and over his shoulder, like a caveman, so damned fast she hadn’t known what was happening until he was walking with her back to his enormous bed, carrying his spoils like any proper caveman should.
15
Isla definitely hadn’t been expecting this. She even pounded on Arturo’s back twice before he slapped her on the ass.
“Cut it out,” he said.
“Put me down!” She pressed her hands against his lower back so that her head wouldn’t be hanging completely upside down.
The world became right side up again, and the rush of blood to her face stopped, but now she had a good feel for the muscle that was beneath Arturo’s very expensive, probably tailored just for him, clothes.
His ass was only an inch or so lower. She could even reach out and touch it if she wanted to. He’d slapped her ass, after all, so why shouldn’t she—
She shrieked again when she was unceremoniously dumped onto his huge bed. She bounced, but barely. The mattress and sheets beneath seemed to catch her and
form right to her body.
She shoved her hair out of her eyes and stared, transfixed as Arturo crawled on top of her.
Men had done this before, but only now did it make her shiver with anticipation, mostly because he wasn’t smiling like a man who was both a lover and a friend would. He stared at her like a cheetah approaching a gazelle. Predator and prey. It was sexy as fuck
The goose bumps rose up on her body—on her arms, her legs, her thighs, absolutely everywhere. The tingling, buzzing sensation that made her want to jump out of her skin in the absolute best possible way increased when Arturo’s body was against hers.
She could feel the heavy weight of him, of all of that muscle and power just rippling beneath the surface of his clothing, and he was staring at her like she was a meal to be devoured quickly and savagely, not slow and gentle.
Her hands made their way to the back of Arturo’s strong neck. She felt the soft hairs that were there outside of his ponytail.
“I’m going to fuck you. Hard and fast. You might come, you might not, but I’m willing to bet good money by the way you’re looking at me that you most likely will.”
That shocked her, and her hand fell away from his neck. “You don’t care if I have an orgasm or not?”
Arturo shrugged. “It’s preferred, but it won’t ruin my time if you don’t.”
Isla stared at him, squinting her eyes a little, as though she might be able to see some sign that he was playing around with her hovering right in front of his face.
No such luck. “I can’t tell if you’re being serious or not.” She wiggled her hips, lifting her knees and bringing his pelvis closer to her inner thighs.
Of course, this meant her red skirt fell down around her hips. Her panties were exposed, but Arturo was still looking into her eyes. His excitement was clear, and she knew she had him.
“Does the famous womanizer Arturo Calendri have a habit of not getting his women off?”
“He has a habit of not letting his women play with him.”
Isla tensed, and he smirked, thrusting his hips forward so she could feel how hot, hard, and ready his cock was, just on the other side of a few layers of clothing and lacy panties. She shivered, sucking in a sharp breath through her mouth as she bit down on her bottom lip. It was all she could do to hold back a pleasurable groan.
“That’s right, thought you had me there, didn’t you?”
Shit.
Arturo thrust forward again, letting her feel his cock one more time, and she could have sworn she was more affected by this than he was.
It had been a while, after all, and now her body was hot and bothered like no one’s business.
“I’ve never had a complaint, just so you’re aware,” he said, his voice perfectly normal, not at all like he was fighting back a building pleasure that was driving Isla to the brink of insanity. “But I’m not about to waste my time worrying about the orgasm of a woman who just can’t get off at the time. I’m told that being fucked by me is pretty spectacular, but regardless of that, the female body doesn’t work like that.”
“Like what?” she asked, panting, struggling to keep her eyes open and the little noises she wanted to let out properly contained.
“For example, just because I happen to be good in bed, doesn’t mean that you’re magically going to come when I put my dick inside of you. And just because you can’t come, doesn’t mean I shouldn’t get to enjoy myself either.”
She shook her head. Not because she disagreed, but because she couldn’t contain herself. She had to do something. Had to wriggle, had to move. He was getting her off just by rubbing her clit with clothed cock.
“Isn’t… isn’t that selfish?”
“What? Wanting sex when you don’t?”
“Yes.” She wasn’t entirely sure if she was agreeing with him, or just moaning from the pleasure building inside of her. That balloon felt like it was going to burst any second now.
“No. Not at all,” he said. “You’re confusing my point with pressure and force. Haven’t you ever put out for a man before when you weren’t in the mood, just to enjoy it later?”
“This… this is a… weird conversation to have when… when you’re doing this.” Isla said.
The pleasure inside of her had reached a plateau. Arturo was moving slowly now, preventing her pleasure from rising any higher, but keeping it right at the level that it was.
His next thrust was harder, however, and his voice equally so. “Answer the question.”
“Yes! All right?”
He smiled as he pulled himself off her.
A thrill of panic shot through Isla’s body. “What are you doing?”
“Relax, I’m not going anywhere,” he assured her. “I want you to take my belt off and undo my pants.”
She looked away from his chest and up at him. He stared back with expectation.
No point in pretending she didn’t understand. She nodded and reached to undo his belt. Her fingers worked quickly, as though he was strapped to a bomb and she needed to get it off him as quickly as possible.
“You’re eager. Good.”
“Well, I don’t think I’m in any danger of not coming,” she said, glaring up at him for that, but there wasn’t too much heat in the look.
It was difficult to be resentful about the sort of high Arturo had just been giving her.
“That was just to prove a point. My women do get off, and I never want to hear you say that if you didn’t, it was because of something I did or didn’t do. That most certainly will not be the case.”
“No, it’ll just be my fault.”
“Precisely. It’s your body, and if you’re making plans on just lying there and doing nothing, then don’t expect me to put up with you getting angry that you didn’t get off.”
“Did Angela ever have this talk with you? Is that why you’re laying down the law with me?”
The words left her mouth before she really thought about the wisdom of saying them, but instead of being angry, Arturo just smiled at her, a wry sort of look. “Her and a few others. You just need to know this is a two-way street. If you want me to get you off, then you’re going to have to participate.”
She thought she was participating well enough, but truth be told, had Arturo not commanded her to take off his belt and pull down his pants, she might not have had the courage to actually do something like that on her own, and she didn’t consider herself shy either.
But she did tend to let the man take control when in bed with her. It had seemed easier, and even though none had ever really fucked her in the way Arturo was describing he would do, their gentle lovemaking hadn’t exactly been exciting either.
A two-way street? All right.
“I can do two-way street.” Without any prompting, when his belt was loose enough and the button to his pants were undone, Isla flattened her palm and slid her hand beneath the waist of his pants.
She felt a line of hair trailing down from his stomach to his pubic hair. He was trimmed, and then she felt the thick shaft of his cock. The organ jumped in her hand, and it was hot. Hot enough to make her pulse jump right along with it.
Not just jump, either. Isla’s pulse actually started to skip with the excitement of what she was doing. It was somehow more exciting because she wasn’t looking at his cock. She had to rely completely on touch, because there was no way she was looking away from his eyes.
She wanted to see the expression on his face when he lost control.
He closed his eyes just as they rolled into the back of his head. His lips parted in a sigh, and that look on his face was by far the one thing that made her feel so in control of the situation. Not that he was hard for her; they’d already established he had a healthy enjoyment of sex maybe a little too healthy. No, it was the look on his face that made her realize she was on equal footing with him.
“You want me to participate? All right,” she said. Feeling brave and more adventurous in her entire life, she pushed herself into his lap, lo
osely curling her legs around his waist. She rolled her hips , feeling his hard cock press against her wet panties, and it drew a soft moan from her and a guttural sounding groan from him. “I can definitely do that.”
Arturo growled—He actually growled!—as he leaned down and angled his head to kiss her.
16
Her lips were soft. Not slimy and wet because of any large amount of gloss, like Angela and some of the other women he’d been with had preferred. They were just soft. They felt warm and inviting. Arturo pressed his tongue forward, fast and hard, not bothering to ask for her permission. He didn’t need it. He already had her, and she wasn’t going anywhere.
Her lips parted for him, her tongue eagerly pushing back against his own, but he was already inside, taking control.
He had her, and she tasted better than he would have thought. They’d just eaten their dinner and wine, which didn’t usually help with a person’s taste. Not that Arturo ever minded it so long as that taste hadn’t been sitting there for several hours.
But he could taste her beneath the flavor of their wine. It might have been the wine that did it, but he could swear her kiss was intoxicating.
He was never going to describe this kiss in that way to anyone, least of all his brothers. Orlando might think it was romantic and sweet, but Arturo was neither of those things.
She tasted good. It was like something he’d never had before in his entire life.
Isla’s hand grabbed tightly to the hair on the back of Arturo’s head, her fingers yanking on the ponytail he had there, and he grunted from the shock of pain but pressed his mouth harder to hers. A tiny moan escaped her throat, and he loathed to do it, but he pulled back.
Their lips made a wet noise as they parted from each other. Her chest rose and fell quickly, as did his as he stared down at her. Her body was warmer now than it had been a minute ago.
