Dark Nights Dangerous Men

by Elisabeth Naughton, Cynthia Eden, Katie Reus, Alexandra Ivy, Laura Wright, Joan Swan

  This escapade would get back to Saul before Rio returned to the estate. The phone lines were probably already burning. He definitely had to nip this budding detective. The sooner the better.

  Cassie was still peeking into the space when Rio stopped next to her. He pulled in the tantalizingly sweet scent of roses floating on the air and planted one hand against the glass by her head. “What are you up to?”

  She jumped and backed away, her eyes stretched wide with shock. Those eyes of hers were beautiful—deep amber swimming with black flecks, like tortoiseshell, lined with thick lashes so long they made him want to feel them on his lips.

  Once she’d fully focused on his face, she let out a long breath and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, they were molten. And tired. “Dammit, Rio. Don’t do that.”

  “If you didn’t have your pretty little nose pressed against the glass like this was a candy store, you would have heard me.” Though something about the fatigued slump to her shoulders made him think she might not need such a heavy hand today, he lowered his voice in warning anyway. Better safe than sorry. “What part of death wish didn’t you understand? Look around you, Cassie.”

  But she didn’t look around. She stared at him. Arms crossed, head tilted. “Just who are you? What are you? I was up all night trying to figure you out.”

  He really didn’t need to know she’d been awake last night thinking of him. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “You send so many mixed messages you’re like a little cyclone. Nothing about you makes sense. Nothing about what you do makes sense. How you act with Saul. How you act with me. How you act with Saul in front of me or me in front of Saul. You lie half the time, tell half-truths the rest.”

  He grasped his forehead between his fingers. “You’re making my head hurt, babe.”

  She sighed. Her frown of concern looked sincere. “I’m not surprised.” She reached toward his face, and Rio braced for a slap. But she took his jaw in her hand and squeezed gently. “You do realize this level of constant stress will eventually make you sick, don’t you?” Her hand slid down to his neck, warm and gentle. “I can personally attest to that. And studies show it shortens your lifespan. You’re so…vital. Healthy, young, smart, articulate. I hate knowing Saul will slowly suck all that life out of you. I hate, even more, knowing you’d let him.”

  God. She was serious. She was worried about him. No games. No challenge. And Rio found himself speechless. He wanted to pull her into him, wrap her close, press his face to her hair and breathe her in.

  Her hand had moved to his shoulder, and strong fingers rubbed at a knot at the base of his neck. Muscles there went liquid, and he moaned as the tension drained.

  “Why don’t you have a girlfriend?” she asked.

  His brain returned from the easy haze she’d put him in. “Work doesn’t really—”

  “Where does your family live?”

  “Not nearby.”

  “Who are your friends?” Her hand slipped beneath the collar of his tee, fingers slid farther down his shoulder and found another knot. Rio fought another groan. “Who’s close to you? You need someone to lean on too, Rio. Everyone needs someone. No matter how tough we think we are, underneath the cover, we’re all just human.”

  He opened his eyes. Hadn’t realized they’d closed. He wasn’t sure if it was the soft, sincere, melodic tone of her voice or her words, but he felt hypnotized. She took a step closer. Those magical fingers ran up the back of his neck, sank in at the base of his hairline and kneaded.

  “God damn,” he murmured as tension slid out of his neck and the low throb in his head dimmed. He released his muscles into the pressure and tilted his head forward. “I didn’t even know I hurt until you touched me.”

  “That’s kind of how it is. You don’t realize how much you want or need something until you get what you’ve been missing. Then you wonder how you’ve lived without it for so long. How you’ve let yourself go on for so long in such an unhealthy way. I want to change that in my life. What about you, Rio? What do you want for your life?”

  All the tension she’d release swept back in. What did he want?

  “Sacrifice a lot for this gig, though, you know?”

  Tomás’s words dug deeper, joined with Cassie’s, and gnawed at Rio. He didn’t know what he wanted, because he’d never taken the time to think about it.

  He lifted his head and looked at Cassie. She met his gaze expectantly, waiting for his answer. He reached out, cupped her face, ran his thumbs over the soft skin of her cheeks. “Who are you, and what have you done with Cassie Christo?”

  Instead of the insolent, pinched expression he expected to get, Cassie grinned. Then laughed. Her whole face relaxed, brightened. And Rio’s heart squeezed with affection.

  Her hand slipped away, and with it, her warmth. He craved it again immediately but kept himself from reaching for her. Even though he could. Even though he had an excuse. Even though he was expected to.

  “This is the real Cassie Christo. With my bad side too exhausted to take up the fight this morning, I guess.”

  “You are so confusing,” he murmured, and when her expression sharpened, he added, “In a sort of maddeningly charming way.”

  “I don’t think I’m as confusing as you are confused.” She turned and walked away from him, back in the direction of the clinic. “Have you ever been diagnosed with schizophrenia?”

  He laughed. Knew he laughed a lot more when he was with her. Which made him realize that was one of those things he’d gone too long without in his life.

  “No schizophrenia,” he said, “but I think you’re driving me that direction.”

  They were halfway down the block before he’d cleared his head, just as they passed another threesome of Muertos.

  “Hey, Rio.” One low, throaty voice drifted from their perch on the ledge of a windowsill. “Where’d she come from?”

  A fierce surge of protectiveness tightened Rio’s body. “Mind your own, Paco,” he said without looking back.

  A few yards down the street, Cassie said, “They know you by name. There’s a nice character reference.”

  Then she abruptly turned into a bakery. Rio was three feet past before he could stop and turn back. He followed her inside and found her picking out donuts.

  She glanced over her shoulder. “Want one?”

  His gaze skimmed her backside. His mouth watered. One would never be enough. “I want a lot of things I shouldn’t have.”

  “I’ll take that as a no.” She paid, thanked the owner, and started down the street again, pulling an old-fashioned glazed from her little bag. She broke off a piece, popped it in her mouth, then offered some to Rio. “One of my favorites. Come on, schizo boy. Live a little.”

  He grinned at both the schizo-boy dig and how her snarky side had already returned. “If I start, I’ll never stop.”

  A sly, sexy smile tilted one side of that beautiful mouth just before she ate the offered piece. “Good to know.”

  They passed the cross street to the clinic, and Rio asked, “Where are you going now?”

  “Amigos.”

  He lifted one brow. “Need a little tequila to wash that down?”

  “Coffee.”

  “You could have gotten coffee—” He shook his head. “Never mind. Listen, I’ve got an unbeatable deal for you.”

  She snorted out a “yeah right” laugh.

  “If I get to work at the clinic,” he said, “you get the pleasure of bossing me around all day.”

  She laughed again, but this time, it sounded with a clear ring of delight, which did crazy things to his body. “Now that sounds appealing.”

  He held the door of Amigos open for her, hoping she’d go for this. If he stayed close to her, he could make sure she stayed out of trouble. If he could make sure she stayed out of trouble without sleeping with her, he could hold out hope for a future relationship on honest terms.

  Manuel looked up from drying shot glasses an
d smiled. “Rio, you’re late—” His gaze skipped to Cassie and rounded in surprise. “Dios mío. Cassie Christo? Is that you?”

  Manuel dropped his work on the bar and came around. His chatter had switched to Spanish, and his smile was more authentic than anything Rio had ever seen. He glanced at Cassie to find her smile just as big, just as filled with affection. It lit up her sweet face as if she was glowing inside, and God help him, something deep and powerful shifted inside Rio. Something that terrified him in too many ways to understand.

  Manuel pulled her into a bear hug and off the floor like a father would a little girl. Cassie giggled, and the sound skipped pleasantly across Rio’s skin.

  Manuel put her down, touched her face. “Oh, mija, it’s so good to see you. What brings you back? Visiting Nina and Mirabel?”

  “Yes and no.” She went on to explain her work with the clinic, which was when Manuel seemed to remember Rio.

  He sucked in a breath, studied Rio as if seeing him with new eyes. “Oh, yes. Yes. This is so nice.” With his arm still around Cassie’s shoulders, he closed in on Rio and dragged him into the group with the other arm. “You two are very nice together, yes. I’m so happy. Both such good people.”

  “Uh, no, Manuel,” Rio said, trying to pull away from the man without being abrupt. “We’re not—”

  “Nonsense.” He affectionately jerked on Rio’s neck with a meaty forearm. “You are beautiful together. Cassie, she is a gorgeous girl, no? And smart. A doctor.”

  “Too smart to be with a guy like me.”

  “Rio,” Manuel chastised.

  Cassie leaned into Manuel and pretend-whispered, “He’s in denial. Give me some time, Manuel. I’ll break him down.”

  Manuel dropped his head back and laughed. He released them both, kissed Cassie’s temple, and returned to his work behind the bar.

  Break him down? Sweat formed across Rio’s chest. Wouldn’t take much at this point. She was already more than halfway there.

  “What can I get you two?” Manuel asked.

  A locked room. A horizontal surface.

  “Six large coffees, please, Manuel,” she said, “for the crew.”

  “Of course.” Manuel turned down the length of the bar toward the coffeepot.

  “Oh, don’t look so worried.” Cassie’s eyes twinkled with mischief. “Manuel isn’t one of Saul’s spies. Never has been.”

  If he was worried, it wasn’t about Manuel talking to Saul. Rio waited until the bartender walked into the storage space at the end of the bar to speak.

  “So.” He took a breath, steadied himself with a palm on the edge of the scarred wooden surface. “Do we have a deal?”

  “The thought of bossing you around does have considerable merit.” Cassie pulled another donut from the bag and tossed the empty sack in a nearby trashcan. “But you can only stay if you actually help. No standing around just looking…” Her slow scan of his body tightened every muscle in turn. “…distracting.”

  Not getting with her was most definitely a rougher assignment than getting with her. “I’ll do my best.”

  Holding a jelly donut in one hand she used the other to point a comically stern finger at him. “But I reserve the right to kick your ass out—no explanation necessary.”

  “You are dangerously threatening, holding your second donut of the morning.”

  She dropped her hand to the pastry and pulled off a small piece. “You’re just jealous.”

  That the donut was going in her mouth and he wasn’t?

  Yes. He was jealous.

  He pushed his hands into the back pockets of his jeans as Cassie studied the paraphernalia on the walls. A silver charm at her neck glimmered in the dim light—a single ocean wave threaded on a doubled leather cord. He scanned her profile, the petite nose, soft chin, elegant line of her jaw…and a scar in the shadow just beneath. Smooth. Thin. He would have thought it a surgical scar, only the placement was strange for surgery—right along the edge of the mandible. And given her skittish, defensive ways…

  Damn, he wanted that background information.

  “How long have you worked for Saul?” Cassie asked.

  “Little over a year.” He glanced at Manuel to check his progress. He was reloading the coffeemaker with grounds.

  “What’s with you and Saul, anyway?” he asked.

  “I could ask you the same thing.”

  “But I asked you first.”

  She smirked and shrugged with one shoulder. “It’s always been like this. He’s always wanted control of everything—Santos, me, my mother, the estate. I always resisted. Santos and my mother had incentive to make him happy, I didn’t. Until he came along, it was just Mamà and me.”

  Her face softened with love and longing for a moment before her expression closed. “When he came into our life, I lost her in a lot of ways, and I resented it. And yes, it was Mamà’s fault too, but Mamà’s error came from loving him. Not seeing the real him until it was too late. Saul targeted Mamà for her money, for her position in the community. He never loved her. Never loved me. Never loved his own son.” Her distant gaze focused on Rio. “If you were truly friends with them as you say you were, you’d know that.”

  Rio hesitated, hating having to calculate the risk in everything he said or didn’t say. “I did know. It was a…painful…subject for everyone.”

  She studied his eyes a long time. The moment would have been amusing, her standing there contemplating him with her donut, but a heavy significance weighted the air and, at least for Rio, seemed to bond them in a completely unique way.

  “An angry teenager can cause havoc in a household,” Cassie said. “The harder he tried to control me, the more I resisted. The more I resisted, the harder he tried. I’m sure you can imagine how well that worked out.”

  “Kind of the way it’s working out now.”

  She pulled off another piece of donut. “How much time did you spend at the estate before the yacht accident?”

  All day, every day. And when he thought about those days, he missed Alejandra and Santos so bad he swore he was bleeding inside.

  “I escorted Saul and Alejandra to meetings and functions, ran errands, but I mainly focused on Saul’s business.”

  Rio remembered the excitement of climbing Saul’s ladder. Gaining the man’s trust. The anticipation of slamming those cuffs on Saul’s wrists had been burning in Rio’s gut when Saul approached him with the desire to raise the value of their cargo.

  “Rio.” Cassie dipped her chin. “We both know Saul doesn’t have a business. If you even try to go there, you’re going to look really stupid.”

  “Thanks for the heads-up. Wouldn’t want to look any more stupid than I actually am.”

  “Don’t even. If you don’t think I can recognize a smart man when I see one, regardless of who he works for or in what capacity, you’re not a very good judge of character.”

  Pleasure burned across his chest, and, crap, it felt so damn good. He was starting to think being with her all day wasn’t such a great idea after all.

  “Quite the backhanded compliment,” he said.

  “Aren’t you cynical this morning?” She pulled at the donut, revealing the raspberry filling, and hummed. “I knew I’d need this extra sweetness in my day as soon as I saw you. This is my favorite.”

  “You said the other one was your favorite.”

  “No. I said that was one of my favorites. This is my absolute favorite.”

  She closed her eyes and licked the jelly off the donut. The sight of her pink tongue against the red sweetness, the slow sweep, the pleasure on her face, drove a violent spear of lust straight through Rio’s body, where it lodged dead center between his legs. He gripped the bar hard. Then she closed her lips around the sugary dough, and, God help him, she sucked at what remained.

  By the time she slid the rest of the bite into her mouth, Rio had stopped breathing. His other hand curled into a fist, his nails clawing his palm. And his cock throbbed against the zipper of hi
s jeans.

  “Since I don’t indulge often,” she said, licking her fingertips, “I can’t keep myself from devouring the first. Once the edge is off my craving, I’m able to take my time and savor. So I save the best for last.”

  At some point, he’d refilled his lungs, though they weren’t functioning right. His mind envisioned scenarios of taking her hard and fast up against a wall, mouths fused, hands stroking, hips thrusting. Then laying her down on a bed to undress her, kiss every inch of her body, and love her slowly, thoroughly, making sure he lived up to every one of her back-arching, toe-curling, sheet-fisting fantasies.

  “Want some?” Her sweet voice drifted through the sound of blood pounding in his ears.

  He focused from his sexual haze in time to watch her swoop a finger full of raspberry filling from the donut in more of a show than an offer.

  “You’ve got to be shitting me.” Crap, he hadn’t meant to say that aloud. Nor had he meant to grab her wrist, but it was wrapped in his fingers.

  Everything beyond that was deliberate. The way he pulled her hand to his lips. The way he took her finger into his mouth. The way he sucked the sweet-tart filling off her finger.

  The way he grabbed her neck and pulled her mouth to his, sharing the electric tang of raspberry with her, tongue to tongue.

  She moaned into his mouth. The flirtatious torture ended, and something entirely different began. Her lips softened, and her body relaxed. Rio knew he should resist, should pull back, but a deep part of him also needed it. Needed her. Saul was right about Rio not getting out of town enough for sex. But worse, Rio hadn’t had any real affection for years, and feeling it now with Cassie made him realize he’d grown as dry and thirsty as the surrounding desert.

  And for shit’s sake, he couldn’t stop kissing the woman. Her mouth was perfect. Her lips full and soft, her tongue firm and so seductive. The things she did to him with nothing but a kiss… She would be the one giving him off-the-chart orgasms.

  She pulled her mouth from his, turned her head, and tossed the donut. It landed dead center in the garbage can. She slid both arms around his body, splayed her hands high on his back, and curved her fingers until her nails stung his skin even through his shirt. And damn, that made him think of all kinds of other things he’d prefer to be doing to her while she dug her nails into him.