by Elisabeth Naughton, Cynthia Eden, Katie Reus, Alexandra Ivy, Laura Wright, Joan Swan
She shook her head, arched into his thrust. So sensual. So exciting.
Above her, as far away as his arms allowed, he soaked in the sight of her dark hair on the sheets, her breasts, full and tight, their mocha nipples peaked, the way her body undulated, shoulders to hips with each thrust. He reached for a throw pillow and slid it under her hips. Got that perfect angle, allowing him to drive home, penetrate deeply, and hit the spot that—
“Oh God.” Cassie arched into him, head pressed back against the bed, hands fisted in the sheets.
And there it was.
“Oh, yes,” Rio breathed, a smile sliding over his face. Anticipation tightening his body. “Hold on for the ride, love.”
Rio cleared his mind of everything but the woman beneath him, his only concern to drive her to the edge of sanity with pleasure. The sight of her arching and rocking beneath him was like dynamite in his chest. The sounds she made a quickly burning fuse.
He lowered his body toward hers a little more on each thrust, watching for signs of distress, but he was on his elbows, kissing her throat while her hands clawed at his hair when she said, “I…I…can’t wait. I…have to…God, Rio.”
“Can you look at me, baby?” He was shaking with restraint. “Can you open your eyes?”
Her lids parted, and she stared at the ceiling, uncertain.
“Right here.” She lowered her gaze and met his. He smiled. Ran a thumb across her cheek. “That’s it.”
“Rio.”
“Keep saying my name, Cass.”
She moaned, lifted to meet him. “Rio.”
“I want to feel you come,” he said, keeping his eyes on hers. “Come for me, love. I want to feel you all hot and wet. Come for me, Cass.”
“Yes.” Cassie pushed him deep, clenched. “Oh God…yes.”
When he finally let go, his orgasm rocked him hard enough to rattle his bones. Tendrils of fire raced through his body, down his limbs. His brain went completely white—no thought, no vision, just blank with pure white-hot pleasure.
Cassie’s breathing still hadn’t slowed by the time Rio returned from the bathroom. He knelt on the bed beside her, jeans still unbuttoned and unzipped, though his impressive package was safely tucked away again. His shirt hung open, sleeves rolled up on his forearms as he reached for her skirt—the only piece of clothing she still wore—and whipped it off over her hips and down her legs.
“There we go.” He grinned, put his big, warm hand flat on her belly, and caressed as he eased down to his side next to her. “Perfection.”
She rolled toward him. The move covered her breasts with her upper arm and made her feel less…blatantly exposed. “Why am I naked and you’re still dressed?”
“Because I’m brilliant and you’re beautiful.”
He slipped his hand beneath her hair and rested it around the back of her neck in that way he had that made her feel both precious and protected, then leaned in to kiss her. His lips were so gentle. So sweet.
A huge part of her wanted to believe that his earlier words were true, that he loved her. Huge. But there was still the possibility that her instincts were wrong. They’d been wrong with Sharpe. And there was a lot of deception happening here with Saul and Fermin and the Muertos and Diablos and, of course, Rio.
When he pulled away, she said, “What did you mean when you said you’d loved me before you’d ever met me?”
He followed the path of his hand with his gaze as he slid it over her hair for the millionth time that day. Which she loved almost as much as she loved the way he always cradled the back of her neck.
“Through your mother and Santos.”
Cassie waited as memories and thoughts passed over Rio’s face. “We were close—your mother, Santos, and me,” Rio said. “They made working here bearable. They included me in everything, like I was part of the family. We went to dinner, walked on the beach, played board games, sometimes just hung out in the living room and read. Santos taught me to surf, took me when he went out to clubs. We played hoops out by the garage. And your mother…”
Rio huffed a laugh and shook his head a little. “She was so…fabulous. I mean, I’m only a few years older than Santos, both of us young enough to be her sons, but she never treated either of us like a mother. She was always our friend, yet she was somehow more. It’s hard to explain. She was sort of like—”
“A mentor?” Cassie asked, waiting for an opportunity to ask the million questions that came to her now.
Rio smiled again, but it was sad. “Yeah. She was so easy to talk to, easy to be with. She was wise and understanding. Had a great sense of humor. But, boy, if Santos or I were the least bit dense or thoughtless, she let us know about it.”
Cassie smiled in memory of her mother and pushed away the pang of grief that came along with it. “Sounds like Mamà. But, Rio…” She waited for the distance to clear from his eyes. “I know Saul. He would never have allowed that kind of relationship between you. It would have threatened him.”
His gaze came back to hers and sharpened. His absentminded stroking of her hair stopped.
“Hey. Don’t close up on me.” She took his chin in her hand. “I’m lying here naked.”
He sighed, dropped his hand to hers and threaded their fingers. “It’s just…hard. I try not to…you know.”
“Think about them?”
He nodded, his gaze on their hands. “You’re right. Saul didn’t approve. It caused problems. When Saul was home, I made myself scarce. When he was away, Alejandra or Santos would always come find me.”
She chewed on her lower lip a moment, wanting to ask the next question but so fearful of the answer, she couldn’t quite get the words out. “Was there…I mean, did you ever think…?”
“What?”
“Mamà and Santos,” she said, a knot squeezing her stomach until it flipped. “Was there anything, you know, not right between them?”
Rio raised one eyebrow.
“I mean, not…” God, the thought killed her. “Appropriate.”
“Are you asking me if they…? Are you serious? God, no.” Now both Rio’s brows pulled together. “And before you even think it, nothing like that ever happened with your mother and me either. Where the hell did that come from?”
“Lorena said the month before the accident, they had been spending more time alone than usual. That they were acting suspicious, and that Saul thought—”
“Come on, Cass.” He lifted her face to his. “You know that’s not true.”
“Then why were both their bodies found on the boat?” When his handsome face twisted into a what the hell look, she explained the jump in reasoning. “If they’d been topside enjoying the weather like they should have been, they’d have been found in the water. But they weren’t. They were both found on board. Which means they were inside the cabin. Why were they both inside the cabin on a perfect spring day?”
Rio’s face clearly and quickly closed. But this time, he tried to cover by pulling her hand to his mouth for a kiss. “I knew Santos. I can promise you, there was nothing but friendship between him and your mother. If they were in the cabin, the reason was not sex.”
“I want to believe you, more than anything, but the way you shutter yourself from me whenever I get too close to these topics, all these things you aren’t telling me, all the things you’ve lied to me about…” She shook her head. “I hate the lingering unease it leaves between us.”
A ring sounded somewhere behind him. He reached back and pulled his phone from his jeans.
Cassie’s mouth dropped open. “You made love to me with a phone in your pocket?”
The smile that broke out over his face could have lit the room. “At least it wasn’t my gun.”
He leaned in and kissed her before he answered the phone.
The voice coming over the other end of the line, while muffled, clearly wasn’t speaking English. Or Spanish. And Rio’s smile went flat.
“Good,” he said. “Keep me posted.” He disconnected a
nd slid the phone back into his pocket.
“I have to get things ready for the party. Are you joining us tonight?”
She sighed. “I haven’t decided yet. But either way, I’ve been strictly instructed not to make trouble for you, so you don’t have to worry about that.”
“Really.” His eyes narrowed. “Who do I have to thank for that little bonus?”
“A friend in San Diego.” She watched closely for any reaction. “The friend I mentioned at the clinic.”
It took a second for Rio’s mind to travel back, pinpoint the conversation, identify the friend. But Cassie saw the moment it registered. Only, no reaction showed in his expression—just a slight tic beneath his left eye, something she’d never seen before.
Rio said nothing. He just pulled her into him for a long, deep, hot kiss. And even with all the turmoil on her mind, she found she could lose herself in him.
She rolled back and tried to pull him on top of her, but he resisted. “Please? Just for a minute?”
“I don’t want to…upset you.”
With her fingers curled in the waistband of his jeans, she pulled his hips toward her. “I don’t recall being upset earlier.”
His arms wrapped around her, and he slowly turned into her. “You’re going to make me late, Christo.”
She parted his shirt so the muscles of his chest and belly pressed against her. Opened her legs and wrapped them around his hips on a sigh. Skimmed her fingers through his thick, soft hair.
“I know the boss.” She kissed him. “I’ll put in a good word for you.”
He laughed. Trailed kisses across her jaw, down her neck. “God, you are heavenly, baby. Heavenly.”
Cassie memorized the feel of him. Their fit—physically, mentally, emotionally.
“I could love you,” she whispered, and his mouth froze on her collarbone. “So easily.”
He lifted his head. “Why do I hear a but in there?”
“You know why. Because I don’t have one hundred percent Rio here. Because I don’t know who Rio really is. You have all of me, but…how much of you do I have?”
He pressed one hand against her face, kissed her deeply, then said, “You have everything that’s important.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Rio was beginning to think Cassie had decided against attending the party when she finally stepped out onto the sandstone patio beyond her room.
Every muscle, already on alert as he watched over the guests, went taut. Sexual tension sizzled through his body. And all he could do was stare and breathe, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“Come again,” Tomás said over the headset, snapping Rio’s brain back into security mode.
“The princess just came on scene,” Rio muttered. “Serious power enhancement on board.”
“I’m up for a switch, dude. You come man the gate, I’ll handle the princess. I know just how to treat her like royalty.”
Rio clicked the microphone off before muttering curses behind clenched teeth as she headed toward the guests. He turned and took a path to cut her off midway.
Multicolored lights skipped over her hair from their perch high in the palm trees. The rich salmon color of her dress accented warm, cocoa skin. The flowing chiffon moved with her body, draping soft curves and falling into smooth valleys. The rhinestones woven into the fabric shimmered and winked, teasing the eye.
He stepped into her path at the edge of the gardens. She startled and came to a sudden stop, hand against her bare cleavage exposed by the dress. “Wow.” She took in his double-breasted suit, his styled hair. “Look at you.”
“And you.” One slow sweep of her had blood roaring through his body. “Out of all the dresses in that monster closet, you picked this one?”
She laughed and dropped her hand. “If you’d used any other tone than that-dress-makes-me-want-to-take-you-back-to-your-room, I might have slapped you.”
“Goddammit, Cass. That dress makes me want to do you right here.” He rubbed a palm over the sweat he could feel forming across his forehead. “You said you weren’t going to cause trouble.”
When lust shot through her eyes and she bit her bottom lip, he regretted using language that turned her on. Because that only stoked his fire. She stepped closer, and Rio had to fight not to step back. She was beyond gorgeous, beyond sexy. She was a walking wet dream. One who could admittedly love him. So easily. Only he couldn’t give her the one thing she needed to do that—honesty.
She ran both hands down his chest. “Well, you might get lucky,” she whispered. “Because you look hot in that suit.” Her fingers tugged at the front of his blazer. “And in jeans. And in…nothing.” Then her hands were underneath, gripping his waist. “Mmm. I might be the one to do you, if you’re not careful.” She leaned into him, looked up with lusty promises in her beautiful eyes. “Want to know what I’m wearing underneath?”
He circled her wrists with firm fingers and pulled her hands from his body. “God help me, no.”
She pushed her lower lip out. The pout had to be the cutest expression he’d ever seen her make. His heart squeezed. He pushed her back into the shadows of the garden, pulled her into his arms behind a thick, flowering vine blocking them from the view of the guests, and devoured her.
Instantly, she opened to him, sucked his tongue into her mouth. He groaned. Needed to let go. Step away. But she pulled his arms from around her waist, covered his hands with hers, and pressed them to her ribs, slid them up and over her breasts.
“Nothing under here,” she whispered into his mouth before kissing him again.
He squeezed the supple flesh, and her nipples tightened beneath his palms. Before he could slip his hands beneath the silky fabric to feel her flesh, she pulled his hands to her thighs, slid them up, under her skirt, and over her nearly bare ass, a slip of lace teasing his fingers.
He wrenched his mouth from hers. “You are so…so… God, I don’t have words.”
“Wanna do me now?” she whispered, a sly smile heating her beautiful face.
“Hell, yes.”
“Councilman and Señora Castro.” Tomás’s deep voice announced the couple’s arrival over Rio’s earphone.
Rio jerked to a stop on his dive to kiss Cassie again. “Shit.” He took her hand, stepped beyond the vine, and locked his gaze on the sliding doors of the house until the couple emerged on the terrace and headed toward the party. Then he clicked his headset and replied, “Got ’em.”
When he turned back, she was smiling but clearly disappointed. “Duty calls?”
He cupped her face, kissed her gently. “I’m sorry. Rain check?”
Always.”
His heart swelled, but real-world tension kept it restricted. He took her hands in his.
“Uh-oh,” she said. “Here comes business.”
“You know me so well.” He squeezed her hands. “There are ten men on duty. Two on the beach, two at the gate checking ID against the guest list, one at the front door, one monitoring the house. The rest of us will be poolside with the guests. That’s where I’ll be.”
“Ten? We’ve never needed ten security guards before.”
“The gangs have never been this strong before.”
Her gaze darted toward the crowd milling around the pool. Rio wished he didn’t have to scare her to rein her in.
“I want you to know where I’ll be in case you need me.”
“Rio.” Saul’s voice cut into the intimacy between them like a cold knife. He dropped Cassie’s hand like a guilty teenager and turned. “Are you going to keep Cassandra all to yourself tonight, or can I share her with our guests?”
“Of course, sir.” Rio moved aside, allowing Cassie to pass. “I was just explaining the caliber of the guests and the inherent dangers with the increased gang activity in the area.”
Cassie gave Rio a look he couldn’t read. “Think about what we talked about earlier today.”
She straightened her shoulders and walked past but didn’t stop to accompany
Saul. Rio watched her saunter toward the crowd and got his first look at the back of the dress…or the lack thereof. It strapped behind her neck and fastened at the very base of her spine, exposing every inch of smooth, golden skin in between. Spaced every few inches, a sparkling string of rhinestones decorated the opening, drawing attention to the sleek line of her shoulders, the sexy curve of her spine, the trim span of her waist. Rio’s throat tightened painfully.
“The Santiago move was brilliant, sir.” Rio pulled his gaze off Cassie and found Saul still watching her. He forced himself to unclench his teeth. “She doesn’t want to leave my side.”
“Good, because I have another brilliant move planned.” Saul finally looked at Rio. “We need one more woman to complete the transfer that went bad last week.”
“I know. I spoke to Tomás today. I also spoke to—”
“I want you to use Nina.”
Rio stared, confused. “Ni…? Cassie’s cousin, Nina? For…” Oh, shit. “What?”
“The last woman.” Saul threw back the remaining alcohol in his tumbler. “I want you to take Nina and sell her with the others.”
Rio choked on his rebuttal, his words jumbled in panic he fought to repress. “What’s going on here?”
“I don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner. This customer, he uses the women in brothels in New York City.” A wide smile crossed Saul’s face. “It will take Cassie months of searching to locate her. Even if she hires the best investigators. And”—he brought the cigar to his lips and pulled smoke into his lungs—“if we leave the right trail, maybe even years. It’s the perfect short-term solution. By the time Cassie realizes Nina is dead, we’ll have everything we want. This place will look like a slum to us.”
Shit. Shit. It was a solid plan. A damn smart plan. Almost too smart to be Saul’s. Rio couldn’t think of a valid reason to fight him on it.
With the cigar hanging out of his mouth, Saul slapped Rio’s shoulder. “No more worries here, amigo. Give Pedro the order to pick her up tomorrow morning and have the women over the border tomorrow night. When the tangos get here, Cassie will be long gone. I should have taken control of what’s most important to her to begin with.”
