On The Ropes: Tapped Out Book 3

by Quinn, Cari

  My belly laughs started again. “Let me guess. These panties are to go with that awesome dress?”

  He nodded solemnly. “I owed you new ones of both.”

  I’d actually forgotten the whole outfit deal, because it had been a couple weeks since the doorway clothes-ripping night. He’d gone to war on two more pairs of my panties since then, so he would’ve owed me three pairs, anyway.

  And look at that, the plaid came in a three-pack. The guy never missed a trick.

  “I’m so thrilled. They’re just what I always wanted.” I launched myself at him, absorbing the sound of his surprised laughter like a kid sucked down a milkshake. I’d memorize that sound too and hold it close whenever he felt too far away.

  Like all the moments he wasn’t inside me. That was the only time I felt like I had a real, solid connection with him. Every other moment between us might as well have been quicksand, always shifting.

  “I figured.” He gave me a quick, hard kiss before pulling out two more boxes from under the bed. “But just in case, I got you these too.”

  I eyed them speculatively, noticing the distinct difference in wrapping paper. The other two boxes had been wrapped in garish neon paper. These two were wrapped in sophisticated gilt-edged paper.

  My heart started to beat faster as I pulled open the first box. I lifted the seductive black and red lace bra-and-panty set out of the tissue paper and tried not to gasp. I gasped over too many things, but this really deserved one.

  “La Perla?” I turned over the tag. “Holy shit. I’ve never…this is so far beyond…”

  I glanced at him, biting my lip. I didn’t want to ask where he got so much money, enough that he’d offered to pay off my tuition with one check, for pity’s sake. Enough that he took me out to eat at fancy restaurants sometimes before we came back to his place, and he never blinked at the total, no matter the cost.

  And that wasn’t even mentioning the absolutely insane tabs he ran at the club. He was always ordering Dom Perignon for the table as if it was water. His closet was full of expensive Italian suits he rarely wore, and he had enough pairs of high-end sneakers to outfit a basketball team.

  “You’re going to ask me how I make my money.”

  “I wasn’t.” Then I sighed, fingering my gorgeous lingerie. It mattered how he made his money. I couldn’t accept this if it was from dirty sources.

  Could I?

  “You make a lot fighting,” I said softly, knowing I was trying to reassure myself. Not just because of the panties and bra, but because I didn’t want him to be in so deep that he’d never find his way out.

  Even if he wasn’t able to until we were over, I didn’t want that life for him.

  “Yeah.” He scrubbed a hand over the back of his neck. “I also make a little at the Boys and Girls club, teaching judo to kids.” I blinked and his smile came and went. “I started taking lessons at six, so I figured I might as well put them to good use and teach others. And the kids, they love it. They think I’m a hero.”

  I smiled and touched his arm with my free hand. The other still clung to the La Perla. I wasn’t giving it up unless I had to. “That’s really sweet.”

  “No, that doesn’t account for most of where my money comes from.” His shrewd blue-black eyes narrowed on mine. “My mother left me a sizable inheritance. I’ve invested well.”

  I couldn’t restrain the breath I’d been holding. “Thank you for telling me.”

  He nodded. “I promise I wouldn’t buy anything that would touch your body with money that wasn’t mine to spend.”

  Before I could digest the reverence in his voice, he gestured to the second package. “Open it. Please.” He chuckled at my reluctance to let go of my new lingerie. “Give it here. I’ll hold it. It’s not my color, so you’ll definitely get it back.”

  “Not your size either.” My eyebrows waggled at the bulge in his pants. He didn’t have to be hard to be an eyeful.

  He inclined his head. “I can’t wait to see you in it. And in that.”

  Carefully, I tugged the navy wrap dress out of the box. It was knee-length and made from a satiny fabric with a sheen that would draw stares. Though the style was modest, there was no doubt of its sexiness.

  This was the kind of dress a high-society woman would wear when she was on the town with a man of distinction.

  In other words, I’d never touched anything like it in my life.

  “Oh Gio,” I whispered, awed. “How much did all this cost? I didn’t mean for you to break the bank. You could’ve replaced my panties and dress just by hitting a knockoff department store. These are…” I shook my head and tried to find the words. “You make me feel so special. Even with all of the insanity around us, and the other girls, and—”

  “There are no other girls.” He tipped up my chin with a fingertip. “No matter who I talk to, or who comes around me, since it’s been you and me, it’s only been you and me.”

  My chin trembled and he steadied it with that same fingertip. “I really want you to show me what you wish we could have.” I wet my lips and watched his expression change from caring to ravenous in a heartbeat. “If you still want to.”

  “I do. So much.” He leaned forward, kissing me gently enough to make my eyes sting and my belly quiver.

  I pushed aside the boxes and slid my hands into his hair, needing to be closer to him. I would’ve climbed right onto his lap if he hadn’t chuckled and eased away.

  He dangled the La Perla set in front of me, his chuckle deepening. “Gotta take a shower first. I didn’t have time to take one after the fight, and I’m rank.”

  I didn’t ask why he hadn’t taken the time to shower before heading to the club. I already knew. Me. He hadn’t wanted me out of his sight, not on a night I was dancing.

  Warmth filled me as I took my treasured gift and buried my face in the lace cups. “Go shower. I’ll just be here making out with my new underwear.”

  “Sure you don’t want to join me?”

  Of course I did. But I wanted to set a mood too, and if we got under the water together, there would be nothing but fast, furious fucking.

  Not that I had a single solitary problem with that.

  “How about you let me go first? I’ll be super quick.” Before he could question me, I backed toward the bathroom. “Time it. Five minutes or less.”

  I stripped and jumped into the shower. I half expected him to pull open the frosted door at any time, but that was Gio. Polite to a fault, except when he wasn’t.

  Moving swiftly, I lathered up with his orange-scented shower gel. In under four minutes, I got out and faced myself in the steamy mirror to survey the hair damage.

  Hello, out of control curls.

  Sighing, I fingercombed them as best as I could and hooked the towel around my body. I was practically tingling at the thought of the lingerie sliding over my skin followed by Gio’s hands and mouth.

  I opened the door to the darkened bedroom. The only light came from the candles that seemed to cover every surface.

  And Gio stood naked and sheepish, as if he expected me to complain.

  “Do you like them? If not, I’ll blow them out.”

  “Don’t you dare.” Smiling, I rushed forward and placed my hands on his chest as I leaned up to give him a kiss. “Go on, get clean for me so I can get you dirty and sweaty all over again.”

  “As you wish.” He groaned softly as I gave his cock a playful rub before he walked into the bathroom.

  The man was already half hard. I loved him so.

  Oh, shit. Do not think that way. Not even for a second, or in jest.

  To distract myself, I rushed to the bed to pick up my cherished lingerie. No, I did not love him. I liked him plenty. Love was different. Love was reserved for a man I could have a long-term relationship with out in the open. No secrecy.

  Which meant no Giovanni Costas.

  I put on the bra and panties and looked around frantically for something to toss over them. I wanted a little pom
p and circumstance to go with the effort he’d shown with the candles, but no way was I going to put on the dress he’d given me. Either of them. The strawberries…um, no. And the navy wrap dress, absolutely not. I couldn’t take the chance he’d get too enthusiastic, as much as I hoped he would.

  My gaze landed on his dresser. One of his shirts would work perfectly.

  The top drawer was just socks and underwear. I was about to shut it and go to the next one when a shadow in the back corner caught my attention. Without thinking, I slipped my hand inside—

  And picked up a gun.

  Sixteen

  I sensed the change in her the moment I went back into the bedroom.

  She was on the bed, spread out. Wet hair draped over the pillows, long pale legs curled seductively. She wore one of my white dress shirts half-unbuttoned over the bra and panties I’d given her, and she was absolutely stunning.

  But her eyes were dark, too dark, and even the flickering candlelight didn’t lighten them.

  “Carly?”

  She said nothing, just waited for me to come to her. So I did.

  Shedding my towel, I crawled across the mattress and took her face in my hands. I didn’t know what had changed in the five minutes I’d been gone, but goddammit, I wanted one night where there was nothing between us but skin.

  No lies, no secrets, no denials. Just her body under mine.

  I almost expected her to reject my kiss, but she opened her lips and drew me inside greedily, her hands coasting down my spine. She kneaded the sore muscles along my lower back while we fed on each other’s mouths. I flipped apart the shirttails of my shirt, unspeakably aroused by the sight of her in my clothes. Smelling like my soap, my shampoo. I wanted her to taste like me too.

  As much as I’d hoped to go slow, to make love to her the right way, it wasn’t going to happen. My need was far too great.

  When I moved aside to kneel next to her head, her big eyes swallowed me before her mouth did. She didn’t hesitate, taking me deep between those glossy wet lips. I tried not to thrust, to demand before she was ready, but her throat acquiesced to my invasion and the heat and wetness were too much. I fisted the damp hanks of her hair and positioned her where I wanted, driving forward to the keening sounds of her moans. She rubbed her thighs together in obvious distress, and I couldn’t keep from alleviating it any more than I could stop myself from taking her mouth.

  Twisting sideways, careful not to lose the link with her, I parted her thighs and groaned at the stickiness already coating her brand new panties. She’d made them hers, just as I would soon make her mine. While I was inside her, I owned her. Every bit as much as she owned me.

  I pushed aside the lacy panel guarding her from me and skimmed my fingers over her lower lips. Puffy and soaked, they lured me farther into the inferno inside. I plunged into her, registering her cry around my dick with another groan of my own. Tipping my head back, I pushed into her again and again, judging from the canting of her hips that she wouldn’t take long.

  At this rate, neither would I.

  Breathing hard, I forced myself to pull back. Some primal urge caused me to paint her overused lips with the moisture beading at the head of my cock, just for the pleasure of watching her licking up every drop. She didn’t shy away from anything sexual. Anything, period. I was the one who’d lived in a cage of my own making for the last two and a half years.

  Not Carly. She was deliriously open to all experiences, as open as I would make her for my mouth.

  Pressing her thighs wide open, I moved between them and covered her with my lips. I couldn’t get enough of her on my tongue. I wanted to be coated with her. To taste her every time I swallowed.

  She locked her feet behind my back and rose up, offering every bit of herself to me. I took it in greedy gulps, fingers and tongue working, driven to make her come. I scraped my teeth over her plump clit and she jerked, her body shuddering. Close. So close. I added another finger, using three to hold her open while I lapped at the arousal slipping from her onto my hand, onto the bed.

  Growling at the underwear that was now in my way, I started to do as I always did—rip them away—and she bowed up, shaking her head frantically. She was already fighting to shove them down her hips. “No. For God’s sake, save the panties!”

  Even with my chin smeared with her, I started to laugh. Hard.

  She made such a gorgeous picture with her hair all wild, and her mouth abused from me. Her legs spread, her breasts trapped by the bra that pushed them together against the confines of my shirt.

  I helped her take them the rest of the way off and grinned as she folded them carefully and set them aside. Then she lifted her brows at me and gestured between her legs. “As you were.”

  “Jesus, woman.” I nipped her belly and enjoyed her hitching laugh before I bent down to finish my task.

  I opened her up once more and decided to ratchet up the stakes. Slipping in three fingers once more, I covered her clit with my lips and sucked without cease until she started to squirm. Her hands knotted in my hair, pulling hard enough to make my cock throb against the bed. It wanted inside the tight wetness around my fingers. Now.

  “Fuck me. God, please, fuck me. Before I come.”

  I wanted both—for her to come in my mouth, and on my dick. I wanted her writhing and lost, delirious to anything but her oncoming orgasm. For as long as I kept her in that state, I could keep her. As soon as the sex-haze faded, we’d be back to where we started.

  Way too far apart, on the opposite sides of a line that could kill.

  I rose to my knees and leaned over her to fumble in the nightstand drawer. I expected her to make a joke about saving the condoms from the trash as she had a few times now, but she only remained still beneath me, expectant. Waiting for me to sheath my cock with that layer of latex that couldn’t block the sensation of her scorching me straight through to the bone.

  She rose up on her knees too as I went to work on the buttons of her shirt. My shirt. Fuck, I got off on seeing her like this. Wearing me, tasting like me, smelling like me.

  Opening up to me in every way.

  Halfway down the line of buttons, I pushed the shirt off her shoulders. I couldn’t hold back any longer. Her skin was like candy to me. I nuzzled and kissed and lapped at her, tasting the drops of perspiration mixed with the water left behind from her shower. Her erotic scent filled my head as I thumbed aside the strap of her bra. These kisses I was giving her would leave marks. I wanted them to.

  I filled my hands with her breasts, tugging the nipples free of their contraption, swallowing hard at the way they peeked over the edge of red lace. I bent and took first one then the other between my teeth, giving her that pinch of pain that always made her go crazy. I didn’t stop until her nipples were as red as the bra and as tight as the hot clasp that had surrounded me a few moments ago.

  Too long. I had to get inside her again, this time with my cock.

  “In me,” she breathed, and I couldn’t wait.

  I grabbed the pillows behind her and shoved them under her ass, pushing her backward on her knees until I could plunge into her. Deep. Hard. Her mouth dropped open, and I closed it with mine as I pulled out and went for the second stroke. She panted every time I pulled out and sank back in, gripping her thighs and holding them wide open for my onslaught. Her rosy pink slit beckoned me, illuminated by the half dozen candles I’d set around the bed. I wanted her pussy redder. I wanted her soaked, swollen. Open to me in a way she’d never been to another, and never would be again once I was gone.

  Reality tried to descend, but I fought it, surging into her harder, almost oblivious to the sounds of the bedframe hammering into the wall. She bowed her back, digging her nails into my sides. She’d leave welts behind, and I craved those marks too. I needed something permanent. The madness she created in me couldn’t blow in and out like a storm by morning. I wouldn’t let it.

  I’d fuck her until we were both broken. Too spent to stand. Incapable of walking a
way.

  She cried out at the frantic flick of my fingers over her clit. She pulsed under my touch, an erotic counterpoint to the throb of blood under my skin. The heat was drowning me. No matter how I struggled to break through it, to drive her up to the climax she’d been quivering on the edge of for so long now, I couldn’t get her there. Couldn’t get myself there either. My body refused to let go.

  Just like hers.

  A glance up at the skylight nudged me that much closer to the edge. The reflected image of our bodies wrapped together, my hips pumping, hers accepting. Her breasts bouncing as she arched her back, desperate to take every inch of me into her clenching grip. I grabbed her chin and tipped her head back, forcing her to see what I did. Us, in the glass. Shadowy and urgent. Fucking as if our lives depended on it.

  That was the way we’d started, and the way we would end.

  As she tightened up around me, letting me know she was almost there, I hauled in a breath and did the unthinkable—I pulled out.

  “Gio,” she moaned, probably as shocked as I was that I was breaking up the action now of all times.

  “In my mouth.” I dropped to my stomach in front of her. The pillows pushed up her ass and pussy, putting them on display. The perfect height for me to take a long, slow lick. “Come on my tongue.”

  She moaned again, and I didn’t know for sure if it was from frustration or urgency. But she wove her fingers through my damp hair, pulling me against her, wordlessly begging for what I was more than happy to give.

  I rolled her engorged clit under my thumb and slid my tongue inside her, scooping up her wetness again and again. She rocked her hips against me, her legs jerking futilely against the sheets on either side of my shoulders. I nipped her swollen folds and let her taste saturate my senses, making me as mad for her as she was for me.

  On the verge myself, I reached down to grip my throbbing cock in one hand while I teased her with the other, prolonging our mutual torment. I wanted to know all of her. Claim each and every inch.

  She flexed against me and her nails pressed into the back of my neck. My name leaving her lips on a harsh pant of breath was the only warning I got that she was coming. Under me, around me, against me, her body went wild. I dragged her closer, savoring her taste, and continued licking long after her shudders had abated to the occasional tremor.