by Aubrey Rose
“Hey.”
“Beautiful.” Then silence that made her more nervous.
“You called me,” she reminded him.
“I’ll be late tonight,” he responded, not sounding happy about it. “Tonight’s the fucking show that mine and yours are putting on at Redrock.”
She’d forgotten about that. Steven had invited her. Unbelievable. But she’d thought he’d done it to try to weasel more money out of her. There was no way she wanted to go.
“Okay,” she replied.
“I’m voting her off the board twenty minutes into the show, baby.”
“Wow,” Tess whispered. “Okay. Umm, I am glad you are getting it done like you want.”
“After tonight we have more to talk about. You see Torenni or any of his mob, you duck and cover, then you call me. Yeah?”
Tess liked how Vincent worried about her. “I don’t get it, I’m nothing to them.”
“Tess, baby, it’s me they are after.”
That blew her mind. It made no sense. “What?” she whispered.
“Torenni’s boss wants a cut of Redrock. Mob and casinos, they fucking think it’s their right. They’ve been dogging me for too long. I run Redrock. Nothing gets in I do not agree on. Used your husband to get to Luna, tie her up. Because of that they think they got me.”
“Oh my God,” Tess exclaimed into her cell. There were lots of ways this blew her mind. Vincent being CEO of Redrock, the mob, freaking mob working some kind of long con on Steven to eventually get to Luna. But still ... “None of that’s me.”
“Baby, mob’s possessive. You linked in any way, they think you’re theirs.”
“I do not want to be theirs,” she blurted, then she added, “I don't want you to be theirs either.”
There was silence, then Vincent’s voice sounded very low. “Not had that before.”
Tess blinked, trying to understand what he meant. “What?” she asked softly.
“A woman that tried to have my back.”
Oh. Oh, that was sad. But she knew what he meant. “Me either, honey. I know you have my back, I can feel it.”
“Thing is, baby, I know you’re doing all this on blind trust.” Tess clenched her eyes for a moment. He so got it. Got her. “That means something.” His voice was all rumbly, rolling straight through her and lingering hotly on her girly parts.
“Thank you, honey,” she murmured.
“We stay connected today. You understand me?”
“Yes,” she replied. “We will keep close. But, Vincent, I know you think you couldn’t possibly need my help or maybe you are so protective you’d never ask, but you have to ask me and not take it all on yourself.”
“Hell, baby,” he muttered. “Getting to know you is going to be as good as the sex ... and, baby, the sex with you is over the top.”
Tess grinned, feeling tingles on top of her arousal. “I can’t wait to get to know you too,” she told him.
“We get this mess behind us and I might have a way to get Luna away from you, and us out in public together.”
Tess nearly told him she was working on something about that too, but she was excited to hear what he had and the fact that it meant he had been playing Luna, to keep her safe.
“Soon, honey,” she said. “We can really talk. You call me if you need me, you hear.”
“I hear,” he answered. “If you were here, it’d be lips, baby.”
Vincent closed the call while sitting in his truck outside Redrock near the loading dock entrance at the back of the concert hall. He was watching Luna’s crew loading in equipment for her gig, and he counted at least three of Torenni’s thugs among them. Mob was all over this. He rubbed a hand over his jaw. He was going to get him and Tess clear, but he wondered what Torenni’s boss was going to do to Luna and Navarro when they proved no longer useful.
Vincent caught movement out of the corner of his eye and he saw Sam working his way to the driver’s side of his truck. Vincent watched Sam climb in, giving him a nod.
“Recon?” Sam asked.
Vincent cut a meaningful gaze to Sam. “Got the charities board set to vote Luna off after this concert of hers starts.”
Sam whistled lowly. “Damn fine work, brother.”
Vincent didn’t grin—it was more of a sneer. “I’m cutting her way the fuck loose. Only reason it wasn’t sooner was because I was a stupid ass putting her on the board to begin with.”
Sam nodded, looking out the window at the gear going into the concert hall. “Mob spooks are all over this, brother.”
“I’m seeing that,” Vincent replied. “I think they’re trying to use Luna to get to me.”
Sam outright laughed. “Those white boys got a surprise coming.”
“We’re going to have to have a tribal meeting about this and keeping the bastards out.”
“Sounds good,” Sam replied, then he turned his big body toward Vincent. “Got a thing, not sure what to do with it.” Vincent looked over Sam’s serious features. They’d grown up friends together and went into the military together, then they’d come back and busted their asses finding oil together to make them both rich enough to do what they wanted. Then he heard Sam say Cabe’s name.
“Hell,” Vincent swore. Cabe was another lifelong friend, who had not gone into the army with them, he’d done navy, but was right there slugging through the oil fields with them.
“His wife was here. All night with another guy. Sloppy together,” Sam said in clipped recital.
Vincent wondered what was wrong with all of them ... they all had rocky marriages or fucked ones like his ... already gone.
“Don’t know if I should tell him,” Sam was saying.
“He knows,” Vincent snapped. “Not who. But when your woman doesn’t come home at night, you fucking know, brother.”
Sam grimaced, and Vincent regretted his harsh words ... Sam’s wife had gone off to be a political figure in Dallas. Cut and dry, leaving Sam behind.
“You tell him if he asks me, I’ll tell him who,” Sam said, reaching for the truck door handle. “Are you watching Tess Navarro’s back?” Sam asked before he opened the door. Vincent nodded. Then Sam said, “Good. As far as I can see that’s a damn good choice.”
They parted company with Sam intending to get a tribal meeting together the next week and Vincent in his truck picking up his cell. First he checked on the divorce papers that were ready, then he called Luna, who had, not surprisingly, stopped calling him ten times a day. She was probably too busy fucking two guys at once to get on the phone, and damn him if she didn’t sound as if he'd interrupted a marathon sex scene, by her breathlessness. Hours, just hours and I’ll be rid of her, he told himself silently.
Still he couldn’t help his needless play. “Babe, you doing yourself? You sound hot.”
“Lover, no, no. I just did a cardio workout to ... eh ... work up for tonight. Being on stage takes so much energy.”
Vincent heard someone in the background, then some whispering. Did she fucking think he was this stupid? Then he reminded himself that Luna did not spend any time thinking about others. It hadn’t always been like that, not in the very beginning, but he had to admit once he made as much money as he had, she started changing. It was something that had always been there about her, but it got worse with money. Look at me, look at me, look at me, I am fucking Luna. Shit.
He got back to business. “I got us a room to celebrate, babe. You and me ... alone.”
“Oh, Vin ... that is. Well, darling, I will be late ... you know that. Autographs alone will take hours.”
“I’ll wait,” he lied, feeling it knocking on his dead caring.
“Are you coming to the show?” she asked suddenly, not caring about anything else he’d said.
“I can’t make it, damn business. I’ll be in the room after.”
“Oh, too bad,” she said, now sounding breathless and not one damn inch sincere. She was glad he wasn’t coming. Hard to juggle three men.
Jus
t because she’d expect it and he was so close to the finish line, he added, “That hot pussy of yours is mine tonight. I’ve waited long enough.”
She didn’t even have the grace to act turned on. “Deal is a deal. See ya.”
The connection ended as he sat staring at his phone. He’d given her a huge lead, letting her fuck around town with these assholes. Not up in her face about what the hell was wrong with their marriage, and she'd taken every bit of it and strangled it. He remembered saying to Tess that their spouses were so wound in their shit they were on another planet.
Vincent shook his head, pocketing his cell. It would be over soon and he’d be rid of her. He started his truck to go out to WTSF; he had a couple hours to burn before his show started.
SEVENTEEN / KEEP LOSING MY PANTIES TO YOU
“Now lunge for the kill shot, right in the gut,” Cabe ordered. Tess blew a few heavy breaths with her ponytail bouncing as she tried to elbow Cabe just like he’d showed her.
She freaking missed.
“I’m so bad at this!” she exclaimed, and Cabe had to grab the waistband on the rear of her pink and black workout pants. She felt the back of his fingers warm the top of her butt above the strip of her thong. But she’d have done a facer if he hadn’t caught her.
He tugged on her pants to get her upright, then had an intense look right before he pulled his hand free. “You’ve just started,” he stated curtly, more curt than she’d ever heard him. He turned away and walked to the corner of the room to get one of the bottles of water they’d each set down side by side.
Up until that point, all thirty minutes of the private class had been very friendly, like they were buddies, but that finger touch to the top of her thong had changed the air. Shoot. She knew he was trying to hide his reaction ...
“I’m not athletic at all,” she muttered, trying to catch her breath.
Cabe stayed with his broad back faced away from her as he said, “Doesn’t take athletic skill, just practice, commitment, and some fucking common sense.”
Tess raised an eyebrow. She shouldn’t goad him, but ... “You say ‘fucking’ around your students?”
His voice was a growl like she’d never heard it before. “I say ‘fucking’ around women, not kids.” His gaze was dark and his face ruggedly etched as he turned, looking at her over his shoulder. Oh wow. She could fan herself at the smoking hotness.
“Look,” he said, turning toward her, and she really couldn’t miss the fact he was fully aroused. “This is not going to work.” He shook his head. “You in that damn outfit are going to kill me.”
Tess blushed, looking down—it was just a workout outfit, skintight pants with a cute tie-dye pink and yellow sports bra that she had to wear with her breast size. Her belly button wasn’t even showing, but the skin above it to under her breasts was. She’d turned Cabe on. She didn’t know what to do with that.
“Um,” she muttered, feeling sillily flattered.
“It’s you,” he muttered back. “But also the state of my marriage, and the lack of ...” He paused, his voice getting deliberately lower ... a whisper. “Sex.”
Oh. She could freaking relate. “Your wife’s a fool, Cabe,” Tess whispered back.
He looked pained, and then he turned and bent to grab his gym bag. “I’ll figure something out more appropriate, so you don’t have to deal with this.”
Whether she was right or wrong, running up and touching a man fully aroused on her account, who she so could not get involved with, but so would if she could ... she ran up anyway.
Cabe’s gaze darkened deeply into hers, as she said, “If I could, I so would. In. A. Heartbeat. Don’t let her define you. Okay?”
“If I didn’t get that you and my best friend fucking worked together, you’d be in trouble from me, sweetheart.”
Then he turned and left her breathing deep. Wow. Rusty was right ... there was hunky, hot men every way she turned. Who freaking needed a cheating and callous husband?
She was a little dazed as she grabbed her gym bag and wandered out of the room ... some because of lack of oxygen from the workout and some because of having a virile hottie fighting arousal right there in front of her. She wasn’t really paying attention, while heading to her car, when she reached the parking lot outside the training facility.
That was until a rumbled, deep voice spoke behind her, crawling instantly through every piece of feminine erotic zones that she owned, and she instantly empathized with Cabe’s earlier feelings.
“Babe, what are you wearing?” It was a statement and accusation, but not a question as Tess looked over her shoulder to see Vincent’s long strides eating up the pavement toward her.
She’d thought Cabe had looked intense—Vincent looked fierce and severe, way outdoing Cabe. “And what the hell are you doing here,” he demanded in his perfected growl.
Uh oh. She’d sort of not told him about her newest get-tough plan or even told him about Luna’s crazy and scary visit to her shop. But he wasn’t supposed to be there. She decided to go with the topic of what she was wearing. Safer.
“What is wrong with what I’m wearing?” she demanded right back at him. “It’s a perfectly acceptable workout outfit.”
Her head tilted back as he approached closer, so she could keep glaring eye contact with him. He stopped way into her space but far enough back to sweep a dark and smoldering gaze up and down her body.
“Christ,” he growled under his breath. Studying his features, she became aware he was not totally mad at her, for unknown reasons, but partially turned on. Oh. Vincent’s turned on was hot.
“So you like it?” She turned her ass to him, pretending innocence. Really, what she thought was how spectacular it was to have such a hot man’s complete attention.
His growl grew deeper in his throat as she watched his gaze sweep her ass. “You need a bodyguard,” he stated, and then he grasped her arm and started to propel her away from her car. She liked the bodyguard comment, but ...
“I have to go to work,” she exclaimed, skipping fast to keep up with his long strides.
“Too late,” he informed her.
Then she was through a door, down a hall into another building on the property from the workout one she’d been in earlier.
“I get you are mad at me,” she exclaimed. “But you don’t tell me everything!”
Another door flipped open by Vincent’s hand, then she was in a very impressive office with sitting area. The door closed (slammed) shut. Vincent locked it. She saw that with wide eyes, then he twirled her, backed her up against the closed door, and planted his lips over hers.
Wow.
Hot.
Wow.
“Mm mm,” she moaned seconds later with her purse and gym bag falling to the floor so her arms could wrap over his shoulders.
Then he got completely in her space. Way pressed up in her space and her body loved it. Traitor. Her breasts were like heat-seeking missiles for his chest, her pussy, well ... her pussy thought his erection was her pet and they ought to cuddle. Her brain apparently forgot the orgasmic night and toe-curling climax just hours ago. Really, could you have enough of those?
He hiked her up the wall ... really her most favorite place they’d ever done it, and she latched her legs around his hips to help. She knocked his cowboy hat off his head and dug her hands into his thick black hair.
Vincent drew his finger along Tess’ wet slit as she lay sprawled, nude across his desk. Her legs were spread wide at his command, her eyes rolling back as she moaned, lifting her pretty pink pussy to him. She was fucking spectacular. He’d already given her one cock-thrusting orgasm up against the wall, now he was after two, and he’d yet to fully undress.
But he liked it like that. He’d been powerless in his marriage and for a man like him it dug deep, ripping him apart where most couldn’t see. But with Tess he had power: just get her sweet pussy aroused and she was his—doing anything for him. He liked the power play. A lot.
He started
playing harder with her clit and she started moaning harder as he watched her lush body undulate on top of his desk. His dick had just ejaculated and it already wanted more. The red tuft of hair above her pussy was so rich and deep in color; it topped her soft, puffy slit.
“Vincent!” She caught his hand, pushing his fingers deeper.
“Tell me,” he ordered. “Tell me what you want.”
He did a maneuver that made her squeal passionately, arching upward. “Cock,” she cried. “Baby, pleaseeee give me your cock.”
Fuck. He’d been going to play wicked with her, but the sound of her passion drove him forward. He pulled his cock, barely in his pants, free, then pushed her legs to her chin. Pussy was his.
Her plump ass was nearly in his balls on the first drive, and he could see every inch of his thick shaft thrusting into her. He tossed his head with a growl. He would not fucking come yet.
About an hour later, Tess sat curled in his lap as he sat in his desk chair. He’d pulled his jeans up. Tess was still naked.
“I should get dressed,” she whispered.
He shook his head, curling her tighter into him—he had her thighs under one forearm. She huffed at his answer and he watched her breasts rise and fall. Her nipples were still hard.
“I feel exposed,” she muttered.
He grinned wickedly, looking down at her. “You are,” he told her.
Her arm, across the back of his shoulders, squeezed. “And why do you like that?” she asked, looking under her lashes up at him.
“Fucking turns me on,” he uttered, and he watched her irises flare. “Fucking turns you on too.”
At that, she shook her head, bouncing her ponytail against his cheek. “You can’t know that.”
“Why would you lie to me?” he asked, with his voice rumbled. He felt her quiver against him.
“I’m not used to this,” she answered softly.
“Get used to it,” he told her, and their eyes latched for long moments.
