His gaze snapped back to Ali like a magnet. “They already know where you live, baby. I thought—I was afraid they got you too—”
She was up and in his arms. “I’m okay,” she said. “Hungover from what Cristina fed me, but okay. Just don’t talk too loud, and I’ll be fine.”
He clung to her like a lost boy coming home, and she let him, but when he went to kiss her, she ducked away. “I meant what I said. I’m sick of everyone telling me how to live my life, giving no thought to who I am or what I want. You’re no better than Bobby in that.”
He gave her that cocky smirk that had made her swoon in high school and—tell the truth and shame the Devil, Gran had always said—it made her knees more than a little weak now. “But there’s lots of ways I am better than Bobby, aren’t I?”
She fought the smile that wanted to bend her lips. “You need to get cleaned up. You’re messing up my—” they both looked down, and she felt a surge of heat between her thighs. “My corset.” She’d come home in Karen’s clothes, and she’d passed out on the couch. She’d shed Karen’s T-shirt, meaning to switch into pajamas, but hadn’t gotten that far. She was wearing the corset and Karen’s capri pants. Her voice was thready and weak. Where their hips pressed together, she could feel Alejandro swelling, eager and hard.
Karen laughed. “Before you two drown in each other’s gazes, Ali, just tell me if you want me to stay the night or bow out now?”
Ali laughed, and Alejandro made a vague effort to mask the heat in his eyes. She turned back to Karen and took her hand, squeezing it tightly. “You’re welcome to take the guest room for the night, but if you need to get back to your uncle, I understand.”
“If it’s all the same to you, I’ll stay,” she said. “I booked an overnight caregiver from the service, and if I go back now, I’ll pay the fee, but the caregiver will go. I could use the sleep.”
“That’s just fine,” Ali said. “Did you want to take a shower before bed?”
“No, I’m alright.” Karen eyed Alejandro one more time. “He needs it more than I do, anyway.”
“Thank you, ma’am,” Alejandro said. “For looking after Ali when she wasn’t herself.”
Karen shrugged in the doorway. “I think she was more herself than she’s been in a long time.” She disappeared, and Ali heard her footsteps heading up the stairs and down the hall to the bedrooms. She turned back to Alejandro, and felt her heart pounding in her chest as she tried to keep her reaction to his nearness under control. The fact that she was standing in front of him in her wedding night underwear was not lost on her.
“We need to talk about what happened at the church,” he said, and she found herself shaking her head.
“Let’s get you cleaned up.”
“That thing can’t be comfortable,” he said, tracing a fingertip down the soft satin that covered her stomach.
“It is, in a weird way. Makes it so I don’t have to fret about my posture, and that’s nice.” Daring swelled up in her, and she pressed her breasts together, watching his mouth open in longing. “Makes my breasts look amazing, too.” She gave Alejandro a look like she was really concerned about his opinion. “Don’t you think?”
The sound he made was painfully close to a growl. “Do you want to talk, or do you want me to tear that thing off you?”
She considered for a moment, dragging one finger over the tops of her breasts where they swelled out of the corset. “Both?”
He came at her, fast and hard, like he always did, and this time she met his kiss, parting her lips when his tongue begged for her, and letting him dive down into her mouth. He was hard, swollen and hard already, and she ached at the thought of him pushing her open, filling her. Bobby tried hard, but he’d never managed to be the lover she wanted, especially after the second go-around with Alejandro. There was no passion in him, no drive. At least, not for her release.
She reached down for the hem of his shirt, and he leaned back to let her tug it over his head. But that somehow made the dark stains on his hands and arms even more obvious, and he sighed, pulling back and running his fingers through his hair. “Let me clean up first,” he said.
“I’ll help you.”
He chuckled dryly. “Baby, you follow me up to that shower, and I’m not sure that it’s going to be just my hands getting washed.”
She let her shoulders rise and fall in a liquid shrug. “So I’ll scrub your back.”
“You told your friend to stay.”
“So?” She reached forward and threaded her fingers through his belt loops, pulling him into a gentle sway against her, her heart throbbing with how forward she was being. “You’ll just have to be quiet so she doesn’t wake up.”
He laughed, his hands on her hips, the weight a pleasant heat, even through all the fabric and steel boning. “Ali, it’s never been me that had a problem staying quiet.”
She pursed her lips and lifted an eyebrow at him. “I bet I can be quieter than you.”
His turn to raise his eyebrows. “I’ll take that bet, girl. You’re going to regret it.”
She laughed like a kid as she took his hand and led him upstairs to the master bathroom.
CHAPTER FORTY NINE
There is something different in Ali’s eyes, he thought to himself. She looked freer, stronger, clearer than she ever had before, even when they were kids and she thought they’d be together forever. He’d always known better. He’d known she was destined for someone better than him, brighter than him. But here she was, ready to fall into his arms all over again. He said a silent prayer of thanks and told himself that he’d spend the rest of his life figuring out how to be worthy of this gift. He’d clean up the Padres, if that’s what it took, or make an honest woman out of her, or whatever she wanted. He’d protect her any way she wanted. If she wanted.
His hands were covered in his friends’ blood. When he’d gotten to the warehouse, Zig had been holding Crapper’s hand. He’d never thought he’d see so much destruction in one place. So many men, their faces and bodies torn up by bullets. He’d seen violence before—that part wasn’t new to him. Not really. But his friends, his men, the men he should have been protecting.
He’d made Zig call 9-1-1. He hadn’t wanted to, but want he’d said downstairs was true. Even though he knew precisely how dirty the Sheriff was, there was no way to cover this up, not from his end. And some of the guys were still breathing. If they were going to survive, they would need actual medical treatment.
While they put pressure on wounds with whatever they could find, the thought of Ali had finally flickered through his head. He’d been loud about their breakup, and the papers had been loud about the wedding, but that didn’t mean it had been enough that the Diablos would stay away from her. He had no idea where she’d gone after she’d left the church with the woman from the project day, but the ranch was the only place the Diablos would have known to look for her. If she wasn’t there, she was safe, and if she was there, she might need his protection. So he’d jumped on his bike and roared back through town for the third time that day.
Zig had understood. Zig had told him to go. But he still felt like he’d needed to abandon one love to look out for the other.
He pushed it out of his mind and focused on scrubbing other people’s blood out from under his fingernails. Ali was sitting on a small bench, watching him. He surveyed his face in the mirror to keep from falling into the delicious cleavage the corset created. He felt her eyes meet his in the mirror, and he wondered what she saw when she looked at him. Strong jaw, prominent cheekbones, ruggedly handsome? What did she think of his wind-tanned skin, his dark eyes, and his smooth cheeks?
“I’m thinking about how incredibly handsome you are,” she said, responding to the thought he hadn’t voiced aloud. “And wondering why you chose me.”
His hands were clean now, and he’d gotten the smears off his face and cheeks. He turned to her, and let the light and the love she inspired in him shine through to his eyes. “Because you�
�re brave and strong and beautiful. You make me want to be worthy of you.”
CHAPTER FIFTY
Ali stood, letting her hips sway just a little bit extra as she walked toward Alejandro. “I didn’t leave him for you,” she said quietly.
He nodded. His hands were folded in front of him, his fingers tight together. “I know.”
She took a washcloth from the cabinet, wet it, and started to wipe off the smears that had hit his neck, the backs of his arms, the places he couldn’t see. “I left for me. So I could find my own self.”
“I understand.”
“I want you in my life. But that’s not the same. You understand?”
“I do.”
She let the silence speak for her for a bit as she ran the cloth over his body, cleaning away the dark splashes and smears of the darker life he led. He’d shucked off his jeans on the way upstairs, and he stood before her in his boxers, his cock eager and hard, but his hands were carefully neutral, letting her do what she needed to do before he moved. She liked that. Appreciated it. She ran her hands over the tattoos, the ink that had somehow not faded, even though he’d had the work done ages ago. But then, their feelings for each other hadn’t faded either, had they? They’d intensified, deepened, matured. But they’d never managed to fade. Sometimes, she thought it would be better if they had. Easier.
She let the cloth fall away, and traced the planes of his body with just her hands. Everything had been so frantic, so urgent with him, she’d never taken the time to get reacquainted with his body. As a girl, she hadn’t really known better, and now, he’d hardened over the time they spent apart. The softness he’d still had in his late teens had melted away, replaced with firm lines, solid muscle, and a man’s confidence.
“You still like what you see?” he asked after a little while.
She looked up into his eyes, and saw so much contained within them. Love and lust, but darkness, heat, and a certain surety that he would do whatever was necessary to come out on top. To protect those he cared about. That was why he’d pushed her away before, and why he’d come back to her.
“Can you stay the night?” she asked.
He paused for a little while, something quiet settling over his features before he smiled. “If you want me to, baby.”
She leaned up into him, pressing her lips to his in answer.
His restraint held for just a moment, and then he was in rapid motion, fast and hard. He scooped her breasts out of the cups of the corset, bending down over her and licking the rapidly-hardening peaks as he pushed her back against the vanity. She spread her thighs, making room for him, and he lifted her up, depositing her butt on the sink. She wrapped her legs around him and sighed as he took her nipple into his mouth, suckling it hard, grazing it with his teeth, while the other hand twisted and teased at her other nipple. She was dripping, soaking, and she let herself shift against him, enjoying the sensation of his thick heat pressing against the seam of her body.
“Remember,” she gasped. “Quiet.”
He growled into her skin, and she bit her lip to stop herself from crying out. “Make sure you remember,” he said. He lifted her again, and the capris slid down her hips, which he tossed into the corner. “Happy wedding night, Miss Owens,” he said.
At first, she was shocked he’d say such a thing, but she saw the calculation in his eyes. She gave him a grin and wrapped her legs around him again, tugging him one layer closer to her core and watching his eyes burn. “I don’t think I’m ever getting married, Alejandro. I want to be my own woman, and I don’t know how to do that unless I’m on my own.”
He gave her a smile that was softer than anything she’d seen on his face since he came back into her life. “I understand that better than you think,” he said. “This is on your terms, Ali. It always will be. I’ll do everything I can to keep you safe, and if it gets too dark, then you walk. But I’ll trust you. I should have in the first place.”
She ground against him, feeling the heat and the electric surge of her body in response to him. “Bedroom,” she said. “Now. Right now.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he replied, and she laughed as he picked her up and carried her into the room. He tossed her on the bed hard enough that she bounced, and she giggled a little. She rolled onto her stomach and reached towards the nightstand to turn off the bedroom light, and then felt his hands on her hips. “Oh, that’s nice, Ali. That’s very nice.” She felt the press of his cock—he’d shed his shorts by now, she was sure of it—against the thin fabric of her satin panties. They were bright white, matching the corset, and something about her bent over like this for him, on her hands and knees, his hands pulling her towards him as he stroked himself over her crease was shockingly intense. “Leave the light on. Do you mind?”
“No,” she whispered, even though something inside of her was curling up in surprise and shock. They’d had so many different encounters in so many different places. Why was she blanching at him seeing her in the well-lit bedroom?
He skimmed her panties down over her hips, and she sighed slightly. Having her ass presented to him like this seemed like something out of a porn flick, especially as he started running his hands over her curves. “I love this,” he said. “I love seeing you all splayed out in front of me like this. You okay?”
“Yes,” Ali said, even though her cheeks were bright red and flaming hot. “Don’t you want me to take off the corset?”
He laughed. “Not at all. Seeing you, all tied up like this, seeing your tits all bound up—hot as hell, baby. I want to fuck you from here, see you come all shaking and shuddering, see your tits bouncing, about to fall right out of the cups of that thing.” His thumb parted her lips and slid easily into her aching wetness, brightening a darkness she hadn’t even known was in her heart until that moment. She groaned and drove herself back onto his hand, whimpering as he took it away from her again, chuckling. “Remember, baby, you’re the one who said we had to be quiet. Can I trust you?”
She was quiet, gasping, aching. He squeezed one side of her ass, almost pinching, and she whimpered again, but she choked the sound off by pressing her face into the mattress.
“Can I trust you, Ali? Can I trust you to be quiet?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“Good,” he said. And then the tip of him pressed into her, hot and wet and eager, and she grabbed a pillow from the head of the bed, smashing her face into it to muffle the groans that she couldn’t contain. She was soaked and eager, but his thumb had done nothing to open her up, so he moved forward in slow, soft, smooth strokes that drove her totally insane.
“I have a question for you,” he said quietly, his tone doing nothing to betray that he was buried to the hilt inside of her body, sparking a series of urgent sensations that she was quite sure were going to make her scream before she was done.
“Ask,” she gasped.
“Did Bobby ever take you like this? With the lights on, with his pretty little Texas Rose bent over, her ass in his face, pretty as you please?” She felt his thumb, higher than her entrance, tracing around the puckered center of her ass. She stifled another groan at the same time that her cheeks got even redder.
“No,” she whispered. “No, he was— no.”
“Do you want me to?” His tone was still completely conversational, at total odds with the pace of his cock, driving into her, splitting her apart. “Do you want me to call you a dirty slut, make you mine, even if it’s just for now, just for while we’re in this bed?”
This was a side of her Alejandro that she had never seen before, and she was more than a little worried that she was going to set the bed on fire from the blood scorching her face, but she nodded. God help her, she nodded. “Okay,” she said.
His hips sped up, and she had to choke back the groans as the sensations swirled, faster and harder. He leaned forward, one hand still balancing on her hips, the other finding the tip of her breast where it was barely contained within the cups of her corset, as he’d predicted. He
savaged it with his fingers while he whispered to her. “God, you want it, you want it so much, my thick cock buried in you. You’re going to come just like this, I know you are, and I’m going to feel you tight and hot around me, and I’m going to love it. And you’re not going to make a sound, because you don’t want your friend to know what we’re doing, what I’m doing to you. You don’t want her to know I have you bent over like this, begging to be fucked, begging to have me bury in you just— a little— farther—”
The orgasm came out of nowhere, slamming into her like a runaway horse. Silence wasn’t an option, so she buried her face in the pillow and gritted her teeth on the sound, swallowing it as best as she could. She felt her body clenching around Alejandro’s dick, heard him grunt and felt his hands shake as he fought to control himself.
This Savage Love: A Bad Boy Romance Boxed Set Page 42
