Scott took in a harsh intake of breath, followed by more groans.
I stuck my finger back in my mouth again, rolling my tongue around it seductively, then went in for the kill. This time I slid my hand down my belly and into my thong, going straight for my clit with the wet finger that had just been in my mouth. I gasped as I made contact with the already swollen little nub, then moaned deeply and enthusiastically.
"Jesus fucking Christ, woman," Scott blurted out in a strained and incredulous voice as he stared at me with an awestruck expression.
My God, it was so hot knowing he was watching me do this and reacting just the way I wanted him to. I felt so feminine and powerful. I thrust my hips against my own hand and moaned again as I closed my eyes and began fingering myself with abandon, eager to come as the tension inside me rose up, up, up...
I heard a fierce snarl, just as I neared my orgasm, and I cracked an eye open expecting to find Scott still on his throne watching me torture him. What I found instead, was a lust-maddened predator that had already risen from his throne, and was now striding toward me with blue fire burning in his eyes. He was on me in a heartbeat, tearing my hand away from my sex with a low feral growl before I could come. He pulled me flush against his hard and unyielding body and gripped my chin with a firm hand.
"Niña mala," he growled out with a glower. Bad girl. "That orgasm is mine to give." His voice dropped to a whisper as he thrust his hand into my panties to cup my pussy. "That pretty little cunt is mine too."
I whimpered as he pressed a finger into my clit, my body instantly careening toward bliss. Just as I reached the tipping point he ripped his hand away, leaving me gasping and wanting as I whined in frustration and glared up at him.
"You've managed to earn yourself a real punishment for that little stunt, Luisa." His tone was as fierce and intimidating as his hard gaze, and both held me spellbound in his arms. "Now you won't come until after my flogger has turned that sweet ass of yours bright fucking red." He released his hold on me and took a step back as I blinked dumbly up at him. "Get your ass over to that cross," he snarled out as he pointed to the St. Andrew's cross. "Now," he added with a sharp snap of his fingers that startled me out of the enthrallment he had over me. I immediately scurried to obey him, and he followed right on my heels.
"Panties off and face first against it," he barked out as I stopped a few feet from the cross.
I glanced briefly back at him, seeing intense determination and wild lust glittering in his eyes, before I shimmied out of my nude thong and tossing it aside. Then I stepped forward and pressed myself against the cross. The shiny lacquered wood felt cold against my skin, pebbling my nipples and sending gooseflesh rippling over my body. I shivered from that and the fear-tinged excitement that was engulfing me.
"Arms up and spread your legs."
I did as he said, and he made quick work of buckling the soft leather cuffs around my wrists and ankles. I sighed, loving the feeling of being bound and helplessly at this man's mercy.
"Tell me your safeword, Luisa," Scott murmured as he pressed himself against me, his warm bare chest feeling so good and reassuring against my back. I felt his cock straining under the rough fabric of his pants as it pressed into my lower back. He nuzzled his nose into my neck.
"Glock, mi Rey," I answered waveringly.
He pulled away, and I watched from the corner of my eye as he stripped off the rest of his clothes. I moaned in appreciation as I admired his hard muscular body, and the huge and gorgeous erection bobbing between his powerful legs. The man really was beautiful.
He moved out of my sight for a few moments, then returned. My eyes focused immediately on what he was now holding in his right hand, a black cat o' nine tails flogger made of braided leather. I stared at it, and the fear began to eclipse the excitement of a moment ago. I'd never been flogged before and didn't know what to expect. I whimpered, but this time it wasn't from arousal.
"Don't be afraid, mi tentadora," he said gently as he stepped closer and ran his free hand down the side of my body in a soothing caress. "I would never hurt you." He let out a dark and wicked little chuckle. "Well, not in a bad way, anyway." His gentle touch and the humor in his words began to ease my trepidation, flaming the excitement back to life again.
"Bastardo sádico," I told him with soft affection. Sadistic bastard.
"Y te gusta, Luisa," he whispered roughly as he pressed his lips to my shoulder. "Y te gusta." His sexy stubble scraped deliciously against my skin as he spoke.
"Sí, por favor."
"Bueno." Good.
He stepped away, and I startled with a gasp as the flogger lightly touched my skin. The braided leather tickled me as he trailed it up the center of my back and down again, making me shiver.
"Hold on, babe," he said huskily as he pulled the flogger away. "You're in for one hell of a ride."
I heard and felt the whoosh of air as Scott spun the flogger in his hand behind me, before he immediately struck the first blow with a loud and sharply stinging slap to my ass that filled the room. I blurted out a curse that was instantly turned into an incoherent cry by the second strike of the flogger. Yes, it hurt, but it was a sweet pain that had heat instantly building at my core and my clit throbbing in its wake. I was already moaning in pleasure as the third blow hit me even harder than the first two.
The fourth and fifth strikes hit my shoulders in quick succession, before he moved back down to my ass and began increasing the force exponentially as he worked me over. He peppered sweet stinging bliss across my skin with obvious skill and precision. I closed my eyes and gave myself over to the pleasure/pain, feeling my pussy grow wetter and wetter as I cried out each time the flogger hit my flesh with a loud thudding slap.
Euphoria began to rise up inside me, and I realized I was slipping into the endorphin high of subspace again, just like I'd done when he paddled me last night. But this time it was happening faster and so much more strongly than what the paddle did to me. And oh my God, it was glorious.
"That's it, babe," Scott said in a rough and deeply satisfied tone as he continued flogging me. "Fly for me, mi tentadora. I can see how much you love this, how much you want me. I can see that wet cunt of yours dripping sweet honey down your thighs." He let out a deep sexy groan. "It smells so good, like fucking heaven."
My sex clenched at his filthy words, feeling so empty and bereft. I wanted him inside me. Now.
"Cógeme, mi Rey!" I begged him loudly and pathetically, unable to help myself. Fuck me, my king. "Cógeme, por favor!" Fuck me, please.
Scott snarled, and the flogging came to an abrupt stop. I heard the unmistakable sound of a condom wrapper being ripped open, and a moment later I felt him come up behind me. I barely registered the rattling of chains as he uncuffed me from the cross, before he was spinning me around and pulling me up into his arms. He wrapped my arms and legs around his body just before the poor abused skin of my back hit the smooth surface of the St. Andrew's cross. I gasped out in pain, but it was quickly forgotten a second later as his cock slammed into me with a hard and brutal thrust.
"Come!" he gritted out fiercely.
My body ignited in an instant at his command, and I screamed like a fucking banshee as pleasure obliterated me. Scott fucked me through it, sending me higher and higher and higher as he snarled out my name again and again between savage soul-stealing kisses.
My consciousness began to wane as his rhythm began to falter. He reached between us and pressed a thumb down hard on my clit. It sent me flying off into the stratosphere. He followed right along with me with a loud and glorious roar as his cock jerked and pulsed inside me, before sweet oblivion claimed me in a violent heady rush.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-SEVEN
____________________
Lu
"Here you go, mija," my mother said warmly as she set a plate of pork carnitas with tortilla in front of me.
"Gracias mamá," I said with a smile as I enthusiastically began piling onion
s, salsa, refried beans, and guacamole on them. It looked and smelled heavenly.
She nodded happily, and placed a second plate in front of Emilia, who thanked her as well before digging in. Mom went back for her own plate, before joining us at her small kitchen table in her tiny apartment.
Now that my sister and I had both moved out on our own, our mother had been making more of an effort to cook for us in recent years. It was something she hadn't done much of while we were growing up, since she worked so much to support us. She was actually pretty good at it, and I always took advantage of it whenever possible since I couldn't cook for shit. The pork carnitas she'd made today were my absolute favorite, and Emilia's too.
"So..." Emilia suddenly drawled out after we'd eaten in companionable silence for several minutes. "How was that nobody that came over to your apartment the other night?" Shit, I'd hoped she'd forgotten about that.
I looked up to see her grinning at me wickedly. I was glad she was in a good mood for once since her best friend was killed, but not with how she chose to focus it right now. I shot a glare at her, but it didn't deter her from continuing to throw me under the proverbial bus.
"His name was Scott, right?" she asked with impish glee.
Son of a bitch. I groaned inwardly, and looked over at Mom to see that her eyes had lit up avidly at Emilia's comment.
My mother and I were built almost identically, petite and curvy, whereas Emilia was taller with a more slender build. However, there was no mistaking that we were both Estela Flores children, since all three of us had the same face shape and warm chocolate brown eyes.
"Did you go out on a date?" Mom asked incredulously, her food suddenly forgotten in the wake of my sister's big-mouthed revelation.
"No," I blurted out with a frown, not wanting to talk about Scott. I definitely didn't want them to know about the completely illegal investigation I was conducting, let alone the crazy stuff he and I were doing together at Désir Dangereux.
"Oh?" Emilia asked knowingly as she smirked at me. "So did you and this Scott just stay in then?" she asked in a suggestive tone with an exaggerated eyebrow waggle that made her lurid implications crystal clear.
I gritted my teeth in annoyance. "We didn't stay in," I bit out without thinking since I didn't want to discuss my sex life in front of my mother.
"So then it was a date," Emilia replied. She leaned forward to rest her chin on her hand with an eager gleam in her eyes. "Did he wine and dine you?" she asked teasingly as I glowered at her. "Did he make you feel all warm and fluttery and ooey gooey inside?"
My face instantly heated at her last question, and I clammed up in discomfort since Scott had indeed made me feel that way on multiple occasions.
Emilia watched my reaction curiously for a beat before her eyes suddenly widened in dawning understanding. She gasped in astonishment. "Dios mío," she exclaimed. "You're falling for this guy, aren't you?"
"What?!" I screeched out in horrified dismay.
"You really like this Scott, don't you? You have feelings for him." She sounded gleeful, like she'd solved some earth-shattering mystery. It sounded like a damn accusation to me.
"I do not!" I shot back vehemently...too vehemently apparently because Emilia's shit-eating grin grew exponentially. I looked at Mom, and she sported an equally annoying smile. What the hell? I scowled back and forth between them.
"Well, I think the fact that I haven't heard one word about this guy from you as a sign that this is something different," Emilia said. "Otherwise, I'd know all about him already. Am I right?"
She was right that I usually told her about the guys I spent time with, the casual dates that never went anywhere besides sex if I was physically attracted to them, and the occasional hook-ups. Emilia was not only my sister, but my best friend too. I didn't really have any other female friends since my career as a cop had been the soul focus of most of my adult life. Frankly, most women weren't worth cultivating a friendship with since so many were catty and superficial, or just couldn't deal with my blunt and no-nonsense personality. It was probably why the few people I actually considered my friends were the guys on the vice squad with me.
I was still glaring at Emilia, who continued to look smug and not intimidated by my ire at all, when Mom finally chimed in again.
"What's so bad about falling for a man, mija?" she asked in consternation. "Don't you want someone to love?"
I sighed loudly. "What's so wrong with being single, Mom?" I asked in exasperation.
"And what's wrong with not wanting to be alone, Luisa?" she shot back with a furrowed brow.
"Because unlike you, I don't have to have a man to be happy," I snapped out accusingly.
Mom's face instantly fell into a sad and hurt expression. Shit.
"Lo siento mamá," I immediately said in a soft apologetic tone, feeling guilty.
She pressed her lips together, and her eyes glistened for a moment before she spoke in a quavering voice. "What's wrong with wanting a partner in life, to be taken care of when you need it, to feel safe? What's wrong with wanting to be loved and cherished?"
I sat in stunned silence as her words hit me like a blow. Partner. Taken care of. Safe. Cherished. They were all the exact words I thought and felt about Scott last night. Holy shit, was that what those warm fuzzy feelings I'd been having around him were? Was it me falling for him? It couldn't possibly be that. There was no way in hell I was falling in (fuck, I couldn't even bring myself to think the L-word) with Scott. No. Fucking. Way.
"Luisa," Mom said softly as her hand came to rest gently on mine. "You act like falling in love is a bad thing."
"Isn't it?" I asked bitingly. "Because from what I've seen it costs entirely too damn much. I'm not willing to give away pieces of myself or mold myself into something I'm not just because I think some guy might be the one." I said that last word with bitter sarcasm as the words I never voiced to my mother before just blurted out of me. "From everything I've seen, it only leads to heartbreak when reality eventually sets in, and everything falls apart." I shook my head. "I won't do that to myself."
"Is that really what you think love is, mija?" Mom asked with a sad and pitying expression. "Sacrificing yourself?
I nodded and felt my eyes sting, but I refused to cry, damn it. Emilia reached over and gripped my other hand with an empathetic look in her eyes.
"Oh mija," Mom whispered and squeezed my hand. "I'm so sorry I didn't set a better example, but just because I've made a mess of my love life over the years doesn't mean you will."
"It's just not worth the risk," I said waveringly. "I'm better off alone."
"Seriously, Lu?" my sister finally chimed in incredulously. "Do you really believe that? Because I have a hard time believing you want to spend the rest of your life alone."
I looked down at my partially eaten plate of food for a moment, unable to bear holding their sympathetic gazes anymore as my eyes burned. "I'm afraid," I finally admitted in a whisper.
"I refuse to believe my strong and fearless daughter would let fear keep her from giving love a chance, or be too afraid to be open to the possibility that this Scott person could be something more, something special," Mom said firmly and with conviction. "As for molding yourself into something you're not, well, I know you are far too stubborn to ever do that for anybody," she added warmly, and I glanced up to see her smiling softly. She placed her other hand on top of our clasped ones. "If you let fear keep you from ever giving anyone a chance, isn't that sacrificing pieces of yourself?"
"I...I guess," I said dubiously.
"Dios mío," Emilia said in exasperation. "We're not asking you to confess your undying love to the guy and live happily ever after right out of the gate, just be open to the possibility that there could be something more with him. You don't have to rush into anything, just don't let your fear cost you a chance at something great. Okay?"
I nodded in reply as I looked back and forth between my sister and my mom, knowing they were right. Though I still had d
oubts that this was something I was capable of doing, I couldn't really deny that I felt something for him even if it freaked me out. I guess all I could do was follow their advice, but I was going to do it on my terms. I wasn't taking a chance on any man, unless I was certain that he was worth the effort. I simply didn't know enough about him yet. I didn't even know if Scott was interested in anything more than the strictly sexual relationship we'd agreed to during our investigation.
As much as we were physically compatible and how good those disconcertingly warm fuzzy feelings he kept giving me, I couldn't take the risk blindly. I needed to know more about Scott Conrad and the man he was outside of our sexy little bubble inside Désir Dangereux.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-EIGHT
____________________
Scott
A pair of narrowed dark-green eyes stared at me from across the massive mahogany desk with a hard accessing gaze. I stared right back, trying hard to keep my poker face from cracking around the edges under the intense scrutiny.
"Do you have any eights?" Violet finally asked in a serious and business-like tone from where she was sitting behind Calder's desk in R&C LTD's office.
I glanced down briefly at the cards fanned out in my hand before meeting her eyes again. "Go fish," I replied evenly from where I was sitting in one of the two club chairs across the desk from her.
Violet rolled her eyes and let out an over-dramatic huff as she snatched a card from the pool pile between us. She groaned when she looked at it, then slumped back dejectedly into her father's leather desk chair that dwarfed her lithe eleven-year-old frame. My lip twitched into a slight smirk against my will. The kid was fucking hilarious and absolutely adorable.
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