by Nic Saint
“What did you want to be?” he prompted, lacing his fingers with hers.
“A princess. A ballerina. Oh, and most of all, a fairy. Wings and all.” She smiled, thinking of the dress her mom had made for her when she was seven, with all the specks of gold and glitter she could have wished for. “Yeah, I think my main ambition was to be a fairy and flit from tree to tree until I found my fairy prince.” She cocked an eyebrow at him, wondering if he would fit the role. She found that he did so perfectly. He could be her fairy prince. If he cared for the part.
“Fairies are hard to come by these days,” he murmured, “as is magic.” He pressed his lips to her fingers. She found she enjoyed the sensation as much as she enjoyed sitting here with him on this stretch of street, at the heart of the shopping district. People were milling about, but she paid them no attention. The world now only consisted of her and Erik.
“Isn’t there something else you want to do in life?” he continued. She wondered where he was going with this. “I mean, apart from being a fairy.”
“Or a princess? Why, what other things are there?” she returned jokingly, but then caught his expression and realized he wasn’t fooling around. “What are you asking me, Erik?” she demanded. “Do you want to give me career advice? Is that it?” She laughed, hardly believing the Mafia soldier would be interested in her professional future.
“I do,” he replied seriously. “I know some very important people, Jackie. The kind of people who would love to have you working for them, doing what you’re doing now, if that’s what you want. Or something entirely different. It’s just that…” He hesitated, then shook his head.
“But what?” She was at a loss here, wondering what he was getting at. “Are you offering me a job?” She couldn’t imagine what kind of job he had to offer. “I’m not really that kind of girl, you know.”
“What kind is that?”
“I mean…” She gestured with the plastic cup. “I don’t shoot guns or know combat moves, or even handle submachine guns like your sister does, so…”
Her voice trailed off as he took a firmer grip on her hand, then leaned back, placing his arm around her shoulder. She rested her head against his chest, and reveled in both the warmth of the sun and his embrace. And when he pressed a gentle kiss to the top of her head, she just wished they could be like this forever, joined and enjoying this rare time together. Just two people… in love?
With a jolt she discovered that she was in love with him, but had her doubts that he was feeling the same way about her. In fact, she was pretty sure he didn’t care one way or the other. He’d done what he came here to do, and now would return to New York, and she would return to Chicago, and that would be it. Two ships passing in the night, then sailing on to different destinations. There was a poetic beauty in that…
“Tell me more about your family.” He spoke a little gruffly.
She smiled. She enjoyed these snatches of conversation. They’d had far too few of them in the last couple of days. “My Mom lives in the same building. She actually lives in the apartment down the hall. We moved there together because it was easier for both of us. She’s disabled and needs me to take care of her, you know. Mom’s a sweetheart. You have to—” She stopped herself before she spoke the fateful words. He didn’t have to meet her one day. Why would he?
“And your dad?” he asked, and she thought there was an edge to his voice.
“My dad left us when I was very little. I don’t really remember him. Mom says he was a sailor, so I guess he simply sailed out of her life the same way he sailed in, just hanging around long enough to give my mother a little present.”
“You,” he muttered, and his eyes were hard.
“That’s right.”
“Have you ever thought about trying to locate the b—him?”
“You could find him for me, couldn’t you?”
“In a flash,” he confirmed.
“No, thank you.” From the way his jaw was working, she had the distinct impression he wouldn’t mind using his fists on her absent father. She rested her head against his chest once more. “I don’t want to know him, and neither does my mother. We don’t really need him in our lives. I’d rather have the fantasy Dad I’ve constructed in my mind—the dashing sailor—than the real thing.”
“I’d like for you to meet my folks one day,” he suddenly growled, and a jolt of anticipation went through her.
“You would?”
“You’d love them,” he grumbled. “Especially my mom. She’s a real gentle soul. Got the biggest heart of anyone I know. She’d welcome you into her home. Be thrilled to meet you.”
“She would, would she?” she asked, a sadness suddenly purveying her. She’d never meet his folks. She’d never even see him again, she knew, and perhaps all this talk about family and futures was a waste of time. They should just talk about ice cream and the weather. Or nothing at all.
“Nate told me about an opening in the New York office,” Erik began.
“Nate?” Then she remembered the tall and dashing FBI agent. “Oh, that’s nice for you, Erik. But do you really want to work in an office?”
He eyed her strangely. “Not for me, honey. For you. Nate said he needs capable people on his staff, and…” He grinned sheepishly. “Well, I told him there’s no one more capable than you.”
She frowned. “Why would you say such a thing? You don’t even know me.”
He gave her a hard stare at this. “Oh, I beg to differ, princess.” Before she could respond, he’d cupped her chin in his hand, and then his lips were on hers, and the searing heat of his kiss easily rivaled that of the midday sun blazing down on them. For a moment, the top of her head came off, then the darndest thing happened. She actually had the distinct impression she’d spouted fairy wings and was flying away.
CHAPTER 25
It hadn’t taken them long to reach the hotel, and when they finally arrived, they’d ridden the elevator in silence, eyes blazing with yearning from across the cab while half a dozen tourists chatted amiably, unaware of the storms of passion that were raging in two of their fellow passengers.
Then they were storming into Erik’s room, Bruno nowhere in sight, and the moment the door slammed behind them, Jackie surprised him by jumping in his arms, squeezing her legs tightly around his middle and then they were pressed up against the door, their mouths melding, bodies molding, and their tongues dueling with a fierceness that took his breath away.
He staggered across the room blindly, until his knees hit the bed and they collapsed onto the soft plush. He made short shrift of her floral blouse, and then his lips were exploring her gold-hued skin, drawing away the cups of her bra to reveal her twin mounds. He sucked the pink-hued tips into his mouth, instantly hardening under his touch, and she moaned when he kissed the softness of her neck, his hands cupping and kneading her breasts.
“Take me, Erik,” she pleaded, eyes smoky and hot. “Take me now, please.”
While she unbuckled his jeans, he shucked his shirt faster than an Abercrombie & Fitch model. When his cock came swinging out, she eagerly placed her hands on the shaft and he gulped as she eyed him seductively.
“Never had such a treat in my life,” she murmured, placing the tip on her tongue, and letting his length disappear between those plump wet lips of hers, straight into the hotness of her mouth. His cock twitched at her touch, and then she was milking him gently, easing him into her mouth, her tongue flicking along the velvety underside. He fisted his hands in her hair, her molten eyes as eager as her tongue, and he pulled back slightly, not able to hold on for much longer. “If you keep this up, this’ll be over in seconds, honey,” he croaked huskily.
She laughed, enjoying the power she held over him, and then he was on his knees, pulling down her white jeans shorts, and finding himself face to face with her tiny slip, nothing more than a patch of fabric covering her pussy, and he groaned his delight at the wet spot spreading there.
“You’re wet,” he groa
ned, stating the obvious.
“Wet for you, big boy,” she came back, and her voice elicited all kinds of strange sensations in his gut, his dick twitching at the mere sound of her.
He yanked down her panties, pushed up her thighs, and spread the exquisite buffet of pink folds before him. When he dove in, his tongue licking along the length of her labia until he reached the tiny bundle of nerves at the top, she slammed her head back, producing a soft mewling sound that seemed to emanate from somewhere deep inside her throat.
With his strong fingers, he spread her lips wide, and all that wet pinkness glistened so invitingly, he wasted no time to place his mouth on her, devouring her with lips and teeth and tongue until she was writhing beneath him, begging for more, and drawing him in deeper.
The scent and taste of her was intoxicating, and he knew he would never be able to get enough of her. As he slid his fingers inside her flaming pussy, his tongue still assaulting her tiny clit, now swollen and throbbing under his touch, she started rocking gently, undulating waves of pleasure streaming through her. Her belly shivered and trembled under the onslaught, and when she screamed out her release, he was rewarded with a flow of cream that he eagerly lapped up, suckling her delicate flesh with relish. She raised his head by pulling on his hair, and he lifted his dripping wet lips from hers.
“Now fuck me, Erik,” she breathed. “Fuck me hard.”
The moment the words rolled off her tongue, he rose up with a grunt, and poised his enlarged glans at the entrance to her sex, and then he was inside her. As he descended upon her, his lips crashing down on hers, his cock slid in to the hilt, the slippery channel of her sex ready and waiting, welcoming his throbbing length with quivers of delight.
“God, Erik,” she cried, “fuck me, baby. Fuck me like there’s no tomorrow.” He slanted his body so the tip of his cock was angled inside her cunt, hitting all the right spots, and then he was lodged deeply inside her. She rocked beneath him, slammed into the softness of the bed as he was slamming into her over and over again, losing himself completely in her. When her eyes glazed over, and her lips quivered, her body quaking beneath him, the tremors sent him over the edge at the same time she was crying out her own climax.
Still, he couldn’t get enough, would never get enough of her, and he entered her deeply, spearing himself into her sheath, his hands on her buttocks now, his face buried in her neck, and he heard her ragged breath muttering his name in his ear, and knew she was his—all his. He rolled them around so she was straddling him, and she looked both dazed and excited at the change of pace when he placed his hands on her swaying breasts, and then she was riding him, bucking her hips while his cock plowed her deeply. Pressed all the way inside her belly, his tip kissing her cervix, she threw her head back, her hair dancing wildly around her face, as he held onto her hips, pounding into her.
“Look at me,” he demanded, and they locked eyes, fierce and hot and fiery, her face flushed with the heat of the moment, and he thought she’d never looked more beautiful than she did now. And as their gaze held, they were moving together, reaching their climax simultaneously. Her lips were mobile, her beautiful face betraying every emotion she was experiencing, like a window straight into her soul. And then they both came, and she collapsed on top of him, her hair like a silky cascade across his face. He reveled in her scent, the luscious softness of her body wrapped tightly around him, and as his breath painfully moved in and out of his lungs, he panted, “You’re mine now, Jackie. All mine.”
She raised her head, flipping her hair back, and gave him a long, sultry look. “Do you want me to be yours, Erik?”
“Yes, I do,” he growled fiercely.
She smiled. “Then I’m yours,” she simply said. Their lips joined, like their sex, and his mind went blank as her tongue found his. And then there was nothing but their hearts, beating fast and furious, the blood coursing through their veins.
He had no idea what the morrow would bring, but tonight…she was his.
CHAPTER 26
The last night in paradise. That’s how Jackie saw it. She and Erik hadn’t left his room after arriving there the day before. Lucky for them, Susan had finally decided to invite Bruno over, so they had the room all to themselves.
The night had morphed into day, and then into night again, and now they were sitting on the balcony, overlooking the Caribbean Sea, and she wondered if she would ever feel this way again. In a few short hours, the taxi would arrive to take her to the airport, and then she would be back in Chicago, where the weather was cold, a storm front moving in.
The more she thought about leaving, the less she wanted to go. She’d found paradise. She and Erik had created it. Their own little paradise right here in this room, and the moment she walked away from it, she knew this magical world would vanish, never to return.
She’d grown accustomed to being near him, to be taken by him to the heights of ecstasy and back, and the bed they’d made love in countless times now was the center of their newfound passion. They’d practically lived in this bed for the past twenty-four hours.
As she gazed at his strong profile, lit by the rising moon, she knew she would never forget him. She loved him. Had fallen in love with him somewhere between rejecting his offer for a drink that first night at the bar, and the first time they made love in the early morning at the foot of Susan’s bed.
Crazy days. These last days had been the craziest and most wonderful of her life, and the danger that had brought them together was but a distant memory, pushed to the far corners of her mind.
Erik had told her the gang that was responsible for the attacks on women was also responsible for running a drug trade right here at the hotel, and for using the Copacabana as their base of operation. Even though the hotel was owned by Yulian Gornakov, recent events had played it into the hands of this criminal gang of corrupt cops. They’d all been on the Gornakov payroll, but when Yulian decided to take his empire in a different direction, they hadn’t agreed, and had gone into business for themselves.
That was all over now. The rogue cops would never hurt another woman.
His mission over, Erik would be returning home soon, new assignments awaiting him. He hadn’t mentioned Nathan Callaway’s job offer anymore, nor did she think it was a good idea. She wasn’t in the market for favors. She’d always made her own way through life, and didn’t much care for handouts. Besides, she couldn’t leave her mother alone in Chicago. She needed her, and even though she’d found a replacement to look after her these few days while she was in Cancun, she needed to get back.
A summer romance, she decided as she took a sip of the wine Erik had ordered. That was all this would ever be. A wonderful, exciting, exhilarating, crazy holiday romance. Some fun in the sun.
She knew she was going to hurt when she said goodbye. She was going to miss him terribly. But that couldn’t be helped. He’d given no indication that he really cared for her beyond enjoying this physical part of their relationship, and she knew he probably had plenty of other girls waiting for him in New York. A guy like Erik probably had them lined up two rows deep.
No, the joke was on her. For losing her heart to him, and allowing herself to fall in love. And now she would suffer the consequences…
Erik stared out across the vast body of water, whitecaps lit up by the rising moon, and his mind was heavy as the pending departure of Jackie became a reality he could no longer ignore. He’d made love to her with heart and soul, trying to forget about her leaving, and for a few brief moments he’d succeeded. Each time they reached new heights of passion, he’d momentarily been able to hold on to the illusion that she would be his forever. That she would never leave and that they would always be together. But as they sat together in silence, enjoying their last night, the truth came home to him like a sucker punch to the gut: in the morning she would be gone, and he would be alone again.
It was going to hurt, for she had his heart, and when she left, he would have nothing but an empty hole in his chest.
She was eager to return, he knew. Couldn’t wait to go home to her family, her friends, her job… He understood she couldn’t upend her life merely because of a summer romance, as she’d called their passionate encounter.
He hadn’t pressed on. She had a job waiting for her in New York, if she wanted it, and they would easily be able to accommodate her mother as well. Nathan would make sure she received a handsome pay package, which would make it possible for her to find a better place to stay. Both for her and her mother. It would be a step up, and they could be together, his work confining him to New York.
But even though he’d suggested the idea to her once or twice, she hadn’t run with it, so he knew she wasn’t really interested in being closer to him. He’d let it go at that. Though he wanted to make her stay, he knew he couldn’t. Couldn’t force her to. She had her own life, and making such drastic changes wasn’t what she was prepared to do.
He’d considered moving to Chicago. Gornakov had business there, and he was certain that if he talked to Roman, something could be arranged. But it would take time. And she needed to want him there. Nothing she’d said gave him the impression that she did.
A summer romance. Was that all this was going to be? Some fun in the sun?
CHAPTER 27
“Jackie?”
She looked up. Her thoughts had been drifting again. “Mh?”
He reached out and took her hand. “Feel like taking a dip in the pool?”
Even though the question was casually phrased, his expression was dead serious, and her smile faltered, her breath hitching in her throat. His fingers were squeezing her hand lightly, and she could read in his eyes that instead of dipping into the pool, what he really wanted was to dip into her instead. With a sudden surge of heat, she thought the man was simply insatiable. And irresistible.
She nodded, and allowed him to lift her from the chair and envelop her in his arms for a searing kiss. They were both naked, had been practically from the moment they’d arrived here the day before. Or was it two days already? Time to cool off in the pool before her departure, she thought, but then felt his erection pressing against her belly, and heaved a soft mewl of desire.
