Although they’d had sex, several times, in multiple positions, this was different. Every curve was highlighted in the dim light. His to have and explore. An unveiling of her body. For him. Had he ever had a present while in the orphanage, this is the anticipation he imagined he would have felt.
Celeste leaned away, wiggling to draw the shirt over her head. Fully awake and completely naked, she reached down, working her fingers in his waistband to push down. He didn’t need any convincing. Getting up, he kicked off the boots and the rest of his clothes. She bit her lip, watching his every move. His cock jutted out, so huge and hard he could feel his blood pulsing. Something inside drew him toward her. Urged him beside her to end the torture. But he’d wait, anxious for the things he still wanted to do.
Cupping her waist, he joined her on the narrow bed, sliding up until his elbows settled on the mattress. Her belly quivered, and her muscles tightened with every kiss he dropped. She arched, offering up her luscious breasts for his pleasure. Rio swallowed hard, his mouth watering at the thought of the coming play. Instead, he took a detour, finding the pale line at her side where the sun hadn’t touched her skin. He followed the trail with his lips, leading to the edge of her breast, where he ran his jaw across the firm contour. When he reached the tip of the triangle, he stopped, dropping a kiss, then another at the plump swell before teasing her nipple. He kissed the pink ring, a light touch of his lips, before choosing the next spot, while his cheek barely brushed the stiff point.
Restless, she parted her thighs, her gaze burning into him. The naked promise on her face sent his pulse beating harder. Easing down, he settled low on her body, folding one knee to brace her legs apart. Her fingers dug into his shoulders with urgency. She needed him to get moving. Pulling his hands out from under her, he bracketed her breasts. His thumbs moved along the underside, caressing the sensitive skin, molding her and pushing the peak higher. He wet his lips, bringing them down over her pebbled nipple to dampen the top and bottom before slowly shaking his head. She made a sound of protest that dwindled away when he lapped at the nub. He fastened around it, drawing her gasp. Then he suckled, tonguing her before he gave a hard pull and started again.
“Rio.” His name came out sounding like one of her purrs. She wrapped her legs around him, shifting her hips up. Needing him in the most primal way. He pulled up on his arms, and she released her hold. His cock found her entrance, wet, ready for him. He closed his eyes, savoring the feel of her under him. Holding him. Surrounding him. She was reveling in the taking. Whimpering, her breathing hitching as he buried himself inside her. Her lips dropped to his shoulder, her eager fingers working through his hair and along his back.
He was in no hurry. His strokes steady and firm. He nibbled at her neck, catching her earlobe while taking pleasure in her tight body. The heated skin she’d allowed him to enjoy, the cushion of her breasts and their delicious toppings. Bracing himself, he shifted to a new angle, driving harder despite the bed’s groaning.
Celeste arched against him, her nails biting into his shoulders while her breath slammed past his cheek and temple as she threw her head back with a cry. Her toes curled into his muscles, spurring him on.
He thought he’d experienced everything, knew there wouldn’t be any more surprises in his life. But when a wave of heat blasted through him, stiffening his back and tightening his balls, he went blank. Instinct took over, and his mind settled back, shocked at the emotions rushing through him. At the wonder of this woman and the very possibility that there was one more hard stroke left within him. His body bowed, and he’d swear his vision blurred as he ground into her, her bare sheath gripping, rippling, and milking every last bit of life out of him.
That’s when he knew he’d truly been consumed.
…
An insistent knock broke through her consciousness. Celeste frowned as her dream splintered into odd scenes with a gym, men sounding off in unison, and Rio holding her. Her lids fluttered, and she focused on the unfamiliar surroundings. Standard white walls, a chest of drawers, a desk and office chair, and a stack of books by the lamp on the nightstand. His scent lingered around her. Last night hadn’t been a dream. She was in Rio’s bed, surrounded by his things. Tilting her head, she read the titles. It shouldn’t surprise her to find cartel-based books on Chapo Guzman, El Señor de los Cielos, and the FAO.
“You awake?” Kari poked her head in the door, a curious twinkle in her eyes.
Celeste looked down at herself, her breasts barely covered by the sheet and light blanket. A blush climbed her chest as she pulled the sheet higher, looking around for her—er, the shirt he discarded.
“Well, look at you,” Kari said in a singsong voice. She came in, closing the door behind her while she palmed a bundle as if she carried a football. “I brought your clothes.” She unrolled jeans, a tank, and underwear from her own belongings, setting them on the bed. Seconds ticked by. “Um…” Her brows formed a peak. “Are we good?”
Despite the strong-arm tactics, she’d gone over the hurdle she’d been avoiding. “Yes.” Celeste nodded, sitting up and bringing the sheet with her. “Though I didn’t appreciate the sneakiness.” She flashed her a quick look then fussed with the covers, knowing what she said wasn’t completely true.
“Well, sometimes the kids don’t like Mommy and Daddy fighting, so they take things into their own hands.” Kari winked. “I’m glad you worked things out.”
Celeste groaned. “That may be a little generous.” They hadn’t exactly come to terms regarding what would happen between them.
Kari’s eyes went wide. “You didn’t talk?” She settled at the foot of the bed. “Damn, I don’t know whether to be disappointed, shocked, or impressed.”
Never in a million years would she have expected to be sitting in bed, wrapped in nothing but a sheet, talking about what she’d done last night. “We cleared up a few things.” Celeste pushed her hair behind her ear. “Honestly, what did you expect to happen?”
“I was pretty sure you’d be all right. Even figured one of you might need to be carried out.” The corner of her lips went up. “I’m just glad it was you.”
Celeste scoffed. “Yeah, like anyone could bring down Rio.”
Kari’s smile faded. “Don’t be so sure. You have a lot more going for you than you think.” Celeste frowned. “Rio’s a hard-ass. Always has been. We’ve all had to prove ourselves in one way or another before we got an inch of respect.” Kari exhaled, shifting to face her. “When I first started here he was all medic this and medic that. He wasn’t exactly thrilled to have a woman onsite.” She grimaced. “And it wasn’t until over a year later, when I made a suicide run to get to one of the guys, that I graduated to Parker.” She grinned. “But yesterday, when he knocked the wind out of you, he got the shit scared out of him, and he finally used my name. Oh.” She held a hand to her heart. “And he said please. You have no idea how sweet that sounded.”
Celeste didn’t know what to think, not knowing Rio well enough to judge his reaction.
“You’ve knocked him off his stone throne.” She scoffed. “Did you see his face when we ran him out of the infirmary.” Kari dissolved into laughter, making Celeste smile. “I’ve never seen him looking lost. It’s the total opposite of his usual self, especially since he got back.”
Her chest tightened. “What do you mean?”
Kari sobered, and it seemed like she was choosing her words instead of blurting out what was in her head at the moment. “I get that whatever happened between you didn’t end well. He came back different.” She nodded, as if she’d agreed with her description. “Like he needed to do penance or something. Whatever he’s working through personally, he’s almost run the team into the ground. I’ve treated more guys for sprains, blisters, and heat exhaustion these past weeks than I did the entire rest of the year combined.”
Celeste winced. Had she caused that? “I didn’t expect…” Sh
e hadn’t thought he’d be affected. Wouldn’t have felt the same loss and desperation she did after leaving. If she’d known, would she have left with Leonard and the men she thought worked for her father?
“Yeah, I wouldn’t have pictured him flipping out over a woman. No offense,” she added quickly. Then she tilted her head to one side. “But you’re different. You look like you belong here,” she said with a thoughtful note. “In his bed.”
Celeste gave a jerky shrug, pulling her knees up to her chest, tightening her hold around them. The heat of embarrassment spread across her face. Vix nodded, agreeing with Kari as she settled at the foot of the bed. So maybe this was her insecurity rearing it’s ugly head. That’s usually when Vix came to her rescue.
“Trust me.” Kari offered a thoughtful expression. “I’ve known these guys long enough to know when something’s up.” Kari was perceptive enough to pick up on her thoughts. She wrinkled her nose, making a face. “Noooo, nothing like that. Not with anyone here.”
Vix gave a sidelong glance. “I won’t lie; I wondered,” Celeste admitted. “He treats you different.”
“Well, I don’t put up with his shit.” She tilted her head, raising her brows. “But I think it’s the big three. You don’t screw with the guy that signs your check, the one that feeds you, or the one that keeps you alive.”
Celeste loosened the death grip around her knees.
“Can you imagine? Oh, medic,” Kari deepened her voice. “Your stitches, they’re so straight. They drive me wild.” Both chuckled. “Besides, he wouldn’t let me near his cave. I’m sure he’d be worried I’d use his toothbrush to scrub the toilet while he slept.”
“Kari. You’re horrible.” Celeste said in mock outrage.
“Guys like the ones that thrive in this life aren’t for me. I’m a small-town girl who likes the strong, silent type. Give me a cowboy and a little place in the middle of nowhere.”
“So what are you doing here?”
Her eyes clouded. “We’re all out here for our own reasons. Some want to change their lives, some want to save it. Others want to forget it all.”
“Will you leave this place?”
“Eventually.” Kari’s lips pulled into a smile, but the rest of her features didn’t follow suit. “But for now, we need to get you and your man on the same page.”
“Ugh. This is an impossible situation.” She pushed her hair back over her shoulder. “He’s an ICE agent, and you know what my father does.” Even now, having everything laid out for her on a timeline, she still had trouble with Oz’s life.
Kari grinned. “Well, things could be worse. You could be the drug lord.” She gave a narrow-eyed glare. “You aren’t secretly a kingpin, are you?”
Celeste rolled her bottom lip, feeling the corners tilt upward. “No.” She shook her head again. “My father’s made sure I’m not involved in his life. At all.”
“I get you, girl.” Kari shrugged. “You can’t choose your family.”
You certainly can’t. Celeste picked at a snag in the bedspread, pulling the material to smooth out the thread. If she had a choice, would she choose someone other than Victor Ayala and his beauty-queen girlfriend as her parents? Especially knowing her mother, and her own birth had changed her brother’s life.
“Well, I better get going. You need to scrub and be ready to go.” She got up, heading toward the door. “Swing by once you’re done. We’ll have breakfast together before the briefing.”
It wasn’t until Kari turned the knob that she realized she wasn’t going to have an escort.
“Hey,” Kari called from the doorway. “Just remember, he’s a guy, so you kinda have to lower the bar sometimes.” She scrunched her nose, nodding. “But he’s one of the good ones.”
Celeste nodded thoughtfully. One of the good ones… That was the very reason she’d never fit in his life.
Chapter Seventeen
Celeste glanced around at the group gathered in the conference room. Men filled several rows of chairs while Kari made herself comfortable on a side table. She winked, patting the spot beside her. Vix leaned her hip on the table, crossing her arms as she took in the whole group with a big grin.
Celeste crossed the room, her inner fashionista chastising her for purposely standing next to someone wearing the exact same outfit she wore. But nobody seemed to give them a second look.
Ever since showing up for breakfast, things had been different. No more curious looks. No checking her out. The men had been courteous and respectful. Heat climbed up her cheeks. They must all know where she spent the night.
“Settle down, guys,” Gatlin bellowed as Rio took the floor. Even among the cast of military men, he stood out as a man in command.
“We’ve identified another threat from the Ayala cartel,” Rio began.
“But we got Ayala himself, didn’t we?” one of the men asked.
“Ayala and the others captured during the raid are in custody,” Rio replied. “But recent intel leads us to believe we have an imposter passing himself off as Ayala.” A handful of curses made their way around the room. “I extended the forty-eight-hour media blackout on the arrests in order to lure out our unsub. Gatlin will give you the details.”
Rio stepped back, folding his arms as he leaned against the far wall. Their gazes locked for several heartbeats, and she could almost feel him surrounding her again.
Gatlin brought up their presentation on the screen. “This is the timeline we have for Ayala.” He clicked, separating the timelines. “Our intel says the unsub may be responsible for the events in Mazatlán, Tampico, and Monclova where we had tourists and non-cartel casualties.” Anger raked at her insides, leaving her chest raw. “In addition, we have two other events in Hermosillo and Juarez that don’t fit his M.O.”
“Do we have any idea who the unsub might be?” the man behind her asked.
“No,” Rio replied. “We only learned about the imposter after we arrested Ayala.”
“This could be a rival cartel or one of his own crew.” Gatlin switched to a diagram of Oz’s organization. “The unsub has a phone we’re tracking, but it’s an older generation, so no GPS.” The group replied with a grunt and a couple of annoyed exhales. “The best I can tell you is he/she is in Monterrey.”
With a city the size of Monterrey, it would be nearly impossible to pinpoint someone if you didn’t know who you were looking for.
“We’ll be rolling directly after the briefing so we can set up Eagle’s Nest at the Flamenco. Four teams will be dispatched at thirty-minute intervals to surround La Caverna hotel, the plaza on the next block, and the warehouse at the rear. We’ll be rerouting traffic so we have as little civilian intervention as possible.” The screen showed a twelve-block area with highlighted spots. “Snow White will check into the hotel, then walk out the back to switch off with Parker. I’ll take Snow White to Eagle’s Nest and text the unsub with the meet-point.”
Rio’s gaze found her again, a hint of amusement on his lips at Gatlin’s use of her code name.
“We don’t know where this guy is, so it could be hours or it could be days.” Several men nodded. “Parker will set up a pinhole camera in the hallway in case he decides to track her down.” He brought up a blueprint of the hotel. “Once we’ve identified the unsub, we’ll move in. Remember, we want to bring this guy in alive. We need information on his network.”
“We’ll make contact with the unsub once the second team is in position,” Rio added. “Holiday will be on point at Eagle’s Nest.” A man with a too-serious expression nodded toward her. “I’ll run the op with Damian, from the communications van.”
“Any questions?” Gatlin asked, looking around the room.
Kari raised her hand. “More of a comment, since I don’t usually have an active part in these things.”
“Go ahead.”
“I can’t stress enough how impo
rtant it is to keep your medic safe and unharmed,” she said with a heartfelt expression and a hand to her chest. Celeste grinned as chairs scraped the floor and a couple of the guys shot out dismissing remarks.
Gatlin just shook his head. “Let’s roll.”
…
The taxi cut through traffic at breakneck speed. Celeste grasped the door handle and seat, hanging on for dear life. She wanted to check on Kari’s car to see if she was still in one piece. Rio’s plan started with them traveling separately. If they arrived together, the story about her escaping the raid wouldn’t sound true. Instead, the group would meet at La Caverna then split up.
The driver made a sharp right, coming to a hard stop in front of the hotel. “Here you go, lady.” Celeste handed him the fare and a generous tip for delivering her alive before stepping out to the sidewalk. She resisted the urge to search the street for the car with Kari and Gatlin. Even though, with her oversized sunglasses, nobody would likely notice.
She went to the front desk, asking for a room on the first floor.
“Only one night, miss?” asked the older lady, her nails clicking away at the keyboard.
“Yes.”
“Do you need help with your luggage? I can call someone up front.” Her voice dropped off with a note of curiosity.
“I’ll be fine.” Rio had drummed in the fact she shouldn’t offer information if she wasn’t asked a direct question. Not much different than what she’d done all her life.
The woman laid a key card on the counter. An image of her last hotel check-in filtered through her mind. She’d still been trying to figure out what to do with the second card when he’d stepped up.
“Room six. Take the hall to your left. The room is at the end, by the exit.”
“Thank you.” She walked down the quiet hall, chanting don’t come out to herself with every other step. As luck would have it, she made it all the way to the exit and nobody left their room. Kari, dressed in similar jeans and top, waited by the glass door, pretending to text. The key handoff was quick, without either one of them making eye contact. Kari went into the hotel while Celeste ducked into the car with Gatlin, lying down on the backseat.
Temptation and Treachery (Dangerous Desires) Page 12
