by CR Robertson
Benita turned to him and smiled. “Ella no habla español.”
I very much did speak Spanish; they just had no clue.
“Lo siento.” He moved his attention back to me. “English?”
I nodded and produced the smile I learned over the years, so the world didn’t know how I felt inside. He took that as encouragement instead of a polite refusal.
“Can I buy you a drink, beautiful lady?”
The heat that bored into me told me that he’d attracted Nicklas’ attention. “She’s part of our group. Thanks, but we’ve got plenty of drinks.”
“I was asking her, not you. Are you her boyfriend?”
Every muscle in my body froze. What did you call the woman you held while you slept every night and ignored during the day?
“Why don’t you keep bothering her and find out?” His voice was low, but the threat was high.
The man studied me for several seconds, his narrowed gaze shifting to Nicklas. “Until later,” he said before stalking away.
“Wow!” Benita fanned herself. “Imagine if all that emotion was real.”
Yeah. Imagine.
Instruments began to tune in the background and lights started to flash on and off around the auditorium. The show was starting. I had been so excited because in my head we were going on a date. Instead, everything was more pretend. My emotions were raw and frazzled.
Benita and I oohed and aahed over the costumes as the dancers moved across the stage and on the different tiers. I tried to ignore the girl who kept trying to catch Nicklas’ attention. The rum flowed like water and the cocktails kept arriving until I was more than a little tipsy. My leg kept rubbing Nicklas’ until I slipped my sandal off and rubbed my toes up and down his leg. His hand slipped between my legs to grip my thigh. I needed that hand higher, and I widened my legs slightly in invitation. The tip of his finger traced along the edge of my lace panties. My lady bits were hot and wanton, demanding his attention.
In an attempt to cool myself down, I left the table to visit the toilets. On the way back, Benita and I got caught up in other partygoers dancing. We laughed and joined in, losing ourselves in the rhythm of the dance. My hips swayed and my arms lifted in the air to the sensual beat of the music.
When hands landed on my waist, I thought they belonged to Nicklas, but they were the wrong size and didn’t hold me the same way he did. I tried to tug myself free, but the man behind me started gyrating. A few moments later, he was dragged away. I spun to see Nicklas standing over the same man who wanted to buy me a drink earlier.
“Keep your fucking hands to yourself,” Nicklas snarled before grabbing my wrist to escort me back to the table. Another man danced with Benita, yet he didn’t glance at them twice.
All eyes watched us when we arrived back at the table. He hadn’t freed Benita from her dancing partner, and everyone seemed to have registered that fact by the way they watched us in silence. The alcohol had burned a hole in my resistance, so I turned sideward on my seat, leaning back until I rested against Nicklas’ arm. Without hesitation, he moved in his seat, so my ass nestled between his legs, his arm snaking around my waist to tug me back into him.
“Fucking asshole couldn’t keep his hands to himself,” he muttered into my hair.
“You’re not supposed to care.”
“Fuck that.”
“I had to tolerate that woman constantly touching you.”
His chuckle sent shudders down my spine and into my stomach. “Jealous?”
“Just a little bit.” I held my hand up and pinched my finger and thumb together. “You?”
Nicklas leaned forward, his teeth grazing my shoulder. “More than a little bit.”
“What happened to no affection in public?”
“I decided too many fuckers were looking at you.”
Nothing else came into my mind to say, so I let my head rest back on his shoulder to watch the show. Tonight finally felt like a date with his arm around me and his head beside mine. My relationship was official now, and my heart floated on cloud nine.
A female acrobat swung in a massive octagon hoop held by a male acrobat on the stage. It had the crowd gasping every time she performed a trick.
“Nic, what a pleasant surprise.” A male voice sounded from beside us.
His hand tightening on my stomach was his only reaction. “Darius.” The man who sent his goons to abduct Benita. Years of training in Papa’s household taught me to keep my eyes forward and not look at whoever it was.
“Have you had a chance to look over the paperwork?”
“Not yet, I’ve had other matters to deal with.”
The man’s foot began to tap in annoyance. “New girl?”
“Nope.”
“I know most of the Jineteras on the island and haven’t seen this one.” His deep laugh made my skin crawl.
“That’s because she isn’t for sale.”
“Everyone is for sale for the right price, isn’t that right?” His hand stroked down my cheek and I swatted him away.
I deliberately ran my gaze disdainfully from his stomach to where he loomed over us. He was handsome, but there was a coldness in his dark eyes that hinted at cruelty. “I don’t need your money. I choose who I want to be with.” My eyes moved back to the dancers even as my heart hammered in my chest. Papa taught me long ago that the best way to put someone in their place was to ignore them.
“Feisty, isn’t she?” Darius snickered.
“Piss off, Darius,” Nicklas snapped.
He took a step away and stopped. “Two of my men have gone missing. Have you encountered either of them?”
Nicklas swivelled behind me to face Darius. “Gotta be honest, man, I don’t know who half your men are. Want me to ask some of my guys when I get back? Where were they last seen?”
My guess was that they shouldn’t have been in Nicklas’ area without permission or some sort of nod to him that they were there. I remembered Nicklas mentioning Darius to the guy he threw off the cliff.
“You know how our men are when they have a day off. Constantly chasing pussy and drinking themselves into a stupor.”
“My men aren’t like that,” Nicklas replied. “But thanks for the insight into your organisation.”
Darius stomped off with several men in dark suits following him.
“I didn’t fucking need this tonight,” Nicklas said, his forehead resting on my shoulder.
“On a positive note, he thought I was a prostitute so at least no one recognises me.”
His laugh made me smile. “Always a silver lining, Princess?”
“Mmmm-hmm.”
We all stumbled from the club after consuming too much rum. Some of the guys openly fondled the girls who’d been at our tables. Nicklas was the only one with a steady footstep.
“How are you sober?” I accused.
His lips twitched. “Because I drank cola all night while you got sloshed on cocktails.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck. “Are we going to have drunk sex?”
He lifted me under the ass, and I clung to him. “You’re going to have drunk sex. I’m just going to bang your brains out.”
His hands tightened on my ass when I sucked his earlobe. “Can we have sex outside in your car? I’ve always wanted to make out in a car and yours is hot as hell.”
“You trying to get me arrested?” He deposited me in the passenger seat of his car and leaned down to kiss me.
“Do the police not live in your pocket?”
He threw his head back and laughed. “A few exist on my payroll, but they certainly don’t live in my pocket.”
I laid back in the seat while the world spun around me, crawling beside him when he slid into the car. On our way home, I fiddled with his belt and then his zip until I located his cock.
“Shit!” The car swerved when I sucked him deep and choked on his length. Nicklas pulled off the road a few minutes later and grabbed my face. “You are going to be the death of me.”
/> Yeah, I was drunk. No, I didn’t care.
“Wanna blow job?” I grinned up at him.
“Come here, Sofia.” He helped manoeuvre me to straddle his lap.
My lower lips had been chewing my panties since he teased me earlier with his finger. He pulled those damp panties to the side and slammed me down on his hard length. The moon was the only light in this dark isolated place, the noise of our bodies moving and the accompanying moans the only sound. All that mattered was his mouth teasing my nipples and his cock stretching and moving in me.
That divine pressure steadily built in my stomach and my lips met his as his hands grasped my waist to help me maintain the rhythm. Nicklas surrounded me, he intoxicated me, and he possessed me with every thrust of his hips. I didn’t know where I ended, and he began. We were an undulating mass of limbs tangled in pleasure.
The pressure became too much, and I was barely able to move, my hips grinding down into his.
“Nicklas!” I screamed, my nails digging into his shoulders.
He pulsed deep in me and lasted a few more strokes before we erupted together. I collapsed on top of him, gasping while perspiration coated my body.
When I could breathe properly, I crawled back into my seat, grinning at him.
“Why are you so happy with yourself?” he asked, trying to tuck his cock into his trousers.
“Tonight was the first date I’ve ever been on and I just had outdoor sex.”
Nicklas leaned over and pressed me into the huge seat. “You’re easy to please.”
“Does that mean you’ll take me out again?” I asked, wiggling my legs to wrap them around him.
“You keep this up, and I’ll be sitting in your father’s office with a portfolio.”
My deepest desire had always been to find someone strong enough to claim me from Papa. Many men looked at my sisters but were too terrified of Papa. I kissed his neck and felt him shiver.
“You might be the only man that I would leave his home for.”
Nicklas stared at me for several seconds before a smile appeared that set my poor damp panties on fire. He settled himself behind the wheel and tugged me in beside him. I wanted to scream at the whole world that I finally found my way home.
***
Chapter Twenty-Two
Nicklas
“Good morning.” I wanted to cringe when I heard the voice on the other end of my phone. “I believe you received my package a month ago.”
“I did. It arrived safely.”
It was one month since a feisty, curvy woman appeared in my life and turned it upside down. Now that the one-month cooling-off period was up; her father was checking that she was okay.
“I’m busy at the moment or I would join you for our meeting.” In other words, there was a lot of attention on Lucas Black at the moment. “I’m leaving tomorrow for a family reunion in England with my nephew.”
“No worries. I saw an ex-acquaintance of yours the other day when I was visiting the friend of your nephew.”
Translation: the target is dead, and you might need to consider eliminating another threat.
“Really?”
“Yeah, I would have stopped to say hello, but I only met him once in your hallway a few months back.”
Silence echoed down the phone for several moments. “Had they been out for a run before you met them?”
“Indeed.”
“Pass on my regards next time you bump into them.”
Translation: next target acquired.
“Will do. Enjoy your holiday and everything is fine here in the sunshine.”
“Thank you, Nic, I knew I could count on you.”
Yeah, Sofia was safe every night because she was in my bed. During the day, I had eyes on her. After our trip a few nights ago, it was common knowledge that she was mine and to be protected. There had been a few raised eyebrows and mutters since she’d piqued the interest of several of my men. Too many lust-filled gazes watched her wandering into the kitchen to help Maria.
“Yeah, we’ll have a chat later and catch up properly.” We said our goodbyes, and I hung up. I toyed with the idea several times of taking a trip and showing Mario a beautiful waterfall and river where he could sleep with the fishes. The only reason I hadn’t, was in case Lucas needed him brought in.
He deliberately set Sofia up to be ambushed that night. The asshole had probably been waiting in the wings somewhere to save her from the bad men who abducted her. Then she would fall into his awaiting arms.
What Mario had never considered was the fact that she’d keep her escape bag away from the apartment. Or that the contents of it would bring her to me. Now that she was here, I had no intention of ever letting her leave.
I went into the kitchen with the excuse of hunting for a snack, when in reality, I wanted to make sure she was safely there with Maria. There were always men close by, so it made it the safest room in the house.
Sofia was busy making cookies. Flour rested on her cheek as she put scoops of dough onto trays.
“You’re gonna turn my men fat and lazy,” I said, snatching one that had already been baked.
She pouted, and I pressed a kiss to her lips before wandering off to find Kris since I needed some surveillance done. Maria tutted at me on the way past. She’d adopted Sofia and didn’t approve of the womanising by me or my men. I wasn’t about to tell her that I hadn’t touched anyone since being with Sofia; it had nothing to do with Maria.
My little minx seemed to be an excellent baker, and every day we were treated to more of her creations. She spent her spare time at university teaching herself to cook and bake since Mario didn’t let her out after dark. He’d been keeping her locked away for himself for years. If he knew I unwrapped his gift first, he’d be beyond pissed.
“Hey, man. I got the green light for our visitor.”
Kris looked up from his desk. He was the computer wizard of the group and nothing happened in this compound that he didn’t know about with all his cameras and proximity devices that he had hidden everywhere. They now adorned the shiny new residence of the Council in Cuba.
“Is that green light to monitor him or to wave him off on his next adventure?”
A dark smile curved my lips. “Our friend Mario should start packing for his next trip. I’ve heard it’s hot where he’s going.”
“I’m assuming it doesn’t help that he has the hots for your girlfriend.” Kris shot me a sly look.
Girlfriend? It was the first time I’d heard Sofia with that title. Normally it would have made me run in the opposite direction. This time, I was standing firm because where there had been fear before, there was only a warm feeling inside my chest.
“How do you know he has the hots for her?”
The grin on Kris’ face was feral. He spent so much of his time delving into other people’s lives, I think he sometimes forgot to live his own. His fingers moved rapidly across the keyboard. He had about a dozen screens on the wall in front of him. Another room had all the CCTV feeds on screens that were on every wall.
He pointed to one of the monitors above him. “I hacked his phone. He has a lot of photos of her, more than are healthy.”
I folded my arms over my chest because suddenly I wanted to commit violence. Some of those photographs were of her sleeping, others had been taken in a bathroom. The sick fuck had been stalking her for years in the pretence of keeping her safe. He’d been creeping around in her apartment while she was asleep, doing god knows what.
“Are you going to tell her he’s here?” Kris stared at me. “She needs to know the truth.”
How did you tell the sweetest person in the world that the man she trusted for years had been a fucking perverted peeping tom?
“Yeah, I know, but she trusted him.”
“You can’t afford for him to reach her and her not know what type of person he is. What if she goes with him since he was her safety blanket for years?”
I dragged in a staggered breath and continued to study
the images flashing across the screen. Making her pretend to be his girlfriend had been a streak of pure genius on his part. Instead of being a shadow close to her, he integrated himself into her life and ensured no other men looked in her direction.
“Yeah, leave it with me.” There was a lot I needed to discuss with her since Lucas had been in touch. “Make sure that fucker doesn’t take an extra breath that I don’t know about.”
“On it.” Kris returned to his precious computers, the images changing on the screens above him.
Right now, I couldn’t afford to storm that house and eliminate everyone as the Council would send a unit to destroy every gang on this island to ensure they got the correct target. Lost in my thoughts, I settled myself on the huge rock that overlooked our fields. Silas’ Council didn’t give a damn who they destroyed, all they were interested in was power and money. One suitcase so long ago had ended the lives of too many innocent families. It was later that I discovered it had the evidence of an affair in it. All those souls to cover up some infidelity.
“Nic?” My attention snapped to Maia standing beside me. Her hands were clasped in front of her and she wore that innocent expression that most of my men loved. She tended to look at you from under her eyelashes, and it generally invoked a protection element in most men.
“What’s up?”
“You said you didn’t take any serious lovers.” She swayed slightly from side to side. “You promised me if you changed your mind, I would be the first to know.”
Maia had gotten very touchy at Tropicana, and Sofia had definitely noticed.
“What is it you want, Maia?”
She pouted in response. Normally her lips made me hard in an instant since she gave fantastic blowjobs with them. My dick remained uninterested in my jeans.
“I want to be a permanent resident here, like some of the other girls. You know I’ll keep you happy.”
That was the problem in one sentence. The only woman I wanted was already sleeping in my bed. Sofia finally made me feel again, something I swore I would never do after Matt and Doris.
