by Em Petrova
Dammit, this was even more dangerous. Carissa had been his first and he’d gone hunting for other things to give him that same rush of emotion, but now he had her back and his fingers buried deep in her.
A shuddering moan left her. Followed by a squeak. She was climbing toward orgasm, her body focused inward. At the moment she shattered, his own cock couldn’t be any fucking harder. He was like a teenager hell-bent on getting the cheerleader’s panties off, not the man who’d honed so much control over the past few years.
She cried out, rising and falling against the plunges of his fingers. He leaned over her and took her mouth in a searing kiss, tasting all the passion and need still boiling inside her.
When he drew his fingers slowly from her still-pulsating pussy, she gasped and threw her arms around him. Pulling him down so his weight flattened her. But she didn’t seem to mind. He braced himself on his elbows and kissed her long and deep, extending the burn of need, wanting it to last forever yet impatient to thrust into her and find his own heaven.
Chest heaving, he drew back to stare down at her. Perfectly mussed, her dark hair strewn across the pillows and her skin all dewy. She was his same Carissa but different at the same time, and it was so much… more this time around.
Now he was getting all sappy when he should be balls-deep. What was he waiting for? Her liquid heat still wet his fingers and he was mad to get inside her.
But the moment stretched on.
She traced a fingertip over his biceps, over the American flag rippling there to a tree with roots that reached toward his elbow. “What is the tree?”
“Family,” he grated out.
She swallowed and nodded. The one thing that had split them up. Looking back, he knew his parents had made the right decision for a son who was too young to be married, but how would they react now?
When he raised a hand to stroke the hair off her damp forehead, it had a touch of a tremor. “Mon coeur, you make me stop and think.”
She nodded. “I know. Me too.”
He rushed on before the words dried up. “About what would have been between us.”
“We were young. Things happen for a reason.”
“Like I was supposed to be trained to come back here and help you.”
She nodded. Then pushed her pussy against his thigh. “And fuck me. If you ever get around to it.”
A chuckle rose to his lips, and he rolled off the bed. Stripping for a beautiful woman could be one hell of a turn-on. He knew what his body looked like and how it attracted the opposite sex. But seeing the appreciation in Carissa’s eyes meant so much more.
He dropped his jeans and stepped out of them. Then stroked his cock through his boxers, pulling the cotton around the bulge. She moaned.
“Take them off and let me taste you.” Her words were a hot plea.
His balls drew up tight to his body and his cock throbbed. Need was close to exploding out of him, and he had to get a goddamn grip or he would be that teen boy again.
Stepping up to the bed, he slid his boxers down his hips. His cock sprang free. Carissa turned onto one side and gripped it at the base, wrapping those warm little fingers around the girth.
He threw his head back on a growl.
She trailed a fingertip over a vein, following it up to the tip and then swirling through the precum there. She flashed a look at him before parting her lips and taking him in her mouth.
Pleasure twisted with desire so great it bordered on pain. But still, he couldn’t pull out of her hot, tempting mouth. The sparks threatening impending release shot through his abs, but still he didn’t draw back.
He pushed his cock deeper.
Seeing the bulge of his head riding along the inside of her cheek and the way her eyes darkened—
“Enough.” He jerked his hips back and before the coo of disappointment was fully past her lips, he pinned her to the bed. Nudging her thighs apart, he settled between them. With her scorching heat just a whisper away from his cock, his brain took that moment to wake up to reality.
“I forgot a condom. Unless you tell me you’re on the pill.”
Her eyes cleared a bit of the passion there. “No… I gave all the birth control I had in stock to the local teenagers.”
He nodded. Leave it to Carissa to think about keeping more unwanted children from being born into this disaster zone, but that left Roades frustrated and rolling back to his feet to grab a condom.
“I only have a couple more of these. I’ll have to track down some back alley supplier.” He flashed a grin that she returned. When he flattened her to the bed again, she wrapped her thighs around him and held onto his shoulders. Her lips begging for kiss after kiss.
He lowered his head, willing to make the sacrifice. As he teased her with small nibbles that were almost playful in nature, his body refused to follow suit—he wanted her now. He slammed into her.
She cried out and latched onto him tighter. He took a moment to groan out a curse or two and then started to move. Withdrawing slowly and slamming home again. Deeper this time, the tip of his cock stroking a place that made her cry out.
He stared down at her, and she turned her face to bite his shoulder. He grunted at the pain and twitched his hips again. She dug her fingers into the sinew of his hips and ran her calves down the backs of his thighs.
With a quick flip, he had her on top, straddling him. She threw him a smile. Dark waves fell across her breasts, and he smoothed a tendril aside to strum the hard brown nipple tensed for him.
“I have better access this way.” He closed his hands over both breasts, and she dropped her head back, rising and falling on his cock. Her rhythm slow and then suddenly growing frantic.
She peaked a third time, and the tightening of her pussy around his cock nearly had him shooting for the stars himself. Only reciting the alphabet in Greek—backward—held him off.
She hung forward, hair dangling around them. “That was a surprise.”
“Came out of nowhere, did it? It’s because you’re primed for me, mon coeur.” He drew her down to kiss her, cupping her face and one hand planted on her ass. He bucked his hips up once, filling her completely again.
Her mouth opened on a silent scream of pleasure. He plunged his tongue inside, sweeping the hot depths even as he fucked her. Hard. Fast. Slow. He wanted every way possible.
But he was quickly losing his firm grip on control. Each small rasp of pleasure from her set him more off balance until his hips couldn’t keep a solid rhythm and he couldn’t hold it together.
He slid his hand between them, firmly pressing down on her clit as he gnashed his teeth to withstand the explosion about to take place.
She settled her thighs farther apart on the bed, sliding down him another fraction. The rumble that turned into a growl that expanded into a roar rocked him. He squeezed his eyes shut on the sensation of a release so big that he’d have empty balls for days.
Till Carissa swayed her little round backside into sight again.
She continued to ride through his orgasm. When she planted her hands on his chest and sat back with a satisfied smirk on her pretty face, he laughed.
“Lookin’ mighty smug,” he grated out.
“Mm.”
He still had his thumb over her clit and gave it a test rub. She squeezed him with her inner muscles. A fierce protectiveness threw him. He stared up at her, his thumb still moving on its own, back and forth over the straining button that was slick with arousal.
He drew her up and off his cock, dealt quickly with his condom and then rolled her into the covers and replaced his thumb with his lips over her button. Tasting her a second time had him throbbing once again, but harder to figure out was the ache spreading in his chest.
Bracketing her hips with his hands, he held her firmly as he tongued her slick seam, up and down, over her clit and back to her channel. She couldn’t hold still, and he felt her building to a massive climax.
Just as it hit out of nowhere, he closed his eyes
and lapped at her juices. Realizing his fucking heart was so deep in this woman that he was actually disappointed not to be lying here with a goal of making babies with her.
Fuck, he was in so much trouble.
Chapter Seven
The sun was barely edging over the horizon when Roades beat up his first thug of the day and left him lying in the street. As he spat out a glob of blood from the asshole getting in a lucky punch, he walked away. Wondering what the fuck he was going to do about leaving once his three months of probation was up.
Leaving Carissa behind in a place like this was out of the question. But he couldn’t very well set her up in Louisiana when he was hardly there himself. Leaving her friendless, without family support of even Mari.
Maybe Mari could come too.
He shook his head. What the hell was he thinking? He and Carissa came from two separate universes. Only when they were together, it felt like one.
If only…
His thought was cut short by the vibration of his cell. When he picked up, the line was empty air, the connection lost. He turned a corner and checked his reception again just as it rang a second time.
He brought the cell to his ear. “Knight.”
“It’s Ben.”
“What’s wrong?” Roades and all his brothers and sisters had a sixth sense about the others. All these dark morning hours he’d been combing the streets for Hernan, his mind kept rotating back to his family.
“You’re right there’s something up, man.”
“Fucking tell me.” He stopped walking, keeping an eye around him for danger. Nobody out at this time of day was up to any good.
“Lexi’s gone.”
The air whooshed from him. He’d been waiting to hear anything but that. Their little sister who was more vulnerable owing to a rough birth that left her with a lack of oxygen for a spell, making her more naïve and more than a little susceptible to bad decision-making.
“What the fuck? I leave the country for a few days and you lose our sister?” Roades’ throat was tight on a roar of frustration.
“Maman realized she hadn’t come home last night, and when she went into Lexi’s room, there was a note.”
“Jesus.” He slammed his fingers through his hair.
“It says she went out to explore herself.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“Who the hell knows. It’s Lexi.”
“Goddammit. Why weren’t you guys keeping a better eye on her?” He’d expect their sister Tyler to pull something like this. Not sweet little Lexi.
A notion hit him. “Where’s Rocko?” The sixth man on their team had been eyeing up their sister when she was around. Plus, the guy seemed to know a lot about her. Claimed they talked sometimes when he attended the family gatherings, but Roades had his own ideas about what was going down.
“He’s right here, man. Believe me, we thought of that too and we fucking drilled him like he’d been hiding a terrorist. Rocko doesn’t know where she is any more than we do. All he could tell us was that she’d been doing some soul-searching.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” Roades asked a second time.
“Again, who the hell knows. It’s Lexi.”
“Jesus Christ. I’m coming home and we’ll track her down.”
“Before you jump on the first aircraft outta San Juan, stop and think.”
“I am thinking—that our baby sister’s missing, probably out hitchhiking and offering strange men access to her bank card.” Now he was riling himself more.
“Calm your balls there, Roades. Lexi’s got some skills to get her by. I’m not saying we shouldn’t go find her, and I’m going to do my best to do that. But I don’t want you rushing home just yet. Why the hell are you there in the first place?”
Roades snapped his mouth shut, looking into the streets that were growing lighter by the minute, shapes emerging from the charcoal shadows now. Across the street were many boxes lined up along a building, and the rags protruding from the openings could only mean homeless families resided there.
He twisted his lips. “I’m doing some work.”
“Work? Are you a merc now? Getting paid for hunting people down?”
“Not paid.”
“But you are hunting somebody.”
He considered his words, but there was no way around it. “Yeah.”
A beat of silence. Then, “Are you with Carissa?”
“Yes,” he said at once and realized it was a relief to share that information with his brother.
“Hell, Roades.”
“She isn’t the reason I’m here, but…” He could still smell her on him, that light spice of her perfume and the pleasure she’d spent at his hands, lips, cock. He’d left her sleeping and that image would be forever engraved on his brain.
“But she’s quickly becoming a reason for me to stay.”
The statement fell between them.
Ben pushed out a breath into the phone. “Fuck. When you were seventeen, I was in agreement with our parents, believing it was a good idea to separate you and Carissa because you were so young. But you aren’t seventeen anymore, and nothing can stop you from being with her. Except this is a hard life, man. Your life carries a lot of danger. Is she cut out for that?”
He scrubbed a hand over his face, feeling the lack of sleep but more than that, the lack of common sense. He’d dragged Carissa into his world, but what now? Leave her a second time, walk away and never look back?
The flip side of that was taking her with him, drawing her into his world of missions and secrets, of not knowing his whereabouts for weeks at a time. Hell, she was going crazy not knowing where Hernan was, so how would she handle that? When Roades had told her what he did for a living, she had been far from happy.
Would she be able to navigate this bumpy road of life with him? Now that Ben had asked the question, Roades was leaning toward the no end of the spectrum.
What was best for her was to quickly find Hernan and get the hell out of Puerto Rico. Let Carissa find a life for herself and fulfill his hopes for her happiness.
But that would be without him, and that didn’t set well one… fucking… bit. Especially when he knew without a goddamn doubt that a man would be in her future. She was too beautiful, too sensual, too desirable to be alone for long.
“Roades, you still there? The line cracked.”
“Yeah, I’m here. What are you doing about finding Lexi?”
“As much as we can. Knight Ops is on standby. Somethin’ brewing in fucking Mississippi again.”
“Jesus. I swear that one county breeds assholes.” Roades was glad to be off the topic of Carissa, though it weighed on his mind like a tank. “Okay, so who goes after Lexi then?”
“Elise has recruited Bo.”
Sean’s wife’s ties with her ex seemed to have no bounds if she was recruiting him to find their little sister. But Bo was special forces, and one of the best.
“He’s willing to do it?” Roades asked.
“Says he is.”
“As long as the fucker keeps his distance once he finds her.”
Ben didn’t miss a beat. “Already busted his balls on that. Lexi’s too pretty for her own good, and she does favor those Daisy Dukes.”
That brought a growl from Roades.
“Believe me, bro, I know it. All right, I’ve taken enough of your time and you’ve got a job to do there. Keep me posted and if you need transport, I’ll have it there for you.”
“Thanks. You keep me updated on the Lexi situation. Kiss maman for me. And you guys… guts and glory.”
The motto hung in the silence between them.
“Will do,” Ben said and ended the call.
Leaving Roades standing on a street in a foreign land wondering what the hell he was doing with his life. Letting down his team, his family, and having no damn clue what to do about Carissa.
* * * * *
Carissa had debrided the dead tissue out of a man’s abscessed toe,
set a broken wrist and bound it the best she could with the supplies on hand, taken care of countless cases of the flu going around and even helped a sick puppy by hydrating it.
Her past two days had seen a steady stream of patients walking into her clinic. But she hadn’t set eyes on Roades once.
He’d climbed from her bed sometime during the night and she was still beating herself up over that slip-up. Landing in his bed one time was bad enough but he kept pulling her in, and she had to get her head on straight. She was far from the naïve, sheltered girl who’d fallen for the handsome, worldly young mainlander while staying with her aunt.
She was smart enough to know when things wouldn’t work out, and this was one of those times. The sooner he found Hernan and put a stop to his crimes, the sooner Roades could go home.
Out of her life.
After washing with fresh heated water out of the big basin, she proceeded to dump the water into the back garden. At least her herbs were thriving, even if her heart was withering.
With nothing left to do, Carissa made herself a sandwich of tomato on toasted bread and a bowl of berries she’d gotten from a patient. Then she sat at the table, thinking of the huge Marine who’d sat across from her at this very table, giving her those bedroom eyes.
Right before rocking her world.
She pushed out a sigh and forced herself to eat though she wasn’t very hungry. He was either on a hot trail or avoiding her. After seeing him in action, she wasn’t even entertaining that he might be lying somewhere hurt. The man could walk away from an air strike.
The tomato was vibrant in her mouth, salted and delicious, but she ate mechanically. What she wouldn’t give to have her mother here now, someone to confide in. Mari was on night shifts, and Carissa had been missing her, too busy with her clinic to visit during the days. Not that Mari’s opinion of Roades was something Carissa wanted to hear again. She had freely offered it after Roades had left her at the altar, and she couldn’t make her a confidante now.
