“Yes,” she whispered.
“Ok,” I said, letting out a breath. I quickly quieted the noble part of my brain and did as I pleased. Things I had imagined doing since the first time I had seen her on this beach in that tiny red bikini. I covered her with my body, reaching around her, yanking the strapless part of her dress down and feeling her firm tits. They were glorious, a perfect shape, just right for my hands. My cock agreed. It wanted to be inside her right that moment while I twisted her tight nipples between my fingers and thumbs. I licked the lobe of her ear with my tongue, plunged it inside and told her what I wanted to do and how much she pleased me.
“Ramon,” she shuddered. I felt it shake her body as it ran through her. She liked that, liked the talking, and liked my tongue swirling around the rim of her ear. So I did it again, scoring the tender flesh with my teeth and tugging on the lobe, telling her in Spanish the softer things in my heart that she didn’t care to know.
You’re a dream. My every fantasy. I bit down on the fleshy part again. She didn’t shiver this time, but she wiggled her sexy rear over my cock as if desperate to have it inside of her. I groaned. “Bueno, mami. Show me what you want. How desperate you are for it.” I rocked my erection against her. Her hands slid down the wall, her nails scoring it.
“Please, Ramon.”
“Donde, mi cielo?” I queried. What do you need, my heaven?
“Please it’s been so long since…I can’t…” She bit back the rest of the words.
“Tell me. Don’t be ashamed to tell me what pleases you. It doesn’t have to mean anything - this dance between us. But why shouldn’t it be pleasurable? You like this?” I nipped her shoulder again and tugged on her nipples.
“Yes,” she agreed. “It feels so good.”
“And this?” I traced the outline of her ear with my tongue and twisted a little more on her tit so she could feel the burn.
“Yes,” she moaned, rolling over me. I swore she was so wet she was soaking my shorts. I imagined sliding inside of her easily. But I’d waited so long, so fucking long to be with her like this. I wanted to see what else she liked.
I cradled one perfect breast in my hand and dove the other one south nearly spilling when my fingers spread wide over her mound and I felt how wet she was.
“Yes,” she glided her pussy along my fingers, and I grinned into the side of her neck, kissing her and licking the saltiness of the ocean spray from her skin. I squeezed her tit, sucked on the side of her neck and stroked her in a rhythm that had her slippery and purring for me.
“Please.” Her breath caught as I circled her tight clit. “I want you, she breathed.
“What exactly do you want?”
“Your cock inside me.”
I bit down hard to show my approval of her request. She shivered prettily when I stepped back. I quickly unknotted and let my board shorts slide down my legs. I moved back to her grabbed her hips and pulled her bottom half back from the wall. “Tilt your ass more,” I demanded, and she complied. Digging my fingers into her pliant skin, I rewarded her, positioning and sliding inside her in one deep, perfect thrust. I bit back a satisfied groan and squelched the flood of possessive feelings.
“We are a perfect fit,” I told her instead in Spanish, tamping down this driving need to fuck her hard and claim her in every way a man can possess a woman. I started to move, and those feelings I tried to suppress got even stronger. I couldn’t hold back. I could feel her tightening around my cock. I gave it to her harder, deeper, faster. I pulled her backward into each savage thrust and she took it, took all of me, as if she would die if she didn’t have me.
“Ramon, oh Ramon.” She whimpered.
“Tu me vuelves loco.” You drive me insane. “Come for me. With me. Now.”
She did. She climaxed like a wildcat letting out a cry and bouncing on my cock. I could feel her spasms all around me. Her response ignited more than just my own release. It unwound something inside of me. I knew it in that moment. She owned me. She always had. She always would. But if I let her know she would ruin me.
Chapter Forty
* * *
Karen
The sexy Spanish murmurs ceased the moment he pulled out. He didn’t even look at me at all as he yanked up his shorts. I straightened the bodice of my dress and did the best I could to wipe away the evidence of what had only moments before transpired between us using a couple of Kleenexes from my pocket. I wouldn’t call it lovemaking. I couldn’t even bring myself to call it sex. Both those terms implied a mutual act. He had allowed for no independent contribution on my part, though I had been a willing participant and enjoyed very much everything he had done to me. Dominic had never encouraged me to be so uninhibited in private, let alone in a public place. But I didn’t kid myself that what we had done had meant anything to Ramon. The way he stalked off so quickly afterward told me that it had been no more important to him than that kiss all those years ago. He was probably already having regrets about our agreement. It hurt. It cut deeply that I was never going to be the type of woman he could desire when he was everything I wanted.
The pressure of tears building behind my eyes, I stared at him as he stood by the edge of the ocean. Rigid as a bronze statue with the waves crashing against the shore on either side of him, only his hair seemed alive, the curls tossing animatedly in the breeze.
“Ramon.” I cleared my dry throat, my voice barely above a whisper. He turned his head slightly to the side, but not far enough to meet my gaze. “I’m going back to the party.” I hoped I didn’t sound as clingy and as desperate for reassurance as I felt. I needed a friend. The one standing in front of me had never felt so far away.
“I’ll come with you.” He turned fully, his face an impenetrable mask.
“That won’t be necessary.” I backed away as he moved closer. Incapable of hiding my emotions the way he was doing, I didn’t want him to see how much his indifference wounded me. The cliff wall ended my retreat. He stopped directly in front of me.
“Don’t be ridiculous, of course it’s necessary. We came together. We’ll leave together.” He lifted a brow. His curls shadowed his eyes, obscuring any nuance in their depths. “Unless our agreement is already fulfilled, a certain level of togetherness is a requirement, don’t you think?”
I nodded, though I was having doubts about our contract. I slid away from him, taking the narrow path along the base of the cliff back toward the pier. He followed in my wake. I could feel his gaze, but tried to pretend that I wasn’t enticed by him any longer. My heart discounted the obvious lie, whispering that with more practice I might learn how to please him.
I turned the corner to find the party at its crescendo. It seemed like everyone in OB had congregated around the pier. The beach below the sidewalk seemed empty now, but it was really too dark under the pilings to tell if anyone was down there. I dismissed the flash of furtive movement I thought I saw and edged along the sidewalk, picking my way carefully through the throng. I could hear someone playing a guitar nearby. Knowing my friend Simone and how much she loved music, I followed my ears and hoped I would find her there.
The crowd thickened as I approached. People parted readily in front of me, probably due to the intimidating presence of the Latino at my back. Patrick strummed an acoustic sitting inside the open trunk of Tasha’s Outback under one of the light poles. The cute blonde sat beside him, the two other members of Free Wave flanking them both. Vassel gave me a smile that I wasn’t up to returning. And there was Simone enjoying the music safely tucked into Linc’s embrace. Loved. Cherished. Content.
As if she could sense my discomfiture, she turned to glance my way. Instantly straightening, she murmured something to Linc before moving toward me. I felt tears resurfacing.
“Hey,” she greeted, her brow furrowing as she studied me and the man behind me. “Did you just get here? I didn’t see you guys earlier. You look really pale. Are you ok?”
“No,” I reached for and grabbed her hand. I needed someon
e’s sympathetic touch to ground me. “But I did see the proposal. It was beautiful. You’re beautiful together, you and Linc, I mean. Congratulations.” I clung tighter to her fingers. “I need to go home.” I need to talk to you privately, I pleaded silently with my eyes. “Can you take me?”
“Oh honey, sure. Only can you wait a minute? I promised Linc I would sing his favorite song.”
“‘The Last Night of the World’,” I guessed, the song she had been singing when they had first met.
She nodded. I felt heavy hands fall on my shoulders. Ramon reaffirmed his presence as if I could ever forget it. I gulped, tugging my hand free from hers while attempting to shrug from his grip.
“No, that’s alright.” I understood. I didn’t want to ruin her evening, but I couldn’t stay. A song about finding love, but not being allowed to keep it would shred the rest of my control.
“I’ll take you.” Vassel addressed me, but he aimed his stare at Ramon.
“No way in hell.” Ramon told him, his hands digging into my shoulders. He turned me around to face him. His expression reminded me of the fury of the breakers on a stormy day. “Fuck off!” he snapped additionally at Vassel, before returning his glittering gaze to me. “C’mon. We’re leaving.” His grip sliding to my upper arm, he steered me back into the crowd. He didn’t move slowly. I had to jog to keep up with him. He didn’t stop until we reached his vehicle. He popped the locks, but he didn’t open my door this time. Instead, he turned me and pressed me backward into it, holding me in place with his hands on my shoulders again. It wasn’t a painful grip, but it was inescapable.
“You told Simone you weren’t ok. What do you need, Karen? Tell me. I’ll take care of it.”
I need to rewind what just happened, I thought. I needed to recapture the feeling of optimism between us. I need a new beginning, one in which he could care for me the way I cared for him.
I needed the impossible.
“I don’t need anything,” I said without inflection. “I just want to go home.”
“You’re coming home with me.”
“No. I can’t,” I sputtered. “My parents are waiting up for me.”
“Karen.” His dark eyes held more power to stay me than his grip. “You were being more honest about what you needed down at the cliffs when you came apart in my arms. I agreed to your proposition. But I’m not doing all the back and forth drama.”
“You’re not doing a lot of things,” I grumbled. “The list just keeps getting longer and longer.”
His lips curved, and the clouds in his expression disappeared. The pressure in my chest eased. “Call your parents. Explain however you like, but you’re spending the rest of the night with me.”
Chapter Forty-One
* * *
Ramon
I listened to Karen talk to her parents as I drove. It didn’t seem like she had to do much explaining. I think they knew better than she did the way I felt about her.
“Where are you staying?” she asked after she had tucked her cell back into her bag and dropped it back on the floorboard. Her gaze skittered away when I tried to hold it.
“I’m not staying at a hotel if that’s what you’re asking. I bought a house here in OB a few years ago. I thought you knew.”
She shook her head, her beautiful windblown hair skimming her shoulders. I couldn’t wait to sink my fingers into it while I was deep inside her again. I couldn’t wait to have her again period, no matter the stipulations. I had been so lost in imagining it that I’d almost let her get away from me earlier.
Not taking her right to my house after fucking her had been a mistake. No way in hell was I going to give any opening to some other guy to give her what she wanted. Especially a pendejo like Vassel.
She stared out the window, twisting her hands in her lap while I stole glimpses of her. “You live in the Sunset Cliffs?” she asked shifting to look at me as I turned onto the Boulevard with that name.
“Yeah.” Thankfully she had broken the silence that had grown somber between us.
“The houses are so pretty,” she commented wistfully. “I used to dream about owning a home here.” I remembered. But that wasn’t something I would admit. Not anymore. Not when I’d allowed myself to believe we meant something more to each other than just a fertilizing fuck. “They’re so expensive.”
“All of California real estate is pricey,” I reminded her.
“I know, but…” She gasped when I put on the blinker.
“Holy shit. You live right on the water.”
“Across the street, but yeah.”
“You paid more for this than Offshore.”
“It’s a good investment.” I nodded. “There’s only so much coastline. Right?”
She didn’t respond to the rhetorical question. She stared at the house as I opened the gate and twisted her head to keep it in view as I parked around the back.
“I’ve noticed this house before. It’s been completely remodeled recently.”
“Yeah.” I killed the engine. “I’m not patient enough to do something like that myself. So after they finished, I paid them the asking price.” I got out and came around to open her door. She looked down at our joined hands as I helped her out. I pretended that the connection didn’t mean anything to me, like I would pretend that I hadn’t purchased this particular place with her in mind.
I led her from the entryway through the downstairs room I used for recording music and up the straight staircase to the main living space. The view wouldn’t be as spectacular with the sun already down but as I tugged her toward it I knew she could envision how it would look as morning broke. She let go of my hand when she saw the wall of floor to ceiling windows. Cutting straight through the living room, she had her hand on the pocket doors outside before she turned back to seek permission. “May I?”
“Why not? Comes with the deal.” I raked a hand through my hair.
“Thank you. I’ll keep that in mind.” She seemed a little less enthusiastic to experience the view after my stumbled reminder, but I knew she loved it when she stepped out onto the deck that ran the entire length of the house. “Incredible,” she said, tipping her face into the offshore breeze that lifted her hair and tiptoeing quickly across the stamped concrete. She stopped at the clear glass half wall resting her elbows on it. Eyes on the ocean, she took a deep breath. I moved beside her. We both ignored the dark rattan furnishings, each preferring the proximity to the ocean that the railing afforded.
“If I owned this, I would never go inside. I would sleep out here.”
The thought had crossed my mind a time or two. “Too many bugs.”
“Yes, but the ocean so close you can almost feel the spray.” She sighed. “You were right. This is a great investment.”
I nodded, but it wasn’t the monetary aspect that had been the deciding factor for me. It had been imagining her reacting just like this. “Would you like to see the rest?”
“Maybe later.” She kept her gaze on the water. “If you don’t mind I’d like to stand right here a little bit longer.”
“Sure.” I backed away. “I’ll leave you to it. I’ll just run and take a quick shower.”
“Ok.” She didn’t turn, and I watched her for a moment longer before I ducked into my bedroom. Standing under the spray, I reflected on how serene she seemed there at the rail. It was the same look she had whenever she was on her surfboard. I tried to suppress the surge of satisfaction I felt. I knew I had to tread very carefully because deep down I wanted nothing more than to keep her here forever.
“You’re turn, mami.” I padded barefoot across the deck and pressed my lips into her neck.
“Hmm.” She shifted her head to the side reflexively giving me better access, and I took it before her eyes could shutter and she remembered the nature of the agreement between us. I kissed her pulse point, then slapped her on the rear.
“Hurry along, mamacita.” She might not acknowledge it, but I could never allow myself to forget that this w
as play acting between us. “I want you naked and in my bed before midnight.”
She blinked, ducked her chin to her chest and scurried back inside the house. I moved to take the place she had vacated at the rail. I placed my hands on the glass where hers had rested only a moment before, forcing my misgivings to settle, seeking the answers to them from the unfathomable seas.
Chapter Forty-Two
* * *
Karen
The peace of the sublime sea evaporated when my own personal Poseidon materialized, shirtless, jeans half unbuttoned on his narrow hips. The words ‘in my bed’ and ‘naked’ echoed in the marble couple sized shower. Shutting off the water, I stepped from the cloud of steam, dried off and wrapped myself in a plush bath towel.
Nervous again, pulse pounding hard, I padded hesitantly across the blonde hardwoods that ran throughout the entire house. Not a single rug. No knickknacks softened the masculine interior. No woman’s touch anywhere. I got the impression that it was rare for anyone but him to be in the house. Was Dominic’s father right? Did Ramon’s fame completely isolate him?
“Hola, mamacita.” Ramon sat up from where he’d been lounging on the bed, clicking his cell off and setting it on the nightstand. His eyes flared as they ran the dewy towel wrapped length of me.
My cheeks heated.
“I thought I said naked?”
I nodded but felt awkward about shedding the towel with no shadows to conceal me. I concocted a quick plan. I would do it after I climbed beneath the sheets.
(Complete Rock Stars, Surf and Second Chances #1-5) Page 49
