“What are you doing?” he asked, thwarting my effort before I’d made it halfway to the bed. He moved unexpectedly fast, untwisting the towel and snapping it away. I gasped as cool air rushed across my skin. It took conscious effort not to try to cover myself. One moment passed and then another without a word from him. I glanced over my shoulder to discover his heated gaze practically burning me through like a laser beam.
“Yeah, mami. That’s what I was waiting for.” He took a step closer. “You looking at me through those pretty eyelashes. Provocative as hell and you probably aren’t even trying.” He came around in front and reached for me, his hand brushing my cheek on its way into my hair. His contoured chest came into contact with my breasts as he reeled me to him, his fingers curling possessively around my nape. His skin was warm and he was hard everywhere I was soft. I succumbed to the spell of the erotic tableau. Staring directly into his eyes, I knew I wanted more. I wanted to feel the scrape of his stubble. I wanted to trace his sculpted lips with the tips of my fingers. I wanted to familiarize myself with the features that I had known so well over the years as a friend but never touched as a lover.
I lifted my hands.
“No, mi cielo.” He stopped me, his long fingers completely enclosing my wrists.
I dropped my gaze, feeling the sting of rejection burning my cheeks.
“You know the rules.”
“Yes, but honestly I don’t understand why I can’t touch you,” I muttered.
“So we don’t forget what this is.” His words pricked my heart like sharp little barbs. I lifted my eyes to look at him. His gaze as unyielding as the fingers latched around my wrists offered no clue to his true feelings.
“Ok, fine,” I whispered, deciding that he must have more than an inkling how easily I could get the wrong idea, especially being here with him in his own home. Why hadn’t he taken me to a hotel? That would have gone a long way toward making this feel impersonal. Maybe he just didn’t want to be seen in public with me. Unable to deny the unwelcome crawl of mortification, I yanked free and took a step backward. I didn’t want to be naked while he reminded me yet again that I didn’t rank with him. I crossed my arms over my breasts and turned my gaze to the huge California king bed, wondering where I would find the courage to go through with this.
You’ve already done it once. Maybe you’re already pregnant. Besides, this is Ramon. He’s being an ass with his rules. Why should I put up with it anyway?
“Hey.” Ramon took my chin and turned me toward him. “Where’d you go all of a sudden?” His voice was gentle. His eyes had grown soft. He almost seemed like he really cared.
“Nowhere. I mean, thank you for the reminder. I’m sorry I forgot.”
“So fucking soft.” He stroked the back of his hand across my cheek. “Like silk but warmer as if you’ve just come in from the sun.” He studied me a long moment. His approving words momentarily stemmed the tide of my unease.
“Could you turn off some of the lights?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I want to look at you.”
“But it makes me self-conscious.”
“Karen,” he said as if exasperated. “Don’t pretend that you don’t know how hot you are. You weren’t prom and homecoming queen for nothing.”
“That doesn’t mean anything.” Especially when it came to him.
“What do you mean? Of course it does.”
“So just because the fan magazines say you’re the sexiest rock god alive, does that make it so?”
“I see your point.”
“Then will you turn off the light?”
“Hell no.” He moved closer, stopping only when his body was near enough to mine that I could feel his heat, smell his scent and appreciate the striations of darker and lighter chocolate in his eyes. “Besides, I want you to see how much it turns me on to look at you.”
He reached for a lock of my hair, rubbing it between his finger and thumb. “Silky. Such a pretty color. I’m imagining right now how it will feel wrapped in my grip as I pound my cock into you.”
My nostrils flared as the image he described appeared in my mind.
He released the strand. It swished soft as a whisper over the skin at my clavicle. He traced my brows with his thumbs while staring deeply into my eyes. “When I see your face,” he said low, his warm breath ghosting over me, “And I think how delicate you are, how feminine, yet with a subtle strength it makes me want to bend you to my will and maybe,” he pressed the pad of his thumb into the seam between my lips, “make you beg for it a little.”
My eyes flared. He had me longing for him and he knew it, too. I saw it in his darkened gaze. I flicked my tongue out, licking the edge of his thumb.
“Yes,” he hissed and then grinned slowly. “I believe I will make you beg. In fact, that’s a promise.” He brought the thumb I had licked to his mouth. He sucked on it while I stared, then he painted my nipple with it. It was my turn to pull in a quick breath. He repeated the procedure on the other breast. Both my nipples drew achingly tight, the air drying the wet and making them even harder. Desire made my pulse pound between my legs. I shifted feeling the slick glide between my inner thighs, thoroughly turned on even though he had barely touched me.
“How wet are you?” A grin spread across his face as if he could read my mind.
“Why don’t you find out for yourself?” I licked my lips wishing he would kiss me.
“Do you still want me to turn the light off?”
I shook my head, the ends of my hair brushing my skin just above the swell of my breasts practically making me moan, fully aware of how badly I wanted his mouth on them. I was already close to pleading.
He traced my curves. I shivered. “Your hips make me want to grip them for leverage so I can sink my cock inside you deeper. And I want those legs wrapped tightly around me while I give it to you again and again.” He grabbed my ass in a grip hard enough to sting, then soothed the mark of his hand away with a soft caress.
“Ramon.” My fingers were curled into fists. “No more teasing.”
“Yes. More.” He lowered himself so he could fasten his mouth around the tip of one breast, sucking it deep and then switching to the other. I began to tremble with the effort it took to stand still and keep my hands off of him. The insistence between my legs was a constant throb now. He straightened giving me a view of his face, stark with hunger of his own. Eyes on mine, he began to unbutton his jeans. My mouth went dry as his cock sprang free.
“You’re so big,” I breathed.
He chuckled with masculine satisfaction. “You had my cock at the beach.”
“Yes, but I didn’t…”
I yelped as I flew through the air. I had been staring and didn’t anticipate him lifting and tossing me into the center of his bed. My hair tumbled into my eyes. Before I finished brushing it aside, he was pressing my shoulders back with both his hands and climbing on top of me. His jeans gone, his skin burned everywhere it touched mine. He gathered my arms, lifted them over my head and pressed both my hands into the pillow.
I arched my back off the cool sheets so my nipples could find surcease for their ache against the hard planes of his chest. He liked my creativity and my tits, too. He told me so.
“I wanna hear you say my name, mi cielo.” With a pointed glance, he left my hands where he wanted them to stay above my head, spread my knees apart with his thigh and moved between them. I felt a rush of heat dampen my folds as he stared at my exposed pussy.
“Ramon,” I whispered. “Please.” I tried to turn my head aside. Every light in the room blazed, but his stare felt hotter.
“Look at me,” he commanded, his voice persuasively low.
“Good girl,” he praised, his eyes heavy lidded, and I felt feverish as I watched him stroke himself before positioning his glorious cock where I wanted it.
“Ramon,” I praised as he entered me inch by delicious hot inch. “You feel so good.” He filled me completel
y. A perfect fit. Braced on his arms, his lips curving, his biceps flexing, he lowered his chest to mine and rolled his hips in wicked little circles that drove his cock deeper into me and made me mad with lust, especially when he began to whisper secrets to me in Spanish. I wrapped my legs around his ass and dug my heels into it, urging him to keep doing what he was doing and to do it harder and deeper.
Heated need began to build with each deep, perfectly angled stroke. Every hot whisper stoked the flames higher and brought me closer to the release I sought. But it wasn’t enough. My skin was dotted with beads of perspiration, yet my climax flitted tantalizingly out of reach, though every part of my being strained for it. My desperate gaze met his. He seemed to know exactly what I needed. Curls falling into his dark eyes, he lowered his head, his mouth brushing across mine. His kiss was the stamp of approval I sought. Feathery soft at first it became harder, deeper and wetter making me all of those things too as his thrusts became stronger and wilder.
“Ramon.” I tore my mouth from his starved for oxygen. “Oh, Ramon.” I moaned, chanting his name over and over again, shuddering as a violent climax ripped through me. He began to jackhammer his cock into me, his hips bucking unevenly, the hot jets of his release prolonging my ecstasy.
“Mi cielo,” he groaned into my neck a moment afterward and collapsed his spent weight on top of me. His voice was the beacon I followed as I floated back to earth.
Chapter Forty-Three
* * *
Ramon
I didn’t sleep at all. I barely allowed her to, either. I took her again after tracing every warm soapy inch of her in the shower with my sudsy hands.
This is not smart, Martinez, I told myself. Bringing her to your home, letting her sleep in your bed. I had never brought a chick into my house, though I’d had it for several years. My hookups were always elsewhere. I knew why. In the recesses of my fucked-up mind I had only thought one woman worthy to ever come here.
Yet even as the dawn approached, I couldn’t summon the willpower to wake her and send her away. I stroked a hand over her hair, sifting my fingers through the silken layers.
She sighed softly through the part in her lips, but slept on. She seemed so relaxed, her defenses down, the crease that so often appeared between her brows from the burdens she carried smoothed away. I stared at her greedily. A sharp emotion pierced my chest as I recalled how brave she had been to return to the pier last night and how loyal she was to do it for Simone, even though she knew what ghosts awaited her there.
Was it only the baby she mourned?
Would Patch’s specter always stand between us?
Being with her was like nothing I had ever experienced. Every caress I planned for her enjoyment as well as my own. Every nuance of her responses was noted because I wanted most to please her. Her surrender, her pleasure, magnified my own.
Not the detached baby making I knew she’d had in mind.
Despite my intentions, my rules had done little to impede my growing dependence on Karen.
But what to do about it?
Should I end it now before I got more deeply entangled?
Was that even a realistic possibility?
• • •
Karen
I was dreaming. A decadent fantasy. My legs spread wide and draped over strong shoulders. Talented fingers stroking my pussy. Lips skimming my pulsing center.
I popped my eyes open. I couldn’t have imagined that suction on…my…clit.
A familiar head lifted from between my legs. Glossy curls tumbling into his dark eyes, his lips glistened from me, from his mouth being on me.
“Ramon. What are you doing?
He arched a brow. His sardonic lips curled. “Tasting you.”
I shivered. His accent was thick. “But…I…this isn’t…it won’t…”
“I know. But I want to.” He put his hand on the center of my chest between my breasts and pressed me backward. “And you’ll let me.”
“Ok.” I cast my arms wide when he lowered his head again. I crushed the sheet between my fingers when I felt his probing tongue. I moaned when he kissed me. “Ramon that feels so…” I shuddered as he licked me, short light flicks, then longer deeper wetter strokes. My eyes rolled back in my head when he did the suction again. “I can’t stop…I’m gonna…”
He groaned, and I felt the vibration deep inside of me. He did like doing this, and he was good at it. The best I’d ever had. I surrendered to him. Closing my eyes so I could savor each wet kiss, the gentle pulsating suction, the dangerous edge of his teeth, his deep growls, then the wild frenzy of his tongue as I started to come undone, my head thrashing back and forth on the pillow.
• • •
Sun streaming in the windows, the surface of the ocean glistening like fine crystal, I stared down at the man at my side. My eyes blurred on his form, almost too handsome to be real. Those dark curls, those sooty lashes on his cheeks, the shadow of stubble on his stubborn jaw, those chiseled muscles of deep bronze stark against the white sheets.
He had given me so much pleasure.
After years and years of deprivation.
My body felt deliciously sore but hardly sated. But an emptiness gnawed in the pit of my stomach. It had grown as the sun rose, and the reality of my situation was exposed to the light of day.
You are a fool, I told myself, even as I set the note beside him where he would find it when he awoke. You are going to get your heart smashed to smithereens, I thought as I tiptoed from the house with my shoes in my hand wearing my rumpled dress from the night before.
But I had made my decision as I had watched him sleep. Maybe it seemed more possible because of the way he had given me pleasure without taking any of his own. Maybe when he had kissed me deeply afterward, and I had tasted the saltiness of my essence on his lips, I had seen in his eyes a sliver of something beautiful. I had begun to believe that maybe, just maybe in time, I could make him feel for me the way I felt about him. And if not, if not—then at least I would have the knowledge that I had tried.
I had loved before and lost. After last night, I was not willing to let what I never expected to find again go without at least doing everything in my power to hold onto it.
Chapter Forty-Four
* * *
Ramon
Last night…last night was wonderful. You made me feel more alive, more beautiful, more real than I have ever felt before. I know it’s only pretend. I haven’t forgotten the rules. But I wanted you to know that you Ramon Martinez are a good man. You think the men in your family are destined to fail at relationships, but you’re wrong. There is a depth of kindness inside of you. I have experienced it too many times to count over the years we have been friends. Last night you gave me a glimpse of how it could be for you someday. Don’t give up on finding love. When you see your chance, take it.
Your grateful friend,
Karen
• • •
“New rule,” I told her, crossing my arms over my chest and stepping away from the secluded spot along the wall where I had been leaning and watching her while she surfed. “You don’t ever leave without saying goodbye.” I took her board. “And you need to tell me where you are going.”
“Alright.” She smiled, even though I was doing my best impression of an authoritative ass. I considered whether she had a couple of screws loose in that sweet head of hers. The things she had written about me in her note certainly made me wonder.
“I’m parked right next to the stairs.” She didn’t reply. I turned to look back at her. She was a few steps below me.
“Huh?” Her gaze lifted, her eyes slightly unfocused. She’d been staring at my ass. I wondered if she was as turned on by my body as I was by hers. I didn’t think it was likely, but I hoped she had been recalling last night and planning for the next. I certainly was.
I opened the tailgate of the Explorer and slid her board inside the trunk. She wiggled out of her wet suit with a beach towel around her shoulders like a cape,
emerging seconds later, as only a practiced surfer can do, wearing a pair of cutoffs and a tank over her bikini.
“You really don’t have to drive me to work. It’s silly. I can walk. I’ve been doing it…”
“I know, but I want to.” I leaned in. “And you’ll let me.”
“Alright.” I watched a shiver roll through her that I knew had nothing to do with her wet hair and everything to do with remembering the way I had awoken her with my mouth on her and those exact words.
She seemed a little unsteady as she climbed into the passenger side. I closed her door and felt a bit unfocused myself as I made plans for later.
“Mind if I roll down the window?” she asked as I fired up the engine.
“Go right ahead. Want me to turn off the air conditioning?”
She nodded.
“You cold?”
“A little.”
I reached into the backseat and passed her one of my shirts. She held it under her chin like a blanket as I drove. I caught her bringing it up to her face and inhaling deeply as I parked in front of the surf shop a couple of moments later.
“Thanks for the lift.” She tried to pass the shirt back to me.
“Keep it,” I told her my voice low. “In case you get cold again.”
I came around and opened her door, leaning against the vehicle to watch her as she entered the building. By the time the door closed behind her, though it was crazy, I was already missing her. But I was smiling as I jogged to the driver’s side of the Explorer knowing that soon enough I’d have her in my arms again.
• • •
Karen
“Do I need to ask who that shirt belongs to?”
“It’s Ramon’s,” I replied a little dreamily, still floating on the afterglow of knowing that I got to see him again when I got off work and the fact that he obviously wanted to continue our agreement.
(Complete Rock Stars, Surf and Second Chances #1-5) Page 50
