Wrong Side of the Tracks: a Hope Valley novel

by Prince, Jessica

  “Jesus, Gypsy,” he grunted, lowering his forehead to rest against mine. “You okay?”

  I nodded frantically, letting a slow breath out past my lips. “Just… just give me a second. It’s been a while for me.”

  The muscles in his arms and jaw strained and trembled as he worked to hold himself in place while my body loosened and adjusted to his size.

  “Move, Marco,” I whispered once the sting subsided and pressure began to build.

  His head came up and his hazel eyes bored into mine, searching. “You sure?”

  “Yes.” I lifted my hips, moaning loudly as his cock slipped deeper. “Move.”

  That was all it took. Trusting that I was ready for him, Marco pulled nearly all the way out before gliding back in.

  Over and over.

  It was outstanding, but it wasn’t nearly enough.

  “Harder, Marco.” Digging my heels into the taut muscles of his ass, I raised my hips once more, forcing him to surge deeper.

  We both cried out at how incredible it felt. I moaned and whimpered as he drove in and out while Marco grunted and groaned into my ear. That pressure in my core increased as his thrusts grew more demanding.

  My hands trailed over his sweat-slicked back, my nails scoring his skin as the noises coming from me grew more and more frantic.

  “Oh god. You feel so good.”

  “Shit, Gypsy. Come for me, baby.” He picked up the pace, each pounding drive of his hips sending me closer and closer into oblivion. “I need you to come.”

  He buried himself deep and ground the base of his erection against my clit, setting me off.

  “Oh god!” I shouted, my back bowing off the bed and my eyelids slammed shut as my sex clamped down and pulsed around him. “Marco!”

  Grabbing my chin, he forced my eyes back to him. His gaze locked with mine, holding it steady as he slammed in once, twice, a third time before grunting. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!”

  He twitched inside me as he poured out every single drop of his own release.

  Collapsing against me, Marco fought for breath as I came down from the best orgasm I’d ever had.

  Blowing out a deep breath against my neck, Marco slowly slipped out of me and rolled onto his back, taking me with him so I was cuddled against his side. I nuzzled into him, totally content as he leaned down to kiss my forehead.

  “That was amazing,” I whispered into the silence of the bedroom a minute later.

  His chest shook with a deep chuckle before he voiced his agreement. “Fuckin’ right, it was.”

  Lifting my head, I rested my chin on his chest, looked into his lazy, sated eyes, and declared, “We should’ve done that a long time ago.”

  That earned me a loud belly laugh, and at the sound of it, something inside of me lit up, coming to life with the knowledge that I could make him laugh like that. “We would have if someone hadn’t been so damn stubborn,” he said once he got control of himself. I glared up at him and he pulled me closer, kissing the frown from my lips. “But that’s okay. I fully intend on making up for all that lost time.”

  The promise of more of what just happened between us sent a happy little tingle through my veins, and I curled up on my side to watch as Marco climbed from the bed and headed to the bathroom to get rid of the condom.

  I’d closed my eyes and was just starting to doze when he returned, bending to grab my clothes from the floor. “Get dressed, babe,” he ordered, tossing my bra and panties to me before slipping back into his boxer briefs.

  I sat up, holding the sheet to me as I looked at him in confusion. “What? Why? I figured we’d take a little nap, then kick off round two. Neither of those things requires getting dressed.”

  His cocky smirk set off the butterflies in my belly as he pulled on his jeans. “As much as I’d love a round two right now, it’ll have to wait. I’m taking you to the diner for lunch.”

  I froze in the middle of re-hooking my bra and looked up at him in panic. Reading my expression loud and clear, Marco moved back to the bed. The mattress dipped under his weight as he bent toward me and gave me a chaste kiss. “If it helps, don’t think of it as a date. Think of it as a meal shared by two people who really enjoy having sex with each other.”

  I tipped my head to the side incredulously. “You’re saying we’re friends with benefits?”

  He seemed to give that some thought as he tugged his T-shirt over his head. “No, not friends with benefits. I’d say we’re way more than friends, wouldn’t you?”

  “Well, yeah. But what does that make us?”

  “Don’t worry about labeling it,” he responded, lifting the weight that had been resting on my shoulders. “For now, let’s just enjoy each other and do what feels natural, yeah?”

  “Yeah.” My lips slowly spread into a smile. “Okay. I can do that.”

  “Good, girasol.” With that, he stood tall, grabbing my wrist and hauling me from the bed. “And what feels natural right now is getting some food in my gut before it eats clear through to my backbone. You want a round two, I need to refuel, so move that sexy ass of yours.”

  Shooting him a playful glare as I went about getting dressed, I warned, “You want a round two ever, you should probably stop being so damn bossy.”

  He stepped close just as I finished zipping up my jeans. His voice was low and full of sex as he said, “Baby, you hurry up so I can eat, and I’ll bring you back here and show you the type of bossy you won’t be able to get enough of.”

  Well, all right, then.

  Chapter Twelve

  Gypsy

  I’d done a pretty good job of ignoring the stares when Marco and I entered Evergreen Diner hand in hand a half hour ago. It was a little unnerving to be the center of attention like that, but I was with Marco, and I had the feeling that he drew attention everywhere he went.

  I’d brushed off the teasing smile on Sally’s face as she took our order, and again when she brought us our food. My skin burned like fire when Ms. McClintock, the cantankerous, self-proclaimed matriarch of Hope Valley, stated resolutely and loudly, “I may be old as dirt, by my eyes work just fine, and if I’m not mistaken, our Gypsy’s just walked in sportin’ sex hair!” I even let out a shocked giggled when Sally’s husband, Ralph, hooted from the kitchen, “Batten down the hatches, folks! Another one bites the dust!”

  I was too busy floating on a cloud of great sex, good food, and even better company to let anything get to me. Even Ms. M. She was known for her crassness, anyway.

  Popping another fry into my mouth, I studied the man sitting across from me as he polished off the last of his lunch, my curiosity getting the best of me. We’d agreed that we weren’t going to label what we were, but he already knew a lot about me. I felt it was only fair that I had some insight into what made Marco Castillo tick.

  “You know, you stare any harder and you might pull something,” he muttered, looking up from his plate with a brazen smirk.

  “You’re hilarious,” I deadpanned, rolling my eyes.

  “Hilarious, sexy, phenomenal in bed. Damn, babe. You really lucked out.”

  I snorted behind the rim of my water glass. “And let’s not forget humble.”

  He shot me a wink. “Of course. We can’t forget that.

  Resting my elbows on the table, I leaned in and said, “So, I was thinking. You already know a good bit about me, but I don’t really know anything about you. If you ask me, that doesn’t really seem fair.”

  Leaning against the booth, he rested his arms along the back. He shot me a grin, but for the first time since knowing him, I noticed it didn’t meet his eyes. “There’s not really anything to know. I joined the Army, did my stint there before deciding to move on to something else. I had a buddy who started up a place similar to Lincoln’s on the West Coast and got on with him when I got out. The job was okay, but not really my thing. More bodyguard work for people with money and stuff like that. I felt like a babysitter. Ian, my old boss, knew Lincoln from his time serving and thought Alph
a Omega might be a better fit for me, so I moved here. That’s pretty much all there is to it.”

  I let out a bewildered laugh. “That can’t be all there is. You basically skipped right over your childhood. I want to know what kind of kid Marco Castillo was.”

  “I already told you. I was a troublemaker. It’s why I enlisted to begin with.”

  An unpleasant feeling started twisting in my gut. I got the sense that Marco was being evasive, but I didn’t have the first clue as to why.

  “Okay, well, where did you grow up?”

  “San Antonio.”

  “And you lived there your whole life? I mean, at least until you joined the Army?”

  “Yep.”

  “Were your parents excited when you enlisted?”

  “Yeah.”

  I was actually starting to get frustrated at how vague he was being. “Are you still close with them?

  “No.”

  That one word came out hard, like it had been ripped from deep inside of him. Shadows started forming in his eyes with each question I asked. He’d gone from being openly chatty to giving me one-word answers that didn’t let me know any more about him than I did already.

  “Do you have any siblings?”

  Something flashed over his face that made the hairs on my arms stand on end. I wasn’t quite sure what it was, but it looked an awful lot like anger and sadness mixed together with a handful of other emotions, and the combination left his hazel eyes murky.

  “A brother,” he answered on a grunt.

  “Is he still in San Antonio?”

  Marco’s cell phone rang just then, breaking through the gloomy fog that had settled over our table. Shifting on the bench, he pulled it from his back pocket, engaged the call, and put it to his ear.

  “Castillo.” He waited while whoever was on the other line spoke. “Yeah. I’m actually with her right now. No, we’re just down the street at the diner. Okay. We’ll be right there.”

  Hanging up, he pocketed the phone once more and looked to me. The guarded Marco I’d seen just moments ago was gone and the man I’d come to know back at the forefront instead. “That was Linc, baby. He needs us down at the office. You just about finished?”

  I popped one last fry in my mouth before shouldering my purse and giving him a nod. “Yeah, I’m good.”

  We scooted out of the booth, and Marco tossed some cash onto the table to cover our meal. Taking my hand, he led me out of the diner and into the passenger seat of his Cherokee, leaving behind all discussion about his past as we drove the few blocks down to Alpha Omega Investigations.

  It was the first time I’d ever been inside the offices. The building was actually one of the original ones to the town, giving the strip it sat on a nice old-timey charm, but when Marco pulled me through the two sets of glass doors that led to the main lobby area, the feel of the place totally changed. While the outside looked historic, the inside, with all its sleek gray marble, black leather couches, and shiny glass, was pure contemporary.

  “Well, hey there, Gypsy! Long time no see.”

  I spun to the receptionist desk and saw Roxanne sitting behind it. I’d gotten to know the woman relatively well since becoming friends with Eden. Roxanne was loud, brash, outspoken, and totally my kind of people. Her appearance reflected her personality 100 percent. Somewhere in her fifties, Roxanne hid her age behind brightly colored eyeshadows and lipsticks, brassy red hair, and tight, somewhat revealing clothes that clung to her full-figured frame.

  I loved basically everything about her.

  “Hey, Rox. How are you?”

  “I’m good! Spend my days surrounded by some of the finest eye candy you’ll ever see. And bonus, as long as they keep their mouths shut, the illusion lives on, so I got no complaints.”

  I burst into a fit of laughter that was only strengthened when Lincoln stepped out of his office and said, “Remind me again, Roxanne, why I haven’t fired you yet.”

  Biting my bottom lip, I tried my best to stifle my laughter in the face of Lincoln’s glare. It was a look that would have terrified most people, myself included. But Roxanne wasn’t fazed.

  “Because you might be a moron on occasion—not your fault, honey. It’s just part of your genetic makeup. All men are morons—but you aren’t totally stupid, so you know you’ll never find yourself a better assistant.”

  She turned to me and stated in a loud whisper, “He tried once, years ago, when I went on vacation for a week. Damn temp spent every hour of every day droolin’ after these boys, so she didn’t get a lick of work done. I got back to the clusterfuck of all clusterfucks. And believe me, I was not happy about the extra hours it took to get everything back to rights. Demanded double pay for all the overtime.”

  “Did he pay it?” I asked, my voice trembling with barely contained humor.

  “Pfft, of course he did! Like I said, the man’s not totally stupid.”

  I couldn’t hold it back any longer. Turning to Marco, I buried my face in his chest and lost it all over again, laughing until tears poured from my eyes.

  “Marco, you think you can get a handle on your girl long enough to get through this meeting?”

  At Linc’s teasing words, I forced myself to get it together and brushed at my cheeks while swallowing back the last of my giggles. “I’m good. I promise.”

  Marco looked down at me with the sweetest, gentlest smile, and all humor fled to be replaced with an aching heat. Oh, man. One time together, and I was already jonesing for more. Turning away from his face before it made me do something completely stupid, like jump him in the middle of the lobby and climb him like a mountain, I watched as Lincoln glowered at Roxanne once more.

  “If you’re done insulting my intelligence, I’d appreciate it if you’d call Xander and ask him to meet us in my office.”

  “No need, boss. I’m right here.”

  I turned toward the unfamiliar deep baritone voice and my jaw fell open in shock. The guy walking in our direction had to have been the biggest man I’d ever seen. He was at least six and a half feet tall, his massive frame packed with rippling muscles so big they tested the seams of his plain black tee. His long dark hair hung to his shoulders, and an equally dark beard hid his features. All except for probing black eyes that made me shiver.

  His attractiveness was obvious, but there was something dark lurking behind his eyes. You could tell when you looked into them that this was a man who’d seen a lot, and it had marked him deeply. The menace in those eyes gave him an air of danger that made me nervous the closer he got.

  “Calm, baby.” Marco leaned down to whisper in my ear as the giant closed in. “He’s a good guy.”

  I managed to loosen my muscles just before the giant reached a stop right in front of us.

  “Gypsy, this is my man Alexander Caine, Xander for short,” Lincoln introduced. “I wanted you to come by so you could meet him.”

  My head shot around to Linc. “Meet him?”

  “Marco mentioned to you already that we wanted to put another guy in the club. Well, this is the guy. We created an alias and got him hired on working security.”

  I turned back to the behemoth, looking him up and down, and muttered, “Yeah, I can see how that would’ve worked.”

  Marco’s chest shook with silent laughter. Lincoln chuckled. But Xander’s lips quirked up in a grin, flashing the whites of his teeth beneath his beard and taking him from attractive to downright sexy, in a scary sort of way.

  “Marco’ll still keep an eye on you as long as he doesn’t draw attention to himself. But when he said you’d caught Black’s eye, I didn’t want to take any chances. Xander will be able to watch over you without arousing suspicion since he’ll be working at the club. In the meantime, I want you to do your best to stay away from Black, yeah? And if you hear or see anything that makes you uneasy, or even something you think we might want to know, you report it right to Xander.”

  My attention drifted over all three men, and I began to nervously chew on my
thumbnail. “Look, I really appreciate everything you’re doing,” I told Lincoln. “I love that you guys want to have my back, but....”

  “Gypsy.” Marco’s soft, soothing voice drew my gaze up to him. “What’s the matter?”

  Sucking it up, I admitted, “It’s bad enough that you’ve seen me that way, Marco. I hate knowing that. All the men who come into that club are faceless to me. I can compartmentalize. But first you, and now Xander? I don’t like the thought of you and the guys you work with….” My throat began to burn. “I don’t want anyone else seeing me like that.”

  “Sweetheart.” Xander’s coarse voice broke through the shame I was feeling, and when I glanced over at him, there was understanding staring back at me. “I’ll be there to have your back. That means keeping my attention on the people around you. I won’t be watchin’ you dance. You have my word.”

  Surprisingly, that went a long way in making me feel better.

  “You promise?”

  “Cross my heart, Gypsy.”

  “You’re working tonight, aren’t you?” Marco asked me. I gave him a nod. “Okay, I’m your ride tonight. I have another job I gotta see to, but I’ll be finished before your shift ends to pick you up.” As if sensing my panic, he pulled me into his embrace and spoke softly against my ear. “Xander’ll keep you safe, girasol. I promise. And if you need me, I’m only ever just a phone call away.”

  And that was all he needed to say to put my fears to rest.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Gypsy

  “Some of the girls are calling you Bigfoot,” I muttered to Xander from the corner of my mouth later that night. He wasn’t known as Xander at Pink Palace but Max, and I’d had to swallow down a giggle when he’d been introduced to me as such earlier. There was no way in hell that guy looked like a Max. Maybe a Zeke or a Thor or a Bruiser or even a Magnus, but not a Max.

  It was a ridiculous alias. Almost as ridiculous as him in the standard security uniform of black jeans and a tee with the words ‘Pink Palace’ written in swirly hot pink script just over his left pec.