by Bethany-Kris
She made a noise under her breath, but Renzo still heard it over the loud music nonetheless. It sounded like a mixture of curiosity and disbelief all rolled into one. Maybe a bit of embarrassment sprinkled on, too.
Funny, he thought.
He liked that sound, too.
What other kinds of noises might she make if he—
No, Renzo was not going there. Not yet, anyway.
“Really?” she asked.
Those hazel eyes of hers glittered under the neon green and electric purple lights that flashed, blinked, and moved in every which direction. The softness of her features and the gentle curve of her lips froze under the movement of the strobes. For a moment, she looked like an unmoving angel—perfect, and beautiful.
“What?”
Lucia shrugged, and a hint of pink tinged her cheeks. “People … fucking. Really?”
Innocence?
God.
That—probably more than anything else—made him want her. Because how amazing would she be, if he turned her into a sinner like him; if he made her dirty like him.
“Really,” he told her. “Happens more often than it doesn’t at these. Thing is, they like being watched, so don’t feel like you’re intruding if you do find yourself staring. That’s the whole reason why they do it—they want to be seen. Or, just avert your stare, and pretend like you didn’t see anything in the first place.”
Lucia blinked. “Huh.”
“Not a single one of them will care who you are, or why you’re here tonight as long as you don’t mess up their evening,” he finished.
Lucia grinned. “So … have fun, then?”
“That’s the point of it, babe.”
The word—that endearment—slipped from his lips easily. Like he’d said it a dozen times before to her, but he could guarantee he hadn’t said it to anyone ever. And yet, it felt easy to say it to her, and maybe he liked the way her tongue peeked out to wet her lips right after he dared to let the word come out of his mouth. Or maybe it was the way her throat jumped as she swallowed the longer he kept staring at her.
Maybe he liked a lot of things about her.
Even if that wasn’t really the plan.
“Can we go in?” she asked.
Yeah, that was a better plan than what was going on in his crazy head.
“Lead the way. Don’t take a drink from anyone but me.”
They stepped into the main section of the warehouse, and Lucia’s voice agreeing to Renzo’s demand about the drinks was nothing more than a buzz in his ears. There really was something to be said about the loudness in these parties. Add in the strobe lights, the DJ with a mask over his face, and the people crowded together like sardines in a can as they danced … it was a sight to see.
Intoxicating, maybe.
People chased these parties. Invite-only by way of a text message, a person never really knew when one was going to come up, or where the next location would be. Everything was portable, so it could be easily packed and unpacked when shit needed to be moved. No one really knew the names—only the aliases—or the faces of the people running the damn things.
Lucia was headed right for the swell of people dancing, and Renzo moved to catch up. He caught her wrist in his hand, and winked when she tossed a look over her shoulder to make sure it was him who had grabbed her. He wanted to make sure he kept at least one hand on this girl just in case she felt like trying to get lost.
God knew he wouldn’t find her in the people.
“Do you dance?” she asked.
He didn’t hear her voice over the music, but her moving lips were enough for him to discern what she said. Renzo shrugged one shoulder, and nodded.
He could dance.
He just didn’t do it often.
Lucia wasn’t going to give him a choice, apparently. She pulled him onto the makeshift dance floor, and before he knew it, the rest of the warehouse disappeared as all he cared to focus on was Lucia in her white flowy dress as all her soft curves pressed against him and moved in the best way possible. Her gaze locked on his as the song changed again, and he dragged her closer still.
She was prettier like this.
Carefree, and relaxed. Grinning in that way with a laugh on the tip of her tongue. Equal parts sweet and coy.
And none of that mattered when her body grinded against his, and his cock perked at the sensation. None of that mattered when he could get his hands on her skin, and all he could see was her under the strobes.
He didn’t even think about it, really. The next time she came in close with the swell of the beat, Renzo’s hands came up to cup her throat and jaw. He moved in fast because all he could think about was what does she taste like? The second his lips touched hers—soft and slow at first—electricity zipped through his body like a jolt waking him up from a dead sleep. That first taste wasn’t nearly enough. He only wanted more. Add in the fact Lucia fisted his leather jacket to drag him closer, and her sweet lips parted so that her tongue could strike out against the seam of his mouth, and he was fucking done.
There was no hesitance in her kiss—just a burning heat that seared him from the inside out as her tongue warred with his, unafraid of the way his equally lashed back to find more of her taste. Soft curves pushed against his hard lines, and for a second, he was pretty sure he forgot where he was.
He was right, though.
She did taste like sweetness and sin.
It was only a whoop from the crowd that finally broke their kiss, but the second it was done, he was ready to drag her back again for a second round.
Lucia’s head tipped up, and a slow smile spread across her features. “There’s an upstairs?”
He looked up, too.
“Guess so.”
“Let’s go see what it looks like from up there.”
Who was he to argue?
“Let’s go, babe,” he murmured.
Lucia tugged him along, and Renzo was all too happy to follow given the view he had of her ass swaying under that dress. He didn’t even realize he’d climbed a set of metal, spiral stairs until Lucia was leaning over a railing with hooded eyes looking his way. In a blink, she’d gone from looking entirely too innocent to something else entirely.
And that was from a kiss.
What might she look like if he stripped her bare?
Christ.
“How long do these go?” she asked.
“Til the sun starts to peak.”
That smile was back.
He wanted her to keep smiling.
“Ren! Hey, man, you working tonight?”
Renzo turned fast to see a familiar face coming his way. The guy was a regular for Renzo—liked just a pinch of something extra in with his hydro when he smoked. He was more of a social user than an addict, and Renzo preferred that kind of customer, really. They were easier to deal with, and they always paid.
“Not tonight, Kirk,” Renzo said.
Kirk’s gaze drifted to a quiet Lucia. “Something else tonight, then?”
“Something like that.”
With a nod, the guy passed him by and headed down the spiral staircase. Lucia stayed quiet until the man was gone altogether, and it was just them side by side leaning over the railing. Up there, he could really feel the heat of the crowd rising in the warehouse. It almost made him want to take off his jacket.
Almost.
“You deal for John, then?” Lucia asked softly.
Too softly, he thought. He barely heard her at all.
“Does it matter what I do to make a living?” he asked back.
Lucia looked his way, but he didn’t find anything that said she was about to bolt on him staring back from her. Maybe that was what surprised him the most. She knew he wasn’t exactly a good guy, but she was still tucked into his side like that was exactly where she wanted to be.
“I’m curious,” Lucia said. “About why, and other things.”
“Because we all need to eat,” he said, “and I never learned anything di
fferent.”
“Neither did John or my dad … none of us, really.”
Renzo’s brow dipped. “What?”
Lucia met his gaze again, unashamed and bold. “My brother and father, or my uncles. The rest of my family. This life is what we’ve always known. We were never taught anything different, either. There’s not much difference between them, and you. Not when you really think about it.”
“I can think of one glaring difference,” Renzo murmured.
“The fact they have money?”
“Exactly that.”
Lucia nodded, and leaned in close enough that her lips were just a breath away from his. “And yet, take it all away, Ren, and what does that still make them?”
Criminals.
Bad people.
All that and more flew through his mind.
Lucia answered with something else entirely. “People surviving in the only way they know how—that’s what it makes them.”
He kissed her again.
Just because he wanted to.
• • •
“You can’t do that!”
Renzo chuckled as he shifted the pick in the lock just enough to hear the familiar click of the tumblers falling into place. Just like that, he was able to pop the lock on the gate, and push it open. “But I just did.”
Lucia’s eyes went wide in the moonlight as she glanced around like someone was going to come up on them at any moment to catch them. “But, that’s—”
“Illegal?” Renzo nodded. “A little, yeah. Are you coming?”
“Can you promise me that we won’t get arrested?”
“Highly unlikely.”
“That you’ll make the promise, or that we’ll get arrested?”
Renzo shrugged.
Honesty was the best policy, after all.
“Both,” he said.
Then, he cracked a smile and laughed. Without warning, Lucia struck out and hit him on the back of his shoulder with an opened palm. “That’s not funny!”
“It kind of is, and so is your face. Calm down. I know the guy who owns the place. Are you coming, or what?”
She glanced around once more, and then finally, nodded. “Yeah, I’m coming.”
He took her hand in his, and wove their fingers together tightly as they stepped beyond the gate of the restaurant’s outside veranda. He moved in between tables and chairs that wouldn’t be filled with patrons for another few hours, all the while keeping a tight hold on Lucia’s hand, and a firm grip on the takeaway bag they’d grabbed from a roadside truck down the block.
“So the guy you know,” Lucia said, “he doesn’t mind you breaking in?”
Renzo tossed her a look over his shoulder. “Well, no. I lost the key he gave me, and he’s never gotten around to replacing it, but since I can pick the lock, he isn’t in a hurry.”
“Did you work here, or something?”
“Or something,” he muttered.
“Ren.”
It was the gentle squeeze of her fingers and the tug of her hand against his that softened his stance, and lowered his walls. That was the thing he was coming to learn about this woman. She didn’t care about the shit he did, or where he came from. She just wanted to understand, but that required he open his mouth and talk about it all. Which was not something Renzo did very often, if at all.
It was easier to keep that shit locked up tight.
“He used to help me out when I was younger,” Renzo said. “Let me wash dishes on the weekends to keep me out of trouble, and he’d keep a plate warm for me to eat at night. I used to stay down the block, so he saw me around enough, and thought to give me a hand out, I guess.”
He didn’t miss the way Lucia’s brow furrowed as he directed her to a staircase at the far end of the veranda that led to a seating area on top of the restaurant.
“What?” he asked.
“I just … there’s no apartments down this block. There’s a park, or whatever. Where was it you were—” Maybe it was the expression on his face, or the way he stayed quiet, but Lucia’s question cut off abruptly, followed by a soft, “Oh.”
“It was a couple months in the summer. Shit was rough. The park was mostly safe, and there were public bathrooms to wash up, or get water. Carmen couldn’t stay clean long enough to blow a negative on a drug test, and the shelters wouldn’t let her stay with kids when she was using. They kept calling CPS, and she kept moving on. It’s not a big deal.”
Sadness echoed in Lucia’s features.
“Yes, it is,” she whispered. “That’s terrible, Ren.”
Renzo shook his head. “Don’t do that, huh?”
A simple tug of her hand brought Lucia closer to him on the staircase. Until she was tucked against his chest, and staring up at him with those glittering eyes of hers. Her palms laid flat to his chest, and he tipped his head down to catch her lips in a kiss.
Although he would much rather stay just like that, kissing her, the food was probably getting cold, and he really just wanted to get her mind off all of that other shit. So, he pulled away and dragged the pad of his thumb over her pink lips.
“That was then, yeah? This is now.”
Lucia smiled. “Yeah, now. You know, when you break into the outside seating section of a restaurant to give a girl a place to eat.”
“Better than the side of the street.”
“Anywhere with you would be great, Ren.”
Yeah.
Damn.
It was the way she looked at him, he knew. That, and how her voice alone could soften all the barbed wire he’d put up around his being just to keep himself safe.
The urge to kiss her again was unmistakable and undeniable. Problem was—he knew what was going to happen if he kept kissing this woman. He knew exactly where it was going to lead.
“Renzo,” Lucia whispered.
“Hmm?”
“You keep staring at my mouth. But it looks a lot better when you’re kissing it.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Logical assumption,” she countered.
“I want to do a hell of a lot more than just kiss you, Lucia.”
“Yeah, I know. So, do that.”
His gaze jumped up to hers.
Lucia smiled, and shrugged one shoulder. “Greasy food is always better when it’s lukewarm, anyway.”
Well, then …
He kissed her again, but this time, it wasn’t soft or sweet at all. More like a war between the two of them—frantic and brutal. She only pushed closer to him to get more as his tongue lashed in and out of her mouth. And she didn’t seem to mind a bit.
But that was the thing about kissing Lucia, Renzo realized all too soon. Once he started, he couldn’t fucking get enough. He wanted more—more of her taste, and the way she didn’t shy away from kissing him just as hard and deep as he did to her. He kept a tight hold on the bag of food but his other one wanted more of her to touch. Wrapping a hand in her hair, he had her pinned against the small stairwell wall as he learned just how sweet and sinful her mouth tasted when she was hot as fuck for him.
“Shit, yeah,” Lucia breathed, tipping her head back as his kisses trailed down her neck. “Are we going up, or …?”
“Yeah, definitely up higher.”
He pushed against her side, making her walk up the stairs with him following. It was only his hands keeping her steady that kept her from tripping on the stairs as she walked backward. His hands skimmed under the skirt of her white dress to find the outside of her thighs where he could grab on tight. The feeling of soft cotton meeting his fingertips was enough to make his dick perk up and try to punch a hole through his jeans.
By the time the two of them had reached the top of the stairs, she’d already yanked his shirt open, and had his leather jacket pulled halfway down his fucking arms.
“Not shy at all,” he murmured against her lips.
Lucia grinned. “Do you want me to be?”
He didn’t even have to think about that one.
<
br /> “Not at all.”
“Good.”
She punctuated those words by grabbing his face, and yanking him in for another burning kiss. There was something about the way her gaze locked on his, all sure and filled with want. All it did was add to the craziness that was his brain when it came to this girl. He didn’t know what to fucking make of her, but he knew that he liked her.
A lot.
But especially like this.
He liked her hot under his hands, and gasping for breath when his fingertips found the silkiness between her thighs. He only pulled away from her just long enough to shrug off his jacket, and let it fall to the ground where he shoved it against a wall with their bag of food before he was on her again. He liked how she pulled him back to the wall on the roof that looked like rocks, and didn’t even blink at the ache it must have caused when her spine connected with the hard surface. Above them, the sloped roof of the roof’s dining area protected them from the sudden downpour of rain when thunder cracked in the sky, and a streak of lightning lit up everything.
Water poured, sloshing off the roof and making a canopy all around them. Hiding them from view, not that it fucking mattered. The whole city could have been watching Renzo slip his fingers under Lucia’s panties right then, and he wouldn’t have given a single shit at all. He was too caught up in the way her hazel eyes darkened, and a whine clawed its way out of her throat as he found her wet, and so damn warm. Her pussy hugged his fingers tight when she widened her legs a bit to let him in.
God.
He just wanted to look at her while he did this.
See that flash of heat in her gaze.
The desire in her face.
All bliss.
Sin.
Want.
“Right there, huh?” he asked, speeding up the thrusts of his fingers. Her nod, and harsh exhale had him grinning. He used the pad of his thumb to flick at her clit with each push and pull of his hands. Her hips ground against his hand while the pretty noises fell from her lips one after the other. Damn. She sounded so good like this. Perfect, really. “Fuck, you’re so wet, Lucia. Come so I can get a taste of that, baby.”
