by Shayla Black
In fact, Ransom was in the room next to hers that night, and he complained the following morning that Kristi had been too loud for him to get a lick of sleep.
“Because you’re an arrogant, dismissive, assholish—”
“I get the picture. Tell you what. Why don’t you just take your anger out on me? You should enjoy that, and it will look convincing for whoever’s watching.” Then I’ll leave here and make it clear to everyone that Kristi is mine while I look for Sammie and search Paulie’s room in the basement. But even if I find Kristi’s cousin, I have to figure out how I’ll get the two of them out of the hotel without blowing my cover or losing all the goodwill I’ve spent years earning from Donzelli.
“There’s no way I’m just going to roll over and give you my…”
“Pussy?”
Her lips purse. “Among other things. I’m going to fight every minute of this.”
“You do that.” And I’ll do what I need to.
I slide one hand under her and find the thin strap bisecting her back and the lone clasp doing the yeoman’s work of securing her luscious breasts in their cups. With a flick of my fingers, I unhook it.
She gasps. Obviously, she wasn’t expecting that.
And as much as I hate to share her with any of the perverts watching us on camera, I don’t see a way around it. So I ignore the surveillance and focus on my woman.
She glares at me. “You’re way too good at that.”
That’s not why she’s mad. “Are you pissed at me because I didn’t call you after that night? Or because you decided to hate me in the last nine weeks, but your body didn’t get the memo?” I shove her bra up, exposing her tits, and drag my thumb across the dead giveaway of her stiff nipple.
“I’m not aroused. It’s cold in here.”
“Bullshit.” It’s been pushing eighty degrees in Vegas most of the week, and there’s no air conditioning piping into these eighth-floor rooms. “You like it.”
“I don’t.”
“You like me.” I pinch the hard tip.
Her body jolts and her breath catches. “You’re wrong.”
“And I think you’re a liar.” I let go of her pinned wrists just long enough to grab her shirt and bra in my fists, then jerk them over her head, leaving her bare from the waist up. “God, you’re as fucking pretty as I remember.”
Kristi shoves at my shoulders. “Don’t touch me.”
This again? “The night we met, Soph told me you were sweet and shy. She didn’t tell me you’re stubborn as hell.”
“I’m only that way with you.”
I grin. “So I bring out your good side?”
“You don’t bring out anything but my temper. We shouldn’t be wasting time fooling around when Sammie—”
“Have you spent the last three years with these animals? I have,” I growl. “Do you know what they’re capable of? What they’ve got planned? How far they’re willing to go for power? I do. Paulie thinks he gunned down Ransom in a parking lot tonight. He was celebrating with champagne and a laugh. So I’m telling you right now that, unless I give them a reason not to, these animals will think nothing of using you and Sammie for their fun, then pumping you full of bullets before digging you a shallow grave in the desert for the coyotes to find.”
Kristi goes mute in horror. Good. I can’t be any more stark and clear about the stakes. She needs to stop being angry with me for all the wrong reasons and focus.
“Finally got your attention?”
She nods miserably. “Bastard.”
Yeah, yeah. “Like I’ve never heard that before. What’s going to make you feel better, Little Red? You want to hear that I hated leaving you that morning? I did. I resented the shit out of this assignment when I had to tiptoe out on you at five a.m. on New Year’s Day. Want to know if I’ve thought of you since then? All the goddamn time. I expected to want you that night, but I didn’t expect to fall for you. I certainly didn’t expect to come back to Vegas, determined to wrap up this multi-year op so I could find you again because I’m not fucking interested in anyone else. Just you.”
She swallows, then sends me a suspicious scowl. “You’re just saying that to get me to cooperate.”
Of course she thinks that. In her shoes, I would, too. “I’m not. Now shut up. I’m going to make you scream. I know you’re going to be pissed at me for a while, but try not to hate me, huh? It’s going to make our next fifty years together really rough.”
As far as I’m concerned, more conversation is somewhere between pointless and dangerous. Besides, Fate has given me another night with Kristi well before I thought I’d have one again. Better believe I’m going to take it and make sure that, despite this fucked-up op, she knows she’s mine.
Kristi
Ridge Garrison is the most frustrating, confusing, difficult, macho, annoying man I’ve ever met. I’d love to keep hating him, but I’ve got three problems.
First, when he dips his head and covers my lips with his, he reminds me that he’s amazing in bed. Since the morning he left me, my body has literally ached for him every single day. I can’t masturbate the need away. I tried. And so far, I haven’t felt even a smidgeon of interest for another man. I’m worried the damn bastard ruined me.
Second, he knows where to find Sammie. Well, he says he does. I don’t know for sure that he’s being honest…but despite the fact he’s horrible boyfriend material, Sophie and Rand swear Ridge is one of the good guys. That has to mean something, right? Maybe that’s wishful thinking, but it makes me feel better because…
Third, it pains me to admit it—and I’m seriously questioning my judgement—but I think I fell for the cocky bastard. The night we met was magical—in every sense of the word. I became every princess when I was with him. Ariel at first because he tongue-tied me so much I couldn’t find my voice. Once I did, I was Cinderella. We danced and danced until midnight. Then we kissed as the clock struck twelve, and I lost a shoe—not kidding—as I ran to my room. He chased me and returned it, slipping it on, only to slip it—and everything else I wore—off as soon as we were alone. Then I was Sleeping Beauty because after the first three times we had sex, I fell into an exhausted slumber. But he awakened me again with what I fear was true love’s kiss. We had sex again, too, rather than saved a kingdom, but it was still the most enchanting night of my life.
Until I woke up alone and realized he was no Prince Charming because he never called again.
The unwelcome realizations didn’t end there, but before I can dwell on that, that talented mouth of his works down my neck, dragging his lips and nipping at my skin. With every passing heartbeat, he gets closer and closer to my aching nipples.
Against my will, my back arches, not just offering him the hard tips but silently begging him to take them.
Ridge reaches them, hovers, breathing hot and hard. I shudder. My exhalations turn ragged. He’s so close…
Why don’t I have any shame when it comes to this man?
He thumbs the trembling peak again before cupping the swell with a satisfied smile. “I can’t wait to show you how much I’ve fucking missed you.”
My beleaguered brain doesn’t finish computing his words before he dips his head and takes my nipple in his mouth.
I’m gone. I’m lost. His thorough touch sweeps me away. It convinces me that he’ll always adore me.
Look where that got you last time.
I open my eyes to find him staring at me like I’m the only woman he’s ever wanted, and he’s never going to get enough. “Don’t look at me like that if you don’t mean it.”
Despite his mobster suit and manners, something almost soft crosses his face. “I do. But we have to fuck, regardless. So let’s make up for lost time. What do you say?”
When he’s not clouding my thoughts with his touch, I’m sure I’ll realize his suggestion is ridiculous. Naturally, I’ll figure out that I should demand we do something besides have sex to cover our asses. But with his hands on me, I fall into those h
ypnotic black eyes and beg. “Please.”
“That’s my pretty Little Red.” He nips the rigid peak of my breast with his teeth, gently lifting it with his bite so he can suck it deep again.
I gasp at the sting of pain—something only he’s ever given me. Just like the first time he did that, heat flushes my bloodstream. Arousal curls between my legs. I shift restlessly beneath his big body.
If he’s being honest—that we’re being watched by mobsters who might kill us both if the performance isn’t good—then I should give them a show, right?
Nice rationalization.
Suddenly, he peels off his suit coat, tossing it onto the pillows above. He does the same with his shirt, his eyes never leaving mine. Not going to lie, my heart starts racing even faster. My need torques tighter. It’s his black eyes on me. His expression that promises he’s going to undo me. The confidence in the way he moves.
I’m toast.
All the shockingly well-inked muscle he reveals as his shirt comes off doesn’t hurt, either.
“I love that hot little stare of yours eating me up.” He toes off his shoes and kicks them aside while popping the button at the waistband of my jeans. “Almost as much as I fucking love to look at you naked.”
His seductive words hit my brain as he peels the denim from my hips. Maybe I should fight him, but I don’t. Instead, I help him kick off my pants.
When they fall to the floor, forgotten, those obsidian eyes of his zero in directly between my legs. His thumb follows, trailing over embarrassingly damp panties. “I think you like me looking at you naked almost as much as you like me touching you.”
He just had to point out how obviously hot I am for him. “Shut up.”
“And fuck you? I’m getting to that.” He scans the room, his stare pausing for a fraction of a second in a couple of crannies and corners.
“What is it?”
Ridge doesn’t answer right away. He lowers himself over my body and works his way between my legs. “I’m going to shield you as much as I can, but…”
He can only do so much. “I know.”
But I’m still pissed. This whole night has been a debacle.
“Now be a good girl and fight me.” Ridge grabs my wrists in one huge hand and pins them to the mattress. The other hand he works between us and snaps the button and zipper of his trousers free. “Did you hear me?”
“Yes.” He invited me to take out my frustration on him, so I’m going to. “You son of a bitch.”
When I wriggle and try to close my legs against him, tensing and arching, he pins me to the bed with more of his body weight and smiles like a shark as he shoves my panties to one side. “They might see me fuck you, Little Red, but they’ll never see your pussy. That’s mine.”
Is he serious? “No, it’s mine.”
“Not anymore. You gave it to me.” He aligns his crest against my slick opening as if the matter is settled. “I’m clean. You on the pill?”
“No, and I think you should—”
“Glove up? Wouldn’t look good for the show.” He sighs. “Fuck it. Nothing like living dangerously.”
Then he covers my mouth and breaches me with his tongue as he shoves forward, filling me with his thick cock in one rough, toe-curling thrust. Despite my nine-week abstinence, I have no trouble taking all of him because I’m embarrassingly wet.
With a groan, he eases back, then thrusts deeper, bottoming out inside me. My traitorous vagina closes around him, gripping him like she’s eager to make sure he knows I’ve missed him.
Why can Ridge make my own body betray me so easily?
“That’s so fucking good,” he growls in my ear as he pumps me with slow, strong strokes. “If we weren’t being watched, I would savor you. I would peel off your pretty, wet panties and eat your pussy until I wring a few orgasms from you.”
Against my will, my body bucks with excitement. “No.”
“Oh, yeah. That’s one of my biggest regrets about that night, you know?” He fits his hand under my ass and lifts me to his impaling cock as he settles into a harder, rhythmic pace. “I was so impatient to get inside you. I’d been eye-fucking you for hours, and by the time I got you alone, I couldn’t stand not being inside you for another second. But I wanted my mouth on you. When we make it out of here alive, I’m going to spend a whole night just eating that sweet pink cunt…”
He lodges even deeper inside me with his next plunge, hitting a spot that makes me thrash with an unexpected rush of pleasure. My eyes slide shut. “Oh, my god.”
“Since He’s not here to save you, you’ll have to settle for me. Feel my cock riding you hard?”
Ridge prods that sensitive spot inside me again. I’m supposed to be fighting him, but all my body wants to do is rock with him and chase ecstasy. “What are you doing to me?”
“Reminding you how fucking good it is. And how good I’m going to make it every time I slide inside you. Damn…” he groans. “I probably shouldn’t risk raising more questions, but I’m dying to make you come for me. So let’s do it.”
His words, his strokes, his determination all work to undo me. After the way he walked out on me, I shouldn’t be so eager to have him inside me. I shouldn’t surrender my pleasure to him so easily. Damn it, I have gumption. I have pride.
Unfortunately, Ridge seemingly has the secret combination to my body. All he has to do to make me give up my free will is touch me, whisper a few filthy words, and penetrate me with that hard, girthy cock of his. Pathetic.
That’s what being in love will do.
I shush my inner voice. Though it’s undeniable that Ridge is seriously amazing when it comes to sex, I’m simply hormone riddled. And I’ve been doing without. He’s just scratching my itch. It will go away after tonight.
Right, and I’ve got a bridge to sell you…
Suddenly, he lets go of my wrists and takes hold of my face, forcing my stare to his. “Where do you think you’re going? No disappearing into your thoughts to avoid me.”
“I-I’m not.” The truth slips out. Maybe I should have let him think I couldn’t wait for him to go away. But he can read my body. He knows. He’s messing with me for reasons I don’t understand.
“Good.” He releases my chin and works his hand down my curves as his cock pounds me again, this time even deeper.
Before I can stop myself, I cry out, spreading my legs automatically wider for him. My hips lift even higher to meet his next thrust.
“Yeah…” he growls against my neck as he increases his pace—and manages to wriggle his thumb over my clit. “Let’s get you there, Little Red. I’ve missed hearing you scream. Give it to me.”
It’s like only he controls my body, because a couple of swipes across my clit and a few hard strokes later, my back arches. My nipples turn painfully rigid. My body stiffens. And I let out a wail as the bliss he makes me feel unravels me completely.
As soon as I start spasming around him, he grabs both of my hips and batters me with ruthless strokes, sending me up even higher as a long, rough groan tears from his throat. The feel of his hot seed jetting inside me sends me off again, soaring to heights I’ve never experienced or imagined.
I cry out again and disappear into mental clouds of bliss where everything is wonderful, Ridge loves me at least half as much as I love him, and his weird comment about us spending fifty years together actually comes true.
But a minute of panting and my slowing heartbeat later, I realize I’m pinned beneath the guy who ran out on me because he’s hanging with mobsters, and whether he’s undercover or not, Sammie and I are in grave danger.
“Oh, Little Red.” He kisses his way up my neck. “Fuck… I’d half hoped it was my warped memories that had me convinced your pussy is magical and our sex is off the chain. But that was even better than our first night.”
I can’t argue with him so I don’t try.
“You know there’s zero chance I’m letting you go again,” he says offhandedly. “I’m going to get us all o
ut of this, but next time, you have to fight me a little.”
Ridge almost sounds like our situation is a joke. I’d ask if he’s crazy, but I know the answer.
Oh, god. Him, this night—everything. I’m too emotional. It’s too much. I shove against him, screeching and clawing, teeth bared and frantic.
Ridge scrambles off me and zips up. “Yeah, like that. Only…it would be more convincing for the camera if you did that in the middle of things and—”
With my whole body in distress, I buck up from the mattress and run for the grimy attached bathroom. Now is not the time for this, but I can’t help my involuntary reaction.
With one hand, I lift the toilet seat. With the other, I brace on the lid as I fall to my knees and lose what little dinner I managed to force down earlier.
“Kristi?” Ridge hovers over me. The scowl on his face doesn’t convey concern, but his voice definitely does. He’s worried—and he doesn’t dare show it. “What’s going on? If I really thought you were in any way unwilling, I would never have…” He scrubs a hand over his face as I dry heave. “Oh, fuck. I’m so sorry. Really fucking sorry. Talk to me. Where did I hurt you?”
I shake my head. He’s beating himself up about the wrong damn thing. “You didn’t.”
He frowns. “Adrenaline crash?”
Damn it, this isn’t how I wanted to tell him, but this whole situation is screwed up and this might be the only time I get to come clean. “No. I’m pregnant.”
Ridge
At Kristi’s bombshell, my head gets fuzzy and my body goes numb. “You’re sure?”
She all but wilts against the toilet with a sigh. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to hold you responsible.”
“Why not? I’m the father.”
I know that for a fact. Before Rand and Sophie’s wedding, Kristi hadn’t had sex with anyone since her broken college engagement. They both told me that, and it explained one hundred percent just how tight she was. After the five steamy hours I spent in her bed, she was as wrecked as I was. No way she’s been fucking anyone else.
