“Are you sure? You're still making the scary, stabby face.” I blinked and said nothing. Her eyes went wide. “Actually, I'm just going to shut up now.”
I sighed. This really was going to be difficult. “Spit it out. No one's in trouble and you're not banned from talking. I'm not expecting flawless behavior on the first day.”
No more smart comments got thrown out, but the collective relief was palpable.
“Can you warn a girl before you go full eye of the tiger again? I'll remember to bring a change of underwear for next time.”
My nose wrinkled even as laughter rang out, banishing any lingering tension. I let them have it. I wasn't Creed, training soldiers to defend an empire. They were fortunate enough to have avoided going through the crucibles that had forged me. They weren't ready to be pushed as hard as I had been.
I wasn't going to go easy on them. I also wasn't going cry over quitters. Whether they could hack it or not would be up to them.
The air shifted as the door opened, and my body buzzed with awareness before Carlos had finished stepping through. My eyes scanned him from head to toe, greedily devouring the sight before me like a woman starved. It was barely noon. I had been in our bed, putty beneath his very capable hands, less than five hours ago.
But when he strode across the floor towards me, I wanted to disappear our clothes, jump into his arms, and seat the hard length of him so deep inside my body I wouldn't be able to tell where I ended and he began.
He looked delicious in his crisp, charcoal gray suit, and the huge black overcoat wrapped over his shoulders to combat the dropping temperatures only added to the kingly bearing he carried himself with. Silky strands of black hair remained flawlessly styled, despite the chilly winds whipping through the city. When my focus finally landed on twin pools of honey, I was sucked in instantly by the fierce devotion blazing there for all the world to see.
I forgot to breathe, and only remembered to do so when he finished kicking off his black loafers near the entrance and stepped fully into my space. I inhaled, lungs filling with cinnamon and him. He captured my chin with his fingers, lifting my head. The simple touch had pleasure sweeping through me and my lips parting.
His eyes stalked the movement, fire sparking in their depths. “Diosa,” he rumbled, and the single word struck between my thighs with the brilliance of a comet.
“Sylviaaaaaa,” Erin sang. I reluctantly glanced down at her with a scowl, annoyed at the interruption. She jerked her head to the side. “Ixnay on the PDA. There are children present.”
Only then did I remember the rest of the room, including the two teenagers who were looking up at us with wide, cheesy grins on their faces. A large, warm hand found my waist and Carlos pulled me against him. He wasn't making a sound but I could feel his chest shaking with restrained laughter while my neck flushed.
“Don't stop on our account,” said Joy, high fiving her sister. “That was the hottest thing I've seen since Zeus came strolling out onto the field without a shirt on, and you two didn't even kiss yet. What's a girl gotta do to get some popcorn around here?”
Who the hell is Zeus?
Maya got to her feet suddenly, retrieving her red and black drawstring bag from the corner of the room. “That’s my cue, I'll see you all next week. Thanks for letting us join in, Sylvia.”
She stormed out before I could respond, Maddie hot on her heels. I looked around, but it seemed I was the only one confused by her abrupt departure. It was Carlos who filled in the missing piece for me, but not before dismissing the additional sets of ears.
“Chicas,” he said with a smooth smile. They melted. I was neither mad nor surprised. “If both of you could find somewhere else to be, it would be greatly appreciated.”
Carlos waited while they stammered something about shopping and slipped away before turning to me. “Back in high school, Zeus and Maya were rock solid. They-”
“Wait.” I put a hand on his chest, and only spent a few moments enjoying the soft fabric of his suit contrasted with the firm muscle beneath. “I feel like we’re not actually talking about the greek god, so who the hell is Zeus?”
Erin giggled. “You have got to be freaking kidding me. Have you been living under a rock? Gabriel ‘Zeus’ Roland is easily the most well known athlete to grace the NFL in the last decade.”
“Do I seriously look like I watch football?”
Carlos slipped his fingers beneath the waistband of my joggers. God, the leisurely glide of his touch against my skin was distracting in the best way. I discreetly glanced down, hoping my nipples weren’t trying to cut through my sports bra.
Not yet, at least. Small victories.
“Anyway,” he continued, like his hand wasn’t fully cupping my ass right in front of our mutual friend. “They were the couple others wanted to be. Then right before graduation, something imploded between them. I don’t know what went down but it’s safe to say she hasn’t been his biggest fan since.”
“Huh.” It was the most I could manage while he squeezed, carefully bringing me right to the edge of pain before letting go and starting a slow massage. Then he did it over again.
A muffled alarm rang and Erin yelped, dashing for her pink purse immediately. Once her back was turned, I decided it was time for a little payback.
I spun on my heels and pressed our bodies together. The smug face Carlos was making had been expected, and welcome. It made it so much more fun to watch his eyes widen in surprise when I quickly snuck my hand down the front of his pants and wrapped my fingers around his already thickening cock.
"That was Isaac." Erin fluttered around, a busy bee grabbing everything she had brought with her and throwing it in the bag hoisted over her arm. Thankfully, she was oblivious to what was happening a few feet away from her, but the chance of getting caught shot a thrill through me that had my hand stroking and warmth pooling between my legs. "I've got to get back to the office before something gets screwed up and…why are you two looking at each other like that?"
My hand froze and the incorrigible man in front of me flexed beneath my grip. Don't quit now, he said with a challenging look. You wanted to play with fire.
I narrowed my eyes at him. You're mistaking which one of us is about to get burned.
"On second thought, don't answer that. Y'all are doing the eye thing. I've seen that one play out enough to last a lifetime, thank you very much. Bye. There's going to be a lot to do, so don't bother calling me unless it involves wine."
Erin fled in a blur of pink, then the two of us were finally, blessedly alone, standing in a heat storm of our own lust. Each heavy breath of it had my breasts rising and falling. Carlos had grown hard as steel beneath my attentions, and his jaw worked in a way I was becoming intimately aware of.
It usually preceded him tearing the clothes from my body, a man possessed.
As I thought about it, his hands came up, ghosting over my ribs and leaving goosebumps in their wake. His fingers hooked into the edges of the fabric stretched across my chest before I stepped back out of his grip, touch trailing over the smooth head of his cock. His hips followed me but his feet stayed firmly in place while he waited to see what I was about to do.
Riding a surge of recklessness, I tugged my sports bra up and over my head, freeing my breasts with a slight bounce. Carlos scrubbed a hand over his jaw, muttering curses under his breath. I smiled and did nothing to hide the scars across my body while I shimmied out of my joggers until I was standing before him in a transparent purple thong. His favorite color. The tent in his pants jumped unbidden.
My pulse raced at the exposure, whole body tingling delightfully. We were in the heart of downtown. There was a never-ending parade of shadows moving along the sidewalk outside of the studio. They couldn't see in any better than I could see out through the frosted glass, but it didn't diminish how aware I was of their proximity.
"Beautiful," Carlos rasped. "So fucking beautiful."
I moved closer to him, and while there was noth
ing practiced or elegant to the sway of my hips, his eyes continued to rove over me almost frantically. I got the distinct feeling he didn't know where he wanted to look the most and I wasn't going to make him choose.
He never went a day without calling me goddess. In that moment, the palpable weight of his adoration was a prayer and a promise wrapped in his love and delivered straight to my soul.
Making me more.
Making me feel invincible.
Making me his.
I stopped close enough to breathe him in again, raising up on my tiptoes to reach his ear. "You might want to lock the door," I whispered huskily. "Unless you want someone to walk in and see me like this."
He broke free from his paralysis with a grunt and marched to the door, a man on a mission. The lock slid into place with a click of finality, and when he turned back towards me, there was a conqueror's grin on his handsome face.
Carlos shed layers so fast his clothes seemed to dissolve. Where his still healing left hand failed with the more delicate buttons, brute strength improvised shortly after. His chest was bare seconds later, and when he reached me, I wasted no time before pulling him closer and placing a soft kiss over the puckered scar beneath his collarbone. The bullet had warped a small area around his tattoo, but he had gotten lucky. We both had. There wouldn't be any permanent damage.
His arms wrapped around me, pulling me flush against him. My stiff nipples brushed against his solid mass and my breath caught. "I didn't get a chance to tell you how proud I am of what you're doing here."
My heart did happy backflips. But it wasn't my heart burning with need right then. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him down towards me. "Flatter me later, warlord. Kiss me now."
His low chuckle was answer and amusement both.
Carlos dipped his head and my eyes closed automatically. The first brush of his lips against mine was just that, a brush so slight I might've missed it if not for my world shifting into complete perfection. His hand squeezed my hip a moment before he slanted his lips back across mine, completing two parts of one whole.
My toes curled against the rubber mats, lips parting on a soft, needy moan. "More," fell from me, a demand he gladly obliged.
He gripped me tighter still, pinning me in place. His tongue swept across my lips, once, twice, and when it finally plunged inside I met his advance with my own. Sparks danced at each point of contact, a pleasant burn to my senses, adding fuel to a fire already threatening to go out of control.
Carlos sucked at my tongue and my hands came around, nails raking down his chest, over his sides. I caught his bottom lip between my teeth and pulled, thriving on the low hiss that came from him before kissing it better. Still, it wasn’t quite enough.
He’s injured, I reminded myself when I pressed so hard against him he had to step back.
Breathing hard, I tucked myself beneath his chin. I struggled to regain some semblance of control but just looking down at his perfectly fitted pants and seeing the arousal barely restrained by them made me want to slice them into pieces until he was bared before me. I was surrounded by sharp objects. It would barely take any time.
A huge palm covered my throat, stroking over my wildly fluttering pulse. “Don’t you dare go easy on me.”
I glanced up from beneath my lashes at his tone and I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw there. Any lingering traces of the calm, orderly businessman had vanished. There was only savagery remaining. Pride and fury and sex given commanding form. Never before had the moniker I had given him been so appropriate.
He took a bullet for me and got right back up, ready to kick ass and deliver death. And now I was worried about hurting him? Idiot. But I tried to avoid making the same mistakes more than once.
"You asked for it.” My voice was a sweet contrast to the rough way I grabbed him by the belt and pulled him closer to me.
I dropped into a squat, making quick work of the clasp and zipper soon after. My first good tug threw off his balance and revealed the chiseled v leading straight to dark curls and the real prize below. He was better prepared when I tugged again, pulling his pants down to his thighs, and his thick cock bounced up and into view. My vision narrowed until the only things I could see were the prominent veins lining his shaft and the smooth, blunt head straining towards me.
“Someone's eager,” I taunted, letting my breath caress him.
He made a noise of frustration, knees lifting to try and struggle out from the material trapping him. I debated helping with his predicament, but where would the fun be? Instead, I made sure our eyes were locked when I grasped the base of his shaft and slowly licked my lips.
Then I sucked his entire length into my mouth all at once, making sure he felt the warm coil of my tongue wrapping around him.
“Fuck!” He barked, loud enough someone had to be able to hear him outside.
I almost smiled, before his taste hit me. A drug more potent than anything in the world. My thighs clenched together in response, and I felt my own slick wetness coating them when they spread apart.
My cheeks hollowed, the greed only he could bring out in me emerging so strongly I nearly forgot what I had planned.
Reluctantly, I let him slip from my mouth and stood. His hands reached out for me and I stepped back, wagging a finger in his face before turning and racing for the circular staircase leading to the second level of the studio.
The long string of curses he shouted was almost enough to make me blush. I could hear him fumbling below me, and I briefly caught sight of him kicking his pants to the side and dashing after me before I rounded onto the landing. I had just enough time to slide my thong off and bounce up onto the large, ebony table in the center of the floor, feeling the startling cold of it against my skin, before Carlos reached the apex of the stairs.
Powerful thighs flexed, carrying him up and into view. My body hummed with an echo of the past, remembering the first time I had come face to face with the man instead of the boy. He'd been glorious, despite the lense of distrust coloring my view.
Now?
When I knew heart, body, and soul that he would put me above anyone and anything, including himself?
Glorious didn’t do him justice.
He boxed me in between his arms without wasting a second, looming above me. “I thought you didn’t run?”
“Tactical retreat,” I corrected, watching pale fingers trail down tanned forearms made of stone.
His chest jumped, a smile breaking free. “You’re so full of it.” He grabbed my waist without warning, snatching me forward. I won’t deny I made a small squeak, falling back to let my arms prop me up. “I think you enjoy pushing my buttons.”
Speaking of buttons, his cock was nudging the one between my legs, making it difficult to focus for the zings of pleasure passing through me.
There was a clever comeback on the tip of my tongue. Instead, my hips rolled on their own accord, robbing me of speech.
He slid through my folds easily, nudging against my entrance. For a frozen heartbeat, he pressed inside my welcoming heat. A hiss of breath passed between us and who had made it was anyone's guess. Any hope of further teasing went out the window.
We both knew it.
His whole body tensed, the calm before the storm. Then his hips surged forward, sweeping me away in the tide of his body filling mine and the heady stretch that accompanied it.
“Oh...fuck!” My head fell back, lashes fluttering closed when he reached the end of me. The feeling was intense as always, and though I felt my nails biting deep into his arms, I was helpless to let go.
Our rhythm was easy to find. The beat was ingrained in our hearts. The lyrics seared across our minds. I rocked into him, and he was already there, meeting me with a powerful thrust that filled my ears with the sound of flesh clapping together and his own rumbling voice.
“So.” Clap. “Fucking.” Clap. “Perfect.” Clap.
His hands roved over me with purpose, skating across my ribs and sweeping
up towards my swaying breasts. I arched my back, offering them to him readily. Deft fingers found silver barbells and pinched, eliciting a long moan from me as my body jerked, muscles low in my belly tightening.
“Careful, sweetheart.” He groaned. “Squeeze me like that and I'm not going to last.”
I forced my eyes open, a sensory mistake if there ever was one. His skin was flushed, hair slipping towards curly disarray. His chest rippled with strength, abs tensing and relaxing. And the sight of him pistoning in and out of me, his shaft and the curls above it glistening with my own wetness?
Oh my God.
“Carlos,” I gasped, pussy clenching despite what he had said.
I was already racing towards a tipping point, building pressure pushing me closer and closer to the edge.
“I've got you.” He laid his body over mine, sealing us together. His hands cupped the top of my head and then his lips were right there, so close I couldn't resist.
This kiss was slow and soft, filling in a way only the man above me could make possible.
I wrapped my legs around his waist, heels catching on the meat of his ass. The angle changed, and the way his cock dragged against my walls had whole constellations dancing in my vision. His lips left mine, immediately shifting to the curve of my neck.
Then he bit down, sending me hurtling over the edge with one hard shove.
“Yes!” Stars detonated, tremors racking my body, and my toes curled in on themselves.
He started cursing, open palm coming down on the table in time with his cock swelling inside of me, and he didn’t stop until his release was spent. He sagged against me and I took his weight, feeling safer than I ever had. Thousands of people milled about outside the walls around us, but I knew bone deep they would never come between what we had.
I wouldn’t let them, and neither would Carlos.
He had promised, after all. To always hear me. No matter what I did. No matter what I asked.
Woe to anyone who risked our wrath.
Saved by a Sinner Page 35
