Chapter Seven

 

 

If she’d thought she’d been nervous before, her anxiety level was way higher when they arrived at the hotel fifteen minutes later. Tess’s heart thudded against her ribs as Reid parked out front and turned slightly in his seat to look at her.

“Want me to walk you up?”

He’d just given her an out if she wanted to use it. And that melted her heart. “Yes.”

He nodded and pushed his door open, and her belly flipped as she watched six-foot-plus of gorgeous male climb out and walk around to her side. His dark blue gaze held hers as he reached for her hand and gently pulled her to her feet to stand in front of him.

She expected him to kiss her but instead he took her face in his hands, staring into her eyes for a long moment. Searching for something, she didn’t know what, while her pulse beat out of control and her entire body tingled.

That voice in the back of her mind whispered again. If you sleep with him, you won’t be able to walk away after. She’d never been a no-strings girl in the first place, and something about Reid made her want to take the risk of getting attached.

Finally, she raised a hand to curl her fingers around his solid wrist, and he bent his head to brush a soft kiss across her lips that left her entire body tingling. His hands stayed on her face, his thumbs gliding along her cheekbones as he kissed her lower lip, her upper one, then the tip of her nose. So tender and full of reassurance, as though he understood her silent battle, it shook her inside. Then he straightened.

Speechless, she stared at him, returning the smile he gave her when he dropped one hand down to grasp hers and lace their fingers together. “Come on. I’ll take you up.”

Her thoughts were scattered as they rode the elevator up to her floor, and even when they reached her room, she still wasn’t sure what she wanted. Her attraction to him was off the charts crazy, she liked him as a person, and she admired the man he was.

Could she sleep with him and keep her heart out of it? And if not, could she deal with all the complications getting involved with him would bring?

Doubt and nerves began to take the upper hand as she pulled out the plastic key card to unlock her door. Her fingers were clumsy, unsteady as she slid it in the slot and fumbled to pull it out in time. A red light appeared on the door lock mechanism, indicating she’d messed up. Blood rushed to her cheeks and she mentally cursed as she tried it again.

A warm, strong hand appeared over her shoulder and closed over hers. She stopped, every cell in her body aware of that big, powerful body standing a mere foot behind her.

“You don’t have to ask me in,” he said in a low voice.

Tess closed her eyes as embarrassment washed over her. “I’m just…I guess I’m a little nervous, that’s all,” she said breathlessly. Had she ever felt an attraction this intense before? If she had, it certainly hadn’t happened this fast, not even with Brian.

Before she could find the guts to turn and face him, Reid plucked the card from her fingers, slid it into the slot and unlocked the door for her. Pulse pounding, she walked through into the cool, air-conditioned room, the faint scent of her perfume hanging in the air. Housekeeping had been in earlier. Her bed was turned down and the bedside lamp was on, casting a warm, inviting glow over the sheets.

Tess stared at it, her mind and body at war.

Reid was right behind her as the door clicked shut, closing them in alone together and locking the rest of the world out. “Tess. Look at me.”

His deep voice was like a gentle, intimate caress to her senses. Gathering her nerve, she slowly turned around, a shockwave of desire blasting through her as she faced him.

He shook his head once, those blue, blue eyes on her face. “Why are you nervous?”

A nervous laugh bubbled up. “I don’t know.” Because I don’t do this. I barely know you.

And because I’m afraid that I could fall for you.

Even with all his baggage, even though his job was every bit as dangerous as Brian’s had been. More so, in many ways. And that scared her because she was a sensible, practical person. She liked to think things through. But Reid made her want to leap without looking.

One of his hands came up to cradle the side of her neck, his thumb rubbing over her frantically beating pulse point. “Are you nervous? Or afraid?”

“Not afraid,” she said softly. Not of him. Only of this frighteningly intense physical pull she’d never experienced before, and of the consequences she would have to face in the aftermath. All the complications that came with him would still be there, and she’d be emotionally attached and unwilling to walk away.

“Good,” he murmured, and dipped his head. She closed her eyes and tilted her face up to his, expecting to feel his mouth on hers a moment later.

Instead she gasped as the warmth of his lips touched the sensitive spot beneath her left ear. He kissed it, parted his lips and scraped his teeth across it gently before the warmth of his tongue touched her skin.

Tess made an involuntary sound of surprise and pleasure and tipped her head to the side, her hands coming up to curl around his upper arms, a thrill racing through her at the sheer power of the muscles shifting beneath her hands.

Reid took advantage and opened his mouth against the side of her neck, the delightful prickle of his stubble a stark contrast to the smooth glide of his lips and tongue. “You smell so damn good, I could just eat you up,” he whispered.

She shivered in his hold, her nipples beading tight and a hot throb pulsing between her legs. It had been so long since she’d felt a man’s body against hers. An eternity since she’d felt a man’s hands moving over her, caressing, arousing. After having only her own hands to bring herself pleasure for so long, the thought of a man like Reid touching her so intimately made her tremble.

Reid made a low murmuring sound and slid his free hand up into her hair, his fingers squeezing a fistful of it as he stepped into her body. Tess closed her eyes and let out a moan at the feel of him pressed flush to her, hard and warm, his hold both possessive and protective.

Her heart thundered out of control while his mouth blazed a path down one side of her neck, across her collarbones and up the other side. Her fingers bit into his upper arms when his tongue found the erogenous zone where her neck and shoulder met. Reid paused there, sucked at the tender spot, damn near making her eyes roll back in her head.

By the time he kissed his way up to her jaw she was dizzy and breathless, her lips eagerly searching out his. But he held her head in place, refusing to let her move as he nibbled his way across to her chin, then the corner of her mouth.

Tess made a soft, desperate sound in the back of her throat and grasped his face in her hands to bring his mouth to hers. The moment their lips connected a bolt of pure, sweet desire shot through her. Her breasts were swollen and heavy, the folds between her thighs growing slick. Aching for his touch.

Reid let out a low growl and backed her up against the nearest wall, pinning her there with his weight. She wrapped her arms around his neck, keeping one hand in his hair to fuse their mouths together. His tongue slid across her lower lip. Teasing. Making her crave more.

She met it with her own, sliding, caressing, and when he eased it into her mouth in an imitation of what was to come, her entire body clenched with need. Over and over he stroked the inside of her mouth, sucked at her tongue gently, keeping control of the kiss the entire time, never letting her take over. Some part of her had known that he would take the dominant role in bed, and she reveled in knowing she was about to experience it fully.

Needing more friction, she pulled him closer and rubbed her breasts against the rock hard planes of his chest. Reid hummed against her lips and shifted his stance to bring his hips square between her legs, the sudden pressure of his erection against her covered mound making her whimper. He cut off the sound with another deep, searing kiss, and rocked his hips, slowly dragging his thick length along her swollen center.

Tess jerked her head to the side as pleasure radiated outward from where he stroked her, sucking a ragged breath between her parted lips. This was so freaking intense, and a little frightening. She couldn’t remember teetering on the brink of losing control like this, and not with a man she barely knew.

Reid stopped rubbing against her and simply pressed forward with his hips, the thick length of his erection snuggled up to her throbbing core as he kissed his way back across her jaw to her ear. Unhurried, sensual enough to make the breath clog in her throat. The hand holding her hair slid down her shoulder, down to her ribs and up again to gently cradle the curve of her breast. Tess bit her lip and quivered in his grasp, her aching nipple grazing his hot palm through two layers of fabric with every uneven breath.

“So sweet, Tess,” he groaned, gently nipping her earlobe. “I wanna unwrap you so bad. Peel that dress away so I can kiss you all over, and slide my tongue into you.”

God! She shuddered at his graphic words, her body totally on board with that plan and her mind supplying the movie in a string of rapid high-resolution images.

He made a low, gruff sound and placed a hot, open-mouth kiss to the sensitive spot on the side of her neck before raising his head and studying her. Tess stared up at him through heavy-lidded eyes, her lips swollen, her aching nipple grazing his palm. The heat in his eyes, the tightness of his face and the hard ridge of his erection were all at odds with the tender way he cradled her breast and the care he’d taken in arousing her.

With his other hand still grasping the back of her neck, he stroked his thumb across the straining nipple, watching her eyes the whole time. Tess bit her lip but couldn’t stifle a whimper of pleasure as need knifed through her. She strained up onto her toes, needing more friction. Just…more.

“I know, baby,” he whispered, pressing a tender kiss to her parted lips, the soft stroke of his tongue making her crazy.

Except he lifted his head and let his hand drop before easing his body away.

No! She made an unintelligible sound and swayed forward, tried to pull him back, but he merely smoothed his hand over her hair and dropped another brief kiss to her upturned lips.

She blinked up at him, confused, on fire. “What—”

“I’m not taking you to bed tonight.”

Shock cleared some of the haze of arousal away. “Why not?”

The corner of his mouth kicked up, and then he sobered again. “Because I like you, a lot, and when we first got up here you were nervous. That tells me you’re not ready, even if your body is. And since we sometimes work together, I don’t want you to regret sleeping with me or feel awkward around me later.” He ran his thumb across her lower lip, light as a sigh, and she kissed it. “I need to know you’re sure, and not just giving into this because of the chemistry happening between us.” He leaned forward to rest his forehead against hers, a smile in his voice. “But hell, our chemistry is off the charts.”

It was. She didn’t know what the hell to say to his reasoning, so she let out a shaky laugh to cut the tension.

He murmured in agreement and paused to kiss the tip of her nose before easing back. She felt cold all of a sudden without the intense heat of his body against hers, and was grateful for the support of the wall at her back because her knees were so damn weak.

“You sure you don’t want to stay the night?” she asked, still a little breathless. Having him hold her in the night would be so damn good.

He shook his head, his dark eyes intense. “If I climb into that bed with you, there’s no way I wouldn’t wind up inside you at some point.”

Her insides clenched. It sounded like a damn good idea to her, but he was right about one thing; she needed to be sure before they took that step, and she admired him for giving her the space to make it. Even if her body hated her freaking guts right now.

His palm caressed the side of her face, then he lowered his hand. “I’ll call you before I see you down at Emerald Warrior.”

She nodded, not knowing what else to say. It was a huge exercise, and while they might catch glimpses of one another here and there, she doubted they’d be able to spend any time together in their off hours. Still, a chance was better than nothing. “We’ll figure something out.”

“Damn right, we will. This isn’t over, Tess. Not by a long shot.” He aimed a sexy smile at her as he took a step toward the door. “Dream about me.”

Like she had a choice? “Okay.” Although dreaming required her to be asleep, and with how tightly wound her body was right now, that wasn’t likely to happen for a long time.

But she’d sure as hell be fantasizing about him, and the moment when they finally did something about the hunger raging between them.

 

****

 

Morning sunlight filtered through the palm fronds that arched across the cabana next to the pool. Carlos stripped off his robe and stretched out naked on his stomach on the massage table, relaxing with a groan of contentment as he set his face into the round face cradle.

The sprawling ranch house and its secluded ninety acres of land in the southern Sinaloa region had been beautiful when he’d bought it last year, but he’d made certain improvements and added things like the waterfall currently splashing into the deep end of the swimming pool. The silvery sound of it soothed him, especially late at night when he lay in his bed in the master bedroom upstairs, the ever-present ache in his leg and his spinning mind about to drive him crazy.

His personal massage therapist adjusted the pillows beneath his shins and hips before covering his naked ass with a light sheet. He didn’t care if she saw it, but she was a professional, not a whore, and so she insisted on proper “draping” whenever she worked on him.

“Still the left hip and lower back?” Juana asked him, one cool hand resting on the center of his bare back.

“Yes, and my calves, too.”

He relaxed and closed his eyes at the familiar sound of her rubbing oil between her practiced hands. She smoothed it over the length of his back and across his hips with light strokes, then she leaned her weight into her hands and he couldn’t hold back a deep groan of mingled pleasure and pain.

The woman might be seven inches shorter than him and slightly built, but she had magic hands, and she was worth double what he paid her. She came to his ranch at precisely nine o’clock each morning he was home, and worked on him for an hour. Her treatments, followed by a soak in his custom-built hot tub, were the best part of his day and the only thing that had helped him ease off the pain meds.

A firmer pressure dug into the side of his hip and he hissed in a breath, tensing.

“Breathe,” she coaxed, maintaining the pressure.

He grunted and held back a retort that it was easy for her to tell him to breathe, since she was the one with an elbow in the side of his ass. But he trusted her, and knew this worked.

So he breathed through the pain, forcing his mind to clear and his body to relax. Soon enough the pain in his hip began to ebb. Juana continued to work out the knot with slow, sure strokes, switching back to her hands now, and it felt so damn good he growled low in his throat.

The sharp cry of a peacock brought his head up. Blinking in the glare of the overhead sun, he found Rex, his favorite peacock strutting his stuff along the strip of manicured grass beyond the deep end of the pool.

“Manuel,” he hollered, annoyed that his massage had been interrupted.

A moment later a young boy of twelve shot out from around the corner of the main house. “Sí, señor?”

The boy was new to the job of helping take care of Carlos’s menagerie, only a week into his routine. “Did you feed Rex his breakfast yet?” he asked in English. The boy’s grandmother had asked Carlos to help him learn more English. Manuel understood far more than he could speak.

“No, señor.”

“Well, hurry up. He won’t stop squawking until he gets fed.” Damn bird was too haughty and demanding for his own good.

“Sí, señor.”

The boy scurried away, calling Rex, who ran after him like an eager puppy, his long, brilliant blue and green tail plumage trailing on the grass behind him.

Juana chuckled as Carlos lay back down and got settled again. “You spoil all your animals,” she said in Spanish.

“I know.” He couldn’t help it. Though he didn’t keep domestic pets, except for a few barn cats who helped keep the rodent population down in exchange for a cozy place to live and regular veterinary checks. He’d amassed quite a collection already: horses, a llama, three pot-bellied pigs, a camel, giraffe, and of course, Rex. The king of the ranch.

All rescues. That was deliberate.

Every creature he owned had been beaten, abused and neglected, with no one to care for them until he had stepped in. Because after being raised by a single mother who didn’t give two shits about him, or the two older brothers he’d lost to gang violence in their teens, he knew all too well how that felt.

He zoned out again when Juana began working on his lower back. Since being wounded in that shootout with the DEA, he was lucky to be walking at all, but his altered gait was pure hell on his body.

His cell rang a few minutes later. From the ringtone, he knew it was Antonio. Carlos ignored it, irritated that his head enforcer didn’t know by now not to interrupt him during his massage from nine to ten.

He was half asleep a few minutes later when his brain recognized the long, gentle strokes that signaled his treatment was almost at an end. His muscles felt loose and pliable, but his dick was rock hard, trapped between his belly and the table.

He might have ordered Juana to take care of that too, but he respected her and her skills too much. Besides, he had an endless supply of whores to choose from. With a single phone call or text, he could have any one of them up here to the house and ready to go within half an hour.

“Will you be getting into the hot tub now?” she asked him.

“Later. You can go.”

She left without a word, and only when he was alone did he return Antonio’s call. His sixty-three-year-old and half-deaf housekeeper—Manuel’s grandmother—was inside. Her hearing impairment a big reason why Carlos had hired her, since she wouldn’t overhear anything she shouldn’t, and therefore couldn’t spill his secrets. She was the only staff he kept at the house, other than his two bodyguards, who patrolled the house and grounds at all times.

“Don’t ever call me during my massage unless it’s an emergency,” he snapped when Antonio answered.

“Right, sorry.”

Whatever. “What did you call about?”

“The next delivery is scheduled for tonight, to Cartagena.”

“How many girls?” He was one of the few Veneno lieutenants involved in the skin trade.

Women were weak and useless, except for three things: sex, providing children, and making money off of. El Escorpion didn’t approve of human trafficking or sex slavery, per se, but he didn’t do anything to stop it, either. As long as business continued to increase and their territory expanded, the head of the cartel overlooked everything else.

“Seven. Eight, if you want to include our special guest.”

“How is our guest doing?” Carlos asked.

“Finally coming around to her training, I think. Close to breaking.”

“No.” Carlos didn’t want her broken when she came to him. He wanted to do that himself. “Keep her there for now. Give her a while to rest up and regain her strength. You’ll bring her to me in New Orleans next Friday night.” He had a distributor there who owed him a favor and would be happy to arrange everything. “I’ll text you the guy’s number.”

“All right. You sure you want her to regain her strength? She was a handful when we first got her.”

“I’m sure. Text me when you’ve got it set up.”

He ended the call, his dick throbbing like a damn toothache at the thought of what would happen between him and Victoria Gomez in that New Orleans hotel room. Once he was done with her, when she was broken in spirit and maybe in body as well, depending on how she behaved, he’d hand her over to a courier to be sold overseas.

Lust roared through him, the throb of his cock too delicious to waste on his own hand.

He texted one of his bodyguards posted out front of the house. “Call Teresa. Get her up here now.”