UNHURRIED, BUT NO LESS PURPOSEFUL, André came down the dock. I didn’t know which was sexier, him in his usual badass Luna and Associates uniform of black cargo pants and black fitted polo, or him now, in dark jeans, boots and a white V-neck T-shirt that looked painted on.
I didn’t have time to decide.
“Chica, cut the engines. We’re gonna be a bit.”
I should’ve been scared shitless when the bikers showed up. It was one thing to resign yourself to death, but it was different as hell when you were facing four armed bikers intent on your head. A normal person would’ve had a fight-or-flight response. I didn’t even think about leaving André.
Maybe it was the sex, maybe it was dumping my shit in his lap and giving up control, or maybe it was just him, a sexy-as-hell Cuban, but I didn’t once consider leaving. Watching his intense gaze on me, seeing his purposeful stride and bulging muscles, I stopped thinking about what a bullet penetrating my skull would feel like and became a single pulsating throb as my pussy reacted to the very site of him.
“Chica?” He stepped onto the boat, brow furrowed. “You didn’t cut the engines. You okay?”
Shit, he was beautiful. Without responding, without taking my eyes off him, I turned the key and everything quieted except the faint slap of water against the boat.
Staring at me, his eyes darkened.
I licked my bottom lip.
“Estas bella,” his rough voice whispered, as his gaze swept the length of me.
I sucked in a breath and pretended I didn’t know what he’d just said. “They gone?”
He barely nodded as he moved closer. His intense stare eating me alive, he didn’t touch me. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”
His scent, his presence, my lack of sleep and the heat…. I felt my defenses bleed out like an open chest wound. With no regard for my own vulnerability, I opened my mouth. “Six months ago, I wanted you. I wanted to feel what it would be like to have a man like you.” That’s what had thrown me in his penthouse all those months ago. For the first time in years, I hadn’t wanted to die, or make River pay. I wanted a sexy bodyguard who was more dangerous to me than River ever was. River could get me killed, but the way I felt about André? That would destroy me.
The lines between André’s eyebrows deepened. “What kind of man do you think I am?”
“Strong, honorable, determined, focused.” Sexy, giving, dominant. I didn’t have enough words, at the same time as I had too many. André was more than a wistful dream of a love-starved girl who grew up in a cult. The smile in his eyes when he looked at me was the answer to every wrong in my life. “I wanted to feel like I was yours,” I admitted.
“Chica.” He reached for my face.
I leaned back. I wasn’t finished. The words gripping my throat, choking my conscience, I needed to get them out before it was too late to set them free. “That’s what I wanted before someone brought my head to River.” Fear spread through my veins. “That’s what I wanted to take with me.” I swallowed past the point of no return. “Your smile,” I whispered, my voice breaking. “Your smile when you look at me was the last thing I wanted to see.”
I barely got the final word out before his mouth crashed over mine. A growl of frustration and anger and desire, ripped from his chest as his huge hands sank into my hair and cupped the sides of my head.
His tongue drove into my mouth, and his body curved around mine, showing me what it felt like to be his. Every possessive second of his kiss robbed me of any hope of walking away from him unscathed. I was branded by this man as sure as the double Rs on my back.
“Ohhh, shit,” a familiar voice chuckled. “There’s somethin’ I never thought I’d see.”
Breathless, lost, I pulled back.
André’s deep brown eyes stared down at me. “Chica,” he whispered.
I didn’t want to hear what he was going to say, not with an audience. I touched a finger to his lips, then I glanced at my former boss, Talon Talerco. Ex-marine, surfer, professional manwhore, he stood with one arm on the canopy of the boat with his biceps flexed like he’d fucking planned it. “Screw you, Talon.”
Talon threw his head back and laughed. “Damn, Patrol, and here I’d thought you’d tamed the savage beast.”
Without taking his eyes off me, André’s hand went to his gun at his waist. “I can shoot him,” he rasped, completely serious.
I couldn’t stop it. I smiled.
“Holy shit!” Talon threw his hand over his heart. “She fuckin’ smiles?”
André let out a string of curse words in Spanish, but he took his hand off his gun. Glancing over his shoulder, he tipped his chin at Talon. “Give us a damn minute.”
“Hell no!” Talon grinned. “This is like the fuckin’ Superbowl of love connections.” He crossed his arms and leaned against a dock piling. “I ain’t missin’ a second of this.”
“Jesucristo,” André muttered, before looking back at me and dropping his voice. “We’re not done talking, chica.” He kissed me once.
“I don’t want to talk.” I wanted to get naked with him.
His smile only hit one side of his mouth, but it was no less sexy. “Don’t worry, that’s not all we’re gonna do.” He kissed my forehead and grabbed my hand. “Come on.”
André helped me step off the boat, but then he didn’t let go of my hand. Firm and possessive, he held on to me as he glanced at Talon and nodded toward the house. “I’ll help load before we take off.” He led us up the dock.
Talon grinned as he fell in behind us. “Whatever you say, lover boy.”
“Load what?” I looked between them.
“Didn’t tell her yet?” Talon chuckled. “Oh, this is gonna be good.”
I cut my gaze to André. “Tell me what?”
“Shut up, Talerco.” André squeezed my hand. “Nothing, chica. Just helping Neil load some boxes onto his truck before we leave.”
“Is that what you’re callin’ this?” Talon taunted him.
“Don’t be an asshole,” André ground out.
“What?” Talon feigned offense. “I’m never an asshole.”
“You fired me,” I reminded him.
“Yeah, but I sent lover boy to check on you, and we all know how that’s workin’ out, so we’re all good.”
I smirked. “I wouldn’t call us good.” Not that I didn’t understand it, I still kinda hated him for firing me. If his sexy friend wasn’t holding my hand like he couldn’t wait to get me alone, I’d really be hating Talon. But right now, all I was thinking about was a long boat ride with André.
“Hey, Kendall,” Talon called, his tone laced with mischief. “Your dresses gettin’ shorter or are you gettin’ hotter? Because, damn, that’s a—”
André spun.
With a solid shove to Talon’s chest, André pushed him off the dock.
My mouth dropped as I watched Talon fall backward into the water.
A second later, he popped up. Standing hip deep, he sputtered before he burst into uncontrollable laughter. Bending at the waist, wiping brackish water from his face, Talon laughed his ass off. “That was so fuckin’ worth it!”
His expression stone cold, André glared at Talon as he took my hand again. “You good, chica?”
I looked up at André and grinned. “So good.”