Chapter Five
The blare of a horn startled Dante into the realization that the signal had turned from red to green.
“Are you driving?” asked the voice through his car’s Bluetooth system.
“Yes, but apparently not fast enough for the jerk behind me,” he answered as he turned off the freeway off-ramp. He glanced in his rearview mirror and saw a large black truck take off in the lane beside his.
“I can call you back later. We don’t need to hash this out now.” He heard the concern in Lydia’s voice and smiled. Lydia Fuentes was the executive director of the L.A. Defense Foundation and his unofficial boss. She could be a hard-ass when she needed to be, but mostly, the woman was a softy at heart. That’s why he’d hated having to make the call in the first place.
“It’s fine, Lydia. Besides, whether we talk now or later, it isn’t going to change the fact that I lost.” He gripped the steering wheel instead of swearing. Lydia was in her sixties and hated when people used foul language around her.
“Dante, you can’t beat yourself up about this. We knew going in it was going to be a long shot to keep them in the country. They knew it, too.” He caught the break in her voice, and it gutted him.
His mind was still racing with things he should’ve done differently to keep Santiago and Maria Reyes from being deported. The couple from El Salvador had been picked up in an ICE raid on a downtown Los Angeles clothing manufacturer. The factory’s owner had asked the L.A. Defense Foundation to take on the Reyeses’ case in the hopes that special circumstances could sway a judge into letting them stay. The couple had a thirteen-year-old daughter and a fifteen-year-old son who had both been born in the United States, and Mr. and Mrs. Reyes had insisted, from day one, that taking their children back to El Salvador with them was not an option.
This afternoon’s hearing had been Dante’s last shot at keeping the family together, and he’d failed. He gritted his teeth at the memory of the Reyeses’ daughter sobbing into her brother’s chest as their parents were taken back into custody.
“Are you still there?” Lydia asked.
He cleared his throat. “Yeah, I’m here. So what do we do now?”
She sighed. “Well, tonight the kids are going back to stay with the neighbor who’s been taking care of them. Tomorrow, I’m going to meet with Nancy from our social services team to determine what’s the best long-term option.”
“Those kids can’t go into the system, Lydia. They could get separated. Or worse.” His throat tightened at the thought. Dante knew firsthand how hard growing up in the system could be. He didn’t want that for the Reyeses’ kids, not when they had two parents who were still alive and loved them. It all was just so damn frustrating. And it hit way too close to home. Lydia knew that. She was the only one left in the world who did. He never willingly shared the details of his childhood. Brandon didn’t even know. Dante had spent his entire adult life trying to leave his past buried, only because he didn’t want others to feel sorry for him or expect anything less because of where he’d come from.
It was a heavy burden to bear at times.
“I don’t want them in the system, either,” Lydia said. “But the neighbor is too old and frail to provide a permanent home. And unless someone else steps up, I just don’t know what else we can do for them.”
Dante slammed his fist on the wheel. “Fuck!” He spat out the curse word, not caring what Lydia would say.
The line was quiet for a few seconds, and he wondered if she’d hung up on him.
“Feel better now?” she finally asked.
“Yes. No.”
“We can’t win them all, Dante. All we can do is give them the best chance possible.”
They were the same words she’d told him when he’d first showed up in her office six months ago, asking to volunteer. Lydia already knew his reputation for winning cases and wanted to make sure he understood what he was getting himself into. He’d actually lost his first two cases off the bat and had been close to quitting. He’d never felt so inadequate. He hated it. The cases he took on at his own firm were usually about money or property or contracts. Nobody’s lives were depending on him, nobody’s families. And so he had worked on the foundation cases like he worked on all of his cases—he focused on the law and not on his clients’ lives outside the courtroom. Lydia always encouraged him to change his approach and to become more invested in the people he was trying to help. But that also put him at risk of caring too much.
“I know,” he finally told Lydia. “I know.”
They talked about another case she wanted to give him, and he agreed to review the documents the next day. Then she promised to keep him updated on the custody situation with the Reyes kids.
After they hung up, Dante swore one more time.
Maybe if he hadn’t been so distracted with Alexa and her lawsuit, he could’ve found a loophole that could’ve won the case.
More like if you hadn’t been so determined to lure Alexa into your bed…
This thing with her had definitely been on his mind lately. If he didn’t know better, he’d say he was actually obsessed. It was like once he kissed her that night, the cork popped on all his pent-up frustration from the past few months. And there was no putting that frustration back in the bottle. It was flowing freely, especially when she was giving him signs that she wanted him, too.
He still couldn’t believe that she’d ended things all those years ago because she’d thought he’d only wanted a summer fling. He’d respected her too much for that. He’d respected his friendship with Brandon too much to use his sister like that. Had she given him the chance, he might have been able to convince her that he actually had feelings for her.
And the more he was around her, the more he was beginning to realize that those feelings hadn’t gone away.
But what if she said no to everything?
As if the weather took its cue from his darkening mood, sprinkles dotted his windshield. And by the time he pulled into his driveway a few minutes later, full raindrops pelted the car like pebbles.
Of course, his umbrella was in the trunk.
Dante grabbed his briefcase from the passenger seat, jumped out of the car, and sprinted to his front door. His covered porch gave him shelter as he located his house key. A light tapping noise distracted him before he went inside, and he turned just in time to see Alexa darting up the few stairs to his porch.
“I thought it never rained in California,” she said as she shook out her black-and-white polka-dot umbrella.
“What are you doing here?” The sudden thought that she’d shown up so they could finish what they’d started in her office improved his mood drastically.
“I wanted to talk to you about the lawsuit.”
Oh.
“Oh. You could’ve called.” The thought returned.
“I did call…earlier. But you never picked up, so I figured I’d stop by on my way to have drinks with some friends. Is that okay?”
The thought evaporated. “Yes, it’s okay. My phone must still be set on silent. I was in court most of the day, and after that I’ve had back-to-back phone calls.”
“If you’re too tired to deal with this now, I can call you in the morning. It’s no biggie.” He heard the disappointment in her voice. So what if she hadn’t come over for the reasons he’d hoped. She was still his client and needed his help.
Focus on doing your job and forget about all the other stuff.
“No, it’s fine. You came all this way. Please, come in.”
As soon as he opened the door, they were accosted by heavy breathing and sloppy tongue licks.
“Hey there, buddy!” Dante dropped his briefcase and knelt to give their greeter a good rubdown. Gomez, his English bulldog, showed his appreciation with more sloppy licks. “Did you have a good day, buddy?”
He heard a snicker and looked up to see Alexa grinning. “I can’t tell you how much I’m enjoying seeing this.”
Dante had a pretty good idea. “Alexa, meet Gomez. Gomez, meet Alexa.”
“Well, aren’t you the cutest thing ever.”
Did she mean him or the dog? She answered her question by proceeding to rub Gomez behind one of his ears. The dog closed his eyes, jostled his leg, and a little drop of slobber slid out of the corner of his mouth. He was in heaven. Dante had never been so jealous of an animal.
“That’s his sweet spot. He’s going to love you forever now,” a voice said. They both looked up to see Jack, his neighbor’s sixteen-year-old son, coming out the kitchen.
“Hey, Jack,” he said and stood up to dust off the mini carpet of hair Gomez had left behind on his damp pants and jacket. “This is Alexa, one of my clients. Alexa, this is Jack. He helps me out with Gomez when I work late.”
“Nice to meet you,” she told him. The poor kid could only nod.
“Hopefully you guys got your walk in already. It’s pouring outside.”
Jack took a few seconds before answering. Alexa had also stood up, and he figured the teen was a little distracted by what he saw—black heels and black fishnet stockings. It didn’t matter that a gray raincoat covered everything else from her knees up. A teenager—hell, even a grown-ass man—would have no problems fantasizing about what was underneath that coat.
Dante cleared his throat. Jack did the same and then turned his attention back to Gomez. “Um, yeah, it looked like it was going to rain, so I took him for his walk a little earlier. He just finished his dinner.”
“Awesome. You’re the best, Jack. I’ll clean up his bowls so you can head on home.” Dante pulled out his wallet and gave him a twenty.
“I don’t mind sticking around, Mr. Perez, if you have some work to do or something,” Jack said, stealing a glance again at Alexa.
I’m sure you don’t mind at all.
“It’s fine, really. And I have an early day tomorrow, so no need to come over after school.”
“Are you sure? ’Cause, again, I don’t mind.”
“I’m sure, but I’ll text you in case anything changes, okay?” By now, Dante had his hand on Jack’s shoulder and was guiding him out the front door. He shut it and called for Gomez to follow him to the kitchen. But the bulldog had other ideas, such as standing on his hind legs so he could reach to lick the raindrops off Alexa’s coat.
“No, buddy. Leave her alone,” he said and tried to pull Gomez away by his collar.
“It’s fine. I don’t mind. That’s one way to get it dry, I guess,” she joked.
Dante gestured for her to give him the coat so he could hang it in the entryway. Once she took it off, Gomez lost interest. The same couldn’t be said for him.
She wore a fitted black skirt that came just above the knee and a tight gray V-neck sweater. The sweater’s delicate pearl buttons hardly seemed able to contain her cleavage. His breath caught in his throat. His dick twitched to life.
He knew he was staring. He didn’t care one fucking bit.
“You look…stunning,” he finally managed to tell her.
She smiled in response and met his hard gaze with one of her own. Other women might’ve looked away or laughed nervously, embarrassed by such attention.
Not her. Never her.
Since the first day he met her, it was obvious she knew her superpower. Still, she didn’t flaunt her sexuality just for the sake of flaunting it. She used it carefully, sparingly, and just enough to make the man she wanted to notice her.
It was dangerous having her in his house looking like that. If she didn’t leave soon, there was no guarantee he could stop himself from plucking those sweet pearl buttons off that sweater with his teeth.
“Well, I’m sure you didn’t get all dressed up for me, so the quicker you tell me what’s going on, the quicker you can get out of here and go do whatever you were going to do looking like that.”
He didn’t mean to sound so bitter. But he couldn’t help it after the day he’d just had. If she was surprised by his tone, she didn’t show it. Instead, she nodded and followed him and Gomez into his kitchen.
“Okay, I don’t mean to hurt your feelings, but your kitchen is stuck in the 1980s.” She walked around and gingerly touched the pressed-wood cabinets and off-white laminate countertops, as if they were unknown artifacts from another planet. “I thought you were going to remodel this place. Don’t tell me you actually cook in here?”
Dante picked up Gomez’s bowls and carried them to the sink. “Well, one, I’ve only had the time to remodel one of the bedrooms into a home office. And two, I don’t cook in here because I don’t cook, period. Why do you think I’m always hanging out at the restaurant?”
“That’s true. But don’t you miss your loft? It had that beautiful dining room and huge kitchen. Plus you could walk to your office if you wanted to.”
“Which I never did,” he admitted.
“I guess I’m still surprised that you bought this place.”
Technically, he’d inherited the 1950s ranch-style home in Whittier, a suburb located about twenty miles east of Los Angeles. But explaining that to Brandon and Alexa and anyone else who asked would be telling more than he was willing to share.
The house had once belonged to the woman who had saved him.
Lucy Jenkins had been his social worker from the ages of thirteen until eighteen, although the term “social worker” didn’t begin to describe the role she’d had in his upbringing, in his career, in his life. He didn’t go around telling people he’d grown up in the foster system. He didn’t want their pity. Or their preconceived notions of what he could achieve. It was something he’d kept from Brandon and Alexa, even after all this time. So instead of telling them the truth about the house, he’d let them think he’d bought it as an investment with the goal of remodeling it and flipping it in a year.
Alexa took a seat at his kitchen table. “Hey, this is kind of cool.” She spread her hand over the top. “Where did you find it?”
“At one of those wholesale warehouses downtown,” he told her. What he didn’t add was that he had thought of her immediately when he’d first noticed the square diner-style table with tubular chrome legs and a turquoise Formica top. “Eventually, I want to go back for the matching chairs. For now, though, basic IKEA ones will have to do.”
She nodded and set a small black clutch purse on top of the table. “Maybe you need to make this kitchen your next makeover project.”
He took a seat across from her. “Not yet. Up next is the backyard. Gomez needs a place to hang out, too.”
She tilted her head and smiled. “I never figured you for a dog person.”
“I’ve always loved dogs but just never lived in a place where I could have one. What about you? You seemed to hit it off with Gomez earlier.”
At the mention of his name, the bulldog walked over and lay on the floor next to Dante, resting his chin on top of his foot.
She smiled as she looked down at him. “Dogs are great when they belong to other people. It’s just too much to be responsible for another living thing. And with my crazy schedule? Trust me. No animal wants to belong to me.”
He shrugged. “I get it. If I didn’t have Jack helping me out, I probably wouldn’t have taken in Gomez when I did. But now I can’t imagine him not being here.”
A loud, vibrating snore from below let him know that Gomez was pretty comfortable with the arrangement as well. They both chuckled.
“So about the lawsuit,” she said.
“Did you decide?”
“Yep. After talking it out with Brandon, I think it’s best that I settle.”
Dante’s stomach dropped. “Is he forcing you to settle?”
“No, it’s my decision. I weighed all the pros and cons, and I just want this mess over and done with.”
“So what exactly did Brandon say?”
“Not much. Which was a surprise, actually. He says he believes me that it was an accident. He’s furious with Nick, not so much with me.”
He could hear the doubt in her voice. “You sound like that’s a bad thing.”
“It’s weird. I was prepared for the worst. But the fact that Brandon didn’t go ballistic only made me feel even guiltier about everything.”
“But why? What do you have to feel guilty about if you didn’t break those bottles on purpose?”
She shrugged. “Even if it was an accident, I still should’ve known better and stayed away from anywhere I knew Nick could possibly be. But I’m stubborn, and maybe, if I’m being really honest, maybe there was a part of me that wanted to see him.”
A sting of jealousy clenched his fist under the table. “Does that mean you still have feelings for him?”
She didn’t hesitate. “It was more selfish than that.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I wanted him to see that after everything he’d done to me, I was still standing. That I had made something of my life and he hadn’t broken me. Maybe I even needed to prove it to myself.”
“Alexa…”
“I know. It’s dumb. But, honestly, if Formosa had been any other type of restaurant, serving any other type of food, I could’ve gotten through the night without ever speaking to him. Once I realized what he’d done, it reminded me that I still hadn’t done the one thing I’d wanted to do for years—open my own restaurant. I was so angry at him—and myself—that I couldn’t stay quiet.”
“Then why are you staying quiet now?”
She sat farther back into her seat and folded her arms across her chest. “What do you mean?”
“Why are you agreeing to the settlement? Why don’t you want to fight?”
“I do want to fight, but there’s too much at stake,” she said, throwing up her arms. “I can’t risk the chance of Nick becoming a partner in the restaurant. Brandon would rather close L.A. Cuchara than have to share it with that asshole.”
“Isn’t giving Nick money for something you didn’t do just as bad?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. I told you, I’m trying to be more thoughtful about my actions these days. Going to court is risky, and the outcome could affect lots of people. This isn’t just about me anymore.”
“Of course it is!” He slammed his fist on the table, startling both of them. Even Gomez got up and walked out of the kitchen, most likely to his favorite spot on the couch.
He hadn’t meant to lose his temper, but he needed to convince her that some things were worth fighting for. “You need to stand up for yourself and what you want.”
That made her laugh. “I stand up for myself all the time, Dante. That doesn’t mean it always works out in my favor.”
“This time it could. That’s all I’m saying.”
She sighed and sat back in her chair. “No wonder you’re such a good lawyer. You really have a knack for arguing, don’t you?”
“Does that mean I’ve convinced you?”
“No. But I promise to think about it some more. Which brings me to the other reason I came over.”
He didn’t like the way her eyes lowered when she said the last sentence.
“Dante, we can’t…I don’t think—”
She was going to say no. And something in his gut told him that unless he convinced her pretty quickly that she was making a mistake, this would be the end for real.
“Do you remember what I said to you that night after the party?”
She looked up and shook her head.
“I told you that there was a girl I liked but I was afraid to tell her. Not because I was worried she’d reject me, but because I was scared to death that she wouldn’t. I’d never felt like that about a girl before. You told me to kiss you so I’d forget all about being scared.”
“That was then. This is now. We’ve grown up. We’re different people.”
“Maybe we are. But when my lips are on yours, there’s nothing that feels more right in this world. So if you don’t feel it, too, then this stops right now. But don’t push me away again just because you’re afraid.”
There. He’d laid it all on the line. If she still walked away, then he’d been wrong about everything. To his surprise, she didn’t even walk out of his kitchen. Instead, she stood up and moved directly in front of him. “You sound so sure,” she whispered.
“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life. We will be amazing together, Alexa.”
God, she was so close now. His resolve to keep his hands to himself was fading fast.
She bent down and braced her palms on the wooden armrests of his chair. “If I say yes, what exactly am I agreeing to?”
How could he answer her when he had no idea himself?
He took a deep breath before speaking. “Honestly, I’m not sure. All I know is that every time I see you, it’s getting harder to keep my hands off you. Even though I’ve only had a small taste, I’m already addicted and I won’t be right until I have you completely.”
She closed her eyes, and he knew she was debating with herself. But the fact that she hadn’t walked away yet told him that the odds were in his favor.
“Fine,” she said, finally looking at him. “But we keep this casual, okay? This is strictly sex. Nothing more. I don’t want anything more.”
His gut clenched at her terms. He’d always thought of Alexa as more of a relationship type of woman. Why was she changing her stripes now? Although he felt slighted, given his track record lately, this type of arrangement could be better in the long run for both of them. But he had a stipulation of his own.
“Agreed. Sex only. And sex only with me. I’m not going to share you. Understood?”
“As long as the same goes for you. No sleeping around while we’re together.”
Together. He liked the sound of that.
“You’ve got a deal. Any last words?”
She thought about it for a beat. “I’m not like the other women you’re used to.”
“I’m counting on it,” he said in an instant.
Her eyes flashed with surprise. Then with resolve. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Instead of answering with words, he slid his hands up her body, enjoying each curve along the way. He palmed her breasts and squeezed them gently. He loved how full and soft they were. His dick grew even harder at the thought of finally being able to take them into his mouth.
But not yet. He needed one more thing. “Tell me what you want, Alexa.”
This time, there was no hesitation. “I want you.”
With a satisfied sigh, he dropped his hands and pushed her purse toward her.
“What are you doing?” she said, her voice hushed and unsteady.
He stood up and brushed her lips with a soft kiss. “Call your friends,” he answered. “The only place you’re going right now is straight to my bedroom.”
…
Naked or not naked? That was the question.
Alexa fiddled again with the buttons on her sweater. Should she start unbuttoning them or should she wait?
Dante had only told her to go to his bedroom while he got Gomez situated in his kennel for the night. He hadn’t said if she should take off her clothes or leave them on. Even so, she’d sat on the edge of the bed and unhooked the top button on her sweater before a thought came over her.
Maybe he wants to watch me take it off?
She buttoned it back up and sat there questioning whether Dante was the kind of lover who liked to do the undressing himself or if he preferred more of a striptease. Truth was, she had no idea what kind of lover Dante was. But she was anxious to find out.
I should’ve worn the green maxi dress.
It had a straight zipper down the back and she usually wore a black waist cincher and garter belt underneath. If she’d been wearing that, she knew Dante would definitely enjoy the show.
But she hadn’t been thinking of lingerie when she’d dressed before coming over. Maybe she’d lied to herself by not believing that sitting on Dante’s bed waiting for him to come for her was exactly where she expected to be?
She’d told herself when she got out of the car in front of his house that it was perfectly reasonable to want to tell him about her decision to settle as soon as possible. The meeting with Nick had been a total waste of time. The bastard had only wanted to sleep with her. That was why she’d told Brandon they should settle. She’d kept that part from Dante only because she knew how angry he’d be. And she didn’t want him to think that what happened with Nick had anything to do with her decision not to sleep with him.
Well, that had been the plan.
Then she watched him with his snoring dog in his old house with his retro table and, suddenly, Dante didn’t seem so…so out of her league. Combine that with the way he talked about their first kiss? Any resistance to exploring a sexual relationship with him fell away.
She was proud of herself for stipulating the need to keep things casual. Natalie and Clarissa had made a good point about her having to separate love from sex. If she could do this with Dante, then she could prove to them—and herself—that she could leave emotion out of her actions. Even with men.
And that’s how she’d ended up on the edge of his bed contemplating her lingerie choices.
She looked around the bedroom and couldn’t help but smile at the dated floral wallpaper and wood paneling. They were a stark contrast to the sleek and modern furniture pieces she figured Dante must have brought with him from the loft. Alexa stood up and walked to the long dresser that sat against the room’s only window. The top of the dresser was almost bare. A lone leather valet tray held a few cuff links, a watch, and a couple of tie clips in its various compartments. A bottle of cologne sat next to it, and she picked it up to take a quick whiff. It smelled like Dante—strong, spicy, and addictive.
“Come here.”
She turned and saw him standing in the middle of the room. How long had he been watching her? His command released a tangle of nerves in her belly, and she wondered if he could see it on her face. She prayed he couldn’t. The last thing she wanted was to act like some inexperienced schoolgirl in front of Dante Perez.
Alexa squared her shoulders and walked over to him. He reached out with one hand to grab the back of her neck and gently tugged her closer. His eyes danced with desire.
“Do you know how long I’ve waited for this moment, Alexa?”
She didn’t know if it was a rhetorical question, so she didn’t answer.
“I didn’t think so. Let me put it this way. Tonight isn’t about taking our sweet time. Tonight is about satisfying our mutual urges, because I have a feeling once I’m finally inside you, I’m not going to be able to hold back. Do you understand?”
She understood, all right. He was telling her that they weren’t going to make love. They were going to fuck. Plain and simple. Down and dirty. Her last remnants of anxiety dissipated, replaced by a burning surge of want. He’d made it perfectly clear what tonight was about, and that freed her. No expectations. No holding back.
She was ready.
Alexa nodded, and that was the signal he needed. His lips came down hard and fast, and she immediately opened to him. His tongue plundered every corner of her mouth, desperate and ravaging. His urgency sparked her own, and there was nothing in the world that mattered to her at that moment other than to get Dante inside her as quickly as possible.
As if reading her mind, or her breathless sighs, his hands moved to her sweater and began working on the buttons. His gentle tugs and pulls let her know he must be having problems with them, so she covered his fingers with hers. That’s when she noticed the tremble.
Was he nervous or just excited? Either way, it did something to her insides.
She broke the kiss and met his questioning eyes. “Let me do it,” she whispered.
He nodded and took a step back. One by one, she plucked the tiny pearl buttons open until the sweater opened to unveil a vanilla lace push-up bra. He groaned appreciatively, and she took off the sweater completely. She moved her hand to the zipper on the side of her skirt, but he stopped her before she could do anything.
Without words, he pulled the zipper down and then watched intently as the skirt fell to the floor. After she stepped out of it, Dante placed his hands on her bare shoulders and lowered his mouth to the top of her cleavage, her breasts still straining underneath her bra. His tongue, hot and wet, slid across her skin, and she gasped. Within seconds, he released her breasts from their enclosure and finally claimed one engorged nipple with his mouth. He sucked and licked it greedily, and it sent bolts of heat straight to her sex. She grabbed the back of his head, urging him to take her breast deeper into his mouth.
“God, yes,” she moaned when he complied.
She felt his hands slide down her back, and soon they were cupping and kneading her ass.
“Touch me,” he rasped.
Alexa moved a hand between them and found the thick bulge resting along his thigh. It thrilled her. She couldn’t wait to see what her fingers were rubbing.
“I need to taste all of you,” he said against her skin before bending down to pull off her panties. When she was completely naked, he took a second to drag his eyes up and down her body. “You’re so fucking beautiful, Alexa.”
Men had told her that before, but she realized now the words had been meaningless. When Dante said them, she believed them. There was a hunger and need in his tone that could only come from a place of worship. It made her drunk with power and even more turned on.
Whatever this man wanted to do to her, she was damn sure going to let him.
So she went willingly when he guided her to the edge of the bed to sit down. One hand moved to the back of her head and twisted her hair between his fingers. Then he pulled down. The movement caught her by surprise, and he quickly bent over to swallow her gasp.
Their tongues met again in a languid, openmouthed kiss. He drew out her passion slowly. Deliberately. And when he finally released her, she whimpered.
The edges of his mouth turned up in a lazy smile as he watched her watch him unbutton his shirt. She felt her jaw drop when her eyes lit on his defined chest and toned abs. And when he finally dropped his pants and boxer briefs, she couldn’t help but lick her lips.
His thick and pulsing erection jutted away from his body toward her in an invitation.
He read her mind again. “As much as I want to feel those luscious lips around my cock, I’m so hard that I’d probably blow after just one suck. So we’ll save that for another time, because right now all I can think about is tasting your pussy. Open your legs for me.”
She did as instructed, and he knelt before her.
Alexa couldn’t find the words to explain the sensation she felt when Dante’s tongue first stroked her clit. In fact, it was more like a garbled cry that escaped her lips on contact. More indistinguishable noises followed as he alternately sucked and licked around the tight bundles of nerves. The sound of him lapping up her arousal sent her hurtling toward the edge. Her body tightened in preparation for the building orgasm.
“Fuck, you taste so sweet,” he groaned. “I knew you would.”
He hooked his arms under her knees and pulled her toward him until her ass was almost hanging off the bed. She leaned back on her elbows and threw her head back as he thrust two fingers inside her.
Her thighs began to quake, and she knew she was already close to losing it completely.
“I’m going to come,” she moaned. “Oh, God, I’m going to come so hard.”
“Then come for me, Alex,” he rushed. He pressed his tongue against her swollen nub and shook his head furiously from side to side. The pressure and intense vibration were unbelievable.
She exploded.
Tremors rocked her body, and she collapsed fully onto the bed. Flashes of color burst behind her eyelids as she squeezed them shut. Her body tensed and calmed as waves of pure satisfaction carried her soul into the most wonderful place. Through her orgasmic haze, she felt him move away and then heard the sound of a condom wrapper tearing open. And then he was on top of her.
He grabbed her chin to turn her head so she’d look at him. His eyes were dark and serious, his face flushed with passion. “Tell me you want me again. Say my name so I know you’re not thinking of anyone else but me.”
She met his lust-filled stare head-on. “I want you, Dante. Only you.” His mouth slammed against hers in a messy, wild kiss. Teeth and tongues collided, and it didn’t matter. Because all she wanted, all she ached for, was him. “Now. Please,” she cried.
With a grunt, he nudged her thighs apart and then plunged his cock inside her. There was no gentleness or tentativeness. Just raw sexual need. He braced himself above her and continued to pump into her pussy with intense and determined thrusts. She took everything he gave her, thrusting her own hips up to meet him so he could penetrate her as deeply as possible. And he did. He filled her up completely.
“Are you ready to come again?” he rasped before taking one of her nipples into his mouth. Her eyes closed as she surrendered to the pleasure of having his mouth on her body again. But they flew open again at the sensation of a hot finger rubbing against her clit. Warmth and wetness rushed between her legs as her arousal grew.
Dante swore under his breath and changed position so he was more on his knees. He grabbed her ankles and pulled them higher and wider into the air. His thrusts came harder and faster, slamming the second orgasm right out of her in one powerful surge.
She screamed his name.
“That’s right, baby. Fuck, you’re so hot and wet, I can’t take it anymore.”
He let go of her ankles and used one hand to hold her by the shoulder as he drove into her one last time. His entire body shuddered with his release.
When their quaking stilled, he leaned down and kissed her gently.
“I didn’t hurt you, did I?” Concern was etched across his face.
“No, of course not. Why would you think that?”
“Because I couldn’t get enough. I still can’t.” He bowed his head and took a breath. Then he met her eyes in a challenge. “There are things I want to do to you, with you. And after what just happened, I may not be able to hold back. I’m worried it all might be too intense for you.”
It had been intense. Even a little rougher than she was used to. But that didn’t mean she didn’t love every minute of it. She’d been surprised at first when she realized Dante had such a commanding side to him in the bedroom. Those few weeks they’d been together in Puerto Rico, he’d been so gentle and patient with her. She’d told him after their first kiss that she’d wanted to take things slow. And they had. He’d never demanded anything more than she was ready to give.
Just like now.
But there was nothing sweet or gentle about what they’d just done. And that thrilled her. Obviously she’d been satisfied by lovers in the past. She wouldn’t love sex as much as she did if she’d had bad experiences. What was different about this time, though, was how freeing and unrestrained it had been. There was no pressure with Dante. She wasn’t thinking of whether he loved her or even if he would call her in the morning. The only thought that entered her mind as he pounded into her was how good it had felt. How good she still felt.
She reached up to touch his cheek. “I’m a big girl, and I don’t mind experimenting now and then. I can take whatever you want to give me.”
“Is that a dare?” he said, his usual smirk crossing his lips. “Because if it is, you just signed up for one wild ride.”