Chapter Nine

  “What did he want?”
     Ariano smiled and tossed the phone aside but she could see that he was bothered by the phone call.
 “What do you think he wants? He’s looking for you,” he replied, sitting back against the sofa casually. “He might go to your father, Celina. This is not a good idea.”
 She laughed, tossing her blonde hair back.
 “He values his life too much to admit he fucked up on his first night,” she replied easily.
 But to be honest, who knew what Alex might do in a panic? She had no way to be absolutely sure. Much like Ariano, she only knew Alex in passing. But she would bet heavily that a man as cocky and conceited as Alex would not be willing to admit he had fucked up so badly when he was competing for a promotion.
 Instinctively, she knew that he would be a potentially nasty enemy though.
 As she thought about it, she realized that Alex might be more dangerous than she had given him credit for.
 Dangerous maybe, but not smart.
 “Can I make a drink?” she asked nonchalantly, and Ariano peered at her, one eyebrow raised laconically. 
 “I’m surprised you asked,” he replied, rising from his spot on the sofa. Celina looked mildly chagrined as he moved toward the makeshift bar at the cart.
 “I’m not a complete bitch,” she muttered, before she could stop herself. She didn’t know why, but for some reason it seemed important that Ariano understand this one small point.
 Something had changed in the past few days – especially today. As if she suddenly realized how important it was to her to have Ariano on her side.
 “I never said you were,” he replied, offering her a gin and tonic.
 She blinked as she accepted the glass from his hand, her fingers brushing his strong ones as she did. A little jolt of awareness rocked through her at the contact and her eyes flew up to his.
 “You know what I drink,” she said slowly, surprised but pleased at the same time. The drink was made to perfection, and as the alcohol burned through her throat, she was filled with a tingling warmth.
 Ariano chuckled and reclaimed his spot on the sofa, his steely eyes fixed on her.
 “My job is to watch you, in case you’ve forgotten,” he replied. “Of course I know what you drink. I know more about you than you’d probably like.”
 The words should have filled her with annoyance, but instead, Celina found herself relaxing as she met his gaze, placing the glass onto the coffee table.
 “Oh yeah?” she challenged, adding an edge to her voice which she didn’t feel. “What do you think you know about me?”
 A wry smile formed on his lips.
 “I know you like to fight,” he offered, and Celina snorted.
 “How perceptive of you,” she commented mildly, rolling her eyes in the process.
 “I’m not finished,” he retorted evenly and she found herself falling silent as she waited for him to speak. He paused for a long moment, their eyes locked.
 “I know that no one sees the real you,” he continued softly, his tone sending a shiver through her, and without realizing it, her body leaned in toward him, wanting to absorb whatever heat his muscular frame sent in her direction.
 “You think you can see the real me?” she asked, a combination of scorn and wistfulness filling her. “I doubt that.”
 “You’ve put up walls to keep everyone out and I don’t blame you, but I can see inside them, Celina. You can’t hide that from someone who watches you constantly.”
 An unfamiliar sense of insecurity flowed through her, making her want to look away, but she couldn’t pull her eyes from Ariano’s dark gaze.
 “You’re wrong,” she breathed, but the denial was weak even to her own ears. A small smile formed on Ariano’s lips.
 “Am I?” he challenged.
 She wanted him to stop talking, to forget the softness he had seen in her.
 He doesn’t know shit about me, she thought furiously, but there was less anger in her than there was desire and longing that what he said was true.
 She leaned in toward him, her body inches from his, but she stopped herself from kissing him, the memory of his rejection in the car still fresh in her mind.
 It had been a blow to her ego and she wondered if he would refuse her again if she tried. But as she studied his face, she knew that tonight, things were going to go nuclear between them, the sexual tension in the air was almost palpable. Her breathing hitched at the thought of his strong hands on her body. 
 She realized that her desire to be with him had changed – it now had little to do with wanting to control him, and everything to do with wanting to connect with this man who just possibly, might see her for who she really was.
 Ariano was the first man who had ever dared to assume he knew her – the real her. He was the first one who had ever cared enough to try. All the other men around her just wanted her so they could secure a place in her father’s good books. That, or they wanted to score with the hot piece of ass that was forever off limits and out of their league. 
 “Fuuuck,” Ariano groaned suddenly, turning his head away from her, and Celina realized that he was struggling with the magnetic pull between them as much as she was.
 The fight for power still lingered between them, but something much more primitive had taken hold.
 I was right when I told him that it was going to happen eventually. I only thought that it would occur on my terms. 
 “You’re proving that you know me,” she replied. “That you know what I want… what I need right now.”
 His eyes locked on hers and she could almost see the battle waging in his mind. Then suddenly, his passion won out over his brain and with a low growl, he leaned forward, grasping her arms in his hands roughly. The kiss he nearly forced on her was dominant, powerful, and her body exploded with awareness, her blood damn near reaching a boiling point in zero point one two seconds.
 It was totally different from their first kiss – if you could even call the incident in his car a “kiss”. It was almost as if she had cornered him and it had been an emotionless test which he had passed.
 This time, when their mouths met, a charge of electricity sparked through Celina’s sultry form, a flash of gooseflesh tickling her body.
 Her hands reached up to encircle his neck and Ariano slowed, but she didn’t allow him to pull away, her body rising up to straddle his form against the sofa.
 “We can’t do this,” he muttered, but his lips did not lose contact with her skin, his nose nuzzling against the line of her chin, his teeth nipping her jaw.
 “Shh,” she breathed. “Just show me, Ari. Show me that you know me.”
 As he worked along the curve of her neck, toward the swell of her full breasts, Celina reached behind her back to undo the zipper of her dress.
 Suddenly, the memory of Alex standing at her back in her bedroom caused her to freeze.
 “What’s wrong?” Ariano asked immediately, pulling away. But she shoved the unpleasant thought out of her head and seized his face in her hands, lowering his full lips to the swell of her breast and the nipple that had just been exposed when her dress slithered down her arms.
 He didn’t resist, his mouth latching onto her prickled skin, sucking at the flesh as bolts of pleasure emanated through her body, the dress bunching at her waist while a low moan escaped her parted lips.
 Her fingers laced into his hair, pulling him closer as if she wanted him to erase the doubts and uncertainty she had been feeling all night. For her whole life, really.
 “Fuck, you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, Celina,” he muttered, his lips savoring the taste of her.
 The growing thickness between his thighs only solidified his words and Celina gasped when she realized how big his cock was beneath the expensive material of his pants.
 Damn, he just might break me with that, she thought, the idea causing her pussy to gush with excitement.
 As he massaged her nipple with his tongue, nipping roughly at the tender skin, she raised her hips to free him of his trousers, the need to feel such an engorged shaft inside her overwhelming all else.
 Her aggressive move seemed to change something in him, his iron control slipping just a bit as he grabbed her suddenly, throwing her onto her back on the couch.
 Celina gasped at the unexpected motion, but before she could sit up, he was towering over her. He grasped her wrists roughly, pinning her arms over her head.
 “You’ve caused me a lot of grief since I got assigned to you, Celina,” he said conversationally, and Celina saw a look in his eyes she had never seen before.
 The dominance there caused her heart to speed up, the anticipation building quickly within her as his silvery-blue eyes raked over her half-naked body. One palm slid slowly up her left thigh to rest between her legs.
 “So?” she replied in a challenge, her voice quivering just slightly with excited fear. “What are you – “
 Before she could finish her sentence, two fingers slipped inside her drenched center and Celina gasped aloud as Ariano filled her aggressively, sinking his fingers deep within her.
 “So?” he echoed softly, his fingers working in and out of her, his knees holding her thighs apart as he moved, his face inches from hers.
 Her arms were stretched tightly over her head and she bucked up against him, her breath coming hard as a groan escaped her. His fingers continued to work her expertly, pausing to slide against her throbbing nub.
 “I think that you need to understand your place,” he continued, his tongue running over his lower lip, his hand working faster as his grip tightened against her wrists.
 Celina squirmed beneath him, her breaths escaping in short rasps.
 When he added a third finger, she cried out, her body tensing as his thumb caressed her swollen clit, bringing her to a shattering climax in seconds.
 Since when can I cum like this? She asked herself, shamed and pleasured simultaneously, a hot stream of juice flowing over Ariano’s fingers as she moaned loudly.
 “Oh fuck, Ariano…”
 “Yes?” he asked. “What is it, cara?”
 He didn’t stop, didn’t slow his pace, the first orgasm quickly being overcome by a second as she struggled against the position, the feelings coursing through her causing her body to burn so strongly. It was like her blood was on fire, the currents of heat blazing a trail of pleasure so intense through her that she saw stars behind her clenched lids. Her writhing was futile, as he easily held her in place, her body an instrument for him to play.
 He had her exactly where he wanted her; coming hard and immobile.
 He’s trying to teach me a lesson, she realized in a haze.
 Her stubborn, fighting nature tried to resist the pleasure, but even as his fingers slipped out of her center and he replaced them with his enormous shaft, she was still incapable of moving.
 Skillfully, he lifted her long, slender legs around his neck, ensuring she was pinioned to the oxblood leather of the couch, slick but unable to move before he plunged into her center, his thrust almost violent.
 Celina was sure she was having an out of body experience, watching him as he threw back his head in sensual triumph, her ankles locking around his blonde head as his hips pistoned into her.
 She cried out in surprise at the sheer width and length of him, the walls of her center suctioning around him and Ariano grunted.
 “Aw fuck,” he growled. “You’re so goddammed hot and wet for me, aren’t you, cara?”
 He thrust even deeper, reaching that place within her that made Celina’s pussy clench hard around him.

 He’s going to bruise me everywhere, she thought and the idea only served to make her wetter, her legs squeezing against his head, pulling him closer as if to absorb him into her body.
 “Cum, you little hellion,” he growled. “Cum for me, now,” he demanded.
 Celina choked, stunned at the words and shocked that they brought her to an almost instant climax.
 She screamed as he jerked hard into her one last time, his own body tensing against hers, but Celina was far too lost in her own orgasm to notice the shooting streams of his seed filling her.
 Still, he did not release her, his flesh bonds digging into her skin at every angle as sweat dripped onto her bare chest.
 His body trembled, the last of his juice sliding into her with an almost ferocious groan from his throat and Celina tried to catch her breath as she returned to her body from where she seemed to have been floating near the ceiling.
 “Holy fuck,” she muttered and he laughed breathlessly, abruptly releasing her so she fell into a wobbly puddle of arms and legs as he fell back against the cushions.
 “I know the feeling,” he agreed.
 Shakily, she sat up, her long hair falling to cover her luscious breasts, her heart trying to catch up with the demand for oxygen her body was screaming for.
 “You’re huge,” she commented, awe lacing her voice. “Jesus Christ.”
 “Am I?” he replied nonchalantly. “I guess I’ve never given it much thought.”
 She laughed.
 “Yeah, I bet,” she retorted, suddenly picturing the hordes of women he had been with.
 I bet he’s fucked half of Miami already, she thought, an inexplicable jealousy coursing through her and the feeling made her irate.
 What the hell is wrong with you? You didn’t fuck him because he’s your boyfriend. You fucked him because you need to have the upper hand if need be.
 But Celina knew no matter what she tried to tell herself, she had developed feelings for the guy, even though she knew better.
 He’s just like the rest of them, huge dick or not, she warned herself. No amount of logic would prevail, at least not in that moment while she still tried to collect herself from what she had experienced.
 But no other soldier would hide her away from her security at the risk of angering her father. No other soldier had ever caused a stirring in her the way Ariano had. And certainly, no other had pinned her to the sofa and caused her to cum three times in a row.
 She hated to admit it, but Ariano was different and no matter how much she tried to deny it, to fight it, he had a hold over her.
 Still, he can’t risk Papa finding out about us, she reasoned, eyeing him as he slowly regained his even breathing. So really, I do have the upper hand.
 But Celina knew that she was not about to turn her new lover in, no matter how annoyed she grew with her surveillance.
 Whatever she felt about being watched, her feelings for Ariano had seemed to supersede her need to teach her father and his goons a lesson.
 How the hell had that happened so quickly? You barely know the overbearing beast. But like it or not, she had developed a begrudging respect for him. The attraction had always been there – in spades, but Celina had never respected a single member of her surveillance detail.
 She wondered what that was going to mean for them in the future.
 What future? She snapped at herself. This can’t happen again.
 She realized that he was watching her.
 “Why are you staring at me?” she demanded, her cheeks flushing as if he could read her thoughts.
 “I’m going to take a shower,” he replied. “Want to join me?”
 She nodded before she had a chance to think about the answer.
 Okay, she conceded. Maybe once more. But that’s it.