He didn’t ask if I was sure. He didn’t assume I didn’t know my own mind. No, Tomas curled an arm around my waist, tugged me closer, and dropped his face to the side of my neck, growling softly when he felt the shiver move through me.
“Fuck, you smell good,” he said, then lifted me off my feet and kicked his office door closed on the way to the couch opposite his desk.
He didn’t lower me straight away, though. He hitched me higher so my legs had nowhere to go but around his waist, and thrust his fingers in my hair. His other hand went to my ass so he could hold me up while his lips moved up my neck, finishing at my ear. “Ready for that kiss, Angel?”
I nodded, shivering again when his cheek slid across mine. I gripped his wide shoulders as heat curled low in my belly, anticipation spiraling behind my ribs. Then his mouth was brushing mine, sucking off the frosting, coming back again and again, but maddeningly not taking it deeper, until my heart was racing and I was squirming against that strong hand still gripping my ass.
He made a rough sound in the back of his throat before licking the seam of my lips. I opened for him eagerly, desperate for more, and his tongue swept inside.
Oh God. I ignited. I clung to him, completely lost, kissing him back with everything I had. My fingers were in his hair, fisting, trying to tug him closer when there was nothing between us. I ground against him, moaning at the feel of his hard cock between my thighs, and sucked his tongue, whimpering into his mouth.
He pulled away with a sound that was almost a snarl and lowered me to the cushions. Tomas stood between my spread thighs, looking down at me with dark fire burning in his eyes. A warning, a promise of what was to come? Whatever was about to happen, I wanted it. I spread my thighs wider and reached for him. “Please,” I whispered, afraid he’d change his mind, try to be noble or something, that he’d deny me and leave me like this.
He dropped to his knees on the carpet between my thighs. “You never need to beg with me, Stephanie, never. All you have to do is ask and it’s yours.”
It was the truth. I knew it, could see it. He’d never leave me wanting in any way.
His gaze didn’t leave mine as he popped the button of my jeans and slid down the zipper. My breath hitched, excitement and anticipation filling me when he gripped the waistband and tugged them and my underwear down my legs, and threw them aside.
His gaze dropped to my bare pussy and he hissed, fingers flexing against my thighs.
“Do you have any idea how long I’ve wanted a taste of you? How many times I imagined doing this?” He leaned in and planted a sucking kiss to the inside of my thigh, making me moan and squirm. He moved higher, giving me more of those sucking kisses as his hands slid up the outside of my thighs and burrowed under my ass so he could grip my cheeks.
“How long?” I said, so turned on and dizzy with lust I thought I might die if he didn’t put his mouth on me right now.
His eyes flared, tongue sliding across his bottom lip. “First time I saw you. You were sixteen. You walked into your dad’s workshop, all that red hair down and wild, little cutoff shorts cupping your virgin pussy so fucking nice. I got hard just looking at you.”
My breathing grew ragged, his words setting another pulsing wave of liquid heat between my thighs.
“It wasn’t right, I shouldn’t have even looked at you, but how could I not? When you were like the fucking sun. You brought light and warmth with you, brightening up my dark shitty world. And fuck, Angel, you took it all away, every time you left. So yeah, it was wrong, but I was a fucked-up punk who could only dream of a girl like you.” He tugged me forward and dropped lower, trailing his nose along my thigh. He stilled momentarily when he saw the scar there, then he kissed it gently, his breathing growing even more ragged. His eyes lifted to mine. “So that’s what I did,” he rasped, using his shoulders to spread my legs wider. “I’ve wanted you since the first day I saw you, Stephanie. That never changed, not in all these years.”
His words hit me hard, so hard all I could do was look down at him as shaky breaths rushed from between my lips, my body trembling with need, with emotion.
Then words were impossible, because he freed one of his hands from under me, gently parted my pussy, and buried his face between my thighs on a groan.
I bucked, my fingers delving into his hair, and threw my head back on a needy moan as he licked and sucked, teasing me beyond all reason. I looked down, watching him, the most erotic sight I’d ever seen. His tattooed hand was gripping my thigh; the other holding me up against his mouth. His eyes were closed, dark lashes resting on his cheeks, and the way he licked me was like he couldn’t get enough. It was the hottest thing I’d ever seen.
He sucked my clit, and I cried out. When my fingers tightened on his hair in response and I tugged him closer because all my self-control had left me, he groaned in a rough way that was so erotic I thought I could come from just that sound alone, that it couldn’t get any better.
I was so wrong.
One long, thick finger pushed inside my pussy, and he wrapped his lips around my clit and sucked. His gaze lifted to me, and a cry burst from my throat. I couldn’t look away. He fucked me with his finger, his hot, dark gaze on me, watching, taking it all in, and I loved it. Then he slipped in a second finger, thrusting deep, rubbing a spot inside that had me gasping for breath and grinding down on his hand, and God, that beautiful mouth.
His lids dropped and his nostrils flared, and I started coming, harder than the night on his desk, harder than I ever had in my life. My thighs shook, my mouth fell open, Tomas’s name tumbling from my lips over and over as I pulsed against his greedy mouth. His fingers still fucked me, not letting up until he’d wrung every last spasm from me, until I collapsed in a heap against the back of the couch.
I felt him carefully withdraw his fingers, then he pressed tender kisses against my inner thigh.
“So fucking beautiful,” he rasped.
I opened my eyes as he stood, and there was no way to miss the huge bulge behind his zipper. I realized I wanted to return the favor, that I wanted to take him in my mouth and suck him until he lost control as well. Honestly, that was a revelation for me. I’d never done that before and enjoyed it. Ryan had made sure of that.
It wasn’t conscious, but just thinking about him must have made me freeze up or something because I was hauled off the couch by Tomas and held tight in his arms.
He cupped the side of my face, looking into my eyes, and shook his head. “Don’t let him in here with us, Angel.”
Then he kissed me, deep and hungry. I could taste myself on his tongue, reminding me of what we’d just done and how good it was, how perfect.
When he lifted his head, I shook mine. “It wasn’t a bad thing…I just, I realized that I wanted to give back to you what you just gave to me, that I wanted to take you in my mouth as well.” I swallowed, my mouth watering for a taste of him. “I guess it took me by surprise.”
His gaze searched mine. “Why is that?”
He still held me in his arms and I loved the way it made me feel. I never wanted him to let me go. I could feel his hard cock against me and it made it hard to think clearly, which was probably why I said more than I should. “Ryan used it as a punishment. It was never really voluntary. It was rough and…” I shook my head. “I never thought I’d ever want to do that again, but…” I smiled unable to hide the bubble of hope inside me that I could move forward, that I wouldn’t let Ryan ruin my future like he had my past. “But I do, I want to, with you.”
Tomas went impossibly still, his expression going from lust filled to hard as hell. “It wasn’t voluntary?” he said in a calm voice that was anything but calm and sent shivers down my spine.
I sucked my lips in and bit down. Shit. Why did I tell him that? “I’m okay,” I said, knowing it for the lie it was, because I would never be okay with what Ryan had done to me while I was with him. I hated him with everything in me.
“He forced you?” he said, voice like rusted steel.
And there it was again, that look in his eyes. I was back to being his broken little bird. I hated it. So. Damn. Much. “Don’t,” I said. “Don’t look at me like that.”
He flinched. “Like what?”
“Like I’m some wounded creature that you’re afraid will break if you don’t handle it like it’s fragile. I’m not fragile, Tomas.”
His eyes didn’t leave mine, his thumb brushing over my cheek. “Baby, you think I don’t know how strong you are? Christ, woman, I’ve never, never known anyone stronger than you. But someone hurt you, someone you trusted, someone who should have worshiped the ground you walked on. You don’t just get over that.” Another brush of his thumb. “So, no, I don’t think you’re fragile, but, Angel, I don’t want to do anything to hurt you or, fuck”—his expression grew more intense—“scare you. It would fucking kill me if I ever did that. So I need you to be open with me, tell me what’s okay and what’s not. You have the control in this. All of it. Understand?”
My lip started to quiver and my eyes stung. God, what was he doing to me?
His eyes softened. “You’re not fragile, Steph, but I’m always going to treat you with care. Always. So get used to it.”
The emotion welling inside me overflowed and I pressed my face against his chest, wrapping my arms around him, and hung on as the tears started flowing. He held me as well, just as tight, and I realized something, something huge.
I was totally and completely in love with Tomas Mendoza.
And there was no going back.
Tomas
I could hear the music coming from the gym, a sexy pulsing beat as I walked down the hall. Steph had been going down there every afternoon for the past week. My angel loved to dance. But it wasn’t just the act of dancing she craved. I knew that when she danced at Stilettos, on stage at least, it had given her an escape, a measure of control. Something she had definitely needed then.
I knew she missed it since she wasn’t working.
She’d agreed not to go into the club until we found Ryan. And I’d started seeing a change in her the last few days especially. She seemed antsy, on edge, until she came down here, turned up the music, and lost herself.
That feeling wasn’t something I could give her. She needed the stage and the lights, the audience. I was doing everything I could to give her what I thought she needed, and it fucking killed me that it wasn’t enough.
I pushed the door open and, like always, the sight of her moving to the music stole my breath. As I watched her, so soft and beautiful—my angel—I had to fight down the rage inside me. I was doing my best to keep it from her, all of it, my life outside this house, and the clawing need to find Ryan and end him. He’d abused her in every way a man could a woman, and she was still standing, so fucking strong, so brave.
That fucking piece of shit wouldn’t be standing when I was done with him.
He wouldn’t be breathing either.
I’d made her come for me many times this last week until she was boneless, until she passed out. I just wanted to make her happy. Giving that to her was fucking everything, and as much as I wanted her under me, until she was ready, until she looked me in the eyes and asked me to take it there, I’d give her what she could handle.
Pleasuring her, fuck, nothing felt so good. Every time she screamed my name, coming around my fingers, against my mouth, rubbing up on me, that motherfucker got pushed farther and farther away. She hadn’t frozen up on me or gone into her own head, not this past week.
Ryan wasn’t with us, he wasn’t in the room, forcing his way into her mind when I touched her, not anymore. It was just her and me.
She spun, her beautiful red hair sliding across her back, and she spotted me standing by the door. She stopped dancing and jogged to her phone to turn off the song she had pumping through the speakers.
“Hey,” she said, walking toward me, cheeks flushed.
I caught her up in my arms when she reached me.
“Have you finished for the day?” she asked.
“I have.” I tucked her hair behind her ear.
She grinned. “So you what? Got bored and thought you’d come looking for a private dance?”
I loved her like this, after she’d been down here dancing. The stress that I saw on her face would go for a little while. She liked to tease me. I fucking loved it.
“You know there’s no other stripper I’d rather have in my lap.”
She poked me in the chest. “I prefer exotic dancer, thank you very much. I’m a professional, and moves like mine don’t come cheap.”
I slid my thumb under her bottom lip. Her lips were red. They were that color all the time, even without lipstick. Like candy apples. “I like your moves.”
Her gaze dropped to my groin, to the obvious bulge there. “I noticed.”
I smirked. “I always try to make a lasting impression.”
She nodded. “You don’t have to worry about anything on that front.” She tilted her head. “I hope you don’t walk around like that in front of poor Arthur. He’d be mortified.”
I chuckled. Arthur had seen far worse in his time with me, but I chose not to share that with her. Christ, I wanted to suck on that bottom lip. “I’m not too worried, since I only have this problem when I’m around you.”
Her tongue darted out, licking her lip and grazing the tip of my thumb at the same time. I was hard when I walked in here; now I was rock solid.
“Tomas—”
My phone started ringing. I growled.
She grinned again. “You should probably get that.”
As much as I didn’t want to, she was right. I had men all over this city searching for her husband and I wanted to know the moment they found him. I pulled it from my pocket and put it to my ear. “Mendoza.”
“We all set for tonight?” Stephanie’s boss, Raul, said down the line.
“I was just about to tell her. You make the arrangements?”
“Yeah,” Raul said. “Steph will be safe here. I’ll make sure of that.”
“Thanks for your help with this. I appreciate it.”
Raul made a gruff sound. “She’s one of my girls. You don’t need to thank me,” he said, not sounding happy.
Not a surprise. The guy didn’t have much love for me and he’d had even less since I’d been coming into his club to see Stephanie the past year. I got it, but he’d just have to get over it because she was my girl now.
“See you at ten,” I said and hung up.
Steph was looking up at me. “Where are you going at ten?”
“We are going to Stilettos. I thought you might like to dance.”
Her face lit up. “Really?”
I nodded.
She threw her arms around me. “Thank fuck for that. I’ve been going stir crazy.”
My lips twitched. “Thought so.” I leaned in and kissed her thoroughly, because I had to, and when I lifted my head, her eyes were a little dazed. I liked that, too, a lot.
Her fingernails lightly grazed the back of my neck. “A shift at the club is exactly what I need.”
“Not a shift. You’ve got two dances on stage. No lap dances, and you’re not to go anywhere near the private rooms.”
Another graze of those nails. Fuck, I loved when she did that. “If you say so,” she said. “I know you’re trying to keep me safe. I don’t want to make it harder on you.”
“It has nothing to do with your safety, Angel.”
Her brows rose.
“I think you’ve picked up on the fact that I’m no saint.” I cupped the side of her face. “The last year, I sat back and watched you dance for assholes and said nothing because that was your job and it wasn’t my place. You have to know that went against every part of my nature.” I held her wide gaze. “But things have changed. Woman, I’ve watched you come. I’ve had my hands on you, my mouth. You think I can sit back and watch my girl with someone else, even if it’s your job?” I pressed a kiss to her lips to soften what I was saying. “I’ll give you anything, but I can’t give you that.”
Her mouth opened, closed. “What does Raul say about that?”
I shrugged because what Raul thought—what anyone thought—was irrelevant. All that mattered was that Steph was okay with this change because I couldn’t share her, not like that.
“I need to keep my job, Tomas,” she said. “After this is all over, I’ll have to go back to my old life. I can’t just stay here and hide from the world.”
Her words nailed me in the chest. Did she think I was just playing with her? That what we were doing here had an end date? Christ, how did she not see it?
“Humor me,” I said instead. “Just for now.”
She relaxed and I wanted to fucking howl.
“I think I can do that.” Her smile returned. “I better go pick something to wear.”
Stephanie would work out soon enough that there was no end date. There was no going back to her old life. She owned me, heart and soul.
Somehow I had to make her see it.