“Bienvenidas! Bienvenidas!” The elderly woman behind the resort check-in desk waved to us overenthusiastically. She was a short little thing, with deep cocoa skin and a thick speckling of white in her otherwise midnight-dark hair. Gloria, her name tag read. Her smile was contagious. I smiled back at her as Leo and I approached the desk.
It was an amazing thing I even wanted to smile at all now. The apartment complex had been a bust. Leo had come back to the car within the ten minutes I had allowed him, as sober as I’d ever seen him. When I’d asked what he found up there, all he said was that Tanner was nowhere in sight.
I had the feeling he was keeping the contents of that apartment a secret to spare me. I’d allowed him the small courtesy of dropping the subject. I could guess it was probably an immense amount of cocaine that kept his mouth closed.
I knew my brother enough to know he’d always dealt with some shady characters.
Even though I had expected nothing less, I’d still deflated at not finding my brother right away. Leo had told me on the way to the resort that we would hunker down and he would use all his resources to find him. The look in his eyes as he promised was that of a professional who always got the job done. I simply nodded and looked back out the window.
I, of all people, knew he always did what he was paid to do. That was until someone came along to pay him more not to. I refused to talk to him for the rest of the ride. Even though he never stopped trying to gain my attention in one way or another.
It was late evening when we pulled up in front of the luxury resort. I was ready to eat something and crash. The day had been an emotional roller coaster ride and I was ready to get off.
“Hola,” I answered the elderly woman. “Reservation for Schafer,”—the annoying man behind me cleared his throat loudly. I rolled my eyes—“and Cruz,” I mumbled.
Gloria tapped her nose like she recognized my annoyance with the overwhelming presence at my back. I could feel his scalding stare as I dutifully ignored him.
“Hmm,” she hummed to herself. “I have a Cruz and a Donaleigh. No Schafer?” she asked with confusion in her voice.
I nearly rolled my eyes. Of course, my parents had made the reservation under their last name and not mine. I changed it from Hasting to Schafer, my grandma’s maiden name, after Chris and I divorced. I would be damned if I went crawling back to the same name that was just as bad as my ex-husband’s.
I gritted my teeth as I nodded. “That’s the one,” I mumbled.
She smiled brightly. “We have you in the two joining private terrace suites with a private pool.” She smiled up at me. “Javier here will take your luggage and escort you to your rooms.” She pointed to the man standing in the corner next to my large amount of baggage compared to Leo’s one suitcase.
“Grac—wait, did you say joint?” My eyes widened at the realization of my predicament. I couldn’t have a joint room with Leo. I wouldn’t be able to exist for the unforeseeable future knowing I shared a wall with this man. I shook my head vigorously. “No, we need to change th—”
Leo’s thick arm wrapped around my waist, hauled me up, and faced me in the opposite direction. I yelped before I could realize what was happening.
“Gracias!” I heard him say to Gloria as he held me firm. I felt like a wayward child as he held me with my feet off the ground. He started walking after Javier as I heard a cheerful, “De nada!” I could hear the laughter in her voice while Leo carried me away as if I weighed nothing at all. Traitor.
I smacked him on his forearm and tried to wiggle out of his embrace. “Let me go!” I seethed and thrashed like a wildcat.
His chuckle pissed me off further as he only continued to walk toward our joint suite. How the hell was I going to get out of this? I was fully aware I was making a scene in front of all the other resort guests but I didn’t give a shit. I dug my nails into his arm and kicked my feet out wildly. When my heel landed a blow on his shin and he grunted, I felt a surge of victory course through me.
“Hold still,” he groused at me.
I could see ahead of us that Javier was already putting our luggage in our rooms as we approached.
“This is fucking ridiculous, Leo. Let me down,” I gritted between clenched teeth.
“I don’t think I will. I prefer you right where you are.” I could hear the smile in his voice that only served to grate on every nerve.
I thrashed even more now. Somehow he had twisted me around so my back was to his front but kept that steel vise that was his arm firmly wrapped around my middle. I felt the deep rumble in his chest as he thanked an unconcerned Javier and sent him on his way with a hefty tip.
What the hell did a girl have to do to get a little help around here?
I kicked behind me again and smiled when I connected with his knee that time. Though my victory was short-lived as Leo pushed me against the wall that separated the doors to our suites.
There was barely any room to breathe as he crowded me. His thick front was pressed tightly against my back. I tried to wriggle away from him as I bared my teeth. He pushed me further into the wall as he seemed to growl in my ear.
“You are the most difficult woman I have ever met in my entire life, Princess,” was all the warning I got as he bit down on my earlobe. The yelp on my lips nearly turned to a moan as he ground his erection into my backside. I bit my lip as the explosion of heat flooded my core.
He chuckled against me. “I told you to hold still.” He licked the shell of my ear. His hot breath against my ear zapped a sharp yearning straight to my sex. “You caused this.” He thrust against my ass again, letting his body tell me what I was doing to him. My body fully betrayed me as I felt my ass push back against him. God, it had been too long.
“Fuck,” he rasped before he gripped my hips. He spun me in place to where I faced his looming figure.
I scowled up at him as he crowded me again. I was still so angry with him, but he smelled so fucking good. I hated the way I longed for him as he pressed against me.
He leaned down toward me and buried his face against my neck. I felt myself turn my head to give him greater access. When his hot tongue licked across my pulse point I shivered. He groaned against me before he kissed his way up to my jaw. The feel of his facial hair against me lit me up like a live wire.
When he reached my lips he paused and pulled away from me just long enough to look into my eyes. He searched them as if solving a puzzle before lightly brushing his plump lips against mine. My breath hitched in my throat.
I don’t know if it had been the stress of the last few months finally coming to a head. It could have been the frustration that we weren’t any closer to finding Tanner. Maybe it was because this was Leo. Or maybe it was the fact that it had been so incredibly long since the last time I’d been touched like this. But, at that moment, I didn’t want to stop him.
I wanted to feel like I had in that motel three years ago with him. Even if it had never been real in the first place. I wanted to go back to the past just so I could be the same Emily that experienced love for the first time. To experience being loved by someone again.
I brought my hands up and pushed them into the hair at the back of his head. His eyes flared as I pulled the silky strands lightly before pulling him to me.
As soon as our lips met, really met, it was as if the entire world fell away. The sound that came from his chest was like a release of his own stress. I sighed against him as I sank into the kiss. He stood still as I explored. I kissed softly against his lips. Slipping my tongue out to rub at the seam of his. He opened for me to continue. His tongue joined in the slow sensual dance I provoked from him.
My breasts became heavy and my nipples tightened into painful peaks as I ate at him. My core felt like a tangle of unhashed yearning. The deep throbbing in my sex matched the twitches I could feel from his hard length against my lower belly.
I tugged his hair as I licked into his mouth. Through it all, he let me move the way I wanted to. He let me take the lead as he kept his hands on my hips. The only sign that he wanted more from me was the slight squeezing of his fingers against me.
When I pulled away, his eyes held all the promises I had wanted to be fulfilled three years ago. The need I saw there was almost palpable. I’m sure my eyes reflected the exact same thing as I lunged for him. I nipped his lower lip hard enough it would definitely be sore later. That seemed to break his ironclad restraint.
His sharp inhale was the only warning I got before he moved. His hand came up to the back of my head before he dug into my hair. He pulled a handful down, lighting my scalp up and craning my neck back so I had no choice but to take what he offered.
His mouth fully devoured mine as he took control of the kiss. I moved my hands then, trailing them down his torso, to the front of his jeans. When I rubbed the flat of my palm against his impressive length he jerked against me with a deep masculine groan.
He moved his mouth away from my swollen lips in favor of traveling lower. His hands were everywhere at once it seemed. He kissed, licked, and nipped down the side of my neck as he lifted my shirt to one side, exposing my bra. He held me still by my hair as he explored. With deft fingers, he pulled my bra cup down and released the tightened peak.
I fumbled with his belt and loosened it enough to shove my hand between him and the denim. He was hot and heavy in my hand as I stroked him as best I could.
“Oh, fuck,” he growled before he pinched my achy nipple with his fingers. The moan that ripped from my throat was so loud, I should have been embarrassed. But I wouldn’t have even cared if someone happened to walk by us at that moment. I had been pent up for so long, I needed this. For closure if nothing else.
“I thought I would never get to feel your hands on me ever again,” his admission was muffled against my collarbone.
I kept stroking him as he pinched and pulled at me. Working me up into such a tizzy I didn’t know how I would ever come back down.
Suddenly, he pulled away from me, forcing my hand away from his cock. He slid down to his knees in front of me. I nearly shouted as he lifted my naked breast and sucked the achy nub past his kiss-swollen lips. When I say the sensation of his soft lips paired with the roughness of his beard was enough to make me see stars, I mean just that.
I shoved my hands into his hair, desperate to hold him to me. He groaned against me as he released my other breast from the fabric that restrained it for his ministrations. I hissed as he plucked my other nipple and nipped the one in his mouth. My head hit the wall behind me as I arched into him.
He released me long enough to look into my eyes. Molten honey stared back at me as he continued to pluck me with his fingers.
“God, I missed you so fucking much, Emy.” His words slammed into me like a blast from the past.
One minute I was standing in the walkway being groped within an inch of my life and the next I was back in that shitty motel with him between my legs. The echoes of the past assaulted me.
“My fucking home.”
The sudden burning in the back of my eyes had me pulling my hands out of his hair. He continued to kiss my breasts as if he didn’t notice I’d stopped moving.
“I love hearing those words.”
Memories of laying together. Laughing as we explored one another lazily. All the promises that were made but never fulfilled.
Unholy anger replaced that tight coiling in my gut. He had been nothing but a fucking liar. And here he was, using those same damn words on me again. As if I didn’t remember how he had betrayed me so thoroughly. Shame washed over me as I realized how desperate I must’ve looked to him at that moment. I closed my eyes as I hardened my resolve to not let it get this far ever again.
He made to pull me away from the wall before I pushed at his chest. He dislodged himself and looked up at me with such confusion on his face, he almost had me fooled. He didn’t give a shit about me. He never did.
I said nothing as I glared down at him. Rage I’d never experienced flooded my every movement as I pushed him again. This time he sat back on his heels as he looked up at me. That was where he needed to be. On his knees begging for my forgiveness.
That’s the part that hurt the most—he never even told me he was sorry for what he’d done. It was as if he had stepped back into my life and just expected me to get over all the shit from the past.
Not this time. I had way too much self-respect for myself to allow this to go any further. I huffed a heavy breath before pushing him again. I allowed him to stand after that, even though all I wanted to do was beat him into the ground for doing this to me.
“Emy,” his voice was small as though that would calm me down.
I sucked in a shaky breath as that burning in the back of my eyes intensified. The sound that left me as I shoved him again was tortured. I felt dampness flow down my cheeks as I pushed him again. He held his hands to his sides and let me move him further away from me.
I roared my anger at him with a scattered breath as I pushed and pushed and pushed. He yielded step after step to me. I hit his chest with such force, I knew it had to hurt. The solid thump of my palms against his pecs became a steady beat inside my head.
I gritted my teeth as I wore down. The sympathy in his eyes was too much to take as I heaved air in and out of my parted lips. It was that horrible shrieking breath you heard when someone was completely losing it.
When I couldn’t shove him anymore, I leaned heavily against his chest as my body shook with heaving sobs. He raised his hands to my outstretched arms and gripped my wrists. His thumbs moved in soothing circles against the skin there.
“I’m sorry if I took it too far, Emy. It’s just been so long and I’ve missed you and now you’re here but I don’t know why you won’t talk to me. Why you won’t look at me?” His voice sounded smaller than I had ever heard it before.
I looked up from his chest into those concerned honey eyes before I shook my head and ripped my arms away from him.
“I know about everything, Leo. So you can stop pretending,” I relayed to him much more calmly than I felt. His eyebrows furrowed as I continued. “It was a lie, all of it.” I backed away from him toward my room. “Chris told me all about your little employment opportunity with him. He showed me the proof you collected for him so he could prove I was a cheater and a liar. So you won.” I splayed my arms wide open and bared my teeth in a snarl. “You got the easiest job in the world. You were able to fuck a lonely, pathetic housewife and got paid to do it. Congratulations!” I shouted.
“Emily, I have no idea wh—”
“Save the fucking explanation for someone who gives a shit, Cruz! I’m done!” I yelled over my shoulder as I walked over the threshold to my suite. I turned as he started for me.
“Emily, please,” he said as I slammed the door.