Chapter Twenty Seraphina
Chapter Twenty
Seraphina
With another fresh cup of coffee in hand, I rested my shoulder against the window by the kitchen table, taking in the view down below.
A statue of angels. One bowing alongside another, bathed in the soft glow of the midmorning light.
I was definitely much more relaxed now than before, but still reeling from what happened.
Hearing the bedroom door open, I found myself murmuring, “Did you know Puebla is also known as City of the Angels?” And I came here to speak to a man with that name to help me. Kind of ironic.
I looked up to see Ryder hanging back in the doorway, fully dressed, with his ball cap hiding his hair. He should’ve looked a bit more relaxed, given he’d been in there to relieve his own tension after watching me relieve mine. Yet he still looked like a tense block of steel.
When he remained quiet, leaning against the doorframe, his thumb hooked in the front of his pocket, just staring at me, I had to remind myself we weren’t on vacation together. We were there for a reason, and it wasn’t to have copious orgasms. Unfortunately.
“Great library here, too. Colorful houses. Cobblestoned alleys. Beautiful churches.” Okay, I wasn’t sure why I was acting like a travel guide. “Would be nice to walk around. See the city.”
“Too dangerous.” Bossy response, of course. So, we’re back to that. “You’re stalling.”
“I guess I’m still tense.” More so nervous about the fact I needed to get this stubborn man on board with a plan he wouldn’t like—so yeah, maybe I’d been stalling all morning.
“Still?” His forehead wrinkled as if he was surprised or offended.
“Unfortunately.” Don’t try to tell me you’re not, too. “I still want you. Not out of my system.”
“Good.” He lifted his chin like that movement was a word in itself. “ Unfortunately , you’re not out of mine, either.”
“So, what you were doing in there while I dressed and made coffee didn’t help, huh?”
“I think you know the answer to that.” He flashed me a small devilish smile that was irresistible, and then I couldn’t erase the mental image of him jerking off in that bedroom from my mind.
“So that’s why we’re still ...” Horny? Maybe I wasn’t only stalling. My body was just too responsive to him. And why was I suddenly shy after I’d parted my legs for him and let him direct me in getting off?
I pushed away from the window and set the mug down on the table. At some point, I’d finish a full cup of coffee.
“Maybe it’s because we didn’t touch each other?” I proposed.
He straightened, changing from that sexy-lean pose to being upright and a sharp line of tension.
“You think after I put my mouth between your legs, you’ll get over me then?
That’ll be all it takes to move on?” That low, raspy tone of his, along with the dark look in his eyes as he stared at me, had my body coming alive in anticipation all over again, and I was only ten minutes post-orgasm.
I held on to the top of the chair at the table, maintaining eye contact with him. “I guess we’ll have to wait and see?”
He cut the space between us in half, long strides bringing him my way. “I guess so.” His voice was anything but flat, and instead, laden with desire.
I sighed, because what else could I do right now since I needed to keep my hands to myself?
He’d given me my first orgasm in thirteen months without even touching me. He gave me so much more than that, though. He gave me hope. Gave me pieces of myself back.
I glanced at the front door when a thought hit me. “You weren’t worried I’d take off on you while you were in there.”
“Why, do you want to leave?” He rounded the table, standing on the other side as if feeling the need to have an object between us. Like it was safer that way, since our willpower around one another was practically nonexistent.
“Depends.”
“On?” He copied my movement, gripping the top of the chair—but, from the looks of it, much harder than I was, since his knuckles whitened.
“On whether or not you agree to my plan here.” Could I actually run away from him again like I did Saturday? No, which meant I had no choice but to convince him to agree with me.
I checked the time. An hour and a half until I was due for the call. That gave me ninety minutes to get him on board.
“I think we’ve established I won’t allow you to do anything that puts you in danger.”
I smiled, unable to stop the reaction from happening.
He loved bossing me around as much as I loved not submitting.
Well, okay, I’d submit all day long in the bedroom, but that was a different story.
He could fuck the attitude out of me for eternity.
In fact, I’d purposefully find a reason for him to adjust my attitude in the bedroom.
“We also established I have free will. I’m not your prisoner. ”
“Unless it’s to keep you safe. I’ll veto any decision you make that risks your life.” He went around the table to stand before me.
I let go of my death grip on the chair to face off with him. I had to look up with him so close.
He captured my chin. “And in that case, fuck your free will.”
“So it’s going to be like that? Are we really back to—”
He dropped his mouth over mine, capturing whatever I’d planned to say, because hell if I remembered the moment once he kissed me.
This was why we shouldn’t share the same space.
This was why it was so dangerous to our focus to even breathe in the same air.
“You drive me crazy,” he rasped, moving his hand from my chin to hold the side of my face, his fingers slipping up into my messy hair.
“I can’t fucking think straight when you use this mouth of yours to do anything.
” His words vibrated against my lips before he groaned, wrapping his free arm around me to draw me tight to his body as his tongue took command of mine, invading my mouth.
And it was perfect. It was bliss. It was all the things.
Also, it was surrender. Submission. It was him letting me know that when it came to my safety, he’d win, and part of me was okay with that. Part of me forgot what it was like to give the control over to someone so I wouldn’t have to worry or even think about anything if I didn’t want to.
“What are you doing to me?” Another husky rasp from him before he deepened the kiss, exploring the inside of my mouth as I rotated my hips, feeling his hard length press against me.
The definition of not over each other was happening now. Tension back, stronger than ever. Our orgasms hadn’t rid us of anything. More like spurred us both on to only want more.
“No, what are you doing to me?” I managed when his fingertips dug into my ass cheek over my gray shorts and squeezed.
“My turn to stall, I guess,” he said between kisses.
I reached up between our bodies, searching for his wrist. One of us had to get a grip.
To focus. I didn’t expect it’d be me, since this was his job—Delta operator and all.
But I had to remind myself I’d spent almost thirteen months with one objective in mind: justice for my family.
I couldn’t give that up now; I was too close.
“Ryder.” His name came as a plea from my lips. “We should ...”
He licked my lips back open, and I parted them without hesitation, giving right in. How could I not? I’d wanted this man since the moment he zipped me up on Saturday, which was only six days ago.
After a few more dizzy and intense seconds, my clean panties now drenched, he pulled back and found my eyes. “We need a barrier. I know you don’t want them up here, but if we’re going to talk with our clothes on, then—”
“Okay,” I interrupted in understanding, even if the idea of being naked in his bed and wrapped up in his arms was much more preferable to talking about Ezra and the cartel. “Text them to come back.” I released my hold of his wrist and set my hand on his chest.
“One of us should back away.” Two sharp lines formed between his brows, and I took that as his request for me to be the stronger one and do it.
“You should unglue your hand from my ass and face, then.” I smiled, and he returned mine with a handsome boyish grin I adored. It was the first time I’d seen this hard operator go soft on me. Well, definitely not soft beneath his jeans, or anywhere else.
“Roger that.” He winked, then he closed his eyes, as if it’d be easier to let go of me that way. He slowly did so, and I removed my hand from his chest, and we both stepped back.
With his eyes still sealed from view, I knew there was something he needed to know that I’d yet to confirm, and I wanted to get that over with before the others joined us. “Ezra,” I whispered. “He never touched or hurt me like that.”
His eyes flashed open, obvious relief crossing his face, but his body remained tense and rigid.
I wet my lips and continued, “He wanted to, but his wife kept him in line. She may be responsible for my family dying”—I still wasn’t sure—“but I’m fairly confident she was why I never had to endure .
..” I cleared my throat upon realizing the anger was returning to his face; he had to be thinking about what could’ve happened even though it hadn’t.
“To be clear, if he’d tried, I wouldn’t have gone down without a fight.
” Shit, was my lip trembling? Or was that my whole body?
“Fuck,” he said with a shake of the head, then closed the space between us, circled my wrist, and hauled me over. He crushed me against his hard body, wrapping me in his arms to hug me.
“You’re going to kill him anyway, aren’t you?” I asked, my cheek to his chest as he held me in a much different way. “You’re not that guy, though. I—I don’t want you becoming that guy for me.”
He was quiet for a moment before shifting back to locate my eyes. “The thing is, I’m already that guy.” In a dark voice he murmured, “You have no idea just how much.”