Chapter 24
LAYLA
Had I planned this? No. Had I been hoping it would happen? Hell, yes.
It didn’t seem to matter that I’d promised him less than a week ago that we could move forward and put what had happened behind us. It also didn’t matter that I’d almost quit because it had happened at all.
When Santiago and I were alone together, nothing seemed to matter except for this. For him. He was the fuel to my flames, and I wanted the inferno even if meant the whole world burned to the ground around us because of it.
My attraction to this man knew no bounds. It didn’t care that we could both lose everything we’d worked for if we were found out. I didn’t even care that my father would probably disown me if he was to walk in here right now.
I was drawn to Santiago in a way that didn’t seem to have any rhyme or reason. Before I’d gone to his office to ask if I could come with him, I’d tracked down some of the other cadets. They were planning on spending the weekend at a motel near the Station and they hadn’t invited me to join them.
I should have asked them if I could, but I hadn’t. Instead, I’d told them to have fun and then I’d gone to see Santiago.
He was the only person I wanted to spend this weekend with. When I’d told him I didn’t have anything else to do, it had been true, but I was pretty sure the cadets wouldn’t have turned me down if I’d asked.
Ultimately, however, this was where I wanted to be and this was who I wanted to be with.
Santiago’s lips were as soft as I remembered them being, but his kisses were hard and demanding again.
Low groans were falling from the back of his throat and I loved the fact that I knew those noises meant he wanted this just as much as I did.
The aquatic scent of him was intoxicating, and between that and having his hard body pressed to mine, I didn’t stand a chance of escaping or pulling back. For both of our sakes, one of us probably should have, but neither of us did.
As we kissed, his tongue tangled with mine and his large, warm hands cupped my cheeks and held me to him like he was afraid I was going to disappear if he let go.
That ripped torso I’d admired at the pool earlier today was crushed against mine, and I could feel his heart pounding against my chest as he walked us back in the direction of the bed.
The two of us alone together in the most beautiful, romantic cottage right on the beach had been a recipe for disaster from the moment he’d given in and said I could join him here.
He’d probably known it but he still said yes.
It made me feel more desired, more longed after, than I’d ever felt before.
As he laid me down on the mattress, I wrapped my hand around his neck and brought him down with me, and I couldn’t help the moan that slid out of me.
When I was with him, it seemed I was as vocal as he was. I hadn’t been with a lot of men in the past, and I’d certainly never been with one who made the kind of noises he did. In fact, I’d always thought that men wore silence during sex as some kind of badge of honor, but not Santiago.
As I moaned, he growled, then nipped my lower lip and broke the kiss to look down into my eyes. “You have been a very bad girl, Cadet Perkins. The ground rules were specifically designed to stop something like this from happening.”
I rounded my eyes, hoping that it made me look innocent before I batted my lashes at him. “Are you going to punish me, sir?”
To my surprise, he let out a soft chuckle as he nodded. “Yeah, I’m going to punish you, alright. I’m going to punish you by keeping you in bed with me until neither of us can walk tomorrow. Sound good?”
“It does, but it also doesn’t sound like much of a punishment.”
He smiled, then brought his lips back to mine and kissed me a lot gentler this time.
When he lifted his head away from mine again, he held himself up on his elbows with his hard body pressing me into the mattress.
“Okay, look, I’m going to level with you.
Role play is hot sometimes and if you want to be punished, like spanked and stuff, I can do that, but right now, I’d rather just be with you. ”
My lips parted, but I didn’t really know what to say.
Santiago’s blue eyes held mine. “What’s it going to be, cadet? It’s one thing to joke about it, but it’s another to actually do it.”
“I wouldn’t know,” I admitted softly. “I’ve, uh, I’ve never done it before. The punishment and stuff, I mean, but I think you’re right. I like joking about it, but I don’t think I’d enjoy the real thing much.”
“We’ll see.” He kissed me again, but this time, he didn’t pull away until he had to so we could get his shirt over his head.
As I watched him rise up to tug the material away from his broad shoulders, my gaze caught on the tattoo placed almost right over his heart. Semper Paratus, it read in cursive script, and I smiled. “Always ready, huh?”
He surprised me again when he sighed, smiled, and shook his head. “That’s what I thought when I got it, but it turns out I’m not always ready.”
“Why not?”
Tossing his shirt to the side, he brought his head back down and ran his nose along the length of mine.
“Because I thought I was always ready for anything, but then this beautiful, smart, exceptionally talented cadet walked into my class and I definitely wasn’t ready for her. I wasn’t ready for you, Layla Perkins.”
“You might not want to say stuff like that if you don’t want me falling for you,” I whispered as I wrapped my arms around him again and stared up into the depths of his gorgeous blue eyes. “If it helps, I wasn’t ready for you either.”
Out of nowhere, he smacked the side of my ass and smirked as he rose up again.
“That’s enough of that. You’re not falling for me, and you’re also not the one who literally has the words Always Ready tattooed on his chest, so you clearly weren’t as much of a cocky asshole as I was when I got it.
I really thought it was true. Anyhow, lie down on my lap. ”
“What?”
“You heard me, cadet,” he grumbled, inserting some of that commanding authority from training into his voice instead of keeping it as sweet as it had been just a minute ago. “You said you’d never been spanked and I think we should find out if you enjoy it.”
I sucked in a breath. “Oh, right.”
As I settled over his lap, feeling a bit silly for the way I was lying down and presenting him with my ass, I also felt a little thrill run through me.
He’d said he just wanted to be with me, but clearly, he was also capable of being playful in the bedroom and compromising on what he’d said he wanted.
Which I liked. It was a different side of him. When we’d been together before, he’d been so incredibly intense as much as it’d been absolutely amazing, so I was kind of looking forward to getting to know yet another different part of him.
“Tell me if it’s too much, okay?” he murmured, and I nodded, but it seemed he wasn’t happy with that. “No, cadet. Let me hear you say it.”
“I’ll let you know if it’s too much, sir.” I tacked it on at the end to tease him, and he laughed before he rubbed his palm over my butt.
Then it disappeared and I braced myself for pain, but instead what I got was a light smack that stung a bit, but in a nice way. My breath left me in a rush when I realized I really liked it. “Oh!”
I felt his erection twitch under me. “More?”
“Yes,” I said breathlessly. “More please, sir.”
“Such a good girl,” he praised me lightly before he smacked me again, a little harder this time, but it still didn’t hurt.
I squirmed in his lap and he didn’t ask this time before his palm crashed into me again. When I moaned, he slid his fingers under the waistband of my panties and into the swollen, wet flesh between my legs. He hissed loudly, teasing me before pulling his hand out and smacking me again.
“Shit, Layla. It’s like you were made for me, you know that?”
“Why?” I managed between labored breaths. “I thought you didn’t like spanking and punishment type stuff?”
“I never said I didn’t like it,” he murmured as he helped me up, then pulled my sundress over my head and unhooked my bra.
Those flames were back in his eyes as his gaze dropped to my chest before he moved his eyes back to mine.
“I do like it. I just don’t like actually hurting anyone, but that was fucking hot and I know it didn’t hurt. ”
As he lay back down, I shook my head. “It didn’t hurt at all. It felt really good.”
“Like I said, you were made for me,” he murmured insistently before his lips claimed mine in a searing kiss that made me want so much more.
Happily, it seemed he felt the same way.
We stayed in bed together for the rest of the afternoon and he gave me more orgasms than I thought I was capable of in more ways than I’d thought was possible.
We did more role play with him calling me cadet and me replying with sir, but it was all light.
Light, fun, and exploratory, and it was great.
I finally got to lick him all over, treating his thick, hard cock as my favorite lollipop and then swallowing everything he had to offer, and that was amazing too. It felt like he was letting himself go with me, and since we were in no rush, we could both do everything we wanted to do and more.
Long after dark, we got up and made dinner together without getting dressed.
Then we watched a movie naked on his couch before going back to bed.
As we fell asleep, I pulled myself in closer to his side, feeling safer, happier, and more sated than I had with anyone else in the past. I knew he liked having me here too when he hooked one of his strong arms around me and tugged me in tighter until I was fitted to his body like a sheet.
Whether or not we were supposed to be together, it felt so right to be here with him that I smiled when I finally closed my eyes. One of these days, I was going to have to let him go, but thankfully, that day wasn’t today.