Chapter Five
Neko
I am all about rules and parameters, I never go astray.
That is, at least, until I snuck into the bedroom of a beautiful young woman I have no damn business wanting the way I do. From that very first night watching her sleep, wondering what she dreamt about, hoping she stayed oblivious to the danger threatening her, I have forgotten all about rules.
It’s been just over a week since I took this assignment.
It feels like a lifetime. I cannot get enough of Noemi.
Of her laughs, of her teasing, of the way she sways her ass and flutters her lashes at me.
That flip of her hair when she turns to look at me, the bite of her full, pink lips.
Fuck, this girl is going to be my ruin—and I fucking welcome it.
“Did you hear me, brother?” Atlas’ voice barks, bringing me back to the present.
“Yeah. Yes I did. Thank you. I appreciate you always coming through,” I call back through the phone, though my focus is not at all on the call we’re finishing up.
Atlas did some of my dirty work for me. We had no idea who was stalking Noemi when I took the assignment. I could not protect her from a threat I did not understand. With a little digging, Atlas gave me plenty of information about who I am up against.
“His name is Vance,” Atlas continues, the sound of him blowing smoke from a blunt coming through the other end “Former intelligence, specialized in asset management. Your girl’s father hired him three years ago to oversee her personal security.”
My jaw tightens so hard my teeth ache. “How long has he been tracking her?”
“Since her father fired him eight months ago,” Atlas replies, with a huff. “Vance didn't just step over the professional line; he erased it entirely. He decided his firing was a test setup by her father to keep them apart.”
I set my phone down to skim through the data he sent over. Vance might be good, but we’re better. Atlas cracked his computer, his phone, every bit of his digital data. To call what I’m looking at a fixation is an understatement.
I trace the edge of one particular photo. It is her at that bar I took her to, when she tried to make me jealous. Well, tried and fucking succeeded. I was livid when that loser put his hands on her. But this is even fucking worse.
He was there, watching her. Stealing moments of her beauty. That dress she has on there, she wore for me. To drive me fucking nuts. It worked, of course, and it clearly did a number on him too. I am livid that I was so taken by her that day I somehow missed him in the shadows.
Can I protect her from someone who got so close? I broke my first promise to her. To be fair, she did everything she could that day to distract me. Only it is my job not to get distracted, not to take the bait no matter how sweet the trap she sets.
If I cannot protect her from myself, how can I protect her from someone wanting her as badly as I do?
“She doesn't even know who he is. There was nothing between them,” I lament, rage and jealousy weighing my words.
“He doesn’t see it that way. In his head, they had a secret romance. He’s written hundreds of pages detailing a relationship that happened entirely in his head. He thinks she's waiting for him to 'rescue' her from her current life so they can run away together.”
“He's out of his fucking mind if he thinks that,” I bark as I stand, snatching the phone up as I start to pace.
“Worse,” Atlas corrects softly, seriously. “He's highly trained, obsessed, and completely unmoored from reality.”
Thanking him again, I end the call with a promise to reach out if I need the help. I won’t need help. Being so attracted to her, so drawn to her the way I am, it put me off course, sure. Now that I know how serious the threat is, how dangerous this lunatic is to her, I am right back on track.
No one else will get close to her again. Even if I have to lock her up in her bedroom myself. I glance across the courtyard, watching her wander through the gardens. Fuck, this woman…I understand why Vance got so entangled with her. It feels impossible not to get tangled up by her.
“That call made you very grumpy,” Noemi teases as she comes to circle me, taunting me without even trying.
Biting back a smirk—because damn I smile whenever she’s close—I jerk my head in a nod. “Some intel on the man your father hired me to protect you from.”
Going still in front of me, she cocks her head. An adorable frown forms over her brows, her dark hair spilling down her shoulder in silken waves. My fingers ache to tangle in those chocolate curls so I can kiss the hell out of her pink mouth.
“Hmm…he hired you to protect me from…you?”
Blinking at her, I lose the battle. I smirk at her because damn, she makes me feel shit I never felt before. Shit I shouldn’t feel. I am a threat to her, she is not wrong. But I fear its too late to protect either of us.
“Do you remember a man named Vance?”
From the look in her coffee brown eyes, I see she does. Her body tenses slightly. It might not be picked up by anyone else. I know her body. I’ve spent every moment since I climbed that damn wall learning it. Unable to help myself, I move closer to her.
“That’s a yes. Did you two ever…. have…” Fuck, I can't even say it.
Not just because I know the answer. It was true what she said—she’s never touched a man before me. She won’t be touching another, either. No, I can't say it because I can’t let myself even imagine her being involved with this nutcase.
“What? No…do you think I just…” Noemi backs up, hurt flooding her beautiful eyes. Fuck, I can’t do this.
Giving in, I let my hands get tangled in all those dark waves. I move us both, pinning her to the garden wall. Lowering my head, I crush my mouth to hers. Noemi is soft beneath me, pliant, molding all her curves to me as she opens her mouth to my greedy tongue.
One of my hands slides down to circle her throat, and she cries out, pushing forward. Letting my fingers tighten, I suckle her soft tongue. Her whimpers make me so hard I ache. Notching my cock between her thick thighs, I kiss her deeper, harder, lost in the tidal wave she has me caught in.
Noemi is the not the first woman I risked breaking rules for. She is the first one to take me so deep under I am drowning. I don't care. I've not felt alive so long. Even before Panama. Until this beautiful girl watched me from her window, telling me without saying a word she wanted to be rescued.
"Neko," she whispers against my mouth when we take a breath. "Do I need to be afraid?"
Pulling back a little, I cradle her jaw in my hand. "Not of him. I won't let him get near you again, princess, I promised."
Something hot flares in her eyes, a tiny smirk on her just-kissed lips. "So I ought to be afraid of you?"
Sighing, I drop my head to touch my forehead to hers. "Even if I told you yes, you should be very afraid of me, you would not listen to me. Would you, princess?"
"No," she shoots back, eyes hot with indignation. "You're the first thing that has touched me, Neko. I want it. I want you."
Closing my eyes, I breathe her in. Her sweet lilac and power fresh scent. That softness that she shows just to me. I hate to say I know where her stalker is coming from, but I do. I get it. I was entranced by her the moment I met her and nothing else has mattered since.
I tried to ignore how she looked at me those first days. All I wanted to do was please her, give her whatever she asked of me. At the market she was so beautiful, so free. Upsetting her the way I did wrecked me. Seeing her hurt, hurt because of something I said or did, it changed everything.
I still tried to keep a distance. Tried to do right by her. I am not a right choice for her. I might, in fact, be the very worst choice she could make. Standing here, holding her close, knowing she is unequivocally choosing me is all that matters.
Right or wrong, if she has chosen me, then she has me.
"Then you have me, Noemi. Rules or no rules, right or wrong...I have never wanted anything the way I have from the moment I set sight on you."
"You've had me from that moment, Neko," she whispers, tilting her head to brush her lips against mine.
Groaning, I take over the kiss, sucking greedily at her sweet lips.
I bend and she goes with it, letting me hoist her up against the wall.
My hand slides up her thigh and I tug at her panties.
I touched her the other day after she tried making me jealous—again, not tried, it fucking worked—but I stopped.
I won't stop now. Not until she begs me to. Not until her cream is dripping down my fingers. I hiss a grunt when I feel how wet her lace panties are. I pull them to the side, pulling back enough to watch her eyes. I rub the tips of my fingers over her swollen clit, dipping to eat her moans.
"That's my good girl," I hiss against her mouth. "So wet for me. You've needed this, yes, princess? Me touching you like your pussy belongs to me?"
"Y-yes, yes, I need it. Doesn't it belong to you, Neko?"
"Fuck. Yeah, it does. It's fucking mine now, Noemi. No one else will ever feel how silky wet you get. How tight," I hiss as I push two fingers inside her, loving how she grips me. "You get when you're not. I can't wait for you to be wrapped around my cock, princess."
"Oh my god," she gasps, head thrown back as my thumb rubs at her clit, my fingers pumping slow, gently. "Neko...I'm....I'm going to..."
"Do it for me, princess. Let me see you come for me."
Noemi's head falls back against the stone wall as she does just as she is told. I can't pump my fingers into her pussy because it gets so right as she comes. Her cream soaks my fingers. Grabbing her hand, I press it to my cock, where I am swollen, aching, the head sticky with my own cum.
"See what you do to me, Noemi? You ruin me."
"Good," she pants against my mouth as her fingers trace the evidence of me coming in my pants like some loser teenager touching his first pussy.
To be fair, hers is just the third I've touched. I want her to know that. To know about Panama, about who I was before and who I became after. I want to her to know just how goddamn tangled up in her I truly am. I have never felt so twisted up, so captivated in my entire life.
"Good," I whisper back, rocking my hips forward so she can feel how hard I still am for her. "Because I am going to ruin you for anyone else."
"I am not for anyone else, Neko. I never was. I was just waiting for you to show up in my life," she husks, her gaze holding mine as she declares this.
That might sound cute or saccharine. It might seem over the top. Not for us. Not with this thing between us. Noemi is not wrong. My entire life led me to coming here, to protect her, to find her. To have her.
"Well, now that I am where I belong, I just have to take care of you other suitor. If he comes close to you again..."
I trail off because now that I have broken the last rule, crossed the last line I can, nothing else matters.
I have hurt men before in my job. It's part of what I do.
I've killed before, while I was in the marines.
I hate that I ever took a life but it was ours or theirs and I made the choice for them.
For her...for her, I would kill without remorse or regret.