Chapter 2 #5
“Big guy with eyebrow piercings and a star tattoo here?” I point at my left cheekbone. “He told me he saw you in Chicago, but he had no proof. I checked it out. There was no sign of you.”
“Yeah, well, I’ve learned to run fast and to think on my feet.”
I’m curious. “How did you get away from him?”
Few people do. I can count the number of targets who evaded him on one hand. That’s why I thought he had to have been mistaken about spotting her. I never thought Tatiana would’ve been capable of outrunning Laing. The man has a reputation, and he’s a professional.
“At the first red traffic light, I jumped into the car of some guy in a suit.” She shrugs. “Told him my abusive boyfriend was chasing me. He dropped Noah and me off at a motel.”
“Noah was with you?” I stab a hand into my hair. “Jesus.”
“So thanks for ruining my life and then offering it up for a million.”
“It was a reward for information that would lead to finding you, not a price on your life.”
“With the kind of men who came after us, you could’ve fooled me.”
“I made it clear that no one was to touch you.”
“I don’t think bounty hunters bother with the fine print on a contract. When do they ever play by the rules?”
I want to ask what she means, but she bulldozes ahead, not giving me a chance to speak.
“Tell me the truth, Dante. Aren’t you here to make sure I can’t lay a claim on the inheritance you’ve stolen from me?”
“I haven’t stolen anything, and I don’t have to kill you to make sure of that.”
“Is that so?” She sneers. “You’ve got it all figured out, don’t you?”
“As a matter of fact, I do.”
“Then tell me what’s going to happen.” She steps right up to me, putting us toe to toe. “Tell me why you’re here.”
I drop my gaze to her lips. “I’m here to take what’s mine.”
She laughs that strange laugh again. “You’re not getting Noah.”
My voice is level. “I don’t mean him.” I finish my drink and set the glass down on the bar counter. “Well, not only.”
She steps back and glares at me. “Stay away from Noah. He’s not yours, and neither am I. Making that assumption will be a mistake.”
She has no fucking idea how wrong she is.
Ugly jealousy burns in my gut. “Did you take another man’s cock in your pussy?”
She clamps her lips together.
My voice comes out low. Dangerous. “How many?”
More silence.
“Because so help me God, Tatiana, I’ll kill every motherfucking one of them.”
A chuckle bubbles up in her throat. “Is that what this little charade is about? Hell, Dante, you’ve always been possessive, but this takes it to a whole new level.
” Her cheeks flush red with anger when I don’t reply.
“Did you come here to piss on your tree? To mark your territory?” Shooting back her drink, she downs everything in one go before putting her glass neatly next to mine.
“I’ll tell you what. I’m done doing things on your terms. It never did me any good, did it?
” She shakes her head. “No. Look where listening to you has left me. So here’s how this is going to work. You want my pussy? You can buy it.”
I growl a warning. “Tatiana.”
“No, Dante. Let’s call this what it’s always been.
You used me, so why change the game now?
” She brushes her hands under my jacket, pushing it off my shoulders.
“I fuck you, you get over it, and you go away.” When the jacket falls on the floor, she grabs my shirt and rips it open.
Buttons fly everywhere. “I’ll sign any papers to denounce my inheritance.
” She pulls the shirttails from my pants.
“Or why not have a death certificate issued? Everyone thinks I’m dead anyway.
Why not leave it like that? It’ll make things easier for you from a legal point of view. Don’t you think?”
She stills when she’s got the shirt open to stare at the new ink on my chest. I covered a lot of skin since the last time she saw me naked.
I don’t know if it’s the vastness of the ink or the fact that all those images prove just how long it’s been that pulls her out of the fucked up space she’s gone to in her head, but she’s quiet as she splays her fingers over my chest.
She’s back in the moment, and fuck, her touch…
it does something to me. I should push her away, but I want her—I’ve never stopped wanting her, not in all the years I’ve been hunting her like an animal—and I’m not a good enough man to stop her when she strokes her palms down my chest and over my stomach.
Whatever pulled her out of her head, that’s gone when her fingers reach my belt. She unfastens the buckle while staring at my face and licking her lips like a tease. “How about that, Dante? Is that what you want? A fuck to get me out of your head? Hell, I’ll even give you one for the road.”
I grip her wrists. “Not like this.”
“Yes.” She pulls free and slaps my hands away. “Exactly like this. My way. My terms. You don’t get to tell me what to do.”
There’s no getting over her, no setting her free.
I’m about to tell her that when she unzips my pants and slips her hand through the gap without bothering to unfasten the waistband.
Her warm hand cupping my hard-on is my undoing.
The gentle squeeze of her fingers around my cock is as much as I can take.
Grabbing her shoulders, I push her away. “Tatiana, no.”
“Yes, Dante.”
She shimmies out of her leggings. No panties.
Fuck.
I only get a glimpse of the golden hair between her legs before her oversized T-shirt covers her again.
Those long legs are as toned as I remember. I’m intimately familiar with the feeling of her soft thighs hugging my hips and the firm grip of her ankles locked behind my ass. I know how tight and wet she is when I work my cock inch by inch into her quivering pussy.
That’s my downfall, those vivid memories. That’s what prevents me from saying no when she removes her socks even though I should stop her. That’s the weakness that keeps me silent as she pops the button on my waistband.
Holding my gaze, she takes out my cock. The touch is both familiar and new.
Overwhelming. I can’t focus on anything but her warm fingers on my naked, aching flesh.
I imagined this moment every single night for five long years, yet nothing could’ve prepared me for the heat that fires through my veins.
The possession she accused me of sparks in every cell of my body. My mind registers one word only.
Mine.
She’s always been mine. Yet it’s not like before when she was shy and I pinned her on her back.
That’s what’s different about the way she touches me, strokes me.
Watches me. She’s not the inexperienced and innocent girl who took my cock in her virgin pussy and bled for me with tears and gasps.
The woman working my cock in her hand until it lubricates her palm with drops of precum is a beautiful, broken creature shaped by the hardships and ugliness of life. It takes one to know one.
The thought is startling, but I can’t focus, not when she pulls the belt from the loops in my waistband and gives it to me before walking to the sofa and bending over the armrest with her hands behind her back.
“Tatiana.”
She looks over her shoulder, meeting my eyes, and spreads her legs.
This woman is new. I don’t know her. But I don’t care. Can’t reason with my brain. Not when she pulls her T-shirt up over her ass and her pussy is on display.
“Come on, Dante.” She lifts her arms behind her back, wrists crossed. “Don’t be a coward. Do it. Take the deal.” Her gaze is taunting. Daring. “This is what you’re here for, right?”
The buckle presses into my palm as I clench my fingers around it. That control I’m so proud of? It’s gone, fucking vanished into thin air as I stalk to her and tie her wrists with my belt.
Still, she mocks me. “Good boy.”
I pull the belt tighter than necessary, needing her to shut up before I do something we’ll both regret. She arches her back and winces, but the smile on her face doesn’t vanish.
She pushes out her ass. “See that cunt? That’s the word you liked to use, right?” Her tone is spiteful. “It’s the last time you get to fuck it, so you better make it count. How about I throw in a bonus? You can piss on me too, really get to mark that territory before you move on for good.”
That earns her a slap on the fleshy part of her ass cheek. Not just for the part about pissing on her but also for moving on. Letting her go was never an option.
She clenches her ass. My handprint blooms red over her skin. This is new too. I’ve never spanked her. Never gotten around to that kind of kink.
Angry at her and more at myself, I slap her ass again, hard enough to make it wiggle. “Is this what you want?”
“I’m tied up, Dante,” she taunts. “You can do anything you want to me.”
Goddamn. The visions that statement conjures in my head… If I didn’t have a VIP pass to hell already, I’d have said I’m going straight there.
I grit my teeth. “Quiet.”
“Oh, I wasn’t going to be loud. We don’t want to wake up Noah.”
“Damn, woman.” I dig my fingers into her ass cheeks and spread her wide. “Tell me no, and I’ll stop.”
“Just fuck me already. I can take it.”
Without getting her wet? I don’t think so. I went to a private boy’s school with communal showers. I know I’m bigger than most guys.
She snaps her teeth together when I reach between her legs and find her clit.
She almost looks angry as I start to rub that button in the way that used to make her toes curl.
She finally falls quiet, facing forward and hiding her expression from me.
And I know why when I stop circling her clit and drag a finger through her slit.
She’s aroused and getting wetter for me.