Chapter 26 #2
We have two choices. I can leave here, never telling him how I feel. Or I can leave here knowing that once upon a time, I shared something special with a very special person.
"Last night," I drop my gaze. "I don't do that."
"I know," he says quietly.
I look back up at him. "I've never let anyone do that before."
"Neither have I," he says.
I roll my eyes. "What, you've never let someone give you head?"
His gaze nearly burns me alive. “I've never let anyone make me want things I can't have."
He wants me. And I want him.
"That's annoying," I say.
"Is it?” He cradles my chin.
"Yes. Because now it's like—" His lips are so close. Calling me.
"Like what?" He brushes my lip with his thumb.
“Unacceptable.”
His laugh is rough, like he found that cute.
"For you and me both.”
I pushed this. I wanted to hear him say that. I thought knowing if he liked me back, the way I like him, would give me good memories for years to come. But the ache for him turns into a hollow emptiness, a black hole inside me.
So when he tilts my face toward his, I let him kiss me because my chest is caving in. When he touches me, I hate that it’s true, the world pieces back together again.
His mouth finds mine. His kiss is impossibly soft. His lips burn against mine with a slow press, tender and meaningful. A kiss like this is something I didn’t know existed.
So many firsts with Rio Mendez.
So many lasts.
There’s no way in hell I’ll ever find a man who touches me like this. It heightens every sense and at the same time dulls every pain I’ve ever had.
His hand slides into my hair. I fist his shirt. He parts my lips and I taste him. Mint and man. Our tongues swirl, the need between us grows. I know it now. We both find this unfair. We both want it but know we can’t have it.
Admitting defeat between made me want him more. I wrap my leg around him, urging his back toward the couch and I straddle his tight hips, thinking back to his perfect ass in my hands just last night.
The whole world narrows down to his mouth and his palms sliding under my shirt.
I want him again. I want him every day between now and when I leave and I don’t even care if it kills me. I’ll be a sad dog lady until Tina doesn’t need me anymore and then rot in a chair lakeside, feeling his warmth in the sunset.
But just when I think I’ll have him, between my thighs, deep inside me — his control rolls in like a wave clawing at the shore, and it pulls him back out with it, whether he wants to go or not.
His forehead drops to mine, both of us breathing slightly harder than we were a minute ago.
"Probably not a good idea," his voice is rough and nearly broken.
"Probably not," I whisper back, but it’s more of a knee-jerk response, because I don’t mean a damn word.
We sit still attached until the moment drains away like the last rays of a perfect sunset.
"Rio?"
"Mm." His hand still rubs mindlessly on my thigh.
He’s not fully ready to let go either.
I rub my nose on his sweetly. “You should know I'm going to be thinking about that for the rest of the day."
He puffs out a one-syllable breathy laugh. "Yeah."
He takes his hand off my thigh, leaving it cold and brushes the hair off my shoulder.
"Me too, Princess."
Suddenly, Tina shuffles between us as if she's been left out.
And Rio's phone lights up on the table.
Real life creeps back in.
He swipes his phone to see who’s messaged.
I watch his face because that's enough — I don't need to see the screen to know something has shifted for the worse. A haunting cloud shifts over his chestnut eyes.
The heat in my body instantly freezes. “What is it?”
He turns the phone toward me.
Sacramento number. No name. The message is short enough to read in two seconds.
Jackal. Tomorrow we meet. 10 am. Rosewood Bar, K Street. Don't be late.
My stomach drops straight through the floor. “Luther?”
“Considering what happened last night,” Rio sets the phone face down on the table. “That’s my guess.”
"You can't go alone." The words are out before I've thought them through.
Rio stares into space, already calculating his next move.
I repeat my need for him to be safe. “You’re not going alone, are you?”
He pats my leg. “Not unless I have to.”
“What does that mean?” Speaking in code won’t do now.
That text can’t be from my dad. He called Rio Jackal. Luther has been sitting on this all for some reason since last night. It has to be him. Ready to claim me. Ready to tell Rio who he really belongs to.
“He lets his head fall against the back of the couch like a man who realizes he’s just gotten into deeper shit. “Gabriel and Anton used to be Navy SEALs. I’ll have to see if they’re available for backup.”
“Well, don’t go if they aren’t.”
“Not an option.” Somehow, he's composed again already. "I don’t want him coming here or anywhere near you.”
He turns to me now and must see the panic flaring hot in my cheeks because he runs the backs of his fingertips along my arms to comfort me. “At least one of the boys will come. I’ll make sure of it.”
A slight wave of relief washes over me. “Promise?”
He nods once.
Tina sighs again between us.
I glance down at her in my lap, her eyes closed, completely unbothered, her whole world reduced to the warmth of this couch and the people on it.
I wish mine was, too.