14.
S TAN
I was still half-asleep when I flipped the covers off and absentmindedly wondered if I was coming down with something. It wasn’t like me to be so hot, especially considering how cool I kept my house.
The cold air hit me and I woke up a bit more, forgetting all about possible illness and wondering why I was naked when I usually slept in a cami and a pair of sleep shorts.
What jerked me into full consciousness was movement in the bed beside me right before a large, warm hand landed on my stomach.
I flashed back to last night’s wild adventures with Rin Martin.
Oh.Holy.Shit!
I slowly turned my head and took time to study the handsome man’s sleeping face. As my gaze traveled over those lips of his, I felt goosebumps spring up all over my body.
Thinking about last night also brought on a wave of all-consuming guilt at what we’d done together.
No, I hadn’t had sex with Rin Martin, after all. However, that was his choice, not mine.
My thoughts wandered, and I felt myself blushing at the memory of just how much I enjoyed myself.
After hours of kissing and touching with Rin, I was lost in a haze of post-orgasmic bliss. We had started on the couch and then he’d carried me into my bedroom and slowly undressed me before we’d explored each other’s naked bodies with our hands and mouths.
My first orgasm came when he pressed the heel of his hand against my clit while he told me all of the ideas he had about how to pleasure me.
I was still in the throes of that orgasm when he slipped two fingers into my pussy and fucked me slowly until the first orgasm morphed into a second and then a third.
I was still panting when he situated himself beside me and kissed me, but the movement of his fingers had me on edge again almost immediately.
That was when I decided that it was my turn and moved down to take him into my mouth.
“God, your mouth feels so fucking good.” Rin moaned when I took him all the way to the back of my throat. “I could lay here forever and let you do that, but that’s not part of the plan.”
I locked eyes with him before I took him deep again, but this time, I cupped his balls.
I did this a few more times, enjoying the way he whispered my name between gasps and moans, until he suddenly sat up, giving me a fantastic view of those wonderful tattooed abs in motion, and hooked his hands under my arms to pull me up the length of his body.
“I would forget my own name if you did that long enough,” Rin muttered as I let my legs fall down on the outside of his hips. That put my clit perfectly in line with his generous cock, and I couldn’t have stopped myself from rubbing against him even if I had been inclined to try.
I was reaching between us to grab his cock so I could angle it up and take him inside me when he suddenly flipped us so that I was on my back beneath him. I gasped when he grinned down at me and said, “My turn again.”
I relaxed with my legs splayed out wide and let my hands drift up his back as he kissed his way down my chest and pulled my nipple into his mouth.
As he sucked it in, flicking the tip with his tongue, his hand covered my other breast before he gently teased that nipple between his finger and thumb.
I couldn’t help myself and tilted my hips up to rub against him, loving the muffled chuckle I felt against my nipple as he laughed.
“Fuck!” Rin muttered after he let my nipple go.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, never slowing my hips as I ground against him.
“I need a condom.”
I opened my eyes and stared at him, the weight of what we were doing suddenly hitting me full force.
I didn’t have any condoms, but I did have an IUD. Protecting myself from pregnancy had been of utmost importance since I hadn’t wanted to have to explain to my family that one of my guards had gotten me pregnant and I wasn’t sure which one.
But then I had nearly lost both of the men I loved and didn’t need to worry about birth control anymore, because neither of them were able to show me any affection.
And neither of them wanted to.
Tears filled my eyes when I remembered Rin’s reaction to my abrupt mood change, something that I was sure he could feel when my entire body tensed.
“You’re right. It’s too soon. I want what I have with you to last for a long time, Stan, and I’m not going to ruin a chance at that by taking this too far when it’s obvious you aren’t ready.”
“I am!” I insisted. “I’m ready. Um . . .”
“Maybe I’m not. Maybe I want to enjoy this excitement for a while until we get to know each other better. I want to be sure that when I do finally get inside you, it means more than just a quick fuck between people who barely know each other.”
“It’s not that. It’s . . .” I shook my head, unsure of how to describe my emotions.
“It’s a story you can tell me when you’re ready, but until then, I’ll be content to kiss you all over and then let you fall asleep in my arms,” Rin said as he settled down beside me again.
As he pulled me against him, I let my body mold to his and loved the feel of his hand splayed over my belly as he said, “I don’t know what it is about you, Constance Romano, but I can tell you’re a forever kind of woman even though I barely know you.
I’m not going to push you any further than you’re ready to go, because I want you to understand that I’m a forever kind of man, at least where you’re concerned. ”
“It is a little soon for that, don’t you think?”
“It’s never too soon for the truth, sweetheart,” Rin murmured before he rested his lips against my temple. “Let’s go to sleep and see what tomorrow brings.”
“Tomorrow is what scares me,” I admitted.
“That’s why I’m just going to hold you tonight.”
I took his hand and slowly moved it off of me to rest on the bed before I got up, making sure I was as quiet as I could possibly be so I didn’t disturb Rin’s sleep.
I needed some time, not because of anything he’d done, but because of something I hadn’t done yet.
I needed to say goodbye.
◆◆◆
RIN
It took a second for me to remember where I was, although I could instantly tell I wasn’t in my apartment. If the texture of the silky soft sheets beneath me and the mattress that felt better than anything I’d ever slept on weren’t enough, I could smell Constance on my pillow.
When I reached up to scratch my nose, I could smell her on my hand which had my cock hard in an instant.
“Fuck,” I muttered as I opened my eyes and looked to my right where she’d been sleeping beside me.
I was surprised she wasn’t still in bed, considering we’d been getting to know each other, in more ways than one, until the wee hours of the morning.
But then again, I could tell by the light coming in through the floor-to-ceiling windows that I’d missed the sunrise and probably most of the morning.
I sat up and reached for my phone. I was surprised to see that I’d missed several messages, which was unusual because I almost always woke up when my phone chimed during the night.
I saw that one was Papa’s usual good morning text and another was a picture my sister sent of her sitting in one of the new coffee shops in town, holding up a paper cup with their catchy logo.
Ian had sent a reply with a selfie taken while he was still in bed, glaring at the screen.
The look on his face made me laugh out loud.
Tana was a morning person, Ian was definitely not, and I fell somewhere in between.
However, all of us needed our morning coffee pick-me-up, which I was ready to go find right now.
I was happy to find a new toothbrush in the drawer next to the sink and made use of that before I walked back into the bedroom.
I looked around the room for my T-shirt as I stepped into my jeans, and when I didn’t find it, I tried to remember where I took it off and guessed it must be in the other room.
It was crazy to me that there was a house within a house, but Stan had explained that was exactly why she’d purchased this property - so she could have her own space with everything she needed while still being close to whoever happened to live with her.
She wasn’t specific, but I knew she was referring to her security detail.
I had to admit, that was going to take some getting used to, but I was happily surprised that the women had been as unobtrusive as possible last night, hanging back unless Stan or I were talking to them and only getting close when the crowd got thicker or they spotted someone questionable nearby.
And by questionable, I meant anyone with a camera.
They’d used some sort of silent communication with Stan when someone was aiming a phone their way, and Stan reacted accordingly - either turning her head the opposite direction as she looked at the ground or slyly reaching up to scratch her forehead or subtly smooth her hair.
I wondered how many times in her life she’d practiced those evasive maneuvers, and it hit me again how differently we had grown up.
My family had a certain notoriety here in Colorado Springs, but luckily, not many people my age knew the story of my dad’s childhood and the hell he and his siblings went through.
Occasionally, a bored reporter would write an exposé like the one that was published last year as a sort of “Where are they now?” piece, detailing the paths Dad and my aunts and uncles had taken to find happiness after tragedy.
Tana, Ian, and I were lucky because we shared Papa’s last name, but we weren’t ashamed to admit that we were part of the Tempests. We were proud of our family even though our grandfather’s legacy was horrible and filled with death and destruction.
I wasn’t sure, because I’d resisted scouring the internet for details about her family, but I had a feeling that Stan’s family probably had some of the same type of legacy, only with a more criminal element that was international instead of regional.