Chapter 3
CIPHER
Steam curls around us, the air thick and intimate.
I catch her five-foot-five, one hundred twenty pounds of pure chaos, pinning her against the wall before she can land her curled-up fist in my face.
Every curve of her body is warm and slick under my hands.
Muscles coil tight with what feels like enough fury to lay me the fuck out.
And it makes me wild with the need to claim her. To relearn her every curve and show her body just how much I missed loving it.
My cock hardens and a low, tight growl of hunger rumbles through my chest. Wet skin is hard to keep a grip on. I know because she easily regains control over her right arm and cracks her elbow against the side of my face.
“Get the fuck out,” she snaps, trying to knee me in the balls, but I read her body language just in time to keep my body parts where they belong.
I narrow my gaze on her. “That’s not nice to say when I’m trying to save your life.”
Her snort wounds my pride. I get a narrowed-eyed gaze in return, but when she does it, her level of sexiness nearly wrecks my self-control.
“Fuck you, Cipher! Go eat a bag of dirty dicks!” I fend off several more punches to my ribs and kidneys. But she’s making me work for it.
“Hmm. Pass.” I finally get a hold of her again and this time I keep it.
I shift my body, trapping her leg with mine when she manages to get it free.
“Nope, now hold still. Why do you have to be violent?”
“Nope, just with you, asshole.”
The heat in her tone wounds my heart. “It’s nice to see you too, baby. I know you might wanna take my head off but I need you to hold still a minute and hear me out. Deal?”
“Fuck you!”
I regain control over all her moving body parts and lean a little more into her, trapping her in place again. I have a feeling this is gonna be a very long night.
In retaliation, she snaps her teeth in the direction of my nose.
“Is this any way to greet an old friend?” I tease and get another attempt at making me bleed in return.
God, she’s beautiful and filled with so much anger and rage for me. Not that I enjoy knowing I hurt her, but I am enjoying the spiciness of her fury.
Through all the bruises coming in over her creamy skin, I can still spot a sweet blush that colors her cheeks. It makes me want to kiss the tops of each one again just to see how mad I can make her.
Her chest heaves with every breath she takes and the sight is beautiful. I pin her hands in place with a single hand over her head, forcing her breasts high. Hard, pretty nipples tease my mouth. Holding her in place, I dip my head and curl the tip of my tongue around a hard peak.
So fucking sweet.
“Fuck you, Cipher!” she writhes against my body, making her beautiful breasts bounce, drawing my hungry gaze.
“Get the fuck off me!”
She bucks against me, and I’m hard enough that there’s no hiding it.
“Cipher,” she breathes out like my name is a curse on her tongue.
There’s fire in her tone, but it’s the cracks in her syllables that has me take a harder tug.
Her chest visibly quivers.
Her eyes drop to the guns in their holsters under either arm. They are both fully loaded and given her current state, the woman in front of me could do a lot of bodily damage.
I tip her chin up and grab her eyes off my weapons. Bright blue eyes blaze into mine.
She won’t say it, but she misses me too. I pull back and look between us. The glisten of her slick arousal coating her soft pink lips sends another wave of need through me that pushes all good sense to the back of my mind.
Her cheeks turn a deeper shade of red, but the fire in her eyes is still telling me she will fight our attraction to the very end.
Good. It makes it all the more fun.
Her body is doing all the talking for her, anyway. I have no right to demand a damn thing from her, but fuck it. Here I am breaking every rule I’ve ever held myself to. The first one being, brotherhood first. Love a distant second.
But the longer I live without her, the more I regret ever thinking I needed to put anyone or anything before her.
I’ve learned a lot about holding the heart of a woman in my care. I hurt her once, If I ever had a second chance to hold it again, I would treat it like the delicate fucking flower it is.
But tonight isn’t about second chances.
But that doesn’t mean I can’t play a little.
Locking our gazes, I reach between us and drag a finger through her slit.
“What I thought. Wet and ready for me just like you always were.” I know I’m not helping my case by taunting her, but I love the death glare mixed with the gasp of desire that I pull from her.
I clean my finger of her juices and instantly want to fall to my knees to ravish her until she finds it in her heart to forgive me of my sins.
I tighten my hold on her hands. “Mmm, Harlow, baby. I’ve missed the taste of you on my tongue.”
She bares her teeth. “Enjoy it, fucker. That’s all you are getting.”
I give a slight shrug. “I guess time will tell, huh?”
She lets out an angry huff. “Laura said you were sniffing around the Den tonight.”
I shrug again, which seems to make her twice as determined to end me.
I lean in and kiss the throbbing pulse point jumping just beneath the lobe of her ear. “It is my establishment as is the casino that sits on top of it,” I murmur against her still damp skin.
When I straighten and gaze down at her, surprise has her momentarily quiet.
“Let me go and I won’t kick your ass so bad the cops need to call the dentist to verify your the pulp I leave behind.”
I purse my lips and drag a deep breath through my teeth. “Spicy little hellcat.” I pause as if considering her threat. “Nah. I think I’ll take my chances.”
The fresh wave of murderous rage blazing across her face does amazing things to my cock.
And she notices, but plays it cool.
She manages to get her legs free from where I have her pinned against the wall and wraps them around my middle. She’s the daughter of a former MMA champ, the sister to a heavyweight boxing champ and she’s got FBI training. Anyone who goes toe to toe with her will have a fight on their hands.
And yet here I am tempting my fate and wouldn’t change it for anything in the world.
She locks her ankles and starts to squeeze until…ohhh, yeah that hurts. To counter her move, I lock her against the hard wall, and wrap my fingers around her throat with the other. The feel of her pulse under my touch makes me even harder.
“You fucking monster,” she seethes and yet the heels of her feet drag me closer.
I tighten my hold on her and let the heat of my touch do what it’s always done to her…make her weak.
It works. For all of a second, I feel her muscles relax a fraction and her thick lashes flutter over flushed cheeks.
Yeah, that doesn’t last long.
It’s like watching a light turn off and then turn right back on. Something in her mind clicks and when she opens her eyes, it’s murder staring back at me.
Good thing, I still have her locked in place or I would legit fear for my life.
I cock a grin and risk everything on my face for a taste of her rage. Our mouths clash, the fuck yeah! The taste is everything I love about the woman when she opens for me and I get a taste of her for the first time in three years.
Given there’s only a zipper between me and her slit, the flash of arousal in her eyes tells me her mind went there too.
I’m thrown into the memories of our former love affair. Well, not an affair really. I was ready to put a ring on it and then life happened.
I break our kiss and we both fight for air at the same time. “I thought you loved my monster?”
“Yeah, I was stupid once. But not anymore.”
Even though I don’t want to believe her words, they hit me right in the gut.
She gets back to fighting me to get loose, but there’s not as much desire to kick my ass in her struggles.
My cock hardens to the point of misery and I swear I can find my release just teasing her like this. Instead of moving back and letting her go like I know I should, I move to the other needy breast and repeat my previous torture.
I know I’m not imagining her pressing into my mouth nor the throaty groan she gives when I swirl my tongue over the tip and tug with my teeth.
I pull back and release the tip with a juicy pop, getting the same breathy response and death threat when she finds her words again.
“When you let me lose, I’m going to kill you, Cipher Gravemont,” she snarls sweetly.
Her thighs tighten around me and pull me deeper into the apex of her thighs contrary to her wish to see me rotting in a grave. All I would have to do is release my zipper and I could be balls deep inside her. We could both be spending Christmas in each other's arms.
I tip her chin up and her perfectly shaped brows pull together with surprise when I rotate my hips.
“Cipher.”
I ignore her warning and reach for the button of my jeans. The hiss of my zipper stuns us both, but not as much as the throaty moan she releases when the heated skin of my hard cock meets the sticky wetness of her pussy.
I shove my jeans lower and glide through her juices without entering her tempting softness. I would do anything to feel her channel gripping me tightly and taking every last drop of my seed.
Anything.
If she knew how far I would go to get her back, she’d easily rip my soul from my body right now. All she would have to do is tell me what it would take and I would not hold back.
“Cipher,” she warns again and this time desire forces her lower lip between her teeth. The heat in her gaze shifts from rage and raw need.
Her lips part with a shuddering breath. My name comes out as a mixture of an exclamation and a statement layered with years of regret, pain and confusion.
“Say my name again and you will not keep me from what we both want.”
“You wouldn’t!”
I roll my hips and love the feel of her wetness soaking me from base to tip.