32. Chapter 32
thirty-two
A n explosion jarred Lina awake. She flew off the bed, heart racing, as she scanned her surroundings. Bright colors burst in the sky above Victoria Harbor beyond the glass wall of the bedroom.
“Are you okay?”
She looked back toward the bed where Curtis sat up, rubbing his sleepy eyes. She exhaled heavily as she tried to calm her heart rate.
It ’ s just fireworks.
“Yeah. I was just…” Lina gestured to the view outside as another set of fireworks shot into the sky and exploded into giant, bright flowers.
“Oh, wow,” Curtis breathed out. “We got prime view, don’t we?”
Lina dropped onto the mattress and controlled her breathing. She should’ve remembered there would be fireworks at midnight. It was the new year, after all. But both Curtis and she were so exhausted from family time and jet lag that they'd fallen asleep as soon as they'd gotten back to the apartment. The jumping over continents finally caught up with them.
She rarely let jet lag overcome her when she was working, but she’d broken so many rules on this job. And could she still call this a job? She’d blurred the line between professional and personal to nonexistence.
Curtis’ warm hand rubbed her back and shoulders. She could feel the mattress shift behind her as he moved closer.
“Come here.” He put his arm around her and cradled her back against his chest. He dropped a lingering kiss on the crook of her neck, and her heart rate leveled off at a more normal speed.
Lina leaned her temple against his and absorbed his calming energy as she wrapped her arm over his. It felt so good to be held—just to have someone she could lean on when she didn’t exactly have her shit together. Because she was so tired of holding her own sometimes.
They sat up in bed together and watched the majestic display of art, its immense amount of explosives, charges, and fuses working together. It was sometimes difficult to believe the same things that created this beautiful imagery on special occasions were used to destroy something every day somewhere in the world.
“Oh, man. That’s crazy!” Curtis laughed as an image of a flying dragon emerged.
Lina smiled at the joy in his voice. She loved he could still find his innocence even after witnessing the horrible deeds humans were capable of.
“I’ve never seen fireworks like that before.” His eyes sparkled as the colors of the fireworks reflected on them.
“ Sun nin fai lok ,” Lina said to him.
Curtis looked at her. “What does that mean?”
“You may understand this one: xīn nián kuài lè .”
“Happy new year to you, too.” He smiled. “Do people kiss at new year here?”
“They exorcise evil spirits, worship their ancestors, say a prayer, wish for prosperity, good health, and good luck to others, and they eat,” Lina answered with a chuckle.
“I’d say a kiss is a form of prayer, don’t you think?” Curtis leaned in.
“Or a way to worship,” she supported his line of thoughts.
“Exactly my thinking.” He kissed her.
Many of their kisses were fueled by passion and need, but this one was just soft strokes of lips against each other. It sent slow, burning tingles under her skin.
Lina brushed her hand over the soft fuzz of what was left of his thick tresses. She’d longed to run her fingers through them many times years ago every time he’d played his guitar quietly in a corner somewhere.
“I’m sorry I butchered your beautiful hair.” She placed her forehead against his. “It hurt me to buzz it off.”
“It’ll grow back.”
“You don’t know how many times I wanted to pull you by the hair on that first tour when we met,” she said.
Curtis chuckled. “From frustration?”
“Yes.” She smiled. “And from lust. I imagined you doing many wicked things to me.”
He pulled back so he could see her face. “No way. That first year, you barely looked at me. And if you did, the look on your face was more of disdain than lust.”
“Oh, I disdained lusting for you,” Lina honestly told him. “I thought myself better than your groupies. Better judgment, better control. I did not want to want you. I didn’t want to want any man. I didn’t have the right to feel for any man.”
“Lina,” Curtis said her name, understanding her thought. “You punished yourself too harshly.”
“And you’re not?” she said. “You still feel guilty for taking your family from their homes.”
“I do,” he agreed. His face turned serious. “That’s something I need to talk to you about. I’ve been thinking about this for days.”
The change of the vibe made Lina study Curtis closer. “What is it?”
Curtis looked out at the now darkened sky. “I want to go home.”
Lina sighed. “I know, Curtis. But—”
“I can’t keep running. I’m done fearing what the Stilettos might do to me.” He looked at her. “I want to start a new life with you, and we can’t do that until we face this problem head-on.”
Lina understood where Curtis was coming from, and she wished it was that simple. “The Stilettos are not the type of problem you can easily face, Curtis. The police need to—”
“Do you have faith the police will get the Stilettos off my back soon?”
The direct look in his eyes asked for no sugarcoating.
“No,” she said. “Marcus didn’t have favorable news on that front.”
“You talked to Marcus?” Curtis frowned. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I wanted to come to you with good news, and I had none. I’ve been thinking of ways to get you and your family home,” Lina said, regret in her voice. “I know this is hard—”
“No. Being here with you, meeting your family, has not been a hardship at all, Lina.” Curtis laughed, though with little humor. “I’m not complaining about that. I just don’t want us to keep looking over our shoulders.
“I saw how you always watch the crowd while we were out today. While I was enthralled by the goods in the market, you kept vigilant, making sure I was safe.” Curtis cupped her face in his hand. “I don’t want that for you, Lina. I don’t want you always having to protect me.”
Curtis watched the smile bloom on Lina’s face. She covered his hand on her face with hers and kissed the inside of his wrist.
“I don’t think you have any choice, Curtis,” she said. “I’ll always watch over you.”
His heart was awash with the warmth of her words. Lina might not have said the L word just yet, but he felt it just fine.
“I feel like that should be my line.” Curtis grinned.
“Your masculinity isn’t so fragile that you don’t feel right having little, tiny me protecting you, do you?”
“First—and I say this in the most flattering sense possible—you are not tiny. You’re a freaking sexy Amazon warrior,” Curtis pointed out. “Second, I never have a problem with you protecting me, except I also want to take care of you and protect you from anything that might hurt you.”
Curtis looked Lina in the eye. “And I can only think of one way to do that right now. By going home to New York and confronting Serafina Stiletto directly.”
“No!” Lina shook her head. “That’s crazy, Curtis.”
“And jumping from one place to another, playing leapfrog with her enforcers, isn’t a way to live,” Curtis insisted. “Listen, this is the year of the dragon. It is a time for change. I’m taking back my life. I’ll take the fight to her.”
“That’s suicide, Curtis.”
“I’m not stupid enough to do it without a plan. I need your help to do this.”
Lina didn’t look happy about his decision.
“Don’t you want us to be normal, Lina?” he asked.
“I don’t think we’ll ever be normal.”
Curtis smirked. “True. As normal as we can be, then.”
“Yes, of course.”
“Then let’s make that happen. I’m tired of waiting around for someone to show up and stab me in the back.”
“Please don’t put that image in my head.” Lina rolled her eyes.
“Sorry.” Curtis gave her a sheepish grin. “Will you help me?”
Lina blew a breath. “Of course I’ll fucking help you. You might not be stupid, but you’re reckless enough to do it on your own.”
Curtis grimaced but restrained himself from retorting.
“I have some ideas I’ve been cooking up,” Lina said. “Let me contact Marcus and Ken. We’ll talk it out and start from there.”
“Okay.” Curtis nodded agreeably.
Lina dropped herself backward onto the mattress. “Jeez…happy fucking new year.”
Curtis rolled onto her and smiled down at her. “Yes, happy fucking new year.”
“What do you think you’re doing?” she asked with a restrained smile.
“I’m about to do some worshipping.” He kissed the tip of her nose.
“People worship their ancestors in the temple,” she said.
“I don’t really know my ancestors, so I’ll worship a goddess instead.” Curtis dropped a kiss just under her ear and another down her neck. “Any objection to that?”
“Uhm…”
He trailed his lips down to her collarbone, but her T-shirt got in the way. He pulled the T-shirt off her and threw it to the end of the bed.
“I think you should stop wearing anything to bed. Such a waste of a view and time because I’ll rip it off you anyhow,” he suggested as he pulled her panties off.
“I’ll take that into consideration,” Lina replied.
“You do that.” He lifted her right leg and kissed the inside from her ankle to the back of her knee and listened to her breathing get heavier.
“So strong.” Curtis said against the inside of her thigh, feeling her taut muscles as he kissed them. “Yet, so weak for me.”
Her other leg wrapped around his shoulder and propelled him forward. “Who are you calling weak?” Lina said as he stopped his fall with his arms.
Curtis chuckled. “I make you weak. Admit it.”
He bent low onto her chest and sucked a nipple into his mouth, prompting a loud gasp from her. He swirled his tongue around the sensitive tip while his hand reached low over her abs, over her mound, and slipped a finger in between her nether lips and felt the moisture there.
“Ah, yes, you’re weak for me, darling,” he whispered against her skin as he moved to capture her other nipple.
Slipping a digit into her wetness, Curtis felt her tighten around his finger and beg with her pelvis to be filled.
God, she runs as hot as lava.
Curtis didn’t prolong the wait. He knew what she wanted. He needed it as much as she wanted it. He pulled back and looked at her as he was poised to enter her.
“Lina,” he said her name.
Opening her eyes, Lina met his fiery gaze with her own.
“I love you,” he told her as he thrust into her.
Lina threw her head back with a deep groan. The notes that were always churning in the back of his mind came together in a melody as he buried himself deep inside her heat. Listening to her body’s direction as if she was the conductor, he moved with long, hard strokes.
“Yes,” she panted. She reached out a hand to him, needing more connection.
Curtis entwined their hands together as they moved as one, like two instruments in a duet—a cello and a bass—following each other’s lead. Breathing music into their frantic yet harmonious movements, the beat got faster and faster, and louder, and more desperate.
“Curtis,” Lina breathed out his name, desperate for what only he could give her.
Yes, you make me weak.
Lina loved how she could let go all of her inhibitions with him. After that first time, he never had to ask what she needed. He could read her like a fucking music sheet. And, oh, how glorious it felt to be touched as intuitively as he played his guitar.
The way his tongue tasted her lips. How his fingers caressed her skin. His nose inhaled her musk. His eyes took in everything. And his best trained sense—his ears—listened to every sound she made.
Lina never felt loved more.
She needed him to feel her love for him in the way she craved his taste, in how shivers followed his every touch, in how his male scent made her wild with passion. She loved how he watched her as she fell to the brink of ecstasy, and hearing his orgasmic groan brought her own climax to a higher level.
“We make wonderful music together, Lina.” Curtis chuckled against her neck later when they’d caught their breaths.
“Music?” Lina asked, puzzled
He kissed her. “Yes. Music.”
Lina let her heart listen. And she couldn’t agree more.