Chapter 24
Twenty-Four
VIOLET
“Baby.”
I’m gently tugged out of sleep by soft kisses on the back of my neck and calloused fingers drifting across my stomach, over my hip, and down my thigh, sending heat through me like slow-moving lava. This might be the best way to wake up ever.
“Hmm.”
“I need you to wake up for me,” he whispers next to my ear before grazing his teeth over the lobe, making me squirm back against him. His cock is hard and thick against the small of my back, and my core is already pulsing with desire for him. “Open those pretty blue eyes for me, Savage.”
I wiggle onto my back and blink my eyes open and see him looming over me, his head resting in his hand, a pleased smirk on his delectable lips.
“It should be illegal for you to look that good in the morning,” I tell him, and he grins sleepily before leaning down to kiss my cheek, my nose, and then finally my lips.
My man is a grade-A kisser. With a whimper, I sink my fingers into the hair at his nape and drag my leg up his outer thigh, and that’s all the invitation he needs to roll on top of me and settle his hard cock in my already wet slit.
“I needed you awake for all of this,” he murmurs against my lips, tickling them deliciously. “Fully aware of my mouth.”
He drags his lips down my jawline to my neck, making me sigh in happiness.
“Of my hands.” He tweaks my nipple, fiddling with the barbell, and fuck that’s good.
“And especially completely aware of my dick sliding into what’s mine.”
He pushes inside me, a slow, steady pace, until he’s balls deep and we’re both panting with need.
“Mateo.”
“I can’t get enough of you. I fucking crave you, even in sleep.
Even when your warm, perfect body is already pressed against me, I want more.
” He pulls back, then rolls his hips, sliding in again, and I lift to meet him.
He doesn’t usually fuck me like this, in the bed, slow and easy.
It’s usually so all-consuming, so passionate, that it’s hard and fast and so fucking dirty that it sets my soul on fire.
But this sweet, soft sleepy sex is damn amazing.
“Your cock is so good,” I groan as he picks up the pace, his piercing dragging over my inner walls, over that perfect spot that sends zings of pleasure through every nerve ending in my body. “Oh fuck.”
He licks down my chest and pulls a nipple in his mouth, making me arch my back with a gasp.
It’s been just over a week since the warehouse happened, and my injuries are healing. I can move freely, and the bruises are fading.
“Every inch of you is perfect,” he says. I love how much he talks to me while he fucks me. His mouth can be so fucking filthy, I would blush if I wasn’t too busy coming. “You’re strangling the fuck out of me, baby. Is this what you needed?”
I nod, but he bites my nipple hard, making me gasp.
“Use your words, savage girl.”
“I needed this,” I reply, and swallow hard. “I always need this.”
His eyes darken, and he turns us onto our sides, facing each other, still connected. I wrap my leg around his hip, and shit, this angle is good.
“I want you to come for me, Violet.”
I love it when he says my name like that. All throaty and with such authority, it sends a zing through me and makes my walls clench harder.
“That’s right, baby. Fucking hell, you’re so damn tight.”
He manages to wedge his hand between us and brushes his thumb over my clit and the metal there, and I come apart, jerking against him.
“Christ, I need to pound into you,” he mutters against my neck.
“Then do it. I’m not hurt anymore, Mateo. Take what you need. Use me.”
His eyes narrow, and his jaw tightens, and then I’m on my stomach, Mateo straddles my thighs the way he did that first night and spreads me open with his thumbs. He doesn’t ease into me, he slams his hips into my ass, and with my legs pressed together, it’s everything.
“Fuck,” he growls as he grips his hand in my hair, holding me down against the pillow. His other hand is pressed on my hip as he thrusts into me hard and steady, taking the breath from my lungs. “So. Fucking. Tight.”
He growls, and then his forehead is on my shoulder as he presses all the way in, rocking against me and coming inside me.
Then, he suddenly pulls out and fists his cock and continues to come all over my back.
And when he’s finished, he lies right on top of me and holds me tight, and I don’t even care that it’s hard to breathe.
“Come on, lazy girl, we have to get up,” he finally says as he peels himself off me with a slurping sound, thanks to all the fluids on our skin.
“I’m not lazy, someone kept me in bed.”
I look over my shoulder and see him grinning at me. “Let’s shower.”
“If we shower together, we’ll end up fucking again, and then it’ll be even longer until we’re ready to go.”
“It’s a risk I’m willing to take.”
I laugh and take his hand, letting him pull me from the bed, and then his lips are on mine again, his hands framing my face.
“I have something for you,” he murmurs.
“Yes, it’s quite impressive. I’ve met it once already today.”
He huffs out a laugh and tucks my hair behind my ear. I have the majority of it gathered in my hand because I don’t want to have to wash it this morning if it drags through the mess on my back.
“I love your sassy mouth. Come on, let’s get cleaned up, and then you can have your present.”
Sure that he’s still using metaphors for his dick, I follow him into the bathroom and pin my hair to the top of my head, grateful that it managed to escape Mateo’s mess.
And while there is plenty of touching and flirting and sexy nibbles here and there, we manage to finish washing up before the water runs cold.
“You’ll need jeans today,” he says as I pad into the closet to get dressed.
“It’s going to be a hundred degrees,” I remind him.
“I know, but we’re going on the bike.”
My heart kicks with excitement. “You should have led with that.”
I pull on some jeans and a T-shirt, Madonna today, and when I’m ready to go, I find Mateo sitting on the bed, dressed in his standard black jeans and black Henley, sleeves pulled up, showing off those forearms that make me want to bite my fist.
And in his hands is a leather jacket.
“I got this for you,” he says as he stands and holds the jacket up for me to try on.
Of course it fits perfectly.
“Do I look badass in it?” I turn around and smile at him, but he’s not smiling back.
“You look absolutely fucking gorgeous,” he says. “And you’re always badass.”
I wink at him. “I’m hungry. Are you going to feed me? Maybe at the café you don’t own? Their waffles are so good.”
“Waffles it is then.”
“Hey there, pretty fighter.”
Carson’s smiling at me as we stand in the lobby of his resort.
I have to admit, only to myself, that Carson may be intimidating and intense, but he’s also .
. . sexy. He reminds me of a taller, meaner Jax from Sons of Anarchy, with longer dark blond hair, bright-blue eyes, and tattoos on his neck that peek up through his black button-down shirt and down his arms and hands.
All the Kings of Vegas are beautiful. They’d scoff at that word, but it’s true. All four look like fallen angels.
“Hi, Carson,” I reply.
“I hear you want to open up a tattoo studio in my building,” he says and crosses his arms over his chest.
“I’d love to, if you have the space.”
He nods and gestures for us to follow him. Just like most resorts in Vegas, this one is vast. We walk through a casino to a wide hallway that boasts shopping and restaurants on both sides, along with vendors set up in kiosks in the middle.
There’s a huge fountain, and on the other side of it is an empty retail space.
“Holy shit, you have room.”
“I tossed them out three days ago when Mateo told me what you needed.”
I blink at him and then laugh because surely he’s joking.
Neither of the men laugh with me.
“Carson, you didn’t have to do that. Oh my God, some poor person is out of business because of me? No way. Get them back in here, and I’ll find somewhere else.”
“It’s okay, they were shitty at their jobs and weren’t going to make it much longer anyway,” he says with a shrug as he unlocks the door and we walk inside.
I wander in behind him, with Mateo bringing up the rear, and when the lights flick on, butterflies erupt in my stomach.
“Can I paint and stuff?” I ask him.
“You can do whatever you want, pretty fighter,” he says with a wink.
“Stop flirting with my girl,” Mateo says, but there’s no real heat behind his words, and I smirk as I wander around the space, taking it all in.
While I would work pro bono, I would take on two or three other artists to rent chairs from me and work in here as well.
I don’t expect them to work for free, or to only work on women, but I think I only want to invite other women artists to join me here.
It would probably make my clients feel better.
As I’m staring at a wall, hands on my hips, trying to decide what color I want to paint it, my phone rings.
Unknown Number.
I immediately answer.
“Hello?”
Nothing. Dead air, just like always.
“Rosie, if this is you, I love you so much, and I’m still looking for you. I haven’t given up, baby girl, I need you to know that. As long as there’s breath in me. God, I love you.”
The line goes dead, and I wipe a tear off my cheek that I didn’t realize I’d let fall. When I turn around, I find Mateo and Carson watching me closely.
“I get calls from an unknown number sometimes.” I swallow hard. “Only a few times a year. No one ever says anything, but something in my gut says that it’s my sister, so I talk until the line goes dead.”
“Ah, baby.” Mateo pulls me in for a hug, and I bury my face in his chest, breathing him in.
Suddenly, I just feel so guilty.
I pull out of Mateo’s arms and pace back and forth.
“I know that this”—I gesture around the shop that’s now mine—“is a big deal, and I’m excited to get started, but my sister is still out there, and I haven’t looked for her even once in more than a week. I want to go to the fight tonight.”
Mateo frowns. “You do?”
“Yes.”
“But I have my men looking for her there. They have her photo and they’re on alert. Julian has been running her photo through facial recognition to try to find her in the city, and if that doesn’t work, he’ll expand the search to other areas.”
I’m already shaking my head. “I appreciate all of that more than I can tell you. But, it needs to be me. I’ll go with or without you, but I’m going, Mateo.”
“I like her,” Carson says with a smile. “I’ll take you—”
“The fuck you will,” Mateo interrupts, making Carson bust up laughing. “We’ll go, baby.”
I take a deep breath and another look around the space. “I like it here. The size is perfect, the vibes are right. I can make this something amazing.”
“Good. I’ve hired a construction crew and a decorator to work with you,” Mateo says, surprising me.
“I can paint myself.”
“There’s no need for that.” He kisses the top of my head. “You just tell them what you want, and they’ll make it happen.”
Carson winks again and turns to walk away.
“Thank you,” I whisper up to Mateo. “For everything.”