Chapter 36
Omar
“What the hell are you doing here?” I demanded.
Lyse clicked the safety back on the gun and dropped it on the ground. Then she sprinted across the room and flung herself into my arms. I squeezed her so hard that I worried she would shatter.
Then I set her down on her feet, dumbfounded as I grabbed her by the shoulders, intending to shake the life out of her for daring to come back here.
But the more that I touched her, the more I needed to hold her.
I pulled her against my chest again, groaning softly when her arms immediately wrapped around me, holding me just as tightly in return.
I buried my face in her sweet-smelling hair. “What are you doing here, conejita?”
“Saving your ass, apparently,” Lyse griped, but her words were muffled against my neck. I could feel the wetness of her tears soaking into my shirt. “You were letting him win.”
It wasn’t a question, and I cringed. “I didn’t, though,” I said, not trying to defend myself. “He’s gone now, and we’re here, together.”
She cried harder. “Don’t ever leave me again, all right? That was shitty.”
“If you’re with me, you’re in danger,” I said, tipping her chin up so that she was looking at me. “I love you too much for you to be in that close proximity to violence all the time.”
“You…you love me?” she asked.
“Was that ever in question?”
Lyse let out a shuddery breath, and more tears fell from her eyes. “You left me,” she said softly. “You put me on a train.”
“Because I love you. Because I wanted to give you freedom and keep you safe, conejita,” I said. “You deserve to live the life that you’ve always wanted.”
She shook her head, and when I cupped her cheek, she leaned into it. “I can’t do that without you,” she said. “I had the ability to run and do everything that I have ever wanted to do…and I got off the train after less than ten minutes because of you.”
I tried to frown, but there was a warm fondness spreading through my chest. “Masochist,” I accused.
“No,” she said. “I’m just a woman in love.”
My breath caught. “In love?”
Lyse nodded. “I love you, too, Omar. Don’t send me away again.”
“I won’t,” I promised. I kissed her, hissing a little when she slid her arms across my torso.
Lyse pulled back, frowning. “Could you, maybe, stop getting the absolute shit beat out of you? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you without bruises all over your face.” Her fingers brushed against a sore spot on my cheek, and I did my best not to pull away.
“I’ll work on that,” I said, but the aches and pains were already fading from the forefront of my mind.
I wanted…no, I needed her. I always wanted her; it was a given that there was always a thrum of desire simmering in my gut whenever I looked at her.
But this need to have her, despite my injuries, was a force too powerful to resist. It didn’t matter if I ached afterward, so long as I got her underneath me, making those beautifully soft, pleading sounds. “Come with me.”
Her eyes strayed to Jesus’s body. “Seriously? We’re just going to…leave him there?”
“Efrain will come for him. Helena can handle the clean-up.”
“What about the fire?”
I let her go long enough to peek out the window.
Everything was destroyed: there was a very good chance that the Rojas family would get what they wanted after all.
Once the Syndicate knew that we’d destroyed their property, whether it was our fault or not, they’d turn on Angel.
It was not going to be good. Fucking hell.
I shifted my grip on Lyse and pulled out my phone. Luckily, it wasn’t smashed to hell.
“Two calls in twenty-four hours,” Elio answered after a handful of rings. “That’s a record.”
“We had a change in plans,” I told him. “There’s no need for me to come to New York.”
Elio scoffed. “But I just made your welcome banner,” he said, faux pouting. “You could have texted me that.”
“I need another order for the Syndicate.”
“What the fuck, Omar?”
“There was a…complication with our storage facility,” I said. “I will personally pay for the replacement.”
Elio was quiet for a moment, and I heard murmuring in the background. When he came back, he said, “Enzo wants a favor.”
“I can’t make promises for Angel.” He will murder me if I even think about it.
“No,” Elio said, “he wants a favor from you. One favor whenever he demands it.”
That was a no brainer. “Of course.” I vaguely wondered whether I’d just made an agreement with the devil, but I couldn’t let it eat at me right now.
“We’ll make the arrangements to have the guns transported.”
Elio disconnected, and I knew that I should call Angel and tell him everything…but that need still boiled in my gut. It was hard to even contemplate the shitstorm that I narrowly avoided when all I wanted was to be in Lyse’s arms.
“The fire’s nearly out, and hopefully, I just sideswiped a different war,” I told her. I started walking away from the bloody mess. “And I need to get clean, anyway.”
She smirked at me. “Did you need help with that?”
I shook my head. “Just be ready when I’m done.”
“For what?”
I drew her close. “I think you can figure it out, conejita.” I kissed her. “Be ready for me, yeah?”
Lyse let out a little breath and nodded. “Yeah.”
I left her standing in my — our — room while I hurried through a shower. While I normally wasn’t a fan of scalding myself, today I turned the water up as hot as it would go and let it run over my body. The tension between my shoulders relaxed, and the aches that came with the bruises eased enough.
Lyse wasn’t wrong that I needed to stop getting hit, at least for a while; I definitely needed time to heal. It had been a long time since I had taken this much damage in such a short amount of time. I scrubbed myself clean.
Once the water ran clear instead of pink, I turned off the shower and reached for a towel. All of my movements were perfunctory; my mind was on the woman who, I hoped, was waiting for me in my bed. When I was dry enough, I wrapped the towel around my waist and re-entered the bedroom.
Lyse was curled up on the bed, but instead of the sexy sight I was hoping to see, she was curled beneath the covers, wrapped around one of my pillows. She was fast asleep. If Lyse were any other woman, it would have been disappointing to see, but all I felt was warmth.
When I climbed into the bed beside her, she barely stirred as I shifted her so that she was in my arms. I pressed a kiss to her temple, enjoying the feeling of her body against mine. It was all too easy to fall asleep like this.
Lyse
I was warm, almost too warm, and I couldn’t move. I wriggled for a moment, panicking a little against whatever was holding me, but then I felt lips against my shoulder. “Sleep, conejita,” Omar whispered, kissing my shoulder again.
The little touch set my nerves on fire. I looked over my shoulder at him. “I think I’ve slept enough.”
The haze cleared from his eyes as he woke all the way up. “You think so?” he asked. “Are you hungry? Helena came up to check on us, so she’s probably up for—” I pressed my mouth to his, stealing a kiss. I felt Omar smile against my lips.
“Are you okay?” I asked, barely pulling away from him. “You’re not hurting too badly?”
Omar’s lips traced a path from my lips, across my jaw, and down my neck. “I’m never hurting too much for this, conejita.”
I hummed softly, tilting my head to let him continue with this gentle assault. “That’s not really an answer about whether you’re in pain or not.”
He nipped at the juncture of my neck and shoulder, and I let out a little gasp.
My back arched, pressing my ass against him.
It wasn’t a surprise to feel that he was already hard.
“You can feel exactly where I’m hurting, conejita.
” I chuckled and rubbed against him, delighting in the groan that worked its way out of his throat.
One of his hands snuck up my body and cupped one of my breasts; I shivered at the feel of my bare skin against his rough palm.
Whenever we’d been like this, so far, it had been overwhelming and passionate, but there hadn’t been a lot of time for this kind of soft exploration.
It felt like I couldn’t pull in a proper breath as he gently rolled my nipple between his fingers.
I threw my head back against his shoulder, moaning softly. “Omar.”
He shushed me. “If you start making demands about me going faster, I’m going to listen, but I don’t want to right now.
I want it like this.” I wouldn’t exactly mind if he sped things up: I wasn’t the best at being patient at times like these…
but if Omar was content to do this, then who was I to rush him along?
Omar’s teeth snagged my shoulder again: my head was getting fuzzy with pleasure.
There was a gentle ache between my thighs that only seemed to get worse when I squeezed my legs together.
His hand crept downward, and my legs spread for him without much prompting. Omar groaned when his fingers found me already wet for him. “I’ve barely touched you,” he muttered, circling my clit and making me moan.
“It’s all you,” I said, panting. My hips rocked into his touch, needing more of it.
Omar groaned again. “You’re saying you get this wet from me barely doing anything?”
I nodded, eyes rolling closed. “I want you. I always want you.”
He shifted us so that I was on my back, staring up at him, while he was cradled between my thighs. “I always want you, Lyse.”
I shook my head. “Not Lyse,” I said, cupping his face. “Not right now.”
Omar smiled and kissed me. “Conejita.”
I hummed softly. “That’s better.” I reached between us and wrapped my hand around him. Omar breathed out an oh fuck as I positioned him so that he was pressed against my wet entrance. Almost on instinct, Omar rocked forward and seated himself inside me. I moaned. “That’s the best.”
He chuckled and canted his hips again. “I’ll never get tired of the way you feel,” he murmured. He kept his movements steady, but much gentler than we were used to being. It stoked the tension in my belly, little by little, and I shook as I held in the demand for him to go faster.
I bucked against him, whining. “Take me.”
Omar nuzzled into my neck. “I am,” he said, hooking his arm under my knee to spread me farther for him. His body slapped against mine, and I held him tight as I spiraled closer and closer to my orgasm. “Just let it happen, conejita. We don’t need to rush.”
Omar flipped us so that I sat astride him: I yelped at the change of position and how he stretched me.
I stared down at him, shell-shocked, for a moment, and then my brain and body seemed to come back online at the same time.
“Make us feel good, conejita.” His hands found my hips, and he guided my movement as I ground down on him.
With his help, I found that steady, if somewhat slow, rhythm that he’d begun.
It was even headier from this angle, and I whimpered as he helped me to bounce in his lap.
The tension was building again in the pit of my stomach, in the burn of my thighs, but every time I tried to speed up, Omar would tighten his grip and slow me down again.
“Why?” I whined, feeling tears prick at the corners of my eyes.
Omar smiled up at me, and for once, he wasn’t trying to tease. “Just enjoy it,” he said, holding me steady and forcing me to keep to this slower pace. “Enjoy me.”
God, but I love him. I leaned forward, kissing him, as I started to rock once more. His hands were everywhere at once, feather light, and I trembled under his touch. “I’m so close.” My head fell back as I rode him, losing myself to the pleasure that was spreading throughout my body.
Omar’s thumb found my clit, and I cried out as he circled it. “Come, conejita,” he murmured. “I want to see the passion on your face and feel your muscles squeeze my cock.”
It was his words more than his touch that sent me over the edge. I collapsed against his chest even as Omar bucked up against me, seeking his own release. This time, I kept my eyes on his face when he came: his brows furrowed, and his mouth dropped open into a silent groan.
I dropped kisses on his chest and collarbones, anywhere that I could reach without moving too far. “So good,” I mumbled against his chest. “You always make me feel so good.”
I felt more than heard Omar when he rumbled with contentment. “Same, conejita,” he said, sounding like he was a moment from sleep all over again.
“Same?” I echoed, smacking his chest lightly. “How romantic.”
He tipped my head back to look at him. “That felt pretty romantic to me,” he said, and I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my face.
“It was,” I said. I propped my chin on his chest so that I could look at him. “I never took you for the…slow sex type.”
Omar’s expression didn’t change, but he was suddenly much more somber than he had been only moments before.
“Until you, I wasn’t,” he said. “I’ve never done…
any of this before. I had women that I saw casually, but never anyone that it would pain me to lose.
” His thumb brushed the apple of my cheek. “No one like you.”
I turned my head and nipped at that finger. “Well, you don’t have to worry about losing me,” I said. “I’m not going anywhere. You can’t make me.”
Omar’s expression was fond and proud. “Good. Stay with me.”
“Always.”