Chapter 15 #2
Cato literally scales the fences between our properties, while Minka and I simply dawdle. Her hand wrapped in mine, her arm circling my torso, even when it makes walking awkward. She rests her cheek on my chest, and despite the bickering she did at Justin’s table, she smiles now.
I fuckin’ feel it in the air.
“Being out here at night reminds me of the first time we came to the waterfalls.” She tilts her head back and stares up at me so her eyes turn to molten pools in the moonlight. So her long lashes become like tiny fairy wings, and for just a few minutes, I get to be a little fanciful.
It’s a nice vacation that the sons of mafia bastards don’t often get to go on.
“I know I’ve given you a hard time about this house, but I kinda like it here.
” Stepping onto her toes, she presses a kiss to the edge of my jaw and snickers as she stumbles.
But I catch her. I always will. “I like my apartment, too, especially for its convenience. But you make living on a hilltop feel kinda special, too.”
“We can stay for as long as you like.”
Together, we step off the public access road and onto Malone property. Behind us, Harrison drives impossibly slow, his lights warming our backs and casting our shadows onto the ground ahead.
We didn’t want to drive home, and it would be foolish to throw the woman with a bleeding disorder over the fence.
This is our compromise.
“Part of me wishes we could stay forever.” She exhales a gentle sigh. It’s happiness. It’s peace. It’s everything I live and breathe for. “But once Steve is back on his feet, and Mary returns to New York, living in a McMansion with twelve bedrooms and a hundred fireplaces feels dumb.”
“Nine bedrooms, actually. And four fireplaces. Come on, Chief. Exaggeration is a tool for the lazy.”
She rolls her eyes. But then she snuggles in tighter and hums her contentment.
“I don’t know if my desire to hit pause on all this, right now, exactly how everything is, is a kind of trauma response because of what happened last week, or if I’d feel this way regardless.
But I think you created a little magic that first time we came up here.
Now, whenever I think of this place, I smile.
” She nuzzles against the side of my chest and leans heavily enough to tell me she’s tired. “Thank you for giving me that magic.”
“Mmm. Seems you’re feeling a little fanciful, too.” I dip my chin for the guards Felix stationed outside our front door. “Secure the backyard. I want men on the perimeter, but not closer. Eyes and ears off.”
Curious, Minka glances up at me as, quick as a flash, one of them takes off at a jog. “What was that about?”
“It’s still hot out, and I’m not quite ready for sleep yet.
” I bring her through the front door and into the house icy with air conditioning, but instead of steering her upstairs, I continue forward, past the sitting room still furnished the way my father had it—wingback chair, fireplace, grand piano no longer covered in dust, since Mia enjoys playing with it, and Mary wouldn’t dare allow dust to settle anywhere inside an inhabited home—then along the hall to the kitchen illuminated by moonlight.
Steve’s asleep already, according to the notifications on my phone, and even if Mary is still awake, she’s tucked away in her room for the night.
“It’s just me and you here, Minnnka.” I quietly pull the back door open and trade icy air for thick humidity.
But it’s a decent exchange, an easy decision, especially because of how pliable Minka’s body is wrapped around mine.
“It’s too much work to go to the waterfalls, since we have to climb back up the damn mountain when we’re done. ”
She snorts.
“But we have this pool right here.” I close the door again and peel her silky, sleeveless blouse straight up and over her head.
She’s two-glasses-of-wine malleable and happy to lean into me as we blindly make our way closer to the water.
Dropping her top to the ground and my lips over hers, I unsnap her pants and cast a fast glance left.
Right. I make certain Felix’s men know how to follow orders, and when I’m sure, I push the fabric over her hips and swallow her snickering exhale.
“You want me to fuck you nice and gentle, Chief? Ya know, the making love kind of fucking where we take it slow and you don’t cry even once?
” Quickly, I drag my shirt up and toss it to the ground by the pool’s edge.
As we move, I toe my boots off and kick them aside.
“Or do you want me to fuck you like a Malone does it? The rough, raw, probably gonna hurt a little tomorrow kind of fucking.” I push my jeans down and drag the denim over my feet, then I lower to my knees and work on hers.
“Since you’re the one whose gonna get fucked, I figure it’s only polite to let you choose how I do it. ”
She already pulses in the air. Her need, her hunger, her desperation. She slides her fingers through my hair and tugs just hard enough to make my blood run warmer, so I bring my eyes up and find her lips already open in a pout. Her eyes hooded. Her veins thudding against the side of her neck.
“Mmm. You want it rough.” I drag her panties down and help her step out of both, then, turning just my head, I nip at her wrist and thrill in the sound of her soft gasp. Gripping her hips and drawing her closer, I bury my lips between her legs and bite down on her throbbing clit.
“Ahh!” She cries out. “Shit, Archer.”
I suckle until her knees turn shaky, and squeeze her until I know, tomorrow, I’ll see myself marked against her skin.
I fold closer and fuck her with my tongue, but the angle is off, and I can think of better ways to do this anyway, so I pull away and earn her stunned wrath.
Chuckling, I set my hands on the edge of the pool and lower myself into the perfect eighty-degree water, then, glancing up at the most beautiful fucking woman I’ve ever met, I study her sweet blush and flash a wide smile.
It’s not often Minka Mayet shows me the shyness within.
I unball my shirt and lay it out flat on the tile, then I take her hips and lift her in until her feet enter the pool.
Her calves. Her knees. Her thighs. I bring her down until her legs naturally circle my torso and her chest cushions mine, but before she can get comfortable, I lift her again and set her butt on my shirt.
Confused, she glances around in question. “What are you—”
I draw her forward until she’s on the very, very edge of the pool, then I push her back until she takes a hint and lies flat.
Finally, I pry her delicious legs apart and reveal my dessert.
“You’re so fucking perfect.” I hug her thighs and dive in to feast. To savor.
To fucking glut. And though she cries out and attempts to close her legs, I simply drape them over my shoulders and give us both what we want.
“There’s nothing on this planet that could convince me we aren’t meant for each other, Minnnka.
” I pull back with a groan and watch her gush, the first release so ridiculously easy to coax from her fiery core.
“There’s nothing I want more than this.”
“My pussy?” she pants, her belly jumping with her racing breath.
Chuckling, I slip two fingers in and curl them back until she melts into the hard ground beneath her back.
“You. Me.” I suck on her pulsing clit while, beneath the water, my cock aches with want.
“Us,” I clarify, my voice husky as desperation makes my moves a little less smooth.
“As long as there’s an us, and as long as we can still come home to each other, I don’t care about the rest. Now give me another.
” I slip a finger inside her asshole and thrill in her cry of delight.
I lap up her release and drink every last drop down.
I push her for more, for completion, for total fucking submission, and when her cries of pleasure turn to whimpers of ‘I’m done’, I pull her into the water, wrap her legs around my hips, and slam my cock deep inside her until every sound she makes cuts off on a pained gurgle.
“Gonna fill you up.” I pin her to the pool wall and furiously hammer with my hips until we’re both breathless. “Gonna make you beg me to stop.”
“Oh, God. Archer—”
“Then I’ll take you to our bed and do it all again.”