28. Chapter 28 #2
A Manhattan mafia man and a princess hidden inside a cartel compound on the side of a Salvadoran volcano should never have met.
Certainly not in a dungeon with me chained to a chair and her holding the key.
I would never call the lies, torture, blood, or loss that brought us here a gift. But chance no longer seemed big enough to explain how two lives that should never have touched had somehow collided in the darkest of places.
The thought hit me hard enough that I broke the kiss for half a breath.
My heart hammered against my ribs, and my hands were shaking.
I stared down at her, almost unable to comprehend the force of what was happening inside me.
I had never felt anything this strong for another person in my life.
And maybe tonight was all we got.
Men like me didn’t get guarantees. Neither did women who had just escaped men like Ciro Delgado.
Tomorrow could send us in completely different directions.
By morning, Nik could have us on an aircraft bound for Manhattan, and Isabella could discover that the life she wanted had no place for me in it.
But we had tonight.
And if tonight was all fate ever gave me with her, I was going to give her everything I had in return.
Every touch.
Every tenderness.
Every bit of love in me, whether I was ready to call it that or not.
Then Isabella kissed me again.
Whatever control I had left went with it.
I caught her lower lip between my teeth and slowly dragged over it before taking her mouth harder.
I couldn’t calm myself, and honestly, I didn’t want to.
I kissed along her jaw, down the side of her neck and over her collarbone, one hand sliding along her back while the other took her breast.
I was ravenous for her.
Still, somewhere beneath it, enough control remained to keep me from marking her tender skin. I wanted to bite harder. Suck bruises into her throat. Leave my fingerprints on those soft hips.
That would have to wait for another time—if I was lucky enough to get one.
I lowered my mouth to the tight peak of her breast, dragged my teeth lightly over it, then drew it into my mouth.
A husky moan escaped her.
There it was again.
She arched into me, her hands dropping to my shoulders as I licked and teased her breast, drawing the nipple between my lips again while her breathing grew faster.
I dropped to one knee.
Her breast was at the perfect height for my mouth, and I sucked her nipple and lavished kisses over her breast before nipping my way to the other. My free hand slid down her wet back, fingertips grazing the cleft between her cheeks before curving around the fullness of her ass.
She jolted beneath my touch. A loud whimper followed, and her fingers dug into my shoulders.
My girl was already close.
And fuck, I couldn’t wait to push her the rest of the way.
“That’s my good girl.” I murmured the words against her nipple, remembering exactly how she’d responded to praise before. “Let yourself fall. I’ll catch you.”
Her whimper climbed into a high, desperate whine.
I slid my hand over her hip and down across her stomach before slipping my thumb between her folds.
The first circle over that hard little nub made her rise up on her toes.
I did it again.
And again.
Isabella came apart beneath my hand.
Every muscle in her body pulled tight as she chased the pressure of my thumb, and I kept the same rhythm, wringing every last tremor from her orgasm.
I released her breast and shifted back enough to see her face.
God.
It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.
Her head tipped back against the wall, lips parted as though she were trying to form words that wouldn’t come. Her brow pinched tight, eyes squeezed shut, pleasure written across every delicate feature.
I memorized every fucking detail.
Then her knees buckled.
I caught her at the hips before she could slide down the wall, holding her steady while the last shudders moved through her.
“Fuck, Mouse.” I stared up at her. “Look at you falling apart in my hands.”
Her eyes finally opened.
“That was one.” My thumb moved lazily over her hip. “And I’m only getting started.”
For several seconds, she simply breathed.
Then a slow smile spread across her face as she gazed down at me.
“If that was only the beginning,” she murmured, “then I’m more than happy to give myself over to your capable hands.”
I lifted her leg over my shoulder, opening her wider to me. My hand slid along her thigh and around the full curve of her ass. I brushed my fingertips over her tight hole.
She jumped at the contact.
Interesting—another little piece of my girl to explore later.
Then I pushed two fingers into her dripping-wet pussy.
“Look at you, Mouse.” I curled them inside her. “You’re so tight. So wet for me.”
I leaned in, inhaling her scent. “And you smell like heaven.”
I splayed my palm over her stomach, keeping her braced against the wall as I lowered my mouth to taste her.
My tongue followed the path between my fingers and her clit, and the first taste of her nearly finished me.
Sweet.
Fucking addictive.
I licked and teased her clit in rhythm with my fingers pumping inside her. Her thighs tightened around my head as those soft little moans I loved grew louder.
I kept the pace relentless until her body began to tense around my fingers.
She was right on the edge.
Then I stopped.
I withdrew my fingers and lifted my mouth from her, going completely still.
Her head tipped forward, brows pulling together as she stared down at me.
“What? Why did you stop?”
God, I loved that little pout.
I left her hanging for another beat before a smirk pulled at my mouth.
“Keep your eyes open, Mouse. Watch me make you come all over my face while I eat that sweet pussy.”
She gasped, her eyes flying wide.
“You’re mean.”
“No, sweetheart. I’m very, very good,” I promised, diving back into her cunt with my tongue.
Her thighs quivered as I spread her lips and feasted. I drove my fingers into her, and she clenched around them.
I tipped my head back and caught her watching me.
She was biting her lower lip so hard I worried she might draw blood.
“Mmm,” I growled. I loved the way she was watching me as I fucked her with my fingers.
I crooked one and stroked the sensitive spot inside her.
She cried out. “Irishman, you’d better not stop this time!”
I chuckled against her clit, and that did it.
She came with a scream. “Yes! Yes! La—Lachlan!”
Hearing my name torn from her like that nearly undid me.
I needed to fuck Isabella with a hunger I’d never felt before.
I rose, took her face between my hands, and kissed her hard. My cock ached to be inside her, but before I buried myself in her, I needed to get clean.
When I pulled away, she wobbled and grabbed my forearms.
“Whoa.” She laughed, her entire face lighting up. “If that’s you just getting started, I’m not sure I’ll be able to keep standing.”
I’d done that.
I’d made her happy.
The realization hit me somewhere deeper than it had any right to.
I kissed her forehead.
“I need to get cleaned up before we run this place out of water.”
“I can help with that.”
She was still grinning when she bent and retrieved the bar of soap from the floor.
Then she eyed the short stool in the corner.
“Here. Hold this for a second.”
I took the soap while she dragged the stool beside me and climbed onto it.
“Bend your head.”
I did.
Her fingers guided me backward until the cool spray hit my hair. She took the soap from me, worked it between her palms, then handed it back once she had enough lather.
“Hold this while I wash your hair.”
I obeyed.
Her fingers slid into my hair.
She scrubbed slowly over my scalp, working the soap through the sweat and grime before tipping my head farther beneath the spray and rinsing it clean.
Something about having Isabella wash my hair should not have affected me as much as it did.
But it fucking did.
When she was satisfied, she took the soap from me again and worked up another lather.
“Turn around for me.”
I turned.
With the same gentleness she’d shown me the first time she snuck into that dungeon, she began washing my face.
Her fingers slowed around the cut on my cheek.
“It’s just a cut, Mouse. It’ll heal.”
Her fingertips carefully traced the skin beside it.
“I think it may scar. You should probably have a doctor look at it as soon as we get to New York.”
“Nah. It’ll make me look like a tough guy.” I winked.
She gave me an incredulous look.
“I don’t think you need a scar for that.”
“No?”
“Obviously not.”
I grinned.
She moved on, working the soap over my neck, shoulders, chest, and down toward my hips. Every time she reached a bruise or cut, her touch softened.
She was so damn careful with me.
Once she hopped down from the stool and pushed it aside, I wondered whether she would always handle me this gently or whether, once she knew every part of me, I’d find a feistier side beneath all that sweetness.
I liked things rough now and then.
There was so much I still didn’t know about her, but one thing had become terrifyingly clear.
If Isabella chose a life without me in it, I was thoroughly fucked.
I pushed the thought away, but not fast enough.
“What was that?” she asked.
One palm rested lightly against my chest. Her other hand, still holding the soap, settled against my hip.
“What was what?”
Her eyes narrowed.
“Your eyes just went dark.”
“No darkness here.”
“Liar.”
“It was nothing. Just a thought about getting us home.”
She studied me for another moment, then shook her head.
“You know you’re a terrible liar, don’t you?”
“Is that so?”
“Hasn’t anyone ever told you? Eyes never lie.”
A rough laugh escaped me.
Of all the fucking things she could’ve said.
Ignoring what I’d seen in Marcela’s eyes was exactly how I’d ended up chained in that hellhole.
But standing here with Isabella’s hand resting over my heart, I couldn’t regret the road that had brought me to her.
Not the pain Ciro had put me through.
Not what Marcela had done to me.
Every ounce of misery I’d taken was worth it if finding Isabella was what waited at the end of it.
I took her face in my hands.