“Hey.” She sat up, smiling at me, so sweet. I know what you did last night I wanted to say, but didn’t. That would lead to nothing but trouble. “Have you talked to Colt today? Do you have an update?”
“He’s working on it.” I rolled my neck from one side to the other, then swung my arms to warmup. I’d never done much swimming until my training. Then I’d had to go after it like a madman, building up my technique and stamina until I could make it 50 meters in full uniform including boots. Now laps in a swimsuit seemed like a cakewalk, but I liked it to relax. And man, did I need to unwind.
“I’m sure Colt will be able to work something out soon,” Gigi declared. “It all sounds like a big misunderstanding.”
Gigi, still so innocent and naive at 23. I was glad there was still someone in the world who believed in the goodness of humankind. I’d seen far too much of the other side.
“Oh!” She glanced up at my shoulder, where I’d taken the shrapnel. “How did you get that?”
“It’s nothing.” I snapped on my goggles and dove into the pool, settling into a rhythm. Arm over arm, kick after kick. I wondered how long she planned on staying out there in that lounge chair. I could keep going for a while. But, apparently, she had nowhere else to go, and she was still sitting there with her book when I finally got out. I rinsed the chlorine off in an outdoor shower. I had to say, the safe house was pretty tricked out.
“You work out so hard!” she called over. I was still breathing heavy from the exertion as I toweled off. Training hard was part of my job. I was only on leave for 30 days and then I’d have to go back out into the field. Unless Gigi still needed my protection. Then, I’d have to figure something out.
“Can I ask you something?” she asked. Reluctantly, I walked over by her seat. I felt like a powder keg and she held a match. “I don’t know if it’s too much trouble,” she began, “but could I talk to Colt? Or when you talk to him next, could you ask him to get in touch with some people for me? I don’t know what he’s telling everyone, but there’s some people I know have to be wondering where I’ve gone to.”
“Like a boyfriend?” The jealous words popped out of my mouth.
“No, no boyfriend.” She looked at me with slight curiosity before continuing. “My roommate Penny, some other friends, some clients I’ve been working with. I don’t want anyone to worry.”
That was so like her, worrying about causing trouble for other people instead of the ruthless drug lord trying to get to her. “Yeah, next time you can talk to him. He’s told everyone you’re away on a cruise.”
I wanted to stay out there with Gigi, lie next to her in the sunshine. Get her talking and laughing and slipping out of that terrycloth robe for me. What did she have underneath? A swimsuit? Nothing? I wanted to know so badly that I turned around and walked away.
“Dinner again tonight?” she called after me.
“Sure.” It was weak of me, I knew it, but what excuse did I have to say no? I wasn’t going anywhere. I didn’t exactly have anything on my schedule.
Somehow, I made it through the rest of the afternoon and then the meal without feasting on her. But it wasn’t easy. She was wearing one of those little yoga outfits that showed a hint of cleavage at the top and too much skin. I caught a glimpse of her slim stomach as she reached up to pull down water glasses. The top had nothing more than a few thin straps holding it together in back. I wanted to pull them to the side and sear a path down her back with my lips, pushing her breasts down onto the granite counter top, sliding those yoga pants down her hips so I could slip my fingers between her thighs. Would she be wet?
I tried to dismiss her again, but she stayed and finished the dishes with me. It felt way too right, standing side by side, me washing and her drying. Way too domestic, way too good.
We watched TV afterward. I let her sit down first, so I could pick my seat accordingly. She chose the couch. I chose an armchair. I made it through half of a dumb action movie and then excused myself to head upstairs. Then I willed myself to go to sleep.
I’d learned how to fall asleep under difficult conditions. When you were a soldier, you couldn’t wait for a feather bed to rest your weary head. You had to take your opportunities to sleep when you could without risking other’s lives. I’d slept sitting up in full combat gear. I’d slept riding in a convoy truck. But I could not fall asleep with Gigi in the room next to me. She headed up not long after me and her every rustle, every sigh burned into my skin. I kept remembering her cry from the night before and wondering what she was doing in there in the dark all by herself. What I could do to her if I walked in there.
Then I heard her. “Dom,” she moaned from the other room. What I heard wasn’t just my name. It was her coming, crying out for me.
I sprang to my feet so fast I was standing over her bed to watch her as she finished out her orgasm, riding her hand, pushing her naughty pussy into it and arching her back as she turned her head into a pillow. But standing right there, I could hear her pleasure. I could see it, the way her limbs quivered, the buck of her hips. I could smell it in the darkness, her sweet arousal, that unique scent I wanted to lick and suck and live off for the rest of my days.
“What are you doing, Gigi?” I asked, my voice dark and thick with warning. I flicked on the light.
She gasped and sat up, guilty, caught. She was naked, her gorgeous breasts heaving as she panted.
“Were you touching yourself?” She shook her head as if to deny what I had just watched and heard. “No?” I asked, dangerous, kneeling down at her bedside. I reached my hand out and put it on her thigh which still quivered slightly. Her lips parted and she looked at me, wide-eyed.
“You didn’t just come?” Roughly, I pulled at her thigh. She gasped, but let me do it, let me spread her legs with both hands so I could see her pussy, bare and gleaming in the light. I pressed her legs apart more, watching as a drop of arousal slid down her sex.
“Look at that.” I drew closer. She whimpered and tried to close her legs a fraction of an inch. “Don’t you dare.” I dug my fingers into her thighs and forced them apart. “You show me what you’ve done.”
She moaned, a soft pant of need. Her nipples stood out in hardened tips. She liked how I made her show me. She’d always had a naughty side. I knew exactly how to make it come out.
“I can smell your pussy, baby,” I murmured, close enough to do just that. I scented her, like an animal with its mate. “So wet and slick. Now, tell me. And tell the truth. Were you touchin
g yourself?”
“Yes,” she confessed, a hushed whisper just for me. Her pussy looked so fucking ripe, like a juicy fruit waiting to be devoured.
“I heard you call my name.” She panted and wriggled slightly under my hands, but I pushed her down. “Were you thinking about me when you came on your fingers?”
She hesitated and whimpered, but I was not letting her go until she told me everything. “Yes,” she finally moaned, her hands twisting in the sheets. Was that arousal building again? Did she want to touch herself with those hands?
“You are playing with fire, princess.” I took my hands off her legs and stretched up, pressing the length of my body against her naked, soft limbs. I caught her wrists beneath my hands and held them to the bed, then whispered low in her ear. “This is your last warning. You don’t want to fuck with me. I will own you. I’m not like the country club boys you’re used to. I will be rough. I will not stop. I will take you, all of you.”
Lest she doubt me, I ground my hard, aching cock against her sweet, wet pussy. She gasped and I pushed her wrists down harder. “You feel that?” I pressed my cock against her. “I’m too big for you, but I’ll make you take all of me in. I will fuck you until you cry. I will mark you. I will tie you down and make you suck me. I’ll fuck your ass and make you love it and beg for more.”
I wrenched myself up and off of her, raking a hand through my hair and stepping back. She watched me with wide, round eyes, shaking and breathing hard. “This is your last warning,” I repeated as I stood at the door connecting our rooms. “You don’t want to be my woman, Gigi. I’ll take you every way I can. I’ll be rough with you. You don’t deserve that. Stay away from me.”