With his arm around her waist, he directed her to the credenza. A Cuisinart coffee maker and a stack of Styrofoam cups were to one side, a tray of pastries and bagels to the other.
“You’re hungry?” she murmured.
He ran his fingers over her nipple. At last, her areola tightened, which seemed to lengthen the tip. Gently, he twisted it between his thumb and forefinger. “Very.”
Without further direction, she faced the credenza, bent at the waist and lifted her ass. Her high-heeled boots, along with her parted legs gave Carreon an excellent view of her cunt and anus.
She folded her arms on the furniture, then glanced over and regarded him through a veil of blue-black hair. “Enjoy.”
Was there any doubt?
In no hurry for this to end, Carreon ran his fingers over her smooth cunt, exploring her sex, locating her clit. Despite Trinidad’s nonchalance, her cleft had grown slick with new moisture, lubricated in readiness for a man’s shaft, the nub erect. Testing her reaction, he stroked it.
She wiggled nicely as though unable to help herself. Pleased with her response, Carreon next concentrated on her anus. The ring of flesh was hot, and tight as could be, hugging his little finger as he worked it inside. With that part of her filled, he drove three fingers into her cunt and thumbed her clit.
A gasp escaped her. She actually moaned.
His cock thickened with the sound, the power he had over her. Proving it, Carreon rubbed her clit, noting the increased moisture that generated within her slit. He thought the same thing now as he had earlier. No woman could fake that intimate lubrication. He relished her whimpers, her struggle for air.
Ernez spoke to the man he’d called, telling him what they needed.
Trinidad’s sheath tightened around Carreon’s fingers. She was nearing climax, all because of what he was doing to her.
He stopped immediately and pulled both hands away, giving her no time to question his action or to protest. Already he’d lowered his fly and released his stiffened cock, thick with arousal, so sensitive he had to grit his teeth to keep from making any sound.
Unceremoniously, he buried his shaft in her cunt until she’d taken him to its root. The snug fit, her wet heat made Carreon forget everything except his own pleasure. Drowning in her warmth, he thrust into her again and again, taking what he wanted.
Ernez finished his call. He waited patiently to the side to provide his report.
Carreon didn’t acknowledge him. Trinidad, on the other hand, turned her face to the man, giving him her attention.
Fuck that. Carreon slipped his hand between her legs and stroked her clit. Her back arched in response to what he knew were the powerful sensations rolling through her. However, she didn’t turn away from Ernez.
For that, Carreon knew he’d punish her. Later. Now, he rubbed harder, faster, as he continued to drive his cock into her, demanding she focus on what he was doing to the exclusion of all else, wanting her to climax.
She lowered her head and offered an extravagant moan that signaled her release. Gripping her ass, Carreon thrust into her as hard as he could, enjoying what was his, proving his dominance. On an uninhibited growl, he came.
For the next several moments, her huffing and his merged, the same as their bodies.
Ernez waited until the sounds had quieted, then spoke with caution. “He’s working on it now. He’ll let us know when you can send your message.”
A bead of perspiration skimmed Carreon’s cheek, then slipped to his jaw and dropped. It fell on the small of Trinidad’s back. She inhaled deeply in answer.
To the side, Maria made an inarticulate sound, part gurgling mixed with a grunt that proved how useless she was as a stripper and a mother. However, those sounds would soon bring Liz back to him.
This was inconceivable. Worse, it was insane.
Liz argued with her father as she’d never done before. “You really expect me not to heal you if you’re injured? That I’d save myself instead? You actually believe I wouldn’t heal Zeke or Jacob if something were to happen to them?”
“You have no choice.”
“That’s bull, Papa. You know it.” Liz stopped pacing. She went to the side of his bed and looked down at him. Despite his messy hair and cheeks roughened with white stubble, he was still an elegant man and all too kind. “You’re lying, right? This is no different from what you told Carreon when he wanted you to heal his men. You’re just trying to protect me, that’s all.”
“No.”
Liz stared at him, not certain whether he was telling the truth or not. All of her life, she’d believed everything he’d said without question. Then, Carreon had killed her. On the other side, she’d spoken to her mother, who’d revealed the secret Liz’s father had always alluded to but never exposed.
He had to be doing the same now.
As though her father had read Liz’s mind, he took her hands in his, holding them gently. “You can’t risk healing anyone or bringing them back. Not me. Not Zeke or Jacob. If you do…” He seemed unable to finish. His chin trembled.
“It may not come to that.”
“But it could,” she cried. “Carreon’s not going to give up until he has both of us back, along with Zeke.”
“That’s why we have to stay here.”
He’d said it so easily, as though it were a real solution when it was not.
Liz recalled how Zeke’s people had tried to block their entry into the stronghold. What if Isabel’s hostility flared again, convincing the others she’d been right after all, with that overruling the previous vote they’d taken?
“For how long?” Liz asked, then thought of something else that had slipped her mind. “What about my practice?”
She’d left abruptly the night Carreon and three of his lieutenants had come for her so she could heal Zeke. She hadn’t returned or given any indication when she’d be back. Surely, her staff wondered where she was, what had happened. By now, they might have thought to contact the police and report her as missing.
“Carreon forced me to call there,” her father said. “I spoke to your receptionist and explained there was a family emergency. That you wouldn’t be in for several weeks. When that time’s passed, we’ll contact them again somehow.”
Liz pushed her fingers through her hair, feeling like a caged animal suddenly. “I can’t accept this. There has to be something I can do to use my gift.” She grabbed his hand that bore the reddish stain, which marked him as a healer. “If you push as much of your life force into me as possible, then—”
“No.” He yanked back his hand, his sudden strength surprising. “I don’t know what it will do to you. It may be too much for your body to handle since I brought you back. Something’s changed in your physiology. I saw it in the Jeep. I didn’t consider it at the time. I simply reacted to you losing consciousness. I could have harmed you forever then. I might have killed you with no way of restoring your life.”
Liz’s breath hitched. Her pulse raced at the thought of dying at her father’s hands and only because he’d tried to save her.
However, that hadn’t happened, had it? She refused to accept that it ever could. “You didn’t. If you go slowly, you can pour enough of your life force into me that my body stores it. Then I can heal again without any bad effects.”
He crossed his arms over his narrow chest. “We don’t know that, and we won’t. I refuse to chance it. Not to save myself. Not to save Zeke or Jacob.”
He couldn’t mean that. Liz recalled how close Zeke and Jacob had come to death. How she’d caressed them
