The Protected

guy?”

“It’s not a role I’m used to.” He caught her lip between his teeth and tugged. “Perhaps it is arrogance. I know women. I know when they want me, and if they don’t, I know how to make them want me. You want me . . . and if you didn’t, I could make you. But then you do silly, naive things like try and save me. And I lay in bed this morning thinking I didn’t want to make you want me. If you wanted me . . .”

Earlier, she’d fisted her hands against his chest, the tension in her arms keeping him from pulling her close. Now, she sighed and stroked her hands upward, sliding them around his neck. “Gus . . . Gustavo . . . you know, you really strike me as the typical Casanova—you should know everything there is to know about women. So how can you be so damn stupid?”

“I’m not . . . not usually. But you undo me. You make me forget everything . . . make me want to forget everything, even when I cannot.” He skimmed a hand up her back and tangled it in the long, dense tail of her hair. “Let me take you to bed, Vaughnne.”

“I’ve got a better idea.” She leaned back and the slumberous heat in her gaze was like fire in his veins. “Let me take you.”

* * *

HIS eyes went hot. So hot, they blazed like silver fire. She pushed against his shoulders, watching him, waiting . . . and he acquiesced, moving backward and letting her push him back onto the bed. She rolled her shoulders, shrugging out of the shirt she’d never gotten around to buttoning up. He sat on the edge of the bed and she stood in front of him, catching his shirt in her hands and dragging it up over his head.

He didn’t do a damn thing to help her, just sat there, watching her with those burning, hungry eyes.

It was almost as erotic as his touch. She went to her knees in front of him and toyed with the button of his jeans until he went back on his elbows. She trailed the tips of her fingers across his belly and watched as the muscles quivered under his skin.

Before she could get too distracted, she reached for the bag she’d left on the floor and hauled it closer, dipping a hand into the interior pocket where she’d stashed the rest of the condoms she’d bought. She pulled out one, wished they had the time to indulge in a hell of a lot more.

But this was all they had.

Something tightened in her throat.

For all she knew, this might really be all . . .

Stop it. This wasn’t the time, wasn’t the place. She had to enjoy it, right?

She tossed the foil packet down on the bed next to him, looking back at him, holding his gaze for a minute. “You ever wish we had an entire night for just this?”

His hand came up and cradled her cheek. “Only from the minute I saw you.”

Her heart clenched in her chest.

“Yeah?” She forced herself to give him a cheeky grin. “Maybe if we don’t both end up dead, we can take that night.”

Before he could say anything else, she reached for the button of his jeans and slid it free. He was already hard and she had to work the zipper down, aching inside at the feel of him under the sturdy denim. Hard, solid, thick. He pressed against the boxers he wore, a heather gray that was soft under her fingers as she caught both the jeans and the underwear in her hands.

He lifted his hips for her to drag the material down, and she caught her breath at the sight of him.

“You . . .” She licked her lips. “You’re not circumcised.”

“No.” His gray gaze locked on her face. “Does that bother you?”

Closing her hand around the base of his cock, she leaned in and pressed her lips to his length, and hunger twisted through her as he shuddered. It gripped his entire body, and when she lifted her head and flicked her tongue over the tip of his cock, he swore, a harsh, guttural phrase in Spanish that she had no hope of understanding. Whatever it was, it was sexy as hell, and the look on his face was almost enough to make her come.

She caught his head in her mouth and sucked on him.

He grabbed her, his hands clenched on either side of her skull as he surged upward.

She sucked him deeper, deeper, until he nudged the back of her throat, and then she eased back upward. Pulling away, she fisted him in her hand and dragged it up, then down, slowly, watching him. As the foreskin moved down, she leaned forward and licked the head of his cock. He swore and jolted, jerking up against her. His hands tangled in her hair. “Again,” he muttered. “Do it again, corazon.”

Heat gathered inside her, spreading through her on a slow burn as she did just that, using her tongue to tease his head. Vaguely, she remembered reading that uncut guys were more sensitive, so she was careful not to pull on him, although damn, it was hard to think because everything she did do seemed to send him higher, and higher.

She sucked him back in, taking him deep, feeling him bump against the back of her throat. Gus groaned and then, as she lifted up to do it again, he moved.

She moved . . . but not because she planned to. In a blur of speed and motion, she was on her back with him crouching between her thighs. He hooked his hands into the waistband of her panties and stripped them down her thighs. “You drive me crazy,” he muttered. “Absolutely out of my mind.”

He grabbed the condom from the bed and tore open the packet. She heard it rip and pushed up onto her elbows to watch as he unrolled it. He pinched it up near to the top and she cocked a brow, trying to memorize just how he did that, because if she had the chance, at some point, she’d actually be the one doing the taking here.

His gaze, heated and hungry, swept over her, and her heart slammed up into her throat as he came down on top of her. He caught one hand in his, and it struck her as absurdly gentle, possessive as he nudged against her entrance. She wanted to say something . . . anything . . . but words didn’t want to come.

“Look at me,” he ordered, his voice harsh and hungry.

She lifted her gaze and the look on his face, stripped of everything but that raw, naked need, hit the very heart of her. They watched each other as he slowly sank inside and Vaughnne had never felt more exposed, had never felt more vulnerable. Her breath hitched in her throat as he pulled back, the swollen head of his shaft stroking over sensitized nerves, and instinctively, she tightened around him, lifting her hips to draw him back in.

His hand tightened on hers as he surged deeper, harder. She moaned, closing her eyes. He let go of her hand and cupped her face, his thumb pressing against her chin. “Don’t close your eyes, corazon . . . mi vida. Watch me. Let me watch you.”

Forcing her lids up, she stared at him.

His gaze was hooded, intent on her face as he withdrew. This time, as he sank inside, he moved up, riding higher on her body, and she cried out as the movement had him rocking against her clit. She reached down, gripping the taut curve of his ass and arching up.

He did it again, and again, but right before the climax would have broken over her, he stopped.

“Gus, please!”

“My name.” He nipped at her lip. “Say my name.”

“Gustavo . . .” She shuddered against him as he shifted once more, this time moving back and settling on his knees, catching her legs and hooking them over his forearms, opening her. “Damn it, you’re killing me.”

A faint smile curved his mouth as he swiveled his hips against her, the slant of his body driving him against her in just the right way. Vaughnne tensed as the pleasure gripped her, wrapping around her and pulling her tighter, tighter . . . “Gus, please.” It ripped out of her in a whimper. “Gustavo . . .”

He rolled forward, her legs still hooked over his forearms, and the action drove him deep, so deep—he swelled, pulsed inside her, so hard, she felt bruised, and it was amazing, but he still wouldn’t let her come. Twisting against him, she worked her arms free and speared her fingers into his hair, lifting her head up to cover his mouth with hers. This time, she was the one to sink her teeth into his lower lip, and when he shuddered against her, she tightened her inner muscles around him. “Stop it,” he muttered.

* * *