Drunk on lust and without thinking about what I was doing, I grasped her slender hips and lifted her off my lap with minor effort. Twisting, I dropped her back to the mattress and followed her down, hovering my trembling body over hers.
She gasped in surprise as I slipped my hips between her spread thighs and dropped to my elbows, resting my heaving chest against hers in a move that was as much primal as it was possessive. “You want me inside you, beautiful?”
My pretty little pixie swallowed before nodding the tiniest bit. “I think that one day I might.” Wrapping her right leg around the back of mine, she locked me in place, refusing to let me move. Not that I would’ve if given the chance, because I wouldn’t have. “But that day cannot be today.”
She was one-hundred percent correct.
Despite the urges riding me, demanding that I take her and make her mine in every way possible, I never would have dared tried. She was sick, hurt, and vulnerable. Only a piece of shit would’ve taken advantage of such a situation. And quite frankly, I was done being a scumbag.
“But even though neither my body nor mind are ready for such a thing,” she continued, beautiful voice sweeter than the finest honey. “I do want to fall asleep in your arms. It would be another first for me, and I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t want it badly.”
Seriously, fuck me.
“On one condition.”
Carmen’s brow rose. “What condition?”
Mouth finding the side of her jaw, I kissed her beautiful skin, tasting her flesh. “You have to let me feed you breakfast come morning.” Though I’d gotten two snack-sized cups of applesauce and half a strawberry Nutri-Grain Bar in her that afternoon as we watched TV and talked, she needed more calories, not to mention protein, in her stomach. “You don’t have to eat more than a couple of bites, but I’ve gotta get some real food in you.”
She gasped as my lips followed the sensitive column of her throat, stopping only to nip her fluttering pulse point. “Si,” she whispered, breathy-like. “You can feed me.”
Lifting my head, I looked down at her. “Good girl.” She smiled at my words. “Are you ready for bed now? Or do you want—”
“Sleep,” she whispered, eyelids growing heavy in the space of a heartbeat. “I know it’s probably earlier than you’re used to, but I’m so tired. I just needed to talk to Faye before—”
Not wanting her to be exhausted for a second longer, I pulled out of her hold before once more lifting her into my arms. Taking her with me, I crawled to the center of the bed and laid her down before dropping to my back beside her.
She laughed as the shitty bed groaned beneath our combined weights. “It’s a good thing we aren’t having sex. I don’t think this dilapidated bed could handle it.”
“No kidding,” I replied, chuckling.
Her cheeks flushed. “James—”
“Later,” I interrupted, pulling her into my side. “We’ll talk about it later.” Or else I really will come apart at the seams. “Besides, I’ve got plans to slide into someplace else before we ever reach that point.”
Looping a trembling arm over my stomach, she snuggled against me, accepting every ounce of warmth and comfort I had to give. “And what place is that?”
My fingers trailed up and down her side. “Your heart,” I whispered, eyes sliding closed. “And once I’m inside it, I have no plans to leave.”
“That’s good, Guapo,” she replied softly. “Because I have a feeling I’ll never want you to go.”
It was the last thing either of us said.
Within seconds, she was fast asleep.
Minutes later, I joined her.
Eighteen
Carmen
The Following Morning
Boom, boom, boom!
After having spent the entire night asleep in James’s arms, my body curled against his, I woke the following morning to someone pounding on the metal motel door so hard the pictures affixed to the walls rattled, nearly falling to the floor.
Panic consuming me, I jerked upright in bed, my lungs screaming for air as my chest refused to pull in a single breath. “James!” I screamed without thinking.
The fear gripping me abated the smallest bit when he barreled through the open bathroom door, bare-chested and his inky black hair dripping wet, highlighting the grey strands just above his temples. Barefoot and wearing a pair of grey sweats that hung low on his lean, tanned hips, he headed my way.
“Baby, it’s alright,” he said, quickly closing the space between us. Grasping my trembling chin in his strong hand, he met my terrified gaze head-on. “It’s just Tuck, Hendrix’s best friend. I called him earlier and asked him to drop by with a few things.”
Close to hyperventilating, my head spun. “Carmen,” he said firmly. “Sweetheart, take a breath for me.” I tried to do as he said but failed. Throat tightening, I felt close to passing out.
Climbing into bed next to me, he palmed my cheeks. “Beautiful, listen to me. As long as I am here, no one will hurt you. Not ever. They will die by my hand first. As for the big idiot banging down the damned door like a pissed-off gorilla, he’s harmless. Sort of stupid, but harmless.”
Not one will hurt you…
They will die by my hand first.
His words washed over me and bit-by-bit, the panic eased. Until finally—finally!—I could take a breath. “Good girl,” he said, a relieved smile crossing his face as I sucked in a lungful of oxygen. “Now take another.” Doing as he said, I took another and then many more until the world stopped shifting beneath me.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, voice hoarse. I was such a mess. It was both embarrassing and exhausting. Something had to give. “I didn’t—”
“You have no reason to be sorry,” he interrupted before pressing a sweet kiss to
