I’ve seen what Tomás can do and how his temper rules. Instinctively, I know the guy will pick the cold hard cash over risking his life for a stranger. Who wouldn’t? So, I keep my mouth shut and peer at Tomás. He meets my stare, his own smoky with lust and amplified by a hint of impatience.
Juan Pablo’s hesitation lasts for a heart stopping beat. His decision is obvious when he nods curtly and obediently hurries out behind the last person to leave.
“Thirty minutes, Tommy. We don't need any more trouble.” Shane nods, leaves, and stands directly outside the closed door.
Tomás releases me, shoves his stool away in a quick temper, seizes my jaw, and puckers my lips with his long fingers. "Run away from me again and I won’t offer pleasure as a punishment when I catch you. And believe me when I tell you that Iwillcatch you. I run this city. There’s no one here I can’t pay off. Everyone is willing to accept a healthy bribe. Got it?" His spine arches and his mouth covers mine, hard and hungry.
A kaleidoscope of colors burst behind my eyes when I squeeze them shut. He steals my breath with a vicious, heart pounding kiss, the prickly roughness of his trimmed hairs showering me with feverish tingles. When he grunts into my mouth, I can feel the reverberation of darkness dancing on his hungry lips. It vibrates through my soul, daring me to play with him.
Just as I turn into melting bones and burning flesh, he rips his mouth away. My eyelids ping open.
“Do you understand?” he clips.
Foolishly, I nod against his palm, unable to disguise the swell of desire crippling my decisions from within. This is a mutual sexual attraction. Once he accepts I’m a victim of bad timing, he’ll open the door himself and watch me leave. In the meantime, I can play his game and seek the fucked up buzz his dark soul offers.
He releases me like he’s scalded his fingertips on my fiery flesh. Spinning in his immaculate designer shoes, he swipes an arm across the neighboring table. Salt and pepper packets scatter like broken promises.
A cylindrical drink menu glides through the air and a single red carnation furnishing a miniature jar crashes to the floor. I stare at the smashed pieces of glass for a split second, finding the shattered shards and scarlet petals a hodgepodge of pretty destruction.
Shivering, I look up to find him quietly watching me. His face is impassive, except for the subtle flicker of something enigmatic. We stare at each other for a fluttery heartbeat. Silence crackles with charged energy. I intuitively pat my lip to settle the wild thrum taking over my pulse.
He eyes my every move as I study his and how his breathing deepens so his chest lifts. An unshakable tension flames my cheeks. I shouldn’t want him like I do. Nor should I find comfort in the corruption that exists behind his black eyes.
He slides a hand into his pants’ pocket and nods to the clearing. “Get on the table.”
The brusque command snaps me out of the realm of fantasy and I freeze. “Do I have a choice?”
“Not today. Your actions have consequences. You have nowhere to go, except for that table. On your back. Legs parted.” His glare turns wolf-like.
“Tomás.”
“Now.”
He loses patience, snares my wrists, and swings me against the edge of the wobbly table in full view of the front window. Without waiting for me to obey, he presses his palm between my breasts and shoves me backward. My hair spills off the opposite edge and the soles of my boots land at either corner. I twist my head to the exit and find a line of men with their backs to us guarding the front like a human shield.
His eyes drill into mine as he roughly drags the boxer briefs to my ankles and unhooks them. Just as I think he’ll unbutton his trousers and fuck me; he sinks to his haunches to spread me wide and drops his face.
My feelings are tied up. I can’t escape his torture—and I don’t want to. From our time together so far, he’s pacified the hurt within me and the ability to torch my barriers with his wicked tongue. He’s dangerous and sinful. A toxic combination that only serves to turn me on.
His fingers work and his tongue teases. Not with brutality like before. This time it's hungry like he’s lost in the taste of me.
He’s right, this is punishment. The sweetest form of cruelty that exists. My insides go from simmering heat to a scorching inferno in zero to sixty villainous sweeps of his tongue. The sensation I struggle with next is understanding how my usually polar world is in flames, and how he’s the sole source of this comforting heat.
As I teeter at the boundary of euphoria, he meets my gaze, his fiery eyes locked to mine. The searing connection from his skin to my own ignites in my core like a bomb explosion. He doesn’t take his eyes off me, not for one second. Instead, he watches as I detonate before him like a sacrificial animal.
From the heights of a hedonistic orgasm, I barely hear the clatter of glass. Tomás rears back, brutally stripping me of all contact. He seizes my wrist and hauls me into his chest. I barely stand on shaky legs, held by him as gunfire explodes in the street outside. Shane strikes the door with his fist and signals to Tomás to leave through the back exit.
“Do exactly what I say.” Long lashes lower as he roughly forces my arm into the sleeve of his oversized suit jacket and wraps it around me. “When I say run, you fucking run.”
8
CARINA
Tomás rams his shoulder into the side door. It’s locked, and the only way out is through the main entrance. Straight into the line of fire.
“Fuck!” he snarls, squeezing the bones in my wrist so hard they almost shatter. He pulls me after him. When he reaches the front of the cafe, he glances down at me.
“Keep low. Understood?” I hear the sound of intermittent shots fired and witness the purest form of fury unfold behind his eyes. A veil of black smog cloaks his aura, and I doubt he can actually see me. “Stay close to me.”