The Vargas Cartel Trilogy (Vargas Cartel #1-3)(10)
“She disappeared toward the beach with a man a few minutes ago.” Ryker waved his hand in the direction of the long span of doors open to beach at back of the bar.
“Vera?”
“Is that her name?”
I nodded as I swallowed nervously. “Why are you interested in me?” It was a dumb question, but the thought tumbled from my mouth before I stopped it. I wasn’t ugly, but I didn’t draw the attention of many men either. Vera does…not me.
Secrets danced behind his guarded eyes, but Ryker didn’t answer. He snagged my hand and pulled me off my chair. A heated, tingling current traveled the length of my arm, but I didn’t have the time to analyze it. Instinctively, I tensed for a beat, pulling back…resisting him, but he didn’t release my hand. He pulled me closer until his hard chest whispered a darkly suggestive promise against mine.
“Let’s dance,” he said, his lips only millimeters from my bare skin. Shivers cascaded down my neck, and my heart sputtered. I was enthralled, spellbound, and already dancing to his seductive tune.
Even as I followed him into the maze of people, I knew I shouldn’t go anywhere with him, but when I gazed into his smoky gray eyes, I buried my better judgment into the recesses of my mind. At twenty-four years old, I needed to start living my life for me instead of my family. And right now, that included doing things I had every intention of blaming on the ignorance of youth.
Chapter Six
In the middle of the dance floor, he circled his arms around me, pulling my body flush against his. My silky black dress didn’t offer much of a barrier between his body and mine. The fevered glide of my skin against his black cotton shirt and his muscular thighs as we moved to the beat felt good. Better than good. Fucking amazing. I inwardly heckled myself for my inappropriate behavior even as I slid closer. I wanted to sink into him, embrace the moment. What harm could come of it?
In a foreign country, in the arms of a stranger with no familiar faces to judge my actions and report my unbecoming behavior, I decided to live. Fuck Evan and all his apologies that filled my phone on a daily basis. My mom, my brother, my friends…everyone except Vera wanted me to give Evan another chance. They reminded me of Evan’s promising future career in politics at every turn. His dad was a U.S. Senator, and Evan probably would be one someday too. If I married Evan after everything he’d done, it’d be a political merger, nothing more. Evan didn’t love me…he never did. I realized that now. You didn’t lie and cheat when you loved someone.
Ryker’s hand coasted down my spine, resting at my lower back, and I arched into him, our hips moving in perfect synchronicity with the beat of the music. My hands wandered up the sculpted planes of his chest, and I feathered soft kisses along his neck. He smelled like a mixture of masculine spice and salty sea air.
My actions were stupid. I meant to tease him…control him, but he had other plans. One of his hands traced the outline of my body from my waist to the subtle curve of my breast. His thumb grazed the tip of one nipple then the other, making them so hard they throbbed within the confines of my black lace bra. When I thought I’d melt into a puddle of need, his hands glided around my hips, guiding my movements, grinding his pelvis against mine, and I was the one being tortured.
He tipped my chin up, and the flashing lights of the bar lit the sharp angled planes of his face, accentuating his devastating beauty. The full effect of his smoky gaze pierced through me, enslaving me, mesmerizing me. A shot of adrenaline coursed like wildfire through my body as our connection simmered to a full boil.
I whimpered, but he halted the release of my breath with the press of his thumb against my parted mouth. His thumb traced the contour of my lips, likely smearing Vera’s magic red lipstick, but I didn’t care. I was under his spell—compliant, willing, my eyes begging for things my mouth wouldn’t. I nipped the tip of his thumb and his eyes darkened. “See? I warned you this is where the night would go.”
Before his comment invaded the haze of lust overwhelming my senses, his hand cupped my chin, and his lips crashed against mine. His kiss was far from gentle, but I didn’t care. I matched him stroke for stroke, bite for bite, and losing touch with reality under the whirlwind of his assault.
Every contour of his body belonged to me at that instant, and I intended to take advantage of it. My hands darted under his shirt, roaming along the hard planes of his chest and stomach.
His hand skated up my thigh, cupping my sex in the middle of the dance floor. Common sense told me to object, but my mind was blind, deaf, and dumb to anything but him and the sensations rolling through me. Greedy, eager gasps fell from my mouth as his hand rubbed against my mound. I wanted to use him…steal every inch of him and burn the memories into my mind for later when my mom managed to marry me off to Evan or his stuffy clone.
His hand slipped into my panties, and my breath rushed out in a needy moan. With every slip, slide, and caress of his finger, flames licked at my body until it practically hummed. Instinctively, I wrapped my leg around his waist, grinding against him. Ryker nipped my lower lip, and my knees buckled as seeds of an explosive orgasm spread from my core up the length of my spine. Like Houdini, he made everything beyond the two of us evaporate. I probably wouldn’t have resisted if he spread me out on the dirty, sticky floor and f*cked me in front of hundreds of strangers.
I palmed his erection through his pants, wildly seeking evidence that he felt this…that he needed this. Insane or not, I needed to feel this stranger inside of me. Wow. I didn’t even recognize my lusty mind.