Risky (Torn Between Two Lovers #2)(70)

Sliding in next to him, she sighed in satisfaction as he spooned her from behind. His warmth surrounding her, she drifted quickly into a deep sleep.

***

Anna ran, heart pounding in terror as the man closed in. Hands like claws reaching, reaching …

Then the man bellowed in rage, and she spun to see her pursuer engaged in a vicious fight with another man. Her rescuer. No, there were two men battling the enemy, and she knew them both.

Knew them because they were etched into her soul.

A glint of metal flashed in the killer’s hand. A long, wicked knife. Then he lunged and drove the blade hilt-deep into one of the men, and the man fell.

“Nooo!” she screamed, running toward them.

Which one? Who was hurt?

But she couldn’t see their faces, no matter how hard she tried. Didn’t know who was on the ground with his blood pouring onto the dirty concrete.

“Gray? Joaquin?” She sucked in a breath. “Somebody help us!”

Gasping, Anna came awake with a start. Her heart was slamming against her ribs, and she was on her back with Joaquin looking down at her in concern.

“Baby, are you all right?”

“I—I think so,” she said shakily. “Bad dream.”


“More like a nightmare. You were shouting, but I couldn’t tell what you were saying.”

“I don’t remember,” she lied. The horrid images remained with her. The two men she cared for battling with some unidentified murderer. One of them dying on the ground.

“Are you sure you’re all right?”

“Yes. Hold me, please.”

Rolling onto his back, he pulled her half on top of him, and she rested her head on his chest. Gradually her frantic pulse calmed and the nightmare began to lose its grip on her mind. She became aware of her lover’s supple body under hers. His clean scent, the tautness of his skin. His cock thickening against her thigh where it was thrown over him.

Awareness began to crackle between them like a charged current, and she ran her palm over his chest, playing in the crisp, manly hair. She loved how it was soft and springy. His nipples were springy, too, after she teased them to tight little peaks. Emboldened, she raised up and tasted them, one and then the other, spurred on by his sounds of pleasure.

“Like that?”

“I love however you want to touch me,” he said hoarsely. “I’m yours, Anna. All of me, and I have no secrets from you.”

He meant that. The truth was in his dark eyes, the vulnerability he willingly showed to her in a way Gray never had. Joaquin was putting himself out there, laying it on the line.

He was hers for the taking, with all of his faults exposed.

Emotion welled inside her, familiar and frightening. But it wouldn’t be denied, and so she gladly accepted his gift. Straddling his lap, she bent and took his delectable mouth in a kiss. Deepened it, putting all the feelings into it that he brought out in her. Feelings she never thought to experience again, and hadn’t wanted to.

She gave them to him, and he accepted in return. Sliding his hands under the shirt she wore, he gripped her naked hips gently and lifted her over his straining cock. Helping out, she reached between them and positioned the head at her entrance. Then slowly, she worked herself down onto his shaft.

He sucked in a breath, passion suffusing his handsome face. His gaze never left hers as he said, “Make love to me, baby. Just like this.”

She did, moving with him, unrushed. Their desire built sweetly, their shared ecstasy made beautiful by the very real connection that was being formed between them. This was more than sex. More than a fling.

This felt good. So right.

In no time, they began to reach the pinnacle together. Unable to stop, Anna’s release shook her and she cried out, palms braced on his chest as she rode him to completion. Underneath her, Joaquin groaned, and his hot seed warmed her inside. Several times he jerked, until finally he was spent.

As he pulled her into his arms once more and she cuddled into his side, she was hit by a startling reality.

She was falling for Joaquin, hard. And she had no idea what to do about it.

***

The week that followed was one of the happiest of Joaquin’s entire life. He couldn’t believe he had once planned to use Anna as a weapon against Gray. He knew now that he never could have gone through with it.

And she wasn’t Gray’s anymore—Anna was his. Period.

The day after their casino jaunt, he’d taken her shopping and bought her some new clothes. Normally shopping with women was something he and his brothers avoided at all costs, a chore guaranteed to make a man’s balls wither and fall off. But with Anna, the excursion was fun. He ended up getting her a short black skirt that showed plenty of leg, spike heels, and a daring, glittery top with a plunging neckline that would no doubt have every man in the ballroom panting and ready to cream his boxers.

He’d have to enforce the “look but don’t touch” rule right off the bat.

The rest of the week was spent lounging by the pool and taking her to all of his favorite restaurants. Rio had taken a real liking to her, and in one spurt of seriousness, his brother had advised him not to let her go. Joaquin told him that he didn’t plan on it.

There were a couple of outings to the movies, too, and he couldn’t recall the last time he’d been, before Anna. There was some markedly less pleasant stuff to deal with, like meeting with Manny’s lawyers so they could plan his defense. As though the fool actually had one.