Intimate Enemies (18 page)

Damn, he wanted that background information.

“How long have you worked for Saul?” Cassie asked.

“Little over a year.” He glanced at Manuel to check his progress. He was reloading the coffeemaker with grounds.

“What’s with you and Saul, anyway?” he asked.

“I could ask you the same thing.”

“But I asked you first.”

She smirked and shrugged with one shoulder. “It’s always been like this. He’s always wanted control of everything—Santos, me, my mother, the estate. I always resisted. Santos and my mother had incentive to make him happy, I didn’t. Until he came along, it was just Mamà and me.”

Her face softened with love and longing for a moment before her expression closed. “When he came into our life, I lost her in a lot of ways, and I resented it. And yes, it was Mamà’s fault too, but Mamà’s error came from loving him. Not seeing the real him until it was too late. Saul targeted Mamà for her money, for her position in the community. He never loved her. Never loved me. Never loved his own son.” Her distant gaze focused on Rio. “If you were truly friends with them as you say you were, you’d know that.”

Rio hesitated, hating having to calculate the risk in everything he said or didn’t say. “I did know. It was a…painful…subject for everyone.”

She studied his eyes a long time. The moment would have been amusing, her standing there contemplating him with her donut, but a heavy significance weighted the air and, at least for Rio, seemed to bond them in a completely unique way.

“An angry teenager can cause havoc in a household,” Cassie said. “The harder he tried to control me, the more I resisted. The more I resisted, the harder he tried. I’m sure you can imagine how well that worked out.”

“Kind of the way it’s working out now.”

She pulled off another piece of donut. “How much time did you spend at the estate before the yacht accident?”

All day, every day.
And when he thought about those days, he missed Alejandra and Santos so bad he swore he was bleeding inside.

“I escorted Saul and Alejandra to meetings and functions, ran errands, but I mainly focused on Saul’s business.”

Rio remembered the excitement of climbing Saul’s ladder. Gaining the man’s trust. The anticipation of slamming those cuffs on Saul’s wrists had been burning in Rio’s gut when Saul approached him with the desire to raise the value of their cargo.

“Rio.” Cassie dipped her chin. “We both know Saul doesn’t have a business. If you even try to go there, you’re going to look really stupid.”

“Thanks for the heads-up. Wouldn’t want to look any more stupid than I actually am.”

“Don’t even. If you don’t think I can recognize a smart man when I see one, regardless of who he works for or in what capacity, you’re not a very good judge of character.”

Pleasure burned across his chest, and, crap, it felt so damn good. He was starting to think being with her all day wasn’t such a great idea after all.

“Quite the backhanded compliment,” he said.

“Aren’t you cynical this morning?” She pulled at the donut, revealing the raspberry filling, and hummed. “I knew I’d need this extra sweetness in my day as soon as I saw you. This is my favorite.”

“You said the other one was your favorite.”

“No. I said that was
one
of my favorites. This is my
absolute
favorite.”

She closed her eyes and licked the jelly off the donut. The sight of her pink tongue against the red sweetness, the slow sweep, the pleasure on her face, drove a violent spear of lust straight through Rio’s body, where it lodged dead center between his legs. He gripped the bar hard. Then she closed her lips around the sugary dough, and, God help him, she sucked at what remained.

By the time she slid the rest of the bite into her mouth, Rio had stopped breathing. His other hand curled into a fist, his nails clawing his palm. And his cock throbbed against the zipper of his jeans.

“Since I don’t indulge often,” she said, licking her fingertips, “I can’t keep myself from devouring the first. Once the edge is off my craving, I’m able to take my time and savor. So I save the best for last.”

At some point, he’d refilled his lungs, though they weren’t functioning right. His mind envisioned scenarios of taking her hard and fast up against a wall, mouths fused, hands stroking, hips thrusting. Then laying her down on a bed to undress her, kiss every inch of her body, and love her slowly, thoroughly, making sure he lived up to every one of her back-arching, toe-curling, sheet-fisting fantasies.

“Want some?” Her sweet voice drifted through the sound of blood pounding in his ears.

He focused from his sexual haze in time to watch her swoop a finger full of raspberry filling from the donut in more of a show than an offer.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” Shit, he hadn’t meant to say that aloud. Nor had he meant to grab her wrist, but it was wrapped in his fingers.

Everything beyond that was deliberate. The way he pulled her hand to his lips. The way he took her finger into his mouth. The way he sucked the sweet-tart filling off her finger.

The way he grabbed her neck and pulled her mouth to his, sharing the electric tang of raspberry with her, tongue to tongue.

She moaned into his mouth. The flirtatious torture ended, and something entirely different began. Her lips softened, and her body relaxed. Rio knew he should resist, should pull back, but a deep part of him also needed it. Needed her. Saul was right about Rio not getting out of town enough for sex. But worse, Rio hadn’t had any real affection for years, and feeling it now with Cassie made him realize he’d grown as dry and thirsty as the surrounding desert.

And for shit’s sake, he couldn’t stop kissing the woman. Her mouth was perfect. Her lips full and soft, her tongue firm and so seductive. The things she did to him with nothing but a kiss…
She
would be the one giving
him
off-the-chart orgasms.

She pulled her mouth from his, turned her head, and tossed the donut. It landed dead center in the garbage can. She slid both arms around his body, splayed her hands high on his back, and curved her fingers until her nails stung his skin even through his shirt. And damn, that made him think of all kinds of other things he’d prefer to be doing to her while she dug her nails into him.

Her chin tilted up, and she looked at him with that heavy-lidded gaze. “I have a new favorite.”

A tangled mix of joy and fear pulsed in his chest. “
Dios mío
, Cassie,” he breathed. “I want you.”

She grinned, and Rio’s heart tightened. “I’m right here.”

He leaned his forehead against hers. He’d fantasized about hearing those exact words for months, but now he couldn’t help but wonder if following through on Saul’s order and Rio’s own desires would be helping Cassie or hurting her.

But Cassie didn’t wait for a decision. She leaned into him, pressed that luscious mouth to his. Her hands slid across his back, her breasts rubbing against his chest. And Rio’s life was on the edge of permanent change, because he couldn’t push her away this time. All he could do was wrap his arms around her and hold as close as he could. Inhale her as completely as he could. Feel every inch of her as fast as he could…

She stiffened in his arms. Stopped kissing him back. Stopped running her hands over—

Fuck. Her hands.
She had one hand resting on his Glock where it lay at the base of his spine.

He pulled back and looked down at her. She’d frozen mid-kiss, lips parted and wet from Rio’s own mouth, looking up at him through her lashes. And, damn, she looked sexy—or would have if there hadn’t been fear in her eyes.

“Why…? What…?” Her voice came out as barely a whisper. She licked her lips and tried again. “Why do you…? Never mind.”

She slid her hand off the gun and stepped away at the same time, rubbing her hands down the sides of her shorts as if wiping the touch of him off her skin. All the heat thrumming through his body cooled as quickly as a doused campfire, leaving a dull ache…everywhere.

“I’m…sorry,” she said, still not looking at him. “That kind of, um, threw me off.” She wiped her forehead, shifted on her feet, fiddled with her necklace.

A sudden sense of guilt attacked, and Rio opened his mouth with an explanation for carrying the weapon, but immediately shut it. He’d told her of the danger here. She’d said she understood the risks. And the one logical brain cell still working told him her discomfort in this situation was for the best. She needed to be reminded of the dangers all around her. And it was in both their best interests if she remained a little off-balance with him. Rio needed room to switch tactics if the situation demanded, because he wasn’t a hundred percent sold on the whole sexual-distraction plan.

“I um…” She shook her head, scraped her bottom lip over her teeth. “I…don’t know…”

Manuel stepped up with two containers, three coffees in each and the fourth space filled with cream and sugar packets, then set a large Styrofoam cup of iced tea in front of Rio. If the other man had witnessed Rio and Cassie’s kiss, he didn’t show it.

Cassie rose on tiptoe and leaned over the bar to kiss Manuel on the cheek. “
Gracias
, Manuel.”

She left a twenty on the bar and picked up a flat of coffee. Rio took the other and followed her out, every part of his body twice as heavy as when he walked in.

Eleven

Cassie couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so awkward or confused or uncomfortable or conflicted.

Her brain was acting like a pinball machine when she pushed the heavy wooden door of Amigos open and stepped out into the bright morning sunlight. She turned toward the clinic and shaded her eyes, but her vision didn’t clear in time to avoid the cluster of men blocking her path.

Her sudden stop brought Rio up right behind her, his chest hard against her back.

He cursed, and coffee splashed on the sidewalk.

She would have apologized to Rio, but she looked at the group, and her throat closed. The three
Muertos
who’d spoken to Rio near Saul’s office had been joined by three more, and all six stood fanned across the sidewalk and into the street, clearly intent on keeping them from their destination.

Rio came up beside her, coffee gone from his hands. He sidestepped in front of her, reached behind him, and pushed her backward.

“In with Manuel,” he said, low and serious. “Now.”

God, no. She couldn’t leave him out here. Six to one. “Come with me.”

He gave her a harder push. “Go.”

“Not yet,” one man said. “We want to know why she’s here.”

“And I told you to mind your own, Paco.” Rio’s voice held a tone Cassie had never heard, yet one that felt familiar—rock solid, supremely confident, clearly authoritative, and deadly serious.

“Just tell them,” she whispered.

The other man stepped forward, leaving the group. Rio’s body didn’t move, but she sensed his muscles go hard. His right hand dropped from Cassie’s waist and moved to his weapon. Her stomach went cold. Her mind searched for options. She always knew how to respond in emergencies. Yet every thought she had now was rash and impulsive—and out of the question with that gun in Rio’s hand.

“Rio, please—” she whispered.

“Don’t go loco, amigo.” Paco’s attention darted toward the weapon, now held at Rio’s thigh, and he stopped two feet away. “I’m asking a simple question.”

“We both know what you’re doing, Paco,” Rio responded. “And you should know better than to do it with me.”

“I’m not fucking with you, Rio. Have we ever fucked with you, man? We want to know what she—”

“She’s. Mine.” His words were hard and final, and they sizzled the length of Cassie’s body. “All you need to know is if you fuck with her, you fuck with me. Are we clear?”

“Something’s not right here.” He looked at Cassie over Rio’s shoulder and lifted his chin. “Whatch you say about that,
chica
? You belong to Rio?”

She clenched her teeth around an automatic denial. To admit to being owned by anyone—especially a man? Nev—

One of the guys behind Paco lifted the front of his T-shirt, exposing the butt of a weapon, and covered it with his hand.

Cassie stepped up beside Rio, slid her free arm around him, snuggled into his side, and said, “No.
Rio
belongs to
me
.”

A split second of silence followed; then a round of laughter rumbled from the group. All except Paco, though a slow, appreciative smile did lift his mouth. Rio’s arm encircled her shoulder, and his hand slid beneath her hair, squeezing her neck too hard to be affectionate. He probably wanted to strangle her.

Paco reached out and tapped the side of her chin, an oddly affectionate gesture. “You’re as spunky as Santos said.”

Mention of Santos took her by surprise. “You knew Santos?”

“Everyone knew Santos,
chica
. Good man.” He made a gesture against his chest, symbolizing the pain of loss. His gaze turned to Rio. “Listen, amigo, my boss don’t like hearing your girl is snooping around the harbor asking questions. My advice? Keep a closer eye on her and keep her out of trouble. Because a man only has so much control over his boss, no?”

Cassie had so many questions. They all pushed to come out at once—about Santos, about Paco and his boss, about why they were concerned with her interest in her own yacht. But tension hung thick in the air, as if the situation could go bad with one wrong word.

Her gaze jumped back to the group member with the gun. He now had his arms crossed, the weapon once again hidden beneath his T-shirt. She fisted her fingers in Rio’s shirt and leaned into him in relief.

Paco held up his hands to Rio. “We’re cool, man. No harm, no foul. Just keeping watch over what’s ours, you understand.”

“And I’ve got watch over what’s mine.” Rio released her neck and slid a hot hand down her back. “You understand.”

Paco inclined his head, made a hand signal to his group, and then followed them across the street.