Intimate Enemies (35 page)

Before he did just that—without protection—Rio pulled a condom from his back pocket, tore it open, and rolled it on in record time. When he reached between them and stroked her, she gasped and jumped, gripping his wrist.

“Sorry, baby.” Rio repositioned his hand to keep it away from the most sensitive areas and touched her again. “Didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“No. You didn’t.” She covered his hand with hers and pressed them together to her mound, then rocked her hips into the pressure. “It feels
good
. How could I want it again? After that?”

Rio picked up the stroking rhythm for a moment. But only a moment, because the sheer pleasure on her face was just too much. “Because you are incredibly, beautifully sexual.”

When Rio rubbed his hand over his own length to moisten it, she made a noise of protest, replaced his hand with hers, and guided him inside her. She excited him on levels he hadn’t even known existed.

“Wrap your legs around me, Cass.” Still kneeling, he eased one of her legs around his hip, Cassie moved the other until she was straddling him, and he slid fully into her on a moan. He couldn’t be buried any deeper. They couldn’t be any closer.

He pulled her bra off over her head, and tossed it to join her blouse on the floor. With one hand at the base of her spine, one cradling her neck and head, he pulled her against him so her full breasts were pressed to his chest, and started to move. She held him close, used his body to help her lift and rock and move. She praised him, begged him. And finally wrapped her arms around his shoulders, lay back, and dragged him with her.

Rio caught himself with one arm, holding his body above hers. His control was slipping, and he feared if she freaked now, he might not be able to stop. “Cassie…” He tried to pull on her arm. “Roll to the side with me.”

She shook her head, arched into his thrust. So sensual. So exciting.

Above her, as far away as his arms allowed, he soaked in the sight of her dark hair on the sheets, her breasts, full and tight, their mocha nipples peaked, the way her body undulated, shoulders to hips with each thrust. He reached for a throw pillow and slid it under her hips. Got that perfect angle, allowing him to drive home, penetrate deeply, and hit the spot that—

“Oh
God
.” Cassie arched into him, head pressed back against the bed, hands fisted in the sheets.

And there it was.

“Oh, yes,” Rio breathed, a smile sliding over his face. Anticipation tightening his body. “Hold on for the ride, love.”

Rio cleared his mind of everything but the woman beneath him, his only concern to drive her to the edge of sanity with pleasure. The sight of her arching and rocking beneath him was like dynamite in his chest. The sounds she made a quickly burning fuse.

He lowered his body toward hers a little more on each thrust, watching for signs of distress, but he was on his elbows, kissing her throat while her hands clawed at his hair when she said, “I…I…can’t wait. I…have to…God, Rio.”

“Can you look at me, baby?” He was shaking with restraint. “Can you open your eyes?”

Her lids parted, and she stared at the ceiling, uncertain.

“Right here.” She lowered her gaze and met his. He smiled. Ran a thumb across her cheek. “That’s it.”

“Rio.”

“Keep saying my name, Cass.”

She moaned, lifted to meet him. “Rio.”

“I want to feel you come,” he said, keeping his eyes on hers. “Come for me, love. I want to feel you all hot and wet. Come for me, Cass.”

“Yes.” Cassie pushed him deep, clenched. “Oh God…
yes
.”

When he finally let go, his orgasm rocked him hard enough to rattle his bones. Tendrils of fire raced through his body, down his limbs. His brain went completely white—no thought, no vision, just blank with pure white-hot pleasure.

* * * * *

Cassie’s breathing still hadn’t returned to normal by the time Rio returned from the bathroom. He knelt on the bed beside her, jeans still unbuttoned and unzipped, though his impressive package was safely tucked away again. His shirt hung open, sleeves rolled up on his forearms as he reached for her skirt—the only piece of clothing she still wore—and whipped it off over her hips and down her legs.

“There we go.” He grinned, put his big, warm hand flat on her belly, and caressed as he eased down to his side next to her. “Perfection.”

She rolled toward him. The move covered her breasts with her upper arm and made her feel less…blatantly exposed. “Why am I naked and you’re still dressed?”

“Because I’m brilliant and you’re beautiful.”

He slipped his hand beneath her hair and rested it around the back of her neck in that way he had that made her feel both precious and protected, then leaned in to kiss her. His lips were so gentle. So sweet.

A huge part of her wanted to believe that his earlier words were true, that he loved her. Huge. But there was still the possibility that her instincts were wrong. They’d been wrong with Sharpe. And there was a lot of deception happening here with Saul and Fermin and the
Muertos
and
Diablos
and, of course, Rio.

When he pulled away, she said, “What did you mean when you said you’d loved me before you’d ever met me?”

He followed the path of his hand with his gaze as he slid it over her hair for the millionth time that day. Which she loved almost as much as she loved the way he always cradled the back of her neck.

“Through your mother and Santos.”

Cassie waited as memories and thoughts passed over Rio’s face. “We were close—your mother, Santos, and me,” Rio said. “They made working here bearable. They included me in everything, like I was part of the family. We went to dinner, walked on the beach, played board games, sometimes just hung out in the living room and read. Santos taught me to surf, took me when he went out to clubs. We played hoops out by the garage. And your mother…”

Rio huffed a laugh and shook his head a little. “She was so…fabulous. I mean, I’m only a few years older than Santos, both of us young enough to be her sons, but she never treated either of us like a mother. She was always our friend, yet she was somehow more. It’s hard to explain. She was sort of like—”

“A mentor?” Cassie asked, waiting for an opportunity to ask the million questions that came to her now.

Rio smiled again, but it was sad. “Yeah. She was so easy to talk to, easy to be with. She was wise and understanding. Had a great sense of humor. But, boy, if Santos or I were the least bit dense or thoughtless, she let us know about it.”

Cassie smiled in memory of her mother and pushed away the pang of grief that came along with it. “Sounds like Mamà. But, Rio…” She waited for the distance to clear from his eyes. “I know Saul. He would never have allowed that kind of relationship between you. It would have threatened him.”

His gaze came back to hers and sharpened. His absentminded stroking of her hair stopped.

“Hey. Don’t close up on me.” She took his chin in her hand. “I’m lying here
naked
.”

He sighed, dropped his hand to hers and threaded their fingers. “It’s just…hard. I try not to…you know.”

“Think about them?”

He nodded, his gaze on their hands. “You’re right. Saul didn’t approve. It caused problems. When Saul was home, I made myself scarce. When he was away, Alejandra or Santos would always come find me.”

She chewed on her lower lip a moment, wanting to ask the next question but so fearful of the answer, she couldn’t quite get the words out. “Was there…I mean, did you ever think…?”

“What?”

“Mamà and Santos,” she said, a knot squeezing her stomach until it flipped. “Was there anything, you know, not right between them?”

Rio raised one eyebrow.

“I mean, not…” God, the thought killed her. “Appropriate.”

“Are you asking me if they…? Are you serious? God,
no
.” Now both Rio’s brows pulled together. “And before you even think it, nothing like that ever happened with your mother and me either. Where the hell did that come from?”

“Lorena said the month before the accident, they had been spending more time alone than usual. That they were acting suspicious, and that Saul thought—”

“Come on, Cass.” He lifted her face to his. “You know that’s not true.”

“Then why were both their bodies found on the boat?” When his handsome face twisted into a
what the hell
look, she explained the jump in reasoning. “If they’d been topside enjoying the weather like they should have been, they’d have been found in the water. But they weren’t. They were both found on board. Which means they were
inside
the cabin. Why were they both
inside the cabin
on a perfect spring day?”

Rio’s face clearly and quickly closed. But this time, he tried to cover by pulling her hand to his mouth for a kiss. “I knew Santos. I can promise you, there was nothing but friendship between him and your mother. If they were in the cabin, the reason was not sex.”

“I want to believe you, more than anything, but the way you shutter yourself from me whenever I get too close to these topics, all these things you aren’t telling me, all the things you’ve lied to me about…” She shook her head. “I hate the lingering unease it leaves between us.”

A ring sounded somewhere behind him. He reached back and pulled his phone from his jeans.

Cassie’s mouth dropped open. “You made love to me with a
phone
in your pocket?”

The smile that broke out over his face could have lit the room. “At least it wasn’t my gun.”

He leaned in and kissed her before he answered the phone.

The voice coming over the other end of the line, while muffled, clearly wasn’t speaking English. Or Spanish. And Rio’s smile went flat.

“Good,” he said. “Keep me posted.” He disconnected and slid the phone back into his pocket.

“I have to get things ready for the party. Are you joining us tonight?”

She sighed. “I haven’t decided yet. But either way, I’ve been strictly instructed not to make trouble for you, so you don’t have to worry about that.”

“Really.” His eyes narrowed. “Who do I have to thank for that little bonus?”

“A friend in San Diego.” She watched closely for any reaction. “The friend I mentioned at the clinic.”

It took a second for Rio’s mind to travel back, pinpoint the conversation, identify the friend. But Cassie saw the moment it registered. Only, no reaction showed in his expression—just a slight tic beneath his left eye, something she’d never seen before.

Rio said nothing. He just pulled her into him for a long, deep, hot kiss. And even with all the turmoil on her mind, she found she could lose herself in him.

She rolled back and tried to pull him on top of her, but he resisted. “Please? Just for a minute?”

“I don’t want to…upset you.”

With her fingers curled in the waistband of his jeans, she pulled his hips toward her. “I don’t recall being upset earlier.”

His arms wrapped around her, and he slowly turned into her. “You’re going to make me late, Christo.”

She parted his shirt so the muscles of his chest and belly pressed against her. Opened her legs and wrapped them around his hips on a sigh. Skimmed her fingers through his thick, soft hair.

“I know the boss.” She kissed him. “I’ll put in a good word for you.”

He laughed. Trailed kisses across her jaw, down her neck. “God, you are heavenly, baby. Heavenly.”

Cassie memorized the feel of him. Their fit—physically, mentally, emotionally.

“I could love you,” she whispered, and his mouth froze on her collarbone. “So easily.”

He lifted his head. “Why do I hear a
but
in there?”

“You know why. Because I don’t have one hundred percent Rio here. Because I don’t know who Rio really is. You have all of me, but…how much of you do I have?”

He pressed one hand against her face, kissed her deeply, then said, “You have everything that’s important.”

Twenty-One

Rio was beginning to think Cassie had decided against attending the party when she finally stepped out onto the sandstone patio beyond her room.

Every muscle in his body, already on alert as he watched over the guests, went taut. Sexual tension sizzled through his body. And all he could do was stare and breathe, “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

“Come again,” Tomás said over the headset, snapping Rio’s brain back into security mode.

“The princess just came on scene,” Rio muttered. “Serious power enhancement on board.”

“I’m up for a switch, dude. You come man the gate, I’ll handle the princess. I know just how to treat her like royalty.”

Rio clicked the microphone off before muttering curses behind clenched teeth as she headed toward the guests. He turned and took a path to cut her off midway.

Multicolored lights skipped over her hair from their perch high in the palm trees. The rich salmon color of her dress accented warm, cocoa skin. The flowing chiffon moved with her body, draping soft curves and falling into smooth valleys. The rhinestones woven into the fabric shimmered and winked, teasing the eye.

He stepped into her path at the edge of the gardens. She startled and came to a sudden stop, hand against her bare cleavage exposed by the dress. “Wow.” She took in his double-breasted suit, his styled hair. “Look at you.”

“And you.” One slow sweep of her had blood roaring through his body. “Out of all the dresses in that fucking closet, you picked
this
one?”

She laughed and dropped her hand. “If you’d used any other tone than that-dress-makes-me-want-to-take-you-back-to-your-room, I might have slapped you.”

“Goddammit, Cass. That dress makes me want to
do you
right here.” He rubbed a palm over the sweat he could feel forming across his forehead. “You said you weren’t going to cause trouble.”

When lust shot through her eyes and she bit her bottom lip, he regretted using language that turned her on. Because that only stoked his fire. She stepped closer, and Rio had to fight not to step back. She was beyond gorgeous, beyond sexy. She was a walking wet dream. One who could admittedly love him. So easily. Only he couldn’t give her the one thing she needed to do that—honesty.