Collateral

  Marley nodded shakily and grasped my upper arm. "Come on, Aston. Let's go."

  Clinging to my best friend, I stumbled out of the office. I didn’t dare look back as she led me upstairs. We could hear the low murmuring of male voices—and then there was only silence. We both knew what that meant, but neither of us spoke aloud what we were thinking.

  She closed my bedroom door, turned on the light and tugged me into the bathroom. I caught a glimpse of my face in the mirror. I had a swollen cheek with a small cut under my eye. The nick on my neck had bled more than I had imagined, and the gnarly scratch was bright red and angry.

  "You'll feel better once you're clean." She pushed me toward the shower. "I'm going downstairs to get you something to drink."

  "Water," I said, my voice husky.

  "And something stronger," she added knowingly. "Food, too. You're bound to get the shakes soon."

  As she left and I undressed, I found myself wondering if she had gone through all this after being kidnapped and narrowly escaped an assassin's bullet. Safe inside the shower, I let the hot water rush over my tired body. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Calvin's crazed face. I could hear him telling me how he had killed his mother and how he wanted to hurt and kill me. His manic laughter echoed in my ears.

  Footsteps in the bathroom alerted me to Marley's return. With my back to the entrance of the walk-in shower, I asked, "Do you want to stay for the rest of the night?"

  "Yes."

  I spun around at the low, raspy answer. It wasn't Marley eyeing me like a predator but Ben. He had stripped down to only his jeans and those were quickly whisked away along with his boxers and socks. Joining me in the shower, he cupped my face and lowered his mouth until it brushed mine. He kissed me tenderly and so sweetly that I had to blink away tears. His thumbs gently caressed my cheeks. "Are you all right?"

  Figuring he was one of the few people who might understand what I was feeling, I admitted, "I'm relieved, but that's wrong, isn't it?"

  He shook his head. "Calvin is rotten. He's psychotic. He's dangerous."

  "Is?" I seized on the word. "You didn't…?"

  "Not yet," Ben said, reaching for one of the sponges resting in the corner basket. "I refused to dishonor your home in that way. Devil took him."

  "Where?"

  "I don't know." He lathered up the sponge with my favorite body wash. "You'll never see him again."

  "The police?"

  "You don't need to worry about that."

  Licking my lips, I asked, "Where is Marley?"

  "She left a tray in your bedroom. She said she's staying across the hall. Apparently you refused to leave her after she was kidnapped. Now she's refusing to leave you." He pressed a gentle kiss to my forehead. "You're lucky to have a friend like that."

  "I know."

  "You're a strange pair, the two of you." He dragged the foamy sponge up my arm, across my back and down the other arm. "You'll have to tell me how a girl from a trailer park and a girl from Royal Oaks managed to become such good friends."

  "Tomorrow," I said, enjoying the feel of the soapy sponge gliding over my skin too much.

  "All right." He swiped long lines along my back and slow circles on my belly. Eventually, he abandoned the sponge in favor of his hands. I leaned back against the tiles and closed my eyes, relishing the feel of his rough, warm palms moving over my skin. His mouth found mine, and I reacted with the usual heat and need that his touch inspired.

  Breaking away, he growled. "I want you."

  "So have me."

  "No, you just survived—"

  "Yes," I interrupted, clasping his face. "I survived. I'm alive. Now help me enjoy it."

  That was all the permission he needed. Shutting off the water, he swung me up in his arms and carefully left the bathroom. With anyone else, I would have complained about the watery trail we were leaving, but with Ben I just didn't care. I wanted him. Now.

  He put me on the bed so very gently. There was no mistaking the passion blazing in his pale green eyes, but he touched me so softly and with such caution. Certain he was afraid of scaring me, I pushed up on my elbows and captured his mouth with an insistent kiss. A rumbling groan erupted from his throat, and I smiled knowingly.

  Interlacing our fingers, Ben trailed ticklish kisses down the side of my face and along my neck. He spent extra time kissing the wounds Calvin had left behind, his sensual touch erasing the bad memories. Down and down he went, his lips pressing here and there and making me sigh with pleasure. He suckled my nipples and grazed his teeth over them, causing me to buck up against his bigger, stronger body.

  Chuckling with amusement at my reaction, Ben sought out new ways to make me mewl like a kitten and arch my back. His tongue dragged a zigzag line to my navel and then back to my chest. His hand caressed my belly and hips before sliding between my thighs.

  He brushed his knuckles down the seam of my pussy while tormenting my breasts with his mouth. His thick fingers parted my folds. He slid one down to my entrance and found me already wet, but he didn’t penetrate me yet. His fingertips danced around my clitoris, swirling over the swollen nub and making me pant.

  Tangling his fingers in my wet hair, he forced me to hold his heated gaze while he carefully thrust one long digit into my slick sheath. He was testing me, ensuring I was ready for him when the time came. A second finger joined the first. His thumb flicked my clit while his curved fingers glided in and out of me. I clenched around his thrusting digits and wished they were his cock.

  He must have been able to read my mind because he carefully pulled his hand away from me. I nearly died when he licked my shiny nectar from his fingers. He grinned at my embarrassment and made my face even hotter when he nuzzled my ear and whispered, "You have the sweetest, juiciest cunt. I could eat you all night and still want more."

  Head pounding and dizzy, I clutched at his shoulders when he moved between my thighs. My legs fell open for him in silent invitation. His wolfish, sinful grin made my heart flip-flop in my chest. I moaned with anticipation as he kissed my knees and thighs and dipped his tongue into my navel before sliding between my parted thighs. The fat head of his cock rubbed against my leg and then my lower belly. I trembled as need flared in my core and seared me with its heat.

  Wanting to touch him, I grasped his rigid length and marveled yet again at the size of him. He shivered as my hand pumped him from blunt crown to wide base. I let my hand slide even lower to cup his heavy sac. His nostrils flared, and he sent me a promising look. Now it was my turn to grin wickedly. I had no doubt that making love to Ben would eclipse every other experience.

  Holding his cock, I guided him into place. His hand settled on the back of my neck just before he breached me. With one long, deliberate thrust, he impaled me. His pale eyes never left mine. I gasped at the sudden invasion, my body unused to anything so big or thick. The concerned expression he wore told me Ben understood. I didn't need to worry. He wasn't going to hurt me.

  Fully sheathed in my pussy, he claimed my mouth with languid, lazy kisses. His hips started to move, and he took me with slow, easy strokes. Those skilled hands of his rode my curves, palming my breasts and pinching my nipples before settling on my waist. I couldn't stop touching him either. My greedy hands moved over his tattoos. I wanted to know all the stories behind the symbols he had chosen to forever mark his body. One night with Ben was never going to be enough.

  The frantic way he plundered my mouth and his tightening grip on my waist convinced me he felt the same way. I cried out when he bit the fleshy curve of my neck, his teeth sinking in enough to leave a bruise. When he sucked hard on the spot, laving it with his tongue, my pussy clenched around his thrusting cock. I clawed at his back, scratching at him and pulling him in closer.

  Laughing at my wanton behavior, Ben sneaked his hand between our bodies, landing right above the spot where we were joined together. He nibbled my lower lip, and I remembered the way he had teased and nibbled other parts of me. His fingertips danced around
my clit the same way his tongue had earlier that night. I gazed into his green eyes, his irises smoky with lust, and felt a quiver of panic. What if this was it? What if this moment was the last one we would share together?

  Ben's fingers swirled in the wetness coating that pink pearl hidden away between my thighs. My worries were forgotten as his tongue stabbed against mine. Clutching his shoulders, I surrendered to that shuddery, blissful throb building in my lower belly. I whispered his name on a sigh and he smiled at me. "That's it, baby. Come with me."

  I shattered beneath him, hips rocking and back arching. I tossed back my head as I cried out with pleasure and squeezed my thighs around his waist. Ben tasted my mouth again, drowning out my screams, and started to pound into me. He was wild with me now. His hips snapped at a breakneck pace, and his cock pounded me into the mattress. All I could do was hold on and ride the incredible and seemingly unending waves of ecstasy.

  When he grasped my calves and lifted my ankles to his shoulders, I moaned noisily. His eyes had taken on a predatory shine, and I knew then that I was really going to get it now. He gripped my ankles hard enough to leave bruises and fucked me like no one ever had—or ever would. It was always going to be Ben that I remembered when I closed my eyes and conjured up my most wanted fantasy. It was always going to be this rough, impossibly sexy mob enforcer who had saved my life by stealing my car.

  "Ben! Oh! Please."

  He let my legs fall to his waist again. With his one hand planted near my head, he threaded his fingers through my hair and claimed my mouth. The passion and power of his kiss left me reeling. His forehead touched mine, our noses bumping together as we panted and shared each other's air, and then he slammed so hard and deep that I slid up the bed. He jerked against me—and then I felt it.

  At the same moment, we locked gazes. In the frantic heat of our coupling, we had forgotten the most important thing of all. As shudders wracked his body, he spilled his blazing hot seed inside me. I had no idea it would feel so different without that latex barrier. My heart raced but not with fear. I didn't dare put a name to the primal sensation.

  Ben's eyes closed as a shiver coursed through him. When he looked at me again, I easily read the shame, guilt and pleasure on his face. He started to say something but I stopped him by placing my fingers to his mouth. I refused to let him ruin this perfectly perfect moment. Ben seemed to understand what I couldn't say and nodded before kissing each of my fingertips.

  When he finally pulled away from me and tucked me against his chest, I went willingly and with a smile. Exhaustion took us both. Curled together we slept until the first grayish pink rays of sunshine were streaming into my bedroom. I came awake to the sensation of Ben's soft lips peppering kisses across my back and along my neck. When I wiggled my hips, I felt his cock nudging my bottom. Half-asleep but already burning with desire, I pushed back against him.

  "We shouldn't, Aston." His voice was gravelly with sleep.

  I pressed against his erection, but he didn’t move toward me. Annoyed, I reached back to fondle him. "We really should."

  Not one to be dominated, Ben grasped my waist and shifted me into the position he wanted. I smiled at the way he used that brute strength of his to lift me up in the bed and shove my thighs open. Spooning me, he thrust inside a few inches, pulled back and slid in deeper. I whimpered with need and reached back to grip his hip. My hand traveled lower and settled on his taut ass. I loved the way his muscles rippled beneath my palm.

  Wanting it hard and rough like the first time, I tried to get what I desired by pressing down to meet his thrusts. "Ben, I want—"

  "No." His lips brushed my ear. "Not this time."

  "But—"

  "No." As if to show me who was boss, he slid his arm under my body and clamped it across my breasts. He held me against his chest and took me slow and easy. Instead of the wildfire that had burned through me earlier, this was steady and grew hotter with each passing minute. I closed my eyes and held onto his arm, letting him take me and trusting him to give me what I needed.

  Ben dragged my hand to his mouth and sucked on my fingers. He flicked his tongue over them, wetting my skin, and then pushed my hand down to the juncture of my thighs. "Touch yourself," he ordered gruffly. "Make yourself come for me."

  He must have known that he was one of the few people in the world who could get away with telling me to do anything. Not that I was going to put up much fight about an instruction like that one. Finding that swollen bundle of nerves, I strummed it the way I liked most. Ben's thrusts were faster now but still too achingly slow. He nuzzled my neck and whispered in my ear, telling me how beautiful and brave I was. He teethed my earlobe before changing the angle of his hips. The new way his cock stroked inside me was too good. I curled my toes against his shin and whimpered.

  "That's it," he murmured. "Let go, baby. Let go for me."

  The moment his strong hand encircled my throat, a frisson of panic raced through my belly. He wasn't going to do that but it was the possibility of danger, however slim, that set me off. He lovingly cupped my neck in that big hand of his while I cried out with pleasure, calling his name and clutching at his forearm. The wicked spasms of my pussy gripped his thrusting cock, enhancing the fluttery bursts of joy that exploded in my belly.

  "Aston!" He growled my name as he climaxed. "Aston. Aston."

  Stay. I bit my tongue rather than say that one word. It was a silly thought. A stupid one, actually. There was no way Ben reciprocated my feelings. Enthralled by the glimmer of possibility, I desperately wanted to roll over, kiss him and ask him to stay, to give whatever this was that had sparked off between us, a real try.

  Losing myself in the warmth of Ben's protective arms, I stayed awake a little longer after he had fallen back asleep. An unwanted feeling crept from the pit of my stomach and into my chest. I knew what was coming. I knew what would happen once I fell asleep, but I fought a losing battle and soon succumbed to my exhaustion again.

  And when I woke, I found my bed empty. The sheets were cold on the side where he had slept. A single sheet of paper taken from my small desk across the room rested on the pillow. I picked it up and scanned the short message he had scrawled for me.

  I'll call you.

  But he didn’t.

  Chapter Seven

  "Ben?"

  Surprised by Besian's voice, he lowered his socket wrench and stepped out from under the car lift. The boss rarely made an appearance at the shop. In his dark suit and shiny shoes, he looked totally out of place amid the dust and the grime, but Ben knew better than to think the expensive clothes had made the man soft. He might be a successful and mostly legitimate businessman now, but he had clawed his way to power with vicious and brutal acts that he wouldn’t hesitate to repeat again.

  "Boss." He tugged a rag from the back pocket of his jeans and cleaned his dirty fingers. "I didn't know you were coming by today."

  Besian gestured toward the open garage doors and the stillness of the evening. "Meet me outside." His gaze slid to Ben's filthy clothes. "Change your jeans, at least. You don't want to stain these seats."

  He stuffed the rag into his pocket. "Give me five minutes."

  After ducking into his office to grab the extra pair of clothes he kept on hand, he slipped into the employee bathroom to scrub away the grease and grime coating his hands. He stared at his reflection as he dried his hands and wiped a soapy paper towel over his face and along the back of his neck. There were lines under his eyes and around his mouth. He hadn't been sleeping well, not since…

  Not since you left Aston like a fucking coward.

  His stomach churned with the memory of leaving sweet, beguiling Aston and sneaking out of her house. He had taken the stolen Camaro to Zec's new holding spot. The smuggler had taken one look at him and then patted his back in a comforting way. He had wanted to be angry at Zec for forcing him to acknowledge the ugly truth of the situation, but he couldn't muster the energy for it. Instead, he had welcomed the cold numbness
that had spread through him.

  Crumpling up the soggy towel, he tossed it in the trash and made quick work of changing his clothes. He caught Devil's eye after he locked up his office. The scarred giant waved to let him know he had the shop under control.

  Out in the still, muggy night, he heard a car idling down the street. He walked toward the sound but stopped abruptly when the silver Aston Martin came into view. Although he had tried to get the namesake car back, Besian had forbidden him from entering negotiations with Lalo. The boss hadn't been pleased that he had lied about taking Aston to the containers or that he had agreed to let her take the car's place as collateral.

  Writing her another letter to let her know Baby was lost and asking one of the family's runners to deliver it to Aston had been one of the lowest moments of his life. He might have come through on his promise to save her from her stepbrother, but he had lost her father's car. Staring at it now, he wondered what game the boss was playing.

  Besian already sat in the passenger seat so Ben slid behind the wheel of the outrageously expensive classic car. He inhaled the crisp scent of the leather and admired the polished wood of the steering wheel with a sweep of his hand. "How?"

  "Lalo and I found some common ground, but your blonde honey owned the negotiations. She's tough like her father. I don't think I've ever seen anyone in the cartel fold that easily. Of course, she gave Lalo the choice of any car in her collection."

  The pride he had felt at hearing Besian call her tough turned to heartache when he imagined how much it must have hurt her to give away more of her father's things. "Lalo never should have had this one. The drug debt wasn't hers to pay. This car wasn't Calvin's to use as collateral either. She never owed us a debt."

  "Her family owed the debt. Calvin is gone. You and Devil made sure of that. I can't collect a debt on an unmarked grave." Besian reached for his seat belt. "I thought you would be proud of her. She pays her debts and has a great deal of integrity and honor. Most women in her position would have simply called the police. She could have used her contacts to bury us."