Hector

  His words silenced her, and she stopped moving, staring at him as she continued to breathe harshly. He kissed the tears that continued to drip down the side of her cheek.

  “I don’t understand,” she whispered, searching his eyes for answers.

  Finally letting go of her hand, he cradled her face in his hands now. “I didn’t even realize it until a few minutes ago,” he wiped the corners of her wet eyes with his thumbs. “But I think I’m love with you, Charlee, and if that’s the case, I don’t know if I can handle doing this and you changing your mind later.”

  She shook her head, her questioning eyes still searching his. “Why would I change my mind?”

  “Sweetheart, you’ve never been with anyone else. How do you know for sure this is it for you?”

  “I don’t? Do you?”

  He stared at her for a moment, feeling a little disappointed. Secretly he’d hoped she’d say she was, but her throwing it back in his face made him think. Was he?

  “I don’t know. All I know is if this happens—if we do this—I won’t be able to handle it if you do.”

  She brought her hand up to his face and caressed it. For the first time since she’d become so upset, she smiled. “I think that’s the chance everyone takes when they give into their hearts. I don’t think I’d be able to handle it either if you changed your mind.” She glanced away, giving way to that timid smile he knew he was in love with now. “I think we just got a little taste of how I’d handle it if you did.” She kissed him softly, and he kissed her back, wrapping his arms around her waist. “I’d still be willing to chance it if you are.”

  Squeezing her even tighter, he buried his face in her neck, breathing her in. He loved the way she smelled, loved the way her small frame fit so perfectly against his body.

  “I can promise you one thing,” she whispered in his ear as she ran her hands through his hair. She had his attention, and he pulled away to look at her. He sensed a little hesitation before she spoke again, and there was a hint of insecurity in her eyes. “Unless I’m way off, and I have been in the past, unless you are this talented of an actor and the sincerity I’m feeling when you speak of your feelings for me—this trust that you’ve talked about taking so seriously isn’t all real—then I promise you that can’t imagine anything making me change my mind about you.”

  Seeing the insecurity in her eyes gave him a little hope that he wasn’t alone in just how damn scared this made him. His brother may be older and wiser, but when it came to love, he was just as inexperienced as Hector. This wasn’t something you just decided you were going to do. It was something that happened, and there was nothing in your power to stop it.

  “I love you,” he whispered, and she smiled, her big blue eyes immediately flooding with tears.

  “This is crazy, but I love you too.”

  His heart pounded away with fear, excitement, and now exhilaration of knowing she was in love with him too. Picking her up like he had yesterday, he kissed her deeply. With both her arms and legs wrapped around him now, he started toward the sofa, but she pulled away and pointed. “My bedroom is that way.”

  God help him. This was really going to happen. Screw the fear. Hurrying toward her bedroom, he kissed her madly. He’d deal with his fears later. There was no choice now. Either he learned to handle what Abel thought and what Hector had begun to believe that he couldn’t handle, or he walked away, and he wouldn’t even consider that now.

  Laying her down gently on the bed, he scooted onto it with her. Their lips never once parted even as he lifted his body over hers. Continuing to kiss her, he stopped every now and then to stare at her lips. He loved how red and swollen they were. The fact that he was responsible for how damn sexy they looked now drove him nuts.

  Bringing her arms up above her head like he’d pinned her down earlier in the front room, he laced his fingers through hers, staring into her eyes. He leaned in and slowly began to kiss her freckles like he’d imagined doing when he first noticed them. He started on her forehead, kissing each freckle softly, and then he worked his way down her temple.

  Rubbing himself against her leg, he wanted her to feel just how aroused doing just this made him. She squirmed in reaction to feeling him, and he began to sway his body very slowly against her like he’d begun to earlier but had stopped. Only now, he didn’t stop, and she swayed with him, spreading her legs a bit. Knowing if he adjusted himself just slightly he could be rubbing up against the very spot that would drive them both crazy, he didn’t. He wanted to—needed to—take this as slowly as possible. This may be the first time for her ever, but it was a first for him as well, and he wanted to savor every moment. Savoring it drowned out the enormous fear he’d begun to feel earlier about making love for the very first time, putting his heart out there as he never had before.

  Working his way down the warm soft flesh of her face, he reminded himself, as he mentally was already beginning to claim each and every one of her beautiful freckles as his, that he could handle this. He kissed the freckles on her nose just under her eyes and around her delicate cheek bone, and then he worked his way down her jaw but couldn’t help going back to bury his tongue in her red swollen mouth again. She kissed him back urgently, lifting her legs around his so his thigh rested now on the heat between her legs. Imagining burying himself in another red swollen part of her body had him squeezing his eyes shut now. He had to hold it together, or this might get embarrassing.

  He began to ease her sweater up, and she sat up, helping him with it. She pulled it over her head and disposed of it quickly over the side of the bed. Awestruck, he stared at the milky white skin on her shoulders, chest, and flat stomach. There were so many more freckles for him to claim sprinkled all across her torso.

  Starting just under her chin, he began kissing his way down. He kissed and sucked softly, down to the very edge of each shoulder. Pulling the straps of her bra down her shoulders, he brought it down until both of her beautifully pale breasts were completely exposed. Hector stared at them. They didn’t get any more perfect than this—perfectly full, pure, untouched, and his mind once again went there—all his.

  With his breathing accelerating, he focused on the coat of freckles sprinkled all over them. The coat was heavier around her cleavage and the only hint of color on her otherwise powdery white skin, aside from the very pale pink nipples that almost blended with the skin around them. He quickly latched onto one with his mouth, sucking softly then biting down gently. Hearing her soft panting and breathing grow even more frantic only made him suck harder.

  Trying desperately to keep moving slowly was a challenge, especially now that her body trembled uncontrollably with every suck of her sweet nipples. He stopped for a second to pull off his shirt, needing to feel her flesh against his. She took that moment to undo her bra completely and took it off. Now she was completely naked from the waist up. He stared down, gulping hard. It took everything in him not to reach down and rip her pants off her. He wanted nothing more than to drive into her now—claim her. But why did the very thought still scare him so much?

  Easing himself back down, his heart galloped away furiously.

  “The heart is forever inexperienced,” Charlee whispered, and Hector froze, staring at her.

  “What did you say?”

  She reached her hand up and touched his chest with her fingers. “Henry David Thoreau. There’s something I didn’t know about you, that you’re into poetry, but I’ve also wondered for a long time what this was,” she smiled timidly, biting her lower lip but continued touch his chest. “I even Googled your name and the word tattoo to see if I got a hit and nothing.” Tracing the words with her fingers, she glanced at him then back at his chest. “What does that mean to you? And the broken heart.” She lifted her eyes to him again, a bit confused, her own naked chest rising and falling from her still accelerated breathing. “Your heart’s been broken?”

  “Yes,” he whispered, lowering himself onto her, “but not like you’re thinking.”
>
  Jack’s words couldn’t have come at a better time. “The letters on the bottom are the initials of Jack, the late founder of 5th Street, and the only father figure Abel and I had since our dad died. I’m not big on poetry. It’s just something he used to say to us a lot.”

  She nodded, her eyes full of understanding now. “I’ve read about Jack.”

  Hector rested his elbows and lower arms on either side of Charlee’s face and kissed her softly, licking her lower lip, still so swollen and so red. Hearing Jack’s words at this very moment was exactly what he needed. He’d said these very words to him and the guys often. Hector knew what it meant but didn’t quite get it. It wasn’t until he had to endure the loss of his good friend and mentor that he understood.

  The loss of his own father had come at an early age, but Hector had still agonized over it. Losing Jack hadn’t been any easier for him or Abel, nor had it been for Gio or Noah, who, like them, had also been through a loss of that magnitude. The heart didn’t hurt any less because of their past experiences. Jack’s words had come barreling down on him the days after his passing. That’s why he chose to have those words forever be a part of him. So that he’d never forget that. Now here they were, reminding him of what he needed to focus on right now. Handling what he felt for Charlee would never get any easier. Nor would the exhilaration he felt being with her, kissing her, and making her his ever lessen. He may as will give into what his heart wanted now and start making her his so he could continue to do so over and over again.

  Reaching down, he slipped his hand into her leggings as he continued to suck her soft lips. As he slipped his hand lower and she spread her legs for him, gasping against his lips, his heart took a flying leap when he felt the soft hair just above where his fingers were headed. She wasn’t clean shaven like most of the girls he’d been with.

  Smiling, he thought about how the less-experienced girls were the ones that obsessed less about these things, and this was just further proof of how inexperienced Charlee really was. He moved his fingers further down, skin to skin with the very hot place he’d only felt through her leggings earlier. And though he’d felt her pulsating through the fabric, it didn’t compare at all to feeling the moisture on his fingers now.

  He could hardly stand it anymore, plunging his tongue deep in her mouth, doing to her mouth what he wanted to be doing to her body already. He heard her boots drop, and he knew she’d kicked them off. She wanted it as much as he did.

  While his fingers toyed with her soft, wet, pulsating folds, his other hand began to pull her leggings down. Charlee lifted her behind and helped him pulling her leggings along with her pink lacy panties down her legs. Hector had to move his hand away from her sweet wetness to pull everything completely off. He didn’t think his heart could beat any harder until he looked down and saw her lying there completely naked now. Even though he’d just kissed and tasted many parts of her body, seeing her lying there like that, her freckles adorning every crevice of her delicately powdery white body, took his breath away.

  As his eyes moved down her slowly, he froze, staring between her legs. He couldn’t move his eyes away from the very neatly trimmed almost see-through perfectly heart-shaped patch of red hair. Finally he looked up at her. She lifted herself on her elbows and watched him now, her face slightly tinged with color. “You did that?”

  She nodded that timid smile, relieving a tension he didn’t even realize had built. “Last night.”

  Glancing back to it because he had to look at it again, he smiled now. “For me? But how’d you know . . .” He reached down to touch it, caressing the soft hair with his fingers.

  “I didn’t,” she whispered, her breath catching at his touch. “It just felt good having a little secret all day and knowing if by chance we did get this far you might like it.”

  “I do,” he said, slipping his finger down past the heart-shaped patch now and into her moist slit.

  She gasped, spreading her legs, letting her head fall back. With his other hand, he began undoing his zipper, his body taut and ready for what was about to happen. Pulling the condom out of his wallet and ripping the package with his teeth, he sunk his finger in her, surprised at just how ready she was. As he slipped the condom on with one hand, he slipped another finger into her, keeping his eyes on her face, waiting for any signs of pain or discomfort. Charlee squirmed, arching her back as he rubbed his thumb exactly where he knew he’d make her moan. Bringing his leg over her body, he spread her beneath him.

  Charlee lifted her hips. “Do it,” her whispered pleas drove him insane. “I want you in me now.”

  He brought his arms down either side of her face again and kissed her hard. “I wanna be in you, baby.”

  “Then do it,” she said, breathlessly wrapping her arms around her neck and lifting her face to kiss him just as frantically as he felt.

  Hector had been with plenty of girls, but at the moment, he felt too dazed to remember if any of them had been virgins. For a virgin, Charlee hardly seemed nervous, or maybe it was his being such a wuss-ass that made her urgency feel that much bolder. Her legs were now spread as far apart as he needed, and he began working his way in her slowly, but there was no resistance as he’d imagined. She was tight, but looking at her face now as he entered her, he saw nothing but pleasure. “You okay?” he grunted as he forced himself to go slowly.

  “Yes,” she gasped, lifting her hips up, making him slip in deeper.

  There was still no resistance or discomfort on her part, and now she wrapped her legs around him. Fuck it. He plunged deep into her with a groan, making her cry out. But they were cries of pleasure not pain. “Yes!” she said through her panting as he pumped her harder and harder. “Oh yes!”

  Maybe she lied about being a virgin. At that moment, he didn’t give a shit. He rammed in her hard, plunging his tongue in her mouth with the same force. Again and again, he thrust deeper and deeper as she panted and moaned in the pleasure of it.

  Pulling her arms tighter around his neck, she lifted her hips as he thrust in her. Seeing her enjoy it so much confused him a bit but not enough to slow him down.“That feels so good, Hector.” Her expression was anything but pained like he might’ve expected. Even her strained request just before she sunk her teeth into her bottom lip came as a complete surprise. “Harder!”

  Blissfully, he obliged, but this was not how he’d imagined making love to Charlee the first time would be. He’d fully prepared himself to take things as slow as she needed him to, be as gentle as he had to be. But he had to admit fucking sweet little Charlee like this—like she begged him to—and feeling her claw her nails into his shoulders as she cried out was hot as shit.

  Lifting himself so his arms weren’t at either side of her and he was on his knees now, he slowed only because he didn’t want it to end this soon. He wanted to rock into her like this forever. But she lifted her hips into him. “Don’t stop!” she gasped. “Please don’t stop!” Letting her head fall back again and seeing her closing her eyes, he could feel her body begin those familiar spasms he felt earlier. “Please don’t ever stop.”

  Knowing how close they both were now, he grabbed her small waist with both hands and drove into her hard, making her cry out and moan at once. Her back arched in anticipation of what was building. She was so wet their bodies slapped loudly as he pounded into her, feeling his own climax building. Thrusting into her a few more times, he finally drove all the way in, feeling an explosion like none he’d ever felt.

  Charlee’s chest heaved up and down now as she squeezed her eyes shut, moaning in delight. Holding her by the waist up against him still, he gulped hard in an effort to catch his breath. He glanced down at the heart-shaped patch, now slickly wet and even brighter red, and smiled. “Maybe you could shave an H in the middle of it,” he said.

  He glanced up as she opened her eyes slowly, still breathing heavily. “Into what?”

  Looking back down at it, he touched it, smiling even bigger then glanced back up at her. “
The heart.”

  “Why?” She tilted her head with a smirk. “So that anyone who sees it knows it’s yours?”

  That wiped the smile right off his face. He moved his hand down from the back of her small waist and spanked her behind. “Not funny.”

  He didn’t spank her very hard, but it was hard enough to make her yelp then laugh. “Ow!”

  He stared at her wicked smile for a moment, and if he weren’t mistaken, she liked that. Well, hot damn, he never would’ve guessed this is what his sex life with Charlee would be like. He collapsed onto her, instantly feeling aroused again, and devoured her equally eager mouth.

  Chapter 27

  Opening one eye slowly and then the other, memories of the night Charlee had had with Hector began warming her still-half-asleep body. She didn’t even remember falling asleep, but she was surprised Hector still lay next to her. The light that crept in from the tiny crevices between the closed blinds meant only one thing: it was morning.

  Hector held her still-naked body tightly against his own. She glanced at the clock and saw she had less than an hour to get ready and out of there if she was going to make it to class in time to make her presentation. If it weren’t because she knew she’d startle Hector out of his sleep, she’d groan as loudly as she felt like groaning. Why today of all days did she absolutely have to be at school? Any other day she could’ve easily missed.

  Slipping out from under his big arm, she got out of bed and threw on a t-shirt and shorts. She tiptoed out of the room and down the hall to the bathroom. He already knew about the class she couldn’t miss today when she explained where Drew was last night and why Charlee hadn’t gone with her. Curse the damn presentation. Her only consolation was that there would be more nights like last night. She’d make sure of it.