Breaking the Limits: Rafe & Nicole Book 2 (4 page)

‘Also, you don’t like women who talk back. I worry about that.’

He laughed so long, she was scowling up a storm by the time he wiped his hand over his face and composed himself. ‘Sorry, but that was so fucking deluded.’ He chuckled, caught himself. ‘Sorry, really.’

‘And you’re always completely transparent, I suppose,’ she said with a little flash of annoyance.

No way he was going there, his entire life shrouded in layers of reticence. ‘With you, I’ll try, okay? Ask me something. I’ll answer if I can.’

‘But not why we’re here.’

‘It’s too dangerous for you to know. That’s why your uncle was freaking. Ask me something easier.’

‘Do you believe in love?’

He cleared his throat. ‘That’s a pretty loaded word.’

‘Doesn’t have to be.’

She waited, a smile lifting her perfect mouth. Understanding this was in the way of a test, he was careful with his answer. ‘Before you, I would have said, emphatically, no. Now? I’m thinking, maybe.’

She laughed. ‘Men. So predictable. Scared as shit about love.’

‘Predictable this, Pussycat,’ he said, reaching out for her, putting an end to a conversation that couldn’t possibly end well. Grabbing her skirt, he jerked it up, ripped off her lace panties with a snap of his wrist, dropped them, shoved his boxers down, then spun her around. ‘Hands on the sill, Tiger. You wouldn’t want to fall.’ His voice was soft, the finger he slid up her slick pussy practised, professional, smoothly efficient in its results.

With a quivering sigh, she leaned over and set her hands on the sill.

‘Good girl.’ But even as he slid the swollen head of his dick into her sleek, pulsing sex, he experienced a sharp, bitter taste in his mouth at the feel of her ever-ready, slick pussy. A second later, he reminded himself that he’d always considered wantonness an asset in a women; get over it. So he did in his habitual fashion – deny the problem – fuck instead. Splaying his fingers around her slim hips, he secured his grip, and without preliminaries, drove in hilt deep, ignoring her startled cry, begrudging her low moan of pleasure that followed, not sure any of this was even close to habitual.

Nicole had never been a casual lay.

More like an obsession.

And in his current reproachful frame of mind, undeterred by reason or logic, he blamed the beautiful, captivating, unpredictable woman for making unclear what had always been clear in his life, for trashing his long-held custom of sex as entertainment, for the bloody unwelcome cluster-fuck in his brain. Rankled and sullen, wanting her to somehow pay for his obsession, he gave her ass a slap. ‘Show me what you’ve got, babe. Give me a good ride and I might let you come first.’

His fuck-all tone was so outrageous, her pulse was suddenly loud in her ears for reasons other than her feverish arousal. ‘You’re confusing me with all the women who put up with your bullshit,’ Nicole snapped. Pushing hard on the window sill, she tried to rise, ignoring her wildly aroused libido that was screaming,
No, no, no! Don’t do this to me!
Shutting down the hysterical voice in her head, she flung herself back against the immovable force holding her down. ‘Get the fuck off me!’

Motionless, tense, his dick buried deep inside her, he didn’t move, with the exception of tightening his grip on her hips, his fingers leaving marks on her skin. Assailed with an overwhelming need to finish what he started, her hot, pulsing pussy wetter than hell, there was no doubt in his mind she wanted to come as much as he did. Rocked with indecision, thoroughly selfish, sexual denial previously unknown, he quickly debated his options. With anyone else, debate would have been a non-starter. Also, if he wasn’t so fucking ready to explode, if his fucked-up life didn’t make true enlightenment impossible, he might have seen the humour in the situation.

Really, what woman says
‘stop’
when she’s impaled on your dick and panting? The Princess of the Universe, of course. Who the fuck else?

Dragging in a steadying breath, he took a moment to deal with his rancor, quickly calculated a sexual cost/benefit analysis and decided Nicole couldn’t go long without an orgasm. So what the hell – he could afford to be polite a few minutes more.

But he was still damn near explosive, his dick in particular, and it required another moment or two to drain the snarl from his voice. ‘Sorry, my fault,’ he said, tightly. Shutting his eyes briefly, he summoned every shred of willpower he possessed, then withdrew from the sweetest, hottest piece of ass this side of paradise. His libido was still raging, his erection hard enough to cut steel. Life sucked.

‘Oh, hell, I’m sorry too.’ Standing up and turning to face him, Nicole offered a small deprecating smile. ‘I get pissed when you play God.’ She twitched her nose. ‘Jeez, sorry again – really – that would have been super good too. Damn.’ She smiled. ‘I apologize for my freaking temper.’

‘Not a problem. I deserved it,’ he said, not defensive, patient, being an adult now that his pulse rate was diminishing. ‘I shouldn’t have said what I did.’

‘Look, it’s supposed to be just a game.’ Nicole sighed. ‘I overreacted.’

He shrugged. ‘We both did. For what it’s worth, I don’t mind your temper. It’s different.’

A playful twinkle warmed her eyes. ‘Different from all your compliant lays?’

‘Something like that.’ Although she was so much more, different in countless ways – all good, shiny bright and dazzling.

‘You’ve had it easy too long.’ She held up her hands to stop his protest. ‘Not that I don’t understand. Smart, handsome billionaire with a legendary dick. Hell,
I’m
willing to be agreeable for access to your inked magnificence.’

He chuckled. ‘You agreeable? Hey, joke, relax. You’re perfect.’ Pulling her close, he slid his hands down her back, rested them at the base of her spine, smiled his most winning smile. ‘However.’ A lift of his brows. ‘At the risk of returning to the war zone, I don’t much feel like conversation. I’m barely keeping my shit together you noticed, yeah? Anyway, under stress, my normal go-to setting is to smash something or else fuck till I drop. Old habits, sorry. If I’m scaring the shit out of you, you’re off the hook. I can do myself.’

‘I don’t scare. Also, in case you haven’t noticed, I’m horny too. Capisce?’

Having noticed her horniness wasn’t the issue so much as his curious disapproval of it. But apparently she was willing to overlook his behaviour for her own selfish reasons. He understood; selfishness his mantra too. ‘Our bet still on, then?’ he asked with a truly lovely smile.

‘Fuck, yeah.’ Damned if he couldn’t be sweet. And, honestly, he had major reasons for his bad-ass mood. ‘I’ll even raise you one. Me at your complete disposal. That should give me extra points on the scoreboard.’

He sucked in a breath. ‘You sure you know what you’re doing?’

‘I thought you were the one who did,’ she purred.

He was beginning to have a real good feeling about the next twenty-four hours. ‘Seeing how you’re magnanimously offering me my drug of choice, you have to tell me what I can buy you in return – name it . . . anything in the world. Don’t even think about frowning because you deserve a ton of gifts. You make everything better in my fucked-up world.’

‘I don’t need presents.’ She grinned. ‘But there are some things I want.’

He looked at her from under his dark lashes. ‘I can afford the fucking gifts, okay? So decide. That’s an order.’ He dipped his head and gave her back a lazy grin that was pure, undiluted sex. ‘The other things you want are free.’

She shrugged. ‘Okay then, if you insist, I’ll decide on a gift
after
the wedding.’

His eyes went from stunned shock to anger in an instant. ‘Very fucking amusing,’ he growled.

Her little giggle was one of triumph. ‘You said
anything.
’

‘Very well,’ he said with a small despairing sigh. ‘If that’s what you want – no point in waiting. We might as well call your mother and father and give them the good news.’

Nicole immediately went ashen and Rafe grinned, made a little check mark in the air and whispered, ‘Gotcha.’

‘You’re so on my shit list,’ she grumbled. ‘You almost gave me a heart attack.’

‘I can give you something else you’ll like better,’ he murmured, flexing his hips so she felt the rigid length of his dick against her stomach.

Still sulky, she tried to swat his hands away; he pulled her back, his palms hard on her ass. ‘I’m done fucking around, Tiger. No more talking, no more arguing, no more playing around. If you’re not interested in fucking, I’m going solo.’ Motionless, he waited, not interested in trying to read her mind, needing a clear-cut answer. Because a blinding neon sign was lighting up his brain, blinking –
TWENTY-FOUR HOURS
– and he was real fucking close to scaring the shit out of her.

She recognized the line in the sand, the grim set of his mouth, the taut muscles of his throat visible above his T-shirt. ‘Definitely interested,’ she murmured. ‘Now pay attention.’ Rising on tiptoe, she slid her hands up his black T-shirt with the logo of some band she’d never heard of, slipped her arms around his neck, locked her fingers under the dark silken curls laying at his nape and stretched to kiss his chin.

Every cell in his body was paying attention, fresh blood rushing to his dick at dizzying speed. Dipping his head, he touched her lips, whispered, ‘Ummm . . . nice – sexy.’ The kiss quickly deepened, his dick started doing the happy dance, Nicole began to pant and, under normal circumstances, he would have had them on the bullet train to orgasm. But the deliberative part of his brain wouldn’t shut down. It kept reverting to the imminent dangers facing them, reminding him that the clock was ticking down, his world was shrinking by the minute, destruction was fast approaching and regardless his feelings and wishes, including the fierce delirium of flame hot sex – nothing mattered if they lost this war.

‘Hey.’ Nicole leaned back enough to give him a perplexed look.

‘Sorry.’ Dragging himself back from the brink of the abyss, he smiled. ‘I apologize for zoning out, but there’s a ton of shit going down right now. You have my permission to smack me back to reality when I drift off.’

‘Oh God, I’m so selfish. Would you rather be with your friends? I’d understand completely.’

‘Hell, no. I just want to be with you, and forget everything except the good stuff.’ He was back in reality, the hard pull of disaster fading, the complications facing him boiling down, running out of steam, cooling. He had a day, a wisp and flicker of innocence still left him and a woman he really liked and wanted; he’d never wanted anyone more.

‘Okay then, here’s what we’re going to do,’ Nicole said, firmly, unwrapping her arms from his neck, easing down from her tiptoes and stepping away.

He frowned, his voice sharpened. ‘Get back here.’

She stared at him.

Recognizing that stubborn tilt to her chin, he ducked his head, watched her from under his eyelids. ‘Please?’

Her smile slowly appeared. ‘You have manners after all.’

In the interest of détente, he bit back his remark about not needing manners when you had billions. ‘I’m sorry if I offended you. Now come back and kiss me.’

‘I was thinking, since you’re obviously tense – with reason,’ she noted, as if he hadn’t spoken, ‘why don’t I see if your dick would like some kisses. You know, help you relax.’

Everything except his dick instantly relaxed. ‘Thank you,’ he said, politely, as if his turn in croquet had just come up. ‘I’d like that.’

‘Let me take this dress off so it doesn’t get
—
’

‘Messy?’ He grinned. ‘Or are you going to swallow?’

She grinned back. ‘It depends how polite you are.’

‘Give me a hint. What do you want? Please and thank you? Actually, that would work, wouldn’t it? I’ll say please now and thank you later.’

‘I’m trying to do you a favour and I get sarcasm?’

He looked amused. ‘You don’t have to do me any favours. Just come a little closer and I’ll do us both some favours. Repetitive favours – you know, the kind you like best.’

Chapter 3

‘Finish undressing for me – slowly. Calm my nerves.’ He pointed. ‘You there. Me here.’ He turned and walked to a chair, pulling off his T-shirt as he went. Dropping the shirt on the floor, he sat, looked up and lifted his brows. ‘What?’

‘I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you give orders. A lot.’

He smiled. ‘Sorry. Remind me when I revert to asshole mode. I can adapt.’

‘For me.’

‘Yeah. Just for you.’ He paused, debating how to politely decline her offer of oral. Practically every woman he met offered to go down on him. It was common as shit in his world – the modern equivalent of hello. ‘Look.’ He ran his hands over his hair, took a breath. ‘I appreciate you trying to be nice to me. But I’ve had less practice, so let
me
work on being nice.’ His smile was a thing of beauty, visual poetry come to life. ‘So come here.’ He patted his thigh. ‘I just want to feel you – everywhere. You can be my security blanket.’

‘Did you have one?’ she asked, moving toward him.

He shook his head. No point in mentioning the nannies his father had hired who’d made his young life so miserable that his mother finally had stood up to Maso and insisted on taking care of Rafe herself. At the age of four he’d first come to know the meaning of salvation.

‘I had a blankey,’ Nicole said, unbuttoning the last few buttons on the dress. ‘Mine was white with bunnies on it, silky and worn down to a scrap before I gave it up. I couldn’t go to sleep without it.’

He smiled. ‘That’s probably why my life went off the rails. You’ll have to tell me what it was like to have a security blanket.’

‘I’d be happy to show you.’ She slowly slid her dress down her hips, let it slither to the floor, stepped over the puddle of purple linen and grinned. ‘Consider me here for your edification.’

He laughed and held out his arms.

She’d never been drawn to men by their looks alone. It was too often a façade for banality. Yet it was impossible to ignore the physical munificence that was Rafe Contini. His dark hair fell in disarray over his shoulders, framed the high cheekbones of his handsome face, the beauty of his golden wolf eyes, the hard line of his jaw. He was sprawled in the carved and gilded chair, big, tall, nude – enough energy running through his sleek muscles to power the world, his colourful, inked dick arched high, tapping his stomach. His smile clean as the sun.

Nicole caught a huge breath.

He offered her a slow, lazy grin. ‘Everything good?’

A tiny smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. ‘Oh yeah.’

He crooked his finger, his smile swelled. ‘Come. Talk to me.’

She closed the distance to the chair in a slow catwalk.

‘Fancy that.’ His eyes sparkled. ‘A little sex-bomb tease.’

‘Didn’t know I was a sex bomb.’

‘You’re every man’s fantasy, Pussycat.’ Huge blue eyes, rosy skin, soft mouth, dark curls all raggedy and messy from the wind, a body that could stop traffic; the kind of lovely that would last for ever. He raised one finger from the chair arm where his hand rested. ‘Were. Past tense.’

Her grin had a glint. ‘We putting up fences?’

‘I am.’

‘We’ll have to see how that goes.’ Coming to a stop, she took his outstretched hands, put one knee on the turquoise velvet of the chair cushion, then the other, straddled his thighs, leaned forward, kissed him, then sat back with a smile. ‘What do you want to talk about?’

‘About how many times you want to come.’ Sliding a hand under her bottom, he lifted her slightly, guided the head of his dick into place and, leaning back, held her gaze as she slowly sank down his rock-hard erection. ‘I’m real sorry I missed out on security blankets.’ His voice was a low rasp, his hands closing over her hips. ‘If they make you feel this bloody fine.’ A small hooded smile as she came to rest on his thighs, shut her eyes and softly sighed. ‘Don’t move.’

She couldn’t if she wanted to, his steely grip nailing her in place, an incredible pleasure whooshing through her like a strong, hot rush of E. Uttering a small, dreamy sound, she slowly opened her eyes. ‘More.’

He grunted. ‘Greedy.’

‘Always.’ She wrapped her arms around his neck. ‘Or should I do myself?’

‘You’ll like this better.’ Holding her immobile, he flexed his quads and gluts, thrust his huge dick upward hard and zeroed in on all her sweet spots with perfect understanding and absolute precision – offering her the first generous hint of promised favours.

Her head tipped back, pleasure sharp enough to make her gasp.

Her pussy convulsed around his dick with sheer perfection.

And a breath-held moment passed in an electric, fast-beating silence.

Then, well-trained and accomplished, Rafe raised her slowly up his dick and started over again.

He watched her from under his lashes, monitoring the nuances of her arousal, the little panting groans, the flush on her cheeks, the way she sank her nails into his shoulders when he was forcing his dick all the way up into her tight little pussy.

There. Like that.

Now wait for her gasp, her greedy swivelling grind, her lush moan. He smiled. There was something about that soft, breathy sound that made him feel invincible.

With every lustful cell in her body offering infinite devotion to her sexual benefactor, Nicole recognized that if there was a contest for the best dick in the world and how to use it, Rafe would win it hands down. Not that she was a major authority but, at the moment, she was as close to an earthly paradise as any opium-crazed poet could imagine. She was drowning in happiness, bliss was exploding in her brain and her body was quivering on the brink of another spectacular, mind-blowing orgasm. Oh. My. God. How does he know that when he touches her right
there
, her entire nervous system melts into a puddle of love.

‘You like that?’ A deep, low whisper. ‘Try it again?’

If she could override the fevered pleasure scorching her brain, the synapses powering her speech functions would be screaming,
Yes, yes, yes!
But coherent thought had short circuited, carnal desperation held sway, ravenous lust was flooding her body and the best she could manage was a hot little pant.

Good enough.
He hadn’t really expected an answer anyway. He pushed deeper, dragged his dick slowly over the soft cushiony nerves of her G-spot, up and down, one, twice, three times, super gently. Gave her clit a tender massage with his thumb for good measure. He was just about to begin an encore riff when she arched her back, uttered a low, strung-out moan and started to climax.

He’d never before contemplated the word
finally
, when it came to Nicole’s pedal-to-the-metal orgasms but, tense as hell, wired to the max with lethal threats coming from every direction, he’d been waiting his turn. So the second she sucked in that little breath in prelude to her scream, he did a quick mental check that all her erogenous pussy zones were feeling the pressure of his big, stiff cock and raced to catch up. As she began shuddering against his body, he blanked out everything but immediate sensation, jumped on the orgasmic rocket and climaxed in a powerful surge, flooding her pussy with wave after wave of white-hot come.

Before he’d even stopped breathing hard, a jarring memory prompt replayed Nicole’s strangely subdued orgasm; no wild cry, only a few stifled whimpers. Jesus, had he hurt her? An instant spike of worry shot through him. Bending his head, he took her face in his hands and quickly scanned her features, as if evidence of her affliction might be visible. ‘Something’s wrong.’

‘Not true.’ Her eyes were shut.

Brushing away a tear escaping from under her lashes, he said, ‘You expect me to believe that when you’re crying? If I hurt you, I’m sorry. Just tell me what I did and I won’t do it again. If it’s something else, I’ll fix it, buy it or make it go away.’

She slowly opened her eyes. ‘You can’t do any of that.’

‘Try me,’ he said, gently.

Struggling not to burst into tears and scare him off by saying something stupidly romantic about how perfect he was to her, she forced a smile. ‘It’s nothing – nerves, hormones, fatigue, the alignment of the planets – fuck, I don’t know. Don’t worry about it.’ Rafe had too much on his plate right now, scary shit that had Dominic sending Leo along to guard her. This wasn’t the time for her to get all needy and emotional. Although with Rafe there probably was never a good time for that.

‘Sleep if you want.’ She didn’t want to talk – fine, although with her, he would have listened. ‘I’ll just hold you.’

She squirmed a tiny bit. ‘What about him?’ His dick was still hard inside her or hard again or if the last few days were any indication, perpetually hard.

‘Ignore him.’ Reaching down over the chair arm, he picked up his T-shirt, mopped up some of the come seeping onto his thighs, then dropped the T-shirt on the carpet.

She smiled. ‘How exactly should I ignore him – like, realistically?’

‘He likes you. I’m sorry. He’s sorry. Don’t worry, we’ll behave.’

‘Or we could think about a slow, lazy, sleepy fuck. When was the last time you slept?’

He shrugged. ‘No time for that.’

‘You’ll collapse.’

He laughed. ‘Sweet child.’

‘And you’re the big bad wolf?’

‘More or less, last time I checked. You know, Tiger,’ he said, softly, brushing a fingertip across her mouth, ‘I wasn’t completely joking about the security blanket. You remind me there’s a normal world out there. More peaceful. Relaxed. Even when you’re being a drama queen, it’s real, not some fake act of cunning. You’re my comfort and joy, my very own security blanket. Seriously.’ He dragged in a breath, dropped his hand. ‘Jesus, stupid. Forget it.’

‘Uh-uh. That was nice of you to say. All of it, especially about me reminding you of something peaceful.’ Her eyes twinkled and she spoke in a teasing tone to mitigate his obvious discomfort. ‘Could I get that in writing for my family?’

He laughed, grateful for her rescue from a potentially awkward conversation. ‘As if my opinions matter. Your Uncle Dominic’s counting the days until you escape my clutches.’

‘He should talk. We both know a little about his wildness.’

One of them considerably more than the other.
‘Any requests?’ he asked, interested in changing the subject. ‘Want something to eat, want to sleep, a drink, we could go for a swim. Or,’ he said, charmed by her flirty grin, ‘we could
try
a sleepy fuck.’

Her grin widened. ‘So accommodating.’

‘Just trying to keep up with your shocking interest in sex.’

‘I’ve never underestimated your ability to keep up. Rumour precedes you, you know. You have records. I don’t.’

‘Let’s keep it that way.’

‘Sure,’ she said, smart enough not to push back when he was looking at her in that unsettling way. ‘You’re the boss.’

For a second, no blink, just taking her in. Then he smiled. ‘You’ve got a deal.’

He slid his hands under her bottom, large, wide, long-fingered hands, remarkably gentle. With a smooth ripple of honed muscle, he lifted her just a little, the smallest adjustment of male and female parts, a yin/yang subtlety of great richness.

She felt the warm glow, a shimmer of heat slipped into every secret corner of her brain and body, the starry-eyed feeling of bliss so real she couldn’t help but smile. ‘It’s always good with you. Layers of sweet hotness.’ She sighed. ‘Swear to God.’

The pale curve of her cheek was suddenly limned by sunshine and a feeling he didn’t recognize caught him off guard. He blinked away the odd sensation, cupped her ass and smiled back. ‘Same here. Sweet through and through.’ And holding her lightly in his hands, he flexed his hips upward an almost invisible distance, she melted around him and for a stark, fleeting moment, they stopped breathing.

He managed to get himself together first, but then self-control had been critical to his survival. ‘Hey, you okay?’ he asked, quietly, watching her with laser vision after her recent tears. ‘More, less, call it a day?’

‘More.’ Eyes at half mast, shuttered.

Her voice was eerily docile for the Princess of the Universe and he cautioned himself not to fuck this up.
Seriously, don’t get this wrong.

He moved her first in an effortless, gentle rise and fall lift and descent, her weight incidental to the strong flex and flow of his muscled arms. The feel of her warm, silken skin, the sweet scent of her, her soft curves no one else should see brought out his predatory instincts, made him swell harder and bigger. His sensations were both raw-edged and tender; this brief, golden time the best of all possible worlds.

Nicole eyes finally opened, the electric-blue gleam like a drug to his senses.

‘I won’t break,’ she said with a smile.

‘Good to know.’ His voice was gentle. ‘Just didn’t want to take any chances. Make you cry again.’

Reaching up, she slipped his dark hair behind his ears, eased upward a little and brushed his lips with a kiss. ‘No worries, okay?’

He took her hands, placed them on his shoulders, smiled. ‘I’ll worry if I want. And since this is a sleepy fuck, you’re allowed to doze off any time.’

She gave him a sexy wink. ‘You aren’t.’

‘Not a chance.’ His fingers trailed down her back in a warm flow, settled low over the curve of her ass, held her like she belonged there, like maybe she actually belonged right the fuck there for a very long time.

His hands were warm, strong,
relentless
– not in a negative way; there was just a certainty and courage in him, Nicole reflected. Trouble waiting for him and he was going to face it, head on. Without her, unfortunately. Dominic had made that clear in his usual roundabout way; Rafe didn’t want to talk about it. An irrevocable life waited for him somewhere else. She shivered at the thought of losing him, even though she knew it was childish to wish for the moon.

‘You’re cold.’