Fall (Romanian Mob Chronicles Book 2) (6 page)

S
orin

“
Y
eah
,
I’m still here
,” I said the next morning.

“How do you know I’m awake?” she asked, her husky, sleep-deepened voice spreading over me like velvet.

“I see you checking me out,” I replied.

She laughed, her body vibrating in my arms. “I’m not even facing you, Sorin,” she replied as she burrowed closer to me.

“Let me fix that,” I said, turning her so that she faced me. Her eyes were soft with the remnants of sleep, as gentle as I’d ever seen them except when she looked at Maria. Her looking at me like that, the heat of her skin against mine set off a flutter in my chest that took all of my will to ignore.

Instead, I closed the distance between us and pressed my lips against hers, the kiss sweet, not at all passionate. It had the opposite effect I’d intended. Rather than quiet the flutter, the kiss only intensified it as did her softly exhaled breath, the way she tightened her hand around my forearm and then moved down and laced her fingers with mine.

Her hand was strong, solid, felt perfect in mine.

I pulled back at the thought, stared down at her. Her hand? I had a naked woman in my arms, and my thoughts had drifted to how I felt holding her hand? This needed to stop.
I
needed to stop.

But I didn’t move, not even when the flutter restarted anew when Esther’s lips turned up in a smile. I couldn’t, was trapped in whatever web this woman was weaving.

My paralysis was broken when she traced her hand down my chest, letting her fingers linger over my nipples before she moved lower, down my stomach, then lower.

“You’ve rested, eh?” I said, my own voice husky.

“You’re the one who was tired, but it seems you’ve recovered,” she said, emphasizing the last word by tightening her hand on my ever-hardening shaft.

“So it seems,” I said.

Then she released her hold, and I rose above her, effectively trapping her beneath me, a hand on either side of her head. I stared down at her shadowed face, saw the sparkle of mischievousness in her eyes.

She slid her hands up my sides and then back down again before she anchored them on my hips. Then she slowly made her way down, laying soft kisses against my chest, my stomach as she went. I raised myself up, resting most of my weight against my hands and looked down at her, the top of her head obscuring my vision, which only seemed to make her breath against my skin that much more intense.

I tightened my grip on the sheets at the first brush of her lips against my cockhead, tightened it even more when she opened and sucked me into her hot mouth.

She worked her tongue across my cockhead in earnest, delving into the divot at my crown and collecting the precum that leaked from me before she shifted direction and used her tongue to lave the underside of my crown, trace the veins that protruded from my shaft.

The pleasure was almost mind-blowing, Esther’s low moan vibrating against me, her hands locked on my hips, her thumb worrying my skin in an irregular little pattern that almost sent me over.

I pulled out of her mouth, let my cockhead lay against her full lips, and hovered above her, chest heaving as I fought to stay in control. Esther lay beneath me, looking almost serene, and that squeeze in my chest came back yet again. Desperate to distract myself from what she was making me feel, I rested on one arm and gripped my cock with the opposite hand. And then I stroked it across her lips, spreading the wetness of her mouth mixed with my precum.

“You look pretty like that,” I said as I stared down at her, her eyes bright as she looked up at me. “Your lips wet and puffy.” I thrust, pushing my head between her lips again. “And you’re much quieter.”

Her eyes flashed and then she sucked hard, pulling me to the back her throat. When she began working at me, moving her jaw relentlessly, teasing my slit with her tongue, the wetness of her mouth and the pull of her strong hands against my shaft creating the most intense sensations, it was my turn to go quiet.

I thought I saw her smile, but then she turned serious and redoubled her already impressive efforts by again moving her hands to my hips and then feeding me deeper until I breached her throat and then taking even more. She moaned, her breath and the vibrations against my skin again sending me to the edge.

I pulled back, and she sucked me in again, and we repeated the process, me pulling out and her sucking me in, over and over and over until my cock was almost steel and my sac had drawn up tight against my body, the climax that I was only barely keeping at bay threatening to take over.

I grabbed her cheek and held her still, eyes lasered on hers. I nudged at her lips again, and she opened, almost sweetly, to let me enter. And I did, moving my shaft over her tongue, brushed against her soft palate, and then paused, meeting her gaze. Her faint nod was all I needed, and I thrust farther, slow, controlled, though it took everything I had to do so, pushed until I breached her throat yet again.

Esther stiffened and then relaxed, allowing me to slip even deeper, something that had both of us exhaling on harsh breaths. We continued, Esther’s hand tight on my flanks as I thrust slow and deep, her throat opening ever more with each push.

Then she swallowed, and the tight constriction of her throat around my cockhead wrestled away the last of my control.

The first burst of cum shot out of me and down her throat, but I managed to pull back before the second, spraying that jet and the one that came after against Esther’s tongue, while the final few pulses dribbled out of her mouth and onto her lips.

My heart raced and thundered, and not solely, I knew, from the intensity of my climax.

It was her, something that was only confirmed when I slid down to lay beside her watching her as she watched me. I closed the short distance between us and captured her lips with mine, kissing her with a fervor that didn’t begin to match the passion that still throbbed through my veins.

She parted her lips and I swooped my tongue in, mimicking the way I’d moved my cock inside her mouth, again rewarded with soft, harsh breaths. I was seized, almost possessed with need as I grabbed her neck and held her still, kissing her mouth with none of my usual finesse. I was beyond that now, needed more. Needed her.

That thought in mind, I trailed down her collarbones, stopping long enough to swipe her nipples with my tongue, then moved lower, taking only a moment’s pause to kiss the soft ridge of her stomach. I swore that one day I would take the time to explore every inch of her, but now wasn’t it. I needed to taste her, needed to see if I could give her even a fraction of the pleasure she’d given me.

And so I went lower still, not stopping until I was face-to-face with her wet core, her lower lips glistening with her desire, her musky-sweet scent almost intoxicating. I could have stared at her for days, but that urgency returned, and after placing a quick kiss on her lips, I pulled them open and exposed her to me, saw her clit, hard and protruding, the trickle of cream that ran from her hole.

Without another pause, I latched onto her clit, teasing and sucking the bud, and letting out a laugh when Esther bucked off the bed. I anchored her down by throwing an arm across her waist and then resumed my work, licking and sucking at her clit until she writhed beneath me and cream trickled out of her in a furious rush.

Something of me needed to be inside her, so I clamped my lips down around her clit and then shoved two fingers into her drenched hole. She spread easily, the warm thickness of her arousal easing the path. I pushed until I could go no further and then scissored my fingers to spread her tender tissues.

And so we continued, me teasing her tight pearl as I thrust and twisted my fingers. Her taste was divine, better than, and I was fast becoming addicted. I lapped at her, moved my fingers in and out until, on a broken cry, she went completely stiff as her orgasm raced through her. I continued, trying to wring as much pleasure as I could, kept licking and thrusting until she calmed.

I slid back up the bed to face her, watched her through hooded eyes. And Esther, always surprising, leaned forward to kiss me. But not in the chaste, meddlesome way she had that first time. This was deeper, meaningful, a fact only underscored by the taste of our combined flavors against my lips.

I broke the kiss and looked at her. “I’ve never done that,” I said, only wondering why I’d said such a thing after I’d let the words out.

Esther looked surprised momentarily, but then softened, eyes bright with a smile.

“How was it?” she asked.

I shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant, though I doubted that was even possible. “Okay, I guess,” I finally said.

A moment later, I added, “How’d I do?”

It was her turn to shrug. “Okay, I guess,” she said with a soft smile on her lips.

Then she did the most surprising thing of all. She pulled herself close to me, breasts against my chest, one of her thick, soft thighs shoved between mine, her head on my chest, and fell asleep.

S
orin

“
W
hat happened with Constantin
?” Vasile asked the next night when he sat down across from me at Familie.

“They made amends,” I said simply, not mentioning the old man’s offer. “But they are fucked when the old man dies. Their clan is going to fall apart and fast once Christoph isn’t there to lead.”

Vasile lifted a brow. “He has two sons, Anton.”

“Christoph has no heart and no balls, and Petey, well…” I shook my head and then began again. “And Anton’s not blood.”

Vasile nodded. No one knew for sure, but the old man had never claimed Anton, so there was little chance Clan Constantin would accept him.

“Shame that. If ever there was time to make an exception, it would be then. But whatever happens, we can’t let this blow back on us.”

“Should I talk to Petey?” I asked.

He shook his head. “We don’t want to look like we’re interfering, so just keep things friendly, and we’ll hope this works out.”

I leaned back. “What?” he said, eyeing me.

“You sounded almost…optimistic. I’ll have to kiss Fawn when I see her.”

“Good thing I trust you, brother,” he said.

I scoffed. “Fawn is my sister.”

“And Esther?”

“She’s not,” I replied.

My brother let out an honest-to-God laugh. I turned to him then, saw the unfamiliar expression on his face, and returned it with a smile of my own. He stood and clapped me on the shoulder.

“Kiss the baby for me,” I called to his retreating form, the low sound of his later floating back to me.

After he’d left, I stayed in place, more than halfway stunned that simply hearing her name had such an effect on me. That night and then the next morning with her had been intense, had moved me in a way that left me unsettled. I’d tried to put distance between us again, stayed out well into the night, hoping that exhaustion would rob me of the desire to see her, but as I had returned home, I’d been consumed with the desire to see her. Fortunately for me, the first rays of sunlight were breaking the horizon, and the knowledge that she was sleeping or soon to head to work had allowed me to stay away.

I wished I could say it was sex that drove me to her. It did, and I craved her constantly, but more terrifying was that I knew it was more. Holding her in my arms, hearing her voice, seeing her face… Those were the things I treasured and had come to need, and it scared me shitless.

“I was wondering if I’d ever get you alone again.”

Shit.

I’d been so caught up in my thoughts of Esther that I hadn’t even noticed Natasha approaching. I glanced over at her and watched as she gracefully folded herself into the chair that Vasile had vacated, crossing her legs slowly, no doubt to give me ample time and opportunity to see her slender, toned thigh.

I’d seen it countless times before, and this time, I waited for the familiar surge of arousal. I knew from experience that Natasha delivered on the promise that her thighs and pouty lips offered, but despite that knowledge, I felt nothing.

“Shall we leave? Go somewhere more private, or would you rather stay here?” she asked, eyes glittering with mischief.

I shook my head. “No, Natasha.”

Her brows dropped and her smiled flattened. “No now or no forever?”

She looked at me then, her eyes betraying nothing, but they didn’t have to. I knew what she was thinking.

“No forever,” I said, mildly surprising myself.

Her expression turned down farther, and I saw the flash of anger. But there was nothing to say. I’d been honest with her as I always had been, told her that there was no future for us, and I’d stopped fucking her even before Esther.

“It doesn’t have to be this way. We can go back to the way it was before,” she said.

“We can’t,” I replied.

“Why not!” she screeched, her voice loud, demanding. Then she looked around, saw the eyes that didn’t dare meet hers or mine but that nonetheless watched, and then quieted her voice.

“Sorin, I’m not asking for much, but I know that—”

I lifted my hand and shook my head. Her lip trembled, and then she set her face into a stubborn scowl.

“If you change your mind,” she said as she stood.

“I won’t.”

“I hope you will,” she said as she turned and walked away.

S
orin

A
n hour later
, I’d given up the pretense, left Familie, and driven to Esther’s. Her house was quiet, which made sense given the hour, though with her, I could never tell. She didn’t seem to have any set schedule, and I often wondered how she filled her nonworking hours.

And that was the problem.

I’d come here for one reason, and it wasn’t to determine how she spent her time, no matter how often I found myself wondering what she was doing, what she was like when I wasn’t there.

At least that was what I told myself as I bounded up her steps and banged on her door.

She opened the door, but instead of smiling and letting me in, she looked at me with brow furrowed, body blocking the entrance. An icy greeting, even for her, but I overlooked it and brushed pass her.

I watched as she fumbled to lock the door and then looked at me.

“Come right in, Sorin,” she said, and as I made my way to the refrigerator and opened the door, she continued, “make yourself at home.”

I grabbed a bottle of water and looked at her as she entered the kitchen. “Do you have anything to drink here?”

“Yeah, I’ll have the water you’re holding in your hand,” she said.

“I’ll bring something later.”

“And why would you do that?” she asked.

She was spoiling for a fight. I could tell from the way her arms were crossed under her breasts, her hip cocked out, face turned down in a scowl.

“Something the matter, Esther?” I asked and then took a big swig of the water.

“Yeah, something’s the matter. I don’t recall inviting you here, and this is not some flophouse where you can come and go as you please.

“What’s your problem?” I said, trying for one of the few times in my life to keep the anger out of my voice. I’d been eager to see her, more than I cared to admit, but her sniping at me instead of being at least a little excited that I’d come by was pissing me off.

“My problem?” Esther replied in a tone that confirmed she was hell-bent on arguing.

“I didn’t come here to get bitched at,” I said, my patience wearing dangerously thin.

“I haven’t even begun to bitch,” she said, eyes flashing as she dropped her hands to her sides, hands curving into a fist.

My patience snapped. She wanted to fight, and I wouldn’t disappoint. I slammed the water bottle on the counter, ignoring the splash that hit my arm and stalked toward her. She didn’t even flinch.

“Don’t test me, Esther,” I said, my voice low.

“Don’t test me either, Sorin,” she replied, taking a step closer to me, close enough that her body brushed mine.

Her eyes glittered with anger, and her nostrils flared slightly, head tilted in that way that told me she was ready for battle. Her stance had unexpectedly calmed my anger. Something was bothering her; I could see that much, and I had a sneaking suspicion I knew why. But I wanted to confirm.

“Why are we fighting, Esther?”

“Why? Could it have something to do with the fact that you just showed up uninvited and barged in like you own this place without even bothering to ask permission?”

As I’d suspected, Esther thought I was using her. I moved even closer, leaned forward to close the few inches distance between us until my lips almost brushed her. “Esther, may I come in?” I whispered as sweetly as I could.

“No,” she said, her face set in a pout that would have annoyed me were it on someone else’s face but was almost painfully adorable on her, made even more so by the fact that I knew she was being so pissy because she thought I was using her. And maybe I was, but it didn’t feel like it and for some reason, I didn’t want her to think I was.

“Okay. I’ll leave as soon as I’m finished,” I said.

“You drank most of your water, and I’m not giving you more,” she said, still pouting.

I gripped her chin between my thumb and forefinger and tilted her head until her lips brushed mine. “I wasn’t talking about water,” I said.

Her eyes flashed with desire, but she quickly shrouded it, returning her expression to its stubborn, pouty set. I couldn’t stop myself from kissing it, moving my lips against hers until she finally softened and opened them on a soft breath.

I pulled back. “That’s better.”

“Sorin…” she said warily.

“What?” I said, but before she could respond, I kissed her again, this time swooping my tongue into her mouth as I gripped her hips.

The thin robe she was wearing had gaped open, and she wasn’t wearing anything underneath so I took advantage, letting my hands trace the curves of her body, up to cup her full breasts, down to bury a finger between her thighs.

I broke the kiss again, kept my eyes on hers as I grazed my fingers against her soft skin.

“You still want me to leave?” I whispered against her ear.

Her soft sigh of acceptance was answer enough.

E
sther

T
he instant I woke
, I knew he was still there. It wasn’t his soft breaths, his hard, hot body against mine that alerted me. Those alone I could have accepted, handled, but the reason I knew was the complete calm and contentment that I felt left me unbalanced.

That I’d wanted him, needed him, so badly yesterday had sparked the anger I’d shown, and that I’d so easily given in sparked the fear. Where I’d been striving for distance, he’d pushed even closer, and now I had definitive proof, not that more was needed, that I couldn’t resist him.

I pulled away, tried to rise from the bed, but was stopped by his heavy, hard arm around my waist.

“Say good morning, Esther,” his whispered, his husky, sleep-roughed voice doing those things it always did.

“Good morning, Esther,” I said, though I didn’t miss the tremor in my voice.

He laughed, the sound rough, throaty, easy like honey. I realized then that it wasn’t surprising. That Sorin, like me, was prone to laughter, not something I would have expected.

And that awareness warmed me, made me want to lose myself in him again. And if the hardness that prodded at my backside was any indication, he felt the same.

I wanted him, and his arm around me, the steady thud of his heart at my back, his stubbled cheek against my shoulder almost made me give in.

But I didn’t, and instead pulled away, ignoring the slight sting of disappointment when he released me. I fled to the bathroom as fast as I could, pretending I didn’t feel his gaze on me with every step.

When I returned, clothed and feeling more ready to face him, he was dressed, and though I told myself I wanted that, that I needed less of him and not more, it irked me. The feeling only intensified when he smirked at me, and I was seized by the need to smack him and then mount him and ride him until I was exhausted.

Instead of doing either I blurted, “Give me your phone number.”

It was a silly request, a stupid, childish one that I should have been above. But I wasn’t, and I watched him, waiting for a response, half hoping he’d say no, half dreading he’d say no.

But he casually grabbed my phone and punched at the screen. “I won’t answer, but if you call this number, someone will find me,” he said.

Then he walked over and stood in front of me, his hungry gaze almost making me melt.

“You going to call me, Esther?”

“No,” I said.

He laughed again and then left.