Rome: A Marked Men Novel (25 page)

she didn’t seem to be in any hurry to let go of my throbbing erection.

“You talking to me or my dick?”

She giggled, the sound so carefree and full of joy that it knocked something loose inside of me. I could

feel that ball of tension, that coil of despair that I held so tightly inside of me break free from whatever it

was clinging to. I put my hands on either side of her face and tilted it toward me so I could attack her

smiling mouth. I overwhelmed her enough that she finally had to let go of her hold on my cock and reach

up to grab on to my wrists so I didn’t knock her over backward. She tasted sweet. She tasted like

redemption. She tasted like the future I didn’t need to figure out anymore.

When she rubbed her tongue back against mine, when she rose up onto the tips of her toes to wind her

arms around my neck, I simply fell backward on the bed and took her down with me. It made both of us

laugh. I couldn’t remember the last thing in the entire world I had found humor in, let alone while I was in

the middle of trying to get laid. That she could do that to me, do it
for
me, made it clear to me that I wasn’t

going to be able to let her go. Ever. She wiggled on top of me so that I was supine under her and she was

braced on top of me with her hands on the center of my chest. She still had too many clothes on but seemed

far more interested in getting me all the way naked and taking her sweet time about it.

She hopped to her feet and got my boots off and my jeans the rest of the way off, then stood over me

looking down at me with a fiery gleam in those different-colored eyes.

“You sure are pretty.”

I didn’t know about that. My dick was sticking straight up in the air, the veins in my neck were

pulsating, and I’m sure I looked pretty frenzied. It had been too long to be without her, but if she liked

what she saw, ravaged scars and all, I wasn’t going to complain.

“I think I should tell you that.” She gave a delicate little snort and pulled her shirt off over her head. I

felt my eyes widen, because I had been naked enough with her to know those boobs were not normally that

size. She took her sweet time wiggling out of her shorts and lacy, pink panties; by the time she was done, I

was contemplating pouncing on her and just throwing her on the floor and going to town. I didn’t get the

chance because she climbed back on top of me, only this time she was all pretty tattooed skin and warm

and willing flesh. I got my hand around the tattoo high on her thigh as she settled on top of me and

reattached her palm to my erection.

I ran my other hand up over her ribs, stopping to rub each of those little jewels like they would bring

me good luck. I pressed my thumb under the swell of one breast and lifted my eyebrow up.

“Nice.” I continued my journey upward until I was circling a pebbled nipple.

She made a face and bit down on her lower lip. She was just unendingly cute; I wanted to eat her all up.

If she didn’t make a move soon, I was going to do it.

“One side benefit of unprotected sex.”

The humor was dry and she wasn’t interested in cracking jokes anymore when I suddenly rolled her

tiny frame under me. I could look into those mismatched eyes until the end of time, especially when they

were foggy with desire and heavy-lidded with the knowledge that I was about to return the favor. I kissed

her hard, licked my way across her collarbone, took a second to pay homage to her breasts, twirled my

tongue around the jewels embedded in her side, and made my way to all that colorful ink that circled the

top of her thigh.

I pushed her bent legs apart as I traced the design where it decorated the inner curve of her thigh closest

to my destination. I felt her shudder in anticipation, saw her stomach quiver and tip, and grinned against the

soft skin I was pulling between my teeth when the very tips of her fingernails pricked impatiently into my

scalp.

“Rome …” Her voice was low and breathy, reminding me that she had had to wait on this just as long as

I had. It made me even harder, if that was possible, to know that she would never hesitate to ask me for

what she wanted.

I licked a trail along the crease in her leg that led to her damp cleft. The little wink of silver buried

inside all that pretty pink flesh was an allure I wasn’t able to ignore. I sucked the entire ring and the

sensitive flesh it was decorating into my mouth. The action made her entire body bow up off the bed, and

her hands got even more desperate along my head and shoulders. She was a tangy mix of metal and

aroused female, and nothing in life had ever tasted sweeter. I twirled that little hoop around and around and

abandoned it just when I felt her get to the crest of what I was building in her. I heard her swear at me,

laughed a little against the grasping folds as I buried my tongue inside her, which had her alternating

between cursing me and telling me I was the best she ever had.

I left her wet, greedy channel and switched my attention back to her hard, begging clit. I kissed her all

over, sucked on it, bit down on it hard enough to let her know I meant business, and by the time I got my

hand involved and used my fingers in unison with my mouth to finally let her come, she was making noises

that were a cross between moans of surrender and sobs of relief. She came like she did everything else, full

of color and light and blindingly honest in letting me know that what I did to her not only worked, but was

incomparable. A man could get used to having a woman make him feel that way.

It took a few minutes for her to recover, so I pulled her over me and rolled us so that she was covering

me like a warm, satisfied, human blanket. When she finally roused herself she wasted no time and sat

herself down on me and sank all the way to the hilt. She was wet and slick and all the good things I had

been missing by being a big jackass and a man scared of his own reality. Only a moron ran away from a girl

like this, and while I was a lot of things, stupid wasn’t one of them.

We both sucked in a surprised breath at the same time. Her eyes drifted closed and mine popped wide.

She just felt so good, and when she started to move on me, my poor brain shut down. She moved one of

her hands so that it was by my head and bent down to put her mouth over mine. That position opened her

up just enough that I could get my fingers on the damn ring of hers while she moved herself up and down

in a rhythm that had both of us swearing and straining against each other. The drag of her pointed nipples

across my chest, the soft suction of her body, the featherlight press of those sassy lips against my own and

it wasn’t long before I had to roll her over and pound into her.

She squealed a little at the action and I tried to tell myself to take it easy on her, but she was just as wild,

just as greedy as I was, and it only took a grasp of needy and convulsing muscles to pull me over the edge.

I said her name, heard her whisper mine against my ear, and I very well may have blacked out for a second

as pleasure and the finality of what this woman meant to me slammed through my body with a shudder. I

didn’t mean to collapse on her, but I did. I buried my face in her neck and gathered her close to my chest

before mustering the energy to roll over.

She snuggled into my chest and tucked her head underneath my chin. I rubbed a hand up and down her

spine and kissed her on top of her head. I could stay like this with her forever.

“Sweet dreams, Rome.”

When I closed my eyes all I saw was her and the colors and shades of rightness she brought with her

into my dull world. I fell asleep with her all around me, her soft breath on my skin, and all the best parts of

her changing all that emotional shrapnel lodged inside of me. I slept like a goddamn baby.

CHAPTER 11

Cora

“Stop looking at me like that, Shaw. I think it’s a great idea; no, I know it’s a goddamn brilliant idea.”

If she didn’t stop gawking at me with those big green eyes, I was going to knock her upside her pretty

blond head. We were at lunch. I met her downtown so that she could hop over to the Goal Line for her

shift when we were done. It was Sunday afternoon and neither of the Archer boys was in the mood to go

see their parents, so instead they had decided to spend the day together doing guy stuff, whatever that

meant. Shaw insisted it meant they were going to go to the gym and try to beat the crap out of each other,

either that or they were going to stay put in the living room playing video games. Rome wasn’t much of a

gamer, so I thought the gym thing sounded more likely, but it made me nervous because neither one of

those boys knew when to pull it in and one of them very well could end up hurt.

I had a brilliant idea to help my big, brooding soldier put at least one of his demons to rest, only Shaw

seemed to think I had gone off the deep end when I explained it to her. She just kept shaking her head at

me and biting her lower lip anxiously. She could look worried and think I was crazy all she wanted, but

Rome needed closure, needed some kind of answers so he could move forward, and there was only one

way I could see for that to happen. I just knew bridging this gap would not only offer him the peace of

mind he needed, but also do wonders for his current need to keep his parents at arm’s length. He had

already lost a brother; this self-imposed exile from those who loved him simply had to stop. Unfortunately I

needed Shaw’s help in pulling it off.

“I was there, Cora. I‘m the one who saw the reaction, the one they ignored and abandoned when they

found out about Remy. Trust me, the Archer boys do not like surprises.”

I sighed and blew my bangs off my forehead. “Look, Rule sleeps at night. Yeah, he had a hard time of it

there for a while but mostly he has handled his grief and the role Remy played in it. Rome hasn’t. He is

sinking in a mire of ‘what-if’ and ‘what-now’; if I can throw him a lifeline I’m going to, with or without

your help.”

She tapped her fingernails on the table and we stared at each other steadily. “I’ve known those boys a

lot longer than you, Cora. Trust me: it isn’t an idea that either of them will welcome, not to mention the

tailspin it might send Margot into. It will just open old wounds and hurt. I have no interest in doing that to

Rule or to Rome.”

I shook my head at her. “You knew the Rome that he was before he found out his little brother had a

secret life and his other little brother didn’t need him anymore because he found the love of his life. This

Rome, Shaw … you don’t even have a clue what’s going on with him. I’m sorry but it’s true. He’s a

different man now. He needs this.”

I didn’t mean for it to sound so harsh but it was true. Granted, Rome had a knack for keeping people at

bay and hiding all the things he was constantly struggling with behind a glower and a snide attitude, but I

knew if anyone bothered to look closely, they could see how he was fractured in his heartbreaking, blue

gaze. I would move every mountain in the Front Range to give him this. Besides, this kid was going to have

every kind of family I never did, even if it meant I had to rattle the Archer family foundation to do it.

“I love him, Cora. He’s my family and I don’t want to hurt him.”

“He needs closure, he told me he doesn’t know how to let it go, Shaw, and none of us can provide it or

help him with it. I think Rule would benefit from having some answers that make sense as well, but he’s

yours to worry about; big brother is all mine.”

He was mine. Every towering, unpredictable, floundering inch of him was mine, and I was going to do

whatever it took in order to make things better for him. I took care of my friends because I wanted them to

live the best life possible. I was going to take care of Rome because it did something to me on a

fundamental level to see him struggle, to see him hurting. I felt like if I could put him at the slightest of

ease, it would be the most rewarding gift I had ever given anyone. Plus he deserved it. He was a good man.

He had earned someone working to make his world a better place for once instead of the other way around.

She opened her mouth to continue her side of the argument but was interrupted by my phone going off.

I had set Rome’s ring tone to Creedence because he was such a classic kind of guy and it always made me

smile to see his grim mug looking up at me from the screen. He would laugh if he knew CCR played

“Fortunate Son” every time he called me, especially since I preferred girl rock bands as a rule.

“What’s up?” He had seemed pretty committed to spending the day with Rule and hashing out some of

their issues, so I was surprised to be hearing from him.

“Can you meet me at the Bar as soon as you can?”

He sounded stressed out and was talking really fast. I frowned and motioned for Shaw to get the bill so