Scandalous Heroes Box Set (18 page)

“No. She wasn’t using me. I want to make sure she is okay and say goodbye,” Renaldo clarified.

Dominic looked over to Catalina and then to Marietta. His gaze eventually swung back to Renaldo. “After we conclude business today, and I take the ladies to dinner. You can have the rest of the evening, to say your goodbye.”

Disappointed but respectful Renaldo nodded and left the conference room. He wasn’t sure how long that would take. He dreaded the wait. With no other choice he resigned himself to his fate.

***

“Here, sweetie pie, stop your tears,” Jamie brought over a box of tissues. Kyra couldn’t help the flow. She cried all the way home on the train. Kyra accepted the tissues and blew her nose while trying to compose herself. She was upstairs in Jamie’s apartment. She had little choice or options left to her now.

“We’ll figure something out. I’ve already asked some of the girls down at the beauty shop if they want to make orders. We go old school and sell the shoes ourselves. Get it off the ground our way.”

“No,” Kyra said. She wiped at her tears. “It’s over. I’ll call my mother tomorrow. I give up. I can’t do this anymore,” she sat upright.

“You talking, crazy girl. You plan to crawl back to your family on bended knee. You’re twenty-three not twelve. Take your licks. Dust yourself off.”

“Take my licks!” Kyra stood. “What have I been doing these past six months? Working as a receptionist, peddling shoes down the street to anyone who would buy a pair. Eating out of your kitchen until payday. And sleeping with…” Kyra sighed. She couldn’t think of Renaldo. All of it combined made her sick with self-loathing. Marietta was right. She used Renaldo, just like she used Cezar. This was on her.

“Did you see him? Talk to him about yesterday?”

“He’s over it. Trust me. He told me it was fun while it lasted but he was done. Funny, I tossed Cezar aside and didn’t care about his feelings. Now I can’t stop wondering why Renaldo didn’t care enough about mine. I thought I was in control. Breaking rules. Doing things the Kyra way. I’ve been a fool. I should go back to school and focus.”

Jamie shook her head. “You’re a fool if you give up on a dream after only six months. Nothing in this life comes easy, Kyra. We all have to pay a price. I’ve paid them. Your parents paid them. What price are you willing to pay?”

Kyra sighed. “I want to be alone. I love you, Jamie, but I don’t want to talk anymore.”

Her friend walked over and gave her a tight hug. “Sleep on it, sweetie. Then decide.”

“Okay. Will do.”

***

Renaldo found a parking spot on the street. The temperature had dropped to the point of frost covering his windows. Even with the heat on full blast the crystals continued to form. He turned off the engine and checked his watch. It was after ten. Arriving at her place at this late hour was very presumptuous on his part.

He opened the door and slipped out into the night. Out of his mouth plumes of his breath blew. He hunkered down and hurried up the snow and ice covered sidewalk with his gloved hands shoved deep in his pockets. On the front step Renaldo scanned the names listed. Kyra’s was on the third row. He hit the button and heard the intercom buzz.

He glanced around. The street was quiet. There was no one outside but him.

He pushed the button again.

“Who is it?” a soft voice answered.

Renaldo cleared his throat and spoke into the intercom. “
Cara
, it’s me. Renaldo. I must see you,” he said.

Silence.

Renaldo waited. He hoped. The silence troubled him. What if she wanted nothing to do with him? What if he never got a chance to explain himself? All these questions and fears drained his courage.

“Why?” she asked. “Why now?”

“I… I want to apologize.”

“You’ve done that,” she reminded him.

“
Cara?
Please. I must explain myself. Give me the chance. See me,” he pleaded. It wasn’t the most eloquent of answers but he hoped it reached her heart.

The door buzzed open.

“I’m on the third floor. Apt 323L,” she said and clicked off. He yanked open the door and went inside. The night chill followed him. Renaldo shook off the drifts of snow from his broad shoulders. With each step he felt his anxiety rise. He considered taking the stairs after only a two-minute wait. Dread and desperation weren’t emotions he was familiar with. Both had left him uncertain of what his next move should be. Inside the elevator he swallowed down a large gulp of nerves. He’d been in some tough spots, but he hadn’t been this uncertain of his emotions since the diagnosis of his wife’s blood disorder.

The elevator stopped.

Renaldo stepped out and he eagerly checked each door he passed for her apartment number. He knocked only once when he found it. The door opened before he lowered his fist. Kyra stood before him in a long t-shirt that stopped at her hips, and panties. She held a wad of tissue in her hands. Her eyes were red and puffy. She blinked up at him with such sadness his iron force field around his heart collapsed.

“Kyra?” he said.

She flew into his arms.  Her body trembled against his. Renaldo held her, surprised by the depths of emotion. “It’s awful. I lost my job. I didn’t get the one with Mirabella. And I’ll have to move,” she said in in a single breath.

He stroked the back of her head with his gloved hand. He wrapped his free arm around her shoulder and kept her pressed to his chest. She was his vibrant little shoe maker, who was as tough as nails and independently fierce. That evening another side of her emerged, both vulnerable and fearful. He walked her back into her apartment and was able to close the door.

“I can’t stop crying,” she wept.

The little apartment home was uniquely Kyra. The decorum brought new meaning to the word chaos. It looked as if a typhoon had blown through it. Wads of tissue were everywhere. Clothing was folded in chairs, and stacked in baskets near the kitchen area. The amount of shoes and shoeboxes could fill a small boutique. And his Kyra had a collection of magazines like he’d never seen. Most with cut out pages and many piled in every corner and on every table. As much as he hated chaos he loved the look and feel of the place. It was all Kyra.

“I’m sorry,” she said. She tried to push free of their embrace. “I shouldn’t have attacked you at the door.”

“Attack? It was no attack,” he assured her. To keep her from escaping he held her hand in his and kissed her knuckles. He walked her over to the sofa. They sat there and eventually she drifted over closer. He was able to comfort her like he wished.

“I screwed it all up. Everything. My parents. My career. Everything. I thought I could... I thought I’d prove them wrong. I’m a joke.”

“You are no joke. Not to me,” he lifted her chin and looked down into her eyes, her long lashes glistened slick with tears.

“Why did you come here, Renaldo?” she asked. “You know I only got close to you to get the interview. I used you…”

“No one uses me,
cara
,” he said with a light chuckle.

“But you said we were done?” she asked.

“I lied. When I said I wanted nothing from you, with you, I lied.” He kissed her forehead. “I don’t need much. It makes life easier to be the man I am. I do what I must to provide for my son. You’re right. In life there has to be more.”

“More what?” she asked.

Renaldo searched himself for the answer. He didn’t know the exact words. He glanced back into her eyes and realized her problems were greater than his own. “I will go to the Battaglias. Talk to them for you. Find you a job.”

“No. Don’t. If I make it, then I make it on my own. Marietta was right. I should have never come through the door of Mirabella’s as a receptionist, or tried to get to them through you. I should have stood up for my talent. Believed in myself more. And you. I’m sorry. We took things too far…” she looked up at him. “I don’t want you to ever think of me as they do. I can’t do this. You should go now.”

“Kyra?” he objected.

“What more do you need me to say, Renaldo? What is there left? I just need to be alone to figure things out.” She tried to stand but he prevented it. When she sat she looked up at him with such pain and conflict in her eyes. He wished she didn’t take life so seriously. A fall doesn’t mean disaster, not when you are as talented and as beautiful as she. What she needed was someone to help her stand again.

He pressed a soft kiss to her lips to silence her. “Shoe maker, be silent.”

She pushed back against his chest. “Don’t.”

“Shhh,” he kissed her neck and the push of her hands to his chest softened.

“It can’t work,” she said in a weak tremor of a voice. “You don’t live here. I don’t live in Italy. Soon you will leave and I will never see you again.”

Renaldo lifted his mouth from her neck and brushed it once again over her lips. “We aren’t done.”

“We are,” she breathed.

“Let me help you. We both know I can,” he looked her in the eyes.

“No. I don’t need your help,” she said.

“Liar,” he smiled.

She pressed her lips together. Her lashes lowered and her gaze dropped to his lips. She pulled him by the collar so he came toward her and his lips were within reach. One kiss brought her down on the sofa with him easing over her. Renaldo was careful to not push all of his weight down on her. But kissing Kyra often made his grip on control soften. He tore his mouth from hers, desperate to be closer to her. She helped him remove his coat. He tugged at her panties. Kyra lifted her hips to allow him to roll the delicate lace pair off her ass, thighs, and down her shapely legs.

Renaldo removed his gloves watching as she pulled her sorority letter t-shirt over her head and tossed it aside. She parted her knees for him and her sweet flower opened in the loveliest fashion to tempt him.

Next came his gun, he unfastened the strap around his shoulders and set it with the gun encased in the holster on the coffee table. It was illegal to carry it in New York. But he was never without his own piece when he arrived in the States. Kyra’s eyes flashed to the Berretta, and then looked up to him. She didn’t say a word. She knew who he was now and in her eyes he saw acceptance.

“We can go to my bedroom,” she said.

There was no time for that. He would not stand another delay. “Touch yourself. For me, Kyra,” he requested.

She smiled and nodded. He shed his shirt and unbuckled his belt, dropping his pants and removing his boxers in one deft move. He was naked within a matter of seconds.

All he hungered for was her soft body, her tight pussy, and her succulent mouth on his. He needed her now. She groaned and rubbed her pussy for him, while turning and twisting the peak of her nipple.

“Renaldo,” Kyra sighed. “I will miss you, Renaldo,” she said and began to stroke her two middle fingers deep into her sex, her mouth parted in a sexy gasp of pleasure. “So much,” she moaned, her head turning left and right on the cranberry red sofa pillows.

“I’m here now,” he replied.

“Yes, you are.” She opened her eyes and smiled up at him. He dropped to the sofa with one knee. He stopped her from pleasing herself. Renaldo ran his hand down her thigh. He then shut her knees. He forced her legs up, straight, closed together. He pushed them back bringing her feet past her head to the arm of the sofa and her knees to her breast. The position brought her ass up from the sofa and put her pussy on full display. He kept her pinned this way. Kyra parted her knees only slightly to open herself up to him. He swiped his tongue over and heard her stutter a release of pleasure. The kiss he put on her there had her squirming and begging for more. Sucking and teasing her clit, using his tongue to lick and delve deep, she begged for it.

Renaldo released her from that position to ensure he didn’t take her too far beyond his reach. She dropped one leg over the back of the sofa and the other over the side with her foot planted to the floor.

“Mmm,” she said rubbing her sex once more.

The parting kiss he gave her sex stripped away the last of his trepidation. He was now where he belonged. He dragged his cock with the arch of his back and lift of his ass. He tightly gripped the side arm of the sofa, his arm stretched above her head for support. And he took hold of the root of his dick to steady his aim.

Renaldo’s gaze flickered to Kyra. She peered down the line of her body, intensely focused on where penetration would commence. Her gaze lifted to his and she licked her lips, grabbing hold of his hips to encourage him to go for it. Renaldo shot his hips forward and pumped inch after inch into her. He gripped the side arm of the sofa now with both hands. Hotly focused on the pleasurable tightness of her silky walls. Kyra groaned, not in pain but pleasure.

Those round perfectly shaped globes with dark berry nipples shook in response to his thrusting. And to his delight Kyra moved and instructed his rhythm. He closed his eyes and let the sexual ecstasy take over.

Too hard.

Too strong.

Too big.

Everything about the man was huge. From his hands, head, shoulders and chest. And most importantly, the loveliest part of his body, his dick. Kyra arched up into him to turn the force of his direction into something more appeasing. And it worked.

“Oh yes! Mmm, yeah!” Kyra cried out. Her left leg had fallen over the sofa. Renaldo scooped it over the crease of his elbow causing her foot and calf to hang in an awkward angle, as his powerful thrust drove what felt like eighteen inches of raw steel wrapped in silk into her. Kyra clawed at his sides.

“Rallenti!”
she pleaded through deep gasps.

He relented but only a bit. Enough for her to melt back into the natural rhythm. And when his warm mouth and wet tongue left hers to flick at her nipple, pleasure seized her loins. Sweating, panting, writhing beneath him she begged for more.

And then his moving resolved into a slow stop. He brought his face back up and spoke with his eyes glued to hers. “Turn over for me,
cara
, I promise to be gentle,” he said. But was it a promise he could keep? The passion and history between them said otherwise.

Renaldo withdrew. Without thought she flipped over to her belly. Renaldo’s tongue licked up and down her back. He kissed her ass, sunk his teeth into one cheek. She bit down into the sofa pillow that smelled of her. Those huge hands of his eased underneath her and lifted her pelvis. With her face pressed into the pillow she felt her knees part and she backed her ass up towards him. Kyra tried to turn her head to see him behind her. For a second she feared he’d take her in the most forbidden way. She loved the guy but no way could she withstand that. Then she felt him nudge at her pussy and relaxed. He sank back into her with ease. He pinched her clit and she gasped. He began to flick and tug at the knot between the folds of her pussy as he thrust in and out of her from the backward rise. Her ass went flush against his soft pubes and his dick delved as far as it could reach. Kyra groaned and moved. He smacked her ass. The heat of the next strike ripened her, opened her.