Fuck!
The call to Pope goes as I imagined it would and when he says he’ll get someone to look into the fucker that threatened our staff, my every instinct is to push that it’s my job as one of his enforcers to do so, but then he mentions that someone needs tostay with Iris. Something I agree with. I don’t put it past Iris to leave the casino in an attempt to deal with this on her own.
She wouldn’t survive a night with the cartel out looking for her.
When I make it back into the apartment, Iris is seated on the couch, hands folded over her lap. I try not to look a little too long at the short skirt that exposes the soft milky lines of her thighs. “I just spoke to Pope,” I tell her, shifting to ease the uncomfortable pressure slowly building in my groin. “We’re looking into the man who came here tonight. He agrees with me that you should stay here for the time being. I imagine you must feel uncomfortable in here alone with me so if you like, I’ll call Pope’s wife, Sienna, to come sit with you—”
“No,” she blurts out, flushing. “I mean, Sienna is nice but I feel safest with, umm, you.”
Her lashes flutter as she drops her eyes to the hands on her lap. I note the pink flush on her cheeks, her shy reaction to the idea of being locked in here with me and fuck, it takes everything in me to not walk to her, grab her chin and kiss her.
I want to kiss her. Have from the moment she started working at the bar. No, I want to do more than just kiss her, and with the arousal I already feel, I’m not completely certain I could go easy on her.
“Would you like something to drink?” I ask, hoping for a distraction. “I don’t have any alcohol here but I’m sure I can get you anything else you need.”
“I don’t drink either, so…water?”
Does she know? My past with alcohol isn’t public knowledge and only Pope and a few of my MC brothers know about it. Still, I imagine it wouldn’t have escaped a bartender’sattention that I’ve never ordered any alcoholic beverage in the six months she’s worked for us. Still, I don’t question her reason for not drinking. “Why don’t you get comfortable. I’ll get you that water.”
I grab a bottle of water and when I come back to the living room, Iris is on her phone. There’s a look of frustration on her face as she dials a number over and presses it to her ear, making a low, frustrated noise when she can’t get a hold of the person she’s trying to get in touch with. “I thought I’d update the US Marshall about everything that’s going on but the call keeps sending me to voicemail.”
The pain in her voice has me walking toward her before I can stop myself. “Iris—”
“I’m scared,” she whispers, lifting those beautiful eyes to mine and that cracks my control. I sit down next to her, ready to draw her into my arms and comfort her but she’s already moving, leaning into me like someone starved of touch. I wrap my arms around her shoulders and hold her close, biting down a sigh when she buries her face in my chest and clings to me. “I’m so scared. I keep thinking what if they blow up this casino and people get hurt because of me. What if they—”
“Stop!” I grind, drawing her onto my lap, arms tightening around her. “No one will get to you, baby. I won’t let them.”
“But—”
“I want you to trust me on this, Iris.” I run a soothing hand up and down her back, ignoring how fucking arousing it is to have her on my lap, pressed up against her soft body. I rake my mind for a distraction, something to take my mind off my throbbing cock. “Before I joined the Steel Sinners, I worked for an organization that…dealt with people like the ones looking for you.”
“Mafia?” she murmurs into my shoulder, turning her head to face me. “There are rumors among the staff. I heard that you were part of an Italian mob in New York. It’s not true, is it?”
I could lie to her. Tell her that whatever rumors she’s heard about me are false but I can’t bring myself to do so. “I left that life behind.” That much is true. “My point is, I can deal with anyone who comes after you so trust me when I say that I will protect you.”
“Okay,” she says with a sigh, the tension in her body leaving as she sags against me. And for several minutes, she doesn’t say a word. Her breathing, soft against my skin only works to arouse the fire burning within and I’m almost certain that she’s fallen asleep until she shifts, wiggling her ass over the very spot I was hoping we could ignore.
“Fuck!” A moan escapes before I can stop it. The hands on her back ache with the need to drop to that ass and guide her into rocking against my hardening cock. I wait for her to snap, push away from me horrified by my complete lack of self-control and yet, when she pulls back to look at me, it’s not horror or fear I read in those wet eyes.
“Ghost.”
My name is like a plea on her lips. A prayer that only I can answer and I am helpless to do anything but. My body moves before my brain can catch up. I lean into her and press my mouth against hers like I’ve wanted to do from the moment I saw her. My hands tighten around her and my cock jolts in my pants as I push into the feeling. The kiss is soft and gentle, undemanding. Her lips are sweet against mine, her movements shy even as she responds to the kiss.
I know I should stop. After everything she’s been through tonight, I ought to give her space or comfort without jumpingher at the first opportunity, but I can’t wave off the heavy fog in my mind for reason to break through. I can’t move past the soft press of her lips or the sexy little sound she makes as she opens her mouth for me. She whimpers when my tongue slides in and brushes hers, her arms circling my shoulders as she rolls her hips over mine. I give in to the temptation to touch her, groaning into the kiss as I skim my fingers up her naked thighs, pushing up her skirt as I move up. The smooth velvet of her skin pushes me into deepening the kiss and I’m ready to spin her on the couch and fuck her blind when I taste her tears.
I pull away from her, cursing myself for a fool. For taking advantage of her vulnerable state to satisfy my own selfish needs.
Goddamnit!
“I’m sorry,” I rasp, my voice thick and heavy. “I wasn’t thinking. Let’s get you settled…”
She presses her lips back against mine, arching against me and I groan when she rolls her hips over my cock. “Ghost,” she whimpers, the fingers on her nape sliding into my hair and grabbing a fistful, sending heat settling in the base of my gut and burning through what little self-control I’m trying to grasp onto. “Don’t stop. Don’t want you to.”
“Baby, we can’t,” I try to reason, groaning when she rocks forward again, her pussy rubbing against my aching cock. “Iris…fuck!”
“Want you,” she mumbles dazedly. “Touch me. Please touch me. Just for tonight.Please.”
I shouldn’t…
