As Ophelia entered the house, her lewd desires subsided. So much had happened in the past forty-eight hours—Mateo, another tiger episode, another murder. She had a reason to be freaked out. She wasn’t overreacting about her sisters’ safety. She knew it.
She crept around the house, quietly checking every door and window to make sure they were all locked. Downstairs was completely empty. They all must have gone to bed upstairs. Ophelia continued to the second floor. Holding her breath, she grabbed the door handle of Jo and Eva’s room and twisted the knob. She peered into the room, and her sisters were curled up together, sleeping peacefully. Her shoulders relaxed. In the second room, Christine and Annie were asleep as well.
With less tension in her body, Ophelia locked her bedroom window and went downstairs to pour herself a glass of wine anddowned the glass in five seconds. Steadier hands poured another glass and selected a sparkling water for Mateo. She could see him through the living room window, leaning against the brick courtyard wall with the elegance of a man sure of himself and his appeal.
Maybe this man was exactly what she needed right now—a momentary distraction, a casual amusement from the swirl of confusing thoughts in her mind. Besides, she seemed to lose focus when she was around him anyway.Life gives us challengesanddistractions, right?
“Everyone is safe and sound,” she said as she kicked off her shoes and handed Mateo the sparkling water.
“Good.”
“Do you have time for a drink? Or do you need to go? I’d invite you in, but I don’t think it’s appropriate to have a man inside the house on a bachelorette trip.”
Without responding, Mateo put his drink down on a small side table near the lounge chairs. He grabbed Ophelia’s doing the same. Silently, he stepped closer to her, less than an inch away. He wanted her. She knew it with every fiber of her being.
Feeling dizzy, she stepped back to steady herself and pressed a palm against the brick wall. Mateo continued forward, trapping her, making her senses go haywire with need. She was now fully reliant on the brick wall for support. Ophelia’s eye caught Mateo’s chest rising, and she loved how she was affecting him, too. He was staring at her with such intensity, like he wanted to devour her.
Mateo slowly ran a finger down her cheek to her lips, caressing the sensitive flesh there. Her core pulsed in response. He moved to her neck, then smoothed his finger over her collarbone, stopping as the tip of his finger reached the top of her spaghetti strap. Her skin tingled in the wake of his touch.
With one raised eyebrow, he asked, “May I?”
She nodded. Ophelia didn’t know what he wanted to do; she just wanted him to do it. He simply flicked the right strap off her shoulder. Instantly, her breathing turned heavy, and her bodyached to touch his. But still, the only part of him that was touching her was his fingertip. Mateo was watching her through hooded eyes. He continued and pulled the rest of her strap down with that damn finger, revealing her bare breast. Her nipples hardened, begging to be sucked. His thumb lightly grazed the tip of her exposed nipple, and she instinctively groaned.Yes.
“Tsk, tsk.”Mateo shook his head. “No bra? I knew you were a wild one.”
He pulled down her left strap, letting both of her breasts catch the moonlight. An appreciative grin appeared on Mateo’s smug face.
“You’re beautiful, Ophelia.” He said it like he did the first time they met.O-phe-li-a.Like her name was a magic word or a passionate curse, a promise.
She couldn’t restrain herself any longer. She needed more. More hands, more flesh. She leaned forward away from the brick and kissed his full lips.
Mateo’s smell and taste were different. Tangy, almost pungent, in a way that made you stop and try it again. So she did. Vinegar. Metal. Clay. Nectar. She kissed him again, and this time he pushed her back into the wall. Her bare breasts were pressed against the fabric of his shirt, and his right hand was on the back of her head, giving him leverage to crush his mouth further into hers. His left hand clutched her hip, controlling her.
Mateo’s mouth moved from her lips down to her neck. She gasped for air as he rutted his hips into her. She could feel him through his jeans, hard and ready. He snaked his hand to the button of her jeans and deftly undid it. He leaned back as if to take in the look of her under his spell.
“Oh, wild one,” he murmured as he bit into her lips. “I’m going to make you come all over my fingers.”
Ophelia let her head fall back to the wall as she pushed her hips out for him. Mateo hooked his fingers on the sides of her jeans and forcefully tugged them past her hips and plump ass. Ophelia gasped. He was on her so quickly, crowding her bodyagain and gliding his lips along her neck. His fingers crept down to her clit.
“So wet for me. You’re going to give it all to me. I’m going to devour you.”
Like a windfall, her pleasure left instantly at his words, and her mind reeled as he continued to lick a trail from the base of her neck to the back of her ear and swirled the pad of his finger on her clit.What the fuck. No. No. No.It all felt too familiar. Like déjà vu. Like the dream of him in the alleyway. Ophelia turned her head away from him in the tiniest act of rejection as she tried to gather her jumbled thoughts. Her body needed more, but her mind was telling her to stop. Yelling at her to stop. Pleading. But she couldn’t voice the words.
A dot of red flame burned in the corner of the courtyard, and a small plume of smoke drifted into the night sky. Someone was there.
“Wait, wait,” Ophelia pleaded breathlessly, placing her hands on his chest to give her some distance.
“What’s the matter?” he groaned, his hand still in her panties.
A shape was taking form in the corner.
“Jolie?”
“Please don’t stop on my account,” Jolie said dryly as she took another pull from her cigarette.
Ophelia quickly pulled her clothing back on while Mateo adjusted himself.
“What the fuck, Jolie?” yelled Ophelia. “Why are you creeping on us?”
