Playing with Fire (5 page)

“Have fun.” Salvatore hung up the phone and sat there, rubbing his temple. He wanted to try Reign again, but he had sworn he wouldn’t after their last conversation. Never should he have told her he loved her. He was a smart guy, he knew better, but it had just slipped out in the aftermath of making love to her in the pool they’d shared that last night, the warm feel of her in his arms so comfortable he’d almost made an even worse mistake and asked her to marry him.

More than once she’d said firmly she would never ever get married again. It was off the table.

Especially to someone from
his
family
was the unspoken ending to that declaration. His father and her father hated each other, and in a different world, that might be not speaking to each other at the country club, but in the Life, there could be unpleasant consequences to a feud that ran as deep as theirs.

Sal should never have slept with her in the first place. Reign sure as hell shouldn’t have slept with him. It probably would never have happened if either of them had given their last names when they met.

He stared at his phone and even pulled up his contact list. “Fuck,” he muttered and resisted the urge to press that button and try her cell again.

Chapter

F
OUR

He’d left her alone the night before.

Nick watched her sleep—he didn’t sleep much himself. A few hours and he was good to go, but Reign hadn’t had the easiest evening. He’d admired the way she’d handled it all, but near the end he’d known she was simply too tired to do anything else but strip off her clothes and fall into bed.

He really, really approved of the stripping part. She might be in his bed—she’d not opted for the guest room and he thought that maybe, just maybe, the reason why was that as strong as she might be, she didn’t want to to be alone—but he hadn’t touched her because she’d fallen asleep almost immediately and hadn’t given him permission.

His mother had raised him to be a gentleman. Pure Sicilian, she tolerated no bad behavior from her sons, and he’d learned that the hard way a time or two because his father had backed her up every single time, and he was not a man to take lightly.

So Nick propped himself on one elbow and just … watched.

The gentle lift of her chest as she breathed. Very nice. Her breasts were full compared to her frame but looked real. Perfect pink nipples and firm flesh with a natural feminine shape. No enhancement there. She kept herself fit with smooth muscle tone to her arms, and she wasn’t a sylph but still slender. Good, he was a pretty tall guy and didn’t like women he felt he might break if things got a little interesting in bed.

Reign could hold her own. It was that sense of self he’d liked right from their first meeting.

Yes, he’d protected her, but he wasn’t 100 percent sure she couldn’t have handled the situation all by herself.

Long dark lashes fluttered as she started to wake up.

Great timing. He had a raging hard-on. They’d been cheated out of their first night, but maybe they could make up for it now.

Lightly, he ran his fingers down the length of her arm. “Hmm. Good morning,
bella
.”

She rolled to her back, but didn’t cover herself. “I can’t believe I slept like that in a strange place.”

He couldn’t help but admire the view, and he had his reasons for not being very surprised over the shooting. He knew a lot more than she did.

It pleased him to realize she didn’t often sleep anywhere but her own house. “I think you might have needed it.”

“I think so too.” She sat up and pushed her hair back in a graceful movement, the sheet around her waist, those spectacular breasts bared. No modesty, but with tits like hers, what woman would care? On a beach in Rio she’d make jaws drop. “What time is it?”

“It’s Sunday. Doesn’t matter.” Nick wanted to touch her but wasn’t sure how it would be received. Gorgeous woman in his bed, one he didn’t really know, even though they’d been through an interesting experience together.… Life was full of new twists and turns.

She yawned. “I’m a designer. I literally work seven days a week because I basically work for myself.”

“Considering the circumstances, I think you can take the morning off.”

Reign seemed to fully wake up, memory flooding back from the look on her face. “Oh shit, yeah, last night. I remember now. It still feels like a bad dream.”

“Easy, babe.” Nick gently pushed her back down and looked into her eyes. “Here’s the recap. No charges pressed; he wasn’t carrying ID and had disarmed the security system, but at least I was there, had a license for the weapon I used, and I have no record. Bet you he couldn’t say the same.”

She caught his wrists. “He couldn’t say
anything
. You killed him. Investment banker? Bullshit. I know a pro when I meet one.”

To admit or deny? He’d already figured out she was smart, so a denial might just tick her off.

“I
am
an investment banker.” He was, actually. And good at it.

“But that’s not
all
you are.”

True.

“So … I’m not an angel.” He adjusted his position and nuzzled her neck. “But, let’s face it, no one is. Are you going to hold that against me?”

“Does your arm hurt?”

“He just grazed me. Barely broke the skin.” It was true. Just a scratch. It had barely even bled, and the medical examiner had actually bandaged it for him right at the scene. Nick had been a lot more unhappy about his damaged jacket. That suit was expensive. He murmured, “That isn’t the part of my anatomy that’s hurting right now.”

“I can see that.” She looked unabashedly at where his erection lifted the sheet. “At least let me brush my teeth.”

“You’re going to bite me? That sounds interesting.” Nick smiled lazily and rolled to his back. At least that part of the conversation was out of the way. “Sure. Help yourself.”

“I just might.” She walked to the bathroom nude, unselfconscious, and he understood why. She had no need to be. Firm ass, all that dark hair … his cock was so hard it was painful. Before she went in the door, she turned. “You’d better have a condom.”

He did. “No worries.”

“Or two,” she said just before she shut the door.

He groaned out loud, but he was at least grateful she couldn’t hear it once the latch clicked.

There was no question that he liked confident women, but he’d also never met one that was quite so … different.

Yeah, that was how he’d describe her.
Different
. In his life, women had mostly all been the same. Obviously, like with anyone else, they took on certain roles, but Reign was a unique experience so far. She’d handled the night before well too: calm with the cops, obviously a little shaken up, but basically taking it all in stride. Their stories had meshed, and at the end of it all, there had been no reason law enforcement could find a probable cause to hold either of them—though he knew they’d tried because of her family name. And so here they were.

They’d hadn’t known each other very long, but he hoped that was really what was about to change. Women liked him, but on some level, most of them were a little afraid of him. Reign didn’t seem to be, or if she was, she was one hell of an actress.

She came out of the bathroom wet … literally.

Water beaded on her skin, those beautiful breasts slightly swaying, her dark hair damp. The triangle of dark hair between her thighs was trimmed but not entirely bare, which was just how he liked it. Reign flashed him a smile. “I had to take a quick shower. Hope you don’t mind.”

“Fuck no.” Propped against the headboard, Nick inhaled through his nose and exhaled through his mouth in a controlled conscious effort. “At this moment, I’d swear I’d forgive you just about anything.”

She took three leisurely steps across the rug he’d paid a fortune for, which was imported from some place he couldn’t even identify as a country but felt like silk if you walked on it in bare feet. “You enjoy oral sex?”

“Both giving and receiving.” That was one hell of an honest answer. If she put her mouth on him, he would last maybe a minute or two.…

He slid from the bed and caught her around the waist and tumbled her to her back on the silk sheets. “Let me go first. Spread your legs.”

“I—”

“I have an agenda.” He kissed the plane of her stomach. “You come, I come, and then we come together.… I’d really like to do it my way. You’re going to like it.”

“Don’t try to control me.”

His hands smoothed her hips. “Never. Say the word and I stop. Reign, you’re safe with me.”

She relaxed. He felt it happen. The tension left her muscles and she smiled genuinely for the first time since she’d met her. “Is that your line?”

“I don’t have a line.” Nick licked the tip of one very delectable breast. “Why would I bother with that?” His fingers explored the luxuriant abundance of her tits. They were firm and gloriously feminine. “I know I’m happy at the moment. These are …
very
nice.”

“Yes, well, in my experience, every man has a line. I can’t argue that part. You do feel happy.” But she did sink her fingers into his hair, and from the arch of her back she seemed to really like it when he took her nipple into his mouth.

“I’m not every man.” He murmured it against her warm skin. She tasted exotic, like vanilla and apricot, and he pressed his erection against her thigh.

Then he moved lower. And lower.

Pushed her thighs apart.

She bent her knees and opened wider, and when he parted her labia and tongued her clit, her lashes drifted down as she closed her eyes. A small inarticulate sound of enjoyment came from deep down in her throat.

Good. He really liked women who enjoyed sex and weren’t afraid to show it, and he’d guessed that she would from the first moment he’d seen her walk into the party.

As he licked and gently sucked, her spine arched even more and she moaned, threading her fingers through his hair, taking over, giving him clear signals of when to back it off a little to delay her orgasm, prolonging the pleasure.

Smart girl. When he took two fingers and slid them inside her pussy, she was wet, hot, and tight, and it sent her over the edge. He finger-fucked her as she came. Nick kept her there until she twisted away and commanded, “Stop.”

It was quite a sight, he decided as he rolled to his back, his erection pulsing with the beat of his heart, the veins visibly distending and subsiding. That luscious body sprawled on his bed flushed a tint of post-climax pink, her eyes only half-open as she caught her breath.

If his orgasm was half as good, he decided with an inner, purely male sense of satisfaction, this was going to be a really fantastic morning. The night he’d envisioned had been ruined, but it was a new day, new start, and quite frankly, he couldn’t regret being there and what happened, because at least he’d been able to protect Reign, and in the unpleasant aftermath, no one except the unwanted intruder had been hurt.

Considering what that man had wanted him to do the last time they’d come face to face, it seemed like justice to him.

*   *   *

Not a bad start.

Reign had a feeling Nick was going to be a skillful lover, but also the sense that there was a bit of selfishness involved since he wanted her to return the favor.

No problem. Her last lover had wanted slow, romantic sex, whispered sweet things in her ear, and she was built more like a race car than a sedan meant for slow rides in the countryside. Fast and dirty was what sent her libido into high gear.

Fuck, he had
nice
muscular shoulders, not to mention a big cock. Brawny thighs and a flat stomach … in the morning light coming through the window, his body was gilded a light gold and he was beyond a doubt really ready to go. Even though his grin was a little cocky, she couldn’t argue with it.

And she couldn’t resist teasing him a little, even though he’d just been really, really nice to her.

Not to mention that he saved her life the night before. She didn’t want to think about that too much, because not for a minute did she believe the man Nick had shot had been a burglar who heard their voices and ducked into her closet, which was how the police had treated it in the end.

For now, she was in bed with a very delicious Italian man who definitely knew his way around a woman’s body, and she was going to worry about what happened a little later. Reign rolled over on her belly to give him a good view of her ass—she worked out to make sure it stayed nice and firm, more because
she
wanted to be comfortable with her body than to please anyone else—and lifted her brows. “You completed the first part of your ‘agenda’ pretty well. I get the impression it’s my turn.”

“You’re not going to get an argument here.”

“I take it you’ve been complimented on this before.” She ran a finger up his impressive erection. The skin was satin smooth and hot. “I don’t want you to get too conceited so I won’t comment.”

With her finger, she wiped off a bead of semen from the tip and licked it off. “Uhm. I changed my mind. I’ll go ahead and say it. You have a really big dick.”

“That’s better than being
called
a really big dick. Your finger was nice but your tongue would be better.” He reclined against the pillows and his voice had dropped to a husky timbre that betrayed he was pretty interested in what came next.

He should be. She gave one hell of a blow job. Sex was power, and power alone was sexy.

Slow and sultry, making him wait for it … Reign rose up on her knees and ran her hand over Nick’s hard chest, looked him in the eyes, and smiled. “I suppose I owe you.”

“It was my pleasure.”

“I meant for being there last night.”

“Forget last night. I thought you were referring to just a few minutes ago. You interested in paying me back?”

He really was a gorgeous man. The suit was nice, but now, naked and lounging on the bed, his hair tousled from sleep, his blue eyes slightly narrowed, he was … pretty delicious.

“Oh, you have no idea.” She dropped her hand to his crotch and explored his balls, cupping his testicles.