Hold Him Like Gravity (Lombardi Family #4)

Chapter Fifteen

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Kick

I had eight-hundred dollars wrapped up in a sweater in my locker to bring home and add to the three-thousand I’d already stolen.

Not, in the grand scheme of things, a lot of money. But enough to get my brother fed. I hoped.

Every nerve ending felt fried.

Especially when Rico caught me on the way to my locker. When his keen eyes took in the abnormality of the lock I now had on it. How he saw my nervousness, my jumpiness.

I hadn’t lied to him. I hadn’t been sleeping. And I had been guzzling pots of coffee to combat the sleeplessness.

It wasn’t helping things, I knew, to not be getting rest. But anytime I started to nod off, my mind was full of nightmares of watching my brother being tortured to death while Kyle held onto me, forcing me to watch.

Since it wasn’t just a nightmare, but the possibility of my future, the potential of Jake’s present moment, there was no going to sleep after that.

So I stress cleaned and tried to think of a way out of this situation. Like, I don’t know, getting a second or third job to make extra money to give to Kyle.

The thing was, I knew how that would go. He would grow to expect that exact amount of money while I burned my body out trying to keep making it. The second I let the ball drop and was short one week, Jake would pay for it.

I did notice someone following me to and from work, but when I was running out to do errands, I didn’t spy anyone. So I had plans after work to finally sneak back out and try to follow them to see where they were going.

If I could find and free Jake, all of this would be over.

Until then, I had to keep taking money from the register.

While ignoring the knot in my stomach at stealing from a good man like Rico. Literally the only man I’d come across in my whole damn life who seemed to want to be kind to me, see what he could do for me instead of the other way around.

I couldn’t let my mind go there, though.

Not even as he squatted in front of me, carefully cleaning and bandaging my cut.

Within a minute or two, there was no pain anymore. All I could focus on was the way my heartbeat was thrumming an uneven beat, how my skin felt warm and overly sensitive as he touched me.

Despite the mess my life had become, the other things I should have been focusing on, I couldn’t seem to stop my mind from wandering, my heart from hoping.

Thinking how, if things were different, I would let this moment become something else. How I could lean into him. Could reach for him. Could ask for what my body had been demanding since the moment I’d met him.

But I couldn’t have those things.

I was already screwing him over.

The betrayal would be tenfold if things got less than professional between us.

All those thoughts flew out of my mind as I got to my feet, ready to rush out of there before I did anything stupid. Then he stood, misjudging the space between us.

I was pretty sure if I took too deep of a breath, my chest would brush his.

I could feel the heat of his body.

His heady woodsmoke and cigar scent was overpowering my senses, making my thoughts thick and slow as my gaze slipped helplessly to his lips.

I saw the intention flash before his eyes just a moment before his hand was lifting, sliding around my neck to grab the back, then pulling me flush against him.

My breath caught at the feel of his hard lines against my softer ones.

The heat in his eyes was warm enough to melt whatever was left of my reservations just a second before his head ducked and his lips landed on mine.

It was achingly slow at first. A brush. Soft, testing, teasing.

But then his arm slid around my lower back, holding onto me more firmly, and the kiss deepened, his mouth got more insistent, lips parting over mine, coaxing more from me.

A small sound escaped my throat, and he took it as the encouragement it was. He tilted back my head to fully claim my mouth.

The world around us, the worries inside of me, all fell away. I could feel nothing but the nearness of him, could think of nothing else but the desire blooming through my system.

Rico’s fingers slid up, threading into my hair, holding onto me more firmly.

I pressed closer, feeling his heartbeat race in time with mine.

Every brush of his lips or sweep of his tongue felt like a slow-building fire that threatened to consume the both of us completely.

As his mouth moved from mine, tracing a line across my jaw, a shiver moved down my spine. His lips found that sensitive little spot just under my ear, his breath warm on my skin, making a small sigh escape me.

“Tell me no,” he murmured. A demand, a plea.

“I can’t,” I whispered back as I arched against him, my hand sliding up his side, then wrapping around the back of his neck as my lips claimed his again.

If this was the way I was going to burn, I wanted him to light me up. I wanted to dance in the flames with him until there was nothing left but embers and ashes.

For just once, for just this moment, I was going to get exactly what I wanted.

I could feel any reservations leaving Rico as he crushed me to him, as he turned us, then reached down, grabbing me, lifting me, and depositing me down on the top of the desk.

He moved between my thighs as his lips pressed harder, demanded more, claimed everything.

My good hand was digging into his shoulder as he pulled my legs around him until I crossed my ankles, holding onto him.

He pushed closer, his hardness against the heat of me, making a moan escape my lips as I rocked shamelessly against him.

A deep rumble moved through Rico, vibrating into my chest, leaving trembles in its wake as my lips got hotter and hungrier on his.

Rico’s hands slid down my sides, sinking into my hips, using them to rock me against his hardness, fanning the flames inside of me as he drove me up.

But his jeans and my pants were too thick, too restrictive, making a low grumble escape me as the pleasure felt just out of my grasp.

Rico’s lips spread to a smile against mine before they fully broke away.

“No,” I whimpered as he pulled against my legs, against their hold of him.

“Shh,” he murmured, pressing a kiss to my swollen lips as he moved back.

Reaching down, he grabbed my legs, tilting them up until I had no choice but to lower fully back against the desk.

His hands went between us then, grabbing the waistbands of my pants and panties and starting to pull.

My feet pressed into his stomach to use him as leverage to push up, allowing him to slide the material off of my ass, then down my hips.

The cool air washed across my overheated skin.

Anticipation shivered through me as he freed me, as his fingers teased the bare skin of my ankles then calves. Then he was grabbing my knees, pulling, spreading them wide for him.

My core tightened as his fingers teased up my inner thighs, as they drifted across the triangle above my sex.

Then, eyes holding mine, his fingers traced up my cleft; the barely-there touch making my inner thighs shake as desire surged.

Rico’s eyes warmed as his thumb found my clit, teasing it with whisper-soft circles until I was writhing and whimpering for more.

Only then did his fingers slip downward and press inside of me.

I nearly fell apart just then as my back arched and a low, deep moan escaped me.

“That’s a good fucking sound,” Rico said, his voice a sexy rumble with his own need.

Then there was no more talking, no more teasing, no more taking it slow.

The need became this overpowering thing, stealing everything but the end to the torment coiled in my lower stomach.

Sensing the change, Rico’s fingers started to thrust harder, faster, as his thumb continued to circle.

As my moans started to fill the room—shameless, desperate—that low rumble moved through Rico again.

“I need to taste you,” he said.

Then his thumb was off of my clit.

But before I could object, Rico was lowering himself into the desk chair and moving between my legs. His tongue replaced his thumb, the sensation making me arch off the desk as my hand slapped down on the back of his neck, holding him against me.

Rico had no intentions of moving away, though, as his tongue continued to trace delicious little circles and his fingers turned inside of me, stroking against my top wall, creating a new sensation that had my desire coiling tighter and tighter, ready to explode.

Then, with one more circle and one more stroke, I did.

The orgasm soared through me, making my back arch and my thighs clamp to the sides of Rico’s head as the pleasure rolled through me over and over and my moans filled the room.

As soon as my legs stopped crushing his skull, Rico’s head shifted upward, kissing over the triangle of my sex, down the crease of my thigh, over my inner thigh.

He was halfway to my knee when there was a loud banging on the back door.

Rico was slow to straighten.

I, however, shot up on the desk.

Whether that was because my nerves were shot and I was always expecting the worst, or that I was, you know, bare-ass naked from the waist down, was anyone’s guess.

“Ignore it,” Rico said, leaning down to press his lips into my neck, making a sweet little shiver move through me.

The knocking stopped.

But was quickly replaced by a ringing in Rico’s pocket just as his teeth nipped my earlobe, dragging a little whimper of need out of me again.

“Damnit,” he growled, reaching into his pocket. But his head was still in my neck, his warm breath on my skin, as he pulled the phone to his ear and barked an impatient, “What?”

A smile tugged at my lips at his irritation, loving the idea of him being as desperate for me as I still felt for him.

“Fuck,” he growled then as he listened to whoever was on the line. When he pulled back and looked at me with regret in those dark eyes of his, I knew we wouldn’t be going any further that night. “Fine. Yeah. Give me a few,” he said, taking a slow, deep breath as he set his phone on the counter.

“You have to go,” I said as I watched him.

“Yeah,” he said, pressing his forehead to mine as he took another breath, likely trying to reason with the desire coursing through his body. “Rather stay here,” he added.

God, I wanted that too.

For the moment I had left with him, I closed my eyes tight; I breathed him in; I enjoyed the closeness.

We seemed to sense the moment ending in unison, both of us pulling away.

Rico handed me my pants and panties, then helped me pull up my pants when I accidentally jammed my finger against my leg in the process.

“Splint,” he said, handing me the one out of the medical kit.

“Thanks,” I said. “I, ah, have to get my stuff out of the locker,” I said as I started to move away, my legs feeling wobbly.

As soon as the office door was closed behind me, I rushed to my locker, working the lock free, then shoving the stolen cash into my purse before pulling on my sweater.

“I’m gonna put you in a cab,” Rico said as he came out of the office.

“No, it’s alright. I can walk.”

“Babe, I’m putting you in a cab,” he said, going to the back door and unlocking it. “What’s the matter?” he asked when I froze halfway to the door.

“I didn’t finish cleaning. My blood might even be—“

“Don’t worry about it,” he cut me off.

“But it’s—“

“Kick,” he interjected again. “Don’t worry about it. If there’s a mess, I’ll handle it. Go home. Get some sleep.”

“Okay,” I agreed, mostly only because he wasn’t giving me much of a choice as he pressed a hand into my lower back and pushed me out of the side door.

The alley was dark, but I could make out the form of a man a few feet away, making a gasp escape me, sure it was Kyle or one of his men coming for me. Or, worse yet, Jake left for dead.

“It’s fine. That’s Coal,” he said as he kept pushing me up to the edge of the alley.

As we approached, Coal kept his head down, but I saw how busted-up his face was regardless.

That was why he had to go? His friend was hurt?

“Is he okay?” I asked as Rico moved toward the edge of the curb, throwing up an arm when he saw a taxi down the street.

“He’s fine, babe. Don’t worry about him,” he said as he reached into his back pocket, pulling out a wad of cash, and peeling off several bills. “Go on. Get in. Get home. Get some sleep,” he said, pressing the cash into my hand. Then, before I could object, he slammed the door and patted his hand on the hood of the cab.

Feeling something akin to heartsick, I watched his shadow as the taxi drove off and he disappeared.

Only then did I look down at the money he’d given me.

A hundred bucks.

For a two-minute cab ride.

More money for Kyle, I guessed.

Though as I pushed what I didn’t need for the taxi into the pile of the rest of the stolen cash, tears were flooding my eyes.

Sure, I was putting the money toward getting my brother back.

But I was losing everything I wanted with Rico.

And he had no idea how badly I was betraying him.