Hold Him Like Gravity (Lombardi Family #4)

Chapter Seventeen

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Kick

I did have other plans.

Big plans, actually.

Because I was pretty sure I had a lead on Kyle and his guys.

When I’d gotten home the night before after what happened in the office, I hadn’t been able to sleep; my mind was too occupied with thoughts of Rico.

Instead, I’d gone back to my research. The stuff I’d started before Kyle had turned up and told me that my brother wasn’t missing at all, but held hostage.

And I was pretty sure I found a connection between some of the robberies and a general location in the Bronx.

When I’d really connected all the dots on my map, they all made this big rectangle. Almost like whomever was doing them was actively trying to avoid doing robberies in the area in the center.

Which, I felt like I’d heard in a bunch of primetime crime dramas, likely meant that the perpetrators likely lived in that area.

Or, at least, that was the theory I was working with. And after work, I was going to go to that area and start looking around, see if I saw Kyle or that other guy.

Kyle, I knew from years of living with him, had an addiction to soda from the machines at the bodegas. Cans and bottles didn’t do it for him. He had to get them from the store.

I figured if I could stake out one convenience store a night, I might be able to catch him going to get his fix.

Sure, it was likely going to be a long, frustrating process. But it seemed better than sitting on my ass in my apartment, wondering if Jake was being tortured, or if Kyle was going to snatch me off of the street someday because I wasn’t giving him as much money as he wanted.

Those plans were, if not completely shot, at least delayed, by Rico showing up.

I knew I was supposed to be annoyed by the interruption. I couldn’t seem to fight against the relief, though. And the surge of excitement was almost instantaneous and uncontrollable. No matter how wrong it was, given how I was screwing over Rico and his business.

I tried to tell myself that agreeing to let him walk me was smart because refusing would draw suspicion. But I was just making excuses for wanting to spend a little time with him.

“How’s the finger?”

“It’s okay. I unwrapped it earlier to check it. All good so far. I don’t think it will be more than a few days before I can take off the splint and the wrap.”

“Don’t try to remove those closures, though,” he warned. “Let ‘em come off on their own,” he added as we turned down my street.

I tensed, wondering if Kyle’s spies would be waiting for me, would see me with Rico and get some wrong ideas about my connection to him, and my ability to, I don’t know, get more money off of him because of it.

But the streets were empty and we walked into the building alone.

The warm air stung at my exposed skin as we moved into the elevator. It wasn’t until we were inside of it that it occurred to me that I should have said goodbye to Rico at the front door. Not held the door open and silently invited him up.

But by the time I realized, it was too late.

Maybe that was what my subconscious had planned all along.

I was reaching into my pocket for my key when Rico grabbed my wrist from behind, turning me, then pressing me against my doorway as his lips crashed down on mine.

There was none of the tentativeness of the last kiss. No soft, sweet exploration.

His lips were hungry on mine, pressing hard, demanding a response.

And I simply… melted into him.

One of my arms went up around his neck, holding him close as the other went to the side of his neck as his lips slanted over mine again and again, as his tongue teased the seam of my lips before moving in to stroke over mine.

His hands slid down my back to sink into my ass, dragging me more firmly against him, making me aware of his own desire as it pressed against me, making my own spread, heating me from the inside out until my jacket, my shirt, my everything felt too hot and restrictive.

He held me against him for a long moment before his hand shifted, going into my pocket to get the key I’d been reaching for, taking it, and stabbing it into the lock.

He walked me backward into the apartment, turning me, and slamming me back against the door from the inside this time.

Reaching down, he grabbed the back of my thigh, pulling it up, and hooking it around his lower back. Wrapping both of my arms around his neck for leverage, I lifted the other leg as well.

Then he was turning, walking over toward the couch, and dropping down with me straddling him.

Completely consumed by my need, I dropped my hips down onto his lap, feeling his hardness against my need. A low moan escaped me as Rico’s hands went to my hips, rocking me against him.

When I rocked against him again, his hands slid away from my hips. He grabbed the zipper of my jacket, pulling it down, then slipped the material off of my shoulders.

The relief was instantaneous.

Then I felt his fingertips whispering over the skin of my stomach as he started to lift my shirt.

I lifted my arms up, allowing him to pull the shirt free, leaving me in a very boring black bra with no frills since I hadn’t anticipated anyone but myself seeing it when I’d bought it.

Rico didn’t seem to mind, though, as that sexy little rumble moved through him and the backs of his fingers teased up my sides before his hands closed over my breasts.

My head fell back and Rico took it as an invitation, leaning in to press his lips to the column of my neck. The barely-there kisses and strokes of his tongue had wildfires spreading across my skin, burning me up.

His hands shifted behind my back, working my clasps free, then pulling the straps down my shoulders, before tossing the bra away completely.

That rumble, now more of a growl, moved through him again.

Then he was suddenly pressing his face between my breasts, taking a deep breath as a shiver moved down my spine at the nearness of him, the intimacy of the gesture.

But then his head shifted and his lips closed around my nipple, making a strangled moan escape me as my hand slapped on the back of his head, holding him against me as he sucked, licked, grazed with his teeth.

He shifted, continuing the sweet torture at my other breast as my hips rocked against him with wild abandon, every muscle in my body taut, desperate for relief from the need coiled in my core.

When he pulled away, his lips claimed mine again as his hands went up, working my hair free of my ponytail until the strands fell and teased across the bare skin of my shoulders.

I reached out, grabbing at his shirt, pulling until he sat up and pulled it off himself, tossing it to the side. Then he was grabbing me, pulling me against him.

His groan was muffled by my moan at the feel of his bare skin against me.

“Lift up,” he demanded, then grabbed my hips and pulled when I didn’t immediately do what he wanted.

His hands slid down my sides, grabbing the waistbands of my pants and panties, and drawing them down. I shifted, allowing him to free each leg.

Then I was completely bare for him.

His hands wasted no time sliding over my ass, squeezing. Then his hand was between my thighs, stroking up my cleft, making my legs shake.

“So wet for me already,” he murmured as his fingers slid down, then slipped inside of me, making a whimper escape me.

His gaze flicked to mine, intense, his lids heavy with his own desire as he watched me while his fingers retreated, then thrust back into me.

“Been thinking of nothing but this all fucking day,” he said, his fingers thrusting harder, driving me up faster.

My little mewls and whimpers were growing to loud moans as he flattened his palm against my cleft, engaging my clit as his fingers kept working me.

Getting close, I leaned forward, pressing my face into his neck as my walls tightened hard.

“That’s it,” he murmured, his free hand massaging the back of my neck, “come for me.”

Just like that, I did, crying out as the waves crashed over and over through me.

My body went slack as my heart hammered, as my breath came in shallow, frantic huffs.

Rico’s fingers were still inside me, doing lazy little circles that somehow managed to make the need start to grow once again.

Sensing the change, Rico was suddenly moving, sliding down. By the time I even understood his intentions, he was on the floor with only his head left on the couch cushions… right between my legs.

A moan escaped me even before I felt his tongue trace up my cleft to find my clit. He worked it in slow circles that had my thighs shaking, had me grabbing the back of the couch and panting for breath as the need for release grew more and more insistent with each passing second.

His fingers were still inside of me, thrusting, circling, then turning and stroking against my top wall.

My cries filled the apartment as he drove me closer and closer to the edge before, mercifully, pushing me over.

I was still folded forward, my face buried against the back of the couch to muffle the moans as I came when Rico slid out from under me, came up behind me, his fingers gliding over me.

Down my sides, the outside of my thighs, over my ass, up my back, and, finally, around to cup my breasts, pulling me back against him as his lips dipped in at my neck.

I let him tease me for another minute or two as a bit of calm came back to my breathing.

Then I was reaching for him, pressing him down on the couch, and moving to straddle him again.

I’d never been comfortable taking charge, but there was just something about Rico that made me feel safe, feel comfortable exploring him like he’d done me.

My lips kissed up his jaw, down his ear, the column of his neck, teasing the pulse with the tip of my tongue, then continuing down.

His breathing went fast and shallow as I kissed down his chest, then moved toward his stomach. His muscles tensed under the touch and his hand slapped down on the back of my neck as I kept moving lower. Not pushing, just holding on.

My lips met the waistband of his jeans, and I teased my tongue across it as my hand moved between to work his button and zipper free.

His breath sucked in as I reached inside, my hand closing around his thick cock.

A little whimper escaped me as my sex clenched, just the thought of him inside of me making me ache as I freed him from his pants before stroking him to the hilt.

Then I was leaning down, teasing my tongue around the head, down the underside of his length, loving the way his breath hissed out from between clenched teeth, how his fingers were crushing the back of my skull.

“Fuck,” he groaned as my lips finally closed around him, slowly sucking him deep.

His hips bucked when I took him as deep as I could. Then his hands were grabbing at my hair, gathering it and fisting it at the back of my neck.

“Look up at me,” he demanded, voice a gruff rumble that made my belly flip-flop. “ Fuck ,” he growled as my eyelids fluttered open and I looked up at him with his cock still deep in my mouth.

Then I was working him. Slowly at first, like he liked to tease me, then harder and faster, the taste of him filling my mouth, his grunts and groans spurring me on.

Until, suddenly, his hand was grabbing my hair, the pain a strange sort of pleasure across my scalp as he kept pulling until I had no choice but to move back until his cock slid from between my lips.

He kept pulling until I was climbing back on his lap.

Then his lips were on mine again.

Hard, almost bruising, as my hips dropped down, and I felt his cock glide against my cleft, making a shiver rack my system.

A rumble moved through Rico as his body shifted and his hand slid into his back pocket.

He fumbled one-handed with it, finding what he was looking for, then pushing me back so he could reach between us and slide on the condom.

Finished, he pulled my hips back down, let me continue to rock against him as his lips claimed mine, kissing me long and hard until my mouth felt swollen and oversensitive.

I pulled back, watching him with heavy-lidded eyes as I lifted up, then shifted back until I felt his thickness against me, then slowly slid down.

His low curse mingled with my long moan as I slid down to the base.

His hands moved down to grab my ass, dragging me against him, drawing a whimper out of me.

“Ride me,” he demanded, voice a rough demand.

Then I was. Hesitantly, at first, finding the motion that felt the best, then harder and faster as the need built inside, a tightening sensation that twisted more and more with each passing second.

“That’s it,” Rico said as my walls tightened around him. “Come for me.”

Then I was, burying my face in his neck and crying out as the waves crashed through me.

Rico worked me through it, his hips rocking up into me, dragging it out.

And when the orgasm finally released its hold on me, I still found him hard inside of me.

“Not done with you yet,” he said, teeth nipping playfully at my lips.

His arm anchored around my hips, then he was turning, rolling me under him on the couch, his lips on mine as my legs wrapped around him.

Then he was fucking me.

Hard and deep, taking every bit of me with each thrust.

“Fuck,” I whimpered, face against his neck, arms tight around him, holding on as he drove me closer and closer to that edge yet again. Every inch of me felt coiled, ready to shatter apart until, finally, I did.

The orgasm was an explosion with long aftershocks of pleasure that rolled through me endlessly as Rico kept fucking me, like he was getting off just as much on my pleasure as I was.

I was still trying to catch my breath when he was pulling away, rolling me onto my belly, then grabbing my hips, and pulling my ass up toward him.

His fingers flexed on my hip as I felt the head of him sliding up my cleft, teasing over my clit for a second, then sliding back and slamming deep inside of me.

I cried out against the cushion, my thighs clenching, finding myself even more sensitive than before as he started to fuck me. Not hard this time. Just fast. His breathing went ragged as my heart threatened to pound out of my chest.

His hand went around me, slipping between my thighs to engage my clit as he kept fucking me, demanding just one more orgasm out of my already tingling, exhausted body.

“There it is,” Rico groaned as my walls clenched around him. “Let me feel you squeeze my cock one more time,” he demanded. Then, like he ordered, I did. “Fuck,” he groaned. “That’s a good girl,” he said, making me whimper as he kept fucking me through it, then slammed deep and came with a groaned curse.

Rico dropped down on the couch next to me, pulling me back until my legs were draped over his lap and my head was rested against his shoulder.

His one arm draped across my hips. The other hand was holding the back of my neck, keeping me against him as if I had any intention of moving away.

I knew that the ugly realities of my life would come flooding back sooner than I wanted. I was going to let myself enjoy this for the short time that it lasted.

I sat there listening to the sound of Rico’s heartbeat and getting surrounded by woodsmoke and cigars, praying that the scent was all over me even after he left.

It was all just so… comforting. So cozy.

I was asleep before I was even aware of how tired I was.