Enemy Sworn (17 page)

Mateo slipped his arm around Sophia's waist as they dragged themselves up the stairway to her room. Suddenly Sophia's father called out from behind them. Sophia stiffened. Mateo tightened his arm around her waist.

“Now that you have a husband can you not say good night to your father?” he asked.

Sophia didn't want to turn around and face him only because she was too exhausted to relive what had happened. And he would want to know what happened when he saw the condition she was in.

Mateo swept her up into his arms and half turned with her. “She's not feeling well, sir, I think she may have food poisoning from dinner.”

Sophia stared at her father from beneath lowered lashes. “Papa,” she moaned, “please, I just want to go to my room and—” She put her hand over her mouth as if she were about to vomit.

“Sir,” Mateo said as he turned and ran with her up the stairway and into their room.

As he slammed the door closed with the heel of his boot they both started laughing.

“Thank you for that, I don't think I could have faced him.” She shivered, suddenly sobering. And honestly, her dinner did roll in her belly when the horrible vision of what happened to Lily sprang into her mind's eye. “I need to shower.” He moved to follow her but she turned and put her hand on his chest. “Before dinner I would have loved for you to join me, but now I think I need to be alone for a few minutes.”

He nodded and stepped back, and it took more determination than she thought it would to close the bathroom door behind her.

Thirty minutes later, showered, dressed in a light flowing nightgown, Sophia slid between the smooth, fresh sheets, and sighed. “Thank you,” she softly said to her husband, who sat in the shadowed corner of the room with his ankle over his knee and a dark, brooding look on his handsome face. Fatigue stole heavily over her. She would ask him what was wrong in the morning.

She dreamed of monsters chasing her. Of being surrounded by a rabid Javier who held his severed head in his hand, demanding she marry him.

“No!” she cried. The heinous vision burned into her eyelids. She could not escape it.

“Corazón,”
her mother's sweet voice soothed. “Shhh, I'm here now.” And then she sang the lullaby she always sang when Sophia woke screaming from night terrors.

“Mama . . . ?”

“She's gone, Sophia, but I'm here,” a deep, familiar voice calmed. Her husband? Mateo?

The cut on her collarbone burned painfully. Several others throbbed. “Hurts,” she moaned.

Gentle lips brushed against her wounds. Then a warm, strong tongue softly licked each one, taking care not to hurt her.
Yes.
She moaned in sweet pain. The lips moved down her legs, where sharp fingers had dug into her calves and ankles.

A different type of pain washed in soft waves through her body. Her body writhed as the healing kisses and talented tongue methodically slid along her feverish skin until she burned for a different relief.

When she reached out to dig her fingers through his hair, he gently shook her off. “Relax,” he softly said.

“I don't want to,” she pouted.

He chuckled against her belly. “Tonight you'll listen to your husband for a change.”

She was about to tell him she wanted to be in control, but then he slid his hands up her legs to the junction of her thighs and torso, pushing the hem of her nightie to her hips, and ever so softly, slid his thumbs along her slick seam and parted her nether lips. Trailing his nose down her belly, he opened his mouth and blew hot breath on her. “You should see how swollen and sexy your pussy looks right now, angel.”

Closing her eyes, she fisted the sheet in her hands and arched, parting her thighs, giving him more access. He slid the pad of his thumb so lightly across her sensitive clitoris that she breathlessly exhaled. “Do you like that?” His thumb swept across it again, followed by his lips.

A strangled cry escaped her lips as she moved hotly beneath him. “Please, Teo. Give me more.”

“I like it when you call me that,” he rasped, dragging his tongue across her straining clit. “I'm going to give you more than you can handle, angel.” He sucked her between his lips, flicking her stiff nub with his tongue. Jarring rivets of fire shot through her, startling her with their intensity.

Sliding her nightgown higher up her belly, he grasped it with two hands and yanked it. The sound of it tearing as he pulled it away from her sultry skin, exposing everything to him, sent waves of heat shimmering through her. Sinking her fingers into his thick, dark hair, Sophia undulated against his ravenous mouth.

His hands glided toward her hips; one slid along her slick pubis bone and gently pushed back, exposing the hood of her clit, giving his hungry mouth more access. Digging her heels into the bed, her thighs spread farther apart.

“I love you like this, angel. Hot, wet, panting for more.” He slid a thick finger into her and she cried out. “So hungry for more.” He sucked her clitoris deeply into his mouth, rolling his tongue around it. “I want to watch you come in my mouth, angel.”

His words ignited something deep and primal inside of her, a fire that once lit had to be quenched. Digging her fingers into his scalp, she moved hotly against him. “Teo,” she gasped, gulping for air. She looked down to find his gaze locked on her, his face between her legs, his lips and tongue ravaging her as his finger pumped into her. When he slid a second finger into her, tapping a sensitive place deep inside, her eyes widened. “I—oh—god,” she crooned as her clitoris and vagina erupted in an overload of sensation. The orgasm shot through her like a bullet, hitting her hard, catching her off guard. She hadn't expected it so soon. Its intensity and the ease with which she came stunned her.

“Teo,” she breathed, trying to sit up as the waves crashed through her. She needed him inside her, wanted to feel his power in and around her. “Please,” she begged. “Take me. Take me now.”

Trailing his fingertips along her thighs and tight belly, then to her eager breasts, he swirled them around her nipples, plucking each one as it hardened. Her body writhed, empty of him, needing to be filled. She locked her legs around his waist, pressing her hips against him, rubbing her mound against his thick erection.

He laughed low, the sound sexy and dangerous. “I had no idea when I saw you on that dance floor you would be so hot for me, angel.” He caught a nipple between his lips and suckled deeply. He let her go with a pop and smiled as he moved his hips lower, pressing the wide tip of his penis against her. When he made no move to enter her she pushed down, catching the head between her hot lips. “Greedy girl,” he rasped before catching the other nipple in his mouth. As he sucked, she moved ardently against him but he held himself from her.

She was ravenous for him. “Teo, please, I need you inside of me. Now.”

He grinned against her nipple then let it go with a farewell lick. “I don't have a condom.”

“Ack! You should have thought of that before you seduced me!”

“I'm sorry, angel, I got a little sidetracked this afternoon and forgot.” He kissed her nose. “And just now, a little more carried away.”

Squeezing her eyes shut, Sophia tried unsuccessfully to stop her body's demand to be penetrated.

“What do you want me to do?” he softly asked, just as he kissed the shell of her ear.

Pressing against him, she quaked with frustration. She wanted him inside of her. But she didn't want to get pregnant. And if her calculations were right, she had two more days . . .

“I want you to make love to me,” she breathed, tightening her arms around his neck. He pulled up to look at her. His eyes were dark and stormy as they searched her face to be sure.

“Angel,” he started. “There are other ways we can satisfy each other.”

Hot tears welled in her eyes as emotion erupted within her. “I know, but I want you to make love to me. Like you mean it.”

He stilled and stared at her for a long moment. So long she thought his guilty conscience must have caught up with him. And because of that he was going to leave the bed because he didn't mean it. Had never meant it. And never would.

When his hips moved, and he slid slowly into her, a tear leaked down her face. “I've never meant anything more in my life, angel,” he whispered before he kissed it away.

“Teo,” she breathed as he moved deeply into her. “I think I love you.” His body stilled before he kissed her, grinding his hips into her, then withdrawing and thrusting deeply into her again.

More tears leaked from her eyes as emotions she had held locked away for so long came pouring out of her. He kissed her, holding her tight, telling her he would protect her and not to be afraid. And in his arms, for the first time since her mother left her all those years ago, she felt cherished.

Hugging him tightly against her heart, Sophia let herself go and reveled in his response. His hips went from slow, deep thrusts, to quick, hard ones. Their skin slickened as their balmy breaths mingled. Mateo slid an arm around her waist, pulling her more firmly against him as he slammed into her. Sophia cried out as the building tension in her body crested.

“That's it, angel, come for me. Only me. Come for me now.”

Everything inside of her shattered as if she'd been dropped from a hundred yards. Digging her nails into his back, she screamed as the deep throbbing pulses of her orgasm shot through her, literally like a fireworks finale, one exploding after another, each more intense than the one before it. It was sensation overload at its most carnal.

Just as she was coming down, Mateo caught her lips in his, his body tightening as spasms wracked through him. She could feel the thick rush of his seed as he ejaculated deep within her, and her vaginal muscles as they contracted tightly around his thickness, milking him of every drop.

He collapsed on her and, still inside of her, he rolled over onto his back and pulled her to him. Sprawled on top of him like a fat, sated cat on a porch swing, Sophia smiled, closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

•   •   •

Sophia woke to the aromatic fragrance of fresh-brewed coffee. Stretching, she opened her eyes to her husband watching her intently. Heat rose in her cheeks as their night in bed came back to her. Dear god, she had invited him to have unprotected sex then told him she loved him! And worse, he didn't say it back. And why should he, for god's sake? They'd only known each other less than a week!

God, how desperate had she sounded to him? She needed some distance STAT.

“Where's my nightgown?” she demanded, sitting up and bringing the sheet with her.

He pointed to the foot of the bed where it was neatly folded. She reached out and snatched it up and quickly pulled it on. Not that it covered much, torn as it was. “How did it get there?”

“I put it there after I took it off you last night.”

“You mean ripped it off?”

He rose from the chair with the grace and confidence of a man who had nothing to hide. He poured her half a cup of cream, then added steaming coffee. As he handed it to her, he said, “Settle down, Sophia. You were in pain last night. I tried to make you feel better and then”—he grinned and shrugged—“you were in another kind of pain and there was only one way to make it go away.” He turned back to the table and said over his shoulder, “Next time I'll let you writhe in pain until you can't stand it.”

He poured himself another cup of coffee and sat back down. Never once taking his eyes off her. “You talk a lot in your sleep.”

She sipped her café con leche. It was perfect. Then let the topic go. She'd acted worse than a cat in heat, and despite her emotional outburst she wasn't sorry for the sex. It had been amazing. “Did I say anything good?'

“I picked up a few fun facts.”

“Such as?”

“You didn't care much for your fiancé when he was alive and even less now that he's dead.”

She sipped her coffee. “That's not news to you. What else?”

“Why were you so pissed off about his death when you couldn't stand the guy?”

She stiffened. “My feelings for Javier were irrelevant. You killed my fiancé. On principle I should have been angry.”

“Ah.” He sipped his coffee. “You should thank me.”

“When hell freezes over!” She sounded like a child, but she didn't care. He made no reference to what she said to him last night and by not acknowledging the elephant in the room, to her that meant he didn't come close to feeling the same for her. Not being in love, she got it, but maybe he was a little in like?

He stood and set his cup down. “Being contrary for the sake of pride is wasted time and emotion, Sophia. I did you a favor. Hurry up and get yourself together. Your father was bellowing for you earlier. I'm anxious to find out if he knows who's peddling that crazy pill.”

The horror of last night came crashing back. “Lily!”

“Considering what happened last night, I asked Manny to let your school know you were taking the day off. We'll go over to the clinic after we've had breakfast with your old man. Now hurry up, I'm hungry.”

“Go down without me, then.”

“Oh, no, we go together. You know, a united front.”

“Fine,” she grumbled as the horrible vision of Lily's attack flared in her head. The poor girl.
God, please help her.

Twenty minutes later Mateo held out a chair for his wife at the main table in the dining room. Just as he was about to sit down, Manny strode in. “
El patrón
wishes you both to breakfast with him in his office.”

Something was up. Mateo stood and pulled Sophia's chair out and together they walked down the hall to her father's office. The door was open and the king of the jungle stood tableside, pouring three cups of coffee.

“Ah, good morning, children.”