Now Or Never (Erotic Romance) Book 2 (The DeLuca Brothers) (4 page)

“Fuck!” Anthony
slammed his hand down on a table hard enough to hear the wood crack.

“We got a
problem?” Little Marco spoke up from behind Anthony.

Anthony turned
towards his cousin, fighting to keep his temper under control. Everyone was
looking at him. “No.”

Little Marco
gestured towards the door. “That was one hot broad. You knock her up or
something?”

“Anyone ever
tell you, you talk too much?” Anthony raked his hand through his hair. This
couldn't be happening. It was like a bad dream.

Little Marco
grinned and threw his arm around Anthony's shoulders. “If you aren't banging
her, can I have a go?”

Anthony shoved
his cousin away from him. “Don't touch her!”

Laughing, Little
Marco held up his hands. “Easy. I was just asking. Isabella's cut me off again
and I need to get laid.”

“She's nine
month's pregnant, you ass,” Anthony scowled. His cousin could be a real dick
sometimes.

He grinned.
“That didn't stop Tammy McKlintock senior year. Such a hot little slut. Loved
taking it up–”

“I have to go,”
Anthony interrupted. He walked back to the tables at the back of the bar. A
silver-haired man looked up, the expression on his face impassive even though
Anthony knew that his uncle had been watching the entire thing. “I need to take
the rest of the day. Personal business.”

Uncle Marco
studied Anthony for a moment before answering. “Of course. You're a good boy,
Anthony. You take what you need. Val will help his brother with collections
today.”

The dark-haired
man to Marco's right didn't even look up when his father said his name. He was
the family's filler, doing whatever odd jobs his father told him to.

Anthony thanked
his uncle and hurried out of the bar. He didn't know why he'd asked to go. He
had no idea what to do. He'd never been in this situation before. All of the
women he'd been with, one-night stands and the few longer relationships alike,
all of them had known who he was and what he did. He'd been dumped by women who
told him that he was an ass, ones that thought he spent too much time working,
but this was something new. He'd never had a woman end a relationship before it
began because she found out what he did. And he'd never cared about something
ending as much as he did now. He needed to talk to someone he trusted to give
him the right advice, and for that, only one person came to mind. He needed to
talk to his brother.

Sergio answered
on the second ring which was good as it meant that he wasn't at work or
sleeping. His odd hours often meant that it was difficult getting ahold of him.

“Something
wrong, big brother?”

There was no
slur to his words, but Anthony knew his brother well enough to know that
Sergio'd had a few. It was one of the ways he unwound after a particularly long
day at work. The crazier the shift, the more he needed to unwind.

“I need to talk
to you,” Anthony said as he hailed a taxi. “Can I come by?”

“I'll meet you
out front.”

A loud giggle in
the background kept Anthony from needing to ask why he couldn't just come up to
the apartment. That was another way Sergio liked to unwind. Out of all of the
brothers, he was the one who enjoyed women's company the most, but had been in
the fewest relationships. In fact, Anthony couldn't recall Sergio ever spending
more than a few weeks with one particular woman. If anyone could help him
figure out how to get Cecile back, it should be Sergio.

The twenty-nine
year-old was waiting outside his apartment building when Anthony arrived. He
climbed out of the cab and asked the driver to wait. Sergio would either give
him an idea of what to do or tell him that it was useless. Either way, he
wasn't going to be sticking around here for long.

“What's up?”
Sergio grinned as he took a gulp of his beer. He wasn't drunk, but had gotten
himself to the pleasantly buzzed state. That was good. It meant he'd tell
Anthony what he wanted to know without being a jerk about it.

“I won't keep
you long. It sounded like you've got a good one up there.” Normally, Anthony
would've smiled or made some sort of sexual comment. Right now, though, all he
could think about was Cecile and what would happen if he couldn't fix this.

“Two good ones,
actually.” Sergio winked at his brother. “They're getting started so we've got
a few minutes. Though I do hate missing a good girl-on-girl warm-up.” His
expression grew serious as he studied Anthony, his insight undimmed by the
alcohol. “What's wrong?”

Anthony stared
at his hands. He wasn't quite sure where to begin. After a moment, he decided
to do what he always did and just push ahead. “I met this woman and we went
out. Things went really well and then, today, she comes in to Rizzo's and tells
me that we can't see each other anymore because she's a cop and I'm... well,
I'm who I am.”

Sergio raised an
eyebrow, his dark eyes thoughtful. “You had one date with this woman and you're
flipping out because she doesn't want any more?” A look of understanding
crossed his face. “You slept with her.”

“Not the point.”

Sergio shook his
head. “Anthony, what's going on with you? You don't do this, get attached to
someone you barely know.”

“There's just
something about her.” Anthony didn't know how to explain it. “From the moment I
saw her... I can't get her out of my head. I close my eyes and I see her.”
Sergio was the only one of his brothers that he could talk to like this, the
only one who wouldn't see him as weak.

“Look, Anthony,”
Sergio reached out and put his hand on his brother's shoulder. “I know women,
but I don't do the whole love thing. What I can tell you is that you think
there's something with this woman that you can't get with someone else, you
need to try to get her back.”

Anthony blinked.
That wasn't the answer he'd been expecting. He'd been thinking of something
more along the lines of an expensive gift to buy or some sort of great line
that would just fix everything. “How do I do that?”

Sergio shrugged.
“I can tell you how to get a woman – or two – into bed, but I don't know a
thing about wanting more than a fuck.” He sighed. “Sorry, man.”

“It's okay,”
Anthony said automatically. He started to turn away and then Sergio spoke
again.

“You could try
for the whole fairy tale romance thing.”

“What?” Anthony
turned back to find his brother head towards the doors.

“C'mon, Anthony.
The big grand romantic gesture. Stand outside her window playing music. Rescue
her from the giant rat, or dragon, or some shit like that. Chick-flicks are a
great source of material.”

A dragon. Right.
Anthony sighed as he turned back to the cab. He didn't watch a lot of romantic
movies, but he did know one thing about them. Girls liked the grand romantic
declarations. He directed the cabbie to take him back to Rizzo's. He couldn't
do anything while she was at work and he had a favor he needed to call in. He
needed to know where Cecile lived.

All she wanted
to do was lay on the couch, drink her beer, and watch one of those
cop-and-lawyer procedural shows that didn't have any romance in them. Maybe
she'd even dip into the double fudge ice cream, too. She was seriously feeling
the need for comfort food. It should've just been the mild annoyance of a
one-night stand that wasn't going anywhere, she knew that, but she couldn't
shake the feeling that something much bigger had been lost.

She was toweling
off her hair when someone knocked on her door. She sighed in frustration as she
came out of her bedroom.

“Bianca Miller
doesn't live here anymore!” she called out. She'd found out the hard way that
the previous tenant had been quite popular, but had forgotten to tell her
'friends' that she'd moved. Cecile had needed to chase away more than one
drunken frat-boy type in the past few days.

Whoever was at
the door knocked again and Cecile scowled. She was so not in the mood for this.
Heedless of the fact that she was wearing only a fluffy purple robe, she yanked
open the door, ready to give the idiot on the other side a piece of her mind...
and froze.

“Anthony?” The
word was little more than a whisper.

He didn't speak
as he took two long strides towards her. His hands cupped her face and his
mouth came down on hers. Suddenly, it didn't matter that they were standing in
an open doorway and she wasn't properly dressed. Everything was heat and want
and need. She clung to him, fisting her hands in his shirt even as his hands
slid from her face to bury themselves in her hair. His tongue pushed its way
past her lips and she eagerly accepted it into her mouth. He tasted of beer and
mint mouthwash, and she fed on his mouth as if she were starving. She needed to
be part of him, needed to feel his skin on hers...

“Get a room you
two.”

A voice from the
hallway broke the spell and Anthony released her. He turned and glared at the
teenager who'd spoken. Cecile took a step backwards as the door closed and
Anthony turned back towards her. What was she doing? This was a bad idea.

“Anthony–” she
began.

“Wait.” He held
up a hand. “Please, just let me say something.”

That wasn't a
good idea, she knew, but he'd come all this way, tracked her down... and that
kiss... she owed it to him to let him say his piece before she sent him on his
way. Not trusting her voice, she made a gesture for him to continue.

“When we met, I
didn't know that you were a cop, and if I had, I wouldn't have offered to buy
you that drink.” The words came out in a rush, as if Anthony wanted to get them
all out before she stopped him, or he stopped himself. “But I didn't know, and
I did offer. And, who knows, maybe I would've done the same thing even if I had
known because I felt something from the moment I first saw you. We have a
connection, Cecile. I know you've felt it too. Can you really be willing to let
that go without even giving it a try? I'm not asking for a commitment, just a
chance to see if this can be as amazing as I think it can be.”

This should have
been a no brainer, Cecile knew. No matter how she felt about what he said, she
should just tell him 'no' and ask him to leave. After all, nothing had really
changed. He was still a criminal and she was still a cop. Even if she hadn't
been a cop, she didn't think she could be with something who made a living off
of illegal activities. This wasn't breaking the speed limit or even doing
something like making fake IDs. This was being a part of a criminal
organization.

Her head knew
all of the reasons why she should tell him to just go, and every one of them
made sense. The rational part of her that made her a good cop told her to
listen to her head. The problem was her treacherous heart. Anthony was right
about one thing. There was a connection between the two of them. She couldn't
deny it, no matter how much she wanted to.

Still, this
would be a very bad idea. She'd already gotten in too far with him by having
sex with him on the first date. If she gave in again, it would just make
matters worse. And yet... just having his eyes on her made her pulse race.
She'd had the stereotypical butterflies-in-the-stomach feeling before. Had even
gone out with guys who'd had the ability to make her wet just because they
looked that good. Anthony, though, her body reacted to him in a way that was
stronger than anything Cecile had ever felt before. Didn't she owe it to
herself to find out if this thing between them was something more than just a
physical attraction? If there was something more to it? And what better way to
do that then give in to what she wanted? That first experience had been so
explosive that there was no way it could repeat. They could very well find that
it had been so good only because of the nature of their encounter, the first
date, how long it had been since she'd had sex. The chances of this being
anything other than mediocre was slim to none. Maybe that's what she needed to
move on.

Part of her
argued that she was just justifying doing what she wanted, but Cecile pushed
that voice to the back of her mind and gave herself over to her desire. If it
was only going to be one more time, she was going to savor every moment. She
reached for the knot in her belt and watched Anthony's eyes widen as they
followed her hands. Slowly, deliberately, she untied the belt and let her robe
slide off of her shoulders.

Anthony let out
a low whistle. The expression on his face was one of raw hunger and Cecile's
heart skipped a beat. There was a difference between seeing someone mostly
naked in a dimly lit room in the middle of a sexual encounter and seeing
someone completely nude in a sunlit room after nothing more than a kiss. And,
no matter how self-confident a person was, it was still a little
nerve-wracking.

“Did I...?” He
motioned towards her.

It took her a
moment to realize that he was staring at her breasts. More specifically,
staring at the dozen or so purple marks on her otherwise pale skin. She flushed
as she nodded. She'd forgotten about those.

Then Anthony was
shedding his clothes and Cecile forgot all about being embarrassed. A bolt of
desire went through her as he revealed yards of tanned skin and rippling
muscles. She drank him in, wanting to memorize every line of his gorgeous body.
His cock hung between his legs, not fully hard, but still thick. It wasn't
until her eyes reached his face that she realized he was waiting for some sort
of response from her. After all, it was her first time seeing him completely
naked as well.

There was one
way she knew of to provide immediate reassurance and it was the same thing
she'd been wanting to do since the moment she'd first laid eyes on him. She
crossed the distance between them in just a few steps and then went down on her
knees. She heard him swear, but didn't look up, not wanting to take her eyes
off of her prize. She'd see him before, but hadn't taken the time to really
explore. She knew that her knees would ache if she stayed this way for long on
the thin carpet, so she didn't waste any time. She ran her fingertips along the
slowly swelling shaft, and then encircled it. His skin was soft and hot. She
stroked him slowly, feeling him start to fill her hand.

“Fuck, Cecile,”
he groaned.

She smiled as
she closed her lips around the tip of his cock. When one of his hands came to
rest on her head, she moved further down, taking more of him into her mouth.
She could feel the blood pumping through him, filling him, as she engulfed
every last bit of him. The tip of him reached the back of her mouth and she
fought not to gag. She wanted all of him in her mouth while he was still small
enough to do so. It didn't last long and she began to bob her head, working him
in a slow, steady rhythm. He slid over her tongue, musk and salt and the flavor
that she instinctively knew was just him. She felt herself grow wet at the
taste of him.

“Cecile.” Her
name fell from his lips.

She let him slip
from her mouth, glistening wet, and then he was pulling her to her feet. He
crushed her against him as he captured her mouth with his. His kiss was fierce,
feeding the flame inside her until it threatened to consume them both. The
world was only his lips moving with hers, his body pressed against hers, eager
and full. She wasn't even aware that he'd been backing them towards the couch
until she felt the arm of it against the back of her legs.

He broke the
kiss and turned her so quickly that her head spun. He pressed his hand against
her back and she bent forward, her hands automatically reaching out to steady
her. Her hair fell around her face, surrounding her in amber light and the
scent of her mango shampoo. She wanted to push it back, away from her face, but
at that moment, Anthony entered her and her existence narrowed down to that one
spot where their bodies joined.

His hands were
firm on her hips, fingers digging into her flesh until she was sure she'd be
bruised, and still she wanted him to hold her tighter. As he began to thrust,
she held onto the arm of the couch, letting him take her body wherever it would
go. She could see nothing but the sway of her hair as her body moved, could
feel nothing but the rough material of the couch against her palms and his cock
inside her. She heard her name on his every breath and her chest tightened
until she could barely draw breath.

Suddenly, her
vision cleared as Anthony wrapped her hair around his hand, twisting it so that
she turned her head and saw him. He pulled her up, her neck bending until it
touched his shoulder, her back arched, her ass against his hips. He reached
across her chest, one hand going to her breasts, holding it as he began to
pound up into her, each stroke lifting her up onto her toes.

His breath
puffed hot against her ear as he spoke. “You can feel it, can't you? We fit
together. Two pieces of the same puzzle, completing each other. It's not just
about the sex. It's about how one touch from you makes me feel things I've
never felt before.”

He rolled his
hips and Cecile keened as he hit that spot inside her. She knew. She knew
exactly what he was talking about. It wasn't just a physical filling, but
something far deeper and it scared her. She had no problem with sex, but
letting someone know her, really know her, that was something she never
allowed.

“I see you and
can't take my eyes off of you.” Anthony shifted and Cecile began to shake. “I
touch you and never want to stop. And I know it's not just me. I've never seen
anyone that responds to my touch the way you do.” He pinched her nipple between
his thumb and forefinger and she cried out.

Cecile wasn't
sure how much more she could take. Still sore from the night before, her body
protested to the rough treatment even as it craved it. Each stroke, the barest
pressure on her nipples, each one was like electricity straight through her. It
was pain. It was pleasure. Her mind couldn't decide what she was feeling and so
she felt it all, every bruise and ache, every wave of pleasure, until she was
drowning in sensation.

“Cum for me,
Cecile,” Anthony demanded. “Just let go. I've got you.”

He sank his
teeth into her shoulder and she forgot that she was in an apartment with thin
walls. Forgot that the man fucking her was a criminal. Forgot that she wasn't
supposed to want this. She forgot everything and screamed his name. Her body
went limp, her eyes rolling in the back of her head, and still he didn't stop.
He draped her over the back of the couch and slammed into her over and over
again, each thrust causing her already sore nipples to rub against the couch.
She shuddered with each stroke, desperate for it to stop, for her body to be
allowed to process, but it continued until she was writhing and crying for him
to let her cum just one more time.

She felt him go
rigid behind her, felt him pulsing inside her, and then one finger was brushing
against her clit and her world vanished in a flash of white.