Stealing Carmen (5 page)

All of it was a thinly disguised effort to get back to her. This woman who’d dedicated her life to helping others. Her soul was so clean it sometimes hurt him to think about what she would see in him. It hurt, but not enough to keep him from her. Not enough to make him turn away from this.

She needed to believe he wanted her? She would know it for a fact as soon as he got her somewhere he didn’t have to leave or couldn’t be arrested for stripping his woman and fucking her brains out.

Dimly he became aware of hooting and whistling going on around them. Raising his head he happened to be facing the door. There stood Santa dude with his costume in hand. Jack pulled Carmen up with him as he straightened, never taking his eyes off the scowling man.

He knew the other staff were laughing and carrying on about Carmen getting dipped and kissed by Superman. He’d like to enjoy the ribbing but the possible predator in the door was a greater concern.

Letting go of her hair he rubbed her scalp where he’d held her, making sure it was obvious he’d done it and that he’d intended to. His attention remained focused on the door though.

The man matched Jack at six foot three. He was perhaps thirty pounds heavier and most of it wasn’t fat. Jack was lighter than he should be. Lighter didn’t mean weaker, it meant fast in a fight. Both of them were hard men, only one a killer.

Jack had an arm around Carmen. It tightened when she turned to see what he was looking at. The guy at the door smiled but he was looking at Carmen when he did it not Jack. The guy strode toward them.

“Hello.” He nodded at Jack without extending a hand.

“Jack, this is Dr. Harman Berrocko,” Carmen introduced them, but her eyes were swinging back and forth between them as she felt Jack stiffen. “Harman, this is Jack Jones.”

“Are you sure, Carmen?” Berrocko didn’t take his eyes off Jack as he continued. He’d stopped a few feet from them. “Jack Jones is as invisible a name as John Smith. Your new friend is not what he seems, my dear.”

Carmen sucked in a sharp breath at the obvious challenge. Her hand reached for Jack’s other arm, fisting on the suit sleeve as if she could hold him from reaching for a weapon as she stammered at Berrocko, “Oh no, no. I mean… I know but…”

“It’s okay, baby,” Jack assured her in a private tone that Berrocko could hear with no problem. “I’m not spending my first night back home in jail. I promise not to hurt him.” Neither Berrocko nor he had broken eye contact.

“You think you could take me? Seem significantly undernourished, Jones.” Berrocko laughed but it wasn’t a derogatory challenge. “But if she’s that worried, I guess I’d better pay attention. I’ve never known her to be wrong about anything.”

“No, she’s not wrong,” Jack agreed, neither confirming nor denying what she was right about. Seemed Berrocko genuinely respected Carmen’s judgment.

Berrocko turned his attention to Carmen. “Do you need a ride home? I’ve got the Hummer warmed up. We should have no problem with the weather.”

Jack clenched his jaw. The question was directed at Carmen. He wanted to tell the guy where he could stick his Hummer. It certainly took brass balls to offer a ride home to the woman in another man’s arms without including her male companion.

Berrocko was flexing in a civilized way. His challenge wasn’t the macho swords at sunrise. He was much more subtle about it with his urban smile and casual display of tail feathers consisting of expensive toys and implied plush lifestyle.

“Thank you, Harman. I have a ride home,” Carmen assured him smoothly, her hand now resting on Jack’s chest, over his heart. He suspected she was keeping track of his heart rate. That wasn’t the indicator she needed to be concerned about but it was nice to have her hand on him. Jack relaxed, making sure she felt him do it. Her response was the correct one and he appreciated it.

“Well, I’ll be heading out. You have my personal numbers if you need anything,” Berrocko stated boldly.

Jack bared his teeth in a near smile. Bastard really was an idiot. Jack gentled his features and turned his attention to Carmen, ignoring the idiot. “Where’s your coat, baby? Time to go home.”

Berrocko had the brains to turn and walk out the door. Carmen breathed an inaudible sigh of relief and smiled at Jack. “Thank you.”

A real laugh rumbled up his chest as he looked down into the face of his woman. She was amazing. “I wouldn’t have killed him for being stupid. Just hurt him a little,” Jack assured her softly. She read him way too easy. Perhaps that was a good thing.

“I have to work with him, Jack.”

“No you don’t. Where’s your coat? We need to leave.”

They were in the Jeep before she asked him what he meant. Jack was concentrating on the dangerous drive home, taking it a lot slower than he had getting there. Nothing was going to keep him from her a moment longer than it took to get her in his door. Certainly not an accident because she made him stupid. The club in his costume would have to put up with the slow drive.

“You don’t have to work with him if you don’t want to,” Jack repeated patiently. “Don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, but I’m not leaving this time.” He glanced at her. Her face in the dashboard lights was like looking at her in candlelight. She was stunning to him. He had to stop glancing at her and concentrate on the driving, damn it.

“Not leaving? What does that mean? Not Superman anymore?”

“Nope. Just Clark Kent, honey. Hung up the cape yesterday.”

“So you’re unemployed?” she pressed.

“Sort of. Mostly I’m free to do what I need to from wherever I want. You could call me a consultant.” He glanced at her again. A small smile lit her face.

“You really came back to me, didn’t you?” she marveled in a whisper. “That’s a lot of pressure, Jack. What if this doesn’t work out?”

He was pulling into the garage as she asked that. Shutting off the Jeep he turned to face her. His arm rested along the back of her seat. She hadn’t unbuckled and neither had he.

“Baby, if this doesn’t work out, it’ll be my fault not yours. There is no pressure because I changed my operative classification. As your dominant it’s my job to learn you. To know what keeps you in my bed, in my arms and on my cock. If I’m so stupid as to screw that up, I deserve to be left.”

Carmen’s bottom lip caught under her teeth as she looked into his eyes. Her eyes were huge and unblinking for a moment and he could see her chest expand in a deep breath. They were both silent as she looked at him. It lasted long enough for the garage light to blink off.

“Made up your mind yet?” Jack prompted quietly. He’d let her take all the time she needed right now to think about it. Once they left the Jeep he didn’t think he’d have the control to let her think.

“You’re not even denying it,” Carmen said. “I’ve never known a man who would change his life for me.”

“Good. It’d get messy if I had to get rid of some other obsessed bastard.”

Carmen laughed softly and released her seat belt. “Jack, please take me as your submissive. My safe word is peach.” The words were a whisper but they ripped across his world like lightning splits the night sky.

“Do not move,” he commanded, and slid out of the Jeep. At her door he wrenched it open and scooped his woman into his arms. Letting her walk in the door would put too much distance between them. Clothes were already in the way.

Chapter Five

The door to the garage shut and he was ripping her coat off, kissing her mouth with deep thrusts of his tongue. Carmen kissed him back and gave him her passion. He was drowning in need as her coat fell to the floor. There she was in the cute little green skirt and turtleneck. Green tights and red ankle boots.

She shoved his overcoat off and then started laughing. Jack froze, frowning.

“Superman” was all she could get out.

Looking down at himself he realized the suit was a one-piece thing. Getting it off would require letting her go. It also seemed to be a mood wrecker. Jack hefted Carmen over his shoulder in a fireman’s hold. His hand landed on her ass because he had to as he strode through the house into his bedroom. Her laugh turned into a moan as his hand remained on the green bottom, caressing and squeezing gently.

Flipping her off his shoulder, he put her on the edge of the bed. “Stay,” he commanded, and stepped back. He wanted to rip the costume from neck to legs, but she’d purchased it for him. Gotten it before she knew he was coming back. This damn thing would be a treasured possession for the rest of his life. When he died, someone was going to get a good laugh when they found it. Only Carmen would know what it was.

Pulling it off, he stepped out of his boots as well. “I’ve had a complete physical in the last month,” he told her calmly. “No STDs, no AIDS. I haven’t been with a woman since the last time we were together. I’m not asking you if you’ve been with anyone since I’ve been gone. Just telling you my situation. How about your health? I don’t want to wear a condom.”

Carmen gulped. “Hospital yearly last month. Clean. But—”

“Good.”

He was naked and sinking to his knees between her legs. Carefully he pulled her turtleneck from her skirt, lifting it over her head. Sitting back on his heels he looked at her breasts. They were securely restrained in an unadorned bra. Not a garment a woman wore if she was planning to get naked for someone. At this moment he loved that bra but it had to go. Reaching around her he flicked the hooks with experienced fingers and pulled it down her arms in a single motion. It landed on top of the turtleneck beside him on the floor.

“Jack, what about—”

“I intend to get you pregnant,” he cut her off.

“Oh!” Her shocked exclamation came as he unzipped and pulled off the cute little red boots. Immediately he reached up under her skirt and gripped the top of her tights and panties.

“Lift up,” he instructed. She complied and he swiftly pulled them down.

“Shouldn’t we discuss—”

“Do you want children?” He dropped the green hose and grasped her knees, pushing them apart. “I like the little skirt. We’ll leave it a while. Now hold it up for me.”

“I love children.” She pulled her skirt up, exposing herself with sexy hesitancy. “But what about—”

“I’m not poor. I meant it when I said you don’t have to work with the jerk or anyone else.”

Jack knelt there staring at her cunt, watching its naked folds flush and plump as excitement seeped out of it. He’d flipped on the overhead light because he wanted to see her. He wanted her to know he was looking at her. “This cunt is mine. I intend to fuck it into next week. There’s no way you’ll not be pregnant unless you just had your period. Then we’ll have to keep fucking ‘til you are.”

Carmen was panting lightly as she watched him study her pussy and discuss fucking it into next week. Her bare breasts trembled, the tips hard and pointed. “I can’t get pregnant, Jack.”

His eyes shot up to hers. Not even a second ticked by. “All right. We’ll adopt. That just gives us more time to fuck first,” he assured her. “Lie back so I can taste my pussy.”

His hands left her knees. He gripped both her nipples as she reclined for him, twisting them gently. “Good girl. Look at you holding your skirt up. So pretty, so sexy. Damn.” His eyes ate her as her mouth opened to speak again. “You don’t have to explain, baby. We’ll talk about it later but that doesn’t change what we’re going to be, Carmen. It doesn’t change one thing about you being my woman.”

“I’m on the Pill!”

Jack stilled, his fingers gripping her nipples hard. “Something you want to tell me about that?” he asked cautiously. He didn’t want to hear about her past relationships or even ones she hoped to have. But he’d made several incorrect assumptions so it was probably a good idea to let her say whatever it was she felt she needed to.

“For you. In case you came home. I’ve been on it since the week after you left,” Carmen panted. “The children issue is not on the table. You don’t get to decide that just because I can’t live without your cock.”

Jack rose over her, his fingers rolling her nipples as he knelt on the bed straddling her hips and looking down into the face he would never get enough of. “Is that a limit?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“You don’t love me.”

“
What
? If you believed I loved you, you’d have my children?”

“Eventually. When you’re ready.”

Jack was breathing hard, controlling his instincts.

“So how do you think you’ll know I’m ready?”

Carmen had dropped her skirt when Jack moved up over her. Now her hands rose above her head on the bed, clasping there in self-bondage. Her back arched into his handling of her breasts and a small smile played around her mouth. “When you
need
me to tell you I love you. Then you’re ready.”

There it was, the one thing he’d never require of her. He could want it ‘til his body ached with the need but he’d never ask for those words from her. If she didn’t offer them willingly with no prompting, they would be worthless anyway.

He let go of her nipples and gripped her breasts, kneading them as he stared down at her. Damn it to hell! He’d been ignorant enough to assume her still wanting him was about deeper emotions. Commitment. Did she think it was just sex to him?

He let her go and sprang off the bed to pace to his back door. The window showed snow coming down sideways. It was a bitter night. Her panting on the bed was the only sound.

All right. Baby girl was no fool. She wanted to know who was in charge and she was pushing the important buttons. It was his fault. He shouldn’t have shocked her with the baby issue.

It was more than that. He wanted his seed in her. Some part of him possessing her at all times. She was right. That was no reason to bring kids into the world. But it wasn’t the only reason and she’d jumped to conclusions as much as he had. It was still his responsibility to read her and he’d scared her.

Babies were a huge deal and she had no way of knowing he’d spent several months naming them. Envisioning them, envisioning her heavy and pregnant with his child. He’d told her he wasn’t poor but also that he was mostly unemployed. A woman couldn’t know she’d be financially secure enough to support a baby with that little bit of information. Women needed security before they thought about babies.

Time to fix it. Seduce her. Fuck her brains out. Buy her a house and then propose. It wasn’t a complicated plan. He’d masterminded complex operations that had to run in three time zones. Surely he could accomplish this without fucking it up. The problem was the issue of telling her he loved her. She’d never believe it now. She wasn’t looking at the big picture.

He hadn’t touched another woman in seventeen months. She’d made him her Christmas wish. If those two people didn’t love each other, he didn’t know what the concept meant.

Jack crossed his arms and regarded the night, letting her lie there and think. She’d challenged him as her dominant. Challenged him with her trust issue. She didn’t realize his every action was a declaration. A pledge. That was all right. She’d learn.

He turned to her. She’d wisely gone back to the last position he’d required, holding her skirt up.

“Good girl,” he approved softly, and strode back to her. Standing between her legs his eyes examined her exposed pussy with slow deliberation. “So we agree that we need some time to get to know each other?”

“Yes.”

Jack nodded. “Drop the skirt around your waist and pull on your nipples,” he directed as he again sank down between her legs. “You have permission to come as much as you want,” he told her as his hands skimmed up her thighs ‘til deeply tanned fingers framed her pink cunt. Then his mouth descended on her and Jack took what he’d been wanting.

The tang of her taste in his mouth. Her scent engulfing him and no time limit. Letting her come whenever she wanted meant he didn’t regulate her endurance. Baby girl would know what a man obsessed with her body was capable of. If she didn’t want to think he loved her for several days, that was fine. He really hoped she wasn’t scheduled for work anytime soon. If she was, she was about to lose her job.

Licking up her plump folds, he enjoyed the texture of her as he went back to dip his tongue in her and then licked up the other side to slowly slide down the interior crease, circling her opening again, delicately lapping just inside her exquisite vagina. Barely stimulating the sensitive nerves there and then moving away to suck her outer lips between his and lave them with attention one at a time. At the apex of her slit he stroked her hood until her little clit protruded. Then he concentrated on it. Eating her, sucking it gently, licking it hard with his flat tongue then blowing across it to watch her jerk and hear her moan.

She came in short order but he paid it no mind, relentlessly continuing his consumption of her private flesh. The second time she came she screamed. The third time her hands shoved his head away. He’d been waiting for that. He let her do it, standing up and walking around to his nightstand.

“Need the bathroom?” he asked.

Carmen shook her head no.

“Come on, baby, scoot up.” He put a knee on the bed for balance as he bent to grasp her limp shoulders and help drag her body up the bed. Carmen let him move her, her body still trembling from the orgasms. When she was positioned in the middle to his satisfaction, he lifted her head and pulled the pillow out from under it. Her eyes closed and he smiled.

Taking a moment to get what he needed from the dresser he returned with a length of silk rope and a few items he dropped into the nightstand drawer. “Hands above your head, wrists crossed,” he murmured with the rope in hand.

Her eyes popped open but she did as told. He secured her wrists to the old-fashioned iron headboard. It was very masculine and extremely handy though he’d never had another woman in this bed. This was where he lived. Carmen was the one he wanted here and he’d never had the urge to prowl the local talent. He kept supplies here but they were for packing when he knew the mission would involve some downtime.

His needs were specialized and it was his nature to be prepared. Assuming his sexual partner would ensure health and safety was not possible for him. So home base was stocked even if he never expected to use anything here.

“Comfortable?” he asked seriously.

Carmen tugged on the binding and then nodded. She was panting again. Her excitement in the bondage was an excellent sign but he didn’t comment on it. “Turn over,” he instructed calmly, and lifted her onto her stomach. Her hands above her head, the move was quickly complete. His arm then went around her ass and hips. Lifting them easily, he slid the two king-size pillows under her.

Ass elevated, her legs had to fall open as her body bent over the pillows.

“Oh!” Carmen exclaimed in surprise.

Jack swiftly unsnapped her short skirt and skimmed it off, dropping it on the floor. He grasped her knees and pushed them wide.

Reaching into his nightstand he came out with a small bottle. Swiftly moving up on the bed behind her, his cock lined up with her cunt as he leaned over to reach her shoulders. The movement pressed cock in cunt. His weight forced the thick intrusion, sliding in fully as his large hands came down on her back.

His hands slick with the oil, he began a deep-tissue massage. His cock only moved as his body did in the performance of the massage. Pushing into her deeply when he leaned up to her shoulders; pulling out as he dragged his hands down her back.

She was tight and hot. He ignored her pussy’s demanding contractions as he moved in her. Slowly with careful concern for every inch of her back, hips and butt, he rubbed the oil into her. She stared humping back at him and he enjoyed the hell out of it but didn’t respond with the pounding relief she wanted. By the time he was done, she was sobbing in frustration.