Page 55 of Disguised as Love

“It feels too good to move,” I told him honestly, and his smile widened. It was almost wicked in its beauty. More intoxicating than any alcohol. Cruz Malone was dangerous in so many different ways.

His fingers stroked up my leg under the blanket, massaging my calf. I was wearing jeans, so it was hardly like his hands were touching my skin, but it felt like there was nothing between us. The heat of his fingers and palms left a blazing trail. My eyes drooped. The touch was soothing, the warmth of the blanket and the sense of safety pulling me under.

“Shit.” He let go of my leg and fished through his jacket for his phone.

“What?”

He was pounding out a text as he responded, “I forgot to text my mom.”

I stared, the incongruity of his words finally hitting me, and I burst out laughing. Laughing so hard tears appeared in my eyes. He looked up at me, eyes dropping to my mouth.

“I’m at a loss as to what you find so funny,” he said, and it was so serious it only increased my laughter.

I could barely talk as I continued to giggle but finally got out, “You… Tough guy… Having to call…Mommy.”

I couldn’t contain it. I lost it completely.

He shifted so our chests were even closer, and our noses were practically touching as he stared at the smile that remained on my face as laughter bubbled out of me.

“Even men like me have mothers, little one.”

The endearment, his deep voice, and the way his eyes were holding mine made the laughter slowly disappear until all I could think about was the way he felt with his body pressed into mine. I suddenly ached to feel all of him, the entire weight of this enormous man pushing me down, fingers dragging over all of me, not just my foot and my calf.

“You’re a goddamn sunray. So beautiful I can’t keep my hands off even when I know it’s going to hurt,” he said, and then his mouth was on mine, swallowing any remaining amusement and turning it into a moan as his lips seared my skin, hot and wet and practically causing steam to shift into the air around us. His hand went to the back of my head, deepening the kiss, tongue stroking across my seam, and I gladly let him in. He licked and sucked, and my body ignited, arching into his chest. My hands found their way to his neck, nails biting into the dense weave of his hair. All I could think about was how good it felt to be devoured by him.

Raisa

WILDFIRE

“Ripped me like your torn up jeans

I don’t even care

You can take me there

You can set me my world ablaze ‘cause.”

Performed by Demi Lovato

Written by Hermansen / Eriksen / Tedder / Morier

Cruz’s phone rang, and it jerked him back from our heated kiss to where we were.

“Fuck,” he said. And it wasn’t fuck because we’d been interrupted. It was fuck because he’d screwed up. Kissed me with abandon. I pushed him away and went to get up, but he held me in a fierce grip. I struggled, needing to put distance between us. How could I keep forgetting I was nothing more than a tool to this man? I was not his girlfriend. Hell, I wasn’t even his friend.

“This really isn’t a good time,” he said into the phone as he fought to keep hold of me while still answering. Somehow, he’d put it on speaker, because I heard the woman on the other end as clear as day.

“It’s never a good time with you,” she said.

Did he have a wife? A real girlfriend? Or was this the mother he’d just been texting?

I cursed in Russian at him, at myself, at everything that was going wrong around me, and still, he didn’t let me go.

“Are you with a woman?” the voice on the other end asked, shock apparent even though I didn’t know her.

“Don’t get your hopes up. It isn’t like that,” he said.

It was another slap in my face, even if it was true. It took the passion I’d been filled with moments ago and fueled it into anger.

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