Page 109 of Corrupted Deception

“Why do I have a feeling I’m not going to like what comes out of your mouth next?” she asked, though she still had a hand on my cock, working it in slow, languid strokes with just the perfect amount of grip.

“No less than me,tempesta,” I said, though I wondered for a moment just how much she would care if Deo walked in and found me fucking her on the kitchen counter. But then, even if that didn’t bother her, Morales and Julio walking in on the scene might.

I sighed and took hold of her hands before I’d reached the point of no return. “We need to get dressed,” I told her.

“Jeez, my hand jobs must need work if they make you want to put onmoreclothes,” she said without an ounce of insecurity in her voice. The woman knew she was damned good with her hands… with her mouth and her cunt. With fucking everything she had, it seemed.

“There’ll be people coming through that door in less than five minutes, but if you’re game,tempesta…”I said, putting the option out there.

But her smile fell away. “What people?” she asked. There was no wariness in her tone or tautness in her posture, but there’d been a shift in her, even if I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Disappointment? Anger? Fuck if I knew.

“My brother and Aurelio and two of your musketeers,” I said.

“I didn’t realize we were planning a party.”

“I’m thinking of them as more the party crashers at the moment.”

“Why?” she asked.

“Because the last time I left you to take care of business, you got pissed at me.” She rolls her eyes, “I understand you have work to do, Cielo. I was pissed because you were leaving me with ababysitter.”

“He wasn’t babysitting, Charlotte. And they’re coming because we might have more intel—”

She opened her mouth to speak, but I held up a hand.

“I won’t know until they get here,” I lied. “So, just get dressed,sì? If Aiden Quinn gets to see you like this,” I said, grazing a hand down her see-through tank top and tiny shorts, “then I’ll be keeping you marked in my come and handprints from here on out.”

“You know, your ass would look pretty good covered inmy handprints, right? Don’t tempt me, charming,” she threatened idly. “And besides, Aiden—”

“I know what Aiden was to you.And I know what he isn’t now.”

While Charlotte’s body language had given little away last night, Aiden’s had spoke volumes. He’d slept with her at some point in the semi-recent past, and while a great deal of him would have liked to make that trip again, he seemed to be conflicted about it.

Not that it mattered. She wasminenow, and I was just fine with that making me a caveman. I wasn’t above keeping the man close to keep Charlotte safe, though.

“How do you know that?” she asked, no sarcasm in her tone.

“I told you; I trust you,tempesta.You might as well get used to it.”

She looked at me for a moment, then nodded.

I decided to take that as a positive.

She turned to leave, but I grabbed her hand and pulled her back. She looked up at me, lips parted. She was expecting me to kiss her, but I held her gaze instead—not that those plump lips weren’t begging to be kissed.

“I love you, Charlotte,” I said, and the words felt solid and final, like letters chiseled into stone, inerasable and enduring.

She licked her plump lips, making them glisten. “I love you too.” She shrugged. “Hopefully, that turns out to be a good thing.”

***

“What is this about?” Morales asked as he leaned against the living room wall, arms crossed over his chest.

Julio sat on the sofa, while Deo and Aurelio occupied the overstuffed armchairs at either end of it.

Charlotte was standing in the doorway, watching on like a scientist observing her laboratory—or her cage full of rats—with Ray behind her, watching warily and growling at Deo every once in a while. Like the true caveman I was, I stood next to her, watching over her laboratory.

“We had a man in our ‘custody’,” Deo began, sitting forward in his chair and taking the helm. “We believed him to be a member ofLos Cazadores Sangrientos, but he isn’t.”

---