“He won’t hurt me,” I promise Trace, trying to be the one to talk to Sean to save Trace from any more harm.

  “He won’t hurt me either.”

  “But you said…” I say, pointing at the glove box.

  “Just in case, Ace. I don’t think I’ll need it, or I’d be taking it with me.”

  “You comin’ or what?” Sean yells out. “I don’t have all day.”

  “Stay here,” Trace says softly, but with a firmness that catches me off guard.

  I drop my fingers from the door handle. “Okay.”

  “Okay,” he repeats with a smile this time. “Good girl.”

  And I don’t know why, but whatever anger or fear I have in my body melts away.

  “Be careful.”

  “Always am,” he reassures me.

  But before he gets out of the car, he leans over, placing the softest kiss on my lips. Even with the delicateness of the touch, I can still feel his warmth after he’s gone.

  I watch as he approaches my brother, doing my best to read lips. I should’ve taken a course in lipreading. With all my father’s dealings, you’d think I’d be better at eavesdropping, but I’m awful at it.

  But lucky for me, Trace left the car running. A win is a win. I hurry up and push the window button, cracking it just enough to hear the conversation.

  “What do you want?” Trace asks my brother as soon as he’s a few feet away.

  Trace doesn’t shrink at the sight of the other men. He’s not scared of them, but he honestly should be. Those are my father’s men flanking my brother. They’re not nice guys, and I’ve known them my entire life. They’re the type you ignore, pretending they’re not in the same room because it’s easier that way. Their stares alone would make some grown men shit their pants.

  “I brought you this,” my brother says, holding out the envelope. “My father asked me to hand-deliver it.”

  Trace doesn’t reach for the envelope or even bother to drop his gaze to it. “We don’t want anything to do with your father.”

  Oh boy. This won’t go over well with Sean. He doesn’t have love for my father, but he’s the more loyal of the two of us. It’s more about the family name to him and the clout it brings him at events and in the party scene around Miami.

  “I didn’t ask if you did. Don’t be an asshole,” Sean insists, shaking the manila envelope in Trace’s direction. “Take it.”

  I can see the muscles in Trace’s shoulders tighten. The reaction is unmistakable from this distance. His entire stance changes with the tension building in his body. “What’s it say? I’m sure you’ve read it.”

  Sean glances up at the blue sky and blows out a breath. “Fucking impossible.”

  “Your sister and I want nothing to do with your family or anything that your father wants to have delivered to us.”

  “It’s a wedding gift,” Sean says, finally dropping his hand back to his side with the envelope between his two fingers.

  “Fuck him,” Trace tells Sean.

  Here we go. This isn’t going the way I’d hoped, and Trace is getting worked up, which will get Sean pissed off. It’s a vicious circle of testosterone and ego.

  “Fuck him?” Sean asks with his head tilted like he thinks he heard Trace wrong, but he didn’t.

  “We don’t want anything from him, including a wedding gift. Not after the way he treated Ana.”

  Sean bites at his lip, glaring at Trace. “How he treated Ana? What did he say to Ana?” Sean’s eyes move toward me, and I swallow, remembering the hateful look on my father’s face when he said those words.

  Trace rubs the back of his neck with one hand and makes a fist with the other. But he doesn’t answer my brother immediately. Instead, he turns his head and checks on me.

  “Don’t hit him. Please don’t hit him,” I whisper, even though he can’t hear me.

  The last thing I want to do is reach into the glove box and have to run out of the car in a hail of bullets. I wasn’t built for that life.

  “What did he say?” Sean asks again when Trace doesn’t tell him.

  Trace gives his full attention back to my brother. “He said she was a whore just like your mother.”

  Sean staggers back a little. That had to sting. The only person to miss and love my mother as much as I do is him. They had a special bond, one I couldn’t even touch, no matter how hard I tried. He adored her. Visits her grave every week, laying flowers on her headstone each time. A dozen white roses, hoping she’s found peace in her death.

  “Say that again?” Sean asks.

  “You heard me,” Trace tells him. “Ana will not be spoken to like that again. Not by him. Not by you. No one will disrespect my wife as long as I’m alive.”

  Eek. My brother tried to have Trace killed once before, and I’m sure it wouldn’t take much for him to try it again. Especially if he’s pissed at my father, and based on the look on his face, he’s not feeling an ounce of love for the man.

  “He said my mother was a whore?”

  “And your sister,” Trace reminds Sean.

  Sean’s stunned into silence. Something that happens very rarely, if ever.

  “So, whatever your father wants to give her or us because he feels poorly about his behavior, he can fuck right off with it. We don’t want it or him in our lives.”

  “Noted,” Sean says with a quick nod.

  Sean’s eyes come back to me. “She happy?” he asks Trace.

  “Very.”

  “Good,” Sean says softly. “We deserve a little happiness. I’m sorry about…”

  “Don’t.”

  Sean jerks his head back. “Don’t?”

  “I don’t need your apology. Just tell me it won’t happen again.”

  “Would I kill my brother-in-law?”

  “Fuck if I know, but based on your genetics, anything’s possible.”

  “I’m not my father.”

  “I’m not your enemy.”

  “Noted.” Sean dips his chin. “The past is the past, yeah?” he says, holding out his free hand to Trace.

  Trace angles his head, looking at my brother’s outstretched hand. “The past is the past, but it doesn’t mean I’ll forget what happened.”

  “I was wrong,” Sean says, something I’m not sure I’ve ever heard him say. “I’m sorry.”

  I gasp, shocked at hearing those words fall from my brother’s lips.

  “It was fucked up. What kind of asshole wants to have a man taken out for a card game?”

  “It was more about the punch to the face,” my brother explains, as if that’s any better. “But it’ll never happen again. We’re family now.”

  To my surprise, Trace extends his arm, shaking Sean’s hand. “You’ll tell your dad to fuck off, then?”

  “Happily,” Sean says with a smile before releasing his grip on Trace’s hand. “I’ll leave you two be and take this back to my father.”

  I don’t move. I want to talk to Sean, but I’m not ready to. We will have words eventually, but there’s still too much hurt from the past for me to deal with.

  “Tell her I love her,” Sean says, looking right at me as he says those words. “And I’m sorry for being a bad brother.”

  “I’ll pass it along,” Trace promises, but he doesn’t have to. I’ve heard the words for myself.

  Sean gives me a chin lift along with a small, sad smile before he smacks one of my father’s men in the stomach and tells them to get their asses moving.

  I watch from the front seat of the car, finally blowing out the breath I must’ve been holding.

  “Jesus,” I mutter into the empty car, feeling a bit of the weight I carry finally being lifted.

  A few seconds later, Trace is at my door, pulling the handle. “You okay?” he asks me.

  I launch myself out of the car and into his arms. My lips are on his, pressing my entire body against him. “Yes,” I breathe into his mouth, wanting nothing more than to give myself to him.

  22

  TRACE

  This feels right. It feels too good to be really happening.

  We’ve been through some shit.

  In the thick of it for weeks, battling family demons and the universe at times, even.

  But here we are… I’m carrying Ana in my arms as she kisses my neck, her legs wrapped around me like her very existence hinges on the connection of our two bodies.

  “Maybe we should…” I start to say when she hits that spot on my neck that instantly makes my dick stand at attention.

  There are some locations on my body that work like an on-off switch, and she just found one.

  “No,” she murmurs against my skin, pressing her tits harder against my chest. “I want this.”

  I want this too. I want this more than I’ve ever wanted it. I want her. I’ve wanted her since the moment I laid eyes on her, but I never allowed myself to believe it would happen.

  It’s not because I didn’t think I was worthy. Any woman would be lucky to have a piece of me. But I figured there was too much between us, too much bad, really, to allow us to get to this point. But clearly, I was wrong.

  I grab her arms, pulling my head back to create a little space. “You sure, Ace? There’s no putting the cork back in this bottle once I fuck you. There’s no walking away without looking back. What I’ve got to give you is so good…”

  She raises an eyebrow and quirks her lips, which are puffy and red like she’s been stung. “You think you’re that good?”

  I smirk, staring into her beautiful, big eyes. “Ana, I know I am that good. No thinking required.”

  She tips her head back and laughs, tightening her legs around my middle as she does it. Fuck. Her ass is rubbing against the head of my dick, teasing me.

  “If you have any thoughts of leaving, now’s your chance to get out without regretting walking away from my dick for the rest of your life.”

  “You’re mighty cocky, Mr. Caldo. Maybe my pussy will be the one to end the search for all other pussies.”

  I don’t want to tell her, but that ended a long time ago. Life has been easier with her around. She feels like home, and I no longer crave anything or anyone else.

  “I’m betting it is, sweetheart,” I tell her, squeezing her ass cheeks with my hands.

  “I want this,” she reiterates. “No turning back, but only if you’re comfortable. I don’t want to be a pity fuck.”

  This time, I don’t laugh. I search her eyes, seeing there’s more between us than just the need to get laid and have an orgasm. There are feelings. There are experiences. There is understanding.

  I slide a hand up her back to her neck, tangling my fingers in her hair. I pull her forward, crushing her lips to mine and ending all conversation.

  Her mouth is soft and sweet as she nips at my lips, wanting more than I’m giving. But I can’t hold back anymore, and the carefully crafted cage around the beast inside me breaks, unleashing everything I have.

  I push open my bedroom door with my foot and stop at the end of my bed. Ana moves her mouth away from mine straight to the spot on my neck again. The same one that’s going to tip me over the edge faster than I want.

  I lean forward, placing her body on the mattress, and straighten to stare down at her. “I should let you know,” I say, touching the button on my jeans, “my dick isn’t like other guys’.”

  She giggles as she lifts herself up on her elbows. “You’re way cockier than I even thought,” she teases, smirking at me. “A cock is a cock, sweetheart.”

  It’s my turn to laugh. “You’re in for a shock,” I tell her as I undo the button. “I can assure you that you’re wrong.”

  “Wait,” she says, hurling herself forward until she’s on her knees on the edge of the mattress. Her fingers move to my zipper. “May I?” She peers up at me with both curiosity and excitement.

  I lift my hands, giving her what we both want. “It’s all yours,” I tell her, and I mean that in every sense of the word.

  “Is it weirdly shaped?” she asks while pulling down the zipper at a torturously slow pace.

  “Weirdly shaped?”

  She nods. “You know. Maybe it’s like a pretzel.”

  He laughs. “You’re cute, but ridiculous.”

  “You made the statement like you have a dick that beats all dicks.”

  “I didn’t say that, but you can tell me it does.” I smile and move her long hair away from her shoulder when it gets in her way.

  “It looks nice and normal from here,” she says, staring at my dick. When she runs her finger along the outline, my entire body jolts forward.

  I’ve never been so excited to hear the words nice and normal come out of a woman’s mouth, but with the way she’s touching me, it’s hard to be anything else. “You’re killing me.”

  She peers up, her lips dewy and inviting. “Good things come to those who wait.”

  I don’t want to explain to her I’ve already waited a lifetime for this moment. I don’t think there’s another woman on the planet I’ve waited so long before having sex with. I’d never wanted anything more and never bothered to get to know the woman. I just wanted to fuck and go. Nothing else. Nothing more.

  But Ana’s different. She’d been through enough. And unless she made it perfectly clear that she wanted to have sex with me, I wasn’t going to go there with her.

  “Should we do a drum roll or something?” she asks, giggling at herself.

  “Keep it up, Ace. You’re going to pay for every single word.”

  She grins up at me. “I’m a naughty girl,” she whispers.

  Fuck me. She’s a temptress and playful, everything that makes me come alive.

  “My hand has a way of taking that sass right out of you.”

  “Sure,” she mutters, but I plan to make her a believer. “I bet my pussy trumps that hand.”

  There is no doubt her pussy will be the death of me, but that is knowledge only I possess and won’t be sharing with my darling wife.

  She yanks at my jeans from my hips, not bothering to fish my hard cock out of my tight pants. But as soon as my length springs free, she gasps.

  She stares at the entire thing in both fascination and horror. “What in the…”

  “Told ya,” I whisper, brushing my fingers down the side of her cheek as she gawks at my junk like it’s the most unusual and beautiful thing she’s ever seen.

  “Can I touch it?”

  Fuck.

  “I hope you do,” I groan, wanting nothing more than her long, delicate fingers wrapped around my length, followed by her mouth.

  She moves slowly and carefully, unsure of how to go about touching it. As I told her, it’s not like any other man’s she’s ever touched before. Not that mine is one of a kind, but not every man can handle the pain that goes along with a Jacob’s Ladder piercing.

  And when she reaches out, carefully running her fingers across the metal, my cock leaps toward her, and she jumps. “Jesus,” she says, laughing at her absurdity.

  “I promise it won’t bite,” I assure her. “Just a bit excited here.”

  “I can tell.” She smiles to herself as she moves to touch it again, but this time surer of herself. “It’s so…” Her voice trails off as she glides her fingertips over the metal, grazing the soft and sensitive underside of my dick.

  I close my eyes, trying to think of anything besides the fact that I’m about to have sex with Ana. I need to gain control of myself or else this will be over before it really has a chance to begin.

  Warm air, followed by wetness, makes my eyes pop open. When I peer down, Ana’s lips are wide, my cock pushing into her mouth. The sight nearly makes me come undone on the spot. The heat from her skin and mouth drives me so close to the edge after not having sex for nearly a month. But somehow, I keep my body under control and the orgasm out of reach.

  She works my dick like an expert, not intimidated by the piercings in the least. She takes my cock like a champ, making the head brush the back of her throat before she slides the length over her tongue. But when she hums her satisfaction, my entire body shakes. My knees nearly give out at the sensation.

  I lock my legs, making it damn near impossible for me to crumple to the floor in a pile of mindless need. “Fuck,” I moan, torn between closing my eyes to enjoy the feel of her mouth wrapped around me or staring at her, soaking in the image. “It’s so good.”

  She moans her appreciation against my dick, sucking the wind right out of me and causing goose bumps to break out across my flesh. When she reaches a hand around, grabbing my bare ass cheek, pushing my dick deeper into her mouth, I nearly come apart.

  I push my hips forward, giving her everything until she gags, but she doesn’t stop her movement. Drool runs down the sides of her mouth, dotting her chin, and everything about the visual is fucking incredible.

  When she drags my cock against her tongue again, letting the head meet the cool air, I’m instantly rocketed back to reality and miss the warmth only her body can provide.

  But instead of stopping, she starts pushing my jeans all the way down, working at my pants and then my shirt. “I need to see all of you. I want it,” she says in an impatient and rushed tone.

  “I’m not going anywhere, doll,” I tell her as I bend forward, giving her the ability to tear my T-shirt over my head. “There ya go.”

  She sits back on her heels, staring at me. “More beautiful than I would’ve ever thought,” she says softly as her eyes wander my body. First, they go down, spending a little more time admiring my dick before they make a slow and lazy ascent to my face. “Perfection.”

  Even though I’ve seen most of her body, I want to see every inch. Want to explore every dip and curve. She’s worn very little around my place, but that isn’t enough…it never can be.

  My fingers move to the hem of her shirt, lifting slowly and gently. She raises her arms, giving me the go-ahead, and I take it without a second thought.

  She lifts up her body, shimmying out of her pants without my help, and sits on the edge of the bed in nothing but her lace bra. No panties. Nothing else separating her skin from my eyes or my touch.