Her trust a dark syndica.., p.19
Her Trust : A Dark Syndicate Romance, page 19
I push off the side of the pool, soaring through the water until I come up for air about a third of the way to the other end, breaking the surface and sucking in a lungful of air. I’ve spent a lot of time in the pool with the girl’s recently, helping Keeley swim and even playing with the inflatables. It’s been fun and I’ve honestly loved it, but I’ve missed actually swimming. It’s eleven o’clock at night and the girls have been in bed for hours, so I’m free to enjoy my pool on my own as I’ve done for years. Dipping under again, my ears roar with the sound of my own breath bubbling to the surface. I ‘m at peace for the first time today, my body weightless and stress falling away in my wake. One hundred lengths is my usual evening routine but I’m only on sixty-two when I come up for breath at one end to find a pair of training shoes by the side of the pool. My eyes follow where they connect to ankles and shins backed by impressive calves, dark hair covers it all and disappears under the loose-fitting grey shorts that only hint at the thick thighs beneath. Harvey’s top half is naked, warm golden skin on display and a couple more tattoos showing; one on his hip and one over his pectoral. I can’t make them out because my eyes are too busy taking in the planes of muscle sculpting his chest and abdomen. When I finally meet his eyes, he has an infuriating smirk on his infuriating face.
“See something you like, rainha?”
I roll my eyes at him, push off the side, and head to the Roman steps, not wanting to continue swimming with him watching. “What does that mean?”
“It means are you checking me out?” He gives a smug chuckle as he speaks.
I tip my head back and sigh, asking whatever deity deems it appropriate to listen for patience. “I mean whatever it is you keep calling me. Rainha, what does that mean?” I get a sick sense of satisfaction when his face goes slack, losing that arrogance as I step out of the pool, his eyes tracking the water as it rolls down my neck, over my breasts and to my stomach. I arch a brow and purse my lips at him and feel that giddy satisfaction again when he has the decency to look embarrassed at being caught, his eyes dropping to the ground quickly.
He clears his throat before composing himself and meets my eye. “Nothing you haven’t been called before,” he says tightly.
That gets my hackles rising. It’s probably one of the many unimaginative insults that men like to call me. I don’t like the idea of him calling me a bitch right under my nose. I go to the sunbed where I dropped my towel and start drying my hair and patting down my body. “Does it mean lonely?” I draw out the word making myself sound far more juvenile than I’d like.
He steps over to me, his lips curling into a sinister smile. “Am I getting in your head, rainha?”
My nostrils flare, anger boiling in my blood, and I turn to find him stood only a foot away. “You’re getting on my nerves, detective?” I spit the last word like the insult it is.
His jaw ticks as his eyes heat with his own annoyance. “You decided you hated me before you even tried to know anything about me.”
“And you came to my office for the first time with no preconceived notions at all?”
“Have I not shown you respect?”
“Is that what you call what you did to me the other day?” I growl through the flush heating my chest at the memory.
He inches forward so I have to look up at him slightly. “That was very restrained, rainha. I should have tanned your arse so you couldn’t sit for a week. I should have left my mark to remind you that making stupid decisions does not fly when I’m in charge of your safety.”
I slide ever so slightly closer so I can get into his face, hoping he can see the rage he’s fuelling. “You are an overbearing, self-righteous, conceited, arrogant egomaniac. Any reason I had to dislike you has been proven correct.”
“At least three of those insults mean the same thing, the least you can do is be a little more creative.”
I can feel the flush at my chest, and I grind my teeth, staring daggers at him. “I should fire you.”
“And I should bend you over and teach you a lesson in damn manners.” I don’t realise how close we’ve gotten until our chests brush with each heaving breath. Harvey’s eyes dart to my mouth and my lips part to suck in his gaze, the heat radiating from his body warms my cooled, damp skin.
I don’t know who moves first but the next moment, our mouths are fused together and his hand tangles into my wet hair while the other grips at my arse cheek with no softness. The tenderness from his previous ‘lesson’ smarts against the abrasiveness of my bikini and I gasp as the sensation sends pulses to my swollen clit. He eats the sound up, pushing his tongue past my lips to taste my surprise.
My heart is thundering against my breastbone, my whole-body shuddering from the force of it and my hands are greedy and impatient as they skim over as much of him as I can access. With our fronts plastered together, I feel the flex of his shoulders and the muscles at his back. I slide over his ribs and down to his waist then scrape my nails to his hips where the ridges of his Adonis’ belt disappear under the waistline of his shorts. I feel the jump of his hard-on at my hip and he groans, tightening his grip and pulling me further into him. I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know how to do this.
“I need to taste you,” he mumbles into my mouth, and I’m nodding before his words really register. When he pulls at the string of my bikini bottom until the whole thing falls to the ground, I freeze, unsure what to do. Then I shriek in surprise when he dips, grabbing the back of my thighs and lifting me off the ground, forcing my legs around his hips.
Without taking his lips away from mine, he lowers me onto the sunbed and rolls his hips against my bare centre, rubbing at the overly sensitive nub and making it feel so good that a grunt of pleasure comes from deep in my chest. Harvey kisses my jaw, my neck, then dips his tongue into the hollow of my throat. I’m writhing and gasping beneath him as he descends, slowly and gently nipping at the swell of each of my breasts before licking the water from my skin down to my belly button. Staring at the glass ceiling, the sky black and full of stars, I can feel nerves shaking my limbs. No one has given me pleasure but myself. It has been years since anyone touched me, years since anyone saw me without armour…bare.
“Caralho! Your body is perfeita.” He kisses each of my hip bones and then nuzzles his nose against the strip of fair hair over my pubic bone, taking a deep inhale. “And you smell like paraíso.”
The knot in my stomach prevents me from responding, my body going stiff as the reality of the situation seeps into my pores and a fear I don’t want to recognise burns in my throat. I just nod to confirm I heard him.
“Are you okay?” he asks in a voice far gentler than he’s given me before. I refuse to look at him as I can feel a pressure in my eyes and I refuse to let any dam break in front of this man. When I don’t answer, he asks quietly against my thigh, “You want me to stop?”
Breathing in deeply, I allow myself to look down at him, the sight of his beautiful face between my legs wiping away the fear. “Don’t stop.” My voice is husky but sure and he gives me a dark smile before lowering his mouth and closing his lips around my clit.
My back arches off the bed, the sensation all too much and too good. On instinct, my hand flies to his head but his clipped hair is too short for me to hold on to, so I palm the back of his skull and hold him to me. Harvey teases with gentle suckling on my nub mixed with light flicks of his tongue at my entrance. Hips thrusting to grind against his face, I try to feel him more, harder, deeper, but he bands one arm over my pelvis, locking my movements down.
His other hand encroaches up my body until his fingers slip under the triangle over one breast to pinch my nipple between two knuckles. I gasp and my pussy clenches around nothing. God, I need more.
“More,” I cry.
He obliges, darting his tongue into my hole and swirling it around. When he goes back to my clit, he takes his hand from my breast and slips two fingers inside me. The breath is stolen from my lungs with the unfamiliar intrusion, my eyes bursting open, bringing to my attention to the fact that I’d had them closed. When his fingers curl and find some sensitive spot inside me that lights up my nerves like a flare in the night sky, I come undone. I couldn’t stop the cry that leaves my mouth if I tried, everything goes rigid as wave upon wave of pleasure crashes over my body and I feel them break over my pussy, flooding me and Harvey. As I start to shakily relax back against the chair, Harvey is looking down at my spasming cunt, eyes wide, mouth slack and glistening.
“Holy shit, did you just...?”
“Did I what?” I pant through my panic, thinking I’ve done something wrong but not entirely sure I have the energy to care.
“You’re a squirter?” He sounds in awe as he looks at me with a childlike smile.
“I-I never have been before,” I stammer. Oh God, the embarrassment is enough to make me twitch. I try to squeeze my thighs together to keep him from seeing the evidence of my blunder, but he wrenches them open with force and buries his head once more. He’s not gentle this time, there’s no teasing or building up, there’s only the feral desperation of a starved animal taking his fill. The flat of his tongue swipes along the full length of my slit, capturing every last drop of my release. He grunts and groans against me, the vibrations enough to to jostle my over sensitive clit. When his tongues swirls around it, I cry out again. I cant take any more. It’s too much. I’m spent. But he doesn’t stop. He sucks and licks and hums. Then when the slight scrape of teeth meet my nub, I scream and come again, throwing my arm over my eyes. “Stop,” I cry. “Please, stop. I can’t take anymore.”
He rises over me again, taking my lips with his and giving me a taste of my own cum. The extent of his arousal is blindingly obvious, even before he drops his hips between my spread legs and grinds against me. That panic rises again. What if he wants more? That’s not something I’m willing to give. Another roll of his body to give himself the friction he’s searching for and I’m certain I need to shut this down. I cover the back of his head with my hand — because despite my overall feeling of distain for him, I don’t want to crack his skull just after he’s given me the two best orgasms of my life — and I roll us so he falls the twelve inches to the tiled floor. He lands with a grunt while I land on top of him, straddling his hips. Dipping to kiss him one last time because this cannot happen again and because a part of me regrets that, I then stand and quickly wrap my towel around my waist. I collect my bikini bottom from the floor and head to the door.
“Annika,” he calls after me but I’m through the door and closing it. I don’t stop, I don’t dawdle, and I don’t allow myself to feel until I’m locked in my bedroom. I’m grateful that Harvey doesn’t follow me as I slide down the closed door until I’m sat on the plush carpet with my knees to my chest. I take a few calming breaths, willing my muscles to relax and my head to stop swimming. That was a mistake, an error in judgement and an unacceptable moment of weakness.
I cannot allow that to happen again, I cannot let Javier Campos any closer. He has proven to be unexpected as far as cops go, but I still can’t trust him. I know in my heart that I would never have let that happen if I didn’t trust him, and that thought scares me more than anything.
23
HARVEY
Once again, we seem to not be talking about the elephant in the room. Last night, I had my face buried between Annika’s thighs, I made her come twice, the first of which she squirted so hard she drenched my face. She kissed me, not just allowing me to kiss her but she initiated a kiss, her soft, strawberry lips moving sweetly over mine before she upped and left. I’m not a give head to get head kind of guy, I didn’t expect anything from her, but I can’t deny that it stung when she walked away.
We’ve been at the club all day and I’m heading back to Annika’s office to see if she’s ready to go home when Diamond catches me.
“Oh honey, they need her up at Scarlet House, something’s gone down.”
I scrunch my face up at her. “What?”
“Scarlet House? There’s been an incident and the boys there have suggested that Annika should go.”
“I don’t know what Scarlet House is.”
She chuckles. “It’s a whore house hon, I’ll text you the address.” Diamond disappears into her office, and I open Annika’s door. I probably should knock but my head is still wrapping around the information.
“Please, do come in,” Annika drawls sarcastically.
“Apparently we’re going to Scarlet House, there’s been an incident and they’ve asked for you.”
She frowns, grabbing her phone from her desk and checking the screen. “Let’s go,” she says, walking past me tapping away at the device.
Scarlet House isn’t what I’m expecting. Knowing Annika, I knew it wouldn’t be a rundown terrace in the sticks, but it’s a fucking mansion. The same size, if not bigger than Annika’s home with grey stone and darker grey doors and windows. We have to go through the gate, but the guard lets us straight in when he sees Annika’s Bugatti arriving with me in the driver’s seat. There isn’t a long sprawling drive like Annika’s, but it feels no less grand. I pull up right out the front door, which opens as we get out the car.
“Miss Wolfe,” the woman greets. She’s in her forties, blonde hair pulled into a neat bun, and a business suit. I briefly wonder if she’s a lawyer or something.
“Geraldine,” Annika responds. “How is business?”
Geraldine smiles wickedly. “Thriving, as you very well know.” Annika offers a nod. The other woman locks eyes on me with a raised brow. “And who’s this?”
“Javier Campos, at your service.” I give her my most charming smile and a little bow and she laughs, showing off perfectly white and straight teeth.
“Oh, hot stuff, I’ve been doing this for twenty years, you’re going to need to try a lot harder than that if you want to charm me.”
Annika smirks and I put my palm over my heart. “Challenge accepted.”
Geraldine chuckles again. She’s walked us through the large entrance hall and into an impressive modern kitchen that backs out to a paved patio area. “Can I get either of you a drink?”
“No, we can’t be long. What’s happened?” Annika says directly, leaning her hands on the kitchen island, the two of us opposite Geraldine.
“Nasty business,” Geraldine says on a sigh. “One of the girls had to press her panic alarm about an hour ago. When security and I got up to her, she was already bloodied and bruised. The boys took the arsehole to the outhouse where he is right now, but they told me to call you as he has an interesting tattoo.” She looks at each of us, her red painted lips turned down and her anger at the situation evident in her eyes.
I frown, not understanding the significance of what she’s said but Annika is a couple steps ahead of me. “Kukri.” She says it as fact rather than question.
Geraldine nods. “If I’d known, he would never have been allowed in, let alone been left alone with one of the girls.”
“It’s not your fault,” Annika says gently and the smile the other woman gives her shows the relief she feels at those words.
“Benny thought you would want to speak to the brute, which is why we called.”
Annika nods. “First, how’s the girl?”
“Shaken up. She’s new, only been here a few months and I think she’s worried this will get her fired.”
I’m almost about to argue with that but Annika speak again. “I’d like to see her.”
“Of course, come with me.”
We both follow Geraldine back out to the hall and up the huge, curved staircase up to the first floor. We pass several doors, some are closed, some are open and there are women milling around in various stages of undress. They all watch as we pass, some smile at me, some wink, and one woman outright offers me a good time. She pales considerably when Annika glares at her and clarifies that I’m here on official business and am not a John. I smirk at my boss’s quick temper, loving the flare of jealousy in her eyes, even when she rolls them at my smug smile.
At the end of a corridor, Gerldine knocks on a closed door and a woman opens it from the other side. She’s tall and slim with warm brown skin and long back braids down to her backside. She’s beautiful and I think my mouth drops open.
“Gerry, hey,” she says with a bright smile and then her eyes catch on Annika. “Oh! Miss Wolfe, come on in.” She opens the door wide to show a bedroom decorated in girly pastels and pretty florals. On a window bench the other side of the room sits another woman who must be the victim. Wearing a silk robe, she’s hugging her middle, her lip split and an angry bruise blooming from the centre of her nose, out to under her eyes. She stands as we enter, fresh tears springing to her pretty brown eyes.
“Oh, Miss Wolfe. I’m so sorry. I-I really didn’t mean to make a fuss, I should have just done what he wanted, I’m sorry, I really am. I–”
Annika holds up her hand to stop the tirade of apologies. “What’s your name?” she asks quietly calm.
“Alice, ma’am.” She sniffs. She sees me standing behind Annika and her lip trembles, I offer her a reassuring smile.
“Alice, are you here against your will, or under duress?” Annika asks, clasping her hands loosely in front of her.
