Momentum (12 page)

Marco shrugged. “I need the points.” He turned to her. “Ready to go?”

“Sure.”

He called Paolo and together the three of them made their way to the hotel and checked in. Then Marco spent the rest of the night doing exactly as he’d said he would. By the time Natalie fell into exhausted sleep she doubted she could’ve accurately recited the alphabet.

Chapter Seven

Natalie woke the next day and cracked one heavy lid open. “What time is it?” she mumbled to Marco, who had just come out of the bathroom, the billows of steam behind him making him look as if he were a dark angel.

“Eleven.”

“Oh my God, I need to get up!” She started to get out of bed. Thankfully she’d thought to drink a whole lot of water and take some ibuprofen before going to bed the night before, so she didn’t feel especially hungover.

Marco tossed the towel back into the bathroom and stalked toward her, his erection bouncing against his six-pack abs as he moved fluidly across the room. “Why must you get up? You don’t have anywhere you need to be until five. I am only up because I promised Paolo I would work out and have lunch with him. I think he’s feeling a little neglected.”

Natalie frowned. “We have been spending a lot of time together. I feel badly about taking you away from your brother.”

“Paolo is a big boy, and if he had a woman such as you he’d be doing the same thing. Did I mention how much I enjoy having you in my bed?” He climbed onto the foot of the bed and crawled toward her, his eyes blazing with heat. “You know, I have a little time before I need to meet him.” He reached for a condom on the side table and Natalie bit her lip. “Is something wrong,
cara
?”

“Well, I just—I want to at least brush my teeth.”

Marco laughed. “As you wish. But hurry back.”

Natalie pushed up and out of bed, feeling a little self-conscious as she walked naked to the bathroom. She could feel his gaze on her, most likely focused on her backside, and she had to fight the urge to run. Her body was fairly in shape from the work she’d done around the ranch, but what woman wants a guy staring at her ass? A few moments later she came back out and found Marco slowly stroking his shaft, already covered with the condom.

He rolled on top of her, pulling her legs to him and hooking her ankles around his neck before powering into her with one quick thrust. He immediately gave her long, measured strokes, and she gasped as the head of his cock rubbed over her G-spot.

Every snap of his hips made a resulting fissure of sensation, which only multiplied when he pulled her even closer to him, lifting her ass onto his thighs so his balls slapped it with every thrust. Marco reached down, pinching her nipples, gently at first and then harder as her breath caught.

“Marco, you’re killing me.”

“That’s the idea. Touch yourself. It’s so hot to watch you pleasure yourself.”

Natalie blushed but did as he bade, reaching between them with one hand to rub her clit and using the other to play with her breasts, running her palm over the hardened nubs of her nipples again and again.

“You feel so good…”

“I want you every minute of the day,
cara
. When will I get enough of you?”

Hopefully not soon.

Where had that thought come from? They both knew there was a finite lifespan to their relationship. Why was she making it more than it could ever be?

“Want you too, oh God,” she cried, her mouth opening as her head lolled back.

“Come for me.”

“You too.”

Marco laughed. “Oh, I’ll come. But I want you to first.” He sped up his thrusts even more, pushing her little by little toward the headboard. Marco grabbed one of the pillows and tucked it behind her head just enough that she didn’t hit the wood of the headboard, and she started to fly apart. “That’s it, give it to me, baby,” he said, his face taut with arousal and need.

Her ankles tightened around his neck as wave after wave of pleasure crashed over her like a tsunami, slowly robbing her of her sanity. All she could do was hold on and ride it out, hoping there would be something left of her soul at the end of the day.

Marco’s breath caught and his head slumped forward on a long, low groan as he too succumbed to his orgasm. Reaching up, he grasped the top of the headboard and it shook behind Natalie’s head, banging into the wall as Marco continued to stroke through his release. Then he sat back, moving her legs to apart before collapsing on top of her.

“You’re going to need another shower.”

Marco made a noncommittal grunt and she laughed. “Working out anyway,” he got out a few moments later. He picked up his head and looked at the clock. Swearing in Italian, he pushed off her. “I’m going to be late. Are you all right? Do you need anything before I go?”

“No, I’m fine. I might even take a nap.”

“Don’t forget to eat. Order room service. Have something good.” Natalie rolled her eyes and Marco pointed a finger at her. “No fast food,
cara
. I want you to take care of yourself. Order room service.”

“Yeah, yeah.” She had no intention of doing so and costing him even more money than he was already putting out on her behalf.

“I’m going to ask you later what you ate and if it’s bad stuff,” he regarded her partially exposed body with a hot glance, “I might have to punish you.”

“Right…” Marco’s long legs made the trip to the bed incredibly quickly and he pushed her onto her stomach, landing a couple of hard spanks to her bottom. “Ow!”

“I’m serious. Eat something good or there might be more where that came from.” She rolled back over, sticking out her lower lip to pout and he ran his thumb over it. “I’ve got ideas for this mouth of yours too.” He leaned over to give her a quick, hard kiss, his tongue delving into her mouth for the briefest of moments before he stood once again. “I’ll see you later. Call me if you need anything.” Marco considered for a moment, then removed his cell phone from his pocket and tossed it on the bed. “Here, take this. If you need to get a hold of me call Paolo’s number.”

He walked out of the bedroom and Natalie heard the door to the suite close soon after. Stretching her sore, overworked muscles, she debated what to do. She could try to call Jessica or Leah to see if they were doing something this afternoon. Or she could take a nap. She decided a nap, which was free, was the wiser option.

As nice as it was to know Marco had money and wouldn’t let her starve or be homeless, it also really bothered her to be so dependent on someone else, especially because all too soon no one would be around to help her. With that depressing thought zinging through her mind as if it were an out-of-control ping-pong ball, she punched the pillow and settled back down in bed.

Later that afternoon, she decided to walk down to the arena. It was a nice day and she needed some exercise. All this sitting around wasn’t good for her, especially not when she’d need to be in top form for her tryouts. She wished she could afford to go to a gym and then wondered if the hotels they were staying at had free gym privileges.

The types of places she’d stayed at in the past weren’t as bad as the motel Marco had insisted she leave but definitely not five-star lodging, and none of them had on-site fitness centers. She made a note to ask Marco where he and Paolo had worked out. Of course, if she did that he’d want to give her the money for a gym if it wasn’t free. She sighed, feeling like a complete loser for not being able to take care of even the most basic things to prepare herself for riding.

Once at the arena, she called Paolo’s cell phone and he gave the phone to Marco. They agreed to meet by the riders’ area and when she arrived, Marco was already waiting. He took the phone she offered him, pushed it into his pocket and grabbed her. The next thing she knew he was backing her up to the wall and then cinching his arms around her waist before kissing her senseless. When he finally let her up for air she was breathless. His gaze drifted to her heaving chest and he leaned in to whisper in her ear, “I love your breasts,
amante
. I want to suck on them. I want to make love to you again.”

“Not here,” Natalie admonished him.

“Too bad. I’m not sure I will last until tonight.”

“We need to sleep tonight. It’s a long drive to the next event. Speaking of driving,” she said, pushing him back so she could see his face, “what’s the deal with my car?” Marco wouldn’t meet her eyes, so she took hold of his chin and forced his gaze to hers. “What?”

“I asked the man to go over the car from top to bottom, and he said he’s going to need at least a week more to fix everything.”

“What exactly do you mean, everything?”

“I don’t know all the things that were wrong with it because I did not understand all the words he used, but Paolo talked to him and seemed to think the man was correct and could be trusted.”

“But Marco, when am I getting my car back and how much work is he doing?” Narrowing her eyes, she continued, “And who’s paying for it?” Marco looked guilty again and she said in a low, hard tone, “Marco…”

“I will make arrangements for the car to be brought to you wherever the tour is when he’s finished. And since I was the one who wanted to give the car a thorough inspection, of course I will pay for it.”

“Of course,” she mumbled.

“I want you safe,
cara
.”

Natalie threw up her hands. “You can’t keep doing this.”

Marco set his jaw. “I want to.”

“But I
don’t
want you to.”

“Would you rather have a car that’s not fit to drive, much less be your primary way to get from one event to the other all over the country?”

Natalie knew she was being unreasonable, but this was just too much. She was starting to feel as if he thought she couldn’t take care of herself at all. Even before her father had died she’d long since learned how to survive, having your mother leave when you’re eight tended to do that to a person. “It’s not up to you! And you didn’t even ask me if I wanted you to do this. You just took over. Again.” She folded her arms across her chest and tapped her cowboy-boot-clad foot while she waited for his answer.

Marco leaned in and tilted his head, his breath hot on her neck. Even now when she was furious with him he managed to turn her on, which only pissed her off more. “What would you have had me do? Let you drive off to another competition not knowing if you’ll break down again? I cannot do that,
cara
. I cannot leave you unprotected.”

Natalie’s arms shot out and she pushed hard on his chest. He stumbled backward and she said, “I don’t think I care for this overbearing Italian thing.” She was shouting and she knew they were attracting attention, but she couldn’t seem to hold her anger in any longer. Marco was behaving like a domineering ass and he didn’t even understand why she was mad?

“Cara—”

“Don’t call me that,” she spat.

“Natalie—”

She turned and fled toward the spectator area. As she left she heard Conner tell Marco to let her go. At least one of these guys had some brains. To her horror, tears sprang to her eyes and she swiped at them as she contemplated whether or not she even wanted to stay. Spotting a bathroom, she ducked into it, went into a stall and collapsed against the wall. A sob escaped unbidden and she bit down on her lip until she tasted blood, unwilling to completely lose it in a public place such as this. She’d already embarrassed herself with that scene and her pride insisted she not let anyone see how truly weak she was.

Several minutes later, when she was relatively sure she wasn’t going to burst into tears again, she left the bathroom. Natalie figured she might as well stay to watch the competition. After all, she still needed to learn more about the techniques behind bull riding if she had any prayer of making the female tour.

Natalie was trudging toward the stands when she heard her name being called. It was a feminine voice, and she turned to see Jessica hurrying toward her. Jessica stopped in front of her, breathing hard. “Thank God I found you.”

“What do you mean?”

Jessica tipped her head to the side. “Conner and I weren’t far from you guys. We heard everything and I thought you might need a friend.”

Natalie’s eyes closed in mortification. “Shit. How many other people were around?”

“Some. But don’t worry about it. Everyone has disagreements.”

“That was more than a disagreement. He’s trying to railroad over my entire life.”

“I know what that feels like, believe me,” Jessica answered. “Look, let’s go find a quiet corner to talk. I just need to call Conner. He was worried about you.”

“Why?”

Jessica made a frustrated noise. “Because he cares about you.”

“He hardly knows me.”

“You aren’t used to having people care about you, are you?”

Natalie rubbed the bridge of her nose. “I don’t know. I guess not. When I was in school I didn’t have much time for friends or dating between training for the bronc competitions and helping my dad run the ranch. We couldn’t afford many ranch hands so we did most of the work ourselves. After that, I just didn’t see the point.”

“Oh, honey.”

“You don’t need to feel sorry for me. I was doing fine until my dad died and I found out—”

Jessica placed a gentle hand on her arm. “I’m so sorry about your dad and what’s happened since he died. I can’t even imagine what I would do if my dad died and I’ve got three brothers and a mom who would help me through it. Come on, we’ll find some little corner of the arena and have a chat. You’ll feel better if you talk about it, you’ll see.” She smiled and Natalie let Jessica pull her along as she dialed Conner’s cell phone. After a brief conversation, they came upon a deserted alcove and Jessica plopped right on the ground. “Have a seat.”