Red Leopard (The Vistaria Affair Series) (31 page)

Both of them wanted one more moment.

Why not?

“You have your moment, now,” she whispered.

He looked at her in the mirror and shook his head a little. “It is not enough,” he declared. “Not nearly enough.”

She watched in the mirror as he pulled at her tee-shirt, sliding it up her torso, up over the full roundness of her breasts, gathering it to rest across the upper slope of her breasts. “The room behind the mirror, there’s no one there, right?”

“Would it bother you if there were? Would you care?”

“Well...” she began.

But Nick cupped her breasts, bringing his strong thumbs up to stroke the distended nipples. He watched her reaction in the mirror and as she caught her breath, gasping at the rush of electric heat that pushed through her, his eyes narrowed down to glittering slits.

He continued to toy with her breasts, stroking them, rolling the nipples between his fingers. The dual caresses were relentless. Did he know how much his touch excited her? There was a direct connection between her breasts and her clitoris. She could feel each stroke, the delicious rubbing, in her clit. Her excitement was building. Her breath became ragged. She was close to climaxing, just from the touch of his hands on her breasts.

He ran his fingers along the sensitive undersides, round to the upper slopes, slid the fingers down across her nipples, tugging at them as each finger passed, until the pulsing, thrilling excitement overwhelmed her senses. Her head fell back, her eyes closed as she concentrated on the feel of his hands and the aching throb of her clitoris.

“Look,” he breathed, his voice husky.

Calli looked at the mirror, at the reflection of his hands on her breasts, at the image of a woman she barely recognized, leaning back against him, far gone in ecstasy, her body taut and on offer.

Nick’s hands slid down her long torso to the button on her black trousers, which flicked open with a single little tug. He unzipped the trousers and they sagged around her hips.

She watched, fascinated, as his hands slid inside the loosened trousers. The reflection in the mirror of the half-naked woman being undressed and seduced sent a wicked thrill through her. In such a work-a-day room, the passion seemed more intense.

Nick’s fingers slipped beneath her panties, down to curve over her
mons
. She closed her eyes so that she could concentrate on his touch. She shifted her legs, spreading them, giving him room. She could feel the slickness of her arousal. She was desperately eager to have his hands on her clit and to feel his fingers inside her. Her clit gave a heavy throb at the thought.

His fingers felt thick, as they slipped between her legs and into her pussy.

“Ah, so good,” she said, her voice a whisper without strength or body.

“Then it was not just me who wished for more.”

She shook her head and licked her dry lips. “More,” she added and pushed against his hand.

The small pressure drove the heel of his hand against her mound and a finger slipped against her clitoris. The swift friction sent a bolt of pleasure through her. It grabbed the air from her lungs and tightened her throat, forcing out a low groan. She was astonished to hear herself make such an uninhibited sound.

Nick responded with a low growl of his own. His hand tightened possessively around her, then withdrew from her clothing.

“No!” she said, her voice choked. “Don’t stop. Nick...please.”

“Peace,” he murmured and she realized he was bunching the band of her trousers in each hand, pulling them down. As he slipped the fabric over her hips, he snagged her panties and pulled them down with the trousers, down to her calves. His hands trailed up along her legs, smoothing their way over her knees, up the front of her thighs, to push between her legs again. This time, freed of binding cloth, his fingers slipped deep inside her.

“Ah, such heat,
mi rubia fuerte
...!” he purred, his tone one of deep satisfaction.

Nick’s thumb stroked her clitoris and she gave a small cry, her pelvis thrusting against him. She began to shudder with the torrid excitement pouring through her.

His lips were on her neck, his teeth nipping.

“Nick, please!” she groaned.

“Yes, by God!” He released her for a moment. Cloth rustled softly. A zipper slid undone.

He cupped her breasts again and tugged at her nipples, while she watched his hands in the mirror. He lifted his hands up higher, to her shoulders and pushed them, bending her over. “Lean on the table,” he said. His voice was thick and distorted. The sound of it sent a shiver of delight through her. He wanted her. She was doing this to him.

She propped herself on the table, exposing herself, and trembled. His hands rested on her hips and his cock pushed against her from behind. She caught her breath, in anticipation of that first penetrating thrust. He pushed into her, thick and hard and so hot. The contact seared all the way along her pussy.

Calli gave a choked groan. Nick was big and hard inside her—deep inside her. She felt stretched. Filled. Only two days had passed since the last time she had felt him, but it seemed longer.

Nick paused for a brief moment, as if he, too, savored the moment—savored her, as he had insisted such moments should be respected. Then he began to thrust in and out, at first with a leisurely, hedonistic slowness that made her belly ripple with waves of contractions, but the motion quickly grew swifter, longer, and his breathing ragged. The tense sounds he made told her he was struggling to control the pace. He was losing the battle, she realized with a deep, feminine satisfaction.

But then his fingers slid up against her clitoris and began a knowing, delicate stroking. She clenched against him, shuddering under his touch, already close to orgasm. Her awareness narrowed down to the touch of his fingers and the thrust of his cock inside her, and the waves of pleasure building and building....

She lifted her head up with a small cry as her climax slammed through her in swells that made every muscle clamp like a fist. Even as her climax throbbed, she felt Nick give a final hard thrust, the last one, that buried him deep inside her, his hands on her hips holding her against him. She could feel him pulsing against her, shuddering, and heard her name—a whispered groan.

His body folded over her and Calli closed her eyes, hearing her heart thundering in her ears. Her thighs trembled, barely holding her up.

Nick picked himself up and pulled away from her. He helped her to stand and she heard him dressing as she straightened her tee-shirt again, but when she went to fasten her trousers, Nick pulled her hands away and did it for her. “I insist,” he said with a small smile. “As I was the one to put your clothes in such disarray in the first place.”

She gave a small smile of her own. “I don’t remember protesting.”

He kissed her gently on the lips. “Wanton,” he teased. Then he pulled her against him again and held her. “I’m sorry, Calli. I gave you very little choice, didn’t I? But I couldn’t think of anything except the need to have you again. Now. Until I had filled that need, I do not think I could have thought of anything else. Seeing you here, when I did not expect to ever see you again.... I am weak, when it comes to you.”

She smiled. “Nicolás Escobedo and ‘weak’ are mutually exclusive,” she teased. “You just know what you want, that’s all.”

His arms tightened about her in response.

With her cheek against the soft cashmere of his dark sweater, she felt the beat of his heart and heard his breathing, which was still recovering from his exertions—a little rushed, a little uneven. She remained still and let her own heart recover while his unique, masculine scent washed over her.

He let her go at last and stepped back enough to look down at her face. He smiled. “I certainly didn’t think I would see you again, with all this madness around us.” He pushed a stray wisp of her hair off her face.

“It’s a horrible disaster, Nick. It almost hurts to watch it all happening, and it’s all because of—”

“No!” He said it quickly and put his finger against her lips. “Don’t ever say it,” he said. “Not ever. What has happened, happened, and what will happen, will be. No regrets, no guilt. That’s what we agreed, remember?”

She nodded a little.

“Tell me about Minnie. Duardo. What has happened?”

Calli told him quickly. Just the facts. She knew he would figure out the rest for himself. “You phoned him, Nick. You have the number. I thought I could see if she made it that far. It must have been his family’s house you phoned. That’s where she’d head, I think. If I could talk to her, arrange a place to meet her and pick her up, then...”

But Nick was shaking his head. “Pascuallita has fallen. It’s in the hands of the rebels. Any resistance there is being swiftly dealt with. We can’t go in.”

“Then Minnie could not either,” Calli said softly. “What will happen to her?”

“She will be forced to abandon the car because traffic out of Pascuallita will be too heavy. If she tries to go further on foot she will have to fight her way through refugees. If she continues she will run into the fragments of the army, making its way south, running under the guns of the rebels. The army has been broken there and the base abandoned. They’re on the run.”

“Is there nothing I can do?”

“You?” Nick said gently with small smile. “You would take on two armies by yourself?”

“There is no one else.”

He was silent, simply looking at her.

“Do you have a car I could use, Nick?” she said at last. “Minnie took my uncle’s car and I can follow her up the coast, see if I can find her that way.”

“You wouldn’t have lasted five minutes outside the gates here once the people realized who you were. Do you think you would have an easier time of it with people who are on the run from their homes, from violence?”

“Damn it, Nick, I have to do something!”

He touched her cheek. “I know. But I would not have you running heedlessly into the same boiling cauldron as Minnie did.”

His cell phone rang and he gave a small curse and reached for his back pocket. “Only the most critical people have this number,” he said. “I can’t ignore it.”

“It’s okay,” she assured him tiredly, as he opened the phone.

“
Sí?”
He listened, then looked at her sharply. “Duardo, where are you?” he said into the phone.

Calli sat up straight.

Nick listened for a long time. “Wait a moment,” he said into the phone and looked at her. “I must speak Spanish. It’s quicker for us, okay?”

She nodded.

Nick began to speak, rapidly, with little pause. Then he looked at her again. “Do you know for certain that Minnie would go to Duardo’s house in Pascuallita?”

Calli shook her head. “Minnie already knew Pascuallita had fallen. That was why she left. She went to find Duardo. I think she would go to the base, or try to.”

He nodded and spoke to Duardo again. Then he snapped the phone shut and tucked it in his back pocket. “Come with me,” he said briskly.

Chapter Sixteen

Calli scrambled to keep up with Nick as he hurried up the long passage. “Where was Duardo?”

“I’ll tell you all of it in a while,” Nick promised. “First, we must hurry.” He took her up the same stairs she had come down and back to the gatehouse, where the same officer stood watching. He straightened to attention when Nick entered.

“Fernando,” Nick acknowledged. He spoke quickly.

Fernando nodded and responded, also tersely.

Nick raised his hand.
“Gracias
,” he finished. He turned and strode outside again, and Calli trailed after him, puzzled and feeling completely useless.

“Where now?”

“Behind the palace,” Nick said shortly. He angled for the covered walkway.

“Why there?”

“That’s where we’ll find transport to Pascuallita.”

“
We
?” Calli repeated.

He glanced at her. “You don’t think I would let you go there alone, do you?”

“Nick, this isn’t your concern. Don’t you think you’ve got enough problems of your own to worry about?”

He stopped suddenly and she almost ran into him. He caught her arms to steady her. “No one gets to choose what to worry about, have you noticed? Besides, I have made promises, both spoken and unspoken and if I do not do everything in my power to help Duardo and retrieve Minnie for you, I would not be living up to those promises.”

“Well, okay. As long as you’re not doing it for me.”

He smiled and kissed her, quickly, and started walking again. “That’s exactly why I’m doing it,” he said over his shoulder.

Five breathless minutes later Calli found herself on the other side of the palace. They had hurried through the building, giving Calli glimpses of stairs, empty rooms, elegant foyers, before emerging through French doors into bright daylight. It was not quite noon.