Quick & Dangerous, page 14
“Good.”
“Help me,” she said, lifting the bed up just a touch. “Hold it like that for a second.”
Rob stepped forward and did as she asked, keeping two of the legs of the bed off the ground. Skyler reached into her nightstand and pulled out his Swiss Army knife. She drew out the blade and then stuck it into the bottom of the bed leg, twisting it until something popped out. She picked it up and held it out to him.
“They can’t possibly think I’m dumb enough to have not made copies. They have the computer and my passports, but everything I need is on this flash drive.”
Rob grinned at her. “Sexy and smart.” He put the bed back on the floor and helped her to her feet. “Call your friend and have him prepare the boat. I need to call your brothers and get them to send a plane as soon as they can.”
She reached for her phone from her back pocket. “We’ll need to find ourselves a place to stay on Lombok, too,” she said.
He nodded, his phone already to his ear. “I’ll take care of it.”
The ride over in Ibrahim’s little banana pontoon boat had been nerve-wracking, even for Rob, who’d ridden twelve-foot waves in a zodiac out in the middle of the Atlantic during storm season. But after their near-death experience on the dive, and then finding out Rubio knew Skyler was on Gili Air, Rob wasn’t sure how much more turbulence he could handle.
He just needed to get her the fuck on that plane, and then he could breathe easy. Until then, until she was on her brother’s private airline, he’d be worried she could be snatched or slip through his fingers at any moment.
They got to Lombok safely though. And Ibrahim had been kind enough to call his brother, Dimas, to come and pick them up from the dock and take them to the hotel Rob had booked for them.
“Thanks again, Ibrahim,” Skyler said, giving her friend a quick hug goodbye.
Ibrahim grabbed Skyler’s hands in his. “Be safe, Scarlett. My brother will take care of you.”
Dimas nodded and took Skyler’s bag for her before Rob had a chance to grab it, not that she had much left anymore.
Skyler handed Ibrahim a wad of money, and at first, he shook his head and pushed it back to her. But she said something to him under her breath that made him blush, then eventually he took the money. Rob turned to go catch up with Dimas while Skyler and Ibrahim finished their goodbyes.
A moment later, she trotted down the dock to catch up with him and Dimas as they headed for Dimas’s van.
“What’d you say to him to get him to finally take the cash?” Rob asked, his curiosity piqued. Ibrahim was probably around Skyler’s age and not a bad-looking dude. Had he and Skyler had a budding romance? Some flirtations? What could she have possibly said to make his cheeks burn the way they had?
Her lip twisted in a coy little grin. “I said that he should take the money and marry Putri from the kitchen at the Barracuda. He’s always hanging around when he’s not off fishing. He’s had a crush on her for years. Ever since he moved to Gili Air from Lombok.”
Rob chuckled. “Even on the run for your life, you still have time to play matchmaker.”
She shrugged, thanking Dimas for holding open her door. “Even if I can’t find love or happiness, doesn’t mean others shouldn’t.”
Well that just about fucking broke his damn heart.
“Where did you book us a room?” Skyler asked, her eyes fixed out the window of the moving van, taking in the tree-lined road.
He hoped she liked where he’d picked. Even though she could probably afford the penthouse suite at any five-star resort she wanted to, she’d been living in practically squalor for the past few years. Another tactic to keep them off her trail. But she deserved to be pampered, deserved clean white sheets, a fluffy robe and a soaker tub.
So when Dimas pulled up to the Wild Plumeria Eco-Resort and Spa twenty minutes later, and an armed guard met them at the gate, and Skyler’s eyes nearly popped from her sockets, Rob knew he’d done well.
“Mr. and Mrs. Ramirez, we have you booked into the honeymoon suite for just one night,” the chipper little Indonesian woman behind the front desk said after Dimas had dropped them off and gratefully accepted their payment for not only his time, but also his discretion.
Discretion was worth its weight in gold.
“Excellent,” Rob said, being sure to add a healthy dose of twang to his speech. “Me and my wife here, Shyla-Anne, thought we’d spend one night here on Lombok before we headed back to Bali. Sure is a nice place you have here. Very eco-friendly.”
The woman nodded and handed them their key cards. “Bagus here will take you to your room.”
“Ah, no need,” Rob said, wrapping an arm around Skyler and pulling her close. “We can find our way.” He winked at the woman. “Kind of in a rush, if you know what I mean.”
And he thought Ibrahim had blushed seven shades of red. Fuck, he’d scandalized this poor woman.
She coughed, smiled and averted her gaze. “Very well, sir. Enjoy your stay.” Then she spun around to show them her back as fast as she could.
“Come, Mrs. Ramirez,” he said, tightening his hold on Skyler’s shoulders. “Let’s go see about a soaker tub. I don’t know about you, but I could stand to get rid of some of this sand.”
Skyler hadn’t said a word, but the way her shoulders jostled beneath his arm said she was having a hard time not finding the whole thing hilarious.
The feeling was mutual. He hadn’t meant to embarrass the poor concierge, but her reaction was pretty funny. And right now, given the tension that had been rolling off Skyler since they climbed into Ibrahim’s boat, they needed a bit of funny in their lives.
They rode the elevator in silence. Up, up, up to the top floor. The view that greeted them at the top would put any postcard to shame. Dusk was settling in, and the entire sky was as if someone had taken a paintbrush and dipped it in ten different colors, then raked it across the clouds. The sun was low, nearly fully beneath the horizon. Boat silhouettes and small islands dotted the water, appearing as no more than black spots or round mounds rising up out of the shimmering sea.
“Wow,” Skyler breathed, shrugging out from under his arm and walking to the window. “That’s some view.”
He was thinking the same thing.
His cock twitched and his mouth watered as she stood there, her body outlined by the setting sun, fit, tanned, and so damn perfect. If everything went according to plan, he’d have her to her brothers by tomorrow. Tonight was their last together. He needed to make it count.
“Our room is down this way, Mrs. Ramirez,” he said, reaching for her hand and gently tugging her along.
She went willingly.
Because she trusted him.
He’d worked hard to earn her trust. Damn hard. He couldn’t do anything to jeopardize that, and that meant giving her the space at night she needed.
Sure, they’d probably hump like bunnies, because after all, she’d been more than willing to sit on his face while on that island. But once they were done and had done the appropriate amount of post-coital spooning, he’d give her the bed and take the floor or couch.
She trusted him, and his unpredictable dreams could break that trust, especially if he accidentally wound up hurting her.
The last thing he wanted to do was hurt her.
They stopped in front of twin doors. He swiped his key card, and the door clicked open. “After you, Mrs. Ramirez,” he said, tossing on the twang again. “Giddy up!”
She rolled her eyes as she walked past him into the suite, letting out a whistle as the opulence and romance hit her square in the face. It hit him a moment later when he entered behind her.
Matching robes that said MR and MRS, a heart made out of real rose petals in the center of the California King-size bed, a tray of complimentary chocolate-covered strawberries and a bottle of champagne cooling in an ice bucket. And that was just what they saw in the main room. Who knew what was waiting for them in the bathroom?
“So, Shyla-Anne?” she asked, plopping her bag and purse onto the turquoise-colored chaise lounge next to the floor-to-ceiling window.
He snickered as he dropped his bag on the matching turquoise chair. “Decided to stick with your S theme but had to make it Southern.”
“An ex-girlfriend of yours?” She sauntered over to the ice bucket and pulled out the champagne, waggling her eyebrows.
He snorted. If only she knew where her new identity stemmed from. “Not quite.” He nodded at the champagne. “Was my dad’s favorite dairy cow.”
She paused with a strawberry midair. “You named me after a cow?”
“My dad’s favorite cow. He kept Shyla-Anne well after her milk-producing days were over. He loved that cow like she was one of his kids.”
She wrinkled her cute little hoop-pierced nose. “I guess … ”
“Pour the champagne, Mrs. Ramirez. I’m going to go run you a bath.”
He wandered into the bathroom, where towels twisted in the shape of kissing swans sat perched on the granite counter top. The deep soaker tub was, of course, in the shape of a heart, and a plethora of very expensive-looking massage oils, body washes, shampoos and the like sat in a basket next to the sink. He heard the cork deploy in the living room and set to filling up the tub.
“Make it deep enough for two,” she called out.
The grin he caught on his face in the mirror made him pause. It wasn’t something or someone he recognized. The man that stared back at him was happy.
This was not good. Not good at all.
One of them was going to get hurt when he dropped her off with her brothers tomorrow.
God, how he hoped it was him.
Chapter 14
Skyler
“Mmm,” Skyler hummed as Rob’s fingers worked miracles on her scalp. He’d run them the most luxurious bath and was currently washing her hair. After two days on the island without anything but the ocean to bathe in, she was in pure heaven beneath the endless, fragrant bubbles.
“Your butt is in a most precarious place, Mrs. Ramirez,” he said, still with that sexy twang to his tone. He was really milking this whole newlyweds thing. Even behind closed doors he was calling her Mrs. Ramirez and wife. Not that she was complaining. Over the last few years, Skyler had gotten quite good at role-playing and pretending she was someone she wasn’t. Only this time she had a co-star.
“Is it now?” She wiggled her bottom, which she knew was placed right in front of his growing erection. The man was certainly not being very coy in hiding it, either.
“Damn it, woman, if you want me to finish your hair, you’ll stop squirming.”
Her breasts bobbed in the water as she laughed. “Sorry, Mr. Ramirez. Finish with my hair, please. Your fingers feel so good.”
“You like my fingers elsewhere, too,” he murmured, leaning forward and nipping her shoulder.
“Mmm, that I do.”
And now she was doing nothing but imagining his fingers there.
She cupped her breasts, relieving the strain of their weight. The pads of her thumbs ran over the hard, puckered peaks of her nipples. Without even thinking about it, she tilted her head back and shut her eyes.
“Oh, baby,” he purred behind her, “you’re starting without me.”
“Doesn’t mean I won’t finish with you,” she said, wiggling her butt again.
The faucet turned on behind her, and a moment later, she felt the strong massage of the high-powered shower nozzle. He worked her over, making sure all the shampoo was out and her hair was sufficiently clean.
Skyler let her eyes flutter open, blinking the water off her lashes, then spun around where she sat and straddled him.
“You’re playing a dangerous game there, darlin’.” His hands came up and resumed her earlier kneading of her breasts. His hands felt a million times better than hers.
The champagne was coursing through her veins now, as was the heat of the water and the fatigue and tension of the day—she was exhausted, to say the least. But despite the weight of her eyelids, need stirred deep down in her belly. The need for Rob.
This could very well be their last night together. They needed to make it count.
Angling her head forward, she nipped his bottom lip, tugging until a low growl rolled through him.
“Dangerous,” he said with a low groan. “Condoms are in the other room.”
Her tongue traced his lips, and she rolled her hips into his erection, causing the water to slosh around them and onto the floor. “I’m just playing,” she said with the most innocent voice she could muster.
“With matches,” he said gruffly, bringing his hands down to her ass and pushing her harder against him.
“Well, we already went without,” she said, with hope. She wanted this night to count. She wanted this night to last all night. She didn’t care if she was bone-tired tomorrow as she caught the plane to go and meet her brothers. Because she’d be bone-tired with the memory of Rob. Of Rob’s body pounding hers into the mattress, or Rob’s mouth cherishing, savoring, worshiping every square inch of her as she writhed beneath his sensuous lips on the million-thread-count Egyptian cotton. She needed this night to fuel her nights to come, to help her adjust to her new life, and to remind her that good guys were still out there, were still worth trusting.
“So we did. Back when we were shiplessly shipwrecked.”
Her hips lifted and she took in just the tip, swirling around before pulling back up and releasing him.
“Mere castaways beneath the sky, living off the land and making the most of our down time,” she said, inhaling when his mouth snagged a nipple. He flicked the pointed nipple with the tip of his tongue, then, with a low, manly moan, sucked it deep into his mouth.
With one hand still on her bottom, he used his other hand to guide himself back to her center. He lifted his head, and their gazes locked. His lids were at half-mast and his pupils dilated, invading that soft brown she’d grown to love. “Going to fuck you now, baby. Hard and deep.”
Skyler swallowed. “Oui. Yes … please,” she breathed, resting her hands on his shoulders and sinking down onto his length.
They both let out a resounding groan as he stretched her, filled her.
“So good, querida. So fucking good.”
He took her other nipple into his mouth and sucked it hard enough to draw a gasp from her lips. Once she knew he was seated inside her, he began to move. He helped, using the hand on her hip, but really, she had the control. She controlled how fast, how deep.
Slowly, she lifted up, drawing him across the walls of her channel until just the tip remained inside. She’d give a little hip swirl that made him growl against her breath, only to sink back down even more slowly, squeezing the whole way.
“Querida … going to kill me.”
“Not until I’ve had you all over this suite. Then at least it will be a happy death.”
She ran a hand up the back of his neck and into his hair, tugging on the ends like she knew he liked. His quick inhale told her he was enjoying the snap of pain.
“Gonna need some food.”
Hmmm. Food. Right. They hadn’t eaten since …
Her stomach growled at the thought of food. Had it really been since the island? They’d been a given a little bit of food on the Japanese snorkel tour boat, but nothing to really call a meal.
They really did need to eat.
“We can order room service then,” she said, lifting up again. “There’s always those strawberries, too.”
“Want to lick the juice off your tits.” He bit her shoulder, and she squeezed him tighter inside her. “Oh, querida … ”
“Make me come, Rob,” she breathed. “Make me forget today. I want to forget today besides this moment. Besides being with you.”
She was probably revealing too much of her heart, but the champagne and impending orgasm were doing all the talking. She was just along for the ride.
And what a ride.
“Querida, I want you all night. I want all of you. Don’t deny me an inch.” He bucked up and hit her even deeper. The hand on her hip dropped down between them and began rubbing perfect little circles around her clit.
“I won’t deny you. You can have all of me.”
Including my heart.
He pinched her clit, and she detonated.
“That’s right. Mi vida. Quiero que seas mio. Come for me.”
Her pulse pounded in her ears as she shut her eyes and tilted her head back, allowing his mouth to work its way around from one side of her neck to the other. He tugged again on her clit, increasing and prolonging the climax, until she slumped against him, boneless.
That’s when he finally let go.
Beautiful words she couldn’t understand poured from his lips as he lost himself inside her, filling her, claiming her. “Mi vida. Mi tesoro. Quiero que seas mio.”
When they’d both finished, she buried her face in his neck and kissed him where his pulse beat quickly. A lone tear slipped down her cheek, a tear she didn’t want him to see because she was just a job and this was just a fling. No strings. Scratching an itch. Passing the time. Just a fling.
What she hadn’t realized until now was just how dangerous it was going to be to her heart.
They were lying in the center of the enormous bed. Room service had sent up a beautiful cheese, meat, bread and fruit platter, and they’d gorged themselves on imported decadence. Then they’d made love again, and again, and were finally taking a breather because Rob said his tongue was going to fall off if they didn’t.
Skyler held a chocolate-covered strawberry to his lips. “Here, husband. A sweet for my sweet.”
He opened his mouth, and those straight white teeth of his chomped down hard, causing the chocolate to crack and juice to pour out over his lips. She leaned forward and licked it off.
“Very subtle, wife. I said I need a breather, and you try to seduce me. Naughty, naughty.”
She amped up the wattage of her smile to hide how affected she was by him calling her his wife. She was enjoying their little role-play game far too much. Enjoying the escape from reality, being holed up in the lap of luxury under assumed names. She knew they weren’t safe and that she wouldn’t be truly safe until she was on Moorea with her brothers, but with Rob, she felt safer. If the bad guys were to burst into their room, he’d protect her, keep her from being hurt or taken. He was one of the good guys, and lord knew it’d been a while since she’d come across one of those.
