Chapter 16

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

February 2 nd

10:42 P.M.

The second Luis locked the door behind them, Cassie reached for the zipper of his jeans.

She couldn't wait another moment to touch him.

As amazing and fun as their date had been, and it turned out just perfect even with Rocco, his team, and their wives all there, she was dying for more.

Dying for this moment where she would finally become her own person, leave all her baggage behind, and enter a new phase of her life where she learned to use the gift of her brain but also be a full, well-rounded person.

Her lust-filled thoughts were abruptly cut short when hands circled her wrists, stilling her almost frantic attempts to get Luis' jeans unzipped and shoved down.

Uncertainty hit immediately. "Did I do something wrong?" she asked anxiously, looking up at him and wondering if she'd broken some sort of code she should have known about.

A code any other woman would have already known and understood.

Maybe Luis was having second thoughts about her because she was a virgin. Did that make her more trouble than she was worth? She was sure all the other women he'd been with wouldn't have made any stupid rookie mistakes.

Even though Luis' eyes were soft as he looked down at her, his expression tender, her confidence had already taken a hit.

A hit it might not recover from.

"No, princess. You didn't do anything wrong, but I'm making love to you tonight, taking my time, enjoying every touch, and every kiss. I'm not having sex with you up against the door for your first time."

"Oh." That made sense and yet the feelings of doubt lingered. It was one thing to know she was a virgin and Luis was a playboy, to know she wanted this with every breath she took, but it was another to actually do it.

In this moment, the differences in their positions seemed too vast.

"What's running through that huge mind of yours, princess?" Luis asked as his knuckles swept across her cheek.

She could lie, but that seemed childish, and it wasn't like Luis wasn't already aware of her complete lack of experience. "I don't know what I'm doing, what I'm supposed to do or say, and I know the other women you've been with wouldn't have messed things up."

With a scowl, he yanked her up against his body, an arm hooking around her waist to lift her off her feet. He ground her aching center against the ridge in his pants. "This is for you, princess, not for some other woman. When I'm with you, I don't want to hear about anyone else I've touched because if I could erase them all from my past I would. Trust me, Cassidy, when I'm with you, you are the only one I'm thinking about, so I want to be the only one you're thinking about, too. I don't want any other women who you think you don't measure up to running through your head. You and me, princess."

"You and me," she echoed.

He was right. Thinking about the other women who had been in Luis' bed wasn't going to change anything, and it was only going to keep making her self-conscious.

If Luis didn't want her, he didn't have to take her out on a date, he didn't have to be here with her now. He wanted her, not someone else, and she had to let that be enough.

As he carried her to the stairs, Luis' lips found hers and everything else faded from her mind as she focused on this moment.

When he reached his bedroom, he set her on her feet, but his hands never stopped touching her. They seemed to be everywhere at once. Tugging her coat off, brushing against her stomach as he undid the buttons of her blouse, and grazing across her hardened nipples as he moved his hands to her shoulders.

"Do you know how beautiful you are?" he murmured as he eased her blouse off her shoulders and let it float down to the floor. "How badly I want you? How much I crave you? How I can hardly wait to touch and lick every single inch of you?"

A shiver rocketed through her, and her skin felt like it was on fire, like there was only one thing that could quench that need and it was standing in front of her looking down at her with heavy-lidded eyes.

"Did you choose this white lacy bra for me, princess?" he asked as he hooked his thumbs in the bra straps and swept the pads of his thumbs across the peaks of her nipples.

It was hard to process words when her body was feeling so many things.

"Did you, Cass?" Luis asked again, moving his head down to cover one of those hard pebbles.

The heat of his mouth on her breast did little to clear her head so she could focus on his question, but somehow, she managed a shaky nod.

"It's perfect," he whispered as his fingers trailed a line of fire down her stomach as they moved to the waistband of the skirt. "Are their matching white lacy panties under here?"

"Yes," she managed to whisper back, even as she felt like she was being consumed from the inside out by this flame of desire and need.

Hands on her hips, Luis turned her so her back was to him, then he unzipped her skirt and eased it down her hips. She felt him move, felt him touch a kiss to the small of her back as he knelt behind her. Her skirt fluttered to the floor, and his large hands skimmed over her backside, which was covered in nothing but a scrap of lace, before trailing down her thighs to her boots.

After unzipping each one and sliding them off her feet, his hands skimmed back up her legs, brushing over the sensitive skin on the inside of her thighs. As he nudged them apart there was one moment where she almost tried to press them together, excited and terrified to let him touch her in her most intimate spot.

But before any protest could fall from her lips, one of his fingers brushed across her center, and once again, all she could do was feel.

One more sweep of his finger was all she got, and then he stood, making her mewl a small protest at the loss of his touch.

"Pretty as these are, princess, they have to go," Luis said as he nibbled at her shoulder. He undid the clasp at the back of her bra, then her breasts fell into his hands as he let the lacy material fall away. For a moment, he massaged her breasts, drawing a low moan from her lips, and then he pushed her panties down her legs, leaving her naked before him.

"Do you trust me, princess?" Luis asked as he scooped her up and laid her out on his mattress. "Do you trust me to make you feel good, to make you experience things you could never imagine?"

"Yes," she answered on a breathy exhale as she watched with a hunger she'd never felt before as he stripped off his clothes and then stood gloriously, magnificently naked before her. Cassie trusted him with her body and because the two were tied so closely together, with her heart as well.

The sight of his dark head settling between her spread legs was the sexiest thing she had ever seen. She'd read a lot of books and knew a lot of theory when it came to sex, so she was sure she knew what to expect.

But that first swipe of his tongue across her wet center had her hips flying off the bed as the most amazing sensations flooded her system.

Chuckling, Luis pressed one hand to her stomach, holding her in place as his mouth closed over the bundle of nerves she had studied in depth but only ever attempted to touch once before, in her shower that first morning after he spent the night. While he sucked on her bud, flicking at it with the tip of his tongue, one finger from the hand not holding her circled her entrance.

His movements were slow and drawn out, and by the time she felt the tip of a finger slip inside her, she was about ready to lose her mind. She wanted more, wanted to feel him moving inside her.

"Luis," she moaned as that finger edged inside her a little more.

"What do you need, princess?" he asked, his mouth close enough to her bundle of nerves that she felt the vibrations.

"More." She wasn't capable of explaining more than that. Was barely capable of remembering her own name at this point.

"Like this, princess?" he asked as he sunk that finger all the way in and she moaned again.

His mouth closed around her bud again and his finger began to thrust in and out.

Sensations built until she felt like they were almost too much and if they didn't burst soon, they were going to destroy her.

Then he changed the angle of his finger, hooked it so it brushed against the almost mythical spot she'd read that women had inside them, and that's when it happened.

The pleasure that had built until it felt so tight did explode, in a fiery mess of sensations and emotions she couldn't even begin to name as Cassie had her very first orgasm.

It felt never-ending.

Pleasure pulsed through her body, touching every inch of her, it was so intense she didn't know whether to pull away or soak up every ounce of ecstasy Luis was giving her.

Eventually, it ebbed and faded, and she felt like she was floating on a soft cloud.

She felt Luis shift away, and while she wanted to drag him back, she didn't have the energy to do anything but lie on the bed, limp and sated.

A buzzing sound caught her attention, and when she turned her head on the pillow, she saw Luis holding a small pink thing in his hand. It took her blissed out brain a moment to realize what it was.

"A vibrator?" she asked, shocked. She'd never seen one before, although she had tried to talk herself into making a couple of purchases. Every time, she just ended up talking herself out of it, though, so she'd never wound up buying any of the toys she'd once in a moment of bravery added to a shopping cart on a website that was supposed to sell the best toys around.

"It's going to hurt at first, princess, and I don't like the idea of hurting you even if it will pass quickly. I thought this would help," he explained as he climbed back onto the bed.

He'd already sheathed himself with a condom, and she was kind of glad because she wasn't on birth control, and this was new, so neither of them was ready for a baby, but there was a flicker of disappointment. She didn't want anything between them even if she did acknowledge this was a necessity at this point in their brand-new relationship.

"You're so big." Staring in awe at his impressive length it was hard to believe it could ever fit inside her.

"Thanks for the compliment, princess." The sexy smile he shot her had a tingling feeling starting up between her legs. "You tell me if it hurts, princess, and I'll stop."

"I don't want you to stop," she said in a rush.

Luis chuckled. "I just mean I'll pause, give your body time to adjust. The only way I'm stopping for good is if you say so."

"Not going to happen."

As his tip nudged her entrance, Cassie sucked in a breath. Already she could feel a stretching, and while there was a sting it wasn't so bad.

Balancing his weight with one hand, Luis eased into her a little more at the same time that he touched the buzzing vibrator to her already sensitive bud. As soon as it touched her the rumblings of a new orgasm sprung to life inside her.

Bit by bit Luis pushed inside her, pausing every time he added another inch to give her body time to adjust to his size. He was right, it did hurt. There was a moment there where she almost begged him to pull out, but instead, she rode out the wave of tearing pain and instead focused on the vibrations against her bundle of nerves and the orgasm that continued to build despite the pain.

"You're doing so good, princess. You took all of me inside you, such a good girl."

His words activated something inside her, and suddenly, the pleasure that was steadily building surged.

It continued to grow as he began to rock his hips, thrusting his rock-hard length inside her as the vibrator never let up, pulsing against her bud and driving her wild.

This time, pleasure seemed to grow more intense, consuming her as it continued to push her higher and higher, until she was sure she couldn't take it anymore. When Luis' mouth crashed down against hers that pleasure once again exploded.

Cassie felt the exact second that Luis hit his own release, and somehow, that seemed to prolong her own pleasure. Her screams were caught by Luis' mouth as he never let up kissing or thrusting into her until a second—well, technically third—orgasm built and crashed into her.

Feeling like she was in the best kind of dream, she couldn't wipe the smile off her face as Luis eased out of her and then immediately went into the attached bathroom, returning with a warm washcloth that he used to clean her up. There was a little blood from her hymen tearing, but it wasn't too much, and when Luis scooped her up to pull off the duvet, before settling her back on the bed, then replaced it with a clean one, tears began to sting her eyes.

Sex had been amazing, so much more than she could ever have hoped for, but him taking care of her like this was even better. By the time he had the clean duvet on the bed and slid under the covers beside her, spooning her from behind, Cassie had already taken the first—or maybe first few—steps to falling in love with him.

February 3 rd

8:38 A.M.

Oddly enough, there was no morning after awkwardness.

For one moment, Luis had worried that Cassie might have some regrets in the cold light of day, but when he touched his lips to hers and woke her with a kiss, she kissed him right back.

From that second on, he knew that everything was going to work out between them.

They both wanted this, they'd both shoved aside issues that had plagued them since childhood to give this a chance, and he knew neither of them wanted it to fail.

Which meant from here on out, they had to be focused on the mole. At least during the day. At night they could make love and hold onto one another, but if they didn't find the mole soon then he really might lose Cassie.

Permanently.

"Umm, I was thinking," Cassie started nervously, yanking his attention away from the laptop in front of him.

There was something in her tone he didn't like, and because he needed the contact—and just because she was his now and he could—Luis reached out to grab her hand, tugging her out of her chair and over onto his lap. "What's wrong, princess?"

"Nothing's wrong. Well not technically. I was just thinking … well, we're together now and I was thinking that means we should probably … meet each other's families," she finished, shooting him an anxious glance.

Well, that wasn't as bad as he'd been expecting.

And she was right. He wanted her to meet his brother, there wasn't a doubt in his mind that they'd quickly become friends. He'd also love for her to meet his foster dad and foster siblings. Miguel was right to call him out on maintaining distance between them when they had done nothing but love and accept him.

With the patience and guidance of his foster parents and their kids, he'd managed to turn his life around and not go down the path he could have when he made the decision to join the gang. It was only his young age that had saved him, otherwise he would have gone to prison, and this life he had now, becoming a SEAL, what he was building with Cassie, it all would have been out of his reach.

He owed them a lot and it was time he showed his gratitude rather than keeping them at arm's length.

"My family does a lunch every Sunday for whoever's free, we'll go next week if you're up to it?"

Her eyes twinkled with joy. "I'd love, too. They gave you the life you deserved so I already know I'm going to love them." The joy dimmed a little. "My parents they're … they're not bad people, not really. They just wanted one thing, a genius baby, and they did whatever they had to to make that happen. I'm not sure they'll be excited to know that I'm making room in my life for other things, but I'm ready. I'm ready to just be me and not the person they created. I want them to know I'm grateful to them for making sure I got the best education money could buy, but I also want to be me. I want to do things that bring me joy. I want to write and draw more, and I want to be with you."

So proud of her for finally learning it was okay for her to be a well-rounded person, he leaned in to press his lips to hers. "You're not doing anything wrong by just being you, Cass. I hope you finally understand that. You have value just by existing, not because you're so intelligent. That's a gift, sure, and it's one you're using to the best of your ability, but even if you weren't you would still hold value."

"I'm starting to learn that. There will probably still be times when I forget, but I'm trying."

"When you forget I'll be right there to remind you, princess."

"Ditto," she said, wrapping her arms around his neck. "When you start thinking that you're not good enough, I'll be right there to remind you how smart you are and how hard you worked to get where you are. You could have let life drag you down a bad path, but you didn't. You let your foster family be there for you even if you haven't realized it, and now you work to make the world a safer place. You're a hero, Luis Aguilar, my hero."

Since he didn't feel like Cassie's hero, if he was, then the threat from the mole would already be neutralized, Luis captured her mouth again in a sweet kiss. He would do everything in his power to live up to her view of him, work hard to be worthy of her, because like Cassie had said, there were going to be times old insecurities raised their ugly heads.

"We have to find this mole, princess." Leaning forward, he rested his forehead against hers. The fear of losing Cassie grew stronger the more his feelings for her grew. Knowing there was someone out there with a grudge against his woman, knowing that Cassie was so focused on stopping these bombs that she would continue to put her life in danger, it felt like there was a vice wrapped around his chest that was tightening a little more with each second that ticked past.

"We do," she agreed. "We'll find him, Luis, I believe that. Between the two of us, the rest of my team, and all of Prey, how could we not?"

Even with all of Prey's might, they had yet to figure out who the mole was. There were only a handful of people who had access to the information about the Reactivator so it seemed like it should be an easy enough task to figure out which one of them had made contact with Raul Castillo and sold the drug to him.

But so far it hadn't been easy.

Not at all.

The opposite in fact.

Almost a month had passed since this mess first started, and so far, Raul had evaded capture multiple times. All they'd done was clear suspects not zero in on one. The threat to Athena Team was still there, and if they couldn't find the mole then those four women would have to live with that for the rest of their lives.

Keeping Cassie right where she was, settled on his lap, Luis moved her laptop over to sit on the kitchen table beside his and they both went back to reviewing the video the mole had made. They'd already gone over it and over it, used it to track down three of the bombs already, and there was the one that had almost killed Cassie in the lab, which still left three more out there and only a couple of days until the biggest one was set to go off.

"Luis?"

"Yeah, princess?"

"Did you notice that the mole rambled multiple times about the healing quality of the drug, and how we were awful people for not releasing it immediately? Besides the fact that we were still only up to the testing phase, and as soon as it was deemed safe and we ironed out any possible kinks, we would have found a way to adapt the drug for use in health care, not just for the military, once it was finished. We weren't doing this to make money or anything, I would never do that."

"I know that, princess," he soothed, running a hand up and down the length of her spine.

"But I don't think the mole does. I think to them it really was about money, so they can't see that we would be any different. It sounds hypocritical because they were obviously only selling the drug for money, but it says several times that we don't care about the sick and injured, that we only want it to be used for the military because we think they're better than everyone else."

"That has you thinking of something." They might not have been together long, but he'd watched her work for hours and he was beginning to understand how that huge mind of hers worked.

"This is all about trying to force our hand and get us to turn over the formula for the drug. The mole outright says that they want other people to be at risk, to be hurt, for their pain and possible deaths to rest entirely on our shoulders. I think there's a good chance that one of the bombs is at a hospital."

"I could see that," he readily agreed. In fact, now that Cassie had said it, he wondered why they hadn't thought of that earlier. "There are a lot of hospitals in the city though. It's going to take us a long time to go through them all."

"I know where we should start," Cassie said grimly. "If you want to cause maximum heartache you target the children's hospital."