Chapter 5

5

ROMEO

I ’m surprised at how easy it is to follow Jess. I’m more surprised at how watching her leave made my heart ache.

From the ballroom and along various hallways of this massive estate, neither she nor anyone else seems to care that I’m walking through it freely. It’s a nice change of pace from my usual hunts.

Two women emerge from a doorway not far in front of Jess. One’s patting down the front of her dress while the other tucks a travel mirror into her purse. With them heading back to the ballroom, it leads me to believe it’s a bathroom.

No wonder I haven’t caught anyone’s eye. We’re still in the public domain.

I storm forward to catch up to Jess before she passes the door. And even with my heightened speed, I barely make it in time.

“Not so fast, pretty little thing,” I whisper into her ear as I wrap my arm around her waist and pull her with me into the bathroom. She vibrates with a sharp shake of fear at my sudden interruption but calms just as quickly when she hears my voice.

“What do you think you’re doing?” She talks in a hushed whisper. I’m inclined to do the same.

“I wasn’t finished.” Her vanilla perfume floods my nose and tickles my brain.

“You’re going to get in trouble,” Jess says, but staring at her face in the giant mirror before us, I can tell she doesn’t care. Neither do I.

She’s right where I want her, and taking a beating for it seems like a good trade.

“Difference between me and Tweed? I’m not scared,” I say.

The mirror shows just how tiny she is beside me. The arm that clawed into her has moved up to her chest and covers her breasts down to her belly. Hell, if she tried putting on my jacket, I’m sure she’d get lost in it for hours.

“You don’t understand. He’ll—” She reaches a hand up to my cheek and cups it gently.

Yet, she doesn’t push me away. Doesn’t even try to create distance between us when my cock is stabbing into her spine. Damn thing jumped straight up when I got a better look at her tits and hasn’t stopped throbbing since.

“Kill me?” I try to stifle my grin, but I can’t. Many have tried, all have failed. I don’t expect that to change tonight. “Your old man’s Billy Mayfair?”

The fear in her big blue eyes makes me irrationally angry.

“As a guest in our home, you should’ve known already.”

I lean in closer to her, sucking in deep lungfuls of her intoxicating aroma. I’d replace the air that I breathe with this scent if I could. Another permanent fixture in my home to keep her close forever.

“I did. Took me longer to figure it out than I’m happy to admit.” It was her confidence treading down these halls that enlightened me. But where most would find defeat in this realization, I see an opportunity.

“Then you should be sacred,” she says.

I adjust my arm around her chest until my hand gets its first true touch of her breast. The squishy mountain fills my palm, and its pointy peak digs through her dress. A soft, cooing sound of pleasure emits from her slightly parted lips.

“I’m not.”

My free hand moves against her side, but it doesn’t hover long. It slides across her hips and against her ass, and like the other, gives a firm squeeze against another round orb. Another stifled sound barely escapes her mouth, but this time, she falls forward with my touch. She digs both elbows onto the basin counter, and her eyes linger on mine through the mirror.

“You’re a fool if you’re not afraid of him.” Jess is panting, practically on the verge of begging me to continue.

“I’d rather die a happy fool than lose another second with you,” I say, and my hand moves lower until my fingertips dance against the hemline of her dress.

I ball the fabric into a shaky fist and lift it higher, breaking eye contact to lower my gaze in the mirror. Desperation has been gnawing at me from the second I saw her, but the mirror shows the full extent of it. One tug of the hand has hoisted her dress so far up her body, I’m not only greeted by her black mesh panties but the matching cup of her bra.

I press the tip of my shoe against her high heel and guide it with a push to part her legs. I expected my imagination to play a bigger part in this venture, but it’s proving to be useless as my eyes reach their destination. The floral design across her panties waistband becomes thinner and less pronounced the closer it gets to her intimacy. The material there is so thin, so see-through, it shouldn’t count as wearing underwear at all.

I’m staring straight at her expertly carved landing strip, which guides the eye straight to her soaking pussy.

Fuck. She’s so wet it’s trickling down her thighs.

I fall to my knees, and the impact rumbles with the same intensity as the thunder outside. I use the hand holding her dress to nudge her forward and watch in awe as she pushes her ass closer to my face.

“Wh—” She chokes on her word as my face nears, and my erratic breathing blows against her damp thighs. “What are you doing?”

“Told you I wanted a taste.” I couldn’t stop myself if I wanted to. My tongue shoots out of my mouth and runs along her skin.

Nowhere near the source, I’m already drunk on her taste. Her mixture of sweet, salty liquid is like God’s nectar on my taste buds.

Jess must think I’m a lunatic with how I’m acting. I’ve lost my mind entirely, and there’s no way I’m going to find it again. No one has ever drawn anything close to this out of me. Such eager desperation makes my gums itch.

“Your tongue feels nice.” She’s a mess of panting breaths and choked words.

Jess isn’t stopping me. She wants this. Needs this. Her trembling body is sign enough, and the way she eagerly forces her hips back into my face is confirmation.

Enthralled by the picturesque sight of her slit hidden behind a tiny veil, I don’t stop to pull her panties aside. I’m not wasting any more time, and I’m definitely not going to let a single drop of her juices escape me.

Even if it means licking my tongue raw against her mesh lingerie.

Jess does everything in her power to stifle her moans, but she can’t catch them all. The few squeals of delight that make it to my ear send me into a frenzy. I lick, suck, and do anything else I can to clean her panties. It’s the most gentlemanly thing I can do, considering I’m the one who soaked them.

The flat pad of my tongue runs over the full length of her sex. It stops when the tip meets her engorged clitoris. I wrap my lips around it and let my tongue get back to work. My hands have moved under her dress and back to her breasts.

With no padding on her bra, my fingers find her spiked nipples without delay. I lock them between my index and middle fingers with a light squeeze.

“Fuck, Romeo, you’re going to make me—” Jess slaps her mouth shut before she can finish the sentence. She moans into her palm while her ass wiggles in my face.

There’s something deeply satisfying about seeing her like this. Vulnerable. Exposed. Writhing in the purest form of bliss.

Her legs buckle, and she has to latch onto the edges of the counter to keep from falling over.

But I want her to—fall back and smother me with her pussy. If I’m a dead man walking, I might as well go out on my own terms.

I snatch the thin band of her panties in both my fists, slowly peeling them away from her damp skin. I’ve done what I could to save her laundry lady the trouble of washing these, but I need a taste of the real thing.

“Jess?” a man’s voice roars through the hall outside.

“Oh fuck,” Jess stammers and shoots upright. I grab her by the hips, trying to pull her ass back to my face, but she slaps my hands away. Even with the terror scrunching her face, she still manages a giggle.

“Romeo, stop,” she orders with a somber pout.

I do as I’m told.

I was so fucking close. I almost had everything I could ever want, and it disappeared in a flash. My aching loins stiffen to torture me further, reprimanding me for missing my opportunity.

“Your father?” I ask, running my tongue over my lips to get whatever remnants of her into my mouth.

“Uh-huh.” Jess slumps her shoulders.

“Better get to it then.” I hoist myself to my feet with a labored groan.

“Stay here until the coast is clear,” she instructs and fixes her dress. I’ve never been more sad seeing skin disappear.

“Might be for the best.” Under different circumstances, I wouldn’t allow her to leave my side. I’d brave the storm with her and cut down anyone who tried to stop us.

This time, cooler heads must prevail. That is, if I want mine to stay bullet-free.

“Jess Mayfair, where the fuck are you?” her dad calls out again.

His tone leaves a bad taste in my mouth and isn’t helping me want to stay in hiding.

In a last effort to make her comfortable, I slide my arm around her and take quiet steps toward the door. My last reminder that she isn’t alone anymore. That I’m going to be at her side always, whether she likes it or not. A mountain when she needs someone to lean on and a pack mule to carry her weight.

I’m taking her.

She’s mine, and nothing’s going to change my mind.

It’s only fair that, in turn, I become her monster when she needs one.