4. Marco

CHAPTER 4

MARCO

I couldn't resist showing off just a little for Eve.

I took the long way to my hotel, cruising down the waterfront for no good reason. For no good reason except it was quiet. The road was wide and ran straight for long stretches, and I could gun it. Put on some speed. Eve gasped at first and gripped onto her seat. Then she laughed, breathless, and flung her head back.

"Faster," she said.

"Yeah? You're not scared?"

"No. I trust you."

My chest swelled at that, pumped up with pride. We'd just met and she trusted me. Take that, Rafael .

I slowed for the cops manning the border to France, then opened the engine when they dropped out of sight. My eyes stayed on the road, but I could feel Eve beside me, her mounting excitement, her tension, her joy. She shrieked when we drifted around a wide curve, laughed when we roared like a train down the straight. I could picture her cheeks touched with hot bursts of pink, her blue eyes bright with exhilaration. I knew how she felt because I felt the same way, that charge I always got when I drove just for pleasure. I could've driven her for hours, driven her through the night, but she was looking for an escape, not an abduction.

"I've passed my hotel," I said, as I slowed. "But it's not far from here."

"Then let's go." Eve slid her hand over to brush up my thigh. A dark thrill chased through me, a hot surge of want. A woman like her didn't come along every day, sexy and smart, adventurous, fun. Women like Eve moved in their own world, a world full of titans and princes. Rafael. She'd come down to earth just for tonight, and I wasn't going to waste that. I'd make it count.

In my hotel's rattling elevator, Eve had the same idea. She grabbed me by my shirt and pulled me to her. Kissed me like she meant it, so deep my head spun. The doors slid open, dinged, then slid closed again, and the old-fashioned cage rattled back down five floors.

"We missed it," said Eve, voice hoarse from kissing. I thumbed the button again and we rode back up lip-locked. We staggered out when the doors dinged, then backward down the hall. Eve tasted sweet, like sugar and gin. I couldn't get enough of her, or her fresh smell. Her hair felt like silk when I ran my hands through it, her body lithe in my arms, her skin creamy smooth. She was water and I was thirsty; she was air and I needed to breathe. I couldn't take my hands off her to dig out my key. I pushed her up against the door to my room, caught her moans in my mouth as I traced the lines of her body. My cock thrust up, eager, and she bucked against it.

"My room key," I groaned, and she pawed through my pockets, dropping objects that weren't keys on the floor at my feet. I toed a pack of gum away, a hotel matchbook. Then she pulled out my key and I took it from her, fumbled the door open, and we shuffled inside. Eve kicked her shoes off and stood on tiptoe to kiss me. I swept her up and carried her to the bedroom.

"We should call for champagne."

"What, right now?"

"I want to taste it here. On your lips." I kissed her again, lingering, heated. "Champagne and strawberries. What do you say?"

"Yes. I say yes." She fell back on the bed. I sank down with her and pulled the phone toward me, called in our order while she nibbled my neck. Her breath on my skin sent chills coursing through me, my whole body burning with urgent desire. I drank in the sight of her when she lay back, panting, the spill of her blond hair across the plump pillows. She was rumpled and breathless, her red lipstick smudged. I'd done that to her, smeared her perfection. Left my mark on her, at least for tonight.

"What are you looking at?"

"Just you," I said. "Those pretty blue eyes."

She ran her hand up my back, under my shirt, her soft palm grazing the bumps of my spine. I couldn't wait to lie skin to skin with her, hold her in my arms naked and clean.

"Your eyes are nice too," she said. "I like your long lashes."

"I like your little ears, and your heart earrings."

"I like your chest hair." She hooked her thumb in my collar and stretched it down. "Mm. Very manly."

I hoped she'd keep undressing me, maybe peel off my shirt, but room service chose that moment to show up with our treats. I stood halfway behind the door to hide the bulge in my pants, and ducked in front of the service cart as the man wheeled it in.

" Merci bien ," I said. " Je l'ai d'ici ."

The bellhop ignored me and pushed the cart to the bedroom, and deposited the champagne bucket on the side table. He left the strawberries beside it on their covered plate. I turned my back on him as he trudged back out. Eve was hiding laughter behind her clenched fists.

"Not funny," I said, as the door clicked shut.

"It is a little." Eve sat up. "Bring those strawberries over here."

I brought the plate over. Eve went to take one, but I slapped her hand away.

"No sweets for mean girls."

Eve's eyes went wide. "Mean girls? Me?"

"Mm, you were laughing." I kissed my way up her neck. She snaked her hand around me and tried for a berry. I caught her hand and pinned it to the pillow, and took a strawberry myself and held it in my teeth. Eve reared up and bit it, and sighed with pleasure.

"Good?"

"Yeah, delicious."

I fed her another and tried one myself. It was ripe and sweet, but Eve would be sweeter. And Rafael's face, when he saw in the morning. I wished I could be a fly on the wall to see that, his little smug smirk twisted with rage. His socials exploding with ha-ha emojis.

Eve stretched past me and grabbed the champagne. She pulled off the foil and tossed it aside. I smiled and drew back as she tugged at the cork.

"Careful. Go slow, or that's going to?—"

"Oh!"

The cork popped out fast. Champagne fountained out. It spilled down Eve's front and over my legs, and we both gasped from the sudden chill. Eve scrabbled back. I jumped off the bed. She stood, her breasts beaded with sparkling champagne.

"Sorry about that. I wasn't expecting…"

"No, no, it's fine. It washes off, right?" I thumbed champagne off her shoulder and felt she was trembling. Just from the chill, or was she nervous? I took the bottle from her and set it back on the table, and pulled her to me. Kissed her soft on her forehead.

"It can be just this," I said. "If that's all you want."

"Just what?" Her brow furrowed.

"Champagne and kisses. Revenge on Rafael. We don't have to do more than that if you don't want to."

"And what if I do?" She pressed up against me. "What if I want you to make me purr like that Audi? Spin me around till I go ‘Rafael who?'"

I unzipped her dress. "Do you?"

"What do you think?" She took my shirt in both hands and jerked it up roughly, and we both wrestled it over my head. Eve was admiring me when I got my face clear, hungry eyes fixed on the lines of my torso.

"Thirst trap is right," she said.

I blinked at her. "What?"

She shook her dress off her shoulders and it slid down her body. Crumpled at her feet in a puddle of silk. She wasn't wearing a bra. She didn't need one. Her small tits were perky, her hard nipples rosy. She ran her hand down her front, down the silk of her panties, and I surged forward and seized her by the waist. I tossed her on the bed like a doll, like she'd wanted, and clambered on top of her, and kissed her deep. I kissed her mouth, her sharp chin, down the line of her jaw. Down her slim throat, sweet with champagne. I sucked the taste off her nipples as she unhooked my belt. Shudders ran through her body with each flick of my tongue, each brush of my lips, every graze of my teeth.

"You forgotten his name yet?"

"Not yet. Keep going." She tangled her hands in my hair and guided me lower. I kissed a line down her ribs and the curve of her belly. She tensed as I sucked at the crest of her hip. Moaned as I worked my way down the line of her panties. I teased them aside and lapped at her slit, and was rewarded with a hiss and a buck of her hips. She twisted her hands in the mop of my hair, and the light wrench of pain only spurred me on faster. I wanted to get her moaning my name, not just not-Rafael's, but mine on her lips. I wanted her to scream it, to cry it out loud, no room in her thoughts for any other.

"Please… please?—"

I fluttered my tongue. Circled her clit. Dug my blunt fingers into the flesh of her thighs. Begging for more was good, but we weren't there yet. I needed her helpless under my spell.

"Don't stop."

Oh, I wouldn't. I wouldn't stop till I heard her, till I felt her lose her mind. Till I knew she was mine, at least in this moment, every inch mine and nobody else's.

"Fuck, fuck… fuck, yes! " She gripped my hair hard and ground up on my lips, and I gave her what she wanted. What I wanted as well. She tasted divine, as good as she looked, salt and clean sweat and a hint of champagne.

"Marco," she moaned, and I almost hit my crest with her. Almost came undone at that hot, gorgeous moan. My name came so ragged, so dripping with want, I found myself breathing hers over and over. I'd never had it this good, this intoxicating. Never wanted anyone like I wanted her.

" Marco ," she sighed, and her fingers went lax. She'd been pulling my hair, and now she stroked gently. "What else can you do?"

"What else do you want?"

"Get up here and kiss me. And get those pants off."

"Mm, bossy much?" I did as she said. I liked her demanding side, her wide, naughty smile. The pinch of her teeth as she nipped at my lip. I shoved my pants down halfway and she kicked them off me, and she snagged her purse from the side table. She fished out a rubber and tore off the packet, and rolled it on me in one fluid motion.

"Fuck me," she said.

"Ask me nice."

She slapped my ass. "Fuck me now. "

I slapped her back, teasing, across the meat of her thigh. She smacked my shoulder, then the side of my head, then pulled me in for a lingering kiss. She was laughing, giggling, a bright, joyful sound. I couldn't wait any longer, and I slid inside.

Eve gasped at my girth and wrapped her long legs around me. She pulled me in deeper and rocked up her hips. We moved together, her breath on my neck. She hadn't taken her shoes off and her heels gouged my back, spurs to a horse, and I rode harder. My name spilled from her lips. I shouted hers. She arched up against me and I held her close. I flipped us over and let her ride me, her blond hair silver in the starlight. She never stopped touching me, exploring my body. I lost myself in the constant sensation. Soon, I knew I wouldn't hold out much longer, and I rolled us back over and leaned in to kiss her.

"Marco…" Her breath was hot on my lips. I thrust in deep and she bucked up to meet me. Our rhythm picked up in a rising crescendo. I kept my eyes open as my peak overtook me, memorizing her face in her own ecstasy. Her head was flung back, her pink-kissed lips parted, a bright, warm flush high on her cheeks. I'd never seen anything so perfect, and my climax hit hard.

"Marco," she whispered, as we crumpled together, her leg slung around me, her cheek pressed to mine. I pushed my fingers into the fall of her hair.

"I shouldn't sleep here," she said, and cuddled up closer.

"Why not? Who's stopping you? You got somewhere to be?"

Eve didn't say anything, just pulled up the covers. I toyed with her hair as her breathing went slow. I didn't want to doze off just yet. I wanted to savor the time I still had with her, the few hours before she remembered I was no prince. I wasn't her endgame, just a vengeful detour.

She whispered my name again, halfway asleep, and I smiled, spiteful. For tonight, I'd won.