Читать книгу Amazon Awakening - Caridad Pineiro - Страница 6

Rey paced back and forth in front of the windows in his New York City hotel room. Floor-to-ceiling, they provided amazing views in every inch of the space. In the buildings surrounding his hotel, there were glimpses of people still at work at their desks, even at this late hour. The lights and displays on every building in Times Square were so bright they chased away the dark of the night, creating an artificial day.

On the street below, tourists milled about the area snapping photos or forming lines for the assorted ticket lines, shops and restaurants while the locals weaved and bobbed around them as they hurried by at a New York pace.

He could imagine Paola racing along at that breakneck speed, rushing to something, but Rey sensed that it was also about running away. Maybe trying to avoid her family history and the questions that lingered in her mind and heart.

Definitely hurrying from him, he thought, recalling her reaction to the immediate link that had happened between them when he had walked into her office.

The pull had come instantly, and he had been powerless to stop that initial blast of desire through his body. Her Guardian energy was strong, and the female spirit within her had called to him, awakening his own energy.

She had experienced it also. He had seen it in her eyes and in the tension of her body. She had been fighting the enticement of the energy as much as he had, but had also been intrigued by it.

He had not expected the attraction. He had not been prepared for it, but he would welcome exploring it if Paola was amenable. He imagined it would be an intense experience to allow such a powerful spirit to merge with his. To join with her physically, as well.

Paola Lopes was a very beautiful woman, a stunning combination of her mother’s Nordic looks and her father’s darker Latin coloring. Caramel-colored hair. Emerald eyes. Flawless skin of a rich, peachy hue with an easy blush. He had seen it today when he’d turned his gaze on her and recognized the passion simmering beneath her apparently calm and professional surface.

Maybe, if she decided to honor his request, they would find the time to explore that passion, although he worried that she would not respond to her grandmother’s plea.

Despite the desire and unrest he had sensed at her core, Paola had seemed to have found her place in this New York bustle, he thought as he turned away from the windows and slowly undressed.

She was successful at what she did. He had performed an Internet search in anticipation of his visit and had found information on case after case that she had won. Plus, the firm for which she worked was top in their field. He was certain that the corner office meant she was going places there.

So why would she choose to leave with him? Choose the unknown over her comfortable and well-off life?

Maybe that unrest he had sensed. He had no doubt it was about her father and the many unanswered questions she might possess.

But he also hoped that after today, a part of her motivation would be about him and the connection between them. About the passion he wished to explore and which, even now, roused him physically.

As he slipped beneath the smooth and slightly cool hotel sheets, they brushed along the hard length of his erection. He allowed himself to imagine being with her. Inside her.

He groaned and forced away such thoughts. They would only complicate what was already a complex and risky situation.

Paola’s grandmother Patricia grew weaker every day, despite all her assertions to the contrary. Such weakness threatened the Guardians and their role in protecting the sacred space. The Guardians’ role was why it was so important to get Paola to return to her family home.

As Rey had seen today, her spirit was strong and with training, Paola could easily take over her grandmother’s role as Priestess. But to do so meant giving up her current way of life. Moving away from the only family she had left.

It also meant risking herself, physically and mentally. The allure of the sacred space was immense. Only the strongest Guardians could visit, but it took even greater strength to leave and maintain a balance between their two worlds.

Rumor had it that Paola’s father had been too weak to resist that allure.

Like father, like daughter? Rey worried, but then he recalled Paola’s spirit and the determination he had sensed in her.

Somehow he didn’t think so. Somehow he knew Paola would be just what they needed to preserve the Lopes legacy and insure the continued dominion of the Guardians.

But somehow he also sensed that Paola was just what he needed. He had been alone at this Guardian thing for way too long. With her at his side…

Rey closed his eyes and allowed himself to dream. It was no surprise when Paola was there, waiting for him. Welcoming him into her arms in his slumber.

Her skin was smooth, but chilled and slightly damp, as if she had just come from a swim. Rey knew just what would heat her up.

Raising his hands, he cupped the weight of her generous breasts and circled the coral tips of her nipples with his thumbs until they peaked into hard nubs. A soft sigh of pleasure escaped her lips.

Taking each tip between his thumb and forefinger, he tweaked them over and over again and then bent his head, soothing them with a lick.

Paola moaned and held him to her, her eyes closed and her head thrown back as her passion grew. She moaned his name, and threaded her fingers through his hair, keeping him near. He licked and sucked at the sensitive tips, and her skin grew heated against his.

Easing his thigh between her legs, the dampness of her desire registered against his thigh and he pressed upward, applying pressure as he continued to suckle her. In response, she rubbed herself against his leg, seeking release, and Rey was not about to disappoint.

He took the tip of one breast between his teeth and gently bit down. She shuddered in his arms and drew herself across his thigh with greater demand, her heat and wetness leaving a trail of passion along his thigh.

In his dreams, Rey eased his hand down and parted her legs. Found the nub at her center and applied pressure with his thumb while easing his fingers into her moist vagina. In and out he stroked, alternating that possession with pressure until she whimpered with need and held on to his shoulders for stability as her release neared.

Rey urged her ever higher until she was poised at the edge. Only then did he withdraw his hand to guide himself to her, waiting at her slick entrance for some sign to continue.

With the soft sigh of his name, she gave her permission and Rey plunged into her. She was tight, wet and warm and he was her willing captive, burying himself deep.

The vividness of that dream moment yanked Rey from sleep.

He sucked in a few harsh breaths for control, but it wasn’t enough. He was so hard it was almost painful and nothing short of satisfaction would provide him any respite.

Rising from the bed, nearly hobbled by his massive erection, he hurried to the bathroom and turned on the shower, making it as hot as he could stand it. Then he stepped in and rested his hands on the wall as the water sluiced down over him.

The heat and wet of the water wasn’t as luxuriant as Paola had been in his dream, but it would have to do.

He reached down and encircled himself, his hand slippery from the liquid and a drop of soap. Smooth as he imagined she would be and tight against the thick girth of his cock. He stroked, his motion long and slow at first. Skin creating friction against skin, generating heat.

His gut tightened as his arousal burned through him with each long pull of his hand, dragging him ever higher as he envisioned Paola beneath him. Accepting each hard thrust. Raising her hips to allow him to plunge even deeper.

Groaning, he moved his hand faster and harder, striving for satisfaction while at the same time still longing for more. Longing for her, accepting the slide of him. Arching her back as he rode her to a mutual release and called his name as she wrapped her legs around him at her peak.

He came then, his body jerking as he released his seed into nothingness. He trembled from the force of his climax. With a last few strokes, he milked the final vestiges of his pleasure until he was spent and breathing hard as if he had just run a marathon.

Leaning his hands on the wall of the shower once more, he let the water wash away the final traces of his desire, but as Rey thought of Paola again, passion surprisingly roused yet again.

With a curse, he twisted the knob and allowed a freezing torrent to hit him, driving away renewed desire. One thought stayed in his mind.

The next time it would be the real Paola touching him as they made love.

I’d do it all again.

Her mother’s words echoed in her mind as Paola gazed at the photo of the three of them, her mother and father laughing with their arms wrapped around each other and her as she sat in her mother’s lap. An identical copy of the photo had sat on the mantel in her mother’s home for as long as Paola could remember. There was such love shining from their faces that it was hard to believe it could just disappear barely months later. She had always wondered why her mother would keep such a possibly painful reminder in a highly visible place.

It made Paola consider what it would be like to feel that kind of love, but also the despair which followed. And it made her speculate how her grandmother must have suffered, losing her grandchild and then her son barely a year apart.

I’d do it all again, her mother had insisted barely hours earlier during their dinner together.

Which made Paola feel like a coward for not even considering doing it once. After all, what did she have to lose? she thought as she poured herself a glass of wine and sat down on the sofa in her apartment.

How about your partnership? the little voice in her head challenged.

For months, the rumor had been that she was being considered for a position amongst the firm’s partners. It would mean more money, not that she had need of it. Her mother’s family was well-off, and she made enough of her own to not only pay for her expenses, but to squirrel away something for the future. If she was going to be made partner it would happen, if not now then in a few months or a year or two.

How about your comfortable life? the voice insisted while Paola sipped the cab franc, savoring its full-bodied taste, so unlike her not-so-full life.

In fact, her boring life, she shot back to that imaginary adversary. Lately, she had been spending too much time at work with little time to play, and the thrill of winning… It had become hollow since she had no one with whom to share the success.

How about losing yourself?

Now that was an argument that was difficult to ignore. Just earlier that night her mother had hinted at the fact that during their return to her father’s Amazonian plantation it was as if her father had disappeared before her eyes. Her mother had lost him to his frequent trips into the rain forest and the demands of his legacy.

A legacy you know nothing about.

But if her grandmother passed…

More than just the supposed Lopes legacy would be gone. She paused for a moment, considering that. Considering that she stood to lose a bit of herself, a bit of what had made her who she was, if she didn’t take this trip to learn more about her father’s family.

She laid the wine glass on her coffee table and dipped her hand into her jacket pocket. Fingered the card tucked inside. Ran her fingers over the embossed edges of his name and title.

Rey Peralta. Her personal guide to her father’s world. To the grandmother she had never known. Possibly a guide to something else she had ignored—the needs of her heart and body. She couldn’t deny her attraction to him from the moment he had walked through the door of her office. Even now, just the thought of him pooled warmth in her center and awakened something hidden within her.

What would it be like to take and be taken by a man like Rey? To lose all caution and dare to explore the unexpected as her mother had done nearly thirty years ago?

I’d do it all again.

Her mother’s words challenged her.

Rey would be waiting for her answer. But only until Friday. Just a couple of days away. But she wasn’t one to rush, especially considering that her mother’s headlong dash into her father’s arms had caused her great heartache.

Paola was determined not to repeat that bit of painful history, no matter how attracted she was to her grandmother’s emissary. She had to make a logical choice about what to do and not be ruled by reckless emotion or a needy heart. That had already brought her family too much pain.

Whatever this legacy was, she’d have to find a way to deal with it and with her attraction to Rey.

She tossed Rey’s card down on the coffee table and picked up her glass of wine. She took a sip and leaned back, letting her mind run through all the variables. Although the Friday deadline loomed large in her brain, she was certain of one thing.

Rey can wait until I’m good and ready.

It was a mistake to be here, he thought, as Paola’s assistant let him into Paola’s office and he closed the door behind him.

She was in that big executive chair, a sheath of papers in her hand that she slowly laid down as she swiveled to face him.

“It’s not Friday yet,” she said and took no other action to either welcome him or push him away.

Rey had never been someone who easily gave up. Walking to her desk and then around the edge, he stood there, hands clenched to keep from touching her. “I’m not one to leave things to chance,” he said.

“Neither am I,” she replied and did a slow turn to peer up at him, hands braced on the arms of the chair, long elegant legs crossed. Her position hiked up her skirt, allowing him a glimpse of something deliciously lacy just below the staid navy blue fabric.

He itched to explore that bit of sexy lace.

“We both know you’re more than just a buttoned-up suit,” he said and dared to graze his hand along the straight line of her shin to just below her knee.

She trembled beneath that caress and uncrossed her legs, hiding that view of the lace, but providing yet another little turn-on.

“I can smell it. Your arousal,” he said with a little growl from the animal spirit within him that was finding it hard to battle her enticement. It was almost unfair since she was still unaware of who she really was and the legacy that could bring so much pleasure, but also pain.

Paola closed her legs tight as if by doing so she could shut away the desire he was creating with only his presence, but it was a losing battle. Her panties were drenched with her passion, and her nipples were so tight and sensitive even the fine fabric of her bra was inflaming her need.

“You’re not what you seem, either,” she replied, the low little growl in his voice still vibrating within her.

“Can you continue to ignore what you’re feeling now?” he said and held out his hand in both challenge and invitation.

She glanced at his hand, so big and strong. A crisscross of fine lines along his knuckles hinted at some old wounds, confirming that he was a man of action and not a desk jockey. Following the line of his arm, she realized that not even his expensively tailored suit could hide the power beneath the fabric. He oozed strength, and her insides clenched at the thought of all that power directed toward her.

Power too impossible to resist? she wondered, barely a second before slipping her hand into his and rising from her chair. She half expected him to crush her to him, but he didn’t, keeping her inches away while he brought his other hand to her waist.

The weight of his palm on her felt right somehow. But then he trailed that hand lower until he reached the edge of her skirt. He slipped his fingers beneath the fabric and slowly, achingly, skimmed his rough palm along her leg until he encountered the lacy edge of the thigh-high stockings she wore.

He traced that edge with his finger, skipping from lace to the soft skin of her thigh. Making her insides quiver as she imagined that hand moving ever upward, his work-hardened skin rasping along her smoothness.

He finally leaned closer, his warm breath fanning across her temple before he dipped his head and whispered, “You are so much more than what you show the world.”

Before she could deny his statement, he did what she had wanted and brought his hand between her legs, caressing her through the silky fabric of her damp panties. Unerringly finding her center and applying gentle pressure against that sensitive nub.

Her knees weakened, and she grabbed hold of his shoulders for support. Shifting her hips forward, she accepted his wicked caress. He eased past the edge of her panties and slipped his hand inward. Dancing his fingers along her cleft, he teased her, stroking her wet, flushed lips and pressing his thumb against her clitoris, but avoiding what she wanted most.