He felt nothing.
Lost to his tongue, she moaned, gasped, and arched her back as her hands grappled for a landing place. Frantic fingers grazed his flaccid cock, and he swatted them away, repulsed and suddenly, irrationally angry.
Old hang-ups rose to the surface. He’d been trained to lick and suck, pleasure and serve. All for a master who had bought him and ultimately died at the hands of his friends. But he’d never felt more like a whore than he did right now.
He didn’t want this woman. His heart wanted someone else.
Since when did his heart have a say in sex? It was inconceivable, yet the damn thing hammered at him, demanding he change course and find another way.
He slowed the roll of his tongue, hating the taste of her skin, the scent of her hair, and the sounds of her gasps. Easing back, he grimaced inwardly at the sight of her body splayed in lust.
With her legs parted as far as the dress allowed, her hand moved between her thighs, stroking her greedy cunt. Eyes bedazzled, tits heaving over the bodice, she was ripe and ready.
From just a kiss on her ear.
So goddamn easy.
He could fuck her right here. She would fall apart on his cock and beg for more, guaranteeing him access to her room, her bed, and the thoughts in her head. He wouldn’t even need to resort to orgasm denial. The way she was looking at him now—eyes hooded and thighs trembling—she would sing her secrets in just a few thrusts.
His move.
Voices murmured around him. Ice clinked in glasses. Soft, classical Spanish music thrummed from hidden speakers, and somewhere deep in his soul, his sense of loyalty won. Loyalty to his friends, his family, and their mission.
He slid a hand along Vera’s inner thigh, the skin damp and hot, quivering beneath his touch. Slipping his other hand beneath her head, he threaded his fingers through her hair. Coarse hair. Straight. Too short and all wrong.
Focus, asshole.
He leaned toward her face, and she lifted her mouth, offering, silently pleading for a kiss. He wouldn’t fuck her here. Not in front of Gina. She was too much of a distraction. Even now, he felt her gaze pounding blow after blow against his back.
Maybe he imagined it, hoping for it like a desperate douchebag.
Clearing his mind, he focused on the plump, red-stained mouth before him, the lips he could conquer and ruin for all others. He’d made women come from just a kiss, and with her fingers vigorously working between her legs, she was already climbing, panting. A puddle of lust and need in his hands.
A breath away from her mouth, he paused, wrestling with the inescapable urge to steal a glimpse behind him. He had to know if she was watching.
If she cared.
Tilting his neck, his gaze unerringly latched onto her waiting eyes. Punishing eyes, flaring with all the violence and scorn of a damaging storm. Despite the distance, the rage in her barely contained breaths blazed a fire around him, burning him alive.
Alejandro leaned over her chair, speaking in Spanish, trying to get her attention. But her gaze remained on Luke, blistering his skin and manipulating the flow of his blood.
He fucking adored her for that. In the space of one look, she roused the darkest, most twisted parts of his nature, stirring awake uncontrollable desires and stretching them beneath his skin.
His balls tightened. His cock swelled, and he had to reach and make a crude adjustment. The feelings she unleashed in him were unwieldy. Monstrous. Impossible to tame. And the dangerous surge only intensified when Alejandro got in her face.
Luke seethed, fighting the vicious explosion inside him. Pulling his hand from Vera’s thigh, he veered his mouth past her lips and spoke in her ear. “I’ll give you some time to think about this.”
It was the best he could do without completely destroying his progress with her.
Pushing off the couch, he crossed the room in a few unstoppable strides and grabbed Gina’s arm. With a hard tug, he had her off the chair and out of Alejandro’s reach.
“Is there a problem?” he asked the stocky muscle head.
“No hay problema.” The man glared daggers. “But I find it odd this…she…” His English broke up as he searched for the right words.
“She watches you.” Marco strolled forward with a hand in his pocket and an arm around a scowling Vera. “Why is this?” He nodded at Gina. “This man-hater stares at you with venom, sure. But something else lurks between her eyes and yours. I want to know what it is.”
Marco wasn’t an idiot. None of them were. They didn’t run the largest, meanest, most dangerous cartel in Mexico on luck. They knew what they were doing, and the biggest part of that was understanding their enemies.
“I give her things.” Luke tightened his grip on Gina’s arm as she angrily tried to jerk away.
“Things?” Marco rubbed his jaw. “What things?”
He met Vera’s eyes and shaped the word like a kiss. “Orgasms.”
Her gaze dipped to his mouth, darkening with hunger.
Marco threw his head back and laughed. “This, I don’t believe. The whore is incapable of pleasure.”
“Perhaps you’re incapable of giving it.”
It was the wrong thing to say.
Sudden, heavy silence clotted the room, the atmosphere too strained to breathe.
Well, fuck. He’d just thrown down the gauntlet, challenging the cartel in their own house.
“Prove it.” Marco’s command fell like thunder through the room. “Show me this power you claim to have over women.”
Burn in hell.
Luke had a mind to tell the motherfucker how he felt about being ordered around. But doing so would end with his body rotting in whatever hole the cartel deemed deep enough.
Carefully, he released Gina’s arm, and carefully, he clasped his hands behind him. “What did you have in mind?”
“This isn’t necessary.” Vera tensed.
“Yes, it is.” Marco paced beside her. “You watched the monitors this morning. The whore fought him, rather pathetically. She did not come.”
“Since you were spying on me,” Luke said, “you know she tried to sneak out before Alejandro came by. You also know that I brought her to the point of begging and denied her release. It’s called punishment.”
Marco and Vera shared a look. Yeah, they’d seen the whole damn show. He’d counted on it.
“You seem to know your way around a woman’s body, Mr. Smith.” Vera touched her throat, toying with a wisp of hair. “But how many of your untamed whores reciprocate?” She flicked a hand at Gina and laughed mockingly. “This one would never put her mouth on you. Not without biting off your dick.”
“Exactamente.” Marco studied him with a pensive mien.
“You’re wrong.” Luke knew how to control the human jaw and feed in his cock without so much as a scratch.
Alejandro gulped back a swig of tequila and lowered into a nearby chair. He was the brother to keep an eye on. The quiet ones were usually shifty and underhanded, the ones who stabbed their victims during consoling hugs and hid the bodies under their beds.
“I’m curious.” Marco paused behind Vera and slid his hands around her waist. “If given the choice, whose face would you fuck? My beautiful sister’s?” He reached up and caressed Vera’s cleavage, prompting her lashes to lower submissively. “Or the bruised face of a whore?”