they fell along the curve of her shoulder.
Their lovemaking last night had been a needy combination of frustration and longing. This was something far different. It spoke of all they’d had and lost and wished they could find again. Deep down in the core she desperately wanted to hide, she felt the tug of that emotion. She wasn’t strong enough to fight it, and Santos didn’t even want to try.
He nipped the spot she knew he would find, and she moaned, just as he knew she would. When they’d been together in the past, all he’d had to do was touch that place with one finger, and she’d been his for the taking. It made her angry that her body could respond to him that easily. How could it betray her with such fierceness?
She didn’t have an answer, and it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. He kissed his way lower, his mouth seeking her breasts. Removing the lacy bra and her phony resistance, his lips teased her. Slowly, methodically, he continued, his hands unzipping her pants and sliding them off her hips. His mouth followed.
She moaned with pleasure, the growl starting deep in her throat until she couldn’t stand it any longer. She was still struggling to catch her breath when he peeled off his clothes and tugged her down to the carpet beside him. He stretched his body on top of hers, his hands drifting slowly downward. His fingers found all the places that matched the tender trigger of passion on her neck, and once again, she lifted herself to meet his touch. By the time he entered her, she was begging for a release from the desire he had created.
He didn’t give it to her. Instead he drew away and demanded she create the same need in him. By the time they came together again, her heart was pounding furiously. She clenched her hands against his back, and he flexed at her touch, the muscles bunching beneath her fingers into powerful ripples. His touch turned into fire, the rhythm between them building faster, her reactions instant and unrelenting. She’d acted like a different person when they’d made love last night, and now it was his turn to seem like someone else. All at once, she was with a stranger. A lonely, dangerous stranger who was holding her as if he’d never let her go.
She clasped him just as tightly, feeling the very same need.
…
They left Reina’s house in the predawn darkness and headed for the village where Enrique’s mother supposedly lived. While the road flashed under the Harley’s tires, Santos allocated his thoughts about his and Rose’s lovemaking to the very back of his mind. He replaced them by concentrating on the conversation in Reina’s courtyard. The idea of Ortega and Juan Enrique being connected seemed plausible even though he certainly didn’t like the possibility. It complicated the issue, to say the least. But the devil was in the details, and those remained elusive no matter how he looked at it. A couple of miles from the outskirts of the town, he pulled the bike off the potholed road and into the brush. He silenced the engine and removed his helmet. “I want to wait here for a bit and make sure no one saw us leave Reina’s.”
Rose took off her helmet, too, and sat motionless with her arms wrapped around his waist. She dropped her head to his back. “I don’t want my mother to be involved with all this.” Her voice was whisper soft in the stillness of the desert. “The violence, the craziness, the…uselessness of it all. I hate it.”
“You’re supposed to hate it. That’s why we’re the good guys.” He eased away from her and stood. Above them, the stars stabbed the black velvet sky, their piercing points shimmering as he stared. In different circumstances, he would have thought the sight beautiful. Right now the unrelenting darkness seemed as deadly as everything else in this part of Texas. He sat back down, this time facing her, his thighs bracketing hers as his hands went to the column of her neck.
Beneath his fingers, her skin was warm and smooth. “I don’t want anyone involved in it, especially the kids who have their whole lives ahead of them. That’s why we’re here, Rose. We both want to stop it.”
She reached up and held onto his wrists. “I’m not sure we can win the fight. I think they’re gaining on us when I see things like what happened