Baited (6 page)

He let me. Another rarity.

Our eyes met. “You’re here because you missed me, huh?” I cooed.

“Answer the question.”

So much for my sex-kitten act. “I’m not depressed. Just trying to kill some time. Make new friends.”

“Why?”

“Why what? Why did Jimmer say I was depressed? Maybe because I called him and complained of boredom, hoping to entice him into hanging out with me, which he did.”

“Not that. Why are you trying to make friends in the back room of my bar?”

“Because I don’t have any friends at the
front
of your bar?” I joked. Well, half-joked really.

No change in his expression. He just studied me.
 

And like always, I buckled under the implications of that unblinking stare. “What?”

“What kind of people come into this bar, Julie?”

Lowlifes
wasn’t an answer I could give him even when we both knew it was true.

“Do those people back there look like the type who hang around in Fat Bob’s?”

Don’t retort that you wouldn’t know since he doesn’t let
you
hang around either.

“Don’t you find it odd the one night you’re in here—alone—that they’re chatting you up, trying to establish a friendship with you?”

Stung, I retorted, “You find it so hard to believe that I’m interesting enough that normal people outside of your biker universe want to get to know me?”
 

“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” he said evenly. “I don’t think they’re interested in you as much as they’re interested in the elusive woman who shares my bed every night.”

“I am not your dirty little secret.”

No confirmation or denial from him.

Un. Real. I wanted to shove him away from me, but A) I knew he wouldn’t budge even if I used both hands, and B) He was El Presidente, and even when I was pissed off, I had too much respect for his position to disrespect him in his own bar.
 

I let my hands fall away from him. “Back off.”

“No.”

I glanced at him from beneath lowered lashes.

“Don’t look at me like that,” he said softly.

“Like what?”

“Defeated. Cowed. You’ve never backed down from a fight—with me or anyone else—a day in your life.”

“Ironic isn’t it? That I’m on my best behavior when I go to your precious bar. I didn’t come here trying to lure you away from the
shit to do
you mentioned this morning. I’m not looking to get into trouble, or start a fight, but I still end up in one. But it’s worse because it’s with you.”

“Julie.”

Whiny girl had taken control. “Let me go.”

“No.” Then his rough-skinned fingers curled around my jaw and he tipped my face up.
 

I opened my mouth to protest his manhandling of me, and he kissed me.

Tony Martinez kissed the living hell out of me.
 

In public. In his bar.
 

He made that warning growl when I tugged him closer by his vest. But I needed something to hold onto; the man’s kiss had a kick more potent than a bottle of tequila.

After he completely destroyed my composure, he broke the seal of our mouths and dragged his damp lips to my ear. “I don’t want to fight with you.”

I wanted to angle my head so he could start those long, hot kisses down my throat. “So don’t. You started it.”

“And I’m gonna end it.”

“Sounds promising.”

“You still wearing that bikini you put on this morning?” he murmured against my neck.

“You’ll have to strip me to find out.”

“Deal.” He smiled against my cheek. Then he backed off and did another strange thing; he draped his arm over my shoulder, very clearly marking me as taken. And as his. “I’ll tell Mike we’re headed to the back.”

Buzz tipped his chin at me in acknowledgment from the bar. Big Mike smirked about Martinez’ PDA, but didn’t make a smart comment.
 

Halfway to the door, Lisa intercepted us. “Hey, Julie. I wondered where you’d disappeared to.”

Did it make me more suspicious that Lisa barely gave Martinez a glance? Because few women, okay
no
women, look at me when they could be looking at him.
 

My brain was just muddled enough to think she’d played it too cool. “Like I had a choice but to bail, after you guys completely took over my booth when I stepped away for a few minutes.” I threaded my fingers through Tony’s. “I found something better to do anyway.”

Lisa’s eyes widened. Her gaze moved between Martinez and me, eying his vest and the bulge in his tattooed bicep as he kept a proprietary arm around me. “Can’t say as I blame you. It was fun hanging out. Maybe we’ll run into each other again sometime.”

It was on the tip of my tongue to say I’d like that, but I didn’t need to give Martinez an opening to warn her off. I mumbled something like, “See you,” and sensed her disappointment when Tony led me away.

Holding my hand, he stopped at the door that kept the back of the building off limits. He punched in the code and once we were on the other side, we waited until the system rearmed. The backroom held shelves with the usual bar supplies including liquor, as well as walk in coolers for the kegs. But the biggest chunk of the space was devoted to Martinez’ office suite. He had offices in every place he owned including our house. Overkill? Not when I considered the type of business he was involved in and the danger to a man of his position. I liked the fact he had several fortified hidey-holes he could bolt into if need be.

After decoding yet another door, we passed through the short entryway leading into the suite.
 

Martinez didn’t stop in the living area; he towed me straight into the bedroom.
 

I wandered to the edge of the bed and waited while he shut and locked the door. As usual I didn’t have to wait long.

The hard wall of his chest pressed into my back, his hips were snug against my ass, and his breath stirred my hair. Then those warm, damp lips trailed over the section of skin beneath my earlobe, eliciting my shiver and my soft plea. “Yes. Keep going.”

“You undo me, blondie. The way you respond to me. Every. Single. Time.”

I didn’t have to tell him it’d never been like this with anyone else. That he was it for me. Even through our past struggles and my awareness this would never be an easy, normal relationship, I’d deal with it all as long as I could call him mine. “Tony—”
 

“Tell me,” he urged, alternating soft bites and tender kisses along the cord straining in my neck, while his fingertips lazily trailed up and down my bare arms.

I loved that he’s so greedy with me—physically and emotionally. I turned my head and my mouth grazed his temple. “I love you.”

“Never, ever get tired of hearing you say that to me.” Martinez paused and his breath fanned across my damp skin in an intimate lovers’ caress. “
Te quiero mucho.
”

His shock and gratitude, those words he said only to me, always spoken from the heart, never failed to move me. To empower me. I whispered, “Let me show you.”

Then he turned me to face him. He swept my hair aside and slowly slid my purse strap down my shoulder, tossing the bag to the floor. Locking those gorgeous heated brown eyes on mine, he unsnapped the buttons on his vest. He reached over and draped it across the back of the chair. Then he yanked off his white T-shirt.

My heart raced and that familiar feeling of lust rolled through me at seeing his chest, beautifully marked up with scars and tats. I couldn’t help it; I licked my lips.

“You can look at me like that anytime,” he said with a sexy growl.

“I do look at you like this all the time.” I reached out and ran my fingers across the thick black letters of my name tattooed over his heart. Although he’d had the tat done a year ago, it still amazed me this beautiful man cared so much about me that he proudly wore my name on his skin. I used both of my hands to trace the ink decorating the tawny gold flesh, the deep cut of his muscled arms and shoulders.

He wordlessly placed his hand over mine and slid my fingers down the center of his torso, over his abs of steel, to his belt buckle. Martinez angled his head to kiss along my jaw. As soon as his jeans were past his knees I dropped to mine.

My buzz faded and I became drunk on him. His taste. His scent. His rough need. My fingers sent reverent touches across the hard planes of his body as I worshipped the hard length and the masculine center of him with my mouth.
 

He demanded more. I gave. Willingly.
 

Oh so willingly. I loved making him lose control. He went wild, bucking his hips, letting the storm of release I’d given him overtake him completely.

In the aftermath, I licked my lips again.

Tony’s hand was still twisted in my hair as I brushed my mouth over his thigh just to feel it tremble beneath my lips. I’d earned those thickly muttered Spanish phrases and his soft grunts of satisfaction, so I didn’t try to hide my smile.

My gloating didn’t last long. Martinez hauled me to my feet, stripped me out of my shirt and capris. He tugged on the strings of my bikini bottoms and they hit the carpet.
 

Then he tempered the intensity that always exploded between us, showing me his playful, teasing side by using the strings on my bikini top to tie up and immobilize my hands, before he pinned me to the mattress.

When I started to protest, he kissed me to shut me up. And as soon as his lips abandoned mine and zigzagged to all my hot spots, I forgot what the hell I’d intended to complain about.
 

After he’d made me quake beneath his exacting hands and skillful mouth, Martinez levered himself over me. His dark eyes gauged my every stuttered breath, my every anticipatory tremble as his body powered into mine.

Immediately the heat between us flared again. But he purposely pulled back. Watching me. Dragging out this pleasure for both of us.

I traced the upper bow of his damp lip with my thumb. “I like it like this.”

“No, you need it like this.” Martinez melted me with his cocky smile right before he lowered his mouth and kissed me in that slow, drugging way I craved.

Every drawn out stroke, every lingering touch, every whispered word against my skin tightened our connection.
 

When I couldn’t hold off any longer and arched into him, he swallowed my cry—his name on my lips a benediction as I unraveled. Then, with my hands gripping his ass and my mouth on his ear, he slammed into me several more glorious times and followed me over the edge.

I zoned out and didn’t come to until Martinez rolled to his back and tucked me into his side.

Sated, I settled in and pulled the sheet over us.

After a bit, he said, “So what’s this needing to find new ‘friends’ thing about? You have friends.”

I knew he wouldn’t let it go. I had to try and explain even if it put a dent in my tough girl armor. “It just hit me that I don’t have a girlfriend to hang out with since Kim became a mom. It wouldn’t be a big thing, except Kevin’s gone most of the time, you’re busy running three businesses and the Hombres, and Jimmer doesn’t believe in making plans. I thought it’d be nice to have someone to do stuff with.”

“What kind of stuff?”

I tossed out an arbitrary girl thing. “Shoe shopping.”

“Shoe shopping? Really? That’s it?”

My fingers idly traced the curve of his ribcage. “I’ve pretty much always hung out with guys, so it was fun doing girly stuff with Kim. Now she has no interest in being poured into a cab after too many two-for-one margarita specials. I miss that.”

Tony’s breath stirred my hair as he waited for me to continue.
 

“I spend a lot of time by myself. Usually I’m fine with it. But the last couple of days it’s bugged me.”

He twisted my hair around his finger. “Does it bug you that we don’t have dinner and drinks with other couples? Like you saw with those people that were in the backroom?”

I tried to wrap my head around Tony and I sitting in a restaurant, making small talk with others outside our normal world. “That’s not us. Without being a dick, this isn’t about you and me, it’s just about
me.
” I poked him in the chest. “And by the way, piss off for trying to crush the friendship rainbow bridge building between me and Lisa. Ego much? She wasn’t trying to get close to me to get dirt on you. She thought I was cool and fun. She’s been the first person in a long time who’s made me feel that way.”

Martinez tugged on my hair to get my attention. “
I
think you’re cool and fun.”

I rolled my eyes. “You wanna go check out fall shoe styles tomorrow and then we’ll stop in that little bistro off of West Main for lunch? Then hit ladies night at the Clock Tower?” I laughed at his panicked look. “I didn’t think so. And don’t say Corny or Buzz would be happy to go with me. I’m not looking to hang out with your hired muscle any more than I already do. And besides, I
am
a private investigator. If Lisa wasn’t who she claimed to be, I could find that out.”