Unbreakable Hearts (17 page)

“John…” she whispered breathlessly. He filled her more fully than she’d ever been filled before and she knew he hadn’t given her everything
yet as he stilled inside her. Dear God. “Please… move…”

His jaw clenched as he
slowly pulled out then slid inside again, still not going as deep as he could. “So… tight…” he mumbled.

When he retreated yet again and held himself there for a few seconds, she begged,
“John, please, give me you…” and she pushed off with her feet on the bed to raise her hips to take more of him which was the exact time he obeyed her wishes and surged all the way inside her, resulting in her crying out. Oh, God, he was so deep.

He automatically froze, saying,
“Fuck, I’m sorry, Tilly. God, are you okay?”He tried withdrawing himself, but she wrapped her arms around him, keeping him inside her.

“Yes,”
she breathed out. Then she raised her hips to his, pleading, “More.”

He
hesitated then started moving slowly inside her again. Finally.

But as he moved, she saw that he watched her carefully, was st
ill holding himself back. Damn it, she was having none of that. If she was going for broke, she wanted all of him. She’d been with two lovers who hadn’t known what they were doing, the first’s excuse being that he was young, the second’s that he was just a terrible lover. And she knew John was neither, so she pushed on his shoulder, rolling him so that his back was to the bed and she was straddling him, then she began to ride him hard, surprising herself, and if the look on his face was any indication, surprising him too. But she didn’t care. This was a man she’d waited for for ten years and she was going to make it worth the damned wait.

***

“Jesus,” Oz muttered, watching Tilly ride the shit out of him, loving every fucking moment of it. God, she was beautiful, her straightened hair now a mass of blond curls from the sweat she’d worked up earlier, framing her gorgeous face. He’d been worried that he’d hurt her before, but now he guessed she’d been serious about wanting more. And he was going to give her what she wanted.

He sat up and pulled her nightgown over her head and off,
putting his hands to her tiny waist and bending down to suck her nipple into his mouth, making her utter a sexy sound from her throat that he couldn’t even begin to describe. Moving to her other breast, he got a duplicate sound as he sucked hard, feeling her body tremble against him.

“Like that, Tilly,” he mumbled, watching as she went a little bit more wild at hearing him speak. Damn. Well, he could give her that too. “Like your tight pussy on me, baby, feels so fucking good,” he said
on a groan as he held on to her, moving her up and down on him faster.

“Oh, God,” she whispered, throwing her head back with a moan.

Oh, yeah, his Tilly liked being talked to. He put his hand down to where they were joined, pushing his thumb into her making her moan again. “Want you to come again, babe. Wanna feel you so tight around my cock.”

At
that, she cried out his name and he felt her body lock up for a couple seconds before she ground down on him hard as her release shot through her and she pulsed tightly around him. Fucking stunning.

He flipped them quickly
, landing on top of her and stretching her leg up, holding it behind the knee, gave her more.

“Take my cock, babe. Take all of it
,” he rasped as he pounded hard inside her, watching as she writhed underneath him, her hips coming up to take each of his thrusts as she cried out telling him how good he felt, how big he was, that she loved him inside her. And he knew then he’d met his fucking match. From that moment on, he knew that she totally owned him, body and soul.

Chapter 16

“Doug!” Roberta Donati grabbed her son by the shoulders when he came into the house. “Is Tilly okay? I heard on the police scanner that there was a break-in at her house! I called Francesca immediately and had her do that search thingy on her computer since I don’t know how to work the darned things. She did a Google and said it was Tilly’s house for sure!”

Jesus. Leave it to his mother to know everything that was going on in the city.

“Yeah, Ma, she’s okay. I just left her place. I’m sure they’ll catch the guy who did
it too,” he said with a snort, knowing he’d caught the intruder on his camera.

“And you didn’t offer to bring her here to stay?”

“No, she’s staying at Quinn’s,” he lied.

His mother cut her eyes at him. “Douglas, what kind of boyfriend doesn’t have his woman stay with him after something like that happens?”

“Ma. She’s fine. Just a little shaken up. If it makes you feel better, I offered, but you know how Tilly is. She didn’t think it’d be appropriate to stay here, you know, her being old-fashioned and all. She was worried about what you’d think of her.”

Roberta smiled.
“That girl. Such a gem. She’s a good one, Doug. Don’t let her go.”

“
I won’t, Ma.”

“Well, I’m going to bed now.
That was some excitement! I tried calling her, but it went right to that answering machine thing. Invite her to lunch tomorrow, will you?”

“Yeah, Ma.
I’ll do that.”

He watched as she shuffled away to her bedroom then he went to the
basement where he ran his “studio” out of his bedroom. After removing his coat, he sat at his computer desk and removed the SD card from his camera and loaded it into his laptop then got the shock of a lifetime.

“Holy fucking shit,” he mumbled. “
Holy fucking shit!
”

He
knew who the man in the pictures was. It was Graham fucking Hightower, that’s who it was. One of New York City’s most famous (or infamous, considering what you’d heard about him) men. The guy was a damned multimillionaire, hell, might even be a billionaire now as far as Doug knew with everything the guy was involved with, and what a coup he’d come upon in catching him breaking into Tilly’s house. Well, he’d just blackmail the shit out of Hightower and relieve him of some of his cash.

H
e scrolled through the shots sorting the ones that showed Hightower’s face the clearest muttering, “Gonna be fucking rich.”

When he got the photos he wanted,
he stopped to think about how he’d lighten the guy’s pockets a bit. He could send him copies of the pictures with a note telling him if he didn’t pay he’d go to the police. Then he’d tell him to leave a briefcase full of money at a drop place somewhere in Central Park or in the subway. Nah, that was too dramatic like some fucking movie. He thought some more. He could have Hightower deposit money into an account for him, that way he wouldn’t have to meet the guy and risk being found out or possibly getting the shit kicked out of him. That sounded like a good plan.

He went to work printing out the photos
, thinking of all the things he could do with the money. He could get his own place on the Upper East Side, buy a Lexus, get some stylish new clothes. Tilly would
beg
him to come back then.

He Googled Hightower’s
business address and printed it on an envelope. Tomorrow was Sunday, but Monday, he’d go to the bank, set up an account, type up a letter with the account number on it and send it along with the pictures . Then he’d wait. By the end of the week, he, too, would be a millionaire.

Fucking genius.

***

Tilly awoke not knowing where she was. She lay there in the
fading darkness for a few seconds before she remembered she was at John’s. And he was lying next to her on his stomach. With his arm across her stomach. And they’d had sex earlier. Lots of sex. Gah!

She
closed her eyes and brought a hand up to cover her face. God, what had she been thinking?

And that was the problem, wasn’t it. She hadn’t been thinking. She’d just done. And now she’d gone and co
mplicated things. Marvelous.

Glancing over at the clock on his nightstand,
she saw it was just after six in the morning. When she’d gone to bed (by herself which was the way it should’ve remained, she now mentally scolded herself), it’d been a little after eleven. When she’d gotten up and opened the bedroom doors, which had led to the situation she was now in, it’d been almost half past twelve.

She and John had ha
d sex then she’d fallen asleep. Having two orgasms in such a short amount of time tended to do that to her, she guessed, since it’d never happened before.

The next thing she’d known, John had awakened her an hour later and they’d gotten down to business again. Her back had been pressed to his front
as they lay there, his arms around her, one of his hands working her breast, his fingers rolling her nipple between his thumb and finger, the other between her legs, his fingers doing fabulously delicious things that made her body fire to life.

His sexy
, rumbly, sleepy voice had been at her ear, “Want you bad, Tilly,” and she’d gone to pieces, just completely shattered right then and there in his arms.

He’d
then pulled her right leg over his right thigh and plunged into her body from behind, making her cry out at his powerful entry, and she’d come again immediately, her sex pulsating around his thick shaft, pulling at him, keeping him inside, her body not wanting to let him go.

He’
d paused at her quaking around him, his voice rumbling in her ear once again, “Feels so fucking good.”

She didn’t know what it was about his voice, but when he spoke while he was doing very naughty things to her body, it drove her wild
, making her respond in kind, telling him things she never thought she’d say in bed. She’d never behaved that way with Jason or Doug, but they hadn’t been big talkers during the act, and she probably would’ve laughed had Doug tried it. But when John muttered such wanton things to her, it turned her on to no end.

He’
d continued pumping inside her, one hand holding her thigh over his, the other still doing wicked things to her, taking her to the height of arousal and she’d come yet again. Good lord. The man was going to ruin her for any other man.

When he’d gotten close, he’d left her for a few seconds, turning her to her back, then came over her,
leaning down to thrust his tongue inside her mouth, kissing her hard, wet and deep before propping himself up on his hands. She’d wrapped a leg around the back of his thigh, the knee of the other leg braced against his hip, and he’d driven inside her, pounding her so hard she’d had to grab onto his wrists to keep herself in place. Wow.

Watching him come had been magnificent, seeing the thick, corded muscles of his neck straining as he’d groun
d himself against her, burying himself to the hilt, his head going back as he’d growled out a curse. And after when he’d pressed his entire weight down on top of her, taking her breath away as he’d nuzzled his face into her neck telling her that she was “fucking perfect” it’d made her breath catch.

Ugh.
She was in so much trouble.

So
now, as she lay next to him, she knew she had to get away.

She
turned and glanced at him looking so peaceful in the early morning light, his face relaxed, and she saw the boy she’d fallen so hard for when she was just a girl. A sad smile covered her face as she carefully moved his arm off her, sliding out from under it and standing at the side of the bed. She froze when he mumbled something, moving his arm up under his pillow and turning his back to her.

And her mouth dropped open.

Good lord! He hadn’t been kidding about a tattoo! It covered his whole back! She leaned closer to see it in the dim light from the windows. It was a skull wearing a beret with a knife in its mouth and two guns crisscrossed under it. It was done in blacks and grays, but the eyes were an eerie red and a luminous green surrounded the entire thing. She put a hand over her mouth when she read what was written on a banner over it:
Death before dishonor.

I
t was then she absolutely knew she needed to go. No way was she doing this, risking getting involved with him, his job being so dangerous, even if all
this
amounted to was just sleeping with him and not getting him to love her. Either way, it would only turn out bad. Just like her dad. Just like her uncle. She’d walk away now before she got hurt.

“Stupid
,” she muttered to herself.

She
needed to hurry because he was making “waking up” noises and she didn’t want to get caught still being there. She went quietly to her bag that she’d left on a chair next to his bathroom door, grabbing it up and leaving the room to go to the other bathroom. Once inside, she dressed quickly in the jeans and sweater she’d packed, pulling on socks and tucking her jeans in them before pulling on her boots and zipping them. Looking in the mirror, she frowned and tried to smooth her hair down some, but it wasn’t cooperating so whatever. She didn’t have time to mess with it.

Opening the door and looking
out, seeing that the coast was clear, she headed to the front door, having to tiptoe so the ridiculous heels on her boots didn’t click on the hardwood floor and wake him. She grabbed her coat off the hook and made it outside to the hallway without incident. Thank God.

In the elevator, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, feeling horrible for leaving him the way she had, but not knowing what else to do.
She loved him, but she couldn’t, no wouldn’t, get attached to him. It was too much. Too scary. Too risky.

In the lobby, she
pulled her coat on and left the building, hailing a cab back to her house.

***

Oz turned over to see his bed empty. He listened to see if he could hear Tilly in his apartment but got nothing.

She’d run.

“Goddamn it!” he hissed out, running his hands over his face.

He sat up, turning and putting his feet on the floor and felt something soft under them. Looking down, he saw it was Tilly’s ni
ghtgown. He picked it up and held it to his nose. Clean. Sweet. Just like her. Leaving it on his bed, he got up and walked into the living room, grabbing his phone off the coffee table.

“Shit,” he said when he saw that Hank had called. He dialed him back
, hoping he wasn’t going to have to leave the city before he was able to see Tilly and set some things straight.

“Oz, you’re calling bright and early,” Hank said upon answering.

Oz rolled his eyes. “You’re the one who called, bossman.”

“Yep, that I did,” Hank said with a chuckle. “Got another skip, but it’s local.
Shouldn’t be too tough. Guy’s supposedly holed up in Hell’s Kitchen. I’ll text you the name and last known address. Pick him up, turn him in and your day’s over.”

“Got it.”
They hung up but before he started getting ready, he texted Tilly.

This isn’t over.

Then he got in the shower, getting ready to go find another asshole.

***

“Crap!” Tilly mumbled when she got the text from Oz.

She’d gotten
home and showered and now sat at her bar drinking a cup of coffee when her phone beeped. She wanted to call Quinn, but it was only just after seven on a Sunday morning and she didn’t feel like being told she was the spawn of Satan who would populate the earth with his illegitimate grandchildren for waking her up. And speaking of spawn of Satan… if Rod had stayed the night, well, then, just ick.

S
he drank her coffee and tried clearing her mind not wanting to think about anything. She just wanted her boring life back.

Upon arriving
home earlier, she’d asked the cabbie if he’d stay until she got in safely. The guy had nodded then driven off the second she’d stepped out of the cab. Typical. But she couldn’t blame him. She wasn’t his responsibility. So she’d sucked it up and gone inside the house. Of course, rationally, she knew it was safe. She hadn’t gotten another text that her alarm had been activated, but just being in the house alone was a test all by itself. And that’d just pissed her off. She’d thought about calling Doug and chewing him out, but if it wasn’t him doing this then she’d risk getting him involved and asking questions and she didn’t want to do that.

Her phone beeped again
with another text. She closed her eyes, afraid to look. When she finally did, she sighed.

You
home?
Jeff. Good.

Yep.

Be there in 5.

Now, that, she could handle. Seven minutes later, her brother walked in.

“What’s up? Thought you’d be spending the day with loverboy.” He grinned at her as he walked into the kitchen.

“Shut up,” she mumbled the
n took a drink of coffee as he got out a mug and poured himself some of his own.