Page 41 of Heaven Help Me

Her hand falters for just a moment. Most people wouldn’t have caught it, but I know her better than I know myself sometimes. She goes back to stroking my dick through my jeans and it takes all of my willpower to focus. She opens her mouth, her voice so soft and raspy I have to lean closer to hear her.

“I admit I don’t know much about friendships, but I’d like to think we’re friends.”

The admission kills me. I hate that she’s never had true friends. My own friendship with Silas is one of the best things about my life. I know it took tremendous courage for her to admit a weakness and to ask for what she wants, which is a friendship with me. That goes against everything Bettina has taught her.

“Valentina,” I say with enough command in my tone that her gaze snaps to mine. Her hand stills in my lap. I twist to cup her jaw, my fingers tangling in her hair. Her eyes go soft in the dim light of the moon streaming through the windshield. “We are friends. Never doubt that.”

Her slow smile melts away some of that anger I feel on her behalf. It takes a few seconds, but she eventually leans into my hand, letting the weight of her head rest in my palm. I wonder how many men she’s trusted even this much. My gut tells me the list is short and few.

“I’m going to kiss you now and I trust you won’t stab me this time, yeah?”

She takes her hand off my dick and drills me right in the ribs with her fingertip. “Shut up and kiss me, ciuccio.”

I lean in, desperate to feel her lips on mine. “Gladly.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Valentina, AKA Landry

Good Lord, the man kisses like he has all the time in the world to explore me. Like we aren’t parked in a car outside a motel where we might get caught by security. Deuce, the boy, kissed me with an urgency that felt rushed, which is what I expected.

Not this time though. Deuce is taking his time, plucking kisses from my lips and chin and cheek and even the tip of my nose before he dives back in and finally flicks my bottom lip with his tongue. I open for him, itching to take this further. Immediately.

But he doesn’t. He just slides his fingers into my hair and angles my head this way and that so he can sample me like a tray of appetizers he’s considering.

Well, I’m not here for sweet and slow. Not with him, not with anyone. So I unzip and lift my hips to slide my black jeans and panties down my legs, all while Deuce tickles my face with fluttery kisses. I get the material to my calves and have to saw my legs back and forth to get them off without the use of my hands, which are currently trying to unzip his pants. He bats my hands away, which makes me growl with frustration.

“Easy,” he murmurs against my lips.

“Faster,” I whisper back.

“Slow down,” he argues.

I roll my eyes and surprise him by shooting off my seat and leaping onto his lap to straddle him. He grunts on impact. My knee whacks the gearshift hard, but I grit my teeth and focus on the objective. I can feel him now, his hard length right where I want him. Just a single layer of clothes in the way.

He holds me by the shoulders, though I think it’s more to hold me back than an embrace. “You know there are perfectly good beds right there.”

He gestures through the windshield to the hotel we’re currently staking out. Well, kind of staking out. Can’t really see the hotel or the gray sedan right now.

“No. No hotel.” Hotel beds scream romance. I want it hard and fast and unromantic so I don’t do something stupid like develop feelings for Deuce again. That ended in disaster last time, and I’m not about to make the same mistake twice.

I reach down between his thigh and the car door. I start pressing buttons and his seat moves back a couple inches with a slow vibration of movement. Just enough so my backside isn’t pressed against the steering wheel and in danger of setting off the horn. Then his seat back angles downward, which also gives us some more room.

Deuce reaches for the bottom of my black tank top, but I stop him. “Let’s keep shirts on in case security makes their rounds.”

I swear to God, the man pouts. “But I like boobs.”

“If you’re a good boy, maybe I’ll flash you with them, but right now, I want that dick out of your jeans.”

Deuce grins and I swear I see those straight white teeth of his like a beacon in the moonlight. “Yes, ma’am.” His drawl is slow and Southern. And fuck me, but I kind of like it.

He lifts his hips, which shifts me sideways. I brace against the door, but apparently my ass hits something because all of a sudden his headlights flash on, bright and obvious in the dark parking lot. We both freeze.

“Shit!” He reaches around me and shuts them off. We stare at each other with wide eyes and then burst out laughing. I sag against his chest as I totally lose it.

“Why…is this…so hard?” I manage to ask in between fits of giggles.

“You like it hard, baby?” he says with an exaggerated eyebrow wiggle.