Page 48 of Rio (Knight Empire #3)

RIO

Raquel goes back to Miami, leaving my apartment empty and a huge void in my life.

I can’t wait to be with her again. We talked about how we could make this work. Weekends here and in Miami. Taking things slowly.

She said she needs to step away from the case, recuse herself. I told her I was looking into things, finding ways to fix it. I didn’t tell her what the old man said. I figure the less she hears about him, the better.

Dex hasn’t stopped teasing me. First thing on Monday morning he was in my office, leaning against the door with a wide smile, trying to get more details from me.

I’m not going to tell him about the hut.

Or how we were marooned on that island overnight.

He doesn’t need to know everything. But he’s secretly happy for me.

What’s even cooler is that Dani and Raquel are best friends.

He’s talking like Raquel and I have a future and I want to believe that. What she said about maybe looking for work here in New York, gave me hope, but she’s career-driven, single-minded and focused. This could just be a fun distraction for her while she’s working so hard.

I don’t want to dream too much, or dare too much. I don’t want to expect too much but I meant it when I told Dex that she’s the woman for me.

So far only Dex and Dani know about us, and that’s how I want to keep it. Even though they’ve now returned from Italy, I can’t risk Matteo or Enzo finding out, because once they do, something always finds its way back to the old man.

This has to stay between us.

Dani won’t leak anything, because she’s loyal to her friend, and I trust Dex implicitly. I trust him like a blood brother—because that’s what he is. It’s time we stop pretending we’re on different sides. Time to stop holding these differences like they matter more than loyalty.

Having Raquel with me feels right. Like something in my chest unlocked and I can breathe again. No wonder Dex thinks I’m softer now. Raquel’s the one thing in my life that makes perfect sense when things around me are chaotic.

We didn’t fix our weekends, or make plans to see one another very weekend. Raquel said it wasn’t possible with her caseload. I’d make time for her. I’d put other things on hold for her, but she’s focussed. That’s what I worry about. Her career means so much to her.

I try to focus on my work, but a week passes, and I can’t take it anymore. I need to see her. I have my assistant call her assistant, ask some casual questions, figure out when she’s free. I discover she’s got a meeting scheduled Thursday evening. Friday’s booked too.

I fly to Miami early on Friday evening, and keep it quiet.

I pull up in a black SUV across the street from her office.

She strides out, looking polished and perfect, as ever.

Exuding power and elegance in her heels and a fitted business suit.

I climb out of the car and lean against it, my insides heating up at the sight of her.

She’s about to hail a taxi, so I call out her name.

She stops, looks at me, and those sexy, sinful lips—not painted so rich red now, but nude—shape into a smile, and then she darts across the street, dodging traffic, making me panic for her safety.

Briefcase swinging at her side, she charges at me, like she doesn’t care who’s watching.

Fuck. This woman. She lights up my entire world. My heart beats out of control, my grin tugging wider, and when she crashes into me, I catch her like I’ve been waiting my whole life to it. I hold her like I’ll never let her go.

We don’t even say anything. She looks up and I see it in her eyes.

The way she looks at me, like she can’t believe I’m real.

Like I’m home. I’m hers. I see it all in her dark brown eyes, relief, adoration and happy surprise.

A sharp, unmistakable flicker of love she hasn’t said out loud yet.

Words I’m biding my time to say to her. I drag her into my arms, and we kiss, hot and messy, like we’ve been starving for each other.

“Inside,” I rasp, my voice as tight as my pants are now.

I open the doors of the sleek black SUV I’ve hired, we make out like teenagers in the backseat, my hands all over her.

She parts her legs, letting my fingers find their way to the silk of her panties.

Sliding the flimsy fabric to the side, I sigh as I explore her slippery folds again.

My cock hardens as the familiar contours of her body send urgent signals to mine.

She groans, jerking off the seat, nipping my ear as I pump my fingers inside her. I consider undoing her buttons, think about latching my lips to her breasts, when she murmurs, “I have a meeting I need to get to.”

““I know. I checked.” I watch her intently, as I finger fuck her, feel her legs part even more. We don’t have much time, but we have enough for me to watch her come. “Don’t worry. I’ll drive you there,” I murmur. “But I want to mess you up completely first.”

She goes soft and boneless, flopping back against the seat. Her arousal paints my hand as I tweak and rub her clit. It takes all my restraint not to sink my head between her legs.

“The … meeting …” she pants.

“I know …” I slide another finger inside her, and she sinks lower against the backseat, her back arching off it. She throws her head back, her neck lengthening, my mouth watering at the expanse of bare skin. I consider giving her a hickey, branding her there, for all to see.

“Riooooooooooooo.” She grinds against my hand desperate with need. “They brought it forward twenty minutes. I can’t be late. Pierce will ...”

His name makes me move my hand away. The last thing I want is to put her career at risk.

To give the fucker she works for a chance to be mad at her.

I kiss her delectable mouth, my tongue finding hers.

A rush of blood makes my cock swell. I want her all over again, and I kiss her, harder, framing her face with my hands, angling her mouth so I can kiss her deeper.

She mewls against my mouth, her hand finding its way to my cock.

“Only took a few seconds,” she chuckles.

Thoughts fill my mind. I consider fucking her like this, while she’s sprawled so sensually across the seat. But I can’t. It will have to wait until later. I pull back and admire her. She’s such a beautiful sight for my eyes. And she’s mine.

“I’ll drive you there.”

She adjusts herself, smoothing down her skirt and her hair. “This is a surprise.” She curls her hand around the back of my neck, kissing me quickly. “How long do I have you for?”

“I’m at your disposal for the entire weekend, if you’re not too busy.”

She kisses me again. “Never too busy for you. We’ll continue this later?”

“You bet.”

She pulls out a mirror and checks her face and hair.

“Where to?” I ask, getting into the driver’s seat, ready to be at her beck and call.

***

RAQUEL

The man I love is the biggest tease. Who would have thought I’d ever call Rio Knight the biggest Romeo? I cannot get enough of him.

Still smoothing down my skirt, I walk into the client meeting five minutes late.

Pierce looks at me with contempt. I see cold hatred in his eyes too.

Ever since I called him out on that sleazy comment, he’s been distant.

He completely blanks me. Doesn’t even look my way.

Barely speaks to me. I’m not sure if this patronizing, sneering down at me version of him is any better than the sleazy douchebag he was.

The meeting lasts for a painstaking hour.

I force myself to focus, but it’s almost impossible.

My brain is here, but my heart and body are back in the SUV with Rio.

I feel restless, itching to escape this meeting room, knowing that Rio is somewhere close, and waiting for me.

Knowing that I have something I thought I’d never have.

A man who loves me deeply, a man who cares, and a man who only wants the best for me.

It’s knowing that there is more to my life than just my career. It’s knowing that I have a home to go to, and not an empty apartment.

Rio stays for the weekend and we make love, and talk, even though we still dance around the case.

We even call Dex and Dani. It’s good that they know because keeping this secret is getting harder. After we were forced to come out to them, Dani was so happy for me, but she hasn’t stopped teasing me since.

“You’re with a Knight?” she keeps saying, mock scandalized. “Don’t you hate these people? You used to think say there were so despicable. Now you’re telling me that this one actually got through to you?”

I have no defence, because Rio Knight did. I used to hate the Knights. I hated them before I even knew who they were. The name alone was enough to put me off them, and once I realized what they were like to have as family? I hated them even more.

But from the moment Rio walked into my life—or slouched lazily on a stool in an upscale Manhattan bar—I couldn’t take my eyes off him.

“He was the man who broke me,” I told Dani.

“They don’t break us, Raquel,” she replied. “They get lucky enough to keep us.”

She’s right.

Rio and I cook and stay in most of the weekend. Partly because I don’t want to run into any work colleagues, especially Pierce, though mostly because we’re still making love all over my apartment, and we’ve turned into hermits.

When we’re not in bed, we cook, we watch TV, we talk about the future. I’ve started looking for jobs in New York, but I don’t tell Rio that because I don’t want to get his hopes up. Or mine.

But, I see him in my future. I need him in my future.