Page 24

The bass echoing throughout Club Havana was relentless, pounding like Cuban conga drums through concrete just like my patrons liked it. I rubbed the heel of my hand against my temple in frustration after a day of putting out one fire after the next.

“Everything good?” I asked Mekhi and Tony when they entered through the back entrance of the club after making sure the gym was secure since construction just started to rebuild the property.

“We’re good,” Mekhi stated, while Tony just nodded, his usual joking banter non-existent. The loss of Phil was affecting a lot of my men, but Tony most of all. The two had been friends since they were kids, and I knew all too well the loss he was feeling.

“If you need some time off, take it,” I told Tony, clasping him on the shoulder. “We can handle shit until you’re good.”

Tony shook his head. “Nah. I’m fine, Boss.”

Mekhi and I shared a look of concern, but didn’t push him on it. Honestly, if it hadn’t been for Santari, the gym shootout four days ago would still have my mind all kinds of fucked up.

Unfortunately, work didn’t stop when people died around me. I had to keep a constant pulse on the Miami streets to let my enemies know that my business was still running smoothly, which it was. Even so, losing Phil hurt like hell, especially when I was still grieving the loss of Rev.

When my phone dinged, I cussed when I read the message from Elijah.

I told Poppy you weren’t accepting visitors today when she showed up at your office, but she refuses to leave. Shall I escort her to the Velvet Room?

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I huffed, shooting Elijah a text that I’d be to the Velvet Room in ten minutes. No one went into my office without permission.

I had broken things off with Poppy and my other subs the day after I completed that job for Sinceer.

Poppy had been understanding, already assuming Santari had been the reason.

It wasn’t that Poppy couldn’t enjoy the amenities of the club, but I guess she’d been putting on a front if she was here tonight demanding to see me.

“What do you need?” Mekhi asked.

“Nothing cuz. I’ll handle this.”

I wrapped things up with Mekhi and Tony, then made my way to the Velvet Room, prepared for another round of bullshit.

Elijah caught my eye when I reached the kink level, weaving between naughty regulars and the hopeful vultures circling them ready for a good time.

“Is she in there?” I asked, pointing to the closed door.

Elijah leaned in with a sly smirk. “Yes, sir. She is.”

I was about to ask Elijah why he had that goofy grin on his face, when he opened the door to the room and instead of seeing Poppy like I suspected, Ri had her long legs draped over the arm of the velvet chair, clear stilettos kicked up like she owned the place.

She was wearing a brown dress that was glued to her skin, giving off the impression that she wasn’t wearing anything at all. One strap of her dress slipped off her shoulder like a fuckin’ invitation for me to rid her body of the flimsy material.

“Hey, baby,” she purred, tilting her head to the side in a way that showed off her freshly done hairstyle. “Long day?”

I stared at her, my chest still tight, but not from stress and frustration now, but anticipation and excitement.

“You told Elijah to make it seem like Poppy wanted to see me?”

She grinned mischievously. “Only because I wanted you all annoyed and bothered when you stepped into the room. Gina and I got to the club an hour or so ago and you looked like you needed a distraction tonight. I left her at the bar talking with Kesia.”

Shit. I hadn’t even known Santari was in the club tonight, which pissed me off.

I always needed to know when she was here.

Losing Phil meant I had to switch around my other top guys, so Homero—my front door bouncer—was now taking over some of Phil’s jobs and Homero’s replacement wasn’t as good as he was at notifying me about certain shit.

I shut the door behind me harder than I intended, making a mental note to ensure that my staff remembered that anytime Ri entered one of my clubs, that was priority information.

“You think pissing me off is funny?”

She giggled. “No, I think it’s sexy.” She stood slowly, my eyes falling to her thick thighs. “Seeing you all wound up, sporting that control that you wear like armor was too tempting for me not want to peel off of you. Like I bomb I wanted to see detonate.”

I crossed the room before she could blink, grabbed her by the waist, and pushed her back against the wall roughly. Her breath hitched, arousal evident in her eyes.

“You lit the fuse,” I muttered, breathing in her delicious perfume. “Am I the explosion you wanted?”

“Yes,” she huffed breathlessly.

“Do you think I won’t make yo’ ass pay for trickin’ me?” I asked, my voice low and my mouth inches from hers.

“Oh, I’m counting on it,” she teased, licking her deep, maroon-colored lips that I quickly captured with mine.

Fuck. She tasted like tequila and bad decisions. A combination that was slowly becoming my favorite because of Ri. I kissed her like I meant to punish her for the game she played, because I did. Yet, she responded like she’d been starving for my taste.

Her hands slid into my locs and tugged, while her nails grazed my scalp just enough to make my control slip. I pinned her wrists above her head and pressed her harder into the wall, lifting my head to see her face.

Her breath hitched again, but her eyes didn’t flinch. Just like when she was tied up in my bedroom, she didn’t back down.

“Are you worried that you should have gone home instead of pulling this stunt?”

She shook her head. “No.”

“I could tell Storm or Titan to come get you.”

She smirked. “Who do you think told me you could use a break tonight?”

I chuckled, shaking my head. Earlier, the fellas had texted me to check in and I’d simply told them I was good. I should have known my best friends would read between the lines.

“Oh yeah?” I licked her neck. “Did you tell Storm and Titan that you wanted to experience my kind of pleasurable pain tonight?”

“Yes, because I earned it,” she whispered, her lips swollen from our kiss, and her pupils wide and hungry. “Besides, you needed a reminder tonight.”

“Reminder of what?”

“That you belong to me just as much as I belong to you, Storm, and Titan. That all of that out there,” she motioned to the closed door, “doesn’t own you. But I do.”

My grip on her wrists tightened as I captured her lips again, unable to get enough of her. “Ri, you’re sexy as hell when you think you’re in charge.”

“Then you’ll love this.” She widened her legs revealing a feminine looking holster. “I have something there for you.”

I wrapped one hand around her throat to keep her caged to the wall, while the other reached between her legs and pulled out the shiny object that caught my attention.

My mouth brushed her ear. “You’re playing a game you’re positioned to lose, Ri.”

“What if I want you to win?”

I let go of her throat and grabbed her jaw firmly with that hand instead. “You know I’m the kind of muthafucka to get addicted to shit easily. If you let me do this, I’ll want to do it all the time.”

She smiled like she already knew what it would cost her, and didn’t care. “Good,” she said, leaning into the blade that I was holding between her legs with my other hand. “I came here to bleed .”

I growled against her neck, my teeth grazing her skin as I was overcome with too much fuckin’ excitement about what she was letting me do.

Her low and breathless laugh made me more reckless than usual and was the last push I needed to drop to my knees, lift her dress, and remove her panties that I stuck in the pocket of my suit jacket.

Ri widened her stance on her own accord, already knowing what I needed.

With the knife, I dragged it up and down the inside of her creamy brown thighs, loving the way she shivered beneath the touch of the blade.

I wasted no time with the first cut, slicing her beautiful skin softly, before going over that same cut a little deeper the next time.

She moaned, more pain than pleasure, but muttered a soft, “Keep going,” when the blood began to trickle down her skin. I cut the other side of her inner thigh next, going slower this time to savor the experience a bit more.

“Look at you,” I muttered, glancing up at her, while I dug the knife a bit deeper, “Bleeding like you were made for me.”

She whimpered, her legs shaking after I released my blade from her skin. Her body began sliding down the wall, but that’s not where I wanted her.

Gripping both of her legs, I lifted her off the ground and stood, placing her thighs onto my shoulders and forcing her to wrap her legs around my head.

“Cruz,” she moaned, her sexy voice teasing my ears as she became overcome with pleasure.

I buried my face between her thighs, my tongue ring grazing her walls, while I alternated between eating her pussy and licking the blood from where I cut her, the combination my undoing.

Ri quivered beneath my mouth, clawing at the smooth walls to try and keep herself balanced, before realizing that gripping my head was the best way for her to hold on. I dug my tongue deeper inside her, lapping up her tasty juices, while increasing my strokes.

“Cruz!” This time, she yelled my name and tightly grabbed my locs in a way that was painful just the way I liked it. Her sweet cum was filling my mouth a minute later, her hips bucking against my tongue as I refused to let up the pressure.

“Holy shit,” she murmured as I eased her off of my face and allowed her body to slide down mine. I didn’t give a shit if she was messing up my navy suit. In fact, I wanted to fuck up our clothes even more.

Her heels had barely touched the floor before I was unbuttoning and unzipping my pants, then lifting her up to my waist this time. Ri didn’t have to be told what to do as her legs wrapped around me, her hot pussy sucking in my dick perfectly as I thrusted inside of her.

We both released twin groans of satisfaction, the intimate connection between us one that I would never get enough of. The only thing that would make it better was seeing her get fucked by Storm and Titan tonight too, but I was sure those bastards had already had their time with her today.

Right now, it was my turn to destroy this pussy.

“Cruz, right there,” she cooed, lifting her hips to meet my thrusts as I fucked her roughly against the wall, releasing the frustrations of the day … of the losses I’d experienced this year.

When Ri finally released another orgasm, it only took another minute or so before I followed behind her, grunting into the ceiling of the Velvet Room in a way that felt as therapeutic as it was enjoyable.

Instead of lowering Ri to the floor, I continued to hold her tightly and walked us to the velvet chair. We were still intimately connected when I sat down with us both facing each other while she straddled my lap.

Unable to help myself, I kissed her hard, swallowing each moan and every whimper that left her mouth. When I finally let her breath, her eyes were glassy, her chest was heaving. And her freshly done hair was a tangled mess.

Yet, she never looked more beautiful.

“Is this what you needed today?” she asked, gently cupping my cheeks. I nodded, not trusting my words because some days sucked and were hard as fuck for no reason … like today.

“I needed this too,” she whispered, leaning her head down onto my shoulder. I held her in a much-needed hug, counting my lucky stars that I had her in my life.

My grip on her didn’t loosen for another twenty minutes, until Elijah knocked on the door and fucked up my kumbaya moment when he told me that I was needed on the main level of the club.

“Damn, okay!” I yelled to Elijah when he knocked a third time. “Calm yo’ Geoffrey Butler off The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air ass down. I’m comin’.”

Santari slapped me on the shoulder and told me to be nice, while Elijah gave me the silent treatment when I finally opened the door.

Eventually, I apologized, but he was too damn sensitive. Homeboy wouldn’t say shit to me the rest of the night and only sent me text messages to communicate.

It didn’t fuck up my mood though. Thanks to Ri, I felt much lighter when I got back to work. That’s what she did for me. If only for a moment, being with her always felt dangerously close to peace.