Page 23 of Strange Seduction (Strange #2)

“I don’t want you around Vince anymore,” I said. “Do you fucking understand me?”

“Yes.”

“I’m not playing, Carmen.”

“I know.”

“And Marcus…You should’ve told me about the thing with your dad.”

“I know.” Her voice cracked. “I’m sorry.”

I exhaled. “And I’m sorry I blocked him. But for the love of God, Carmen—limit the conversations.”

“Yes, Teddy.”

Her voice softened into that tone that always did things to me. She looked up at me with those big brown eyes and got in close. Her hand cupped me through my pants, and my face twitched.

She knew what she was doing.

“Anything else?”

My eyes lowered to her body. She’s been loving wearing dresses here, and I was thankful for it. Easier to take off.

“We’re talking about your father’s case,” I muttered, barely holding it together. “After this.”

I snatched her up and our mouths found each other, hungry and full of tension. I wasn’t gonna make it to the bed. Not with the built-up frustration of work and dealing with her pretty ass stressing me out.

I needed release.

Now.

The closest surface I could find was the couch, in front of the sliding door. I set her on her feet in front of it as she continued to kiss me. We clawed at our clothes, though I was doing most of the work.

“This ain’t gonna be gentle, Sweetness. I need you to bear with me.”

“Hm,” she moaned against my lips before she pulled away. “I don’t mind.”

With surprising force, she pushed me down onto the soft cushions and climbed onto my chest. My view was breathtaking, her naked body set against the background of Rome’s skyline.

I could die happy with this memory in my head alone.

“Open wide,” She commanded. I did as I was told, and she planted both her feet on either side of my thighs before standing over me and leaning forward. Then, without warning, she sank onto my face, suffocating me.

“Suck.”

That was all she said before she started riding my mouth, hands tangling in my hair for balance. I welcomed her sweet, sweet taste with thankfulness.

I changed my mind.

This was the perfect way to die.

Smothered to death by the best pussy in the world.

The metal of her pierced clit grazed against my teeth and her body shivered. Through a lot of experimenting, we’ve discovered all the benefits this piercing has to offer—my favorite being an excessive amount of orgasms. If I applied the pressure just right, she’d undo like a knot.

So I did.

“Fuck!” she cussed as she crawled in on herself. “Not yet! not yet!”

She pulled away, but my hand reached up to secure her on my face by her thigh. The movement created a small gap of air, which I wasn’t happy with, but at least I could talk now.

“Who said we were done?”

“Teddy—”

I didn’t give her a chance to talk before I buried my face in her again. Her release pooled on my lips and down into my beard. My tongue flicked out to catch it all, trailing from her entrance to her ass.

My eyes closed on their own.

As one hand held her in place, the other wrapped around my dick. I started to lap her up as I cranked it, both at a dizzying pace.

“Fuck, Teddy,” she whimpered.

I tried my best not to look at her because if I looked up at her, I’d explode. I just tightened my grasp on her thigh, tugged at my dick a little faster, and applied pressure on that metal ball in my mouth.

I felt her heat release before she even realized it. She bucked and begged and tried to get me to lighten up, but I was on her.

I needed every last drop.

Finally I looked up, and the expression on her face made me cum instantly. I bit the inside of her thighs, squeezing and clawing as my body convulsed, leaving hickies everywhere.

When I finally pulled away, we locked eyes. She slid down my chest and almost straddled me, but the mess I’d made in my lap stopped her.

“Looks like you had fun,” she teased.

I stared at her, eager to finish what I started. “Clean me up?”

She shook her head. “Manners?”

“Please?”

She smiled and got lower. Her tongue ran across her lips before she started, and I watched with reverence as she dragged it across my lap. My hand tangled in her hair as she licked me dry. It wasn’t long before I was hard again, especially with her tongue licking me clean.

“Come here,” I commanded when she was done, and she straddled me for real this time. “You taste so fucking good, my head’s dizzy.”

“Yeah?” she grinned before a finger went to my beard, and with a swipe, she collected some of the sticky mess she left all over my face. That finger went in her mouth, and her eyes fluttered close as she savored herself. “It is really fucking good.”

“Fuck.” I watched her in awe. “You’re real freaked out, you know that?”

She tilted her head playfully. “That a problem?”

I reached up and tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear. “Nah.”

I grabbed her neck then and pulled her into my lips, squeezing her so tight there wasn’t a single inch of distance left between us.

I could taste my cum on her lips, and it made me moan. She smiled at the realization that we were both freaked out in the best way.

“Tell me what you like, Teddy,” she said sweetly as she began to grind against my dick.

“What?” I whispered into her mouth. “You forgot already?”

She gave a little shrug, her thighs stroking me with deliberate slowness. “No. I just love to hear you say it.”

That did it.

I flipped us, taking control, pinning her beneath me with a look that made her breath hitch.

I didn’t give her a chance to catch her breath before I was in her. The smart-ass comments she would make caught in her throat as I drilled into her. All she managed to do was look up at me with that confused look she had when she was getting pounded.

“I’m sorry about today,” I managed to choke out. My head was getting light, and I knew I wouldn’t last much longer.

“I’m sorry…too…Teddy,” she moaned. “I’m really…sorry. Ugh!”

She was close. Hips writhing, nails digging into my shoulders, when she reached to cover her face.

“Stop it,” I commanded. “Look at me.”

“Theo,” she gasped, shaky and desperate.

“Carmen,” I growled. “I’m going to fuck you, and you’re gonna watch me do it. Don’t close your eyes. Don’t look away.”

I drove into her, hard and deep, her thighs trembling around my hips. Her eyes rolled back.

I didn’t let up. “ Look at me. ”

Her body was losing the battle, and she knew it.

“Fuck, Teddy—”

“Keep looking at me, baby.”

With one last thrust, I came first. She followed immediately after, her entire body curling around me as the air left her lungs in a gasp.

She was panting beneath me, lips parted, sweat beading at her collarbone, but I kept my breathing even.

“Theo,” she whispered.

“Shh…” I kissed each of her shoulders.

Then I hovered over her, nose brushing hers, looking down like she was prey.

“ That’s what I like.”

˙???˙

Carmen’s leg lay draped over my hip as I traced my initials into her thigh with my fingertips. She was curled into me, talking about Marcus and the work they’d been doing to help get her father out of jail.

“Even if he doesn’t get to go back home…” she said softly. “We wanna at least get him into a better hospice than the one in prison. Somewhere he can be more comfortable.”

Her eyes dropped to her fingers, fidgeting.

“I just don’t want my father to die in jail.”

Her voice cracked on the last word.

“Shhh,” I whispered, pressing a kiss to her temple. “It’s okay.”

“Sorry,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s just…

I’m only now getting to know him. And it feels like I don’t have much time left.

I wasted years not talking to him. I hated what he did—I still do.

But he’s more than that. He’s funny. He’s smart.

He can play guitar. And he’s teaching me Spanish because he wants his grandkids to speak it.

And he’s scared he won’t be there to teach them. ”

She buried her face in my chest, and I held her close as her body trembled against mine.

“Shh, baby. I’m so sorry,” I muttered into her hair.

“I know it sounds fucked up,” she mumbled through her tears. “He killed someone. And I do feel awful about it. I feel worse that I still wanna help him. I just didn’t want you to judge me. What I’m doing is crazy, and I—I didn’t want you to look at me like I’m stupid.”

I ran my fingers through her hair.

“Carmen. I would never look at you like that. You know our relationship is a judgment-free space.”

She let out a teary little laugh. “Feels like a trust-free space too, doesn’t it?”

“Fair.”

She sniffled, eyes glazed as she stared at the ceiling. “I feel so… lost since I got here. Like, I don’t even know where we’re headed anymore. Part of me wonders if we’ll survive this trip.”

“We will,” I said. “I’ll make sure of it.”

She turned to me again, her voice quiet. “Theo… this isn’t gonna last if the trust isn’t there. You know that, right?”

“I know.”

“And with the distance… It’s just gonna make it worse.”

“It will.”

She looked up at me, something heavy behind her lashes. “You still wanna try?”

“You don’t?”

“I do,” she said quickly. “Because I love you. But seeing you turn into this jealous ass boyfriend lately—it worries me.”

“I’ll be fine,” I told her. “ We’ll be fine. You’re in New York now. Way closer than California. We’ll see each other more. Just… hold on.”

“And then what?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper. Her eyes searched mine. “Who moves in with who?”

I went quiet.

“Teddy?”

“I don’t know.”

She hummed under her breath and looked away.

“What?” I asked.

“Nothing. Just… feels like all my concerns from Eden are coming true.”

“The regret finally caught up to you, huh?”

“I don’t regret us, Theodore. I never have.” She paused. “And they’re not regrets. Just… concerns. They’ve always been concerns.”

I took a breath, letting her words settle between us. “If they’ve been ‘concerns’ this long, maybe we should start calling them what they are.”

She blinked at me. “What’s that?”

“Fears.”

She nodded slowly. “Okay. Well, I fear we won’t last much longer if we keep doing long distance.”

And that hit. Because she wasn’t wrong. If I was already turning into a jealous, possessive mess now, what would another three years do to us? Five? Ten?

“…Yeah,” I murmured. “Me too.”

She tucked herself closer, voice small. “What are we gonna do about it?”

I glanced out the sliding glass door, then back at her.

“We’re gonna push it to the back of our heads for now,” I said, lips brushing her hair. “And get some sleep.”

I paused.

“Unless… you don’t mind me taking out some more of my frustration between your legs first.”

Her grin spread slowly as she kissed my chest.

“Not at all,” she whispered. “Vent away.”

In my excitement, I climbed on top of her as she giggled at my eagerness. The soft light pouring through the glass in front of us made her dark skin look almost blue. Like a gem, she shone and stole my focus, as always.

“We’ll teach our kids Spanish,” I said suddenly as I hovered over her. “And Italian.”

Her eyes flicked up to meet mine, a soft smile tugging at her lips. “Really?”

“Really,” I said. “Whatever you want. We’ll do it together.”

She shifted, wrapping her arms around my neck to pull me into a kiss, which I allowed.

“Do you even know Spanish?” she asked in between breaks.

I chuckled. “I understand enough. But I’ll get better. Just like you’ll get better.”

She narrowed her eyes at me, amused. “Better? I’m already the best.”

“Sure, you are,” I said, brushing a curl from her cheek. “Better than me anyway.”

She exhaled through a laugh, burying her face briefly in my chest.

“I want them to know your culture too,” she said. “Even if your mom doesn’t know anything about herself to teach our kids, we’ll pick up the slack. They should learn Korean too.”

“They will,” I said. “They’ll know both sides of where they come from, baby, I promise.”

Her thumb glided along my jaw. “That means a lot to me.”

I kissed her cheek. “And you mean a lot to me.”

The kissing quickly deepened as I moved to enter her again.

“You’ll make a great dad,” she whispered.

“And you’ll make an incredible mother,” I said back. “We shouldn’t say this before we do this. ‘Cause I might make both our assumptions come true.”

She moaned against my lips as I lined myself up, “Behave.”

I grinned when my thrust made her gasp.

“Wait, wait, wait.” She rushed out.

A cocky grin spread across my face. Aww, she needed a minute to catch her breath.

I stopped moving, nibbling at her ear as she struggled to catch herself. “What’s wrong, my love?”

“One more thing, and then we can move further.”

I sucked on her neck so hard, I was sure it would leave a mark. “Hm, go on.”

“Your receptionist,” she started. “What’s her issue?”

I paused. “What do you mean?”

“She’s been giving me this attitude when I go to your office. Any idea what that’s about?”

Fuck.

My blood ran cold, and I was glad she couldn’t look into my eyes right now.

“Nope. Nothing comes to mind, but I’ll talk to her. Okay?”

She breathed out in relief. “Good, ‘cause I’d hate to have to smack the fuck outta her.”

I closed my eyes and breathed her in. “I’ll handle it.”