“I don’t take well to being ordered around,” he warned but she wasn’t scared. In fact, she felt emboldened like never before. She was like a hound on a scent and she wasn’t going to let him off the hook until he spilled his guts. Emma had the sense that it was important that she stay on him no matter how hard he tried to shake her off, so that’s what she was going to do.
“And I don’t take well to being pulled and pushed around either. Guess that makes us evenly matched, wouldn’t you say?” Vince’s expression reminded Emma of a trapped man, up against impossible odds and she knew whatever Vince was protecting was very tender. “I’m beginning to realize that all the research I did on your family didn’t even scratch the surface of who you are. Tell me who she was to you.”
“Why do you care?” he asked, almost bitterly but before she could answer he said, “Trust me, you don’t want to know.”
She took a risk and walked to him, caressing his face tenderly even though she knew he might rebuff her kindness and said, “I want to know.”
Vince squeezed his eyes shut at her touch and she felt the minute tremble coursing through his body. Such pain, she thought with sadness. Whoever Isabel was, she’d left a lasting wound that’d never healed. That was one helluva legacy to leave behind. Emma pulled Vince to her, pressing her lips against his in a feather light touch that ignited his desire and he crushed her to him, as if unable to get enough. After a long moment, he said, “If I told you, you’d never look at me the same again,” the anguish in his tone unable to mistake. Her heart went out to him, wondering what could be so bad that even Vince wouldn’t admit to it.
“Tell me,” she whispered, holding him tight. “Please…”
“Why?”
“Because I need to know what happened to you, what made you so hard. You like to say that you’re a bad man but your actions say otherwise. I realize now that you’ve been protecting me this whole time and don’t try to deny it. I was too angry to see it until Penny brought it up. You could’ve handed me off to a myriad of handlers at your disposal but you brought me here — to your place — why would you do that for a total stranger unless you felt something for them?”
Vince groaned and pushed her away, shoving his hand through his hair in agitation. “Damn it, Emma. Don’t try to make me into some hero that I’m not. I didn’t do it for any other reason aside from protecting Malvagio. Everything I do has an ulterior motive. Know that now and you might not get hurt. I do nothing that won’t benefit me somewhere down the road. Okay?”
Emma blinked at the pain his statement caused but even though her immediate reaction was to recoil she saw through his bluster to the raw pain pulsing beneath. Anyone who would fight so hard to hide something so personal must feel fairly strongly about it. She believed Penny was right. Vince tried so desperately to be bad but he was a good man and for whatever reasons, he didn’t want to admit it. She followed Vince into the bedroom, not willing to back down — though why, she wasn’t sure. Maybe she was crazy, but there was something about Vince that made her pulse race and her body tingle with awareness and the insane chemistry was addictive. “You made it sound as if you went and got Lana to manipulate me but in reality, you were making it so I didn’t have to worry about her. You put her with your friend Laird, knowing that he would take care of her. Everything you’ve done has been the opposite of a man just looking out for his best interests and I call bullshit on your protests.”
“Don’t do this, Emma,” Vince said. “You’re going to end up hurt when you realize you’re wrong.”
“I’m not wrong,” she said, stepping forward, crowding his space, forcing him to meet her gaze. “Tell me who was Isabel and what did she do to you?”
#
Vince stared, unable to believe this half-pint of a woman was pushing him to the point no other woman ever had. He ought to throw her out on her ass, that would show her that he was no good guy but even as his mind urged him to do it, he stood there immobilized by the arresting surety in her blue eyes. She didn’t falter or quail at his fierce scowl or mean glare. Nor did she cry when he yelled. No, not Emma. She pushed and yelled back. If he weren’t so twisted up in knots over what was happening, he would’ve thrown her to the bed and screwed her senseless because she was so damn sexy. But he couldn’t. Isabel’s presence, no matter how hard he tried pushing her away, stood between him and sanity. Except now Emma was there, too.
Each time he thought, if even for a heartbeat, that he might want to find someone to settle down with, have kids, be somewhat normal, Isabel haunted his dreams, reminding him that he didn’t deserve the comforts of normal.
And it was happening again. He felt something powerful and real with Emma — and he couldn’t let that happen. Subconsciously, he must’ve sensed it from the moment he laid eyes on her because he’d been seized with an irrational urge to protect and possess her, which went against everything he’d been about up until that point. Emma spoke to him at a cellular level, no matter that they’d known each other for such a short time, he could feel it in his pulse, the way her skin electrified his fingertips and how the sound of her breathy moans unlocked a door he’d been too afraid to open. Emma was everything he knew he couldn’t have — didn’t deserve.
He had to protect her…from himself.
“You want to know who Isabel was?” he snarled, snatching Emma by the arms and thrusting her to the bed. She landed with a startled gasp and he followed, ripping his shirt from his chest and climbing Emma’s body, giving her no opportunity for escape. He nuzzled Emma’s neck roughly, nipping the sensitive skin hard enough to cause pain. Emma shuddered but didn’t cry out. In fact, she moaned with pure excitement. The sound was his kryptonite and he fought to remember he was trying to push her away. He tore her shirt open, exposing her bare skin to her belly. “Careful the questions you ask, you might not like the answers,” he growled as he unsnapped her bra, freeing those luscious tits to his gaze.
“I can take it. Stop being such a pussy and just tell me already,” she said breathlessly, tossing her bra and pulling his head to her breast. He groaned and slipped a nipple into his mouth, sucking hard. “I think you use Isabel as an excuse to keep everyone away but…” she stopped, gasping as he laved the peak, losing himself for a brief moment in the pleasure of touching and tasting her that he almost missed what she was saying. “It’s time to stop making excuses.”
He pulled back with a dark smirk. Excuses? Poor naïve Emma…if only that were true. At this point, he’d almost welcome being an insecure shmuck rather than a manipulative bastard. Vince jerked her jeans from her hips and tossed them. His vision crossed at how lovely her hips flared and her healthy thighs met at the apex of her pussy. He wanted to dive in and lose himself for days between those thighs. But this was not about pure pleasure. He ripped her panties and tossed them as well. Emma rose on her knees and unbuckled his belt and his pants followed. His cock sprang free and she immediately sucked it down her throat. He threaded his fingers through her hair, growing thicker and harder at the tantalizing view of Emma’s plump lips sliding over his mushroom-headed cock and taking a good length of his shaft. He groaned as she sucked harder, even nipping at the sensitive ridge so that he rocked against her. Must. Stay. Focused. Vince gently pushed her away so that he could think but his straining cock would not be denied. The blood pounded through his veins, rerouting all oxygen to the most primal part of his body. Emma tumbled back on the bed, opening her legs for him and he fell on her like a beast, intent on devouring. He had to taste more of her. Just had to, his brain insisted wildly and he was helpless to ignore the demand. He plunged his tongue deeply inside her succulent womanly cleft and shuddered with pleasure at the sensual awareness of her every gasp and cry. He teased and tickled in all the right spots, driving her mindless with sweet torture but as she came close, he pulled back. “Not yet,” he said in a low, rough voice. “On your hands and knees.”
She nodded and rolled over, presenting herself as he requested. He positioned himself behind her, rubbing the soft, smooth flesh of her ass, and then rubbed the head of his cock against the silky wetness, teasing the plump folds until she was pushing back against him, trying to impale herself on his length. Vince indulged her and thrust his cock deep inside until his hips met the cushion of her behind. A low groan popped from his mouth as he began to grind against her, gripping her hips to anchor himself to her. Every thrust was a riot of sensation as her channel squeezed his shaft and sweat popped along his hairline as he nearly lost his focus. “You want to know about Isabel, my sweet Emma?” he said roughly as she grunted with each thrust into her willing body. “Let me tell you about poor Isabel…she was Dillon’s fiancée but I wanted her for myself. I wanted to fuck her just like I’m fucking you right now.” He gave Emma a light slap on the ass, causing her to emit a muffled yelp against the comforter but still she met him thrust for thrust, her eyes squeezed shut in ecstasy. God, why was she so damn perfect? “And I did, eventually. Do you hear me, Emma? I convinced my twin to help me fuck her after Dillon dumped her. She was vulnerable and lost, and heart-broken and I masterminded a plan to put her in my bed.”