CHAPTER 56 - THE DON'S VIRGIN WIDOW (posted with Author's permission)
"I need you inside me," Mara breathed.
She didn't wait for an answer; her hand tightened in his shirt and she pulled him down, tilting her chin up to capture his mouth.
Nico didn't move for exactly three seconds; he just looked at her, at the blown pupils and the flushed skin and the complete absence of her usual careful composure.
It took every ounce of discipline Nico possessed to turn his head at the last possible second. Her hot, parted lips dragged roughly across the hard line of his jaw instead, her breath catching in a frustrated sob as she missed his mouth.
"Nico, please," she whimpered, chasing his lips blindly.
"You're drugged, Mara," he said as he reached up, unhooked her fingers from his shirt one by one, and pressed her hand firmly back against her own lap.
"Nico…"
"I said 'NO!'," he rasped.
He reached across her and pulled the seatbelt across her chest, clicking it into place. The belt pinned her back against the seat completely.
"Stay," he said in the way you say to someone you knew wouldn't listen. Then he pulled back, ignoring the desperate, needy sound she made at the loss of his heat, slammed the passenger door shut.
Luca was standing a few feet away, his weapon lowered. Nico didn't look at him. "Clear the route. I'm driving myself."
Nico rounded the front of the SUV and dropped into the driver's seat. The heavy door thudded shut, sealing them inside the quiet, insulated cabin.
Before he could even reach for the ignition, Mara's hand was there.
Her uncoordinated but relentlessly determined fingers wrapped around his right wrist, dragging his hand off the center console and pulling it directly onto her lap.
Nico's breath stopped.
Her midnight silk dress had ridden high up her leg. She pressed his large, calloused palm flat against the bare, feverish skin of her thigh, right at the edge of the high slit.
A deep, guttural sound of relief left her throat at the contact, and immediately, she pushed his hand higher, dragging his fingers dangerously close to her center.
"Mara. Stop." Nico's voice was a low warning growl, but his hand betrayed him, flexing instinctively against the soft, trembling muscle of her upper thigh.
"It hurts," she cried softly, squeezing her eyes shut. "It's too hot, make it stop..."
With a violent curse, Nico ripped his hand away from her leg. He placed her wrist under the seatbelt, using it to restrain her to an extent.
He hit the ignition, and the SUV's engine roared to life with a heavy, aggressive rumble. He threw the car into drive and slammed his foot on the accelerator.
"We need to get home," he said through gritted teeth as the tires shrieked against the concrete. "That's all that's happening right now."
For two blocks it was manageable.
But the synthetic aphrodisiac burning through Mara's veins wasn't something she could just endure or hold back herself. The drug demanded a physical release, hijacking her mind and reducing her to pure, blinding sensation.
If Nico wouldn't touch her, she had no choice.
Nico kept his eyes locked on the road and his hands on the wheel, weaving through the late-night traffic with reckless speed.
His mind was racing through the logistics: the cleanup at the hotel, the dead man's phone, the untraceable number, the vial, and what he was going to do about all of it the moment he had Mara safely back at the estate.
But the sounds filling the cabin were tearing him apart.
Beside him, Mara shifted frantically against the leather. The seatbelt restricted her movement, but she managed to slide her trembling right hand down, slipping her fingers beneath the bunched silk of her dress and pressing directly between her own thighs.
Her left hand moved up to her chest, her fingers tangling in the fabric over her breast, clutching and pulling as she arched her spine off the seat.
"Ahhh~" A wet, breathless moan slipped past her lips.
Nico's knuckles went completely white on the steering wheel. He tried to lock his vision straight ahead, but the spike of his own arousal straining against his pants was immediate and punishing.
He stole a glance.
In the flashes of the passing streetlights, she was a devastating sight to behold.
Her head was thrown back, her lips were parted slightly, and her fingers were moving frantically against herself as she chased a high the drug was denying her.
The sound of her touching herself filled the quiet car, making it hard for him to breathe.
His body reacted to the sight and sound. His growing erection pressed achingly against the zipper of his trousers, tempting him to pull the car over and finish what she was starting.
"Nico..." she sobbed, her hand moving faster. "I can't... it's not enough..."
"Mara." His voice came out rougher than he intended.
She turned her head toward him without fully opening her eyes. "It won't stop," she said. Her voice was wrecked. "I can't make it stop."
He looked back at the road, tightening his already tight grip on the stering wheel.
The sound she made thirty seconds later nearly ended everything, and finally, her distress snapped the last thread.
Nico swerved violently, the heavy SUV jumping the curb slightly as he threw it into a dark, secluded alleyway behind a row of closed warehouses.
He slammed the gearshift into park. Not because he'd decided to, but because his hands made the decision before he did, turning the wheel to the curb and cutting the engine in the same motion.
"You are going to kill me, Mara," he growled.
He leaned over the console, unbuckling her seatbelt with a sharp click. Mara let out a desperate cry and tried to reach for him, but Nico caught both of her wrists in his left hand. He pinned them gently but firmly above her head against the window.
"Open your legs," he ordered in a deep voice.