Balls (Cruz Boys #1) Read online

  The dark ocean stretched to infinity in front of us. The glowing lights of Barcelona stretched to either side. La Sagrada Familia with its dramatic, slender towers. The Torre Agbar sticking up like a giant illuminated Christmas condom. The castle of Montjuic perched proudly on the hill above the city.

  This was a totally new perspective of the city. A totally breathtaking one.

  I burrowed into Leo’s embrace.

  “I knew I could trust you,” I said.

  A low rumble sounded in his throat. “I don’t trust me. Not around you.”

  Low, white couches surrounded a crystal-clear private pool and attached hot tub.

  “You have your own pool? At the top of a skyscraper that looks out on the ocean?”

  “It’s awesome, right?” he said with boyish glee.

  “I need a drink,” I said.

  I really needed a drink. I’d only had one so far. And with Robert and then all this. Honestly, what was a girl like me doing with a guy like Leo? His world wasn’t my world.

  How could it ever work?

  “Sure,” he said as he led me toward a nearby couch. “Have a seat and I’ll whip something up.”

  I collapsed into soft cushions and stared at the glittering lights of the city. This was a fairy tale, but I was no princess. And, despite what I’d seen, Leo’s history made it clear he was no Prince Charming.

  So, what to make of it?

  I was no closer to an answer when he glided into my pondering with a stemless glass of red wine in each hand.

  “You are too kind,” I said as I gratefully accepted. I knocked back a gulp and was surprised it didn’t immediately burn the back of my throat.

  “Big fan of Domaine de la Romanee-Conti?”

  I wiped my lip and nodded.

  “Sure. Tastes fine.”

  I took a more measured drink.

  “It better. That bottle cost over $20,000.”

  I coughed, choked, and blew out a cloud of expensive red mist. I gagged, struggling to regain control.

  Leo laughed.

  “I think you just blew out five-hundred dollars.”

  My eyes went wide. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

  He took a gulp of his and likewise blew it into a fine mist.

  I laughed so hard I snorted.

  I did not like when I snorted, especially on a first date, especially with Leonardo Cruz.

  His eyebrows shot up. “Whoa now! I thought we were back on Nonno’s farm there for a second.”

  My face warmed by ten degrees, and it wasn’t the wine. “Shut up! So I sound like a hog from time to time.”

  He batted his eyebrow at me. “I’d love to make you sound like a hog.”

  I muffled another snort with a sip of wine.

  “We forgot to toast,” he said. “It’s a good tradition, and besides, it gives me a chance to say nice things about you.”

  “I think you’ve said quite enough about me!”

  “To us,” he said.

  “That’s better,” I said.

  He winked and I knew better was turning worse before he opened his mouth.

  “To us getting naked and fucking like farm animals.”

  He tinged his crystal glass to mine and a perfect note sounded, like a fairy godmother snapped her fingers. He sipped from the glass and then set it on a fashionably low table next to the couch.

  Leo dug in his pocket and flipped on his phone.

  How rude!

  Was he really checking his phone right now? Did he have some emails that required immediate responses?

  From nowhere and everywhere at once, a sultry bass beat echoed through the air. It throbbed in my chest, and lower in my core. It didn’t have the driving haste like at the club. Yet, it was equally as urgent all the same.

  Leo dropped the phone on the table and held out a hand, waiting for me to take it.

  “Our last dance ended early. Ms. Young, may I have the pleasure of another?”

  Did I have a choice?

  Not with him looking so undeniably gorgeous. I placed my hand into his.

  “Yes, you may, Mr. Cruz.”

  * * *

  Leo pulled me to my feet and crushed me against his hard body.

  Especially hard there.

  But hard all over too. He was muscles stacked on muscles. Not a bulky freak, just built.

  My kind of man.

  His mouth crushed into mine. I gasped in surprise, only to find his tongue dipping between my parted lips. He tasted rich, the wine mixed with something more masculine.

  His hands dipped lower and gripped my butt. He massaged each cheek in his huge hands. Every squeeze pulled me closer, pressed his thick shaft harder against my belly.

  Whoa. He was huge. I hadn’t been on speaking terms with a penis since Robert. I couldn’t bring myself to go there. Before this evening began, I had every intention of maintaining that distant posture.

  But not now.

  Leo’s mouth slipped to the side and bit a line down my neck. Every nip sent an electric shock straight down to the spot that clenched and begged to be filled by the monster imprisoned in his pants.

  A budding heat between my legs quickly turned wet. My lower lips ached for his touch. Ached to be stretched by him.

  Not on a first date.

  Wasn’t that a simple rule anyone could follow?

  Then why did it sound so stupid?

  Maybe it was a stupid rule made by stupid people trying to control even stupider people.

  Maybe?

  I was prepared to accept any justification, no matter how pathetic.

  “Alex,” he whispered.

  I jumped, startled back into awareness.

  “You’re thinking too much. Feel your way through it.”

  His hands curled up under the back of my dress. His fingers slid under my panties and caressed my hips.

  My body shook like an earthquake with an epicenter between my thighs. The heat there radiated outward and sizzled to my fingertips.

  I was wet.

  Almost embarrassingly so.

  I couldn’t help it.

  “That’s better,” he said.

  “Why can I not resist you?” I asked.

  It was a legitimate question. This was supposed to be a fake date with a total egomaniac asshole. The egomaniac part was no doubt pretty right on, but the asshole part seemed more my construction than his.

  He traced around my hip to the front and dipped lower, brushing over my slick button.

  My body trembled at his touch. The squeezing deep inside threatened to collapse into itself.

  “Why would you want to?” he replied.

  No answer was forthcoming, which was why I didn’t resist when he lifted my dress above my head and let it flutter to the floor.

  The warm air rolling in off the ocean prickled my sensitive skin. His arms were around me before I could think of a good reason to back away. Not that any good reason was forthcoming. My legs were weak and rubbery. I would’ve collapsed were it not for the strength of his embrace. His lips on my neck sent chills skittering up my spine and had the hairs on the back of my neck zapping to attention. The fierce clenching deep inside had me about to come, despite my crumbling resolve.

  His lips paused on my neck, with only a sliver of air breaking the contact. His warm breath sent shivers radiating down to my toes and across my scalp.

  He whispered into my ear, as if we were in a crowd and the words were meant for me alone. “You are the most gorgeous being I’ve ever met. I want to pleasure you. Make you come for me.”

  What was a girl supposed to say to that?

  It didn’t matter because my brain couldn’t form words. Soft moans were the only things that escaped. It was all vowels and soft surrender. No consonants and hard limits.

  I wasn’t even standing anymore. I was floating. It was like gravity stopped working and we were floating in outer space. The inner space between us had no regard for physical laws.

  Leo cru
shed a kiss into my lips and lowered me to the couch. He pulled back and stared into my eyes. The storm raging in his threatened to blow me away.

  “Do you want me to make you come?”

  The tingling between my legs almost doubled me over. The wetness there threatened to turn into a flood. I couldn’t answer. There was no air in my lungs with which to push out a response. Surely my trembling body was a sufficient answer.

  He smiled wickedly.

  “Tell me, Alex. Tell me what you want me to do.”

  Oh God. He wanted me to say it. In words. Words that I would hear myself saying for the first time in my life. I’d never talked like that before. I didn’t consider myself a sexual Puritan, but Leo was clearly operating on a level that made me feel like nothing else.

  The words came out of my mouth before I thought them through.

  “Leo, make me come.”

  The thickness of his shaft hidden behind the thin cloth of his pants thrust between my legs. His hips bucked forward.

  His hands dropped lower and hooked inside my panties. He slid them off and crushed them in one strong hand. He brought them to his nose and inhaled deeply.

  That should’ve embarrassed the total crap out of me. But it didn’t.

  He growled like a bear. A deep, throaty, dominant sound.

  My aching nipples pushed up into my demi-cup bra. My lips ached to be kissed. I needed him on me, in me.

  He knelt between my legs and eased my thighs apart. He stared at me like it was a museum exhibit. Again, I should’ve felt horribly uncomfortable.

  But I didn’t.

  The muscles in his jaws rippled and he licked his lips. The animal heat in his eyes made me wetter.

  He kissed my knee and peppered kisses trailing up the inside of my thigh.

  I tried to be still, but my body writhed under him. My heat begged to be touched, to be licked.

  He kissed closer and closer and just when I thought the agony of anticipation would end, he switched to the other thigh and gave it an equal measure of attention.

  I couldn’t hold back. I groaned and grabbed his hair with both hands. Tugged his head back, trying to force his mouth between my thighs. Wrestling a bull would’ve been easier.

  He trailed his tongue up my thigh and pulled back before he licked across my engorged petals.

  Fuck!

  I was frantic with need.

  He pulled back an inch and looked up with a knowing smile.

  “Tell me what you want me to do to you.”

  He damn well knew what I wanted him to do. But I couldn’t say that out loud. I’d never openly talked like that. I didn’t have much experience with it in the first place as my single previous partner said it was something he wasn’t into.

  “Stop thinking, Alex. Let your body feel what it needs to feel.”

  I wasn’t a model of cold calculation just then, but his words made perfect sense.

  “I want you to kiss between my legs.”

  My belly jumped as the words came out. I never thought I’d say something like that outside of my quiet fantasies.

  “What’s between your legs? What is it that you want me to kiss?”

  He softly blew air over my tender skin. Waves of trembling ecstasy rolled through my body.

  “My pussy. I want you to kiss my pussy.”

  His broad tongue flicked across my mound, and my insides squeezed so tight I almost came. He traced up the wet groove and grazed my aching clit.

  A shock jolted through me. My legs locked around his head. I couldn’t take anymore, but I never wanted it to end at the same time.

  He licked and kissed my engorged lips, my spread petals. His tongue dove inside and my insides squeezed, begging for something thicker and more substantial to take its place.

  I crushed his face into my core. I fucked his mouth. My wetness glistened on his lips and chin. I needed one thing in the world and one thing only.

  To come.

  To let go and fall off the cliff yawning before me.

  He licked back up to my nub and with a short inhale sucked it in between his teeth. His tongue rolled over my throbbing button.

  My body convulsed and the stars above lost focus.

  I screamed, an unselfconscious confession of my longing, of my release.

  I doubled over and hugged his head into my core, desperate to never let go.

  And I came for him.

  Hard and wild.

  Like nothing I’d ever experienced. Not with a dildo, not with my fingers.

  Only with him.

  I crested so high that the world fell away below. The release shuddered through me in a wave of euphoric surrender. I held on tight until the feeling ebbed and left me floating in bliss.

  It was a place that had no edges. A place where everything was a soft, warm cloud.

  I collapsed on the couch and opened my eyes, blearily trying to focus.

  Leo’s nostrils flared. His pupils dilated. He licked his lips and swallowed the taste of me.

  He was the sexiest man alive.

  And he was mine.

  For tonight, at least.

  “That was good, Alex. Your body knows what to do.”

  He knelt back and tore his shirt off. He ripped it open like Superman about to save the world. The buttons popped off and clinked on the tile below. His pants fell to the floor and he kicked them away. The lion tattoo on his chest spoke to me. Laid its claim on me.

  He wasn’t wearing any underwear. Of course he wasn’t.

  His cock jutted out and twitched like a witching rod zeroing in on water.

  Despite the need clawing in my belly, a part of me was frightened. It was big.

  Scary big.

  I knew I’d be sore in the morning, and I didn’t care. I wanted that monster filling me inside, stretching me.

  From out of nowhere, like a magic trick that would’ve made David Copperfield envious, Leo produced a condom. He tore the package open and slipped the extra-large-sized latex over the tight skin of his flared head and down the shaft.

  He throttled his cock at the base and wielded it like a weapon.

  I wanted him to conquer me with it.

  “I’m gonna fuck you now, Alex. I’m gonna fuck you until you come so hard you lose your mind. And then I’m gonna keep fucking you.”

  Did I say frightened?

  Terrified was more like it. Terrified of what was happening between us. Of what my desire said about me and about us.

  Leo levered himself down with one strong arm on each side of my head, placing me at the center of a trap which I would’ve willingly stepped into on my own. He angled his hips and brought the head of his cock to my soaked groove. The broad tip touched my petals. A clawing hunger deep in my belly demanded satisfaction.

  He stared into my eyes. Passionate flames burned in them, reflecting the burning in my own.

  “Alex,” he breathed, “tell me what you want me to do.”

  I didn’t hesitate this time. There was nothing in the world I wanted more.

  “Fuck me. Fill me. Take me.”

  The fire in his eyes smiled and twinkled for an instant.

  “Your wish is my command.”

  He eased his hips forward and his thickness parted my lips. His weight spread my legs wider, further opening my invitation.

  My mobile rang.

  Not the generic ring of a random person that wouldn’t have even registered on a conscious level, but the specific ring I’d signed to my boss, Mr. Garcia.

  The phone buzzed again.

  Leo noticed my distraction.

  “It can wait. I can’t.”

  My body agreed completely, but unfortunately my mind had already tripped into gear. Business gear. The-future-of-my-career gear. I wiggled back into the couch, pulling away. My insides twisted in angry frustration.

  I reached into my purse and pulled out the phone.

  “Leo, I’m sorry. I have to answer it. Give me a minute. I’ll get off in a second and be all
yours.”

  He shook his head.

  I thumbed the phone on, partly hating myself for answering it and partly hating Leo for making it so hard to do in the first place.

  “Mr. Garcia, what can I do for you?”

  “It’s not what you can do for me, it’s what you can do for that dumb bastard Rodrigo Romero.”

  “I don’t understand,” I replied.

  “How the hell does anyone understand?”

  It wasn’t a question.

  “You remember that little brunette he had in the locker room?”

  “Vaguely.” My attention wasn’t exactly on her.

  “Well, she’s claiming to be underage.”

  There was silence on the phone. That was a first. Must’ve been an indication of what a disaster this was.

  “That’s terrible, but I don’t know what it has to do with me.”

  “You want to be a sportscaster, right? This is a big fucking story. And it’s one I don’t want blowing up in our faces. So I need you to get down to the office so we can figure out a way to spin this in our favor. We need to make the story rather than react to it.”

  “You mean right now?”

  His voice nearly exploded out of the phone. “Of course I mean right now! You have something better to do?”

  It wasn’t something so much as someone.

  I chewed my lip and stared into the darkness encroaching in Leo’s eyes. I so had something better to do, but I was one-hundred-percent sure that Garcia wouldn’t give two shits about it. In fact, the developing circumstances of our first fake date might not make him happy at all.

  I was supposed to manage Leo’s behavior, make him into a good boy to sway public opinion. I was pretty sure having sex with him wasn’t a part of the original plan.

  It certainly wasn’t a part of mine.

  “Sorry, sir. I’ll be there in half an hour.”

  “Be here in ten minutes! I won’t have my organization be tarnished by yet another disgraceful stain.”

  “Okay–“

  The phone went dead.

  My mouth twisted up because the words didn’t want to tumble out.

  Leo pushed off the couch and stood in front of me. His thick cock bounced and settled, demanding the attention I was no longer free to give.

  He exhaled slowly. “Tell me I’m not getting shafted on our first date. Not after licking you like I just did. Not after making you come like I just did.”