Unveiled (Vargas Cartel #2) by Lisa Cardiff

bathroom door behind us and turned on the shower. She leaned against the bathroom counter as I scrubbed the blood from my hands. Steam filled the bathroom, fogging the mirrors and sheltering us from the outside world.
    I unbuttoned my shirt and tossed it on the floor. My shoes, socks, pants, and boxer briefs followed. She still hadn’t moved, but her eyes tracked my movements beneath the fringe of her lashes. With her lips pursed into a straight line and two deep grooves between her brows, she looked conflicted, as if she didn’t know if she wanted to stay or go. She didn’t need to worry. She was definitely staying. I’d already decided. She just didn’t know it yet. I needed to claim her again, remind her she was mine. But more than anything, I needed to be inside of her again. It’d been too long.
    Not allowing her to fight the magnetic pull between us, I trapped her against the bathroom counter with my hips and framed her face with my hands. Suspended in the moment, steam billowed around us as my lips hovered just inches from hers, and then I pulled her toward me. When my lips crashed against hers, a muffled moan escaped her lips, throwing fuel on the lust I barely held in check over the past week. Damn, I missed her. I had tried to close the box on our time together, compartmentalizing it and burying it, but it never disappeared. It never faded.
    My tongue curled around hers, rough and demanding, taking her, showing her she was mine. I didn’t hold anything back. The fruity taste of her wine lingered in her mouth. Her breathing accelerated in time with mine, and my stomach tightened with desire. By some sick twist of fate, we were meant to be together, and I intended to take advantage it.
    I unzipped the back her dress as I kissed the smooth skin of her neck and her collarbone, savoring her, consuming her, and biting her. Her yellow shift dress pooled at her feet and my breath splintered. She looked even more beautiful than I remembered.
    Golden skin.
    Long toned legs.
    Perfectly molded curves.
    The seductive upward tilt of her lips.
    Right then, I realized she owned me long before we exchanged a single word in that bar in Mexico. Now, the damage was complete. I was hooked. Addicted. Obsessed. Strung out for her, and I couldn’t force myself to regret it.
    Not wasting a single second, I reached around the curve of her waist and unhooked her bra. I bit back a groan as the black lace slid off her body, exposing her pebbled nipples. I slipped her matching panties down her legs, trailing my fingers along the contours of her legs. Goosebumps tumbled like dominos down her arms and legs. And fuck if that didn’t make me twice as hard as I was thirty seconds earlier.
    Gathering her close, I pressed my lips against hers again as I blindly guided her to the shower. We bumped into the hamper, the shower door, and I nearly tripped over the shower curb, but none of it mattered as the hot water poured over our bodies and the steam clouded our already lust muddled vision. This moment was about us. Not Senator Deveron. Not Evan. Not the Vargas Cartel. Just us.
    I moved my palms along the soft angles of her body, tracing every curve, swell, and dip. I couldn’t get enough of her.
    Breasts.
    Waist.
    Hips.
    Navel.
    The curve of her backside.
    All of it perfect. Perfect for me.
    And then I cupped her mound, rubbing her, caressing her, teasing her everywhere but where we both wanted me to go. She rocked against my hand as whimpers and disjointed pleas spilled like water from her mouth.
    “Shh,” I said, touching my fingertips to her lips. Her breath was jagged, heated, and electric against my skin. “I’ll take care of you.”
    I slid one finger inside of her, then two, gliding my fingers back and forth. Her head tipped up, arching her body forward, like a pagan offering. The Roman goddess, Venus, in the flesh. I pulled her nipple in my mouth, sucking her until a fractured gasp fell from her parted lips. Like someone struck a