All In (Caldwell Brothers Book 5) Read online

  “Cappuccino for Joslyn!”

  At the sound of Joslyn’s name, I turn around and pick up her cappuccino. My coffee isn’t ready yet – how the fuck can a cup of regular dark roast take longer than a froufrou cappuccino? – but it’s not exactly a surprise given the sheer volume of people crowding around me. Just as I cart Joslyn’s drink outside, I hear an ear-piercing scream that fills me with dread.

  My heart thuds in my chest as I rush outside just in time to see a strange man dressed in all black grab Joslyn and slam her against the brick wall. She cries out in pain and anger as the man launches a powerful kick towards her midsection. Joslyn dodges the kick but stumbles on her feet and falls to the ground. The man grabs a plastic bag and tries to pull it over her head just as Joslyn starts kicking and screaming like a scalded cat.

  “Hey!” I bellow, taking in the scene, my mind moving quickly through my options and scenarios. My first instinct is to scald the bastard with the hot coffee, but he’s too close to Joslyn and I can’t risk burning her. Instead, I drop the hot cappuccino to the ground. Hot coffee splashes my legs and burns, but I barely notice the pain. Adrenaline courses through my body as I prepare for battle.

  Joslyn squirms and twists on the ground, and in one giant leap, I’m between them, putting Joslyn safely behind me. Her attacker sports a ski mask, and I reach forward, grabbing his arm. The man is stronger than he looks, and I’m sapped from my run, but the adrenaline flowing through my veins gives me the strength of a demi-god, and I wrap my fingers tightly around his bicep and pull him close.

  “Let me go,” the man hisses, trying to break away.

  “No,” I growl, feeling his bone nearly break under my fingers. With my free hand, I grab his ski mask and rip it off his head, throwing it to the ground. Looking hard into his ugly, pock-marked face, my heart leaps into my throat when his identity hits me squarely in my chest.

  Charles, one of Dante Giovanetti’s thugs.

  I’m so stunned that my grip loosens, and Charlie wrenches away and sprints down the street with alarming speed. I want to run after him and bash his head into a wall, but knowing his identity is enough. Besides, I don’t want to leave Joslyn. She scrambles to her feet and pants hard, but I can tell from the look in her eyes that the attack shook her to her core. I offer her my hand, and after a minute, she accepts.

  “Are you okay?” I squeeze her fingers. Joslyn’s heart pounds a staccato rhythm – I can see her pulse beating in her delicate throat – but she merely tosses her head and snorts.

  “Yeah.” Joslyn bristles, all tough and strong once again. “I’m fine. Happens every day.”

  I snort, suddenly irritated that she won’t let me help her. Hold her. Want her.

  “I doubt that.” I shake my head and do my best to comfort a woman that just fucking won’t accept it. It’s a damn gift. One that I want to give her. Seems she never learned the meaning of the word receive. “That was really fucked up, Joslyn. Why would you be a target like that for Dante Giovanetti?”

  Joslyn looks deeply uncomfortable. Something lingers there inside her deepest emotions. Something lying just underneath her terrified exterior. She’s not telling me, and this isn’t the place to pry. Not yet.

  “I don’t know.” She pushes past me, dismissing me as if I’m nothing. “But I think my coffee’s probably ready.”

  As I watch her lithe frame disappear into Starbucks, a strange memory from my troubled and abusive childhood rushes back with powerful force. A little girl, crouched inside of a metal dog cage, whimpering and crying.

  Weird. I stare through the glass at Joslyn’s toned body. I wonder why I’m thinking about that now…it’s been over twenty years since that happened. It must be because Nixon alluded to it the other day.

  The more pressing question torments my mind charging in at warp speed right behind the painful memory. What does a nice girl like Joslyn Monroe have to do with a nasty villain like Dante Giovanetti? Sure, Joslyn’s not exactly a nice girl…but she’s not bad, either. She’s just like everyone else in Vegas – trying to make her living on her own terms. She’s a badass, and from where I come from, I respect it. The wrong side of the tracks doesn’t even begin to describe the shit show I emerged from after high school graduation. When Nixon tossed me a lifeline, I took it with both hands.

  So, what would a guy like Dante want with Joslyn? Is he trying to force her to teach some woman he knows how to defend herself? Or did she already do that, and now Dante’s pissed that Joslyn scared off one of his groupies?

  I’ve heard rumblings about Dante in the past. Indentured servitude. Branding his illegal aliens as slaves. Prostitution. Money laundering. But kidnapping? Never.

  All I know is that I’ve never felt so confused – or so chilled – in my entire life.

  Chapter Eleven

  Joslyn

  I don’t want to admit it to Troy – or to anyone else, for that matter – but all the terror I felt after being kidnapped as a tiny child gallops back to infiltrate my body with terror. And no matter how hard I try, I can’t even begin to chase it away.

  “I went outside.” I try my hardest to smile at the barista. “Is my cappuccino ready yet?”

  She gives me a confused look. “Yeah. That guy picked it up for you.” She slides a cup of plain coffee over the counter towards me. “That’s his. Would you mind taking it out?”

  I look outside and see Troy standing there, staring down at the concrete. An empty Starbucks cup rolls on the ground, with the last traces of foam from my ill-fated cappuccino sinking into the pavement.

  “Right,” I mutter, taking Troy’s coffee and storming outside. “Ready to go?” Troy glances up. “This is yours.” I pass over the coffee.

  “Sorry.” Troy stares at the cappuccino disaster. “I dropped it when you screamed.”

  I shrug, really not caring about my drink. All I care about now is my life. Of course, I wouldn’t tell Troy this, but I’m grateful – and a little surprised – that he had the balls to come to my rescue. I would’ve been able to fight the guy off by myself…but Troy did it for me.

  Would it kill you to let a man help you every once in a while, Joslyn? You might even like it if you gave it a try.

  “I’m walking you home.”

  My first instinct is to refuse his assistance, but I really don’t want to be alone right now. “Fine.” I brush away my inner critic. That bitch makes too much damn sense, and logic isn’t what I want right now. I want that bumbling kidnapper’s ass on a silver platter. “Thanks.”

  My body still shakes from the enormous fright I just experienced, but I don’t want to tell Troy. In fact, I don’t want to tell Troy much of anything. And for once, I find that he’s not grating on my nerves. It feels right to have him standing at my side, shielding me. He’s rock solid as a man.

  In fact, as we begin walking through the desert sand, I find I enjoy his company. Not enough to tell him, that would disrupt my hard-earned street cred. In my line of work, reputation means everything when it comes to professional success. But I don’t want to link my fingers together around his meaty neck and strangle him…I wrap my mind around the improvement and the implications.

  I want to take another run through my home course before I shower. By the time we get home, I’m almost able to push the incident out of my mind. The thought of it makes me want to crawl back into bed and throw the covers over my head, but I know I can’t do that. I have to keep setting an example for my girls at Tribe of Amazons, and for myself. I walk to the backyard and move to stand next to the giant, swinging red balls.

  “So.” Troy clears his throat as if I’m going to ask him to run the course with me. After what just happened, he’s off the hook for today. “What’s the rest of your day look like?”

  “I don’t have anything. The next class is tomorrow. Are you coming, by the way?”

  Troy returns my look with a steady gaze. “That depends. Do you want me to come? And we need to talk about what you want to accomplish. We d
on’t want another misunderstanding.”

  Suddenly, I get the impression that he refers to more than just a fitness class. He steps closer, and a powerful wave of his sweaty musk washes over me. A little animalistic shiver runs down my spine, and I lick my lips

  Maybe it’s my brush with death. Maybe it’s my only moment of weakness.

  Maybe it’s him.

  “I don’t know,” I say, my voice a husky ball of unrequited lust. “What do you think?”

  Troy doesn’t tear his dark, intense gaze from mine. He moves even closer – now we’re mere inches apart – and sets his cup of coffee down on a picnic table.

  “I don’t know.” Troy fucks me with his alluring eyes. And by God, I let him. I even welcome it. Like it.

  The lust building inside of my body gallops out of control, too strong to ignore. Like I’m losing control of my own excitement. And Joslyn Monroe never loses control. Never shows weakness or vulnerability. Without thinking about it, I lean forward and press my lips against Troy’s.

  For a moment, the kiss stays chaste. But then Troy growls and grabs my waist, lifting me into the air and pulling my body against his. I wrap my legs around his muscular waist and moan into the heat radiating from his body. Every inch of my body, every cell, every nerve pulsates with want and desire. Even though I know it’s wrong, I tilt my head to the side and meet Troy’s tongue with mine. In my arms, Troy doesn’t feel like a lunkhead. He’s all man. My man. A strong, fierce animal – a wild beast, a man who’s capable of anything his dogged determination can possess.

  A wild idea rips through me. “How brave are you, lunkhead?”

  His eyes snap open. “What are you talking about?”

  I snake a hand down between his legs. He’s huge. He’s throbbing.

  He’s perfect.

  “I have a fantasy. Are you up for bringing it to life?” As I say the words, his cock twitches underneath the weight of my hand. My heart pounds, because this is going to be so much fun.

  “Just tell me what it is. I aim to deliver.”

  Troy moans the words, a throaty call of domination that emanates from deep inside his rock-solid body. He steps backward, carrying me in his arms, and leans against one of the giant, red cannonballs suspended on a snap-proof cable. Nothing outside of nuclear annihilation is going to cause it to come crashing down.

  “This.” As I say the word on a moan, I reach up behind me until I feel the cold metal of the cable. I grasp it with both hands, clutching, hanging on for dear life. I’m splayed out for his hungry gaze, and all he has to do is work with the motion of the ball, and…holy shit. He’s going to go so deep, I won’t know where he ends and I begin.

  And that’s exactly how I want it. I want to be in complete control of my own pleasure, using his cock as a means to an end to get myself off.

  We kiss again, passionately and intensely, and I moan as Troy’s teeth nibble my lower lip. He reaches a hand between our bodies and pushes my legs apart, rubbing my clit through the thin material of my leggings. The intense pressure from his hand makes me weak in the knees, and I arch my back and cry out as Troy crawls down my body. Since my back is already arched due to my position, he roughly pushes my sports bra up and dips his head to my breasts, kissing and sucking and licking my stiff nipples. When he takes one of them into his mouth and gently bites, I feel like I’m about to die of pleasure and arousal.

  “Lick me right now. I want to feel your tongue on my clit.”

  The hair on Troy’s head rubs against my bare belly, sending a shiver of pleasure down my spine, and he takes both hands and yanks my leggings down my thighs, tossing them to the side. Before I can move, he grabs the crotch of my thong and tugs it to the side before nuzzling my inner thigh. It feels so good that I can hardly move, and when I feel the tip of his hot tongue licking at my bare skin, I rub my hands on his head and arch my back.

  I can’t deny I’m enjoying giving the orders and having them obeyed.

  Troy slides his tongue inside of me before swirling it around my hard clit. I close my eyes and see stars explode. As Troy pushes two fingers inside me and begins to thrust up and against my body, I push my hips forward which starts the ball in motion. It feels better than anything I’ve ever experienced, and soon, Troy fills my brain with thoughts of nothing but what he can do to me.

  “I like the way you taste, Joslyn.”

  Lust is an inadequate term for the wave of sensation that takes over my body, swarming me and drowning me with its strength. I’m the girl who wants to be in complete control, but the tables have turned, and he owns my body, all with the tips of his fingers and his wicked tongue. Whether he realizes it or not, he could bend me to his every whim in this moment.

  Troy’s talented hands travel down the insides of my legs, pressing them wide open. With one swing of the ball, he hooks them around his neck, giving him an unobstructed view of my wet sex, split wide open. He stops licking me for a few seconds and just stares. The heat of his gaze slays me, and I almost lose my grip on the cannonball.

  But I don’t.

  He dips his head again and starts the torment all over. Running his tongue down the split of my throbbing pussy, increasing the pressure when I can’t tamp down the gasp that escapes my mouth. Pleasure wracks me as Troy surges forward and takes a long lap at my flesh, and my brain explodes with something I’ve never experienced before. And never wanted to. This encounter feels right on a deep level. Almost like I’ve been with this man before, a lifetime ago.

  For a second, I curse my own bright idea to use this ninja cannonball as my own personal sex toy. I want to run my fingers through Troy’s thick head of hair and pull him close. But I can’t let go now, everything’s just too…oh.

  Bright lights explode before my eyes as the orgasm rips through me. Troy grasps my hips in his strong hands and holds me steady until the waves of ecstasy pass. I arch my back into his mouth, seeking. What I’m looking for, I don’t know. And then, I do.

  “Fuck me.”

  “Here?” His words come out more like a guttural moan.

  “Yes. I want you to take that huge cock and impale me. Use the cannonball for leverage.”

  Part of me can’t believe I’m talking like this in broad daylight, right outside. But something about this man just brings it out of me. Every emotion. Every thought and feeling. Every fucking part of me, even those things that are hiding from everyone else.

  From my vantage point, I can’t really see Troy divest himself of his clothes. But I hear him. And every rustle of fabric against his skin causes an answering tug deep inside me. My pussy already throbs and aches, longing for him to be inside me. I can’t imagine how it’s going to convulse around him. My arms hurt, but I don’t care. I’ll just worry about the pain tomorrow. Right now, there are more important things.

  I hear the foil wrapper being torn open, and I rejoice. At least he’s prepared.

  “Prepare to be impaled, princess.”

  Yes, please.

  Troy slides just the tip of his cock inside me. “More.”

  He chuckles. “How’s your grip?”

  “Good. I’m tough as nails.”

  Troy digs his fingertips into the flesh of my hips. “Glad to hear it. Because you’re about to be ridden. By me and your damn ninja contraption. Hold on, Joslyn.”

  I’m paralyzed with pleasure, my hands clutching the cable with everything I have inside me. I dig deep because I’m going to have to utilize every muscle in my upper body for this. Inch by incredible inch, he infiltrates my wet pussy, making me his. Claiming me. And I want it. I want to be claimed by this man. I’ll worry about what that means after he gets me off again.

  “God, Jos. You’re so tight. So wet. This is incredible.”

  I clamp my eyes shut against Troy’s words, concentrating on how full I feel. His hands tremble against my hips, and I know he wants to let loose.

  “Fuck me harder.”

  He shoves my body backward, and the motion causes the cannonball
to sway a few inches. With the weight of it, and the force of Troy’s body, it causes his cock to get so deep, it hits me in a place I never even knew I possessed. But I know how much I like it.

  I buck my hips and swallow him whole, taking every single inch. I can see my second orgasm, and it hovers in front of my eyes, its light blinding me. Troy reaches between our bodies to strum my swollen clit. I’m terrified that my body’s going to explode into a hurling ball of pleasure. My heart gallops in my chest, and that racing muscle understands. I’m being owned by this man. The way he’s touching my body, touching my soul, makes me start to believe in him.

  In us.

  Troy leans forward to kiss me just as the peak overwhelms me. My mind goes blank as my body seizes. I moan through it, rocking on his dick like I was made for it. And I was.

  “Joslyn, you’re perfect,” Troy whispers against my ear. “I’ll be here to catch you when you fall.”

  And with his words, I let go.

  When it’s over, I can barely move. We’re tangled together in a mess of sweaty limbs on the AstroTurf, and my heart thuds so loudly that I imagine the astronauts in space can hear it. Troy clears his throat, and I scramble off him, crossing my hands over my breasts, wishing I had something to cover my nakedness.

  “Don’t do that. Don’t ever deny me the right to look at you.”

  I flush and swallow, taking a deep breath. “Okay.”

  He stands up and stretches, and it’s hard for me not to gawk at his rock-hard abdomen. His cock hardens to an impossible length, and the sight of it makes me shiver – what’s Troy Cass doing with this gorgeous body?

  “Wow, that was…something.”

  “I’m sure it was just the adrenaline,” I lie, pushing myself to a sitting position. “I need to go inside and take a shower.”

  Troy raises an eyebrow. Somehow, the way he drinks me in with his haunting eyes makes me feel the lust pulsate through me again. But this time, I push it away. I’m not sure I could take him again and come out on the other side unscathed. Until he opens his mouth and says the words that I just can’t resist.