She blew into his ear. "Right now I just want to put the whole Vargas case behind us. Just for tonight." She deepened the kiss and he let himself sink into the soft warmth of her face, her body and returned the kiss until she was breathless.
They'd shed their clothes by the time they reached the bedroom. As she leaned backwards onto the bed, he pulled her upright. "No, I just want to look at you a minute."
He ran his hands over her breasts, reveling in the soft peaks that hardened a moment later beneath his thumbs. His hands traced the length of her waist and hips and traveled down her thighs nudging them apart with his hands. He knelt in front of her and traced his tongue around her navel and dipped lower. "God, you are so beautiful."
"Wait," she said. "I'm feeling grubby. Let's shower first."
"I like that idea."
He stepped into the shower and adjusted the temperature and spray, then pulled her in after him. He took the brunt of the pulsating water so her hair wouldn't get wet.
She wrapped her legs around his hips and leaned her back against the shower wall. "I can't wait," she breathed. "I want you. Now!"
"Huh uh," he panted, "I want to bury my face between your legs until you scream."
"Oh, God, don't talk like that. I'll explode."
"Then we won't wait." He thrust hard into her and felt her core already tightening and pulsing around him, and a few moments later he climaxed hard into her wet, slick body. The throbbing seemed endless and he felt the intense clutching of her inner muscles around him for a long time.
Afterward they washed each other slowly and languidly and by the time they'd dried off, he was ready for her again. She turned the overhead fan on to cool their still-hot bodies and they tumbled naked on the bed. He slid down her body and lifted her knees around his shoulders, sank his mouth into her sweet, hot center and kissed and teased until she cried out in pleasure-pain. "God, Rafe!"
He rode her climax with his mouth and his tongue as she gripped his hair and lifted her hips toward his face for greater access. She came for a long time and he felt a possessive pride in giving her pleasure like this.
He slid back up her body, turned her hips around, and sank his face into her nape. Her hair formed a dark curtain around across the pillow as he breathed in the scent of her soap and shampoo and sex.
One hand teased the now-sensitive nub and the other played with her nipples. The hard, hot length of him pushed hard against her soft hips, a fierce warrior demanding access to the castle. Jesus, he wanted to mount her again like a stud horse after a filly in heat.
"Are you a filly?" he whispered, nuzzling her neck.
"What?" Her voice was heavy with the drowsiness of a body sated with sex.
"Are you up for another one?"
She must have felt the hard length of him against her ass – how could she miss it? She giggled and turned around, draping one leg over him and finally straddling his body. His cock lay pointing straight up for all the world like a dangerous weapon.
"Shall I disarm you?" she teased, grabbing him with her small hand and beginning a rhythm before bending over to wrap her mouth around the tip of him.
He groaned and gave himself over to her ministrations, banishing every thought of Max's possible treachery from his mind.
Bella applied her makeup with Max Jensen on her mind, thinking how he and Rafe had a long history, but she barely knew the man.
Rafe watched her in the mirror, thinking about Isabella's meet with Santos today. "Change your mind. Let me go with you when you bargain with Santos. Please."
She shook her head, but kept her voice even, smiling gamely. "I'll be fine. The wild beast likes me, remember?"
"That's what I'm afraid of," Rafe muttered. "Scarface likes you too much."
"I'm counting on that to get what I want from him."
"It's a dangerous game you're playing."
He reached for her as she wrapped her arms around his middle. He smoothed her hair back from her forehead. "Santos is like an alligator. He strikes with cunning unpredictability when you least expect it. You can't know what he's going to do from one minute to the next."
"I know what I'm doing." Bella allowed the smallest note of exasperation to creep into her voice. "You have to trust me on this."
Rafe glowered at her as she twisted out of his arms and applied a final coat of lipstick. She half expected him to argue further, or haul her over his shoulder and carry her off cave-man style to some imagined safety.
She braced herself for more discussion, but he simply stared at her, a calculating expression on his face. As he spun around to leave the bathroom and make his way through the bedroom where they'd begun the discussion, she wondered what plan he was concocting.
Slipping on a robe, she caught up with him in the small kitchen where he'd just poured himself a cup of coffee. She stood beside him at the counter, reached in front of his large body and pulled down a mug for herself. They stood silently side by side, him leaning against the countertop, her facing the coffee percolator.
Rafe sighed. "All right. I won't force you to let me in on the meet with Santos."
She smiled. "Good."
"Even though I could."
She merely lifted an eyebrow.
"I could take over the entire investigation. Make my own federal deal with Santos. Get to him ahead of you."
She dropped her jaw. "You wouldn't."
Suddenly serious, he turned her to face him. "Yes, Isabella, I would. If I thought it would do any good, if you wouldn't go off half-cocked and do something reckless out of sheer stubbornness. But for now I'll settle for you acting responsible around the thug."
The tone of his voice, worried and sympathetic at the same time, warmed her. She leaned against him, drawing a little comfort for the task ahead. She had to cut a deal with a monster in order to catch what was undoubtedly a larger monster.
Santos was the devil incarnate. Of that she had no doubt. He'd been responsible for the death and destruction of countless victims in his role as legal counsel and enforcer for Diego Vargas' drug cartel.
But she had a personal stake in seeing that Vargas went away for the rest of his natural life. She believed he had a hand in her sister Maria's disappearance twenty years ago, even though she had absolutely no proof.
"What are you going to offer him?" Rafe asked at last.
"I'll take the death penalty off the table," she answered promptly, knowing Santos wasn't the kind of man who'd submit to life in prison.
Rafe shook his head. "He'll never go for it."
Bella shrugged.
"What do you expect from him?"
"As much as I can get. Vargas and his connections for sure, more if I can get it."
"For life without parole? Santos is a wild animal. He won't let himself be caged like that."
She knew Rafe was right. She read the concern for her safety on his face. "I'll be okay," she said, edging away. "Don't worry."
Rafe captured her face in his hands, the long brown fingers rubbing across her cheeks, the thumbs trailing sensually over her lower lip. She caught his thumb between her teeth as she rested in the cradle of his thighs.
"I'll be careful," she promised again. "I won't let him trick me. I just need to get everything from him that I possibly can."
"Don't let him hurt you, Isabella," Rafe whispered into her ear, his breath warm at her temple. "I'll have to kill him if he hurts you."
Rafe had no intention of letting Bella meet with Santos, even in broad daylight, without sufficient protection. And that meant him tailing her, along with an agent and a deputy. He figured what she didn't know couldn't hurt her.
After dropping by the Sacramento field office, where he'd enlisted another agent, he stopped at the hospital to check on Slater, whose condition was much improved. The sheriff told Rafe everything he remembered about the attack at the safe house.