Broken (Manhattan Ruthless Book 1)

Nathan pops his head into the bathroom, startling me as I step out of the shower.

I grab a towel and wrap it around my body. “I thought you’d be home late.”

He leans against the doorframe, a smile playing on his lips and his arms crossed over his chest, looking so sexy I could lick him from head to toe. “You’re not happy to see me, corazón?”

I roll my eyes and step toward him. “Always, light of my life, but I haven’t started dinner yet.”

He tucks a strand of wet hair behind my ear. “My meetings wrapped up early. Remind me to fire the next person who schedules one on a Saturday afternoon.”

I lean into him, and my body immediately responds to his solid warmth. It’s been three and a half months since we got married, and our weekends together are my favorite part of every week. “I can do that.”

“How about I take you out for dinner? I know a beautiful little Spanish place near Harlem.”

My stomach growls loudly, and I stifle a giggle. “I guess that’s a yes.”

He hums his approval against my lips, then pulls back. “I’m going to take a quick shower. If you could be dressed by the time I’m done, that would be great.”

I feign indignation. “Are you suggesting I take too long to get ready?”

“No,” he growls, grabbing my ass. “I’m saying that you naked is a huge fucking distraction, and I want to take you out to dinner.”

My face heats, and I bite my lip. “Well, I’ll be dressed, but it will take me twenty minutes to dry this mane.” I flick the ends of my hair.

He kisses me again and flashes me a wink. “As long as this sexy body is covered, I’ll be okay.” He stalks toward the shower and pulls off his clothes. I take a few beats to admire his muscular back before I force myself to leave the room, knowing if I stare at him any longer, I’ll join him in that shower.

“This place is beautiful, Nate.” I shrug off my coat and glance around the restaurant. Although it’s entirely indoors, it’s decorated like a Spanish garden, and the soft flamenco music is interspersed with faint birdsong.

He pulls out my chair. “My mom used to love coming here. She brought us here all the time as kids.”

I smile up at him, grateful for the piece of insight. He doesn’t talk about his mom often, and I know it’s a painful subject for him. A waiter comes to get our order, and without looking at the menu, Nathan orders a bottle of wine and food for both of us.

“Melanie Edison!” a loud voice calls out as soon as the waiter drops off our wine, and I look up to see an old college classmate heading my way, a goofy grin on his face.

I don’t even have time to look at Nathan before Craig grabs my hand and pulls me up into a hug. “What the hell, Melanie. I haven’t seen you since—”

“It’s great to see you,” I cut him off before he can go any further.

He squeezes me tighter, and the strong smell of beer nearly knocks me out.

“Do you mind taking your hands off my fucking wife?” Nathan growls possessively.

My cheeks burn with embarrassment, and I try to take a step back so I can untangle myself from Craig’s embrace, but he holds tight. “Craig, this is my husband, Nathan.”

“Your husband, huh?” He looks down, flashing me a grin while still holding onto me before he looks over my shoulder at Nathan.

I glance behind me just in time to see my irate husband stand up, his shoulders rolled back and his jaw clenched. Again, I attempt to wriggle out of Craig’s embrace, but he’s so drunk that he hangs on like a limpet.

“If you don’t take your hand off my wife’s ass right now, I will break every bone in both goddamn hands.”

I wrench myself out of my old college buddy’s grip, and his eyes widen in shock. “It was nice to see you, Craig. You should go.”

He blinks at me, then at Nathan.

“Craig, dude! We’re leaving!” someone shouts from across the restaurant.

He glances in their direction before turning back to Nathan and me. “Nice to meet you too,” he huffs, and goes to join his friend.

I sit back down, my neck and chest hot. “Why did you behave like that?”

Nathan sits too, a heavy scowl furrowing his brow. “Are you being serious right now?”

“Yes. He was just some guy from college.”

“He had his hand on your fucking ass.”

I roll my eyes. “It was my back.”

His narrowed eyes pierce mine, and he shifts forward in his seat. “Pretty sure I know the difference between your back and your ass, Mel.”

Tilting my jaw, I glare at him. So it’s okay for him to have beautiful women hugging him, but when I meet an old friend there’s an issue? What a hypocrite. “Pretty sure I know my own body better than you do.”

He leans closer, his scowl deepening. “I wouldn’t bet on that, corazón.”

I swallow, my skin burning under the intensity of his glare. “He was drunk, that’s all. I’m sure he didn’t know what he was doing.”

“So he did have a hand on your ass?”

I shake my head. “I never said that. He was an old friend, and you acted like a possessive jerkwad because he hugged me. Yet women are allowed to hug you, and when I question that, you …” I suck in a ragged breath as I recall the night at the charity gala last month. Wet heat sears between my thighs.

Nathan circles his hand around my wrist. “I what?”

“If I recall correctly, you said something about curbing my bad attitude.”

His expression darkens, like he’s remembering that night too. “And I’ll do it again if I need to. Right here at this table.”

My lip trembles, but I glare defiantly. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“I’d love nothing more than to put you over my knee and spank the attitude out of you, corazón.”

“So do it,” I challenge.

He holds my gaze for a few seconds, his lips twitching, before he releases my wrist and calls the restaurant manager to our table. I can only watch as they have a brief but animated exchange in Spanish, and I’m starting to worry it’s becoming heated when the manager smiles and pats Nathan on the shoulder. With a polite nod in my direction, he walks to the nearest table of diners.

“What was that about?” I ask.

“Paolo is clearing out the restaurant for us.”

I blink at him. “He’s what?”

“He’s asking all of these people to leave,” he says matter-of-factly. “And then his staff will go home, he’ll go to his apartment upstairs, and you and I will have the place entirely to ourselves.”

I open and close my mouth, feeling distinctly like a goldfish. “You—what? You can’t do that.”

His eyes don’t leave mine. “I just did.”

“But … these people are eating. You can’t just toss them out in the middle of their meal.”

His jaw ticks. “They’ll be given twenty minutes to finish. Their checks will be taken care of, and their next visit will be free.”

I gape at him. “That’s going to cost you a fortune.”

“It will be worth it, corazón.” He checks his watch and smirks. “You have about twenty minutes until I get you alone.”

I swallow hard. The threat in his tone is clear. He’s pissed at me. We haven’t had any serious arguments since the day after we were married, and I have no idea how he handles conflict. Although his reputation in the courtroom is ice, he’s always been a blazing fire where I’m concerned, and something tells me I’m about to get burned.

After our food is delivered, I sip my wine and chew my pasta until it turns to glue in my mouth. All the while, I watch Nathan calmly finish his steak and wish I had an ounce of his composure. My legs are shaking beneath the table, but it’s not from fear. My blood sizzles with anticipation.

After the last customer leaves and the staff files out the door, Paolo bids us both goodnight and reminds Nathan to make sure he closes the door firmly when we leave.

Now Nathan and I are entirely alone, and although I won’t meet his gaze, I feel his eyes on me as keenly as if they were flames licking my skin. My entire body thrums with nervous energy.

“Look at me,” he commands.

I lift my head, allowing my gaze to travel up the thick column of his throat, the fine dusting of stubble that peppers his jaw, over his full lips, and finally to his piercing brown eyes. “What now?” I ask, aware my voice is barely a whisper.

His eyes darken. “Strip.”

I blink at him like an idiot. The muscle in his jaw ticks, and I glance around the restaurant. It’s now entirely empty, but the lights are still on—muted but still too bright for me to be thrilled about getting naked—and there are windows. Giant windows. And although we’re tucked away in a corner and can’t be seen from outside, it still feels very public.

“I said strip,” he commands again.

My pulse hums against my pressure points. I tip my chin at him. “And what if I don’t?”

The corner of his mouth curls, and he cups my chin in his hand, dragging the pad of his thumb over my bottom lip and making me shiver. “You know what edging is?”

I nod.

He keeps a firm grip on my face. “I will have your cunt aching and dripping for me before we leave this restaurant, corazón. And on the way home, I’ll make you beg for the promise of relief that I won’t deliver. Then I will take my fill of your beautiful body over and over again until you’re burning up from the inside out with the ravenous need to come. And tomorrow”—he presses a chaste kiss to my forehead—“I’ll do it all again. So that by the time you go to work on Monday, you won’t be able to think straight with the blood screaming in your ears and the throbbing between your thighs.”

I swallow, my heart thumping in my ears.

“So don’t make me ask you again.” His tone is low and demanding, but I don’t feel powerless here. Whatever else is between us, I know that I trust this man. He would never humiliate or embarrass me, no matter how pissed he might be.

Wrenching my head out of his grip, I stand and keep my eyes fixed on his as I reach for the zipper at the back of my dress. I slowly pull it down until the black fabric pools at my feet.

His face remains impassive. “Everything, corazón.”

My fingers tremble on the hook of my bra, but I manage to unhook it and let it fall to the floor. Nathan’s jaw is tight, his hands balled into fists at his sides. He’s not as cool and calm about this as he’s pretending to be. I make a show of hooking my thumbs into the waistband of my panties, swaying my hips as I peel them over my curves.

Growling, he leans forward in his seat, his eyes raking greedily up and down my body. A thrill of excitement runs through me. He makes no attempt to hide the effect I have on his body, and the knowledge that he wants me as much as I want him makes me feel sexy and empowered in a way I never have before.

I kick my panties off my feet.

“Keep the heels on.” The deep timbre of his voice melts my core, and I press my lips together to stop myself from whimpering.

He trails his fingertips over the curve of my hip and skates them down my abdomen. His free hand rests on his thigh, and he clenches and unclenches his fist, just like that night at the zoo, as though his palm is twitching with the need to spank my ass. The thought of being bent over his lap and spanked makes liquid warmth seep between my thighs.

“You’re so fucking beautiful, Mel.” He grabs my wrist and yanks me toward him. I bump against his thigh and fall right over his lap, my ass in the air and my elbows on the bench. “But that’s not going to distract me enough to spare your ass, corazón.”

“Nate.” I gasp out his name on a stuttered breath.

“Have you ever been spanked, Mel?”

“N-no,” I stammer truthfully.

He runs his palm over my ass cheeks before squeezing one in a bruising grip, but it only makes me grind myself against his thigh. “I’ve been waiting for a reason to spank this ass since the first time you sassed me on our first date.”

“I did not sass you,” I protest.

A dark laugh rumbles out of him. “Yes you did, and you know it. From the moment you climbed into my car you were trying to push my buttons.”

Okay, maybe that’s true. I glance over my shoulder at him and arch an eyebrow. “Pretty sure you did some pushing yourself, Ice.”

He delivers the first stinging slap to my ass, and I yelp in surprise more than pain. Surprise that I feel the ache leftover by his hand between my thighs rather than anywhere else. I hiss out a breath, and he spanks me again, a little harder this time.

Whining, I rest my head on my forearms and rub myself against his taut thigh muscle, stifling a moan at the delicious friction it provides my aching center. I need more. Lifting my hips, I push my ass into the hand rubbing over my tingling flesh.

He groans and spanks me again.

A keening moan is torn from my throat. “Nate, please?”

“You like being bent over my knee like this?” Smack.

“Yes,” I cry out, and he delivers another blow.

I’ve never ached to feel him inside me more than I do right now. It’s a visceral longing that comes from somewhere deep and carnal. This should feel so wrong, but in his arms everything only ever feels right. When he sinks two fingers inside me a second later, I scream his name so loudly that I’m sure people passing by on the street must hear me, but I no longer care. All I can focus on is Nathan.

“You’re soaked for me already, corazón. I knew this would get you worked up.” He spanks me again while he slides his fingers in and out of me.

“That feels so good.”

“You look so good. Naked on my lap, soaking my hand with your juices.”

Oh, dear sweet mother in heaven, that mouth!

Just when I think Nathan has me on the edge and can’t possibly make this whole situation feel any filthier than it already does, he coats a fingertip with my arousal and slides it up the seam of my ass before pressing it against the tight ring of muscle. I almost freeze at the foreign sensation, but I’m too far gone. “Has anyone ever taken you here, corazón?”

“N-no.”

He presses more firmly, and I tremble with anticipation, which he seems to take as an invitation to push the tip of his finger inside me.

“Oh, fuck.” I squeeze my eyes closed as a violent tremor rockets through my body.

His groan is deep and low and full of satisfaction. “You’re going to let me take you here though, aren’t you?”

God, he can take me any way, anywhere. “Y-yes.”

He glides his finger in and out of my ass while he keeps two more in my pussy. “Good girl.”

A guttural groan rasps in my throat. I’m so close. “Nathan, please!”

Instead of taking pity on me, he removes his fingers. I whine at the loss of his touch, sinking onto his lap like I’m boneless. So he’s edging me even though I did what he asked?

“Come here, corazón.” His tone is soothing as he pulls me up into a kneeling position on the bench so I’m straddling one of his powerful thighs. He snakes one arm around my waist and uses the other to tangle his fingers in my hair and keep my head in place. “There’s something unbelievably sexy about you being naked on my lap while I’m in my suit.”

I roll my hips, and the hardness of his thigh between my legs makes pleasure curl in my center. “Yeah, you do seem to have a thing for that.”

Nathan rests his lips against my ear. “You don’t deserve to have me make you come.”

I pout.

He trails his teeth and tongue along my jawline and down my neck. “But I’d like to see you make yourself come riding my thigh like that.”

He sucks a hardened nipple into his hot mouth, and I moan his name, winding my fingers through his thick hair as I rub my aching pussy over him. Despite what he just said, he stokes my orgasm, squeezing my breasts in his huge hands and teasing my aching nipples with his delicious mouth until I’m on the edge of ecstasy. He grabs onto my hips, pulling me tight against his taut muscles and grinding his leg against my clit.

Unable to hold on any longer, I throw my head back as my orgasm washes over me. Warm and heavy, it takes me under with its intensity. And it’s Nathan who brings me back, wrapping his arms around my waist and sinking his teeth into my neck.

When I can see again, I stare into his dark eyes, panting for breath.

Looking down, he smirks. “You’ve made quite the mess there, corazón.”

I follow his gaze, and my cheeks burn with mortification at the sight of my arousal coating his expensive suit pants. His entire left thigh is covered in me. “I’m so—” Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ FɪndNøvel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

He squeezes my jaw and cuts off the rest of my apology. His dark eyes narrow, glimmering with a danger that makes me swallow nervously. “Don’t you dare apologize for having any part of you on any part of me.”

I press my lips together to stop myself from apologizing again.

“Get dressed, corazón. We’re leaving.” He lifts me off his lap, then uses his cloth napkin from dinner to wipe his pants and stuffs the damp material into his jacket pocket.

“That’s theft.” Flashing him a mischievous grin, I grab my panties from the floor.

“That is making sure nobody but me gets to touch or smell my wife’s cum.” With that, he lets out an animalistic growl.

I don’t know if he’s still mad about earlier, but even if he is, make-up sex with Nathan James will undoubtedly be even hotter than what we just did.