Forbidden: a Contemporary Romance Anthology Read online

  “See you on the cellblock, Cruz.” With a less than gentle shove back against the wall, he released his hold on me and stalked out of the room.

  Cohen stepped inside and reached to pick me up from my sinking knees looking back at Garcia watching him leave. “Are you all right?” Firm hands held me up, and one cradled my cheek tenderly. I didn’t realize how much I’d missed the fleeting touch.

  “I’ll survive.”

  “Nene.”

  “Cohen.” Our voices mixed, his frustrated and mine tired.

  “You scared the shit out of me.” He clamped his arms around me.

  “Is the girl okay?”

  “The one who got stabbed? Yeah, she’ll be okay.” He doesn’t tell me any more about her, holding me tight.

  “I’ve been thinking that maybe I can get you information about the Tribe. Something that helps us both.” I was at my lowest point and I’d do anything.

  Cohen grunted with an expression I hadn’t seen before, almost defeated. “I doubt you could get the information I’m looking for. The Red Tribe isn’t exactly inviting you to high tea, or did you forget that?”

  “All I’m asking is that you give me a chance.” My stomach knotted.

  “Nene.” It sounded like a warning.

  “I do it and you get them to reopen your case. Please?” I begged.

  “I don’t like this.” Cohen said scrunching his face up.

  I smoothed his brow with my pointer finger and he takes it to kiss. “We don’t have to like it, it’s all we’ve got.”

  He shook his head.

  “I thought you were a waitress in Dallas.”

  “I am, or at least I was–my social calendar isn’t what it used to be.”

  “A mouth too.” Cohen leaned in, kissing the corner of my lips, gently erasing the taste of Garcia’s nicotine-fouled mouth. I felt his smile against my injured skin, his touch a healing relief. I’d sell my soul, or what was left of it to the devil just have his kindness touch my battered soul for a brief moment again.

  Between soft kissed I asked, “Tell me what you need to know.”

  “I need to know how the Red Tribe is connecting to the outside from here.” Pulling back from me he’d returned to the gruff exterior I had grown accustomed to. He subjected me to another dark mood, and I nodded.

  The things he asked of me were a huge risk, but I didn’t have a whole lot of other options, and four and half years, give or take, in this place, was a long way off.

  “I’ll do it, but I want to know I’m going to get out of here.”

  “That’s my Nene baby.” He planted a quick kiss on my parted lips. The touch was nearly non-existent it was so quick before he walked away, leaving me to follow confused as ever.

  “Come on, Nene, back to your cellblock.” He didn’t stop, and I touched my lips to see if I could conjure the brief touch once more, but it was definitely gone as I scurried to catch up.

  I might have been leaving the cold darkness of solitary, but part of it stayed lodged deeply within me on my exit back to the yellow halogen lights of my cell.

  10

  Cohen

  We played a game of cat and mouse. I stalked her around the prison grounds, and she pretended she didn’t like it. I left her little notes in her underwear drawer when her cellblock was empty, and she gave me what information she could scribbled on paper and secreted inside a worn copy of Gulliver’s Travels. Today I was going retrieve it early.

  “Warden.” Teresa nodded, and I excused her, letting her know I would monitor the library while she changed her baby. She’d had Julius in the infirmary a few weeks ago, and I kept a liberal policy on mothers and infants. He would be taken from her soon, and there was little I could do about it except keep them together as long as I could.

  I checked the aisles, noting only one other person here beside myself as I locked the door behind her.

  “I waited for you at the laundry.” I walked up behind Nene who was on a ladder putting a book away. My hands braced on either side of her locking her in.

  “And I told you I didn’t have any other information.” She didn’t turn to look at me, so I let my hands graze her rigid legs on the ladder.

  “I didn’t ask if you had information. I wanted to see you.”

  “Maybe I didn’t want to see you.”

  I snorted which made her turn to look at me from her perch on the ladder.

  “Untrue.” I let her take a step down. Her backside at the height of my face. I hadn’t touched her since the brief kiss in solitary, and I regretted not doing more with her when I had the chance. I planned on changing that.

  “This is getting risky.” And I agreed with her assessment. The faster this was over the better I would feel.

  “My boss is looking at your case.” I pulled her pants down slowly, exposing her skin.

  She shuddered.

  “What did he do?”

  “Do?”

  “Yeah, to owe you such a big favor.”

  “It’s more like what I do for him.” I kissed the underside of her ass where the skin dipped in a smile.

  “Cohen, not here.” Her breathing changed, and I pushed her to lean over, my arm around her waist.

  “Why not?” I pressed in to lick her inner thigh and wedge myself between her legs. She smelled sweet, hot, and mine. A combination of her strawberry shampoo and musk made my mouth water.

  “What are you doing?” She asked over her shoulder.

  “File that book and I’ll tell you how Hector got himself arrested today.” I watched her eyes dilate and her hand missed the shelf, the book falling to the floor open and cracking the spine. I licked her with my tongue eating her out bent over the shelf. Her juices tasted tart on my tongue, fueling my addiction to her. I shouldn’t, but I did, and damn the consequences.

  I let my tongue do the talking until she whimpered out an orgasm, legs shaking and thighs soaked from her pussy. I wanted her to be free, free to shout her desire from the top of her lungs, but that time wasn’t now, and instead, I had to settle for this stolen moment.

  I cupped her mouth to keep her quiet and she pulled my hand away breathless.

  “How?” Her panting breaths urged me on. I kissed her, licking from front to back, earning another leg quaking shudder. I loved the feel of her underneath me. I only wished we were in a bed somewhere and not here.

  Someday.

  Maybe.

  “Bad drug deal. They got enough to bring him in and question him. I don’t know if it’ll be enough for a conviction but we’re so close. All we need is someone from the middle to roll over on him.”

  I turned her around, her pants hanging from an ankle, and moved her to a table top in the corner away from the locked door and windows.

  “You need more though. Evidence and names.”

  “Yes, but I don’t care about that.” I leaned in to kiss her again, shoving up her top, exposing her pert breasts to my view. Sex wasn’t part of our deal but fuck I wanted her, every inch of her.

  “I’ll get it for you. Maybe I can talk to some of the girls in the Sunshine Sisters, maybe…” Her eyes looked desperate. I feared she’d try something I wasn’t asking or expecting her to do.

  “No. I think we can do this another way.” I assured her, peppering kisses on her face and neck.

  “Cohen.” She pulled me closer.

  I couldn’t tell her that Maris had given us information to follow up on that was proving to be helpful. I still had to keep up the guise for her safety. The less she knew the better.

  “No, Nene.” I said, firmly yanking her pants off. I’d fuck her into submission.

  She said nothing, and instead, lifted her shirt off, and reached for my belt. She undid the leather and unbuttoned my pants pulling my cock out.

  Her hands squeezed tightly, and she rubbed the bead of pre-cum down my shaft. I pulled a condom out of my pocket, and she took the square, opening it up. We were rough pulling and playing, and the latex split going down my sha
ft.

  “Shit.” Nene muttered, and I took a deep breath, giving myself a moment.

  “I didn’t bring more than one.” I was an idiot, backing away prepared to go stiff dicked. I’d jerk myself off later if I had to.

  “I don’t care. I’m clean. I had the shot that’s good for a year anyway.” Nene grabbed for me again and fitted my cock to her center, lining me up.

  I couldn’t speak, pushing into her, my balls slapping her ass. Sliding home had never felt so good, and her legs wrapped around my waist as she pushed up meeting me thrust for thrust.

  “Don’t stop.” Her hands clawed at my shoulders still encased in my dress shirt. My tie bunched up between us. I’d happily strangle myself with it to feel her walls clench tightly around me, milking me for all it was worth. Like a damn kid, I jetted inside her quickly our bodies squelching together with each movement. I grunted, and she moaned, biting her lip. It was the sexiest fucking thing I’d ever seen with her eyes open and the sharp prick of her nails digging into my back as we rocked over the table together.

  “From now on I bite that lip. You moan into my mouth as I pound into you. Got it?” I said against her damp neck licking the salt, taking in every part of her.

  “As long as you fuck me harder each time, I don’t care what you do.” She kissed my hands, smoothing out my hair and hanging onto my neck.

  “I hope you’re not adverse to handcuffs after all of this.” I joked.

  “As long as you’re the only one with the keys.”

  Benedicta Cruz had ruined me for anyone else.

  11

  Nene

  “I have to go.” He groaned and I didn’t want him to leave either. These precious moments were few and far between. Cohen kissed me until my lips felt bruised. Some days I felt like the target on my back grew tenfold if people only knew about us. I swore people could tell he’d fucked me by the way my hair stood up on end and the way my attitude changed. Having Cohen inside me gave me a confidence I hadn’t expected and a little jaunt in my step. When my shift at the library was over, Officer Pettigrew returned to walk me back to my cell.

  “There’s a group scheduled for the showers in five minutes if you want to go.” She said looking me up and down. Was it obvious I had sex? We didn’t talk much so I nodded and gathered what I needed for the shower. My shampoo and flip-flops were essential.

  “Are you sure about this?” I turned back to Officer Pettigrew who looked bored and urged me inside. There should have been other women in here but it was empty still.

  “They’re coming from the rec room. Looks like you’ve got a few minutes by yourself. You want to wait or what?” She questioned impatiently.

  “No, thank you.” I said and she grunted walking away. I could hear the other women coming and quickly got under the shower. The hot water pounded down onto the white and yellow tiles from chrome showerheads that looked older than me. The muscles of my back, legs, and shoulders were sore from the sex on the library table, but I felt fulfilled for the first time in a long while. I didn’t know what was happening from day to day, and this thing with Cohen could be fleeting at best. I let my thoughts run freely, ignoring the negative ones, and letting them flow down the drain with the water that sluiced over my body. I rubbed the shampoo in my hair, making it foamy and fragrant. I thought about fields of strawberries and juicy summer fruit, which made my mouth water. Sadness filled me, thinking I would miss the summer being incarcerated. There would be no fruit to pick in the suburbs to bring back to make tarts and pies like I did with my mother. There would be no beach trips to Galveston in my shitty car with my co-workers when the bar closed for its annual week off. So many things I didn’t realize I would miss.

  A sound inside the shower room startled me. A door slammed shut. I shut the water off and grabbed my towel. My red flip-flops squeaked and flapped against the water and floor. A chill made goosebumps on my legs as water droplets ran down the length of them.

  “Hello?” No sound came back except my own voice and heartbeats. I was alone but the hair rose on the back of my neck as I fought back the terror. I smelled the cloying scent of roses before I saw her face.

  “If it isn’t the bitch Benedicta…little tattletale.” Evangelina and three of her Tribe members took up the space between me and the closed door of the showers.

  “Where’s the guard?” I asked trying to see beyond them. A guard was supposed to be here always.

  “Bitch got paid, she don’t care about some prison pussy.” Meaning the Tribe bribed her. I swallowed down my fear.

  I wrapped the towel tighter around my body. My body prepared to fight my way out of here. I hadn’t been in a fight before with the exception of that day in the yard. No schoolyard frays, no throw down in hallways. I was fresh blood, and Evangelina and her crew had it out for me.

  “What do you want, Evangelina?” Her eyes narrowed. I guess I wasn’t supposed to be asking the questions but too bad.

  She grabbed me by the hair and pulled me close to her face, spitting words. “I can smell his cum dripping from inside you.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I filed the lie away easy, protecting myself as best I could. No one was coming to save me.

  “You’ve been a real pain in the ass since you got here. You and that puta snitch we put in the hospital.”

  “What?”

  “Didn’t your dick tell you she wasn’t coming back?”

  “Maris?”

  “Bitch was a word whore spreading her lips for the warden.” Shock coursed through me. What? That meant that all this time Cohen had someone working for him. Maris was the snitch. She was the one who must have gotten Hector in trouble.

  “What does that have to do with me?”

  “Grant was supposed to get rid of you. Dumb shit couldn’t do that right.” She spit at my feet the fluid hitting my thigh making me cringe. It was disgusting. I didn’t know anything about Grant or his plans except that somehow I got fucked by getting his unwanted attention twice now.

  “Well Grant’s dead, so fat lot of good it did him after all.” I sneered. I was done being their punching bag.

  Evangelina took a step forward with menace in her eyes when one of her gang-girls spoke. “And now Hector is in custody no thanks to this rat.”

  “Eye for an eye, don’t you think?” She snickered and her bitches moved in, hitting, punching, and kicking me to the hard floor. Everything hurt as I curled up in a ball trying to protect myself.

  Banging on the door made them pause for a second. They would kill me, given half the chance.

  “Shit, those guards are supposed to be changing shifts right now.”

  “Didn’t you pay that female guard enough?” One yelled.

  The banging on the door became louder, like someone or something was trying to break it down. All I could focus on was keeping myself conscious so I could tell whoever was coming what happened.

  “The south entrance at the laundry isn’t supposed to be monitored right now. Fuck the shipment.” Evangeline scoffed.

  “I thought they had the laundry van coming?” I had no idea what her goons were yelling about because each word seemed to be punctuated by a kick or a hit to my body with a heavy sock filled with whatever they could use to hit me with.

  The door banged again, and pandemonium filtered into the shower area as guards rushed in to subdue the fight. I lay where I was, unmoving.

  Evangelina shouted, feet stomping and slipping in the puddles of water when another guard put her down, handcuffing her. “God damn that Garcia.”

  My last thought before oblivion was that maybe, just maybe that’s what Cohen wanted to know.

  12

  Cohen

  “Baby…” I winced when I pulled back the curtain at the hospital ten miles away from Colby. Nene was curled up protectively on her side wearing a hospital gown that made her look even worse. Bruises vividly colored her face and shoulders. She looked like someone had tried to stomp on her. Her ha
ir was matted against her cheeks and stained dark with blood from a seeping head wound. The sight was gruesome, turning my stomach.

  No sounds came from her except a few wheezing breaths followed by whimpers of pain. I pushed a chair next to the bed. The metal legs scraped against the cracked tiles in the floor with a jarring sound that made her wince. Nene may have been one of the strongest women I knew, but god, I’d have to handle her with kid gloves not to damage her further.

  I laid my hand gently against the sheet covering her hip. “Nene, why did they beat you in the shower?” A sniffle followed a cry, and Nene tugged the sheet closer around her. The doctor said she hadn’t been raped. Nothing penetrated her, as if that was supposed to magically make being attacked better or less violating. She had been badly beaten. The doctor took photos thinking they would need evidence and I already saw them. Shoe prints bruised her body with dark, concentrated splotches where fists had hit her. Her soul had been violated and humiliated; wasn’t that enough?

  I tried rubbing her back softly but when my fingers grazed her back, she flinched, digging deeper into the thin mattress. “Talk to me baby, I need to know what happened.” Guilt assaulted me for leaving her here. What choice did I have without blowing my cover? We were so close to getting her case reopened for a new trial.

  “She said she could smell your cum all over me.” Nene choked, verbalizing the sentence into a wracking sob.

  “Who said that?” Anger, not at her, never at Nene, but at those crazed gangbangers radiated from within me.

  “E-Evangelina and her bitches.” Of course, the leader of the Red Tribe would be looking for retribution because she got word of Hector getting arrested through the grape vine I’m sure. It was only a matter of time before I got Nene out of here.

  “She said I deserved it for being a snitch and a whore.” Neither was true, and nobody should have known about us except for us. She cried and I kept touching her slowly, reassuring her as best I could.