Captivated: A Mafia Romance (Carfano Crime Family Book 6)

~ Chapter 19 ~

Cassie

Nico plants kisses down my spine and I hum my approval. His fingertip traces the shamrock tattoo on my upper right butt cheek I got when I turned eighteen and was in my rebellious, party, let loose phase of college. I was feeling a little nostalgic for my life in Boston and what could have been.

“Luck of the Irish,” he whispers, his warm breath tickling my skin right before his lips meet my tattoo in a soft kiss.

“Not always lucky,” I whisper back. “But I feel lucky right now,” I add, and Nico caresses the globe of my cheek lovingly.

“I’m not Irish, piccante, but I’m the luckiest motherfucker in the world to have you. To talk to you. To touch you. To kiss you. To be able to do this,” he says, sliding his hand between my thighs to tease me.

My back arches towards him automatically, but he slides his hand away to trace my other tattoo on the back of my upper left thigh.

“What does this say? I never got to ask you.” His fingertip follows the Gaelic script.

“Love is the whole thing. We are only pieces.”

His finger pauses its movements and he kisses the words before resuming his tracing.

My eyes sting with a rush of emotions I wasn’t expecting, and I blink them back.

“I’ve never told anyone what it means before or why I got it,” I admit, his soft touch lulling me into a relaxed state. “I got it a couple years ago as a reminder to myself. It’s a part of a poem by Rumi. We’re all just pieces to a puzzle, continuously looking for other pieces to fit with us to make us whole. People to love, what brings us joy, where we belong. It all comes together to be a picture of love.”

“I like that,” Nico says softly, kissing my tattoo again. “You just described how I feel about you perfectly.”

“How?”

“A piece of my puzzle that’s been missing. You fit just right, Cassandra.”

I pinch my eyes closed to keep the unshed tears from escaping. That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me.

“I feel the same way,” I admit, and a large chunk of the wall I’ve kept my heart barricaded behind is demolished.

Nico rolls me onto my other side so I’m facing him, and he tucks my wayward hair behind my ear. He’s looking at me with soft brown eyes. Open brown eyes that have me feeling like warm chocolate is flowing through my veins rather than blood.

“What made you need that reminder?” he asks gently. He wants me to open myself even more for him, and for once, I want to share something I’ve never talked about.

“It’s a story a few years in the making.”

Nico cups my cheek. “I’m not going anywhere.”

I lift my chin and give him a quick kiss before tucking myself against him. I can’t look at him when I tell him this. Not that I’m ashamed. I just don’t talk about myself, and I’m already feeling too vulnerable.

“At the end of my freshman year of college, Lexi and I went to a frat party to celebrate the end of finals week. I got a little too drunk, and when I went to find the bathroom, I was followed. I was too wasted to know what was really happening, and was lucky Lexi came looking for me when she realized I wandered off alone. She saved me. She pushed him off me before he could do anything and then got me out of there.”

Nico doesn’t say anything. He just drags his fingers up and down my spine, so I keep going.

“I woke up the next day extremely grateful. I know it wasn’t my fault. It was his for trying to take advantage of me. But I made a promise to myself that I was going to be more careful with myself and the situations I put myself in. Rumors spread about me through the frats that I was down for anything and up for the taking because I dated one for a month and had a one-night-stand with two others. They needed to save their egos by making me sound easy rather than admit I wanted nothing more from them. I got the tattoo a year later to remind myself that there’s more out there for me.

“I only started to try dating recently because I was tired of being alone, but it was a disaster. No one was interesting. No one made me feel like they were listening to me when I talked. And” – I reach up and trace his jawbone – “no one made me feel anything like how I do right now. Not even close. In fact, I felt nothing until you.”

Nico lifts my chin to look into my eyes when he says, “You were looking for your lost puzzle piece.”

“Yes,” I whisper, and his lips are on mine in an instant.

He kisses me with a passion I haven’t gotten yet. This is different. This is a silent agreement between us that we’re both feeling the same thing. We’re both realizing that this is real and there’s no more confusion for either of us.

Nico rolls on top of me and I slice my fingers through his hair, holding him to me.

“Cassie,” he says roughly against my lips, pressing his forehead to mine. “I want to feel you. I want this moment to keep going. I want to be as close to you as possible.”

“I’ve never done that.”

“Me either. I’ve never wanted to be so close to someone before you, Cassie.”

I stare into his eyes and see nothing but the truth shining in them. He’s going to make my heart explode with too many emotions I’m not used to if he keeps saying such sweet fucking things.

“I’m on the pill,” I tell him. “I…I want to feel you too, Nico.” I scratch the back of his head, which elicits a low rumble from the back of his throat. “I want you to be the one I’m closest to.”

“Piccante,” he cajoles, and my lips lift in a small smile.

“Not so piccante right now. I’m agreeing with you.”

“You know I like you both ways.” He kisses me hard, pressing me into the bed with his full body weight.

I hook my legs around his hips and tilt mine up so he can easily position himself at my entrance.

I don’t know why I’m nervous, but I am. I have butterflies in my stomach like it’s my first time all over again. Except this time, it’s with a man I actually like and a man who I think is worthy of taking this first from me.

“Look at me, Cassandra,” Nico urges. “Let me see those pretty blue eyes when I feel the tight, wet, heat of your pussy envelope me in the best fucking hug I’ll ever get.”

I meet his warm brown eyes again, and he slides right into me.

My neck arches back and I bite my lip, but I keep my eyes on his. His gaze feels like a warm hug of my own, covering me in his protection and love.

Yes, love.

I see it and I feel it.

I don’t care how long it’s been. Or rather, how long it hasn’t been between us. This is how I want to feel for the rest of my life. This is how I want to be worshipped for the rest of my life.

“Me too, piccante. Me too.”

My eyes tear up and he kisses me while he fucks me slow and easy until the pressure in me builds to where I may explode or I may beg him to never stop. I can’t decide because I can’t think straight.

“Come for me, Cassandra. Let me feel your pussy squeeze me before I fuck you hard and fast like we both like.”

“Please,” I whisper, and Nico smiles as I let go.

“Fuck, baby,” he groans, kissing the corner of my mouth. “You feel so good.”

“You too,” I manage to choke out, and his smile grows. My God, he’s gorgeous.

Nico nips at my chin and buries his face in my neck, only to lick his way up to my ear and take my lobe between his teeth.

“Nico,” I groan.

“Just what I wanted to hear,” he says, then fucks me like he hasn’t before.

It’s rough, raw, and fueled by the chase of needing to prove something.

“Keep your eyes on me,” he demands. “I want to see how I make you feel.”

I already feel too exposed, and now he wants to see more. He wants to see it all. I try and look away, but I can’t. I want to see how I make him feel just as badly, and what I see has me ready to explode.

“Come for me again, Cassandra.”

I dig my heels into his ass. “Harder,” I say between thrusts. “A little” – I gasp – “more.”

Nico grunts and his eyes darken with my request. He grips me behind my knees and presses my legs forward, opening me wider and taking away my control as he fucks me harder.

He hits a new spot in me, and after only a few strokes, I’m a goner. My inner muscles flutter around him and then seize.

I…

My throat closes around a scream.

No sound. Just my mouth open as my body falls apart and my heart swells.

I didn’t know sex could feel like this.

I’m on fire while I’m drowning, and my next breath only comes when Nico’s lips crash against mine and he breathes life into me.

Nico pumps through my orgasm and then stills, groaning into our kiss as he finds his own release.

Knowing he’s filling me with his come sets off another orgasm, and I tear my lips away from his to finally find my voice with a gasp and then long moan.

“Così fottutamente bella,” Nico whispers in my ear as he pulls out.

I whimper at the loss and feel our mixture of releases leak out of me as he rolls us over so I’m lying on top of him.

I rest my head on his chest, and his rapid heartbeat makes me smile as I drift off, feeling safe and happy in his embrace.