Dario DeLuca: Savage Bloodline

19. Dario

NINETEEN

“Don’t fucking touch her,”I seethe.

Fury courses through me as Rafael steps in to handle the pathetic fool who dared lay a hand on what”s mine. I barely register the crunch of bone as I release the man”s shattered wrist.

Never mind that we’re in a room full of constituents and a news crew or that Mia is clawing at my wrist to get me to let go of this asshole. I don’t care that any one of the people here tonight may have witnessed their city council candidate committing assault.

All I see is red, the anger damn near blinding me.

Rafael pries my hand away, and with a tip of his head, he silently lets me know he’ll take care of this mess. I turn my gaze to Mia, taking in the fear and disgust in her eyes, her disdain for me rearing its ugly head.

She sees me as a monster, and what little progress we’ve made is gone. We’d been good for a while after I took her in the library I had built for her. All the fight she had toward me seemed to fade away. No, she doesn’t greet me with sunshine and rainbows, but she doesn’t exactly hate being near me.

Now we’re back at square one.

But the thing is, that means nothing to me. All that matters is Mia. My Mia. I’ll be every demon on the planet when it comes to someone fucking with what belongs to me.

I reach for her arm, but she pulls away while attempting to tend to the man.

“Jake. Are you—” is all she gets out before I grip her forearm and drag her, yanking her away from the crowd that seems oblivious to the violence unfolding before them.

Useless, the lot of them.

Mia thrashes in my iron grip, but it”s futile. ”Dario, let me go! You can”t just--”

Her words are drowned out by the roar of possessive hunger thundering in my veins. I need to stake my claim to remind her who she belongs to. That delicious body, that fire and defiance, it”s all mine.

We step out of the main room, and I haul her down the corridor, searching for solitude to unleash the storm raging within me. We round a nook that’s tucked in a corner at the back of the establishment. It’s small, with just enough space for the appliances used to create this makeshift kitchenette area. I throw Mia into the space, blocking her escape.

”Are you insane?” Mia hisses, shoving at my chest as she tries to slip past. ”You can”t just barge in and act like a goddamn Neanderthal.”

I grip her wrists, holding her at bay as anger burns in her pretty eyes.

”Don”t pretend you didn”t enjoy having that man”s hands all over you.”

”What are you talking about?”

“That asshole touching you.”

“You’re crazy.” Mia bites out, trying one more time to move around me.

I hold her in place, still seething. Mia twists and turns to break free, but my grasp is unwavering.

“He’s fine,” I deadpan.

“You broke his wrist like some fucking lunatic. Why would you do that? And here of all places?”

“Because you’re going to be my wife.”

Mia stares at me, almost as if she can’t believe the words coming from my lips. “I”m not some piece of property for you to lay claim to.”

The ferocity in her voice, the challenge implicit in those words stokes the inferno smoldering in my gut. My grip tightens, and a delicious shudder ripples through her. Even now, she can”t hide the way her body betrays her, how it yearns for my dominance.

”You”re mine,” I growl, backing her up until she”s trapped against the counter. ”Every gorgeous inch.”

Electricity crackles between us, suspended in the heavy air. I drink in the rapid rise and fall of her chest, the flush staining her cheeks.

So fucking intoxicating.

Her hands flatten against me, but there”s no real force behind the feeble shove. ”You”re delusional if you think I”ll just roll over and be your obedient little wife.”

A dark chuckle rumbles in my throat. ”Is that what you think this is about? Obedience?” I seize her jaw, grip firm but careful not to mark that flawless skin. ”I don”t want a mindless doll, Bella. I want that fire.”

I crush my mouth against hers, swallowing her gasp of surprise. At first, she”s rigid, lips sealed, but I”m relentless—a master at wearing down defenses.

When she melts, succumbing to the scorching temptation, a feral sound tears from me. Our tongues duel for dominance as I pin her harder against the unforgiving counter. She”s all softness and curves next to my hard frame.

I break the kiss, both of us panting harshly. In one smooth motion, I lift her onto the surface and press against the haven between her thighs. She’s at the perfect height, her center aligned just right with my groin. She”s made for me, built to take everything I”ll give her.

And I”m going to fuck her until she screams my name. Until she knows, in that pretty little head of hers, who she truly belongs to.

”This...” I rasp, nipping along her jaw. ”This is what you were made for, Bella. Taking everything I give you.”

A whimper escapes her, needy and desperate, as I grind against her core. The damp heat there has me throbbing, aching to be sheathed in her vice-like depths.

”Admit it,” I demand, fingers tangling in her hair to yank her head back. I blaze a path down the elegant column of her neck with nips and licks. ”You wanted that man to touch you. Wanted to make me lose control.”

”N-no…” But the breathy protest is weak, undercut by the roll of her hips seeking friction.

”Such a fucking tease.” I capture her earlobe between my teeth. ”Always pushing me right to the edge. I think you like me losing control, tempting me until I make you mine in every way.”

She doesn”t utter a word. Her only reply is the desperate rolling of her hips against my rigid length. Growling deep in my chest, I shove my pants down just enough, freeing my aching dick. Mia”s eyes widen, lips parting on a ragged inhale as I grip myself, dragging my calloused palm along the rigid shaft.

Her pupils are blown, a thin ring of amber encircling dilated pools of need. That flicker of insolence still smolders behind the lust, stoking my own craving.

”Like what you see, Bella?” I can”t resist taunting, my voice a gritty rasp. She tracks every stroke of my fist with desperate hunger.

I palm the juncture of her brown thighs through the flimsy fabric of her dress, finding slick, searing heat. ”This pretty pussy is mine.”

Mia lets out a shuddering breath, fighting a losing battle against the yearning that glazes her eyes. She remains rooted in place, a rabbit held immobile by the wolf”s stare.

I release my throbbing cock, and with a rough and desperate movement, I plunge my hands under her dress and rip the flimsy scrap of lace obscuring my prize and bring it to my face, inhaling the intoxicating musk. A deep, satisfying groan reverberates through my chest.

”You can hate me all you want, amore.” With a smirk, I stuff her damp panties into my breast pocket where my handkerchief should be.

”But this?” I seize her thighs, hauling her toward the precipice until my tip brushes her entrance.

”This perfect, tight little cunt is mine alone.” I plunge in without warning, sheathing myself to the root. Mia”s head lolls back on a broken sob, nails scoring lines down my arms as I fill and stretch her.

The exquisite squeeze of her walls has me hanging onto my sanity by a thread. Every animalistic instinct screams at me to claim, mark, possess.

”Look at me.” Her eyes flutter open obediently. ”From this moment on, I”m the only one who touches you.”

I thrust into her, tingles prickling up my spine with every thrust into her slippery pussy.

“The only one who fucks you.”

Mia’s eyes turn hooded, and her brow creased as I pound into her, her sweet whimpers rising and falling in rhythm to the music pouring from the speakers.

“Is that clear?”

A tremulous nod precedes a desperate whine, her legs locking around my waist to draw me impossibly deeper.

”Words, Tesoro.” I grind against her slowly, relishing the tremors wracking her body. ”Tell me you understand.”

Mia doesn’t answer, so I slam into her, one for punishment and another for good measure, before I wrap my fingers around her neck, forcing her gaze to mine.

”Tell me you fucking understand.”

”Y-yes,” she rasps, squirming against the vise around her throat as I continue to fuck her. ”Only you.”

I capture her lips in a bruising kiss, swallowing her cries as I snap my hips forward, driving into her welcoming heat over and over in a ruthless cadence. The slap of flesh on flesh echoes obscenely in the cramped space, mingling with her breathless whines.

”That”s my good girl,” I growl against the slick curve of her neck, sucking a mark into her skin. ”Taking my cock so well.”

Her lips part on a soundless cry, cheeks flushed, and damp tendrils of hair clinging to her skin. I could watch her come apart beneath me forever.

I notice the darkening bruises decorating her inner thighs. Mine. My mark on her body. I increase my pace, snarling praises through gritted teeth.

Mia shudders, her walls fluttering around me as she teeters on the edge. I reach between us, finding the swollen bud of her clit and rubbing tight circles until she breaks with a guttural moan. I bury my face in the valley of her breasts, inhaling the sweet floral scent of her perfume as my hips stutter.

”Fuck, amore.” My voice is gnarled, wrecked. ”Your cunt was made for me.”

Mia nods fervently, beyond the ability for words as I rail into her. Her nails rake fire lines across my back through my blazer, silently urging me on.

The dam finally shatters with a hoarse shriek of my name. I feel her walls rippling and fluttering in release, pulling me deeper. It”s all I can do to hold myself at the brink, extending her climax with thorough strokes.

Only once her tremors subside do I surrender to my release. I bury myself to the hilt, spending my seed in thick jets that leave us both gasping. While still inside her, I slump forward, caging her curvy frame beneath mine, and press a rough kiss to her swollen lips.

I brush her now sweat-drenched hair from her face to see the sweet aftermath in her features. Then I trail my hand to the nape of her neck, forcing her eyes to mine as I ride out the aftershocks.

”If another man so much as looks at you…” I trail off, letting the unspoken threat hang heavy between us.

Mia swallows thickly, giving the barest nod of understanding as I withdraw. A trickle of my release follows, covering the insides of her thighs.

The clearing of a throat has me spinning, shielding Mia”s naked form instinctively as Rafael averts his eyes. Though his ears are undoubtedly burning crimson at the unholy sounds he overheard. His hand extends, a thick envelope gripped between his fingers.

”We have a problem,” he says gruffly.

I take it from him, and the leaden weight in the pit of my stomach intensifies as I tear open the seal, Mia peering over my shoulder. A photograph flutters to the floor—the same image Evelyn shared with the press of our engagement. Her family surrounds us—parents and best friend alike—with the chief of police lingering in the periphery.

They”re all smiling, ignorant of the turmoil yet to come.

”Flip it over,” Rafael instructs, mouth set in a grim line.

With a sense of dread coiling in my gut, I comply. The envelope slips from my suddenly numb grasp, scattering its contents across the tiled floor. My world has frozen over, replaced by a suffocating blanket of ice.

Because scrawled across the image in harsh, blood-red letters...

You”ve been keeping her from me, but who will protect the others?