Chapter 3
CHAPTER 3
ALISON
I t was a damn long shot, but he said yes.
The fact that Max felt the need to state so blatantly that he didn’t want to kiss me felt like a little stab to my ego. I couldn’t deny that. Especially because of all the dirty things that were going through my mind about this mystery soldato and the way I was lusting over him.
Low blow, but I was a woman on a mission, and damn me if I’d allow Barry Barrington to even think that we could be a thing.
Ironic how my mother thought this was a choice when, in fact, we both knew it was just a lighter version of being sold off to an interested party in a business arrangement. In her eyes, so long as I wasn't betrothed to a cruel mafioso who got a kick out of showing his woman exactly who was in charge, it was a definite better option. It wasn’t.
I should remember to ask her if it was better to be broken in with sticks and stones by a stranger or broken within by the love of your life. Maybe that would make her stop with this nonsense. But I know it would hurt her, too. I’d seen her go through that enough to know better than to inflict the pain myself.
“If we’re doing this, now is the right time,” Max whispered from behind me, making me clutch the glass I held in my hand tighter from the intrusion of that deep voice. It reached places it definitely shouldn’t. Places that had no business feeling every note of that bass, husky voice of his.
Turning around, I watched my brothers and grandfather engrossed in conversation with a senator, as oblivious to their surroundings as a mafioso could be.
“Right,” I replied, tipping the rest of my drink down my throat before allowing my gaze to set on his. “I’ll go allure him. You can wait for me in the corridor by the bathrooms.”
With a simple nod, following instructions like the good little soldier he was, Max took off while I set our plan in motion. It was just another mission for him while I had my stomach somersaulting from the expectation of what was about to happen.
My eyes landed on Barry’s straight away. He’d been waiting for his chance to finish that damn conversation since he got interrupted by the king of the underworld himself.
A small smile, fake embarrassment, and another look his way was enough to have him marching towards me.
I turned away from him, giving him my back and walking towards the bathrooms, trying to sway my ass and hoping he’d pick up on the hoax signals. Mid-way there, I shot him another glance over my shoulder, another giggle, and flirty eye-batting before picking up my pace. My cock tease game was at its all-time high, and Barry followed me like an eager little puppy. Exactly as expected.
Should I feel bad for baiting him like that? Maybe. But as soon as I bent that damn corner and saw Max sitting against a half wall with his legs spread, any other thought I had in my brain vanished into thin air.
His tie had been loosened, two buttons popped open, and his suit jacket spread to reveal a form-fitting vest that hugged a toned as fuck torso.
I swallowed hard at the sight of him, wishing just a little that what we were about to fake could be true. Maybe that was just the old-as-hell virgin in me talking, craving to rip that damn V-card into shreds. Craving he did it for me.
With open arms, Max ushered me to walk into his embrace, and it was all I could do not to melt into a fucking puddle of lust. If only he hadn’t practically rejected me, I’d think that the look in his blue eyes mirrored the rapture driving through my body.
He held his gun in one hand, and I couldn’t help but look at it and then back at him in a silent question that he must have understood.
“I’d never hurt you. It’s for effect. You said being a mafioso could help scare him away. I’m just painting the fucking picture brighter. Hurry.”
In a tight jog, I was soon crashing my body into his, Max’s broad frame covering me immediately. His free hand cupped the back of my skull under my hair as he buried his nose in the crook of my neck, making me shiver at the intimacy.
“Show time,” He whispered.
His other hand landed right on my ass, his gun being pressed into my flesh as he groped my asscheek harshly.
I almost lost my footing at the gesture, but Max held me in place, crushing my crotch into his. Before I could understand the goosebumps that covered my body, Max ran his nose up my neck, fisting a handful of my hair and grinding me into him harder with the hand he had on my ass .
I’d had a boy grope me before, but not like this. There was a certain urgency in each squeeze, the way he pulled my ass up and into him making it all a lot less innocent than just a touch.
My hands knotted into his hair as I tilted my head back to give him all the access he needed. I was sure I was flashing him more skin than I should, knowing that from his angle, my cleavage would leave very little to the imagination.
A low growl left his chest, and then his lips were grazing the sensitive skin right below my ear. If only it were real. But there was no faking the rush of desire that coursed through my body as I felt him inhaling me once again.
“Stop.” He barely whispered, leaving me confused because I wasn’t doing a damn thing. It was so low that if we weren’t fused together, I wouldn’t have heard it.
And then I felt it. With another harsh squeeze on my ass, Max pushed me into him again, pressing his hard erection right against my pussy.
Oh. My. God!
I couldn’t hold back the gasp that left my mouth. Or was it a moan? We’d just met, and he was now grinding his hard cock into me, and I was all for it.
Maybe I wasn’t that off-putting if he was hard for me. Then again, he’s a man, and I was practically a free fucking meal.
There was no time or space for thinking because, in the next second, Max was swallowing the breathy pants that left my mouth in the most primal and urgent of kisses.
Max’s lips were hungry, dancing against mine in eager strokes that ignited every inch of my skin. His hands moved in sync with his mouth, stealing my breath away and making me dizzy.
If there was ever a choice, a real one, Barry couldn’t hold a candle to the dangerous man in front of me. The way he kissed me was all-consuming. As if he needed my lips to draw his next breath. My tongue to soothe his pain. My soul to save his.
He’s a mafioso, Alison. He lost his soul to the life long ago.
His tongue darted into my mouth, tasting every inch of me, urging for more of this strange connection that had me rendered to his every will.
“He can’t have you,” I thought he said against my lips before crashing his mouth onto mine again as if sealing that statement without a chance for me to counter.
“I thought you weren’t going to kiss me,” I said, as Max pulled on my hair and dropped his lips to my throat and down my chest until his face was buried right between my breasts.
My hands were still on his head, guiding him while arching my back in response to this amazing torture. My skin tingled everywhere he kissed, and all I wanted was for him to never stop.
“Your little wannabe boyfriend seemed to need more convincing.”
Had Barry seen us already?
I looked back towards the entrance and saw nothing. Barry wasn’t so far behind me. He had had more than enough time to get here and catch us.
“He saw us?”
“Yes,” Max replied in a breathy exhale before capturing my lips again and devouring me whole.
“Why haven’t you stopped then?”
The show we put on in Barry’s honor had long ended. This was something else entirely, and there was nothing I could do to stop Max’s assault. Nothing I wanted to do to stop him. I’d let him take my damn virginity right here and now so long as he kept making me feel like this.
“I fucking can’t. You’ll need to make me.”
“What if I don’t want to?”
“Then I’ll most probably be dead in the morning. And it will be worth every fucking bullet.”
“THAT’S ENOUGH!” My grandfather’s voice boomed through the narrow space, rattling the walls with his anger, “There’s no need to wait for the morning.”
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
They weren’t supposed to see us. How are all of them here all of a sudden? A fucking bathroom excursion?
Panicked, I took a step back, and that was enough for the Battaglia soldati to get ahold of Max and force him to his knees. They didn’t even need a damn order to know what to do.
Within a second, there were six guns pointed at his head, Matt’s buried into his right cheek.
“Make sure she stays here,” He said to one of his men before signaling the rest to follow him and drag Max along.
“Where are you taking him?” I asked, my voice reaching a high pitch in my panic.
“That’s none of your business, Principessa.”
“Like hell it’s not,” I shouted out behind them while Gio, one of my brother’s men, held me in place.
But they didn’t so much as react, and I knew I’d fucked up. I had sentenced Max to God knows what, but there was no way in hell I was going to allow him to pay for my sins.
I wasn’t in on all their secrets, but there was one thing I knew — there was a crowd out there, meaning whatever they intended to do to him was happening right here. Somewhere screams or gunshots couldn’t be heard.
“You could have chosen better,” Gio said as soon as they were all out of sight. If he was talking about himself, he was fucking delusional.
There was something about him that gave me the biggest of icks.
“I didn’t ask for your opinion,” I replied with disgust. “Now, let me go. I need to pee.”
With a harsh tug, I set my arm free from Gio’s hold and marched towards the ladies’ room, trying my best to come up with a plan to save Max from the wrath of my family.
There was a window there, and that would be my escape route.
After all, as far as they’d tried to keep me, I’m still a fucking Battaglia. Deception and cunningness ran in my veins just as much as in theirs.