9. Please
nine
Please
He found her in the bedroom, both exactly where he expected and not at all the way he wanted.
Grace was sitting with her back against the headboard, curled into a ball, with her face buried in a pillow. The way his clothes swallowed her up only made her look smaller and more fragile.
Romeo eased the door shut, flicked the lock, and strode across the room to the large closet. He set down the duffel, hooked the clothes bag to a hanging bar, and left the items there for later. She hadn’t even lifted her head, her shoulders sporadically shaking with what may well have been tears. The phones went side-by-side on the nearest table, he crouched to remove his shoes, ripped both layers of his shirts off, and crawled onto the bed beside her.
Still, Grace didn’t acknowledge him.
So Romeo grabbed hold of her leg and hauled her body down the bed, moving an arm to be sure she didn’t crack her head on the headboard when she naturally reared back. She let loose a startled yelp, her arms flailing, and he ducked around one in order to lean over her until they were chest-to-chest and face-to-face. The tear stains on her cheeks sparked an anger in him he wasn’t prepared for, an anger with himself, an anger with the world that had put her in the position she was in.
“Wh-what the hell was that?” Her question was breathless and lacked the intensity she’d probably been going for.
“Ignoring a problem doesn’t make it go away, angel.” He grabbed both her arms and pinned them above her head, threading his fingers with hers. The bright blush that built on her cheeks and burned down her neck was entirely worth it. “It’s okay to be mad. It’s okay to be scared. It’s okay to have questions.” He angled his head and pressed a kiss to her unblemished cheek, letting his tongue dart out to taste her tears. With his lips against her skin, he murmured, “Starting today, I’ll never lie to you again. I swear. If there’s shit you don’t want to know, you’re going to have to tell me not to tell you.”
She gasped beneath him, a faint tremor rolling through her. “I am mad,” she breathed. “And hurt.” Her voice caught. She struggled, just for a second, in his grasp. “Are you even … who I’ve always thought you are?”
Romeo drew in a steadying breath, shifted his weight, and sat up on his knees. He pulled her arms up with his movement, deliberately placing her palms on his chest. “I am mostly the man you think I am,” he said, holding her wide-eyed stare. “I’m just more dangerous than you realized.” He encouraged her to slide one smooth palm up his skin, until her fingers rested partially over the pair of tattoos over his heart. He watched her gaze drop to the ink, saw the subtle pinch of her brow. More than likely, it wasn’t Lucia’s birthdate that she didn’t recognize.
A flash of memory went through him, but he didn’t let it linger. That wasn’t the point this time.
“The first one is the date my dad was killed,” he said quietly. She knew he and his brothers had lost their father years before, of course. Some of that was public information. Still, her gaze snapped back to his in surprise. “Our family’s been mafia since before we were born. It’s literally in our blood. Dad was Boss before Dante, and he raised Dante to take over everything after he was gone. But because this life is hard and ugly oftentimes, I got a lot of those lessons, too. Just in case. It was this life—being mafia—that took him from us, just like it was this life that took Cris’s parents when we were kids.”
Sadness contorted Grace’s features and her fingers pressed into his skin like she wanted to grip hold of him. Her lips parted, the words obvious in her eyes, but he didn’t want to hear them. Not like this.
“I’m not telling you this to make you feel sorry for me, or any of us,” he said. “I’m telling you because you need to understand a couple of things. Losing family when we were young, and again when we were a little older and a little more competent, taught us things. One of those things is that we refuse to be the fucking victims again. This life is dangerous, Grace. I won’t lie to you about that.” Romeo let go of her wrists and allowed his fingers to trail down her arms, to her waist, to dip beneath the shirt he wholly intended to peel off of her. “But so are we. We can be fucking monsters when we have to, and when it comes to protecting what’s ours and especially our family, each and every one of us will burn the outside world to ashes.”
Her fingers traced the roman numeral lettering of the top tattoo in slow strokes. “I’ve always envied how close your family seems….”
Romeo groaned and pushed up her shirt, exposing her perky tits. “I’ve got questions about yours, too, actually.” Although this no longer seemed like the time. But he supposed he was the one who’d started the conversation.
“They’re pretentious, obsessed with appearances, and believe my sister is perfect,” Grace said, as if she were reading off a list. The hand not over his tattoos dipped lower, trailing the grooves of muscles along his side. “I was always expected to strive to be her, and even when I did my best, I was deemed a failure. So I decided to fail on purpose and moved out of state.”
He took both her breasts in his hands, grabbing hold as if he were anchoring himself, and her gasp vibrated up his body. He let his hands begin working the pliable flesh and forced more words from his mouth. “There are ways to deal with that without violence. We’ll split holidays between families to be fair, and just let them feel —” He made sure to give a firm roll across her nipples as he said the word. “How successful you are, how fucking well you’re doing. And we’ll do it with a big-ass smile.”
Grace squirmed beneath him. “Romeo…”
He growled. “Arms above your head, angel.” They hadn’t even had the other discussion yet. Any of them. But fuck, she was too tempting. “Did you think of a safe word?”
She licked her lips and stretched her arms over her head, her back naturally arching with the motion. “I, um … how about ‘halo’?”
He blinked at her, then broke into a wide grin. “Fucking perfect.” He grabbed the shirt bunched at her shoulders and swept it up, but instead of sweeping it off, he twisted it around her wrists in a loose restraint. They hadn’t talked, about preferences or fantasies, let alone limits, so he’d consider this a test.
“Romeo?”
“Can’t help myself, angel,” he said as he reached down and released his straining cock from his slacks. “I’ve fucking fantasized about this.” He watched her face as he stroked himself slowly, her gaze riveted to the motion of his hand. “You should know, I like to be in control, Grace.” He inched forward and palmed her breasts again, sliding his dick between them in a slow, sinful motion.
She gasped, her body rolling slightly as if to help him thrust. Her elbows bent as her hands gripped onto the pillows beneath them, but she didn’t pull at the fabric around her wrists. “That sounds like a conversation,” she said, almost breathlessly.
Romeo groaned, half delirious at how good it felt to have her boobs folded around his cock and further aroused at the way she was clearly enjoying it. The blush that traveled down her neck, the way her lips hung open as she sucked in raspy breaths, all of it made him hotter. He moved his thumbs to her nipples, watching as her eyes rolled back for a long second at the pleasurable assault. Her head tipped back, elongating the column of her throat. He couldn’t wait to fuck that, too.
He wanted all of her.
It was hard to remember he should probably respond to her accurate statement. Hard to form coherent words. “It should be,” he managed, voice barely more than a growl.
She licked her lips again, gaze lifting from where he continued to pump between her boobs up to his own. The heat in her eyes did nothing to settle him. “After, please.”
Please.
She was too fucking perfect. “Open your mouth, angel. I’m gonna come all over you, I want you to catch as much as you can.”
Her eyes widened and she obeyed without question, her mouth opening for him. She even tilted her head closer, as if to catch his surging cock. So he let her take just the tip as he pushed forward one more time, the pressure that had built in his balls finally bursting free and pouring out of him. Most of his release shot straight into her waiting mouth, some of it landing on her jaw to dribble off her chin, and the rest splattering across the top of her chest.
It was fucking glorious.
Grace pressed her lips together and swallowed, her hooded gaze lifting back to his. “Please,” she said again, her voice quieter, “I-I need…”
Romeo shifted, moving his hips lower in order to stretch over her again. “Tell me what you need, Grace, and I’ll give it to you.”
Grace stared up at Romeo, feeling breathless, astoundingly aroused, and faintly mortified. She couldn’t believe she’d just allowed him to use her breasts like that, and she could even less believe how much she’d enjoyed it. But she had. She very much had. She was doing herself no service if she denied it at this point. What she needed to do now was be honest—with herself and with him.
“I like the way you touch me,” she whispered. “I want more of that.” Something in his eyes warmed and her mouth kept moving. “I want what Iris has, what Felicity has. I want to be that—” She almost said ‘to someone’, but those words felt misleading. She hadn’t had anyone else on her mind for a while and she couldn’t imagine letting another man touch her now. “Please, Romeo, if this is really something —if you really want me—then I need you to show me. I need to feel it.”
A part of her thought she ought to have been crazy, because she could no longer claim she didn’t know what she was truly asking for, but she meant every word. In her heart she knew if he was serious about her and about them, then she was willing. All she had ever really wanted was to feel valued, and worthy of that affection.
Romeo scoffed and covered her lips with his, kissing her hard. His tongue plunged into her mouth, sliding along hers, and he shifted his weight to tangle a hand in her hair. Only when she couldn’t breathe anymore did he ease up, the kiss breaking, and rasp out, “ If I want you? If this is ‘something’?” His grip of her hair tightened. “You want to know if I’m serious about you, about this?” He licked at her lips, not sealing the kiss. “What would it take? You want a ring, a big fucking diamond, and my name attached to yours? We can do that.”
Her eyes widened, the breath she didn’t have proper hold of rushing out of her again.
He released her hair to slide his hand down her body and tug at the drawstring of her pants, his fingers dipping inside. He shifted his weight and sank two fingers knuckle deep inside her, his thumb stretching up to spread around her undeniable wetness. Both of them groaned and she did her best to roll her hips.
Romeo lowered his lips to her ear. “How about you get that IUD removed, and I put a baby in you, too?” His thumb danced over her clit. “Maybe I’ll fuck you so full, you’ll give me twins. How’s that for serious, Grace?” His fingers curled as he pumped them into her. “That’s a fucking lifetime commitment right there. You know I take that shit seriously.”
Tears pricked her eyes and she wasn’t even sure if it was from the pleasure of his hand or the intensity of his words and the picture he’d so crassly painted. She was one gentle nudge away from flying over the edge and her heart was busy aching with a whole other kind of euphoria that made the entire experience so much more powerful. “Y-yes. Please, that. All of it. Everything.”
He brushed a kiss over her bruise, so light she barely felt it, then moved his lips back to hers, all while his hand continued its steady rhythm. “You need to come, angel?”
She whimpered. “Yes.”
“Then go ahead,” he murmured, lips grazing hers. “Come. Come on my hand, angel.”
Her body bucked as the orgasm ripped free, as if it had been locked inside her. She felt his hand continue to move with her, helping her ride it out, and her head rolled back in ecstasy.
“Goddamn,” Romeo groaned as he finally slipped his hand out of her loosened pants. He brought his fingers to his lips and sucked them in, licking them clean. “You’re so fucking sweet.”
She should have asked him to let her up. Should have insisted they have a proper, focused conversation on the things they very clearly needed to communicate. But her gaze roved down his form, over his muscular chest to follow the tantalizing line of that sharp V, to take in the sight of his renewed erection sticking out of his still undone trousers. It was just disheveled enough to feel a little extra naughty and she found she liked the implications of that far more than she would have expected.
Romeo shifted off her fully, reached up, and tugged the shirt from around her wrists. He hauled her upright, stealing a deep, sloppy kiss, then twisted off the bed and hooked his thumb in his pants. “Get those pants off. I want you naked and straddling me.”
Her core throbbed as fresh heat pulsed through her and Grace scrambled to find her feet. She’d had more orgasms in the past twelve hours than she’d probably had since being promoted to her current job. It was crazy. It was dream-come-true crazy, though, so she wasn’t about to complain.
Romeo was sitting on the side of the bed, completely bare and comforter shoved down again, by the time she walked up to him. He grinned at her almost devilishly and patted his muscular thigh. “Knees on either side of my hips, angel. Need that pussy squeezing my cock.”
Grace climbed onto the bed, having a single second of feeling self-conscious at the way her body might look, but then she saw the heat in his eyes. It was empowering. So she grabbed on to that and threw her leg around his waist, bringing them chest-to-chest again.
His hands landed on her hips immediately and he guided her over him. “That’s it, Grace. Don’t be shy.”
She sucked in a steadying breath and lowered herself onto him, moaning immediately at the way he stretched her. He was thick and so damn long it was almost too much in this position, she started to freak out halfway down his length thinking she couldn’t do it, but dammit she wanted to. She knew she’d taken all of him before. So she kept going, not making an effort to muffle her sounds, and finally he bottomed out.
Romeo let out a throaty groan, one hand burning up her spine to brace her nape. “Fuck, angel, you feel so goddamn good. I should have you sit on me like this all the fucking time.”
Grace leaned forward and pressed herself against him. “We’d never get anything done…”
He chuckled and rocked his hips, effectively grinding against her. “Oh, we’d get something done.” One of his hands disappeared, he lowered his head to trail kisses along her shoulder, and then he tugged her upright by her hair. Suddenly he was holding her phone between them, already unlocked. “Call your OB-GYN. Make the appointment.”
Her mouth fell open and she stared at him. He bucked his hips, triggering a wave of pleasure that pulled another moan from her chest. “Y-you can’t— Right now?”
His smile was feral as his hand moved from her hair to her nape. “Neither of us is coming again until you call, angel.” He leaned closer and slipped his tongue into her mouth, murmuring through the kiss, “Wanna have you pregnant by Valentine’s Day.”
His tongue plunged deeper when she gasped, and being so full of him made her brain malfunction. She gripped him tighter, her hips rocking against his, panting shamelessly when he eased back. It took her a moment to find enough breath to speak. “That’s only ten days from now.”
Romeo wiggled the phone. “Better make the call.”
He was serious. Her body clenched, but Grace realized immediately that the tightening feeling inside her wasn’t apprehension. It was … excitement. Wild, uninhibited, ecstatic excitement.
Grace took the phone with trembling hands, all too aware of Romeo’s hands moving over her skin. Romeo’s cock pumping in and out of her slick, squelching pussy at a steady, semi-torturous pace. Her own absolute nakedness. All of these made for generally unacceptable phone call conditions and she couldn’t believe she was going along with this. But she pulled up her OB’s number and hit the green button and, on instinct, put the phone on speaker.
Maybe she was the crazy one.
When Romeo heard the ringing, his blue eyes lit with approval. He leaned closer and angled his head to run his lips up the far side of her neck, nibbling and sucking and further helping to chase the breath from her lungs. He swirled his tongue around the shell of her ear with absolutely no care for the receptionist on the other end of the line when it connected.
Grace had to lie and tell the stranger she was on the treadmill. The woman seemed hesitant, but ultimately when Grace pleaded to get a message to her doctor, she was put through. She expected to be patched through to a nurse or a voicemail—that was usually how it went—but apparently her doctor was preparing to head out for lunch and had a minute to spare. So she answered.
Romeo moved his hands to her ass and his mouth to her shoulder, occupying himself as if he had no cares at all. She felt him smile when her voice hitched.
“Grace? Is everything okay? You sound a little off,” Dr. Miles asked.
Grace wrapped one hand halfway around Romeo’s torso, holding onto him as if another point of contact would help to steady her. “It’s just—” He filled her with a grinding roll of his hips, teasing. Taunting. Torturing. She swallowed a moan. “Been an emotional couple of days,” she finally said. At least that much was true. “So I’m running it off.” Complete lie. Although this did technically count as cardio, she supposed. “Sorry for the multitasking.”
Romeo squeezed her butt, using the grip to help keep her moving while her brain was distracted.
“If you say so,” Dr. Miles replied slowly. “If now’s a bad time, though, you can always call back.”
Romeo angled his head, dipping it just slightly and sweeping his tongue across the swell of her breast until he could take her entire areola into his mouth. He moved one hand up her back, pressing at her spine, encouraging her to arch into him.
Grace wanted to sob from the pleasure, but she couldn’t let her doctor know what she was doing. “Now,” she said, hoping the gasp was passable for what she claimed, “is the only time. I’ve been forgetting.” What was the old saying? In for a penny, in for a pound, right? “I would really like to have my IUD removed.”
Romeo licked across her nipple and she dared look toward him again, finding his gaze locked on her face. It only made her hotter.
“Oh, all right.” Dr. Miles was quiet a moment, the faint sound of typing lost to Grace’s ears over the closer and more intimate sound of wet, slapping skin. “Looks like you’ve only had it in for about two years, is it giving you problems?”
Grace bit her lips for a second to restrain a sob. She’d definitely hoped they’d get straight to the scheduling and be done, not have a full-on conversation. Her body was so worked up, but she’d never be able to show her face if she orgasmed on the phone. “No,” she said, almost gasping again. “Actually, I’m—” Her gaze darted back to Romeo as he trailed his tongue in a slow, evil circle around the areola of the boob he was worshipping. “I’m getting married.”
His lips lifted in another frighteningly wide smile.
“Really?” Dr. Miles asked.
Romeo tilted his hips ever-so-slightly.
“ Yes .” Grace cleared her throat roughly even as she nearly fumbled the phone with the spike of pleasure. “We want to have a family, so I kind of have to get it out,” she said, as quickly as she could manage.
“I see, I see.” Dr. Miles paused again. “It looks like I could slip you in in about three weeks? Or would you prefer—”
“This week,” Grace interrupted as Romeo popped off her chest. “I promised him I’d have it done before Valentine’s.”
“My calendar’s full, Grace,” Dr. Miles said. “I’m sorry.”
“Please,” she said, the plea in her voice a little too honest. “I’ve been so busy, I kept forgetting to call. I can pay for your overtime or have a lunch catered, for the whole office.” She didn’t know if she was just desperate to finish this call and get back to getting railed or if the desperation inside her actually had to do with achieving this goal, but it felt genuine regardless.
Dr. Miles didn’t reply right away. “ If I were taking bribes, I might be persuaded by a reservation for two on Valentine’s Day at The Dragon’s Roast. Around seven o’clock. My husband and I have always wanted to try it.”
Grace’s jaw dropped. It wasn’t nearly the first time she’d been approached about the restaurant, but she hadn’t been prepared. And on the heels of the shock came disappointment, because she didn’t have that pull.
Romeo leaned in and pressed his lips to her ear. “Done. Drinks on the house.”
She sucked in a breath that was too emotional for her logical brain to comprehend. “I can do that,” she said, her voice a little shaky. “Dinner and drinks, seven-fifteen?”
A smugly pleased tone that reminded Grace a little too much of her mother filled Dr. Miles’ voice when she replied again. “Well, then I guess I can squeeze you in this Friday at eleven-forty-five. Don’t be late.”
Grace dropped the phone with a relieved, gasping breath as soon as the line clicked.
“ Fuck , I don’t know how I feel about your doctor,” Romeo said with a grunt as he swept his hands up her back again.
“Me either,” Grace said, panting freely and letting her hips roll against his. “Please, please can we—”
“Hell yes, we’re coming.” He twisted them around on the bed, pinning her with his arms tight around her body, and slammed deep. She cried out, clinging to him, tears leaking from her eyes as he kept going. “You were such a good girl, Grace. And good girls get all the best orgasms. Come whenever the fuck you want, angel. Let me hear it.”
Her back bowed as sharply as his grip allowed and a scream of ecstasy unlike any she’d ever heard from herself tore from somewhere deep inside as he sank into her one more time. White hot pleasure consumed her, overwhelming her, and it was all Grace could do to cling to him. She barely noticed Romeo’s own roaring release or the way he trembled above her, the way he nuzzled his face into the crook of her neck and held himself there for a long second.
She just knew it felt too good. Better than she had ever imagined possible.