Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Alessio
I clear my throat. "You've seen enough to know the basics," I utter. "Domenico has been running operations under the radar. Trafficking routes disguised as legitimate business deals and expansion plans. He's been using the family name to shield himself, Sophia. He's dirty. Worse than I thought."
She finally lifts her eyes to mine, anger and disbelief swirling in their depths. "And you didn't think I needed to know this?"
"I didn't want you involved," I say, stepping closer to the table. "This is... dark. This isn't something you can forget once you've seen it. The things he has done, the people he has hurt are…" My words trail off into nothing.
"I've already seen enough," she snaps, slamming her palm against the table. "The lies. The betrayals. Do you think I'm not capable of understanding what this life is? Do you think I don't know what my own blood is capable of?"
"It's not about what you're capable of," I counter. "It's about what this does to you. I've seen what happens to people who get too close to the worst parts of this world. I didn't want that for you."
Sophia lets out a sharp laugh, shaking her head. "And you think keeping me in the dark helps? How am I supposed to lead when you're hiding things like this from me?"
I take a breath, gripping the edge of the table to steady myself. "Because you don't understand everything yet. You think Domenico's trafficking is the end of it? It's not. It's just one piece of the puzzle. There are alliances, debts, people with far more power than even Domenico who are pulling strings. If you knew the full scope of what we're up against?—"
"Then tell me," she interrupts, stepping closer. "Tell me everything, Alessio."
"I can't," I say firmly, cutting her off. "Not yet."
Her eyes blaze with frustration, and she takes another step toward me, closing the distance between us. "You don't get to decide that for me," she says dangerously low. "This is my family. My legacy. You don't get to pick and choose what I know. What are you so afraid of me knowing?"
I meet her eyes, the fire in her eyes daring me to push back. "And if I told you everything, would you be ready to face it? To carry the weight of every decision you'll have to make? Because once you know, there's no going back, Sophia. The shit is heavy. No pretending this world is anything but what it is."
She hesitates, her lips pressing into a thin line. The anger in her expression softens just slightly, replaced by something deeper. Fear, maybe. Or understanding.
"You think you're protecting me," she says quietly. "But all you're doing is making me feel like I can't trust you."
The words hit harder than I expect. I straighten, my jaw tightening as I try to find the right response. But before I can say anything, she looks down at the files again, her fingers brushing the edge of one page.
"What else aren't you telling me?" she asks.
Her question echoes in the room, cutting through the tension. I hesitate, my mind racing. There's no easy way to tell her the truth, no way to soften the blow.
"There's something you don't know." My throat is tight. "Something about your sister."
Her brow furrows, confusion flashing across her face. "What about her?"
I glance at the files on the table, my stomach twisting. "The trafficking routes Domenico set up, they weren't just about moving strangers. They were about control, leverage. Your sister... she wasn't just killed, Sophia."
Her breath catches, and her eyes widen, but she doesn't speak. She is trying to be brave, but I see the surface pressure breaking her resolve.
"She was taken. Used. Domenico sold her out to the same people he's working with now." The words feel like poison on my tongue, but I force myself to say them. "Your father found out too late. By the time the truth had been revealed, she was already dead, and there was nothing more that he could do but to plan his revenge."
Sophia stands frozen, her face pale. Her fingers curl into fists at her sides, and for a moment, I think she's going to lash out. But she doesn't. Instead, her anger settles into something colder, quieter.
"Why didn't he tell me?" she whispers.
"Because he wanted to protect you," I reply. "He didn't want you to carry that weight. And neither did I."
Her gaze snaps to mine, sharp and filled with fire. "But you knew. You knew, and you let me believe it was just a random attack. All this time, Alessio, you've been lying to me."
"I wasn't lying. I was trying to protect you from the truth. From the ugliness of it. You were already torn apart by her passing. What would telling you the truth have done?"
Her laugh is bitter, cutting. "Protect me? Do you even hear yourself? How has me walking around blindly benefited me?"
"You needed time," I counter, stepping closer. "Time to grieve, to find your footing. If I'd told you everything back then, it would've destroyed you."
She takes a step toward me, her eyes blazing. "I had over a decade to grieve for her. I should have been told the moment my father found out what happened."
Her voice wavers, and the raw emotion in it cuts me to the bone. I don't know what to say, how to make her understand.
"I…" For the first time in my life, I am at a loss for words.
"The next words out of your mouth should be an apology and nothing more." The tears brim her eyes. The truth seems to settle into her mind.
Her words hang in the air, and for a moment, neither of us moves. The weight of everything unsaid presses down on me.
"You think I don't feel it, too?" I ask. "The anger, the guilt? Every time I look at you, I see what I couldn't stop. I see the people I've failed to protect. Your sister. Your father. You."
Her eyes soften, but her anger doesn't fade. "And you think that justifies keeping me in the dark? It doesn't. I deserve to know the truth, Alessio. About everything. We need to agree that from this moment on, there are no more lies between us. We tell each other everything."
"Okay." My answer comes almost immediately.
"I am in this, Alessio." She presses her hands to my chest. "I know what I need to become in order to be the person the organization needs."
There is a steady resolve in her eyes. She has made up her mind, and she is sticking to it. But I can also see the pain in her eyes.
"Alessio." She breathes my name in a way I have never heard come from her. "Please."
She doesn't even need to tell me what she wants. I can see it swimming in her eyes. The hunger, the need, the sheer unbridled desperation.
I shake my head, the frustration bubbling over. "Soph, I can't… this is not right."
She drags her hand up my chest and then winds it around my neck. "Please, Alessio. I want to forget. Please, help me to forget."
Her plea is enough to have me on my knees. I want to, I really, really do. But one of us needs to have the logic to keep these boundary lines in place.
"Sophia."
"Alessio," she mimics my tone. "My entire world has been flipped upside down the past few weeks. I have witnessed death, been shot at, and have a treacherous uncle trying to steal the empire my father built. On top of that, I find out that my sister wasn't just gunned down in some senseless act of violence. She was trafficked by that sick bastard. I know that we have to tackle everything come sunrise, but for right now, I want to forget. I want to dull out the pain in my chest for just a second, please."
The fire in her eyes draws me in, and I can't stop myself. Before I can think, I grab her by the waist and pull her to me, my lips crashing against hers.
It's not gentle. It's a clash of anger and desire, a release of everything we've been holding back. Her hands fist in my shirt, pulling me closer, and I lose myself in the heat of it, in the way she feels against me.
When we finally pull apart, we're both breathing hard, our foreheads pressed together.
"This doesn't change anything," I say roughly. This is a bad idea. Crossing this line will change everything, but with her body so close to mine, I am lost in the sweet abyss that is her warmth.
She is too pure. Too good. Too Sophia. I will corrupt her. I will mar her with my jagged and calloused edges. But the logic is nothing but a whisper in the back of mind. The only thing that I can focus on is her body and her scent that assaults every one of my five senses.
"It changes everything," she whispers back, simmering rage.
Her anger hasn't faded. If anything, it's sharper now, more focused. And for the first time, I realize she's not just angry at me. She's angry at Domenico. At what he's done. At what he's taken from her.
And that anger might be the only thing that keeps her going.
Our lips collide into a heated kiss again. The kiss is unlike anything I have ever experienced in my life. For weeks I have dreamed of holding her like this. To feel her. To have her body slammed against mine.
I lift her into my arms and carry to the bedroom, where I set her down and begin ripping off our layers until we are bare naked in front of each other.
The sanity in my mind is screaming for me to stop. I should stop, I need to stop. But the hunger for her is screaming louder.
I lower her onto the bed and place myself in between her legs. She parts them even wider for me, and I place my finger inside of her. I feel her body shudder up against mine. She grazes her teeth against my skin, making me moan into the crook of her neck.
I have waited what feels like eternity for this moment.
Her fingernails claw up and down my back. I know that I am likely going to wake up with marks all the way up and down my back. But I don't care. I want her to mark me. I want the world to know that I belong to her.
I insert another finger, and she arches her back off the mattress. Her legs wind around my waist and pull me in closer. She kisses the side of my neck, tugging and pulling at my skin. My entire body electrifies, and all I can feel is the electricity coursing through my veins.
It's an all-consuming kind of feeling, one that I want to commit to memory. If this is going to be the first and only time that I get to experience her like this, then I want to make sure she is ruined for any other man who will come after me.
I increase my pulses until I take her to the very edge of her cliff, and I toss her over. She rips her lips from mine and lets out a moan that is filled with both agony and release. Her body bounces off my body, and the orgasm tears its way through her. I watch her come undone in the most glorious way.
Her hair is wild and her lips swollen from my assaults. Her cheeks are flushed, and her chest heaves up and down frantically as she tries to catch her breath. I have never seen her look so breathtaking in my entire life.
"You're being gentle with me," she pants.
"You can't take what I usually want, Sophia."
Her eyes flash with defiance. "Give it to me."
I blink. My penis twitches at her entrance. "Sophia."
"Give. It. To. Me." She moves her fingers in between us and dips her finger into her wetness. She draws it back up to her mouth and laps up the cum.
Fuck. Me.
"Fuck me like you hate me, Alessio." There is not an ounce of hesitation in her. She is resolute in what she stands for.
Something dark stirs within me. Ay Dios mio. I can refuse this woman nothing. If she asks me to bring her the sun, I will find a way to do it.
"You never have to beg me, Sophia." I align my length with her center. Her slickness already tries to swallow me without warning. "This could hurt, baby. Tell me if it hurts too much, and I will stop, okay?"
"I don't care. Just fuck me!"
I chuckle at the sheer desperation in her tone. "Your wish is my command."
I lift a little so we can both watch my cock make its way into her softness. Inch by inch, I fill her to the very brim. Her walls close around me. I fit perfectly, like we are made for each other.
I strain, trying to keep this moment going a little longer. Fuck, she feels so good. It has never felt like this with anyone before.
"You okay?" I stare down at her. I want to be gentle for her, but the instinct in me to tear her apart is just far too strong. I want to fuck her until she can't even remember her name. I need to feel her pussy close on me and squeeze the life out of my penis.
Sex. This is only sex. I need to keep the emotion out of it.
And so I do. I pull out of her and then slam my way back inside. She moans, and her nails dig into my shoulders as I fill her completely.
"You take my cock like a good little whore," I compliment her and watch the stars in her eyes shine. "You like that, Sophia? You like being called my dirty little whore?"
"More fucking, less talking."
I grab her nipple in between my fingers and pinch it hard. She hisses, and then I do it again.
"You sass me, and I punish you."
Her eyes shine. I lower my mouth onto her free nipple and nip and suck at the taught pink thing. I use my other hand to knead her breasts. Her hands thread their way into my strands, and she pulls on them hard, so hard that I feel the faint throb from the follicles. In response, I bite down on her breasts hard, to which she moans and screams.
"Alessio!"
"You feel divine, Sophia." I pull my mouth from her breasts, my saliva coating her skin. I work her body. In and out my cock moves within her, her legs wide around my waist, her hips lifting up off the mattress, allowing me to get an even better angle.
"Ah!" I hiss and feel my cock go even deeper. Shit. She will ruin me for anyone else. There will never be anyone who meets half of what she is doing to my body.
"My turn," she pants, her breasts wild and bouncing. She unwinds her legs and then pushes my shoulders back. "I want to ride you."
My little hesitant wallflower is taking charge in the bedroom, and I find that so fucking sexy. Her eyes darken with hunger, the kind that you would only see in a starved human. I allow her to flip us over, not once do we break contact.
She bounces on my cock. She cups her breasts and massages them as she takes our bodies into the great abyss. The small little strands of her hair cling to her forehead, the humidity from the room wetting our skin.
"Ride my dick, baby." My hand comes down on her perky little ass. "Ride it! Take it!"
She lifts higher and then slams back down on my cock. Her eyes squeeze shut, her walls closing in on my cock. I can feel her nearing her end, and I am not far behind.
"Mhm, fuck your cock is big. Shit!"
I grab on to her hips and meet her with every bounce she is willing to give me. We only manage a few more before our orgasms find us, and she collapses onto me with a loud cry.
"Fuck!" I roar.
We ride out our orgasms. The plume of lust and passion still covers as we crescendo to our song. The sweet melody our bodies created slowly comes to an end, and we are left raw, spent and satiated.
I knew better than to cross this line with her. She is not something that you can experience once and be done. She is the kind of woman that is felt over and over again. But this has to be it. This night has to be the only time that we do this. But I know that deep down within myself that this will not be the only time, and that makes me worry about what lies ahead.
I just hope that when the sun rises tomorrow, we will be able to get past this.