38. Leona
LEONA
I followed Cas out of the office, and we made it ten feet before he grabbed my hand and pulled me into the little powder room near the second-floor landing. He flicked on the lights, and I caught sight of us in the mirror hanging above the sink.
“What—” I asked before his hand clamped over my mouth. My eyes went wide, and my pulse spiked. I grasped for the knives strapped to my thighs.
“Shh. Everything’s fine. Don’t say a word.” Slowly, cautiously, he took his hand off my mouth. He turned me around, lifted my hips, and settled me on the bathroom counter, then stepped between my legs. “I just needed to get you alone so we could have some privacy for two fucking minutes.”
My body warmed as I grabbed his shirt. He was tense, but all of us would be tense until the moment we stepped inside the penthouse. “What’s wrong?”
His fingers brushed my cheek. “Are you good? This has been a lot.”
Emotion surged in my chest. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him tight against my chest while I nodded. His arms banded around my back, and we clung to one another, breathing each other in, letting our tension dissipate with each second in one another’s arms.
“I hate this house. I hate how much I hate it, because I used to love it so much,” he murmured against my neck. “Despite everything, I feel safe here. It feels easy to slip back into our old patterns.”
My fingers dragged through his hair. “I hate all of those same things. Everything looks the same, and it feels so lonely without us here. I hate that none of this feels simple.”
He took my lips in a kiss. “I’m sorry it’s not simple, but I’ll tell you one thing that is.”
I kissed him back, nipping a little at his bottom lip. “And what is that?”
“How much I love you.”
I dragged my hands over the growing scruff on his jaw. “I love you, too.”
Revisiting this house felt like whiplash in every way, shape, and form.
It was filled to the brim with memories.
Even this bathroom and all its tasteful gold accents reminded me of Max’s mom, which reminded me of my mom, which filled me with grief.
Arguing with Max had made me angry, but working with him had unsettled me even more.
Cas was the only person who understood what this was like. That understanding was written in the depths of his blue eyes while we stared at one another.
Where would I be without him?
Nowhere. Dead.
Cas was and always had been the greatest constant in my life. The steady protector watching over me every single day. I loved him so much. I had no idea how I’d do any of this without him.
My eyes caught on the gemstone of my engagement ring. I would be his wife, and he would be my husband. Tied together forever. It was the most right thing in the world .
Suddenly, the urge to have him, to feel him, to calm my racing brain, took over my body. I pulled his face back to mine. Our lips met in a desperate clash.
“Nothing else matters,” he murmured against my lips. His hands slid down my body. “Nothing except you, except us.”
“ Sempre .” My hands found his belt. “I need you.”
“You sure?”
I nodded, already breathless and lightheaded. “Please.”
He flicked the lock on the bathroom door with a lopsided smirk. The blood in my veins went hot while he unbuckled my pants and pulled them down, then dropped to his knees. “We can leave anytime. Just give me the signal.”
His mouth was on my pussy before I could respond.
Cas knew exactly what my body needed, could read me like a beloved book.
I leaned my head back against the mirror, feeling the countertop dig into my ass but not caring at all.
One of my hands braced on the edge of the sink while the other grabbed the back of his head.
I felt greedy and powerful and drunk on the combination.
“Cas,” I whimpered, trying to keep my voice low but definitely failing.
His mouth was desperate, focused on drawing me to the edge as quickly as he could.
Whether it was from the fact that we were in Max’s guest bathroom, or Cas was just that good at this, I wasn’t sure.
When he pushed a finger inside me and sucked on my clit at the same time, I was so coiled up that I shattered almost instantly.
“I’ve been dying to have you on my tongue,” he said, looking up at me. The look in his eyes was absolutely feral, and all it did was egg me on even more.
“ More ,” I whispered.
I didn’t have to demand. He met my every desire without hesitation. He lifted me off the counter, spun me, and bent me over the sink. In one firm thrust, he pushed inside, and the sound that tore from my throat had to have reverberated through the entire second floor.
His hand clamped over my mouth again, and he locked eyes with me in the mirror. He pulled out slowly and thrust back into me. Hard. I groaned against his hand. “Look at me. Open your eyes. Can you keep it down, princess?”
His blues were shockingly bright, with just a dusting of color on his face to prove he was just as far gone as me. I shook my head no. He chuckled and dragged his nose up the back of my neck.
“We might start another war if we get caught,” he whispered against my hair as he kept thrusting into me. “When we get home, then you can be loud. All of us will want to hear you there, but here? No. Your sounds are only for us.”
I nodded, vowing to keep it to myself. His hands clamped down on my hips instead, but I had no idea how long I’d be able to keep that promise. Another orgasm was already building. My entire body tingled, chasing the growing waves.
“ Yes , Cas, don’t stop. Please. I need you.”
I watched in the mirror as his lips latched onto my neck, and I almost cried out while he sucked a mark onto my skin. One of my hands went down to my clit, rubbing while he kept up a brutal pace.
“Come for me, amore ,” he murmured. “Come on my cock, and I better not hear you. Save those beautiful noises for when we lay you out and worship you. This is just a taste of what’s coming.”
I pushed back against every thrust of him. When his teeth scraped the dip in my collarbone, he timed it perfectly with a smack on my ass, and it was everything . The orgasm flew through me, and it took every ounce of self-control I had not to scream. Not to cry out his name and demand three more.
But I kept the sound inside, just as he asked, because I would do anything for him .
He buried himself inside me one, two, three more times, coming with a groan.
We stared at one another in the mirror while we tried to catch our breath before I started giggling.
“Did we really?—”
“Yes.” He kissed my cheek. “Yes, we did.”
We walked downstairs hand in hand after cleaning up, about thirty minutes later than originally promised.
Only some of that was our bathroom sex session, but still.
My face burned with embarrassment, yet I kept my head high.
I’d done nothing wrong except find comfort in the arms of the man I loved.
And I was about eighty percent sure no one had heard us. We’d been quiet enough…right?
“Let’s get out of here,” Ryu said from near the front door. He still held his two knives in his hands, but I assumed he’d sheathed the other two. “Escape plan activated.”
Ciel smiled at me, and I met his with one of my own. He smirked, eyes raking over my body, before withholding a laugh. Meanwhile, Obi glowered, and I remembered his comment at lunch yesterday about punishment .
Shit. It appeared we weren’t as quiet as I thought.
“Wynn? You ready?” I asked, trying to keep us moving. Wynn nodded, turning with Ciel and Obi. Cas looped an arm around my neck, nodding at Max as we walked past.
I pulled Max’s phone from my pocket and held it out to him. “Here.”
“Leona,” Max said, snatching the phone from my hand. I frowned for a second. His voice sounded off. “A word, please. Before you go.” Cas lingered, but Max gave him a look. “Alone.”
I pressed a firm kiss to Cas’s lips. “It’s fine. ”
What was Max really going to do? After making such a big show of offering this truce?
“I’ll be right outside,” Cas said cautiously. “Shout if you need me.”
As soon as the door shut, leaving us alone in his foyer, Max turned on me. I stepped backward at how quickly his face transformed into one of rage.
“I can smell him on you,” he hissed. “I can see the marks on your neck.”
My cheeks heated, but I refused to feel embarrassed. Shit .
“Good,” I bit out.
His eyes zeroed in on my neck, and being the bitch I was, I angled it just right so he could get an even better view.
“Tell me where you fucked so I can raze it to the ground,” he growled.
How dare he. Something inside me snapped. Whether it was the tension and anxiety of being in this fucking house or getting fed up with this pretense of peace, it didn’t matter. The gloves were off, and I was done playing nice.
“No. I want you to walk into every room in this house from now on and wonder—‘did Cas fuck her here? Did she wrap her legs around him and pull him in or did he bend her over?’”
His pupils blew wide, and his face tinted red. “I?—”
I pressed on. “I want you to think—‘How many times did he make her come? Did he eat her out or did she give him a blow job?’”
“ Leona .” A vein pulsed in his neck. “What the fuck is wrong with you? I let you talk to Chiara. I let you have free roam in my house as a show of trust, and this is how you repay me?”
Where the hell did he get off acting like that was a betrayal ? I laughed darkly. “I did nothing wrong. Get over it.”
“You’re fucking in my home! You couldn’t help yourself, could you? Everything went according to my plans, so you thought, ‘Oh, what could I do to piss him off? How could I ruin this?’ ”
My eyes narrowed at his accusations, and my arms folded over my chest. “You’re entirely right. I can’t help myself. Because I love him. I love all of them.”
He fumed, staring down at me with hatred burning in his eyes. “You think you can do whatever you want without consequences, but one day, you’ll bite off more than you can chew, and you won’t like what you find. Stop provoking me .”
“Is that a threat?” My voice was ice. My fingers twitched toward my knives. All I had to do was shout and my men would burst inside the room, but I kept my voice low and level. This needed to stay between us.
“Yes, it is.” He matched my coldness. “Grow the fuck up.”
I scoffed. “You know what? I don’t care what you think about me. I love Cas. I love my men. They love me. I have nothing to prove to you, nor do I have anything to apologize for. There’s nothing else for me here.”
“Fuck!” he shouted, hands in his hair. “Get the fuck out of my house.”
“Gladly.” I turned and started walking away until his arm snatched out to whirl me back to face him. I slammed against his chest, my hands bracing on his arms. He leaned over me, our faces drawing closer. His thumb and forefinger held my chin in a vise grip.
“I could have married you.” His eyes flicked to my lips.
“What?” I wasn’t even certain if my voice made a sound.
“The Don offered you to me once. I turned him down.”
Heat bloomed on my cheeks. “Why?”
“Because…” he whispered. His throat worked as he swallowed. My heart thumped in my chest so hard I was certain he could feel it with how our chests pressed together. “I didn’t want you.”
He was so close his breath ghosted over my cheeks. He held me there, still gripping my chin, the two of us frozen by his admission .
Tears stung the corners of my eyes. “Fuck you.”
“You wish you could.”
I snarled, shoving him backward. Fighting with him was like we were kids all over again, going for the easiest targets, the ones we knew would cut the deepest. He knew exactly how to slice me to my core. He had been everything to me, and he knew it.
I was such a goddamn idiot. I opened my mouth to fight or scream or fucking something in response, but I had literally nothing to say.
When I turned around to do exactly as he demanded and get the fuck out of his house, I found Obi glowering at the door. He watched, furious, a knife in his hand, while I stomped out. He followed me without a word, and we climbed into the SUV silently.
His eyes burned in the rearview. For the first time, his anger was directed at me.