Chapter 55 – Amanda
Atattoo. A freaking tattoo! Here I thought we were going to have a wicked, sinfully pleasurable reunion, and he had to go and ruin it with this—this—
This awful display of power.
Quit overreacting.
There wasn’t enough oxygen in my brain to make this rational.
But in the midst of my freak out, I caught sight of the M on his finger.
It clicked. Mandy and Enzo. Our names for one another.
The ones no one else used. He was always V or Vinny to the Made Men.
I was Amanda to the world. But to each other… .
He branded me!
So why did that thought make me so wet?
Because that was exactly the horrifying reaction my body had to the dominant act. I was his wife, and now the whole world would see it. Gritting my teeth, I couldn’t quite bring myself to hate the tattoo as much as I wanted to.
The look on his face said that my reaction cut deep. My heart thumped hard as I read the truth in his eyes. There wasn’t anything I could say to make this better.
But I can show him….
I stared at my finger, formalizing a plot quickly in my mind. I pushed to my feet and walked into the bedroom. He didn’t follow. He was giving me space. That made my heart squeeze tighter. He was splendidly dominant but could just as easily be kind and respectful when the occasion warranted it.
Slipping into a soft cotton skater dress, I peeked back into the loft. Vincenzo had risen and gone to the weight room. I took advantage of that to put my plot into place. On silent feet, I rushed across the room, silently opened the front door, and only managed to grab my phone before scooting out.
I shot off a text as I bolted for the stairwell.
Me: If you catch me, you fuck me.
I made sure to silence the device. Would he take the bait?
Or was he too wounded from my shocked initial reaction to play?
I leapt the last few steps, going to the landing two floors below ours.
I learned the layout of this building over the last few weeks.
His men occupied the first three floors.
The fourth was dedicated to Vincenzo’s office and a spread of rooms that housed some wicked intelligent tech guys, who were eerie enough to stay away from.
But I had the master code to get into any room in the building, and I took advantage of that now.
Pausing just inside the door to the sixth floor, I kept it cracked and listened.
A thrill raced through me when I heard the door above bang open.
He was coming. Chasing me. There was nowhere to run that he wouldn’t find me.
Holding my breath, I eased the door closed.
I dashed to the nearest apartment, punched in the code, and let myself into the space.
Like all the other apartments, it was empty.
No furniture to hide behind, no exit to escape through.
I debated crawling into one of the cabinets under the L counter, but the sight of a dead bug had me slamming the door closed.
I winced at the sound.
In the pause that followed, I listened hard. Seconds turned into minutes. There were a lot of rooms spread over each apartment on every floor to search if he bothered to look in them all. Maybe it wasn’t such a fun idea, sitting around waiting for him to find me.
The click of the lock sent my heart shooting to my throat. I crouched, pressing my knuckles against my teeth. Vincenzo strode into the apartment with sure steps, heading for the room on the far side of the space that would be the master suite.
I scooted from behind the island, intent on making it out the door.
A prickle at the base of my neck warned me before he pounced. As if he’d known where I was all along. I screamed and lunged for the door.
Vincenzo’s fingers grazed my thigh. I twisted away and wrenched open the door. I ran. He didn’t even try to catch me. Stalking after me, with sure, steady steps, he let me escape into the stairwell.
The camera in the corner blinked at me with a red light.
Of course! That was how he knew where I’d gone.
Pumping my arms, I scrambled up the steps and chanced a look behind me. The dark smile on Vincenzo’s face said he was enjoying this twisted game. It made me run all the harder. When he caught me, there would be no mercy.
My muscles burned from the exertion as I ripped open the door to the next floor.
I had the mad idea to disable the lock and escape out the window via the fire escape.
But as I pushed into the empty apartment, the beast crashed into me.
I landed on my stomach, and the weight of the monster knocking the breath from my lungs.
I struggled and writhed, but he pressed his face into the crook of my neck, inhaling my scent.
“Don’t you remember?” he rasped, words gravel, “it turns me on when you fight.”
I bucked and fought harder.
Vincenzo grazed his teeth against my flesh, tasting my fear, drinking in my excitement. “I’ve been starving for this. For you.”
I moaned. A rush of heat soaked me between my legs. I felt it stain my bare skin.
“If you knew how many nights I replayed this—your mouth, your breath—you’d never try to leave again.” He slid his hand down my body, pinning me against his mass.
“I—I wasn’t trying to leave,” I choked out.
His scoff said he didn’t believe me.
“I know what it does to you,” I breathed, stretching and arching back into him. The fight ebbed from my bones, washing away with my confession. “Your need to chase me, to catch me, to feel me finally give in.”
I gripped his fingers, pushing them under my skirt and guiding them between my legs.
His inhale was sharp and rough. Beautiful. Absolutely masculine.
“This is me giving in, Enzo,” I breathed.
He cupped my pussy, fingers roughly stroking my flesh. “I’m going to fuck you so damn hard, fiore.”
My shoulders sagged in relief. We weren’t broken. There would always be landmines of hurt that we would spend the rest of our lives navigating. But we knew how to heal, to move past them to a future full of promise.
I tugged the dress over my hips. The cool air brushed against my scorched skin. Vincenzo flipped me onto my back. One hand on my breast, kneading the flesh in a rough grasp, the other stroking my slick, still bare pussy.
“You’ve been naughty, little one,” he murmured against my lips before kissing me breathless. Right as I melted into this moment, he slapped my pussy. I yelped against his mouth, but that only made the monster smile as he devoured me.
His fingers slipped inside me. Without warning. Without mercy. Panting into his mouth, I clawed at his back and shoulders, tearing at the shirt in a desperate attempt to have him naked. To have him on my level.
Somehow, I managed to tug it up.
The kiss broke for a precious few seconds as the tee pulled off his head.
Then his mouth was on me again, biting, hot, and desperate. He continued to fuck me with his fingers, stroking and curling in that deep, delicious spot.
“Enzo,” I begged. “Please—I need you.”
He groaned. “Sweet words, fiore.”
Flower. That was what he called me. Something precious that should never be picked or plucked from the earth.
But yet he had, claiming me and planting me in his very soul.
That was why I’d been convinced mine was dead.
Because I couldn’t feel the warmth of his presence, the nurture of his kindness these past years.
But I was alive now. Alive and wholly his. Ready to flourish in the sunlight of his presence for the rest of my days.
With a whimper, I opened my thighs wider. Tipped my hips up to meet his thrusts.
“Enzo, I’m going to come,” I protested.
“And?”
The question was a hard bite.
A sob knotted in my chest. “And I don’t want to. Not like this.”
His question was black, dripping with venom. “Like what, then?”
A beast, a dark entity, who held all the power. All the control.
“I want you,” I begged, tears leaking from the corners of my eyes. I dug my nails into his skin, urging him to give me what I desperately craved. “I want you inside me.”
“Ah, tu sei bellissima,” he rasped. “Who am I to deny you when you beg like that?”
I didn’t notice him open his zipper or tug down his pants. But after another quick slap to my clit, one that sent a rush of pleasure humming through me, his cock was out. He stroked it with a vicious tug before nudging it against my entrance.
“So wet,” he groaned, sliding his cock up to press against my pussy. “My pretty Mandy is wet and ready for me.”
His cock slid down. It pushed inside me in a hard thrust.
My cry joined his darker note of pleasure. Vincenzo shuddered and pressed his lips to my forehead. “Only you have the power to destroy me.”
I swallowed another sob. Tipping my hips up, I urged him to move against me, but the beast was not to be rushed.
He rose on his hands, gesturing between us with a jerk of his chin. “Do you see this? See how perfectly you take me?”
I whimpered, grinding in a desperate attempt for friction.
Vincenzo sat back on his haunches, gripping my hips and pulling me back with him so we stayed joined. “You’re full. Stretched and stuffed by my thick cock. Look, fiore. Look at how well you take me. How beautiful you are.”
Annoyed at the delay, I lifted my head to comply.
“I try to give you what you need, I try to take away the burden of control, but it’s all a lie, isn’t it?” he growled, voice filled with heat. “You’re always in charge. You command me with a mere look.”
I pinned him with a hard one right then and there. “So fuck me already, Enzo.”
His smirk was dark. “With pleasure.”
Scooping me onto his lap, he pressed my body to his and began to thrust into me.
“Like this, we’re equals,” he confessed before his mouth found mine in a hot, searing kiss.
It left me breathless. I wrapped my arms around him for an anchor. He was impossibly strong, holding me in place as his thighs and hips did all the work, fucking me hard. My body met every thrust. The throb that radiated from my core made my pussy ache. I whimpered with need.
“Give it to me,” I demanded, voice hoarse with desperation.
“Yes, my queen,” he growled fiercely.
Hearing those words on his lips, a blinding explosion of pleasure lashed through me. I trembled and would have fallen if he wasn’t holding me tightly.
Vincenzo was wild, erratically pounding into me. As I screamed, as the orgasm tore me open, he watched me, gritting his teeth to see me through the release. Only when I turned limp in his arms did he jerk. With one final, hard thrust, his dick throbbed. He spilled himself deep inside me.
We were breathing in ragged bursts, staring at one another in a raw, climactic moment. As the intensity ebbed, as we fluttered down from the incredible high, I reached weakly for his left hand. Hooking his ring finger around mine, I brought it to my lips.
“Enzo and Mandy,” I promised, kissing our fingers.
“Mandy and Enzo,” he replied. “Our bond has withstood the worst the world has thrown at us. They can’t break us, fiore. I won’t let them.”
“You don’t have to fight this on your own,” I breathed. “I’m here now, Enzo. Per sempre.”
He pressed his lips against my forehead. “Thank fuck. I’ve missed you…all these years, missed you so fucking much.”
I know he felt it too, the raw, surreal connection. Two souls that were mated eternally. The intimacy was overpowering. Only we could break this bond. And both of us swore with that shared look that we never had betrayed it, nor would we ever forsake it until our dying breath.