Chapter Sixteen
Lilianna Genovese
Four weeks.
It had been four weeks since the failed wedding, yet it had been less than one week since we’d almost been killed. It felt like an eternity had passed since the day I made the wrong decision. If I had just allowed Matteo to take the shot and take out the Don, everything would have worked out. Maybe it was weak for me to have so much mercy and humanity within me. Maybe I did have too soft a heart.
If I could go back now, I would have allowed Matteo to do what he’d planned.
I couldn’t go back, but I could certainly move forward, and I wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.
I would let him kill Vlad and Aelita when we got the opportunity again.
Maybe I wouldn’t ever get to explain myself. Maybe they would never know that I was responsible for their deaths. Maybe I’d never find the bodies of my family. If I would have let Matteo take the shot when he’d had the chance, this would be over.
Instead, the Petrovs had gone so far underground that not even Marcus could find a trace of them, and that was my fault.
If I took over as Don, though… If I took that role, we’d have double the resources. Double the weapons. Double everything. If we had that much manpower, we could take the entire Russian territory and kill every single Petrov who didn’t stand down.
I knew what I needed to do, but the thought of so many people dying was something I didn’t think I could handle.
Still, what was the alternative?
Matteo strode into the room as I watched Callum playing with a firetruck on the floor. We both looked up in tandem as my thoughts were cut short. Matteo’s gaze fixed on me. “Get out of your head. We have somewhere to go this evening.”
* * *
I couldn’t remember ever dressing in a ballgown so elegant.
Matteo had somehow managed to order a dress that fit as if it were custom-made for my body. The fabric clung to my curves, loosening gently at my knees enough that I could easily walk. The dress itself brushed the floor, even with the matching three-inch heels on my feet. The silver shone in the bright light of Matteo’s bedroom, but under the evening sky, I found the glittering to be more subdued, and more beautiful.
When I’d announced that I was ready and strode into Matteo’s bedroom earlier, I hadn’t expected his reaction.
Matteo had halted, taking one step backward as he looked at me.
I had a similar reaction to him in his entirely black suit. It fit him well. The silky undershirt clung to his chest, revealing the sculpted shape of it. The tailored fit somehow managed to hide the bulk of his muscles, but as he shifted, I saw hints of them beneath the clothing. His tall, lean build was perfect for this tuxedo.
“You’re a vision,” he whispered.
He stared at me for a long moment, and I found myself looking over the dress to ensure there wasn’t something wrong with it. When I lifted my gaze again, Matteo’s eyes darkened as his eyes dipped, gaze lingering on a few choice places.
Almost as if in a trance, he strode forward and grabbed my hand. He pulled it to his lips and left a small kiss there, restraint rippling in every part of his body.
His hand hadn’t left mine since leaving his place. Either on my thigh, my hand, or the small of my back, he touched me constantly.
My stomach had wound itself into various knots, and each additional glance only added to the uncontrollable yearning he caused inside of me.
“Is there a reason you haven’t told me what we are doing?” I asked as the driver pulled into a valet spot in front of a building. From the number of expensive cars in the lot, I couldn’t begin to guess what we were doing. We’d done so many mafia-related tasks in my month here that this came as a shock. Especially when I saw a handful of uniformed officers strolling through the venue.
“This is a charity auction.”
“Charity?” I asked with a chuckle. He had to be kidding, but…he wasn’t laughing.
He nodded. “I frequent them. They have quarterly auctions, and the proceeds go to the underprivileged kids in the area.”
“The kids?”
My mind struggled to understand the reason he’d come to these things, especially with law enforcement milling around so freely. If there was one thing that my father had instilled in me, it was a pathological desire to stay away from the police. They wanted nothing more than to destroy us and our businesses.
“It benefits me in a variety of ways,” he said, pasting a smile on his lips as we strode through the door.
To my surprise, the armed officer there smiled back and shook Matteo’s hand. “Mr. Costello,” he greeted Matteo. “What a pleasure.”
“Hello, Frank,” Matteo said. “How is the wife?”
“Oh, she’s expecting another little clone. Another girl, if you can believe it.”
Matteo tipped his head back and chuckled. “That’s what? Number four?”
“Yes, sir, it is. I’m going to have to visit the casino soon. I need a big break after that news. Don’t know how I’m going to afford all these girls.”
Matteo nodded and bid the man farewell before guiding me through the entrance, gesturing all around us. “I am the legal owner of the casino, and these people know it. There’s always money that isn’t able to be laundered through legitimate resources, but donations aren’t tracked as carefully.”
“So, you donate dirty money?” I asked quietly.
Matteo nodded as he shook a woman’s hand. She wore a dress nearly as fine as mine and smiled at Matteo. Despite appearing to be twenty years his senior, she seemed interested in looking at him up and down as he turned away.
“Precisely.”
His arm wound around me, his hand resting on the small of my back. It lingered just above my ass, and I held my breath as his fingers worked circles there. He bent to my ear and whispered into it. “Sometimes, I get young men from the schools in the casino who want a job. Young men who hear of my success and have no other options. It helps me grow my numbers.”
“Smart.”
“Oh, that’s the least of the benefits, Lili.”
His breath on my ear sent tremors down my spine, and my lips parted. “Oh?”
I didn’t think I could say anything more. Not with him standing so close and breathing on my neck so sensually.
“The cops here like seeing my donations every quarter. They like me. They don’t suspect that the big businessman who donates to underprivileged kids would involve himself in something as scandalous as mafia life.” His tongue darted out across the top of my ear. “Not when the people being booked for mafia-related charges are thugs and underprivileged teens. Never successful businessmen.”
I leaned back into his firm chest, breath quickening as he wrapped both arms around me.
“We should take our seats,” he said, giving me a light push forward.
Unsurprisingly, a half dozen more men greeted him, and a few more women admired him, giving me unhappy looks. We finally reached our seats, and I sank into mine. Matteo’s hand moved from my back to my upper thigh, his thumb working in circles on my leg. The feeling of his thumb growing closer to the spot between my thighs sent pangs of lust through me.
Everything around me became muted as my blood rushed in my ears in response to his grazing touches. When everyone took their seats around the room, his hand trailed a little further, sending electric zings through my body.
“The auction tonight is comprised of a few different things. We have two cruise packages, a few paintings from up-and-coming artists around the city, and an all-inclusive stay at a five-star resort.” Applause erupted around the room, but I could only look at Matteo as he gave me a subtle smirk and ran a finger over the fabric of my dress a little higher than before. I jerked beneath his touch and held my breath. “The first piece is a painting entitled Green Death , painted by Ms. Penelope Franklin from the New York Institute of Art.”
The auction began, the number going up more with each bidder. Matteo didn’t even look at the piece before raising his hand. “Two and a half million,” he said.
The room went silent as he made a bid that was ten times the previous amount, and when the auctioneer marked it as sold, applause erupted through the room.
“I think,” he whispered in my ear, “that you need to take a trip to the ladies' room.”
“I don’t need to—” His look cut me off, and my breath caught in my throat.
He didn’t want me to go alone .
I found myself stumbling to my feet and walking toward the women’s bathroom quickly. My knees shook from the touches we had shared beneath the table. As I neared the bathroom, I looked over my shoulder and found Matteo stretched out in his chair, looking toward the auctioneer, who pointed to him in hopes of getting another large-scale donation. Matteo grinned with a self-assured smile.
That smile had the molten core between my legs aching.
He made me ache.
This was so unlike me, but I couldn’t stop myself from stepping into the ladies' room and going immediately to the sink. With shaking hands, I scooped up cool water and dabbed it on my cheeks before looking in the mirror.
I was flushed. My chest was red and splotchy, and my face resembled a tomato.
Was I really doing this?
Was I listening to Matteo when he asked me to go to the ladies' room and wait for him? This was out of character for me in every way, but Matteo affected me in a way that I couldn’t explain. He had a spell on me that I couldn’t break, no matter how hard I tried.
The door to the bathroom opened, and Matteo strode inside, closing the door behind him and locking it.
“We—we shouldn’t do this here,” I stammered.
Matteo moved forward, not slowing as he approached. He gripped both my hips and easily lifted me onto the counter by the sink before burying his face into the crook between my shoulder and neck. “I’ve never lost control around someone else, Lili,” he whispered.
“You haven’t lost control with me,” I reminded him.
“What do you think this is?” he asked as he pressed his lips into my neck. I gasped and arched into him. “Everything about you tests my control. Fuck, when you’re this close, all I can think about is what I want to do to you.”
“What do you want to do to me?” I asked, a small moan slipping from my lips as his hands tightened on my waist.
He took a long breath, exhaling for long seconds before speaking. “I want my lips all over you. I want to taste every inch of your skin. I want to taste the warmth between your legs. Fuck, I want to feast on it again, Lilianna. I want it all.”
I sucked in a sharp breath and sucked my lower lip between my teeth.
He gripped my chin, pressing his lips to mine roughly. My lip found its way between his teeth next, and he bit it hard enough that I gasped.
When he released my lip, he took a deep breath before stepping back.
“What—what are you doing?” I asked breathlessly.
“I’m not going to fuck you in a bathroom, Lili.”
The words sent me reeling. A part of me wanted him to fuck me here. I shouldn’t have wanted that. Not with everything happening around us. But I yearned for the release sleeping with him would promise.
“Why not?” I asked.
He trembled slightly as he stood before me, and I knew his control was being narrowly contained. I knew it, yet I still reached out and grabbed his wrist. My body yearned for his touches. It begged for me to go further with him. The heat between my legs had me trembling.
With his wrist in my hand, I moved it between my thighs. His eyes darkened, and his body lunged forward.
He dipped his hand and brought my dress up to my hips. He ran the palm of his hand over the slick heat between my legs, and his stiffened shoulders told me that he could feel it through my panties.
“Fuck,” he seethed, pressing his forehead into mine as the pressure between my legs increased. “You’re so fucking wet.”
“Matteo!” I cried out, closing my eyes.
“Look at me,” he insisted. I did as he demanded. The intensity in his eyes had me shuddering. I tried to control my breathing, but he hooked his fingers in my panties and slipped one between my folds. My mouth fell open and a small noise escaped me. “You don’t know what you do to me, Lilianna.”
My name on his lips made me moan.
“Please!” I cried out.
His finger sank into me slowly. He pumped it once, then twice, stretching me. On the third thrust, he inserted a second finger and curled them both. He hit something deep inside of me, and I squeezed his wrist, wrapping the other arm around the back of his neck.
The world around me shattered as he pressed the throbbing core between my legs and sent a wave of uncontrollable pleasure through my body. He didn’t slow. He didn’t even hesitate as he quickened his movements, drawing every ounce of pleasure from me until my body shook beneath his. I cried out, and his lips covered mine, taking in every one of my noises.
“I could listen to this all fucking day,” he groaned.
I couldn’t bring myself to speak as he continued ravishing me. I felt like I was spiraling beneath his adept hands. He held me together as I fell apart completely.
When the trembling ceased, Matteo’s hands stilled, and he took a deep breath. It seemed to fill every ounce of his body as he went rigid and removed his hand. He took a step back, and my arm fell away. I planted both hands on the sides of the sink to steady myself as I tried and failed to steady my breathing.
“Matteo,” I gasped, swallowing once. “Are—are you okay?”
He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes as he extended a hand. “I meant it when I said I wouldn’t fuck you in a bathroom, Lili.” With each breath, his control seemed to solidify. I could see the effort he put into his statement, and I felt myself going molten again as he stood there, staring at me as if I were his favorite snack. “Let’s finish the rest of this evening, and we’ll go home and talk.”
“You don’t have to be in control all the time, Matteo.”
With him standing so close in a fitted suit and two slick fingers, I didn’t think I was in control. Every ounce of me needed him. I needed him right here and right now, but he seemed set in his resolve.
He sighed and offered a hand. I took it and dropped from the sink, allowing the dress to cascade back down my legs.
“Oh, Lili,” he said, shaking his head. “With you, I have to work very hard to find control.”