Chapter 30
CHAPTER THIRTY
DARIA
“ F uck!”
My eyes popped open to a room filled with the late morning sunshine. Even if the ache in my thighs and the stiffness between my legs wouldn’t have reminded me, the crushed sheets and the musty smell in the room gave it away. There was a siren hanging in the air. It screamed sex and husband as one line. I had gone and lain underneath him. On top of him, too. Next to him, too. All very willingly.
He was hot. Sex was hot. How else had I survived sleeping through the night in nothing but the skin I was born with? Not that there was any actual sleeping. Medda. He was a beast. He had devoured me like he would die if he didn’t. I ignored the tingle in my veins that told me I kind of liked it.
My eyes skidded to the man himself pacing the room with his back to me in black boxer shorts, his hair tousled, and a phone pasted to his ear. The intimacy of the situation heated my goosebump-ridden skin.
It was all very bare. Too naked. I tried to move the sheets to cover my breasts by subtly wiggling beneath them. Couldn’t have been that subtle. Because the first tug pulled the attention of a fiery set of eyes along with it. I halted. My nipples, still sticking out, were hard pink peaks next to crisp ivory sheets. Heat inched from top to toe like the slow burner of infrared heat.
His gaze shimmered, and his tongue slithered on his teeth, and somehow, I felt it riding all the way to my core. Memories of all the places his tongue had licked imploded, with image after image, in an imaginary slide show.
Wry amusement tilted his mouth. No doubt he read the direction of my mind.
But the next instant, his gaze glowered. “Not coming now.”
I blinked. It wasn’t directed at me. I grabbed the sheet and pulled it up to my neck. A tug, a whoosh, and it was yanked off me. Cold air and a hot gaze touched me as I let out a yelp just as his fingers came to his lips to silence me.
I sat up to pull the sheet off the end of the bed.
“Fine, Massimo. You fucking owe me one.”
A thump, and the phone landed on the bed. He crawled up on it, pulled me in, and popped me between his thighs. His scruff nuzzled its way from my collarbone to my breasts. A nipple found its way to his mouth. A lusty growl rumbled off his body as his finger found my core. “Fuck, you’re wet.”
He was possessive and all over me. He was rough and arrogant. It should have turned me off. But damn if it wasn’t hot. I wanted to rock against him. But when a thick finger entered me, an unwilling whimper left my body, and I stiffened in his arms. His hand stilled, and he pulled his gaze up to my face. “You sore, Principessa? ”
I bit my lip. His thickness against me told me he wanted to fuck again. I gave a shake of my head.
He scowled. “Why are you lying to me?”
An ice-cold fist clamped onto my chest. The thought that he might find a different solution to my soreness beat faster than the pulse point in my wrist. Insecurity and memories washed over me.
He gripped my chin and tipped it up. Darkness tinged his harsh laugh. “I’ve waited fucking weeks to fuck you. You think I’m going to fuck someone else just because you’re sore?”
When he put it like that. I chewed on my lips.
He pulled it free.
“Fuck!” He cursed like he’d suddenly remembered something. “Talk about bad timing. I have to go to Boston, Principessa .” His words dropped like heavy lead on my fragile ego. “The capo there has a snitch and needs my help to get this shit resolved.” His hand traced my cheek as his gaze bore into mine. “This has nothing to do with anything else, capisti ?”
Loss camped already underneath my ribcage.
“How long will you be gone?” I muttered hoarsely. Shit. I sounded needy.
“Don’t know.” He ran his hand through his hair. Frustration edged the sharp lines of his jaw. “I’ll try to wrap it up and be back soon. Sì ?”
I nodded weakly. Not like I had any choice in the matter.
“ Bene. Now get ready. I’m taking you to a doctor.”
I blinked. “What? Why?”
He gripped me and bit the hollow behind my ear. “Because there’s no way I’m not fucking you bare. We are getting this resolved now before I leave.”
He shoved me against the brick-lade facade, his body blocking me from passersby. “Happy now?” he muttered against my neck.
When I had begged him to use a condom, there hadn’t been a sane part of me that had actually believed he would. No one told a made man what to do. Besides, telling them anything only got them to do the opposite. A challenge to the malice in their heart. But he had actually listened to the silly girl underneath him as if… a girl’s opinion mattered. As if I had a say about my own body. He had pulled one of the best gynecologists out of her free Saturday and made her talk to me about all the options. He let me decide what I wanted, and when I had decided on an implant, he made her repeat the pros and cons again. He made me dizzy. There was a spark in my chest. Confidence and belief were slowly trickling in.
I stood imprisoned between his arms, basking under the bright sun, an implant in my arm, New York traffic buzzing in the background, but all I heard were his words. When can I fuck my wife? I didn’t think I had ever met a ruder man in my life, and since I was a Cosa Nostra girl, that was saying something. I didn’t think the doctor had either given the surprised pop of her mouth. But damn if how he said wife and fuck didn’t roll in my stomach like thick hot honey.
“ Sì? ” His hot breath rasped against my neck.
“ Sì .” I nodded, a smile lining my face.
“Good. The day you graduate, we are getting a baby. Sì. No more excuses,” he said sternly. Sure. Like we would order a ready-made baby online. Yeah. Still a typical made man.
I laughed. “Yes. Yes.”
His eyes softened. “I like it when you laugh.” He pulled away reluctantly. “Stay here.” He nodded to one of his men to keep guard and walked the few feet to the car.
I like it when you laugh rode my mind as I watched him check the car with Orso. I didn’t understand his obsession. We had come in the car after he had checked it, and his men had been out while we were inside. Yet he checked everything again, including a metal detector that he had just happened to have in the bonnet of his car.
I sighed when he finally approved everything and jerked his head in my direction. What a surprise. You would have to be suicidal to tinker with the car of the Don while his men were around.
“What is it with you and cars?” I muttered as I neared him.
“Shut up and get in.”
I was startled. His tone was light, but there was a darkness edged around it. He pushed me lightly into the back seat before joining me. He was grumpy. I had no idea why.
“You never leave without the car getting checked. Sì? ”
He was still on it.
“Yeah. Yeah,” I muttered.
Because he looked so forlorn, I added the next words just as Orso got into the driver’s seat. “Thank you for today.”
“Yeah?” His eyes darkened. “You’ll show me your gratitude when I’m back by spreading your legs so I can fuck you bare.”
Medda! I was sure my skin colored the deepest shade of red in the damn Pantone chart. Beast. My husband was an absolute beast.
I sat at the dining table, going through the course materials I had received to prepare. Maybe Cosa Nostra girls were made to sweat in the kitchen and spread our legs in the bedroom because even though I had read the book before me twice, the information refused to soak in. Renaissance, Baroque, Gothic, Art déco, Art nouveau… my gaze hazed as it rested on the large table. This must be the shit style. I hated this apartment even more when he wasn’t around. It was like it became colder, grayer, harder…
“ Vuoi un po' di antipasto? ” Benedetta called out from the kitchen to the shake of my head.
“ Non ho fame. ” I wasn’t hungry.
“Ai, ai.” She shook her head with a giggle. “You’ll be hungry again when he’s home.”
“That’s not why. I’m worried about college.” I frowned at her skepticism. “Really!”
She huffed. “ Ridicola! You can’t hide anything from a Sicilian Mamma.”
I sighed. Whatever. She was sweet. Kind of my American Mamma. But once she got an idea in her head, there was no way of pulling it out. Even if the idea was all wrong. I didn’t miss him at all.
It was three days since he had left. Seventy-seven hours, to be exact. A few hours after he had walked out the door, a guy in a checkered shirt and thin round glasses had turned up. Apparently, he was his main IT guy, and he showed me how I could access an encrypted program that would show his location at all times. I didn’t know who was most surprised. The guy frowning at me for putting his boss in danger, or me that his boss was actually allowing it. I wasn’t sure who the idiot in this picture was.
“Please be careful, Signora ,” he had implored enough times to drill it into my brain. So even though my hands itched to log in and check where he was, I never did. It didn’t stop me from tossing and turning and wondering. Wondering if he was with another woman. Just like it didn’t stop me from listening to other voices when he called. All I heard were the rough male voices of men born or made to kill. Still, doubt crawled into every cell, every pore, and every vein in my body until that was all that I was. A tight bundle of doubt.
The front door slammed shut, and the sound of heavy footsteps striding along the hallway prickled my ears. He didn’t say he was going to… A hot vision appeared round the corner, his walk rushed, and his face strained.
“Lorenzo, you didn’t say you were….”
“Later,” he muttered darkly as he strode past Benedetta’s bemused look to me.
I didn’t know what I expected. A peck on the cheek? A whispered hello? It certainly wasn’t to pull me up like a koala bear and stride with me towards our bedroom. Benedetta’s loud laugh followed to the rush of hot heat on my cheeks.
“ Minchia! How are you so rude?”
“Born that way.”
He took the first door to the left, strode inside the movie room, and threw me onto the nearest couch, right opposite the door. One of those fancy Italian designer brands, with alpine hide, brushed my ass.
“What are you doing?” I tried to crawl off, but he dragged me back down.
Minchia. He was unbuckling his belt like his life depended on it. “Need. To. Fuck. You.”
Indecision rode my skin. I didn’t know if I should stop him or join in.
“Here?”
“Can’t make it further.”
I clutched the full-grain calf hide of the couch. “We’re going to ruin this.”
“Don’t care.”
He dropped his pants and boxers and yanked me closer to him. His rough hands found my slip in a second and shredded it in two. “Shit.” He half carried me, and half pulled me, and nuzzled my neck. “Tell me you’re fucking wet because I’ll die if I can’t fuck you now.”
His fingers found my line and slipped inside in one smooth move. “Fuck, yes,” his hot breath grated against my neck. “I’ll fuck you slow the next time. Promise. I just can’t…” I gasped as he pushed inside with an animalistic growl.
“Argh.” I shoved against him.
“I’m sorry, Principessa ,” he moaned. “Did I hurt you?”
“Just give me a minute to adjust.”
He nodded. I don’t think even he realized it, but he was moving already, and damn if it didn’t feel good. “ Bruto ,” I muttered anyway.
His chest vibrated with his laugh. He pulled my mouth into his and bit my bottom lip, hard.
“Ouch!”
“That’s for calling me a brute.”
He rocked his body against mine and jerked his head. “Take it off.”
I looked at my blouse and scowled at him. The man needed to learn some manners. “Say please.”
His face darkened like ink on paper. Before I could catch my breath, he had ripped it in two.
“There’s your please.” He growled at my bra.
I scrambled to remove it before his hands could move to it.
“Good girl.” He pulled out and pushed in. Rough and hard. His eyes sparked like a dark and delicious sauce. “I’ve been thinking of you. Your little moans and shrieks are what I thought about when I was killing off traitors, Principessa . Does that make you happy?”
Was I sick? Was I bad or insane? Because I couldn’t stop the shiver of pleasure that coasted through my veins at his perverted comparison. His hands gripped my breasts and squeezed them tight. Thick, inked numbers skittered over my flesh. I hated tattoos, didn’t I? So why did my skin tingle at the sight of his?
He grunted as he pumped in and out. He was rough. He was hard. Uncouth to his bones. From the way he looked, to the way he fucked. Why does it feel so good? My legs wrapped around him tight, and when he tweaked my nipple with his calloused hands, a million sparks jittered through my veins. He was going to break me. Now or someday soon. But it didn’t stop me from exploding around him. The only relief was that I wasn’t going down alone, as I took him with me.