Chapter 30
The annual New Year’s Eve gala again. They creep up faster every year, like time is sprinting past. This last year flew by with finishing law school, working nonstop with my brothers, and interning for Councilman Donovan.
I’ve been helping Vin as he quietly assembles a collection of evidence—videos, pictures, small betrayals—that will someday topple Aurelio.
Some of it is the crimes he’s committed, but more powerful is the evidence showing him belittling or betraying his men over the years.
This will help us to sway allegiances when the time comes, building our own army while simultaneously depleting his.
Brilliant. People don’t give Vin enough credit.
He’s going to make a strong boss.
But tonight isn’t about strategy.
It’s about networking, securing a permanent position with Councilman Donovan.
And Giovanna.
She’s bent over the bathroom counter, slinky gold dress hugging her body, applying lipstick close to the mirror.
I take my heartburn medication then slip behind her, hands sliding down her hips.
She ignores me.
Ignoring me is something she’s doing pretty frequently these days.
She’s always busy. Busy with school, busy volunteering at the law center, busy hanging out with Lexi and her friends from school.
Busy without me.
When I push the fabric up over her hips, she smacks my hand away.
“Don’t, Tommy. I’m on my period.”
“You know I don’t care about that.
”
“I do. I don’t feel like bleeding all over this dress.
” She turns to me, eyes raking over me like I’m an unfinished project.
“Wear the Armani I had made for you, the charcoal gray not the black.”
“I like the black.”
She’s on edge tonight.
She’s been on edge for the last few months.
“It’s not black tie, Tommy. You’ll look like waitstaff.
Can you just—” She impatiently waves me toward the closet, turning back to the mirror.
When I come out in my boxer briefs, carrying the charcoal gray suit, she hands me a gold vest that matches her dress.
She tries tying the matching tie on herself for me while I watch.
“Fuck! Hold on.” The knot slips apart once, twice.
Flustered, she hums in annoyance, her cheeks turning red.
Her hair is done in a fancy twist, and pieces fall down when she rips it off her neck and tries again.
God, she’s stunning. Dark red lips against olive skin, her hazel eyes burning with flecks of gold and green.
All I can think about is those lips stretched around my cock, that fire turned on me.
She’s yelling something at me, waving her hands, occasionally smacking my chest. I don’t hear anything she’s saying.
All I can do is watch her with a small smile.
Fucking gorgeous.
“Tommy! TOMMY.”
My hearing kicks back in.
“Yes, sweet girl?” I reach out to touch her face, and she slaps my hand.
“In case you weren’t paying attention, I am freaking the fuck out here.
”
“I noticed.”
She scoffs. “Oh, did you? Because you’re not…
responsive!”
“The word you’re looking for is ‘phlegmatic.’”
Her scowl could set me on fire.
“Is it? Or is the word I’m looking for ‘asshole’?
”
I shrug. “‘Phlegmatic’ means unemotional, stoic, calm, while ‘asshole’ means—“
“I fucking know what the words mean, Tommy!” She bites in a sharp breath and speaks through teeth clenched tightly shut. “I don’t need a fucking vocabulary lesson. I need you to care. I am frustrated, and I need you to be frustrated with me. Everything is going wrong!”
Trying not to smile as I sense that will inexplicably make her more angry, I reach for her then stop, waiting for permission. I raise an eyebrow, and she rolls her eyes. I take that as consent and, dropping the suit, I pull her into my arms.
“You want me to get upset about a tie? I can’t do that, but I am upset that you’re upset.
What you’re seeing is aplomb. Confidence.
”
She bangs her forehead softly against my chest and digs her nails into my lower back.
“Define one more word for me, Tommy Demonio, and I swear on all that is holy, I will…”
She trails off, and I gently cup her face and make her look at me.
“Do that again.”
She narrows her eyes. “Do what?”
“With your nails.”
In response, she slams her nails into my bare back hard enough to puncture the skin, smiling up at me innocently.
“Like this?”
“Harder.”
A lock of hair falls over my eye as I look down at her.
She complies with a smirk, digging her nails in deeper and pulling across my back slowly.
I lean down so my mouth is closer to hers, watching as she licks her bottom lip then bites it.
“Harder.”
She hums nervously. “Tommy, you’re going to bleed if I go any harder.
”
I reach behind me and press her fingernails deeper into my skin and pull them across, leaving what I hope are deep gashes in my back.
The blood slipping down my skin feels cleansing.
“Scar me, sweet girl. I want your claw marks all over my body.”
“I thought you liked to be the one to hurt me,” she breathes, her pupils dilating as I press my hard cock against her.
I press her nails into my skin again, and something shifts in her eyes.
The fear of crossing a line melts into something darker: power.
She traces red welts across my stomach down to my waistband.
I give her a sharp nod, and her fingers keep moving, pushing my boxer briefs down far enough for my cock so spring free.
She bites my neck, dragging her nails along the base of the shaft, then stops and looks at me for direction.
“Do it,” I growl.
When she tentatively scratches over my balls, a rumble forms in my chest. “Stop fucking playing, Giovanna.”
She crushes her mouth into mine, kissing me hard, trapping my cock between us, then scrapes her nails over my balls.
Blood drips down the inside of my thighs, and I groan into her mouth.
“Fuck, baby.”
“Do you like it?” She drops light kisses along my jaw.
Driving my hands into her hair, I grip her tight.
“I need to fuck your mouth.”
She searches my face, and for a moment, her cold distance from the past few months, her irritation, it fades.
I see my Gi again, the version of her that has been slipping away from me.
My heart hurts as I realize that she doesn’t need me anymore, but it comes with sharp relief that at least she still wants me.
“Yes, daddy,” she whispers, and sinks to her knees.
When she takes me in her mouth, I groan.
“Nails, Gi.”
She complies, jerking her nails down my inner thighs to my knees, and I shove my cock deep into her throat.
“Suck my cock.”
Immediately, she begins taking as much of me into her throat as she can, drool sliding down to my balls and my thighs, mixing with blood.
“That’s my fucking girl,” I murmur. Both hands in her hair, I take over, fucking her face fast and hard then shoving my cock as deep into her throat as I can go.
I pull out to let her breathe and let go of her hair long enough to grab her hands and bring them to my inner thighs.
“Draw blood.”
Her eyes are wide and watery.
“Babe, you’re bleeding already.”
I’m on the brink.
I can feel it building, but frustration is building at the same time.
The crest of this wave I’m on is hovering tantalizingly out of reach.
I can feel the muscle in my jaw jumping as I glare down at her.
“Do what you’re fucking told.” I push inside her mouth and into the back of her throat, yanking her hair when her fingers don’t move.
“Nails. Now. Hard.”
Her eyes looking up at me over my cock are angry as I fuck her face, and she drags her nails down my thighs harder than before and claws me.
Not once. Not twice. But repeatedly and hard, shredding my skin.
“Fuck,” I grunt. “Balls.”
Obediently, she moves her nails to my balls, but the way she’s glaring at me lets me know that it’s more for her than it is for me.
When she scrapes my balls hard and draws blood, I fucking lose it.
My orgasm rips through me as I shove deep in her throat and come so hard she gags and coughs.
My breathing comes in hard and fast as I finally release her and slide out of her mouth.
“Holy shit, Giovanna. We’re definitely doing that again.
”
She stands and stalks over to the sink, washing my blood off her hands, glaring at me in the mirror. “No fucking problem.”