20. Cassandra
20
CASSANDRA
I can’t breathe.
Rocco must think he’s kissing a statue.
Because I can’t bring myself to even blink in fear that this might all be a dream, that I might suddenly wake up somewhere far away with nothing but his name to remember him by.
“Cas,” he whispers, drawing back an inch that feels like a mile. “Cas, kiss me.”
It’s not an order; it’s a plea.
“I only want you.”
His words are like honey.
And the way I kiss him back is sickly sweet.
The rational part of my brain is screaming at me to stop. I know that whatever lies down this path with Rocco Moretti will be dangerous, that I might risk more than a broken heart.
But the way his lips yield to mine shoves such thoughts deep down.
This is intoxicating. I can’t get enough of it.
Our mouths glide together, our tongues dancing in a passionate frenzy. I just want more and more and more.
We’ve only shared one kiss before this, and though my thoughts lingered on it every night before I fell asleep, the memory has nothing on the real thing.
“Cas,” he whispers against my mouth, and I taste my own name on his lips.
At some point, my hands tangle in his dark hair, tugging him ever closer.
“Get a fuckin’ room!”
We break apart in alarm as someone passes by, shaking their head.
Right. We’re sitting at a bus stop in the middle of Brooklyn in the early hours of the morning.
As if on cue, a shiver runs down my spine. Rocco had insisted I leave my leather jacket at home.
“Come on,” Rocco murmurs, a little breathless, as he sheds his own jacket and wraps it around my shoulders. “Let’s get out of here.”
I let him stand me up and guide me back to the Candelabra with an arm around my shoulders . For one horrible moment, I think he’s about to take us back in. Even just the thought of confronting Danny or Claudio again wipes away all the joy of our kiss.
But he diverts to the parking lot. It’s an underground bunker-like space that I’d never realized existed below the Candelabra until Rocco had driven into it earlier that evening.
No other cars are parked there as we enter. Only the low thrum of bass music from the venue above us keeps us company as we walk over to the fancy convertible sports car we arrived in.
I’m still tucked under his arm as we approach. His heavenly scent overwhelms my senses as I try to concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other.
The headlights flash in welcome as Rocco reaches for the door.
If there was a time to clear the air, to get my head on straight about what the hell we are to each other, it would be now before I have to ride home with him, so agonizingly close.
“Rocco, I…”
But he cuts me off with another kiss, pushing me back against the car and pinning himself against me. His hand snakes around to the back of my neck, holding me in place.
The hardness of his cock presses into my leg, mere inches from where I need him to be. “Fuck,” I gasp when he finally releases my mouth.
But his mouth doesn’t stop. He frantically explores the expanse of my exposed neck, and I succumb to him easily. The way his tongue explores my skin sends shivers of delight down my spine.
“I don’t think I can do it,” he hisses across my collarbone. “I don’t think I can drive us back without crashing the damn car.”
Wanton desire courses through me as my eyes flash open, assessing the situation. The doors to the bunker are closed; there is no one else around.
With a surge of confidence, I reach behind me and drag open the car door.
“Get in,” I instruct him with a desperate shove for good measure.
Thankfully, he doesn’t argue and sits down in the passenger seat. I glance over my shoulder one more time before I join him, straddling his waist as I pull the door closed behind me.
The feeling of him hard beneath me has me stifling a groan, especially when his hands start to roam across my chest.
The tinted windows offer us at least some privacy, but the lack of a roof means that anyone could hear us. Not to mention that any cameras looking in from above would certainly catch us.
But when Rocco drags me down to meet his lips again, such concerns escape me. Vaguely, I’m aware of him lowering the seat, but I’m too busy sticking my tongue down his throat like a love-lorn teenager to care.
I have no idea how much time passes as I lay across his chest like that. But suddenly, the low, fluorescent lights flicker out.
I gasp against his mouth.
“It’s just the timer,” Rocco reassures me, half his face now cast in shadow, the other illuminated with a blue tinge by the center console.
In the half-darkness, my senses become heightened. My ears strain harder for any indication that someone might walk in on us.
Then, a hand reaches for my neck. It happens so suddenly that I let out a short shriek.
“Shhh…” Rocco hisses close to my ear. “Did I scare you?”
I let out a shaking breath.
“N…no?”
His hand begins to explore my chest again, rubbing me through my clothes. I feel the tension beginning to seep down to my core.
“Do you trust me?” His voice is suddenly low, his tongue darting out across my exposed cleavage.
All I can do is nod.
Suddenly, I feel a tug on the back of my dress. A second later, the zipper is entirely undone, and the front of my beautiful, bespoke gown is falling to my waist.
“Rocco!” I cry in alarm.
But he presses in closer to me, covering me with those huge, tattooed arms, and begins to stroke at the bare skin of my stomach. It feels like he’s everywhere. Every touch is an unexpected delight that sends shivers of desire through me.
I search frantically for his face, missing the presence of his lips. But then they’re on my neck, and I melt into the sensation of his tongue working its way back to my mouth.
When he reaches it, the kiss I give him is filthy, all teeth and tongue and lips. I suck on his lips like it’s my only source of oxygen.
His fingers slip around my leg, hoisting the skirt material up my thigh…
“Fuck!” he curses when he finally discovers the bareness of my ass, the lack of clothing standing between him and my now throbbing center.
I bite hard on his lip to try and silence him. But I’m rewarded with a stiff groan as he scrambles to unfasten his pants.
“Do you trust me?” he asks again.
His hands dig into my ass, pushing me closer. I can feel the hardness of his cock, now released from its restraints, pressing into my stomach tantalizingly.
“I trust you to delete whatever footage there is of this.”
Rocco pushes me back immediately, allowing me to sit up properly, entirely exposed to the elements. But his hands never leave my skin, grabbing at my chest to keep my breasts from view.
There’s nothing but pure lust on his face as he looks up at me.
“Do you think I would share you with anyone?”
He massages my breasts in his hand, thumb flicking over my taut nipples. All I can do is desperately rub my soaked sex up and down his thickening cock.
“Do you think I enjoyed letting you see Lazzaro?”
One hand drops down to lift himself up to meet my eager entrance. But he holds me there, just hovering over the release I so desperately need.
“I could have killed every man in that room who looked at you and wondered what this would feel like.”
Finally, he lowers me onto his thick cock. The feeling of him inside me sets my entire body alight.
“Does that scare you?”
It should. It really should. This man is a criminal. There is nothing light about that threat.
But Claudio had started fucking the first woman he stumbled across once I left. Hell, it was likely he’d been doing it already.
Rocco would kill for me.
And there was nothing more intoxicating than that.
“No,” I gasp as I plunge myself down to the hilt, arching my back in pleasure. “I trust you to protect me.”
“Because you’re mine, Cas,” he hisses into the darkness, and my heart shines right back.
So I ride him, letting him claim me, chasing my pleasure and the soft grunts he makes when I take him whole. The sound of our slapping skin fills the space between us as I bounce over and over.
The darkness only makes everything feel closer, more sensual, more private. I lose myself entirely to it, not caring when Rocco’s hands drop from my chest to my waist, slamming me down harder.
And when the urge becomes too overwhelming, I lean forward and take his lips with mine. And this. This is what I’ve been missing. The way his lips set a fire within me is so pleasurable that, even though he pounds so deeply inside me, this is what begins my climax.
He can feel it, too. He must because our kisses become more frantic, more filthy, as I slam down harder and harder. The car beneath us shakes in time with the movement.
I could bask in this moment forever. But I have to pull away to adjust my angle, to bury him further.
“Don’t leave,” his voice gasps in the darkness.
Is he saying that because he can no longer reach my kisses? Or is it something more?
We both groan as this new angle sends pleasure coursing into my core. I won’t be able to hold on much longer.
“I won’t,” I pant back.
I’m completely unaware of his creeping thumb until it’s circling my clit.
I move harder, quicker. Suddenly, the friction isn’t enough. I need more. More of him. I need to be closer.
I lower myself to him. Frantically searching for his mouth.
But he finds me first. Capturing my lips with his.
Our tongues wrestle as our bodies move in synchronization. His thumb plays with me expertly, bringing me closer and closer to the edge.
I tear myself from his lips, throwing my head back in ecstasy as we slam into each other, unsure where my body ends and his begins.
His cock twitches inside of me, and it becomes my undoing.
I scream his name as we come together.
And for a moment, there is nothing.
There’s just the two of us sharing gasping breaths, aching bodies, and a ragged, broken heartbeat.
I lay on top of him, utterly spent and exhausted. His arms wrap around me gently as we just breathe each other in and out.
This isn’t like the other times.
Something has shifted.
Even the way he kisses the top of my head feels more intimate, as if by screaming his name while we came together somehow branded him on my very skin.
“I could just stay here,” I murmur across his chest.
But my traitorous body begins to ache, and the tight space of the car’s interior becomes increasingly uncomfortable.
Beneath me, Rocco sighs. “Let’s go home.”
Home. The word resonates with surprising accuracy. It might have only been a month, yet that’s what the brownstone has become for me.
It’s a quiet ride home, so I try to look out to admire the city lights. But his hand does not leave my thigh, rubbing it so very distractingly with his thumb.
I want to call him out for being so possessive, but it feels so good to be driven around by a man who can’t keep his hands off me. In a city that he has in his pocket.
For the first time in a long time, I feel powerful.
His casual touch doesn’t stop when we finally get back to the brownstone. He opens my car door and helps me out of the passenger seat. A hand snakes its way around my waist as we walk up to the front doors.
I savor every second of it, wondering how much I can get away with. My hand reaches up to brush his hair out of his eyes. My fingers trail down the arm that’s around me. There’s so much of him that I haven’t explored yet.
When we reach the top of the staircase, I hesitate for only a moment, glancing at my bedroom door down the hall.
“You seriously think I’m going to let you out of my sight?” Rocco says, already pulling me toward his own bedroom.
“My bedroom is cozier, though,” I tease back.
He huffs a laugh, immediately stripping off his clothing as we enter his room and he drags me toward the bed. “You’re welcome to redecorate.”
“Seriously?”
I follow his lead, removing my gorgeous dress and sliding into bed next to him. His arms immediately encircle me.
“Cas, I will give you whatever your heart desires.”