3. Matteo
CHAPTER 3
MATTEO
H eaven Mulligan has no idea who I am.
I know her. Even if I hadn’t been told she was here, I’d have picked her out.
It’s not the long, wavy red hair that grazes the small of her back or the clear green eyes that make her stand out. It’s the attitude. She thinks she can play me, and I like that. I also like the way her eyes give away every lustful sensation coursing through her, even though it’s damn clear she’s trying hard to resist them.
My question hangs there, gathering power. But she’s already mine even if she doesn’t know it.
And I’ll have her.
Totally and completely.
Her breath hitches, and her pulse throbs hard and erratic in her slender throat. She’s going to say yes. I know the signs. I can manipulate with a look, with a single touch. I can seduce in my sleep.
Only I don’t want to seduce. I want to devour, I want to take everything she’s both willing and unwilling to give. I don’t need to; it’s a side perk.
And she’s going to say yes to my question.
Within the game I’m playing, there are so many pieces. The players themselves are pawns, and she’s the most delicious of all. I’d take her if she wasn’t, of course, but this is better. Things couldn’t have happened better than if I’d planned them.
Some might call me an opportunist, and I am. But one with teeth and an eye on the long game, the prize ahead.
Up until now I’ve kept the Mulligans waiting, dangling as I’ve moved things where I want them. And I’ve kept away from Heaven. She’s thrown a pretty wrench into things, but I’m good with that. The stage is set, and her walking in unannounced shows me plenty about her. And her reactions to me also tell a tale.
I watch her, and she stares back, trying to control those physiological reactions that give her away.
I’m betting Daddy has no idea where his princess is. Everyone has cards up their sleeves, and I’m aware her father handing her to me to save Conor and to build his reputation is something he’s shaped into a win for himself. Let him think that. I want him to. This girl, pretty as she is, means nothing.
Declan’s powerful, though there are more powerful players. But what he is, is the most important player. Someone whose powerhouse holds up others through complicated gives and takes, and he’s too arrogant to see that it could be taken away.
He thinks by aligning with me he’ll get a piece of my pie, but I’m getting all of his and more. I’m staking my claim, something the criminal underworld has waited for me to do. But I haven’t. Until now.
I’m not saving anyone. I’m taking New York, and this girl with the wild red hair and fuck-me eyes is the key.
She breathes out, her pulse throbbing a little harder, and she finally says it. So soft it might not even be a sound. But through all the noise and moans and laughter and music, I hear it.
“Yes.”
I didn’t need to ask. It’s my club, but hey, I’ll play by the rules I’ve set: no touching without permission. And she just gave it to me. Breaking rules is usually more fun, but in this instance, the power play is better for it.
Heaven tries to resist giving in to those base urges. She can’t. And she’s given herself to me with that one word. It’s trust.
Fuck trust. I want to break her. And I will. Slowly I trace a line along her collarbone, then down over her shoulder and along her arm, to her inner wrist, where I come to a stop on her pulse.
It’s leaping and dancing, and her lips are blood-red, not just from lipstick. Her pupil dilation shows me the exact level of her arousal.
We’re surrounded by people, and she’s looking at me like we’re alone. Naked.
“Your skin is like warm silk. Your pulse is a dance all of its own, and if I press…” I do that with my thumb, my fingers resting on the back of her wrist. “The tempo becomes an impatient, seductive tango.”
Her lips part as she sways in toward me a little, and I don’t bother to hide my smile as I lift her wrist to my nose and mouth.
“I—”
“No perfume, just you. Intoxicating in the sweetness of your skin.” I move my thumb and lick the spot and she gasps, her fingers curling into me. “I bet you taste this good everywhere. Like honey with a hint of spice.”
“H-have you worked here long?”
I close my mouth on her wrist, sucking her pulse, biting softly with just the right amount of edge to make her moan, then I look at her. “I’ve been here since it opened, but I don’t consider this work.”
She pulls her wrist free, rubbing the spot with her fingers as she contemplates me and my words, trying to figure out the hidden meaning. She’s smarter than Declan, I can see that, and if I let her breathe, she’d probably understand what I just told her. But I’m not about to let her breathe. I like her mussed and high on lust. The yearning is hot, and I intend to sample my future bride here in the club.
I like to fuck, and a small taste of Heaven might be fun.
Made all the sweeter because she doesn’t get what’s happening yet.
“Are you up for adventure?”
It’s a blatant dare, and her gaze flares fiery green. “Yes.”
I smile. “This way.”
She’s hoping to dig up information to use or understand or…I don’t know and I don’t care. Declan’s of the type—like my father before he handed me the reins—to lean toward old-fashioned views, maybe mistake femininity for weakness. I’m betting she doesn’t know a thing.
Yet.
I slide my hand to her lower back, fingers just on the swell of her ass, as I guide her toward my private play room.
It’s the one that doesn’t have cameras.
I punch in the keycode, open the door, and gesture inside. She enters with no more than a second’s hesitation. Bold. I like that.
Heaven looks around the black, low-lit room. There’s a chair, a sofa wide enough that it could be a bed, a rack with toys, and of course, the wall with the hooks.
I wait to see what she’ll do. She’s an underboss, but she’s young. Part of me expects her to back out, to run, after stepping inside. But the other part of me knows she’s different. Unexpected. Heaven isn’t the type to back down, and her bravery has nothing to do with the excitement that blushes her pale skin and makes her movements slightly jerky because of the adrenaline and anticipation hitting her blood.
Her gaze falls on a whip. “You think you’re going to use that on me?”
“It depends.” I close the door and lean against it. “Have you been bad? Is it one of your fantasies?”
She turns, pupils dilated. “No.”
There’s hesitation there, and my cock twitches at that. She’s a delectable morsel of contradictions with deep veins of untapped passion. I want to tap all of it.
“What is it you want?”
She stands there, head up, proud, trying to look like she does this every day, and I almost smile. “To talk?” Heaven says.
“No one comes here to talk.” I make no move to straighten, to go to her. “At least, not just talk.”
She swallows.
“Right near you, on the wall, are brass hooks.”
Heaven moves to them, looking up, bless her weirdly innocent ass. Not that I think she’s a virgin, just that there’s something about her.
“I could tie you up.”
“Why would you do that?” She plants her feet apart, her hands clenching.
She’s so ripe for the picking. “Why do you think?”
Heaven’s eyes go wide, and she swallows the moment the implications of my words connect. “I didn’t come in here for that.”
“Really?” Still, I remain where I am. My cock aches but I ignore it. “Do I look like the kind of man who’s in a sex club just to talk?”
“I didn’t…I…” She stops, licking her lips, and the tip of her tongue holds my attention.
In here, there’s nothing but the sound of her breathing. A slightly uneven sound, laden with all the things she’s not saying, and I can read them all. Heaven doesn’t let go of control, but she wants to. She’s tempted to see what I can offer. She’s so turned on. Yes, what’s going on in my club is part of it, but that’s not the thing driving the lust in her veins. It’s the situation between her and me.
She’s handing me everything.
All her little tells. All the things that get her hot and wet. And we’ve barely touched. With each passing second of my game, I know I have her locking herself in, giving me everything. That makes me harder than I’ve ever been.
“Well, not normal conversation, at least. Dirty talk, maybe, if the fringe benefits are enticing enough.”
Heaven’s breasts heave as she takes a gulp of air. She’s teetering. Right on the edge, ready to fall into me and my trap. “What fringe benefits?”
And there it is.
“You.”
Now I move. I walk slowly to her, until we’re almost touching. Her nostrils flare as her eyelids flutter, and she isn’t sure of her next move, but the sway of her body toward me makes it for her.
“I’m not here to be your dinner.”
“I was thinking dessert.”
She gathers her strength and steps back. It isn’t a retreat. I don’t make the mistake of thinking that. It’s space to think, and I move in, just one step. I don’t want her thinking. I want her reacting.
“Maybe you should go on a diet,” she says.
I almost laugh at the cool bite to her words. She’s close to the wall with the hooks. I don’t move closer, instead I cross to the toys and open a small box, pulling out slender scarves in greens and oranges, colors to compliment her.
She watches, her gaze burns, but she doesn’t run. If I didn’t have plans, she’d make an excellent head of the Mulligan clan.
“Why are you here?” I ask.
I approach, slowly, the scarves loose in one hand, and her gaze drops to them. “Curiosity.”
“You want something.”
She shifts, her eyes narrowing on me as I stop in front of her. “What?—”
“You said that.” I bend to her ear, my mouth so close to her flesh I can feel her. “You told me you had questions.”
I let the words sit, but I’m not done toying with her.
I want a taste. I want to see what she’s made of, right down deep in her soul.
Most would fill the silence, but she doesn’t. She’s waiting, too, hanging on with a tenaciousness that both intrigues and pleases. A fight isn’t worth it without a worthy opponent.
“You want a taste of what this place can offer,” I say softly.
“What do you mean?”
I slide a hand over her hip, fingertips tingling as they brush against the exposed skin of her lower back. It’s soft as velvet. Hot from her desire, like a fever rages there, just below the surface. “This club gives anyone who walks in here the permission to indulge in their deepest, wildest fantasies, to sink into pleasure without strings or repercussions, without guilt. You could go back out there. Plenty would want you, but I think you want what I can offer.”
She lifts her head, turning, her mouth almost touching mine as she seeks out my gaze from beneath the mask. “And what is that?”
“Your deepest yearnings. The control you cling to taken away. Permission to come so hard you’ll beg. Be at my mercy.”
“I…”
I trail my fingertips down the side of her face, her breath hitching. “Or you came here with another agenda.”
She doesn’t miss a beat. “No.”
“No?”
“I…I just…”
I let the silence linger. “You know why you’re here. What is it you want?”
She swallows as I use the scarves to trace a gossamer trail over her throat.
My mouth is close to hers, and her breath is warm on my lips. Instinctively, she raises her chin, offering. And I lean in.
“I asked you a question.” I skim my mouth along over the heat of her skin, blowing over it, not touching her lips with mine. Not yet. “I expect an answer.”
“The reason everyone’s here,” she says, her voice almost breathless as her tongue touches the dark, sensitive skin of her mouth.
“What’s that?”
“Need? Curiosity.”
I move to her ear and breathe into it, a controlled stream of air, and she squirms. I slip my hand over her cheek, down to her throat, and her pulse drums beneath my fingers. “Liar.”
Raising my eyes, I look at her, then drop my gaze to her mouth. That prize. I move in again, so close we’re almost kissing, but I don’t give her that.
Even as much as I want it.
A kiss is power. And to deny that power makes me stronger and makes her beg for that pleasure. Its intricacies are more evocative than sex. A kiss is a way to a soul, hers. It opens intimacy and exposes the soft, hidden center.
But to hold off… That makes her want it more. Crave it.
Instead of tasting her lips, I replace my fingers on her pulse with my mouth and suck in that beat, biting down, the blood under the skin and veins moving beneath my tongue.
And then I stop altogether, taking in my handiwork so far.
She’s glorious, already halfway mine. And I’ve barely touched her.
Her breasts rise and fall with increasing speed, straining against the fabric of her dress, making my fingers tingle with an electrical charge that crackles in the air between us.
“I’m going to touch you now,” I say.
Her gasp is all the answer I need. I drag my fingertips down the slope of her neck, over her smooth skin, until they skim the tops of her breasts, just beneath the confines of her dress. Her breath stutters and I haven’t even started.
I move my fingers up again, just below the surface of the dress, up one shoulder and then the other. I slide both straps off, just enough to expose the tops of her full tits. And then a little lower, so her areolae and nipples show. Pretty pink. Is her cunt the same shade? I want to find out.
As she watches me, I put my thumb to my lips and lick it, and then slide it over one nipple, followed by the other. I blow on them and she quivers, the tips distending. She makes the tiniest moan in the back of her throat.
“I’m going to give you more of a taste,” I say. “Give you what got you hot out there. Bind you.”
“I don’t know…I…”
I bend, lifting one full breast, and I lick her nipple, sucking it into my mouth and pulling on it, just enough to make her gasp and push toward me. I smile against her breast. My money’s on her not knowing about the deal with her father. Not the nuts and bolts. And this…this is going to make it all so much sweeter when I reveal my face to her.
My intent.
She wants more. I can feel it in the beat of her blood, the heat of her skin. I make my way back up from her luscious breasts to her tender throat to suck on her pulse there, and she groans deep. That’s when I slide my thigh between hers.
Heaven moves her hips. I don’t even know if she realizes it, but she’s rubbing her pussy against me like she’s trying to get off. She’s trembling and I step back.
Her head is back, mouth open, eyes closed, tits exposed. She looks ready to be fucked.
I wait. Patience is always a game worth understanding, worth manipulating just within the confines of the rules. And I’m a master.
Slowly her eyelids flutter open and her soft mouth presses shut. She raises her head. Pupils dilated, thighs still apart. I hold up the silk scarves.
“I’m going to tie you up,” I murmur, sliding the ends of the scarves against the skin of her cheek, then down across her hard nipples.
She moans.
“Unless, of course, you don’t want to.”
“I…I need…I have to…”
Leave. I know she’s searching for the word. But she wants to stay, too. That’s part of the power I have here. She knows what she should do. And then there’s what she wants.
Her complexities are an aphrodisiac. There’s fierce warrior queen. Control. Innocence. Need. The innocence intrigues me the most. A woman like her…she’s young in years only.
Mafia princesses are one of two things. Innocent, delicate creatures who’ve been sequestered away, only to be married off to strengthen ties. Or hard as diamond women who rule with absolute authority. Who kill and fuck and do what they want.
She’s…I don’t know what she is. But I’m going to have fun finding out. A perk to the union.
The trick here is to get her to do the work. It’s a mindfuck. A slow, complicated mindfuck with a kick when she finally sees it.
“Go? I’m not stopping you,” I say, not touching her. “You know where the door is.”
She stares at me, eyes big and green behind the mask, her lush mouth opening as she takes a breath.
“The club has rules, and even I won’t break them.” Again, I let the words sit and breathe and take root. I’m dropping the crumbs, feeding the clues, and none will make sense or mean anything until my trap snaps shut, and this, her walking into this place, succumbing to me, will make it all the sweeter. More potent. More power in my hands.
“You locked the door.”
“It’s locked from the outside only so we don’t get disturbed. You can leave any time.”
She doesn’t move.
“This is your call. Your decision,” I say. “I’m not going to make you do anything you don’t want to do.”
Heaven looks at me, breasts rising and falling rapidly. And then she raises one hand up the wall, feeling for the ring. She grips it.
I stay where I am, and she does the same with the other. It makes my cock rock fucking hard. The sight of her, what she’s doing, is utter perfection.
“I’m only doing this because I’m curious,” she says, a hint of savagery in her voice, like she’s the one in control.
She’s my puppet. But one with fire.
“You only get what I choose to give.”
I wrap and tie one wrist to the ring, and then repeat on the other side. I take my time testing them. Then I stand back once more. “Sweetheart, you’ve already given me everything.”
Sliding my fingers lightly down her breasts, I tease her nipples, pulling the dress a little lower so it rests beneath her tits, as if they’re on offer. And then I skim lower, over her ribs, her hip, and to the heated juncture between those still-parted thighs.
She jumps like I shot an electric current though her. I move my hand to the side and pull the skirt of her dress up, exposing those slender legs. I stare at her pussy, covered in thin material.
“That won’t do.” I gather the material of her dress and tie it up at her side, so she remains exposed to me and the air, and she’s shaking now.
I peel her panties down. A thong like I thought. I leave them hooked on one heel and push her legs wider. Then I softly blow on her exposed clit.
She’s pink and wet there. And her musky aroma winds through me, making my cock push at the confines of my pants. I could sink into her. I could take her down, bend her over the chair and fuck her. I could make her drop to all fours and pound into her. The urge to do that surges in my veins but I ignore it.
This isn’t about getting my rocks off. This is about the game.
I kneel in front of her, glancing up to make sure she’s watching me. She is. So I return my attention to the prize.
I spend my time looking at her cunt. I slide her lips apart with my fingers, spreading her slickness and she moans, loud, her hips moving up like an offer of all the pleasure I can find there.
Slowly I trace the outside of her pussy, then I dip in, slipping into her with a finger, just enough to elicit a groan and a hissing intake of air. And then I move up to her clit, using my fingers to pull either side back to expose it.
I close my mouth on it and she convulses, pulls on the rings she’s tied to, her voice nothing more than a strangled moan of want and need. I suck and lick, taking her juices into my mouth, and she’s utterly divine.
The little sounds she’s making are pure erotic music, and I slide my hands around her ass, taking hold of those firm globes of flesh and bring her in hard against my mouth as I lick her.
Time to up the game, to bring it home. I push those slender thighs wider, and then I delve inside her velvety walls with my tongue.
“Oh, my fucking God!” Her voice wavers as she tightens her muscles, thrusting her hips against my face.
Heaven tastes incredible. She’s so wet and responsive, I can’t help but sink my fingers inside of her tightness as my tongue and teeth work her clit.
Her moans grow louder with each passing second, her knees lock my head firmly in place as I suck harder, thrust into her deeper, not that I need the encouragement.
I’ve never tasted a sweeter pussy.
And me…I’ve never wanted anything so much in my life.
Maybe it’s the anticipation of what’s to come that has my dick in a twist over Heaven Mulligan.
Or maybe it’s just her , a disturbing realization that fires off alarm bells in the depths of my mind.
She writhes against my mouth, the hooks clanging against the wall while her wrists flail. And I don’t stop eating her out.
I want so badly to pull off one of those scarves and flip her around so she’s facing the wall. I want to smack her ass with a flogger until I’ve branded her as mine, until her ass is red and she’s writhing and on the cusp of coming. And then I want to shove a dildo in her cunt and fuck her puckered hole as she screams for God and for the release only I can provide.
But I don’t. Instead, I bring her to that edge of orgasm, of those first deep flutters of her coming, and then I stop. I take it all away from her.
Standing, I look at her, open, wet, on display for me, and quivering, her hips pushing at the air as she tries to clear that hurdle and grab the pleasure I took.
I wait until she’s away from the edge before I rub against her. Sliding three fingers into her tight hole, I then wipe her juices into her hair and bite a small path up to her ear.
I want to fuck her in every way possible.
It takes every last ounce of restraint I have to leave my belt looped and locked.
Her eyes flutter open, short, sharp gasps puncturing the air between us.
“You want more, don’t you?” I whisper against her lips, toying with a strand of her hair. “You want me to make you come.”
She just nods. Doesn’t even try to play games at this point. The lady knows what she wants, I’ll give her that. But how far is she willing to go to take it? Like this, I’m betting all the fucking way.
When I do make her come, when I fuck her, I want her to know exactly who it is fucking her. She knows I can do it. That I have the power. And I want her to beg Matteo Villani to make her come, even if she despises me.
Love and hate. Lust and disgust. Such thin lines separating them. I’m looking forward to the exquisite torture.
And she’s dangerous to me, which is something I like. The thrill of the threat of addiction to something so fucking sweet as Heaven. But if I give in now… No. I’m not that fucking boy anymore who couldn’t control his impulses. I’m a man at the top of his game, and I’m going to play her and everyone for my plan.
Until then, I have to be strong.
I shouldn’t have brought her in here. I shouldn’t have tasted her, and I sure as hell shouldn’t have exposed her to my world.
But once I saw her face and realized that she was as captivated by my world as she was aroused by it, I had no choice.
I needed to feed that desire, and in doing so, I fulfilled my own.
How ironic that to steal away her control, I had to let mine dissolve into thin air.
“I’m not going to make you come. At least, not yet. But I will, soon. And it’s going to be like nothing you’ve ever experienced before.” I pause with a wicked smile. “Just tell me one thing— Does your father know where you are tonight, Heaven ?”