Chapter 25
I wasn't an expert at funerals, but I was pretty sure people didn't intend them to be filled with levity. If everyone wasn't wearing black, this could pass as a black-tie celebration.
"Ray's mama is making out with her boy toy again." Jonah jerked his head toward the Donato widow.
I grimaced and searched for Ray in the crowd. It was already an incredibly uncomfortable night, but I didn't want him to see his mama sucking face the night he was supposed to be grieving.
"This is weird," Adelaide whispered, and we stifled a laugh into each other's shoulders.
"And it's all yours. Aren't you lucky?" I jabbed her with my elbow.
Ray might have flitted around the funeral/party with a charming smile plastered to his face. But it wasn't the soft launch of him becoming the Donato leader, but a goodbye. Ray had spoken privately to Adelaide about giving her the Donato territory and taking a position working for her.
I wasn't surprised when she said yes. Ray had changed since I met him, and there were glimmers of potential Adelaide was hungry to shape. Ray carved a determined way through the crowd and visibly relaxed when he reached us.
"Everything okay?"
"It's wild how nice these assholes are being now that they think I'll be the one lording it over them."
"Raimondo, stop skipping away from your duties." Daniele Donato waved at her son while her boyfriend nuzzled her ear.
He looked up with a sloppy smile and glazed eyes. Some of us had been partying harder than others. Ray's shoulders tensed, and he rolled his eyes before turning to his mama.
"What would those be?"
A hint of color brightened her cheeks, and her smile turned brittle. As Ray continued, it shattered.
"You know your husband is dead, right? Your duties involve at least pretending to mourn him for one night. Wearing a black dress doesn't make a widow, especially not when you've got someone else's lips suctioned to your damn neck."
"Look," Charles peeled himself off Daniele and shook his finger in Ray's face. "Don't speak to your mama that way, or you'll regret it." There was something unhinged in his gaze, and it flickered over all of us before returning to Ray.
"Is that a threat?"
"A promise." Charles leaned close. "We both know you don't have what it takes, son."
The entire room sucked in a breath, and the air crackled as we waited for Ray's response.
He tipped his head back to the ceiling and laughed.
The sound echoed through the hushed crowd until it cut off.
Before Charles could realize the mistake he had made, Ray's fist collided with his face.
Charles keeled backward, surprise etched on his expression as he slammed into the floor.
"Oh my god," Ray's mama's high-pitched scream warbled in my ears, and she dropped to her knees to shake her boy toy, whose head lolled to the side, boneless.
"He asked for that," Jonah muttered.
"Not tempted to keep the position of heir, Spare?" Beck appeared next to us, having watched the entire show from the bar. He pressed a glass of wine into my hand.
"Not even to punish them for treating me like shit my entire life." Ray snorted, snatching my drink and downing it with a satisfied smile. "Let's take a breather, please?"
"Hey, that wasn't for you," Beck grumbled.
"An excellent right swing, sir." Thompson proffered a warm, rolled-up towel.
Where had he come from? And what was Daniele's butler doing here?
She was incoherent, her perfect makeup streaked down her face as Charles remained unresponsive.
Ray waved the towel off. "Are you moving in already?" He asked, obviously having the same thought I did.
He looked around his papa's palace of a house, with its high ceilings and cold glamor.
Thompson's smile creased and didn't meet his steel-gray eyes. He held the towel between two pinched fingers, and it looked odd. But what wasn't strange about this night?
"Not that I'm aware of, Mr. Donato. But Mrs. Donato is mercurial, as I'm sure you know. My condolences for your loss. Your life can change in a moment, can't it?"
"Yeah, sure." Ray held out the empty champagne glass.
Thompson took it with another bland tilt of his lips. I wonder how many conversations he'd overheard from Daniele and whether he would move on now that being in her employ wouldn't bring him extra cash.
"I'm going to regret taking you on, aren't I?" Adelaide wrinkled her nose as Daniele continued to sob.
"Break time, please?" Ray ignored the comment as he planted his hand on my lower back and ferried me upstairs.
Jonah and Beck fell in behind, and I enjoyed how their body warmth licked at my edges, and I wanted to let it in further. All of them together.
Thompson might give off creepy vibes, but he was right.
Life can change in a moment. When my mom died, I did everything I could to change mine.
My terror was a weakness, and I didn't want to experience it again.
What throbbed in my heart felt tender and frightening as well.
But instead of running, I wanted to leap into it.
It made no sense. It wasn't logical or smart.
But the heart wants what the heart wants.
"Don't do anything I wouldn't do." Adelaide's taunt followed us up the stairs.
"That leaves a lot of room for activities." Ray's smile was pure lasciviousness.
My hand skimmed the smooth marble banister as my stomach jumped.
"Is it safe here?" Jonah pushed past Ray and started sweeping ahead, his instincts unable to let him trail behind.
"Not for some." Ray pinched my ass, and I let out a yelp.
The corridor Ray took us down was dim and had a lingering scent of sweet florals. Not the fresh kind that filled your lungs with sunshine, like the petals stored it from their time outside. But rotting. The sweet song of slow death. I wrinkled my nose as Ray waved at a door.
"You wanna do the honors?" He arched an eyebrow, and Jonah and Beck slid past him to check the room.
"How are you really?" I rolled his suit cuff between my fingers.
His dark eyes crashed over me like a wave, and he lifted one shoulder, as if readying himself for a laconic reply. But he paused, leaned close, and ground his teeth in my ear.
"It sucks." His hot breath tingled against my skin. "All I want to do is get in my car and forget everything but the highway."
I grabbed Ray's hand and tugged him into the room. The lines on his face were familiar to me. How many times had I run when I couldn't process what was inside me? Getting in a car after smashing back drinks tonight would be a disaster, but maybe we could forget in a different way?
"I thought you lived here?" I kept his hand in mine as I took in the room.
It wasn't the bedroom of a grown man. There was a double bed with navy-blue styling. A stuffed teddy bear nestled between a giant pile of cushions. It's little worn cap faded red. The shelves were empty except for a small stack of children's novels.
Ray grimaced. "I haven't lived in the main house for years. My actual home is out back."
"We're not good enough to go there?" Beck taunted, picking up the teddy with a sardonic slash of a smile.
Ray snatched it out of his hand with a scowl, pushing past Jonah to lay it on the shelf with a gentle hand.
He slid a loaded look at me, one that stole my breath. "You two idiots aren't, but volpe mia? You want to come?"
Did I ever.
My black cardigan slipped off my shoulders and onto the bed.
"I always want to come." I sat down on the edge of the bed and inched up the hem of my black dress until my milky thighs were entirely visible. Ray got down on his knees and crawled toward me with a hungry glint in his eye.
"No, not you." I shook my head.
Ray pouted. "But I'm hungry." He licked his bottom lip.
"You're in mourning, which means you don't have to lift a finger. Sit back, relax, and I'll take care of you."
Ray fell into an armchair tucked in the corner and slammed his hand over his heart.
"God really answers prayers."
I arched an eyebrow, widening my legs so he could see the crotchless panties I wore.
"It'll be my name you'll be pleading, trust me. But I didn't say I was going to do it straight away." I lifted my gaze to Jonah and Beck, who were reacting in opposite ways .
"Sono tuo, volpe mia," Ray groaned and bit into his fist.
"Lara?" Jonah rasped.
So many questions in the silky way my name rolled off his tongue. I knew whatever I asked, he'd be down for. He might be quiet and serious, but he was passionate underneath all that steel. And he'd never leave me wanting.
"Choose who is going to taste this pussy?"
"Bossy." Beck crossed his arms over his chest.
I could hear his teeth grinding together.
"Horny," I corrected. "Don't you want to play with me, Chief? I can be your filthy little informant, who you can't help but fuck into submission."
"Absolutely obsessed," Ray whispered, unzipping his pants and slipping his hand inside.
Beck tossed his head back, and despite the fight in his expression, his cock thickened. I slipped my hands between my upper thighs and stroked along the tender skin. My nipples hardened as I toyed with them and myself.
"You're crazy," Jonah muttered to Beck with an incredulous look as he pushed past him and sank to his knees in front of me. "You don't have to ask me twice."
Beck growled and curled his hands into fists.
"I'm not fucking you in a room full of men I hate."
Jonah's hot breath puffed before he planted a soft kiss on my quivering thigh. I leaned back and spread my legs wider. Jonah looked good kneeling, and I liked that he took his time, with tender brushes of his lips. His nose grazed up my burning skin, and he let out a rumbling moan.
"Ouch, Chief. I thought I'd grown on you." Ray pouted, pulling out his dick without a second thought. He shot me a wink as he jerked himself.
"Like a rash, sure." Beck tossed a sneer in his direction.
There was a vulnerability under the hard steel. I threaded my fingers through Jonah's hair, tugging the blond strands as he neared my pussy. I wanted to give him my full attention, but Beck needed to be dealt with first.