Chapter 12
Emma
O ver the course of two weeks, Luke and I had the privacy and freedom to really get to know each other. He didn’t have to go to work at the Tropican. I didn’t have to hide from my father. His obligations were simply to lie low with me and stay off anyone’s radar until we knew what to do next.
It felt like a waiting game, but those fourteen days were undisputedly some of the best ones of my life. While it might have made more sequential manner to get to know each other before we had sex, shared I-love-yous, or fast-forwarded to a proposal, this was us. I knew enough about him to lose my virginity to him. And I knew enough about him to say yes when he presented me with that ring.
This slower pace leisurely time was simply a blessing. We talked and made love. Rinse and repeat. He asked me countless questions about my childhood and I asked him about his. He explained how he got into street fighting and I told him how Krista and I became friends. He talked about Randy. I talked about some of the decent guards, like Simon. When he inquired about my dreams, he listened intently to my dashed hopes to go to college to be a nurse. Then when I followed up, asking about his career goals, he said they were all up in the air now, and I had to agree with him there.
In the downtime when we weren’t talking, we proved that we had great chemistry without any awkward pauses by having sex. It seemed that giving him my V card had turned me into a rabid, horny woman, and he was all for it, not even worried when we didn’t use a condom. We didn’t have any, and I was mostly sure that my birth control shot would last at least a little longer past its due for renewal.
Cozy with each other’s company, we lacked for nothing but answers, and those would come when they came.
We checked in where it mattered. Luke spoke with Jimmy, asking if he knew anything. I reached out to Krista with my burner phone, greeting her with an old inside joke that she’d get. She, too, was out of the loop about what was happening with my father, so it seemed that we had to count on Jimmy for the slow trickle of intel.
Luke had also obtained money from a man Randy knew. Or maybe it was a relative? A friend of a relative? I lost track of the order. Much like how Krista was staying somewhere safe where the family couldn’t find her, Jimmy arranged for a chain-effect handoff so we could be equipped with funds. The hefty supply of cash and an untraceable, brand-new credit card for just for him to use.
It felt like the calm before the storm, and soon enough, that theory came true.
Early in the morning, when he decided to go out and get more milk and eggs, he doubled back within a minute of leaving.
“Hide.”
I had the gun in hand—I always did when he left me alone for any length of time—and I checked that the safety was off. He didn’t need to explain that danger was coming. I saw it in the tension on his face. He’d healed so well from his fights. My wounds were much better with all the rest, too. Seeing his stern face lined with anxiety and being on high alert, I worried that he’d be harmed again.
He gestured for me to get back to the bedroom, the room furthest to the center of the house. Before we could find a spot to bunker down, the window shattered.
Luke crouched, shielding me from the spray of shards. As he turned to run, another man rushed in. He had to have burst in through the front door.
We were trapped, sandwiched between one man coming from the front and another climbing in through the shot-out window.
“Get him!”
Gunfire filled the room, but I focused, determined to be able to fight back. Luke had separated from me, pulled away by the one Giordino guard. They struggled in a fight, but I kept my eyes on the other guard. He was armed, lifting his gun at Luke.
They wanted him dead, but to bring me in alive.
No. That’s not gonna happen.
I tensed, locking into concentration as I brought the gun up at fired at the second Giordino man. My father bragged that this creep was one of his best spies. All I saw him as was the enemy.
I fired, getting him in the shoulder. More than anything, I snagged his attention. He must not have anticipated me being armed. Scowling at me as he hunched to the side in pain, he growled and cursed at me.
That was the window of opportunity Luke needed. He bashed the first guard’s head to the wall, denting the drywall in with a concave hole. Before that man dropped, he lunged at the first guard and tackled him.
I had faith in him. I knew he could handle two men. We’d rehearsed what to do if someone broke in, and I hustled to follow the protocol. The gun was useless, but I brought it along so it wouldn’t be evidence with GSR on the surface. Then I ran back toward the door, grabbing the backpack of necessities. We kept it ready, just in case of a moment like this, and I bolted toward the front door. He had another knife hidden on the doorframe, and I took that to bring along.
Another gunshot fired, and I froze, midstep. Luke didn’t know how to use a gun. Sure, it was likely self-explanatory, but I worried. I waited until he ran out of the bedroom. The gun was in his hand, and I raised my brows.
“They’re down.”
“You shot him?” I asked as he joined me, handing me the gun.
“No. I guided him to shoot his friend before I knocked him out.” He nodded at the gun, gesturing for me to accept it while he took the backpack. “I figured you’d be able to use it.”
I needed no further explanation. We were geared up to go, and we did.
Like our protocol of what to do in case of an enemy coming too close for comfort, we knew exactly where to go. Randy’s wife’s cousin worked at a hotel, and she had understood that if we showed up, we’d need a room to be under a false name.
Luke was a man of action, and he preferred to have a strategy. I saw how effective that mentality was now, and I realized how much it had to be frustrating him to be hiding and waiting for answers. He seemed to enjoy my company all the same, but he was likely more aggravated than I was, stuck without a chance to strategize and be prepared.
Once we reached the hotel and got into the room, he heaved out a sigh and caught me watching him.
“You okay?” he asked, checking me out and searching for a problem.
“Yeah.” I nodded and tucked my hair behind my ear. Running for safety wouldn’t traumatize me. Shooting my father’s guard didn’t mess with my head.
“Then why are you looking at me like that?”
I shrugged and sat on the bed. “You like to strategize.” I lifted my hand in a vague gesture. “Planning how to get away and executing those plans to a tee.”
He smirked, but it seemed more like a cocky smile. “And you like to follow plans. We work well as a team.”
I tipped my chin up to maintain eye contact as he walked closer. “It just made me wonder if you would ever consider being the boss of the Rossini family.”
He hadn’t made a definitive comment about his newfound identity as the Rossini heir. Like it or not, he was a mafia prince, a rival and peer to Antonio. Even though he’d asked me many, many questions about mafia family structure and the hierarchy, he had yet to present an opinion about what he wanted out of this life that was hidden and kept from him.
“Once Marlo is gone...” I said.
“Which could be soon, with how sick he looked,” he finished for me.
“What if that’s what Jimmy’s waiting to tell you? What if he’s trying to collect intel and shape it so he can prepare you to take over after Marlo dies.”
He shook his head, pensive and annoyed. “Then why wouldn’t he tell me about Marlo sooner? Why wait until he’s on his deathbed?”
I laughed once dryly. “To protect you? If the Marcheses or my father knew you were Marlo’s son, you’d be a threat to their plans of taking over.”
“Or...” He rubbed his chin and sighed. “Or, what if Jimmy’s been hoping he could take over the Rossini family once Marlo dies?”
“How do you figure that?”
He shrugged. “I can’t. But it’s an idea that came to me and I can’t shake it off. What if he wants the power and—”
“Then he would’ve had you killed, Luke. Years ago. He wouldn’t have taken you under his wing at all and trained you to fight.”
Defeated with that obvious line of thought, he nodded. “Yeah. I considered that too.”
“I’m not trying to shut down that possibility. But it seems less likely.”
“It does.” He looked me over, calming with a softer expression as he eyed me on the bed.
Just like that, my blood heated with desire. I was new to this. I’d only been introduced to sex three weeks ago, but I was amazed by how swiftly he could turn me on with only a heated look.
“I don’t want to focus on that now, anyway.” He stepped closer, cupping my cheek and then spreading his hand back to grip the back of my neck. “You’re my priority.”
“You want to focus on me?” I asked, feeling bold to tease him so freely. I grasped the hem of my shirt and pulled the garment off.
“Yeah. I’m going to pay attention to this.” His lids lowered as he watched me shimmy my shorts off, removing my panties with them. “To you,” he growled as I hurried to undo my bra.
Feeling his wicked gaze on my naked body was a caress I’d never tire of. I wanted him to look. I loved knowing I was the woman who could have this kind of power over him. To make him lean closer and crawl after me as I scooted back on the bed.
“Starting right here, Emmalina.” He captured my ankle, the one that had healed. Halfway on the bed, he stopped and lowered his face to my pussy.
“Please, Luke. Please.”
He grinned, looking up at me as I leaned on my elbows, watching him. “What did I tell you about begging?”
I smiled, falling in love with him all over again with his reminder that I was never expected to submit. Not to him. We were partners, mutually in charge.
“Lick me clean,” I said instead. If he didn’t want me to beg, then I’d try to be sassy and demanding. If I was lucky, if he was in the mood, he’d get playful and call me a brat. Spankings, I’d learned, were sexy as hell.
He groaned, so needy for me, as he dropped his mouth to my pussy. Those skillful lips brushed against me as he kissed me there, but when he licked his hot tongue up along my flesh, I forgot how to breathe properly.
Alternating between long licks, strong sucks, and his tongue spearing into my hole, he drove me to the brink of coming. Like every other time he got his mouth on me, he started a mission to make me come at least twice. He always unloaded inside me. He never let me swallow his cum. If he wasn’t trying to make a baby, I wasn’t sure was his obsession was about coming deep inside me. But I wouldn’t complain. Feeling him stretching me like that was the ultimate reward.
I clutched the sheets, desperate to ground myself somehow. It wasn’t easy. He blew my mind. He shattered all my thoughts. And with my heart racing and so close to exploding in an intense orgasm, I had no clue what the hell kind of nonsense I shouted and moaned.
With a blinding force of pleasure, the tension low in my abdomen snapped. I came, trembling and wincing my eyes shut tight as my entire body was flooded with bliss. From my curling-in toes to the top of my messy hair strewn all over the sheets, I endured wave after wave of that release.
“Want more?” he asked in a raspy growl.
I sighed, slumping back to the bed. I rolled my head to watch him remove his clothes. His dick sprang free, pointing at me with pre-cum glistening at the tip.
“I want you , fiancé.” I crawled onto my knees, leaning up to kiss him hard. Tasting myself on his tongue was a thrill, and even though I’d just come and my pussy was still sensitive, I was slick and aching for him again.
He locked his arms around me and turned so he sat on the bed. I compromised, straddling him as he moved us up the bed.
Once he was seated with his back against the headboard, I took hold of his dick and angled it to slide into me. His bulbous head stretched me, and I groaned as I took him all. Every hard, rigid inch of his dick eased into me. The sensation of being so full had me groaning so loud that I worried someone else would hear.
Luke didn’t mind. He kept his hands on my ass and smiled at me.
“Ride me, fiancée .”
I nodded, locking my gaze on his as I lifted up and sank back down until he grunted and jerked his hips up to meet me in the middle. We found our rhythm. We always did. It stunned me how well we could be in sync, but as I accepted that he was the missing half to my soul, it didn’t seem so ludicrous of a pairing.
We were meant for each other. I was sure of it. And when we came together, my pussy clenching around his dick and milking him dry, I wished that it could be implied to the rest of the world that we belonged with each other forever.