13. Romeo
13
ROMEO
T he last time I had such simple, vanilla sex was probably when I was a teen and figuring out what I liked, at least fifteen years ago. Since then, I preferred harder sex. I had kinks and enjoyed being dominant, extremes and all.
When I woke with Tessa in my arms, soft and so relaxed as she slept in, I considered that I’d given her what she’d wanted and asked for but held back from taking what I wanted in return.
I was unsatisfied in the sense that I wanted to fuck her hard and leave my mark on her. I wished I could thrust my cock into her mouth until she gagged, and I’d taunt her until she caved and submitted to my every demand.
But I was satisfied to an extent, too. Lying there and waking up slowly, I recalled the tight, wet vise of her pussy on my dick, her sexy mewls and determined, ravenous kisses.
Tessa could be the lover I’d always dreamed of, the woman I thought I’d never find—if she could compromise and meet me in the middle like I was used to when fucking a woman.
She stirred, as though she could sense I was thinking about her.
And I want her again. Even if I couldn’t take her hard like I yearned to. Even if I refused to push her and test her limits in what she could submit to.
Despite it all, I wanted her again and again, however I could, and to begin something lasting between us.
Her phone buzzed on the nightstand, and with the vibration of the device, it skittered close to the edge. I reached out to catch it before it could fall, and as I set it back on the surface, I frowned at the caller ID line.
Liam? Who the fuck is Liam? Yesterday, I’d been so on edge with how distant she was acting with me. At first, I assumed it was her reluctance to accept that I was a killer or in the Mafia, but I hadn’t considered the idea that another man could be on the scene.
No. She said she was a virgin before those men caught her.
And she wouldn’t have begged me to sleep with her last night and say she wanted me if she was thinking about anyone else. Right?
The jealousy that took root irked me, but before I could wake her up and ask who Liam was, her phone rang with a call, not a text this time.
Tessa stirred, programmed to the ringtone. She woke, cranky and so fucking adorable with that grouchy expression as she turned toward me and scowled at her phone in my hands.
“Goddammit.” She took the device and ignored the call. “They won’t stop.”
“Who is it?” I asked.
She slumped back to the bed. “My parents.”
Her parents whom she wanted to avoid for good.
I watched her rub her face, both her hands dragging up and down over her still sleepy expression. It was revealed as only a show of annoyance once she lowered her hands.
“I don’t know what the hell I’m doing anymore, but I cannot fathom going back to them.”
I took her hand and sighed as I rubbed my fingers over hers in a kneading massage. “You’re here with me.”
She huffed. “For now. I mean, I appreciate what you did last night, um, comforting me and all, but I know I can’t stick around and bother you for good.” As though she regretted speaking so candidly, she sat up more and turned worried eyes toward me. “Not that I’m expecting to or anything.”
“Tess, you will stay with me for as long as you want.”
She rolled her eyes. “No, I won’t. You’re a busy man. You’ve got commitments and jobs and responsibilities.”
I shrugged. “I’m not too busy for you.”
Her expression turned sad. “It seemed like you have been since we came here.”
Fuck. Is that why she seemed distant? She thought she was a burden?
“I get it. You’re a man in a high position in your, uh, organization. I don’t want to interrupt and take up your time when you and Dante and Frank?—”
“Franco,” I corrected.
“Franco. When you guys are all gearing up to stop another Mafia family and a biker club from hurting anyone in your family again. I see that. This is a hectic time, and I don’t expect you to stop and pander to me.”
I growled, rolling her to her back. “I told you, Tess. I want to help you. However I can.”
She sighed, rubbing her hands over my upper arms. When she didn’t protest me lying over her, I hoped it was a good sign.
“I know. And I appreciate that. But I’m not going to just barge into your life. I’m complicated, and I am not holding it to you to uncomplicate anything for me.”
I frowned, not liking how quick she was to shut me out after last night’s way of her letting me in as deep as I could go. She couldn’t only want me for sex. She was too inexperienced and na?ve to be able to use sex as an escape. “How are you complicated?”
“Let’s see. I’ve been controlled by my parents for my whole life. My dad takes all my money. My mom expects me to be some pure, good girl and do no wrong. The fact that I didn’t bring my dad’s car home was a huge wrongdoing, and I bet if I showed up today and told them I was raped, they wouldn’t let me into their house.”
I shook my head, mad that she’d be so quick to assume such a shitty future. “No. You will not be homeless, Tess.”
“I don’t have any money for my own place,” she continued just as matter-of-factly. “I can’t get my own apartment or anything, but Nina and I were trying to save up for one to share since she hated her brother mooching off her.”
“That’s not an issue anymore,” I replied.
“Well, I guess not, with her being engaged to your dad.”
I shrugged. “And the fact that Ricky is dead.”
Her eyes opened wide. “Whoa. How?”
“The bikers.”
She winced. “Because Nina didn’t go to Reaper after that bet?”
I shrugged again. “The Devil’s Brothers are ruthless.”
“I can see that.”
“You won’t be homeless,” I repeated, steering her back to explaining herself, not talking about others.
“I have no job anymore,” she argued.
“I’ll find you whatever position you want.”
She rolled her eyes, stubborn against my arguments that she didn’t have to have such a complicated life. It was her trust and faith I wanted to hear from her. Suddenly, they mattered so much more than sex—hard or soft, however it could happen. Something physical was fine, but with how quickly I’d been smitten with her, I wanted to feel something reciprocal from her.
“Then the whole thing with Elliot.” She lifted her old phone and let it drop. “He’s been calling too.”
I frowned at the device. She had the new one, but it seemed she was still hanging on to the older one with her former number. While it might have represented a method of clinging to her past, I wondered if she debated pitching it and losing all contact with her parents.
From her perspective, it was probably scary. Without me, she’d have no one and nowhere to go—except to Elliot, who she wanted to avoid at all costs.
“I still can’t believe my mom went into the account and programmed it so Nina couldn’t contact me. She must have thought Nina was a bad influence.” She scowled, shaking her head. “Actually, I know she thought Nina was a bad influence. She commented a few times about how wrong Nina was to dissuade me from marrying Elliot. She overheard us talking once, and afterward, she nagged me for having ‘bad’ and ‘unsupportive’ friends.”
When we realized that Mrs. West had blocked Nina from contact, it seemed like Tessa really wasn’t joking about how controlling her homelife was.
“And Elliot is a massive complication in my life.”
“He doesn’t have to be,” I reminded her.
She peered up at me, serious and quiet for a long moment. “I’m not going to ask you to kill him.”
I smirked at her, slightly amused. “Killing someone isn’t always the simplest answer.”
She blushed, looking sheepish.
“But as far as Hines is concerned, killing him would provoke more consequences than what we might want right now.”
“I know.”
“Nina is pregnant, and my father is obsessed with her safety. At the same time, we’re preparing to eradicate the power the Giovannis and the Devil’s Brothers have. It’s a lot at once.”
She set her hand on my arm. “All the more reason for you not to worry about me.”
I stared at her, unblinking. “Too fucking late for that, Tess. I worried the second I heard you in the alley.”
“But—”
I pressed my finger to her lips. “No. No but . I worry about you, and I will stand by my offer to help you and keep you safe. However, killing Elliot won’t be feasible as we build our cases against our enemies. He’s corrupt.”
She nodded, grimacing at the fact.
“And he’s got a long history of representing those kinds of fuckers. He was involved in criminal and civil cases that the Domino Family was dealing with. He’s behind getting the bikers off scot-free from numerous charges. And we’re finding evidence of embezzlement that ties him with Stefan Giovanni. While he’s indirectly or directly connected to our enemies, we need to plan a proper way of getting him to forget about this supposed arrangement for you to marry him.”
Tessa nodded and leaned her head against my arm.
This wasn’t as intimate and peaceful as when she asked me to hold her at the other place, but I welcomed the peace to talk and be together. Through the good times and bad, I wanted her with me.
I wished all these circumstances weren’t an issue, all these complications that Tessa claimed to make her a problem that I didn’t have time for.
All I wanted, deep down, was a chance to take care of her in every way I could. Sexually and otherwise. Her happiness was my project, and I doubted that I’d let anything stand in my way.
“I am not too busy for you, Tess.”
She sighed and nodded. “Okay.”
Dammit. That sounded like a copout, giving me the answer I wanted to hear.
“And you are welcome to stay with me for as long as you want. You understand?”
Again, she nodded. When she threaded our fingers together, holding my hand, I exhaled and hoped that his conversation had done more good than harm.
Before we could resort to the quiet of the morning again, just sitting and being together, I asked what I’d almost forgotten about. “Who’s Liam?”
She laughed lightly. “No one to be jealous of,” she teased.
I smiled, realizing how hard I must have sounded when I asked that.
“An old friend, a childhood friend. I haven’t seen him since he graduated from high school because he went straight into the army. We’ve texted and called here and there, but I’ve only just recently gotten a text from him. That’s why I’m holding on to my old phone yet. My parents and Elliot can fuck off, but I can’t lose my ties with my old buddy.”
“Just friends?” I asked.
“Yes. He’s like the brother I never had.”
Good. The last thing I needed was to contend with competition.
“I wonder if he’s going to be able to visit soon or something.” She shrugged, showing how little the man mattered, almost flippant and casual about it. “And if he is…” She groaned. “I’ve got no clue how to make that happen.”
“Hey, a friend of yours will be a friend of mine,” I said calmly.
“Careful, Romeo.” She squeezed my hand. “If you keep being too good to be true like this, you’ll risk me falling head over heels.”
I think I already have. Keeping that to myself, I lifted our joined hands and kissed her knuckle.
It’s way too soon to overwhelm her like that. If she couldn’t see herself with me and disregard details about where she’d live and not face Elliot, I wasn’t sure whether she meant that as a joke or not.