29. Carina
CHAPTER 29
Carina
“ T his meeting,” I begin and Constantine waits for me to continue, “I assume it has to do with Luca.” I can’t help the disgust that coats my tone.
One day I will exact my vengeance.
One day I will instill the fear in Luca that he had instilled upon me.
And one day I will take the pleasure of ending his life.
Banding an arm around my lower back he lifts me off of the island and gently places me on the floor. My hands find purchase on his broad chest.
“Si. It seems as if your suspicion surrounding Luca and the Irish Mob have been correct.” Constantine telling me confidential mafia business will never fail to surprise me. In our world it is unheard of for a woman to know such intimate details surrounding the business. It is unfortunate how in order for us to survive we must be docile dolls. A trophy on the arm of our Made Men.
Not only does he tell me the inner workings of the business he values my opinion as well. He seeks for my input. Wanting to dissect my brain and finding my knowledge useful.
Constantine holds my opinion in the highest regard. Listening with a wanting ear, eager to know my thoughts.
We are mirrors of one another.
True equals.
The deep respect I have for this man is unmeasurable. And the love I have for him is infinite.
“He’s working with Niall,” I say matter of factly.
Constantine runs his knuckles along my cheek causing those butterflies to swarm in my stomach. “And Seamus.”
This information doesn’t surprise me. Niall has the same hunger for power as Luca does. Both of them working together will only last for so long. Only long enough to overthrow the true threat against them.
My beloved.
Once they succeed they will fight each other to the death to take reign of the empire Constantine built.
There is no ally in this dark world when you are sitting upon the throne, only enemies.
I wonder who has gathered this damning intel against Luca. It must be someone close to him. A rat within his own ranks. A soldier. It must be a soldier. “You have someone on the inside of The Fiore Famiglia, don’t you?” I ask him.
Constantine smiles down at me. A proud one. And it warms me. I’ve come accustomed to his praise. Needing it as much as I need air to breathe. “Si,” he answers and then adds, “for quite some time now.”
My mind instantly draws all the possible clues as to who it could be.
Truthfully, there is only one person who comes to mind. One who has bestowed a kindness to me when others had not. One who had always treated me as human and not a piece to be molded and manipulated.
Once upon a time he was just merely a soldier. The best of soldiers. Until an attack by a criminal had almost left me dead. An attack he had handled efficiently by saving my life and ending the criminals. By saving my life he had gained respect with my papa. Ranking up from a soldier to becoming my personal bodyguard.
Like a movie, where there’s scattered pictures with red continuous yarn going in various directions it ends on the picture of the man responsible.
I’m struck with a lightning bolt of clarity.
“Who is Gino to you? A family member or a dear friend?”
“A dear friend of my family,” he answers. Before I can question him further he answers the questions as if reading my mind. “My papa had him infiltrate your Famiglia first. Savio was always sleazy and tricky. And my papa saw his power hungry eyes and knew he was never satisfied. Not until he had everything.”
I nod my head in understanding. It did make sense for his papa to place a spy within The Fiore Famiglia . My papa is known for playing dirty. He’s as honest as a fox. The only skin he cares about is his own.
And my papa had wanted control of New York for as long as we lived here.
The Donati Famiglia always stood in his way.
He only offered my hand in marriage for a way in. Soon he’ll try to take Constantine down through me. It’s the way my papa operates.
“And so Gino became a valuable soldier to my papa. Hearing intimate details to always remain not one, but multiple steps ahead.”
Constantine’s eyes shine with pride and ooze desire. My intelligence has proven to be a turn on for him. “It is a crying shame your papa has never utilized your mind.”
Admitting a woman is intelligent is one thing, but for my papa to actually use my intelligence? That would be blasphemy.
My papa and The Sicilian Outfit are traditionalist to the point where it’s obscenely outdated.
It will be their old fashioned way of thinking that will lead them to their demise.
So much for tradition then.
“The hit that had been made against me,” I begin as I remember how the criminal had come out of the blue on the familiar streets of New York I had taken every day with Gino to and from school. I was in my senior year. My days, thanks to my grades, I only had to attend half a day. I still had found it strange, even back then, how a hit had been made against me and not my brothers. I wasn’t a part of The Famiglia . I was hardly known to the public. Luca and Elio had always shined whereas I remained in the shadows. “You made it. Allowing for Gino to save my life and further prove his loyalty. To be appointed as my personal bodyguard.”
Constantine nods his head with a sinful smile. There is no remorse in his eyes. Not that I expect there to be.
He has told me time and time again he is a man who is not politically correct. Nor would he ever claim to be a good man.
But Constantine had known about me. He’d known about me before I had known about him.
It’s as if he had fallen in love from the very first sight of me.
Harboring an obsession that had driven him to mad lengths.
All this time I’ve been an unsuspected prey.
He saw something in me, something I had never recognized in myself and wanted it all for himself.
Yes, it’s a mad obsession. Border lining on insane. The man is very well psychopathic for his extreme methods.
And yet I can’t find myself to be repulsed.
I’m finding myself to be quite flattered.
And empowered.
All this time, for over ten years, I have had The Devil of the East Coast, the ruler of the underworld, the most powerful Don, in the palm of my hand.
Yes, quite empowering indeed.
Leaning against the surface of the island I allow my arms to expand against the quartz countertop. His eyes remain on mine even as the tip of my fingers graze against the knife I had been using to prepare the test meal I had made.
“Should I forgive you for the sin you committed?” I ask of him as the flutter of anticipation causes me to become wet once again.
He pinches my chin between his thumb and pointer finger. His signature sinful smirk playing on his lips and those eyes intently on mine. As he presses closer I can feel the excitement this brings him.
Constantine becomes his hardest when I wield my power.
“And what must I do to atone?” He asks, playing along. His voice is husky. And it speaks to my sex. My core clenches.
I lick my lips suggestively. And as he’s distracted I grip the handle of the knife and swiftly bring it to his perfectly exposed throat.
And what does my man do?
He smiles.
Broadly.
Magnificently.
“You know,” I begin, tracing the tip of the knife along his neck. “Any normal woman would be outraged. Upset. Even feel violated.” I continue to taunt him with the knife. Slowly dragging it back and forth across his neck. Only the slightest amount of pressure will draw blood.
And the thought of Constantine bleeding for me has my pussy throbbing with an ache so visceral that I need a release.
Knowing this, because I can’t hide anything from him, not even my dark desires, he presses himself against the blade. A small bead of blood decorates the tip of the knife.
How beautiful.
“And what do you feel, amore mia?” His voice calls to all my dark desires.
I wrap my legs around his waist and pull him flush against me. The evidence of his arousal is hard against me. The action causes the blade to dig a little deeper.
Crimson decorates along the knife and pools at the base of the handle to where it then kisses my fingers.
Not breaking eye contact, with my free hand I swipe my pointer finger along the knife, collecting his blood like one would icing from a cake. His eyes hungrily track my blood coated finger.
Most provocative and downright seductively I suck the finger in my mouth. I act as if it’s his cock. Lavishing my finger with my tongue and making obscene noises. When I have him in the perfect trance I pop my finger out of my mouth and smile wickedly.
“I feel,” I dig my heels in his ass to press him against my aching core, “that if you don’t fuck me within the next minute I’ll do far more damage with this knife.”
His gaze is intoxicating. I could get high from the look in his eyes. The pride I see glittering in them like diamonds. The lust so powerful it has me drenched. And the love, the love in them has me undone.
He runs his knuckle along my cheek. And I purr like a cat in heat. “I’ve created quite the monster. Was my ravaging just minutes ago not enough for you?”
I lick my lips and watch with excited anticipation as his eyes track the motion. I rub against his very hard cock and tease him. “Am I too much for you, Constantine?”
His hands squeeze the outer flesh of my thighs in a bruising grip. I’ll adore the sight of those bruised fingerprints in the full mirror late tonight. “Mia leonessa,” he purrs seductively and it spikes my blood, “I have no intentions on ever taming you.”
Yanking on his tie, I then wrap it around my fist. My very own leash. He smiles proudly at the act of dominance. I have him so close and yet not close enough. There are times I even fear when he’s inside me it’s still not close enough.
I want to be buried in his skin. Be the blood running through his veins. Own the very air he breathes. I want to tear through his flesh and become one with his soul.
He’s very well right. He has created a monster.
A villainous monster who craves every part of him and never wants to be denied.
Constantine’s seduction to lure me to the dark has not only awakened me, but created a never ending hunger.
And I’m ravenous for him. I’ve come to terms with the fact that I will never be satiated.
Yanking on his tie once more I crush my lips against his. His tongue immediately seeks entry and I all but grant him access.
He fucks my mouth as he would fuck my pussy. Hungrily. Greedily. Punishing. Claiming me with every hard stroke of his tongue. Fingers bite into the flesh of my ass as he grinds me against his cock.
The friction of his slacks against my bare core sends me in a frustrated frenzy.
And because he has turned me into a sexual deviant I remove the knife from his throat to put it to better use. With one quick flick of my wrist I tear the fabric that holds his slacks upright. His slacks fall to the floor with a soft thud.
I feel the deep guttural groan vibrate from his chest and it makes my core throb with a maddening need.
Slipping the knife inside his boxer briefs I get rid of them the very same. They follow the ruined slacks on the floor.
“Amore mia,” Constantine drawls my name in a way so sensual I could orgasm at this very second. It should be a crime for how well he wields his mouth. He then quirks a brow with a smirk. “Is this retribution for ruining all of your lingerie?”
I raise a brow back. “And if it was?”
With his free hand flat on the expanse of my lower back he draws us close. Flesh to flesh. I feel his cock hard against my stomach. And it twitches when his lips brush against my ear to say, “I would say it’s a beautiful lie.”
He nips my earlobe and the sting of it sends a direct line to my pussy. I am so impossibly wet to the point where I should feel embarrassed.
“Hmm,” I hum against his throat, feeling the beautiful flutter of his pulse. Knowing how much I affect him does powerful things to me. “You know me so well.”
Taking my bottom lip between his teeth he bites down while simultaneously pressing his thumb hard against my clit. A sweet moan escapes me and I feel his smile.
Releasing my bit lip he salves it with his tongue before proclaiming, “I know you better than yourself.”
There was a time before, a time where I had not accepted myself that I would’ve been outraged by his absolute conviction of a claim.
But he’s right.
Constantine has always known me. Even the darkest parts within myself I had denied.
He’s the only person who sees all of me and accepts me. Loves me.
And dio mio, I can’t think of anything more beautiful than that.
With my hand still holding the knife he guides my hand to his broadened haired chest. He orchestrates my hand to position the tip of the knife over his left pectoral muscle. Right over his heart.
Eyes adoringly yet intense on mine he asks, “Trust me?”
“With my life.” He smiles. Those rare soft smiles that only I am gifted with. And that heart of mine he revived beats wildly.
As he presses the knife into his chest he thrusts inside me, hitting that sweet spot inside me that makes my eyes roll to the back of my head.
His hand squeezes my hip as he orders, “Eyes on me, amore mia. I want those beautiful jewels open as you mark me.” Obeying his command, my eyes fly open. “Watch, Carina.”
And then he does the unthinkable, he begins to guide my hand to carve into his chest. Blood pools. My pussy clenches. He hisses, eyes bright and feral. “I knew you would love this. Your sweet cunt is squeezing the fuck out of my cock.”
He pulls halfway out and as he begins to carve his skin again, he slams back in. I make a sound I’ve never heard before.
He keeps this slow pace with brutal thrusts as he continues the ministration of my hand. His blood runs down his chest, over his abs, and joins our sex. At one point it even coats his cock as he pulls out before he drives back into me.
It’s sick, vile, and disturbed but I have never been more aroused.
“Look at you soaking my cock like the deviant I know you are. You love this, don’t you mia leonessa. You love being as depraved as I am.” He swivels his hips as he’s seated all the way inside me. And it hits a more glorious spot than the one I thought was my sweetest. I feel impossibly full. My pussy is already sore and yet I clench around him. “This cunt was made for me.” He swivels his hips again and I cry out. His free hand travels from my hip to my ass. His palm caresses my check before his thumb circles around my puckered hole. “You were made for me.” He pulls out to his tip and when he slams back inside his thumb presses into my ass. “Every god damn fucking inch of you.”
“Constantine,” I whimper. I’ve never felt so full. It’s overwhelming. All of the sensations.
He groans in satisfaction. With the final carving he discards the knife. And through the macabre sight of blood I see what we’ve done.
Tears pull in my eyes as my breath hitches. There on his chest in the most primal barbaric way is my name carved in his chest over his heart. “Constantine.”
“You own me, Carina.” His voice is gruff, heavy. “You’ve owned me since the very moment I laid my eyes upon you. I’m forever yours. And I will bow down before you and become your humble servant.” He places my hand over the marking and his hand rests on top of mine. “This is more powerful than any oath. And with this marking I will make sure you are seen as more than just my Queen. You will be seen as more powerful than me. You will be feared. Respected. Everyone will bend at your will. This, I will do more than promise you.”
Uncaring of the blood I frame his face tenderly in the palms of my hands. He rests his forehead on mine, bringing us that much closer. “Mio cuore, I love you.”
He makes a strangled sound in his throat. I feel his cock swell inside me. “My Carina, I love you.”
And what started as a slow hard fuck turns to a tender sensuous lovemaking with both of us falling apart in each others arms.