24. Dante #2
My body went rigid. No one outside the Gennaro family ever spoke that name. I could barely form the words to speak. “How the fuck do you know about him?”
Renato’s expression shifted to something gentle I’d never seen before. “As you were leaving after we fucked during my job interview, Salvatore told you that you’d earned your visit with Raphael for pleasing him.”
Raphael was my biggest vulnerability, the one thing I protected more fiercely than my own life. Hearing his name in Renato’s mouth felt like having my rib cage cracked open, exposing my heart to the air.
“He’s your brother, isn’t he?” Renato asked, his touch featherlight against my wrist where my pulse hammered wildly.
The strategic part of my brain screamed to deny it, to lie, to protect my dangerous secret. But the understanding in Renato’s eyes broke through defenses I’d maintained for years.
“Yes.” The confession felt like bleeding out, terrifying and freeing all at once. “My younger brother.”
“That’s why you work at Gennaro Corporation.” It wasn’t a question. “You’re there, so he doesn’t have to be.”
I swallowed hard against the tightness in my throat. “Raphael’s only fifteen. He’s just a kid.”
For the first time in my life, I’d shared my burden with someone who could understand the horrible nightmare I’d been living and didn’t look away. Not even Natalia knew about my younger brother.
“Salvatore has taken everything from me,” I said. “My parents. My freedom. My body. But Raphael?” My voice broke before I forced it steady. “He still has a chance at a better life. I won’t let Salvatore destroy that. Not while I’m breathing.”
Something shifted in Renato’s eyes, a resolve that matched my own. “I’ll help you protect him. Help you both break free.” The casual promise carried the weight of that formal oath he’d made earlier. “Whatever it takes, tesoro.”
I searched his face for the lie, for the manipulation, for the angle he must be playing, but all I found was unwavering conviction.
“Why would you risk everything for us?” I asked.
Renato’s smile turned soft. “Do you really not know?”
The question was charged with possibilities I wasn’t ready to face. It was easier to pretend my relationship with him was solely about sex. It was far safer to ignore the way my chest tightened when he looked at me as if I were worth saving.
But I was too exposed, too vulnerable for comfort. Renato knew that, too. He showed me mercy as he trailed kisses up to my ear, then tugged on my earlobe with his teeth. “I’m pretty sure it’s illegal to be this close to you without fucking.”
Relief flooded through me at the escape route from emotions I couldn’t afford to examine. But beneath that lurked something more dangerous, a gratitude that like Natalia, he understood me well enough to know when to push and when to retreat.
His cologne wrapped around me, woodsy notes and spice hijacking my senses and making rational thought impossible. “The only thing that should be illegal is how good you smell.” I ran my tongue up his neck, a moan escaping me as my dick hardened painfully against my zipper.
“Don’t forget how good I taste.” He shifted in my lap, his own arousal evident. “Not to mention how good I fuck.”
My ass clenched with the memory of his cock filling me, even as I ached to claim him myself. I undid my belt buckle with quick movements, needing to bury myself in him.
Renato moved to the bench seat across from me, tossing me a condom from his pocket before stripping. Once naked, he spread his legs, revealing his already slick entrance. “Why don’t you get over here and remind me why you’re number one at Gennaro Corporation?”
Rolling on the condom, I positioned myself between his thighs. With limited time remaining, my first thrust was hard enough to make him arch off the leather seat.
The pace I set was brutal, my fingers digging into his hips harder than necessary. I needed to reclaim control, to push away the vulnerability of him finding out about Raphael. Renato took everything I gave him, his body yielding to me with a trust that felt more intimate than the act itself.
He moaned without restraint, shifting to rest his legs on my shoulders, allowing me to drive deeper. He whispered in Italian, “How can someone as sinful as you send me this close to heaven?”
I understood every word but kept that knowledge locked away. Enough secrets had been revealed for one day. “I must not be doing a very good job if you can still talk.” Changing angles, I bent him nearly in half as I pounded into him, determined to fuck him into incoherence.
“Of course you wouldn’t be satisfied with obliterating only English from my mind,” he teased in Italian.
I focused on his pleasure, memorizing which spots made him gasp, building an arsenal for next time when I’d need to distract him from asking too many questions.
Timing my thrusts with my hand stroking his cock pushed him into coming with a soft cry, his body clenching around me. The way he looked at me through half-lidded eyes as he climaxed made me realize with a shock that we weren’t merely fucking anymore.
Renato knew about Raphael. The thought echoed through me with each thrust. Someone else carried my secret now. Someone who understood.
“Let go, tesoro,” Renato encouraged. “I’ve got you.”
I’d never allowed myself to trust in those simple words. But in that moment, with his body enveloped around mine and his eyes holding secrets I’d never shared with anyone else, something inside me broke open.
As I pistoned into Renato’s tight heat, it pushed me closer to an edge I’d never approached with such abandon. Sweat ran in rivulets down my spine as pressure built inside me, demanding release.
When my climax crashed through me, it shattered my strongest defenses. My back arched, muscles locking as pleasure flooded every cell in my body. I called out Renato’s name, the man who now knew me better than anyone alive.
My nails dug into his hips as I filled the condom with my cum. Each spurt wrenched another moan from me. I had never lost control so completely, surrendered so fully to anything or anyone.
For a moment, as sweat cooled on my skin and tremors rippled through me, the armor I’d forged to survive Salvatore’s world slipped away. I found a sanctuary in Renato’s arms, knowing that, for the first time since my parents’ murder, I wasn’t alone with my secrets anymore.
I collapsed forward, my forehead pressed against his shoulder, hiding my face as I struggled to rebuild walls that had unexpectedly crumbled.
Renato pulled me closer for a kiss that felt like a claim. I didn’t resist, still floating in blissful afterglow, drunk on his scent and the rare feeling of safety in his arms. He was too skilled, too beautiful, too tempting after years of servicing repulsive clients who treated me as meat.
I remained buried inside him. I finally knew what it might be like to trust someone again. To not be alone in the endless war against Salvatore. To have somebody who saw the ugliest parts of my life and still looked at me with heat in his eyes rather than pity.
Soon, I’d become Dragon again, Salvatore’s obedient “son” and the Gennaro family’s most valuable asset.
An uncomfortable realization encroached on my high. I’d given Renato the power to hurt me because in our world, caring was the most fatal mistake of all.
What would remain of me when Salvatore discovered I’d gifted someone else the key to my cage?