Chapter FOUR
Dante
––––––––
"Boss, we got a problem."
I close my eyes briefly, pinching the bridge of my nose between my thumb and forefinger. Enzo's gravelly voice crackles through the phone pressed to my ear, announcing the arrival of yet another clusterfuck to derail my carefully laid plans.
"What now?" I ask wearily, leaning back in my leather desk chair.
"Gallo's crew. They hit up one of our warehouses down by the docks last night. Roughed up a couple of guys, made off with a shipment. Looks like our friend Antonio is stepping up his game."
Fuck. I feel the news like a lead weight in my gut, cold and heavy. The noose is tightening, Gallo's boldness growing by the day. It won't be long before we're in a full-out war, blood running in the streets.
All because that greedy prick can't be satisfied with his own slice of the pie.
"Send Luca and Gio to do some damage control," I order, my voice hard. "Make it clear to our people that the Russos aren't to be fucked with. Increase security on all our holdings. I want round-the-clock surveillance, armed guards, the whole nine."
"You got it, boss."
I end the call and toss my phone onto the broad expanse of my desk, frustration buzzing like hornets in my veins. This is the last fucking thing I need right now. Not with the delicate tightrope I'm walking, trying to transition my family's business dealings into something approaching legitimacy. Trying to build an empire I can one day pass down to my children without the taint of blood and bullets.
Children. The word sends a strange pang through my chest. An image flashes unbidden through my mind - a little girl with quicksilver eyes and an impish smile. Raven curls an unruly riot around a cherubic face. A perfect blend of me...and her mother.
Ginetta.
Just the thought of my inamorata, my beloved, soothes some of the jagged edges of my temper. The simmering heat in my blood shifts, sharpens into a sweeter ache. I lean back in my chair and let visions of Ginetta flood my mind's eye. The graceful line of her throat, the decadent curves and valleys of her lush body. The sleepy, satisfied sprawl of her in my bed, skin glowing in the light of dawn.
Christ, she consumes me. Invades every corner of my mind until I'm drunk on her, a man possessed. Nothing else seems quite real when I'm not with her, the rest of the world gone soft and hazy at the edges. All that exists is the silken heat of her gaze on my face.
As if conjured, my phone screen lights up with a text from the woman herself. My lips quirk as I read the cheeky message.
Counting down the hours until you're ravaging me again, Mr. Russo. A girl could get used to being so thoroughly...appreciated ;)
I shift in my chair as my cock thickens, pressing insistently against my zipper. Twelve hours since I last had my hands on Ginetta's sweet body. Twelve hours too fucking long. My thumbs fly over the screen.
Keep saying things like that, tesoro, and I'll be forced to appreciate you over my desk, loudly and repeatedly.
Her response is instant, sending a bolt of lust straight to my groin.
Is that a promise or a threat? Because it sounds divine...
I groan under my breath, my fingers itching to take her up on that blatant invitation. To storm out of this office, barrel across town to her cute little walk-up, and spend the rest of the day buried balls-deep in her tight, perfect heat. Listening to those breathy, pleading little moans as I take her right to the edge again and again...
The intercom buzzes, shattering the erotic fantasy. I curse viciously before jabbing the button with a barked, "What?"
"So sorry to disturb you, Mr. Russo." My secretary's chipper voice filters through the speaker, unfazed by my caustic tone. "But your two o'clock is here. Mr. Abandonato from the zoning board, remember?"
Shit. The meeting I've been trying to nail down for weeks, the key to pushing through permits on a major waterfront development project. The legit, above-board kind that will funnel millions into my family's coffers and inch us that much closer to going straight.
I can't miss it. No matter how badly I want to say fuck it all and lose myself in Ginetta's depths.
"Send him in," I bite out, standing to shrug into my suit jacket. "And clear my afternoon. I don't want to be disturbed unless the building is burning down around our ears, capisce?"
"Yes, sir."
I fire off a quick text to Ginetta, promising to make tonight's reunion worth the wait. Then I straighten my tie, paste on a shark's smile, and prepare to do battle across a conference table instead of between satin sheets.
But my love is never far from my thoughts. She hovers at the edges of every conversation, a siren's song luring my mind into fantasies utterly inappropriate for a boardroom. By the time I finally escape hours later, my body is strung tight as a piano wire, starved for Ginetta's touch.
I'm already barking orders into my phone as I stride to the elevator, instructing my housekeeper to ready the penthouse for a romantic evening. Rose petals strewn over the bed, champagne on ice, the whole nine yards. I'll romance my woman the way she deserves, worship at the altar of her body until she's boneless and glowing with satisfaction.
And then I'll do it all over again, a never ending cycle of bliss and carnality.
Traffic is blessedly light as I speed across town to Ginetta's place, anticipation vibrating beneath my skin. I feel like a horny fucking teenager, my head so clouded with lust I can barely string two thoughts together. All I can focus on is the memory of her taste, her scent.
I'm so lost in the sensual memory that I almost miss the black car idling at the curb outside her building. Almost. But the prickle of warning along my nape has me slowing, my eyes narrowing on the dark-tinted windows. That tingle has saved my ass more times than I can count, an instinct honed from a lifetime dodging danger.
Something's not right.
I keep my own car a careful distance away, my heartbeat kicking into a staccato rhythm as I observe the mystery vehicle through narrowed eyes. Minutes tick by, each one ratcheting up the tension coiling in my muscles. And then the sedan peels away from the curb with a screech of rubber, tearing off into traffic like the devil himself is giving chase.
Every cell in my body screams to follow, to hunt the motherfucker down and introduce his face to the business end of my nine millimeter. But a much stronger instinct has me screeching to a halt outside Ginetta's building instead, fear icing my veins.
I don't remember the jump from car to lobby to pounding up five flights of stairs. I'm moving on autopilot, Ginetta's name a prayer in my head, a litany of pleas to a God I'm not sure is still listening to a sinner like me.
Let her be okay. Cristo, let her be safe...
I'm breathless by the time I reach her apartment door, my heart jackhammering brutally against my ribs. I knock once, twice, a third time with no response. The fear mutates into icy dread in my gut. I'm five seconds from breaking the fucking door down when it finally swings open to reveal Ginetta's sleep-creased face, confusion and alarm warring in her gorgeous eyes.
"Dante? What-"
I don't let her finish, just haul her into my arms and fuse my mouth to hers in a desperate, devouring kiss. Distantly, I'm aware of kicking the door shut behind me and staggering us further into the apartment, but I'm focused on the hot, sweet slide of Ginetta's lips against my own. The way she fits so perfectly in my arms. Like she was made just for me.
"Baby," I rasp when I finally manage to tear my mouth from hers, my hands shaking as I frame her face. "Are you okay? Did anyone hurt you?"
Her brow furrows, a little wrinkle forming between her delicate eyebrows. "What? No, of course not." Her fingers come up to wrap around my wrists, her thumbs stroking my pulse points. Grounding me in her touch. "Dante, you're scaring me. What's going on?"
I blow out a shuddering breath, the fear slowly abating beneath her warm gaze. She's here. She's whole. Unharmed.
But for how long?
"I saw a strange car outside," I explain roughly, my grip on her tightening reflexively. "Tinted windows, no plates. It felt...wrong."
I stop myself from elaborating, from voicing the dark fears chasing themselves in circles around my brain. The last thing I want is to frighten her more.
But my Ginetta is too smart for that, too attuned to my every shift in mood. Her eyes search mine, a small furrow forming between her brows.
"This is about more than just a weird car, isn't it?" she asks softly, her thumb rubbing soothing circles over my galloping pulse. "Dante, talk to me. What's really going on?"
I close my eyes briefly, torn. I never wanted to burden Ginetta with the ugliness of my world, the grim realities that accompany the power and privilege of my birthright. She's my getaway, my slice of untainted peace amidst the blood and bullets. Bringing her into that darkness feels like a perversion of everything she is - good and kind and so fucking innocent.
But one look into those gorgeous eyes, brimming with concern and trust, and I find myself spilling secrets like poison from a wound.
"Things are...tense right now," I begin haltingly, each word a struggle. "With the family business. We've been butting heads with a rival organization. Carving out territory, asserting dominance. It's pretty standard stuff for my world, but..." I pause, blowing out a hard breath. Hating the way Ginetta goes still against me. "Lately, it's escalating. Our enemies are getting bolder, striking closer to home."
I don't say what I'm really thinking - that my home is currently a warm armful of sweet curves and silken skin. That the most precious thing in my world is staring up at me with worried eyes, so terribly fragile in the face of the monsters howling at our door.
But she hears it anyway, my brilliant girl. I watch the realization dawn across her expressive face and my heart clenches.
"You think they were here for me," she whispers, the words trembling on a thread of fear. "Because of you. Because of us."
"I don't know," I admit hoarsely, brushing a thumb over the delicate ridge of her cheekbone. "I pray to God not. But I'm not na?ve enough to ignore the possibility." I swallow hard, my throat gone tight. "Ginetta, if anything happened to you because of me...I'd never forgive myself."
Her eyes shine with a sheen of tears, but her jaw sets in that stubborn tilt I've come to know so well. "Don't," she admonishes fiercely, her fingers tightening on my wrists. "Don't you dare try to scare me away for some bullshit noble reason. I knew who you were when I met you, Dante. I went into this with my eyes wide open."
"Baby, you have no idea-"
"Maybe not," she cuts me off, her gaze flashing. "Maybe I don't know the details of your world. But I know you." Her expression softens, one hand coming up to cup my jaw tenderly. "I know the man you are, Dante Russo. The man I...I'm falling in love with."
Everything in me goes still at her quiet declaration, the air fleeing my lungs in a shocked gust. I stare at her in wonder, my heart rioting behind my ribcage. She loves me. My beautiful, stubborn, impossible girl loves me, even knowing the sins I carry. The darkness forever staining my soul.
I surge forward and claim her lips again, pouring every ounce of the overwhelming emotion storming through my veins into the kiss. Ginetta meets me with equal fervor, her hands sinking into my hair as she opens to the demanding thrust of my tongue. I want to crawl inside her, merge our bodies into one until there's no beginning or end. Only a tangle of flesh and feeling, unbreakable.
Clothes fall away as I walk us back towards the bedroom, lips and teeth and tongue mapping every exposed sliver of skin. Ginetta arches into my touch like a woman starved, bitten-off pleas and breathy moans spilling from her kiss-swollen lips. It's the headiest kind of power, reducing this fierce, stubborn creature to a trembling mess of need. And it's all for me.
By the time I lower her onto the bed, we're both naked and desperate. I couldn't slow down if I tried, too drunk on the feel of her arching beneath me. I've been hard since the moment I pulled her into my arms and the need to be inside her is a fever in my blood, a relentless pounding ache I feel in my fucking teeth.
But I force myself to pause, to lean back and just look at her. My Ginetta, spread out like a decadent feast before me. Miles of silken skin and dangerous curves, nipples peaked into tempting diamonds, her lush thighs parting in welcome. And at their apex, her pretty pink pussy glistening with arousal. Ripe. Ready.
Mine.
I must make some sort of sound because Ginetta shivers, peering up at me from beneath a curtain of thick lashes. "Dante," she breathes, beckoning. Pleading.
I'm helpless to resist her. I lower my head and capture one dusky nipple between my lips, tonguing the sensitive bud until she bows off the bed with a keening cry. My hands caress the geography of her body, skating over the dip of her waist, the flare of her hips, hungry to learn every curve and valley. I stroke and knead and suckle until she's writhing beneath me, broken pleas tumbling from her lips.
"Please," she gasps as I kiss a fiery path down her trembling stomach, my fingers trailing through the dewy folds of her sex. The musky scent of her arousal is making my head swim. "Need you, please..."
I groan low in my throat, my cock pulsing out thick drops of precum. I want to taste her so badly my mouth floods with saliva. I want to lap up her sweet honey until she's bucking against my face, screaming her pleasure to the heavens. But the need to be inside her is too strong, an imperative pounding through my veins.
So I crawl back up her body and notch my aching dick at her slick entrance, my arms shaking with the effort of holding back. I find Ginetta's gaze and hold it, our eyes locking as I press my forehead to hers.
"I love you," I tell her roughly, the words wrenched from some deep, hidden place inside me. A truth embedded in my bones, undeniable. "Cristo, Ginetta, I love you so fucking much."
Then I'm pushing into her, slow and inexorable, watching her wince at first, then her eyes flutter closed on a ragged moan as I stretch her impossibly full. Her molten heat grips me like a fist, silken walls squeezing rhythmically as she takes me to the hilt. And God, nothing has ever felt this good, this right. Like I was made to mold myself to her soft curves.
I pull out slowly, gritting my teeth against the exquisite drag of her folds around my sensitive flesh. Then I'm slamming back in, setting a hard, driving rhythm that has the headboard thudding against the wall. Ginetta meets me thrust for thrust, her heels digging into my ass as she urges me deeper. Harder.
"Yes," she pants, her nails scoring my flexing back. "Just like that. So good. You feel so good."
Her voice is my undoing, the breathy praises igniting a wildfire in my blood. I grind into her like a man possessed, determined to wring every ounce of pleasure from her willing body. My hand snakes between us to find her swollen clit and I rub the sensitive nub in tight circles, groaning at the way she clenches around me in response.
"That's it, amore," I encourage through clenched teeth, my hips pistoning faster. "Give it to me. Wanna feel this pretty pussy come around my cock."
Ginetta's back arches like a bow, a high, keening cry tearing from her throat. I feel her orgasm crash through her, an earthquake I want to ride forever. Her tight sheath ripples around me, squeezing in a velvet vise that rips the climax from me.
With a bellow, I empty into her in pulsing jets, pouring my release deep. I bury my face in the sweat-damp curve of her neck, my hips churning shallowly as I work us through the aftershocks. Ginetta clings to me, trembling, her breath coming in hitching puffs.
Eventually, with great effort, I roll to the side, bringing Ginetta with me so we're spooned together. I can't bear to pull out of her yet, our bodies still joined in the most intimate way. She hums in contentment, burrowing back into my chest as my arms band around her protectively.
For long moments, we simply breathe each other in, basking in the afterglow. My heart clenches in my chest at the way she fits so perfectly against me, like two puzzle pieces finally clicking into place.
Christ, she was a virgin. The thought guts me as I realize the gift she bestowed on me. This woman owns me, body and soul. The idea of anything happening to her...
"Stop," Ginetta murmurs, craning her head back to fix me with a knowing look. "I can practically hear you brooding back there."
My lips quirk despite myself. "Mind reader," I accuse fondly, hugging her closer.
She smiles softly, but her eyes are serious as they search my face. "We're going to figure this out, Dante. Together. I'm not going anywhere, no matter how scary things get."
I swallow around the sudden lump in my throat, wonder and fear warring for dominance in my chest. I want so badly to believe her, to trust in the forever I see shining in her earnest gaze. But the demons nipping at our heels feel all too real, ready to shatter this fragile slice of heaven at any moment.
So I just nod wordlessly and bury my face in her hair, inhaling the sweet scent of her. Holding her warm, vital weight against me and trying to let it chase away the icy tendrils of dread.
We fall asleep like that, still joined, still clinging. I let the even cadence of Ginetta's breath lull me under, chasing away dark dreams for a few blessed hours.