Chapter 28 - Rem
REM
I’m buried balls-deep inside my wife. The sensation is so intense it takes my brain several seconds to catch up with my body.
Beneath me, Lena’s head is tipped back, the vulnerable line of her throat exposed. I can feel her channel pulse around my cock, her walls so slick and hot and intensely perfect.
“Oh, fuck, mia amata. Little one. Fuck.” I don’t know what I’m trying to say, my brain fried at the simple truth that I’m finally fucking my wife.
The shit storm of the past few days, the car bomb, the threat that’s circling closer and closer to the woman beneath me—all of it vanishes from conscious thought, replaced by the only thing that matters right now: making Lena feel as absolutely fucking amazing as possible before losing myself inside of her.
“Move, Rem.” Lena’s nails tap a restless tattoo against my back, her hips rocking beneath me. “Please, fuuuuuuck.” She finds my ass, squeezes. “You have to move.”
She doesn’t have to ask twice. I wrap one of her legs around my hips, burying myself even deeper and tearing a groan from the depths of my body.
Lena gasps, her second leg joining the first. She locks her heels behind my back and drags me down until we’re chest-to-chest. I rock, savoring the drag of her hard nipples across my skin.
“More.” Lena looks at me from sex-drugged eyes. Her hair is a wild, dark mess on the pillow. She licks her lips and what’s left of my brain dissolves, nothing but primal instinct left in its place.
We kiss. It’s a tangle of lips, tongues, teeth. Mouths open and possessive. Lena bites my bottom lip and I slam my hips into her. Her back arches, her eyelids fluttering as I drive into her, over and over.
I’m already starting to feel the build-up in the base of my spine. I’ve been half-hard for days, wanting Lena with every fiber of my being even as I kept my distance. Hell, who am I kidding? I’ve been keeping my distance because I want her so damn much.
Since our night together in the hotel, the puzzle pieces have fallen into place. The picture that’s formed is dangerous at best, fatal at worst. Fatal to Lena. To our relationship.
I know now that I’m right about her connection to Aldo’s missing traitor.
Our relationship could easily be the lit fuse that blows my family apart.
Because Aldo won’t show mercy and I won’t let him touch a hair on her head.
The idea of turning against my adopted uncle, my capo, is unfathomable—but the idea of letting him harm Lena, of him killing her, is something I can’t begin to process.
Something I won’t even let myself consider.
Which leaves me with one final option: letting Lena go.
I’ve run every escape scenario over and over.
Ways of changing her appearance, giving her a new identity, getting her as far from the Cerretis as possible.
I can try to keep her alive by helping her get away, but the idea of losing Lena is as painful as cutting off my own legs.
So, I’ve been selfish. A coward. Because I’ve kept her here, locked in my penthouse, temporarily safe from the world outside, tucked into my bed so I could come home in the dead of night, curl my body around hers and pretend the world isn’t burning down around us.
I’ve wanted her and wouldn’t let myself have her, stuck with a hard-on between a rock and a hard place for days. Jacking off didn’t even help, the release tepid and unsatisfying.
The absolute opposite of what’s happening now. Lena writhes beneath me as I pick up the pace, her hips pulsing up every time I thrust into her. Her fingers twist through my hair, each tug painful and a shot of electricity straight to my dick.
“God, piccola, you feel so good. Better than I imagined.” I thrust again. Lena’s back bows.
“Have you…imagined…?” she says, breathless.
I slide one hand beneath her ass, gripping the delicious globe as I lengthen my strokes, sliding out until my tip is almost to her opening before driving deep again. “Oh, fuck. So, so many times.”
Lena lets her legs fall from my waist, her feet dropping to the mattress as she keeps her legs bent at the knees. In the new position she’s able to thrust her hips up harder, meeting me stroke for stroke.
The friction sets my veins on fire. A blush burns its way down her chest, dragging my eyes to the ruddy points of her nipples. I suck one into my mouth, scraping my teeth across the sensitive peak before letting it pop free. “I’ve imagined you like this. Naked, on my bed, aroused, dripping wet.”
“Hmmmm.” Lena presses her other breast toward my face, her mouth falling open as I play with that nipple. A swirl of my tongue, a tug of my lips. It’s glistening with attention and Lena’s pussy flutters around me. “What else?”
I bite the column of her neck. The soft place behind her ear.
The cut of her jaw. “So many things.” A carousel of dirty images whirls through my mind.
“You tied to this bed, helpless and begging for more as I fuck you. You on your hands and knees, my dick buried deep in this gorgeous ass.” I squeeze her ass before slipping my fingers to that puckered spot between her cheeks.
Lena’s head lolls against the pillows. I test her there, rimming the sweet, secret hole as I continue to thrust into her, my hips taking on a rhythm of their own.
“Ahhhhh.” Lena’s breath escapes on a moan.
Her eyes are closed, her brow furrowed in concentration.
The walls of her channel flutter, her orgasm building.
She’s gorgeous, my wife. Skin flushed, body lost in pleasure, arousal coating her in a fine dew of sweat.
“More, Rem. Tell me more.”
Lena’s voice drips desire. I’m already sex-addled, my brain a fog of lust and what I’m starting to think is love.
I curl my free arm above her head, protecting her as I fuck her harder.
We slide up the mattress, the bed rocking beneath us.
I dip the tip of my finger into her ass and murmur against her lips, “I’ve imagined…
you lying out on the balcony in summer, your dress around your waist, my tongue in your pussy.
Me eating you until you’re screaming my name for all the city to hear. ”
“And me jerking you off until you come all over my tits.” Lena’s dirty words surprise me, ignite me.
My hips stutter, my rhythm faltering as my orgasm comes barreling toward me.
“God, piccolina, I’m so close. Fuck. Touch yourself. Come for me. I’ve gotta feel you come.”
Just as desperate as I am, Lena slips her hand between our bodies. She finds her clit. Her entire core tightens, hugging my finger and my cock as she starts to come apart.
“Yes, oh, Rem. Shit, yes…” Another swipe of her clit and Lena breaks. She cries out as she comes, her legs trembling as she soaks my cock, her orgasm milking me as I explode inside her. My release is hot, fierce, filling the woman beneath me as I’m swamped with sensation.
For one minute, the world goes black. I lose the ability to see, hear. The universe is a pinpoint, just me and Lena and the pleasure we’ve found with each other.
By the time I’ve gained some ability to function, my heart is slamming against my ribs and my arms have turned boneless. I collapse on my side, shifting Lena so she’s tucked against my chest. Sweat slicks our skin.
Lena’s necklace glints from its place between her breasts. I rub my thumb across the pendant. The gold is smooth, warm. The sight of it stirs the turmoil in my gut, forcing tension back into my limbs.
Lena senses the shift. She cracks her lids, peeking at me through her post-orgasm haze. “What’s wrong? Reality didn’t live up to expectations?”
Merda. I kiss her forehead, her mouth. “Fuck no. Reality blew all fantasies out of the water. Sex with you…” I trace a finger around her lips, pushing all other thoughts away. “It’s insanely good. Addictively good. Brain-meltingly good.”
Lena grins, tucking her head against my chest. “I know English is your second language, so I’ll help you with this one— ‘brain-meltingly’ isn’t a word.”
“It is now.” Gathering her mass of hair in one hand, I cup Lena’s cheek with the other, kissing her until she’s melted against me, her legs twined with mine.
There’s no urgency, no rush to get off. We lay twisted together, kissing for countless minutes.
My heart thuds against my chest, matching the pattern of her’s.
“Stop, stop,” Lena eventually says, pushing me away. “I have to pee.”
“Go, go.” I give her ass a playful swat as she hops out of bed, barely recognizing the man I’ve become in the last hour, let alone the smile that’s splitting my face.
Lena’s wearing a matching smile when she comes back to bed, but it falters when a gash on my face catches her attention. She twists a sheet around her chest as she sits back down, her fingers tracing a line on my cheekbone. “What happened today?”
I wince, the cut still stings. “Ah…”
“No.” Lena straightens her shoulders, expression serious. “No avoiding the question. Spill.” She jabs me in the ribs. “What the hell happened?”
“Explosion. Car bomb.”
Lena’s eyes widen but she otherwise stays calm. “Whose car?”
“Mine. Well, one of them.”
Lena scoots closer, her hand finding mine. She laces our fingers together. “Are you going to make me wheedle every answer out of you, or do you want to just speed this along and tell me what happened?”
“Honestly…I have no fucking clue.” I scrub my jaw with my free hand.
“I’ve been over it a million times in my head.
Ari, Johnny, Bruce and I wrapped our meeting with the head of our casinos.
We always keep security tight, but since the war with the Paganos started we’ve been extra vigilant.
Changing up vehicles. Randomly switching between secure parking locations.
Never creating a pattern that can be tracked.
Always sweeping the cars. For someone to get close enough to wire one of them with a bomb, let alone one of mine… ”
I hate that the taste of fear intensifies as I mentally run through the possible scenarios.
No fortress is impenetrable, but I’ve spent years fortifying the walls around me and my family.
For someone to break through and successfully wire one of my cars with a bomb, it’s one of two possibilities: sheer fucking luck or an inside job.
“What?” Lena’s question pulls me out of my head. Her brow is pinched in concern. “Tell me, Rem. What are you thinking?”
“To get close enough to plant a bomb in one of my cars, for someone to get close enough to actually blow me and Ari up—it only makes sense if it’s an inside job.”
Lena blinks, her expression shifting from surprised to angry in a flutter of lashes. “You think one of your own men betrayed you?”
“I can’t rule it out.” I tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, relishing the soft slide of it against my skin.
“Our family is in the middle of a war. A fight to the death. Our rivals want us weak. And someone wants you dead. I can’t ignore that while those things might not be connected, the fact that I’m focusing so much time on locating the threat against you means I’m not always as focused on our enemies as I would be otherwise.
Maybe I’ve missed something. Maybe the Paganos have turned one of my soldiers against me.
Maybe they’ve hidden a mole in our midst. Maybe I haven’t been paying close enough attention. ”
It’s not lost on me that I’m explaining this to the very woman Aldo believes to be our enemy.
The woman who is looking at me with a mixture of concern and guilt. “It’s my fault. That you’re distracted and working so hard and not able to focus on what you need to. Jesus, I’m so sor—”
“No.” I stop her with a kiss. “It’s not your fault.
None of it. The only people I blame for the explosion today are the ones who planted the bomb, and me for not being quick enough to realize what was happening before it detonated.
Even then, if a few bruises and a black eye are the price I have to pay to having you here, with me, I’ll pay it every day, no questions asked. ”
“How hard did you hit your head when the car exploded? Because that’s insane.”
“It’s the truth.” I wouldn’t trade her for anything, and that’s the very crux of my problem.
Exhaustion hits me like a brick to the head. I close my eyes, pulling Lena closer as I relax against the pillow. I feel her lips ghost across my bruised cheek before she snuggles against my chest.
“Are you in pain? Do you need me to get you anything?”
“I’m alright, piccola. Whoever planted the bomb was sloppy.
Any quality hitman would’ve wired it to explode when we turned on the ignition, after we’d already gotten in the car.
This idiot wired it to the locking mechanism so the whole fucking thing went boom while we were still yards away.
It knocked us to the ground, but no permanent damage done. ”
Lena releases a shaky sigh, her relief audible. “God, Rem. That’s so close. Too close.”
She’s right. It was too fucking close. No amount of post-orgasmic high can temper the rage gripping me right now. I can’t hunt down Lena’s would-be killers from inside my penthouse, but I also can’t protect her if I’m dead.
Her eyelids are half-closed, her fingers curled into a fist on my stomach. I can feel the gold pendant, warmed by her heat, pressed to my skin. Possessiveness courses through me. She’s mine. To protect, to fuck.
To keep.
Lena is mine and no homicidal asshole is going to stop us from having a life together.
She’s drifted to sleep, her breathing soft and even. She’s wrapped her leg over my hip and I draw it closer, ignoring the rush of blood to my dick when I feel the sweet rub of her pussy against my side.
I want a lifetime of this. Of her.
If only I knew how the hell to keep us alive long enough to have it.