Chapter 13
THIRTEEN
Hades
For almost two decades I had been waiting for this moment. I had imagined the look on Leo’s face when he realized I’d found the perfect way to enact my revenge. My vengeance didn’t come in the form of physical violence. I didn’t even have to draw my gun.
The payback I had inflicted on him would cut much deeper than a knife. I took the one thing he never thought I’d come for. He destroyed my life, banished me from my home, and tarnished my reputation. He would pay a high price for betraying me.
Capri…
“Dad, listen.” Capri reached for her father’s hand. “This isn’t what you think.”
“Gia,” Leo roared. “Get her out of here!”
“No!” Capri stepped back and held my arm.
That’s right, my little minnow. I’ll protect you.
“Let me explain,” she pleaded. “This isn’t on Sebastian.”
“Sebastian?” Leo glared at me. “Is that what you’re going with these days?”
“Capri.” Gia ushered her daughter away without looking at me. “Let’s leave them.”
“I’m not leaving.” Capri jerked out of her mother’s hold and looked at me. “You can’t take the blame for this.”
“You don’t have to worry about me,” I said as Atticus and Zeus joined us on the terrace. “Go with your mother so your father and I can talk.”
“Go.” Leo pointed toward the reception area.
Capri ran off. Gia followed after her as some of Leo’s guards came to stand behind him. Where were they when Capri was touring Greece all on her own? Almost getting drugged and raped? If she had security, she wouldn’t have found her way into my club.
Leonardo had no one to blame but himself. If he had kept a better eye on his daughter, both of us would still be living our own lives away from one another. His incompetence put us on a collision course that only one of us was going to survive.
“Leo,” I said. “You probably never expected to see me tonight.”
“What the hell are you doing here?” He moved closer to me. “What game are you playing?”
“I don’t have to play games.”
“What are you doing with my daughter?” All the muscles in his face tightened but the years had been kind to him. With the exception of some gray hairs and a few fine lines around his eyes, he hadn’t changed much. “After all this time, now you decide to come back? How did you even find her?”
“She found me.” I grinned. “She’s extremely resourceful. She wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
“You’re deplorable.”
“Am I?”
“I don’t care what happened between us all those years ago, she is off-limits. You can’t be this twisted.”
When he came within inches of my face, Zeus drifted closer. I held up my hand to stop him.
“She might have been untouchable if you were better at protecting her.” I stared into Leonardo’s traitorous eyes. “But you sent her to me without a security team. You practically wrapped a bow around her and gave her to me.”
“Fuck you.” Leo drew his hand back and punched me hard enough to split my lip. Fuck! That’s going to sting.
“Dad!” Capri came running toward us. “Stop!”
“You’re making this too easy.” I laughed as I wiped the blood from my mouth. “You did this when you betrayed me in that church.”
Zeus shoved Leo out of the way, preventing him from potentially swinging again. Not that I would allow a second punch.
“What is wrong with you?” Capri yelled at her father. “I told you this wasn’t his fault.”
“I don’t care whose fault it is,” Leo said. “He should have known better.”
“I’m an adult and I can make my own choices.” She took my hand. “I choose him.”
“Capri.” Gia frowned at me before appealing to her daughter. “You don’t know what you’re saying. You don’t have all the facts. There’s history here that you can’t understand.”
“I want to go.” She gazed up at me. “Please get me out of here.”
“I’m not amused.” Leo stepped toward her, but I maneuvered myself in front of her. “You’re protecting her from me?” He laughed. “She’s going home.”
“That isn’t what she wants.” I placed my hand on the small of Capri’s back. “I believe she asked me to remove her from this situation.”
“I will have my security team intercept you before you even get to the exit,” Leo said.
“You could try.” Zeus looked at the men standing behind Leo. “I don’t think they’ll be successful.”
“I’m leaving with Sebastian,” Capri said. “Don’t cause any more of a scene than you already have in front of your important associates.”
“That was a freebie.” I pointed to my lip. “The next time you swing at me, I’ll knock you down and you won’t get back up.”
“Don’t do this,” Leo said, raising his voice. “She doesn’t understand who you really are. What you’re capable of.”
“Then I guess I’ll have to show her.” I led Capri off the terrace and into the hotel.
“I can’t believe he did that.” Capri trembled as her eyes filled with tears. “I…I don’t know what to say.”
“Hey.” I caressed her cheek. “Don’t be upset. You’re with me now.”
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“I have a suite at this hotel.” I looked at Atticus. “Make sure we’re not followed.”
“Zeus is already on it,” he said. “We’ll be upstairs soon.”
I pressed the button for the elevator that led to the penthouse suites. I had rented two adjoining rooms so Atticus and Zeus could be close if trouble erupted. I had confidence they would keep Capri safe if Leo sent his men after me tonight.
Once inside the elevator, Capri hugged me. It was soft and tender. More than I deserved given the fact that I was the reason she was in this situation with her parents.
“I’m sorry that happened,” I said.
“It’s not your fault.” She rested her head against my chest. “I’ve never seen my father lose his temper like that.”
“You’ve probably never seen him come face-to-face with his sworn enemy.” I kissed the top of her head as the doors opened. “And I’m pretty certain he’s never seen you kissing that sworn enemy before.”
“But still.” She took my hand when we exited the elevator. “He didn’t have to hit you.”
“He did.” I nodded. “I would have been suspicious if he didn’t.”
I swiped my phone in front of the pad on the door and guided her in after it opened. She set her little clutch on the foyer table and followed me into the spacious sitting room.
“Oh, wow.” She wandered to the floor-to-ceiling windows. “I’ve seen this view a thousand times, but with these windows, it’s spectacular.”
“The view I’m seeing right now is far more incredible.” I removed my jacket and draped it over a chair as I took in her beauty. The dress looked as if it was made for her. Hugging her sexy, subtle curves and revealing her toned arms and slender runner’s form.
“We should take care of this.” She touched my bloody lip. “Let me.”
“You don’t have to.”
“I want to.” Taking my hand, she led me into the hall and looked around. “This place is so big.”
“There.” I pointed to the door next to the bedroom.
I followed her into the bathroom and switched on the light. She turned on the faucet and ran a washcloth under the water. I leaned against the wall, too mesmerized by her beauty to even care about the confrontation with Leo.
She slipped off her heels before coming over to me with the wet cloth. Wiping the blood from underneath my lip, she carefully dabbed the washcloth on my injury. I winced when she made contact with the open cut.
“Sorry.” She ran her other hand along my jaw. “Why didn’t you hit him back?”
“Did you want me to?” I ran my tongue over the cut, still tasting copper.
“No.”
Maybe she would have if she knew what he had planned for her future. If I hadn’t come to intervene, she would be gearing up to be the wife of the heir to a cartel empire. That infuriated me. Seeing her with Christopher affected me more than I thought it would.
“I don’t want you to fight with him at all.” As she held the cloth to my lip, I breathed in her vanilla scent. “But you don’t seem like the type of man to get hit and not retaliate.”
“Normally, I’m not, but he is your father. I didn’t want you to have to see that.” I placed my hand over hers on my face. “But the next time I will defend myself.”
“Does there have to be a next time?” She removed the wet rag from my lip and placed it on the counter. “He’s never going to accept us being together.”
“He won’t, but I have to be honest, if I were in his place, I wouldn’t want you with me either.”
“I am with you.” She unbuttoned my shirt. “We’ve only been apart for two days but it felt like months. I can’t believe you came all this way and risked what you have to be with me. Why did you do that?”
“I had a feeling you needed me.” I tangled my fingers through her hair, fixing my gaze on her full, pink lips. “I’m here because I want to be.”
When I tilted her head, she rested her palm on my cheek. “Your lip,” she said. “Kissing me might cause you pain.”
“Not kissing you would kill me.” I brushed my lips along hers. “I’ll take my chances with the kiss.”
“You’re reckless,” she whispered before our mouths collided.
You have no idea how reckless I can be. I had spent years rebuilding what I had lost the night I fled this city. It took a split decision and one ten-hour plane ride to blow it all apart. Being close to her, touching her, tasting her would be worth every second of what was headed my way.
“I didn’t get a chance to tell you how handsome you look in your tux.” She tugged the shirt from my pants. “So sexy.”
“Then why are you taking my clothes off?”
“Because you’re sexier without them.”
“In that case…” I smirked as I slipped my shirt from my shoulders and tossed it on the floor. “Let me help you.” I unbuckled my belt. “Turn around.”
“Why?”
“Because I said so.” I spun her to face the large, floor-length mirror on the wall in front of us. “Remember when I said I came all this way to see you in this dress?”
“Yes.”
“I also came so I could take it off of you.” I glided my thumb down her back as I lowered her zipper. Kissing her shoulder, I shimmied the dress over her body and revealed her breasts to me in the mirror. Our gazes connected in the glass as my cock grew hard with desire.
I couldn’t take my eyes off her as I circled my finger around her nipple and grasped her hip in my other hand. She was just as captivated, watching my every action in the reflection.
“You’re perfect,” I murmured into her ear. “Did you think about me touching you while we were apart?”
She bit the corner of her lip and nodded.
“Show me.” I trailed my hand down her stomach, stopping at the edge of her white, lace panties. Wedging my knee between her thighs, I spread her legs. “Where did you think about me touching you?”
“Everywhere.”
“I said show me.”
“I don’t… How?”
“Like this.” I put her hands over mine. One on her breast and the other above her panties. “How do you imagine me touching you when we aren’t together?”
She glided my hand over her breast, circling my finger around her nipple. Her chest rose and fell at a rapid pace when she pinched my thumb and finger together, catching her nipple between them.
“What do you want me to do with my other hand?” I stretched my arm across her chest and touched her other breast, tracing her nipple with my finger and then pinching it like she showed me. “What do you do to my pussy when we’re not together?”
“I touch here.” She guided my hand inside her panties. “Put your fingers inside me and I’ll show you.”
“You’re such a dirty little girl.” I eased my fingers inside her wet, hot sex. “What now?”
She dropped her head against my shoulder, closed her eyes, and moved my wrist up and down. Her tempo was slow, complimenting her soft and breathy moans. I shifted my hips so she could feel what she had done to me.
“I want more.”
“You’re in charge, baby.” For now.
She forced my fingers deeper as she increased the speed of her rhythm, rocking her hips into my hand. Her legs quivered against my thighs as we worked together to pleasure her.
“Pull my hair.” Pushing my hand away from her nipple, she threaded it into her long, silky locks. “I’m so close.”
I tugged on her hair, forcing her head back so I could kiss her lips. She dropped her hand away from mine but still kept it in her panties. She clenched around my fingers, bearing down on them.
“I need you to let go,” I said.
“I… When we’re not together and I come, I don’t call you Hades.”
“What do you call me?” I released her hair and slid my hand to her throat, gripping it in my firm grasp. “Say it.”
“I… Oh God…” She writhed against my hand and screamed out as she came. “Daddy! I call you Daddy.”
“Fuck.” I pushed her against the counter and unbuttoned my pants before yanking her panties down her legs. “Is this what you want?”
I entered her with enough force to fold her over the counter. My cock slipped all the way into her tight, aroused pussy, making my thrusts effortless. The more I shoved forward, the louder she moaned. Gripping her hips, I leaned forward, covering her back with my chest.
“I should take my belt to your ass for touching yourself when I’m not with you.” I slowed inside her. “But it was so fucking sexy to watch you lose control, I’ll forgive it this time.”
“I want to be with you all the time.” She clawed at the counter. “You’re all I think about.”
“That’s what I want to hear.” I slammed my pelvis forward. “I want to be the center of your world.”
“You are.” She pushed back, meeting me thrust for thrust until she tumbled over the edge and let go beneath me.
“Capri!” I shouted out as I emptied into her in long, hot spurts. No one had ever made me release as hard and as intense as she had.
“Am I the center of your world, Hades?”
“I wouldn’t be here if you weren’t.” I kissed her shoulder as I stilled inside her. “I’m taking you back home with me.”
I had to protect her from the horror that her father had unleashed on her. If I had to kill Leo myself and set the mafia and the cartel on me to keep her safe, I would do it.
No one threatened what was mine.