11. Liana
LIANA
Something is seriously wrong with me.
I’m so mad at Dario I could spit but instead I’m kissing him like I’m drowning and he’s air. I don’t know what I’m doing anymore, I just know I want him.
I kiss him again and again, and he groans against my lips.
“Take me to bed,” I mumble, and he looks down at me, his eyes so dark they’re almost black.
“Li,” he breathes. “Don’t say that if you don’t mean it. I can’t...”
He trails off when I press my finger against his lips.
“Just shut up and take me to bed,” I command, and Dario’s mouth twists in a wicked grin.
“Yes, ma’am,” he murmurs. The sound makes my belly clench with arousal.
I jump up into his arms and he grunts, but catches me easily with his arms under my ass and thighs.
I kiss him again as he walks to his room. He slams me up against the wall next to his bedroom, growling against my throat before biting me there.
“Slow down, amore,” he says against my skin. I gasp as I feel myself growing wetter and wetter. “Let me get you to bed first.”
The pet name, the one he always called me, makes my heart do a flip in my chest. I ignore it, kissing along his neck as he opens the door.
He chuckles, a low, sexy sound, and kicks the door shut with his foot.
This is when I should panic, when I should push him away. But he lies me down on the bed, covering me with his body, caging me in with his long arms.
I’m wearing a simple sundress and he trails his finger under one of the straps, making my skin heat up. Then his fingertips trace the neckline, dipping in between my breasts. My nipples harden immediately when he tugs down the bodice and frees them.
“It’s dangerous walking around here with no bra, amore,” he warns, cupping my breasts and flicking his thumbs across my peaked nipples.
I cry out softly, arching my back, electricity shooting down my limbs.
“Dangerous how?” I ask breathlessly. He chuckles low in his throat again.
“Guess you’ll see.”
He dips his head, taking a nipple between his teeth and scraping it gently. I moan, letting out little “ohs” as he continues to tease me.
My thighs part instinctively and he curses when I start to bunch my dress around my hips, revealing that I’m only wearing a black thong.
His hands move down my sides, skating along my curves. His fingers trail across my thighs and I gasp in a breath, starting to tremble.
“That’s it,” he murmurs when I spread my legs. “Spread open for me, belissima.”
I bite back a moan as his fingers trail up my shaking inner thigh. He slides his fingertips through my lower lips, just barely grazing across my clit.
“Fuck. Dario,” I whisper. His eyes shoot to mine as he dips two fingers inside me.
My back arches off the bed and my eyes squeeze shut.
“Don’t,” Dario barks, arching his fingers up and hitting a sweet spot that makes me let out a low groan. “Open your eyes, Li. I want you to know who’s making you come.”
I force them back open and he hums, smirking slightly.
“Good girl.”
His words make something snap in my lower stomach and I dig my nails into his shoulder. He makes an almost growl in the back of his throat, still pumping his fingers. It feels so good I can’t breathe, can’t move, going stiff beneath him.
“You’ve been such a fucking brat,” he mumbles, as if he’s talking to himself instead of me, looking down at where his fingers are sliding in and out of my pussy. “Should make you come over and over, until you’re begging me to stop.”
“Pl-Please,” I whimper, my fists banging uselessly against the sheets as electricity shoots up my spine and I reach another orgasm, his dirty talk speeding things along.
“But I can’t wait,” he groans, removing his fingers and propping himself up on one arm. He pants, unzipping his slacks and pushing them down over his ass. His erection springs up against his belly and my mouth goes dry.
It’s not like I haven’t seen it before, had it inside of me, in my mouth. But I’d almost forgotten how well curved and big he was.
I whimper again and Dario hums against my ear, guiding himself inside of me with one hand. He pushes in deeply, hard, and I cry out.
“You still like it rough, belissima?” he asks, tone almost harsh.
“Y-yes. Yes, Dario, please, fuck me hard.”
He starts to move his hips, hard, deep strokes but not fast, almost achingly slow as he almost pulls out and then rams back inside of me.
“Close,” I mutter senselessly. “Close close close.”
I can’t think of anything but how good he feels inside me, how long it’s been since I’ve felt like this.
“Go ahead, baby,” he croons, jaw clenched tight. “Come for me. Come all over this cock.”
“Fuck!” I cry out as I’m jolted into another orgasm. Is that two? Three? Four? I’ve lost count and my head feels light on my shoulders.
Dario’s thrusts stutter and he starts to pound into me, so hard I start to make little squeaking noises as he fucks me through my orgasm.
After a few more thrusts, he kisses me hard, moaning into my mouth as he thrusts deep and spills inside me.
I whine against his lips and he groans, collapsing on top of me.
I can’t help but smile and I hate myself for it. The weight of him on top of me, the way he smells...
God.
I thought I was over him.
I am over him. I am. This is just... stupidity. I’m stressed and I’m scared and he’s... familiar.
That’s all it is.
But then he’s kissing all over my face and I can’t stop grinning, pecking him on the lips as he pulls away.
“I should go,” I say quietly, not looking at him. Dario makes a distressed sound in the back of his throat.
“Not yet,” he says, voice slightly hoarse. “Just lie here with me for a while.”
Why? I want to ask. I want to push back, but so much of me feels safe for the first time in a long time.
He pulls out of me, plopping down on his back, and I cuddle up to his chest just like I used to nearly every night.
He kisses the top of my head and that’s familiar, too. My heart hurts.
God, what am I doing?
I just had sex with the man I’ve hated for five years. The man who most likely killed my father.
I need fucking therapy.
Especially since I’m already starting to get drowsy.
Before I know it, I slip into sleep and I dream about that night. The night everything changed.
Dario wasn’t answering his phone and I was annoyed. We had planned a date, and I was hoping we’d actually leave the house instead of just having marathon sex at his penthouse.
Things were getting more serious or... at least I hoped they were. I’d started seeing a future with him. Started to think about what he’d look like in a tuxedo at our wedding.
I blushed just thinking about it, and decided to go to his place to look for him.
I knew he was a busy man, after all. My father was always busy and he didn’t have the responsibilities Dario had. He was learning his father’s business and would one day take over as don.
I had to admit the power was a turn-on, but Dario was so sweet underneath all that bravado. The pillow talk, the way he kissed along my skin like it was something precious.
I was madly in love with him. I just hadn’t told him yet.
Mostly because I was afraid. Dario had a reputation for being a ladies’ man, and I wasn’t sure that he was ready to settle down. But we’d already had a conversation about being exclusive.
He had frowned when I asked him about it.
“Exclusive? Belissima, there’s been no one but you since the moment I laid eyes on you.”
I smiled at that, but I wasn’t sure I believed it.
“We’d better be exclusive,” he’d mumbled against my skin, biting down on my shoulder. I’d giggled, and we’d made love, and that had been the end of it.
Or so I thought.
I pulled into the apartment complex, using Dario’s code at the gate, which he’d given me after our fourth or fifth date.
I knew he was home because I saw his flashy car in his spot and I grinned, anticipating seeing him. I looked up in time to see the door opening. My hand was on the door handle of my car when I saw... her.
A leggy redhead with curves in all the right places, wearing an evening gown with a plunging neckline. My eyes trailed behind her to see Dario coming out behind her, one hand on the small of her back to lead her out of the apartment.
Tears flooded my vision and instinctively, I put the car in reverse, squealing out of the apartment complex before he could look my way.
That was the beginning of the end.
I wake up with a start, sitting straight up in bed. I pant, trying to calm down as I wipe sweat from my forehead. I hate going back to that time, hate even thinking about it.
Anger rushes through me. He put me through all of that and now he might have killed my father.
No.
He did kill my father. Who else could it be?
It was him or someone he hired. I just know it.
I don’t know if it’s the bad dream, being angry at myself for still wanting him so much, or the potential killing of my father but I don’t think, just act.
I reach into the pocket of my discarded dress to grab the pocketknife my father gave me for protection when I was fifteen. It has my initials carved on the pearl handle.
Dario’s sleeping on his back, having shed his shirt and pants, just in his boxer briefs. One arm is on his chest, the other above his head. I straddle his lap and he mumbles something in his sleep but doesn’t stir.
My breath turns ragged as I open the pocketknife, my chest heaving as I look down at him.
Can I really do this? Can I really kill someone? Can I kill the man I used to love?
That maybe... just maybe... a part of me still does?
I press the knife against his throat and then realize that he’s gone stiff beneath me.
“Li,” he whispers hoarsely and I swallow hard. “Do it. Don’t be a coward.”
I blink, my eyes focusing on his face. His expression is blank as he looks up at me with dark, hooded eyes.
“You’ve already taken everything else. Might as well take my life, too, belissima.”
“Stop that,” I whisper. “You’re the one who hurt me.”
My hand starts to tremble and I squeal as he flips me over onto my back, pinning my wrists above my head with one strong hand.
He wrenches the pocketknife out of my hand, not closing it. Instead he presses it to the base of my throat and my heart starts to race.
“Did you think this through, Li? All I’ve tried to do is help you.”
“Oh, fuck you. You get a tax break and my body out of it.”
He raises an eyebrow. “Your body? Tell me, Li, did I force you?”
I huff, staying stiff as he trails the flat of the blade down between my breasts. My breath catches in my throat. Am I... am I turned on right now?
I am. Heat pools in my lower belly, and I’m slick between my legs.
I turn my eyes away from his face, my face flushed.
“No,” I mutter, hating myself all the more.
“You enjoyed it as much as I did,” he murmurs, sliding the knife down underneath my breast. The blade feels cold against my skin but not sharp. He’s careful, only using the flat of the knife. “Even this is making you hot, isn’t it, belissima?”
“Stop it,” I whimper, but my heart’s not in it.
“Remember how we used to use the stoplight system?” he asks idly, sliding the blade down to dip into my navel, making me gasp, my skin trembling beneath his touch.
“Green means go,” I gasp, nearly senseless as he continues to tease me.
“That’s good enough for me,” he grunts, and then he’s tossing the knife onto the nightstand. Then he’s on top of me, spreading my thighs apart with one of his.
Dario slides inside of me easily with how wet I am, and I groan when my inner muscles flutter around him, getting used to him again.
“Fuck, you’re so tight,” he pants, already breathless, his abdominal muscles working as he starts to move his hips.
“Close,” I whine. “Close close close.”
“That’s it, baby. You’re mine, aren’t you? All that talk about dating someone else, having a kid with someone else, but you’re still mine.”
I want to protest but then he slams into me and an orgasm hits me like a freight train. I go stiff beneath him and he keeps pounding into me until he makes a noise almost like a shout near my ear, releasing inside me.
He pulls out of me and I blink, coming to my senses.
Fuck.
I’ve done it again. What the hell is wrong with me?
I groan and roll out of bed, scrambling to put my clothes on.
Dario smirks at me from the bed like he thinks he’s won.
Asshole.