Chapter 31
CHAPTER 31
VAL
I would never escape from this man, not now that he knew what he wanted and planned to take it.
I would never escape this life again.
Stefano chose to bring our past into the present and stop living for the dead. His kiss and his command of my body made it clear he wanted to live for me, for his son, his own family.
No longer could I cling to my own false pretenses either.
I had to do what Stefano had done. I had to choose to live authentically, to honor my heart, to trust him with the truth.
“Whatever you want me to do, whatever you need to hear me say. I’ll do it,” I said.
He shifted his weight after realizing he’d been crushing me.
“I want action, not words.”
Action, yes. I knew what he wanted, so I reached between our bodies to unfasten his slacks and take him in my hand.
He grabbed my wrist to stop me, then he got off the bed.
A little mewling whine moved from my throat onto my lips.
A cocky smile tugged at his mouth.
“Don’t worry, Val. I’m not going far.”
And he didn’t. He stood beside the bed and stripped off his shirt. Next went his slacks, and just before he stepped out of his black boxer briefs, I totally gaped at the deliciousness of his V-shaped abs and the sexy, muscular grooves alongside his hips.
My breath stopped at the sight of his erection, the sheer size of him. Kind of hard to believe, but he fit inside me.
I bit into my bottom lip.
“Umm… maybe this shouldn’t be about rewarding me.”
“Nice try, sweetheart. Now come here.” He pointed to the floor in front of him. “On your knees. Show me how sorry you are for what you did.”
God, the way he ordered me around, how my body instantly responded, proving he was the man for me. The only man I ever needed.
I went to him, raising my arms to wrap them around his neck. I wanted to kiss him, to start at his throat and move down his tattooed chest, to take my time on his tight abs before finally kneeling on the floor to take him into my mouth.
Stefano grabbed my wrists and pushed me back.
“Uh-uh, little girl. I didn’t give you permission to do that. I said, get on your knees.”
“But… I was just going to… taste you?”
Heat burned my cheeks. Why the hell was I blushing?
Because he liked it, that was why.
He bent his neck, lifted my chin with a finger, then sealed his mouth over mine. His tongue pushed against my lips, and I opened to let him in. He deepened the kiss, a hint of whiskey on his tongue, and I fell into it, losing myself completely.
He broke the kiss way too soon. I wanted more. I lifted onto my tiptoes to kiss him.
“That’s enough,” he growled.
I squinted. “No, let me apologize. Let me kiss you and get on my knees and worship your cock. I’ll do it.”
The corner of his mouth lifted into a subtle smile.
“That sounds good, but that’s what you want. I’ll decide your penance, and now I’ve changed my mind. You’re going to turn your pretty little ass around and lie on your back with your head hanging off the bed. Then do you know what happens next?”
I stared at him.
He stared back at me just as hard. To see if I understood the man before me was the real Stefano. To see if I understood how it would be for us moving forward. And to see if I liked it.
After all, I had asked him for that.
I kept quiet, so he could say the words, so he could tell me what he wanted.
“I’m going to spread your legs and watch how wet you get as I’m shoving my cock into your throat. You’re going to take it like a good girl. You’re going to suck me like your life depends on it while I decide what I want to do to you.”
A wave of adrenaline shot through me.
My heart pumped furiously.
Not fear. Anticipation. The not knowing.
“What are you going to do?” I asked, unable to stop myself.
“Whatever I want. What you should worry about right now is learning how to be my good girl, how to obey when I give you an order. And you should keep in mind that you will not come until I say you can.”
I swallowed hard, bobbing my head up and down.
Fuck those romance novels. This man and his kind of control was absolutely the hottest thing ever.
He raised a brow. “What are you waiting for? On your back.”
Without another word, I climbed on the bed, lay on my back, and scooted until my head hung over the edge.
“Look at me, Val. You’ll need to steel your gag reflex. And if you can’t breathe, if you need me to stop, snap your fingers. But if you do, that’s it. We’re done playing.”
“Yes, sir,” I whispered.
Then I wiggled to get comfortable, pushing my shoulders over the edge just a little, gripping his thighs, and opened my mouth.
He started slowly, feeding me only the tip first. I sealed my lips around it, darting my tongue over the satiny smoothness to taste him.
It reminded me of a juicy plum, like when your tongue latches on just before your teeth break the fruit’s skin.
He pushed in a little at a time. I struggled but did my best to relax into it, to get used to the sensation filling my throat. After a few thrusts, he pushed in more of himself.
My eyes watered. My jaw tightened.
But for him, I ignored the discomfort and sucked. He moved in and out of my mouth, pushing deeper into my throat.
So focused on his cock, I literally jumped when he touched me.
Playing, teasing, groaning as I sucked, he circled my nipples with his thumbs and cupped my breasts.
“They’re fuller now,” he said, “and very fucking hot.”
Stefano slid his hands down my body, to my thighs, and pushed my legs open wide. As he stared at my pussy, I realized how shamelessly wet I’d become. Then he confirmed it for me.
“So wet for me already, baby.”
He dragged his knuckle up through my slit, then stopped to circle my clit with it, and I lost my damn mind.
The ecstasy building inside me whirled around his touch, faster, intensifying with each second.
“Christ, this is still the most perfect pussy. Mine. Have you given my pussy to anyone else, Val?”
Still sucking, I met his eyes and shook my head.
A tear rolled down the side of my face into my hair.
“Good girl,” he said.
Then Stefano leaned over my body and slid his tongue over my now hypersensitive flesh.
I gasped around his cock.
When his mouth latched on to me, when his tongue flicked over my clit, my entire body shuddered.
I was so close to coming, but I knew better.
He hadn’t given me permission.
I tightened my pelvic muscles, my thigh muscles, everything, hoping to hold it back, and focused on giving him my lie-back blow job. I focused on being his good girl and giving him what he wanted.
I wanted it to be good for him, and I thought it was… until he straightened his back and ripped his cock out of my mouth.
Panting, I lay on the bed with my legs spread, staring at his upside-down frame.
Stefano turned his back to me.
I quickly pulled myself upright on the silk sheets.
Had I bitten him or something?
“Stefano, I’m so sorry. Did I do something wrong?”
“Yeah, you did. Too good for your first time. I was just about to come all over your pretty face.”
Turning around with a heated grin, he came to me and pinched my chin between his thumb and forefinger, tilting my head back so he could look into my eyes.
“I quite like the idea of covering your face with my cum. But not tonight. I’m not finished with your punishment.”
Then a cold darkness washed over his expression.
Punishment? What the hell happened to penance?
A chill raced over my naked body, giving rise to goose bumps all over my skin.
“Stand up, Val.”
“Yes, sir,” I whispered.
When I got to my feet, he grabbed the back of my neck, spun me to face the bed, then bent me over it. He grabbed a pillow and slipped it under the side of my face.
“Put your hands under the pillow and keep them there.”
He hesitated for a minute.
“Does this hurt, Val? I don’t want to hurt your arm.”
Funny how the timing was utterly stupid, but I couldn’t help comparing our gunshot wounds. They were identical in location, but mine was more torn up from the close range.
“No, I’m good,” I said.
That was the last nice thing he said to me.
In the next second, his open hand slapped down on my ass.
I jumped right out of my skin.
“What the fuck, Stefano!” I shouted.
Another hard slap on the other side of my ass.
“Are you going to sneak out of my house again, Valerie?”
“No, I won’t do it again,” I said, holding back a whimper.
I agreed with him, so he wouldn’t spank me again, or so I thought. But sweet mother of God, I had underestimated him. A third slap came down on my ass.
That one stung the most.
I squeezed my eyes shut, thinking this man, this mafia king, would never be underestimated by me again.
“Are you going to refuse my protection again, Valerie?”
“No,” I whined.
“Are you going to try to leave me again?”
Then he forced my thighs open wide, and another slap came down. Perfectly angled, this one landed on my wet pussy.
“No, sir,” I said with a little moan.
I might have been a damn masochist, but the sting felt exquisite. The perfect blend of pain and pleasure. I could hardly hold back the orgasm about to rip through me.
After pinching my clit, the fucking sadistic tease, he dragged a trail of wetness up between my ass cheeks, and I moaned again.
“Are you going to obey me at all times, Valerie?”
His choice of words and his lowered voice warned me that I should be careful with my response this time. He’d given me a move to make, and it had to be the right one. It would set the tone for us.
“That depends,” I blurted through a breathless pant. “I’m not a fucking dog.”
Beneath the pillow, I gripped the sheet, bracing for another spanking in case I’d said the wrong thing.
It didn’t happen.
No, Stefano bent over me instead, his breath warming my shoulder. Then he growled the words “that’s my good girl” against my ear.
“Good girl,” he repeated. “I don’t want an obedient bitch. I want a woman who can fight me, challenge me, and make me a better man.
“But the next time your insolence puts my son’s life at risk, or your own, I will show you what a proper punishment is. I will spank your ass raw, and then I’ll take it in every way, with very little prep. Do I make myself clear?”
Again, he dragged his knuckle through my slickness and up between my ass cheeks.
My thighs shook with the need to come.
“Yes, sir,” I breathed.
The more he touched me, the more I wanted him. I wanted all of him in any way he wanted me.
“Tell me you belong to me now. Tell me you’re going to stay here, under my roof, in my bed, where you belong. Where I can keep you safe.”
“Yes,” I whispered like a prayer.
Like a promise.
I wanted to be there. I wanted to be with Stefano. I wanted him to give me more children.
Stefano was my future, just like he was my past, and I didn’t want to fight it anymore.
“Good. I think you’ve finally learned your lesson. Now I’ll let you come in my bed… and it’ll be so hard you’ll scream my fucking name.”
Then he made love to me in his bed.
But he was sweeter about it, almost gentle as he trailed hot, lingering kisses down my body, careful to avoid the bruises and cuts and my patched-up wounds. There was no more force in his touch. No demanding pleasure from my body. He coaxed it out gently instead.
While I wouldn’t have called that pleasure more intense than when he fucked me on his desk, it satisfied me more than anything I’d ever experienced.
The first time he made me come, he sucked on my clit with two fingers buried in my pussy and another circling my asshole, pushing in just a tiny bit every few passes.
It felt dark, different, forbidden.
It felt like Valentina.
And I loved every second of it.
The second time, he’d insisted I sit on his face. The orgasm was fantastic, made even better when I realized I could lean down over him and suck him while I rode his mouth.
It didn’t take me long to come—and scream his name—then I slid down his body, lowered myself slowly and achingly onto his cock, and rode it.
He pulled me into his arms, on our sides, my back against his chest, and kissed my neck and my shoulder as he pushed back inside me, turning my head with the lightest touch to look into my eyes and whisper his promises until he roared through his own climax.
Being with Stefano felt inevitable, like I’d belonged there with him all along.
I’d been born for this life, and with him it would be perfect.
Sure, we would fight often, but that only meant we would fuck just as much or more to make up for it. As soon as my wound healed, I intended to start a fight in the middle of the day, in his office, until he bent me over his desk again.
Then we would rebuild the café and christen every surface before its grand reopening.
I wanted to start each morning with him inside me.
Lying naked with him, inside the warmth of his arms, I wanted to make this life work, the three of us together as an actual family.
Enzo deserved that.
Stefano deserved it.
And so did I.
“Valerie.”
I winced. I wanted to hear my real name on his lips. The name my mother had given me. Before that could happen, though, I had to figure out how to tell him the whole truth.
We had so much to talk about, and we would soon. But in the moment, he was the only thing in my life that had been missing, and I couldn’t stand the idea of losing him again.
“Stefano?”
“Marry me.”
“Yes,” I hoarsely whispered.
The easiest answer I’d ever given.
He leaned over me and grinned.
“I’m glad you said yes. Our engagement announcement came out while you were sleeping.”
I froze.
He kissed my neck, the side of my face, and then my lips while my stuck mind processed absolute shock.
And fear.
Oh god, no. No, no, no.
My breath got caught in my throat.
My hands trembled.
I pushed myself away from him using his chest.
“What the hell did you do, Stefano?”