She is utter perfection.
A work of beauty as if she was carved by the gods.
The craving to touch every inch of her is almost overwhelming. Her chest heaves as I drink my fill, and she drags her lower lip between her teeth in a nervous tell. Her tits are perfectly formed—not big but not too small either. Nice handfuls. Her nipples are neat rose-pink buds that demand to be sucked and plucked. My cock lies heavy between my thighs, precum lining the crown, and I can’t hold back a second longer.
Shoving her flat on her back, I spread her legs and thrust inside her in one powerful move. She screams, and I lose whatever vestiges of civility I was clinging to. I fuck her, and fuck her, and fuck her. Pounding into her over and over, moaning and cursing as her tight walls grip my cock and I see stars behind my eyes.
Sweat adheres my shirt to my chest, and I rip it off, buttons flying everywhere. Flipping her over, onto all fours, I ram my cock back inside her, and she lets another scream loose. While one hand holds her steady at the hip to control my thrusts, I use my free hand to play with her tits. Alternating my attention, I flick her taut nipples, tugging and plucking as I plunge my erection inside her, slamming in and out, her body jolting with the movement.
Sweat glides down my spine as I fuck her harder, pushing her head down into the comforter and yanking her hips up more so I can thrust deeper. My fingers leave her tits, moving to her clit, and I rub her frantically as my balls tighten and lift and a familiar tingle whizzes up my spine. I roar as I spill inside her, driving in and out until my climax is exhausted and I’ve emptied my seed.
But I’m not sated. Not by a long shot. I need more.
“Fix yourself up,” I bark. “We’re leaving.”
I hastily dress, leaving my ruined shirt on the floor, watching with hungry eyes as she gets dressed. Next time I fuck her, I want her heels on and her slim legs wrapped around my shoulders. I tap out a message to Leo as I slip my feet into my shoes. Then I swipe her stilettos, grab her hand, and pull her out of the room. My soldier follows us as we descend the stairs.
Leo and the rest of my men are waiting for us at the bottom of the stairs.
“Leaving so soon, Mazzone?” Salerno sneers from his position on the couch. The wide screen is lowered, the picture fixed on the bedroom we just vacated. The fucker let everyone watch. A few of the guys are fucking the whores while the rest are stroking their dicks, smirking at me to make their point known. I want to slice every one of their dicks off and shove them up their asses.
Pulling Sierra around so she’s facing my front, I press her head to my chest, hoping she didn’t spot the screen already. Rage pummels my insides, and it’s not all directed at Salerno.
I lost control.
Enjoyed fucking her too much.
But there’s no sense in beating myself up over it. What’s done is done, and I can’t rewind time or find it within myself to regret it because my dick is still straining against my zipper and screaming at me to bury myself in her wet warmth again. I just want to get her out of here now.
“You got what you wanted, and our business is concluded,” I say, handing Sierra to Leo with a warning look. He nods, automatically understanding as he ushers her out into the corridor. One of my soldati, a smart guy who initiated a year ago, steps forward in his undershirt, holding his black button-up out to me. I slide my arms in the sleeves before walking to Salerno. I extend my hand. “I trust our personal deal is still intact and it remains between us.” If my father discovers what I did, he will bust my balls, so I need to ensure this is contained.
“I’m a man of my word,” Salerno says though it doesn’t need to be spoken. We shake hands, and I nod. “It was a pleasure doing business with you,” he adds, and I wish I could knock that smug grin off his face. He will most likely use the favor to force me into marrying his daughter, but he won’t call it in for a while. A smart man would hold on to it for the right time. Anais is only eleven, and tradition rarely sees women married before eighteen, so I have a few years to come to terms with the consequences of saving Sierra.
“We’ll be in touch.” I offer a curt nod to Russo and Gambini before striding toward the exit, buttoning my shirt as I push through the doors into the corridor.
Leo is waiting with my men, his hand resting lightly on Sierra’s shoulder. I scowl at him until he removes it with a grin. My hand wraps around hers, and I tug her forward. “Let’s go.” I need to put distance between me and that room before I change my mind and slaughter them all.
8
SIERRA
I blink my eyes open, wetting my dry lips as I take in my surroundings. This definitely isn’t our suite at the Bellagio. I move in the bed, and my body aches deliciously, helping my memory to kick into gear. Turning around, I stretch my arm out, but the other side of the bed is stone cold. I sit up, clutching the black silk sheets to my naked chest, wondering where Ben is. Pushing the messy strands of my hair from my face, I scan the bedroom. Seeing it’s empty, I climb out of the king-sized bed, my body protesting the motion.
I ache everywhere. There’s a persistent throbbing between my legs, and my ass is a little sore. I yawn, knowing I haven’t had much sleep, even if I have no idea what time it is. After entering the en suite bathroom, I pee before scrubbing my face clean of any lingering makeup and switching the shower on. Although I don’t want to wash Ben’s scent from my flesh, I’m sweaty and gross, and my skin feels icky.
My lips curl into a crazy smile as I stand under the hot water, tilting my chin up, letting water stream down my face. Memories of last night resurface in my mind as I shower. I should probably be focusing more on the predicament I found myself in—and offer thanks that I escaped unscathed—but all I can focus on is the mind-blowing sex Ben and I had repeatedly all night long.
It exceeded my wildest dreams and then some.
I presumed he was taking me to my hotel after we left Flame, but he took me to his hotel suite and ravished my body until we both collapsed from exhaustion. My nipples harden and my core pulses with renewed need as I recall the various ways he took me. His passion was a relentless train that sped along the tracks, going two hundred miles an hour, pulling me along for the ride.
There is no way you could call it making love.
He fucked me like we were wild animals with no boundaries. Like humans with the bare minimum of decency, and I freaking loved it. He pounded his cock into me with a savagery I never knew existed, and I became someone new, someone with no inhibitions and a rampant thirst for exploration.
I blush as I recall giving him my anal virginity, but I don’t regret it.
I don’t regret a single thing. How could I when he was the one guy I daydreamed about for years? My childish fantasies could never match the real deal. And my limited sexual experience couldn’t prepare me for a man like Ben. Nothing could. I knew he would ruin me for all others, and I was right.
I can’t imagine any man coming close to measuring up.
No night will ever be as magical as last night.
But I’m no longer some naïve thirteen-year-old, and Ben is no longer the same Ben I knew. We didn’t talk last night—Ben’s rough commands and his dirty talking don’t count—and I have questions I need answers to. Like how he knows Saverio Salerno? Who are those men with him, and why does everyone call him Bennett Mazzone now? Where has he been all this time?
After my shower, I blow-dry my hair and get dressed in my clothes from last night before stepping out of the bedroom into the main body of the large suite with my high heels dangling from my fingers.
I spot Ben first, perched at the island unit in the kitchen. His face is buried in a laptop, and he’s oblivious to my approach. He is wearing a white shirt and black pants, but his feet are bare. There is something so incredibly sexy about a man with no shoes or socks on that gets me horny like you wouldn’t believe. My nostrils twitch as the scent of his spicy cologne slaps me in the face, and I can’t contain my grin.
Coming up behind him
, I wrap my arms around his torso, pressing the side of my face against his warm back. “Good morning.” I place a kiss to the side of his neck, savoring the feel of his skin against my lips.
He visibly stiffens, lifting his head from his laptop but not turning around. “What do you think you’re doing?” His voice is brusque and laced with an undercurrent I can’t decipher.
I pull away, gulping over the sudden lump clogging my throat. Nerves fire at me from all angles as I move around the island unit so I’m facing him. “What do you mean?” My brows furrow in confusion.
His eyes narrow as he stares at me. One corner of his mouth tilts into a sneer. “Why are you still here? What makes you think you can talk to me? Touch me without invitation?” Hostility seeps from his pores like fog, and I take a step back as if that will protect me from the horrible vibes he’s emitting.
My mouth opens and closes, but I can’t form words.
“Cat got your tongue?” he taunts, and there is no warmth in his expression. No sign of the dark lust from last night evident in his cold ice-blue eyes.
“Why are you being like this?” I fold my arms protectively across my chest, feeling vulnerable.
“You told me you weren’t a virgin, so I’m sure you’re familiar with the concept of a one-night stand.” His tone suggests he’s already bored of this conversation, and he ignores me, lowering his gaze as he refocuses his attention on his laptop.
I bristle at his words and his clear dismissal of what we shared. Anger ignites a fuse inside me, and I glare at him, wishing he wasn’t such a handsome fucker and my heart wasn’t such a pitiful organ with minimal self-respect. “I know what a one-night-stand is, asshole. And last night wasn’t one.”
He lifts his head again, and the venomous look in his eyes forces me to take another few steps back out of sheer instinct.
Saverio is a man who prides himself on the monster within. A man who revels in displaying everything he is. As I look at Ben now, I see the same monster lurking behind his gorgeous exterior. I thought Saverio was the only man I needed to fear, but I see the error of my ways. Ben is everything Saverio is. He has just chosen to hide it. Most likely, it’s on purpose—to lure unsuspecting victims in.
“You seem to be suffering from some delusions. Let me clear it up for you.” Ben stands, and in my bare feet, he appears to tower over me like a dark shadow obscuring all the light.
Tension bleeds into the air as he steps toward me, and I take a step back.
“Ben.” Someone calls his name, and my head whips sideways, only noticing the other four men now. His friend stands, walking toward us. He’s the guy who escorted me out of the basement room last night. He didn’t speak, regarding me with equal parts curiosity and wariness, but he didn’t seem unkind. “I don’t think—”
“If I want your advice, Leo, I’ll ask for it,” Ben says in a clipped tone. Leo stops walking, leaning against a pillar in the large open-plan room. “This is between Firefly and me.”
He uses his pet name for me in a derisory manner, and it hurts. Ben has never spoken to me like this before, and I don’t understand why he feels the need to be hurtful now. It was clearly just a one-time thing for him, and it’s not like I had huge expectations. I live in Chicago and he lives…who the hell knows where. I wasn’t anticipating walking hand in hand into the sunset, but I did expect respect and that we would at least part ways as friends.
This crap is bullshit, and he doesn’t get to humiliate me.
Heat creeps up my chest and onto my neck, but I stop retreating, holding my chin up and fixing Ben with a deadly look of my own. Fuck him. He doesn’t get to intimidate me. Not after everything we did last night. “Set me straight then,” I hiss. “If you’re such a big man.”
An ugly sneer dances across his handsome face. “You’re still just a little girl trying to fit into a world you don’t belong in.”
He knows how to hit hard, and those words penetrate deep, stabbing me clear through the heart. “You know nothing about me. About the person I am today.”
He steps right up to me, drilling me with stony eyes, devoid of any human emotion. “I know you’re a stupid little girl who found herself trapped in the lion’s den. Tell me, what would you have done if I hadn’t been there last night?”
I gulp, unable to answer, because the truth is, I was all out of options and we both know it. Some of my anger fades, remembering how he saved me. “Thank you for saving me,” I say because I don’t think I said thanks last night.
He scoffs. “You already thanked me.”
I frown because I honestly don’t recall saying those words.
The cruel sneer returns to his face. “You thanked me with your tight pussy and your virgin ass.”
My cheeks inflame as anger returns tenfold. How fucking dare he say that to me, especially in front of his friends. “Fuck you, Ben.”
“You already did, Firefly, and it wasn’t all that memorable.”
Tears prick my eyes, and my lower lip wobbles. Pain slices across my chest as his words cut deep.
“There she is,” he says, gripping my chin tightly. “The vulnerable little girl who so desperately wants to be loved.”
He is throwing acid all over my memories, and I will never forgive him for it. Never.
“You’re not your sister,” he adds, continuing to dig in the knife. “You will never be Saskia.”
I’ve never wanted to be her, and he might think he’s insulting me, but that’s the greatest compliment he could ever pay me. I can’t find it within me to be upset he favors her over me. Right now, I can’t think of two people more deserving of one another. “Pity she’s married now and you’ve missed your opportunity.”
He barks out a laugh. “You think a little thing like a wedding band would stop me from taking what I want? I took you, didn’t I? And it required no effort. It’s probably why it wasn’t enjoyable. Saskia always presented a challenge.”
I slap him across the face, and the three men on the couch hop up, hands automatically going to the guns strapped at their hips. Leo shakes his head, and they hold their ground, not sitting back down but not coming over here either.
“I’ll give her your regards,” I say, spinning on my bare feet, ready to get the hell out of here when he yanks me back. He pulls me flush against his body, and his arm wraps around my neck, locking tight under my chin, restricting my airflow and holding me in place. Panic jumps up and bites me, and I work hard to control my breathing, stowing whatever oxygen I have left in my lungs.
“Listen carefully, Firefly. You will not breathe a word of last night to anyone. No part of what happened will leave your lips. As far as anyone is concerned, last night was a figment of your imagination. You might think I’m an asshole, but Saverio Salerno is a different kind of asshole. One you don’t want to unleash. Don’t make me hunt you down.” He shoves me away, and I gasp, clutching the side of the island unit to stop myself from falling as I suck in air. “Now get out and don’t come back.”
I don’t need to be told twice, rushing out of his suite, swiping at the slew of hot angry tears as they course down my cheeks.
9
SIERRA
I stomp through the lobby of the prestigious Venetian hotel, uncaring that I’m doing the walk of shame because fuck those gawking bystanders. I don’t know who they are, and I won’t see them again. I flip my middle finger up at an older couple who are shaking their heads and looking at me with disgust as I pass by. Father would be furious if he saw me now, but I’m too freaking mad and upset to care about anything except getting the hell out of here.
When I step onto the sidewalk, I realize I have no purse, no cell, and no money. I can still get a cab and make the driver come up to our suite so I can pay him. I’m walking toward an empty cab when a man wearing a smart black suit steps in front of me. “Miss Lawson?” he inquires, and I peer at him, narrowing my eyes suspiciously.
“Who wants to know?”
“Mr. Mazzone asked me to drive
you to the Bellagio.” He opens the door to a black Mercedes with fully tinted windows, lifting a brow when I don’t move a muscle. I’m tempted to tell him where he can stick his ride, but there’s no point being stupid about it, so I climb into the back seat and let him drop me at my hotel, fuming the entire journey.
“Thank God!” Pen screeches, rushing me the instant I step foot in our suite. “I’ve been going out of my mind with worry.” Flinging her arms around me, she hugs me tight. I cling to her, needing a friendly hug so badly. She eases back, examining me from head to toe. “Are you okay? Did they hurt you?”
“I’m fine. I’m not hurt.” Much. I glance around the empty suite, frowning. “Where is everyone?”
“Esme is showering, Tony is freaking out someplace, and the rest of the girls are in the casino.”
Shit. I scrub my hands down my face. I’d forgotten about my bodyguard. It’s no wonder Tony is going crazy. I need to find him before he calls my father. I’m hoping the fact I was MIA means he hasn’t called him yet—Father would blow a gasket if he knew I was lost in Vegas without protection, and Tony would be out of a job. I’m hoping his sense of self-preservation is strong enough to have held off making that call.
Pen touches my arm, and worry lines furrow her brow. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I am. I promise.” I notice the bruising shadows under her eyes, and I can tell she’s had a sleepless night. “Are you okay? And what happened after you left?” I remember how terrified she was last night.
“I’m fine. Look, why don’t you get changed, I’ll order us some room service, and then the three of us can talk.”
I nod. “Sounds like a plan.”
I conduct a quick search for Tony, but he’s not in the suite. Going into my room, I change into yoga pants and a slouchy shirt that rests just below my ass. I tease my hair into a messy topknot before slipping my feet into fluffy slippers. I find my purse on the bedside table, and I’m grateful one of my friends made sure to bring it home. I check the contents, and it’s all there. My cell is dead, so I plug it in to charge as someone raps on my door. I open it, revealing a furious Tony. I sigh, not in the mood for a lecture, but there’s no point in delaying the inevitable. And it’s not like I don’t deserve it. “Come in.”
Condemned to Love:  Page 7