It took us awhile before we both calmed down. He held me to him and I stuck like glue to his chest.
“Jesus Christ, Maria. Why the fuck was that the first time we’ve ever done that?”
I shook my head.
“I don’t know.”
“Get dressed, we’re going to my place now. Time to make up for lost time.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but I nodded instead.
There was nothing that sounded better than that, and I would agree to follow him anywhere.
Chapter 14
Dante
I’d already decided that I wasn’t going to allow her to leave me.
No …
Not leave my place.
I meant Chicago. That was what I meant. I wouldn’t allow her to leave Chicago and she didn’t have a good life here yet, because she wasn’t with me.
End of story.
There was one time, one time when she was with Luc when he spoke to her badly. Told her she needed to get out of his face and embarrassed her in front of the guys. I’d nearly decked him. I wished I had, because then I would have felt better that I did something, like I tried.
Even if he’d beat the life out of me for stepping out of line and talking to him like that. It would have been better than just the stupid look I had gave him at the time.
What I should have done was deck him and take her, take her for myself.
Now we were here though. Both of us lying naked on my bed. Me devouring her, kissing her everywhere, wanting more of her after I’d already had her six times.
I was aiming for ten, but I wasn’t sure if that was actually possible in the time we had left. Morning had come hours ago. First light shined through the window, telling me we’d been awake all night.
The clock on the wall said it was five fifteen.
All damn night we’d been like this and now the daylight was coming to steal her away from me. I wanted to tell her I’d get someone to bring Flynn and her things to my place. I knew though that she wouldn’t just allow me to do that.
And, damn, damn me … listen to me.
My thoughts, the things I said to her …
I’d told her that she was mine, and if she was mine her son was mine too. I’d told her on that first day I went to look for her at Vira’s that I wanted her to come move in with me.
I was thinking it now.
I wanted her for keeps. She was a girl I wanted to keep for myself forever and I’d decided all this in one week.
All of it was me making some decision I didn’t even know I was making. It just felt natural.
It was a week that rode off the back of two decades.
I’d known her for a few months shy of twenty years.
Why wasn’t she mine before now?
Could she really be mine now? I was making it so, but she needed to meet me more than what she’d given me. So many questions still lingered in the air. Too many, and what I was embarking on with this investigation was danger.
Claudius said straight out, women out of business. Always keep the woman and the loved ones out of business. If this all went to hell, she’d be another weakness for me, because all anyone had to do was look at me and they’d see all I felt for her.
I pulled away and stopped kissing her, but she reached for me and cupped my face.
“Don’t stop touching me,” she pleaded.
I had to look at her, look into her eyes. I held her face too and scanned over her beauty.
The white blonde hair that spilled out around her like white rays of pure sunlight, her high cheekbones, soft skin I could touch forever, the curve of her neck. I stopped there just like before as I gazed at the faint mark of another cut that looked like it hand been stitched. It was just at the side of her neck. You’d have to be looking hard to tell, and you’d have to know what you were looking at to know what that was.
Someone had hit her. Hit her hard enough to split the skin. The other mark I saw that first night was similar. Someone had hit her and anger brewed inside me at the thought.
She held my hand and pain filled her eyes.
There were so many questions to ask.
It was on the tip of my tongue to ask who had hit her, but she pulled me back for a kiss.
Later, I would do it later. I would find the time to ask all the questions then.
We probably had another hour together. I didn’t want her to have any trouble at Vira’s and I didn’t want Flynn having any trouble either. It was great Sophia could look after him, but really to me she was just a little bit better than Vira.
Her kisses turned hungry and I slipped my hand behind her head angling her mouth so I could taste her better and deepen the kiss.
Fuck, I couldn’t get enough.
I just couldn’t get enough of her and her perfect body.
She sucked my tongue and smiled as she pulled away.
“I’m on top this time,” she cooed.
“And I’m behind you in the shower next time.” Eight times. Even if my fucking dick fell off after, I was going for that last round in the shower.
“Okay,” she laughed as I flipped her, so she was on top of me.
Her gorgeous light pink nipples puckered as I filled my palms with her breasts. I couldn’t believe I got to touch her like this after all my years of fantasizing.
Fucking hell, the smile on her face spoke to my inner desire and I couldn’t have wanted her more than I did.
That hair of hers flicked to the side and bright baby blues held me in place as the goddess slid down my legs and hovered over my cock.
“One last tasting.” She bubbled.
Yes … she could do whatever the fuck she wanted to me and taste me in whatever way she pleased.
“Taste away, baby.”
She didn’t need any more permission than that. One slender hand wrapped around my cock, her nails the same color pink as her nipples. She ran her hands up and down the length first, making my cock grow in her hands, straining it toward her.
I had to suck in a sharp breath to calm myself.
She gripped the base and lowered her head to slide her tongue over the tip. She lingered there and looked at me. Her smile turned sinful as she took me into her mouth and sucked me hard, gliding her tongue over me in rasping strokes that made me ache for release.
Fuck. I was going to finish right here in her mouth, but damn I wanted to be inside her again and again all over again.
I loved her mouth on me and craved her. I craved her like a fucking drug. Craved her like oxygen in my lungs, like the life that flowed through me.
When she took me deeper, I ran my fingers through her hair, working her head up and down my shaft.
“Good girl,” I groaned, but I knew if I wanted to be inside her, she’d have to stop soon ... no, now.
“Fucking hell Maria. If you want to be on top you better come now.”
She stopped sucking and giggled when I reached for her. I set her back on top of me. This time down on my cock.
I felt the exact moment when her sweet pussy stretched and melted around me. I thrust deeper and she gasped, grabbing onto my shoulders wincing.
“It’s okay, stay with me.”
“I’m with you,” she said breathlessly.
“Good girl.” I rammed deeper, but I allowed her to take over. “Ride me baby.”
Hips grinding, she moved against me. I met her strokes gripping on to her tightly so she could bounce up and down on my cock and ride me.
We got lost in the wild rhythm and damn there was nothing tame about us. Absolutely nothing slow even when we were going slow.
Relentlessly she moved against me, completely letting go. Holding me prisoner and captive to her lust, but also giving herself to me.
Maria Ferrara giving herself to me.
She was wild, so sexy and she was mine.
Body to body we moved trapped in ecstasy and the hunger that took us for each other.
It pummeled us over the edge. Then it happen
ed, the high came and we reached the pinnacle of pleasure. I wanted more and didn’t want to finish, but exhaustion betrayed me, her too. I couldn’t hold back. I hammered into her, slamming in rough strokes that sent us plummeting into the raw waves of passion.
Fire licked at my skin, combustible fire and I thundered into her like a storm, my release spilling into her as she came too digging her nails deep into my skin.
I held her close to me, keeping her there wishing I could hold her like this forever.
It was a nice thought.
I tried to pull back, but she kept me there, holding me too. She held on to me like she never wanted to let me go.
Holding me like she wanted me to keep her safe and protect her.
I just wouldn’t know from what.
* * *
Taking her back to Vira felt like being issued with the death sentence.
Knowing I shouldn’t be doing something, yet I was still doing it.
I drove the Ferrari this time and when we parked I noticed men going into the brothel next door and coming out.
One coming out had the audaciity to look at her as she stepped out of the car. Then he saw me, looked like he recognized me and practically fled.
I was still looking at him even after he’d run down the road.
Fucking asshole, the whole lot of them.
I didn’t want her here.
She looked at me like she could read my mind.
“I’m moving tomorrow. Away from here. It’s not that far, so I’ll still be able to get to work.” She smiled and nodded.
I looked at her. I’d allow her to believe she was working for me since she insisted, but nothing was further from the truth.
I’d allow her to think she was moving anywhere besides with me too and probably let her stay wherever this new place was for a few days. Not for too long though, not long enough to get settled. Then I’d get her and Flynn and take them home with me.
“What?” she asked and gave me a little smile.
“I’m just listening to you.”
“And thinking what?”
“Don’t worry about that baby. All in due time except I’m not completely going at the slow as shit pace we’ve been running on for the last twenty years.”
She laughed. “Dante I met you when I was eight, we couldn’t have done anything then.”
“Whatever, different strokes for different folks. We’re doing things my way now. Another twenty years and I doubt I’d be able to give you the night we had last night.”
She started laughing, but stopped when the door swung open.
Vira stood there nostrils flared. She must have seen Maria first and not me, because the look on her horrible face told me she was about to rip into her about the time. Then she saw me and froze right up. It was almost comical how the woman straightened up and the anger itself fled from her face.
“Vira, how nice to see you. Greetings from above.” I beamed.
Definitely wasn’t how I had greeted her in the past. No, I was a little more respectful, because she used to look down on me. Especially when I was in school and had nothing for myself.
I looked at her now like I expected respect, which she gave. She’d started acting that way after she knew I was one of Raphael’s chosen.
“Dante, wow. I didn’t know you were seeing Maria.” She tried to smile.
“Well now you do. Take care of my girl for me.”
“Of course, she’s in good hands here.”
So fake. I didn’t miss the look of shock on Maria’s face.
I bent down and gave Maria a quick kiss and Vira one last look before I left.
I also didn’t miss the sad look in Maria’s eyes as I drove away.
One thing to make assumptions, another to get actual answers.
I would get those soon, for everything. Every damn thing and set my life back on track.
Back to a path I had wanted to be on for years. I just had more determination now to rid myself of the demons of the past because of her.
Maria, always my girl.
Chapter 15
Maria
Oh my God, tonight was going to be a repeat of last night.
I would be the last to complain about indulging on Dante, but I knew I had to break part of our contract tonight.
Sophia couldn’t look after Flynn for the whole night, because she was having problems with her boyfriend. She wanted to stay over at his place, and I didn’t trust Flynn with Vira.
After Dante left me this morning and she knew I was with him she’d changed up her tune. Not completely, but enough to not bitch at me because of the time I got home.
The time which was hours later than I said I’d be back.
Tonight I had to go after the bar closed. That was just after midnight. It was approaching that now and here Dante was trying to entice me for yet another round, after we’d been up here for the last four hours making last night look like nothing.
“Dante, I have to go.” I giggled trying to escape again. I grabbed my bra and managed to put it on, only to have him take it off.
So, I tried for my top which he grabbed.
“This is day two woman and you’re already in breach of contract when you don’t need to be,” he argued.
I was sitting on his lap, naked straddling him.
“Dante I wouldn’t leave you if I didn’t have to.”
“Bull shit. You know we can both drive to Vira’s, get Flynn and ride on back to my place and live happily ever after.”
He said that just as simple as if he was talking about food. Dare I wish for a happily ever after with him.
I tried to slip off his lap again, but he caught me. “What the fuck was that look baby?”
I shook my head. I’d been listening this whole time to him talk and say all these amazing things to me. But that was all I could do, just listen. Listen and dream.
The truth was I had ruined it. This was what I could have had and it was nice to have it now, but it couldn’t be.
“Nothing.”
In all this I knew that I should have told him about Franco by now, but truthfully I was so embarrassed. I was so embarrassed and ashamed of myself. I had treated Dante terribly and it would be me telling him that I thought everyone was better for me to be with than him.
“That’s not a nothing face. There’s questions in your eyes.”
“Questions I shouldn’t ask.”
“It’s me, you can ask me anything, but just to let you know I’m serious about every word I say.”
“You’re sweet.”
He frowned. “Woman don’t let anybody hear you say that. I am no such thing, but if you think that it’s fine. I can maybe live with that, just as long as you don’t think Dante D’Angelo’s gone soft.”
I laughed.
“My lips are sealed.”
“Maria, let’s go get Flynn and drive back to my place and you don’t have to worry about Vira or Sophia or anyone.”
I reached up to touch his face. “Dante … I, you can’t just do that. I’ve just blown back into Chicago and you probably have a host of admirers who won’t like it very much that some woman and her kid is shacked up in your place.”
“My woman and my kid, and I may have admirers, but they went to the back of beyond the minute you walked back into my life.”
My God … either I was stupid or … something worse than stupid.
He wanted the both of us. Me and Flynn. I didn’t know any men who would just do that, or not look at me as damaged goods or something.
I guess I just needed some time. Some time to be able to talk to him about stuff and wrap my head around life in general.
“Dante, this could be crazy. There’s so much I …”
“There’s so much you need to tell me?” He filled in and quirked a brow. “Like why you came back to Chicago, and why you look like you’re in trouble. I’d really love to know too why you think you shouldn’t tell me if you’re in trouble. I can tell.”
> My heart stilled and I tried to steady my breathing.
“Can you give me a few days? I just need some time.”
He sighed, took my hand and brought it to his lips to kiss.
“A few days, and if you still won’t talk I’m kidnapping you.”
I laughed. “If I go willingly is it kidnapping? That’s more like me just going with you.”
“Call it what the fuck ever you like, point is I’m taking you. Come on, I’ll drive you to Vira’s.”
“No, it’s just down the road. I’ll walk.”
“At this hour?”
“Dante please, I’m fine. I walk that road many times and I’ve been fine.”
He allowed me to slip off his lap now and watched me as I got ready.
“So, I have to wait a whole day to see you? I’ll be in town tomorrow for business.”
Business, that meant other work.
Luc used to say that too, like it was code.
I shrugged into my clothes and he did too.
“Is it dangerous business?” I knew I shouldn’t ask, but I felt I should know if it was something likely to get him hurt. I didn’t how things worked these days, but to me danger could come at any time.
“No danger tomorrow.” He smiled and stared at me then reached for his guns he’d placed on the table beside us. I couldn’t help, but be a little uneasy.
I’d grown up around guns, and seen a total of three people being shot and killed. Two were Franco’s business partners, the other was the first person I’d ever seen to die that way, and it was a memory I wanted to forget.
He saw me looking at the guns and I tried to look away.
“Do they bother you?” he asked.
I shook my head, but when I looked at him I didn’t want to imagine that there could be any darkness in him. Not the kind I’d seen in Franco. He had been nice to me too, but then he changed.
“I just …”
“No mindless killing,” he said. “Those Berettas belonged to my father, prior to him they were my grandfather’s. The first time Pa showed me them he gave me the principle of no mindless killing. The Japanese characters engraved on the handles mean head and heart. It’s there to remind whoever carries them to think with both. No mindless killing. It’s the first rule of being part of the crew. We don’t do that. Kill or be killed and only to protect those you love and yourself. That’s all you need to know.”
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