Shielded Wrongs: A Dark Mafia Romance (Bellandi Crime Syndicate Book 4)

by Adelaide Forrest

  "You were working last night too," I reminded her with a chuckle. "It didn't stop you from staining the mat with cum."

  "Gross," she hissed like she didn't do exactly that and enjoy every moment of it. Her fight was admirable. Her resistance of the inevitable was pointless. "Stop touching me when there are people around. I will not have my customers thinking that I'm just a piece of ass. I worked my tits off to be respected here, and I won't have you turning that on its head just because you got lucky. Sex does not make me yours. It doesn't give you a claim over me," she growled, crossing her arms over her chest and daring me to contradict her.

  If she thought I would be so easily dissuaded, perhaps she hadn't spent as much time with Bellandi men as I thought. She should understand the process and how it worked after watching her friends go through it.

  Our relationship would go much smoother if she didn't fight it, and just let herself be lost in the feeling of my mouth between her thighs, of my whispers in her ear, and the filthy thoughts in my head etched onto her body with my tongue. "That's where you're wrong, Baby Girl. You officially became mine when you came on my cock."

  "If that's the case, then I must have several owners by now," she said, glaring up at me with defiance in her stunning face. I resisted the urge to take her to her office and remind her that I was the only one who owned her.

  "I dare them to touch what's mine, Carina. Any who thinks to try it may find their bones ground down to nothing. They won't ever make the same mistake again, partially because they won't have functioning hands." The deep tenor of my voice might have horrified me, the threat might have seemed too much like Ryker. But Sadie was the only thing in the world that could make me enjoy violence.

  I would most definitely enjoy destroying anyone who tried to come between us.

  "You're insane," she sighed with a roll of her eyes. "I don't know why I thought maybe you would be somewhat logical. Sex is sex, Enzo. It doesn't have to mean some grand promise of forever. It was fun. It's over now. Reality called, and it wants you to pull your head out of your dick and think for a second."

  "Or what, Carina?" I asked, stepping closer to her space until she either needed to back away or accept my chest brushing against hers. Her shiver was slight, barely perceptible, but she made no move to retreat. Sadie wouldn't let herself be intimidated, even when she already knew she was outmatched. It must have been so disarming for her to not be the biggest badass in the room. I was the only man who could tame her and claim her, and I'd do just that, but only enough to make her stop fighting me.

  "Matteo forbid you from touching me, didn't he? I wonder what he would think of our activities last night and the fact that you manipulated me with a bet you knew I couldn't win." Confidence rang in her voice, her arrogant smirk communicating just how thoroughly she'd thought she trapped me. A smarter man might have cowered in fear and backed off immediately at the thought of defying Matteo Bellandi.

  I'd live.

  I grinned at her. "I don't give the first shit if you tell Matteo. He and I will work it out, but we both know I didn't expect to keep this a secret, Carina. No real man hides his woman." Her smile faltered, her eyes glancing to the side as she tried to rethink her defense against me now that her plan had failed so spectacularly. Her forefinger tapped against her thumb at her side, the pace rapid and steady as her irritation mounted. "What's so special about fives, Baby Girl?" I asked, tilting my head to the side. Her eyes widened and her face flushed beet red as I glanced down at her fingers pointedly.

  "That's none of your business," she growled, glancing around the room to see if anyone had noticed our fight.

  "When are you going to accept that everything having to do with you is my business?" I enjoyed the sight of her coming completely unhinged, of her losing her carefully controlled shit. I knew she'd try to hide it behind something scandalous, something vicious before she ever opened her mouth. Face tipping down so that she stared up at me through thick, dark lashes with golden eyes, her lips tilted into a mischievous smile as she bit her bottom lip. Those pearly white teeth sinking into the plump flesh only served to remind me of the way it felt to have her bleed me.

  Compelled with the need to feel those teeth sink into my flesh and mark me as hers, I missed the subtle move she made for my junk until it was too late. Fingers gripped me through the thick fabric of my jeans, a warning that made me still completely. Not a movement, I would swear until my dying day that I didn't so much as breathe. Not with her brutal, masterful hand tormenting me.

  Leaning in and onto her toes, she dragged her lips over the stubble of my cheek until her breath tickled my ear and her delicate pink tongue touched my earlobe ever so subtly. "Your business is to watch me. If I want you to watch me fuck another man, you'll do it. Because that's your fucking job, Lorenzo." Hardened, her voice dipped lower with a sarcastic chuckle. "You'll keep me safe, while I do whatever the fuck I want."

  "You're wrong," I growled, shoving her hand away while she didn't have the true leverage to grip me tight. If Sadie had wanted to hurt me, she'd have done it. It wouldn't have been a teasing stroke and grip to my cock, but a crushing blow to the nuts that left me crumpled on the floor. "Do not test me, Carina."

  She smirked at me one last time, backing away and then walking away from me to go check on Rebel. With a deep exhale of the strangest mix of curiosity and exasperation, I turned to follow her. The man Sadie had sparred with the day before stepped into my path, trying to intimidate me with his arms crossed over his chest and a scowl on his face. "She ain't feeling you," he grunted in my direction. "Do yourself a favor and stick to your job. She'll cut your nuts off in your sleep if you touch her in any kind of way she doesn't want."

  "Mike, right?" I asked, glancing around him to be sure Sadie didn't get far. I didn't expect her to walk out of her gym or leave Rebel behind, but I had a feeling the woman was slippery as fuck when she didn't want to be cornered.

  And she most definitely didn't like it when I cornered her with the possibility of confronting her demons and sharing them with me. It only made my need to push her harder more intense.

  I wanted her on edge, shoved off the ledge and unstable. She was so fucking fascinating when she felt trapped.

  "Well, Mike. I don't take well to men inserting themselves where they aren't wanted. If she wants you, she'll let you know. Otherwise you keep your damn hands to yourself." If the situation had been about anyone else, I'd have appreciated his mentality. I didn't tolerate brutality against women, didn't stand for rape or abuse of any kind. If someone touched my sisters that way, I'd kill them with my bare hands. But there was nothing abusive about what had happened between Sadie and me.

  I chuckled, stepping around him and making sure to brush his shoulder. While I didn't get the sense he was actually interested in my woman, I wasn't the type of man to be intimidated by anyone. Not if I cared enough to fight for something I wanted, and for Sadie, I'd fight to the pits of Hell.

  "She was most certainly feeling me when she fucked me last night," I said, nodding my head at the very same boxing ring where Sadie had let me inside her. I'd never look at it the same.

  It somewhat helped to ease the force of the glare Sadie leveled me with when she realized what kind of conversation Mike and I were having. I shrugged. There would never come a day when I stopped defending my place in her life.

  13

  Sadie

  I had enough brothers in my life. The last thing I needed was Mike getting into a pissing contest with Enzo just because he seemed to think he’d laid claim to me in that brotherly way.

  I didn't tolerate that kind of shit from the men who were actually my brothers, so I'd never allow it from a friend. Especially not one that I enjoyed sparring with and regularly knocked on his ass. I wasn’t naive enough to believe that would be the case if I was a man, but I'd still take the win for what it was. Mike was a legend in the underground, kicking ass and taking names on a regular basis. If he genuinely wanted to fight me, he could
probably overpower me.

  But I could also be a whole hell of a lot craftier than I had been so far when we goofed off.

  I dropped my phone on the counter after confirming there were no missed calls from Ivory. Beth glanced up from the computer, giving me that oh shit look that she pulled off so well, no matter how many times she saw me lay down the law when a man got out of line in my gym. Giving Rebel another once over to check on her, I turned and stormed over to the two men glaring at one another. Enzo's striking face transformed into a panty melting grin as his eyes met mine. The man was pure temptation. Irresistible and everything I didn't need in my life.

  If only I could convince my vagina of that.

  She wanted to purr and tear my clothes off for another round of orgasms. I'd yet to find a man who could fuck me damn near into a coma better than my vibrator could. Until Enzo.

  Only one time with him, a quickie on the boxing ring floor at that, and I knew he'd rock my world any time he touched me.

  "I appreciate the brotherly love and all, but I can take care of myself," I said, testing the waters. Mike's face turned sheepish for a split second, a moment of shame where he knew he'd never interfered in my love life before. He'd seen me put too many handsy men on their ass to think I needed the assistance.

  "Bellandis are different," he grunted, nodding his head over at Enzo.

  "Good thing he's a Vescovi then," I teased with a raised brow. I knew damn well what he meant, but Mike and I had never had that conversation, or felt each other out to decide just how much we each knew about the man my best friend had married.

  He didn't know that I knew Matteo ruled Chicago with strict rules that he enforced with the threat of Ryker and his hatchet. He didn't know I knew Matteo ran the Underground through a proxy.

  "Don't play dumb with me," Mike warned, his eyes hardening as his biceps bulged.

  "No need to worry about my virtue, darling," I laughed. "That ship sailed a long time ago. I might as well get some use out of him while he's poking his nose in my business. He made me leave my vibrator at home." I forced my lips into a pout, tapping my thigh five times to reduce the anxiety I felt over the conversation.

  That was the unfortunate reality of being free. Of enjoying sex and living a life liberated by the ability to do whatever the fuck I wanted. Men did it and it was just boys will be boys. I did it, and I was a slut.

  Fuck that shit.

  Mike winced, adding insult to injury, like I was meant to be a nun simply because he didn't like to be reminded of my sex life. Ignoring it, I turned my attention to the man who I could stab in his sleep for the way he acted like I was his property.

  I belonged to no one.

  "Get a grip. If you think you're man enough to make me want to be owned, get that shit out of your head. I might like it when you pull my hair or bite me, but that will not fly when you aren't getting me off. Keep that to sex, and we'll do just fine," I threatened, spinning on my heel and trying not to notice Beth giggling into her palm. My phone was vibrating on the counter when I reached it, and I snatched it off the surface as I bent down to scratch the back of Rebel's neck as she watched me. "Yo," I snapped into the phone as I pressed it to my ear.

  Silence met my ear, and then Ivory's honeyed voice came through the speaker. "What'd he do?" she asked hesitantly.

  "The next step is for him to pee on me at the rate he's going," I sighed.

  "Are we talking about the dog or Enzo?" She snickered. "It could really go either way."

  "Rebel's a girl. So the only territorial male in my life is thanks to you. Have I said thank you? I'd kind of like to do it by drawing a dick on your face." Rebel raised her head, tilting it to the side as she studied me. Standing and nudging my hand where it tapped against my thigh, she encouraged me to pet her again.

  "Matteo wouldn't appreciate another dick touching me," Ivory said.

  "It'd be a fucking drawing for shit's sake. Why don't you send me a picture, and I'll make it in his likeness so he can't be jealous of the fictitious penis. Nobody's more of a dick than him for saddling me with Enzo, so it seems fitting, if you ask me." A glance over at Enzo and Mike confirmed they were still busy having a tense conversation. The disrespect for my opinions grated on my nerves.

  "Wrong. Patrick takes that title," Ivory said, her voice deepening. She'd known him and liked him well enough, so to know that he cheated felt like a personal affront to her, too. The fact that she'd gone on a "date" with him once at my suggestion only made the situation weirder. Patrick had liked her, and that should have been the first clue that we'd never work. I had no clue how Ivory and I worked as best friends, but we couldn't have been more different if we'd tried. Men who liked Ivory's quiet strength tended not to like my in-your-face attitude.

  Hence Patrick's insistence for me to settle down. Like the manic energy that kept me from sitting still was my fault and not the result of all the messed up chemical imbalances in my brain, making it so that I literally couldn't function without jumping around. I wanted to, but I needed that extra dopamine or life was boring.

  Plain.

  "The vet will be here in half an hour," Ivory sighed, changing the subject from the man she knew I wouldn't want to talk about. Just another in a long line of disappointments who couldn't handle how messed up I was. Constantly living a life in opposition with my own desires, how could I ever expect a man to keep up with that? Or understand why one day I wanted one thing and the next was completely different?

  Sometimes, the idea of taking risks terrified me. Other times, it thrilled me. I couldn't keep up with it or predict it.

  "’kay. Think you can send someone over with a car? We took the bike to the gym, and I don't think Rebel will like riding bitch very much." Ivory chuckled into the phone, the soft breath too much for my ear to handle as I held the phone away.

  "Your man's got you covered, Sadie Anne. He had his SUV dropped off an hour ago." She hung up, not giving me time to respond. My eyes drifted up to the bastard in question, finding him smirking at me. Looking for recognition of his good deed.

  I'd throw him a bone later. I just didn't know which variety. I knew which was the smarter option, but it was so much less fun.

  Enzo was mostly quiet in the car, but it didn't make me think he was appropriately chastised. His hand on my thigh and his heat searing me through the jeans I'd slipped on over my shorts didn't help. I wished I could say that I didn't like the touch, but something about the feeling of his weight on my leg settled me.

  Comforted me.

  Made me still. In a life where my brain constantly spun, the moments of stillness were precious and rare. I wanted to enjoy it for just a few more minutes, to not bounce my knee rhythmically or tap my fingers to quiet the noise in my head and distract myself from the need to straighten things out.

  Things never stayed in place in cars. It was a problem.

  Rebel paced in the back of the SUV like a caged animal, and I hated the feeling of camaraderie I felt for her. I knew what it was like to feel like a prisoner in your own life. Even if the bars of my cage were more metaphorical, I still related.

  The cage felt very real, though, when Enzo pulled the vehicle through the gate to the Bellandi estate. I hated being there, but I'd had to get over that to spend time with Ivory and Luna since she'd married Matteo. I didn't like it when I felt limited in where I could go or what I could do.

  "You okay?" Enzo asked, studying the knee that started bouncing his hand up and down as the gates closed behind us, the moment of stillness forgotten in the face of my anxiety mounting.

  "Yeah. I don't like being trapped," I admitted in a rare moment of honesty. "I know it's necessary for her and Luna. I just feel like I can't breathe sometimes."

  "Did something happen? To make you not like gates and walls?" he asked as he pulled up to the front of the house. Other cars lingered in the driveway, but most of the SUVs I associated with the Bellandi estate were notably absent.

  "No. I've just never liked being co
nfined or told what to do," I snarked back, giving him a pointed look. In other words, everything he wanted to do to me to keep me safe.

  I kept my distance from him as we got out of the SUV, ignoring the way he cradled Rebel in his arms so gently. She didn't seem like she had a care in the world with him carrying her like a baby, even after growling at him earlier in the day. At some point, she’d gotten used to him. She'd get spoiled if we let her, and I'd be damned if I wouldn’t.

  She just couldn't get too used to Enzo doing it, because she was coming home with me when we went our separate ways.

  Enzo didn't push closeness between us, giving me a moment of reprieve. He said he didn't give a damn if Matteo knew about us having sex, but he certainly seemed to.

  "It's about fucking time," Matteo grunted as soon as we stepped inside. "Drop the dog in the living room.”

  "Did I miss a meeting?" Enzo asked, his brow furrowing in confusion. It didn't take a genius to know that Enzo was incredibly organized with his portion of the Bellandi business, and to miss something would drive him insane.

  "No. Liam O'Connell agreed to meet with us. Scar will keep an eye on the girls, and I've got the guys on the perimeter."

  Enzo's eyes came to me as he guided me into the living room. Setting Rebel on the floor, he turned to me and took the moment away from Matteo's prying eyes to stroke the back of his knuckles over my cheek. "Be good," he said, lips brushing over my forehead in an oddly intimate and sweet caress. I looked over my shoulder as he moved out into the entryway, the sound of the front door closing as he and Matteo left.

  Turning my attention away from the door finally, I found Ivory, Samara, and Calla all staring back at me with bright grins. "Shut up," I whispered.