Rotten Men (A Rotten Love Duet Book 2)

by Ivy Fox

  “I wonder what your husband would think if he knew I was lying naked beside you. Do you think he would be pissed about the many ways I intend to take his wife tonight?” I declare gently, keeping up with my loving caress.

  “Gio…” she begins to interject, but I place a tender kiss on her lips, stopping any of her excuses.

  “I’m serious, Selene. Would he be angry that I’m helping him get out of jail even though I wish he’d stay there so I could keep you here with me?”

  “James isn’t like that,” she responds, breaking our eye contact by lowering her gaze to my chest.

  I grab her chin lightly and return her deep-green, meadow eyes back to mine.

  “Oh, no? What kind of a man is he then?”

  “A man who only wants me to be happy,” she confesses somberly.

  “So a man after my own heart, you mean?” I taunt, gaining a meek smile from the woman who broke mine.

  “I think you’d like him,” she counters.

  “I think I’d hate him. Actually, I know I do.”

  Her small grin falters, and she shifts away from me, giving me her full back and her perfect peach ass that delights me even further.

  “He’s a good man, Giovanni. One of the best I have ever met,” she snipes. With each praise she spouts, I hate the bastard even more.

  “Really? The best, you say? So he’d be cool with you fucking other men as long as it brought a smile to your face?” I rebuke, the words tinged with resentment. I’m met with nothing but silence from my bella, confirming my suspicions, so I retort, “Exactly what I thought. Not every man is willing to share such a prize.”

  Selene turns to face me once more, and this time I know I’ve pissed off the prim-and-proper principessa. Her acrimonious stare says it all.

  “Is that how you see me? A prize?” she spits out, disgusted with the word.

  My head slumps further into the pillow, sadness overpowering my every emotion, weakened by the woman before me.

  “No, principessa. I see you as the dream I will never have, in the hands of a man who is a stranger to me,” I admit softly.

  My love reaches out to me, wrapping her arms around my waist and enveloping me inside her warmth; no longer upset with my poor choice of wording, wishing to console our two lost souls instead.

  “I’ve lost dreams too, Gio,” she whispers.

  “Have you? From what I can see, you’ve moved on easily enough, while I’ve spent the last ten years missing you, principessa. Missing your smile, your laugh, your love. Now that I know someone else is enjoying all of that instead of me, I don’t think you lost as much as I did.”

  “That isn’t fair, Giovanni. I lived my life the best way I could, considering I could never have who I truly wanted. Are you going to lie here and tell me you didn’t try and do the same?” she exclaims, with her brow arched high.

  I let out a pitiful chuckle.

  “I warmed my bed but never my heart, if that’s what you’re implying. That was always yours, Selene. I could never tarnish the memory of our love by marrying another. Not like you have.”

  The corner of my mouth twitches at the cold, hard truth of it all. I might have given my body to women who did not merit it, but my heart was never mine to give away. Selene took it with her when she left us; to this day it remains her hostage and captive. And as naive as it may be, my heart—in her hands—is exactly where it should stay. It will always be hers, after all.

  She moves up on the bed and straddles me; my throat and chest tighten at the sight of it. So fucking gorgeous is my bella. Even though her hair no longer has that beautiful ruby flare, she is still very much the girl who brought me to my knees when I was just a boy. Sporting that same hard exterior to conceal her capacity for loving so fiercely, she’s my own beautiful savage. She places one hand on my chest, while she grips my clean-shaven chin with the other, commanding my full attention.

  “I did what I had to do to survive, Giovanni,” she declares steadfastly, and my soul believes her statement, even if my heart hurts to hear it.

  “Why didn’t you take me?” I ask, finally voicing the question which has tormented me for a decade and has been on the tip of my tongue from the minute my eyes landed on her again.

  Her eyes look puzzled with such a question, and a flash of bitter resentment resurfaces anew. How could she be so clueless?

  “I wasn’t lying when I said I missed you, bella, but I also hated and begrudged you, too. You left this place and never once thought of taking me with you. I would have gone if you had only asked. But you didn’t. You never asked, Selene. Why?”

  The sorrow and pity in her gaze are too much to take. I turn my head away from her, unable to see such sentiment slapping me in the face. But my love won’t even give me this one small mercy.

  “Look at me, Gio. Look at me. If I asked you to come, you would have hated yourself for leaving Vincent and Dom behind. You would have ended up loathing the person you’d become, and then ended up resenting me even more than you do now. I couldn’t do that to you. And my selfishness, for wanting to keep our love alive in any way I could, stopped me from making such a request.”

  “You lied to me, bella. We promised each other we wouldn’t have lies between us.”

  She doesn’t dispute it but doesn’t seem apologetic for it either.

  “I would have gone to the ends of the earth for you. I would have made the sacrifice. I would have left them without a second thought. Left everything and everyone just to be with you.”

  Her soft smile returns, and her eyes glimmer with unshed tears.

  “Who’s lying to whom now, Gio?”

  I open my mouth to deny her remark, but then seal my lips shut.

  “You love them just as much as you love me. If I had told you of my plans, you would have encouraged me to go, but you would never come with me. You wouldn’t be able to leave Vincent and Dom when they needed you most. I know you through and through, Giovanni DeLuca. You would sacrifice yourself, but never the people you love,” she reasons with her rich, even tone, never missing a beat.

  “You’re making me sound like some sort of martyr. I’m not that good of a man, Selene.” I huff out.

  “It takes one to know one. And I’m not that good of a woman, either.”

  “So they kept their souls at the expense of my own,” I rebuke solemnly, thinking of all the ways I’ve changed since I became a true made man—a role I needed to take on to give Vincent and Dominic some purpose in their lives, as well as my own.

  “They would have done the same for you if they could,” she replies sympathetically.

  “I never wanted to become my father, bella. And look at me now,” I bite back.

  “Your father is a good man, Gio. Just as you are. Don’t cheapen your worth. You are a far greater consigliere than your predecessor. I know that much,” she continues, referring to her own piece-of-shit father. I take my eyes off her for a split second to look at our dire surroundings. With The Butcher’s name lingering in my mind, I am reminded of why I have to make love to my principessa in such a grotesque environment.

  “I wish you didn’t have to stay in this place,” I confess, distraught.

  “If we are going to start debating wishes, then my first wouldn’t be changing my motel room,” she laughs off, falling onto my chest and placing a kiss at the hollow of my throat.

  “Oh, no? What would you wish for then?” I ask, snuggling her body to mine.

  “I wish Vincent didn’t hate me so much,” she hushes out, and I squeeze her further still. “I knew I had hurt him, that my actions hurt you all, but I never expected him to hate me the way that he does.”

  I let out a long breath.

  “He doesn’t hate you, bella. As much as he tries to believe he does, he could hate you no more than Dom and I ever could. But while you broke us, you destroyed him, Selene,” I explain, trying to find the right words that won’t inflict the same suffering for h
er that Vincent has had to endure.

  “How?”

  Shit.

  Rehashing this precise clusterfuck wasn’t how I expected to spend my night. But if she wants to know why Vincent is more fucked in the head than Dom and I, then she might as well hear it from me. She sure as shit won’t get a nicer explanation from him.

  “He’s under the illusion you didn’t want to leave us. You wanted to leave him.”

  She tilts her head up, placing her chin on my chest, confused about where I’m going with this.

  “Bella, the thing with lies is that they always come to light, one way or another. When Big Sal ordered his men back home, ending their search for you, Vincent was livid—he threatened to leave the Outfit in its entirety if his uncle denied him to continue his search for you. So, to stop this madness, Big Sal told him what he needed to hear—the truth, or at least his part in it. He told Vince the reason you left was his fault; that he alone was responsible for you running away when he proposed you’d marry Vincent in the wake of Pietro’s death. He explained how he approached you and your mother with the engagement, and how you vanished less than a week after his proposal.”

  Selene’s eyes start to grow wide in panic, revealing what I always knew to be the real truth and not Big Sal’s version of it.

  “I know why you left, bella. I understand this life was never what you wanted, and you deserved a chance to be free from its bloodshed. But after Big Sal’s confession, Vincent’s understanding of your reasons for leaving didn’t bode well for his heart. All he saw was that when you were engaged to his cousin, you conformed to your fate; but when his uncle proposed you marry him, you just picked up and left us all.”

  I watch her pain-stricken face grow paler, as she bites her lower lip hard enough to crack the skin and make it bleed. I lift from the bed and hold her trembling form in my arms—a small comfort compared to the bombshell I just laid on her. But now that I’ve started, I have to go through every last detail. No matter how it slices me apart to see her crumble.

  “What was he to think, Selene? He has lived years thinking the woman he gave his heart to would rather live a life on the run in constant danger than have his ring on her finger. His pain comes from the dark recesses of his mind, where love will always be unattainable for him. All he knows is death and betrayal, bella. It’s all he’s ever known. Don’t hold his hate against him, when it’s the only thing holding him together.”

  She nods stiffly against me, her wet tears cooling off my hot skin, and I lay us both back down on the bed. I keep her close, hugging her to me, while she lets her anguish and misery go. I always knew Big Sal’s reason for Selene leaving was bullshit. But it always troubled me why she chose to run away at that time when we were so close to getting what we always dreamed about. Her marrying Vince would be the answer to all our problems. Why leave when it was being offered to her on a silver platter? I tried to reason that it was the life she ran away from, not us, but what if I was missing something?

  “Bella? Why did you leave us? If that was your intention all along, then why not do it when Silvio bargained for you to marry Pietro? Why go when you and Anna Maria would be safe under Vincent’s protection?”

  Her bloodshot eyes look up at me in earnest, a speck of blood still hanging on her lower lip.

  “I don’t want to lie to you, Gio. Please don’t make me,” she answers on a stuttered whisper.

  I nod, conceding for now, but make a point of returning to this conversation again when she’s less vulnerable and more capable of giving me a straight answer. Instead, I do the underhanded thing and ask for something which has plagued me into becoming an insecure fool.

  “I don’t want your lies. I never did. All I ever wanted from you was your love. Tell me you love me. Make me believe that you give a shit about me, bella.” I hear myself beg.

  Her own features soften, and the answer to my question is so evident in her eyes, I choke up at the glorious sight.

  “Gio, I never once stopped loving you. You’re mine, as much as I am yours,” she affirms adamantly, resolute in her belief that our love is still perfectly intact, even though our lives have taken us away from each other.

  “Bella,” I hush out, grabbing her face in my hands and delivering a kiss that would shatter all others. Everything I hold, the pain, misery, love, and longing, I pour into this one kiss.

  Her lips part for me, opening herself to everything I have to offer, and I take full advantage. I want to consume her, body and soul, just as she has consumed my every waking moment. Our tongues, teeth, and lips battle for dominance and submission with every bite and caress. My hands fall from her face, gripping her hips in brute force, while my mouth offers only passion and desire. My eyes slant shut when I feel her maddening touch on my cock, leading it to its rightful home. I do as she beckons, and slam myself within her hot embrace, growling loudly at the divinity of it all.

  “Fuck!” I grunt.

  Being inside of Selene is just like her love—clutching pain, and heavenly bliss weaved into one glorious mess. Her sweet pussy was made for me, and the sultry temptress knows it as she starts gliding her core up and down on my cock in a delicious, devilish tempo. She pushes away from my hold and sits up to mount me completely, wanting to look at where we are connected.

  “Fuck, that’s hot!” I moan, gripping her waist and giving her more of an eyeful.

  Her mouth slacks to the side in awe of such beauty, and I almost cum inside her when she licks her lips approvingly.

  “I remember a night you promised I’d be able to do this. Do you remember, Gio?” she taunts, milking my cock for all it’s worth.

  I feel her nails run along my chest, marking me as hers, while she showcases a wanton smirk on her lips.

  “Oh, I remember, bella. I also remember telling you to ride me as if your life depended on it. So what are you waiting for?” I tease back with a mischievous grin of my own.

  My love takes the bait and quickens her speed, consuming me whole. I could fucking die tomorrow, and I’d still be smiling after this show. Her plump breasts jump with every thrust; I want to taste those sweet cherries again, but I don’t want to miss a single second of her riding me into oblivion. And to satiate her craving for more, I rub my thumb on her needy nub, and she gasps as I toy with it.

  “Gio!” she wails, her eyes half-mast with lust and want.

  I grin at her reaction, but then stagger when I feel her hand lift from my chest, only to reach behind her and caress my balls with her soft touch. Her wild bounce on my shaft, coupled with such tender touch, does me in.

  “I’m cumming!” I bellow, infuriated she got me to lose my load so easily. Unwilling to surrender until she does, I massage her clit with such ruthlessness, she falls with me into a precipice of serenity.

  “AHH!” she yells as she reaches the stars and clings on to them for dear life.

  The ugly room briefly disappears from our sights, and all that surrounds us is blinding light and precious devotion. Selene falls on top of me again, once her flight has come to a divine end. I kiss her hair while taking a minute to get my own beating heart in check. Once both our ragged breaths are even and content, a new worry decides to break its way through my afterglow, tainting its perfection.

  “You’re going to leave us again aren’t you? Once you get what you came for, that is.”

  “I have to,” she replies on a strangled breath.

  “Will you regret this? Being with me like this?”

  “I have made many mistakes in my life, but loving you was never one of them,” she answers truthfully, and the words resonate with me, as they could have easily fallen from my lips in regards to her. “I will never regret giving you my heart, Giovanni,” she adds reassuringly.

  “Tell me one regret you do have?” I ask, inwardly hoping she’ll say it was leaving me behind.

  There is a long, silent pause and I almost think she’s fallen asleep on me.

  “S
elene?” I whisper, tilting her face up to me. The contrite glare I’m met with is not only humbling but also floors the living shit out of me.

  “I’m sorry I wasn’t your first,” she whispers, and a familiar old wound opens up.

  It was ages ago, and I have forgiven her for it, but still, it leaves a foul taste in my mouth to be reminded.

  “And you, do you have any regrets?” she asks, trying to deflect my attention from her confession.

  Unfortunately, the answer to that question is a bitter pill to swallow—far harsher than Selene not saving herself for me, as I had tried to do for her.

  “Only one,” I reply, but I lack the courage to say the words out loud.

  I’m not sorry you weren’t my first, principessa.

  I’m sorry you can’t be my last.

  FIFTEEN

  Vincent

  “Boss? She’s here,” one of my soldiers announces through the doorway of my office.

  “Good. Show her in,” I reply, going over to my bar and pouring a stiff drink to get me through this.

  I smell her flowery scent long before I see her. I turn to the door and face a pissed off Selene, escorted by the two men I had assigned to follow her.

  “You know, if you wanted to see me, all you had to do was ask, Vincent. You didn’t have to send your goons after me,” she says through gritted teeth.

  “What would be the fun in that?” I reply sinisterly and wave my men away. They take their cue and close the door behind them, giving us the privacy we need.

  “Do they know who I am?” she asks, her eyes lingering on the closed office door.

  “No. I made sure of it.”

  “Do you trust them?”

  “They are loyal to me, if that is your concern,” I reply, pouring a glass of whiskey for her.

  “Good,” she says, releasing a suspended breath. I hate that she could think I would be so careless with her safety. I hand her the glass, and she takes it willingly enough.

  “Glad you approve,” I quip back.

  “Why am I here, Vincent?” she questions, taking a small sip of the amber liquid and ignoring my snide comment.