A few moments later, I caught sight of Lucia. She didn’t see me. I slowed to her pace, watching her, lean muscle working as she leaped over a tree stump and avoided a moss-covered boulder. She’d bound her long hair in a ponytail that bounced from side to side, and sweat glistened on her bare shoulders. She wore a sports bra and shorts, the white fabric bright against her lightly tanned skin. Earbuds connected to an iPhone secured on her arm told me why I was able to get so close without her hearing me.
I caught up, startling her. She stopped, clutching her chest.
“Stop doing that!” she said, pulling the earbuds from her ears.
“I was behind you for the last five minutes. You should be more aware of your surroundings.” The music was loud enough that I could clearly make out the song. Mumford and Sons. “You don’t need that anyway, not when you run in the woods.” I loved the stillness of this place, the peace I found as soon as I disappeared into the cover of the trees.
She looked me over. “You’re running?”
I nodded. “You’re up early.”
“Couldn’t sleep.”
“Me either.” I glanced up toward the place I ran to, a clearing on a hill that gave the best view of the sunrise. “Come on. I’ll show you something.”
I turned and ran. It took her a moment, and I imagined her mind working up some snarky comment, but then she followed. I slowed my pace so she could keep up, and we ran in silence for the next twenty minutes, climbing up the slope. Lucia slowed, her breathing coming shorter but her condition obviously good. Used to running.
“Wow.”
I heard the awe in her voice as we reached the top of the hill. The sun had just broken through the clouds, and the sky was a wash of orange and pink and red.
“This is…amazing.”
She walked a bit farther. I watched, finding myself smiling.
“Beautiful,” she muttered.
“It’s the one good thing about being an insomniac. I never miss the sunrises.”
She glanced back at me, and I realized how easily I’d given away that piece of myself. I imagined the staff at the house knew I slept little, but no one else.
Lucia returned her gaze to the sky. I watched her framed by this show of lights.
“How long have you been like that? Unable to sleep, I mean.”
“As long as I can remember.” I was twenty-nine now so maybe fifteen years.
We watched the sunrise in silence. When the sun had crested, she turned to me, her whiskey eyes shining bright, the accusations of last night absent this morning, although her gaze remained cautious.
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do,” she finally said, her arms folded across her chest, defensive and closed.
“That makes two of us.”
She scrunched up her forehead. “I don’t understand.”
“I’m not a monster, Lucia, but I am my father’s son. I am obligated, just as you are.” She studied me. “You choose how hard you want to make this on yourself. There are worse things than being in my care.”
“In your care?”
“Yes, my care. It could have been my brother. Or my father. Where do you think you’d be if it had been either of them instead of me?”
“I don’t see the difference.”
Her words got to me. “Fine, let me simplify this for you. You’re to be obedient.”
“I don’t even know what that means. Do you expect me to just…” She glanced away, a blush creeping up her neck to her cheeks. “What do you want?” she finally asked, straightening, obviously forcing herself to look at me.
“Your obedience.”
She opened her mouth to speak, but I stepped closer to her and placed my finger over her lips.
“Hear my words, Lucia. I expect your obedience. I didn’t say want. I own you, no matter how you feel about that. I can make this good for you.” I couldn’t keep my gaze from wandering to the soft swell of her breasts before they returned to hers. “Or I can make it bad. It’s up to you how this goes.”
“It was supposed to be my sister,” she said, a sheen of tears obscuring her eyes.
Looking at her, helpless, alone—and she was alone—only made me want to comfort and reassure her. So opposite what I was supposed to do.
“But she got herself pregnant.” She turned her back to me and wiped one hand across her eyes before turning and looking at me again. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do here. Are you…” she floundered again. “Do you… Fuck. Never mind.”
Without warning, she bolted back toward the house, her pace faster now. I followed easily, keeping a short distance between us, unsure how to answer her questions, not knowing myself what the hell I wanted from her. Her obedience, what the hell did that mean? That she sit when I say sit and fetch when I say fetch? It was so much more than that. A woman like Lucia DeMarco didn’t simply give her submission. A man would have to earn it.
Or break her to take it.
“Lucia,” I called out when we drew near the back entrance to the house, the large sliding glass doors of the dining room standing open.
She glanced back but ran into the house. I followed, seeing the blur of a maid setting the table for breakfast.
“Lucia!” I was only a few steps behind her, and when she stumbled over the last stair to the second floor, I caught her around the waist and lifted her, holding her to me. I saw then why she’d run. Tears stained her cheeks, and her eyes were puffy again, her face flushed.
For a moment, I faltered.
For one moment, I was human.
But then I looked down at her. I watched her struggle uselessly as I held her tight.
“Lucia,” I whispered this time, snaking a hand up her back, the feel of her body moving against mine making me forget everything else.
I gripped her ponytail and tugged her head back.
“Stop,” she said, her voice quiet.
I held her like that, my gaze drifting to her lips, soft and pink, her mouth slightly open, and I kissed her. I just…kissed her. It was our first kiss.
She made some sound, but my mouth muffled it. I walked her backward until her back was against the wall, and I leaned down to kiss her harder, tasting her, her mouth so soft, so inviting, even as she protested, or tried to. But her body gave me this, and she opened, her hands relaxing against my chest, even curling a little over my biceps. I dipped my tongue inside her mouth, the moan coming from me now as my cock stiffened against her belly. It felt like a mutual want heated our kiss. Lucia’s fingertips touched my shoulders, drawing me closer, her tongue meeting mine. Hands wrapped around the back of my neck and pulled me in. I relaxed my hold, feeling her surrender, but as soon as I did, she struck. She rammed her knee so hard between my legs that she knocked the wind out of me.
I doubled over, sucking in a loud breath as she stumbled backward, smiling.
“You want my obedience?” she taunted. “You want me to be a good little thing, do as I’m told? Fuck you when I’m told?”
I made some sound, more animal than human as fury fired me from the inside. Lucia backed away, a moment of uncertainty crossing her features before she reached her door down the hall, placing her hand on the doorknob.
“You’ve got another thing coming, Salvatore.” She turned the knob and pushed it open. “If obedience was what you wanted, you chose the wrong woman to fuck with.”
She ran into her room and slammed the door shut. I straightened, my balls fucking killing me, and reached for the key on top of the door frame. I’d installed the special lock on her bedroom door before her arrival for exactly this reason. She would not lock me out. Not in my own house. I imagined her in there right now, frantic when she discovered the missing key. I slid it into the lock and turned it, locking her in from the outside.
“Obedience is what I’ll have,” I said. “I don’t mind teaching it to you. Remember what I said last night?”
She tried the door, jiggling the handle.
I smiled at her muttere
d curse.
“If you betray me, I’ll punish you. This will be your first punishment.”
I left her to stew while I showered. She’d fooled me with that kiss. I’d thought she felt it too, thought she liked it. I think she had, at first. But then, maybe her own sense of duty made her attack.
Regardless, I grinned as I pulled on a pair of jeans. The thought of punishing her aroused me.
Drying my hair roughly with a towel, I went to the door between our rooms and turned the key in the lock on my side. Lucia sat on her bed, her hair wet from a shower, dressed in a pair of shorts and a silk tank, her knees tucked against her chest, a letter opener in her hand held like a knife. The look on her face told me of her shock to see me enter from this door. I locked the door behind me and pocketed the keys.
Her eyes raked over me, from the top of my wet head to my bare feet. I wore only a pair of jeans, wanting her to see what she was up against. I stood a foot taller than her and outweighed her by probably seventy-five pounds. I wouldn’t hurt her, but I wasn’t above a little intimidation. It would be good for her to learn her place and learn it fast.
When I stepped toward her, she got up on her knees in the middle of the bed and pointed the letter opener at me.
“Put that down.”
She shook her head. “What are you going to do?”
I stalked closer. “I said put it down.” I didn’t give her a choice this time. Instead, when she scrambled backward on the bed, I placed one knee on top of it and caught her wrist, dragging her down on her belly until I relieved her of her weapon, tossing it away. I released her. She climbed back up on her knees and glared at me.
“Get undressed, Lucia.”
“No.”
“Come on. I’ve seen it all before. You showed me last night, remember?”
She jumped off the other side of the bed. I liked this. Always liked cat and mouse.
“Go away, Salvatore.”
“Strip, Lucia.”
She’d cornered herself by now, but I gave her space to bolt, just because I didn’t like the game to end too quickly. She ducked under my arm and did just as I knew she would. I turned, watching her try the door.
“Leave me alone!”
“Where are you going to go?” I asked, following her as she ran to retrieve the letter opener. I have to admit, she was faster than I thought, but I caught her around the middle and squeezed her wrist, taking the weapon from her a second time.
“Please leave me alone. Please.”
“What would be the fun in that?”
“I hate you! I hate you!”
With her back to me, she shoved against me, but I had her locked in my embrace. She was trapped. We both knew it. “I’ll tell you how this is going to go. I’m going to release you, and you’re going to do as you’re told and strip. Once you’re naked, I’ll take it from there.”
“I’m sorry, okay?”
I shook my head. “No, not okay.” I grinned a wicked grin, my cock hard already at her back, growing harder with anticipation.
“What are you going to do?”
“I haven’t decided yet.”
She glanced back at me, and I knew she felt me pressing against her back. She couldn’t not feel my hardness.
“I’m not going to fuck you.” From the look on her face, I surprised both of us with that. But it needed to be said. Hell, she had every right to be afraid of me.
I eased up, giving her a little space. “Do as you’re told, and I’ll go easy on you, but if you make me strip you, your punishment will be worse, understand?”
After a moment, she nodded.
I released her, this time tucking the letter opener into a nightstand drawer. I took a seat on the chair at her desk and watched while she stripped off her clothes layer by layer, first her blouse, then the white shorts. She wore a matching set of white lace panties and bra beneath.
“Go on, Lucia.”
She unhooked her bra and let it fall to the floor, that look of innocence now replaced by the same thing I’d seen last night: defiance.
That was good. I preferred defiant.
I’d work that out of her. Slowly, though. No sense in rushing the fun.
I waited for her to slide off her panties. Then she stood before me naked, her hands fisted at her sides.
“Come here.”
Reluctantly, she walked over to me. I took her hips in my hands and looked her over, my gaze on her breasts, those nipples hardening beneath my perusal, the slight hint of arousal making the air musky.
I swallowed and rose to my feet, my hands moving up to her waist. She remained where she stood, turning her face up to keep her eyes on mine.
I walked her to the bed, sitting her on it when the backs of her knees hit it. “Lie back, and open your legs.”
She stared up at me, and I worked my knees between hers, widening them a little, keeping my gaze locked on hers.
“I told you I’m not going to fuck you. I just want to see. Now lie back, Lucia.”
She did, slowly, watching me as I took her in. I knelt between her legs. She let me spread them and presented me with the beautiful sight of her pussy opening to me, the pink lips glistening, gaping, her clit swollen.
She was aroused.
I inhaled deeply, my cock ready to tear free from my jeans. I pressed one hand against her chest, covering a breast with my palm so I could hold her down as well as play with the nipple. I brought my mouth to her, felt her gaze on the top of my head as I dragged my tongue along her length, the sound of her sucking in a breath music to my ears. Her hands came to my head, and she pushed then pulled.
I looked up. “Spread your arms out to the sides.”
She obeyed, and I dipped my head back down to her pussy. She tasted as good as I imagined. Better. Fuck. She thrust herself against me, her cunt dripping as I sucked her clit, then licked her length, dipping my tongue inside her.
She moaned, twisting her body. I looked at her face while I worked the tight little nub. She squeezed her eyes shut and bit her lip. I circled my tongue around the clit, and she opened her eyes, her face flushing pink when our gazes locked. I took her clit in my mouth, watching her, making her watch me until I brought her to orgasm, holding her thighs wide as she bucked beneath me, her hands on the back of my head now, pulling me tight to her until she was spent and begging me to stop, to release her.
“Too much.”
I grinned. “This is the punishment part,” I said, holding her down and eating her pussy again, making her come twice more, hearing her beg me to go on, plead with me to stop, all while I sucked that clit and licked every drop of juice from her cunt until I couldn’t take any more.
I rose to stand over her, my legs still between hers to keep them spread.
I looked down at her, her hair a tangled wet mess all around her, her face flushed, her limbs limp. I unzipped my jeans. When I did, her eyes went wide, and she startled, scooting backward. I caught her thigh and placed one knee on the bed.
“Stay.”
She made a sound, her forehead furrowing.
“I’m not going to fuck you,” I said again, knowing what she feared. But as I pushed my jeans down and off and began to rub the length of my cock, she stilled, swallowing, her gaze darting from my cock, away, then back. “Watch, Lucia.” She wanted to, I could see it on her face, and somehow, the thought of corrupting her innocence made me harder.
I fucked my fist while she watched, her eyes riveted on my hand working my cock. It turned me the fuck on to have her watch me, and I leaned into her, just touching the head of my cock to her folds, making her gasp and bite her lip.
“Fuck,” I said. “I love how you look at me, Lucia. And I love how you taste. How you come on my tongue.”
“Salvatore,” she started, trying to sit up.
I shook my head. “Lie back.”
She did, and I pumped harder, my cock swelling, the scent of her, of me, filling the room with sex.
“Have you ever seen
a man come, Lucia?” I asked, close now.
She met my gaze and shook her head.
“Have you ever had a man’s tongue on your cunt?”
She flushed red and blinked twice before looking away.
“Answer me.”
She held her lower lip between her teeth. “No. I’ve never...” She stopped.
“I’m going to come all over you,” I said, pumping faster, gripping harder. “I’m going to cover you in my cum, and you’re going to wear it all day long, so you know you belong to me.” I jerked, moments away now. “Fuck.”
I blew then, my orgasm coming hard and fast, making me grip one of the posts of her bed to keep upright as I emptied on her, covering her in my cum, watching her face, her eyes, as she took it. And when I finished, I leaned down and rubbed it into her skin, her chest and neck, her belly, her cunt. I then straightened, wiped my hand on her thigh, and pulled my jeans back on. Lucia sat up and looked down at herself for a moment.
“Get dressed,” I said, buttoning my jeans. “Breakfast is ready.”
“I need a shower.”
I shook my head. “Like I said, you’ll wear it all day.” I slapped her hip twice. “Let’s go. I’m suddenly ravenous.”
5
Lucia
I hated him.
Salvatore sat across from me with a huge grin on his face, chomping on a piece of sausage. I tore my bread into pieces and glared at him. He was gloating. Fucking gloating.
“I hate you.”
I hated myself more. How could I have done what he said? How in hell had I enjoyed it? He’d made me come three times. Three times! I’d felt… Fuck, what had I felt for him? The man had made me come, that was all. Any feelings were physical. Sexual.
“You liked me just fine a little while ago.” He bit into a piece of Nutella-smeared toast, a little of the chocolate paste sticking to the side of his mouth. He wiped it with his thumb then made a show of licking it off his finger.
Frustrated, I grabbed an apple out of the bowl of fruit and threw it at him. He caught it like a baseball and bit into it.
Salvatore: a Dark Mafia Romance Page 5