by Savanna Gray
“She doesn’t want to marry Wolfe,” I shot back. “Sienna wants to be with me.”
“What my daughter wants is of little importance,” the Senator boomed, now looking at me with hatred-filled eyes. “She will marry into that family whether she likes it or not. We all have our crosses to bear, and this is hers. Sacrifices have to be made for the better good.”
I shook my head at him, my teeth gritted in anger. “You speak of your daughter as if she’s a thing and not a person. Having her marry a man she will never love won’t help you salvage your re-election campaign.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, boy. And you would be wise to learn my power has no limits.”
“Marco,” my father said, lowering his voice. I returned my gaze to him and was surprised to find his face softening, as if he had given up the fight against Senator York. He continued, “I’m not proud of some of the things I’ve done to save this family, but I did them for us. Jonathan is a friend, not an enemy.”
“What are you talking about? I was raised to hate this man, and yet you use your sons to do his bidding.” I turned away from him, irritated. “This man is no friend of mine.”
“I raised you that way so you would stay away from Sienna. So you would learn to hate her.”
“Well, you failed, Dad. Because I don’t hate her.”
I love her.
I wouldn’t admit it aloud, but I had always loved her. Always would. Sienna York was the only girl who ever made me feel whole.
“I can make you go away,” the Senator growled. “I have the means and the power to make one call, and you will never see my daughter again.”
“What are you going to do? Put a hit on me?” I laughed. “Who’s gonna do it for you? One of my brothers? Try again. We’ve been cleaning up after you for years. Maybe it’s time we finally take out the trash.” I pushed myself up from the chair, sick of looking at his smug face. Staring down at him, I growled, “Watch your back, Senator.”
As I turned to walk away, my father yelled, “Sit the fuck down, Marco. I’m not in the mood for this shit. I need to tell you something. It changes everything. Stop acting like a spoiled brat.”
With some hesitation, I did as he asked, kicking my wingtip up on my knee as I leaned back in the chair. “What could possibly change my mind?”
“I’ve been lying to you for years. To your brothers, too.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, my arms crossed over my chest, waiting for him to finish. He bit his bottom lip and sighed. “Your brother could go to jail if you don’t knock this shit off.”
“What does that have to do with him?” I pointed a finger at Senator York.
“We have an understanding. Sometimes, I provide Senator York with information about certain criminal activities, and he helps the Feds and local police to look the other way.”
My blood ran cold from his words, sending a chill down my spine. “You’re an informant?” I couldn’t even look him in the eye. “Are you kidding me?”
“Yes, unofficially. It’s more of an off-the-books arrangement I have with Senator York. I don’t have a choice. I had to do it. There was no other option at the time. Jonathan and I both do whatever is necessary to protect our families. That’s what you don’t seem to understand, Marco. Some things must be done in order to survive.”
An awkward silence passed between us before my father spoke again. “When Giovanni was a teenager, he took a job with your cousin, Luca, and some of his men. It ended badly.”
“You ratted on Luca to save Gio”
“No, our deal extends to our entire family. With Senator York’s help, I was able to keep Giovanni out of jail. He was a minor, looking at a murder charge, but still old enough to be treated as an adult.”
“We all know the risk,” I growled. “You should have let Gio go down with Luca. Aren’t you the one who always told us that real men are made? That some men can only learn from their mistakes.”
“Giovanni was a kid. He didn’t know better. Luca offered him the chance to make a lot of money, and he jumped at the chance. Your cousin is lucky I didn’t slit his throat for getting Giovanni involved in a job I didn’t sanction.”
“That’s not good enough,” I countered with so much hatred behind my words my body shook from it. “I don’t care why you did it and why you continue to do it. You’re a narc. I could never trust you again.”
“Forget the name Sienna York, do you understand me?” He pressed his hands to the desk and stood, leaning close enough for me to feel his breath on my face. “She doesn’t exist to you. Don’t go near her ever again. Unless you want our entire family to end up in jail, you will do as you are told.”
“Who says I care what happens to you?” I stared at the wall behind him, my hands balled into fists at my sides. “Everything you’ve built is a fucking lie.”
“I don’t want to hear it, Marco. We can talk about this later. Just do as you’re told and leave Sienna alone. You might not care about me, but you wouldn’t want your brothers to rot in prison because you’re angry with me and in love with that girl.”
“No,” I shot back with fire behind my words. “I don’t want to see that happen. But this isn’t over between us. And I will never forgive you. In fact, I’m done with you.”
As I stormed out of his office, my skin burning from anger, I made a plan to call my cousin, Luca. If anyone could help me make a new life, it was him. Because the life I had been living wasn’t going to last long, not with Sienna in it.
Chapter Eleven
Sienna
Marco texted me on the burner phone, instructing me how to escape my property without being seen. I pretended to have a headache so I’d have an excuse to go to bed early. Brian believed my lie. He was downstairs, manning the front door, when I enlisted Cara’s help to sneak out of the house.
“Don’t do this. Your father will find out,” she insisted.
“Please, Cara.” I held my hands in front of me, begging her. “I love Marco. I want to be with him not Karl. I can’t marry that awful man when my heart belongs to Marco.”
“I want to help you, but your father will have my head if he knows I assisted you in any way.”
“Just watch my back, okay? Can you do that?”
She sucked in a deep breath, and then pulled me into a hug. “Be careful, Sienna. I don’t want to see anything happen to you.”
“My dad is evil, but he would never hurt me.”
She held me at an arm’s length. “I used to think that… until I found something about your brother in Mr. York’s office.”
Just thinking about Ethan made my heart sink into my stomach. He was the only person who knew what it was like to ride the waves of my father’s career. And now he was gone. Because of that, I no longer felt whole, like a part of me was missing without my brother in my life. Cara and Marco were all I had left.
“What did you find?”
“Something I shouldn’t have seen.” She shook her head, as if she wasn’t proud of herself. In all the years I’d known Cara, she’d never snooped, never spoke ill of my father. “I don’t think Ethan killed himself. I knew your brother well, and he was never suicidal. I raised you both, even tended to Ethan when he was sick or at his worst. A few days ago, I overheard your father on the phone in his office.”
“And?” I bit the inside of my cheek, nerves bubbling up in my chest. “What did he say?”
“He said with Ethan out of the way he could proceed with his plan.” She removed a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket and handed it to me. “And then I found this in the garbage can. I don’t normally go through the garbage, but seeing Paternity Test at the top of the page had caught my attention.”
I unfolded the paper and read the words three times before I could look up at Cara. My eyes widened along with my mouth. I stared at her in horror, both of us standing in my bedroom unsure of what to say next. A brief silence passed between us, where I tried to process her words.
“My dad wasn
’t Ethan’s father. How is this possible?”
Cara shrugged. “Your mother is never home. She may hide her affairs, but she’s been having them for years. Their marriage was about convenience, not love. More like a business arrangement.”
Ethan looked like my mother, where I was the spitting image of my father. But I never once considered that Ethan wasn’t a York by blood. I glanced at the paper once more to check the date.
“He had the paternity test ordered two weeks before Ethan died.”
I thought long and hard and remembered the unusual fight my parents had while Ethan was still alive. My parents were arguing over the contract they had agreed upon long before my brother and I were born. She was telling him she’d held up her promise to give him two children, whether or not they were his.
“What if I’m not his, too?” I held the paper with hope, but also fear that he would kill me if that were true.
“Then you would be free,” she whispered.
“It could also make me the next target on his list.” I folded the paper into fours and shoved it into the pocket of my jeans. “What if that’s the reason he wants me to marry Karl Wolfe? If his entire life was a lie and the media found out, it could hurt his reputation and his campaign. My brother’s death gave him some sympathy points in the polls, but he’s still trailing behind his opponent.”
“He wouldn’t kill you. Two dead children would look a little suspicious, don’t you think?”
“But he could marry me into a wealthy family to get rid of me. I could tell from talking to Karl that I would be treated no different with him. He was cold and arrogant. If I marry Karl, it would be the worst two years of my life. I got a gut feeling from him. He’s just as bad as my dad. Maybe even worse. Why else would he agree to this?”
“I wish I knew the right thing to say.” Cara stroked my arm with her fingers. “You deserve better than this. Ethan did, too. But as long as you sneak around behind your father’s back, you will never be safe. He will punish you for it.”
She was right. But I no longer cared what my father did to me. One night with Marco was worth his wrath.
I kissed Cara on the cheek, and she smiled. “Let me worry about your father. I’ve endured him long enough. I can handle him.”
My cell phone buzzed in my pocket. It was Marco telling me the coast was clear. We’d gone over the position of each camera on my property and the timing of them. I knew how many steps to take, how many seconds to wait. Whether my father still found out or not was of little concern to me.
“I have to go,” I told Cara, giving her one last smile before I left the bedroom.
Marco caged me against the wall, claiming my mouth with violent possession. He was hungry for me, my body aching in response to his need. With strong hands he roamed my body, and with each rip of my clothing, before I knew it I was naked and panting when he tore his mouth from mine. His eyes raked over my thighs, and then landed on my bare pussy, until he reached my painfully hard nipples. It was as if he were trying to commit every inch of me to memory. And it killed me. Because for a second, I wondered if this was the last time I would see him.
There was urgency in his actions. But when Marco licked his lips and said, “Mine,” I melted into him.
“I’m yours,” I breathed against his lips and they parted for me once more.
He hooked his fingers through my curls and lifted me up by my ass with his other hand, moving us toward his bed. This was the first night I was in Marco’s house. He shared it with Antonio, who wasn’t home. For once, we were alone and free to take all the time we needed. But Marco was in a rush.
He lowered me to the bed and stared down at me as he removed his clothes. “I don’t deserve you,” he said under his breath. “But I can’t stop myself from having you.”
Using my elbows for support, I sat up with my legs spread open for him. “You’re right where you belong. With me.”
He covered my body with his, and his thick cock dug into my thigh when he kissed me. Marco bit my lip and made a growling sound. It was so primal and sexy my core begged for him to be inside me.
“You’ve always belonged with me.” He grabbed the choker around my neck and tugged hard enough to pull me to him. “But I’m not a good man. I’ve done things you won’t like. I will keep doing them. Because this is how I was raised. I don’t know anything else.”
I pressed my palm to his cheek and looked into his eyes. “I don’t care if you’re a criminal or a cop. In my experience, there’s not much difference between them. Even the good guys are bad.” I ran my thumb over his bottom lip, and he stuck out his tongue to lick me.
A fire blazed behind his beautiful blue eyes. “Mine,” he muttered as he kissed my left breast. “For however long I can keep you.”
His deep, sensual voice sent shivers down my spine. Every inch of my body was on fire from each kiss he left on my skin. But his words struck me like a knife to the chest.
“Keep me. Please, Marco.” The words barely escaped my lips.
“You know I can’t.” Marco gazed up at me as he made room for himself between my legs, throwing both of them over his shoulders. He silenced me by sticking out his tongue to make contact with my clit, his eyes finding mine in the process. When he sucked on my clit, two fingers sliding inside me, I moaned his name. My eyes closed for a second from the overwhelming sensation that rocked my core.
“Marco,” I purred. His breath on my skin felt so good a brush of warmth spread up my legs and arms to my cheeks. My body jerked, the sensation so overwhelming I couldn’t keep still.
“Stop moving…” Marco squeezed my thighs, “… or I’ll have to tie you down.”
I rocked my hips on purpose, challenging him. He smirked, as if he knew what I was doing, and dropped my legs to slide off the bed. He lifted his tie from the floor. It was a navy-and-light blue mix that matched his eyes. Wanting to give him the fight I knew he craved, I turned over to crawl away from him, up to the head of the bed, when he grabbed both of my legs and pulled me toward him.
“You’re only making me want you more,” he growled, and then climbed into bed with me. After he flipped me over, he pinned my arms together. He held them above my head and bound each of my wrists with the silky fabric, before he tied them to the iron headboard.
“It’s like you were made for me, Sienna.”
The more the taut fabric dug into my wrists the more I writhed beneath him. He resumed his position between my legs, lifting one over his shoulder, while he held the other in the air with his hand. His tongue made contact with my tiny bundle of nerves, hitting every pleasure point at once. I rocked my hips, greedy and hungry for more of his tongue. I wanted more of him, needed more. When it came to Marco, I could never have enough. He filled the emptiness inside me, made me feel complete.
Even with my arms attached to the headboard, it wasn’t enough to keep me still.
“Tell me,” I screamed, hitting the peak of my climax. “Why won’t you keep me?”
My body trembled from his skilled tongue. A brush of heat rushed over me, my orgasm hit me with a violent force that crashed over me in waves. I was drowning in Marco, consumed by the high he’d given me. He made me feel alive. Most of all, he helped me forget everything in my life. Even if it was only for a few seconds.
He licked my juices from his mouth and set my legs on the mattress. “There are some things I can’t tell you.” His voice was deep and raspy. “I’m already taking a risk by having you come here.”
Marco sat back enough to stroke his cock, and my mouth opened in response. “This is what you do to me,” he grunted. “I want to fuck your pretty mouth.”
In answer, I opened my mouth wider.
He straddled my head with his thighs and shoved his thick cock inside, almost choking me. With my hands bound above my head, I submitted to him completely. My eyes watered, tears streaming down my face. His eyes flickered with excitement, and I knew without him saying it aloud that he loved to watch me deep thro
at every inch of him. Even though I was gasping for air, I loved feeling him. Everywhere.
He pulled out of my mouth, my lips swollen and cracked. They hurt when he dragged his thumb along my bottom lip, but nothing compared to when he slammed his cock into me. Hard, rough, violent, he took from me without warning.
I turned my head to the side and moaned, his tie digging into my skin. He leaned forward, holding my legs against his chest, his cock sliding so far into me that he owned my body. Marco was a man who claimed his property.
After we both came, he kissed each of my breasts and then stared into my eyes, his cock still inside me. “I wish I didn’t have to take you home. I’m working on a plan. But don’t rush anything. Don’t ask any questions. The less you know, the better.”
I smiled. “I thought you couldn’t keep me.”
“I can’t right now. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want us to be together.” He pressed his lips to mine and gave me a quick peck at the corner of my mouth, before he moved to my cheek and neck.
“I love you,” I whispered, and he stopped his exploration of my body with his mouth.
Marco’s eyes burned with desire. He cupped my cheek with his hand, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “I love you, too, raven. It’s always been you.”
His fingers caused my skin to tingle when he reached above my head to release my hands. He dangled the tie above me, a smirk on his lips. “This is only the beginning. In time, I will show you everything I like.”
“As long as it’s with you, I’m sure I will love it.” I moved my hands to his back and dug my foot into his ass. He was still hard, his cock growing thicker.
Marco slid in and out of me so slowly my raw pussy ached with each thrust. He made love to me, soft and sensual as if it were my first time all over again. With Marco, every moment was special. No matter how hard he liked to fuck, I knew he wanted to be what I needed, what I wanted. He felt as though he didn’t deserve me. But he did. And he showed me by how much he worshiped me.