by Lena Little
And that’s about to be tested real quick because in order to claim her I have to demonstrate my ability to protect her, getting her past all these underworld figures, one of which apparently has plans to kill me…tonight.
“It felt so good to rub myself on your stomach,” she says in a muffled tone, her face pressed against the side of mine as her breathing continues to approach normalcy after coming down from our little game.
“If you think my stomach was good, wait until you rub that sweet cunt on my face later. Wait until my tongue, chin, and cheeks are coated in your juices, your flavor, your perfection. And once they are I’m going to kiss your perfect lips so you can see just how good you taste down there, feeding your arousal right back to you like a fucking animal.”
“You just don’t stop, do you?”
“Not when it comes to you. I just have to let you know what you’re signing up for because once you’re used to this cock it’s going to give you nothing but pleasure. Every time I walk into a room you’re in, every time you see me your entire body is going to shake just because you know I’m about to slide my need for you inside that tight little hole. And I’m not going to stop, an insatiable desire driving my hips repeatedly until you’re so spent you can’t even lift yourself off the bed without my help. You’ll just be lying there, dripping in diamonds, pearls, and my come.”
“Oh. My. God.”
“You say anyone’s name, say mine. And speaking of names we’re going to get to the bottom of why you love being called Little Girl so much. That’s a promise.”
“Good. I want to learn more about these new feelings that are driving me,” she says softly, in a moment of vulnerability.
“Me too, for myself as well,” I confide. “I’ve never called anyone that in my entire life. But with you? It just comes naturally, so naturally that it should be your name now. Shouldn’t it, Princess?”
“Yes.”
I place her butt back on the countertop and straighten out her dress and try my best to put her hair back in place. Some of the sweat on her face has it sticking to her forehead and cheeks, but I do what I can with my oversized digits lacking in the precision needed to deal with someone so delicate. When I get it to an acceptable level I cup her face, gently yet firmly. “Look at me and listen carefully. I’m Julian. I’m your Daddy. You’re safe with me. You got that?”
She nods.
I drop my mouth to meet hers and brush my lips over hers and then back again, stopping when our mouths are aligned, using the opportunity to kiss her gently. “I’m not the kind of guy who believes in astrology or mythology or coincidences or fate…none of it. But I can’t deny that someone, or something, made our paths cross tonight and brought us here so we could be together. I don’t question that and I’m going to work my ass off so that you’ll never have to question who your man is from now until eternity. No one and nothing will ever bring you harm. Not as long as there’s air in my lungs or the men I hire when I’m dead and gone are still on the payroll. But it won’t just be about money. They’ll respect you and honor you just like they do for me. That’s the thing about the kind of life I live. People can talk shit about it all they want, but it’s built on honor, courage, and commitment. And that’s exactly how I will love you, with those principles guiding everything I do. That’s my vow, my promise to you.”
“How you…”
“Yes. How I will love you. You heard me right.”
A long moment passes where she processes my words, wrapping me up in a big hug. “I don’t care about your past or how you live your life. All I care about is how you make me feel safe, protected, wanted for the first time ever. I…” she sniffles. “I just don’t want to be a burden on you.”
“A burden?” My muscles contract, ready to find and strange whoever the person is who put these kinds of thoughts into her head. “Life was a burden before you showed up, Little Girl. You give me a sense of purpose, a sense of righteousness…a future I never had before you. A burden? No fucking way. Making you mine every day for the rest of our lives is a privilege, and I’ll never take it for granted.”
She hugs me hard once more and then pulls away, wiping away a tear with the back of her wrist, how a kitten might care for itself.
I turn to the side and bang my head against the door. I can’t believe she feels this way, but the positive side of it is it’s going to allow my newfound jealousy and possessiveness to thrive. She’ll see. It’s going to be like dumping gasoline on a fire whenever we’re together, and I don’t plan on ever letting her out of my sight. Her presence at my side isn’t optional. No. Fucking. Way. She’s going to be a permanent fixture on my hip and me on hers. She’s my life now and I’m bringing her home.
“You ready to go home?”
“Mine or yours?”
“Mine is yours now. Always.”
A smile breaks through the cloud of tears. “And it’s…it’s safe there?”
“One million percent. If anyone even thought about hurting you I’d rip the sky right down the middle.”
She laughs, but I’m not joking around.
“What about Don Neto?”
I feel like a balloon that’s just been pricked. For all, I know the bastard thinks he’s going to be a whole lot more than her employer. And if he did, he sure a shit thought wrong.
I feel anger and then a calm washes over me and I’m shocked to find I don’t care. That’s the thing…I know I’m taking her home with me either way. And the calm inside me is from knowing that nothing’s going to stop me. Nothing.
If he thinks she’s his girlfriend, well they just broke up.
If he had plans of marrying such a sweet innocent thing, well, he better mentally work his way through the annulment.
Because I’m not giving her up for anything. And I’m not leaving here without her.
On cue, there’s a rap of knuckles on the bathroom door. Giulia twitches, her entire body pulling in tight as she mouths the word ‘no.’ I point to my chest and then to the corner of the single toilet bathroom. “Go wait over there,” I grunt in a low voice. “I don’t want another man looking at you.”
She does as I ask and I wrap my hand around the knob.
These boys want to take my princess away from me. My princess. She’s my treasure and I’m not about to allow anyone to steal her from me.
I breathe heavily through my nose, like a bull before it charges.
“We know you’re in there. Come out, Julian.”
I shove the door open and quickly all four security guards draw guns on me.
“Taking one hell of a victory lap after winning that hand, Julian. Well, the party’s over,” Don Neto smiles, from behind his henchmen of course. ‘Tough guys’ like that are only as tough as the real men they hire to protect them. I’ve seen it a thousand times.
“Oh, it’s just beginning you prick,” I bite back. “You think I didn’t know you’d want to take me down the second I finished my time. You think I came here like an idiot not knowing that? Well, here’s all you need to know. There are Feds outside, and even one at your table that you couldn’t even identify. You’re getting weak, Don Neto. That’s what happens when a real man like me isn’t around to do all the work for your organization while you take the credit.”
“You’re full of shit,” he snaps.
“Am I? Or are you full of lead if you touch a hair on my head, or God forbid you even think about doing something to Giulia, other than lying down in a muddy puddle so she can walk over you without getting her shoes wet. You think I snitched on you when I was locked up. That’s why you want to kill me. Well, why would I have taken the fall for three long years in the pen if I could have snitched on you before, and all of this would have been mine? Not only that but I could have grown it ten times the size you’re running now because you don’t give a shit about the business. You were just a leach, and that’s all you will be. Me? I can serve a prison term and return to the hood a hero because everyone knows I keep my mouth shu
t. The hood trusts me, not you. So I repeat, anything happens to me, or anyone close to me, everyone’s going to know it was you. They’ll tear you apart limb by limb before I even get to you. So…you want to have one of your meatheads there pull the trigger, and sign your own death warrant in the process?”
“Well…I…It’s not like…See, the thing is-“
“The thing is, after Giulia and I walk out that door you’re not to make contact with either of us again. If you even think about us I’ll come over here at night while you’re sleeping and slice your balls off and feed them to your dog, which I’ll also take home as my own, just like I’m taking the woman you thought you could make yours.”
“Wait a second,” he says, raising a hand in protest.
I take a step forward and he wisely takes a step back. Why does this mother fucker not understand he has no claim on my future wife?
“No one is taking her from me. Ever,” I growl. “She’s mine and that’s the end of it.”
“But-”
“I’m putting my seed in her. Period. Any claim you thought you had to her is long gone. I made sure of that the moment I laid eyes on her.” I point back to the bathroom since everyone knows she’s inside. “She’s mine now. From head to toe, every inch. And if you open your mouth one more time to protest I’m going to stick my fist so far down your throat you’ll need the fire department to dislodge it.”
And just like that, the room goes still. I don’t point out the Fed who was playing cards at the table. I don’t say anything to anybody. With two steps I’m in the bathroom scooping up my woman, carrying her across the threshold of the bathroom and into the house like I’m bringing her home on our wedding day, which is going to happen a lot sooner than she’s going to be able to comprehend. I’m a king and I’ve found my queen. When you know you know and a real man doesn’t waste time claiming her for the entire world to see, to know she’s off-limits to everyone but him. Forever.
I carry her into the night and a Fed comes out of the bushes as soon as I clear the front step. “Participating in an illegal underground card game is a violation of your parole, Julian,” he smirks, twirling a set of handcuffs around his finger. “Heard you won a pretty penny too. Guess that’s gonna go missing,” he does that effeminate air quotes thing, “before we make it back to the station.”
“Check my pockets. No chips and only the cash I went in with. Same bills I left the prison with today, and I know you surely have those bills marked. You had three years to do it after all. So if you think I was playing cards, or gambling or winning, you’re wrong.”
“You won a nearly a million dollar pot,” he pleads, looking at my pants and snug t-shirt and realizing I can’t be hiding that much cash underneath my clothes. “The girl must have it. Put her down.”
“I’ll put you down, in the ground, if you lay a finger on her,” I snarl. “You go back inside and shakedown those losers if that’s your game. You don’t have anything on me. I’m going home. I’m a family man now.”
His eyes narrow but he doesn’t press any farther. Wasting no time I move to my Ducati motorcycle and give Giulia my helmet, carefully helping her on behind me and giving her quick instructions on how to hold onto me and how to move as the bike moves.
“But your money?” she protests. “You practically won the lottery. You need to go back there and collect it.”
“Oh, I won the lottery all right. The one that only comes around once in a lifetime. And that’s the only jackpot that matters.”
I kiss her face and watch her heart melt before we drive east into the sunrise, signaling a new day, a new life…for us both. Together.
4
Giulia
We arrive at Julian’s door and the first thing he does is kneel down and pull a tiny piece of string from between the door and the jam.
“Old habit,” he says. I give him a bewildered look and he adds, “If it’s not in place when I return I know someone’s been inside. Could be housekeeping, or could be someone else.”
I don’t ask what kind of ‘someone else’ is because I don’t need to. The kind of crowd that attracts him was on full display at the card game where I, fortunately, won’t be working, which is a relief. But it’s also stressful because now I need to figure out a way to make up for that lost income that I was hoping for.
Julian opens the door and extends the hand which is holding the motorcycle helmet, allowing me to enter first. I pause.
“The string was in place. No one’s been inside, which is why I’m being a gentleman and asking you to enter first. If I even thought someone was in there I’d never risk your safety. You know I’d be in there sweeping the place like a bomb squad.” He pauses, offering a second time. “Ladies first, and you’re the only important lady for me in this world.”
I step in and am greeted by a simple, Spartan one bedroom apartment. It’s clearly furnished for a bachelor, masculine and utilitarian with no frills. It could definitely use a woman’s touch but as soon as I start thinking what this woman might do to spruce things up, Julian offers, “It’s just something for a couple of weeks until I find something more permanent for us.”
I let the ‘us’ slide. I do like it, but feel like this is moving way too fast. I’m not trying to jump out of one frying pan and into the other. And seeing how possessive and jealous he is, I'm also not trying to become a frog in hot water with the temperature constantly rising until it’s boiling.
Julian strikes me as an all-or-nothing kind of guy, not that I’ve ever met anyone quite like him. And there’s definitely never been anyone who makes my panties this damn wet just on sight alone.
I know I can take care of myself, but there’s something about my protective nature that says I don’t have to do that anymore if I don’t want to. Something that gives me permission to step aside and enjoy the childhood I never had. To have a hero to look up to, a man who will fight my battles if and when the time unfortunately comes…not because he’s obliged to, but because he wants to.
I like his protectiveness. I like his care. I like everything about him, even if it is a little much.
“Can I offer you a beer?” His hands quickly turn the top off of a bottle that I’m pretty sure isn’t a twist-off. He extends the cold amber liquid toward me and it’s only then I notice the ink on the back of his hands, the way his knuckles are scarred and crooked.
“No thank you. I’m not old enough to drink.”
His focus still on me he takes a long pull from the bottle and sets it on the counter. “I’m not your father. I’m not going to judge if you want to drink a little alcohol from time to time.” He sticks one of his massive mitts back inside the fridge and pulls out a bottle of water, offering it to me from his arm which seems to extend halfway across the room as he shoves long fingers from his other hand through his hair.
“You’re not my father, but you want to be my Daddy?” I ask, trying to make a joke to lighten the mood, but Julian’s no-nonsense personality doesn’t catch the humor.
His hand drops to his side as if the courtesy of a beverage is suddenly off the table. With one step he closes the distance between us, the air getting hotter, so thick that I can feel a bead of sweat dot the valley between my breasts.
I take a step back and he only takes another toward me, not giving me anywhere else to go.
My heart slams into my chest and my fingertips slide over my palms, trying to remove the sweat which is flowing like a hose.
Those menacing orbs lock on me, the promise of thunderstorms behind them as the heat from his body radiates right into me. I try to take a breath, but the air is too heavy, his presence cloaking me.
“A father is an insurance salesman in a cardigan sweater who shows up late for your school plays and then passes out with his mouth open fifteen minutes after he does. A Daddy spears his hands in your hair from behind when you’re in the kitchen making his favorite dish. Then he fucks you on all fours on the linoleum floor so hard you don’t even hear the fire alar
m beeping when the lasagne is burning. And when it’s all over he eats the lasagne anyway, because he’s obsessed with everything about you and everything you do, and then has you for dessert. Big difference. Very big,” he adds, looking down at the bulge in his pants, “Big difference.”
He takes another pull from his beer, finishing it as he continues to hover over me, the dark look in his eyes speaking louder than if he’d shouted at me.
I feel a tick in my jaw, my stomach feels like the washing machine on a spin cycle. Something inside me wants to be brave and just tell him I want that, but another part still fears exactly what that might lead to. It’s the same part of me that longs for it, to feel his unbridled need without the restraints we had in the bathroom. To feel him take me like he wants to take me.
Masculinity is just oozing off of him. If I moved my head forward a foot I could bury my head right in the center of his chest and feel safe for the rest of time, or wind up right in the eye of a hurricane. Either way, he’d make me feel feminine. Scratch that he already makes me feel feminine, without even putting a hand on me.
And that’s exactly what I want. His rough hands all over my smooth flesh.
“Normally you smell like a constantly blossoming apple tree in the spring. But right now you smell musky, needy,” he announces as if calling out my desire is the most normal thing in the world.
“I…I don’t know.”
“Did you know you get dimples when you’re nervous?”
“I’m not nervous,” I say a little too quickly, rubbing the outside of one leg with the inside of my foot. My mind is racing a mile a minute and my pulse isn’t far behind. If I don’t sit down soon I feel like I’m going to pass out.
“I’ll flip on the aircon,” he offers, taking a step back, and instantly I miss him. It’s like the vacuum-sealed bubble we were operating in just popped, and the tension all floats away with it.
But once that aircon kicks on and blows straight across my chest, my nipples pebble and Julian is right back on top of me, ready for round two.