With a jerk of his head, he dips his chin to his lap and I know that he wants me to walk around the desk.
My feet carry me toward him immediately. Without a single thought, my knees buckle and I sink down to sitting on his thigh.
He wraps his arms around me, holding my side against his chest. Looking down at him, I can’t help but smile at the way his dark blue eyes glitter.
“Nothing is easy, passerotta. Whatever this is, whatever comes our way, just know that we got this and I got you.”
“Benny,” I breathe.
He grins, flexing his arms around me and squeezes me gently. “I want you to act as Underboss while Ermanno is away. I can’t make anything official, you know, but unofficially, that’s what I want.”
My eyes widen. Shaking my head, tears fill my eyes, but I swallow them down before I crush my mouth against his in a quick, hard kiss.
“Now, take your clothes off and let me start unwrapping my birthday gift.”
“Aren’t my clothes the unwrapping?” I ask against his mouth.
He grunts. “No. My birthday gift is you, any way I want you, every single way I want you. I plan on taking you in every fucking position humanly possible by the time this day is over. Right now, it’s me fucking you over this desk. That’s just the beginning, that’s just me pulling the tape off of the side of the box.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
NICOLA
This cake looks like shit.
Tilting my head to the side, I stare at the double decker melty mess that’s sitting on a plate in front of me.
The kitchen is a disaster and it’s probably going to take me all night to clean it. I don’t know what I was thinking when I decided to take this on. I really should have just bought something from a bakery.
“Can I just say that you are the sexiest woman I’ve ever met,” Benny’s deep timbre says, filling the room.
Spinning around, I cringe as I lift my eyes to meet his. “Don’t look at it,” I cry, holding my hands up and moving them from side to side.
He shakes his head, chuckling. “I already saw it and it looks fantastic, but that’s not what I want right now.”
“You just had me on your desk,” I point out.
Benicio sinks his teeth into his bottom lip as he closes the distance between us. “It’s my birthday, Nicola. I wasn’t kidding when I said that I want you in every room, in every position possible, in this fucking house.”
My breath hitches as he reaches out, extending his index finger and slides it across my collarbone. He grins, his eyes following his finger’s every move, trailing it between my breasts.
Without a word, his hand leaves my body and I watch as he dips the finger that was just between my breasts into the melted chocolate frosting of his sad excuse for a cake.
“You don’t…”
But before I can get the rest of the words out, I watch in horror as he slips his finger between his lips and tastes the frosting. My stomach twists at the sight. I know it has to taste awful, it looks nothing like the picture online.
“Fuck,” he hisses.
Dipping my head, I look down at my feet in complete embarrassment. I’ve fucked up Benicio’s birthday, completely fucked it all up.
Next year I’m preordering a cake from a bakery. I’m not ever going to attempt this Betty Crocker shit again.
My breath hitches when I feel his hand wrap around the back of my neck. “Look at me,” he demands.
Lifting my head, my eyes find his and I can’t help but hold my breath. His eyes are taking me in, completely focused on me and nowhere else.
“That was the best chocolate icing I’ve ever had. I want to cover you in it and lick it off every inch of your body,” he murmurs.
Unable to control my grin, I bite the inside of my cheek. I don’t believe him, but just the idea of him spreading chocolate all over my body and licking it off sends a thrill throughout my entire body.
“I know it’s a lie,” I whisper.
He shakes his head, his eyes never leaving mine. “I don’t lie to you, baby. I never have.”
Benicio’s words are like a punch to my gut. My eyes shift to the side. He hasn’t lied to me, but I’ve lied to him plenty.
I’ve manipulated and kept things from him in the past. I feel like a bitch, like the zoccola that he called me when he first arrived.
“Hey,” he calls softly. I lift my gaze back to meet his. He tugs me a bit closer to him and touches his forehead to mine. “What’s wrong?”
“I just. You’ve never lied to me, but I’ve lied to you,” I say.
He chuckles, and I shift my gaze back to his as he takes a step back. He grins down at me and I expect him to grow angry, but he doesn’t. Instead, he watches me for a moment, his eyes searching mine.
“You haven’t lied to me, Nicola.”
Pressing my lips together, I shake my head, but he doesn’t let me speak. He continues on with his speech. “The past doesn’t count. All that shit with your dad, doesn’t fucking mean a goddamn thing. What does matter is who you are now, now that he’s gone, now that you’re free.”
I lift my hand, reaching out, I grip his bicep leaning forward and touch my mouth to his. Benicio slides his tongue inside of me and I moan when the hint of chocolate floods my taste buds.
Free.
The word is foreign because I’m not really free. I wasn’t born that way and I won’t die that way, but it’s sweet that he thinks that I am.
He’s trying to give me the freedom that he thinks I need. What he doesn’t realize is that with that freedom he’s given me, he’s also chained me down, but in a way that I need, that I want, that I desire.
“Good, right?” he asks, lifting his head slightly.
Smiling, my eyes shift to the cake. Maybe I didn’t screw it up completely.
Even if it’s ugly, that would be okay as long as it tastes good. Just like us, even if we’re a little ugly as long as we have one another then we’ll be okay.
I hear a phone ring in the distance and Benicio lets out a curse as he takes a step back. I watch as he shoves his hand in his pocket and pulls out his cell.
“Boss,” he greets. “Fuck. Yeah. They’ll be ready.”
He shoves his phone back in his pocket before he lifts his gaze to meet my own. “Gavino has everything set for tomorrow morning. The wave of men will leave first thing in the morning for Columbia.”
“It’s dangerous, isn’t it?” I ask.
He nods his head, letting out an exhale. “It is. I’m wondering if I should go.”
My mouth screams before I realize that the sound is coming out of me. I yell, no.
Benny frowns, then he takes a step toward me, wrapping his hand around my waist before he roughly pulls me against his chest.
“I’m the boss of this famiglia, Nicci,” he rasps.
My body is trembling in his arms. The image of him leaving me again, going somewhere dangerous, it makes me want to scream, run and cry. The thought of him walking away from me, of disappearing.
I can’t handle it.
I can’t be without him.
“What’s this all about?” he asks.
I could tell him the truth. That I’m terrified he won’t come back. That I’ll be alone again. That Gavino will give me to someone else or send me to work for him as a call girl.
All things that I was willing to do before Benny gave me a taste of how sweet life could truly be.
“Nothing. I’m just worried for your safety,” I semi-lie. I’m selfish. I’m worried about what would happen to me if he were taken from this world.
He hums, running his nose alongside my own. “I’m going to fuck you next to this cake, then we’re going to eat this perfect fucking cake naked,” he growls. “You have no reason to worry. I’m not going anywhere.”
BENICIO
She’s scared. If she thinks that I can’t tell what she looks like when she’s terrified, she has another thing coming. I can tell that she doesn’
t feel at ease, either with me, with us or just plain in general.
There’s nothing that I can do to ease that stress of the unknown, nothing other than just be here for her.
She needs to find a new normal, our new normal and then once she’s settled hopefully, she’ll feel calmer.
Everything is just too new right now and I get that. I’m trying to have patience and I will have that patience for as long as she needs me to.
I watch her sleep in our bed. Her face down, her bare back on display and the sheets only pulled up to cover her ass. I’ve worn her out, but I’m not finished with her, not yet. Turning away, I make my way toward my office.
I’ve done very little work today, stopping every hour or so to fuck my fiancée. But, it’s my birthday, so the rest of the world will just have to get the fuck over it.
Reaching for my phone, I dial Costa’s number. “Boss,” he says, clearing his throat.
“I need the men to come to my office that are leaving tomorrow.”
There’s a moment of silence, possibly too fucking long and I wonder if Costa is trustworthy or if he’s going to fuck me over. Thankfully, I have Ermanno who will end his shit if he even attempts to fuck with me or this famiglia.
“Yes, Boss. They’ll be there within the hour.”
Ending the call with him, I pick up my phone and run a track on his location. Frowning, I wonder why he’s by the water.
Specifically, what he’s doing in the East River State Park, and why the fuck it looks like he’s either standing at the water’s edge, or in a boat in the water.
Standing, I gather my keys, ready to drive myself out there to try and figure out just what the fuck he’s doing when I hear a knock on my office door.
Turning my head, I see it’s Nicola. She’s wearing nothing other than one of my shirts. Her hair is a fucking mess and her makeup is mostly worn off.
“Are you leaving?” she asks, her lips turning down into a frown.
My lips turn up at one side and I slowly make my way toward her. Lifting my hand, I wrap my fingers around the side of her neck and gently squeeze. “I need to go check on something. I won’t be gone long. Get dressed and we’ll go out for dinner.”
“Dinner?” she breathes.
I hum, still annoyed that she is surprised that I will take her out in public. I’ve claimed her as mine. I’ve put a gigantic fucking ring on her finger.
She sleeps next to me in bed.
She is going to be my wife, legally and in the eyes of the famiglia. There is nobody but her, I don’t know how else to show her that I’m in this and that she’s mine.
Patience. I remind myself. Patience.
Nodding my head once, I make my way toward her, wrapping my arm around her and pulling her curvy body against my own. Dipping my chin, I touch my mouth to hers in a gentle kiss.
“Birthday dinner, then we’ll come home and you can serve me dessert.”
“Benicio,” she exhales.
I chuckle against her mouth. “You can say my name just like that when you come again, too.”
She shakes her head slightly but doesn’t move her lips from my own. “I don’t know if I can again,” she admits.
Nipping her bottom lip with my teeth, I growl. “You can and you will. Trust me, I’m not done with you today.”
“I won’t be able to walk tomorrow,” she breathes.
“Good. Now, go and get ready. I’ll come get you when it’s time to go.”
Releasing her, I take a step back. She turns from me and without a glance back, I watch her feet shuffle away from me.
I stay planted where I am until I hear the bedroom door close behind her. Only then do my feet become unstuck from the floor.
Pulling up my GPS tracking, I find Costa again. He’s still at the East River Park. Jogging toward my car, I put in a call to Ermanno.
“Boss.”
“Do you know where Costa is?”
I’m asking to see if he’s told Ermanno something, if he knows why he’s there. Maybe there’s some kind of excuse, but my gut is screaming at me and has been, that something isn’t right with this man.
First, he seemed a little too interested in Nicola, then tried to play it off as though he was just trying to protect her from me.
There have been a million little things that have made me pause and wonder if this man is truly trustworthy or if he’s working behind my back on something else.
“Isn’t he supposed to be getting ready for tomorrow? I’m home and packing, myself.”
“I asked him to gather the men for a meeting, but he sounded off. When I tracked his phone, I’ve found that he’s at the East River park.”
“Why?”
“Exactly.”
“Want me to meet you there?”
I think about the offer, then shake my head as if he can see me. “No, I got this. Come to the house, I need you to be there when the men arrive, in case I’m not back yet.”
“Yes, Boss.”
I end the call and continue on to the park. There is something happening with Costa and I plan on discovering just what the fuck it is, because whatever it is, it’s something that he’s hiding from the famiglia and hiding from me.
That is one thing that I will not tolerate from my Capos. Secrets. Along with lies and betrayal. I will get to the bottom of this, whatever it is.
Chapter Twenty-Six
BENICIO
He isn’t hard to find. In fact, he sticks out like a goddamn beacon. Standing next to the water, I see him with his back to me, seemingly looking out over the water. Checking my gun in my shoulder holster, I start to make my way toward him.
The closer I get as I approach where he’s standing, I expect him to turn around, but he never does. “You figured out where I was,” he says.
I grunt, refusing to speak, at least not yet. I watch as he slowly turns around to face me. When he does, I’m surprised to see blood splatter across his face and white shirt.
“Costa?” I ask.
It’s funny, I’ve known him for several weeks. He’s been right in the thick of this shit with me and I don’t even know his first name. I probably should, but Costa works for him. He looks down at his feet, then lifts his gaze to meet my own.
“I didn’t want to, but I had to,” he says.
“Who?” I ask.
His eyes shift to the side, then they come back to meet my own. “A whore is just a whore, completely dispensable, right?”
My stomach drops at his words. Why he would think that, I don’t know, but I shake my head. “No, a whore is not dispensable. Everyone in our world has a purpose and so do they. Want to explain this to me?” I ask.
I’m not asking so that he can refuse to answer. He will answer me, then he will answer to me.
The code that I live by, that most of the men in my world live by does not equate to killing random people for no reason, no matter their occupation.
“She threatened to tell my wife. I warned her. She told my wife last night.”
“I’m going to need more than that.”
His eyes begin to water, they fill with tears and turn red almost immediately. “I got her pregnant. She wanted money from me. She wanted me to set her up as my comaré. I don’t have that kind of money. She didn’t believe me. My wife, she keeps tabs on all my finances. She knows every fucking penny that I spend.”
“So, you killed your pregnant mistress because she told your wife about your affair?” I ask, unbelieving that I’m having this asinine conversation.
I have more important shit to do than worry about Costa and the problems his dick has caused him. He clears his throat, the tears in his eyes spilling over.
They don’t affect me though. This is his personal shit and I’m fucking pissed off that he’s let it spill over into business.
Tilting my head to the side, I decide to ask about the mistress.
“Who is she?”
He gulps, then his eyes shift to the ground before he brings them back
up to meet my own. “I fucked up and I panicked,” he whispers.
“Who is she?” I demand a bit harsher.
He looks over to the water before shifting his gaze back to meet my own. He gulps, and I wait for him to tell me just what the fuck is going on.
His body is trembling, which makes me think that this woman isn’t a whore at all, she’s something so much more.
“I didn’t know,” he murmurs. “I swear I didn’t know who she was, not really. I mean, I knew she wasn’t nobody.”
“You’re going to have to give me an answer, Costa. If you don’t, then I’m going to deliver you to Gavino and trust me when I tell you that you don’t want to be questioned by him.”
Costa nods, his bottom lip quivering like a fucking woman’s. He must truly be scared shitless. I’ve never seen a Made Man behave this way in my entire life. Not even the cretino, Mauro Ricci Junior, acted this goddamn spineless.
“She’s Salvatore’s sister.”
“Gavino’s Consigliere, that Salvatore?”
He nods his head once. Reaching into my pocket, I pull out my gun, but I don’t kill the dumb motherfucker. “Get in my car. We’re taking a little trip out to see Vino. I’ll let Salvatore deal with you.”
In silence he walks toward my car, my gun pointed at his back the entire time, his shoulders shaking as he cries like a little bitch.
This fucker was serious when he said he’d keep Nicola as his own, I know that he would have tried to fuck her, too. He won’t be breathing come morning.
I watch him as he slips into the car and buckles his seatbelt. Making my way over to the driver’s side, I start the engine, then shift the car into drive.
Before I take off, I shoot Gavino a text and arrange to meet him at his warehouse with Salvatore.
I don’t want to tell them why, at least not yet. I’m going to get as much information as I can along the way.
“Do you want to tell me why you referred to Salvatore’s sister as, not only a whore, but a dispensable one?” I ask once we’re on our way.
Becoming his Possession: A Zanetti Famiglia Novel Page 20