SAVAGE POET: A Dark, New Adult and College Romance

by Jax Hart

  “Maybe,” he drawled trying to be all cocky as fuck. “But she saw the pictures. She wants you to be her prized Italian Stallion.”

  I rolled my eyes. The corners of my mouth lifted as I pictured Blue in my mind. I’ve never rolled my eyes before at anyone. I wonder what she’d think?

  “I said no.”

  “You’ll reconsider.”

  “Not likely.”

  “The five families have already decided. Take my sister as your wife…bring us into Chicago or we’ll end the last of the families from the Old World. We won’t hesitate. We won’t fail.”

  “Like your father’s did? The original circle of five couldn’t stop me. What makes you think you can?”

  “They still live. Still remember…my father… he stands by the word he gave yours. But I’m adding a condition. His word isn’t mine to keep. Marry my sister. Unite with us and we can break them all.”

  I stepped away. Eagerness filled his beady, greedy eyes. He needed me. He has the numbers, but I have the brains and capability to make this operation. Maybe I’ll do it. Marry the bitch then ditch her. Out her in a pit with her brother….

  “If you hurt my sister…”

  “You’ll what? Kill me?” I almost rolled my eyes but catch myself.

  “No. I’ll kill the girl. Your girl.”

  “She’s nothing to me. A quick fuck. That’s all?”

  “No… don’t think it’s just that. I saw the pictures. You broke the cardinal rule, Salvatore. Or maybe Constantine didn’t teach you well enough. I bet she’s tight as fuck with that little, bitty body of hers… I have her and the Fiorelli girl. The two girls who are both your weaknesses.”

  I spun on my heels. My fist connected with his pug nose. Bones crunched Blood splattered then gushed from his nose. His men went berserk. But Johnny had my back.

  “Stand down,” he ordered. “You’re in New York. None of you will leave my jurisdiction alive.”

  Vince held a bloody rag to his nose. “Twenty-four hours Salvatore. Then the deals off and the hit on you and her is on. My family won’t intervene. My father meant to keep his word to yours, but it will be out of his hands. Marriage to Julietta is the only way out.”

  I said nothing, as I walked out with Johnny guarding my back. In the back of the armed SUV we sat in heavy silence. Through the window, the city streets blur as fast as my thoughts.

  “What are you going to do?”

  My cell cuts the answer forming in my mind. “Geno?”

  “They’re here. Trying to infiltrate Chicago. Trying to get people to snitch.”

  “Cut anyone’s tongue out who does.”

  “They took my sister Carmela. Grabbed her straight from her dorm room in Boston.”

  It’s war.

  I’ve been a fool for thinking I could pretend to be someone else. A normal college guy having a romance. Going to keggers and playing foolish teenage games.

  I forgot who I was for a minute.

  “We’ll get her back.”

  “Unharmed? If those fucks touch her…”

  “I know. We are blood, cousin. We haven’t survived. Killed. Planned to lose.”

  I end the call and turn to Johnny. “I need your Boston connections.”

  He whistled low. “The favors you owe me are stacking up and your crew is still too light to offer me anything in return.”

  “Someday I’ll be the fucking king and you know it. I’ll probably save your ass a thousand times over. You can thank me now.”

  He shook his head but made the call. The Castellione’s are fucked. They just didn’t know it yet.

  My cell pinged with a text. It was a picture of Carmela. Bound. Gagged, with wide eyes pleading for help. Her bra was soaked with sweat and her hair was wild.

  My sister wants an answer.

  I typed back… Vegas. Two weeks. Send me a picture of my bride.

  He sent a picture of a pig. Covered in mud.

  “Maybe he’s serious? He’ll put a veil on one and walk it down on a leash just to humiliate you?”

  “No. I met her once. She was fat. Had a pock-marked face and wore her hair in two fat braids. She smelled of gelato all the time.”

  “Maybe she’ll taste sweet then?”

  “The only thing sweet will be her spilled blood.”

  “On your wedding night?”

  I nodded. “I’m taking all of them out. Then I’ll confront the remaining four families when I’m done. Who does that fuck think he is coming after me? Taking my family?”

  “You killed Constantine. That man is a mafia legend. He was the best at what he did. Stories of his kills are notorious even in my circles.”

  “When I’m done. Everyone will forget him and only speak about me.”

  “Damn. I bet they will.”

  We continued the drive back to Jersey in silence for a bit. “How did they know? Why did they only find me just now?”

  “Modern times, my friend. It’s nearly impossible for anyone to hide. They probably always knew. Hell, you took all the money. Didn’t you put the charity in your name?

  “No. I didn’t.”

  “Someone slipped. Maybe bragged?”

  My eyes cut through the changing scenery. We’ve left concrete behind and the bare trees of almost winter roll by. “Perhaps.”

  “What are you going to do about Blue?”

  “Keep her.”

  “And your bride?”

  I shrugged. “It’ll be a farce.”

  “That’s a dangerous play. They’ll kill her if they find out.”

  “They will try either way.”

  “Dump her. End it.”

  “I can’t.”

  “You’re a fool. He sees it. I saw it weeks ago. You can’t be who you need to be and feel love, brother.”

  He’s right. But that wouldn’t stop me from trying.

  Johnny’s burner lit up with a text. “Fuck. Now I owe Sean Flannery a favor. He’s closing in on Carmela’s location.”

  “Favors rule our world.”

  “And lies.”

  Drop me at her house.

  “You’re so fucked?”

  I shook my head, “I don’t plan to lose anything especially the girl.”

  16

  Whispers followed wherever I went. I was a persona non grata before. The freak with the blue hair and tit-less body. Ever since the Prince of Princeton has been showing up after school practically every day to escort me home, I’m high school royalty. The freak turned princess.

  But little did they know I was born to be a queen. My heart did flip-flops in my chest. He’s here again. Waiting for me.

  “Hi,” I smiled, hesitantly. Part of me was still afraid of the intensity between us. So many times, it had been on the tip of my tongue to tell him who I was: The girl from Palermo. The girl who teased him to become a man. Well, he’s all man now. His arms came around me as he scanned the area for threats.

  His warm lips brushed the top of my head as he opened the passenger door of his SUV and ushered me in.

  Instead of taking me to the gym to work out together as we’ve been doing, he pulled down Main Street and parallel parked in front of a fancy boutique.

  “What’s this?”

  “I’m taking you dress shopping.”

  My head whipped around. “The fuck you are. I hate dresses and dances.”

  He smirked. “So, do I. But you are going. Correction we are going to Homecoming.”

  “I’m not doing Pretty Woman with you.” My mouth puckered like I’m sucking on a lemon.

  He laughed and the sound caught me off guard. Who is this man? High school dances and romance are things that don’t go with Roque Salvatore. Or do they?

  Rolling my eyes, I took his outstretched hand and let him lead me into the shop. The bell rung as we entered. A woman brightly called out hello as she rounded the counter and stopped. Her mouth hung open. Her eyes went wide at barley five-foot two me in wedge sneakers holding his hand.

  “Can
I help you get something for your ah, sister?’

  “Yes. My uh, twisted sister needs a dress.” He pulled me flush to his front. My ass cradled his thighs. His index finger dipped down into the front of my shirt between my breastbone in a long, slow, sensual caress. My knees went weak. Hers went dreamy. And I sure as shit knew we were both hot for him. But he’s mine. Only mine. My beautiful fucked up monster only breathed for me. And I for him.

  Together, the two fucked-up kingpin kids could find their way together? Right?

  I smacked myself in the head for thinking such sappy as shit thoughts. He reduced me from the badass blue-haired girl, to a pathetic love-sick one.

  The saleswoman’s eyes glazed over but at the tic in Roque’s jaw she turned and started grabbing dresses.

  “No.” I shook my head at the sleeveless sequined thing. “That looks like a leftover from a bad eighties music video.”

  “Were you even alive in the eighties?” She snapped under her breath.

  Roque’s attention was on the lacey bra and panty sets. I rolled my eyes. “Nope.”

  He grinned wickedly. “Yes…”

  “Keep dreaming.” I taunted, then turned away as I spotted the most perfect dress. It’s silk or satin and the same color of my hair. Bright Blue.

  “That one,” I pointed.

  Roque’s laugh tickled the back of my neck. “It’s perfect.” He swept my hair to the side and kissed my nape. My nipples hardened to points under my shirt.

  I gasped as his teeth nipped my ear. Maybe I should throw in the bra and panty set after all…

  He held me close as we swayed in the gym. Fairy lights hung in swoops overhead. Who knew a high school dance could be so romantic? My palm pressed against his heart. Thump. Thump. Thump.

  My blue hair fell like a curtain as he tipped my chin and kissed me slow and deep in front of the whole school.

  I sighed and opened my mouth wider. He tamed my vengeful heart. I wanted to tell him tonight before things went too far between us. I wanted him to want both of us—the girl he threw away and the woman I’m becoming.

  “Fuck, Blue.” He broke from our kiss, his eyes staring intently at me. Lost in the spell between us, I cupped his cheek and whispered, “My birthday was last week.”

  “What?” His voice was low and dangerous. “Fucking with me, little girl?” he growled.

  “Never.” Liar. You’re fucking with him behind all this…blue hair and fake blue eyes…

  Johnny scowled at us from his place behind the punch bowl. Five cheerleaders hung off his biceps; each dying to get fucked by the mini-mob prince-to-be. I rolled my eyes, “wanna get out of here?”

  He hissed as I let my tongue slide along my lower lip. “This is a dangerous game, bella. One I won’t let you walk away from.”

  “I know.”

  He took my hand and nodded over to Johnny. Instead of taking me back to the frat house like I expected, he held my left-hand prisoner in his grasp while he maneuvered the Suburban through the dark autumn night and to the fanciest boutique hotel in Princeton.

  “Wow. I guess I was a sure thing, huh?” I swallowed.

  He cut the engine. Instead of taking me straight up to a room, he slipped his jacket off and put it on me. “The gardens here are not to be missed. Even in the face of winter.”

  Puzzled, I let him lead me through an arbor draped in twinkling lights and dried vines. A maze of stone walls, man-made waterfalls, and arches covered in dried blooms met us.

  “This is… beautiful. The dead, dark and dried up blooms are… haunting?” I breathed in the crisp air.

  “It’s us. Or at least me. It reminds me of home…of Italy.” He slipped, then caught himself. “I mean where my ancestors were from.”

  He led me through stones still covered in wet moss. Dried leaves crunched under our feet as we walked through summer’s graveyard. Dried, dead hydrangea blossoms still danced for the night breeze.

  “I did something once. Something that still haunts me. This place reminds me of someone from a day long ago.”

  I blinked back tears. “Roque—"

  But he cut off my words with a harsh kiss. Taking me in his arms, we danced under the full Harvest Moon—to hooting owls and ghosts either cheering us on or determined to work against us.

  Our kisses turned frenzied. He wanted to own me. Consume me. One thing he hadn’t lost is that eerie intensity of his. It’s stronger than before.

  When he swept my legs out from under me to carry me to a small gatehouse at the edge of the garden, almost in the woods, I didn’t put up a fight.

  He kicked the door open and deposited me onto of a fluffy cream-colored bed. Looking around, the whole mini cottage was just a bedroom with fat white candles, white furniture and flowers… everything is pure, virginial.

  I shivered as he loomed over me.

  “My big, bad wolf has come at last,” I teased, opening my arms.

  He paused as if my words triggered a memory. His eyes almost glowed in the dark as he unzipped the back of my gown and it slid down.

  “Mine,” he growled, not even bothering to undress as his hips straddled mine. His dark head bent down to take one nipple between his two lips. “Delicious,” he groaned, going back and forth.

  Electric energy zinged from where his mouth pulled, going straight to my core. Throbbing need had me writhing beneath him. My hands clawed at his back, urging him closer.

  He chuckled against my throat, letting a hand stroke down my body. “You want this, bella?”

  I nodded, unable to speak as his fingers stroked through my mound. I gasped into his mouth as he parted my flesh, finding the little screaming bud of nerves wanting his touch.

  But the attention only makes my need worse. I needed him deep inside of me. I always did. He shed his clothes. I stared wide-eyed at his muscular chest and biceps covered in ink down to his wrist.

  “Scared?”

  He teased my sopping entrance with the thick head of his shaft. Ran his hands over my small breasts and down my stomach, to play with me while watching my face.

  His teeth grit as he fed his cock to me inch by agonizing inch. “Fuck, Blue. You are so tight.”

  My body yielded. It fucking hurt. It felt like he was tearing me apart.

  Finally, he planted firmly inside. All the way. He propped himself up on his elbows and despite the fact that I felt his cock twitching in bliss, he deadpanned, “Now how in the fuck did you know my name? You called me Roque out in the garden. Who? Sent. You?”

  His eyes were cold. He was not the teasing, romantic man who just wooed me for weeks. He flipped his switch. The monster was back and there was nowhere to run.

  I stammered not knowing what to say. “Johnny called you that.”

  He frowned, part of him wanting to believe me.

  “Johnny never fucks up.”

  “Please…” I moved under him. His dick swelled more inside me, but he refused to move.

  “Who are you, Diana Palermo?”

  “No one. Just a girl from the woods.”

  He was suspicious as he stared down at me. Finally, he eased out and slowly thrust back in. “Fuck. I can’t stop, even if you were sent here to destroy me.”

  I knew. Oh, how I knew. I lamented inside my screaming head. I grabbed the side of his tormented handsome face, “I don’t want to destroy you. I just want to love you.”

  He stilled, poised above me. “Me too, bella. Me too. I’ll get my answers later.”

  Together we moved as one. It hurt and yet I’ve never felt so much pleasure. He lifted my hip, took my leg and curved it over his hip driving in deeper.

  He murmured sweet things against my neck as his lips found the spot behind my ear. Pleasure and pain rolled through me like thunder. It was deep. Intense. The meaty tip of him stretched me with every thrust of his hips.

  I bit my lip at the intense pleasure he created when he moved a hand down between us to press hard on my clit as he thrust in and out.

  Growling,
he grasped both my hands, pinning them above my head and leaned low to fit my entire breast into his mouth. When he stilled, he pulsed deep inside me. It’s a strange sensation to feel him deep inside me on the edge of his release.

  “Damn, Blue. I’m not going to last as long as I want.”

  His eyes lifted from my breast, “Make my first-time good Il Sovrano. Make it good for me.”

  I don’t know how it was possible. But he hardened even further as he planted deep inside me. His eyes were two pools of ice-blue fire. Can fire melt? Can blue mercury burn so hot that it becomes lava? Me referring to him as the ruler broke him into a frenzied pace of passion.

  My thoughts were muddled as he cursed in Italian and thrust into my soaking wet heat.

  His large palm gripped my ass, lifting me against him. Every time he thrusted deeply, his groin brushed my core. He bowed to bite my breast, growling deeply in the back of his throat. The man came like a tornado.

  I felt his power surge into me.

  His hands fell from my ass. He looked down at our joined bodies and thumbed my clit, rubbing it in hard circles.

  My eyes rolled back in my head. I came in a series of waves. The whole sweaty, mess of him fell against me.

  His heart thumped against mine. He released my hands and I ran them through the thickness of his midnight hair.

  Finally, he eased out of me, nostrils flaring at the sight of my virgin blood. The look he gave…it slammed right to my heart and double stamped my soul. I was always his. Everything was always his to take. But I didn’t feel weak. For the first time, I fully understood the power I could wield over this king.

  “Don’t go anywhere,” he warned, pressing his index finger against my lips. My tongue darted out to taste it.

  “Bad girl,” he breathed. “Just wait my little virgin…the things I’m going to do to you.”

  “Virgin?” My eyebrow rose.

  He smirked. “That was barely sex, Blue. You have no idea who you just let into you.”