Scarless & Sacred (The Chicago War #3)

by Bethany-Kris

  She did. Adriano.

  Theo figured the man didn’t care. Adriano would have said something by now.

  “Mind your house, Tommas, and I’ll mind mine.” Theo picked up the duffle bag and slung it around his shoulder. He ignored the twinge of pain in his back as the bag hit the tenderest spots. “But yeah, I’m going home. Eve will be going with me, regardless of anyone else’s opinions. It was either that, or my sister would cut my balls off because I refused to go live with her for a month so she can hover over me more than she already has. Evelina was the compromise I didn’t mind making.”

  “I suppose you wouldn’t, huh?”

  “Nope. She belongs with me, anyway.”

  Tommas gave a small smile. “You’re right, she does. And once this is all over …”

  “What about it?”

  “I look forward to your dues when I take the seat, Theo.”

  Theo stiffened at those words. “They’ll be waiting for the boss, Tommas. I just won’t step in to help any man get there.”

  “I don’t expect you to.”

  “But I’ll wish you luck on the way to the top.”

  Theo felt Evelina’s glare burning into his back the moment he unlocked the apartment door. He ignored her crossed arms and tight frown as he kicked off his dress shoes, and shrugged of his suit jacket.

  He’d been back at his apartment and out of the hospital for four days. Theo couldn’t settle. He was restless as hell, needing to be on the move, and the feeling wouldn’t go away. He had no idea what to do to correct the problem. It seemed like the perpetual knot of tension in his stomach just kept getting tighter.

  “Get it out before you blow up,” Theo said, turning to face Evelina.

  “You are …”

  “What, Eve?”

  “Unbelievable, Theo.”

  Theo waved a hand high. “Nothing I haven’t already heard.”

  “You know the rules. You were released early on the understanding you would take it easy, get lots of rest, and stay away from stressful things, Theo.”

  “I have work to do,” Theo said.

  Evelina scowled at him. “The doctor said—”

  “Being home and wondering about all the trouble my crew is getting into when I’m not looking over their shoulders is really stressful for me, Eve. And my businesses? Yeah, I run those hands-on, too.”

  She clamped her mouth shut with an audible snap. Guilt ate away at Theo. He wasn’t accustomed to living with someone, or needing to check in with them like he was now with Evelina. She didn’t ask him to do it, but he knew she worried about him.

  “I knew you’d be pissed,” he said quietly.

  “That you got up at five in the morning and sneaked out of the apartment without me knowing?”

  “Yeah, about that. Sorry?”

  “You’re right. I’m pissed,” she said.

  Theo sighed. “I have work to do.”

  “I know, but you have to take it easy, Theo.”

  “I am. I had something to handle today.”

  “Like what?” Evelina asked, cocking a brow.

  Shit.

  Theo decided to give her the truth since he figured lying would only put him in the dog house. Now that he was living with Evelina, and they’d put titles on their relationship, lying was kind of low. Real men didn’t lie, not to women they loved.

  “I had a bookie that Adriano caught stealing off the bottom,” Theo explained. “It had to be handled. Thieves have a disease that tends to spread when it isn’t culled quickly.”

  Evelina’s fists met her hips. “Theo!”

  “I let Adriano handle it. I watched. Less work. No stress.”

  “Oh, my God.”

  Frustration wrote heavy lines over Evelina’s brow. Theo’s guilt climbed tenfold. Crossing the space between them in the apartment’s entryway, he grabbed Evelina’s wrists and pulled her into his chest before she could refuse him.

  “I’m sorry,” he murmured into her hair. “I didn’t mean to worry you. I don’t want to fight about it, Eve, but I have business to do. I can’t stop it simply because you worry.”

  Evelina’s tension released as her body sunk against his. “I had to lie to Lily when she called earlier.”

  “What did you say?”

  “That you were napping.”

  Theo scoffed. “I don’t nap.”

  “She fell for it.”

  Good thing.

  Lily was another one who hovered and worried too much.

  “She’s going to worry that little baby of hers right out,” Theo said.

  Evelina laughed. “Don’t say that.”

  “Well, it’s a genuine concern. Damian will blame me, I know it.”

  “Maybe you should take away some of her stress by following the rules, Theo.”

  Theo put two fingers under Evelina’s chin, and forced her to look up at him. Quickly, he pressed a kiss to her mouth to keep her quiet, and take away whatever worries she had left. “I’m fine, Eve.”

  “Are you?”

  “Yes. No pain. No achiness. No dizziness. I’m good.”

  Evelina pouted. “You could have called.”

  “You might have yelled at me.”

  “I might have.”

  “See,” he muttered.

  “A little. Because I love you.”

  Theo grinned. “Good to know. Now …”

  “Hmm, what?”

  Before Evelina blinked, Theo spun her to the side and pinned her against the closest wall. It just happened to be the door for the coat closet. The wood shuddered under the impact. Evelina’s wide, green eyes stared up at Theo with a mixture of shock and lust. Her grin deepened the moment he pressed a kiss to the tip of her nose.

  “Now this,” Theo said, fitting himself between her opened legs.

  “Not two weeks yet,” Evelina said, all the air in her voice gone.

  She wasn’t even fighting him. She didn’t move his hands when he began tugging her wool dress up. She didn’t avoid his kiss as he took her mouth with hard strikes of his tongue and scrapes of his teeth. She didn’t tell him to stop when he ground the hard length of his erection into her pelvis.

  Aching.

  Starving.

  Needing.

  Theo felt all of those things for Evelina.

  “No, he said to keep my heartrate down and not to do anything too strenuous,” Theo said before he bit Evelina’s lower lip.

  She whined, and the sound melted into the sexiest moan when Theo’s hand slipped between her legs to palm her hot sex through her panties. He adored how responsive this woman always was for him. She tilted her hips into his hand, matching his strokes until he was sure she was wet and fucking wanting him bad.

  “Fucking me against a wall isn’t strenuous to you?” Evelina asked sweetly.

  Theo dropped down to his knees with a cocked brow. “Who said anything about fucking you against a wall, Eve?”

  Evelina bit her bottom lip as Theo pushed her skirt up around her hips with one hand, and pulled her panties down to her ankles with the other.

  “You didn’t answer me,” Theo said.

  “Your heartrate …”

  “Hush up. My heart is fine.”

  “But—”

  “Hush. You know you want this, Eve. You know you want me to fuck you with my mouth until you’re begging, sweating, and coming all over my tongue. Don’t you want my tongue and fingers all over you, babe? You look so good when you let me eat you.”

  Theo pulled Evelina’s panties off when she stepped out of them and tossed them to the side. Evelina released a shaky breath. Her legs tightened around his hand when he slid two fingers along the seam of her wet sex. Her clit throbbed under the pad of his digit as he circled the hard nub over and over.

  “Jesus, Theo.”

  “Feel, princess. You’re wet as hell. You want this so fucking bad. Deny it.”

  “I want it.”

  “Hmm? Louder.”

  “I want your mouth on m
y pussy, Theo. Now.”

  “There you go, babe.” Theo smirked up at her.

  “You’re still not supposed to be doing this, Theo.”

  “We’re going to do this like that, huh?” he asked.

  “Like what?”

  “The way you like. With my dirty mouth and your easily offended sensibilities. See, this relationship of ours is all about giving to the other what they need. And I think you need this terribly bad, Eve.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yes. So unless the next words out of your mouth are either fuck me, Theo or more, Theo … I don’t want to hear it. I’m a giver when it comes to you. Shut up and take it.”

  Evelina swallowed hard. “God, that’s awful.”

  “You love it. Just like you love it when I fuck you. Be quiet, or beg me and love it, Eve.”

  “I—”

  “Beg me and love it, Eve.”

  She whimpered when he teased the slit of her sex with gentle touches.

  “Please, Theo. Please.”

  “And?”

  “God, you know I’ll fucking love it.”

  He did.

  Shooting her a grin, Theo thrust two fingers into her clenching sex and curled the digits hard into the wet walls. Evelina cried out loudly, sinking against the wall. Theo didn’t give her any time to gather her bearings. He leaned forward and covered her clit with his mouth and sucked hard.

  “Holy shit,” Evelina breathed.

  Theo felt her fingers find his hair. She tugged on the strands just hard enough for it to hurt. He didn’t mind a damn bit. Watching her from up above, he attacked her clit with fast strokes of his tongue.

  Over and over.

  Fucking relentless.

  Her tartly sweet arousal flooded his tongue, the flavor making him groan. Thick and deep, the sound started from somewhere in his chest and vibrated against Evelina’s clit. It only made her pretty little sounds turn a little more breathless for him.

  Almost …

  Theo knew it.

  She was almost there.

  “Oh, God,” Evelina mumbled.

  Theo kissed the hood of her clit and kept the pace of his fingers up as he met her stare. “So close, princess. You’re craving it, babe. It’s right there, huh?”

  “Stop teasing me, Theo. Fuck.”

  He curled his fingers hard again, knowing he was hitting the spot that was sure to make her shake even more.

  “There, Eve. It’s right there. I fucking missed this with you. Tasting you. Feeling you.”

  Evelina’s lashes fluttered closed. “You’re killing me.”

  “Not even close. Watch me, Eve, or this stops.”

  Her eyes flew open instantly.

  Theo chuckled. “Good girl. Ready?”

  “So ready.”

  Theo’s mouth was back on Evelina’s clit with rough, fast strikes in a blink. Evelina’s cries got louder when his fingers matched the rhythm of his tongue. The sounds of her wet flesh taking him in as her thighs began to shake was fucking perfection. Evelina looked like sex on legs up above him, riding his face and fingers, chasing her orgasm.

  Evelina’s grip on Theo’s hair tightened. He practically felt all of the tension in her body release when she came. Forcing her to stay in place so he could lap up every single drop of her arousal, Theo pushed his palm into Evelina’s stomach and kept her pinned to the wall.

  “Theo!”

  “Mmm,” Theo hummed, kissing Evelina’s trembling thigh. “Perfect.”

  Evelina sucked in a deep breath as Theo stood. “You were right.”

  “I always am.”

  “Smartass.”

  Theo smirked. “Very. Do tell me what I’m right about this time, though.”

  “I missed this.”

  “I knew you did.”

  “Still not—”

  Theo didn’t let Evelina get her worries about his heart out. Not again. She’d said it enough. He was perfectly fucking fine.

  Yanking her away from the wall, Theo pulled on Evelina’s dress until it was up over her head and tossed to the floor.

  “Theo, wait,” Evelina said, sounding amused and annoyed at the same time.

  “No.”

  Theo pulled her in for a kiss that burned him from the inside out. He took his time owning her mouth all over again while Evelina fisted his shirt and pulled him closer. When he did finally pull away, he felt like he couldn’t fucking breathe again.

  He was so in love with this woman. Because she didn’t give a damn about his monsters, and she wasn’t out to chase them away. She didn’t think he was broken. She didn’t fix him like someone else might try to. She worried too damned much about him. He liked waking up in sheets that smelled like whatever perfume she wore. The extra clothes in his closest and the frilly shit in the bathroom didn’t even look out of place.

  Evelina hadn’t made a place in his life. She simply took the open spot that Theo hadn’t known was missing someone until it was filled.

  She just was.

  His entirely.

  Theo loved it.

  “Goddamn, Eve, you’re …”

  Looking stunned and goddamn gorgeous in nothing but her bra, Evelina watched Theo warily.

  “What, Theo?”

  “You settle me. Do you know that?”

  Evelina’s brow puckered. “Settle you?”

  “I feel so restless, and then I touch you and I’m good again.”

  “Oh.”

  “That all you got to say?”

  “I didn’t know that I did that for you.”

  “You do,” he murmured. “Take it off, Eve. The rest of it needs to go.”

  “But—”

  Theo gave her one look that shut Evelina up instantly. “Off.”

  Silently, Evelina hooked her thumbs around her bra straps and pulled them down until her breasts spilled free. While she unhooked the bra from the back, Theo cupped her tits in his hands and rolled his thumbs over the peaks of her nipples.

  Evelina shuddered. “That feels so good.”

  “What do I always say, hmm?”

  “It’ll get so much better.”

  “Bang on, babe.”

  Then, Evelina leaned forward and pressed her lips to his. It was a much softer, sweeter kiss than he’d leveled on her. It didn’t feel any less powerful, though. It still heated his blood, made his cock throb, and Theo still wanted to get down on his damned knees for this woman.

  Anything.

  He’d do anything for her.

  “Let me,” Evelina whispered.

  “What, Eve?”

  “Undress you.”

  Theo smiled wickedly. “Go for it.”

  Evelina returned his grin and began unbuttoning the dress shirt he wore. She took her time pulling the shirt off and then tugging down his pants until he stood in nothing but boxer-briefs and skin. Theo waited for his lover to surprise him with something, and she didn’t disappoint. Her hot mouth touched down to his skin over and over while the tips of her fingers roamed over his body.

  Without a word, Evelina touched and kissed all the spots and marks Theo’s body owned. The old ones and the news ones became hers with a single graze of her fingers to the scars. He had far too many. His life had cut more scars into his body than he cared to count.

  Evelina still took them all.

  Then, her hand slipped under his boxer-briefs and wrapped around his cock in a vise-tight grip. Sweet Jesus.

  “Couch,” Theo ordered.

  Evelina winked. Theo stepped forward and made her walk backwards until the backs of her legs hit the couch. Quick as lightning, Theo grabbed Evelina by the waist and turned them around so she could climb on top. Anxious in his heart and hot in his blood, he freed his cock from his boxer-briefs and let Evelina position herself the way she wanted.

  The second she sunk down on his length, Theo was gone. His hands found her waist to hold her still so he could just feel her like that for a moment. Flexing around him, bare, and soaking him in the best w
ay possible.

  Leaning forward, Evelina touched her nose to Theo’s. Her hair created a curtain-like barrier and suddenly, it was just them. Nothing else mattered. Nothing existed except green eyes watching him and the blissful heat of pleasure licking up his spine.

  He’d never loved before.

  He’d fucked.

  Never loved.

  When Evelina began riding him slowly, with her hair still barricading them inside their own private world, he finally figured out what the difference between fucking and loving was. It was better; rawer.

  A hesitance flickered in Evelina’s gaze.

  Theo knew her worries before she voiced them. “Feel, Eve.”

  Her palm lifted from his stomach to press over his heart. Gentle, soft beats answered her touch. A steady, natural rhythm that wasn’t too fast and felt just right. They’d be bad. It was what he always said.

  But they were terribly good, too.

  “You settle me, Eve.”

  “I love you, Theo.”

  “Love you,” he echoed.

  “I’m ready to cash in on that apology.”

  Adriano glanced up from the papers on his desk.

  Theo grinned from his spot in the doorway to the restaurant’s office.

  “What was that?” Adriano asked.

  “The apology you owe me. I’m ready to cash in on it.”

  Adriano cleared his throat and put the papers away. “Oh?”

  “I figure we’ve already got it settled and all, but it’d look better on you and Eve for me to do it the proper way. And I’m all about what’s best for Eve, you know.”

  “My sister.”

  “That’s what I said,” Theo replied, chuckling.

  “You worried me there for a second.”

  “Eve is mine, Adriano.”

  The younger man didn’t give a single thing away as he said, “I’m aware.”

  “And you’re her brother, so that makes you family. I’m not out to hurt family. A lot of others would do well to learn that as well.”

  “I agree.” Adriano pushed out his chair and stood from the desk. “Where is my sister today?”

  “She went shopping with Lily.”

  “Ghost trailing behind?”

  “Probably,” Theo said. “Which is why I let her go.”

  It was a dangerous thing for Evelina to be chumming around in Rossi and Trentini territory. Little to nothing had been settled between Tommas and Joel. But Theo trusted Damian to take care of his girl and sister. Simple as that.