by Celia Ryan
“You noticed?”
He smiled at me in a way that made my body ache in all the right places. But that wasn't the job. I needed to stay focused. Even if I did like him playing with my mind a little too much.
“It was in the newspapers. It was hard not to notice your face plastered all over the news when a dead body showed up. I moved to New Jersey, but we still get the news.”
He laughed, “Sounds like you've been keeping tabs on me a little bit more than you’re letting on. Is there a reason for that?”
I felt my heart pounding in my chest just as the waiter walked up to us. Luka looked at me while he whispered something in Chinese to the waiter, he nodded his head and shuffled off to get our meal. Only a moment later he came back with two small shot glasses and Luka immediately raised his to me. “To our health, and finding one another again after all this time.”
“To finding one another.” I raised my glass and sniffed it. He swallowed his and laughed at me. “It's not poison.”
I gave him a look. “I figured as much. What is it?”
“Fireball. I always keep a bottle here. Nice way to unwind before a meal.” I raised an eyebrow at him but lifted the glass to my lips and took the shot. It felt like molten lava flowing down my throat and fire burning in my belly. Of course he would be drinking fireball. Just like he always had.
“So are you going to tell me why you were in jail?”
“I thought you read all about it.”
“Some. But I’d like to know more.”
“You have a lot of questions. Why is that?”
The waiter brought over our food and another round of shots. I drank it immediately to avoid his question. I needed to play my role better, to be smarter about the questions I was asking. I couldn't let him suspect what I was really doing here. But as we began to eat and continued to drink my resolution faltered. By the fourth round of fireball we were laughing like old friends and I felt like the questions that we were both ignoring were no longer important. He talked about his family and his friends and everything that we had both missed being away for so long. By the time that dinner had ended I had completely forgotten about my mission. I was falling into him, back into his trap. I was starting to feel the same way about him that I had all those years ago.
I had loved him once. That wasn’t true love, but a teenage crush that had developed into something more real. Part of me wondered if he had claimed me back then. It seemed that he had made his decision about me long ago and this was all just part of his plan.
I knew my endgame, but I didn't know his.
“Do you want me to call you a cab?”
I shook my head. “No. You can take me home.”
He opened the door for me and I got into the car. What was I doing? I wasn't following my plan. This was all happening too fast. All of my planning had become quickly unraveled. And as much as I knew I should slow things down I also wanted them to speed up. It was the fireball, I was sure of it, but that didn't mean that I didn't want him to touch me.
Deep down I wanted his hands on my skin. The ache that had been growing all night between my legs told me to abort the mission. Seek my revenge at a different time. By getting in this car with him I knew what would happen. But that didn't stop me. Instead it just made me want him even more.
We sat in silence in the car driving the streets of Baltimore. We weren’t going toward my apartment, but I didn’t tell him that.
I didn’t care.
I finally had enough waiting and started the conversation again. Patience had never been my strong suit.
The fireball had given me the confidence I needed to ask the real questions. Things I needed answers to.
“How did you find me?”
“You never changed your first name. I thought when you went into Witness Protection they changed everything about you. It’s almost like you wanted to be found.”
Was he onto me?
“My mother’s death wasn’t a hit. Therefore, I didn’t need to go into WPP. They considered it for a while, but then they just sent me to my family out East.”
“You have other family? Is that why you went to Jersey?” He sounded intrigued. I needed to play it off.
“Yeah, just a little bit. But they’re old, so I moved back. I missed this place.”
That was a lie.
I couldn't fight the feeling that was burying itself deep inside my stomach. The small moment that was blossoming between us was everything. I just had to hold on a little bit longer to see where it went.
I needed the truth.
“So besides working what have you been doing?” he asked incredulously.
“Nothing, really. I’ve been keeping a low profile, trying to get past everything that happened.”
“That’s a lot to work through.”
“Yeah. What have you been doing? Just working for the family? I mean after jail.”
He nodded slowly. It was clear he was apprehensive to give me any real information. “Something like that. Mostly missing you.”
“Missing me? What's that supposed to mean?”
As he turned into an alley, he put his hand up on my knee. Skin to skin contact was almost too much for me to take. This wasn’t supposed to happen. I wasn’t allowed to feel this way about him. But I couldn’t tell that to my body. I felt the blood rush to my core and my pussy was almost immediately wet.
God damned fireball.
He parked the car. I looked out and saw the familiar brick building next to us, but I couldn't place it.
“I said I miss you, dammit. Why do you think I went through so much trouble to find you?”
I shrugged. I honestly didn't know. Why now, after ten years, had he finally come for me? I had always assumed that he had just forgotten about me. What was a fifteen year old girl to him back then? There had to be some other reason why he sought me out. Maybe he was here on business for the family, and he was just acting like he missed me to get the information from me he needed. Information about my mother's murder. But I didn't know anything. I never testified because I was under the desk the whole time. My mother and two other people had been killed that day in the office, and I never figured out exactly why. I’d spent years trying to uncover the truth about why she was included in that hit, but I never found anything. She was just the accountant. She wasn’t important enough to the family to have a hit taken out on. All signs pointed to a murder of passion. After years of searching for the truth, I finally knew why she had died, and I knew exactly who to blame.
“I know you came to me for information. But I don't have any, Luka, I never did.” My lies were the whole reason I was here. But as I looked at him, a genuine expression of concern on his face, my resolve wavered.
“I never thought you did. You were just a scared kid. Unfortunately, you had to be there when it happened, and that should have never fucking happened. And I’ll make sure that it’ll never happen again.”
“Never happen again? Can you guarantee that? Luka, your life is full of death.” I was starting to panic, my feelings for him rushing back. And if I didn’t do my job quickly, I’d be in over my head. He had to take me back to the family, then I would finally know the truth. I would get my revenge.
“If I go back to the family with you, there's no way that you can be sure that I'll be safe.” I had to get him there. To take me with him.
He squinted at me. “You think this is about coming back to the family? That’s not what any of this is about.”
I shook my head. “What the hell is this about then, Luka? You come out of the woodwork after a decade and you expect me to know what's going on. You take me to dinner for Godsakes! I don't know anything.”
He laughed at me. “You never did.”
We sat in silence for a moment, the tension building between us. He never took his hand off my thigh. Instead, his hand started slowly creeping up between my legs. My short skirt exposed more than it meant to—it was meant to help me get better tips—but now, I
wasn't sure what I would get out of it. Butterflies danced in my stomach as I felt the tension in the car shift from anger to something else entirely.
“I want to taste you.”
My mouth dropped open in shock. “Me? Why me?”
He looked into my eyes and simply said, “Because I've wanted to for ten years. And I'm tired of waiting.”
I had dreamed of this moment for years. For when he would really look at me as a woman, rather than the kid that ran around his father’s office.
With those simple words, my resolve started to crumble. “Don’t wait anymore.” I spoke without even thinking. I said it so quietly I wasn't sure if he heard it or not. But within seconds, his mouth was on mine, and I knew that once again, I was addicted to Luka Gioti. And I knew that that meant only one thing: danger.
It was as if time had slowed down, as I felt every little part of his lips meet mine. There was no one else but Luka and me. I felt his tongue tease my lips and I slightly parted my mouth. His hand rushed behind my head, pulling me closer to him. What happened in seconds felt like hours. I knew once his lips met mine that I was not going to be able to resist him.
The seatbelt pulled at my waist, reminding me that we were still in his car, parked in the alleyway. I didn’t care though, because all I was focused on was wanting his hand to move farther up my thigh. A small voice inside my head was yelling at me for what I was doing. I was betraying my family’s name. But with his lips on my own and his hand dangerously close to the edge of my skirt, I couldn’t think of anything but his strong body over mine, taking me over the edge.
Our kiss deepened and his hand moved swiftly underneath my skirt, brushing up against my core. I let out a small moan into his mouth. I imagined how that tongue would feel in other places of my body and felt a slight ripple from my chest down to my core. His fingers lightly teased me over the fabric of my thong. I slightly rolled my hips and felt the tug of the seatbelt again, pinning me to my seat. I heard the audible click of his seatbelt as he pushed me back toward my seat and moved his lips down to my neck. I leaned my head back into the headrest. His fingers pushed aside my thong and slowly ran down my slick folds. I let out a loud moan. His finger slipped inside of me, and I felt a jolt of fire course through my body. I rolled my hips on top of his hand, wanting him to go deeper. He placed his thumb on my clit and started to rub in a circle as he slowly moved his finger in and out. All of a sudden, he stopped and pulled his hand out from underneath my skirt. My body felt cold with the absence of his touch. I opened my eyes in confusion.
“Is there something wrong?”
“Get out of the car. I need to be able to see you better as I fuck you.”
“But we’re in an alley. Won’t someone see us?”
He gave me a cocky smile. “That’s the point.” He quickly opened the door and walked outside. I sat there, momentarily in shock. What the hell was I doing? He looked at me expectantly through the windshield and the trance he had over me called me to him. I reached down and unbuckled my seat belt and opened the door. I looked both ways down the alleyway and noticed that it was pretty secluded. We were the only car parked there. I stood up, adjusted my skirt, which had been hiked up a bit, and walked to the front of the car. As soon as I reached him, his lips crashed into mine for a brief moment.
“Lay down on the hood,” he commanded. All I could do was nod as I leaned back down on the hood. I felt the cold metal beneath me and I shuddered a little. Luka grabbed my legs and pulled my body a bit closer to his, spreading my legs with his hands. He leaned down and kissed my inner thighs as his fingertips ran up my legs and pushed up underneath my skirt. My skin bristled at his touch.
His lips reached my thong and I could feel his hot breath on my sex, and my whole body shuddered. Using his teeth, he pulled my thong aside and held it in place with his left hand. As he gently flicked his tongue across my clit, I felt the pressure inside my body start to build.
As his tongue moved back and forth, he teased me with his fingers outside of my folds. I arched my back up and closed my eyes. He pushed two fingers inside me and I let out a loud moan, forgetting that we were no longer inside the quiet of his car. It no longer mattered that we could get caught, all that mattered was the amazing way he was making me feel. His tongue flicked faster and his hands moved in rhythm as he brought me close to the edge in ecstasy. Just as I was about to fall into my orgasm, I felt the absence of his lips and his fingers. I quickly opened my eyes and saw him unzipping his pants.
“Tell me how much you want me to fuck you,” he said.
“So badly,” I said. “I need you inside me right now.” He smiled and pulled out his large cock.
“Prove it.”
Surprising myself, I quickly grabbed his hips and guided his cock inside me. I let out a load moan as he pushed in, bracing himself on his hands on the hood of the car. I pushed my hips up to meet his, and I reached my arms up and grabbed on to his strong shoulders.
“Fuck me, Luka.”
He thrust his hips forward, causing the whole car to move. His hips started to move faster and I spread my legs farther, letting him go deeper.
“Oh God, Luka, harder!”
His hips moved faster and faster as my body began to shake, and I felt my orgasm bubble over. Once I was finished, he pulled out and flipped me over.
“Get on your knees,” he commanded.
I quickly moved myself so I was on my hands and knees. I felt his hand snake through my hair and grab hold of it as he pushed himself back inside me. Using his left hand, he pushed my skirt up and guided my hips roughly back on his own. He pulled my head back and started to thrust his hips harder. I felt his cock hit my g-spot perfectly, and the pressure in my body built up again. He continued to pump his hips as he pulled my head back a little farther. His left hand left my hips and he moved it up under my shirt and bra, grabbing on to my nipple. He gently tugged, and I felt my entire body start to shake.
He pushed his hips roughly forward and I felt him release inside me. My body clenched on his and the pressure I was containing burst as I fell into my orgasm with him. It was like nothing I had ever experienced with anyone else.
He pulled my body up to his and whispered in my ear.
“Let’s go upstairs. I’m not finished with you yet.”
Chapter 6
Luka
“Luka, your phone is ringing again,” she said, looking exasperated. She was just waking up, lying between my arms in my bed. Fuck. It was strange to think of it as my bed, instead of the cold hard bunk in my jail cell. But I was finally back, in my home and with Vienna. It was everything to me. I nestled my face into her dark hair and inhaled the sweet scent of strawberries, which must have been her shampoo. I pulled her body closer to mine and held her tighter. She turned around to face me, holding the phone in my face. “I said your phone is ringing again. Don’t you think you should answer it?”
I rolled my eyes and turned onto my back. “I don't really want to.” I knew who it was: my family. I came back to my apartment and changed after getting out of jail, and I had gone straight to Vienna. I hadn't even called my mom yet to tell her I was out. They were going to be pissed, but that was an issue I just wasn't willing to deal with yet. Not when I had this hot piece of ass in my bed.
“If it's your family, you need to answer them. I'm sure they're just worried about you.”
I raised an eyebrow at her. “You and I both know that my family has never once been worried about me. I can take care of myself.”
She pulled the sheet around her body, covering her breasts. “I know you can take care of yourself, but they are your family. They're always going to want to take care of you. Your mom, especially.”
Okay, so she had a point there.
I heard the phone vibrate again, and this time, she dropped it on my chest and pulled the sheet off the bed, wrapping it around herself and walking toward the bathroom. She threw me a look over her shoulder and let the sheet loosen a bit, exposing that sw
eet porcelain white skin before closing the door. “Answer it.”
I sighed heavily, but I clicked to accept the call. My father was on the other end of the line. “My boy! How's the outside treating you?”
I sat up, leaning against the headboard of my bed. “Pops, what’s going on? You called me like five times. I didn't think you missed me that much.”
He laughed, but I knew it wasn't sincere. “You were supposed to report directly to the office once you got out. I mean, I assumed you’d go home and change, but to bring a girl back there? Isn’t that a little premature?”
I shook my head. He put a tail on me. Of course he fucking did. He would never trust me again, not after that night. “So who's watching? Should I open up the blinds and give them a good show?”
“That's none of your concern. Just get your ass into the office. There's work to do.”
“Pops, I've been in jail for four years. I have my own shit to do first.”
There was dead silence on the other end of the line, except for my father’s slow, measured intake of breath. Fuck. I'd taken it too far. Being in for all that time had made me forget how to deal with him.
“But I'll be in shortly. Just give me a couple hours to get my affairs in order.”
“Fine. You have three hours. But as soon as you're done doing whoever it is you're doing, get your ass in here and be prepared to work.”
“Got it.” I wasn’t even sure if he heard my response. He had already hung up. I set the phone back on my bedside table just as Vienna emerged from the bathroom. She had her tousled hair pulled up on top of her head and she had made the sheet into a sort of dress. She was stunning. And all that I wanted to do was to rip that white sheet off of her body and take her until she was sore.
“So was that your dad? Or your mom?”
She crawled onto the bed. She rested her body right between my legs, her elbows on my chest. She was so close, I could reach out and kiss her right now, bite on her lower lip and tell her what I wanted to do to her, but I knew she was fishing for information. And I wasn't going to deny her the truth anymore.