by Cora Reilly
“He gets what he wants? It’s not hunting if he forces her into marriage by asking my father for her hand. That is cowardice.”
“It doesn’t matter. They’re getting married.” He turned his back to me, as if he was dismissing me.
Luca didn’t get it. He couldn’t. He didn’t know Gianna as well as I did. She wouldn’t go into this union quietly like I had. I stormed toward the elevator. “Aria, what the fuck are you doing?”
I was in the elevator before Luca could reach it and was on my way one floor down. I stepped out into Matteo’s apartment. It was basically a mirror image of our own, except that it wasn’t a duplex. Matteo had sat in an armchair, listening to some kind of crappy rap music when he saw me. He rose, eying me cautiously as he came toward me. “What are you doing here?”
I pushed my palms against his chest when he stopped in front of me. “Take your proposal back. Tell my father you don’t want Gianna.”
Matteo laughed. “Why would I? I want her. I always get what I was want. Gianna shouldn’t have played games with the big boys.”
I lost it and slapped him across the face. My stupid Italian temperament. I usually reigned it in, better than my other siblings at least, but not today. He gripped my arm, shoved me back so my spine collided painfully with the wall, and trapped me between it and his body. I gasped. “You are lucky that you are my brother’s wife.”
The elevator bling-ed as it stopped and opened. “Let her go,” Luca growled, stepping out. Matteo back away at once and gave me a cold smile.
Luca walked up to me, eyes scanning my body before facing his brother. “You won’t do that again.”
“Then teach her manners. I won’t let her hit me again.” Teach her manners? His marriage to Gianna would end in an utter catastrophe.
Luca’s voice dropped an octave. “You won’t touch my wife again, Matteo. You are my brother and I’d take a bullet for you, but if you do that again, you’ll have to live with the consequences.” They faced each other and for a moment I worried they’d pull knives and fight each other. That wasn’t what I’d intended. I knew how much Luca cared about his brother, more than he cared about me anyway. Matteo was the only person Luca trusted. For a while I’d thought I might be that person, but if that were the case, today would have gone very differently. I knew his protecting me was a power game and not about emotions. By touching me, Matteo had shown disrespect toward Luca and of course Luca couldn’t let that slide.
“I won’t hit you again, Matteo,” I ground out, though the words tasted foul in my mouth. “I shouldn’t have done it.”
Both men turned to me in surprise. Matteo relaxed his stance. Luca didn’t.
“I’m sorry if I hurt or scared you,” Matteo said. I couldn’t tell if he meant it or not. He had the emotionless mask down just like his brother.
“You didn’t.”
Luca smirked, then he stepped up to me and pulled me against him possessively. Our eyes met and as if he remembered our earlier words his smirk disappeared and his lips tightened. He didn’t release me but his hold on me loosened.
I turned away from him, not able to bear his expression any longer, and faced Matteo. “Don’t marry, Gianna,” I tried again, and Luca’s grip on my waist tightened in warning. I ignored him. “She doesn’t want to marry you.”
“You didn’t want to marry Luca either and here you are,” Matteo said with his shark grin.
“Gianna isn’t like me. She won’t come to terms with an arranged marriage.”
Luca dropped his hand from my waist.
“She will become my wife the moment she turns eighteen. No power in this universe will stop me from making her mine.”
“You disgust me. You all do,” I said. With that I stepped back into the elevator. Luca didn’t follow. He didn’t even watch me to see if I was returning to our apartment. He knew I wouldn’t go anywhere. Even if I still wanted to run, I couldn’t. My heart belonged to him even if he didn’t have a heart that he could give me in turn.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
I twisted and turned, not able to fall asleep. I wasn’t used to being alone in bed. Even though, Luca and I had barely spoken in the last three days since our fight and hadn’t had sex, we’d always ended up in each other’s arms during the night. Of course, the moment we woke we moved apart. I missed Luca’s closeness. I missed talking to him, missed his kisses, his touch, his hot tongue between my legs. I sighed as I became wet. I wouldn’t give in. How much longer could Luca go without sex anyway?
What if he wasn’t? What if he fucked Grace again? She was supposedly in England but who knew if that was the truth. Or maybe he’d found a new woman to fuck. My eyes found the clock. It was almost two in the night. A heavy weight settled on my chest. Was Luca giving up on our marriage that easily?
Why not? He’d gotten what he wanted. He’d claimed my body. It wasn’t like I was the only person who could give him what he wanted.
A bang sounded downstairs, followed by deep voices. Romero was one of them, the other was Luca. I slipped out of bed and quickly rushed out of the bedroom in my nightgown. I froze on the staircase. The lights were out but the moon and the surrounding skyscrapers provided enough light for me to see what was going on. Luca had Romero in a chokehold. I took another step down and Luca’s eyes shot toward me, furious and wild. The monster was back. His arms were covered in blood. Romero stopped struggling when he realized Luca was too strong.
“I would never betray the Familia,” Romero choked out, then coughed. “I’m loyal. I’d die for you. If I were a traitor, Aria wouldn’t be here, safe and unscathed. She’d be in the hands of the Bratva.”
Luca loosened his hold and Romero fell to his knees, gasping for breath. I walked down the remaining steps, ignoring Romero shaking his head at me. What was going on? Luca had never been this unhinged.
“Out now,” he snarled at Romero. When Romero didn’t move, Luca grabbed him by the collar and dragged him into the elevator. Before the doors slid shut, Romero’s worried gaze settled on me. Luca jabbed a code into the panel beside the elevator that deactivated it and stopped people from coming into our apartment, then he turned to me. Not only his arms but his shirt too were covered in blood. I didn’t see any bullet holes in his shirt or pants.
“Are you okay?” I said, but even my whisper felt too loud in the silence.
I approached Luca slowly as his eyes followed my movement like a tiger would watch the antelope. A strange flicker of excitement filled me. Despite what I’d witnessed, I knew Luca wouldn’t really hurt me. When I’d almost reached him, Luca stalked toward me and crashed his lips against mine. I gasped and he thrust his tongue into my mouth. His hands ripped at my nightgown, tearing it from my body. When it fluttered to the ground, he tore my thin lace panties off. His hungry gaze traveled over me, then he wrenched me toward him and bit into my throat, then my nipple. I gasped in pain and arousal. I should have run as Luca had told me a long time ago, but this side of him actually turned me on, and my arousal spoke louder than my fear, even when Luca pushed me toward the sofa and bent me over the backrest. His hand held my neck as his other hand slid between my folds. He pushed two fingers into me and found me wet and aching. I released a harsh breath as my walls clamped tightly around his fingers. He pulled them out. I heard him open his belt and unzip his pants, and I shivered with fear and excitement. Luca bit into my butt cheek then my lower back and shoulder blade before he shoved his entire length into me without warning.
I cried out, but Luca didn’t hesitate, he pressed his chest against my back while he held me captive with one arm around my chest, and then he started pounding into me hard and fast. I bit down on my lip. It hurt but it felt also good. Every time he pushed into me, he hit a spot deep in me that sent sparks of pleasure through me. Luca reached down, his hot breath against my neck, and rubbed his fingers over my clit. I cried and gasped and whimpered. I could feel the tension building. The sound of Luca’s pants and growls turned me on even more. His fingers t
wisted my nipple almost painfully and he bit down on the crook of my neck, and stars erupted before my vision as I exploded. I screamed Luca’s name over and over again as I trembled in the wake of my orgasm but he didn’t slow. He drove into me hard and fast, his fingers on my clit relentless as his breathing grew labored, and then I came again, shattered into thousand tiny pieces of pleasure. My legs crumbled but Luca pinned me against the backrest with his body. With a growl, he gripped my hips and fucked me even harder. I’d be bruised and sore tomorrow, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. When he shuddered against me and bit the other side of my throat, I hung limply over the sofa. Too sated and exhausted to do anything as he came in me.
I thought it was over, but Luca lifted me off the backrest and lowered me to the ground. He shoved my legs as wide apart as they would go. I was oversensitive and couldn’t possibly come again, but Luca’s eyes pinned me with their intensity. He grasped my wrists and pushed my arms up above my head, then he rubbed two fingers along my folds, back and forth, before circling my opening and sliding them in inch by inch. My eyes rolled back in my head as he fingered me in a torturously slow way. My walls clamped around his fingers and I heard sounds coming from the back of my throat I didn’t recognize. He didn’t touch my clit, just fucked me with his fingers with an intense look on his face.
“Is this a fucking lie?” he asked roughly as he curled his fingers in me and made me gasp in pleasure. “Tell me Aria. Tell me you enjoy this as much as I do.” The despair in his voice startled me.
He curled his fingers again and I whimpered. “Yes, Luca. I enjoy this.”
He flicked my clit with his thumb and I arched off the ground, but he pulled his thumb away despite my mew of protest and kept fingering me. “So you lied? Why?”
He was driving me insane with need. I wanted him to touch my clit, wanted him to finger me faster, wanted him to fuck me. “Yes, I lied!” I squirmed in his hold, wanting to free my hands to reach for his cock. He was already growing hard and I wanted to convince him to stop my torture, but he was too strong and too relentless.
“Why?” he growled. He paused his fingers and I wanted to scream in frustration.
“I lied because I hate that I love you, because I hate that you can hurt me without ever laying a finger on me, because I hate myself for loving you even though you won’t ever love me back.” Luca released my wrists, eyes dark and questioning.
I didn’t want to talk. I reached for his erection and gave it a hard squeeze. “Now fuck me.”
He grabbed my legs and pulled me toward him, my feet pressed up against his shoulders, and then he slid into me in one hard stroke and I came around him, my muscles clenching around his cock so tightly that he grunted. He fucked me even harder and I scratched my fingers over the wooden floor as my eyes shut tightly. I was coming apart from pleasure and emotions. My back rubbed against the hard floor, I was sore and my legs were stiff but I came again when Luca hit his release, and then I passed out.
***
My entire body hurt. I groaned when I shifted and realized I was lying in our bed. Luca must have carried me upstairs last night. My eyes fluttered open and found Luca watching me with a strange look on his face.
“What did I do?” he asked in a harsh whisper.
I frowned, then looked down at myself. The blankets were pulled back, revealing the entire length of my body and the proof of last night’s actions. There were finger-shaped bruises on my hips and wrists. My throat and shoulders were tender where Luca had marked me and my inner thighs were red from the friction. I looked like a mess. I sat up and winced from the sharp soreness between my legs. Yet I couldn’t find it in me to regret anything. I didn’t always want it this rough, but once in a while it was a nice change of pace.
“Aria, please tell me. Did I…?”
I searched his eyes, trying to figure out what he was talking about. Self-hatred flashed on his face and then I realized what he thought. “You don’t remember?”
“I remember bits and pieces. I remember holding you down.” His voice caught. He wasn’t touching me. In fact he perched on the edge of the bed as far from me as possible. He looked exhausted and broken. “You didn’t hurt me.”
His eyes flickered to the bruises. “Don’t lie to me.”
I knelt and moved toward him even when he stiffened. “You were a bit rougher than usual but I wanted it. I enjoyed it.”
Luca didn’t say anything but I could tell he didn’t believe me.
“No, really, Luca.” I kissed his cheek and lowered my voice. “I came at least four times. I don’t exactly remember everything. I passed out from sensatory overload.” Relief washed away some of the darkness in Luca’s eyes but I was surprised that he didn’t tease me for my comment.
“I don’t understand what got into you. You even attacked Romero.”
“My father is dead.”
I jerked. “What? How?”
“Last night. He had dinner at a small restaurant in Brooklyn when a sniper put a bullet into his head.”
“What about your step-mother?”
“She wasn’t there. He was with his mistress. She was shot too, probably because the Bratva thought she was his wife. Someone must have told them where to find him. Only very few people knew he went there. He was in disguise. Nobody could have recognized him. There has to be a traitor among us.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The sky over New York was hung with heavy clouds but it didn’t rain. It fit the occasion. For the funeral of Salvatore Vitiello, the elite of New York, the Familia as well as the most important members of the Chicago Outfit had gathered on the cemetery. The perimeter around it had been closed off and most of the soldiers of the New York mafia were keeping guard to make sure the Bratva didn’t disturb the funeral. A gathering of the most important members from both New York and Chicago at this time was a risk, but paying respect to the Capo dei Capi was more important.
Luca stood tall and stoic beside his father’s grave. He was now the new Capo and he couldn’t show a flicker of weakness, not even after the death of his father. Luca and his father hadn’t been close in the traditional sense, but losing your parent, no matter how cruel and cold he’d been, always ripped a hole into you. I could tell that many of the older men in the Familia watched Luca with a calculating look in their eyes.
Luca didn’t give any indication that he noticed but that was definitely an act. So soon after he’d come into power was the most dangerous time. I hadn’t known Salvatore Vitiello very well and I wasn’t sorry about that. For me the funeral meant only one thing: I got the chance to see my family again.
Gianna, Fabi and Lily stood with Father and Mother among the guests from the Chicago Outfit. They’d arrived this morning and I couldn’t wait to spend some time with them. Every guest shook Luca’s hand, clapped his shoulder and said a few words of comfort, most of them lies. How many of these men were waiting for a chance to rip the power from Luca’s hands?
When it was my father’s turn, I had to stop myself from attacking him for agreeing to marry Gianna off to Matteo. Instead I gritted my teeth and gave him a cold smile. Gianna pointedly avoided Matteo’s eyes. She’d lost weight and it broke my heart to see her so hopeless.
I was glad when the funeral was over. The men had a meeting scheduled for the evening to discuss the rising threat of the Russians. In our world there wasn’t time to mourn the dead for long. Chicago and New York needed to figure out a way to stop the Bratva before another Capo lost his life. And that would be either Luca, or Dante Cavallaro.
***
Luca wanted me out of New York, so he sent me to the Vitiello mansion in the Hamptons. Gianna, Lily and Fabi were allowed to accompany me for the night before they’d have to leave for Chicago tomorrow evening. I had a feeling Father hoped I would talk some sense into Gianna about her arranged marriage with Matteo. The engagement party was planned for the beginning of November, so Gianna didn’t have all that long to come to terms with it. Mother stayed wit
h Father in Manhattan, but they sent Umberto with us. He, Cesare and Romero were supposed to keep us safe.
We arrived at the mansion around dinnertime and the staff had already prepared a meal for us. My heart swelled with happiness as Lily, Fabi, Gianna and I settled around the long dining table, but it was dimmed by the fact that our three bodyguards discussed the Russian threat in hushed voices and by Gianna’s refusal to eat more than two bites. I didn’t want to discuss her betrothal to Matteo with everyone there. Later when they’d gone to bed, Gianna and I would have enough time for that.
Fabi was the only one who kept the conversation on our side of the table going as he told me excitedly about the collection of knives Father had given him. Lily was busy sneaking admiring glances at Romero who was completely oblivious to her pining.
After dinner, we moved on to the loggia overlooking the ocean. The night sky out here twinkled with stars. In New York you rarely got a glimpse at them. Cesare had gone off to do God knows what, probably check the security system, and Umberto and Romero had settled in the living room; from there they could watch us without overhearing our conversation. Fabi lay curled up beside Lily, fast asleep, while she was typing something on her phone while checking out Romero occasionally.
“Do you want to talk?” I whispered to Gianna who sat beside me, legs pressed up against her chest. She shook her head. It felt as if a rift had grown between us since she’d gotten the news about her betrothal and I didn’t know why. “Gianna, please.”
“There’s nothing to talk about.”
“Maybe it’s not as bad as you think.” She gave me an incredulous look but I kept talking. “When I found out I had to marry Luca, I was terrified, but I’ve come to terms with it. Luca and I are getting along better than I thought possible.”