Despite her exuberance of energy that day, she’d been more tired than usual lately, and it was concerning me. I took Gianna back to my office and walked her through Sophia’s medical history, routines, and other pertinent information. I threw in facts about myself as well as encouraging her to unknowingly answering several of my own.
After a couple of hours, my stomach grumbled and I glanced at my watch to see it was just after noon. “Sophia’s bus will drop her off at around two o’clock.” I smiled and stood, rounding my desk to help her up from her chair on the other side. “Come, mia dolce. I’m going to take you to lunch.”
Gianna shook her head and stepped back, earning herself a dark frown.
“You don’t have to do that. I love cooking and you have such a great kitchen.”
I caressed her cheek and gave her a soft smile. “I’m happy to have you cooking for our family, Gianna. But, sometimes, I want to spoil my girl.”
She blinked at me, seemingly confused. I wasn’t sure she really knew what to make of her situation, yet. Perhaps I hadn’t been clear enough. I grasped her waist and tugged her forward so I could wrap her up in my arms.
“You’re mine, Gianna. I’m keeping you. From the moment I saw you standing on my porch, fresh-faced and innocent”—I nuzzled my nose against hers and grinned—“in a provocative little dress you hid under a sweater.” I bent my head to whisper in her ear, my lips brushing the shell. “Just like you’re hiding the tigress inside I know is there. The one only I will ever get to see, the one that I’ll set free when I fuck you.”
She gasped and her head reared back, her face a mask of shock. But, even after only a few days of knowing her, I was aware of how much I could push her, and my crude words had caused a fire to burn in the depths of her green eyes.
I kissed her, urging her to let the fire grow, to be the temptress I couldn’t wait to explore. When I finally forced myself to stop, it was because I was a hair’s breadth away from saying fuck it, and taking her to bed. She was panting and her eyes were glued to my lips. “Unless you want that to happen right the fuck now, you better scoot your sexy ass out of this room and get ready to go eat.”
She nodded, still in a bit of a daze, and floated from the room. I watched her gorgeous hips and bottom sway, my mouth watering at the sight. I was losing the battle with my patience, I couldn’t wait to be inside her and it was going to happen, soon.
After lunch, we decided to pick Sophia up from school and headed home. On the way, I received a call from Antonio, informing me there had been an incident and it needed my immediate attention. I cursed silently at the shitty timing and apologized to my girls as I dropped them at home. After giving each a kiss, Gianna’s earning me a giggle from Sophia, I winked at them and hopped back in the car to head to our warehouse in Washington Heights.
When I entered the building, there was shouting coming from the back offices. I jogged back to them and found Brandon, Antonio, and two of our other enforcers in a heated exchange. They all dropped silent the moment they saw me and a sense of foreboding surrounded me.
“What happened?” I asked Antonio calmly.
He scrubbed his hands up and down his face, before looking straight at me, and I suddenly noticed how tired his eyes were.
“One of our shipments was boosted from the warehouse in Queens.”
Fuck! It was where we stored our more...sensitive cargo. The items that weren’t exactly legal. “How much?”
“Everything from Saturday’s delivery,” Brandon answered darkly. There was clearly something else behind his anger, so I waited with a raised brow warning him to hurry the fuck up. “It was the O’Reillys,” he bit out. “Our driver caught sight of them emptying the truck and hid until they were gone. He called for backup, but we got there too late.”
I scratched my chin, then ran my fingers down my beard, as I stood there, thinking. Something didn’t feel right. “That shipment was abnormally large, how was it you guys didn’t reach them in time?”
Brandon nodded, agreeing with my train of thought. “He obviously didn’t put a call into us right away. And—” he broke off and glanced away, his face darkening with a ferocious scowl.
“And,” I prompted.
“Carly knew about the shipment.”
I was sure most people’s instinct would have been to immediately accept her as the guilty party, but I found it hard to believe she would lift a finger to help her family in any way after what she’d shared with me about her childhood. “It wasn’t Carly,” I stated, my tone of voice deadly. I was not to be questioned and they knew it. I pointed at the other two men in the room. “You two, get your ears to the ground and find out where the fuck our cargo is.” I stared at them with laser focus, my voice now full of warning. “Get it back and make sure they know what happens to people who try to fuck with us.”
They murmured their agreement and exited the room, leaving the three of us. I faced Brandon, my expression conveying the seriousness of what I was about to say. “You need to accept it when I tell you it wasn’t Carly, and if you can’t, keep it to yourself and do what I tell you. Capisci?”
“Yeah,” he muttered and stalked to the door, but stopping before he was in the hall and turning back. “Why didn’t you warn me what a pain in the ass she is, stronzo?” Then he spun around and was gone.
I might have laughed if our situation weren’t so dire. I knew what was coming and it was time to stop putting it off.
“We look weak, Nic. I’m not meant for this and they know it.”
I sighed and faced my uncle. “I know. I’m sorry I’ve put you in this position. You’re right, it’s time I stepped into my place as the head of this family.”
Antonio’s eyes shone with pride, and it made me feel like a son of a bitch for wishing he would continue to lead in my place for just a little while longer. Now that I’d met Gianna, it would be even more of a struggle to hide the nature of my business, who and what I really am, from her until she was tied to me forever.
“Your father would be proud of you, Nic. The man you’ve become, the wonderful father, and”—he winked at me—“the husband you are surely about to be.” He walked over and clapped me on the back as he strolled to the door. “I’ll call a meeting for tomorrow night. We don’t have any runs scheduled and most everyone will be able to attend.”
I went home with the weight of the world on my shoulders and yet, I realized a part of me was ready. It was time to do my duty and lead.
Over the next few days, I was incredibly busy with the transition. I found time to spend with Sophia and Gianna, but it wasn’t as much as I would have liked. I had hoped to have convinced Gianna to move into my room by then, but all I’d been able to accomplish were stolen moments with hot kisses and some heavy petting. I’d made her come a couple of times, but it wasn’t enough. The stress of my work had me needing her more than ever. I longed to sink inside her heat and lose myself to her entirely.
Finally, on Friday, our shipment was located and the goons who’d stripped the truck were made an example of. Their bodies were delivered to the O’Reillys as a message. I knew this meant we were likely to end up in a war, but we would be vulnerable without a show of strength and power.
As we waited for the next move, I vowed to focus on Gianna, to truly make her mine. She’d had enough time to accept what was happening. Saturday night, Sophia would be staying with a friend, and I was going to use every weapon in my arsenal to show her who she belonged to.
Chapter 7
Anna
“I’m taking you to dinner.”
It took all my energy to stop my lips from tilting up in a grin at the way Nic asked me to dinner. He totally skipped over the question part and just told me what we were going to do. He was so darn bossy and it had nothing to do with the fact that he really was my boss.
“It’s the first night I have free since I moved in. Maybe I already have plans.”
“Plans?” he growled, prowling towards me.
&
nbsp; “I have a hot date with some shampoo and conditioner,” I joked in an attempt to lighten the mood, since he resembled a lion who was ready to pounce.
It had the opposite effect than I had intended. Nic’s eyes flared, heating with an animalistic lust. When he was inches from me, he reached one finger out, wrapped it around a long, dark lock and tugged. “If your hair needs washing, I’ll do it for you.”
I gulped at the thought of showering with him, his hands all over my wet body—mine all over his hard one. It was too easy to picture us together under a stream of water. I leaned into his hand, his fist unclenching, so my cheek rested against his palm. “Dinner’s probably a better plan.”
“Fuck dinner,” he rasped, sweeping me into his arms and heading for his room. “I’ll feed you later.”
He dropped me onto the oversized king mattress and followed me down. “I tried taking it slow, Gianna,” he growled into my ear, making me roll my eyes because the pace at which he’d moved was anything but slow. “I wanted to give you time to wrap your head around what’s happening between us, but I’m done waiting. I can’t do it anymore. I need you too much, so I’m taking what’s mine.”
His aggressiveness probably should have been a major turn-off. Instead, my body betrayed exactly how much it aroused me. My heart raced, my muscles went lax, and my lips parted as I struggled to drag air into my lungs. And that was all before he kissed down my neck, scraping his teeth lightly against my pulse point before sucking my skin into his mouth hard enough I knew it would leave a mark. My first hickey. I giggled softly and he growled at the sound, lifting up on one arm to free his other so he could pull my shirt up and over my head. My bra quickly followed and my breasts were bared to his sight and touch. He cupped one of them, rolling the nipple between his fingertips and making it pebble. Trailing kisses down my chest, he reached my other breast and flicked his tongue over the nipple several times before sucking it into his mouth.
“Nic,” I moaned, my back arching as I ran my fingers through his dark hair, trying to pull his mouth closer to me.
He chuckled against my skin and switched his attention to the other side.
“Please,” I whimpered.
“I love the sound of your whimpers,” he murmured. “Knowing I’m the only one who has ever heard them.”
There was no hurrying him, so I gave up trying. My hands slid from his head, along his shoulders and back, tracing his muscles as they bunched with his movements. When he moved lower and nipped at the skin on my belly, I bowed off the bed, my nails digging into his skin. I was desperate for him to move even lower, well aware of the pleasure his mouth was able to give me.
Nic lifted up to look at me, and the heat in his gaze made me burn even hotter. I reached down, unsnapped my jeans, and slid down the zipper before I lifted my hips so I could shove them, along with my panties, down and kick them off. His gaze swept over my naked form, spread out underneath him. “I’m the only one who gets to see you like this. Ever.”
“Maybe we could move from the looking part of this evening to the doing?” I asked, feeling a little sassy, but a blush immediately heated my cheeks.
“So impatient, my bellissima. But I need another taste of you first,” Nic said. His hands were hot as he held my legs open. When he bent over my pussy, I felt his breath against me and jerked my hips up. His hold tightened, and my ass landed back on the mattress. I writhed underneath him, but couldn’t move my hips off the bed with his grip on me.
“Please,” I begged.
“Mine,” he growled, his tongue flicking against my clit.
“Yours,” I moaned, trying unsuccessfully to open my legs wider.
He trailed his tongue down one side of my pussy lips and back up the other, over and over again, driving me crazy. He alternated the swipes of his tongue with licks to my clit, easing off each time my body tightened with pleasure. After what seemed like hours of endless torture, he ran his tongue up the middle and drove it inside me.
“Yes!” I screamed, my hands clenched in the sheets as his tongue speared in and out of me.
“Tastes so good,” he murmured, sliding one of his hands around my hip and down my stomach until it rested over my clit, ever so lightly. He flicked it gently once, making my hips jerk. When he did it a second time, with a little more pressure, I felt a tightening deep in my belly. And on the third, I went off like a rocket. Nic licked me through my orgasm, flattening his tongue and softening his touch when I began to shudder at the end.
“Holy moly,” I whispered when it was over, making him chuckle as he licked along the skin of my inner thigh.
I lay limply on the bed, my legs sprawled, completely naked with him fully dressed above me. “I think you’re a little overdressed.”
“That I am, Gianna,” he agreed, swiftly removing his shirt and pants, leaving him in only a pair of black boxer briefs with a visibly hard bulge. A big enough one that I gulped in hesitation.
“Don’t be nervous,” he whispered, pushing his boxers down. His cock sprang free, long and hard. Impossibly long.
“You’re so big,” I breathed.
“I promise it’ll fit, mia dolce,” he swore, his fingers sliding against my pussy. “You’re so fucking wet for me. We shouldn’t have any problems. But let me stretch you out a little bit first.”
One of his fingers pumped into to me and I whimpered, even while I widened my legs.
“You’re so tight.”
He added a second finger, working them in and out of me. Stretching me. Getting me ready for him.
“I need to be inside you, Gianna. I’ll make it good for you, I promise,” he whispered against my lips before kissing me gently. “Give yourself to me now. Please.”
“Yes,” I moaned.
He pulled away and looked into my eyes. “There’s no going back from this. You are mine, Gianna.”
“I know,” I whispered softly. There was no denying the way he made me feel. This was more than physical attraction. It might be crazy, but I was falling for him. Fast.
One of his hands held on to my hip and the other gripped the back of my thigh. I instinctively wrapped it around him, the other one following suit until I was able to lock my ankles together. His hardness nudged against me, and I felt a momentary panic. Then he was pressing into me. So slowly. Centimeter by centimeter, giving me time to adjust. It didn’t hurt, not exactly. I just felt stretched beyond my comfort because he was so big. After he bumped against the proof of my innocence, he pulled back slightly and drove into me with one powerful thrust of his hips. Then it hurt. I felt like he was tearing me in two.
“I’m sorry, mia dolce” he murmured, kissing the tears off my cheeks. “I tried to get you ready. To be gentle. I should have given you more time, but I wanted you too much.”
“You’re too big,” I cried.
“I’ll make it feel better, I promise.”
The utter sincerity in his voice soothed my heart but did very little for the physical pain I was feeling. I’d trusted him to go this far, so I waited, my eyes locked on his as my body adjusted. After a few minutes, the pain eased to an ache. One which didn’t take long to turn into the slightest tinglings of pleasure when my walls unclenched, and he slid deeper inside.
“Mmm,” I moaned, wiggling my hips and testing to see if there was any pain. “Feels good now.”
“You know you are right where you belong, Gianna. Don’t you?” I melted into him. “Tell me you know.”
I nodded, unable to speak but knowing he was right. I felt a desperation to be with him that should have scared me.
“I wanted to do this slowly the first time, Gianna. But I don’t think I can now. I fucking swear I’ll make it up to you, though.”
I reached up to rest my palm on his cheek. “It’s okay, Nic. Take what you need from me.”
He pulled out slowly, watching my face for any sign of pain. When there wasn’t any, he slammed his cock back into me with a hard thrust.
“So fucking tight,” he gro
aned. “Perfect.”
“Please, Nic. I need more,” I whispered, my body clenching against him as he drove in and out of me. He lifted one of my legs and brought it over his shoulder so he could get even deeper.
“Oh my,” I breathed at how far he went with the new angle.
He pumped into me, hard and fast, his eyes locked with mine as he watched the orgasm build in me.
“I think I’m gonna come,” I whimpered.
“Come for me,” he urged me. “Now, mia dolce.”
He dropped my leg off his shoulder, and I wrapped it around his waist as he continued to hammer into me. My fingers dug into his butt while I lifted my hips to meet him thrust for thrust. And then I flew over the edge again, clenching against his cock and taking him with me.
“Wow, that was amazing,” I whispered when my heart stopped pounding like crazy and I could speak again.
“You’re amazing,” he murmured in my ear, rolling onto his back and cradling me against his chest.
We lay there together, bodies entwined while we whispered to each other before he drew me a bath. He carried me into the bathroom, easing me into the water, insisting I needed it to soothe any aches away. When my bath was done, I could barely stand on my own, falling asleep as soon as my head hit his pillow. I woke up a couple of hours later, reaching an arm out for Nic, but found the bed empty next to me. Lifting up on an elbow, I found a note on his pillow telling me he’d been called away for a work emergency. It was the middle of the night, his sheets were stained with the proof of the virginity he’d taken from me, and he’d been forced to leave me there alone. He’d seemed more tense lately, stressed about something at work. It must be really bad if it pulled him from his bed at a time like this. I only wished he was willing to share some of the burden with me.
Chapter 8
Nic
“What the fuck?” I shouted as I slammed the door to the warehouse shut. “Someone had better be fucking dying to drag me away from my woman at three in the morning.”
Deception (Mafia Ties #1) Page 4