Trigger (Pericolo #3)
Page 32
“I’m just scared, okay?” Jackson admits, the ire melting from his tone.
“And that’s okay,” Jodi accepts, brandishing a small but reassuring smile. “But we can’t abandon one another.”
Jackson looks up, taking in Dante’s form, and shakes his head, clearly unable to digest what has just burrowed itself mentally into him.
“Whatever happens, you’ll always be my brother,” Jackson finally relents, his shoulders dropping with ease. “After this, we restart as a real family.”
“I’m completely down for that,” Dante agrees, before turning to me. “What do you say, Ryleigh... how about finally having a real family?”
Of course, I can’t suppress the ridiculous grin that covers my face. “It’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
***
I had long since left Dante’s bed, coming out here in search of some sanity. I look out at the Brooklyn skyline, a place I’ve come to love, but I hear Dante moving in the bedroom and I’m quick to rid the tears that were rolling down my cheeks.
“Ryleigh?” Dante voices softly. “Mia regina, why are you crying?”
Too late.
“I’m fine,” I lie, unable to bare myself to him, but the look he gives me causes me to crack. I swear I am having one of those days where my hormones are out to get me killed. “I’m just reflecting on today. It’s all feeling a little too real.”
“You used that excuse earlier,” he quips, teasing me lightly. “No secrets...”
“I’m just trying to wrap my head around things,” I say, pausing only ever so slightly. “We came from nothing to everything,” I admit, feeling the new film of tears line my vision. “Money or no money, we have everything we need. I don’t know if you feel the exact way I do, but before, I had this emptiness in me that I was never able to fill no matter how hard I tried. Then there was you and me...” I pause, trailing off to look at my hands as they sit wringing one another. Slowly, I take a cathartic breath before dragging my eyes up to look at him. “I feel whole around you, Dante. I can’t explain why or how, but I know what I feel. I know you make me stronger, make me a fighter. You make me a better version of myself because I know you love even the roughest parts of me.”
His eyes lighten as I speak, even if he doesn’t.
“How did we come to be caught up in this whirlwind?” I ask him. My heartbeat becomes rapid, thrusting violently against the walls of my chest. “How did we come to love and trust one another so wholeheartedly, when we still have so much to learn?”
“Because we had no reason to fight what we felt,” he tells me, keeping the distance as he starts to look thoughtful. “When we met, you shifted something in me. I felt it, but I ignored it. As I’ve said, I was sent here for you. You were sent for me, too. We were made for this, for this life, for its aftermath, for the life we’ll build when we’re free. I am an independent man, Ryleigh, you know that, but I cannot imagine doing this any differently than I am now.” He finally leans in. “You think you’re the only one to think about how we came to be, but well, you’re not. There are some nights when I lay watching you sleep beside me and I try to imagine what it was like when the other side of my bed was empty. The thought causes me to ache, Ryleigh. The thought of you no longer being there by my side causes a pain I never want to feel again, even while reminiscing.”
Reaching out, he steals my tears, clearing them away from my cheek.
“You were my trigger, Ryleigh Turner. There’s no other word to describe you,” he admits, his eyes searching mine. “I waited my entire life for you, and I never knew it until you were right in front of my eyes, but you were what I was really searching for.” He leans in, his fingers touching my jaw to pull me closer, preparing to kiss me. “Trigger, baby,” he whispers, his tone feather light. “It’s what we are.”
The way he kisses me is completely different from the other times. The love immerses me, allowing its radiant heat to lure me deeper. I indulge, submerging in all that Dante makes me feel – consumed, addicted, triggered.
“Trigger,” he whispers as he pulls away. “That’s why we’re so caught up. It’s why we’ll always be the one the other depends on. Say it...”
“Trigger.”
No word has ever defined what it is I feel... until now.
21DANTE
“One day he will wake up and see you for what you are.”
The bitterness that ices those words darkens my heart some, but I remain unmoved as I lean against the corner listening in on the conversation.
“He already has,” Ryleigh bites back, unwilling to let Amelia belittle her. “He knows why I’m here, Amelia.”
“Yeah,” Amelia scoffs, “for his money.”
Ryleigh’s laugh, while rough with disbelief, is on the verge of becoming hysterical.
“I don’t care for the money,” Ryleigh argues, standing her ground proudly. “I know everyone has their opinion of me, thinking they know me, but no one but those who are important knows why I’m here and why I love Dante.”
“Why do you?” Amelia asks, indignantly. “Loving someone in this world comes with a high price.”
“Why do I love him?” Ryleigh asks, scoffing slightly. “Probably for the same reason you still love the man who broke your heart. I don’t speculate on the matter, Amelia, but you know what it feels like to be idolized and love for you.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Amelia snaps, interrupting Ryleigh. “Zane never loved me. If he did, he would’ve forgiven me for all my sins. He’d be here with me, striving to save me like Dante is stupidly doing for you.” There’s a moment of tense silence. “I’ve heard all the stories about you, but that doesn’t mean you’re perfect for Dante. In fact, that makes you the complete opposite because once you’ve succeeded in whatever you’re doing with him, you have to live with yourself.”
“I’ve lived with myself not doing anything for too long,” Ryleigh responds, sounding stronger than ever. “Now, I would rather have the blood of guilty men on my hands than allow them to live fucking happy lives not paying for what they’ve done.” There’s a pause and it causes me to lean in further. “Yes. Dante, at first, was a means for me to have my chance, but I have loved him from the moment he started watching me at the club. Sure, after all this, we’ll change and have to adapt, but I would rather have the opportunity than live with the regret of never knowing what could’ve been. I would rather love him than wonder what it would feel like.”
“You act like such a fucking romantic,” Amelia mocks. “Ryleigh, you’re just like every other woman... you want to be rich and not have to work a day in your life. You’ve come from nothing, so you crave everything.”
“You don’t know me at all,” Ryleigh replies, suddenly a sadder expression in her voice than before. “I wish you’d just give me a chance.”
“No way. You are nothing to me but a rat.”
It’s Amelia’s reply that has me moving to step out, no longer lingering out of sight to listen to one woman I care for demean the woman I love.
“Amelia,” I say, stepping out to make sure she recognizes my welcoming.
“Dante,” she remarks, her voice so alien while laced so poisonously with heartbreak. “I was just getting acquainted with your... queen.”
“I know exactly what it was you were doing,” I remark, making sure my voice is hard. “I don’t need you trying to break down my relationship with Ryleigh... especially when you’ll be seeing a lot of one another.”
“Hardly,” Amelia scoffs, shaking her head. “We’re two totally different breeds now, Dante. We don’t run together.”
“That’s a fucking lie and you know it,” I argue, not letting her truly believe that. “I will not allow you to differentiate what it is we are to one another because some fucker broke your heart. You do not get to act like this because of an outsider.” I watch her eyes flicker at me. She fell for an outsider just as I did; she can’t argue that point. “What is happening with the fucker anyway?”
“But the fucker broke your heart,” I growl, my jaw clenching together.
“With just cause,” Amelia replies, arguing and defending Zane adamantly. “We were always told to fall for people in the business. We both went against it.”
“Ryleigh and I are not you and that Maverick fucker,” I bite back, unable to let her plant any seed of doubt. “He’s a cop, for one. Ryleigh isn’t. Ryleigh needs this. She needs me. It’s time I did the right thing before it’s too late.” I take a sigh; it burns in my chest before I exhale the fire away. “You know where I am, piccolo,” I whisper to her, putting my arms gently on her biceps. “You need my help, we will always be here. Freedom is not an impossibility anymore.”
“It is for me,” Amelia remarks before tearing herself away from my grip and walking away from us.
Watching Amelia walk away from me causes my hands to shake at my side. I feel like while I’m starting to win a war, but I’ve lost my battle where she is concerned. She used to be terrifyingly strong, and now it’s as if a part of her has been torn away. It scares me what it will take for that piece to come back.
“C’mon,” Ryleigh says, her tiny hand wrapping around mine. “You need a drink.”
“I need an easier way,” I mutter but allow her to lead me. “No, I don’t want to deal with any of them out there.” I react by pulling my hand out of hers so I can lace my fingers with hers. “I just need you.”
She listens, following me from the noise and bustle of The Den to the bathroom situated at the side of it. I don’t care about anything but getting her behind one of those cubicle doors where I can just indulge in the sense of freedom she always thrusts upon me. She doesn’t seem to object when I push her in, slam the door, and lock it. In the enclosed confines of the space, I push her against the wall, pushing my aching body against her.
“You don’t ever have to explain your motives to anyone, cara,” I tell Ryleigh, pushing her hair out of her face. “There’s no reason for an explanation to people who don’t deserve it.”
“But Amelia...”
“She doesn’t deserve your explanations,” I reiterate, adamantly. “She hasn’t earned your trust or your loyalty, so you don’t have to answer to her. Only those who have earned your time deserve it.”
“I don’t want to be the enemy forever,” she remarks, her eyes dropping. “It’s tiring.”
“You’re not the enemy. No matter how much it feels like it to Amelia, you will never be the enemy,” I admit, helping her to understand her real place in this world. “You’re just so alike. Both such hardheaded creatures with so much drive and independence it’s enough to crush any man’s ego. To some, you’re a threat, but to those who matter, you’re not an enemy. Those who matter should be the opinions you mind, not the other way around.”
“She doesn’t seem to understand why I’m here,” Ryleigh admits, her voice becoming desolate.
“What’s it matter?” I ask, pushing my fingers into her hairline. “She doesn’t have to understand a thing. You should concern yourself with you and me the most. Everyone shouldn’t matter in comparison.”
“I guess I want to impress you.”
As her eyes meet mine, I realize that Ryleigh is still yet to understand how secure her place is with me. There’s no reason for her to impress me because she does that just by still lying next to me every morning. I don’t need fights and arguments to know what I am doing is all for the right reason.
“There’s no need,” I tell her, answering softly. “We are on the same page, mia regina. I learned quickly when I realized you were my better half, my trigger. We are all looking for demons who play well with ours... it used to sound like total fucking bullshit until there was you. Ryleigh, you don't just play with my demons, you fuck each and every one of them.” I lower my head, crooning my neck in preparation to ravage her with kisses. “Which is why, after a kill, I want to fuck you every way possible. As a thank you and a fuck you all at once, of course.”
"A thank you and a fuck you?" she asks, cocking her eyebrow at me.
"Yes, a thank you for being so brash, so ready, so primal. And a fuck you for taking so long to make me feel the way I do when I'm near you."
“I guess that works both ways,” she mutters.
“Yes, it does, but for now, I’m in control,” I tell her honestly. “You look so incredibly beautiful tonight, mia regina,” I whisper, murmuring my love drunk words. "I'm going to fuck you and you're not going to make a damn sound. Do you hear me, little wolf?" I watch her, my eyes roaming over her beautiful face until I match her gaze and see the eagerness within her. "Don't answer if that's what you want. You'd do good to start now with making no sound."
I watch her gulp, her eyes looking back and forth between my mouth and eyes, but she says absolutely nothing. The wickedness only makes my erection throb as the devil within rises with brutal intent. I begin to grin, loving how willing my girl is to commit to me.
“We could get caught at any time, but I don’t want that to happen until I have my fill of you,” I tell her, watching her as she bites down on her ruby red lip. “Then, when I’m done with you, we’re going to go home and close the outside world off just so I can make the walls bleed with my name. Got it?”
She nods, obedient as always. What catches me is the smirk she offers, the one that tells me she’s playing nicely – for now.
“Good,” I mutter, bring my lips down onto her pulsating jugular.
As the blood rushes beneath her skin, I trail my lips, leaving my mark, while I hitch the skirt of her dress up. I set it on her hips, pleased that she chose not to wear panties today. I hear her breathing catch, changing rapidly at every little caress my fingers make of her skin. I haven’t even gotten started and she’s making all the right noises.
As I cup her pussy, her breathing falls into staccato beats and I know there’s no way she’ll keep completely quiet for me. It’s not in her hot and feisty nature to do so. As I push my fingers down toward her pussy, allowing my fingers to brush over her clit, she lets out the tiniest of mews and slams her eyes shut in order to beg herself to quiet. I chortle but decide to help her. I silence her noises as I press my lips to hers, forcing my fingers further between the wet folds of her pussy, biding my sweet time to enter her and give her any sexual gratification.
As the tip of my middle finger starts to push into her, the door opens and the noise of The Den fills the room before being becoming muffled behind the door once more.
“Yeah, you’re right!”
A voice breaks the tense air around us, causing me to pause. The jolly fucker had better be quick because, while I can keep my queen in suspended sexual anticipation, I’d rather get my cock into her so I can get enough of her to keep me steady for the drive home.
“That Valentino bastard won’t know what hit him,” the voice says, its tone whiny. “Thinks he can start taking on his own as if we won’t cause a fucking riot.”
“It’s that brunette bitch that’s started getting him like this,” the other replies. “Never let an outsider in, I was always told. She might be hot, but she’s manipulating a fucking Valens man. That isn’t something Marcello will tolerate well.”
“So what do you think we should do?”
“I suggest we knock Dante off, get him out of the question, and secure our jobs. We should give him his own treatment for the first time ever.”
At that, I withdraw my finger, bringing them to my lips to lick Ryleigh’s juices from my fingers in my only bid to tell her we aren’t close to being over. When I’m done, I wipe my hands on a piece of paper and throw it into the toilet. I pull Ryleigh’s skirt back down over h
er, leaving her pressed against the cubicle wall, panting and unsatisfied. I delicately place a kiss on her lips then shush her quietly. I unlock the door and waltz out, toying with the platinum cufflinks of my shirt.
“Don’t you just love when the opportunity arrives?” I say, keeping my tone ever so casual when inside my rage has killed these men in multiple scenarios. “You plot, you plan, but it’s that moment of execution that is a real bastard to nail.”
When I drop my hands to my side, allowing them to hang like dead weights, I make sure all of the anger I’m feeling sits in my eyes and nowhere else. Both of them watch me and amusement dances with my anger – they never expected me to be here.
“Now, if you’re planning to kill me, can you make sure it’s after I’ve given my manipulative brunette bitch a good, hard fucking?” I ask, keeping myself calm and composed. I’m even playing the polite card with these two fuckers. “I mean, that’s what I was about to do, but you’re here now, disrupting us.” I take a step forward, smirking as they jolt backward like the fucking cowards they are. “I’m a man who hates men who disrupt when pure beauty is about to happen.” I don’t just mean Ryleigh when she’s beneath me, caught in the rapture of an orgasm, but I mean murder as well. “Now, you should really see my manipulative brunette bitch when she comes...” I trail off, my face lighting up. “I guess that’s how she won me over.”
“Where is that bitch of yours?” one of them asks, pushing my buttons.
I smirk as I gaze at him, taking in every inch of his ugly fucking mug. I take in the dull gray eyes, the sunken skin, and the scar that runs down his temple. I don’t even know this fucker, and it fucks me off that he knows a lot about me.
“She’s in the cubicle behind me,” I comment, pointing my thumb behind me at the place I just left. “Between you two and me, I’m pretty sure she deliberately skipped putting her panties on tonight just for me.”