“No!” I gripped his hands in mine and struggled to find the words I wanted to say to him. Taking a deep, calming breath, I took the plunge. “I don’t want that. I want to be with you, but… I’m worried, Angelo. I have some concerns.”
His nostrils flared, and his eyes took on a heated intensity that made me clench my thighs together. “Well then tell me, cara. Tell me what I need to do to ease that worry.”
His demand made me melt. That one hoarse statement said it all. He was just as determined as I was to make this work. And if he was willing to fight for us, how could I do anything less?
“Well… yesterday when I had lunch with your sister, she told me some things that made me uneasy.”
His hands tightened on mine as his dark eyes glittered with anger. “Damn it. What did Maria tell you?”
“It wasn’t anything concrete, but she told me the same thing you did – about… about your family. That there were things that I was better off not knowing. That I shouldn’t ask any questions. It makes me think there are things you are hiding from me… and that troubles me.”
There, I’d said it. He opened his mouth to speak, but I gently placed my finger over his lips to silence him. I wanted to get everything out on the table before he responded.
“I went home, thinking I would clear my head for a bit before I came back here to meet you. But then I saw the news…” Angelo’s body stiffened and I knew he was aware of what I had seen. Still, I felt the need to say it.
“…I saw that Carlo Fenerlli had been found dead.”
He pulled his hands away from me, his dark eyes going instantly blank. “Do you think I killed him, cara?”
“No!” My answer came immediately, and it surprised me with its forcefulness. As soon as I said the word, I knew without a doubt that I trusted him. In my heart, I didn’t believe he had killed anyone. He must have sensed this in my answer, because his body relaxed again. He stayed silent, eyes probing my face, waiting for me to speak again.
“No, I don’t,” I continued. “But it scares me that you and that Vincenzo guy were talking about Carlo, and then he ended up dead the same night. It’s just so crazy. All of this is way out of the ordinary for me, and… I just don’t know what to think.” I stared at him deeply. “I need you to tell me what is going on, Angelo.”
His dark eyes searched mine. He spoke slowly, choosing each word with care. “You believe me when I tell you I didn’t have anything to do with Carlo’s murder?”
“Yes, I believe you. Of course I believe you.” I felt so cruel for doubting him. My eyes welled up with emotion, and my voice cracked as I spoke.
I hadn’t even finished saying the words when he grabbed me and pulled me to him, dragging me onto his lap and holding me so tight I could barely breathe. I yelped in surprise. His face was filled with pure, unadulterated relief. “Thank god, cara mia. I thought I had lost you.”
His lips crashed down on mine, stoking the fires between us so that the connection between us was instantly and passionately reaffirmed. There was a hint of desperation in his kiss and I stroked his tongue with mine, meeting him beat for beat, soothing his frantic need.
I felt the hard ridge of his erection underneath me and my body instantly answered with a rush of liquid proof of my desire for him. My body clenched, wanting to feel him moving inside me again, but I fought to hold my need for him until we finished talking.
“Don’t fight me,” he whispered before he took my mouth again in a bruising kiss. “I can’t take it if you pull away from me again.”
“I won’t,” I swore, giving in to his kiss. “I’m here. I’m right here with you.” I wrapped my arms around his neck, holding him close to me as I felt his big body shudder with relief.
We fed off each other, giving and taking in equal measure. The desperate need I felt in him eased until his hands rubbed my back in soothing motions instead of holding tight as if trying to stop me from pulling away. I gentled him with sweet kisses, kneading the thick muscles of my shoulders with my hands.
“I can’t do without you, cara mia,” he whispered, and my heart soared. Leaning back, I cupped his beloved face in my hands and leaned my forehead against his.
“I want to be with you, Angelo. So much that it scares me.”
He smiled. “Don’t be afraid of what is between us, Karen. You’re safe with me.”
I paused at that. “Am I?” I’d meant it to sound teasing, but the words came out deadly serious. Still, I couldn’t help but ask. I knew I was asking a lot from him -- we hadn’t known each other long, but the things I felt for him made me vulnerable to him. I couldn’t give myself to a man I didn’t know anything about, despite how much I wanted him.
“I need to know what you are hiding from me,” I said, my words falling out of me in a rush. “I’ve been lied to in the past, and I can’t – I won’t be with someone who isn’t honest with me. I don’t want anything standing in the way of us being together, and you keeping secrets is doing that. It makes me question everything. I know we’ve only known each other for a short time, but—”
He stopped me mid-sentence with a caress of my lips.
“Shh, cara mia. I feel the same way. I want only truth between us, believe me. You have to understand that this is hard for me to talk about.”
I wrapped by arms around him, pressing my face into the crook of his neck. He held me to him tight, and I loved the way my body fit against his as I nestled into him. We lay there together a moment, in comfortable silence. I felt him pull the clip from my hair so he could run his fingers through the thick strands.
“When I heard the news of Carlo’s death yesterday, I knew you’d have questions. It’s a complicated story, cara. I was sad when I heard, but you have to understand that he lived a very dangerous life.” He sighed. “For you to understand everything, I… have to give you a little history.”
I sat up. “Okay.” This sounded promising. Reaching out, I grabbed the wine glasses and handed him one. I took a sip of my own and waited until he was ready to speak.
“My father used to own a butcher shop, passed down to him by his father. The shop was humble, but he had a dream – he wanted to build a life here, and the family business was his ticket. He worked hard, found success, and from those beginnings created DeSilvo’s. It started as a small family restaurant, but he put his heart and soul into it. It grew, of course – and then he met my mother. They used to talk about how it had been love at first sight. She had come in to DeSilvo’s and their eyes had met from across the room… and that was all it took.”
My heart fluttered as he took my hand in his, linking our fingers together. His parents’ story made me think of my first meeting with Angelo. All it had taken was one look, and I’d been hooked – no matter how hard I had tried to fight it. Watching Angelo’s dark eyes glittering back at me, I knew he was thinking the same thing.
“Even in this day and age, some of the old Italian families are at war with one another – you’ve heard the stories in the news. But my father always steered clear of all that. He always wished Italians would just stick together. It’s a close-knit community, after all, and everyone knows each other. But even though we’re so connected, there’s always some conflict or another going on – some disagreement between factions of the community. And my mother’s family was no exception.” He grimaced, taking a sip of his wine. “My mother’s family has a certain… reputation in the neighborhood. At first they’d been upset that my father hadn’t taken their side in their disputes, but in time they came to respect him for his ability to stay neutral. Somehow, despite all the feuding, my father was able to stay above it all.”
He leaned back on the couch and sighed. “I’ve worked very hard to keep the legacy my father passed down to me. When my parents died, they left my sister and I a very generous amount of money. I invested it wisely, and it’s given me a comfortable living. I expanded DeSilvo’s, bought Bliss, and—” he looked at me hard for a second. “This is a bit of a secret,
but I’m also a silent partner in my cousin’s club – Fever. You’ve probably heard of it.”
I laughed lightly. “Indeed I have. Why doesn’t that surprise me?”
He smiled at me before drinking another sip. I smiled too, feeling some of the pressure in my chest ease. “I like to have my hand in different ventures,” he said. “And besides, I wanted to make sure my cousin Tony stayed out of the life.”
That sobered me. What did he mean by that? This was what I had been worrying about, the foundation of my indecision to commit to something further with him. I put my glass of wine back down on the table and took a deep breath. I decided to just ask him directly – no more dancing around it. No more bullshit.
“Angelo, are you in the mob?”
He stood up immediately, too agitated to sit still any longer. Walking over to the large bay windows, he looked out over the city. His movements were taut, filled with tension. He reminded me of a dark panther, graceful and deadly.
I was completely and utterly fascinated by him, even though I was terrified of what he would say.
“…I can honestly say that no, I’m not,” he finally said after long minutes. “But… you could say my family is. It’s not that simple, of course, but it’s not an unfair assessment. Thankfully, they deal in gambling only – nothing really too serious. But I try to stay out it. All of it. The less I know of what goes on, the better for everyone involved.”
“…Which is why you didn’t want me to know.” My skin was buzzing, and I could feel my body going limp with relief. I hadn’t realized how tense I was until hearing his denial. I took a deep breath. Focus, Karen.
“Exactly,” he said. He turned back to me for a moment, and when he looked back into my face his eyes had taken on a steel-hard edge. “I won’t lie to you. I am a dangerous man, cara. I’m no stranger to violence, and I often have to use force to make people understand that I’m not a man to be fucked with. I remain a neutral party, that’s true – but when someone goes after what belongs to me, I can be ruthless.” He took a step towards me, his voice dropping to a whisper. “I didn’t kill Carlo, but make no mistake… if your life were ever in danger I wouldn’t hesitate to do whatever was needed to keep you safe.”
I shivered at that. I saw the conviction on his face, and I had no doubt he would make a very powerful enemy. But the strange thing was that I was no longer as scared. His honesty was such a relief, and in a strange way, he sounded so honorable. For the first time in what seemed like days, I took an easy breath. My heart wasn’t beating quite steady, just yet, but still – I felt… safe with him.
He took a step toward me. “This isn’t something I tell you lightly.”
“I understand,” I said softly. “I can’t tell you how much it means to me that you would tell me this. Thank you for trusting me.”
“Trust isn’t something I take for granted, and I need to know this is something you can handle. This is me—” he said holding his arms out to his sides, “—and I need to know if you can accept me and my life the way it is.”
I thought about it for a moment. Yes, I was concerned about all of the things I still didn’t know, but Angelo was a man who had worked hard for what he had, and who didn’t take the easy way out. He stood by his morals, and he didn't join his family in whatever criminal activity they were a part of. He was his own man, wild and untamed – and I loved that about him.
When I answered him, I was certain of my answer.
“Yes,” I said, looking him right in his dark eyes. “I can handle it.”
Those dark eyes of his grew heated now as he stared at me. A smile curled across his lips. “Do you have any idea how much I want you, cara? How far I would go to keep you with me? I’m more than happy to be honest with you – of course I am. The only thing I ask in return is that you don’t run from me. We have something special between us, and I need to know you are willing to make this work.”
It struck me hard. This powerful, brooding man, with such mystery and vitality swirling about him, was willing to bare his soul in order to keep me with him. The mere thought of it was making me melt. He felt the same inextricable pull that I did, and we were both powerless to fight it.
“All right,” I said, grinning.
“That’s not enough,” he growled, and my smile turned to a frown.
“What do you want me to say, Angelo? I understand that your life is dangerous, but you aren’t a criminal. I can deal with that. I want to be with you.”
And it was true. I reached out my hand to him, unable to bear the physical distance between us. He stared at me for a long second. He seemed satisfied. In an instant he’d crossed the room to take my hand in his, drawing me up so our bodies were pressed tight together, and his mouth took mine in a brutal kiss.
This was what I needed. To show him how much I wanted him, and that I accepted everything he had told me.
“God, cara mia. I want you so much. It killed me when I thought I had lost you. I fucking ache to be inside you again,” he breathed out against my lips.
I put my lips to his ear, breathing heavily. “Then show me.”
Chapter Three
Angelo’s dark eyes glittered down at me dangerously, and he grinned as he swept me into his arms. He carried me into his bedroom, not bothering with the lights as he set me down on my feet, slowly lowering me so our bodies remained touching.
More, I thought greedily.
Impatient to feel his skin pressed against mine, my hands lifted, unbuttoning his shirt to bare his chest as we continued to kiss. He helped me remove it from him completely then he pulled my own shirt over my head, making quick work of my bra as well.
I moaned as his large hands cupped my breasts, tweaking my nipples so they were hard peaks. I pulled at the strings of his pants, letting the material fall down his legs and he kicked them off so he was completely naked. I reached for him, my hand aching for the feel of the heavy weight of his cock, but he stopped me before I could touch him, restraining my wrists with his hand behind my back.
“Not yet, Karen.”
“I want to touch you,” I pleaded, straining against his hold on me, but he held me firm in his grasp. “Not tonight. No power games, Angelo. I want this to be just you and me, together.”
He pressed his lips lightly against mine and his hold on my wristed loosened. “I like the sound of that. Just you and me. But I want you too much right now, and if you touch me I’m going to come.”
Understanding, I stopped reaching for his erection, rubbing my hands over the planes of his chest instead. He laid me down on his bed, leaning over me so that our bodies were pressed tight together. I couldn’t stop staring into his hauntingly beautiful eyes, needing to feel this connection after all we had discussed.
We were two strongly independent creatures who had somehow found one another and seemed to fit perfectly. He made me feel more than I ever had for another man, and I knew that I would never want anyone as much as I did him. Angelo was a good man, and I would be damned if I let what his family did destroy what we had together.
Angelo’s hands reached up to gently cup my face, his thumbs rubbing my cheeks slowly, almost reverently. My tongue slipped out in a seductive gesture, running along my bottom lip, and I loved how his gaze followed that movement. He cursed softly, and excitement filled me as I felt the hard shaft of his cock pressing against my core through the fabric of my pants. His eyes met mine, blazing with hunger as he used his arms and legs to hold me in place beneath him.
“What you do to me, cara mia…” he murmured.
I wound my arms around his body, craving the feel of him, running my hands over the corded muscles of his back and reveled in his strength. Angelo’s mouth slowly moved over mine, touching and tasting. His lips trailed over the side of my neck, down to my breasts until he took one of my nipples in his mouth and sucked hard. I cried out, my back arching off of the bed, but he held me still as he treated my other breast to the same rough treatment.
“Ange
lo…”
“Shh, Karen. Let me have you.”
He went to work on my pants, quickly pulling them off so I was bare beneath him. I reached down, trying to draw him back up to me, but he shook his head. Moving lower, he lifted my thighs to spread them wide, so that he could settle his big body between them.
“I need to taste you.”
My body clenched at his words, and I shivered as his thumb rubbed over the tight bundle of nerves of my clit.
“Angelo, please,” I moaned as his rough hands caused chills to ripple over my skin.
He lowered between my parted thighs, humming in approval as he looked at my pussy spread open for him. I could tell I was dripping wet, ready for him and aching for his possession, but he simply looked at me, making me squirm under his intense gaze.
“Look at this pretty little pussy. So wet, and all for me. Tell me what you want, Karen.”
“I want you, Angelo.”
“And you’ll have me,” he promised darkly. I loved the way he spoke to me. “You’re going to get your fill of my hard cock. But first, I want you to come on my tongue.”
“Yes, fuck me with your tongue, Angelo. Do it,” I demanded, needing to feel his mouth on my sex. I let out a scream as he buried his head into my pussy, lapping and sucking at the juices spilling from my tight hole. He worked my body so skillfully that I suddenly came, my entire body shaking as he continued his delightful assault. I was equal parts surprised and delighted. No man had ever made me come so quickly before. He pushed his tongue deep, drinking down my release, and I cried out again as he sucked on my clit, the pleasure so acute it bordered on pain. Sharp hunger clawed at me. I wanted him to shove his big, hard cock inside me. Wanted to feel him moving over me.
“I need you, Angelo. Fuck me. Fuck me like you can’t get enough of me.”
He crawled up over me, his mouth coming down on mine so I could taste myself on his tongue as he used his knees to shove my thighs wide. I gasped into his mouth as he thrust his hips hard, driving the head of his cock deep inside.
DARK ANGEL: A Mafia Romance -- Book Three: A Violent Love Affair (Erotic Romance) Page 2