by Penelope Sky
He turned his head my way and brushed a kiss over my hairline. “Yes, baby.”
He carried me up the stairs, got the door unlocked with one hand, and took me inside the apartment he’d bought for me. My shoes hit the ground, thudding against the hardwood floor along with his heavy footfalls. He whisked me away into the bedroom and dropped me on the covers. He yanked his shirt over his head then moved for his bottoms, moving as quickly as he could because he wasn’t in the mood to take it slow. Even if I asked him to make love to me, he probably wouldn’t do it. His boxers and jeans hit the ground, and he stood in the darkness, all muscle, ink, and power. His narrow hips led to a broad chest that was flanked with enough definition to make him look like a Roman soldier. The black ink contrasted against his fair skin, a fresco all over his body. His eight-pack was hard as concrete, and his shoulders were chiseled with so many individual muscles, he seemed to be carved from marble.
I stared at him, my thighs aching and my pussy burning.
His knees hit the mattress, making all the gravity shift because of his weight. His hands moved up my short dress, and he gripped the lace of my panties before he yanked them down my long legs. Once he pulled them off my feet, he pressed them into his nose and took a deep breath, his eyes locked on mine.
Oh god.
He tossed my panties onto the floor then shoved my dress above my hips. Normally, he stripped off every piece of clothing before he enjoyed me, but tonight, he wasn’t in the mood to wait an extra thirty seconds.
He grabbed both of my hips, his fingers spanning across my ass, and lifted me until my body was level with his. He held me in place as he shoved himself into me, getting his big cock inside me with a single thrust.
“God…” My hips were in the air, and my shoulders were against the bed. I clutched his wrists and watched him pound into me, taking my pussy like he owned it.
He fucked me fast, hitting me hard with every thrust. All the muscles of his core tightened and shifted as he used his stomach, ass, and back to shove himself inside me over and over.
“Griffin…” My head rolled back, and I enjoyed this man, enjoyed everything he gave to me.
He moved one hand to my throat, gripping me while he held me with a single hand. “Eyes on me.”
I turned my gaze back to him, his hand still around my neck.
“This. Pussy. Is. Mine.”
“Griffin…”
“Say it.” He squeezed me a little tighter, his thrusts never faltering.
“My pussy is yours.”
“No.” He dropped my hips and repositioned himself, his arms moving behind my knees. He buried himself between my legs, going balls deep. He started to fuck me again, this time deep and hard. “It’s not yours, Vanessa. It’s mine now. Say it again.”
I knew I was going to come a few times that night. He was perfect between my legs, so big and deep that I would agree to anything he told me to say. “This pussy is yours.”
He angled his neck down and gave me a hot kiss, full of tongue and longing. “Yes. Yes, it is.”
Like every morning at seven a.m., I woke up to Bones helping himself between my legs. He always turned me on my back, spread my knees, and shoved his dick inside me without even waiting for me to wake up. He rocked me into the mattress, hard enough to make the headboard tap against the wall, but not nearly as aggressive as he was at night.
My eyes remained closed, and I felt him bury his face in my neck, fucking me in a lazy way. One hand fisted the back of my hair, and he clenched his ass as he buried himself deep inside me. My hand gripped his tight ass, and I widened my legs farther, still not waking up fully.
First thing in the morning, he always wanted to come inside me. It was the only time when he was selfish in bed, using me to dump his come somewhere. But he always made me come anyway, whether that was intentional or not. His hard body rubbed against my clit, and his warmth and smell made me convulse all around him. He usually came in that same moment, finishing within five minutes of when he started.
He pulled himself out and left me there, my eyes still closed because it was way too early to wake up. It didn’t matter what time Bones went to bed, he was always up insanely early. And it didn’t matter how early I went to bed, I was never up before nine.
The mattress shifted when he left the bed. I heard him walk around, pull on his sweatpants, and then walk out.
I fell back asleep before he reached the kitchen.
Two hours later, I woke up and picked up his abandoned shirt from the foot of the bed. He’d been wearing it the night before, so it still smelled like his soap and cologne. The cotton was soft against my skin, all the way down to my knees. I wiped the sleep from my eyes before I walked down the hallway into the living room.
He was sitting at the dining table, his laptop open with a cup of coffee beside him. He was shirtless, the muscles of his body cut and defined. His shoulder blades moved the muscles of his back every single time he breathed. His ink covered his battle scars, acting as an artful bandage to hide his old wounds. The hair on the back of his neck was clipped short, merging into the short strands on his head. His knees were wide apart as he sat in the chair, a large man taking up every single inch of space.
It was a view I could wake up to every single day.
A view I would never get tired of.
I came up behind him and rested my palm against his shoulders, feeling his hard muscles under his scorching hot skin. My hands slid down his chest as I bent over to embrace him. My arms wrapped around his shoulders, and I pressed my face into his neck. “Morning.”
His arm covered mine, just the way he did every morning. “Good morning, baby.”
I kissed his neck before I released him. As I walked away, he gave me a playful smack on the ass.
When I looked at him over my shoulder, he was already looking at his laptop again. “You want anything?”
“No.”
“You already ate?”
“Two hours ago.”
I narrowed my eyes as I looked at the time on the clock. “Shit, it’s ten?”
He chuckled, never taking his eyes off the screen. “Yes.”
I rubbed my eyes before I made myself a bowl of cereal. “I should get to work downstairs, but I need to get out to the house. I haven’t seen Conway in a while, and Sapphire is about to pop.”
“I would offer to help, but I think I would scare off all your customers.”
I rolled my eyes because he had no idea how wrong he was. Women all over would flock inside to look at him, not my artwork. “I want you to come with me anyway.” I carried my cereal to the table and started to eat.
Bones didn’t make an argument. He scrolled through a document on his computer then typed an email. I didn’t know what he was working on, but it probably had something to do with Max and his crew.
“You want to come along?”
He drank his coffee, his eyes focused on the screen. It was the only time of day when he didn’t drink scotch. And it was the only time of day when he didn’t stare at me as often as usual. He took care of business in the morning and didn’t get distracted. “If you want me there.”
I didn’t expect Bones to immediately get along with my family, even after receiving a long overdue apology, but I hoped he would get closer to my family naturally. My father was here a few days ago, but Bones never elaborated on that afternoon. Since he was a man of few words, it was impossible to get him to say anything. “I always want you there.” I scooped my spoon into the bowl and kept eating.
Silence passed. The morning light filtered through the windows of the apartment. The artwork on the walls was visible, looking beautiful in the natural light. There were a few images of Bones, images that captured the intense way I loved him.
“I’m sure my father wants to see you again. The two of you were out for a long time the other day.”
Silence.
I waited for him to say something and gave up when words never came. “So, you guys jus
t got something to drink and talked?”
He sighed and finally withdrew his gaze from the screen. It was the first time he’d really looked at me all morning. “I haven’t left my job yet, baby. I have work to do. Can we talk about this later?”
He never bothered me when I was painting, so I knew I had to respect his request. “Of course.”
He turned back to his computer, dismissing me.
I stared at him, enjoying my breakfast while letting my eyes be entertained by the man across from me. I watched the way his head shifted slightly when he was thinking, the way his eyes remained still and focused when he was reading. Sometimes, he rubbed his fingers along his jaw, deep in contemplation.
After fifteen minutes of that, Bones flicked his eyes up and looked at me.
I held his gaze, unflinching despite being the recipient of that powerful look.
“Yes?” he asked, his voice deep.
“I can stare at you all I want. No questions asked.”
His eyes turned slightly playful before he looked at his screen again. “No questions asked…”
Three
Bones
I watched her finish her makeup in the bathroom mirror, applying mascara to her long lashes. She wore a yellow t-shirt with dark denim shorts that were ripped all over the place. They were exceptionally short, showing her gorgeous legs and stopping just below her ass. Her dark hair was straight today, thick and framing her face.
She hadn’t noticed me yet.
I leaned against the wall with my arms crossed over my chest. Once I was finished reading the mission statement Max sent over to me, I’d returned to my favorite pastime—staring at my woman. I already knew she was stunning, knew she was even more stunning when I was fucking her, but I never got tired of studying her, watching the way she rubbed her lips together after putting on lipstick.
I would have to leave soon, and I was dreading it. I didn’t want to be away from her again, not so soon, and I didn’t want her to be scared the entire time I was gone. She would probably stay at the apartment by herself instead of going to her parents’. Staying with her father was the last place I wanted her to be.
It was humiliating.
I wanted to be the one to protect her every night, not the man who raised her.
At least this wouldn’t be forever.
She put her makeup back in the small bag before she zipped it up. Her eyes returned to the mirror, and this time, she noticed me lurking in the background, still as a statue in the bedroom doorway. There was a slight reaction of surprise in her eyes before she recovered from the shock. “I’m ready.”
“Good.” I came up behind her and pressed my chest against her back. My hands gripped the counter on either side of her, keeping her boxed in like frightened prey that might scurry away.
Her breathing picked up immediately. It always did the second I was near. I made her heart race without touching her, made her afraid and aroused at the same time.
My mouth moved down to her neck, and I kissed her hard as my hand undid the front of her shorts. I pushed them down with a tug, and they fell the rest of the way. I breathed into her ear before I turned her face toward mine and kissed her, getting that lipstick off her mouth and onto my tongue. My hand slid underneath her panties, and I cupped her sex, my fingers feeling the arousal that leaked from her tight little slit. “Fuck, you are ready.” I yanked her panties down her ass and thighs until they fell to the ground on their own. I kept kissing her, feeling her kiss me back with the same enthusiasm.
I lifted her legs and positioned her on the bathroom counter before I dropped my pants and thrust myself inside her.
“God…” She breathed into my mouth, her lips immobile after the violent way I’d forced myself inside her.
“I’m not your god.” I watched her reaction in the mirror as I fucked her. “I’m your man.”
I was behind the wheel of the truck while Vanessa sat beside me. Her long legs were sexy in the cutoff shorts she wore. Yellow was a perfect color on her, especially with that gorgeous Tuscan skin. My hand gripped the inside of her thigh, feeling the tight muscle of her slender leg.
We drove through the fields of Tuscany, approaching the house where she grew up. The last time I was there, I screamed at her father. He said he would take the memory to the grave—and I believed him. I had serious dirt on him, the kind of dirt that would make Vanessa look at her father in a whole new way.
I didn’t like him, but I didn’t want her not to like him too.
She had both of her arms wrapped around mine, her hands resting in the crook of my elbow. One single arm of mine was bigger than both of hers put together, but her slenderness didn’t undermine her strength. She might be small, but she was resourceful. It was one of the things I loved about her, her fiery combustion.
“So, what did you and my father talk about for two hours?” She kept pressing this topic, her curiosity impossible to withstand.
“You.”
“Be more specific.”
With one hand on the wheel and the radio playing lightly in the background, I kept my eyes on the road. “I can’t remember.”
“Bullshit. Why won’t you tell me?”
“It was a conversation between two men, baby. That’s all.”
“I like the idea of you two having your own relationship, but I’d like to know the context.”
“He said he wanted to get to know me better, to try having some kind of relationship with me.”
“Really?” she said, her voice suddenly quiet. “That was sweet of him.”
Sweet or not, I still didn’t like him.
“It means a lot to me that he’s trying…it really does.”
A part of me was touched that Crow Barsetti was trying to move forward with me, and me alone. He wasn’t bringing Vanessa into it. He had the courage to face me head on and look me in the eye while he told me how he felt. He was honest, never apologizing for what he did but admitting he wanted the future to be different. At any point in time he could have walked out of that bar and abandoned the attempt, especially with the harsh things I said, but he stayed.
I didn’t think we could move forward and have any kind of relationship.
Just tolerance.
But he seemed to want more.
I didn’t want to tell Vanessa how I really felt, that I disliked her father as much now as I did in the beginning. He took her away from me when he had no right, and as a result, she could have ended up with that perfect painter. How could I forgive a man for interfering with my life so much? It’d been over six months of cold brutality from the Barsetti clan. A simple apology and a glass of scotch couldn’t erase all of that.
She turned her gaze up at me, watching me for a moment. “I appreciate that you’re trying too.”
I kept my eyes on the road, refusing to let the guilt suffocate me. She wouldn’t be happy if she knew I stormed onto her family’s property and insulted them after peace had been established. I could have ignited her father’s wrath all over again.
But I wouldn’t have let him take her away from me again.
I would have kidnapped her if it came down to it.
We pulled into the driveway a few minutes later. I parked in the gravel of the roundabout, taking the same spot I always took. I still remembered the day I showed up here and handed over the fully loaded shotgun. Maybe to Crow, it seemed like a lifetime ago, but for me, that just happened yesterday.
Yesterday, he called me trash.
Yesterday, he called my mother a whore.
We got out of the car and walked to the front door, the sweltering heat apparent the second the engine was turned off. It was humid on a clear day, and the summer breeze wasn’t enough to combat the scorching temperatures.
Vanessa led us inside, and we greeted her parents in the entryway.
Pearl’s eyes softened the second she looked at me. Instead of greeting her daughter first, all of her focus was on me. She looked at me differently from the way she u
sed to, respecting my presence every time I stepped into the room. She used to regard me with a cold and guarded expression, anticipating an attack at any point in time. She was always stuck between disdain and contempt. But now, she didn’t look at me that way. Her expression was warm and inviting, the same look she gave when she saw Vanessa or Conway. “Hello, Griffin. It’s so nice to see you.” She extended her arms to me and hugged me, holding me for an extra second like I was another son to her. She patted my back before she pulled away, her blue eyes full of friendliness. “How are you liking Florence?”
I still wasn’t used to the change in our relationship. Before I saw her at the hospital, she’d been unforgiving toward me. But now, she was a whole new person. “I’m not used to the humidity and the smaller space, but I like it. Wherever Vanessa is, that’s home to me.” My woman was my home, my everything. Whether I was buried deep inside her or watching her eat her cereal in the morning, it was where I was meant to be. I would rather be in Lake Garda or Milan, but I’d been living in both places alone, and with Vanessa gone, they never felt home again.
“Good,” she said. “I’m glad you’re liking it. Crow and I are so happy that you both are so close.”
I noticed the way she chose her words, always including me in everything she said. Before, she would have no problem excluding me, indirectly telling me she wished I weren’t around. I didn’t know what else to say to her, so I just nodded. I’d never been good with words. I barely talked to Vanessa as it was.
Pearl turned to Vanessa next and hugged her for a long time. Her hand cupped the back of Vanessa’s head, and she held her close, treasuring her daughter like they’d been apart for months rather than weeks. Pearl closed her eyes, the pained look of motherly affection written all over her face.
I watched her, thinking of my own mother. I didn’t remember her that well, but I always remembered the way she made me feel. She loved me with her whole heart, would have made any sacrifice to take care of me. Sometimes it was hard to believe she’d been gone for over twenty years.