by Dani René
Angel’s thick chest was bare, but from mid-stomach down, a blanket covered him, so I asked, “Do you know I have seen a naked man before?”
Angel’s eyes closed as if not wanting to picture my past. When they reopened, his jaw had locked. “I also know there was no option offered to you.”
I raised my hands. “Fair trade.” His body relaxed and sank back into the mattress as he watched me slowly approach the bed. “Do your wrists hurt?”
Compassion crossed his face as he sunk deeper into the mattress. “No.”
“Angel… I don’t know where to start.”
His hand jerked to a stop when he tried to reach out for me. As he stared at his restraints, I realized two things. Angel was a man very used to being in control, and he just had an inkling of what it was like to be me. A sad smile crossed his lips. “Start wherever you want.”
In a nightie that was not Sal’s shirt, I sat on the edge of the bed next to the man that had found his way into a heart that I was clueless how to control. Maybe that was the secret, to not try and tame the roaring love I had to offer. “How do you feel when imagining me marrying a man in Italy?”
Angel’s restrained hands made fists. “It doesn’t matter.”
Softly, I said, “It does,” I patted my chest, “to me.”
His hands relaxed in surrender, and his voice was barely audible, “It hurts.”
My eyes slid shut in relief. “Thank you.” My body melted to his side and laid half on top of him. “Thank you.” Slowly, I crawled up his body. “Thank you.” A leg on each side of his hips, I pressed my lips to his… “Now make me fly.”
How a dangerous man could be a perfect and sensitive lover can only be answered by the divine, because that is who he was created by. Now, he was mine to enjoy.
Breathlessly, he told me, “You being so close has me already soaring.”
A pure and free smile broke free from me. “Thank you.”
Our lips joined for a sensual kiss where I was in charge. I explored his mouth until my stomach ached. “A-Angel.” My mouth, though gasping for air, refused to stop touching him. “My belly is… tight.”
His broad chest expanded underneath me through his every pant. “That means your wings are stretching. They are getting hungry for air.”
My open lips caressed his face before joining with his lips again. When his tongue swiped mine, I moaned, diving deeper to taste more of this stunning man.
I gazed up when I felt his arms go taut. “Angel, are you wanting to be free?”
He hungrily kissed me, “Just my wings stretching, too,” then he sucked my bottom lip into his mouth.
I groaned. “Oh yes, please do that again.”
As my lip was pulled into his mouth, our breaths fought for space we both refused to offer, so we inhaled one another whole.
“Angel,” I rasped out. “The ache. It is moving.”
“Let it. Follow it. Become it.” He swallowed as if it took much effort. “Your wings are searching for a wind to lift you off the ground.”
Nodding, trusting him, my open mouth moved from his face to his neck. “Can I kiss you here?”
Breathing loudly, his head fell to the side. “Of course.”
After placing kisses like I had never delivered before, my hungry tongue swiped up his neck to taste my Italian ice-cream.
A deep groan rose from the chest below me, making me want even more. As I slid down his body slightly, I asked, “Can I kiss you here?”
His chest stretched with every labored breath. “Do anything you want to me.”
Blindly, I latched onto his nipple.
In a lusty response, Angel arched, then started speaking rapid Italian.
I lapped at his delicious flavor. “Good words, Angel?”
“Yes.” His arms fought the dinner napkins Sal had tied him up with. “Yes.”
Frustrated with my tightly wound body, I bit the other side of his chest. “Ache. I ache.”
His hiss was accompanied by a pelvic thrust. He quickly stopped himself. “Oh, Star, I’m sorry—”
His erection touching my core shot a sensation through my whole body, like striking a match, setting an instant blaze. I growled, “Do it again.”
He could barely talk around his loss of air. “Are you sure?”
I bit his chest. Hard.
Angel’s hips surged up, lifting me from the bed. As he carried me back down, I lazily sat up, yearning for more friction. My head hung forward. “Angel.”
His stomach muscles curled under my hands as his hips obeyed me. “I’m right here with you, bella donna.”
His voice, his heat, the Italian language… and my body coming to life, all had me swaying. “What does that mean?”
“Beautiful woman.”
Everything stopped, and my ears began to ring.
My eyes opened. “Say that again.”
His strained face softened as he realized what had touched me most, even more than his magnificent body. “You are so beautiful.”
My eyes filled with tears. I had never heard kind words during a sexual experience. As tears fell, my lips trembled through a tragic but sincere smile. “You did it, Angel. As my lover, you gave me happy tears.”
His mouth fell open as he stared at me, no longer thrusting his hips.
Happier than I had ever been, I whispered, “Thank you.”
His smile was… everything. “Star, untie me.”
My body raced up his, my legs tangling around his head as my shaky hands fought his restraints. As soon as one was untied, a stout arm wrapped around me, a gentle hand spread against my back.
I leaned into the touch. “I love your hands on me.”
His fingers tightened with such strength I felt a wetness pool between my legs. “They never want to let you go.”
His words, his meaning, his touch, all of it was euphoric. Drugged. I felt drugged as I bathed in his affection. As soon as his other hand was successfully untied, I melted, now surrendering to the man who had hands.
Easily accepting my weight, Angel sat up and engulfed me in his strong arms. He possessed me, heart and soul. With me straddling his lap, we fell into a kiss that would last me a lifetime. It was even more passionate than our piano kiss. I was lost in him. I was found in him.
“Angel—” My head rolled as an exotic sensation barreled through my body, one that had never been permitted to feel anything other than pain. “I don’t want clothes between us.” He lifted my nightie over my head and threw it. “I don’t want sheets between us.” His feet and legs kicked the sheet free. I sunk onto his naked, heated skin. “Yes. I want all of you.” His erection throbbed underneath me. My insides felt like the waves of water I saw in the children’s book my mother would read me. “Angel, show me everything I missed as a young woman.” Lips kissed me everywhere he could reach. My neck, my chest, my shoulders… “Do to me what should have been done.” My body was lifted and laid on the bed. “Give me every part of you.”
Angel laid on top of me, his heavy body sheltering me from all past memories.
I cried out… “I ache.”
He lifted and pushed my leg to the side, making room for his wide hips.
“Higher.” My wings were taking flight.
I could feel him at my entry as he said, “The best part of flying is learning how to fall.”
Angel pushed inside me, causing an explosion that had me arching and thanking every star in the night sky.
My mouth was wide, inhaling beautiful air, then it got to inhale the man who was trying to swallow me whole. Oh, the wonderful sensation of drowning, and flying, and falling, all at the same time. His hips surged and pumped and thrust, taking me to places I had never known.
I was overwhelmed and at peace.
I was soaring and crashing.
I was delighted and emotional.
I was fulfilled, and I was drained.
I was with my Angel of Death… who brought me back to life.
I woke to wet h
eat between my legs. I was naked and on my back, my thighs spread wide. Broad shoulders and a head full of dark hair was what I could see in the dark, but what I felt was Angel’s mouth. My core quickly began to thrum. Silently, it begged for him to never stop the delicious attack. Then, a powerful thumb swiped at the most sensitive part of my body that I didn’t even know I had.
A needy groan climbed up my throat.
A chuckle vibrated against my channel, right before I felt another swipe.
It almost felt like I was bearing down, holding my breath, as Angel gave that spot more attention with his thumb or tongue.
I begged, “Please, please, please. I-I don’t know what you are doing, but please don’t stop.”
“After tasting you, stopping is never going to happen.”
Then his mouth latched on and owned my core. My whole body began to tremble, frantically, to the point I started to become alarmed, but then I went blind.
A scream ripped from my throat as my body exploded into so many colors.
Angel never stopped. He sank fingers inside me and had his mouth torturing me with heaven on his tongue.
When I started convulsing, he finally eased his spell on me.
With my body completely spent, there was no fight in me as he crawled up the bed and pulled my back to his stomach, curling his heated body around mine. My eyes were already drifting shut as he whispered in my ear, “I thought you would like to try another set of wings that you have had hidden.”
I think I nodded, but I’m not sure. My body had never been so sated. So jellified. I was so relaxed, I slept deeper than ever before.
By morning, I awoke to a knock at Angel’s bedroom door. He pulled a sheet over me as Sal entered—without permission—holding a tray of food, coffee, and orange juice. It smelled so good that my stomach started to rumble. By the time Sal was standing at my side of the bed, my eyes found the strength to drift open.
One look and Sal started laughing! “Wow! I see my man took very good care of his Italian woman.”
On my side, I couldn’t move. Still spent, I just laid there, smiling. “He is better than your chocolate ice-cream.”
At my back, a warm chest rumbled.
Sal teased, “But still doesn’t taste as good as my wine kiss, right?” He jerked backward as a large arm flew over me and swatted. “Hey! Don’t make me spill the coffee on the silk!”
Angel laughed, pulling my lazy body impossibly closer to him. “Put the tray down and get the fuck out.”
Sal set it on the nightstand. “Can I at least get a thank you?” He winked at me before walking back around the bed toward the door. “I’ve been trying to get her to gain weight, and now you’re burning more of her calories than I can get into her.”
My chest boomed with adoration as I realized the man had been cooking nonstop, not only because he loved food as much as me, but because I was far too skinny to be healthy.
The girl without hands had gone from horrific abuse to an abundance of love.
Maybe fairytales can truly exist.
Three months later…
Staring at the mountains, now full of snow, I was reminded of the cold of the basement, even though I was warm. Why? The answer laid in the impossible. How can you love someone in such a short amount of time? How can you find peace in a stranger whose soul now speaks to yours? That’s what it was like to have Angel in my life.
I was petting my tiny little Yorkshire dog, who I had named Bella after my mother, when Angel’s stern voice asked, “You are packed and ready, correct?”
I will miss you, mountains. The time had come for me to fly to the country that I would soon call home. “I am.”
Angel exhaled. “Please stop being angry with me.”
I faced him, shivering but not from the cold. Angel had yet to put his jacket on; therefore, all his gun holsters and weapons were clear to see. “Please let them handle this.”
Angel took a step toward me but caught himself. Our mountain getaway was now occupied with deadly Italian Mafia men, all preparing for revenge and… “I need to be there to search for Seth.”
My eyes slid shut. My son.
“Star,” growled Angel, so I opened my eyes. “Meet me in Sal’s room.”
Frustrated, I nodded, then, when no one was watching, the ‘Giordano Princess’ slid into the dark room. Bella was taken from me and set on Sal’s bed before I was shoved against the wall, a heated and suited man pushing his body to mine. Our lips mashed together with anger toward having to hide in a house where I had learned to be so free, and because we were not allowed to love each other.
“Tell me,” he growled, “that you understand.”
“It doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
Lips battled in the dark. Hands gripped and groped.
Knock, knock. Sal snuck in. “Angelo, they are waiting.”
Angel aggressively kissed me one more time. “Be ready.”
Then he left me in the dark.
Sal handed me back Bella, then kissed my cheek, promising they would both be okay. The room was eerily quiet after he shut the door, following Angel.
I stood there, fighting a shock that wanted to take hold. The two men I adored were off to a gunfight… If they were to live and succeed, we were all to load onto a private jet and race back to Italy.
Thankful the wall was supporting me, I laid a hand on my flat stomach. What I hadn’t told Angel was that he would soon be a father.
What if he dies? I covered my mouth to contain my gasp and fear. He has to know!
I ran out of the bedroom and into an empty living room. “No.”
I ran to the front door and swung it open.
I was too late.
Wheels were spinning, and cars raced from the driveway.
As I watched Angel drive off, I had no idea that he was joining a battle that would link us in ways that could not be undone.
Blood.
Blood, murder, revenge, and family.
How could we ever have known the son I was carrying, our Mafia Prince, would someday fall in love with the princess of the Steel Stallions, creating a Hostile Grace.
More by India
If you are wondering where a good place to start is, feel free to join my reader group on Facebook, India R. Adams Flames https://www.facebook.com/groups/IndiasFlames/
And ask! Myself, my PA, or my readers would be delighted to show you the India Map and answer any questions.
Okay, to all of you, thank you so much for reading this book that was incredibly dark. It hurt to write, and most likely hurt to read, but I am grateful for your empathy toward a damaged soul who deserves love and respect. She has quite a journey ahead of her. Thankfully, she has a guardian angel, too. ;)
India’s Thank Yous
Even though The Girl Without Hands is a very short story compared to my novels, it still takes a team for me to release a book.
Let the thank yous begin…
Cat, thank you for handling my crazy like a trained pro! I’m pretty sure no one envies your job. I am an artist, through and through, and have the chaotic brain to prove it. Yet, you constantly keep me from falling apart. You are my star in the night and a cherished friend! You Alpha read, make me beautiful artwork covers at TRC Designs, format my books… and you manage to love me, even though I have you going in a thousand directions at once. Your talent is endless. Thank you.
Lindsay, my Uni, Post Master, Boo-Boo Finder, and beautiful friend, thank you for everything!
Deb, thank you for being one of the first in my work! Thank you for being everything that you are. Your support, advice, and heart are so special to me. Deep inhale…
Jay, thank you for the Slay Belle Anthology cover!! It is wickedly perfect!!
Kendra, what would I do without my editor? Lose my sh— That’s what! Thank you for being so much more than my word fixer. I impatiently wait for the day I get to finally hug you.
Michelle! You have entered my world by a storm I hope never ends. Not
only have you been so kind as to speak so highly of my work, but now you are a part of it! Thank you for jumping in when I needed another beta reader. I am grateful.
India Flames, Sparks, Igniters, and Bloggers, you may not be a hot alpha Italian Mafia stud-muffin, but you are most certainly the wind beneath my wings. I love you all!!!
Family, even though we are doing our best to survive a pandemic, personal life tribulations, and challenges that keep popping up because 2020 is from the bowels of Hell, we have become stronger for it, and you still stand faithfully, by my side, so I can continue this dream of being a writer. I love you more than words can ever express.
About India
India R Adams is an author/singer/songwriter who has written YA and NA novels such as My Wolf and Me, Blue Waters (A Tainted Water Novella), Steal Me (A Haunted Roads Novel), Rain (A Stranger in the Woods Novel), and Serenity (A Forever Novel), as well as music for the Forever series.
India was born and raised in Florida but has also been lucky enough to live in Idaho (where she froze but fell in love with the small-town life), Austin, Texas (where she started her first book, Serenity and met wonderful artists), and now Murphy, North Carolina (where the mountains have stolen a piece of her heart).
Being a survivor of abuse has inspired India to let others know they have nothing to be ashamed of. She has used her many years of professional theater experience to build characters and stories with dark undercurrents that stem from her personal life. She says, “I’m simply finding ways to empower perfect imperfections.”
Another thing India feels needs much more awareness is sexual slavery. She has joined forces with jewelers to design beautiful ways to raise money for nonprofit organizations. Even though India writes about serious subjects such as domestic violence, sexual abuse, and human trafficking, she has a magnificent sense of humor, as do the characters she creates. Her novels are perfectly balanced between laughter and tears, letting readers see how to empower their own perfect imperfections.