Leon knew that Carla, not being a part of his world, could have no idea how a situation could change on the balance of a single phone call. Or, in this case, text message. Especially when the situation in London was currently so incendiary.
“No, I won’t have changed my mind,” she assured him lightly.
Leon’s relief at that was short lived and he wanted to curse out loud after reading the message from Jericho. Kieran just texted to say he needs back-up at the warehouse.
Leon sent a quick text back, instructing Jericho to go and leave just Padraic standing guard outside Carla’s apartment building.
Jericho started to text back, no doubt with a refusal, but Leon got his message sent first. Just fucking do it! Nothing and no one was denying Leon this time with Carla.
“Everything okay?” She tilted her head in query as he slipped the cell phone back in his pocket.
“Fine.” Leon enjoyed her squeal, and the way her arms clung about his neck, after he swung her up in his arms and carried her into the bedroom.
Chapter Eleven
“There’s no way I can make love to a woman while she’s wearing a unicorn nightshirt,” Leon murmured as he stepped into the bedroom and put Carla back on her feet, enabling her to turn on the bedside lamp.
She chuckled. “Too much cute, hm?”
“Far too much, yes.” There might be eighteen years between them, but Carla was all woman, and he didn’t want anything or anyone to imply otherwise.
He grasped the bottom of the nightshirt and pulled it off over her head before throwing the nightshirt onto the bedroom chair and turning back to Carla.
He drew in a sharp breath as he looked at her wearing only the revealing red bra and panties. Her breasts were voluptuous in those lacy cups, her waist slender, her hips curvaceous, the red lace triangle covering her mound a seductive contrast to her golden skin.
“You’re so beautiful,” he groaned achingly as he bent to kiss her softly on the lips. “I like you very much, Carla Andretti,” he murmured against her throat.
Carla thought “like” was probably far too tame a description of what she felt for Leon. But it would do. For now.
“I like you too, Leonardo Brunelli,” she told him softly.
“And do you forgive me for my doubts earlier?”
“I forgive you.”
“Thank God!”
“I doubt that deity had anything to do with it.”
“You think I’m more in league with the devil?”
Carla pulled back enough to be able to look at him. “If I thought that, we wouldn’t be here together right now.” Her hands cradled each side of his face, the stubble on his jaw rough against her palms. “I believe we make our own destiny. I’m also not stupid or naïve, and be assured, I know exactly who and what you are. But I’ve also observed and listened to how people are toward you and what they have to say about you. As much as you’re able to be, you’re a good man.”
He gave a choked laugh. “I’m capo dei capi of the Italian Mafia.”
“You also love your daughter. You don’t have people murdered needlessly in order to prove to others how ruthless you are. You’re loyal to your men and your organization. In turn, they’re loyal to you.”
“Except Don Sebastian,” he reminded dryly.
“Yes. Well. He’s obviously deficient in some way.” She dismissed the traitor with a wave of her hand, causing Leon to chuckle again. “I have no doubt you’ll deal with him appropriately. I’ve heard that cement shoes used to be all the fashion.”
“Carla!” He stared at her incredulously.
She shrugged. “Hey, my Uncle Vinnie worked for Matteo’s father before Matteo took over.”
“Then your Uncle Vinnie needs to learn to keep his big mouth shut.”
She smiled at him. “And what I need is for the boss of all bosses to make love to me. You up for it, big man?”
He chuckled. “Please tell me that isn’t how you think a Mafia boss’s girlfriend should talk?”
“Ooh, is that what I am now?” Her eyes glowed with laughter. “Will I have to chew gum and blink my heavily mascaraed eyelashes a lot, while looking vacuous?”
“You obviously watched far too many old gangster movies as a child,” Leon muttered.
She giggled. “Well, my boyfriend is an old gangster. Get it?” She grinned. “It was a play on the word old, in reference to—”
“I got it, Carla,” he assured as he swung her up into his arms again and placed her gently on top of the bed before joining her, one of his legs thrown across the tops of her thighs. “I am now about to show you, several damn times, just how old I’m not!” The way he felt right now, he could make love to Carla all night and all the following day.
“Ooh, promises, promises.”
“Continue like this and you’ll get a spanking first.”
“Ooh, definitely promises, promises.”
“You are fucking incredible,” he murmured against her throat.
“Well…you don’t know that yet, but I appreciate the anticipation,” she teased.
Leon lifted his head. “You are incredible, Carla. All of you. Every creamy”—he kissed his way down her throat—“delicious”—he captured one engorged nipple between his lips before suckling—“inch,”—his lips moved to its twin—“of you.” Leon parted her legs to slide farther down the bed, kissing the flatness of Carla’s abdomen and the soft curve of her belly on the way.
He buried his nose in the dark curls covering her mound, breathing in her arousal, before seeking out the pulsing nubbin nestling amongst those curls.
Carla drew in a gasping breath, her back arching, fingers tightly gripping the sheet beneath her, at the first rasping sweep of Leon’s tongue against her clit.
That tongue became relentless, one second a gentle sweep against that pulsing organ, the next a rough rasp. Over and over again, driving Carla higher and higher. His beard was surprisingly sensual against the softness of her inner thighs, an added layer of arousal to drive Carla wild until she pleaded and begged for a release Leon deliberately denied her as he took her to that edge time and time again.
Carla completely lost it when, his mouth and tongue continuing to eat her clit, one of Leon’s hands moved up to capture her engorged nipple between his finger and thumb, alternately pulling and squeezing until rapture burst hotly inside her channel. It convulsed as that pleasure invaded every part of her, from the soles of her feet to the tip of her nose. A raw and driving ecstasy.
She had barely recovered from that climax before Leon’s lips and tongue drove her to another one.
Then another.
Carla lost count of how many times Leon took her to that heady height of delight, holding her there on the edge for long and agonizingly pleasurable minutes, before plunging her into an untamed release.
“It’s been so long for me, I don’t have a condom,” Leon groaned in realization once he’d moved up until their bodies were once again aligned.
“Neither do I.” Carla felt panicked for few seconds until several thoughts occurred to her together. “But if it’s really been ten years for you…?”
“It has,” he assured.
She nodded. “And I had myself tested after I found out about Benny’s affairs, and there’s been no one since.”
Leon looked at her searchingly. “Are you suggesting we go without protection?”
“I’m on the pill anyway, so yes, if you’re agreeable?” She held her breath as she waited for his answer.
Leon’s answer was to hold her gaze with his as he took his cock in hand and slowly entered her channel, inch by slow and pleasurable inch, until Carla was unashamedly begging for his complete possession.
She cried out her pleasure once that thick and lengthy cock was fully inside her, stretching her, filling her to capacity.
Leon pulled back again slowly, leaving only the tip of his length inside before thrusting fully back again. Over and over. Faster and faster. Driving Carla towar
d a precipice she had no idea if she would be able to come back from.
“Come for me,” Leon groaned against her throat. “Give me all you are. I want everything you have, Carla.” Each of his demands was accompanied by another fierce thrust and then a slow withdrawal. “I want it now!” His hands held her hips in place as his cock began to piston inside her, pushing her over that edge as pleasure unlike anything Carla had ever known before ripped through every particle of her body.
Black spots danced in front of her eyes, the pleasure seeming never-ending, and then she felt Leon’s hips jerk, accompanied by his deep and throaty groan. His cock pulsed and expanded before it began to release inside her. Thick, hot, spurts of his cum, filling her, escaping wetly down her thighs as Leon continued to thrust through his release.
“I’m coming over there. I don’t give a fuck what time it is, I’m going to question the fucker myself.”
Carla fought her way through the heavy layers of sleep at the sound of Leon swearing. The sort of swearing he did when he was agitated or seriously displeased. At the moment, he sounded both those things.
She knew from the amount of light filtering through her closed lids that it had to be very early in the morning. Opening her eyes confirmed that from the weak sun shining in through the window.
Turning over in the bed allowed her to see Leon pacing up and down the bedroom, his cell phone pressed against his ear.
After a night when he had showed Carla, several times, that he was most assuredly the boss of all bosses in the bedroom too.
A smile curved Carla’s lips as she thought of all the inventive ways Leon had proven that to her. Time after time. For long and pleasurable hours. He never seemed to tire—
She sat up at the sound of more swearing from Leon and then abrupt silence. “Leon?” She wrapped her arms about her duvet-covered legs before resting her chin on her knees as she looked across at him.
Leon had only pulled on figure-hugging black boxers, leaving his chest and legs bare. His hair was even more ruffled this morning, his bare back showing signs of where her fingers had dug into his flesh during the height of their lovemaking.
He looked good enough to eat.
Something Carla had done, several times, during the long night.
He gave a regretful shake of his head. “I’m sorry if I woke you. But that bastard Russo—”
“Isn’t talking. I got that.”
Leon frowned is frustration. “I need to deal with him myself.”
She nodded. “Then you should go to the warehouse and do that.”
“You wouldn’t mind?”
“Leon, you had a Mafia empire to run long before you met me.”
“Are we back to that old gangster joke?”
“Absolutely not.” She moved up out of the covers and moved on all fours down to the end of the bed. “You were the one who wore me out last night,” she admitted.
She was well aware she was the one who had fallen into an exhausted sleep immediately after Leon had made love to her for the third time. Not surprising when, to Leon, making love included bringing her to climax half a dozen times before he even thought about sliding that enormous cock inside her. And he loved having his cock inside her as much as she loved having him there. She might be walking bow-legged for a few days. A small price to pay for the ecstasy the two of them had given each other.
“You should go,” she encouraged.
Leon studied her for several minutes, looking for any sign she was displeased at his having to leave too suddenly. Carla returned that searching gaze steadily, confirming that she really didn’t mind that he had to go. “I’ll be back,” he promised as he pulled his clothes back on. He’d taken a shower while Carla continued to sleep.
“Can I come with you?”
“I would rather you didn’t.”
“Then take Padraic with you,” she encouraged.
“I want him to stay here with you.”
“But—”
“No, Carla,” Leon spoke quietly. “I would do a lot of things for you, but leaving you here unprotected isn’t one of them.”
“What about the fact you’ll be unprotected on the way to the warehouse?”
“I very much doubt there’s a cab driver out there waiting to kidnap me.”
“You’re Leonardo Brunelli. You can’t just get into a cab!”
He chuckled. “I doubt the driver will know who I am.”
“Leon—”
“Carla, I’ll be fine.” He tapped her playfully on the nose.
She clung to him. “Please make sure you are.”
His expression softened. “I can’t believe I’ve been lucky enough to find someone like you.”
Her fierceness lessened. “I think you were overdue, don’t you?”
“Maybe,” he conceded.
“Definitely.”
Carla couldn’t imagine his loveless marriage and then the years of loneliness since. The same sort of deep-down loneliness she’d known this past year…
She didn’t feel that way anymore, she realized. Her feelings for Leon now filled that place in her heart to overflowing.
She had a feeling he always would.
“If I can’t come with you, am I allowed to ask you to call me when you get there and then again when you’re on your way home—back?” she corrected with a self-conscious wince.
“You’re allowed to ask me whatever you damn well please, and I will always try to say yes,” Leon assured as he bent down to claim her lips with his. He stared deeply into her eyes when he finally lifted his head. “From this moment on, wherever you are is my home.”
She swallowed before speaking. “My concern for you isn’t the amazing sex talking— Yes, it was amazing,” she admitted dryly when Leon grinned. “But that has nothing to do with the fact I…” She drew in a deep breath before admitting. “Leon, I’ve fallen in love with you.”
Leon’s breath caught in his throat. She was such a warrior, this woman of his, to have lain her heart out for him to trample on or reject, if he so wished. He didn’t. He so, so didn’t.
“I love you too,” he assured gruffly, his heart pounding loudly at the expression of joy that suddenly lit up Carla’s beautiful face. “And I’ve never said that to any other woman before you.”
She nodded. “I believe you.”
They continued to stare at each other for long and reaffirming minutes. “We’re going to talk more about what that means for us when I get back,” he promised.
There were many details that needed to be worked out and decided upon if they were going to be together in future. Which, as far as Leon was concerned, they were. This warrior woman was most definitely his, and one of the things he intended talking to her about when he got back was locking that down by making their relationship official. He wanted Carla as his wife.
His first marriage had been arranged for him. He intended to ensure his second marriage was because he loved Carla with all his heart, and she loved him in the same way. He wanted love and laughter in his future, and making love to his warrior woman day and night.
“Later,” he promised before resuming dressing. “I’ll call you when I get there and again before I come home.” Ordinarily, he would have been irritated at the very idea of being answerable to any woman. But not Carla. Because… “I love you,” he told her again, waiting only long enough for Carla to echo that emotion before he kissed her breathless.
He finally pulled himself reluctantly away from the warmth of her arms. He had to, or he wouldn’t be able to leave at all.
And Sebastian Russo needed to realize the full force of Leon’s anger.
Chapter Twelve
Carla was getting antsier the longer she waited for Leon’s call to confirm he had reached the warehouse where his bodyguards were holding Don Sebastian and his men. And Benny, of course.
She had no idea if Benny was still alive. She hoped so, for his sake, but every time she thought of how close he’d come to killing Leon, she wante
d to hurt Benny herself.
Maybe she was cut out to be a mobster’s girlfriend after all!
In the meantime, she’d kept busy after Leon left, quickly showering and dressing, aware it should have only taken him fifteen minutes, twenty tops, to reach the warehouse before he called her. It had now been an hour, and Leon still hadn’t called.
Maybe it was a case of out of sight, out of mind?
Words spoken out of obligation because she’d declared her love for him first?
Perhaps he’d just been humoring her in the hope of another round of that glorious sex—
No!
She refused to believe that of Leon. He simply wasn’t the type of man to tell a woman he loved her one minute and forget about her the next. Carla completely believed him when he said he’d never told any other woman he loved her.
Even the thought of that filled her with the sort of overflowing happiness she’d never know before.
She was loved by Leonardo Brunelli!
Then maybe, if she was going to be a gangster’s girlfriend, she was going to have to learn some patience?
Maybe she was.
But that wasn’t about to happen today.
Carla pulled on her jacket and picked up her phone and bag before hurrying out of her apartment.
Except when she got outside, she found the SUV still parked in the same spot, as expected, but there was no sign of Padraic.
Carla searched the front and back of the building. Without success. Where the hell—
She stilled as she heard a thumping sound, listening closely to try to decipher what the sound was. She finally realized it was coming from the SUV.
There was no one sitting in the front seats of the vehicle, and it was difficult to see inside the darkened windows, but the noise seemed to be coming from the storage area at the back.
Carla jumped back with startled gasp as the back window suddenly burst outward before landing on the tarmacked road behind. Seconds later, before Carla had chance to recover from her shock, a familiar head popped up into the space where the window should be.
Leon (Dance with the Devil 2) Page 10