I follow Priest like I’m a puppet on strings, so when she sits on the ends of the California king size bed, I stop in my tracks.
“I don’t know what tomorrow will bring for us,” she says, unabashedly naked on my bed, sitting like this is how we always have conversations, just nude and ready to go.
“Priest, I know you too well to think you are committing to anything with me in this moment. Right now, just let me unwind you a bit, and when you’re ready, we can figure everything out.” I say, looking her directly in the eye. She nods, seeming to release a breath, before cracking a smile so large I feel like I’m looking at the sun.
I approach her slowly, my balls aching from being so close earlier to then be denied, but they’re going to be denied for a little while longer as I run my hands up her thighs as I come to stand between her legs. She’s watching me, but not in a way that makes me uncomfortable, but more like she’s curious to see just what I’ll do.
I quickly drop down, now kneeling between her legs, my hands still sitting on her full thighs. I hear her suck in a little breath at the suddenness of my movement, but I keep my momentum.
I grab her from under the thighs and pull her closer to the edge of the bed, forcing her to lean back, before looking down at her well-groomed strip of hair. I squeeze her thighs as I lean forward and kiss her inner thighs before running my tongue down the sides of her before diving in for the center.
She lets out a throaty moan, and I lap at her, tasting her briefly before I make my tongue broad and slowly rub my tongue on her clit. She clutches my hair, forcing me to stay in this position, but I’m fine with that. I alternate my tongue at her entrance and at her clit, before settling on lazily licking her sensitive button.
“More Bones,” she moans, and I smile before slowly pushing my finger inside, and I can feel her clenching down on the digit as it enters. I keep up the slow assault on her clit as she begins to squirm at the sensations. I can feel the slickness building and between that and the moans, I know she’s just riding the edge of orgasm. I pull my finger out, getting a mewl of protest from her, only to add another, and lose the battle of being controlled in my working of her clit. As I push both fingers in, her body craving more, I make quick back and forth passes over her clit, her thighs now quivering.
I look up as she comes around both fingers, and God is she beautiful with her eyes just slits, a light gleam to her brown skin.
She’s biting down on her bottom lip, and I wonder if she’s holding back a scream, but it doesn’t really matter.
It’s my goal to make her lose herself so thoroughly to sensation and the feel of my love that she’s unable to bite that full fucking lip like I have wanted to for years.
She might not be able to make any promises to me, but that doesn’t matter, not here, not now. No, all that matters to me is that she knows that I am hers.
Alessandro
Boss was obviously pissed at the way Priest dismissed him. Then again, he’s never had to deal with someone who treats him like an average Joe before.
While I would never say this to Alonzo, he kind of deserved this less than warm reception with how he was acting. But it seems Giovani is of a like mind with the Boss so, I’m sure we’re going to end up doing something to set her off even more.
I contain my sigh.
I like Priest, and think she has a right to choose this, to understand that we would be there for her just like her crew.
Trust is earned after all.
But here we are, sitting in a limo after having parked the SUV a few blocks away, parked in front of Bones’ building, like some scum stalkers, Alonzo in his usual seat in the center of the back bench.
“I want her at the house the minute she walks out of this building alone,” he says, barely containing his anger.
Tony’s eyes snap to his face, and reading Tony as do, I can see that he thinks this is a mistake as well. I look away from Tony to look at Giovani, the usual calm leader, the voice of reason, and find him nodding.
“On it Boss,” he says, looking down at his phone as he quickly starts typing.
“Good.”
I don’t get a chance to speak my mind until Alonso leaves an hour later. In that time, we watch the building that looks like a multitude of office buildings, but Giovani’s intel informs us that Bones lives in the penthouse. He also pulls up a dossier on Bones, including information on his girlfriend. That dossier is how we know Angel Demarco is the pretty little black-haired woman who leaves the building thirty or so minutes after Alonzo’s left. She’s pretty, in that petite way, and it makes the fact that Bones obviously loves Priest even more intriguing, because the man couldn’t have fallen for two very different women if he’d tried.
If it were me, I’d have never settled for anything less than that fierce woman who’s about to be the head of the family.
Not that I’m telling anyone that.
“Looks like she’s taking an overnight bag,” Tony notes, curiosity in his voice.
“Well, it says here that while she lives with him, she often stays over at her lover’s place,” Luca says, amusement filling his voice.
That snaps my attention to Luca. “What?” My voice is sharp, because I can’t see Bones being stupid enough to let her cheat on him. I might have only known him a few hours, but it was still plain to see that the man has pride and is a big believer of loyalty.
“Says right here that she is polyamorous, she has multiple partners at a time, but Bones is the only long-term relationship she’s committed to.” Luca says, and the tension in the car racks up a few more notches.
No one says anything though, and that in itself is interesting and makes me question where everyone’s head is at.
Luca and Giovani are the only ones interested in reading one. I don’t because I know I’d be pissed if anyone read a dossier on me, and I also realize the likelihood of us having to get along with Bones and Cobra is mighty high, I don’t want to take the chance of slipping up and saying something I’m not supposed to know.
“What do you think the Wives are going to do with Priest when they get their hands on her?” Luca asks suddenly, the dossier no longer right in front of his face.
“Cry horror at her hair, make her get a manicure, and change everything about her,” Giovani says confidently.
Both Tony and I scoff at the same time, and we share a look. It’s not often that Tony and I see eye to eye on things, he’s usually too busy trying to crack jokes than to think too deeply at a situation that doesn’t require him to pull fingernails from their beds.
“They’ll be lucky if she doesn’t rip out their extensions,” Tony mutters, and I fight back a smile at the image that statement draws.
“Screw the extensions, she’ll draw that fucking gun on them when they immediately try to come at her clothes. No way in hell would she be able to draw that gun in one of those fucking cocktail dresses they love to wear.” I say.
Giovani chokes on the water he has just taken a drink from, and Luca sputters a laugh.
“That little trick was fucking amazing. Like talk about using the assets to the fullness of their ability.” I say, Tony looks at me like I’d lost my head.
Giovani glares daggers at me, and I can’t help but crack a smile.
“You can glare all you want, we all know you’re glad that you didn’t send Luca in to meet her, the whole night would have ended up with him trying to fuck her,” I say, my brow arched in defiance.
Luca has no shame, and starts laughing, “Hell, you’d be calling me for your orders, I’d have her fall in love with me in no time at all.”
Tony cuffs him in the back of the head, “She’d have you in love with her, not the other way around. Good thing Bones is there to keep her out of your clutches.”
Luca scoffs, and Giovani looks at them both with irritation.
“I thought they weren’t fucking,” Luca says.
“Well, looking at her dossier,” Giovani starts.
“Ho
ld it, her dossier? You fucking have a dossier on her now?” I ask.
Giovani looks at me like I’m stupid.
He picks up a file, “Priest, twenty-three years old, closest associates: Bones Harney, Angel Demarco, Cobra Coretti; Relationships: two-year relationship with Warwick O’Shaughnessy,” he starts but that name causes him to pause.
“What is it?” I ask, because nothing usually trips of Giovani.
“That name just seems…familiar.” He says, then continues on to list all of Priest’s most frequented places. But something about that pause makes me feel unsettled.
I turn back and watch the building until he finally stops listing all of the things about Priest that he could get his hands on.
“You do realize that she’s not going to appreciate being kidnapped,” I say, and I hear Tony hum his agreement before Giovani cuts me off.
“Then she shouldn’t be acting like a child,” he says, his voice holding heat that normally never exists.
“Why do you keep saying that? She’s been living an adult life since she was sixteen and has a right to be pissed. Alonzo might be the boss but that doesn’t mean that he’s right in how he’s trying to handle her.”
“She’s his daughter, Alessandro,” he says.
“Excuse me, don’t you try to full name me into shutting up. I usually follow where you lead, but this is bull. He wants her to take over, then he needs to treat her like the adult she is. She has a fucking life here, Gio. What do you not understand about that?”
Giovani clenches his teeth, and there is this feeling that blooms in my chest. It might be protectiveness, but I am not really familiar with that emotion. Sure, I protect Alonzo, but I don’t really protect him from emotional shit, it’s just making sure he’s still breathing every night, and that he’s capable of leading all the crazies.
When I think about Priest, I want to protect her emotionally too, and while I don’t know everything about her, it’s clear to see that she spends more of her time taking care of everyone else than she does when it comes to taking care of herself.
Which is amiable, I guess.
But that altruistic mentality could end up getting her killed.
Which goes back to taking care of that physical protection, see it’s a never-ending cycle.
“She shouldn’t have a fucking life outside of the family, Alessandro, don’t you get that? Lene shouldn’t have done what she—” Giovani starts but Tony beats me before I can say anything.
“Lene did exactly what she should have for the betterment of the family. Priest isn’t a delicate flower to be handed over to another family, who will then let them run us into the ground or try to absorb us into their family. She will set the terms of any relationship with another family, and she’s capable of protecting her own, with or without us.”
Luca looks at Giovani as he starts to turn red, something about what Tony has said has set him off in one of the worst ways. I mean that because Giovani doesn’t yell and fight like a normal person, no he will internally combust on us for altering the way his world is supposed to work for him. He’s a control freak, and he can’t control this situation.
Honestly, we all knew that if we never found Priest, Alonzo would have left the family to Giovani, even though it went against everything he believes in, mostly because he would have taken the best care of the family as he could. His micromanaging skills are legendary.
“Why would it matter to you if she is strong willed or not? Unless you have some sort of plan to undermine her, which is kinda hard to believe when you think about how much you do for the family. Like you always put the family first, so why would her being headstrong, and willful, and openly defiant,” Luca starts rambling, shuffling though so papers like he’s not paying attention, but that’s the thing with Luca, you can never really tell what’s going on in that brain of his.
He’s a suave ladies’ man, really, he’s just great at getting anyone to do as he wants because he’s learned how to read everyone’s buttons, what motivates them, and how to use it against them.
Like now. He’s baiting Gio, and Giovani is too wound up to notice.
“Alonzo wants me to date her, wants me to marry her.”
Everyone stops breathing.
Giovani doesn’t date. I’ve never seen him look at a woman with anything other than strategic calculation in his eyes, never shown interest in scratching any sort of itch with anyone.
He’s been dedicated to the family since he was born, trained by his father to take over the overseeing position to work with Alonzo.
“I fucking knew it,” Luca mutters.
“He gave you his blessing?” Tony wonders aloud.
There goes my shot, I think, but don’t say.
I didn’t think that Alonzo would ever give me his blessing. He respects me, and the necessity of my position, but he would always look at Tony and I as the brutes of the bunch.
Which he’s not wrong about that, but I highly doubt he would hand his precious daughter over to either one of us brutes.
“Hold up, you’re saying that Alonzo wants you to be the next head of the family. Wants you to usurp the position from your would-be wife?” I ask, because this is something I can see coming from Alonzo’s father, but never Alonzo.
“No, he wants us to be partners in our dealings, he’s just trying to do what’s best for the family,” Giovani starts to try to defend, “God I fucking wish she’d have been born a boy,” he mutters, but Luca looks at me with the same amount of skepticism about both statements.
“And when did this plan get discussed? The three of us,” I gesture at Luca, Tony, and I, “are often left out of discussions, so how long has this been in the works, since we just found her?” I ask.
At this Giovani looks apprehensive, and I don’t like that twitchy look he’s giving us all, because it’s his tell. He knows whatever he’s about to say is going to piss us off.
“Since he asked me to locate her…three years ago, when I took over for my old man,” he says.
There is a silence the falls into the back of the car, everything is still, like we can’t decide how to proceed.
Before I can really process any thoughts, my natural instinct shoots out and my fist connects with the side of his face. I want to do more damage, it’s my nature to pound someone within inches of ending their life, but I restrain the urge that takes over. I can’t and won’t give into that urge here, in this fucking car.
I shove the door open, a light breeze sending Giovani’s papers floating within the interior, but what do I care about Giovani’s cheat sheets.
“I’ll be back in a few hours…and then, Giovani Bianchi, we are going to talk about this,” I say, and slam the door, the vehicle shaking from the force.
It doesn’t take me long to walk away from the building Bones lives in, though I do have to ignore the shoulders and people bumping into me as I pass. I’m too tightly wound at the moment that I feel my control slipping and the anger winning, but if I can make it to Alessi’s Club I’ll be able to burn this out.
I hail a taxi on the corner of the third block, far enough away that Bones and any security he might have set up for his building wouldn’t pick up my movements. The cabbie takes my directions and the hundred-dollar bill I throw at him, and hauls ass to the opposite side of town, famiglia area, and I hop out the moment the car stops in front of the unassuming gym.
On the outside one sees the gym for the front that it is, but if you know the right people, Alessi’s is a club to let out your internal beast on another, with high stakes. It’s one of my favorite hang outs for the underground fights and good alcohol.
When I walk through the door, I spot Max, the one who runs the day to day interactions for me. He takes one look at me, and like the good boxing coach he used to be, he can spot the rage and need for my fist to hit flesh, and nods towards to back.
I nod back and head to the locker room, find my locker, and quickly undress from the clothes from the club. I pull on
black sweats, and the white sleeveless undershirt.
The back of the building looks on the up and up to the untrained eye, but if you go through the door marked ‘employees only’ you fall into the dark seedy world of underground fighting. Back there, Max has hired trusted family members to tend bar for the onlookers and bookies, and seating that allows the highest paying patrons the best view.
I find Max’s brother, Frank, and he nods his acknowledgement.
“I want the biggest you have for tonight Frank,” I tell him, and he looks me up and down. I’m tall, which isn’t always the advantage people would think when it comes to fighting, and while I physically have the look of being in shape, I do work out every day, people always take a look at my hair and think that it makes me less inclined to knock the fuck out of someone.
It doesn’t.
I stare at him, and finally he nods. I remind myself to talk to Max about this, because while he’s giving me what I want, he should know better than to second guess me, and he’s lucky he’s fresh meat for the place otherwise he’d be out.
This is my business, one of them, and I do not accept second guessing form anyone other than the people I have put in charge of the operations.
“Fight’s scheduled in about ten minutes. Does that work for you, Boss, or do I need to move it up?”
He earns some points back for that. I do think about it quickly, but shake my head, “Keep it as it’s slotted, the patrons are notorious for throwing fits if they miss the best fights,” I say, and he nods.
I take a seat at the bar and order a water. I won’t have alcohol until I’ve won, no need to mess with my reaction times until I know the feeling of blood on my knuckles. I know I’ll come away with marks too, I always do. The pain serves as a reminder the next time I think to let my rage overtake me.
Dolling out pain isn’t the only reason I’m here.
This is like church for me, where I repent for being unable to control myself when temptation arises. Nothing better to remind me why I shouldn’t just haul back and hit the leader of our group like bruised ribs and a shiner. This is why Alonzo would never bless any sort of relationship outside of a working one between someone like me and his baby girl.
Lost Girl Page 10