by J. L. Beck
“Of course, sir. I apologize.” Marie’s lips tremble as she talks.
Julian shakes his head, frustration filling his features. He offers me his hand, and I take it, melting into his side as soon as he tugs me to my feet.
“Get back to work,” Julian orders gruffly before we walk out of the room.
I frown but let him guide me down the hall and back into the wing of the house where our bedroom is.
“Why were you so mean to her? She was just being a decent human and a good friend. She didn’t do anything wrong.”
“She works for me, and she is your maid. She can’t be your friend, and I will not have her questioning what I may or may not do with you. Your wellbeing is none of her concern.” He says coldly, but I can tell he’s close to snapping. I shouldn’t push the issue, but Marie is important to me, and I won’t stand by and let him talk down to her.
Stopping in my tracks, I dig my feet into the floor, forcing him to stop as well. Halting, he looms over me, and maybe before our size differences would’ve scared me, now his darkness, size, and overall body appeals to me. Placing a hand against his chest, I try not to think of the skin beneath it: the ridges, and dips, and the way his body molded so perfectly to mine.
Jesus… I can feel my core tightening.
“She is the only friend I have. It’s not like I can go out and find one that’s to your liking. And even if I could, her social standing wouldn’t matter to me. She’s still a person. She is kind, and she cares about me. I understand that she shouldn’t question you and that what happens to me doesn’t concern her, but her intentions are pure and come from a good place.”
“I won’t be questioned by my staff.” His jaw turns to steel, and his eyes flicker with fury.
“Then don’t be, but don’t treat her like she isn’t a human,” I whisper, placing a featherlight kiss against his jaw. “She is loyal to you, doesn’t this prove that. Even though she was worried, she didn’t act on it. Can’t that be enough?”
I don’t understand why I feel the need to kiss and touch him so often, but it brings me joy. When he’s near, I feel alive. All my life, I’ve been trapped, and it’s like now I’ve finally broken free. Julian’s gaze softens a fraction when I grab his hand once more and let him guide me back to the bedroom.
“Will you stay a bit with me? Maybe just lie in bed with me?”
Julian gives me a questioning look, and I’m one hundred percent sure he is going to say no, but then shocks me when he nods his head.
We both take our shoes off and crawl into bed together. Resting my head on his chest, I throw one leg over his, wanting him closer. I never thought I would feel safe in his arms, and especially not seek out the comfort of his body.
Running a hand up and down my back, he makes me shiver.
“Tomorrow, you will meet someone close to me. He is an ally and has worked with me often over the years. He is bringing his wife. Maybe you can make another friend. Their love story is far more dysfunctional than ours.”
“Love story?” I lift my head off his chest and peer up into his calm gaze. “I didn’t think mobsters fell in love?”
“Not all mobsters fall in love. Xander is tougher than steel and meaner than fuck. I’m surprised he found someone that could be the light to his darkness.”
The light to his darkness…
Maybe that’s what I’ll become to Julian. Maybe he just needs a little light to dull out all the dark in his life.
“Well, I can’t wait to meet her and hear about their love story,” I whisper, placing my head back down on his chest. Closing my eyes, I easily slip into sleep, feeling safe, protected, and cherished.
28
Julian
The next morning, I find it hard to take my eyes off Elena. She’s wearing a sundress with roses on it that ends just above her knee. I can’t seem to look anywhere but at her shapely legs, envisioning them wrapped around my middle while I thrust deep inside her.
“What are you thinking?” Elena questions, biting into a strawberry.
I decided breakfast out on the terrace would be fitting for today, but now I’m wondering if we should’ve stayed in the bedroom, so I could’ve eaten her for breakfast instead.
“You don’t want to know.”
She blinks slowly, lust swirling in her depths. “Oh, really? Try me.”
Leaning over the table, I trail a finger down her cheek. “You have sex one time, and you think you can handle all my fantasies and the things that I have planned for you?”
Her little throat bobs, and I almost laugh.
“I’m stronger than I look.” She leans in, her eyes moving to my lips, determination shining in them. I can’t wait to make her eat her words, see her shatter around me, and beg me for her release.
“This is a dangerous game you’re playing, my soon to be wife. You have yet to see what I’m capable of.” A tiny shiver works its way through her, and I can’t even put into words the immense pleasure that makes me feel, knowing that I hold a spell over her, that she’s drawn not only physically to me, but sexually.
She licks her lips. “Then show me.”
My balls ache, and my cock pushes against the zipper of my now uncomfortable dress slacks. Reaching beneath the table, I slide my hand beneath her dress and over her bare thigh. Her eyes widen, worry, and need swirl together, becoming one.
Moving up to the apex of her thigh, I watch her face as my fingers graze the thin material of her panties, over her damp center.
“You’re wet,” I whisper, pressing against her clit.
Red fills her sun-kissed cheeks, and I wonder if she’s going to stop me. Her eyes dart out onto the green landscape as if she’s looking for someone. Like I would ever really allow someone to see me touching her. I’d gouge their eyes out before I let that happen.
Trailing my finger up and down the damp fabric, I watch Elena squirm in her seat, biting her plump bottom lip to stop a moan from escaping.
“If I had the time, I’d stand you up, flip that pretty little dress up over your ass, rip your panties from your body, and bend you over this table and fuck you until everyone in this house heard your screams.”
“You’d let someone hear us.” Shock coats her words, but curiosity fills her eyes. Someone is into a little voyeurism.
“Hearing, yes, seeing, no. Plus, it’s not like they don’t know you belong to me already. What’s staking my claim and letting the world hear it happen?” I move to the side of her panties, and slip my finger inside, wanting so desperately to lift her up, place her ass on the table and feast on her pink pussy.
“Boss, your guests are here.” Lucca’s timber voice halts my movements, and Elena’s gaze drops to her plate. She isn’t good at hiding her facial expressions and looks like a child who got caught with their hand in the cookie jar.
“Bring them out here to us,” I tell him and gently pull my hand from between her legs.
Lucca’s heavy footfalls retreat, and I place a finger beneath Elena’s chin, tipping it upward, forcing her to look at me.
“We will finish this later,” I say before giving her a punishing kiss. When I pull away, she looks out of breath, and I decide I like that look on her face.
A few moments later, Lucca returns with Xander and Ella in tow. I stand up to greet him and extend my hand out. Elena stands as well, looking nervous and unsure. As soon as Ella spots Elena beside me, her face splits into a grin.
Ella and Xander are like day and night. Before I knew the story, I always wondered how the dark-haired, brooding man that could kill without mercy, had ended up with the blonde-haired, blue-eyed innocent woman. It was like good and evil collided.
“Xander.” I smirk, shaking his hand firmly.
“Julian,” he greets, his gaze moving to Elena.
“This is my soon to be wife, Elena.” I wrap a protective arm around her and tug her closer to my side. “Elena, this is Xander Rossi and his wife, Ella.”
Elena gives both of them a shy s
mile. “It’s so nice to meet you both.”
“The pleasure is ours,” Xander says.
Ella beams at his side, looking like she is ready to jump Elena. Xander turns to his wife, his features softening for a millisecond as he drinks her in. Who knew the dark king of the Rossi empire could be brought to his knees?
“Why don’t you ladies go sit by the pool, so we can discuss some business.” Xander smiles, but it’s a lot like a shark smiling at you.
“That sounds great,” Ella says cheerfully. Elena pulls away from me, her back becoming straighter as she lifts her chin and gives Xander’s wife a gracious smile.
We watch them walk away together and down to the pool before sitting at the table Elena I was just having breakfast at.
“Did we interrupt your breakfast?” Xander questions his dark eyes on the table.
“No, no. We were finished. Would you like something to drink?” I offer.
Xander shakes his head. “No, thanks. I’m merely here to see what my dear friend is up to, and of course, to allow Ella to meet your soon to be wife. She was all but jumping up and down when I said we would be attending your wedding.”
“It’s a wedding of mere convenience,” I say, sitting back in my chair, my eyes wandering down to the pool where Ella and Elena are sitting. I know what I’ve said is a lie, simply by the bitter taste that appears on the tip of my tongue. “I need to know I have your alliance against the Romero family, and I may need your help with weapons.”
Xander sits back in his chair as well. “Is that so, it doesn’t seem like a marriage of convenience?” Of course, the fucker would call my bluff. Is it that obvious? “And, yes, you have my alliance, and always will, against whomever. You’re like family to me, and what is mine is yours. Now, tell me what you need the weapons for?”
“We may be going to war against Volcove. I killed their son the other night after he put his hands on Elena.”
Xander grins. “Marriage of convenience, huh? Willing to go to war for her? Sounds a bit more serious than that.”
“Tell me you would ever allow someone to touch Ella?”
Xander’s features turned dark. “Anyone who ever touched her would die a painful death at my hands.”
“Exactly, and you would go to war for her. You killed your father for her.” I lift a brow.
“I killed my father because I wanted to, the Rossi empire was meant to be mine.” I nod. Xander’s a good man, but if you double-cross him, you’ll wish you’d never met him.
His power reached far and wide, and if he wanted to destroy you, it could easily be done.
“I’m going to kill her father,” I tell him.
“Hmm, are you? Have you let her know this yet?”
“She is aware of it, but I don’t think she is taking me seriously. I took her for revenge, that part she doesn’t know.”
“But she’s getting to you, she’s weaseling her way under your skin.”
I look out to the pool, and this deep fondness pulses through my veins. The organ in my chest thumps loudly, and it’s never felt so fucking whole. She fills the spaces that her father’s betrayal took from me, and I realize that now.
“It will never work as soon as she finds out why I took her, and that I will never return her feelings, she will hate me even more than she already does.”
“I’ve known you since you were a teenager when you first took over for your father. You don’t want to believe it because we’re men that aren’t meant to feel anything but pain and rage, but I think there is something there.”
As if Elena can hear us talking about her, she turns and looks at me over her shoulder. Her green eyes glitter with joy, and I wonder if I could stand to see them filled with bitter rage, pain, and anger all over again.
“I don’t know.” I shake my head, “I don’t want to feel anything for her.”
“I think you’re past not wanting to feel anything for her. Even though you’re doing your best to hide it, I can see that she means something to you. You might have taken her for revenge, but things can change. It changed for Ella and me, the same could happen to you too.”
Ella and Xander weren’t Elena and me. I may be able to make her happy and give her all the things she wants and needs, but I could never fall in love with her. It would be a slap to my mother’s face if I fell for the enemy’s daughter.
There was no room for love in our marriage.
“Ella said if it’s okay with you, that they would visit us again with their kids next time.” Elena beams on the way back upstairs.
“Sure, maybe after our honeymoon.”
“Wait, we’re going on a honeymoon?” She squeals the words.
“Yes, we’ll leave tomorrow after the wedding.” After I kill your father.
“Where are we going?”
“It’s a surprise. You’ll like it.” I know she will. And the best part is, I can give her more freedom there. She’ll be able to walk around the house freely, maybe even on the beach. I know she’ll love it, she’ll just hate me by then.
Pushing all those unwanted thoughts away, I concentrate on the here and now. I soak in her happiness, not knowing when it’ll be the last time I get to see it. She is basically skipping along by the time we get to the bedroom. I want one last night with her where there is no hate or guilt between us. Where it is just us, no last names, no contract.
Opening the door, I let her walk in first. As soon as the door closes behind us, I start to unbutton my shirt. All-day, I’ve thought about this moment, stripping her bare and making her beg for my cock. Now, here we are, the night before our wedding.
“Strip,” I order as she turns around to face me.
Her green eyes widen, desire pooling in the depths. She does as I instruct, slowly stripping out of her clothing.
“What are you going to do to me?” she questions innocently.
“What do you want me to do to you?”
“Touch me. Kiss me.”
Her reply is soft and sweet, just like her. I cross the distance between us, and trail a hand down her side, enjoying the way her skin quakes beneath my finger. I need her now. Need her honeyed taste on my tongue. Grabbing her hand, I tug her behind me as I walk over to the chaise lounge. She’s going to ride my cock, but first, I’m going to taste her sweet cunt.
“Sit on the couch and spread your legs as wide as they’ll go.”
Nibbling on her bottom lip, she peers up at me before moving to sit on the edge of the couch. Spreading her legs as wide as she can, her little pink pussy comes into view, and my mouth waters. An animalistic urge rips through me, and I drop to my knees, tugging her by the ass to the edge of the cushion. Pushing her legs back against her chest, I bend her to my will, leaving her completely exposed.
“I’m going to fuck you so hard you’ll feel me for days, but before I do that, I’m going to make you gush all over my face.”
“Yes.” She gasps and reaches for me.
Her sharp little nails dig into my scalp, urging me forward. With two fingers, I part her folds and find her clit, unprotected, and begging to be touched. I lick my lips and bury my face between her folds, flicking my tongue against the hard nub.
“Oh, god… yes, please, don’t stop.” Elena pants into the quiet room.
My hands roam her body, painting a picture of her in my mind as I lap at her pussy, sucking and nibbling. When my hands reach her tits, I roll the diamond-hard peaks between two fingers and relish in the heavy gasps that pass her lips.
Keeping my hands on her tits, I pull back and drop my attention down to her entrance, dipping my tongue inside her, fucking her with it.
“Julian…” She moans, grinding her pussy into my face, and I fucking love it. Love her sweet little moans, her scent, and the way she tastes. It’s intoxicating and maddening, and I can only think of making her say my name again.
“If you keep doing that, I’m going to come…”
“That’s the plan,” I growl.
Pinching her ni
pples, I lick her down to her puckered ass and press my tongue against the tight ring. A shudder rips through her, and I move back up to her pussy and plunge my tongue inside her. I do this twice more, and like expected, she explodes, her pussy quivers, and her release dribbles out, flooding into my mouth.
“Mmmm,” I groan against her folds, lapping up every drop. When I’ve had my fill, I drop down onto the couch and grab her by the waist, tugging her onto my lap, maneuvering her like she’s nothing but a ragdoll. In this position, she looks so unsure but so fucking beautiful.
Her dark hair frames her heart-shaped face beautifully, and her eyes are luminescent with a sheen of pleasure still in them. She looks fucked, but she hasn’t been, not yet. Placing her dainty hands against my firm chest, she balances herself as she lifts her hips.
My rock hard cock stands at attention, and I move it into place, the swollen head brushing against her entrance.
“Are you sure? I thought you would be in control still?” She whispers as the crown of my cock dips inside of her.
“I’m always in control, sweetheart,” I grit as I grab her by the hips and press her down on my cock—her lips part and form into an O.
I give her a moment to adjust to my length, relishing in the warmth, and the snugness of her pussy. She was made for me, fucking made for me. Even as my muscles ache, and my cock begs to plow into her, I let her bounce up and down on me, taking as much of my length as she wants. Capturing one of her tits in my mouth, I bite at the hardened nipple, and the squeal that Elena emits from her perfect mouth sends me into a tailspin.
I need more.
My fucking balls ache, and this slow, treacherous pace is killing me. I need to fuck her, feel her come apart on my cock. Grabbing her by the nape, I drag her mouth down to mine. I give her a punishing kiss before I wrap both arms around her and hold her tightly to my chest.
She looks up at me, and holds my gaze as I thrust my hips, my cock hitting the end of her channel. Pleasure overtakes her features, and I do it again and again, upping my pace until I’m fucking her hard and fast, using her tight little hole as I see fit.