by Maia Dylan
“Yes, bellezza mia, with pleasure,” Tony said with a grin, then placed his mouth on hers.
He loved the sound of pleasure she made, and he deepened the kiss, using his tongue to coax her mouth open. As soon as she did, he swept in, claiming her mouth as his own. He pulled her to him, helping her to straddle him. He growled at the way she acquiesced against him and slid his hands up her back to bury his fingers in her thick blonde hair. He twisted it around his fist, then gently tugged, angling her head a little more to give him better access. When he broke the kiss, they were both left gasping for air. The small rotations of her hips had his cock straining at the zipper of his jeans.
“Damn, you taste good,” he said, lowering his mouth to her neck, biting and nibbling his way to her ear. “And you sure as fuck feel good in my lap, baby. Those movements you make with your hips could end this before it’s begun.”
Leona huffed a shaky laugh, and he groaned as she deepened her grind against him. “Imagine how great it will feel when we’re both naked, and I’ve got you buried balls-deep within me.”
Suddenly desperate for more, Tony stood up, gently coaxing her to lower her legs. He held her gaze as he grabbed the bottom of her shirt and lifted it up and off. He allowed his gaze to sweep down over the beautiful expanse of skin the move exposed. Tony licked his lips as he watched her nipples pucker in the cool air. He couldn’t resist leaning down and gently sliding his tongue over and around the hardening peak. Leona shuddered against him then cried out when he tugged her into his mouth and drew hard.
Lifting his left hand to plump her left breast, he moved to give the same attention to that breast, loving how she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and held on to him. He felt her shudder against him as he used his teeth on her.
“Off,” Leona said, pulling on the shirt he still wore. “Get this out of my way. Now.”
Tony stood up, and reaching back over his head with one hand, he pulled his shirt off in a quick efficient move. “Who knew you were such a demanding little thing?”
Leona shot him a smile but there was an edge of insecurity mixed with vulnerability to it that had his breath catching a little. As he was desperately trying to figure out what might help her, he was struck by a wave incitement.
He stepped into her. “Tonight is for you, bellezza mia.”
“Why do you call me that?” Leona asked quietly.
Tony reveled in her shiver as they met skin to skin, and reached up to sweep her gorgeous dark hair from her face. “Because you are beautiful. To me, to the world, and it makes my heart race to know that you are mine. You are my kind of beautiful, Leona, and as I said, tonight is all about you. You set the pace. You tell me what you want, what you need, and know that I am your willing slave.” He winced and gave her a sheepish look. “I’ll be honest, my love, that’s not really how I am in the bedroom. I like to take control. When I told you I longed to worship your body with my own, I meant it. But this first time, it’s all about you.”
He carefully lowered the zipper of his jeans and kicked them off with his underwear and socks. When he was naked, he sat back down on the bed, exactly how he had been, leaned back on his arms, and grinned up at his woman who had yet to move.
“Be gentle with me.”
Leona giggled, then looked shocked that she had. Tony couldn’t hold back his own grin when she threw her head back and laughed.
“Oh my God, that’s priceless.” She laughed, still sounding breathless. “You’re what, six-foot-two and have a good hundred or so pounds on me, and you’re asking me to be gentle with you?”
Tony nodded, all signs of humor slipping away. “I am. I gave you my heart. It’s the first and last time I’ve ever done it, and you have the ability to hurt me like no other person on this planet. So yeah.” He shrugged, suddenly feeling a little uncertain himself. “I guess I am asking you to be gentle with me.”
****
Leona felt her heart literally swell, filling with emotions all linked to this strong, beautiful man who had just bared his soul to her. She had no words, no way of verbalizing the emotions that rose within her with what he’d just said. Holding his gaze, she reached down to slide her yoga pants off before stepping forward, not stopping until she was straddling his lap on the bed. She sat back on his knees and wrapped both her hands around his erection.
“Oh, God!” Tony groaned, his head dropping back, the muscles and tendons in his neck and chest standing out in stark relief. “That feels so good.”
Leona smiled, watching his reactions as she caressed him in long firm strokes. “I kinda like it myself. You feel like warm satin over hard steel.” She reached down to gently roll his balls in her palm and smiled when he cried out, cursing in Italian, and a slight sheen of sweat broke out on his forehead. She was surprised at how aroused she was becoming simply by giving him pleasure.
“There are condoms in the drawers beside the bed,” Leona said quietly. “I can slip one on you if you want. I’m clean. We were tested regularly, and I’ve never had sex without a condom. I know it might be hard to believe, but it’s the truth.”
Tony, his breathing a little heavy, suddenly reached out to grip her hips, lifting her a little off him, not much, just enough to drag her forward, so that she was in a position to slide down over him and take him into her.
“I believe you, baby,” Tony murmured. “I want to be the only one who has ever been naked inside you. Skin on skin, just you and me. But like I said, bellezza mia, this is all you. You decide.”
Holding his gaze once more, she knelt up a little higher, reaching down with one hand to hold him in the perfect position, then she slowly lowered herself, not stopping until she had each gloriously hard inch of him. When she was nestled on his thighs, she exhaled, completely unaware that she’d been holding her breath.
She wrapped both her arms around his shoulders and pressed her forehead to his.
“Hey,” she whispered, her tone breathless.
Tony huffed a shaky laugh. “Hey yourself.” He swallowed hard. “My God, woman, there are no words to describe how it feels to be inside you.”
Leona leaned back and knew from the look on his face that he truly believed she was beautiful. And at that moment, she felt beautiful.
“Then this is really going to rock your world.”
She began a slow lift and slide, using her internal muscles to stroke his cock deep within her as she pulled up. As she descended, she added the rotations of her hips he’d liked so much from before. She set a heady rhythm, driving them both steadily higher until they hovered on the edge of the abyss. She knew that Tony was just as close to his release as she was from how tense he was.
“Tony,” she panted, waiting until he met her gaze, holding herself completely still. “I love you, too.” She watched as joy and wonder fought for supremacy in his gaze and then she slammed down, grinding herself against him and throwing herself into the maelstrom of her release.
She heard as if from afar Tony’s own roar of completion as she felt him jerk within her then simply let her orgasm take her. She fell over the edge and knew she’d never be the same again.
Chapter Five
“I was the one who suggested using Angelo’s obsession with me against him.”
Tony tensed at her words but never ceased the gentle slide of his fingers down the arm she’d thrown over his chest. They’d left a small lamp on over in the far corner of the room, and it cast a pale, muted light over the room. Not a lot, just enough to see each other.
With Leona nestled as she was against his body, her head resting on his shoulder, he had never known such peace. Her words shattered that for a moment, but he knew she needed to tell him what happened as much as he wanted to help her shoulder that burden.
“What made you offer to do it?” he asked quietly in the quiet room.
“The Battaglias were coming at the Carlisis hard and fast,” she whispered. “I overheard you and Gavriil talking one night at the club, and you both sounde
d tired and frustrated that they were gaining ground in Carlisi territory.”
Tony knew the night she was talking about. Gino had uncovered a transportation link for the Battaglias’ drugs through Carlisi territory and it fucked them all off that they’d not only brought that shit into their neighborhood, but that they had done it right under their noses.
“I wanted to help,” Leona continued. “It seemed like such a small thing. Hang out with Angelo, get a little closer to him, and report back to Gavriil anything I might hear. I realize now that most of what that prick told me was bullshit, but at the time, I thought I was doing something good. Something right.”
“You were, baby,” Tony said, not liking the doubt and sadness that had crept into her tone. “You were helping your family, and that is what it means to be familia.”
He felt Leona take a deep breath beside him and steeled himself for the next part of her story. “He was crazed that afternoon. He called for me, and I went to him. I was going to find out where he had been hiding and then let you know so you could fill your blood vendetta against him. I am so sorry about your dad.” Swallowing the emotion before he could be drowned by it, Tony nodded, hugging her tighter, waiting until she resumed talking.
“He was high as a kite when I got there, pacing the house and acting like the big man in front of his men. He walked over to me, smiling as if nothing was amiss, and he leaned in to kiss me, but before his lips met mine, I shuddered. I didn’t mean to, but God, he revolted me. I kept telling myself I only had to get through this one time. But he saw it and backhanded me before I knew what was coming.”
Tony bit back the growl of anger that threatened to burst from him and wished, not for the first time, that it could be possible to kill the son of a bitch a second time.
“He and his men took turns hitting me. Then c-cutting me. I have never known anything like that in my life. I was so scared, and there was all this blood, and the pain! God, Tony, I wake up screaming in the night remembering that pain. The slices he made in my face hurt the most because I couldn’t stop crying.”
Tony felt her tears against his chest and rolled so he could hold her tight and press kisses all over her face. “Shh, my love, shhh. It’s okay. I’m here.”
Her arms came around his neck and she held on to him as if drawing strength from him to continue. “They dragged me out to the car, laughing and celebrating that this would be the night they could finally take out the Russian Mafioso. The next thing I remember is being dragged into Gavriil’s house, and Angelo pressing that gun to my temple. Tony, I … I prayed for him to pull that trigger. I wanted to die. Not just so that the pain would end, but because then Gavriil would live.”
Tony felt his own tears falling at her admission, and he let them. He pulled himself more completely on top of Leona and sheltered her with his body. They stayed like that until Leona quietened, and he moved back, pulling her up and over him so he could stroke her back as she settled, her breaths coming in little hiccups.
“I’m not sure I’ll ever be okay with Gavriil’s decision to agree to you going in to spy on Angelo,” Tony admitted. “But you have to know that he cares for you like he does every member of the family. I’ve seen the tapes of that night, my love. Gavriil was safe upstairs, out of the line of fire. He could have stayed there and waited for the backup he knew was coming, but he didn’t. As soon as he realized that Angelo had you, he left that safety and put himself firmly in harm’s way. Hell, he even took a bullet for you, so I guess I’ll have to keep him as one of my best friends.”
Leona huffed a quiet laugh and snuggled against him. He loved how affectionate she was.
“When I saw you that night,” Tony murmured, “scared, in pain, and covered in blood, the need to kill Angelo, the very thing that had been driving me since I lost my dad, fell to the wayside. The most important thing to me at that moment was getting to you. I caught you before you could fall. As soon as I saw what that bastard had done to you, I wanted him dead quick because you needed medical help. My one regret is that I killed him too fast, and he never suffered for what he did to you.”
Leona pressed a kiss to his chest. “Maybe he did. His family betrayed him, threw him to the wolves, and he died knowing the people who should have been there for him above all others weren’t. That had to have been devastating for him. My one regret is not saying yes to you a long time ago. We could have been together, and I would’ve never put myself in front of Angelo Battaglia, and I might have even been able to win your dad over if I’d had more time.”
Tony inhaled sharply. Now was the perfect time to tell her about the phone call he got to share with his dad in the moments before he died, but the memories were going to hurt. He’d do it though, because she had just faced her own fears and told him about her most painful memory, and he could do nothing more than honor her with the same.
“The night Dad died, I was on the phone with him in his final moments.”
Leona gasped, lifting up to stare at him in the muted light. “Tony.”
He smiled, sweeping the fall of her silky hair back and behind her ear. “It’s okay. I was just so happy I could be there for him, and in a weird way, hand him over to my mother who I know was standing right there in that alley with him, waiting to take him into her arms.”
Leona leaned down and kissed him gently. “Then I’m glad, too.”
“We said our goodbyes and told each other we loved each other, and the last thing he said to me was about you.”
Leona jolted upright, her eyes wide. “Me?”
Tony nodded, giving her a small smile. “Yeah, you. He said, ‘Son, Leona is the perfect woman for you. Don’t let an old man’s stupid prejudice keep you from what you deserve, and don’t let another day go by without telling that girl you love her.’”
Leona tensed above him. “He said that? About me?”
Tony smiled. “Yes, bellezza mia. He was talking about you.” He rolled so that he had her under him again, where he planned to keep here for many years to come. “Now, let me show you how a man like me worships his woman with his body.”
And then he proceeded to do exactly that.
Chapter Six
Leona groaned at the sound of a cell phone ringing, burrowing her head under the blanket in an attempt to stay asleep and ward off the unwanted intrusion. Tony began cursing, and she murmured a protest when he moved his body away from hers to answer the clanging intruder.
“What!”
Leona grinned at the grumpy terse sound of Tony’s voice. Apparently, her lover was not an early morning kind of guy.
“When?”
Leona froze. All the warm fuzzy feelings from moments before evaporated beneath the sound of that particular tone. She’d heard Tony use it before and it was usually in the moments before he went to work. As an enforcer for the Carlisi family, he and others of his rank were often called upon to fight or bleed to protect what was theirs.
“We’re coming,” Tony said down the phone as he threw back the blankets on the bed and stood up. “Tell Sofia we’ll get him back. The Battaglias think they have a fucking cause for a blood debt to be paid, then they’ll fucking get one.”
Tony turned the light on next to the bed and Leona blinked a few times to adjust to it. “What’s happened?”
Tony looked at her and Leona inhaled sharply. His dark eyes were almost black now, and they held a deadly intent she’d only ever seen on one occasion. The night he killed Angelo Battaglia.
“Angelo’s brother has called for a blood debt to be paid,” Tony said, pulling his jeans on as he spoke. Leona scrambled from the bed, rushing to get dressed as well.
“How can he do that? You killing Angelo was in retaliation for your dad.”
Tony dragged his black long-sleeved shirt on over his head. “Yeah, well, apparently, his mother doesn’t see it that way, and she wants blood for blood for Angelo.”
Leona carefully watched Tony as he gathered the rest of his things. “There’s more to it t
han that. What else?”
Tony exhaled, placing his fists on his hips. “Gina Battaglia isn’t just calling for a blood debt, she wants someone in particular to pay for Angelo’s death.”
“Oh, my God, Tony, is she sending her people after you?” Leona moved quickly to stand in front of him, as if to protect him from the enemy she now knew was coming.
Tony pulled her into his arms and she knew something was terribly wrong from the way his body seemed to vibrate with tension. “Not just me, bellezza mia. You too.”
“Me?” She never knew her voice could go so high-pitched.
Tony nodded, pulling back to look her in the eye. “Yeah. She wants me dead, no surprises there. But that crazy bitch seems to think that you’re the only reason he was there that night in the first place. She believes you led him into a trap and she wants your blood in reparation, too.”
Leona shook her head in disbelief. “Had she ever met her son? He could never have been led anywhere by anyone.”
Tony pressed his lips to hers in a quick, sweet kiss. “Like I said, that woman is obviously as crazy as her son was. Crazy doesn’t fall far from the tree it’s born from, apparently.”
Leona frowned. Tony was trying to inject too much humor and calm into his tone, but she could tell he was anything but. They may have only been intimate the one time, but she realized she had watched him so much over the past two years, she could read him better than she ever knew.
“Tell me.”
Tony met her gaze, and she knew she was right. There was more. She waited, confident enough in his feelings for her to trust her with the truth.
Tony sighed. “They took Gino last night as collateral. The message they sent this morning was that we would get Gino back if they handed you or me over.”
For a moment, just a brief second in time, Leona thought that might actually be a possibility, but then she remembered what Tony had told her last night. She had to trust in his love for her. Tony was watching her very carefully, as if he suspected that perhaps her mind may move in that direction and her reaction would be as a result of that.