by Leah Wilde
Vince was quiet for a long moment, tapping his fingers thoughtfully along his kneecaps and staring straight ahead, even when Fiona turned to face him. “But there’s no proof.”
“No,” Fiona said softly, feeling whatever hope she had left remaining in her body seep away. “But then that’s not the point, is it? I just think you should know, before you decide to continue to acknowledge my existence. They weren’t afraid to kill your dad. They won’t hesitate to off you if you become an inconvenience.”
Vince fell silent again, perfectly still in the darkness. Fiona couldn’t help but turn and look at him, to drink in his features for as long as she could, while she still had the opportunity. Deep inside, she knew that this had to be the last time they saw each other. Anything else would be too dangerous. There was no way they could be together, even if they didn’t try to do anything about Guido and Mama Romano.
“Do you trust me?” Vince whispered a moment later. For a moment, Fiona wasn’t sure if she had heard him correctly, as it was so out of nowhere in context with the rest of their conversation.
“What?” Fiona asked.
Vince turned to face her then, inching closer to her on the bed until mere inches separated them. “Do you trust me? Be honest. You don’t have to. I just need to know.”
Fiona stared into his eyes for a long moment, which seemed to glow in the darkness, like they had their own inner source of light, deep inside. “I think…I do,” Fiona finally whispered. “And that scares me because I know I shouldn’t.”
“Why not?” Vince asked.
“Because being attached to your family has only given me grief and pain,” Fiona said, shaking her head at herself. “If I had any sense, I’d run as far away from here as I could. But…”
Vince inched a little closer to her, until they were almost touching, but even as his eyes got wider in anticipation of Fiona’s words, he didn’t say anything. He just waited for her to speak, which made her feel slightly more confident, even though she felt herself start to tremble as she struggled to come up with the words to describe how she was feeling.
Finally, she forced something out. “But I can’t stop…feeling this way about you,” she admitted.
“Really?” Vince whispered in response.
“Yeah,” Fiona said, sighing as she turned back around to face the wall across from the bed rather than look into Vince’s wide, earnest eyes. “It’s not a compliment. I don’t mean it to stroke your ego. It’s a really big, huge problem. I shouldn’t give a fuck about you.”
“You’re right,” Vince said, surprising her. “You shouldn’t. I’m more trouble than I’m worth.” He paused, and for a second, Fiona thought that was all he had to say, but then he surprised her by reaching over and grabbing her hand, holding it gently within his own larger one. Fiona was taken off-guard, but she didn’t pull away. “I know you don’t have any real reason to trust me. I’m not my dad.”
For some reason, that made Fiona feel uncomfortable, even though she still couldn’t bring herself to pull her hand out of Vince’s. His touch was so warm, so surprisingly soft, his fingers stroking the back side of her hand soothingly even as he verbally berated himself. “Your dad chose you, though,” Fiona pointed out. “He could have picked Guido or someone else from the organization if he wanted to. But he didn’t. He picked you.”
Vince scoffed a little. “Yeah, and who the hell knows why that happened? He probably didn’t want Guido in charge because he knew he was a violent little prick who’d run the business into the ground, but he didn’t think hard enough. He should have picked someone who’d be strong enough to keep everyone in the organization in line. Someone like you.”
Fiona flexed her fingers from under Vince’s, slowly turning her hand upward and lacing her fingers with Vince’s as she collected her thoughts. “He left me something, too, you know,” she said softly, her heart beginning to pick up in her chest. “Money, obviously, like a little bit to keep me going in case Mama Romano fired me, I guess, but a key, too.”
“A key?” Vince asked.
Fiona turned to face him again, her body vibrating with newfound energy as she put the pieces together. “I didn’t know what it was for at first. But then I figured it out. A safety deposit box, probably located in the warehouse that the Romano family has on the edge of town.”
“Have you opened it?” Vince asked, shifting closer still on the bed until his knees brushed up against Fiona’s legs.
“No,” Fiona said. “I haven’t had time to think about it, and then with everything that’s happened the past few days, I just…I got scared,” she said, feeling a slight burn of shame climb up her back as she admitted her own limitations. “I just thought there was no way it could be worth it, you know, putting my life in danger by going back into Romano territory.”
“But you did what they said,” Vince argued. “You followed Mama’s instructions, right? By quitting? They won’t be looking for you, just like they won’t be looking for me. They don’t expect me to do anything. They think they’ve won.”
“Haven’t they?” Fiona asked, doubt pressing down on her even as she couldn’t keep herself from shifting her body so her legs were gathered on the bed, stretched out next to Vince’s, the two of them closer than they’d been in days.
“Not yet,” Vince said, shaking his head. “Half the organization wasn’t at my dad’s funeral for a reason. I’m guessing my mom either distracted them with some task or they chose not to come to disrespect my mother directly. Either way, she wasn’t sure that she could oust me as leader unless they weren’t around. As long as half the Romano business still isn’t in her front pocket, we have a chance.”
“A chance to do what?” Fiona asked with a sigh. She felt exhausted, but at the same time, Vince’s words were setting off fires inside of her, rekindling hope that she’d thought she’d lost forever.
“To force my mother and Guido out of the business,” Vince said. “To get revenge for my father.”
“It won’t work,” Fiona said reflexively, resisting the idea that they could so easily reverse time and take back control. “There are too many enforcers on the ground around here. Someone could see us go to the warehouse and kill us before we even get a chance to find out what your father wanted me to see.”
“So, what’s the alternative?” Vince asked. “Run away? Do nothing? Let them run the organization and use all of its resources to fuck the world up even worse than it already is?”
Fiona shrugged. “What other choice do we have, really?”
“No. Fuck that,” Vince said, suddenly pulling away from Fiona, dropping her hand and leaving her feeling cold and abandoned. “I’m done letting people run my life for me. I can’t do it anymore, Fiona. I just can’t. I’d rather face the consequences than roll over and be my mother’s little bitch.”
“And what if the consequences are death? Actual, literal, honest-to-God, meeting Jesus death?” Fiona asked, getting to her feet and pacing along the room with Vince, meeting his eyes rather than ducking her gaze this time. “Would you rather die than let your family be in control?”
“Maybe,” Vince said. “Yes. I can’t give up. I won’t give up. I have to do this, Fiona. With or without you, I have to stand up to them.” He stopped in his pacing, turning to face Fiona and grabbing her by the shoulders, even though she made no move to walk away from him. “But I’d rather have you at my side while I do it.”
Fiona didn’t know what to say. Vince’s eyes were wide and desperate, full of desire and hope and fear and resignation, all at once. But it didn’t matter, right? Vince’s plan was suicide. It was so risky. To sign up as his assistant again would mean signing her own death certificate. She couldn’t do it. There was no way she could hand over her life to this guy that she barely knew. Right?
“Okay,” Fiona found herself saying, her body responding instinctively to the options laid out in front of her. “Okay, I’ll help you. I’ll give you the documents.” There was some part of he
r, some small, inner voice that shrunk and shrunk in volume as the seconds went by, screaming that she was an idiot, a moron, a complete dumbass for getting herself involved with this again. But it wasn’t strong enough to stop her. She knew what she had to do. If she didn’t help Vince now, when he needed her most, she’d never forgive herself.
“Okay, we can go now,” Vince said, smiling a little, genuinely, for the first time that night. “Get the key and let’s go.”
“Wait,” Fiona said, stopping Vince when he tried to turn towards the door of the bedroom with a hand on his wrist. “I need to know something first.”
“Shoot,” Vince said, his chest rising and falling rapidly as if he’d just run a few miles. Fiona guessed he was as reenergized and reinvigorated as she was by the new plan of action. Anything was better than feeling helpless.
“Did you come here because I was your last hope?” Fiona asked, her skin prickling with anxiety as she forced the question out, looking up into Vince’s eyes and searching his face for any sign of an answer. “Or did you come here because…?” She trailed off, shaking her head at herself. It was stupid, thinking that someone she’d met only a few days before could have serious feelings for her. She was just a silly, stupid, hopeful little girl, stuck on dreams and fantasies that could never come true. They lived in a war zone, a world full of darkness and danger and despair. Happy endings didn’t come with the territory, and she was only fooling herself for hoping otherwise.
But Vince stepped closer, placing his hand on the small of Fiona’s back and pushing lightly to bring her nearer to him, until their chests brushed up against each other and Fiona had to bend her neck backward to look up at Vince’s beautiful, shining face. He reached down with one hand to push strands of hair back behind Fiona’s ears before wrapping his hand around the back of her head, keeping her in place as he bent down to brush their lips together—gently, softly, barely applying any pressure, his lips dancing over hers, bringing her cells to life with a tingling tickling sensation that forced her to smile as he pulled away.
It was their first kiss, and it felt like the only one in Fiona’s life that had ever mattered.
Chapter Twenty
“Does that answer your question?” Vince asked.
Fiona couldn’t stop herself. She knew they had business to attend to, urgent matters to deal with, but nothing felt as urgent as the suddenly overwhelming need to crash into Vince, to pull his body into hers as deeply as it could go.
“Yes, it does,” she whispered softly into the space between their mouths before she reconnected their lips, biting her way into Vince’s mouth until she could taste him. God, she felt like she’d been waiting for this for years, like her body had been aching to meet his for her whole life. She couldn’t hold herself back anymore. She was starving for his touch, for the blazing sensation of his fingers trailing over her skin. She had to have it. It didn’t matter if her life was in danger, if time was running out, or if the world itself was ending. She needed to have him inside of her, as soon as possible.
“Mm, Jesus,” Vince murmured into her mouth, biting lightly at her bottom lip and making her moan out in pleasure, his hands wandering down her back to grab at her ass before shoving up the hem of her shirt to get at the bare skin of her back.
It took Fiona a couple of seconds to notice that she was moving, backing up, but her body seemed to know what it was doing, leading Vince back over to the bed as her hands clawed their way into his shirt and scratched at his back, matching the motions of his hands on hers. “Take off your fucking clothes,” Vince grunted into her mouth as soon as they reached the bed, collapsing on the mattress together as though their bodies were already joined together.
A little chill of excitement ran down Fiona’s spine as a result of the hard, commanding tone in Vince’s voice. This was Vince the Dom, taking back his proper position of control in the bedroom. When she didn’t rush to comply fast enough, his hands tore her shirt off her body, flinging it off to the other side of the room and then immediately beginning work on her pants. “Fuck. Jesus fucking Christ,” Fiona sighed out, her breath coming out hard and fast as Vince yanked both her jeans and her underwear down her legs, tossing them away and then ripping her bra off her body. Some of her clothing might have gotten torn in as a result of Vince’s overeager movements, but Fiona really didn’t care at this point. It was wonderful to be naked under him, his hand immediately shoving her thighs apart and moving to the wet, hot space between her legs.
“Yeah, you already wet for me, baby?” Vince asked before sinking his head in between her head and shoulder, nipping at her neck with his sharp teeth. He slipped the tip of his finger inside of her hole.
“Fuck, yes, yes,” Fiona groaned, slinging her arm across her face and biting into her own skin just to keep herself from screaming too loudly and alerting her father to what was going on. But honestly, she knew she couldn’t hold herself back for too much longer, not when even the barest tip of Vince’s finger felt huge inside of her tight space, spreading her open slowly but surely. A spasm of pleasure overtook her body as his thumb swiped across her throbbing clit, giving her a small, teasing reminder of what was to come. “Goddammit, yes,” she breathed out, reaching down to grab Vince’s hand and encourage him to sink his finger deeper inside of her.
“That’s a good girl. That’s a good fucking girl,” Vince grunted into her ear. He licked at her earlobe, biting it lightly before dragging his tongue up the entire length of her ear, sending shivers down her spine that made her moan and whimper, caught in a vortex between overwhelming pleasure and teasing, taunting pain. It was perfect. It was everything that she wanted, but her body hungered for more.
“Sir,” Fiona whispered, groaning a little as Vince bit harder onto her neck, sucking lightly to soothe the pain he’d caused a moment earlier. “Sir, can you remove your clothes? Please? For me?”
Vince paused, his mouth lingering over the sensitive skin of her neck, his breath hitting her flesh and making her squirm a little under his weight. “You want me to?” he finally whispered into her skin.
“Yes, sir,” Fiona answered, rubbing the back of Vince’s neck and tangling her fingers into his hair. “I really want to see you. I really want that.”
“Okay,” he murmured before giving her a soft, gentle kiss right under her ear and then pulling back, sitting up on the bed to pull his clothes off, much more slowly and methodically than he’d done for Fiona’s clothing.
In the darkness of twilight, it took Fiona a couple of seconds before she could make out the details of his body, the firmness of his chest, the hard ridges of his abdominal muscles, the veins sticking out prominently from his skin. So she reached forward again, brushing her hands up against his stomach and chest and shoulders, feeling the muscles straining underneath his flesh. He held so much power in his body, so much strength. She wanted him to use all of it on her, to test the limits of her body, to experiment with how much force she could really take. Fiona’s mouth watered as she drank in every last detail of his torso, watching his beautiful hands moved as he unbuckled his pants as well. I can take him, she thought, shivering in anticipation and a little fear as he threw off the last of his clothing and leaned over her again, bracing his weight on his hands, which were pressed down into the mattress on either side of her head. I can take all of him, Fiona thought, feeling his hard dick press up against her upper thigh, her eyes rolling up in the back of her head as he slipped two fingers inside of her this time.
His fingers started just by slowly moving in and out of her opening, spreading her wetness around inside of her until she felt like she was leaking down onto his digits. “Shit. Fuck me, baby,” Fiona murmured under her breath, the words leaving her mouth as easily as air. She felt no shame here. No embarrassment or worry or anxiety about looking good or coming across as confident. She was totally in Vince’s capable hands, his body sworn to protect and take care of hers. There was nothing to worry about here. Here, at least, she was safe, eve
n if they weren’t in the playroom.
“Yeah, you’re so tight for me. You suck me right in,” Vince whispered into her ear, brushing some of her hair out of the way so he could latch his mouth onto the other side of her neck, giving it the same attention as the right side, licking at her skin until her whole body was trembling, her cunt clutching tighter around his fingers, dragging them in deeper as her hips lurched into motion beneath his.
“Please fuck me. Please, I’m ready; I can take it,” Fiona rambled, turning her head to kiss the side of Vince’s face, pressing her lips insistently against his neck until he turned his head to firmly press their mouths together, his tongue dipping inside of her just as his fingers slipped in deeper, pressing up against her inner walls, right against the most sensitive nub inside of her.