Scars and Sins (Brooklyn Brothers Book 2)

by Melanie Munton

  Her luscious mouth curled upward, the dimple in her lower lip smoothing out. Then she placed her feet on the pedals, her fingers on the ivory keys, and began to play. I didn’t know anything about music, so I had no idea what the piece was called or who had composed it. But the notes were slow and sensual and began to take on life as they drifted through the room.

  The higher notes were almost romantic.

  The lower notes were seductive.

  The whole thing was one intense aphrodisiac.

  As the melody sped up, she hit the keys with more force, more power. There was passion in the way she played, a sultry air about her movements. Her eyes were closed, her head lolled back on her neck. Her body moved with the music, swaying to the rhythm, almost as if she were unconscious to it.

  I never thought playing a piano could be so sexual.

  So erotic.

  That was, until she glanced down at my lap.

  “Open your shorts,” she said in a husky voice. “I want to watch you play…with yourself.”

  I fucking loved it when she went all saucy like that. All take-charge. Over the past few weeks, she had blossomed into a sexually confident, self-possessed woman.

  It was a gorgeous thing.

  Without taking my eyes off hers, I pushed my shorts and briefs down past my hips. Even over the music, I heard her indrawn breath when my cock sprang free and smacked against my abs. Her gaze lowered to it, glazing over as I wrapped my hand around the rock-hard shaft. Then I gave it a slow pump with my fist.

  She hit a wrong note.

  I grinned.

  I twisted my fist and squeezed the base, cupping my sac with my other hand.

  Another wrong note.

  I was captivated by her intent expression, which was fixated on my hands. Her cheeks were flushed, turning a delicious rosy pink. When she licked her lips, the urge to charge over there and place my tip right on her tongue was nearly overwhelming.

  I could picture it so vividly…

  I’d slowly approach her. She would remain seated on the bench, her eyes glued to my stiff cock. I’d gently grasp the nape of her neck and ease her forward.

  She’d never stop playing.

  Her fingers would continue to stroke the keys as she tasted me on her tongue, lapping me up like a kitten with a saucer of milk. I’d pull her head in, just the slightest bit, so she could reach every inch. Base to tip, she would lick it like her favorite popsicle. And when I couldn’t stand the teasing anymore, I’d tell her to, “Suck me down, baby.”

  She’d eagerly take me to the back of her throat and moan, just so I could feel the vibrations. Since her fingers would still be busy on the keys, I would continue to knead my sac as her mouth voraciously worked me over. She’d match my pace whenever I’d start to rock my hips back and forth. My head would fall back, my eyes growing heavy with bliss, as I’d gently fuck her warm, greedy little mouth. And because I’d been craving it ever since I first rubbed myself against her on that subway, I would spill my cum down her throat—

  The music stopped.

  My eyes snapped open—I hadn’t even realized I’d shut them—to see Roxy launching herself across the room at me.

  “You’re not going to waste that on your own hand.”

  The mere idea sounded abhorrent to her.

  I felt my mouth form a snarl. I didn’t know if I’d ever been so hard in my entire life, and it was all her fucking fault.

  “It’s about time you got your pussy over here.” I held my angry, jutting cock up for her to see. “This needs to be sat on and ridden. Come fuck me, Rox.”

  She shucked her shorts and tossed them to the floor but seemed too impatient to mess with her halter top. Fine with me. Because the moment she threw her legs over my lap and straddled me, my hands were grabbing both sides of the top and ripping the large buttons that ran down the center wide open. The buttons flew across the room as her white strapless bra was revealed. I didn’t have much patience left either, so I simply wrenched her tits free of the satin material. I wanted them bouncing in my face while she rutted over me.

  The final barrier was her white thong.

  And hot as fuck as it was, I tore it clean off her voluptuous ass.

  She barely even noticed. We were both too mindless to our frantic need.

  My life flashed before my eyes just before she lifted her hips and drove herself down onto me. I swear, I nearly croaked right then and there, it felt so fucking unreal. Her sheath was still as tight as the day I’d taken her innocence, and it only got better every time.

  What happened next was too animalistic to be called human.

  Too carnal—too primitive—to ever be called love-making.

  I’d never experienced such complete surrender to all of my basest desires than I did on that settee, with Roxy undulating on my cock, fucking herself with it, looking like the wildest, sexiest woman I’d ever seen in my life. My fingers were splayed over her gyrating ass, lifting her, guiding her, keeping me as deep inside her as physically possible.

  Nothing existed except pleasure—uninhibited, savage pleasure.

  When I pressed my thumb over her clit, she lost all restraint and gave herself over to abandon.

  “Oh, make me come, Ace! Please, yes!”

  And I did.

  She returned the favor by making me come at the same time.

  We achieved nirvana together just as fireworks exploded in the night sky right outside the window.

  I wasn’t sure how long it took us to recover from that experience. She collapsed on my chest right after and may have fallen asleep at one point. Hell, maybe I did, too. Even as more fireworks went off outside, the noise didn’t disturb our newfound peace. At least, I thought I was hearing fireworks. Truth be told, the zombie apocalypse could have been starting right outside my window and we wouldn’t have noticed, so lost were we in our own private paradise.

  The only thing I was absolutely sure of in that moment was the obvious.

  I was so damn in love with her.

  Maybe it’s time I tell her.

  That was the last thought I had before once again succumbing to unconsciousness.

  I wished I had taken advantage of that perfect moment to tell her exactly how much she meant to me.

  Because just twenty-four hours later, it was already too late.

  Well, I was supposed to work another double shift, but my supervisor had just stopped by the desk to let me know I could go home after the first one. The other intern I’d been covering for had apparently recovered from what she thought had been the flu, but just turned out to be a case of food poisoning.

  I skipped out of the hospital ten minutes later, my mood markedly improved. After the piano foreplay and settee sex from the night before, I was eager to get back to Ace and test out some of his other furniture we’d yet to take for a ride. Since he’d said he was doing most of his work from his home office today, I decided to take a page from his handbook and not tell him I’d be coming home six hours early.

  He was right. The element of surprise was more fun.

  “Hey, Roxy, wait up!”

  I turned around to see Gia hurrying down the sidewalk after me, trying to catch up. Her shiny raven hair whipped in the air as she jogged, snagging the attention of pretty much every man walking past.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked, my gaze flicking in every direction.

  We were supposed to be on what Ace called “lockdown.” He hadn’t really explained why, aside from the fact that the Gabbianos were still in town. Basically, I was either ensconced inside his place or inside the hospital until Ace deemed it safe to wander about freely again without his protection.

  And he probably wouldn’t have appreciated me walking home from work by myself.

  Or the fact that Gia was yelling my name on the streets.

  Despite the fact that nothing had happened since the plant shooting, I knew how unwise it would be to fall into a false sense of security.

  “Well, I k
new you were working a double shift today, but I thought I could catch you for lunch.” She glanced down at my purse, frowning. “Or were you already on your way to grab some food?”

  “No, I got off early. But I thought Ace said no hanging out until this supposed danger passes?”

  She rolled her eyes. “One lunch isn’t going to make a difference. Plus, if I come over to his place so we can practice a new song I’m working on, how is that breaking the rules? We’d both be under his watchful eye, right?”

  Disappointment manifested for only a moment before I snuffed it out.

  I could spend some time with Gia this afternoon and still have the entire evening alone with Ace. I only had a limited amount of time left with both of them before I had to leave in August for med school. Plus, I’d been dying to play some of our songs on my new Steinway.

  I still couldn’t believe Ace had bought that for me.

  I had a pretty good idea of what the market value was on one of those and his generosity was astronomical. It only made me fall that much deeper in love with him, which I hadn’t even thought was possible.

  I hooked my arm through hers. “Let’s hurry up and get off the streets, then, before someone sees us. We can pick up some food on the way. I’m sure Ace hasn’t eaten yet.”

  We settled on gyros for lunch and were waiting in line at the Greek café down the street when Gia asked me the question I knew was coming sooner or later.

  “So, what are you and Ace going to do when you have to leave for school?”

  The question was casual enough, but I noted the undercurrent of concern in her voice.

  She wasn’t the only worried one.

  “We haven’t really talked about it. I mean, he acts like he wants to continue with the way things are. You know, continue being…” I trailed off when I couldn’t find the right words to accurately describe what we were.

  I avoided her eye contact because it was kind of embarrassing to not know.

  But in true Gia fashion, she took care of the issue by cutting right through the subterfuge.

  “In a relationship,” she supplied. “You don’t have to beat around the bush with me. You’re in a relationship, and you don’t want to break up after you leave.” She grinned. “You can say it, Roxy. It’s okay to sound like a couple of middle schoolers. You and my brother are boyfriend and girlfriend.”

  Her words were apropos because I was certainly blushing like a middle schooler.

  But I didn’t want to get my hopes up. I wouldn’t lie, I’d wanted to hear Ace say it first, not his sister. And I certainly wasn’t about to pry the words out of him.

  “Regardless of what you’d call it,” I drawled, making her snicker, “I don’t want it to end. Long distance will suck, but I’m willing to make it work if he is.”

  “He hasn’t said anything to you about it?” she asked, sounding surprised.

  I shook my head as we approached the counter to put in our orders. “No. I don’t want to pressure him, especially with everything that’s been going on. With me and Papà fighting, I just want to take a break from the drama and having to make all these serious life decisions. Ace and I are just enjoying the exploration stage. That’s supposed to be the no fuss, no muss phase of a relationship. Talking about doing long distance right now would just screw all that up. I don’t want to cast a pall over the short amount of time we have left.”

  She didn’t look altogether pleased with my reasoning, but she didn’t push the matter either. “I guess you have a point.”

  We paid for our food and carried the bags another two blocks to Ace’s house. I spent the whole walk describing the beauty and perfection of the Steinway. Even though I knew she’d already seen it and helped him with the room, she patiently let me prattle on about my excitement.

  We were at the top of his front stoop when I put my finger to my lips. “Be quiet when we go inside. I want to surprise him.”

  She rolled her eyes but smiled and nodded.

  I entered the alarm system code into my phone so it wouldn’t make any noise when I opened the door. After unlocking it, I eased it open and let us inside the foyer. When I didn’t see a sign of him in the living room to the left or the dining room to the right, I figured he must have still been in his office upstairs.

  Just as I softly shut the door behind us, I heard voices coming from the kitchen.

  It didn’t take me long to recognize the gruff, masculine timbres.

  Your brothers? I mouthed to Gia.

  She nodded, her forehead scrunching in confusion.

  I was confused, too, because their voices didn’t sound happy or friendly. In fact, they sounded pretty agitated and…pissed off.

  Gia and I silently tip-toed down the hallway toward the kitchen. We both wanted to hear what had them all riled up. I prayed it had nothing to do with my father or the Gabbianos. Maybe I’d get lucky and it was just a sibling spat. A brotherly quarrel.

  But the closer we got, the more I knew it was far from some petty disagreement between brothers. Especially when I heard the words that would become my undoing.

  The food bags fell from my hands as the damning implications registered with me.

  My heart dropped into my stomach, making me nauseous.

  Because I’d just clearly heard Ace say in a grave voice, “Vinnie had arranged for Roxy and I to get together all along. That was his strategy from the beginning. And after he explained it to me that night at Mom and Dad’s, I agreed it was the right thing to do. For Roxy’s sake.”

  Was he saying our entire relationship was…planned?

  Roxy was working a double shift today, so I had every intention of barricading myself in my office all day to continue working on the bugs in my new system updates.

  So, when my doorbell rang halfway through the day, I was irritated as hell at the interruption. I knew it wasn’t Roxy because she had the code to the door. The only other people who would be ringing the bell repeatedly like that were members of my family.

  I whipped open the door, not even trying to hide my sour expression. Glaring at my brothers, I bit out, “Don’t you guys have your own jobs you need to get back to instead of keeping me from doing mine?”

  All four of them glowered back at me.

  The alarms inside my head went off.

  For them to look at me that way, I must have done something even worse than dating the daughter of a mafia boss.

  “What?”

  Cris was the first to push through the door. “Let’s talk, brother.”

  They all stomped down the hallway to my kitchen, leaving the door gaping wide open. I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear whatever they were about to drill me with, but it looked like I had no choice.

  By the time I entered the kitchen, they’d raided my refrigerator of beer while waiting. Nico and Cris sat at the bar, Rome at the table by the window, and Luka, of course, stood leaning against my cabinets, arms crossed over his chest.

  I threw my arms up, defenseless. “What did I do now?”

  “We want to know what the hell is going on with you and the D’Angelos,” Cris said, taking the role of leader as he usually did. “Dad won’t tell us jack shit, and we don’t appreciate having things kept from us.”

  “We know Vinnie didn’t come over for a play date with Dad that day at the house,” Nico cut in. “Five years of no speaking to each other and suddenly he pops up out of nowhere?”

  “And you guys have a private meeting that we’re not invited to?” This from Luka. “Obviously, you know something that we don’t, and I’m getting sick of all this elusive shit going on in our family.”

  “Out with it,” Rome demanded with his steely-eyed stare. “Because we can’t help you if we’re kept in the dark.”

  Dad, Vinnie, and I had agreed to keep our conversation that day confidential until the situation was resolved. But I could tell my brothers weren’t going to accept any answer but the truth.

  So, I gave it to them.

  Every sordid, fu
cked up detail I’d kept secret for the past three weeks.

  Everything that had been hanging over me and Roxy, whether she’d realized it or not. It had been weighing so heavily on me it was hard to breathe at times when we were alone together. I hated keeping anything from her. The guilt had been gradually eating me alive, but I’d kept telling myself it was for her own good.

  I’d been worried she wouldn’t understand if she found out.

  I’d been terrified that the truth would destroy everything we’d built between us.

  I fell back against the cabinets, suddenly feeling decades older than my twenty-four years.

  “Five years ago, Vinnie had started to meticulously siphon off some of his import/export business profits and move them into an offshore bank account,” I explained, starting from the beginning. “An account he kept secret from everyone, including his own wife.”

  “Meaning the other families didn’t know about it,” Cris said in understanding. “Including the Gabbianos.”

  I nodded. “Right. He kept it a secret because he didn’t want any of them knowing what he planned to do with it.”

  “Which was what?” Nico asked.

  I met his gaze and held it. “Get out of the mafia.”

  Silence.

  As usual, Luka was the first one to react. “What? He wanted excommunication?”

  “All ties completely severed,” I answered, nodding solemnly. “Being their top earner for so long, he finally realized how much he was giving to the families and how little he’d been getting in return. He felt the old ways had died out and the organization had gone morally bankrupt. They no longer stood for what their ancestors had when they first formed it. He was done.

  “But he knew it clearly wasn’t going to be easy to extricate himself, and he worried for his family’s safety. He started putting money aside so they would have something in the event that they needed to make a run for it.” I paused. “Or in the event that something happened to him. He didn’t want his wife and children to be left with nothing in case he was taken out.”

  “Jesus,” Rome muttered. “I guess Dad finally got through to him, then?”