Domenico grinned, then moved forward before stumbling and pushing Seth into the corner with the weight of his body. A wet strand of hair tickled Seth’s cheek, and Domenico’s mouth closed on his, ferocious and wild, even if the kiss only lasted a second. When Dom pulled away, the heat in his gaze was even fiercer than before.
“Damn. My feet are too stiff,” Dom said.
For a moment Seth wasn’t sure what happened, and his body burned so fiercely his clothes were drying already. But then he realized Dom had stolen the kiss right under the camera in the corner. Tiny blind spot.
He smiled at Dom. Him. Not Bastian.
Chapter 11 - Domenico
The day of Moreno’s arrival crept up on Domenico all too quickly. Like a giant spider that you ignored, not knowing of all the eggs it was carrying on its back. Now they were all hatching, and the black cloud of hairy legs was rushing all over Domenico’s back. Despite his best efforts, he had not managed to get much closer to Toro, and with the Morenos about to arrive later that day, Domenico was considering a change of plans. There was still a few hours left until evening, until their flimsy cover could be blown.
There was no guarantee that young Moreno wouldn’t question the identity of the people smugglers he’d hired or if he’d done that in person. There might have been conversations Domenico didn’t know of or other incriminating things that Dana failed to find out about. Having his own safety jeopardized was one thing, but putting Seth’s head on the line was quite another. Even if Seth had been putting on a brave face and had so far succeeded in fooling everyone, the stay at the mansion was taking its toll, and Domenico didn’t like the way his lover shut down more each day. Even if the others didn’t see it, Domenico noticed.
But what was he to do? If Seth was to toughen up and become more useful to their cause, he needed to go through this process even if it hurt. In a few years down the line, Seth would surely see this was growing pains.
Domenico was casually walking along the house when Luis dashed through one of the many doors with his shoulders set, and Dom squeezed his hands into fists in alarm. With Luis being Toro’s second in command, any time he seemed agitated was a warning sign.
“How are the preparations going?” he called out to find out what was going on. The staff had been rushing around and preparing the villa for Moreno’s arrival for a few days now, but it was crunch time. With Luis moving with such rigidity, it was possible that something hadn’t gone as planned, and Dom’s body pulsed with worry.
He steadied himself and dismissed the notion that something bad could happen, since Dana assured him the smugglers they were impersonating had been hired remotely. Yet what if she was wrong? Maybe he really should take advantage of the commotion and flee now, before it was too late? They could make a pilot fly them away from here and just lay low for the next few months.
He’d be allowed to become himself again and touch Seth whenever he wanted. Two whole days in bed with Seth didn’t sound like such a bad prospect now. And the food Seth could make for Dom? He missed Seth’s cooking so much. The lemon tarts, the meringues, the gentle use of herbs that gave chicken a delicate aroma, the perfectly al dente pasta...
Luis’s aged face was set into a scowl, pulling Domenico out of his daydream. “They’re arriving early. Annoying fucks!” It was the first time Domenico heard anyone insult the Morenos, so he made a point of putting that into a folder in his mind. “First they keep putting it off for weeks, and now they’re coming early, when Toro’s still away.”
Domenico’s chest imploded, and he needed a moment to compose himself. “Toro’s not here?”
“He’s still on his way from Bogota, and likely won’t be able to make it on time.”
Domenico licked his lips, his mind aching from all the questions soaring inside it. “How much time do we have?”
Luis shook his head. “Don’t know. Half an hour? We don’t even know if Raul is coming, or just the sons. They’re always secretive about shit like that for safety.”
Domenico’s gaze drifted to the French door, and his heart trembled slightly when he spotted Seth drinking a smoothie he’d made for himself earlier. In the white shirt and jeans he looked more than representative, and his tense body language didn’t convey any fear.
Seth laughed with two other guys with whom he was playing cards to pass the time. At times like this, Seth looked extremely well adjusted to the game they were playing, but what would happen if their deception was uncovered? Could Domenico take seeing Seth in pain again?
He shuddered when his mind offered the image of a caiman’s jaws closing on Seth’s leg, teeth tearing through muscle and crushing bone.
“Fuck our lives, right?” Dom said, shrugging.
Luis pulled on the thin grey hair at the top of his head and smoothed it over the bald spot. “David has all the cooks and maids by the throats, so they’ll quickly whip up something. We can’t have Moreno thinking we’re less than we are.”
Inside the house cogs were already moving. Most of the men were gone, likely to put themselves in order before their guests arrive, which left plenty of lounging areas empty. Luis sat down in one of the vacated sofas. “I hope it’s just Samuel coming over for the girl. Nero Moreno gives me the creeps.”
Seth leaned back in his chair. “Why’s that?” On one hand it was a good sign to see him so calm, or at least pretending to be, but on the other, the ease with which Dom had always been able to read Seth was something Domenico loved about him. And now it was gone, as if something obscured Domenico’s eyes and wouldn’t allow him see the man underneath Seth’s handsome exterior. The uncertainty of it was already putting Domenico on edge.
“Nero Moreno’s gay,” said Domenico, trying to catch Seth’s gaze.
Seth stalled for a moment and had more of his green smoothie. “Oh. Right. I might have heard something about him.”
Luis seemed more agitated by the second though. “It’s not just that. At the end of the day, I don’t care where he sticks his dick in as long as I don’t have to hear about it, but he has to fucking flaunt it, because he knows he’s untouchable as a Moreno. He even hit on Vadim once,” he said, referring to a butch Russian man who’d visited the mansion twice since Dom and Seth moved in. “Can you imagine? Vadim’s face got so red he looked like he was about to have a heart attack or kill Nero on the spot. He didn’t, of course, but everyone knows the fucker would have deserved it.”
Domenico shrugged, somewhat amused by the idea of a macho type like Vadim going all insecure because a guy took notice of him. But it served the bastard right. He was the type to attack before anyone could confront him first. “One has to admire his cool. Just imagine. A man sneaking behind you and lowering his hand all the way down your back,” he said, glad to tease Luis to lift his own mood.
Seth snorted, but Luis scowled at the idea.
“He’d be losing that hand.” Luis snarled even though after the story he’d told about Vadim, they all knew Luis wouldn’t do shit to Nero.
Seth shrugged. “Let’s all hope he’s not in the mood for any stupid jokes.”
“Cover yourself modestly, stay at the back of the room, and you’ll be fine,” said Dom. “At least that’s the advice I hear given to women. If we can’t punch the fucker, we should all protect one another,” continued Domenico, trying not to laugh at the image of all the tough guys of Toro’s organization pressing into a tight crowd and shivering in fear of another man’s touch.
Seth rolled his eyes. “I’m not about to cower because of a horny fag. He can go down to the docks and get his dick sucked by a hooker if he can’t help himself. It’s not like he can actually force anyone,” he said, but it sounded a bit like a question when he glanced to Luis with his eyebrows raised.
Luis hesitated but eventually leaned over the table, lowering his voice. “I’ve heard of guys tempted in by some lucrative offers. I would never go for shit like that, but apparently some consider it a small price to pay.”
“‘To cl
imb up the ladder?” Domenico smirked and gestured at Seth to get to his feet. There was a noise somewhere in the background, but he couldn’t put his finger on what exactly it was. “Must be a bitch to work with someone like that.”
Seth pursed his lips. “Well, I’m not sucking dick any time soon.” To Luis’s ears it could have sounded like Seth was reinforcing his straightness, but Domenico could hear a bitter note in there. It’s been far too long since either of them had sucked dick.
Domenico bit his lip, watching Seth slowly raise with the smoothie in hand. He looked so hot with the white shirt clinging to his muscular chest, and with the tan skin of his forearms revealed by the folded sleeves. Especially since Seth seemed to be sweating out his frustration at the gym, and getting even fitter than before. Domenico longed to lick his way along the dusting of black body hair, all the way under the fabric, and onto the meaty bicep.
Seth blinked, prompting Dom to look behind his back, and just like that, he put an image to the noise that was teasing the back of his brain. A helicopter was fast approaching from the side of the river, roaring as it went lower, low enough to suggest that it was about to land on the helicopter pad.
“That’s them!” Luis yelled over the noise. “Go to the yellow room. Don’t bring the girl over yet.” And with that, he was off.
Seth bumped into Domenico as he passed him, and it seemed to have been on purpose, the brush of his forearm against Dom’s sending a lightning bolt through Domenico’s body. Maybe Seth should actually roll those sleeves down if Nero was such a loose cannon?
Domenico only spoke once they left the house and moved sufficiently far away from it. The yellow room, a grand lounge the size of a basketball court, was easiest to access from the front of the house, but that didn’t mean they needed to take the shortest route. “Keep calm. Dana said Moreno hired men he didn’t personally know. But if that was false intel, then they’ve commissioned us to bring her here. Dead men can’t object to this story. If we needed to run, are you prepared?” Dom asked as soon as they started walking alone. The insistent roar of the helicopter and the gust of artificial wind caused by the rotor was making the baby spiders crawl over Dom’s back again.
Seth nodded. “Yes, I’ll stay close. There’s Miguel for backup, right?” His face was so tense Domenico would gladly kiss the expression away. And then fuck Seth until he lost all self-control, like he usually did in sex.
Dom missed seeing Seth’s face blushing and sweating so much it was like a physical need. He’d wake up at night, frantically check his phone to see when Seth had sent him the last dot, and all he had left was to fantasize about Seth naked under the sheets in his room. And then in the morning, Dom would get that foreign rock-solid expression from Seth, only interrupted with smiles when it was appropriate.
“He can’t get in, but I let him know the Morenos are coming. Too fucking bad that I can’t update him now. I just hope Mark knows. With the girl gone, he will need to go out more. Socialize.”
Seth sneered, his face scrunching up, brows furrowing, and Domenico had no idea what this was about. “Do you think they’ll take her today?”
Domenico shrugged. “Fuck knows. Moreno Senior isn’t supposed to arrive today, but maybe once they see her, Samuel will want a taste. She’s a pretty one.”
Seth’s whole body went rigid despite him moving his legs step by step. “Disgusting.”
“No one here is pleasant. No one but you,” Dom said in a slightly softer voice, his gaze trailing up Seth’s neck and across his jaw.
Seth looked into the pristinely clean windows of the main house but slowed down. “I can’t show you how pleasant I wanna be.”
Domenico sucked in a sharp breath and licked his lips, moving slightly closer, until the heat of his lover’s body was palpable. “I’d take you right here if I had the chance.”
It was as if the air got denser and even more humid when Seth gave him half a glance. “We need to think of something, Dom, because jerking off while sucking on my hand is driving me insane.” His cheeks got a hint of that color Domenico so craved to see.
Domenico grinned, breathless. “That’s what you’re doing when you’re alone? Are you thinking of my cock sliding up and down your tongue? I still remember how velvety it feels on my skin.”
Cracking through Seth’s defences was such a thrill even the noise of the helicopter couldn’t bother Domenico. The longer look Seth gave him this time hypnotized Dom and made him wish he could lean Seth’s way and indulge in a kiss.
“Yeah, I imagine you holding my head steady as you force it down my throat. And I do… other things too.” Seth licked his lips, and his face flushed darker by the second.
Domenico exhaled and combed his fingers through his hair. “Tell me. What do you miss most? What do you do when you’re alone?” he whispered on their way back to the villa, confident that they were not yet getting close enough for the bugs to pick up their hushed voices. If only Domenico could make time stop, he’d tackle Seth to the ground and fuck him right there in the damp grass, holding him down and forcing out the moans he so wanted to hear.
“I can’t tell you. It’s embarrassing.” Seth bit back a smile that made Dom’s heart flutter. That was a smile only he got from Seth. Not the type Bastian used around the maids, or the grin he had plastered to his face when he listened to stupid jokes from the other men living here. This one was tender, vulnerable, and yet teasing.
“Come on. Give a starving man a scrap?” whimpered Domenico, hardly keeping himself from grabbing Seth’s hand.
“It does involve my fingers…” Seth’s smile widened, seeming shy now, and he broke off the eye contact. The softer body language made Dom crave an invitation between Seth’s legs. They were so juicy yet firm. Dom loved it when Seth closed his thighs around him.
“Fuck. That’s so hot,” whispered Domenico, stopping suddenly when they approached Toro’s house. There were people standing in the windows, but they looked way beyond where Seth and Dom stood, all their attention focused on the distant helicopter pad.
“It’d be hotter if it was your dick,” Seth whispered with a sigh, still avoiding Dom’s gaze, but there was no way for Dom to answer him anymore when they reached the front steps and followed the balustrade into the house. To know that Seth missed them fucking so much he’d actually tell him those things was the last thing that should be on Dom’s mind right now. And yet there he was, stealing a glance at Seth’s ass when he walked down the corridor right behind him.
“We need to get you a new pair of jeans,” he said casually, but he knew it would convey to Seth that Domenico didn’t stop noticing his fuck-worthy ass just because he couldn’t touch it.
Seth looked over his shoulder. “Let’s go shopping soon.” Which meant ‘we can fuck in the store’.
Domenico smiled, slightly uplifted, and dared to squeeze Seth’s nape for a brief moment in what would seem like a brotherly gesture to the camera but meant the world to his affection-starved body.
The house was pristinely clean and smelled of air freshener, but with everyone running around in panic, carrying furniture and trays of canapés, they kept to the walls upon their approach to Toro’s version of an eighteenth-century ballroom. It was just as big and lavishly decorated only with plastic window frames and factory-cut wooden panels on the floor. It would have made a decent wedding room at your local city hall if it weren’t for the ceiling decorated with a fresco depicting a group of seminaked women running through the woods among a group of deer. It pushed Domenico’s senses into rage whenever he was forced to look at it. The only thing that could save the flashy, pseudo-antique interiors was different furnishings, but Toro stuck with his favorite imitation antiques.
Seth was out of Dom’s reach yet again when they joined the other men pouring into the yellow room, called so because of the bright wallpaper. The greeting party for the Morenos was growing, and Dom hoped Seth could blend into the crowd, but with his height and looks it wasn’t likely to happen.
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To at least tackle the issue of Seth’s size, Dom discreetly guided Seth to sit in an armchair. He hoped David would end up taking all of Nero Moreno’s attention. The man wasn’t bad looking, especially in the linen suit he wore. It was the first time Dom saw him looking so elegant, and if his hunch for David’s motivation for being so flashy tonight was correct, then the man was even more single-minded than Domenico suspected. He bet Luis wouldn’t have been impressed knowing that someone he worked so closely with was out for Nero Moreno’s ‘favors’.
Dom still hated the chaos of it all though. Normally, he was more than comfortable with spontaneous changes and maneuvering through whatever life threw at him, but because the arrival of the Morenos had been moved so many times, the tension was getting to him too.
With the room filling fast, the support staff struggled with moving between the tables, but at least someone had the bright idea to put on music, and as shitty as it was, it put an end to the odd silence that resulted from everyone being somewhat stressed. Domenico wouldn’t want to be in Luis’s shoes and face the Morenos unprepared, instead of Toro. He glanced at Seth from his own seat nearby and smiled to get him to loosen up. They could do this as long as they maintained their cover. It would be fine.
Seth seemed perfectly comfortable in his armchair and even chatted to Natalia, who arranged the plates of snacks into a neat display. He sneaked a canapé off a platter but managed to push it into his mouth before she grabbed him. It earned Seth a playful slap on the wrist that spoke of familiarity Domenico now so painfully lacked from him.
David suddenly looked back, noticing the steady footsteps in the corridor before anyone else. His dark eyes searched for their target, and Dom briefly amused himself imagining the power-hungry bastard on his knees and opening up for cock. He himself would remain unnoticed. All he had to do was maintain his persona and keep his head down whenever possible. He was Gian, his brother was Bastian, and they had no reason to worry, because they’d brought a beautiful girl for Raul Moreno, just as was expected of them.
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