by Bella J.
“We hit it off right away. That entire night, we sat at the table talking and laughing like we had known each other our whole lives. By the end of the night when we said goodbye, he didn’t kiss me. He was a complete gentleman. He just asked for my number, and I gave it to him.”
I pulled my legs out from beneath me and sat flat on the floor. “He called me the next day, and we went on our first date. When we arrived at the restaurant, he told the waiter the reservation was for Enzio Mancuso. I immediately recognized the surname.” I smiled half-heartedly, thinking how stupid I was. “But I didn’t care. I didn’t give a crap about him being a Mancuso. The way I saw it, this war was between his father and mine. Enzio and I had nothing to do with this stupid war.” I looked down at my hands as I twirled my thumbs. “But I was wrong. So fucking wrong.”
“Why?” Antonio straightened.
I shrugged. “Turns out Enzio and I had everything to do with this war between our two families.”
Antonio pinched his nose with his thumb and forefinger, squeezing his eyes closed. He already knew how my story was going to end.
I wiped a tear off my cheek. “I continued to see him in secret. We managed to be together every chance we got. Enzio was romantic, and gentle, and everything I thought I wanted. I didn’t understand why you and Dad hated him and his family so much, because surely if he was so nice, how could his family not be?”
“Karina…”
“Two months went by until I finally…” I choked up, my heartache lodged inside my throat. “After two months of dating, we finally…I finally made the decision to sleep with him.”
“Goddammit!” Antonio slammed his fist into Dante’s car, leaving a large dent on the back passenger side door. More tears streamed down my face as I witnessed the anger that consumed my big brother.
I placed my hand in front of my mouth and wept as memories of betrayal and deceit came rushing back. “I didn’t know. I had no idea he had planned it all along.”
“What did that fucker do?”
“After…after it happened—”
“After you had sex with him?” He didn’t even try to hide the disgust in his voice.
I nodded, wiping more tears off my face. “We were at his family’s beach house the night it happened. He was so romantic. Dinner, candles, music—think of every cliché in the book, that’s how perfectly he planned that evening.” I snorted, thinking about how blind I was back then. But Enzio played the role of a soft, gentle lover so damn well. Every girl I ever spoke to about their first time had told me how horrible it was. That wasn’t the case with me and Enzio. He took it slow while he gradually coaxed me to relax and let him take the lead. While he took my virginity, claiming me, it was the best experience of my life…until it all crashed and burned.
“Karina?” Antonio placed his hand on mine, pulling me back from my thoughts.
I inhaled deeply. “After it was all over, it was like he flipped a switch and became someone completely different from the Enzio I had just given myself to. He was still between my legs when he looked down at me and said, ‘You’re such a pathetic little lamb.’” The pain slammed against my chest as I said the words—the words that had haunted me for so long. I was reliving that godawful night all over again, and it still hurt like a bitch.
“What happened then?”
“He got up and started laughing. I didn’t know what the hell was going on. He just laughed like a damn psychopath. And then his father came walking into the room with a victorious grin on his face.”
“Stefano?”
“Yes.” My jaw ticked as I recalled every goddamn second. “That’s when Enzio told me they had everything on tape. His father had been in the room next door watching and taping while Enzio took from me what I can never get back.”
“Motherfucker!” Another fist against Dante’s Audi, but I didn’t even flinch. I was too caught up in the memory, in the pain and the embarrassment of what they stole from me that day. My soul, my dignity…my virginity.
Antonio bolted upright. “I’m going to kill that son of a bitch! I swear to fucking God, that motherfucker will pay with his goddamn blood. Fuck!”
While Antonio continued to lose his shit, and rightfully so, I stayed flat on my ass on the ground, exactly where I deserved to be. I was feeling every ounce of pain all over again, experiencing that bone deep betrayal that crushed every last bit of hope I ever had. I loved Enzio with all my heart back then, and I had convinced myself he was the one. There were days I constantly daydreamed about sharing a life with him. We would have the house, the white picket fence, a little girl running around in the garden. It was all there in my dreams, my heart’s desires crammed into a big box labeled Karina Mancuso. Insane, I knew. But I was convinced there was no one for me but him. I believed with my entire heart we would get married and be together forever.
Stupid, naïve little lamb.
Antonio crouched in front of me, took my face in his palms, and stared at me, resolve beaming from his dark eyes. “That tape. He’s blackmailing you, isn’t he?”
“No, not yet.”
Antonio narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean, not yet?”
“Enzio said there would come a day when he would collect, when he would use the tape to get what he needed from me.” I swallowed the bile as it crept up my throat, my stomach twisted in knots of nausea.
“And what, exactly, is it he’ll need from you?”
I studied Antonio’s face, witnessing how I had just made my heartache my brother’s burden. All I could do was shrug as I answered him, completely defeated. “I don’t know…yet.”
Chapter 15
LORIK
Sitting at the dinner table with my parents, one would never guess I had been at a gruesome murder scene just that morning. The reason I was currently picking at my food wasn’t because of the images of Gio’s brain splattered all over the green garbage bin behind him. It was partly because of a certain Italian woman who somehow managed to engrave herself in my fucking cerebral cortex.
And then there was the fact that her family was now linked to Gio’s murder. The wolf symbol carved on Gio’s chest looked exactly like the tattoos all the Valenti men sported on their hands. Coincidence? I think not.
“Lorik, stop picking at your food.”
I glanced up at my mother while she scowled at me. Even though I was a grown-ass man, she still had the ability to make me feel like I was ten years old.
“I’m sorry, nënë. I’m just not that hungry tonight.”
Immediately, my mother leaned over the table and placed her hand against my forehead. “Are you ill?”
“No, I’m not ill.” I gently pushed her hand away from my face. “I just had a very big breakfast.” That was if you counted being buried to the hilt in Italian pussy as breakfast.
My mom leaned back in her chair. “Breakfast was hours ago.”
Don’t remind me. My cock was doing a swell job already reminding me it had been hours since I fucked Karina, and that I really, really wanted to do it again.
“Nënë, I’m really not that hungry.” I turned to Dad, whose plate was already empty. But everyone knew he just chowed down everything so he could get to dessert. Mom always made dessert on Sunday. It was his little reward for being good in avoiding sugar during the week, with his diabetes and all.
“So, Dad, did you watch the football game?”
“You lost weight,” my mom chimed in, ignoring the conversation I was trying to have with my dad.
I frowned. “No, I haven’t.”
“You haven’t been eating well, have you? I don’t know why you don’t visit more often. At least come for a decent meal twice a week.”
I loved my mother. But, dear God, this woman could fuss. She was a menace when it came to smothering her children.
“Nënë—” I heard the message tone of my phone, and immediately my cock shot his ugly head up. That tone was the very distinct sound of my Facebook messenger app, which I installed righ
t after Karina left that morning. Completely forgetting what I was about to say, I grabbed my phone out of my pocket and swiped the screen. Here was the part where my cock would be doing backflips if he had been detached from my body…because there was that little pop-up head of Karina’s beautiful face, right there at the side of the screen.
Karina: Your place, ten minutes.
Okay, so I was an asshole. Everyone knew this, which was why I messaged her back.
Lorik: What happened to only once?
And then I had the audacity to send her the wink icon. While I heard my mother in the background lecturing me about my eating habits, I watched as Karina’s little message bubble with the dots appeared. With every passing second, my heart beat faster, and I became more and more impatient. My leg was already jittery beneath the table, bouncing up and down while I waited and waited and waited for her damn message. And then it popped up.
Karina: Once died when you stuck your cock inside me for the second time.
Man, you had to love Italian women and their dirty mouths.
Lorik: Your once only rule sucked. Maybe you should leave the rule making to the big boys.
Karina: Since I have the pussy, I make the rules.
I smiled while I typed.
Lorik: Since I’m the one with the cock, I fuck the rules.
Karina: Then I suggest you get your ass over to your apartment because I’m about to make more rules.
Wait. What?
Lorik: How do you know I’m not at my apartment?
The text bubble appeared, and my cock twitched while I waited for her response. It took for-fucking-ever…not really. It was probably only ten seconds, but it felt like ten damn hours.
Karina: Because your truck isn’t here.
Holy shit, she was already there.
Lorik: I’m on my way.
I jumped up, and my chair skidded across the dining room. “Sorry, I have to go.”
My mom shot me that scowl that had the power to make me shrink ten inches. “Where are you going?”
While tucking my phone back in my pocket, I grabbed another piece of chicken before I walked around the table to kiss her on the cheek. “I have a case I need to work on. Love you.”
I walked behind my dad and patted him on the shoulder. “See ya, Dad. Go easy on dessert.” I winked at him and rushed out of the house. There was no dinner on the face of the earth that would keep me from meeting up with Karina. I’d been craving her the entire damn day. Since Anderson only did me a favor by allowing me on the scene this morning, I wasn’t permitted to take part in the investigation. This meant I had nothing to preoccupy my mind. Not even a dead Gio, whose murder was possibly connected to the Valentis, could stop me from thinking about that dark-haired beauty.
All I kept thinking about was why I never buried my face between her legs when I had the chance. Oh, yeah, because my cock was one greedy motherfucker and wanted that pussy all for himself. Well, I was about to change that.
***
KARINA
I had no idea why I was doing this—again. It wasn’t my intention. I just needed to get out of the house since the atmosphere in there was nothing short of toxic the entire day. Antonio was stomping around like a lion with a sore paw. My dad looked beyond pissed at Antonio, of all people. Fuck knew what happened there. And Dante kept on giving me suspicious glances like he was extracting little pieces of information from my mind, putting together the puzzle of yet another one of my fuck-ups.
Like I said, if anyone was going to figure out what the hell I did last night with Lorik, it would be Dante. So, I had to get out of there. And twenty minutes later, I found myself in front of Lorik’s apartment wanting nothing more than to escape the whirlpool of shit that was my life and indulge in another epic sex marathon with Boston’s most arrogant, yet hot as hell cop.
After I messaged Lorik like a damn booty call, I had been sitting in my car for about five minutes when I noticed a black Bentley parked down the road. For some reason, I had a prickle of warning in the back of my neck, like someone was watching me through the dark tinted windows. The feeling didn’t sit well with me, especially after the altercation I had with Enzio the night before. After what he did to me four years ago, I never made the mistake of underestimating him. There was no line that bastard wouldn’t cross, no rule he wouldn’t break to get what he wanted. For four years, I’d waited for the day he would finally use that tape against me to get what he wanted. The only problem was I had no idea what he could possibly want from me, since I had nothing to do with my family’s business. I had no clue about the shit they ran, or the politics behind the Valenti-slash-Mancuso war. So why would he go so far to get a huge bargaining chip against me?
I narrowed my eyes as I stared at the black car and decided it would probably be better for me to go into the apartment building rather than sit and wait in my car like bait.
Grabbing my purse, I got out of my car and glanced at the Bentley while I walked toward the building. The feeling of someone watching me intensified, and I had to fight the urge to run. It was like when you were ten years old and you had to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. With every step you took down the dark hall, adrenaline pumped through your veins, your spine tingling while your body’s instinct to run set in. That was how I felt, like I needed to run.
Once inside the building, I inhaled sharply, trying to get my rapidly beating heart to slow to a normal pace. That was so weird. My back was still tingling with suspicion. Maybe I was just paranoid over what happened last night.
I reached the stairs but glanced back at the entrance one more time. Nothing. Dammit, I needed to calm the hell down.
While I was walking up the stairs with clicking heels, I still experienced the odd sense that someone was watching me, walking behind me. I was so fucking paranoid I even started hearing heavy footsteps, which caused me to move up the stairs faster. My heart hammered against my ribs, my spine turning into ice while it felt like I no longer had control over my own damn legs as I sprinted up the stairs.
Finally, I reached Lorik’s floor, and I looked behind me before I moved down the hall. His apartment door was right at the end—of course, it was—and my body and mind were overcome with the suspicion that whoever was behind me was closing in on me fast.
Shit. There really is someone behind me.
The faster I moved, the closer I got to Lorik’s apartment door. But then I remembered he wasn’t there yet. Every survival instinct flared, and I searched around me, trying to find anything I could use to defend myself. I spotted the fire alarm about two doors from Lorik’s and figured pulling that alarm was about the only thing I could do.
The sound of footsteps got louder, and the faster I walked, the faster those footsteps moved. There was no way I was going to look behind me; I was too fucking scared. Whoever it was, I didn’t want to look at him or her. Seeing their face would make the fear pulsing through my chest too damn real.
I was about two feet away from the fire alarm when a hand reached around me and covered my mouth. The scream I let out was muffled by the large, warm hand holding my mouth closed. He pushed me against the wall with his body, and his hand found the hem of my black pencil skirt. That was when I smelled it, the familiar spicy scent that only belonged to one person.
“I’ve been thinking about you the whole goddamn day, princess.”
I closed my eyes as the fear I felt mere seconds ago evaporated. With his hand still covering my mouth, he moved my skirt up my thighs. My spine was no longer ice, but rather electrified as his hand moved up, and up, and up, until my skirt wound around my waist.
“I want to taste you.” Lorik traced his lips up my neck, and I moaned against his hand. “I want to lick that sweet little pussy of yours right here, right now.” He reached around my hips and cupped me between my legs. I already felt that gnawing need to be filled to the brim.
His lips traveled back down my neck. “Is that okay with you, Karina? Would you like me to l
ick you right here in the hall, knowing someone could catch us at any moment?”
It was so bad, but the thought about getting caught sent my body into a flurry of lust and excitement. Since he still had his hand over my mouth, all I could do was nod, and then his fingers tore through my underwear.
“I don’t think you’re going to have one single piece of underwear left after I’m done with you.” I could hear that damn arrogant smirk in his voice, but it no longer annoyed me. It only added fuel to the already blazing fire inside my core.
He removed his hand from between my legs, and the cold air assaulted my warm skin. My body immediately missed his touch, and the ache between my legs intensified threefold.
Abruptly, he grabbed my hips and turned me to face him. Our eyes met, and I sucked in a breath when I saw the hunger burning through his dark irises. It was exactly as it was last night, the strong pull between us. I had no idea if I was only imagining it, but it actually felt stronger now than before. It was like our bodies were calling out to each other now that we had tasted what it felt like to be one.
My legs weakened as my desire grew stronger, the aching pulse between my legs taking full control of my body. I needed him. I needed him to claim me like he did last night. I needed him to take my body to the place only he could. And I needed to lose myself in him.
His alluring mouth pulled up at the sides while he dragged his fingers up the inside of my thigh.
“Are you wet for me, princess?” Oh, God, am I ever. Finally, he slipped his finger through my slit and inhaled sharply when he felt how ready I was for him. One would never think I was filled with fear only a few minutes ago, since I was now consumed with the need to accept every ounce of pleasure Lorik was planning to give me.
