Carlyle: A Dark Mafia Romance

by Raven Scott

  “Don’t . . . don’t fucking do that. Don’t try to avoid the issue.” Taking her shoulders as gently as my stiff hands allowed, I frowned when she ducked her head. The last half hour sped through my mind’s eye, and I clenched and released my jaw in the ensuing, terse silence. “Did you do this because you’re afraid to get a new phone?”

  “No . . . not entirely.” I can’t get a straight answer from you, can I? Valerie was going to set my God damn brain on fire, that’s what she was going to do. Rocking back on my heels, I flopped my head back to exhale a hot breath, and she leaned to rub her crown against my sternum. “Ca-can I be on your plan?”

  Surprise rocketed through me, and I lowered my gaze to find her sort of shrinking as she hunched her shoulders. Was she really that upset about that phone call? Then again, Valerie’s mom is involved. That woman would know everything. Birthday, social, everything. It’s a good reason to be scared.

  “Of course you can.” Wrapping my arms around her, I kissed the top of her head, and Valerie exhaling a shuddering breath that weaved between the buttons of my shirt. “What else is bothering you, Valerie?”

  “You don’t kiss girls often. I could tell.” The short answer warmed my cheeks, and I tangled my hand in Valerie’s hair to tug gently. Embarrassment raged across her features, and I made it a point not to hesitate as I captured her thick, beautiful lips. This time, she couldn’t catch me off guard, and she sunk against my chest to slip her arms around my waist. She tasted like the remnants of her ice cream and something so much deeper, and my tongue snuck out to prod the seam of her mouth.

  “You’re right, I don’t. Does it bother you? The pressure of knowing that?” Her lips parted at my mumble, and Valerie’s sigh caressed my tongue and the roof of my mouth. “You didn’t have to goad me into a fight, Valerie. You could’ve asked to be on my plan. It’s just Verizon. If you want, I’ll open up a line with a different service for you.”

  “It’s not exactly something you ask on the . . . fourth date.” Fourth? As if sensing my confusion, Valerie nodded as she pulled her long, mahogany waves over her shoulder. “I count lunch on Saturday. Basically, any time we get food or snacks or eat anything of any kind. I guess that means I should count that morning at the coffee shop because I had coffee.”

  “Alright, I get it.” Kneading her scalp, I shook my head a little, and she cracked a smile even though tension lines formed around her mouth. “Regardless, Valerie, I won’t expect anything. You’ll be an employee of mine at some point. I treat my employees very well. That includes a work cell. Okay, no more stalling. Let’s go.”

  25

  Valerie

  “Hey, Carlyle?” Alone in the car, I couldn’t help but wonder what the fuck was wrong with me! “I’m sorry about earlier. I didn’t think before everything spiraled out of control. I didn’t expect you to think that’s what I was gonna say . . . about you being so successful.”

  “It’s fine, Valerie. I can’t imagine the stress you’re under with your mom, not having a job, and no phone, until right now. It’s a lot of time to kill.” Guilt clawed at my throat despite his assurance, and Carlyle reached across the center console to grab my hand. “I apologize, too, for grabbing you like that. I jumped the gun, and we wouldn’t have argued if I let you keep talking.”

  “Do people really treat you that way?” He nodded firmly, seemingly unabashed, and my heart dropped as I weaved my fingers around his. “That’s awful.”

  “I’ve dealt with it my entire life. For the record, that’s also why I don’t date much. I’m pretty much a walking dollar sign. I got disillusioned with it when I realized the number scale is a thing for a reason.” My brows rose in alarm, and his cheek twitched as he cast me a somewhat playful glance, but not enough to make me think he wasn’t entirely serious. “You break the scale, so you don’t have to worry.”

  “You rate a girl’s looks and put a cap on spending? Really?” Today— well, the past three and a half hours— were just so eye-opening, and Carlyle actually chuckled a little condescendingly. “What happened when they ran out of money?”

  “It’s not like they didn’t know it was coming. I was a little shit in high school and hadn’t figured out the finesse of a good business transaction. I told her straight up what number I thought she was, and I wasn’t going to spend a single penny more than that number. If I thought she was a six, she’d get six hundred dollars. And personality did count, but it was high school for rich people, so . . . ”

  “That’s nuts for too many reasons. What’s the most you ever spent on a girl?” That sounded so wrong without context, and Carlyle flicked on his blinker as we came up on a pretty nice hotel he’d looked up. My own phone sat in its box, in a bag by my feet, and he untangled our fingers to grip the wheel.

  “Ah . . . four was the highest. Like I said, I was an asshole in high school. Even if the girls were very good looking, I took personality into account because I knew they didn’t have one. I didn’t do it often. My dad was riding my ass because I was going to start at one of his management companies the summer I turned sixteen. I got promoted once a year, and now here I am.” Turning into the hotel parking lot, Carlyle cast me a cheeky smirk, and my abdomen twisted at how handsome he was. “I bet you thought I was going to say something stupid like eight.”

  “Not really. That’s a lot of money for me, though— like, it’s a third of my rent right now. I can’t imagine it was a lot for girls like that.” Parking at the valet as I thought on it some more, Carlyle hummed in acknowledgment, and I gnawed on my inner cheek. “Why a four? What’d she expect to be?”

  “A four because she was hot but had the second nastiest personality of anyone I’ve ever met, and also she really sucked in bed. She never told me what she expected to be, but by the way she slapped me, it wasn’t even close.” Puffing out my lips in surprise, my brows furrowed at that, and Carlyle shut the car off to lean back in the seat. Tilting to meet my eye, he reached to caress my jaw, and flames crept up my neck at the sincerity blazing from his gaze. “If I had to put a number on you on a scale of one to ten, it’s been thirty-two.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh as flames licked my cheeks, and he smirked broadly before unbuckling. Following suit, I wondered where else this conversation would go, but I didn’t push it on the way into the hotel. He passed off the keys and got a ticket, and I gazed up at the glass and steel building stretching into the sky. Lights spilled out of the glass doors lining one side of one corner of the place, but it wasn’t long before I was passing through them and into the lobby.

  Most hotels looked the same as the ones on TV, and this was no different. Carlyle spoke to the receptionist, got his keycard, and everything was a blur of normalcy. The urge to actually ask him about all the hints he’d been dropping, and why he dropped them, clawed at the back of my throat. After all, he knew I was avoiding telling him what was really bothering me, and I got sucked into it all in those moments between moments.

  “Today was a huge mess. Can we start over in the morning?” The beep of the door release broke my daze, and I turned to Carlyle as he grabbed my hand to tug me through the threshold. “I don’t know how to fix this . . . contention.”

  “I’d like that, yeah.” He didn’t bother flicking on a light or anything, but the room seemed to be just that— a bedroom with a little closet and kitchenette in the corner, judging by the silhouettes. Pausing when my knees touched the foot of the bed, I unlaced my leather pants to slide them down my legs. The ruffling of Carlyle’s clothes being shed was almost a relief, not excitement, and goosebumps rose on my skin when he pulled off my tank top.

  I hadn’t worn a bra, and my chest warmed as Carlyle wrapped me up in a bear hug and cupped the back of my head. In the dark, all I could do was feel his rigid, toned body, his heart steadily beating against my cheek, and his heat seeping into me. My eyelids fluttered closed, my body deflating in a heavy sigh, and he rested his cheek against my crown as I branded this feeling deep into my brain.

/>   “Do you know what I thought when I first saw you at the pizza place, Valerie?” Carlyle’s gruff tone accompanied his arms tightening around me like he was afraid I’d run away before he even got to say what he wanted to say. “I thought you were perfect. I don’t feel a lot of self-doubts, but I can honestly say I worried I wasn’t good enough for you. I have never thought about giving up my role in my own life, but I would, in a heartbeat, for you, and that prospect is terrifying because I don’t know who I am if I’m not the boss.”

  “I don’t know whether you surpassed your own standards or just magically heightened mine to match, then.” There was absolutely not a single iota of humor to be found anywhere, and I slid my palms up his bareback as I nuzzled his chest hair. “It’s a good thing my life’s such a mess that I don’t have anything more to give up. I can just fit right into yours. I told my sister there’s just gotta be something devastatingly deal-break-ery about you, Carlyle, but there’s not.”

  “Your closet is thirty-five percent pencil skirts. You’ll fit in beautifully.” Ours could’ve been a funny moment if it wasn’t so deeply laden in such serious undertones and silent words. As if Carlyle and I understood each other on such a fundamental level that we didn’t even need to speak. Maybe, I was fooling myself, and he just had a crap sense of humor about the ultimate power of powering the global economy.

  Though, I had the sneaking suspicion that he didn’t.

  So sweetly, Carlyle tugged the ends of my hair, and I lifted myself onto my toes. His kiss said all the things he didn’t, and I opened my mouth to tangle my tongue around his. The chapped roughness of his lips seared mine, and he reached down to hook his arm under my butt to hoist me up. Even as my thighs clung to him, I only felt the faintest flicker of desire, and his muscles played against my nakedness as he set me on the bed.

  Hovering above me on his knees and elbows, Carlyle deepened the kiss, and my tongue throbbed with the overwhelming taste of him. Cupping his face, I wrapped my legs around him proper, and he nestled between them to pin me to the mattress.

  “Valerie . . . ” He breathed my name like I was his Eden, and Carlyle rolled onto his side to gather me to his broad chest. His arms were security, and I cuddled against him with the full knowledge that I’d never get any better than him.

  26

  Valerie

  A shrill ringing interrupted my stuffing my face with pancakes drenched in syrup, and Carlyle didn’t even look at his phone before declining the call. Chewing my large bite, I smiled as he piled eggs onto his toast, but before he could get it into his mouth, his phone went off again. Irritation morphed in his features, but I nodded as he reached to snatch it and swipe the screen.

  “What?” Putting down his fork, Carlyle grabbed his coffee as he frowned under furrowed brows. His gaze flickered to me warily, jaw ticking as he held his mug to his lips, but the irritation on his face eventually faded away before he wordlessly hung up. Setting the device face down, he took a swig of his brew, and I licked my lips heavily as I watched a drop slip down the side of the ceramic. “So, I don’t need your sister to write the program for me anymore. Jerry figured it out. I’ll still pay her for what she did, but that’s alright for you because you can get started on your thing when we get back.”

  “Oh, okay. I can text her and let her know.” I’d left the phone in the car, and a certain kind of anxiety gripped me as Carlyle nodded in agreement. “Do you think getting the phone under your name was enough?”

  “Even if it wasn’t, I’m fully confident that you and your sister will be fine.” Reaching across the table, Carlyle squeezed my fingers reassuringly as darkness flashed in his eyes. “Trust me.”

  “I do.” I answered faster than I thought I could talk, and he smiled as I stood up to round the small table and straddle his lap. The heat of him wrapped around me, and I cupped his hard jaw to kiss him as he shamelessly groped my ass. Moaning softly, desire smoldered beneath my tank top, and he caressed my sides as his fingers snuck under the thin fabric. He tasted strongly of coffee, and I opened my mouth for his tongue as warm, calloused palms kneaded my breasts.

  “A guy could get used to this.” Goosebumps swept across my chest, and my nipples tightened as Carlyle slopped open-mouthed kisses down my neck. Shivering when he pulled my shirt off completely, I arched into his hands, and greedy lips clamped around my nipple. Shocks of pleasure surged south, and I gripped the back of his chair to grind against him.

  The soft silk of Carlyle’s boxers burned my thighs, and I closed my eyes and tossed my head back to savor his attention. Squeezing my breasts together, he scraped his tongue along the pert peaks, and a gasp escaped me as eroticism flooded my chest. Reaching between us, he worked his hand into my panties to circle my clit, and my abdomen clenched as he kissed his way back to my mouth.

  “You little slut, you’re so wet.” My lips parted in a silent moan when Carlyle teased my entrance, but he didn’t linger before reaching to grip my ass hard. Standing up in one swift display of pure physical strength, he carried me over to the bed, and I panted softly as expectant thrill raced through my veins. “Stick that perfect ass in the air and bounce.”

  “Only if you spank me.” Even as I posed my condition, my body shuffled on its own, and Carlyle chuckled a sultry sound that rolled up my back. On my knees, my skin jumped when he pulled down my panties to caress my ass cheeks, and I wiggled my hips. Bracing my forearms on the mattress, I gasped when he bit the globe firmly— not hard, but more than a graze of his teeth. The bed dipped, and he spread my ass to peel my slick folds with thumbs.

  “Valerie . . . ” The worshipful lilt in Carlyle’s voice thickened the goosebumps blanketing every inch of me, and my toes curled against the sheet bunched up under me. My core clenched, and his breath hitched as he leaned to conform to my back. Kissing my shoulder, he pulled his cock out of his boxers to swipe the head between my folds, and I rolled my hips against his.

  Thrusting to slather his shaft in my juices, Carlyle slid his thumb inside me, and I arched with a low moan as pleasure rippled up my spine. His heat disappeared, and he wiggled his thumb before pulling out to poise his head at my quivering entrance. Gripping the sheet tightly, I rocked back on my knees, and the thick ridge of his cock stretched my entrance.

  “Fuck, Valerie . . . bounce that ass on my cock.” My thighs touched my heels, and Carlyle jiggled my ass with greedy palms as I wiggled my hips. His thick, silky cock caressed my walls as they hugged him tighter, and he ground his hips against me to reach deep. The fine hairs on my back stood up when he raised his palm, and I clenched in preparation just before he spanked me firmly.

  Pleasure beat against my eye sockets as I jolted from the impact, and Carlyle growled in satisfaction. Rocking forward, I set a steady pace, and my moans muffled in the bed to match his sputtered gasps and grunts. Sweat dribbled between my shoulder blades, and I pushed myself onto unsteady arms to flip my hair out of my face. Gathering up the strands, he pulled my head back, and I gasped when he snapped his hips against mine.

  His cock caressed my walls, the veins pulsing with each thrust, and I whimpered when Carlyle smacked my ass harder. Rolling my hips to his beat, I lost myself in the utter euphoria of his powerful muscles flexing against me. Tugging me off my hands, he grappled my breasts to squeeze, and the rigidness of his chest played against my back. Tweaking my nipples as he filled my channel, his pants rolled down between my breasts, and I moaned loudly.

  “Yeah, you better like that.” Short, sharp fingernails dragged down my abdomen, and Carlyle gripped my hip hard to hold me down. Thrusting hard, the jolt of him against my back rippled with such power that my eyes rolled, and I tilted my head back to bury my face in his neck. Little high-pitched whines escaped me with each, jarring thrust, the smack of skin on skin thickening the dense atmosphere to the point that it was hard to breathe.

  “I’m gonna come . . . I’m gonna . . . I’m-m comin-n-g . . . yes-s! Carlyle! Fuck me . . . just like that!” The veins of his cock gyr
ated my inner walls as I tensed, the pleasure building until it spilled over, and he growled hungrily in my ear. My whine echoed beyond the blood that pounded against my eardrums to the beat of him, and his heart thundered against my back. Clamping down on his hard girth, my hands flew up to disappear in his hair, and he nibbled my shoulder as he ground his hips against my ass.

  “Holy fuck-k . . . ” I could hear it in Carlyle’s voice that he was close, his moan straining, and my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth as I panted like a greedy bitch. “Shit . . . shit . . . ”

  Clenching around his cock as it throbbed, I sputtered a breath at his hard, unsteady pace, and Carlyle pushed me down to pull out at the last second. I couldn’t turn around fast enough, and eagerness watered my mouth as I wrapped my lips around his head. Peeling back his foreskin, I groaned at the mingling taste of us, and he buried his fists in my hair to take complete control.

  “Fuck . . . oh, fuck . . . Valerie . . . choke on my cock.” I don’t know what I was expecting, but the roughness of him fucking my face was arguably more of a turn-on than the actual sex itself. Gagging around his thick cock, I cupped his sac and squeezed, and he thrust hard to bend down the curve of my throat. My juices dribbled off my clit, and I reached between my legs to pleasure myself as he hissed from high above me.

  Arching sharply when Carlyle’s curls tickled my nose just the wrong way, I gagged viciously, and he pulled back just far enough to let me rasp a breath. Tiny tears escaped my shuttered lids, and I caressed his shaft with my lips as the need to taste him completely overwhelmed me.

  “Come . . . come in my mouth . . . oh G—” Cutting me off as he surged down my throat, Carlyle’s pelvis kissed my chin, and I choked violently. My throat closed around his spongy head, and I caressed his sac as I abandoned my clit to stroke his shaft. Two sharp thrusts of his hips were all it took, and his cock rippled against the roof my mouth as he pulled back to cum. Hot and salty, his ecstasy slathered my tongue and cheeks, and I sucked his tip as he groaned and gasped haltingly.