"What do you fucking want, Pavel?" I growled my final warning. "As you well know, I have a woman waiting for me. I would much rather be in her company than looking at your ugly face."
He sneered in my direction, transforming the look into a smile as he tried to fall back on his fake humor that he believed mended broken alliances. But nothing could ever make up for what he'd done here, after involving Isa.
If his death hadn't already been guaranteed, it would be after tonight.
"I want to meet tomorrow. Bellandi's war on human trafficking is affecting my bottom line. I will not stand for it, Rafael."
I smirked at him, wondering how the man had survived for so long being so ignorant, but I rattled off an address instead. I wanted to deny him the meeting based on principle, but I very much looked forward to seeing his shock when he realized the truth.
Matteo Bellandi may have led the charge in the fight against trafficking in Chicago, branching out to other cities through his alliances, but his interests didn't extend as far as Russia. He had no desire to control the way the original families conducted their business in Europe.
That endeavor was mine alone.
14
Isa
I paced back and forth in the hotel room with all the glass doors closed. Something about that man had struck me as wrong, crawling along my skin like unseen insects. I didn't want to breathe the same air as him. It set me on edge enough that I found myself continually glancing toward the closet where my suitcase sat on the floor in complete contrast to Rafe's meticulous order.
He'd told me to unpack my things earlier in the day, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.
I barely knew him, and the hotel room was in his name. I needed to be able to make a quick getaway if things turned sour.
The stranger on the steps might have been the catalyst for that escape. I couldn't explain why, if asked. Rafe was allowed to have conversations with other people, but the way he'd sent me up to the room terrified me.
I glanced at my phone on the coffee table, overcome with the sudden desire to know more information about the man I was sleeping with. I hadn't thought I wanted to know, not when knowing less about him made it easier to walk away. But I took the fact that I couldn't force myself to zip my suitcase and walk out as a sign that I'd passed that point.
Walking away from him would break something inside me, but I'd do it anyway.
Because that was the responsible thing to do. The smart choice was to go home to my quiet and safe life in Chicago. Taking risks and trusting the wrong people only got you one place in life.
Drowned in the Chicago River.
Swallowing back my anxiety, I lunged forward and snatched my phone off the table. Bringing up the web browser, I'd only typed the first three letters of his name into the search bar when the knock at the door made me jump and drop my phone to the coffee table with a thump. "Who is it?" I asked nervously.
"It's me," Rafe's deep voice said from the other side. I brushed a hand through my hair, moving to the door to pull it open. He stepped into the suite, invading my space instantly as the door closed behind him.
He moved into the living room area, pouring himself a shot of tequila from the bar while I gawked at him. Aside from the occasional glass of wine, I hadn't seen him drink.
He stepped closer to me once he slammed the glass back down on the counter, his breath smelling like the sharp bite of alcohol as it touched my cheek. He glanced down at the coffee table, furrowing his brow briefly before his eyes came back to mine. "Have you been looking into me?"
My breath caught in my throat as I looked down to my phone, the open browser sitting there with the undeniable start of his name already typed out. I snatched it up in my hands, closing the app and locking the screen quickly as my cheeks burned with embarrassment. Googling a man like Rafael seemed so arbitrary, especially when I was having sex with him.
Grasping my chin, he tilted my head up to look at his eyes as he took the phone from my hands and tossed it onto the couch. Unease slithered up my spine as his eyes glittered with something dangerous. "You shouldn't do that, mi princesa," he murmured.
"Why not?" My voice cracked with the quiet words, barely a whisper in the air between us.
"Perhaps you'll find answers you're not ready for," he said, gliding his thumb up to stroke over my cheek as I swallowed.
I tugged away from his grip, wanting distance between us. The man who stared back at me wasn't the same man who'd shown me around Ibiza. "I think maybe I should go," I said.
His eyes darkened more, his jaw clenching subtly as he watched me. There was a warning in that gaze. A warning I didn't have the information I needed to make the right choice. "Is that what you want? To go?"
I glanced over at the door, eyeing it as I struggled with my sense of flight and the desire to stay.
I didn't want to go back to reality. I didn't want to go back to being the girl who didn't feel anything. Tears stung my eyes as I considered my options. "You're scaring me, Rafael."
"You don't need to be scared, Princesa. What happens out there," he said, gesturing to the windows, "has nothing to do with what happens between us. I don’t want to hurt you," he added, stressing the final word as he stepped closer to me in my indecision, "but that doesn't mean I'm a good man. What you may find could change everything, and sometimes ignorance is bliss."
I swallowed, looking up at him as his hands wrapped around me and tugged me into his chest. "I thought you worked in investments."
"All businesses have rivals, Isa. People determined to tear me down for their own benefit. For now, all you need to know is that my business is something entirely separate from our relationship. Everything else will fall into place when the time comes."
I swallowed, nodding with uncertainty. I knew, without a doubt, that I should be running for the hills and the door. But something warned me it would be a terrible mistake, and I couldn't force my legs to move to do it.
"Am I in danger? From him? You sent me up to the room in such a rush, I can't help but feel like something is very wrong."
"He's an overzealous business associate who lacks boundaries. I've agreed to meet with him tomorrow so he will stop bothering me and then we can resume our plans. So long as you intend to stay," he said. I nodded my assent, unable to find the words, but knowing that walking out would be a mistake.
"Good," he said, chasing away some of the shadows with a smile. His hand came up to grab the back of my neck in a firm hold, touching his forehead to mine as he walked me back toward the bar in the corner.
There was a single press of his lips against mine. His eyes watched me for a reaction while he sighed into my mouth and nipped my bottom lip erotically.
"Are you still afraid, mi princesa?" he asked, his fingers grasping the hem of my dress and lifting until the cool air struck the bottom of my stomach.
I admitted the truth with an honesty I didn't want to give. "Yes," I said on a gasp.
"And what does fear do?" he whispered, leaning his head in to touch his lips to my throat and drag his teeth over the skin.
"It makes us feel alive." I echoed the words he'd given me when he pushed me past my limits. His hands dragged the dress all the way off my head forcefully, leaving me in nothing but a bra and panties while he was still fully dressed. He kissed me then, tangling his tongue with mine without further warning, and lifted me onto the bar in the same way he had the wall in Dalt Vila. Unhooking my bra and tearing it down my arms, his shirt brushed against my nipples as he spread my legs and stepped between them while he kissed me.
He only severed our connection when he moved a hand between our bodies, watching it glide down my stomach and inside my underwear to touch me with soft, teasing circles on my clit.
"I wanted to fuck you," he said, throwing me back to the feeling of his hands on me in public. To the forbidden desire and not knowing how far he might have taken it. "Right then and there. Did you know that, mi princesa?"
I gasped
his name, tossing my head back when he pushed a finger inside me carefully. Twisting and turning ever so slightly, he watched my reaction to see if I was still sore. When I didn't protest, he added another while he worked my clit. "People could have seen."
"What would they see, Isa?"
"Us. Me," I whispered, my lips brushing against his as his face hardened into a cruel brutality. I didn't want to like it, didn't want to get off on the violence lurking in his skin, but my body clenched tighter around him. Pulling him closer, as if I could slip him inside my very soul and welcome his darkness into me.
"They'd see your face twist with pleasure while I fucked my pretty little pussy. They would see me fucking what's mine," he growled, covering my mouth with his. The moment his tongue swept inside, connecting us as it started to feel like we were meant to be, he swept his thumb over my clit in one furious motion and I shattered around him in trembles.
I tore my mouth away from his to cry out with the force of it, my lungs heaving with the power of the orgasm as it washed over me.
It was dirty. It was wrong. Coming with his claim on my body fresh in my mind, and yet the undeniable truth of how much I wanted that crashed over me. He pulled me off the bar and lifted me into his arms as he kissed me, keeping all my senses derailed by the force of his possession.
Shoving a few of the glass panels to the side with the furious swipe of a hand, he led me to the dining table that was open to the night air and set me to my feet beside it. He yanked my panties down my legs, his movements frenzied as he twisted me around to face the table and pushed me forward until I caught myself against the surface with both hands.
He thrust inside me, forcing through my wetness with a furious strike that set my nerve endings on fire. "Rafael!" I gasped, the pinch of pain accompanying the way he pushed in with firm and steady strokes until he reached the end of me. With his hands on either side of my ass, he held me still as he pulled back and thrust forward once more.
"You look so perfect taking my cock, mi princesa. This is where you fucking belong." The angle was so different from the other times he'd fucked me, striking against another spot entirely and eliciting a different kind of pleasure.
I felt him everywhere as he moved, gliding in and out of me slowly while he gave me time to acclimate to the feeling. Then he wrapped my hair around his hand, guiding me to arch backwards to him while I struggled to grip the edges of the table. His other arm wrapped around the front of my body, cupping a breast in his hand and pinching my nipple lightly. "Fuck," I groaned when his hips slapped against my ass, feeling him press against the deepest part of me with every thrust and loving that brief moment of pain before his retreat stimulated me back to pleasure.
He chuckled against my neck as he released my hair, gliding the hand at my breast up to wrap around my throat as he slapped the other down on my ass. I yelped, heat blooming in the wake of his strike. "This fucking ass," he groaned. "One day soon, you'll take me balls deep here, too." The words were a promise. Spoken without a doubt that he believed them.
I shook my head against his grip, wincing when his hand pressed firmer at my throat and my head went light from the slight loss of air. "You'll take whatever I give you, mi princesa, and then you'll beg me for more." He pinned me in position, spanking the other side of my ass while he fucked me in furious strokes. His cock swelled inside me as his own climax approached, his groans sounding at my ears as he built higher and higher. "Touch yourself," he ordered, and despite my hesitation I slid a hand between my legs to touch myself tentatively.
Every drive of him inside me shifted me forward, my fingers slipping from my clit to touch the place where we connected. He groaned, releasing my throat to cover my hand with his so that together we gripped his shaft where it entered me. "Oh my god," I whimpered, hanging my head when the heel of his palm nudged my clit with each thrust.
"You were made for me, and I won't let you go, Isa," he said, his words driven by the heat of the moment. I groaned out my second orgasm, collapsing in his arms as he roared out his own release. Heat flooded me as he twitched inside me, pulling our hands away from between my legs to shove deeper.
He stayed inside as I caught my breath, supporting my weight so I didn't collapse face first onto the table. Touching a kiss to my spine, he pulled back. A trickle of fluid followed him, dripping to my thighs as I felt his gaze on me.
After stilling suddenly, I spun around to look at him and his length bobbing free from his canvas shorts. His mouth tightened as I turned my eyes down to my body and to the wetness between my legs. "Oh fuck," I whispered, pressing a hand to my mouth as my panic rose.
Grabbing my underwear from the floor, I turned and hurried toward the bathroom to clean myself up. "Princesa," he murmured, following after me as I closed the door in his face.
How could I have been so fucking stupid? That was the real danger of Rafael, making me forget everything that should have been my priority. Nothing existed but the feel of his hands on me. Until the moment we finished and I realized he'd never put on a condom.
I cleaned as thoroughly as I could, wincing at the light soreness from how rough he'd been as I removed all traces of his cum from my body. Tugging my underwear up my legs, I washed my hands and strode through the suite to get my dress from the living room.
I needed Plan B. Urgently.
"Isa," Rafe said, grabbing my arm and pulling me to his body while I struggled to slip my shoes on by the door. He'd covered himself up, his face written in stone as I made my way to escape the suite.
Even if only for long enough to get medicine, I needed to go. I shoved at his chest. "I need to go to the pharmacy."
"Princesa, it's the middle of the night. The pharmacy is closed." My weight sagged in his grip as I stared out at the night sky. We'd eaten dinner late, and after all the drama, he was probably right. It was the middle of the night. "The morning will be soon enough," he said, cupping my cheek as dejection settled over me.
The sooner it was taken, the more effective it would be, but without a pharmacy to go to, my options were limited. "First thing in the morning," I sighed.
He nodded, but something in his gaze felt almost...disappointed. It didn't make sense, and I brushed it off as the emotional reaction of a woman who had everything to lose. I couldn't have a baby; not then. Maybe not ever.
I would have made a terrible mother.
Instead, I focused on the other reason I had to be concerned about our mistake. "Do I need to worry about—” I paused. “You know.”
His eyes darkened. "What, Isa?"
"Diseases. Infections. You know there's no risk from me, but you—"
"Ah," he chuckled darkly. "Fortunately, it has been a long time since I was with anyone before you. You don't need to worry about anything like that."
I nodded, letting him guide me toward the bedroom. He stripped off my clothes, helping me settle in the bed before he took off his own clothes and climbed in beside me. "Why are you so calm? What happens if—"
He shrugged, considering his words. "I am older than you," he said, his voice melancholy as if he was speaking more to himself than to me. Reminding himself of why my reaction might be more extreme than his. "I am ready for children. I understand what we have is new, but it wouldn't be an unwelcome turn of events."
His admission hit me square in the chest, as I let my eyes drift closed with exhaustion.
How could he say such a thing, when I wouldn't even find out if I was pregnant until I was already home in Chicago?
15
Rafael
She'd swallowed the pill as quickly as the pharmacist handed it to her. Her desperation to not bear my child did nothing for my mood, knowing I would need to drop her off with Chloe and Hugo only moments later.
I shouldn't have faulted her for not wanting a child at eighteen. I wouldn't have wanted anything to do with one even a year prior.
But Isa had changed everything for me. All I wanted was for the same to be true for her. For her to n
eed me so desperately that she'd do anything to have a future with me.
She should have wanted to use a pregnancy to trap me as many other women might have tried over the years. The kind of wealth I possessed would change her life forever. I wouldn't have minded that in the slightest, coming from her.
She was quiet as she climbed back into the passenger seat of the McLaren, her body stiff and uncomfortable. Like she didn't dare to touch anything as I closed her door carefully once she was tucked safely inside. To say she'd been overwhelmed by my choice of car was an understatement. Maybe I would have been smarter to choose something less flashy.
I lowered my body into the driver's side. "Chloe and Hugo know you're coming?" I asked, glancing over at her to break the silence. She nodded, confirming what I already knew. I'd laid out the rules for Hugo myself in my text to him earlier that morning. The McLaren started with the distinctive purr of luxury, and I pulled out of my parking space to take her through the streets of Ibiza Town. It was far better to explore the city on foot, but my aim was to spend the least amount of time possible away from Isa. "I'm sorry that I had to delay our plans for the day."
Even if she would appreciate the delay, knowing that the alternative would have been her friend hanging at the end of a rope and bleeding all over the terrace where I planned to fuck her at least once.
Maybe I'd save that for the rooftop.
"It's fine. You couldn’t have known that you'd meet a random girl to derail your business for the week," she said, twisting the hem of her dress in her hands. I wondered if the supposed side effects of the drug had hit her yet, or if she was still wrapped up in her own worry over an unwanted pregnancy.
For a moment, I'd considered arranging for a placebo instead of the real pill. Something similar had worked for Matteo Bellandi. But when I chose to get Isa pregnant, I'd do it with her knowing what I'd done. There wouldn't be any cloak and daggers regarding our child's conception.
Until Tomorrow Comes: A Dark Mafia Romance (Beauty in Lies Book 1) Page 15
