Until Tomorrow Comes: A Dark Mafia Romance (Beauty in Lies Book 1)

by Adelaide Forrest

  I mulled over his odd actions while we hung out on the rooftop terrace for the rest of the day, letting Rafe feed me while I enjoyed the salty sea breeze on my skin. Maybe it was a cultural thing, being so possessive that he took me away from my friends with hardly anything but a glare.

  I felt much better by the time late afternoon came, only slightly fighting his insistence that I would enjoy the sunset much better on his boat than I could from land.

  My phone chimed with a text as Rafe steered the boat toward the tall island, keeping his distance from the island itself as he found the right position he was looking for.

  I'm worried about you.

  I sighed, wondering if there was merit to Chloe's message. The unfortunate truth was that I couldn't help but worry about me, too. I felt like I'd plunged into the deep end before learning how to swim. Rafe turned off the boat, joining me in the center of the lounging cushioned area at the back so that we both faced the sunset.

  He pulled out a picnic basket and a chilled bottle of champagne. Moving to the edge of the boat, he tossed a towel over the top of the bottle and opened it so he caught the cork and tossed it back into the boat as champagne leaked into the sea. "You're going to get the fish drunk," I scolded.

  He turned a light smile my way, shaking his head as if he couldn't be bothered with caring about the fucking fish. He poured me a glass as I sat up on the mat, accepting it with pursed lips. "I'm not sure I should drink."

  "I spoke with my personal physician. You're okay to drink after taking Plan B," he said to reassure me. I nodded, taking a small sip of the slightly sour liquid as bubbles danced on my palette. Sitting down next to me, he took a sip of his own champagne and set it to the side to feed me a chocolate-covered strawberry. I took a bite of it, greatly preferring it to the champagne.

  "You're awfully quiet," he observed, inching into my space until he nearly touched me as I lay back on the cushion to stare at the sky while we waited for sunset. "What's wrong?"

  "Nothing's wrong," I said. "I'm just thinking, really."

  "Ominous," he chuckled, laying back beside me. "What has mi princesa so occupied?"

  Turning onto my side to face him, I bit the corner of my mouth as I thought over how to bring up my concerns. The need to know where he stood with our relationship was real, so that I could manage my own feelings and expectations. I didn't want to have expectations at all, and I shouldn't have.

  But I certainly knew that I wanted him enough to question the life I'd planned for myself.

  "Just thinking about how tiny my room at home will feel after this. How much I'll hate Chicago winters after feeling this sun. Sometimes I think coming here was a mistake," I murmured, watching his body still at my words. "Not one that I regret, but just because it's shown me how boring my life is. Hopefully college will change that."

  The sun slowly crept its way toward the horizon, turning the sky pink in its wake as we watched in silence. His lack of response grated on me, showing me exactly where his head was at. Why would he care about my life back home?

  He'd be out of my life.

  "You shouldn't live a life you're bored with, Princesa," Rafe said finally, reaching over to cup my cheek after leaving me hanging without a response. Leaning in to kiss me, he reminded me of what it was to not be bored. "Boredom is for the dead, and you are very much alive." Reaching over to take my hips in his hands, he pinned me to the cushion and moved his body over mine. Trailing kisses from my lips to my neck, he reminded me of what it was to feel as if I could do anything and be anyone, as the sky burst into vibrant pinks with the sun fading over the horizon.

  My life would be that much harder to bear when I went home. Starved for his touch. Starved for excitement.

  Just empty.

  17

  Rafael

  My princesa was drunk. After I'd made love to her beneath the setting sun, we'd returned to our picnic and she'd drunk three glasses of champagne. I could have stopped her, but something in me wanted to see her lose control in that way. Our romantic picnic had been derailed by her stress over a potential, though unlikely, pregnancy and her odd insertion of what waited for her at home.

  I couldn't help my anger that she'd been on a boat in the middle of the Mediterranean with me, ready to watch the sunset, and been thinking about her life back home.

  She wobbled as I helped her from the McLaren, unsteady even in her flip flops due to the tiredness that was in every line of her body. With a sigh, I reached down and scooped her into my arms. She giggled as I strolled through the doors to the hotel, taking her into the elevator as she curled closer to me. Her face snuggled into my neck, breathing me deeply into her lungs as I thought over my predicament.

  With only six days left on our countdown, I'd never expected to still have her discuss going home like it was a certainty. As soon as the elevator deposited us on the top floor, I carried Isa into the suite and deposited her on our bed. She sighed contentedly as I stripped off her shoes and sat her up to pull the dress over her head. She flopped back down the moment I released her, struggling to get under the blankets as I fought to pull her panties down her legs.

  "I want to sleep forever," she murmured when I finally got her bra off and tucked her beneath the blankets.

  I chuckled, leaning forward to kiss her lips and linger by her mouth. "But if you slept forever, I would have to follow you." My lips brushed against hers with the words, watching as her eyes filled with tears that she shoved down before they could ever truly form.

  "If I slept forever, I'd never have to leave," she said finally, turning to her side and closing her eyes. The words felt like an admission, echoing in the silent room as she quickly fell asleep. I knew she hadn't meant to tell me that, given how at odds it was to her mention of college only hours before.

  "You never have to leave regardless, mi princesa," I murmured, leaning in to touch my lips to her temple before I made my way to the balcony and looked out over the darkened water.

  Her drunken and half-aware words felt like more truth than she gave me when she was awake and sober, a confirmation of everything her body told me. Isa wanted to stay, and she wanted to be with me.

  The question would be if she let herself, and with only six days left to convince her that our future was worth walking away from her past, I just hoped I hadn't wasted this time on a fruitless endeavor.

  She'd be coming home with me one way or another. If I had to force her, I'd wish I'd done it the hard way in the process. She'd need time to adapt once we moved home.

  Particularly if she wasn't allowed to leave.

  I sat on the balcony, drinking my cortado while I waited for Isa to wake up. Her hair was a tangled mess around her head, her face flush from being pressed into the pillow as she slept through the night.

  I didn't want to wake her too soon when she undoubtedly needed the rest, but my plans for the day also wouldn't permit me to allow her to sleep much longer.

  We had a long drive ahead of us.

  I moved into the bedroom, sitting on the edge of the bed and touching her shoulder lightly. "Wake up, Princesa," I murmured softly, earning a low groan as she mumbled something beneath her breath. "What?" I asked.

  "Go away," she repeated. "Sleep."

  I laughed as she raised a tired arm to swat me away, the force not even enough to dislodge my hand from her shoulder as she rolled onto her back and covered her eyes with an arm. "Isa," I said, chuckling beneath my breath. "I have plans for the day. You have to wake up."

  "Like fuck I do," she groaned, closing her eyes as she proceeded to ignore me. I laughed quietly, enjoying this more feisty version of my woman that I knew hid beneath all the layers of responsibility and fear. Her rhythmic breathing filled the air as she drifted back to sleep, defying my order to wake up in a way that only she would dare.

  I hoped she still dared to do such things once she knew the truth of who I was.

  I tugged the blanket back, revealing her naked body to the cool air of the room, an
d even still she didn't wake. With her right leg cocked to the side, she gave me a view of her entire body from head to toe. I only regretted that I couldn't see both her pussy and her ass at the same time.

  Crawling onto the foot of the bed, I inserted myself between her slightly parted legs. My shorts rubbed against her thighs as I pushed them wider, making room for my knees as I leaned my weight over hers. She let out a little snore, lost to a surprising depth of sleep as I positioned myself to wake her up in the best way possible.

  Leaning forward, I pressed the flat of my tongue to the soft tip of her nipple and bathed it in warmth. Her brow pinched as she felt it, but she still didn't wake up when I drew the hardening bud into my mouth and sucked lightly. Doing the same to her other breast, I watched her face as her lips parted and she let out a little gasp of pleasure in her sleep.

  Who did she dream of when she closed her eyes?

  If it was someone else, I'd find out eventually. He wouldn't survive for long.

  Trailing my lips down and over her stomach as she gyrated her hips beneath me in her sleep, I kept waiting for the moment her eyes opened. Watching. Waiting for the second when I would see her eyes and know if she'd known it was me all along.

  I shoved her knees high as I lowered myself to put my face at her perfect little pussy, leaning in to lick her from her entrance to her clit in a smooth glide. The unique taste of her exploded over my senses, drawing a groan from my throat as I watched her face and spread her folds wide for my assault. She ground her hips up toward my face, seeking more in the dreamland that she refused to leave.

  I'd been determined to make her come before taking her, but the dark and perverse part of me wanted to already be inside her when she snapped back to reality. I circled her clit with my tongue, sliding a finger inside her wet heat and working her until I was sure she was wet enough for what would come.

  I grabbed a condom from the drawer, shoving my shorts off awkwardly and working it down my length with a grimace. While I wanted nothing more than to have nothing between us, I wouldn't do it knowing Isa would want to take another morning after pill to deal with the potential aftermath. I couldn't make her love me if she constantly felt sick because of my actions, but as soon as we were back on El Infierno, morning after pills would become an impossibility.

  She clenched down on my fingers, burying a hand in my hair and pulling me tighter into her pussy. Chuckling against her clit, I withdrew my finger and slipped my hips between her legs. Watching her face as I slid inside her, she parted her lips on a ragged sigh and flung her eyes open to stare up at me. Her gaze was heated, her focus knowing even though she'd only just woken up.

  "Rafe," she whispered, pulling me closer. There was no disappointment in her grip as her nails dug into my shoulders and I moved inside her. I thrust harder as she wrapped her legs around me to the best of her ability. She clung to me as I took her, making it easier for me as I rolled onto my back and kept us connected through the shift. She stared down at me in shock, her lips forming a shy pout at the change in position as I guided her to sit up.

  "I want to watch you," I murmured, gripping her hips with both my hands as I guided her to move on me. She rolled them backward slowly as I watched her breasts bounce and sway with the steady motion. She took me back inside her, moaning when I pressed against her G-spot with the extreme angle.

  Taking her hands in mine, I guided them to touch her breasts. She glanced down at them and bit her lip shyly, cupping them in her hands while I watched her ride my cock and play with her tits for me.

  Isa would do anything I asked her to do. She would take anything I gave.

  Because she was mine.

  Reaching down to her clit, I stroked her while she rode me. Letting her do the work as she sought out her orgasm and used me to get it. Her face morphed with pleasure, her eyes closing slowly as she spiraled. "Eyes on me," I growled in warning. She flung them open, holding my gaze as she flushed. I rewarded her listening with a pinch to her clit, sending her shattering over the edge as she desperately tried to hold my gaze.

  She collapsed on top of me in a heap, lifting her hips and doing her best to keep riding me through the climax that dominated her being. I laughed into her hair, pulling her off me and sliding her to her stomach on the bed. Shoving the pillows out of her face, I laid my body over the back of hers and slid my cock between her legs until I sunk deep inside her once more.

  I covered her weight with mine lightly, lifting her arms up over her head and pinning her wrists together to hold her still as she lifted her tight little ass up to help me get deeper. "I think you like my cock," I grunted, pounding deep enough to make her cry out. "Don't you, Princesa?"

  "Fuck," she whimpered, the response all but a direct confirmation. If I'd been less of a bastard, it might have been enough for me. But I was, and it wasn't.

  "Tell me how much you love it when I fuck you," I grunted, holding her still as I slid a hand beneath her stomach to help her support the weight that I pounded into the bed with every thrust of my dick inside her.

  "I love it," she whispered.

  "You think you'll ever find somebody else who can give you this?" I asked, as my somewhat irrational jealousy took over all reason.

  "No," she whimpered. "No one but you," she confirmed.

  I nodded, touching my lips to her shoulder gently before sinking my teeth into her flesh. The intensity of my bite turned bruising, determined to mark her as mine for all to see as she cried out beneath me. The edge of pain made her come again, her pussy clenching down on me as she writhed in my grip. "Only me, mi princesa," I growled, fucking her furiously until my own climax tore me apart.

  I kissed the mark I'd left with my teeth as I came down from the high of my orgasm, partially expecting her to condemn me for the brutality. But there was nothing but warmth and the afterglow of sex as I climbed off her and guided her to the shower so we could get ready for the day.

  "There's no one for you but me," I whispered as she stood beneath the rainforest shower. She turned green eyes my way, smiling slightly as I willed her to understand one simple truth. I didn't just mean today or tomorrow.

  I meant forever.

  Isa walked at my side as we made our way down to the marina. Her steps were cautious as she stepped onto the wood. I hoped that by the end of the day, her paralyzing fear of water would be a thing of the past.

  If she trusted me.

  I stepped into the same speedboat from the night before, reaching out a hand to help her step into it gingerly. She wobbled into her seat, breathing out a heavy sigh as her ass touched the surface and she undoubtedly felt more stable. "Where are we going?" she asked, narrowing her eyes on mine.

  "Telling you would ruin the surprise," I said, pushing off from the dock and taking my seat. I powered up the boat as she held on to whatever she could reach, easing away from the dock slowly in favor of making my way toward the mainland.

  "I'm not such a fan of surprises," she said. I smiled at her briefly, turning my attention to navigating the few boats traveling close to shore as we left Ibiza behind us.

  "You'd better get used to them," I told her, patting the seat next to me. She sighed, darting forward to change seats as if she didn't trust her balance. With her at my side, I rested my spare hand on her bare thigh as her floral sundress rode up her legs. She went quiet, the hint of a future making her freeze up as always.

  If I didn't find a way to get her to open up, to force her to see me as a permanent staple in her life, I'd lose the connection we'd started to forge. I needed to find the key to Isa's responsibility to her family if I wanted to stand a chance in getting her to walk away from them.

  "Tell me about your sister," I said. Isa drew in a deep breath, laughing on the tail end of it as she spoke louder than normal for me to hear her over the wind rushing beside us as I picked up speed.

  "Odina has always been troubled," she said. "Rebellious. Carefree. The opposite of me. I couldn't really tell you much else about her to
be honest. She hasn't talked to me except to yell at me for as long as I can remember."

  "Why?" I asked. In all my watching, I'd never understood Odina's hatred for Isa. Hugo and Joaquin had never been able to find out the truth from either sister, but there was no doubt in my mind that there was something much more sinister working in the hatred between them.

  "She blames me for something that happened when we were little. Our mother—" She paused, glancing at me from the side of her eye and pursing her lips. She considered her next words carefully, debating the decision to speak to me about it at all. Finally she bit her lip and released it to look away from me. "Our mother took my side."

  "It must have been a pretty big argument to cause a rift for all these years," I observed. I didn't look at her, sensing her need to not have my eyes on her for the remainder of our conversation.

  "You could say that, yeah." Leaning her head on my shoulder, she finally turned her green eyes up to me. "My grandmother says that there's something broken in her. I'm not so sure that she's the broken one though."

  "Well, I don't know your sister," I said. The lie rolled off my tongue easily, and I clung to the fact that I didn't really know Odina despite having met her once. "But you're far from broken, Princesa." Lying seemed like such a trivial offense for a man like me, but I wanted to be able to say that I'd always been honest with Isa.

  I might omit the truth for her safety at times, but I would never lie to her just for the sake of it.

  "You barely know me."

  My fingers dug into the flesh of her thigh, gripping her harder than I wanted with the visceral reaction those words brought me. I wanted to tell her that I knew everything I possibly could. That I probably knew her better than anyone else in the world except herself.

  "I think I know you better than you believe," I murmured teasingly. She scoffed, leaning back to let the sun fall on her face. I'd lathered her sunscreen on her before we left the hotel, but I made a note to reapply it for her as soon as we docked.