I watched Luc chop the vegetables and set them all out on the granite work top.
He’d done an assortment of sweet peppers, red onions, mushrooms, and olives.
He got to work on the dough he’d made earlier for the pizza. It had risen substantially from the yeast he’d placed in it.
“Perfect. That should go well on this.” He slid over a bowl of homemade passata.
I watched him, looking him over, trying to assess his mood.
We hadn’t really spoken since we got here.
Thankfully, but much to his annoyance, Claudius had come back here along with their father, Marcus.
They were on the other side of the house. I guess it was more appropriate to call it a separate wing. It kind of was. So, it was like Luc and I were alone.
“What do you think, goddess? Does it look like we need more basil, or I could add some chili; that would be nice. Let me add chili.”
“I don’t want chili.” It did sound nice, but I wanted us to talk.
He’d been on autopilot the whole time and had me sitting here just watching him.
“You like chili.” He blinked a few times.
“I’m not in the mood for anything hot now. Just make it plain. Add more basil.”
He held my gaze, and those blue, blue eyes took me in with worry. I stood up, and he flinched.
“Where are you going?”
“To get the salad.” I pointed to the fridge. “I could make salad.”
I moved to the fridge and opened the door. There was a bunch of vegetables I could use in there, but I went for simple and grabbed a head of iceberg lettuce and a couple of heirloom tomatoes. Gigi always put those in our salads.
Warm hands slipped around my waist, and Luc pulled me flush against his chest.
“I changed my mind. I want you for dinner instead,” he cooed against my ear in a harsh, rough voice.
I put the vegetables back and turned in his arms. “You just spent over an hour fixing up for pizza.”
“But you don’t want it.”
“I never said that, and I do. I love your cooking.”
“At least that’s one thing good about me, right? You love my cooking, and I’m like a dog with mange you can’t cut lose.”
“Why are you saying that?”
He released me and moved back to the counter.
“Luc,” I prodded.
He looked at me, regarding me with that stern expression I hated. I decided I hated it because I couldn’t tell what he was thinking.
“How was Sinclaire?” He sneered.
I’d been wondering when he was going to ask me about that.
“Fine.”
“Yeah, is that right? I’ll bet he just loved to hear his precious Amelia Taylor tell him how much she’s always trusted him wholeheartedly.”
God. I’d seen him jealous before, but this was him hyped up on jealousy and worry. It made him act irrational.
“Luc, he’s a friend.”
“You kiss your friends? Come on, Amelia, he wasn’t just a friend. When did you stop sleeping with him?”
I blinked several times and continued to stare at him. I couldn’t talk to him when he was like this. No way.
It was better if we didn’t talk.
Deciding just that, I turned and walked away. He caught me before I could go through the door, grabbing my arm.
“Let go of me.” I wiggled my arm free of his grasp, but I stayed there in front of him.
“Don’t go.” Now he sounded scared.
“I can’t stay here with you acting like some crazy person, and how dare you speak to me like that? Don’t you ever speak to me like that again, or the way you did earlier. I don’t know who you think I am, but don’t do it. I hate it. I hate taking orders, and I don’t want you ordering me around and asking me shit like if I slept with Sinclaire.” Heat burned my cheeks, and my stomach clenched. “I didn’t sleep with him, and if I did, it wouldn’t have been any of your business because I wouldn’t have done something like that when we were together. So, don’t, and don’t act like some saint, because you aren’t.”
He hung his head in shame and bit the inside of his lip. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Loving you is making me crazy.”
I couldn’t believe I was going to say this, but I had to. “Maybe you shouldn’t.”
“I can’t stop, and I don’t want to.”
“I don’t want you to either, because I love you, and I can’t stop loving you either. No matter what Sinclaire is to me, he’s not you. Even when I knew you were the man I shouldn’t love, I still loved you. I trusted him, of course, and yes, I did so wholeheartedly, but he never had my heart. I was so lonely trying to be someone I wasn’t. It was stifling and unnatural to me. I had to toughen up and be this hard person I wasn’t. Luc, I’m a ballerina. We love music, we love peace and serenity. We love creativity and inspiration. But I threw myself into a world of evil and violence thinking I could change the world and do my part to stop it. Maybe on some level I felt responsible for who my father was. It’s hard to have all of that going on in your head and not have someone to trust. That is what I meant.”
“I get it, and I won’t ask you about him again. I’m jealous because he’s everything for you I’m not.”
“Like what? Didn’t you just hear me?”
“He’s a good man. I am not.”
“Define good, because from where I’m standing, I’m looking at the person who would do anything to protect me. Even if it killed you.” I knew that about him, and it terrified me.
“I feel helpless, Amelia.” He sighed.
“Me too, but if we lose each other, what do we have?”
He reached out and touched my face. The touch sent ripples of energy through me, and I leaned into his hand.
“I can’t lose you. I love you too much.”
“And I love you. Can’t we just… indulge in that?”
His eyes searched mine, and he nodded.
I reached up for his chin and guided him down to my lips, loving the feel of the sharp bone structure of his chiseled face.
We kissed slowly at first, then the kiss turned up a notch when he swept his tongue into my mouth and tangled it with mine.
The slight tug on my bottom lip made me melt and forget.
“Let’s go upstairs.” I pulled away, teasing, and smiled up at him. “But…”
“But what, goddess?”
“We forget, we leave all the worries inside this room and become whoever the people we want to be upstairs.”
“The gardener and the dancer.” He smiled with longing.
“No… just Luc and Amelia.”
His smile widened. “I get to be me.”
“And I get to be me.”
I gasped and smiled as he swooped in and picked me up, hoisting me over his shoulder.
Chapter 7
Amelia
The minute we stepped through his bedroom door, I got lulled into the ecstasy of being with him.
I willed myself to take on the impossible task of forgetting all the craziness that was happening around us. Everything was happening so fast, and these were probably the last few moments we would have together as a couple who was crazy about each other.
This was our normal, and since I could have gotten an Oscar for best actress in my role as Amelia Taylor for the last close to eleven years, I felt that I could pretend for a little while longer that this was us.
I took my mind right back to about a month or so ago when Luc had first taken me to the ballet. That week was crazy. We couldn’t get enough of each other. We even missed work, and when we were at work, we used to steal time away in the stationary closet. I was certain someone must have heard us.
I’d never behaved that way before with anyone.
Here I was again, ready to indulge in Mr. Perfect.
He was that and so much more for me.
Luc set me down on the bed and proceeded to take off my shoes. I giggled when he threw them to the
corner by the wardrobe. Next came my pants. He tugged on my panties, and I had to smack his hands away at the memory of last night when he’d torn them off me.
“No, you crazy guy. I never really got to pack much of a bag and I’m not walking around the place with no panties in front of all these men.”
“You’re moving in with me when this is over,” he said, looming over me with a wicked smile on his face.
“Am I? I live in LA.”
“No, goddess, you lived in LA. You can visit your friends when you want, but you’re here with me. Chicago here.”
“Isn’t me moving in supposed to freak you out?”
“Nah, it would freak me out if you said no. I noticed you’re not saying no.”
“I didn’t say no.” I didn’t, and I wouldn’t.
“So, then you’re saying yes.”
“You seem to be the boss of me, so I guess I’m saying yes.”
At that he moved down to my panties, bit the edge, then tugged on the lace with his teeth. The sight was truly hot, and sexy.
His blue gaze flickered, then turned darker to a twilight blue. The sinful smirk that inched across his sensual lips made my mouth water.
I didn’t think he would do it, but using his teeth, he slid my panties all the way down, down, down my legs. I didn’t have to think hard to remember last night, and nothing on earth could make me forget how I’d felt. I craved it now, wanting the wild passion once more.
He shrugged out of his T-shirt and pants, leaving on his Calvin Kline boxers, but I could see the bulge of his erection fighting against the soft cotton.
I took in the masterpiece vision of him standing before me like a dark god ready to take me in whatever way he wanted.
His perfectly sculpted abs, the peaks and valleys of the dip of the muscles that lined his torso, and the tattoos.
The satisfied smile that danced on his lips as he looked at me spoke of hot, sexual promises that I wanted desperately.
He moved back to me and tugged on the hem of my camisole top, lifting it over my head as I sat up. Luc then undid the clasp of my bra and practically dove in to suck my breasts as they spilled out. I could never get enough of him, and he could do that to me forever.
I arched my back into his wild suckle, and we both fell back onto the bed. His lips soft and searching moved down my stomach and left a wake of fiery kisses that sizzled my skin. Sizzled and scorched me clean.
Down he went until he reached my core and licked at the sensitive skin of my entrance. When he pushed his tongue inside me and started licking, I knew this would be a replay of last night.
Just like then, he licked me in soft, even strokes that made desperate moans fall from my lips. Mindless moans of passion and bliss left me as the heat of desire washed over my body in a cascade of waves.
I was close to the edge. Riding on the wave of emotion that gripped me.
Luc pulled back and looked at me. Now the blue of his eyes was much darker. Dark with pleasure and sin.
“Not yet,” he taunted. “Hold it.”
God, I couldn’t. It felt like an assault of my emotions when I held it. I sucked in a breath and allowed him to continue working his magic on me. Licking, sucking, teasing the hard, sensitive nub of my clit.
Jesus, I couldn’t take any more. “Luc, I can’t…”
He smiled wider and pushed his fingers inside me, pumping furiously. Pumping and stroking, giving me a pleasure-filled torture.
“Come for me.”
The breath fell from my lips as I let go and pressed my head back into the pillows so I could handle the scorching orgasm that tore at my insides.
I cried out, crying his name and panting.
“We’ll do that again later,” he promised. “Time to take you.”
I shuffled upright and pulled in a breath. “Not yet. I want to taste you too.”
I wanted to give him the same pleasure he gave me, and I hadn’t done that in weeks. We always got to the stage where I was too weak from the endless pleasure he gave me that I couldn’t move after.
His face lit up at my request and brightened even more when I moved to him. He stepped back, and I pushed his boxers down his legs, unleashing the length of his massive, thick cock.
I dropped to my knees and smoothed my fingers over the base of his shaft and stroked down the length. I couldn’t help but watch in fascination as his face contorted in pleasure. It fascinated me that I could make a man like him feel that way. He ran his fingers through my hair when I licked the fat head of his cock and took him deep into my mouth.
“Fuck, Amelia. I live for this.”
And I was eager to please him. I sucked and licked, working him as I bobbed my head up and down, licking him clean and tasting him. He blew out a ragged breath and panted, then held my head closer, so I could take him deeper.
His cock grew, straining toward me, aching for release. I felt it, but still I continued and sucked hard. The pained look on his face encouraged me to continue, and continue I did, giving my man pleasure and hopefully soothing his worries away.
I loved him with my mouth, and I loved the taste of him.
“I can’t… God… fuck.” He reached down and grabbed my arm.
I thought we would fall back onto the bed but instead, he moved with me to the wall and pushed me up against it. I managed to catch my breath before he lifted my leg and guided his cock into me. I was already ready for him, so my body welcomed him as he slid in. I wrapped my leg around him and slipped my arms around his neck, giving him better access to pound into me. But what was best about this position was the fact that we could kiss while we got lost in the fast rhythm of his pumps.
The assault of his lips on mine, the hard, rough strokes that rocked my body, the dark heat of passion that melted me. Everything.
I had everything, and in that moment, this was all I wanted. He was all that I wanted.
His thrusts increased to the usual pace I’d gotten used to with him, trapping me in the torment of ecstatic bliss as he rutted into me, the lean beauty of his hips thrashing against me.
Although I was filled with him and he gave me so much, I wanted more. My body begged for more, demanded more.
I relished the sounds of us echoing through the room. The sounds of our sweat-slicked bodies slapping against each other. The sounds of our moans and groans so loud and demanding. The sounds of my heart hammering in my chest.
Faster and faster he went, fucking me, riding me, and that was it. We both felt it. That relentless pull of the raw, primal need that consumed us. I had to wrap both my legs around his waist and grab on so hard to his shoulders that my fingernails dug into his skin and left a mark.
The orgasm that took me grabbed him too. I could feel it. He strained, then pounded home, bursting into me, and my body shuddered, bucking and thrashing against his as we shared the release.
“Luc!” I cried, unable to hold in the emotion.
He cupped my face and reclaimed my lips, soul-kissing me and crushing me to him. Kissing the world away from existence. It all faded away, and love flowed through me like warm honey.
It was a repeat of the day before, as if we were living the same day over again.
I lay in Luc’s arms relishing him, and he beamed down at me in adoration.
Neither of us wanted to leave the bed because leaving the room meant walking back into reality.
We’d stayed awake for most of the night, only getting the bare minimum sleep we needed. Then waking up to make love.
He sighed, and I watched the steady rise and fall of his powerful chest.
“I think we should leave.” His voice broke into the gentle silence that had settled over the room.
“Five more minutes, please.” I ran my fingers up to his jaw and over the shadow of a beard that had formed on his face.
He chuckled and eased himself up onto his elbows. “I mean leave for good. Just go away and disappear. We could go to Italy. We talked about going to Italy. We could live in the v
illa, or somewhere else, and no one would be able to find us.”
My lips parted, and numbness filled me, because I’d played that game before. I ran away from home, from Chicago. I became someone else and in all honesty doing that ate away at my insides and suffocated me.
Running away, that was me. Running…
“Luc, I…”
“I know it’s like before, but this time you have me. If we get you out of the country, you could be safer, out of danger. It’s a good idea, isn’t it?”
I nodded. It was a good idea. Leaving. I would be safe. I could disappear, but what would happen here? What about Dad?
When I’d left before, I had the safety net of him. He’d looked so frail yesterday. He looked like he was on his last breath.
“My father, Luc.”
“He will understand and do what needs to be done.” His brows furrowed. I didn’t miss the harshness in his tone and I recalled all that he’d said yesterday about Dad. “I’m thinking leaving might be our best option. We can think about it, but not for too long. Maybe by tonight. Tonight we can decide.”
“Okay,” I breathed.
“Okay?” He actually looked relieved.
“Yes. We decide tonight.”
“Let’s get back to Raphael’s and see what’s happening. But I’ll plan like we’re going.”
It was all so sudden.
We got dressed and got back to the manor by ten.
I was so happy to see Dad sitting in the living room with The Four. Claudius and Marcus came back with us.
It was strange seeing so many in this room. Although it was big enough to accommodate a small party of people.
I rushed up to Dad and gave him a hug and kissed his cheek. He hugged me back but then looked to Luc.
“Don’t you dare say anything to me about taking her away from here,” Luc cut him off before he could comment.
“I wasn’t going to. I heard what happened yesterday,” Dad answered.
Instead of sitting next to Dad, Luc took my hand and pulled me over to the empty seats on the sofa. I noticed Gio’s cocky smirk at Dante as they exchanged curious glances with each other.
“It’s been several days, and we’ve come up with nothing,” Dad stated.
Mafia Love (The Accidental Mafia Queen Book 3) Page 6
