Effortless: A Legacy Novel

by Bethany-Kris

  “I’ll go grab something else for her to wear,” he told his wife.

  “Thanks,” Abriella replied. Then, she turned to Rebeka. “You sit right there, and don’t you move.”

  Rebeka was already shoving her mouth full of food again. “Okay, Ma.”

  “Don’t talk with your mouth full.”

  Tom’s youngest sister showed off more chewed pasta when she repeated, “Okay, Ma.”

  More laughter filled up the table.

  Camilla laughed beside him, too. “Sometimes I wish I had younger siblings.”

  “To gang up on your brother, or what?”

  She winked at him, sexy in a blink. “One reason, sure.”

  “Probably the only reason.”

  Camilla shrugged. “Probably.”

  A firm tug on Tom’s pant leg took his attention away from the conversation he was trying to have with his father, and Tommas’s men. At his side, little Rebeka looked up at him with her big blue eyes, and a worry line creasing her tiny brow.

  “I think Camilla is lost, Tommaso.”

  He almost laughed at how serious she sounded.

  “What makes you think that?” he asked.

  “We can’t find her. It’s been ten whole minutes, and Ma says after ten minutes the person hiding wins. We called to her, but she didn’t answer us.”

  Oh, Christ.

  He left Camilla alone with his sisters and the other women for a few minutes to chat about something important, and look what happened.

  “We were playing hide and seek,” Rebeka said.

  “Yeah, I figured that out. She doesn’t know how to get around the mansion. Nobody thought to say that was a bad idea, Rebeka?”

  The place was a two-wing, three-level monster. He could fucking get lost in it.

  Rebeka shrugged her little shoulders. “She said yes.”

  Behind him, Tom’s father chuckled as he’d clearly been listening in. “Go find her, Tommaso. We can finish this conversation later.”

  He turned to his dad, but shook his head. “No, just consider what I said about Lou, and the crew. It needs to be done, and it’s your best bet to make that crew successful. It’s only running smoothly right now because of him.”

  “I’ll consider it, Tommaso. I’ll talk it over more with Theo and Damian, too, and see what they think of it. Maybe a seat could be made for another man seeing as how we don’t have one that needs filled at the moment.”

  “All right.”

  It was the best he could ask of his father. Tommas was the boss, after all, not him. Only his father could make those choices at the end of the day, as they usually ended up impacting the entire organization as a whole and not just one piece of it.

  Things like that couldn’t be done lightly.

  Tom understood.

  “Did anybody see which direction Camilla went?” he asked.

  Rebeka nodded. “The front.”

  Great.

  That left him with about fifteen halls to search, and at least ten rooms. Not to mention bathrooms, coat rooms, and closets.

  Fuck.

  “Go play with Sara, and I will find Camilla,” Tom told Rebeka.

  “Okay!”

  Rebeka darted off, and Tom headed for the front wing of the mansion. If he was lucky, he would find Camilla and be able to finally sneak her away for a night he had waited a whole damn month for.

  If he wasn’t so lucky …

  Well, he’d just have to find her.

  Tom spent a good thirty minutes looking around the front wing of the mansion. It took him up to the second and third floor, but eventually he made his way back down. He called Camilla’s name out several times, but got no answer back.

  He was starting to think someone was playing a trick on him. Or someone had gotten mixed up in which direction Camilla went. Either way, Tom couldn’t find her.

  And now he was starting to worry …

  Tom rounded the foyer stairs, and headed down a hallway that was rarely used for guests, but was a shortcut back to the middle of the mansion. It cut the time in half to get back to the dining room and kitchen.

  His best plan now was just to get everybody to start looking for Camilla. What the hell else could he do?

  A muffled knock stopped him.

  And then another.

  “Camilla?” Tom called out.

  “Tom?”

  Just from the direction her quiet voice came, he knew exactly where she was. Tom went back the way he came, and opened up the last door on the right. From the outside, that door could be opened easily.

  But from the inside?

  The doorknob jammed.

  Every single time.

  The only way to open it from the inside was with a little knife his father kept hidden up above the doorjamb. They only used that small room as extra storage for coats or whatever else when they had parties at the mansion.

  Sure enough, Tom found Camilla on the other side.

  Instantly, she smiled sheepishly at him.

  He barely held back his laughter.

  “Got lost, did you?” he asked.

  The door closed behind him, but he wasn’t worried about it. He knew how to get out.

  Camilla made a face. “Nope. I did not get lost. I just knew that eventually the girls would go find someone—likely you—and you would come get me. Now, look, Tom. I’ve got us all alone. See what I did there?”

  Her cheeky little response was all bravado, and he knew it.

  “You got lost, and then stuck.”

  “No, this was entirely intentional.”

  “Mmhmm.”

  He came closer to her, one small step at a time.

  Camilla’s grin kept growing all the while.

  “It was,” she said firmly. “That’s the story I’m going to tell.”

  “Because you don’t want to admit you got lost, and then stuck.”

  “Stop saying that.” She gave him a fake glare. “Let me keep my pride, Tom. It’s all I’ve got right now.”

  “Oh, is that what it is?”

  “Yep,” Camilla said.

  They were only a foot apart, now. He could reach out, grab her, and do all the sinfully good things that had been running through his mind since he saw her.

  “Maybe you need a lesson on learning how to swallow your pride, then.”

  She licked her lips.

  His dick hardened.

  “Maybe I do.”

  Her whisper coaxed him.

  Encouraged him.

  Challenged him.

  Tom never did know how to back down from a good challenge, and he wasn’t about to start now. He jolted forward, grabbed Camilla’s face, and pulled her in for a bruising kiss. Her grin curved wickedly against his lips, and then her tongue peeked out to tease him, too.

  “Probably shouldn’t be doing this here,” she said against his mouth.

  “Probably shouldn’t have gotten yourself lost in one of the most private rooms in the mansion, then.”

  “Asshole.”

  Tom reached around and smacked her ass. “Say it again if you want another one.”

  Camilla stood up on tiptoes, and her mouth grazed his ear. “Ass—”

  Smack.

  Her laughter pulsed against his ear. “Hole.”

  He slapped her backside again.

  Camilla made a sexy noise in the back of her throat a second before her hands pushed against his chest. She shoved Tom back against the door that had previously kept her locked in. The second time her lips met his, he already had his hands up her skirt, and two fingers stuffed up her wet pussy. He muffled her cries by sticking two of his fingers in her mouth. Her tongue swirled around the digits while he fucked her with his other hand.

  And damn, was she wet.

  Hot and silky against his palm.

  The suckling noise her pussy made every time his fingers thrust in told him that her panties were probably already ruined. Camilla grinded her cunt against his hand as he added a third finger, an
d rubbed his palm into her clit at the same time.

  She tipped her head back, and made his fingers slip from her mouth. They wet a trail of her saliva from her chin to the column of her throat where he grabbed tight. Her happy little sigh, and the way her pussy clenched around his fingers said she was damn close.

  “Make me come, please make me come,” she chanted. “Make me come, Tom, and then eat my pussy until I come again.”

  “Only if you lick my cock clean after you come all over it first.”

  Glinting brown eyes met his. She grinned again, and came hard at the same time. “You got yourself a deal, Tommaso.”

  Good God.

  This woman would kill him.

  He didn’t mind a bit.

  Tom pulled his wet fingers out from between her thighs. Camilla took that chance to bring his hand to her mouth, and suck his fingers clean.

  He loved the taste of her pussy.

  But he liked the taste of it more on her lips.

  “Fucking missed you like crazy, Cam.”

  Through lowered lashes, and a sinful smile, Camilla said, “I bet you did.”

  Then, she lifted up to her tiptoes, and kissed him again.

  “And I missed you, too,” she whispered. “Now bend me over something, and fuck me before someone comes looking for us.”

  Tom had her bent over an empty, small circular table before her next breath. He was balls-deep in her pussy the second she yanked her skirt up, and spanked her wet center just to tease him. Camilla knew exactly what her teasing did to him, and how insane it made him feel.

  She was still perfect.

  So crazy fucking perfect.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  “YOU HAVE no respect for sleeping in,” Camilla mumbled.

  God, she tried so damn hard to sound irritated, but really, her voice just came off high and airless. Not whiney, but close. Still just a little bit too needy for her liking.

  It probably didn’t help that Tommaso’s lips were kissing a tantalizing path down her stomach. He’d started at her cheek, then her throat, and focused on her breasts for a while. He teased and flicked the small hoops in her nipples until they were taut, and her back arched off the bed.

  Then, he moved lower.

  And lower.

  “How can I respect sleeping in when I have you in my bed?” Tommaso asked. “Besides, I don’t know how to sleep in. I wake up before dawn. Get used to it.”

  Get used to it.

  Words like those might have scared Camilla before. They kind of implied something long-term was on the horizon. Something beyond a one-time deal. The first thing she would have done after getting her fill was bolt, and stay gone.

  Not this time.

  Those words teased.

  They made her anticipate.

  They promised.

  His lips touched down just below her navel, and his tongue flicked out to lap at her skin. He went lower still, kissing her pubic bone, and hooking one of her legs around his shoulder. Camilla knew what was coming, and couldn’t find a single part of her that wanted to stop him.

  No matter how much she pretended to like sleep.

  This would always be better.

  Again, his tongue flicked out to lap at her skin when he kissed just above the hood of her clit. Camilla let out a slow exhale, and steeled herself. She wasn’t going to show a damn thing to Tommaso.

  It didn’t matter how good his blue gaze looked as he stared up from between her thighs with a sexy little grin, his eyebrow cocked in challenge, and …

  “Why do you have to be like this?” she asked him.

  Tommaso’s grin deepened. “Like what?”

  “I don’t know … sweet, patient, sexy as hell, gorgeous, and there’s more but my brain is really just focused on how close your mouth is to my pussy right now. So, it’s basically fucking useless at the moment.”

  His chuckle rocked them both on the bed.

  “I mean, do you want to pretend like it’s a bad thing where my mouth is right now?” he asked.

  Camilla glanced up at the ceiling, and sent a silent prayer to the God she had been taught to revere and trust. A deity she gave all her faith to because everyone needed something to believe in—something good and beautiful.

  Tommaso was kind of like that for her, too.

  Finally, she peered back at Tommaso, and waved a hand at him. “Who do I have to blame for all of this, huh? Your mother, or father? Some person who took you under their wing and taught you how to be this amazing, perfect man, or what?”

  “Uh.”

  That was all she got.

  Uh.

  Camilla stared at Tommaso, and waited for a response. “Well?”

  “I’m confused, Cam. You act as though it’s a bad thing I’m a decent guy.”

  He dropped his upper body down, rested between her legs, and set his chin to her stomach. Like that, the two looked at one another until she felt like she was capable of making full sentences that made sense.

  “It’s not a bad thing—it’s just not something I’m used to. Yeah, that works.”

  She mentally patted herself on the back.

  Tommaso shook his head. “Yeah, well, that’s a shame.”

  “Maybe you’re not perfect at all.”

  “Ouch.”

  Camilla laughed, and reached down to stroke his unshaven cheek with her palm. “No, I mean … maybe you’re just perfect for me. Every little thing about you seems to break down my walls, right? Things about you that would usually send me running for the hills actually draws me back in. I don’t know. I’m rambling.”

  Wordlessly, Tommaso pushed up from the bed, and rested on his hands. He hovered over Camilla with a smile that was still sexy, but also soft and knowing.

  Like he knew exactly what she was scared to say.

  Tommaso bent down, and grazed his nose along Camilla’s cheek. She tipped her head back, and answered his soft touch with a kiss. A sweet, slow kiss that burned through her body. From her toes, to her fingertips, she was on fire.

  It wasn’t so devastating, though.

  It wasn’t frightening.

  It soothed and reassured and protected. It wrapped around her like invisible tendrils holding tight, and refusing to let go.

  It was just a kiss, but it was everything else, too.

  And that’s when she knew for sure …

  That’s when all the things she had been wondering and waiting for slipped into place. All the answers she thought needed words and explanations actually only needed a kiss.

  Because that was when she knew.

  Camilla loved this man.

  She almost wished she could stay like that—forever lost to the moment when she fell in love with Tommaso. She knew she would love him until the end of time, but this would be the one and only time when she first really knew it.

  Tommaso smiled against her lips when Camilla stroked his cheek.

  He knew.

  She could see it in his eyes.

  Camilla still told him.

  “I love you, Tom.”

  “I know—I love you.”

  “It’s not so hard to say, I guess. Not so scary.”

  “See,” he told her, “love is effortless, Cam.”

  It was.

  That, and perfect.

  Like him.

  The ruckus of laughter by men inside the warehouse quieted damn near the second Camilla stepped foot inside the building. A dozen pairs of eyes turned on her, and she let out a little laugh.

  “What, have they never seen a girl before?”

  Tommaso chuckled at her side. “Not in here, babe. Ignore them.”

  Camilla followed behind Tommaso as he headed for the far end of the warehouse. There, an office door was open, and inside were two more men. One, Camilla recognized as Adriano—apparently, Tommaso’s uncle. He had been at the dinner the evening before.

  “Camilla.”

  She smiled at Adriano’s greeting.

  The other guy pushed off t
he desk, and shot Tommaso a questioning look. “Camilla?”

  Tommaso shrugged. “Yeah, Camilla.”

  “This is … a little weird. Mostly because I don’t understand what’s happening.”

  Adriano waved the other two men’s conversation off as he stood from the chair behind the desk. “Don’t mind them. I hope my nephew is showing you around Chicago properly.”

  Camilla cocked an eyebrow at Tommaso. “Not yet.”

  “Working on it, actually.”

  “You better,” Adriano said, grinning. “It’s hard to sell a New Yorker on Chicago.”

  “Let’s not get into that old conversation,” Tommaso said, shaking his head. “It’s not worth the effort.”

  “Because New York is—”

  “Not the best,” Tommaso interjected fast.

  Camilla rolled her eyes, saying under her breath, “Says you.”

  “And me,” the unknown guy added.

  “Me, too,” Adriano said, shrugging. “It’s a little dirty, Camilla. That’s all.”

  “Yeah, well, fuck all of you, too.”

  Laughter rumbled through the room. Their teasing didn’t really bother her. If anything, it made her feel more welcome. She certainly didn’t want Tommaso’s family and friends tiptoeing around her.

  “Are you going to introduce us, or what?” the unknown guy asked.

  Tommaso waved between Camilla and the man. “Cam, this is Lou. We’ve been friends for years. Lou, this is Cam. She’s none of your business.”

  Camilla smacked Tommaso on his arm, and then held a hand out to Lou. “Nice to meet you, and ignore him.”

  Lou flipped Tommaso the middle finger after he shook Camilla’s hand. “You could have mentioned …” The guy trailed off, and nodded in Camilla’s direction. “You know.”

  “None of your business.”

  “Tommaso,” Camilla said.

  Tommaso only shrugged, but said nothing.

  Adriano sighed heavily, and came around the desk. “Someone—not saying who, but it’s Tommaso—doesn’t like to share things. We blame it on the age difference between him and his sisters. He was spoiled rotten for too long by his mother and father, and it shows every day of his life.”

  “It is not pick on Tom day,” Tommaso muttered. “Give me the paperwork you wanted me to drop off to Tommas.”