by Nikki Chase
That’s why I didn’t stop Matteo. His fingers caressing my cheeks and his coaxing voice in my ear made me lose my mind.
I don’t know how long I’ve been lying here like this, waiting for him, my pussy ready for him. My heart skips a beat every time I hear the slightest sound—a knock against the window, a thud just outside the bedroom door, a heavy footstep.
Whenever Matteo wants me, I’m here, ready for him to use. The idea drives me wild. My pussy feels empty in contrast to my stretched ass.
Every time I try to lower my hips, the butt plug lodges itself deeper, in a different angle, stopping me. It must be attached to something; perhaps the head of the bed. I can’t reach my fingers high enough to reach the part of me that’s dripping wet either.
I’ve been dying for release since we were in the shower, when I had Matteo’s cock in my mouth, when his hands lathered me up and washed me down.
And now . . .
With an impotent groan, I pull my thighs as close together as I can in a desperate attempt to relieve some of the pressure that has built up in my core. It doesn’t work.
“Didn’t I tell you not to even try?” Matteo’s voice makes me jerk against my restraints in surprise. When did he enter the bedroom? I didn’t even hear him breathe.
“I didn’t touch myself,” I protest.
“Yes, kitten. Because you couldn’t,” he says.
My cheeks heat up. I feel like a little girl who has just gotten caught stealing cookies from a hidden jar.
“I’ve been watching you.” I feel the mattress dip under Matteo’s weight, and my heart thumps in my chest. He’s right beside me. “I opened and shut the door, then I stayed in here. You think I’d miss the opportunity to watch you squirm in frustration, all helpless and vulnerable and sexy?”
I bite my bottom lip. This is embarrassing. But despite my shame—or maybe because of it—tingles rush all over my body, waking up my nerve endings.
“I said you weren’t allowed to play with yourself. But you couldn’t help yourself, could you, kitten? You tried everything. Don’t deny it. I saw everything.”
A moan escapes my lips when Matteo traces the length of my spine with a light finger. God, I’m so sensitive. Goosebumps rise across my skin.
“I told you I’d punish you, kitten. I’m going to spank you. Not now . . . but later, when you least expect it.”
“What are you going to do now, Sir?”
Matteo says nothing. I feel him move behind me, between my spread legs. Just knowing he’s there makes my whole body thrum with anticipation. What is he looking at? What will he do next?
“You look so sexy like this I want to keep you tied up just like this all night,” he says, desire dripping from every syllable.
“Matteo, I can’t—”
A smack on my ass makes me yelp, cutting off the rest of my sentence.
“That’s one,” he says. “But you still have two more coming because you didn’t address me properly. You’ll behave, won’t you, kitten?”
My arousal grows as the sting on my skin starts to feel good. “Yes, Sir.”
“Good girl.”
I gasp when I feel something at my entrance. Something hard and hot and—“Matteo,” I moan as he slides into me, filling me up.
“I can’t help myself, kitten. I need to have you now.” Matteo grabs my hips as he thrusts into me again and again, turning me into a shuddering heap on the bed. “Did you forget what you’re supposed to call me?”
“I’m sorry, Sir.” Every word I say is punctuated with a moan. My breaths have turned into hitched gasps.
“It seems to me like you want to be punished.” Matteo spanks me one more time, making me cry out.
How many more times will he do that? I don’t know if I’m anticipating it out of apprehension or desire now. Everything blends together—the pleasure, the pain.
My head spins as Matteo fucks me harder and faster, his fingers digging into my hips, not even stopping when he spanks me again. I stick my ass higher in the air, pushing myself back as far as I can, offering myself to him.
“You’ll walk around with your pussy and ass sore because of me tomorrow,” Matteo says in between frantic breaths. “You’ll feel me inside you as you go about your day. You’ll get wet thinking about me, even when it’s inappropriate, but you won’t be able to help yourself.”
I grasp the bedsheets with my fingers as I lose control of my body, shaking and shuddering as Matteo fills me up with his cock and butt plug. I shatter, my pussy clenching around him.
Matteo keeps fucking me with no mercy, floating me from one orgasm to the next until I’m just a shaking heap of submissive goo on the bed.
When I finally come down from my peak, Matteo is no longer inside me, and his cum is leaking out of me, dripping down my thighs. I was so wrapped up in my climax I was no longer aware of what was going on.
Matteo caresses my skin as he removes my restraints one by one, whispering unintelligible words as his touch heals me. He makes me feel loved, treasured, even after all the dirty, depraved things he’s done to me.
“You’re beautiful,” he says when he takes off my blindfold and lies down next to me. As he strokes my hair, I let my mind float to the clouds. I hear his voice from a great distance. “Is it okay if I stay over?”
A smile tugs up my lips. Why shouldn’t he stay over? Why wouldn’t I want him with me all the time? “Sure.”
Matteo
“What is this I hear about you getting someone to clean up your house?” Dad asks from the other end of the phone line.
Grace’s bedroom door closes with a soft click. She’s asleep now, and I don’t want to wake her up just because my dad is calling. The poor woman looks like she hasn’t had a good night’s rest in years.
“Jesus, Dad. Why are you so interested in what I do with my house?” I turn on the light in the living room and pace the floor.
“It’s unusual, and you know I pay attention to unusual things.” His voice is gruff as usual. “I wasn’t spying on you, if that’s what you’re implying. It’s just that your mom mentioned it during dinner, and we haven’t spoken in a while.”
It has been weeks since I left home. It took me a while to find Grace, but the wait has been worth it.
“Are you coming home soon?” he asks.
That depends on how long it takes for Grace to agree to come home with me. “Yeah. Give me a little more time.”
“You’ve spent enough time away from home,” he says. “You know we’re in the midst of a war. You can’t just take off whenever you want.”
“We’ve always been in the midst of a war.” I’ll have to admit that things got way worse when Grace disappeared, though.
An exasperated sigh. “Look, I didn’t call you just to tell you I know about the cleaning lady in your house. I have bad news.”
My muscles tense. I’d almost forgotten what this feels like.
I’ve been spending so much time, either playing the family man with Grace or thinking about playing the family man with Grace, that I’d almost lost sight of what I really am. What my family needs me to be.
“What bad news?” I ask, all business.
Dread coils in my stomach, infusing me with the strength I need to be the shark, the human killing machine, the avenging force to be feared.
“It’s Franco,” comes my father’s voice. “He got hurt. It’s bad.”
Fuck. Franco is one of my most trusted men. The quiet guy who I could always rely on to do his job right. One of the few I’d trust with my life.
It was Franco who dragged me and Hector to the club that night I landed back in town. He saw Grace too that night. I remember the three of us freaking out over what a coincidence it was that Grace was the woman I was to marry.
Franco isn’t just a foot soldier or a bodyguard. He’s a friend.
“How bad?”
“He’s in a coma. They still don’t know if he’s going to make it through the night,” my dad says.<
br />
“What happened?”
“A fight with some men who worked for the Espositos at one of the clubs. It got out of hand. Franco was outnumbered,” comes the answer from the phone.
“Shit.”
There’s a number of clubs in the city that the Guerrieros and the Espositos fight over. The war has gone on for so long nobody knows which club was in whose territory, so whenever a dealer from one family sees another dealer from the other family, it always ends in an altercation—often bloody.
“I won’t lie, this may make things worse. You know how much the men like Franco. They’re angry, and they want revenge. Blood will be spilled. You need to be here.”
He’s right. I should be home. My people need me to lead them, to give them strength, to come up with a plan of attack.
Grace and Jack don’t need me. They’ve been doing just fine without me for years. But I can’t be without them, now that I’ve had a taste of how good things could be.
“I’m not done here,” I say, knowing he won’t be happy with this answer.
“This is the longest you’ve been away from home. You know normally I let you do whatever you want because you never let your work suffer. But now, you’re sacrificing your family for a wild goose chase.”
I wish I could tell him I have two more family members to think about now, and they’re more important than life itself.
I want to defend my actions. This is the furthest thing from a wild goose chase. I’ve found the woman who could put an end to this battle.
But I know Grace would want me to wait until she’s ready to tell my family.
The shrill sound of a doorbell pierces the air. I look out the window to find Lily and Jack standing on the porch.
“Dad, I have to go. But I’m looking for a real solution here, a permanent end to the war. I’ll come home as soon as I find them.” I hang up.
I pull the front door open to see a scowl on Lily’s face. Even though Grace has tried to explain to her that things between us are good now, she hasn’t forgotten the fear in Grace’s eyes when I showed up outside.
“Hey, buddy. Did you have fun?” I ruffle Jack’s hair.
“Yeah.” He gives me a grin even as he struggles to keep his eyes open.
I laugh. “Thanks for looking after him.”
“Where’s Ashley?” Lily asks, eyeing me like she thinks I’ll take off with Jack tied up in the trunk to sell in the black market.
I realize the answer is only going to make her more suspicious. “She’s asleep.”
It takes me a while, but I finally manage to convince Lily that I’m telling her the truth and I don’t intend Grace or Jack any harm. It’s a negotiation more terse than some transactions I’ve had with crime organizations.
Lily probably still thinks of me as the guy who made Grace so scared she had to abandon her life and start over. It’s not an unfair assessment, really. I was the reason Grace had to fake her own death.
She’s just being a good friend, and it comforts me to know that someone cares about Grace like she obviously does.
Now that she’s got me, I’ll take care of her better than anyone ever has. I’ll never let her out of my sight. When I come home, she’ll be right by my side.
Grace
Sun rays stab my eyes, and I peel them open to find myself alone in my bed.
It’s bright here with the light pouring in through the window, but I was just in a world of darkness and heavy breathing and violent touches that turned into explosive orgasms.
As I push myself up to a sitting position, the memories of last night flood my mind, and I wonder if they were real.
Wait. Did I ever pick Jack up from Lily’s?
Shit. Shit, shit, shit.
I slide my feet into my furry house sandals and run out of the bedroom. Lily has asked me to let Jack have a sleepover at her house before, but I didn’t want to impose on her.
Jack may seem perfectly delightful for a few hours, but if he cries and Lily doesn’t have me around to hand him off to, she may swear off ever babysitting for me again.
When I grab the door handle, I realize it feels cooler than usual, and I realize I’m naked. I grab the clothes at the top of the piles in my wardrobe and rush outside, running down the hallway.
“Where’s Mommy going, so early in the morning?” comes a masculine voice.
“Matteo?”
Heavy footsteps approach. Matteo shows up in the hallway, wearing nothing but a pair of jeans, cradling Jack against his body. His chiseled, smoking-hot, just-walked-off-a-magazine body.
I stare at him, no words coming from my mouth even though I know I should say something. He’s so attractive I can barely focus even under normal conditions. And now, he’s holding Jack in his muscled arms like the three-year-old weighs nothing.
It’s almost unfair how sexy he looks when he clearly has just gotten out of bed himself, his hair all messy from sleep.
Jack laughs for no apparent reason like he often does. “Mommy!”
“Hey, Jack. I was looking for you.” I step closer until I hold Jack’s hand, painfully aware that Matteo’s arms are just a feather away. I need to get ahold of myself.
“Where did you think he was?” Matteo asks in that deep baritone that made my whole body vibrate last night.
“I . . . When did he come home from Lily’s?” I ask, feeling irresponsible. I need to stop getting distracted by Matteo and pay more attention to Jack.
“After you fell asleep last night.”
“You . . . put him to bed and everything?”
“It wasn’t a big deal. He was all tired out after playing outside all day.” Matteo gives me a smile that melts my insides. “Want some coffee?”
I feel like I’m in an alternate dimension where things magically materialize without me doing anything. Matteo is a guest in my house, and yet he’s taking care of everything for me. I feel guilty but so well-rested I can’t deny I needed the sleep.
“Sure.” Following behind Matteo, my eyes feast on the ropes of muscles under his tanned skin. Two hollows at the bottom of his back make me want to reach out my hand and touch him. His long legs look amazing in a pair of jeans.
“Here.” Matteo’s voice as he offers me a steaming mug of coffee interrupts my thoughts. When I look up to find his eyes, he says nothing, but the smirk on his gorgeous face tells me he knows I’ve been checking him out.
“Thanks.” I stare down at the most interesting coffee I’ve studied in my life, hiding my flushed face behind the mug. I need to say something. “Did you have to change him?”
Matteo laughs. “Yeah. We got to know each other on a deeper level this morning, didn’t we, Jack?”
Jack giggles. It’s like they share some kind of a secret now. The sight of them looking at each other, grinning, fills my chest with warmth.
I stare at them. “You know how to change a diaper?”
“Well, that was my first time,” Matteo admits sheepishly. “I didn’t want to wake you up, and there were videos on YouTube, so I just gave it a go. I got something on my shirt but Jack looks great, right?”
So do you, I want to say. I bite back the words. I can’t just tell him he looks better naked in front of my toddler.
Instead, I laugh at a mental image of Matteo, slouching over the changing table while a how-to video played on his phone.
This feels nice. Coffee in the morning, Jack giggling happily, a sexy, half-naked man in my kitchen. I could get used to this.
The problem is things can’t stay this way forever. Not for Matteo and me.
Later that day, when Jack is taking a nap, Matteo proves my point.
I perch on the barstool in the kitchen as Matteo whips up some adult food. He’s wearing a shirt now, but I still remember every little contour underneath.
He leans across the breakfast bar and holds a spoon up to my mouth. “Try it.”
The stew he’s working on tastes amazing. Rich and complex. “That’s way better than I expecte
d.”
He raises an eyebrow. “I don’t know if that’s a compliment or a diss.”
I laugh. “I just didn’t expect you to cook; that’s all. I mean you’re this big, scary, mafia guy.”
Matteo cocks me a lopsided smile, his gaze dark. “Are you scared of me, kitten?”
When he speaks like that, my core reacts. I can’t help it. He makes me crave sex like I never have before.
Heat suffuses my cheeks. “No.”
“Liar.” Matteo laughs. He moves the food onto two plates and sets them on the counter between us. “I had to cook for myself when I was living away from home. My mom taught me some recipes. This is one of them.”
I think about Matteo in the kitchen of his bachelor pad, working on an Italian stew as he follows a family recipe. “I can see why you’d crave something like this when you’re away from home.”
He smiles. “Grace, come home with me.”
“So you’re only being so nice to me because there’s something you want, huh?” My tone is light, but I’m only half-joking.
Matteo has been great to me. Amazing. Gentle, kind, and understanding. Too good to be true.
What if this is just a trap? What if he’s just trying to get me to do what he wants so he can take Jack away from me? What if he wants revenge for what I did to dishonor his family, or for my family’s part in this stupid war they wage against one another?
I mean I almost got teary-eyed watching Matteo and Jack this morning. My eyes misted. But of course he’d treat Jack well; Jack is his son after all.
Sure, we have unbelievable chemistry in bed, and we have a son together. But how much do I really know Matteo? I’ve just found out that he can cook this morning. All I know about him is what he has chosen to share with me.
In contrast, I haven’t chosen to share any information with him. He snatched that choice away from me when he looked me up and tracked me down.
He has already stolen my information. What’s stopping him from taking even more from me—my son, my life?
