Ruthless Empire: A Dark Mafia Collection

by Seth Eden

  She stepped away from me, seductively dropping my keys onto the table next to her door before looking over her shoulder at me. Her long lashes flicked up and down while she scanned the sight of me before turning her attention away again and started to slowly, deliciously ascend the stairs, taking extra care to step one foot over the other in a way that had her hips swinging like the pendulum of a clock. I moved to follow her but not too quickly, keeping the sight of her framed in front of me. I bit my bottom lip and did my best to memorize the view. If I were a lesser man, I’d take out my phone and take a picture, but we weren’t there, not yet.

  When we got to the top of the stairs, the entire upper floor was an open layout that spanned out into a large bedroom. It seemed like a nice enough house, but my mind was on a single track. It had its eyes on the bed and Stacy heading straight for it. I’d had to make my peace with not having the things I truly wanted a long time ago.

  Unlike my brothers, the Varasso lifestyle wasn’t for me, and each additional day I spent there was another day I was living a life I didn’t want. Such luxuries weren’t afforded to me, though. I did it because that’s what Varassos did. I did it because that same cold blood ran through my veins. I was used to just being a background character in the lives of my father and brothers, but in this moment with Stacy, I was center stage, and she was my co-star. I wanted her, and for the first time in a long time, I was going to get exactly what I wanted.

  Stacy reeled around to face me, and with a playful smile on her face, she fanned her arms out and fell straight back, landing on her queen-sized, cerulean comforter-topped bed. I grinned at the way she backed further onto it and beckoned me forward. I certainly didn’t need to be told twice. I unbuttoned the jacket of my suit, threw it aside, and then threw caution to the wind. I took my undershirt off, as well, leaving only my tank on. Stacy’s eyes grew to small orbs, and the minx-like grin on her face grew into an elated smile. No one had ever looked at me that way before. It was addicting.

  I made my way to the edge of the bed, and it was as if a different man took over my body. I grabbed Stacy’s ankles and yanked her towards me, allowing her dress to bunch up and reveal her thighs and black lace bikini underwear. I propped my arms on either side of her and tucked my head in, taking my first taste of her succulent lips. There was a sweetness to them that almost seemed natural. If I’d tried to guess before kissing her that that’s what they’d taste like, I might have guessed it. They were warm but for the lingering cool touch of the outdoors, which simmered away immediately with mine pressed in place. It was all it took for me to feel like I was floating ten feet off the ground with no fear of falling. Stacy’s arms dipping under my tank to drag her fingers in gentle scratches along the small of my back was enough to hold me aloft.

  I left her sweet lips in search of a spot on her neck, and when my lips skipped across her skin, she made that same surprised-in-a-good-way, desperately intimate sound she’d made before. It snaked around me and shot jolts of excitement down my spine and into my groin, a truth Stacy rapidly discovered when her hands lifted off the bed and cupped me. Bold and beautiful.

  I undid the tie that held Stacy’s dress in place, and it immediately drifted away from her form as though it was more excited to be parted from her skin than we were. My hands passed my head as they moved from her stomach up to her chest while my lips traveled lower. When I met the hem of her underwear, I took the fabric between my teeth and dragged them downward.

  Her legs naturally crooked themselves over my shoulders as I let my knees find the floor and ducked my head into her. She let out a quiet moan in response to my ministrations and combed her slender fingers into my hair. My other senses deadened as I took in the taste of her. She was the most delicious thing I’d ever enjoyed, and with each additional taste I got, I knew I had to have more. It was creating a void that might never be filled.

  “Gabriel.”

  Never before had my name been said with such passion, such conviction. It was like it was laced with magic that burrowed under my skin and flowed into my bloodstream. It made my body exist solely for her, desire only her. Her legs shivered in my hands, and her mewls of pleasure developed into a booming beg for more, and more she would get. I was a fiend with a drug—the more she displayed, the hotter she got, and more injected straight into me. I allowed my tongue to travel along every pathway it could find until Stacy’s voice was getting louder again before snapping silent and turning into nothing but a figure writhing against me. I was aware of her back to back orgasms but was like a hunter on its prey. I continued on with fervor until Stacy was pulling at my shirt, forcing me to come up for air.

  Somewhere in my torrent, Stacy had removed her bra, and she was laying totally bare against the black and blue cloth of her undone dress splashed beneath her. Her previously pale cheeks were totally flushed, and her pupils were large inside her emerald irises.

  “Condoms,” she huffed at me, breathless and hungry. She pointed back towards her bedside table. “There.”

  I walked over to the bedside table and opened the drawer, shocked to find a couple of toys inside alongside an unopened box of condoms. There was a part of me that wanted to analyze the contents, but there wasn’t time. I snatched out the box of condoms, ripped them open, and pulled one out. I returned to my spot at the foot of the bed and made a show of pulling the rest of my clothes off. Peeling my shirt up my torso and over my head, and finally unbuttoning my suit pants, and pushing them and my boxers off of my body. Stacy took in a sharp breath as I sprung free, and she splayed her legs out a bit wider, inviting me in. The innocent yoga instructor was gone; the woman before me was a seductress.

  I rolled the condom on and stepped up to Stacy. I perched myself where she was begging for me most and wrapped my arms around her waist to pull her up to me. The motion alone popped me just inside, and as I brought our lips together, I moved even further. My tongue walked along her bottom lip, and she took it between her lips to suckle gently. She squeezed around me below the same way she squeezed around my tongue, and I felt myself start to revert to the most primal form of man. She sapped me of my civilization, of my thoughts, of my stress. Yoga didn’t compare to the way my mind emptied out everything that wasn’t Stacy or the heat slowly crawling its way up my body.

  Stacy pulled against me, and I relented, allowing her to bring me to my back on the bed. She straddled herself over me and returned to nestle herself against me, tossing back her head when I was seated inside. I took her hips between my hands and relented all control. Stacy started to rock at a rapid pace with her hands braced on my stomach, digging her fingers into my abs. I focused all of my energy on lasting in spite of the halo of light surrounding her cream skin. She was unearthly, alien, but in a way that made me want to visit whatever planet she was from. Something fused us together, stronger than the attachment of our physical selves. It was as if I didn’t realize I’d been missing my own arm my whole life, and now suddenly, I had it back.

  My hands clawed into her, fighting against the surge of pleasure bubbling up in my stomach and seeping its way towards my groin. I wasn’t ready to be finished yet, but the feeling of her had my body on another course of action. Afraid that I might hurt her, I loosened my grip, but her hands encircled my wrists.

  “No. Don’t. It feels good.”

  There was a kink for roughness buried deep inside this woman. I only hoped I’d have plenty of chances to discover everything she liked, but for the moment, I settled for digging my hands in and giving in to my body’s demand for release.

  Our voices intertwined and filled the room with such roaring, audible clues of our pleasure that Stacy’s neighbors need not guess what we were up to. The heat of her around me seared to the point that I didn’t think I’d be able to stand it anymore. Stacy slowed, but I held on, even after she collapsed on top of me, bringing her head to rest against my undulating chest.

  Had we been there minutes? Had we been there hours? There was no way to say for sure. A
ll I cared to see was the angel on top of me, letting out rhythmic hums as her orgasm finally crept away from her.

  “Wow,” Stacy managed to breathe out. “Just…wow.”

  It was far the best sex I’d ever had. “Yeah. Wow.”

  7

  Stacy

  My parents had always boasted a holistic lifestyle. They weren’t the wheat-and-grass hippies that people think of when they see our flower crowns and long hair. They were people who truly and firmly believed from the depths of their souls that our bodies were intricately latticed with nature and understood that relationship is the key to health and happiness.

  As such, my parents had taken a very progressive, forward-thinking approach to sex, as well. They made sure that I didn’t shy away from nakedness and that the concept of sharing all of myself with another person wasn’t taboo but worked hard to teach me how to be healthy and honest with myself. There were hundreds of ways a person could use natural energy to their advantage in the bedroom and create a sexual experience unlike any other, and once I’d reached the appropriate age, my mom was very outspoken with me about all of it.

  Even her carefree self, ‘sex isn’t a big deal unless you want it to be’ lessons had included, “At least wait until the third date, Stace. Never let a man think that you’re easy.”

  Mission failed.

  Ordinarily, I would feel embarrassed or be on a tear to make sense of what I would otherwise consider a huge mistake. I was trying to list the reasons why I would drop my typically rock-solid resolve to let Gabriel in, but nothing I reached was the truth. I could tell myself it was the liquor, or his good looks, or his charm, but the truth was deeper and more frightening than any of that.

  My mom once told me about a moment she experienced when she was young. She was at a party with some friends and accidentally knocked a drink into someone’s lap. She flailed about, trying to clean up her spill when her hand accidentally brushed against the hand of her soda pop victim. She claimed that time froze. The second their hands touched, it was like she could feel the world knocking into alignment, and when she looked up into the man’s eyes, she knew in an instant that he was her soulmate.

  That man was my father.

  I looked over at Gabriel. His eyes were still closed, and a cute, quiet snore was puffing out at a tempo that aligned with the gentle beating of his heart. My experience wasn’t like the one my mom had, but it was just as profound. Time didn’t freeze, and I didn’t feel the world knocking into alignment. It was more like when the ancient earthquakes caused Pangea to split. It was powerful and terrifying and totally out of my control, but once the dust settled and the astronomical shaking finally ceased, what was left behind was something that was always meant to be there. The sudden entrance of Gabriel seemed to be peeling away pieces of me I would have otherwise thought belonged there.

  It was almost like he was an extension of my true self.

  I didn’t believe in love at first sight or soulmates. Auras are ever-changing, and so are people. Twenty-four hours ago, I would have climbed the hill that the strongest relationships are not divine but the cornucopia of hard work and died there. Something different was filling me now. The connection I felt with Gabriel the second he wrapped his arms around me took my breath away like it didn’t totally belong to me in the first place, but the breath he gave back was fresher than any I’d breathed before.

  How frightening.

  I made a note to discuss the matter with my mom later as I watched the sun peak over the horizon through my bedroom window and rise into the dark blue sky. I’d always been an early riser, and that didn’t compare to Gabriel laying next to me. I definitely wasn’t going back to sleep. I tossed aside my blanket and kicked a foot off the bed, but before I could get the other over, Gabriel’s arms tightened around my waist and pulled me even closer to him. It was as gentle as it was strong, and I released myself to it, allowing him to nestle me back into him.

  “Just a few more minutes.”

  His voice was like silk. If I could have recorded it and made it my ringtone, I would have. His deep, gravelly voice; his strong, careful arms; his beautiful, youthful face; his tender, but animalistic love making—what sort of beast had I stumbled upon?

  I turned my head enough to peck against his lips. “I was going to make breakfast.”

  “Real breakfast?” he grumbled against me, and I laughed.

  “What the hell is real breakfast? As opposed to what?”

  “Tofu bacon and fake cheese.”

  I snorted. “I have real bacon and real cheese. I cook for my best friend and my assistant all the time, and they both would murder me if I tried to feed them anything that even shared an apartment with tofu bacon.”

  “Smart friends.”

  There were soft, warm kisses against the nape of my neck, and they sent chills down my spine. If I wasn’t careful, I wasn’t just going to slowly descend the cliff to Gabriel, I was going to jump headfirst, the sharp, jagged rocks at the bottom be damned.

  “Breakfast and Netflix.” I giggled. “We already took care of the chill part.”

  His body shifted around me as he laughed. “I would say we started the chill part. I’m not done yet.”

  I raised an eyebrow, the promise of a round-two already seeping down south. “Well, that’s good, because I’m not either.” I rolled around so that I could give him a proper kiss. “Breakfast first?”

  Gabriel’s eyes finally drifted open. When they landed on me, my entire body shook. “Breakfast first.”

  Though there was still a heavy reluctance to Gabriel’s arms as I pried them off of me, he eventually let me go, and I climbed out of the bed. I slipped on a silk robe I had slung over a chair next to my bed and started for the stairs. I risked a look back over my shoulder at Gabriel, but he was already sitting up in bed, and even with his hair a mess around his head, his eyes were dead set on me, watching me like the most interesting movie he’d ever seen.

  “What?” I asked.

  Gabriel shook his head. “Nothing.”

  I continued down the stairs and into the kitchen, all the while trying to ignore the stupid smile I couldn’t get off my face. If he stayed all day and another night, I wouldn’t mind. Gabriel was special. I didn’t know to what degree, but somehow, I knew.

  I worked on our breakfast over the course of the next twenty minutes. I made a veggie omelet with cheese for myself and one with bacon and cheese for Gabriel. I carried the plates into the living room and set them down on the coffee table before heading back for a couple of glasses of orange juice. Hopefully, Gabriel didn’t mind pulp. It was my preference. When I was on my way back into the living room, Gabriel was wandering down the stairs with only his pants on, and I wasn’t about to complain about the view. He was clicking through his phone, not paying much attention, but he did have a look of confusion on his face.

  “Everything okay?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” Gabriel responded. He looked up at me with a smile, sliding his phone into his pocket. “I was expecting a thousand angry texts from my brother, but he left me alone.”

  I grinned, hiking up my shoulders and presenting the juice like some sort of award. “Lucky us.”

  Gabriel wrapped an arm around my waist and closed in on me. I had to hold the glasses of orange juice out of reach as he planted a kiss on me. First, my lips, then my cheek, then my neck. I was already shivering with excitement. It felt so natural.

  “We decided on breakfast first.”

  Gabriel grumbled. “We did.” He held up one finger, seductively sliding it against my bottom lip. “One breakfast.”

  I found myself leaning forward with my lips parted, so much so that when Gabriel pulled away, I almost fell. He played innocent, but there was something deep inside him. Not quite a demon, but something inhuman. He reminded me of a Grecian statue. Perfectly designed on the outside and may even have fabric designed to look soft and real, but underneath what was meant to look serene and fragile was actual stone. I had a
feeling that more than one thing about Gabriel was going to surprise me as we got to know each other better.

  Gabriel walked over to the couch and sat down, and I followed, setting the juice down. I was about to settle in myself when I realized I forgot silverware and napkins. I handed Gabriel the controller, having already navigated my smart TV to Netflix.

  “Wanna look for something?”

  Gabriel nodded, took the remote, and started flicking through. I watched him for a moment. It was like he was using foreign technology. He got the basic gist, but his fingers kept losing the buttons, and he needed to look down to find them again. Was his job that busy, or was he more of a beatnik than I was? I didn’t ask. I turned around and walked into the kitchen for silverware. I was pulling them out of the drawer when I heard the quick trailer of a mobster show I liked. They covered new crime families every week. The voices came and went with barely a linger compared to the ten or so seconds Gabriel was giving everything else.

  “Oh!” I called over my shoulder. “Can we watch that one? I love it.”

  “No.” Gabriel’s voice was rough and short. I didn’t know how to respond.

  “Come on.” I grabbed a couple of napkins, the silverware, and ran back into the living room. “It’s really good.”

  “I’m not really into those.” It was an obvious lie, but what a silly thing to lie about.

  I reached over him and tried to take the remote, but he pulled it out of reach. I tried again, and he switched hands.