Bene (The Guzzi Legacy Book 5)

by Bethany-Kris

  “Are you listening to me? And could you drop the fucking silent treatment for five goddamn seconds?”

  Oh, was he mad?

  Poor him.

  “I’d rather not speak to you at all,” Vanna replied, picking up the tray and turning to face Mario with a sardonic smile, “never mind look at you, but if you’re going to insist on me doing it, then maybe you shouldn’t complain about the attitude you get in the process, yeah?”

  He blinked.

  She took great satisfaction in that.

  It was all she had, now.

  “Vanna—”

  “Excuse me,” she muttered, not even giving him the chance to speak before pushing past him in the kitchen entryway, “because I have people upstairs who want clean glasses for their drinks. And you know they don’t like to be made to wait by a woman.”

  He didn’t let her get past him entirely before his hand struck out, and he grabbed her. He wasn’t easy about it, either, his fingers tightening around her wrist painfully, making her hand flex against the tray to the point that she almost dropped it.

  “Let me go,” she said quietly.

  Vanna didn’t even look at him.

  The warning should have been enough.

  Except it wasn’t.

  Shocking.

  Mario didn’t let go, and if anything, he just held tighter. In fact, he tugged on her arm, pulling her a little closer to him in the process so the side of her body pressed against the front of his, and she was forced to smell that spice cologne he seemed to prefer that reminded her of men like his father. Old men.

  Nothing young, and fresh.

  Nothing attractive.

  “Stop it,” he hissed, his first show of nastiness to her in a long while. The last time it had been when he caught her with a guy she’d been sleeping with in high school during her senior year, and he had possession and jealousy issues to handle. “You knew this was fucking inevitable, Vanna. I’ve been telling you for years what I wanted. How is it my fault that you just continued to ignore me, huh?”

  “Because no wasn’t enough? Because me saying I don’t like you wasn’t a good answer for you, or—”

  “You don’t get a choice, that’s the problem.”

  Vanna laughed.

  Bitterly.

  Yes, it was a problem.

  For her.

  Not him.

  “You’ve been comfortable, you know,” he said, head tilting down so he could murmur those words in her ear. “Comfortable thinking you were free … that you could do whatever the fuck you wanted; that you weren’t one of us, Vanna, but surprise, you are. All that shit you wanted? The life you thought was yours? That was an illusion, and I let you have it as long as I could, but now I’m tired of waiting, and I want what’s mine.”

  Right.

  Yeah.

  Because that’s all she was to him.

  Just a thing.

  Something to have.

  A trophy.

  With the title wife.

  “I’ll never love you,” she breathed, “never want you. There isn’t one single part of you that makes me need you, and you’ll know it for every single day we’re together. If you’re going to force me into a marriage with you, then I will make sure you suffer for it, too. I hope you know that.”

  “Is that a threat?”

  His grip on her suddenly took her breath away. Vanna almost dropped the tray again. Still, she held her composure, refusing to show Mario how much he affected her, and not in a good way, either. Sure, he didn’t scare her, not really. If he thought he could beat the compliance into her, then she had news for him.

  It still bothered her, though.

  “Not a threat,” she replied cuttingly, sneering up at him before she yanked her arm right out of his hold, and before he could stop her, took a step away from him. Out of his reach entirely. “It’s a promise.”

  “You were always meant to be mine.”

  “Only in your mind.”

  “But who is the one getting what they want here, Vanna?”

  Yeah.

  And she wouldn’t soon forget it.

  Mario would ruin everything for her. She’d known it from the start. All of her plans, the vendetta—something she struggled with for reasons she wasn’t quite ready to admit—and just her life. This man would ruin all of it. But damn him if he thought she wouldn’t fight for it.

  “I’m still my own woman,” she told him, “and you’ll treat me like it until a marriage certificate says differently.”

  Mario tipped his chin up. “And what does that mean?”

  “Nothing changes, that’s what it means.”

  “You’re going to be my wife.”

  “And until then, I am still Vanna Falco. I will do what I want, when I want, and how I fucking want, Mario. It’s the least you can give to me after all this.”

  “Like what, going to the stupid college?”

  God.

  He called it stupid like he understood.

  As though he knew her hopes and dreams.

  “Or my penthouse,” she replied. “Nothing changes until it has to. Otherwise, I’ll make your life a living hell.”

  “Don’t threaten me.”

  “You keep using that word.”

  His gaze narrowed.

  She smiled.

  “But it doesn’t mean what you think it does,” she added quieter, “now excuse me.”

  She left him fuming behind her.

  No doubt, she would pay for that.

  Eventually.

  Vanna made it through the night of the dinner—and Mario’s news—and then Saturday. But barely. She was still trying to process; still trying to figure out how this changed her plans, the vendetta … her entire fucking life.

  And then she just didn’t want to do anything.

  She didn’t want to think.

  Or feel.

  Or be.

  None of it.

  So, instead of wallowing in her penthouse for another lonely night, she decided to do the exact opposite. Something that might very well get her into trouble, if Mario found out, but hadn’t she been playing with fire a lot lately, anyway?

  What did it matter?

  Vanna was ready to be burned.

  What better way than Bene Guzzi?

  No questions asked, she sent Bene a text, asked him to meet up with her at a café a few blocks away from her penthouse, and he was there within the hour.

  He took one look at her.

  Saw the sadness.

  Asked, “What happened?”

  “Nothing,” she lied.

  He didn’t press.

  She adored him for that.

  Instead, he asked, “What do you want to do?”

  “Anything.”

  That was how she found herself flying down the highway in the passenger seat of Bene’s Lambo while they sped out of the city going fifty over the speed limit. His hand skated across the seats, finding its way to her thigh, and squeezing tight.

  Heat lit up her body.

  Pain squeezed her heart.

  “Ever been to Maggie’s Falls?”

  Vanna looked over at him, enjoying the way the shadows of the car darkened his handsome features. “No, never even heard of it.”

  “You’ll love it.”

  Why didn’t she doubt that?

  “Good,” she whispered.

  Bene quieted just long enough for Vanna to think he wasn’t going to say anything else. Of course, he surprised her. He always did. From the jump, this man hadn’t been what she expected.

  It was still a goddamn problem.

  For more reasons than ever.

  “Whatever’s going on,” he said, “it’ll be okay.”

  Vanna didn’t know how to tell him, but …

  No, it wouldn’t be.

  Not for him.

  For her.

  Or for anyone else.

  Had she made a mistake?

  Was trying to finish her father’s vendetta t
he biggest one yet?

  Vanna didn’t have those answers, and she no longer knew what to do to fix all of this mess that surrounded her. All by her own making, too.

  Sweet justice, maybe.

  God.

  Instead of answering Bene, she asked, “How long until we get to … that place?”

  “Another hour, maybe.”

  “Okay.”

  They drove the hour in silence, but Vanna didn’t mind, and neither did he. As long as he was touching her, it didn’t seem like Bene cared about anything else. It was almost strange how she felt the same way, but for now, she refused to indulge those feelings.

  Nothing good would come from it.

  It was easier this way.

  Bene had said Maggie’s Falls, but Vanna didn’t think anything of it. She certainly didn’t think he meant a place way out in the fucking woods. Literally, three miles into the woods, off the highway, on a dirt road that eventually ended, to where they had to get out of the Lambo, lock it up, and walk another twenty minutes before the two of them stood on a rocky ledge that overlooked a small waterfall that dropped into a swimming hole. A rope hung from a tree on the other side; one people clearly used to swing and drop into the water.

  “It’s twenty feet deep, that hole,” Bene said, “so it’s safe to jump from here.”

  Shit.

  “We’re like … twenty feet high.”

  “Yep.”

  He started shrugging off his clothes.

  Vanna laughed.

  “How did you even find this place?”

  He shot her a wink. “Bored with my twin one summer.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, kind of stumbled on it.” He looked her up and down. “Are you going to jump in with me, or …?”

  Damn.

  She loved the way he was looking at her.

  It was also really high.

  “The water is probably cold,” she said.

  Bene stood straight, pushing down his pants at the same time to let her know he was wearing nothing underneath. She noticed that—sometimes he went with boxer-briefs, and sometimes he wore nothing at all. Like his moods or the weather, it changed depending on the day. He did nothing to hide the way his cock hung against his thigh, semi-hard and inviting to her.

  “I’ll warm you up,” he promised.

  Jesus.

  Behind her, she heard the ring of her phone muffled inside her purse. A familiar ringtone. She hadn’t heard it in a while, but she knew what it meant. The detective was calling—they had another meeting coming up, and he probably wanted to make sure she still had all the details for it settled out so it was safe.

  Vanna had every reason to answer that call. To ask the man for safety in exchange for her info. To take his offer of a program that would put her underground, and out of sight of the Camorra for the rest of her life. Now, she had every reason to do that.

  And yet, she continued staring at Bene.

  He gave her every reason to stay rooted to the spot. To wish she’d never known about the vendetta. He made her want to turn back time, so things could have been so different.

  Vanna felt like a failure.

  A fraud.

  Traitor.

  She truly was her father’s daughter. Just not the one he wanted.

  Bene closed the distance between them, his kiss finding hers in the darkness, with the canopy of trees up above hiding even the stars and the moon. The sounds of the water surrounded them and took her away to a different place while the man pressed against her seemed determined to pull the soul from her body with nothing more than his kiss.

  So fine.

  Fine.

  She’d just give it to him.

  He could have it.

  If only she could fix this.

  “Are you getting in, or not?” he asked, words teasing the seam of her lips.

  Vanna pulled off her dress when he backed away.

  Her panties went next.

  Then, her bra.

  He jumped in first, cutting through the water, and coming back up with a swing of his head that tossed the water from his face as though he’d done it a million times before.

  The phone kept ringing behind her.

  Vanna jumped in second.

  Free falling.

  Twenty feet below.

  Bene’s knowing, sexy laughter surrounded her as adrenaline rushed through her bloodstream, and she swore it felt like she was flying as she cut through the air. She hit the water, slicing through it as it took her breath away.

  She was right.

  It had been cold.

  Bene was right there to make her warm when she came up for air, though.

  Bene grabbed Vanna the second she came up for air, dragging her to him in the water until her legs wrapped around his waist, and his lips found hers. She tasted like the clean water of the falls, of the droplets falling on his face from the waterfall overhead, and of the air all around them.

  Clean.

  Clear.

  Crisp.

  Her mouth parted for him, giving over to his teeth scraping against her bottom lip, a silent demand for her to open. She knew his kiss well, now. Her tongue warred with his, something that had his cock hardening more than just the sight of seeing her naked standing on the rocks above had done for him. Oh, he loved that sight sure, and his dick felt like it would be able to pound through rocks, but now it was almost painfully hard from wanting her.

  Their kiss never broke as Bene moved them backward in the small pool of deep water. Closer to the rocky edge at the bottom of the small waterfall the water was far more shadow, and he was even able to sit on it with his legs hanging over into the deeper portion.

  Vanna didn’t hesitate to straddle him on the ledge, her bare pussy under the water grinding against his cock in the best fucking way. Enough to think he might blow his load if she didn’t chill the hell out, and that was not what he wanted.

  Not then, anyway.

  “Safe, safe,” he mumbled against her lips, “tell me you’re safe.”

  “Yeah, the shot.”

  God was so good to him.

  Bene did a lot of crazy shit, and undoubtedly took more risks that he ever should in his young life, but fucking raw wasn’t one of them. And yet, this wasn’t the first time he’d done exactly that with Vanna. Had he ever brought home a chick pregnant before he was settled, his father would have throttled him for the first and only time in his life. And sure, he might be stupid, but he wasn’t quite that stupid.

  Until this woman, apparently.

  Because he was absolutely willing to ignore the fact he didn’t have a backup here, and he knew it was going to be a hundred times better because of it, too.

  “Jesus fucking Christ,” he muttered against her rough kiss, hissing after from the sensation of her manicured nails dragging lines down his chest, “you’re gonna fucking kill me here, donna. Is that pussy of yours aching that bad for me, or what?”

  Her response was a breathy whisper of, “God, yes.”

  He thrust his hands into her wet locks of hair, shoving the darkened strands back from her face and pulling her away from his kiss so he could get a good look at her face. At the bliss and wildness turning her into something beautiful for him.

  “You gonna ride me?” he demanded.

  She nodded.

  “Fuck me ‘til you can’t breathe?”

  “Yeah.”

  He leaned in, hands sliding down to wrap around her throat while his teeth grazed down her jaw to get the taste of her skin on his tongue while he asked, “Fucking get on my cock and fuck me dry, then.”

  Her hands slipped into the water between them, grasping the base of his cock to steady him before she dropped down on him. All at fucking once, too. She stretched out around him, the heat of her sex yanking a hard moan from his clenched teeth.

  His hands flexed on her throat when she started riding him. All her soft, “Holy fuck, holy fuck,” driving him even crazier.

  Sh
e was so loud, this woman.

  He loved it.

  Needed all her sounds and the way she sighed his name when she started to come, all breathy and lost. It was pure sin—total bliss to his senses.

  Her thighs trembled when her fingers dug into his pecs, her pace coming faster and faster. He knew it was coming when her pussy started tightening around his cock, and what she wanted while she did it.

  Vanna just seemed to love it when he took away a little bit of her air when she came. He swore it dragged those orgasms out of her for longer, and there was nothing quite like the sight of her with those pupils blown wide, and his name on her mouth while his hands wrapped her throat like a collar, and she broke all apart for him.

  “Almost, yeah?”

  She whispered. “Yeah.”

  “Get it, then.”

  Vanna stilled above him, coming down hard on his cock one last time before a shudder raced through her entire form. He was right, too—all it took was the flex of his fingers, her eyes blew wide to find his, and he got to feel the thrum of her pulse under his fingertips go on for what felt like forever.

  “Oh, my God, Bene,” she gasped.

  He gave her exactly a breath to recover from that orgasm before he let go of her throat, and his hands found her ass. He grabbed tight to her backside, sure he’d leave marks behind that he would be able to appreciate later, before he used her to get himself off. Dragging her up and down on his length with deep, hard strokes that had her whining again until he felt that familiar tightening in his balls.

  The heat shot up his spine a second before he held her tight to his cock, and yes, it did feel better to come like that. With nothing to hold him back, feeling the aftershocks of her orgasm milking every fucking drop from him that it could.

  “You, you … you,” he said, not knowing what else to say.

  Because what was this girl doing to him?

  How and why?

  Vanna laughed, her eyes shutting as she lifted from him. His cock slipped out of her still clenching pussy, but he was caught staring at her in the darkness, really, and the way she looked like this.

  Wet and shivering.

  Hot from him.

  Ready for another round.

  She hovered above him, pussy flashing him over the water as her hands drove down the front of her body. He watched those deft, delicate fingers of hers drift past her navel, over the damp flesh above her sex, and then between her thighs. She stroked herself, entirely unashamed that he was still panting from the aftereffects of his orgasm, and his cock was already starting to go limp on his fucking thigh.