by Bethany-Kris
Jordyn’s emotions threatened to spill over, but she forced them back long enough to ask, “How did Antony find you?”
“I was hiding in an alley beside one of his restaurants to find something to eat. A few of his men had noticed me there before. They’d tried to follow me once, but lost me. I guess me muttering about in Italian made one of them stop and think. By that time, Antony had already gone in search of my mother and found the documents of me in her old apartment. Anyway, that night, when he said my father’s name, I trusted him. He apologized to me and then he took me home.”
“Lucian—”
“Antony paid for my mother’s burial, because her family couldn’t afford it. I’ve never been to her grave.”
Jordyn felt his hand tighten to her leg, like he was rotting himself in place. “Hey, look at me.”
Lucian wouldn’t. “I attached myself to Dante first, because he was the closest in age, but he scared the shit out of me half of the time. He was a lot louder as a kid than he is now. Gio talked a lot and was a joker always causing trouble, and he still does. I liked the house because it was big, but sometimes it was too big, so I’d hide in the closets for hours until someone finally found me. Cecelia hated that, but she never once scolded me for it. A few months after my ninth birthday, Antony found me under his desk playing with a pocket knife. Instead of punishing me for having the knife, he showed me how to peel an apple and I’ve called him my father ever since.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” Lucian whispered. “Those people gave me everything.”
“And you feel guilty because you miss what was taken away.”
“Sometimes. Mostly I’m just stuck trying to figure out what I was supposed to be.”
“You told me once that you knew John loved you,” Jordyn said quietly. “Was that a lie?”
“No, absolutely not.”
“Then he wouldn’t care who you are, Lucian. The son Antony raised, or the boy he helped make. It wouldn’t matter.”
“I’m never going to know for sure, though.”
“Like I said before, you need to figure out if not being able to have answers is something you can live with. It’s your life. No one else’s. Don’t you know anything about your future you want for sure that is solely yours and has nothing to do with your past?”
“You,” Lucian said instantly. “I want you.”
“You had me before you told me any of this. I’d like to think you’ll have me long after, too.”
“No one else will,” he stated, a possessiveness filling his tone and sending a shiver up Jordyn’s spine. “I wouldn’t let them.”
“No one,” she echoed. “Come to bed. It’s late and you’re tired, Lucian.”
Lucian did, but he didn’t crawl onto his side like Jordyn thought he would. Instead, he pulled the blanket off her and slipped between her thighs, sinking into a waiting embrace. For a long while, he stayed like that, still and silent.
It was only when his talented fingers began unclasping the buttons of the dress shirt she pulled on before coming to find him earlier that Jordyn finally understood what he wanted now. Lucian pushed open the shirt to expose her chest without a word, his mouth coming down to dot along her breasts, up to her collarbones, and underneath her jaw. Gentle, sweet kisses of his lips and tender flicks of his tongue striking out to taste her skin.
Softly, he touched her, his fingertips skipping across her flesh, waking up nerves and desire. Heat curled in her belly, driving her thighs to close around Lucian’s sides as his hardening length ground into her bare sex. Instinctually, her hands found purchase to the strong lines of his back and shoulders, her fingers digging in to hold him closer, and to feel him better. Arousal soaked between her thighs, and she yearned for him to fill her and take her.
“I want to love,” he murmured along the curve of her right breast. “Love and then sleep.”
“We can do that,” she replied in a moan. Lucian’s teeth enclosed her nipple, making Jordyn arch into his mouth and gasp. “Jesus, Lucian.”
“Again,” he demanded, grinding harder into her sex, his fingers grabbing tightly to her hips. “My name in your mouth just like that, sweetheart. Like you adore and love me, only me. Like I’m all you need and want.”
Jordyn whimpered low. “You are.”
“Say it, Jordyn.”
“Lucian, please …”
He was only gone from her body for a moment, long enough to grab what he wanted from the bedside table, but every inch of her felt it. A loss, a piece of her gone. It wasn’t normal.
Jordyn didn’t want it to be.
When he climbed back between her opened thighs, his boxer-briefs were gone, and a condom was sliding down the hard shaft of his cock. More wetness seeped from Jordyn’s pussy, her sex clenching at the sight of Lucian’s hand fisting his length.
She was always so wet for him. Her body wanted more, craved him constantly. His touch, his mouth, his hands. Everything. All of him.
This time was no exception.
Jordyn welcomed Lucian’s weight willingly as he covered her body with his. Lucian took her without warning, but for the flick of his gaze piercing into hers as his cock thrust into her core. She was ready for him, her body took his intrusion without any trouble at all. The sensitive tissues of her sex flexed around him, stretching her full … so fucking full. The high cry of her bliss as he bottomed out with that one, smooth plunge was caught in his mouth taking over hers.
High above her head, their fingers tangled together against the pillows.
It was only a second that he stayed still, but she felt it all. The pulse in his shaft that seemed to match her racing heartbeat. The twitch in his muscles as he held back from pulling out and diving into her again. The tiny quiver in his bottom lip grazing hers.
“Don’t cry for me,” she heard him say.
Had she been? Jordyn didn’t even realize the tears she’d held at bay were finally beginning to fall.
Jordyn lifted her hips under his to urge him to move. Lucian did, painfully and tortuously slow. It was the softest he’d ever loved her body, even that first time didn’t quite compare to the emotions and gentleness mixing in with this.
Every flex of his body into hers sent the heat rising, the coil tightening. The smell of their sex was already starting to permeate the room. It was the rhythmic meet of skin on skin, of her heels digging into his back, and their fisted hands pushing harder into the pillows.
Jordyn loved this man. Loved him wholly, entirely. Loved the way he loved her.
Hazel eyes stared into hers as gasping pants turned into rising cries. There was no gimmick to their love-making, no fast and dirty words or fucking. It wasn’t needed. Her body responded to his so well without it.
She wasn’t entirely sure how long they stayed like that. After one orgasm had swept her under gently, with a thrumming course of pleasure thickening up her blood and voice. The second built up with a higher intensity, making her aware of every inch of every thrust until she was on a precipice and tumbling over. Sweat-slicked and lost to Lucian, she watched him let go with wetness in his gaze and her kiss on his mouth.
“Don’t cry,” he said again, kissing her jaw.
“This is what people who love do, Lucian. They cry when someone they love hurts.”
“But I don’t hurt with you, Jordyn.”
Chapter Eighteen
“Jordyn, it can’t be that bad, sweetheart,” Lucian tried to reassure.
“Yes, it is. It’s awful. Do you realize he calls Cecelia particular all of the time? But he is one of the most difficult men to work for that I have ever met. She isn’t hard to deal with at all compared to him. I’m going to kill him. I will. With that pretty little knife collection in his office. No one will even suspect a thing.”
Lucian forced himself not to laugh, or bang his head repeatedly to the Lexus steering wheel. Either one would have worked frankly, because he was stuck between amusement and frustration.
> “You’re laughing at me,” Jordyn muttered. “This isn’t funny!”
“I am not!”
Not on the outside, Lucian corrected internally.
“You are!” Jordyn huffed on the other end of the phone, and Lucian swore he heard her foot stomp. Maybe she was more agitated than he thought. “Fine, I’m hanging up.”
“No, don’t.” Lucian rubbed at his temples, glancing out the window at the passing vehicles. “I told you he was hard to work with. I wasn’t lying. The last assistant he had lasted less than two weeks, and the one before that, a month at the most. There’s a reason why they quit, and it’s not because Antony fires them.”
“He’s never this … completely annoying.”
Fact was, Lucian knew Jordyn truly enjoyed working with Antony. She actually excelled in something she hadn’t ever tried before. She as good at keeping his time managed, and making sure he was always on track. The work ensured she was busy, Antony liked and respected her as a person, and it was a healthy environment that gave Jordyn something to do. It was a testament to her ability to yet again, adapt to a new situation.
Dante chuckled in the passenger seat, having listened to the conversation in silence up until then. “Who’s on his meeting docket after dinner?”
Lucian passed the question on to Jordyn, not that he understood what it mattered, and then just decided to turn the phone on speaker.
“Joseph Crony. Everything else but Cecelia’s dinner date was cleared out for the guy.”
“There you go,” Dante said like that explained it all. “Joseph happens to be one of Dad’s biggest rivals in development investment. It drives Antony crazy, even if he has a higher bottom line than Joseph.”
“He’s acting this way because of money?” Jordyn screeched.
“Not just money. Competition. Old rivalry. Joseph would go broke to keep his property investment numbers within a five percent margin of Antony’s. Antony would go broke to buy Joseph’s firms out, and believe me, he’s tried. It’s a back and forth that never really ends. I think secretly they like each other, but Dad gets in his moods whenever he’s got a meeting with the man, and they have them at least once a month, just to keep up friendly appearances.”
“Great,” Jordyn growled. “Let’s all go back to high school.”
Dante shrugged, giving Lucian a sympathetic expression. “It might seem childish, but it’s been happening for years.”
“How do you know all of this?”
“Because I own a forty percent share in Marcello Industries,” Dante answered matter-of-fact. “That was my inheritance guarantee after university. I enjoy working alongside Dad most days. Why do you think I took the day off today, Jordyn?”
“Should have kept her in bed with me this morning,” Lucian said under his breath. “That was much more fun than this.”
Dante ignored the comment. “I suggest you do some fast and dirty research on Joseph and his business before the meeting. Keep in mind he has never exceeded Antony’s bottom line by even a decimal point of a percent, and that’s what matters most to my father, regardless of what Joseph tries to say. Currently, Antony ranks over him by at least four spots on the wealthiest lists, North America, United States, and worldwide included. Remind Antony of that and he’ll calm down a bit.”
“I can’t believe this is about money,” Jordyn said again, clearly exasperated. “That’s ridiculous.”
“Most things are in our business,” Dante replied. “Money makes the world go round.”
Lucian took the phone off speaker and held it back to his ear. “You going to be okay?”
Jordyn sighed deeply. “Sink or swim, Lucian.”
“As long you don’t drown, sweetheart. I wouldn’t let you anyway.”
“Money, honestly. I have to go. Love you, hmm?”
“You, too.”
Lucian hung up the phone with a chuckle, dropping the device to his lap.
“She’ll be fine,” Dante said, grinning. “The other people working around her are jealous as hell. Antony doesn’t bark at Jordyn like he does others because she isn’t afraid to snap back. They’re afraid of him, she isn’t. It’s good for him.”
“She’s tough,” Lucian agreed.
“She’d have to be to be sleeping around with you. Keep her in bed, huh?”
Lucian knew his brother didn’t ignore that comment like he pretended to. “Actually, it was more like the kitchen counter. She tastes like candy. It’s addictive. Love’s crazy, Dante. I think I’m finally getting it.”
“Jesus. I’m going to take your word for it.”
“Antony was worried about people looking at me, but I think they’re going to be watching you even more, now.”
Dante frowned. “I don’t want to be married, Lucian.”
“Then you don’t want to be boss, either.”
“It’s a stupid, archaic tradition. The Commission needs to forget about it.”
“You know they won’t,” Lucian replied. “If anything, they’re going to push Antony harder for you to pick a wife and settle down.”
“Marriage isn’t for everyone. I’m not saying I would be happier alone, but I certainly don’t fucking share very well. Isn’t that what a relationship is? Sharing your life? I don’t have very damn much to offer a woman. I like my life the way it is.”
“That’s also selfish.”
“So be it,” Dante muttered.
“Have you considered letting Dad arrange—”
“No. Vaffanculo with that nonsense.”
“Well,” Lucian drawled, pulling down his sunglasses. “If you don’t want a marriage for love, then have one for business. Like it or not, you need a wife to be eligible to take over the family. That’s reality.”
“I won’t have my father pick my wife like she’s some present to be unwrapped. I’d arrange my own first.”
Something in the lit of his brother’s tone caught Lucian’s attention. “Have you?”
“Not yet.”
“But you’re considering it?” Lucian asked, surprised.
“I don’t want to talk about it anymore. Let’s get a start on this day. Gio’s guy first, yeah?”
Lucian nodded, dropping the topic. “Gio’s guy first.”
Both brothers exited the Lexus, leaving it parked on the side of the street as they walked across the road. They wouldn’t be in the place for long, so Lucian left the car running. Lucian scanned the small signs on the building with the address he’d been given, noting the lawyer’s they needed to speak with was located towards the alley.
“Ready for some Marcello fun?” Lucian asked as he held open the door.
Dante smirked. “Always am.”
Thirty minutes later, Lucian stood behind a lawyer known for his class-action ability in the courtroom, and his gambling addiction on the streets. He wasn’t important enough for Lucian to call the man by name, but money owed to any brother was money owed to their father.
That shit couldn’t be had.
Dante leaned back in the armless leather chair across from the man’s desk and crossed his left ankle over his right knee. Sometimes, especially when his younger brother was like this, Lucian was taken aback at how much he imitated their father without even realizing it. As if it was nothing at all, Dante’s mask would flip, and suddenly he wasn’t just a young man, but a hardened, cold, emotionless being born from crime.
“Two-hundred G’s. That’s a big debt to owe. And you’ve owed it for … what, eight weeks, now? That’s unacceptable. From what I understand, none of Giovanni’s previous messages to gain back his loan worked.”
“Messages?” the lawyer choked out.
“You’re a lawyer, surely you understand.” Lucian shrugged. “It’s a nicer term than threats and less illegal.”
“It is,” Dante agreed. “And this one is a much more up close and personal one for you. It isn’t often debtors have a face-to-face meeting with the underboss nowadays. Consider yourself lucky.”
Lucian
hadn’t done much to the lawyer but frighten him and smack him around a little while Dante sat in his chair, calm and unfazed, explaining why they were there and what was going to happen during the meeting. It’d been a couple years since Lucian and Dante were able to work together like this … and it felt like old times.
Good memories.
“So,” Dante continued, setting his foot back to the floor and standing from the chair, “… this is how we’re going to make this thing work, Mr. Crain. No more screwing around, you have a week to pay the loan back.”
“A week?” the man asked, still breathless from an earlier rib shot.
Dante moved fast, too swift for the man to react. Not that he could have, as Lucian was still looming behind him, the threat he couldn’t forget. Like a flash, Dante’s hands struck out and grabbed the lawyer’s, drawing them to the very edge of the desk as his fingers dug into the backs of the man’s knuckles.
“Oh, I so wish I’d brought my pocketknife along with me today just to collect the first late payment,” Dante said, staring the man right in the face and smiling. “I don’t like to repeat myself, so be sure to listen well from here on out. One week. For every week you’re late, I’ll have one of your fingers cut off to be used as a wind chime on the deck of my Fifth Avenue condo. It should go nicely with the twenty-million dollar view. You can add an extra fifteen percent interest on top of the money you already owe because you’ve tested my patience today. Understood?”
Swallowing hard, the lawyer nodded frantically. “Yeah … Yes, o-okay.”
“Good to hear.” Dante let him go. “Lucian?”
With Dante’s go-ahead for the final warning, Lucian’s hand slammed into the back of the lawyer’s head with crushing force. Because he wasn’t expecting it, there was no resistance. The man’s face hit the flat, hard wood top of his desk with a sickening crunch. Blood, teeth, saliva, and cartilage spilled from a broken mouth and nose.
