ROQUE: A DARK MAFIA ROMANCE (THE SALVATORE SYNDICATE Book 1)

by Jax Hart

  Instead of taking me to the gym to work out together as we’ve been doing, he pulled down Main Street and parallel parked in front of a fancy boutique.

  “What’s this?”

  “I’m taking you dress shopping.”

  My head whipped around. “The fuck you are. I hate dresses and dances.”

  He smirked. “So, do I. But you are going. Correction we are going to Homecoming.”

  “I’m not doing Pretty Woman with you.” My mouth puckered like I’m sucking on a lemon.”

  He laughed and the sound caught me off guard. Who is this man? High school dances and romance are things that don’t go with Roque Salvatore. Or do they?

  Rolling my eyes, I took his outstretched hand and let him lead me into the shop. The bell rungs as we entered. A woman brightly called out hello as she rounded the counter and stopped. Her mouth hung open. Her eyes went wide at barley five-foot two me in wedge sneakers holding his hand.

  “Can I help you get something for your ah, sister?’

  “Yes. My uh, twisted sister needs a dress.” He pulled me flush to his front. My ass cradled his thighs. His index finger dipped down into the front of my shirt between my breastbone in a long, slow, sensual caress. My knees went weak. Hers went dreamy. And I sure as shit knew we were both hot for him. But he’s mine. Only mine. My beautiful fucked up monster only breathed for me. And I for him.

  Together, the two fucked-up kingpin kids could find their way together? Right?

  I smacked myself in the head for thinking such sappy as shit thoughts. He reduced me from the badass blue-haired girl, to a pathetic love-sick one.

  The saleswoman’s eyes glazed over but at the tic in Roque’s jaw she turned and started grabbing dresses.

  “No.” I shook my head at the sleeveless sequined thing. “That looks like a leftover from a bad eighties music video.”

  “Were you even alive in the eighties?” She snapped under her breath.

  Roque’s attention was on the lacey bra and panty sets. I rolled my eyes. “Nope.”

  He grinned wickedly. “Yes…”

  “Keep dreaming.” I taunted, then turned away as I spotted the most perfect dress. It’s silk or satin and the same color of my hair. Bright Blue.

  “That one,” I pointed.

  Roque’s laugh tickled the back of my neck. “It’s perfect.” He swept my hair to the side and kissed my nape. My nipples hardened to points under my shirt.

  I gasped as his teeth nipped my ear. Maybe I should throw in the bra and panty set after all…

  ***

  He held me close as we swayed in the gym. Fairy lights hung in swoops overhead. Who knew a high school dance could be so romantic? My palm pressed against his heart. Thump. Thump. Thump.

  My blue hair fell like a curtain as he tipped my chin and kissed me slow and deep in front of the whole school.

  I sighed and opened my mouth wider. He tamed my vengeful heart. I wanted to tell him tonight before things went too far between us. I wanted him to want both of us—the girl he threw away and the woman I’m becoming.

  “Fuck, Blue.” He broke from our kiss, his eyes staring intently at me. Lost in the spell between us, I cupped his cheek and whispered, “My birthday was last week.”

  “What?” His voice was low and dangerous. “Fucking with me, little girl?” he growled.

  “Never.” Liar. You’re fucking with him behind all this…blue hair and fake blue eyes…

  Johnny scowled at us from his place behind the punch bowl. Five cheerleaders hung off his biceps; each dying to get fucked by the mini-mob prince-to-be. I rolled my eyes, “wanna get out of here?”

  He hissed as I let my tongue slide along my lower lip. “This is a dangerous game, bella. One I won’t let you walk away from.”

  “I know.”

  He took my hand and nodded over to Johnny. Instead of taking me back to the frat house like I expected, he held my left-hand prisoner in his grasp while he maneuvered the Suburban through the dark autumn night and to the fanciest boutique hotel in Princeton.

  “Wow. I guess I was a sure thing, huh?” I swallowed.

  He cut the engine. Instead of taking me straight up to a room, he slipped his jacket off and put it on me. “The gardens here are not to be missed. Even in the face of winter.”

  Puzzled, I let him lead me through an arbor draped in twinkling lights and dried vines. A maze of stonewalls, man-made waterfalls and trellis’s covered in dried blooms met us.

  “This is… beautiful. The dead, dark and dried up blooms are… haunting?” I breathed in the crisp air.

  “It’s us. Or at least me. It’s reminds me of home…of Italy.” He slipped, then caught himself. “I mean where my ancestors where from.”

  He led me through stones still covered in wet moss. Dried leaves crunched under our feet as we walked through summer’s graveyard. Dried, dead hydrangea blossoms still danced for the night breeze.

  “I did something once. Something that still haunts me. This place reminds me of someone from a day long ago.”

  I blinked back tears. “Roque—"

  But he cut off my words with a harsh kiss. Taking me in his arms, we danced under the full Harvest Moon—to hooting owls and ghosts either cheering us on or determined to work against us.

  Our kisses turned frenzied. He wanted to own me. Consume me. One thing he hadn’t lost is that eerie intensity of his. It’s stronger than before.

  When he swept my legs out from under me to carry me to a small gatehouse at the edge of the garden, almost in the woods, I didn’t put up a fight.

  He kicked the door open and deposited me onto of a fluffy cream-colored bed. Looking around, the whole mini cottage was just a bedroom with fat white candles, white furniture and flowers… everything is pure, Virginial.

  I shivered as he loomed over me.

  “My big, bad wolf has come at last,” I teased, opening my arms.

  He paused as if my words triggered a memory. His eyes almost glowed in the dark as he unzipped the back of my gown and it slid down.

  “Mine,” he growled, not even bothering to undress as his hips straddled mine. His dark head bent down to take one nipple between his two lips. “Delicious, he groaned, going back and forth.

  Electric energy zinged from where his mouth pulled on my them, going straight through to my core. Throbbing need had me writing beneath him. My hands clawed at his back, urging him closer.

  He chuckled against my throat, letting a hand stroke down my body. “You want this, bella?”

  I nodded, unable to speak as his fingers stroked through my mound. I gasped into his mouth as he parted my flesh, finding the little screaming bud of nerves wanting his touch.

  But the attention only makes my need worse. I needed him deep inside of me. I always did. He shed his clothes. I stared wide-eyed at his muscular chest and biceps covered in ink down to his wrist.

  “Scared?”

  He teased my sopping entrance with the thick head of his shaft. Ran his hands over my small breasts and down stomach, to play with me while watching my face.

  His teeth grit as he fed his cock to me inch by agonizing inch. “Fuck, Blue. You are so tight.”

  My body yielded. It fucking hurt. It felt like he was tearing me apart.

  Finally, he planted firmly inside. All the way. He propped himself up on his elbows and despite the fact that I felt his cock twitching in bliss, he deadpanned said, “Now how in the fuck did you know my name? You called me Roque out in the garden. Who? Sent. You?”

  His eyes were cold. He was not the teasing, romantic man who just wooed me for weeks. He flipped his switch. The monster was back and there was nowhere to run.

  I stammered not knowing what to say. “Johnny called you that.”

  He frowned, part of him wanting to believe me.

  “Johnny never fucks up.”

  “Please…” I moved under him. His dick swelled more inside me, but he refused to move.

  “Who are you, Diana Palermo?
”

  “No one. Just a girl from the woods.”

  He was suspicious as he stared down at me. Finally, he eased out and slowly thrust back in. “Fuck. I can’t stop, even if you were sent here to destroy me.”

  I knew. Oh, how I knew. I lamented inside my screaming head. I grabbed the side of his tormented handsome face, “I don’t want to destroy you. I just want to love you.”

  He stilled, poised above me. “Me too, bella. Me too. I’ll get my answers later.”

  Together we moved as one. It hurt and yet I’ve never felt so much pleasure. He lifted my hip, took my leg and curved it over his hip driving in deeper.

  He murmured sweet things against my neck as his lips found the spot behind my ear. Pleasure and pain rolled through me like thunder. It was deep. Intense. The meaty tip of him stretched me with every thrust of his hips.

  I bit my lip at the intense pleasure he created when he moved a hand down between us to press hard on my clit as he thrust in and out.

  Growling, he grasped both my hands, pinning them above my head and leaned low to fit my entire breast into his mouth. When he stilled, he pulsed deep inside me. It’s a strange sensation to feel him deep inside me on the edge of his release.

  “Damn, Blue. I’m not going to last as long as I want.”

  His eyes lifted from my breast, “Make my first-time good Il Sovrano. Make it good for me.”

  I don’t know how it was possible. But he hardened even further as he planted deep inside me. His eyes were two pools of ice-blue fire. Can fire melt? Can blue mercury burn so hot that it becomes lava? Me referring to him as the ruler broke him into a frenzied pace of passion.

  My thoughts were muddled as he cursed in Italian and thrust into my soaking wet heat.

  His large palm gripped my ass, lifting me against him. Every time he thrusted deeply, his groin brushed my core. He bowed to bite my breast, growling deeply in the back of his throat. The man came like a tornado.

  I felt his power surge into me.

  His hands fell from my ass. He looked down at our joined bodies and thumbed my clit, rubbing it in hard circles.

  My eyes rolled back in my head. I came in a series of waves. The whole sweaty, mess of him fell against me.

  His heart thumped against mine. He released my hands and I ran them through the thickness of his midnight hair.

  Finally, he eased out of me, nostrils flaring at the sight of my virgin blood. The look he gave…it slammed right to my heart and double stamped my soul. I was always his. Everything was always his to take. But I didn’t feel weak. For the first time, I fully understood the power I could wield over this king.

  “Don’t go anywhere,” he warned, pressing his index finger against my lips. My tongue darted out to taste it.

  “Bad girl,” he breathed. “Just wait my little virgin…the things I’m going to do to you.”

  “Virgin?” My eyebrow rose.

  He smirked. “That was barely sex, Blue. You have no idea who you just let into you.”

  “I do,” I whispered.

  He tensed, reminded me I spoke his true name. “I need to take care of this,” he gestures to the condom he took off and tied. It was automatic. Easy. Just like tying your shoes. My hands fisted in the sheets; angry he wasn’t all mine the way I was his. I was tempted to rip off my contacts, strip off all my layers and let him see exactly who I am.

  Let him see who had ensnared the beast.

  He grabbed my wrist, ripping me from the flimsy sheet and pulled me up with him to the bathroom. He turned in the massive shower and pushed me in. Caging me against the stone wall, his eyes went back to chips of arctic ice as the warm water washed over us. He twirled a lock of soaked blue hair around his fingers. His cock jut out from beneath his washboard abs. But he braced his hands on the wall above me, letting his pecs almost brush the tips of my breasts while his hips refrained from touching me at all. I knew he wanted me again. I could taste it. But Il Sovrano was back, and the king wanted his answers first.

  “Don’t hurt him.”

  “Who?”

  “My uncle.”

  “How?”

  “Palermo. I told you my family…”

  “Your uncle recognized me? Impossible…”

  “I’m his only living relative. He raised me as a daughter… You? A Princeton boy obsessed with me? A high school reject with barely anything? He hates it. Hates you. And…” I swallowed hard, “hates that he knew this night could happen. Would happen eventually.”

  Rafe’s palms smacked against the tiled wall. Then he gripped my chin so hard, I knew it’d bruise.

  “Who sent you? Are you a mole for them? The Castellione’s?”

  My brows furrowed. I haven’t heard that name in forever. A lifetime ago.”

  I splayed a wet hand on his sculpted chest. “As if anyone could fake this…thing we both feel. I didn’t want it. Didn’t want it to be you. But it is.”

  His muscles bunched and tensed. Hie eyes never left mine as he judged. Decided.

  “How then?”

  “Your eyes. They are unforgettable and according to my uncle, a trade Salvatore trait. A DNA gift from the Gods.”

  His eyes ed hard but his lips twitched. “Your uncle didn’t call me a God.”

  I shrugged. “No, he didn’t. He said something more like ‘those Salvatore’s have thick heads and believe they are decedents of the Gods…”

  “Your uncle… he’s making problems...”

  “How? Zio’s an old man. He can barely walk some days when his arthritis flares.”

  “I-I’m not just a college student with a bad past, Blue.” I lowered my gaze debating how much to disclose that I knew. He exhaled sharply then pulled me in tight, stroking his hands down my back. “I’d never hurt you, bella. But you must not betray me. Ever. I’ve broken the one rule with you. The one rule that a man like me knows better to break.”

  “I won’t betray you if you don’t betray me.” I met his intense stare, giving one just as intense back.

  He cursed in Italian and crushed his lips to mine. We clawed at one another. Both our secrets screamed to break free from where we had them locked down. But I don’t break and he… he growled, spinning me against the wall. He opened the glass shower door to flick off the lights.

  In the dark, the water fell like rain. There was no window in the bathroom. Steam started to cling in the air. I was trapped in the dark with him again. But this time it was a world of carnal pleasures.

  He fells to his knees behind me. I gasped, feeling his breath against my ass. From behind, he spread me, spearing me with his tongue. I garbled nonsense as his teeth scraped against me and his tongue delved deep.

  Unable to help myself, I bucked back against him fucking me with his mouth. His laugh tickled. But soon, I lost all ability to think as he took me closer to that sweet edge. It’s not long before I fell.

  In the dark, he does things to me. Unspeakable, wicked things. Things Tati and I would snicker about when we watched a popular film. But I wasn’t snickering now. I was drowning in ecstasy.

  I lost track of time. I understood why they called orgasms “the little death.” I died in his arms over and over again.

  Languid, and limp somewhere near dawn, wrapped up in his arms I finally slept.

  When I awoke, I wasn’t the same. He had awakened me. Made me come alive for the second time.

  Sore and covered in light bruises, I blinked and stretched. I knew the instant I awoke that he wasn’t there. The energy is different when he’s around. It’s palpable.

  I winced as I swung my legs over the bed. He wasn’t lying when he said he’d take everything from me, and I wasn’t lying to myself when I knew I’d let him.

  I’m grateful he’s gone though as I try to collect myself and put the pieces of myself, I let him rip from me back together.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  “HONEYMOON’S OVER.”

  Breathing out hard, I pinched the bridge of my nose as I paced. “We got
your cousin back but took out a few Castellione’s in the process. While you were out living some high school fantasy—they hit back hard. Your warehouses in Chicago were hit. They took some merc.”

  “How much merchandise?”

  “The pharmaceuticals from China.”

  “Fuck.”

  While Johnny’s words sank in, I stilled smell her scent on me. Felt her body undermine. Remembered how she tasted. How our souls touched. I didn’t regret a second of it. I’d never give her up.

  “Roque?”

  “I’m here.”

  “What’s your move?”

  “Where is he?”

  “Vince… he’s waiting for your response. His message is clear. Merge with them or total war.”

  “It was her. Blue. Her uncle is from Palermo. He sent out feelers to old connections.”

  “I told you she was trouble. Fuck, Roque. She has caused some serious shit to go down. Kissing that girl was the first if many dominoes to fall. I’ll put an extra rush on my PI to dig up more dirt on her and her family. But so far, he’s got nothing. My gut tells me they’re records are too clean… too untraceable.”

  My gut clenched. I spun, spying my girl through the window. She’s exquisite. Naked, she stood brushing the strands of her wet, blue hair. My eyes traveled the curve of her spine, noting every mark my mouth left.

  My cock turned to stone.

  I’ll never take another. Never love another. Even if she is a mole. It hit me like a thunderbolt. My obsession with the girl is more… it’s the one cursed thing that will make me fall. Love. I’m no longer invincible. She made me weak. But I’ve never felt stronger. I’ll take down the dogs. I put the own devil in his grave and take his place. The five families? They won’t know what hit them when I’m done. Their draconian rule is over. I will take it all. Italy, America, the world. My chest puffed out and I laughed at my own narcissism. It’s her… Blue. She made me feel as if I could own the world.

  “Fine. I questioned her last night.”

  “With your cock?”

  “Johnny…,” my voice lowered ominously. “you’re my friend. My brother, but don’t disrespect my girl.”