It would never happen.
Ace pursed his lips, clearly reining in his temper.
Thankfully, Luka ran interference. “I think our biggest concern right now is whether or not anyone saw us.”
“I don’t think they did,” Rome answered. “No one could see shit through all that smoke and if they did, their eyes would have been too watery to make anything out.”
“What were you guys doing there?” I repeated as I placed the last piece of tape over Nico’s bandage. “How did you know where they were meeting? I thought that information was secret.”
Nico threw me a wink. “We have our sources.”
It was Luka who ended up answering me. “We were running surveillance on the summit. The Gabbianos aren’t exactly happy with us right now. We needed to know what they have planned for us. But the Niners came in and shot up the goddamn place before we could find out.”
I gasped, turning to Ace. “Those guys were Niners?”
He refused to look at me.
“Yeah, I’m sure you know they kind of have a grudge against the families right now,” Rome interjected. “I have no idea how they found out the location of the summit, but they were obviously there to send a message.”
I rubbed my temples, feeling the stirrings of a headache. There was too much going on to keep everything straight. I wanted it all to stop for just five minutes so I could gather my composure.
When Luka stopped the car all of a sudden, I hadn’t realized how far we’d driven. We were sitting right outside of Ace’s Crown Heights brownstone.
“Call us if there are any problems,” Luka instructed over his shoulder.
Ace nodded to his brother as he opened the door.
“And keep your phone on you,” Nico added. “I’m sure Dad will be calling a meeting soon.” Then he looked at me with a charming grin. “Thanks for patching me up, Doc.”
Before I could utter a response, Ace yanked me from the car and slammed the door in Nico’s amused face.
“Ace—”
“Shut up, Rox.”
He stormed up his front stoop while tapping something out on his phone. Whatever he did must have unlocked the door because he didn’t use a key when he threw it open, sending it splintering against the opposite wall. After dragging me through the door, he slammed it shut and pushed me up against it. Not painfully, just forcefully. Pinning me against the door with his hips, his arms caged me in from both sides.
No escape.
He wasn’t going to let me go until he was ready to. I knew it by the look on his face.
I opened my mouth to voice my outrage, but his hand covered it, silencing me.
“No talking,” he growled. “I’m too fucking mad right now to talk.”
Then how did he expect us to—
His lips stamped over mine.
And just like that, my outrage faded into obscurity.
I was too stunned for words as Ace kissed me with a level of fierce possessiveness I would never have expected from him.
But I wasn’t too stunned to respond.
I forgot all about what I’d said at our last meeting—that I couldn’t be selfish anymore—because I just didn’t care at this point. My body could have been riddled with bullets by now if Ace hadn’t shown up to that plant when he had. And when you faced a life or death scenario like that, a lot of the minutia in your life tended to become less significant.
That shootout had really brought things home for me.
I wasn’t going to get plugged with a bullet before I found out what it was like to feel Ace Rossetti inside me.
Not gonna happen.
So, when I kissed him back, I let him know just how hungry I was.
He met my passion with a fervor that sent desire surging through my blood. He cupped the back of my head and took full control of the kiss, adjusting the angle to take it deeper. When I sucked on his tongue, his groans filled my ears.
Those sounds were the match that lit the flame.
Our mouths remained sealed as his hands delved beneath my coral halter summer dress. With the cut highlighting my boobs and waist, the dress made me feel all sassy and flirty. But feeling Ace fondling me beneath it stepped that up about fifty notches on the filthy scale.
Thanks to the wedges I wore—the same ones from the night I got my tattoo—he barely had to bend his knees to grind himself against my center. The heat from the friction of our writhing bodies was driving me out of my mind. When his fingers drifted along the edge of my panties and stopped at the damp area over my entrance, he ripped his mouth away.
“Your pussy gets wet for me, yet you’re engaged to someone else?” He glared down at me even as his finger gently rubbed over that bundle of nerves, his ministrations intensifying the ache there. “What the fuck, Roxy?”
Oh yeah, that’s right. We’re supposed to be fighting.
“I’m not engaged,” I panted. “I told you, I didn’t know where Papà was taking me. It’s not like I ever agreed to anything.”
My nails dug into his arms when his thumb pressed down on my clit. His fingers weren’t penetrating me, they weren’t even touching my bare flesh, but what he was doing was somehow even more erotic.
“Santi and Dominic seemed to think otherwise,” he growled, spitting both of their names out like curses. “They acted like it was a done deal.”
Glaring when you were near orgasm was not an easy task, but I managed it. “Not sure if you’re aware, but marriage requires two people. Two consenting adults. And I never agreed. No one even asked me. If you actually thought I would go along with something like this, then you don’t know me at all.”
“And what would you say if Dominic actually did ask you?”
Was he serious?
My eyes reflexively snapped shut when he pinched my swollen nub. “You really have to ask that?”
He removed his hand. “Open your eyes.”
I wanted to scream in frustration. I was so close. He was using my own need against me, and I didn’t appreciate it.
“Open them,” he repeated.
Reluctantly, I obeyed.
“You look me in the eyes and tell me right now that you wouldn’t agree to marry that Gabbiano son of a bitch.”
This domineering attitude was uncalled for.
He really didn’t deserve an answer.
But I decided to give him one for three reasons. One, he and his brothers had saved my life, as well as Papà’s. Two, I wanted his hands back on me. If appeasing his beastly caveman side was the only way to do that, then fine. And three, I heard the vulnerability in his voice as he made the demand. He was worried that I would actually say yes to Dominic.
He doesn’t want me to.
Ever since I fell in love with Ace as a little girl, I’d dreamed of the day I could actually make him jealous.
And here it was, smoldering down at me from a pair of volcanic brown eyes.
“No,” I said adamantly. “I would never marry him.”
My wish was fulfilled when Ace returned his touch to my body.
But it wasn’t in the way I expected.
Instead of putting his fingers right back where they’d been, he bent down, wrapped his arms underneath my thighs, and lifted me. Then he whipped us around and started up the stairs.
We didn’t get far.
He stopped when we were halfway up and placed me down on my butt on one of the steps. He lowered himself to one knee in front of me and reached below my dress. With his eyes locked on mine, his waist cradled between my spread thighs, he yanked my panties down my legs and threw them over the banister. Taking the next step down, he leaned in closer and shoved my dress out of the way.
I wanted to be shy—I’d never been so exposed in front of anyone before. I kept everything down there short and neatly trimmed, but would he like it? Maybe he preferred—
His words stopped all insecurities in their tracks.
“I’m going to eat this virgin pussy.” He licked his lips, glancing u
p at me. His gaze pierced right through me. “Then, I’m going to fuck it.”
I couldn’t respond, not even to nod. I simply waited with bated breath, propped up on my elbows, and watched.
He chuckled wryly. “I’m going to fucking wreck you.”
Should that scare me? I honestly couldn’t tell.
But I didn’t have long to think about it because he slanted his mouth over my sex and dove right in. His tongue briefly licked along my folds, spreading my wetness. Then he slipped his tongue slowly inside, and my eyes rolled back in my head.
It was unlike anything I’d ever felt before.
None of the guys I’d messed around with in college had even attempted to go down on me. They’d stuck their fingers inside while we’d made out, but that was it. And the guy who’d provided me with my first trial and error experience with sex had skipped the preamble altogether. In fact, he’d rushed everything.
Ace had acted like he was in a hurry when he’d slammed me against the door.
But he wasn’t now.
His movements were slow and languorous.
Clearly, he wanted to take his time driving me insane.
His hands cupped my cheeks, holding me up for his oral pleasure. Needing purchase, I gripped my hair, gripped his hair, I clawed the wallpaper. I just needed something to anchor me before ecstatic delirium sent me rocketing up into space. I propped my foot on the banister to hold me steady, making the wood creak.
I couldn’t believe a guy’s mouth down there actually felt this good.
All the years I’ve wasted.
When my college girlfriends had talked about this, I’d always been the only left out of the conversation. But hell, I think they’d actually undersold it. Maybe none of their guys had ever been as good at it as Ace was because I would have been singing about this from the damn rooftops had I known back then.
“Oh, God,” I moaned. “I can’t believe how much better this is than—”
I cut myself off when I realized what I’d been about to reveal. How humiliating! Not the kind of thing I wanted to discuss with the man of my dreams.
Never one to miss anything, Ace caught on.
“How much better it is than what?”
When he licked his lips again, I knew he was tasting me there. And holy shit, that was going to send me over the edge.
It was actually blowing my mind how hot that was.
“Better than your own fingers, Rox?” he prodded. “Baby, the only time you’re going to be using your fingers from now on is if I tell you to because I want to watch you play with yourself. Any other time, my mouth will be at your beck and call.”
With that declaration, he lowered his head to finish the job he’d started.
When he felt I was getting close, his sucking and licking became even more enthusiastic. It was then that I realized he’d been easing me into the experience in the beginning, getting me used to the sensations he knew would be new to me.
Now…he held nothing back.
His mouth ate me just as hungrily as he had against the door.
Shit, he attacked me.
The final plunge my body took came out of nowhere. It felt like I’d been standing on the precipice for so long, toeing that steep edge, preparing for the submergence into ultimate euphoria—
And then I was suddenly being hurled into it before I could even take a breath.
I didn’t know what I yelled as my body convulsed under Ace’s mouth, but I knew it was loud.
And I knew he liked it.
He moaned against my slick flesh as he licked me clean. Then he was above me and covering my mouth with his, offering me my own taste. Yet another new sensation, and one I found to be incredibly arousing.
“That was probably the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen,” he breathed, his gaze heavy-lidded.
“It was?”
He nodded. “I’ve never seen you so wild like that. So…free. I’ll have to make sure that happens a lot more often.”
Smiling from ear-to-ear, I kissed him with more gratitude than I ever thought I’d be able to feel.
Without breaking the kiss, he picked me back up and finished carrying us up the stairs. He kicked open a door on the right, one I was very familiar with. Once inside, he swiped his finger along the touchscreen pad on the wall that turned on both bedside lamps.
Even though his parents no longer owned the place, he still slept in the same bedroom he’d grown up in. Of course, it looked nothing like it had when we were younger. There was now a platform bed with a white frame and white bedsheets. He must really have a thing about white. The gauzy, sheer gray curtains offered the only other color.
After he gently laid me on top of his crisp white sheets, I became nervous all over again. Whether it was due to his intent gaze that drank in every inch of my body, or to the fact that everything was about to change in an irreversible way, I didn’t know.
“Are you nervous?”
His hand was absently rubbing my ankle, his finger dipping into my shoe at the arch of my foot.
I nodded. “Yes.”
He gave me that half-grin I loved so much. “I like that you are.”
“Why?”
“Because it means that you care. You don’t want to hurry up and get it over with, just to be done with it. It matters to you that it’s happening.”
I swallowed, unsure of how much I should actually confess. Definitely not everything. Not the fact that I’d pictured this scenario with him so many times in my head it bordered on obsessive.
He didn’t need to know the depth of my feelings for him. Not yet, anyway.
“I care that it’s happening with you.”
He really liked hearing that. “And I care that you’re letting me.”
Continuing his gentle strokes, his fingers brushed along my skin until they found the ribbon tying the wedge straps around my ankle. Ever so slowly, he pulled on the satin until the bow loosened and he was able to pull the shoe free. He repeated the action with the other foot.
Just when I thought the eroticism couldn’t get any more exquisite, he had to go and undress me with all the control and care of a longtime lover.
Clearly, porn doesn’t teach you everything you need to know about sex.
Because I thought I’d only been an amateur in the physical sense. I’d prepared myself mentally a million times over for the actual deed. At least, I thought I had.
My imagination couldn’t have touched reality.
Placing his knee on the edge of the mattress, he leaned forward and began to draw my dress up my waist. I sat up, holding my arms above my head, and allowed him to pull the garment the rest of the way off. With a quick flick of his fingers, my strapless bra was removed and dropped onto the floor next to my dress.
I could do nothing but sit there in my nakedness as Ace took his fill of me.
He scrubbed his hand over his mouth, seeming at a loss. His eyes drifted over me, his nostrils flaring by the time his gaze returned to my face.
“Assolutamente bella.” Absolutely beautiful. “I never thought you would end up being this gorgeous. That’s how fucking blind I was. Because anyone who really looked at you would have had no doubt.”
My breath caught in my throat. Somehow, his Italian made the words sound even more intimate.
“Allora suppongo che è meglio recuperare il tempo perduto.” Then I guess we better make up for lost time.
His head bobbed, as if he had no control over it. “Yes, we better.”
He grabbed the ends of his shirt, but I stopped his hands.
“Let me.”
I never thought a man’s eyes could go so molten. But obviously, tonight was the night of endless new experiences.
Once I removed his shirt, all I could do was stare.
His torso was mottled with even more tattoos. Some down his sides, along his ribs. A few on either side of his collar bone. And some type of large crest above his left peck that I could only assume was the Rossetti family crest
. No wonder he’d seemed to have known Duncan so well. He’d clearly been visiting him for years.
I kissed each and every tattoo.
He sighed every time my mouth made contact with his skin.
What I loved almost as much as having him shirtless and completely at my mercy was the way his hands reverently stroked my frizzled hair. The hair that had caused me so much trouble over the years. The hair that I could barely stand, he loved.
His breathing quickened as his hands took hold of mine. He lowered them to the button of his jeans, urging me on. I presumed that meant he was at the edge of his control.
I concentrated on undoing the button and lowering the zipper without fumbling. I didn’t need to make my inexperience any more apparent—I didn’t want it to be a distraction. When I pushed his jeans and briefs down below his waist, I was faced with yet another mind-blowing fact: how beautiful a fully naked man truly was.
At least the one that you loved.
The thatch of black hair above his manhood was well-groomed and far more enticing than I’d expected. I didn’t think I’d be so eager to take a man inside my mouth, but Ace’s package was definitely having that effect on me. His cock was so thick I honestly didn’t know how that was going to fit inside me.
I hadn’t even registered his movements before he was helping me roll a condom carefully down his length.
I looked up to find him watching me closely. Without looking away, he guided my fingers around his girth. We stroked him together for several pumps before he eased me onto my back and covered my body with his. Feeling his warmth over mine, absorbing the sense of protection his strength provided, was possibly one of the best comforts I’d ever experienced. The soft hair between his pecs grazing my breasts. His thighs trapping mine between them. His hot breath against my neck.
His hard tip nudging my soft entrance.
Mimicking the way his tongue had eased into me on the stairs, he slowly inched forward, sliding inside me with gentle thrusts. Once he felt the barrier of my virginity, his gaze met mine, his arms framed my face…and he drove in with one final punch of his hips.
I winced at the pinch.
Scars and Sins (Brooklyn Brothers Book 2) Page 15
