I mean, coming here wasn’t supposed to be any bit the erotic experience that it’s become in the last sixty seconds of me taking in my surroundings.
And judging from the disgusting sounds coming from Patrick’s lips, he is in complete agreement.
Yes, it is fucking sick.
What the hell was I thinking, bringing my oversexed brother along for the ride?
Ugh, no pun intended.
“Jesus, Heaven,” he grunts. “This place is off the fucking hook. If we do end up partnering with these guys, I’m gonna be here every night. Who knows? Maybe I’ll even perform.”
“Shut it, Patty!” I seethe, dragging my eyes away from the sight of the two girls who are still writhing and entwined on the staircase. “Remember why we’re here!”
“Right, right. Tonight, we spy.” He smirks, his blue eyes twinkling mischievously under the lights. “But it’s not gonna stop me from gawking, sis. Sorry, not sorry.”
I throw my hands into the air. “Let’s just take a lap around the place to start, okay?”
But Patrick is already heading off in a different direction, one in which there is a hallway leading to God only knows what.
“Patty!” I whisper-shout, grabbing his wrist and yanking him back to my side.
He turns to give me a wink. “I’m lapping over there. You lap the other way and we’ll meet back here in like, thirty.”
“How am I going to find you? We can’t use our phones! It’s against the rules!”
“What do they do if they find you on the phone?” His eyebrows shoot up. “Do they whip you? Chain you to a wall and use a Hitachi Magic Wand on you until you scream the safe word?”
I press my fingertips to my temples. “Good Lord, why did I bring you here?”
“Because you know I’m all about new experiences,” he says with a waggle of his eyebrows. “How the fuck have I survived this long without ever scoring an invite to a place like this? Look what I’ve been missing!” He grins, flashing his famous bright white smile at me. Patty may not be a frequenter of sex dens, but he sure isn’t hard up for female attention.
But this place is like sex crack of the most theatrical kind.
Instantly addictive.
“You have what you need,” he says. “And if push comes to shove, use it. There’s a reason why you’re the underboss, Heaven. You don’t take shit from anyone.”
My role in the family is the whole reason why we’re here in the first place.
Underboss. As in, one step away from the crown.
I share that honor with Conor, a fact that makes me twitch like there are bed bugs nestling into my skin.
“Fine,” I say through gritted teeth.
He gives me a little nudge. “Do me a favor and try not to be such a control freak tonight. Just be a, you know, freak. You might enjoy it.” He snickers and my mouth twists as I watch him meander through some groping hands and flailing legs.
He’s never coming back in thirty minutes.
Maybe thirty days, if I’m lucky.
I rub my hands down the sides of my arms, my skin prickling with some sick combination of arousal, anxiety, and anticipation as my eyes scout the main floor. I walk slowly across the polished marble tile floor, trying not to jerk my head around every time I see a naked member saunter past.
It’s just a lot of boobs and balls for me to take in all at once.
My pulse throbs against my neck and I grab a crystal highball glass off of a passing tray, bringing it to my lips and sucking down the cocktail. It burns a fiery path down my throat, landing in my empty belly. The heat swirls around my gut, snaking through my insides as I scour the room.
When I planned to invade the Villani family domain, I figured protecting my identity was the best way to see them in their own environment. I could move around without any worries that they’d recognize me.
But dammit, I didn’t think I’d end up wading through a sea of masked deviants trying to find my target.
I take a deep breath as I slither through the crowd. The men out here are all dressed to the nines, and some of the women are in cocktail dresses. Most of them are either in shreds of lace that barely cover or they are completely naked, dancing and grinding in sky high heels.
It’s fascinating to me.
At twenty-four, I’ve seen a lot, much more than most girls my age.
Though not in the sexual sense.
Being the only girl in a family that pretty much runs on testosterone hasn’t exactly been a picnic, but it’s made me tough. It’s forced me to do things for the sake of my family loyalty. And it’s given me an opportunity to step into the top seat once I prove to my father that I am best equipped to run the family once he retires.
A pang assaults my heart.
Deep down, I know I don’t deserve that honor, not after what I let happen.
No matter what I do, redemption will always be out of my reach.
And the guilt will continue to fester deep in my gut like an infection that slowly poisons my insides, tormenting me for the rest of my life.
Because that’s what I really deserve.
I stop outside of an open doorway, shoving those toxic thoughts to the far recesses of my mind as my eyes drink in the performance. I blink fast, trying hard to absorb every detail because there are a lot of them.
And plenty of other voyeurs like me are doing the exact same thing.
My gaze falls to a guy on my left, and he’s busy gripping his cock as he watches with rapt attention. I take a few steps away from him since his grunts and groans are distracting me from the show.
The room is entirely lit by candles. They line the perimeter, flickering wildly as the show on center stage heats up. An eerie tune vibrates the floor beneath my feet, and I try not to gape at the scene playing out in front of me. Two naked women are tied to a long pole that stretches across the room. Some kind of silky fabric is wound around their wrists as they sway to the music pulsating throughout the space. Two other women kneel in front of them, feasting on their pussies as what I can only imagine is an appetizer.
Because judging from the shit I’ve seen here tonight, there’s no way that’s the entrée.
The room is draped in gray and black, adding to the erotically ominous aura. My breath hitches as four men in full-length black capes appear from the corners of the room. The capes fall open in the front, exposing their hard cocks and washboard abs. Two of them kneel behind the girls face-fucking the ‘captives’ while the other two position themselves against their backs.
I swallow hard as the orgy commences and the men lose their capes. Hands, arms, and legs thrash around as the captives get fucked from behind. It isn’t long before their howls and screams and moans pierce the air and drown out the haunting melody. I clench and unclench my hands, rubbing them against the sides of my dress as my pulse rockets into the vaulted ceilings.
Blood rushes between my ears as the performance reaches its climax.
And fuck me, I’m closer to that than I’d like to admit.
Dammit, Heaven! This whole night is about control, and you are losing every shred of it!
I came here to reclaim control, and every second that ticks by sucks it out of me, shred by shred.
“Permission to touch?”
A deep, seductive voice hums against my ear and I gasp, spinning around and slamming my shoulder into a wall.
A sharp pain shoots down my arm and I clutch it tight, staring into a pair of the most fiery, panty-melting blue eyes I’ve ever seen.
Suddenly, the pain loosens its grip on me.
And just as suddenly, I become the “captive.”
Chapter Three
Matteo
I saw her even before the alert came through from my doorman that she’d arrived.
I stood by the window in my office and watched her enter the townhouse with a tall, muscular guy I take to be one of her brothers.
I followed her every movement through the main floor and watched her gape
at the scene that unfolded in the Room of Shadows.
She couldn’t see me, but I saw her.
Long, wavy red hair that grazes the small of her back, clear green eyes that give away every lustful sensation coursing through her, even though it’s damn clear she’s trying hard to resist them.
Oh, yes.
I saw her.
And soon enough, I will have her.
Totally and completely.
The fact that she doesn’t know it yet, that she will resist with everything in her, makes the thought that much more enticing.
A present that only I have the power to unwrap.
I’d bet my left nut that Declan doesn’t know she’s here right now.
And giving myself away now would only ruin the surprise that is so close to being revealed.
It’s taken a few weeks to put the plans in motion. I’ve held up my end of the bargain, doing what I can to establish a public relationship with the Mulligan family, making sure that everyone knows we’re aligned.
But I have yet to officially meet my bride, and I think it’s time we’re introduced.
So I slide my mask into place and take my position next to her.
Before she leaves here tonight, she’ll know who I am.
But she won’t have any idea what I’m going to take from her.
Her father thinks he’s hedging his bets by inviting me into his family.
He doesn’t realize that doing so will give me the keys to his kingdom.
Maybe his brain was a little too whiskey-soaked to understand the implications of his request when he made it.
Maybe he was just too panicked about his loose cannon of a son and what hell fire he can rain down on them all.
But his mistake will soon become my gain.
I have no delusions about these people.
They are just some stray stones in my path, small ones I can easily kick out of the way as I leave the lasting imprints of my legacy in their wake.
That’s why I’m here in New York City.
And why in the very near future, I will own it.
In the meantime, I can have some fun.
At Heaven’s expense, of course.
So I ask her the question, mainly because it’s a club rule to ask for consent before touching another patron.
But also because I want to hear her say the word, to give in to the temptation that I’ve watched her try too hard to resist.
I want to break her.
And this is how it begins…how she will start to unravel…here, now, and with me tugging at that single frayed string.
She turns a questioning gaze on me, her response a garbled mess of sounds tumbling from her deep red lips. I bite back a smile.
Her innocence is a little shocking, considering who she is and where she came from.
Of course, you don’t need to indulge in deviant behavior to be an effective leader and master assassin.
But as such you need to be in complete control at all times.
And if tonight is any indication, Heaven Mulligan has unearthed a very important tell, one that can be perceived as a weakness.
People in our line of work, people who hold all of the power in their organizations, need to be very aware of themselves and their reactions to different types of stimuli. We cannot display fear or concern or apprehension or desire.
Exposing any bit of emotion puts you and your whole organization at risk.
It allows the enemy to see things that should be hidden to the world, things that can compromise your power.
Heaven may be in complete control while slicing off limbs and slitting throats, but you never know where your enemy might be lurking. Losing control and giving in to temptation makes you vulnerable to them, something I am about to prove to my future bride.
She stares at me with those shielded green eyes, but it’s too late. I’ve already seen enough. I know what she wants, why she came here, and why she won’t leave without it. A quick nod of her head is followed by a raspy, “Yes.”
I lace my fingers with hers, a grin tilting my lips as I guide her into a darkened room around the corner. The show is reaching its climax, pun intended, and my cock aches to be stroked.
But that’s not how things work here.
Once you’ve chosen your victim…or rather, partner…you have the ability to take them into a private area where you can explore each other and test inhibitions and limits. Or you can join the masses and mingle around in one of the common areas, pleasuring not only each other, but all of the voyeurs joining in the experience.
I don’t want to put Heaven on display.
I also recognize the need for privacy.
She’s here to check me out in my own environment, to see if I’m a worthy partner for her family’s organization.
Yet, she has no idea what I’m about to do to her life and her future.
Nor does she know that I hold all of the control over her, here and outside of this club.
The plan is perfect.
Foolproof.
And Heaven is just one of the fringe benefits.
My cock twitches with that realization as I back her into a room draped in a deep purple haze with red-tinged lights providing a seductive glow over the furniture. I pull the door closed and lock it since it’s my club and I don’t want any eyewitnesses observing what I’m going to do next.
My club has strict rules.
I have stricter ones for my own personal encounters.
“I saw you watching the show,” I breathe against her hair, inhaling the scent of citrus and coconut wafting under my nostrils. “You liked it, didn’t you?”
She nods again. “Yes,” she whispers, taking a step back against a wall.
Oh, fuck yeah, I can work with that. There are brass hooks attached to the wall right above her head. I can easily thread a silk wrist wrap through them and make her feel every bit of pleasure as the ones who were just on display outside.
I reach out and graze her arm with my fingertips. She shudders at my touch and recoils as if I’ve singed her skin. She runs a hand through her thick hair, her gaze moving in every direction except mine.
“You’ve never done this before, have you?” I ask, creeping closer as she moves back once again.
There isn’t much space between her and the wall now. A few more steps and she’ll be trapped.
In more ways than one.
I place my hands on either side of her, pressing them into the sheetrock. I dip my head, forcing her eyes upward since I’m so much taller than she is. She carries herself with strength and confidence, something I saw when she arrived at the entrance to the townhouse. But the experience that evolved as she stepped into the doors has her questioning herself.
Her control.
Her resolve.
Her ability to challenge.
Because for as much as she needs to investigate this place and its owners, she’s intrigued. Hot. And I’ve effectively sidetracked her from her objective.
Score one for me.
And since she’d so desperate to see me in action, I’m going to give her exactly what she wants.
She will hate me for it, but she’ll hate me more when she finds out what her life is about to become.
“You keep trying to escape from me,” I murmur, sliding a hand over her hip, my fingertips tingling as they brush against the exposed skin of her lower back. It’s creamy white and soft as velvet. I ache for more, but I learned a long time ago that nothing worthwhile comes quickly. “Don’t. Let it take over.”
I need to take my time with her, to make her comfortable with me and this whole experience. I need to make her want me, to beg for me, to do something completely out of character because she trusted the wrong man.
And that’s when I will pull the rug out from under her.
“I’m not here for…for…” She snaps her mouth closed, those bitable lips so damn close to mine.
“You may not have thought you were here for that,” I say. “But
it turns out that you want it. I can see it in your eyes, in your flushed face, in the way your body trembles each time I get closer. You want to feel the same kind of pleasure that the others felt, the type that’s forbidden because you think it will make you lose control of yourself. And you think that’s dangerous, don’t you?”
“I don’t think,” she gasps as I press myself against her. But as much as she’s fighting against herself, a brutal war waging behind that lust-filled gaze, she doesn’t push me away. “I know.”
“And yet, you let me touch you.” I trail my fingertips down the side of her face, her breath hitching at the sensation. “You allowed me to bring you here, to lock you inside of a dark room. Why?”
Her breasts heave as her chest rises and falls with increasing speed. They strain against the tight fabric of her dress, making my fingers tingle with an electrical charge that crackles in the air between us. I drag them down the slope of her neck, over her smooth skin, until they slip into the neckline of her dress. I move slowly, methodically, just to gauge her reaction.
It’s perfect.
A tiny mewl tumbles from her puckered lips, her eyes floating closed as she rests her head against the wall.
The forbidden.
Fuck me, it’s all-consuming.
And now that I have her invitation, I decide it’s time to RSVP.
I slide the straps off of her shoulders, not all the way, but just enough so that I can see the tops of her full tits. I bring my hands under them, kneading them as her moans get louder.
This woman.
Did she really think that I wouldn’t find out about her plans to come here? To spy on me? To gather ammunition against me?
I can’t help but allow the smirk to lift my lips as her back arches, her tits beckoning me to taste.
Did she really think that token she received was just that, a simple gold coin that allows entry into one of the most exclusive and decadently salacious experiences in the city?
I dip my head into her chest, sweeping my tongue over the fleshy mounds as I massage them with growing angst.
Did she really think this was all about a business partnership?
Savage Ruler: A Dark Italian - Irish Mafia Arranged Marriage Romance (Sinfully Savage) Page 2
