She steps onto the mat, her gorgeous curves glistening with drops that I dry one after another before kissing her lips lightly.I turn her towards the mirror and brush out her hair before drying it with the blow dryer, watching it glisten into a perfect shine.“Come.”I take her hand and lead her to bed.She climbs in, pushing the covers back to make room for me.“Rest while I shower, kitten.”
The heat of the water pounds against my skin, pelting it with the strength of the strongest spray setting I have, anything to wash this day away.When I dry off and wrap a towel around my waist, I find my kitten lying right where I left her, fast asleep.I crawl in next to her and wrap her in my arms.This perfect little kitten has managed to become such a part of me that I could barely breathe when I thought she was missing.And if I ever thought I could give her up after a year, I know now that it’s not even in the cards.She’s become a part of my fucking soul.
No matter that the family in Italy have been told something different, or that my father demands it.I’m not giving her up.She’s mine, and I dare anyone to say otherwise or touch what doesn’t belong to them or put hands on my kitten again because I will squeeze the life out of them with my bare hands.
Sophia wakes in the night, gently rolling in her sleep, wrapping her hand around my waist while sliding her thigh on top of mine, slinking a sexy ankle around my calf as though entwining me in her web.I smile at my kitten, purring her content as she wraps herself around me, feeling safe in my arms.I watch as she stretches and nuzzles her face into my chest and her hand slides across my belly and down to the erection that’s always hard as fuck for Sophia.“Did you find what you want, kitten?”
She purrs softly, in the way between half awake and still half asleep but horny for my dick.My hand slides beneath her hair, silky and smooth between my fingers, as her fingers surround my cock, stroking it in the sexiest of ways.“It’s been misery keeping my hands off you tonight,” I growl.
Her eyes open and she looks at me with serious concern.“I didn’t know if you would find me.I knew you would try, and obviously hoped that you would.But there was a moment ...”She pauses and her eyes get moist.“when that warehouse door closed that I thought I was on my own.I was prepared to fight, but I also knew that I may not come out alive.All I could think about was not seeing you again, not touching you, not feeling you.This thing we have it’s good, if only for a short while.”
22
Sophia
Massimo growls, rolling me over and caging me with his arms, the only thing preventing him from crushing me with his muscular frame the two elbows he uses to keep his weight balanced, allowing me to breathe.“I’m going to fucking ruin you tonight,” he growls in my ear, running a hand down the length of my neck, kissing me in that special spot that makes me moan with desire when he marks me with his teeth.He parts my thighs with his knee before finding the slickness at my center and enters.There is nothing slow or gentle about our joining tonight.
Our desire is hot, feral and as untamed as the life we live.I want him deeper, and he drives hard, straight to the end of me, taking my breath away as my ankles cross around his back, holding him to me as though he might get away.But that’s hardly his plan today.He thrusts with the passion of a determined man, making me come so hard as he pounds us into oblivion while I scream his name.“Massimo!”
He rolls me over, kisses my lips and my forehead, and leans his forehead against mine as the sweat rolls from our bodies and he holds me tight.
“You’re mine, kitten.If you run, or are taken for any reason, I’ll always find you.But you’re not going to run again.You’re going to come to me, talk to me, and let me help you plan if something like this ever happens again.The stakes are far too high now, Sophia.Our enemies want to hurt you and your family.Someone, a rat, is inside our house.Working for our family.It could be any one of the newer soldiers Dad has hired.We’re looking for him, but until I tell you otherwise, you will adhere to my rules and not disobey, understand?”
I swallow the lump that has formed in my throat.The depth of my feelings for this man scares the shit out of me.The stakes have never been higher, and every rule of his brings me that much closer to belonging fully to him, when I know that after a year, he’ll keep his end of the bargain and walk away.Not because he doesn’t love me, because I know that he does, but he’s a Roselli, and family above all has to come first in our world.He won’t have a choice.
Massimo is a man of his word, and he wouldn’t lie to me, not now.His emotions are as strong for me as mine for him.I believe he thinks I am his and that he’ll find a way for us to be together.But his father is never going to let this rest.
I don’t doubt for a moment that when we part, I’m going to be shattered in a million pieces.No matter that he says I’m his today and forever.But when our year as husband and wife is over, I’m afraid that while he will inevitably walk away from this sexy game we play, I will be scarred for a lifetime.Scarred for a lifetime after being the devil’s pawn.
His finger tips my chin, forcing me to look at him.“What were you thinking?”His mouth is so close to mine that his lips are almost touching mine.“You know, I have ways of making you talk, kitten.Tell me what I want to know.”
I swallow past the emotion.I’m not a fragile little doll who doesn’t know the drill.I’m just going to enjoy the time with him, expect nothing after that and I won’t be disappointed at all.
His dark eyes sear me with their intensity.I stroke a finger down his face.“Your father’s words.He’s not going to change his mind, and the feud between the families is not going away.”
He kisses my lips tenderly.“I will deal with it.It’s nothing for you to worry about, kitten.”
Whether he believes it or not, his father is not going to come around.I’ll enjoy Massimo as long as I have him.As long as my family is protected, and safe, that’s all any Cassone girl can truly hope for in a world such as this.Life seems to have come full circle for me.Running from the life that my mom chose and that stole her joy as one after another of our relatives was brutally killed, loving my father but never having his undevoted time.Mamma loved me and Anna with all her heart, but her fragile heart just couldn’t take the life.
I tried leaving, but the Cassone name sucked me back into the vortex of crime, found me at my weakest hour, and Barcelo Gallini changed our life forever.Hijacking the Roselli trucks while orchestrating it as an order from my father was genius on his part, but now all of our lives hang in the balance.Because the Rosellis aren’t going to allow Barcelo Gallini and his family to get away with that, and the minute they show their face, come out of hiding, the Rosellis are going to strike.Massimo doesn’t need to say a word.Every time their name even comes up, the look on his face says it all.Vengeance will be the Rosellis’.His father trusts him to set the family power straight and if anyone can do it, it’s my powerful husband.But at what cost to the Cassones?
Then, I have no clue what’s going to happen.I’ll have to make sure the Cassone debt, which is not even our debt to pay, is paid.I believed Massimo when he told me it would be wiped clean and that it’s not my worry anymore.I just need to make sure.At least for my father’s sake and so that the family name is cleared.And as frantic as I am about Anna, she has clearly made her choice.Stay with my father until Barcelo returns from whatever he is doing, meanwhile protected by the Roselli soldiers, at least for the remainder of my arrangement with Massimo.I just wish I could talk to her more, see her more, and be part of her pregnancy.It breaks my heart she is going through this alone.It can’t be easy for her with my father’s views on innocence until marriage.If she doesn’t want to talk to me there is nothing I can do.
I’ll talk to Massimo tomorrow.That’s what he said, tell him when I need something, we’ll plan together.My mind starts to relax a little, thinking of a list of things to make life for my sister a little easier without intruding on whatever it is that Massimo needs to do to keep us and his family safe from both the Amortes and the Gallinis.
Maybe now that Massimo learned my father wasn't the one who hijacked their stuff and the Cassones really were just caught in the middle of Barcelo's play for power he can figure out a way to get her to take a call.But, still, Anna is waiting for Barcelo.She's still in the enemy’s camp as far as the Rosellis are concerned.But for me, Massimo will keep her under the protection of his soldiers.I understand how complicated this is and the horrible position that puts Massimo in between his father and the family in Italy.My mind spins with the possibilities, knowing it could get me in a ton of trouble, but still.
23
Massimo
Six fucking months since Sophia was lured right from my house and I still don’t know how the fuckers got in my house.All I can assume is that someone in our pack is a rat.I know we have them, every family does, but not as brazen as to leave a fucking note under my wife’s door.Not one fucking security camera picked up a damn thing.All I can do is keep her locked safely away, with extra guards and protection until we smoke the fuckers out.
I glance down at my watch as I walk through the doors of Carnal Sins.I’m used to being a source of curiosity and even a draw for the patrons of my club.Hushed whispers reverberate around the lounge.I don’t pay them any mind.I’m looking for one person and one person only.The cause of a frantic text to get my ass to the club at almost midnight.The only reason to be out on a night as cold as this and away from my kitten’s bed.I scan the table area and closer to the stage, looking for the person who is supposed to be home, under lock and key, staying out of trouble.
The minute I see the gyrating blonde on the dance floor making a full out spectacle of herself, I fucking know why they’re looking at me like that.The clubgoers who know about the two of us expect a fucking show.Everyone still thinks she’s mine.Because my father told the family that she is, and her father probably told everyone that would listen we’re still a thing.No matter how many years go by we’re always going to be a thing in people’s minds, no matter that we were never a thing to each other at all.My jaw tightens irritated beyond all hell, tired of it all.
But old man Amorte doesn’t have anything left of his empire to gamble with except for his beautiful but at the moment irritating-as-fuck daughter.If my sources are right, he gambled it all away with the wrong players.Becoming indebted to them and losing it all.The only thing he had worth bartering was Desiree, and what did he have to lose.At the time, he thought the marriage arrangement was solid.I was his get out of jail free card.Marry Desiree to me and my father would hand him over more than enough money to keep him, his sons, and nephews in business for life, plus they would always have an alliance with us.Which meant more money in lots of ways.
