Sophia
The argument downstairs continues to rattle around in my head, even with Massimo standing in front of me, ready to come to our marriage bed.I know for damn sure he’s not been with that woman.I don’t know how I know it, it’s intrinsic, a trust, a bond, something so pure that I never could have ever thought of before.“You went to Desiree tonight?”
He steps forward, his eyes not leaving mine for a second.“It’s not what you think, Sophia.”
I smile gently.“Unfortunately, it’s exactly what I think.I don’t believe you went to cheat.I think you went to save her from her own folly, protect your name and hers, because you still find yourself in the complex web of deceit that your father has weaved.Until you’re free of that web, outside its boundaries, your life will never be your own, you will always be the one they can force to do whatever they want, because they have something on you.Rule number one in my family.Always find something on everyone, the minute you meet them, dig for that one thing that can bury someone in the ground.Something they don’t want people to know and tuck it away for a rainy day.No?They’re not going to give up, Massimo.”
His dark eyes flash, and in a quick move and exchange of power, he takes mine away.His hands go to my wrists, holding both of them above my head, and he kisses my lips with a power that takes my breath away.“Tell me to bind you,” he growls.
This isn’t how this was supposed to go, but I swear his mouth on my neck, my nipples, and now my ear, whispering his growly voice against that sensitive shell.“Tell me to bind you, kitten.”
“Massimo … bind me.”
He doesn’t hesitate, pulling the soft cuffs from behind the headboard, securing my wrists into them so that I couldn’t move or get away if I tried.Not that I plan to do that, right now.We need this.If it’s our last night together, both of us need to say things in our own way, the way we communicate at our best, with our mouths, our lips, and our bodies joined as one.
He pushes the black hat from my forehead and places it on the bed.“I want to see your eyes.You’re not going to hide from me when you tell me what you plan to do.”
I inhale a deep breath, and my mouth involuntarily forms an O.His eyebrows arch as he settles on his knee between my thighs, watching me as he positions my feet next to his legs, and parts my knees letting them fall to each side.“There, now you’re at my complete mercy, and don’t doubt for a second that I know how to get information from my victims.I am very good at my job, kitten.”He lets a hand trail down the length of my inner thigh, his fingertip tracing the path of the soft fuzz on my mound.“So beautiful and soft, my very own little kitten.There’s only one problem.She keeps mistrusting me, keeps thinking about ways to run from me.Maybe you like the chase?If so, there’s another game that I think you’ll like to play.”
My breath catches because Massimo isn’t a man of many words.Every one of them is used on purpose and for effect.He knows what I plan or at least that’s what he thinks but he can’t really know, because I haven’t told one living soul.
“My kitten is so quiet,” he says, bending to taste what belongs to him.My hips lift.My body is helpless to his touch and the dark-eyed devil knows it.“That light in your eyes, it’s still there, Sophia Maria Roselli.It’s what drew me to you the very first time I saw you in my club.The very first time you ran into me, like it was my fault and not any of your own.”
His tongue flattens, caressing that bundle of nerves that has been anxiously waiting for that exact touch.My hips raise again, and his hand settles on my belly.“Still, kitten.I’m in charge of your pleasure.”
This is so not going the way I had worked out in my head.Me taking charge, riding him with my hat tilted, giving him a sexy little dance atop his rigid cock before making him come so hard he would never forget the night.I draw my knees up, but he only allows me to close them so far.Instead, he watches me intently.“Tell me what I want you to say.What are the rules, Sophia?”
I exhale a breath not realizing I was holding it until this very minute.“We need to talk.”His eyebrow arches.“Very good.Tell me why?”
I swallow through the emotion.“Because I promised to tell you if something was wrong, if I didn’t want to do something, I’d tell you before we got there, and that if something was wrong, I would talk to you, come to you, and we would solve it together.”Now the tears are rolling down my face again, even though I vowed that I wouldn’t let them until I was alone again.
He leans down and kisses me on the mound.“Good girl, kitten.”He reaches up, unties my hands, and pulls me to him, cradling me in his arms as he repositions us to the head of the bed and covers us with a sheet.He wipes the tears and draws me so close I can smell the fresh scent of his soap, but it’s mingled with cigar smoke and female perfume, causing my heart to constrict.This could be the last time he holds me, the last time we had to make love, and instead of being strong, I caved, just like the first time I screamed his name.
“I don’t believe you went to the club tonight to cheat, or that you did.But this thing with Desiree, whether you want to believe it or not, Massimo.It’s not resolved, not in the slightest.Until her father gets what he wants, he’s going to keep coming.He’s desperate and if there’s one thing I’ve learned in my life as a Cassone, desperate men do horribly desperate things.My family and I, we’re never going to be safe as long as old man Amorte wants his daughter to be with you and sees me in the way.I can’t be a prisoner in this house forever and my sister, she needs to be free.”I swallow down my sadness because he has to see that his dad is not going to budge.
Massimo’s intense deep eyes hold mine captive, thoughtful for a moment.“You’re insightful and quite right about a lot of things.I didn’t go there to cheat nor did I.But I did carry her from the dance floor and put her to bed in one of the rooms.She was so drunk she almost fell on the floor.Her father didn’t know she was out.She and I have never been a thing, but she does mean something to me.She’s been a companion, a friend, a person I could talk to over the years when nothing made sense with our worlds because we both grew up in the same world and were allowed to talk to each other but not many outsiders.”
My heart constricts for a lot of reasons.With sympathy for the young man who found himself in that position and for her too really, but mostly for me, because I never had a chance to know him like that.We were enemies, rivals of the worst kind.“Because you weren’t enemies like us.”
“Unfortunately, yes.I care what happens to her and a deal has been made.Her father will no longer pursue the marriage between his daughter and I, and she will be free to leave of her own free will and start a life of her choosing.Hopefully somewhere far, far away from her fucking father.”
My eyes meet his.“And at what cost to you?What did it cost?”
He leans forward as he strokes my face.“Nothing but money, which I have more of than generations of our children could ever spend.Even if they didn’t work a day in their lives and were as irresponsible as old man Amorte.It’s a small price.Money is nothing, you and our future, you are everything.The family I want to have with you.You are my world.”
The tears come in floods now.“I thought this may be our last night together, that your father would not let you out of this no matter how much you wanted to be.”
The look on his face makes me take hold of both sides of his face and kiss his lips.“I wasn’t going to run.I promise you that.I was going to be on top, and give you the greatest sex of your life, Massimo Roselli, and then I was going to tell you what I thought and ask you to let me go.”
His jaw tightens.“You thought I would say yes.”
“For now, yes.I thought it would give you time to deal with the Desiree issues, figure out things with your father, with the family who doesn’t want you with me, and with the Amortes and the Gallinis.I thought….”
He rolls me over, caging me, his eyes intense and dark as they capture mine.“You thought I would trade you for all of those things to disappear.You are the light in my otherwise dark world, Sophia Maria Roselli, and if you ever, ever, try to leave me I will hunt you down and drag you back until you scream my name again and again.I love you more than anything, anything.Do you understand that, kitten?”
Now the tears roll down my face for a much different reason.He wipes them, first with a gentle caress of his fingertip, and then with a touch of his tongue to my face, and then his lips, hands, and mouth begin to wander, caressing me, making me feel loved with his touch.He flips me over so I’m straddling his lap, keeping me steady with one hand while grabbing my hat, placing it on my head, and giving it a little tilt.
“I think you owe me a ride, Sophia Maria Roselli.”
