I grabbed my glass and took a long drink, needing the burn of the alcohol to wash away the bile. “It’s complicated.”
“I know.”
“I felt coerced into it. Had to think about everyone but myself. But now ... I don’t know.”
“But if you break it, you break your word.”
“Exactly,” I said. “But the older I get, the less I care.”
He nodded like he understood, but to be frank, no one understood. “If the time ever comes, you know Cosa Nostra will have your back, Constantine. And not just because you’re Emperor Constantine of the Roman Republic—but because you will always be one of us.”
Chapter 11
Aurelia
I wasn’t sure what time it was, but it was the dead of night when he returned to the room. He was quiet with the door, kept his footsteps light on the carpet and hardwood floor when he came inside. I heard the shower come on distantly from the bathroom in the other room. It was quiet, like the trickle of a fountain, and should soothe me enough to go back to sleep.
But now, I was wide awake.
I’d just left my hotel room and joined his, and the second I arrived, I knew him a little better. I reached for my phone on the nightstand, tapped the screen, and saw that it was almost five in the morning.
He’d been gone all night.
I returned the phone and lay there with sleep behind my eyes, feeling a twinge of fear because there were only two explanations for him being out all night. He was either with someone else, which I highly doubted with all the fucking we did. Or ... he was doing that private security he mentioned before.
It was common knowledge that Cosa Nostra had been here as early as the mid-1800s. They were still active today on the west side of Sicily. They kept a low profile and stayed to themselves, so theydidn’t seem to be a problem among the general public—if you didn’t cross them.
That was too much of a coincidence.
I’d wonder if Constantine was a member, but if he lived in Rome, that didn’t make sense. It wasn’t exactly a work-from-home type of gig. But he might be associated in some way, and that was terrifying ... and a little thrilling.
Minutes later, Constantine left the bathroom and came to bed. A small amount of dull light came from the tiny crack where the two sides of the curtains met, and I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to fall back asleep at this point.
He took a drink of water from the nightstand, then got between the sheets beside me. He didn’t try to be quiet like he had when he’d first come in—like he somehow knew I was awake. He moved to the center of the bed, hooked his big arm around me, and pulled me close into his core, dropping his chin and pressing a kiss to my exposed shoulder.
I should be wary of this man, but the second he grabbed me like that, I was fucking spineless. I melted into him like he was heat and I was butter. I felt safer in his arms than I had in the embrace of my nine-to-five, aboveboard boyfriend. I was just as obsessed now as I’d been before he’d told me his plans for the evening.
He tugged up my shirt underneath the sheets to expose my ass in my little thong. His big hand squeezed one of my cheeks before he pressed his hips into me, shoving his big dick right between my ass cheeks.
He should have been exhausted from his long night, but his dick was so hard, it was as if he’d had the greatest night of sleep in his life. He turned and grabbed one of his pillows, then placed it in front of me before he gently rolled me on top of it, placing it beneath my hips and getting me onto my stomach.
My lower back arched, and when I looked at him over my shoulder, he was already tugging my thong down my thighs. He wetted the headof his dick, then mounted me, sliding inside my tight entrance that barely had any warning of his intentions. He gently pushed, eventually getting past my entrance, then sinking the rest of the way, releasing a quiet moan when he was fully sheathed.
His weight drove me into the pillow, my clit against the silky cotton, and when he started to thrust inside me, it hit just right, the pressure and friction against my sex enough to make me moan right away.
He took me at an even pace, not nailing me hard like he did at other times, but at a speed that was about enjoyment rather than a rush to the high. I’d never been taken this way in my life, so I could barely handle the fullness of his big dick, could barely handle the stimulation against my clit. It was one of those rare times when I didn’t want to come, just wanted to hold on to this anticipation as long as I could before the explosion made my body jerk in odd and uncontrollable ways.
“Fuck,” he said from above my ear. “This pussy hits better than coke.” He started to thrust harder, giving me his full length even though he felt the dead end inside me, wanting me to take it all before he came.
It hurt, but fuck, it felt so good. “Yes ...” It made me come, hard, and the tears that sprang to my eyes were instant. “Come inside me,” I said breathlessly, wanting to hit an even greater high. “Please.”
“Fuck,” he said in a rush, pounding into me as he finished, making the mattress bounce with his rhythm. Then he came to a stop, giving me his full length and ignoring the way I winced in pain when I took it all.
He breathed above me, his breaths deep and slow, his hands balled into fists as they propped his body above mine. When he started to soften, he pulled out of me and lay back on the pillow. He gripped my ass and gave it a smack before he closed his eyes, drifting off right away like he was spent.
I looked at the crack between the curtains and saw that the light had changed, growing brighter as the sun rose farther in the sky. I turned back to him, seeing him already asleep in just seconds, his normally hard expression a little softer when he was relaxed.
With the heft of his come inside me, I turned over and fell asleep quickly, somehow spent when I just lay there and he did the rest.
