The sudden silence in the dining room is like thunder. I stare at my father, who is suddenly pale. He looks at me, and his expression almost softens.
“That was—” He stops, and some of his anger deflates. “I didn’t mean to hurt her.”
“I hope you didn’t.” Carmine’s voice drops. “But you did. I’m not going to pretend that didn’t happen so you can feel comfortable at your own dinner table. And let me be very clear, sir. You try that again and you will have to go through me and my crew.Clarissa is part of my life and part of my crew, and we protect our own.”
My father stares at him and something shifts behind his eyes, but he doesn’t back down.
“Is this man worth losing your family over?” My father’s voice is rough.
“He’s not the one making me choose.” My throat aches and I swallow through it. “You are. I don’t want to cut you from my life, but you can’t stand in the way of me making my own choices.”
My father looks down at the table. “I don’t like this.” My father’s voice is low, and I can see the pained look in his eyes. “But I will try to accept it.”
I exhale and look at Carmine. This is more than I expected would happen. I truly thought it was a waste of time to come here tonight.
“That’s all I’m asking.” My voice breaks. “If you get to know him—really know him—you’ll see he’s a good man, Father.”
He nods once, short, eyes still on the table. I know it’s not what he wants, but that single nod is the hardest thing I’ve ever watched him do.
After dinner, Carmine’s hand finds the small of my back as we go down the steps and into the fresh night air. He opens my door and closes it shut behind me. When he gets in, he puts both hands on the steering wheel.
“What do you think?”
“I think it went better than I expected.” I exhale deeply.
“What do you want to do?”
I lean across the console and lift my hand to his jaw. I kiss him slow and pour everything into it. I pull back and look into his dark eyes.
“I want you to take me home with you.”
CHAPTER 11
CARMINE
Clarissa is on her back against my pillows on my bed, hair fanned out, one knee bent, looking up at me with clear eyes and zero hesitation. Every curve I’ve been losing my mind over since she started at King Ink is bare and beautiful and better than anything my head came up with. Wide hips I want to grip as I thrust into her. Thighs thick and soft, and I want my face buried between them. Her breasts are heavy and full, nipples tight, and my mouth waters looking at them. This woman’s body was built to wreck me.
Her eyes move across my chest. She’s seeing the full ink for the first time—the sleeve, the script, the compass rose over my ribs. Her fingers trace the lines across my collarbone.
“You have more tattoos than I realized.” Her thumb stops on the compass rose. “I want you to explain every single one.” Her hand slides down my stomach. Lower. Her fingers wrap around my cock and my cock twitches in her soft hand. “But not right now.”
I drop my mouth to her throat. My hand finds her heavy breast, and I roll her nipple between my thumb and finger. She arches off the pillow, moaning. I take her nipple in my mouth and suckhard. She threads her fingers through my hair and guides my head, and her hips roll up against me. She is so fucking wet right now, dripping on my thigh, and it takes everything in me not to plunge my cock into her right now.
I drag my mouth across to the other breast. Suck until she’s pulling my hair and moaning and her hips are grinding against my leg, searching for friction. I could stay here for hours—her tits in my mouth, her hands yanking my hair, reveling in the erotic sounds she’s making. But my cock is aching, leaking against her thigh, and she’s pulling at me, her legs falling open wider, her hand reaching for me again.
I settle between her thighs. The head of my cock drags through her slick, swollen folds, and we both groan. I drag myself through her wetness, slow, coating myself in her, the tip of my cock nudging her clit on every pass. Her hips jerk as I tease her.
“Carmine—please—”
“You want my cock?” I drag through her again slowly, watching her face.
She’s flushed down to her chest. Her mouth is open and her eyes are half-wild and I am losing my goddamn mind but I love this—watching her need it, watching her body beg for something only I’m ever going to give her. Every time the head of my cock meets her clit, I watch her feel the pleasure and give into it.
“Tell me.”
“Yes. God, yes, I want—”
I push in so slowly that my arms shake. She’s tight—tight enough that my jaw locks and every nerve in my body fires at once. She gasps and her eyes go wide. Her body stretches around me inchby inch, and I’ve never felt anything like her—hot, slick, gripping me so tightly that my vision blurs.
