“That hurt,” Gabriel growls.
“That was the point,” I snap back at him.
Gabriel twists me onto my back and closes one hand over my throat, squeezing just enough to allow only the barest amount of air through. I pull at his arm with both hands, but he’s too strong. Adrenaline is coursing through my blood in a way it never has before during sex. The fight or flight compulsion makes me squirm and kick, but I am so turned on that it only takes him guiding his hand into my shorts for me to seize up completely.
Gabriel roughly shoves two fingers inside of me, and that’s nearly enough to make me come right then and there. I let out a choked groan.
“Fuck, you’re wet,” he says approvingly. “What are you trying to prove, Tiger? That you’re a tough girl?” He twists his fingers and starts to apply pressure to my clit with his thumb. I see stars. “Do you want to show me how rough you can be? That you can give as good as you get?”
He drives deeper inside of me. My eyes roll to the back of my head, and I can only respond with a guttural moan.
“I’ve been taking it easy on you so far, but if it’s rough you want, then it’s rough you’ll get.” He rips down my pajama bottoms, and I feel my tummy flutter in anticipation.
I muster my strength and croak out, “Is that supposed to scare me?”
Gabriel sits back, hauling me up by my throat and wrapping my legs around his waist. He pulls down his boxers and impales me on his cock. I cry out, and I’m not sure whether it’s more the pain of his rough handling or the sheer ecstasy of him burying his cock inside of me. Gabriel’s hand slides from my throat to the back of my neck, and he drags me forward for a rough, demanding kiss.
I kiss him back greedily. And I submit. Endorphins flood my system when I do, and it only takes Gabriel a couple of thrusts before I come apart completely. My body shakes, and I moan helplessly against his mouth.
“Fuck!” he groans, both hands dropping to my hips.
Gabriel bites my lip and holds it between his teeth while he lifts me up and down on his cock. His fingers dig into the flesh of my hips, and I am sure they will leave marks. I really hope so. I am utterly at his mercy, and it’s everything I can do to hang onto his shoulders while he gives me the rough treatment I so desire.
There is something divinely cathartic about our animalistic fucking. It feels like we kicked our pretense out the door in the same shove as all romance. We kept only the raw passion. The need.
Gabriel’s teeth grit with the effort of bouncing me on his cock, and his forehead glistens with sweat. My eyes have adjusted to the dim light, and I admire his stone-cut features; the long, straight nose, the deep black eyes. He is so beautiful, and at this moment looks so ferocious that it nearly takes my breath away.
And then he swiftly deposits me onto the floor on my stomach, hikes my hips up, and buries inside of me again—and that really does take my breath away.
Our ragged breaths and the smacking sound of his hips hitting my ass fill the room. Gabriel grunts and groans, furiously hammering away behind me. I feel my body quiver and tense on the inside, feel the pressure build in my belly, and I realize I’m going to come again.
I let out a guttural cry as the orgasm hits me full force. Starbursts explode in front of my eyes, and electricity skitters over my skin. Gabriel swears and slams into me one last time, and I feel him pulse deliciously inside of me. He rubs his hand over my back, gentler than I would have expected, and then wraps an arm under my belly and pulls me back against him.
My body is limp at this point. I feel like a wrung-out sponge, and I let Gabriel pull me back into his embrace even though I’m not sure if I’m still mad at him. What was I mad at him for? Or was he mad at me? I don’t know. It hardly seems to matter now.
The room is perfectly quiet. Perfectly still.
19
Gabriel
Silvano arrives at the mansion at 9 a.m. on the dot. He is always punctual, which is something I appreciate about him. It almost offsets his overall awkwardness.
He brings two cups of coffee with him up to my office, which I also appreciate. I was up late last night with Alexis, so my fatigue is my own fault, but I’m in a bad mood already because of it. If I struggled to keep my hands off her before, it’s worse now that we’ve struck up an alliance. Something about her full acceptance and cooperation in my business has removed that last thread of hesitation between us, and we’ve been at it like animals.
“Good morning,” Silvano says, setting the steaming mug down in front of me. “Victoria does make a good cup of coffee, doesn’t she?”
“She’s very good at her job.” I gesture impatiently for him to sit. “We have a lot to talk about, Silvano. Let’s not waste our time making small talk.”
Silvano must be getting used to me because he sits, but his smile doesn’t budge, despite my reprimand. His gray eyes assess me from across the desk, and I notice a dusting of dark stubble on his cheeks.
“Did you not have time for a shave this morning?” I ask, sipping my coffee.
Silvano chuckles and strokes his chin. “I thought I’d try a beard,” he explains. “I always admired Vito’s.”
“Why?” I scoff.
My best friend’s beard was hideous. It was probably the worst decision he ever made, besides getting on the boat with me the day he lost his life.
Silvano cocks a brow. “No time for coffee talk, but now you want to chat about my personal grooming?”
I narrow my eyes and frown. Fair.
Silvano clears his throat and lifts his briefcase onto his lap. He pulls out a selection of newspapers and magazines and sets them into two piles on the desk. Resting his hand on the left pile, he says, “These are the past week’s mentions of you and Alexis.” He moves his hand to the right pile. “And these are all to do with the Cartel and the Irish.”
“Can you summarize them?” I ask, swiping a couple publications off the pile on the left.
“In general, the public thinks you and Alexis are a beautiful couple. There have been a few mentions of your respective anger issues, but the consensus seems to be that because you’re both fiery, you’re well suited. One of the magazines speculates that’s why you were never seen with a woman before Alexis. They were all too docile.”
“Not untrue,” I say with a shrug.
“As for the Cartel…” He wrinkles his nose, as though the words he is about to say taste vile. “It’s exactly what you would expect. Shootings, stabbings, rapes. Sometimes the crimes are credited to the gangs, but I threw in everything that looks to me like it’s Cartel related even if the police don’t think it is.”
“They’re getting bolder,” I say grimly.
Silvano nods. “They’re settling in. They’ve brought over a load more men from Colombia in recent weeks, and their pack mentality has become vicious. I’ve even heard a couple reports of members of the Cartel turning on their Irish counterparts.”
That is never a good sign. Then again, if there’s bad blood brewing between the two groups, we might be able to use it to our advantage.
“Right,” I say. “I want to find some lower-downs in the Irish community. These need to be guys who know things, but who have probably also been shit on by the Cartel. We have to find Kevin Lynch as a matter of priority.”