He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I can’t believe you right now.”
“Did I say something wrong? She’s been promised to you since she was born. The poor girl loves you to bits, and she finished school this year. Her family expects a wedding very soon.”
He gulped his drink and downed it in one go. “I’m not marrying the Lanza girl or any other Mafia princess. Haven’t I made that clear months ago?”
A surge of fury burst through me. I went back to my seat and leaned forward. “The Lanza girl is Enzio Il Tagliatore Lanza’s cousin.” Half-sister actually. That family had always been fucked up, but who cared? They were our best allies, and I fucking loved Enzio. He was like my best friend. “When it came to family honor, he had no trouble killing his own twin brother. Do you have any idea what’s gonna happen if you don’t marry Claudia?”
“Her heart will be broken for a couple of days, but she’ll live. The Lanzas will have no trouble finding her another prince, one who is a kiss ass that cares about nothing but Mob power.”
I slammed my glass against the table, and he flinched. “Che cazzo?! You think this is a joke? You’re not a kid anymore, Leo. Anything you say or do has consequences. You might reject our ways, but you damn well know how it is in our families. She’s been engaged to you. No other man has been allowed to think of her as a wife. Leaving her now means one of two things. She’s not good or pure enough for you or you’ve already fucked her. Either way, it’ll be a scandal. She won’t be good enough for anybody else because nobody likes a hand-me-down.”
He shook his head, swearing under his breath.
“A man doesn’t break his promises, Leo, and certainly doesn’t do something that shameful to a Mafia princess. Bellomo’s son won’t treat an innocent girl from one of the best families out there with disrespect.”
“I didn’t make that promise. You did.” He got to his feet. “So why don’t you fucking marry her?”
“Basta!” I hurled my glass against the wall, smashing it to pieces. “I gave you your freedom before because I had no doubt you’d come back to your senses with age, but obviously, you’re abusing my patience.”
His eyes, no longer mocking, widened at me, his chest heaving.
I ran both my hands in my hair, taking a deep breath. “If this is about college, fine. I’ll entertain that, but you’re going to become made first before you go. You’ll take your omertà, you’ll go through with the ceremony, and then you’ll marry Claudia after you finish freshman year.”
“Or what?” He infuriated me again with his reckless indifference.
“There will be fucking war!” I lunged at him and squeezed his arm. “You think the Lanzas will let you ruin their daughter’s reputation without blood?”
He jerked his arm out of my grip, his eyes in flames. “Listen to me, Don Bellomo. I’ll go to college. I’ll have a decent job when I graduate that isn’t remotely related to any of our precious family business. I will marry a girl that has nothing to do with mobsters of any kind and the blood that comes with them. If a war is bound to happen because of a promise I never made, so be it. It’ll be on your hands, not mine.” His mouth curled with a snarl. “Just like Mom’s.”
Chapter 10
Lina
In the shower, as I worked the lather on the side of my neck, the feeling of his beard on my skin revisited me. As if it’d left me all night or this morning. His scent—masculine, expensive cologne I imagined only celebrities and models in those brand commercials wear—and the brief memory of our encounter stayed with me until I fell asleep, invading my dreams, waking up with me and wouldn’t leave my head—and my body—yet.
Closing my eyes, I licked my lip at the heavy throbs between my legs I’d only started to have since last night. To say I was confused was an understatement. How I was feeling about meeting him was messing up my mind. I should have been scared, and I was, enraged and alarmed, too. He was a dangerous stranger that lured me to a dark corner to do only God knew what before he managed to stop or change his mind. He was older than me. I didn’t know how old, but judging from his beard, his voice, the way he spoke, the clothes and cologne, I’d say much older, like he’d go to jail for a long time if he touched me older. But the main, dominant emotion that climbed on top of everything else was dangerously depraved. For the first time ever I felt…turned on.
As if they had a mind of their own, my hands slipped down to my soapy boobs, feeling my painfully erect nipples, the throbbing and sticky wetness between my thighs intensifying. I’d heard cold showers cooled people off, but even that wouldn’t conquer the horny spell a stranger—my stranger—had put me under just by breathing on me.
I moaned a swear, my fingers sliding down my hips and then touching the insides of my thighs, the urge for another release too loud to resist. I’d never…masturbated before last night. Never wanted to. Never had the privacy to try it even if I had. Just the mention of the word sent me blushing, and in all honesty, shaking. The idea of being touched, even by myself, had been terrifying. Because then I’d have thought of the only man who had ever touched me, and that was horrid.
Yesterday, things changed. Even though he didn’t really touch me, I found myself thinking of how it’d have felt if he had.
God, that was wrong. I shouldn’t fantasize about an older murderer guy. A stalker like Nicky said. But I was. The throbbing wouldn’t fade. It was increasing, aching.
Don’t move.
I trembled as I remembered his words, his voice, picturing him here in the shower with me, water cascading on both our bodies. My finger rubbed over my wetness, and I imagined it was him, holding my hand and rubbing it against me, ordering me to stay still while making me come. For him.
You smell so good. You’re so beautiful.
Gasping hard like I’d been when I felt his breath on my skin, when he sniffed my hair, now because of the pressure building down my belly, not because of fear, I imagined his free hand on my boobs, and his mouth I had yet to see on mine.
The orgasm hit me hard and fast. I stifled my moans so Nicky wouldn’t hear, but I so wanted to scream. To come was the best feeling ever, and if that was how I felt while I touched myself, how would it feel if a boy was touching me? If a man was making love to me? If he was that man?
A knock made me jump. I almost slipped. “What’s taking so long? You can’t stay in there all day. We have to run to the mall to return those dresses before they close,” Nicky said.
I turned off the water and evened my breath, trying to sound as cool and not guilty as possible. “My dress is in the closet, Sis. Just take it and go. You don’t have to wait for me.”
“You still need to come with me.”
“Don’t you have the receipts? What do you need me for?”
“I don’t have your receipt. You never gave it to me.”
What? Why would I give it to her? She was the one who bought it so she must have had it. Did she lose—
The panic of having to pay twelve hundred dollars because my sister lost the receipt crashed into me for a second before a bigger wave of panic replaced it.