Until then, I know one thing for sure: our lives are about to change drastically.
With Eamon Knight, the head of the family gone, Sonny will have to fill his place at the table and with the family.
I was now engaged to the newest mob boss in Las Vegas.
Waking up the next day, I stretch my tired body and reach for Sonny, but he isn’t in bed with me anymore. Pulling a silk robe around me, I walk downstairs to find him.
I stop, taking a minute to stare at him. He’s in the sunroom reading the paper, drinking his morning coffee in his glasses and sleep pants with bare feet and chest. It’s the most relaxed I think I’ve seen him since I moved in.
I walk behind him, my hands skimming down his chest. “Morning.” I smile as I lean over to press a kiss to his cheek.
Taking my hand, he puts it to his lips, kissing me. “Morning, beautiful.”
Sitting down across from him, I pop a berry in my mouth. “You’re awful cheery this morning considering your dad died yesterday. Everything alright?” I ask skeptically.
Putting his paper down, he looks at me. “Everything is going to change. You get that right?” I nod in understanding. “This is it, Tink. Today is the last day I get to be me before it’s all stripped away and I have to turn into someone else from this day forward. I have to be the person I hide from you as much as possible, but I can’t hide anymore. Now, I’m going to have to be him all the fucking time.” He looks pained as he confirms what I already know. “So, before I hate myself, I’m taking one last day to be a twenty-one-year-old guy. A guy who smiles and laughs and loves his girl openly.”
“Come with me,” I tell him, standing from the table. He follows me upstairs to our bedroom and sits on the bed. Closing the door, I look at him, seeing the lost look on his face. “We don’t hide in here, remember?”
His head drops, and he runs a hand through his hair before looking back up at me. Holding a hand out to me, I walk to him, stepping between his legs. “I want to promise you that, but I can’t.” His hands go to my hips, and mine glide up to his shoulders. “Everything I do is to protect you. You know that, right?”
“I know. But I’m tougher than you think, Sonny. I’m not going to break, and I’m not going to run away.”
“I’m counting on that, Tink.”
His head falls to my stomach, and I hold him there. It’s the most vulnerable I think I’ve ever seen him, in this moment, giving in to his feelings of defeat. I run my nails up his spine and into his hair, scraping against his scalp, gaining me a hum of appreciation.
We spend the rest of the day doing everything he said. We laugh and love each other freely. Hanging at a pub, he plays a terrible game of pool with Dez. And when we stumble home, tipsy on cheap beer and shots of Irish whiskey, we close off the world in our bedroom as we fuck like drunk teenagers.
It’s sloppy and loud and frantic and intense. It’s everything he needs and everything I want to give him.
Falling over my back, sweaty and breathing heavy, he smacks my ass one last time. “I love you so fucking much, Ruby,” he says into my neck. His fingers lightly dance up my side, pulling my hair from around my face and kissing me behind my ear. It’s soft and sweet and the opposite of what we just did.
Turning to face him, I kiss him on the nose and smile. “I know.” Standing, I walk away from him.
“Where are you going?”
“Bathroom,” I answer. “I need to clean up before you fill me again.” I give him a sly smile before ducking into the bathroom. When I come back out, he’s sitting up in bed, looking deep in thought. Crawling back in beside him, I straddle his lap. “Stop thinking. Just for tonight. We still have time before the sun comes up.”
After the first time I was introduced to Mr. Knight, Sonny told me about his father threatening to put him back in prison if I did anything against the family or if we tried to leave. What Sonny thought was more of a living threat became a reality when he found out that his father had used his name on everything illegal. Sonny couldn’t leave if he tried with his name tainted the way it had been.
He didn’t have the option to leave, not even now that the old man was gone. We both knew it would take years for him to be able to walk away from the life and family he was born into.
And I knew it killed him to know he tied me to all of it too. I don’t care though. As long as I have Sonny at my side, I don’t care what he does. There’s no me without him.
Kissing his jaw, I let his stubble scratch at my skin as I kiss every inch of him. Running my hand in his hair, I fist a handful and pull his head back, my tongue licking up his throat. My teeth sink into his lip, tugging on the soft flesh before soothing it with a kiss.
“You let me be the King for a little longer,” I say into his wanting mouth as he grips my ass with his hands, bruising my skin.
His mouth latches on to my collar bone, leaving bites along it before pushing me to my back. Taking both my wrists in one hand, he holds them above my head. “You may be King over my heart, but I’m always king, baby,” he whispers into my ear before pushing inside me in one hard thrust, making my back arch. His lips drop to my nipple, biting it hard and making me cry out in painful pleasure.
Hooking my leg around his, I roll us so I’m on top again, rising and falling on him with a roll of my hips as I scratch down his chest. He lets me have my way for a little bit, and when I get close, he pulls me off of him.
Putting me on my back again, he pulls one of my legs over his shoulder and thrusts in hard and fast. Thumb on my clit, he brings me to the edge. My fists ache from how hard I’m gripping the sheets. When my release hits, his name falls from my mouth on a yell.
Flipping me to my stomach, he pulls my ass up in the air and slaps one cheek and then the other before rubbing to soothe the sting. When the pain settles, he pushes back inside and smacks my ass again. He’s the master of mixing pain and pleasure, and I’m his puppet he can use any way he wants.
When he reaches around and pinches my sensitive clit, I see stars, ready to explode again. His teeth sink into my shoulder as he holds my hips and pistons in and out of me in hard, ragged thrusts, and I burst again. This time he follows with a growl of his own, slowing his pace until he’s empty.
Then, like always, he places a soft kiss to my shoulder, my neck, my cheek, my lips. I hum as I look back and smile sleepily at him. “I love you, my king.”
“I will never get enough of you,” he groans, kissing me again.
“Well, I need a shower after that,” I say with a lazy smile, my eyes still closed.
I feel half asleep when he picks me up, cradling me in his arms and carrying me to the shower. Sonny washes me with reverence and love. When we get back to bed, he holds me until I can’t hold off sleep anymore. The last thing I hear is his final hopeful plea. “Please still love me tomorrow.”
18
Sonny
The days that followed the death of my father came like a blur of everything I didn’t want. Starting with his funeral, where I felt like I was inside a fishbowl on display for everyone to watch.
The only thing that kept me together was having Ruby on one arm and my mother on the other. One was a pillar of strength while the other soaked my sleeve in tears.