ALEXEI
My frustration demands that I peel out of here with a loud rumble and let the high speeds and wind on my face cool my ass down, but Charlie’s little Vespa is having none of that. Instead of the power and speed I need, I get a soft, little grumble as her engine works overtime and a slightly below the speed limit ride because I’m afraid of pushing the damn thing too hard. What the fuck was I thinking? The deal was to pop her cherry, not kiss her and finger-fuck her on the side of the road while her tiny body came against me. I can’t seem to help myself around her, though. There’s something about her that makes me want to own and possess every damn inch of her, and none of it has anything to do with the deal we made. It had taken all my willpower to remain calm at the police station while she offered me an alibi in exchange for a first-time fuck. Whoever said a life of crime doesn’t pay, can lick my precum-covered balls, because making that lowlife disappear the other night was the best damn decision I ever made. It’s going to land my ridiculously hard cock in a nice, tight, virgin pussy in just a few minutes. Charlie tightens her grip around my waist. Her curious, eager fingers keep running under my shirt and along my cock, and it’s slowly driving me insane. Pussy is never in short supply for a guy like me, but I’ve never been this obsessed with fucking a woman before. Maybe it’s her innocence, maybe it’s the gutsy way she came up and propositioned me, or maybe it’s just her. I don’t have the slightest fucking clue, and I don’t care. All I know is I need to be inside her, filling her with my seed, and making her mine. I pull into the driveway of the house I just bought and park the pink scooter next to my massive Harley. She laughs when she sees it and gives me one last tight squeeze before getting off the scooter. “God, you must’ve hated having to ride on this thing.” I hand her the keys and give her a wink. “You made it worth it. Maybe I’ll give you a ride on a real motorcycle later. Something tells me you’d like it.” She smiles and pulls her helmet off, running her fingers through her long, dark hair that I already know is silky soft and smells like lavender and vanilla. I can still taste her pussy on my tongue, and I know what she looks like when she orgasms, but I don’t know what her tight pussy feels like wrapped around my dick, and I don’t know what she looks like when she sucks cock, and I’m dying to know it all. Every fucking detail. I push aside the part of my brain that’s saying it wants to know what she looks like in the mornings or while she sleeps or what she’ll look like through every stage of pregnancy as her toned stomach swells with our baby. That was definitely not part of our deal! She gives me a shy smile when I get off the scooter and grab her hand, leading her up to the front door. “Did you just buy this?” she asks, eyeing the craftsman style house. “Yeah, just a couple of weeks ago.” “So you’re staying here?” I smile at the way she’s trying so hard to not sound eager and hopeful. “Yes.” The truth is I’m here scoping out the place to see what the local law enforcement is like and how likely it is that the bratva will run into trouble here, but she doesn’t need to know all that. I pull her inside the house and shut the door. Seeing her standing here in my private space, the one place I keep all to myself, does something to me. I never bring one-night stands home. They get fucked at their place or bent over my bike. This place is sacred to me, and I try not to dwell on why I chose to bring her here and share this part of myself with her when I’ve never done it with anyone else. Her jeans are still unbuttoned, and when I step closer, she sucks in a breath and suddenly looks so small and nervous. “Hey.” I brush back a strand of her dark hair and tilt her chin up. Her brown eyes are wide, and her breaths are coming out shaky. “Do you still want this?” Her eyes grow even wider as she brings her hands to my waist, clutching me tightly like she thinks I might run off if she lets go. “I want this, Alexei,” she says, and her whole body might be nothing but a bundle of nerves, but I know she’s telling me the truth. “Then try to relax.” I run my thumb over her smooth skin, noticing the way her lips slightly part at my touch and a blush starts to spread up her cheeks. “Let me take care of you.” She shakes her head yes and leans into my touch. “I’m just a bit nervous, I guess.” Her confession makes me smile. “I hadn’t noticed,” I say, making her laugh. “I just don’t want to embarrass myself, I guess.” I look at her like she’s crazy. “How in the hell could you do that?” Her fingers fidget with the waistband of my jeans as she tries to look everywhere but at me. “I don’t know. I mean, you’re so gorgeous, and you’re a lot older than me, so I imagine you’ve been with a ton of women, and they’re all more experienced and probably way better looking than I am.” She pauses and then brings her eyes to mine. “I don’t want you to feel like you have to do this. I know we made a deal, but I’d hate to think you were just fucking me because you had to. I won’t say anything to my dad, if you’re worried about that.” I laugh because it’s the most insane thing I’ve ever heard. Grabbing onto one of her hands, I bring it to my painfully hard cock. “Does it feel like I don’t want to do this?” She lets out a soft moan when I press her harder against me, letting her feel how big and hard I am. “No, I’m not a virgin, and yes, I’m more than twice your age, but who the fuck cares?” I cup her face and bring mine close to hers. “I’ve never wanted to fuck someone as badly as I want to fuck you, Charlie, and I never bring women to my home.” “Really?” “Yes, really, so stop worrying. You couldn’t possibly embarrass yourself even if you tried. You need to relax, and I know just the thing to do it.”Fear twisted my bowels. “Veda…” I said quietly. “Don’t ever fucking talk like that. You hear me?”The life drained from her as quickly as it had appeared. I saw it happen with my own eyes, like a balloon deflating. Dropping her eyes, she shuffled around me and into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her. I heard the lock click.My fists clenched at my sides and took four steps away from the door, barely stopping myself from spinning around and punching a hole through it. As she got ready for bed, I stared out the window, not seeing the dance of lights across the lake that normally brought me such a sense of peace. Fed up with her, myself, and this entire fucking situation, I turned on my heel and walked out.But I stopped just outside the bedroom. No. This was bullshit. I’d tried giving her space, and it hadn’t done any fucking good. If anything, it only gave her a reason to withdraw even more.No. I was done giving her her space.Marching back into the room, I went into the close
LUCANearly a week had passed since I’d gotten Veda back. I rarely saw her during the day, just a glance now and then as she went out to the kitchen, the pool, or grabbed a book from the shelves in the media room. Oftentimes she had a bottle of some kind of strong alcohol in her hands that she must’ve pilfered from my stash in the kitchen. She didn’t seem to have a preference as to what kind it was. The only one she spoke to was Lisa, and I would often catch her watching Veda with a worried expression.At night, she was usually already in bed when I got there. The few times I’d arrived a little early, she’d barely said two words to me as she brushed her teeth and changed her clothes. Always hidden from me behind closed doors.She barely spoke to me at all when we were alone, even if I asked her a direct question, so I had Enzo ask her about what had gone down while she was at Mario’s, thinking maybe she would open up to him. She told him everything she could remember about the apartme
LUCA“Luca, can I talk to you for a sec?”Tristan was waiting for Enzo and me when I got out of the SUV. I was just getting home from my newest club, I was tired and hungry, and I wasn’t really in the mood for whatever the hell it was that made Tristan have that look on his face. Some shit had gone down between one of my guys and a member of the cartel who was in town to make a collection from me. The bartender called me as soon as things started to get heated, and I’d gotten there just in time to keep my cousin from getting shot. I didn’t need this shit right now. I had other things to worry about here at home.“Can it wait?”“No. I don’t think it can.” He and Enzo exchanged a look I couldn’t quite read.My stomach growled. I was anxious to get inside to see if I could coax Veda into having dinner with me. “Can we at least go in the house?”Tristan put a hand on my arm as I went to walk past. “Luca, just give me a minute here.”I stopped, glancing back at him over my shoulder. Someth
I CAME BACK to full consciousness slowly, like I was swimming up from the deep end of the pool. I bobbed on the surface of the water for a moment, only to sink back into the peaceful depths. Someone tucked the comforter close around me, and then I fell back into oblivion.The second time, I became aware of birds chirping outside and I smiled. But I fell asleep again without realizing it.It wasn’t until the third time that I was able to stay awake. Mostly because of the pressure of my bladder.Opening my eyes, I blinked against the sunlight and immediately closed them again with a moan. Who the hell opened the blinds? Or maybe they just burned so much still because of the damage done by the contacts. Gradually, I was able to keep them open, and I noticed the sun was nearly in the same position it was in when I went to sleep.Please tell me I’d slept more than an hour.Was Luca still asleep? Afraid of waking him, I carefully turned my head to look over my shoulder.He wasn’t in the bed
VEDAHe wasn’t lying. My room was exactly as I’d left it, all the way down to the crumpled blankets on the bed and my sneakers kicked off in the corner.Grateful to be alone, I took a deep breath and froze. It smelled like Luca in here. Had he been creeping around in my room while I was gone? Looking for what? Too tired to think about it, I just shook my head and went to the closet to find something to sleep in. The sun was coming up, but I was so fucking tired. I needed to sleep. And strangely enough, I felt safe here.As I pulled off my dead sister’s clothes and left them lying in a heap on the bathroom floor, I had to wonder, what was he planning to do with me now? The game was up. Mario knew who I was. Or rather, who I wasn’t. And Luca hadn’t so much as asked me to close my eyes when we drove to his house, which meant I knew the location of the house now. His private sanctuary that, by his own words, not even his own family knew about.What the hell did that mean?Turning on the s
LUCAFor a moment, I couldn’t move. But then I burst from the bed in a flurry of movement. Enzo quickly stepped back out of the way, not in the least concerned about my nakedness. “Where is she?” I asked him. I wanted to ask him if she was alive, but I couldn’t bring myself to say the words.“At Lisa’s.”I froze with my hands on the button of my jeans. “What?”“She’s at Lisa’s. Woke them up banging on the door after she found her way to their house. Apparently, she was dumped near there.”Found their house. That meant she was up and walking on her own. “He just left her there?” It wasn’t lost on me that my brother had found the home of one of my most trusted employees. “Who dropped her off? Did they see anything?”He shook his head. “No.”I picked up my shirt from the floor, unable to look at him as I asked my next question. “Is she all right?”“I just know she’s alive and walking and talking.”That’s all I could really ask for. So why was my gut clenched with the need to see her? Hea