Pulling the shirt I was wearing aside, he moved down over my collarbone and tried to go lower. Then, with a sound of impatience, he rose over me and pulled my shirt up and off with quick, impatient jerks.
I wasn't wearing a bra. I only had the one I was wearing when he'd brought me here, and I had no idea what he'd done with the clothes I'd had on that night. As he sat back on his heels and looked at me as though he was seeing me for the first time, I held my breath, my body trembling, my focus completely on him.
Luca's tongue wet his bottom lip as he stared at me, then he cupped one of my breasts, his palm rough with calluses. He squeezed, hefting the weight in his hand before pinching the nipple and releasing it to do the same on the other side. Bending over me, he sucked my nipple into his mouth, hot and wet and demanding as he teased the nub until it was painfully hard and I was squirming on the bed beneath him.
Streaks of pleasure shot through my body, filling the emptiness, replacing the pain. My blood roared in my ears, telling me I was alive, that I was still here. And right now, I wanted to be here. I wanted to feel everything Luca demanded of me.
His teeth were sharp as he played with my breasts, biting the tender skin, and then laving the wound with his warm, wet tongue until they were overly sensitized and straining toward him for more. Only then did he begin to kiss his way down over my stomach. Lower and lower, until the waistband of my shorts stopped him.
I lifted my hips, my pulse racing and my breath coming in gasps, begging him with my body to keep going. I wanted to feel his mouth on me more than I wanted my next breath.
Luca untied my shorts, sliding them down over my hips and ass and dropping them off the side of the bed. Then he stood to take off his pants, his blue eyes never leaving me.
As the raw need of his stare hit me, I drew in on myself, feeling suddenly vulnerable. But I couldn't keep my eyes from him as he slowly unzipped his pants and pushed them down over his narrow hips and lean, powerful thighs and stepped out of them, leaving him wearing only black boxer briefs. My eyes dropped down to the bulge there. He was long and thick and hard, the wide head of his cock poking out of the waistband of his briefs.
"Open your legs for me, Veda."
My heart sped up in my chest, and I glanced toward the lamp he'd turned on. But it was on the other side of the bed. I was too exposed. A rabbit laid out for a lion.
"Veda." There was a warning in his voice.
But as much as I wanted this, I couldn't do it. I don't know why. I've never been shy about my body or sex, but being with Luca was different. I didn't want to just give in to him. Not about this. I needed this to be on my terms. He left me with so little control when it came to anything about my life since he'd brought me here, but this, giving him my body, was something I could have control over.
But I was so wrong.
LUCA
I was going to come just looking at her.
God help me.
Over my boxer briefs, I squeezed my fist around my cock to the point of pain in a vain attempt to get myself under control. And I thought I'd succeeded...until she got that gleam in her eyes. The one that told me she was about to be difficult.
A drop of cum appeared at the tip, running down to wet my fingers.
Veda's eyes locked on to my hand, now wrapped around the swollen head, and her tongue wet her lips.
My blood rushed beneath my skin, and I grew impossibly hard. This woman was going to unman me with nothing but a look. "Let me tell you how this is going to go, Veda. I'm going to tell you what I want, and you're going to do it, or I'll take you over my knee and spank your ass until you learn how to do as you’re told. Do you understand me? Now open your fucking legs."
Her mouth fell open and her beautiful chest rose and fell with quick pants. She had a beauty mark near the nipple of her left breast, and a light spray of freckles just under her collarbone. Her stomach wasn't quite flat but soft, curving slightly just above her pussy. Her hips were full and round. Just the way I liked my women. Dark blonde curls hid her secrets from me, but after tonight there would be no more hiding. "This is the last time I'm telling you.
Open. Your. Legs."
She shook her head and started to sit up.
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