Hello, my beautiful readers! Show of hands: Who's ready for the smut? Hit me with your best theories! What did Madeleine secretly arrange for Adriano's birthday? COMMENT! XOXO, 💋 - Jane 🌹
Madeleine 𓎢𓎠𑄻𑄾𓎠𓎡 It was official: my husband was an idiot. A sleep-deprived idiot who was slowly destroying his own body just to prove a point. And I was completely, sickeningly in love with him for it but I won't tell him that. The entire month had been a brutal game of chicken. He was being such a ridiculously good boy, it was agonizing. Thirty days of him sleeping on that tiny velvet chaise lounge in the corner. The exhaustion was starting to wear him thin. His jaw looked sharper, the shadows under his eyes were deep, and every tiny, strangled sigh he let out when he tried to stretch was a pure hit of guilt right to my core. He wasn't complaining but the evidence of his suffering was just there. It made him look vulnerable, which was a dangerous thing for a woman like me. I was supposed to be punishing the monster, not pitying the man who resembled a broken folding chair. The bed, meanwhile, felt like a vacant football field every night, and I was hogging all the
Madeleine 𓎢𓎠𑄻𑄾𓎠𓎡 I was perched on the edge of the bed. I had deliberately picked the skimpiest piece of silk the closet held, a barely-there nightdress that felt cool against my skin. Slowly, I worked a scented lotion into my legs, dragging the process out, making sure every inch of my body looked, felt, and smelled completely perfect. The door creaked open behind me and I knew it was him when he stopped immediately in the doorway. He didn't take a single step into the room. I didn't acknowledge him. My focus was on rubbing the lotion just above my knee. I felt the heat of his stare. I could practically hear his mind screaming. To twist the knife, I threw my hair back over one shoulder. The motion exposed the entire curve of my neck and shoulder, drawing attention to the exact spot where Remo's bullet had gone in. Then, I dipped low, bending to reach my feet, stretching the thin silk tight across my hips and back. "Need something?" I asked, my voice flat, still focused
Adriano ⫘☠︎︎⫘ I didn't walk Adelina through the basement corridor, I hauled her. My grip was strong around her upper arm, pulling her along like she was a sack of bad business. Her wrists were cinched tight behind her back, old habits die hard, especially when the habit is not trusting a damn soul. She came to me. Voluntarily. This wasn't some calculated abduction, she’d practically delivered herself to my doorstep, gift-wrapped and desperate. I hadn't had to hunt her, didn't have to break her will or her spirit. She was just collateral with a choice. But the details didn't matter now. My blood was still boiling, the memory of that footage, Madeleine cutting my ropes, Madeleine taking that bullet, scorching every rational thought out of my skull. Right now, the only thing I cared about was watching Remo choke on his own medicine. "We're almost there, princess," I rasped. I shoved her against the cold concrete wall just outside the reinforced steel door. She winced, but didn't cr
Madeleine 𓎢𓎠𑄻𑄾𓎠𓎡 The clock on the wall had said 2:17 AM. My parents house was blessedly quiet, a deep, normal silence I hadn't heard since I met him. And yet, the silence was a lie. I was glued to the second-floor window, the one overlooking the front lawn and the quiet, tree-lined street. Below, illuminated by the harsh white glow of the porch light, sat Adriano. He hadn’t moved. It had been over forty-eight hours since he had pulled up in that unmarked black SUV, the one his goons usually used for surveillance and planted himself on the edge of the curb. His security detail was spread out discreetly down the street, but he was here, visible, exposed. He wasn’t in one of his tailored suits. He was wearing a thick, black leather jacket, jeans, and his hair was a mess. He was sitting on the cold asphalt, his back against the tire of his vehicle, his knees drawn up. He looked less like the Devil of Chicago and more like a massive, brooding gargoyle. I watched him lift
Adriano ⫘☠︎︎⫘ The grainy security feed flickered like some bad snuff film. My eyes narrowed on Madeleine’s face as she stood there with Remo, hair plastered to her cheeks, hands shaking, eyes blown wide. Raphael scraped the footage off the system Remo ditched when he ran. Remo had it, no backups, nothing, but Raphael doesn’t miss. He bled the system dry and got it anyway. I sat forward on the leather couch, elbows on my knees, jaw clenched so tight my molars ached. Vincenzo was to my left, arms crossed, tattoos crawling up his neck. Raphael sat before the screen. Dante had his boots up on the coffee table, chewing a toothpick. Even Claire wanted to be here, eyes locked on the screen. Nobody spoke, just the hum of the surveillance gear, the buzz of lights overhead. On-screen, Remo shoved the dagger into her palm. I felt my own stomach drop. I remembered that exact moment from a different angle, how I’d thought she reached for it to finish me. Back then it felt a little spike of b
Adriano ⫘☠︎︎⫘ I saw her five nights ago, and it hadn’t left me since. Five fucking nights, and she was still in my head, haunting me like smoke you can’t cough out of your lungs. I’d close my eyes and there she was, her face, her voice, the way her eyes scrunched in that desperate but beautiful way. And now it was raining again. Sheets of it hammering the streets, running down glass, soaking the estate. Same as that night. Every drop pounding against the window just kept dragging me back there. Back to her. Back to the look that wrecked me. I was an absolute fucking asshole. I know it. I knew it even while I was doing it. She was right there, close enough to breathe me in, close enough that every bit of restraint I thought I had snapped in half. I couldn’t resist her, not when she looked at me like that, I never could. So I took, rough, like an animal starving. And she gave it to me. I came undone in her mouth, tasted her tears, her heat, and then I acted like it meant