All Chapters of Through Smoke and Steel: A Mafia Romance: Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

❄︎ Viktor ❄︎Missing in action.I struggled to contain my rage as I entered the damp, dimly lit warehouse.Adrian was never missing in action.My men had discovered a rat in my ranks, a petty thief and sellout who was acting as a spy in my organization. Adrian was supposed to handle things like this unless I decided otherwise to handle it myself. This wasn’t one of the times where I’d want to handle this shit myself.Every unanswered call to his cell had pissed me off to the point that I’d arrived, shaking with rage. I strode in, my footsteps echoing in the large and mostly empty space, toward the man tied to a metal beam. Bloody, with a dark patch on his crotch, he squinted at me through a black eye.I leveled my gun at him. “Talk.”“I confess!” he cried, “but I have information. I can give you info…”Pop.Blood sprayed, his head falling limp.He was useless, his information would have been doctored, untrustworthy.“Get him out of here.”Within moments, the body was gone and the bloo

❦ Rosalind ❦ Bliss.Raw, unbridled desire.Our mouths slanted and sucked with an urgency that threatened to claw my chest from the inside out.For a second, I dared to dream that this could be my reality if I chose to stay.This.The hard planes of muscle uncoiling under my palms, the grip of his arms around my waist. The groans, the pants. And when we tore apart, the fire in his stormy gray orbs that burned with the same heat, making a mess of my core.Trapped between his large, muscular arms, restraint clouded his features, the war in his eyes making my nipples jut against my sheer nightgown.“I won’t settle for one kiss.” I breathed between my panting.“Two kisses then. And two thrusts.” His smirk was a little too cunning, too wicked. Nothing good ever came from bargaining with my devil. But this once, would he let me win?My legs quivered from the lust burning under my skin. I stared at his lips, avoiding his eyes for fear of what I might find there.“Two continuous kisses, and

❦ Rosalind ❦ My neck burned where Viktor’s grip had collared me. I raised my own hand to soothe the ache, my throat clogged with all the things I wanted to say. Every curse word I knew pulsed behind my teeth.Somewhere deep inside, I knew it would come to this.I felt so stupid letting myself fall into this trap. But how was I supposed to know that mere days later, my consigliere would be outed as my father’s murderer and I’d lose my family?That look in his eyes, he knew he had me cornered. And there was no telling how long he’d wait before taking what he wanted by force.But if there was anything I’d sworn to protect from his power-grubby hands, it was my hotel.With a snarl directed more at myself than him, I snatched a free dress from the closet, packed some essentials, and left the room. I didn’t even want to look at him.I couldn’t believe I’d almost imagined being with him. Grateful, though, that he’d proven exactly what he was. He didn’t want me, he wanted to take his time br

❄︎ Viktor ❄︎“Do you have a fucking death wish?!”The bumbling cleaner startled, then scuttled out of my sight.He had no idea how close he’d been to dying for interrupting my session. Sweat rolled down my brows and stung my eyes, but my hits on the bag did not relent.Pain.Anything to distract from the fact that my plans were moving slower than I fucking planned, and my heiress was acting as a wedge to impede them.I had more than enough evidence stacked up against Giancarlo to earn him a life imprisonment for trafficking in the States, but that wasn’t my endgame.I wanted the whole web taken down from the very top, and Giancarlo was just an inconsequential bug in the grand scheme of things.Shaking drops of sweat off my hair, I grabbed a bottle of water and gulped while I moved toward the throwing rack.Money was coming in, my rep was good, no one was stepping ten feet near my toes. And maybe that was the problem, I’d become so unoccupied, I was letting the whims of a certain heir

❦ Rosalind ❦ Despite my bravado and strong negative feelings towards this unfairly handsome man, I stood before him, desperate for his touch.The whiff of his masculinity was stronger now, and I physically restrained myself from sinking into his neck and sniffing his sweaty skin until tomorrow. If he would let me. He seemed pissed.Oh, right.The thing with Dominic.“Viktor…” I trailed off.I hadn’t had anything to say, just a pressing need to dilute the silence.He stared at me, his head level with my chest that rose up and down with my breaths.He leaned back without a word, tapping on his thighs in invitation. I gawked for a moment before sitting.He was behaving strangely and not at all what I’d expected.I’d expected carnage and punishment, not… whatever this new persona was. Though I couldn’t deny that there was something dangerous lurking under his skin.Reaching over, he plucked a single grape from the center of the table, and hovered it in front of me.I parted my lips, tugg