Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 80503 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80503 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
“That’s nice of you to say, but you don’t know my family. It’s not just the people in the villa house, it’s everyone that I work with, all my capos and lieutenants and their families. I could’ve gotten some of them killed. Hell, I did get them killed, one soldier died in that dry cleaner attack. That never would’ve happened if it weren’t for me. I appreciate you saying it, but I owe everyone a debt I’ll never be able to repay.”
“That’s why you work so hard. That’s why you still run a crew when nobody else does anymore.”
I shrug and turn away. “There’s a lot of reasons for it, but that’s a big one.”
“Gavino—”
“It’s okay. I wanted you to know why I am the way I am. Sonia’s been gone for ten years and I’m ready to move on, but she left scars in me, deep scars. I don’t miss her, and I don’t love her anymore, but she’ll always have a piece of herself in me. It fucked me up, Jeanie. And now you know.”
She sips her coffee and puts a hand on my arm. We remain standing there for another minute before I turn away and head back toward the villa. She follows, keeping pace, and we reach the bottom of the hill in half the time it took to climb it. We pause in the shade of a large boulder, catching out breath.
Once there, she turns to me, still pale, still trembling, and presses herself close.
I’m surprised, but my hands find her hips. My coffee mug drops to the ground. She loses her own, the coffee spilling into the dirt. I kiss her hard, burying her lips with my own, trying to forget about that horrible story I told, trying to live in the present, and press her back toward the rock wall.
“What made you change your mind?” I whisper as I kiss her neck and hold her wrists up above her head.
“What do you mean, change my mind?”
“You were afraid. You ran away in the club.”
“I just—” She stops herself, biting her lip, and looks into my eyes. “This is stupid. It’s complicated and messy, and we’ve both got our scars and our secrets. We shouldn’t do this, right?”
“No, we shouldn’t.”
“But I want to. I still want you.”
I kiss her again, and don’t stop until she moans.
Chapter 20
Jeanie
The rock is hard and warm against my back as he pins me there. My brain’s a fuzzy wreck trying to piece together everything he told me up on that ledge—Sonia, her betrayal and death, what that did to him over the years—and it makes so much sense. He blames himself for what she did, and he can’t trust because of it. He’s isolating himself away from the family, and it’s all because of that woman and the rips she created in his soul.
I can’t fix him. Hell, I should be terrified of him.
But I can give in and finally take what I desperately want.
My tank top comes off. My sports bra follows. His hands are rough and firm as he kisses my lips and moves down to bite my nipples. I moan, gripping his hair, my brain buzzing with pleasure as he teases me. He pins my hands up again and licks my breasts, my lips, my throat. He’s insatiable and I can feel his cock stiffening, getting harder and harder as he keeps me pinned and moaning.
“I shouldn’t have waited this long,” he says, turning me around violently and ripping down my leggings. We’re in public, out in nature, alone but not in private and that adds to sense of wild urgency coursing through my veins.
I gasp in shock as he presses against my back, hands cupping my breasts. He bites my shoulder and pulls my hair, making me groan in pain and pleasure, an impossible and wild mix. “I should’ve told you that story from the start. I should’ve gotten over it years ago. Instead, I’ve been carrying it around.”
“Does it feel better now?”
“No, and I doubt it ever will. But you know what feels good? You do, princess. You feel good, Jeanie.” He licks my ear and grips my hair with one hand while the other snakes down between my legs.
I gasp as he finds my clit. He’s a monster, a beast, and waves of desire pulse into my core, hitting me over and over like waves. I moan, wiggling my hips. I grunt, arching my back, as he pulls my hair tight and slides his fingers inside. I’m dripping wet, soaking and out of my mind. This is so fucked up, wanting him like this after he told me that horrible story, especially knowing what he’d do to me if he ever found out the truth about me.
But I can’t help myself. Hearing him be vulnerable like that, it made me lose my mind.