Bloodied Hands (Bellandi Crime Syndicate 1)

I hoped he'd change that when her divorce completed. They'd always been perfect for each other, for as long as I'd known them both.

“Do you think they’ll ever pull their heads out of their asses?” I asked Matteo, making him vibrate with laughter.

“I think,” he whispered, “that if she dances with one more man who isn’t him tonight, he might just do it tonight.”

Sadie caught my eye and grinned, tormenting Duke by making him dance with her. “I agree,” she chuckled with emphasis. “If you don’t want them to dirty up all your surfaces, you might need to get your shank hand ready.”

“Sadie!” I hissed, throwing my head back on a laugh. Dad’s eyes found mine, shining as he watched me. I looked away as my own tears threatened. He’d already turned me into a blubbering mess during our father daughter dance. There was no way I could let him do it again. Even Uncle Adam had given Matteo a pat on the back, the two of them reaching an easy friendship despite the differences in the way they approached the law. With me knowing the truth, Adam was the first to relent that I was a big girl, and only I could decide about what crossed boundaries for me. Sadie twirled Duke away, drawing eyes from our other guests. I didn’t have the heart to tease Duke that he should be leading.

It would take a very strong man to lead Sadie anywhere.

I loved the girl to death, but she was terrifying.

And stubborn.

And both things had saved my life, all the relentless lessons she’d given me for self-defense, drilling me with the most dramatic and outlandish scenarios she could come up with. Without her, I could easily have died.

Without her, I wouldn’t have a husband and a baby on the way.

We owed her everything.

"Has it been everything you wanted?" Matteo whispered, smiling down at me. The stars twinkled in the night sky, the lights hanging from the house and worked into the rose garden echoing the romantic feel.

"All that matters is you're my husband. But yes. You’ve given me everything I could ever dream of having.”

"Well then, my wife," Matteo growled. "I think it's time that we went to bed." He swept me up into his arms as I giggled, hiding my face as our guests stared at us.

“Oh God,” I cried, kicking my legs. He didn’t care. Matteo’s feet carried us to the house and inside, ignoring the hooting and cheering behind us.

“Go get him, girl!” Samara shouted, shrieking when Lino moved to grab her.

The house was empty, except for a few guests waiting in line to use the bathroom. “There’s no one to save you now,” he teased, taking the steps slowly.

“Who said I wanted saving?” I whispered, pressing my face into his neck and breathing him in.

If there was any one thing that comforted me above all else, it was the way Matteo smelled.

Like him. Like his soap.

Like me.

I’d never considered myself possessive aside from Matteo, but if he ever smelled like another woman or touched another woman, I just might need my shank hand.

He set me down in our bedroom, turning me to face away from him. Matteo's hands drew down the zipper at the back of my dress, oh so slowly.

Teasing me.

My own fingers released the clip that kept my hair pulled to one side, reveling in the way Matteo's lips skimmed the back of my neck. The A-line dress pooled at my feet in a puddle of white. I turned, facing Matteo so he could get the full experience of my lingerie. He'd been nothing but gentle since my concussion, making love to me every chance he got but never giving me the rougher parts of him I loved.

I wanted to test his control, feel it snap. The strapless corset hugged my growing breasts

perfectly, and I backed onto the bed with a little smirk on my face. Rubbing my thighs together, I watched Matteo loosen his tie and strip off the jacket of his tux. His smirk matched mine. I should know, since I'd learned it from him.

Watching him strip off his tux was a thing of beauty, revealing sculpted inch after sculpted inch until he wore nothing, and I had to fight the urge to pounce on him.

My pregnancy was a gift and a curse to Matteo, giving me a sex drive impossible to keep up with.

He gave it a good run for his money, but I worried that I'd distract him from his work. He climbed into the bed with me, sliding into the cradle of my thighs and taking my mouth in a passionate kiss. Those kisses melted any resolve I could have ever put up, any wall I could have ever built between us.