Bloodied Hands (Bellandi Crime Syndicate 1)

Those kisses were love.

Pure, untainted love.

No secrets, nothing standing in our way.

"I don't deserve you," he murmured, trailing lips down over my collarbone. "But I will spend the rest of my life proving that you're mine, anyway."

A smile graced my face, watching as his fingers worked the little closures at the front of my corset. "You don't have to prove anything, Teo," I whispered. "Because I choose you. Always." His eyes flashed to mine, relief and longing mixed in those pools of blue. I hadn't realized how much he needed those words. How much I'd hurt him by saying I needed to choose him, as if it wasn't a foregone conclusion.

To Matteo, it had been a condemnation, a denial of the love that vibrated between us like an electric current.

But I'd have loved him for the rest of my life, even if I couldn't be with him.

Always.

He was inside me, part of me in every moment.

And I knew that nothing would keep him from me. Not even a rival gang member. He tore the corset away, yanking the panties away until they tore beneath the force of his desperation as that control snapped.

I reached a hand between us, guiding him inside me so we moved in tandem. He surged inside, filling me to the brim and filling my ears with the sound of his pleasured groan. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and drew him down to kiss me, lifting my hips to accept his thrusts. "I love you," I whispered against his lips, staring into his eyes like I might connect with the deepest parts of his soul.

"I love you too, Angel." One of his hands came up, cupping my nape as we shared the air between us, and his other palmed my ass in his hand. His chest touched mine, brushing against my breasts and stimulating the oversensitive flesh.

There was nothing but us, nothing but his skin on mine and the place where we connected. His lips touched mine, tongues tangling in an intimate embrace that sent me spiraling over the edge until I dragged Matteo with me. Heat filled me as he came, and it was in the moments after sex that I whispered the name of our child.

"Luna if it's a girl."

"Luca for a boy," he murmured, pressing his forehead to mine as we laughed.

"How did I get so lucky?" I teased him, thinking he'd scoff at me like he always did.

"Love finds a way," he whispered back, shocking me with the easy smile that took over his face.

That it did.

For more of Matteo and Ivory, download the exclusive extended epilogue for a glimpse into their life 1.5 years later. Get it here.

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Continue on for a sneak peek into Forgivable Sins (Bellandi Crime Syndicate #2).

Coming soon.

Forgivable sins chapter one

Samara

I ran.

I ran harder than I ever had. My bare feet left a trail of blood with each step.

Slipping on the hardwood, I skidded into the door with a painful thump that made my already tender stomach concave from the force of the doorknob. Blood coated my fingers, and I whimpered when I couldn't get a grip. It wouldn’t turn. Wouldn’t open.

A groan and thud sounded at the top of the stairs where I'd left the bedroom door wide open in my effort to make a hasty escape. "Samara! You stupid cunt!" he roared at the top of his lungs, and I whimpered again, finally dragging my nightgown up to wrap it around the knob and pull it open.

Out the door. My feet thudded against the pavement, sprinting for the neighbor's house. Pavement turned to grass, the stab of each blade in the cuts on my feet echoed with the frigid night air stabbing at my lungs as I gasped for breath. I fell on the front step, finally screaming for Linda to open her door.

He was coming.