“I guess, I thought it was one of the reasons you were willing to marry me. Because you wanted to become Don at some point.”
“No. I’ve told you, Johnny ordered it. I’m honor bound to do it.”
Shaking my head, I stare blindly out of the window. “One more time, I’m something no one wants, but is stuck with. Why couldn’t he just let me go back to Italy? The nuns at the school wanted me, maybe not wanted me exactly, but they needed me. I would settle for needed.”
It happens so fast the only warning is the car horn sounding before Dominic comes to a hard stop on the side of the now pretty damn busy highway. A rough hand goes around my braid. Yanking my head back.
“You think I don’t want you? Are you not paying attention to what you do to me? My cock doesn’t get hard at the sight of any woman in her panties and bra, I’m not a kid. You on the floor of that hotel room nearly undid every ounce of my control. I know what I did was fucked up. There were a dozen better ways it should have gone, the first time my cock was in your mouth. All of them went up in flames the minute I got close to you, princess.”
I’m barely able to take it in before his mouth is on mine. A wildfire burning out of control consumes me. I cling to Dominic, desperate for his strength—mine has gone up in flames. Lungs aching, skin painfully tight. It’s all too much, yet I need more. When Dominic ends the kiss I’m lost, dazed, greedy for more. Sapphire bright, his eyes roam over me.
“Johnny might have ordered me to marry you, but you are the one who makes my cock hard. You are the one who threatens to break all my control, Regina. This marriage is between you and me, no one else. It was a wife I didn’t want. Have no doubt I wanted you the moment I laid eyes on you. The same way you wanted me.”
10
Dominic
Her lips are still parted, it takes everything in me to pull away when what I really want is to sate the desperate hunger burning through me. If we weren’t on the side of the highway with the sound of cars and trucks passing us by, I don’t know how I could stop myself. The taste of her clings to my tongue. The scent of her pussy hot and wet is all around me. How does she do this to me? Turn me inside out, make every skin cell ache for her, desperate to inhale every breath she takes to keep a part of her inside me. Pulling away from her, inside I’m as dazed by this need for her as she is. I don’t like it. I don’t like anything that threatens my complete control.
A car honks loud close by, yanking me out of my fucked-up thoughts, reminding me now is not the time for this. Those honey eyes of hers are glowing up at me. Even as there is a lingering question of whether or not she can trust what I’m saying.
I’ll never tell her how easy she is to read, how every thought flutters across her beautiful face. The better to keep her from figuring out I know she’s trying to play me. Even if I hadn’t sat down at poker tables nearly every week for over twenty years, I could read her lies in those eyes of hers, in the way her long, elegant fingers moved in agitation as she spoke, the way that sexy fucking mouth twitched.
It’s cute to watch her think she can play me. Any other person in this world and it would piss me off. I have no idea why it amuses me with Regina. Maybe it was the way she sucked my cock as if she were starving for it, or the way her pussy was drenched from sucking my cock. It could be either one of those things, except I’m almost positive it’s because of how well I slept with her in my arms.
She had turned over in her sleep. At first I thought she was faking it, but no, she was asleep. Then she nestled closer, her arm tight over my chest, humming low in her throat as I tightened my arms around her out of instinct. Even now my cock jumps at the memory of how good and right it felt. I fell back asleep within seconds and slept so deep it spooked me.
Awake, I studied her as she slept, wondering what it was about her. Why did I want her so badly? What was it that made my cock hard and hungry for her? Was it because Johnny had given her to me? Told me she was mine, that she belonged to me. I’ve fucked a lot of women and while I did, I didn’t fuck around with anyone else. It wasn’t about ownership, it was about loyalty. When it was over I had no problem fucking someone new, often within hours. Yet no one woman has been all mine; I never cared or wanted them to be. Regina will be different. She might have had a few kisses, even allowed that fucker to cop a feel, but she’s never had a cock inside her.
I will have every one of her firsts. All those firsts, I want to make them perfect. Shame had flared at the way I handled her first sexual encounter—none if it happened the way it should. Yet I cannot completely regret it. Regina wants me, her body wants every bit of me—it’s her mind I have to get on board. I wanted to protect her against all the bad firsts. So I did what I needed to do, I called Valdez and made sure he would make everything else in her world but me disappear.
My cell rings. It’s Pop. I send it to voice mail, I’m not in the mood to talk to him yet. Carefully, I edge back into traffic.
“Are you going to ignore your father?”
“For now.”
“You’re close to your father?”
“Usually, yeah.” I don’t really want to talk about me and Pop, but I don’t want to shut her down.
“You’re lucky to have a father who cares about you. And all those cousins.” It’s there again, that wistful tone when she talks about family.
My jaw clenches at the thought of having to tell her one day I won’t give her the family she wants so badly. All I do is nod. “Family can also be a pain in the ass. They have their moments.”
“I’ve only seen the pain in the ass part. So why do they call your father the librarian?”
“His mom was a reader, she had asthma from a young age so she spent a lot of time indoors reading. She instilled the same love of books in him. He opened a bookstore as h
is front for his bookie business. It’s actually a profitable front. He’s into older books, buying from estate sales then selling them online and in his store.”
“All day in a bookstore, I’m jealous.” She sighs.
“You spend all day reading and translating books. It’s not all that different. I’m sure you two will get along.”
“When you forgive him enough to introduce us. Do you read?”
I shrug. “Yeah, eventually. I read pretty much every day, usually when I’m ready for bed. I prefer mystery, thrillers, spy novels, some literature. There are some fantasy authors I like but they are few and far between.”