Owning Beauty (Taking Beauty Trilogy 3)

“Sure thing, Dante,” Romeo said, as they all stripped off their cuts and draped them over a chair on the porch.

“What do you want me to do, Dante?” Angry Bobby asked.

“I want you and Gio to go check on my Ma. I don’t want to leave Gabby alone here, and I’d normally go to her house today.” I dug in my wallet and handed Gio some money. “Give her this. Tell her I’ll stop by as soon as I can, and tell her to have Veronica take her to the store.”

“Will do,” Gio said, nodding.

“Thanks, brother,” I said, pulling him in for a hug and then doing the same with Bobby. These guys were my family, just as much as my sister Veronica and my Ma. I hated that I couldn’t be there today, but there was no way in hell I was going to leave Gabby alone.

Ma was really getting old and Veronica was responsible for making sure her day to day needs were met. I went by her house several times a week to make sure she had plenty of money and helped her out with anything she needed around the property. It was the least we could do for her after all she’d done for us over the years. After our father left her all alone, she had to be both mother and father to us, and we didn’t always make it easy. I shuddered to think of the hell I’d put her through before I joined the Army. Hell, the Army years weren’t easy on her either, saddling her with so much worry and pain until I’d finally made it home.

“Check in with me if you hear anything. I want to know who’s looking for us and if anyone’s getting close.” I said, before lowering my voice, “I’ll turn my phone on. Text me with any info you find. When you come back, make sure you aren’t followed.”

I watched the guys leaving, a tiny pang of guilt for lying to Gabby about my phone starting to form in the back of my mind. She’d probably be pissed when she found out that my phone really did work out here, but I knew that when I lied about it. I figured I’d deal with the consequences when that happened, but at the time, there was no way I was going to let her lead Loprinzi to my doorstep.

Not before I had more time to gather information and figure out what to do.

“So why were you just wandering around the carnival all alone, anyway?” I asked Gabby, the flames from the fire flickering in her pretty green eyes as she smiled at me.

“Cotton candy!” she replied, jutting her chin out proudly.

“Really?” I asked.

“Yep. I was obsessed. I loved those carnivals. Giannetti was the man back then. We all looked up to him. My mother adored him. My father was his most loyal employee.”

“I’ve heard.”

“I loved those parties, though. Not just the cotton candy, but the pony rides, the bouncy houses, the face painting, the fireworks!” Her eyes lit up and I felt a twinge of nostalgia as she described our shared childhood memories. They were the same eyes I’d seen that night behind the tent and I’d had no idea at first. I always figured I’d know them as soon as I looked into them again, but I’d been wrong.

Maybe that was because she’d grown up so much. Those amazing curves were proof of that, but there was a lot more to it than that. It was the eyes themselves. They were filled with a strength, hardened with the sadness that comes when innocence is lost, and yet deeper, wiser. I found myself lost in them, remembering them, remembering the way they’d looked at me last night, trying as hard as I could to engrave them in my head in case they didn’t stick around for too long.

“Yes! I remember all of them fondly. No matter what anyone says about Giannetti, he took care of the neighborhood,” I said, tearing my gaze away at the thought of losing her. That was the first time I realized she was getting under my skin. Or, maybe the first time I admitted it to myself. I guess the first time I’d felt it was when I dragged her out of Otto’s. Or maybe when I first felt her lips against mine. Or, maybe it was the first time I felt her wrapped around me, the first time in so long that I’d buried myself in the heavenly bliss of a woman. I suppressed a groan just thinking about it. Here she was talking about fond childhood memories, and I was fantasizing about ripping her clothes off again and taking her back to my bed once more.

If there was one thing we had, it was time. I got up to lock the front door as she kept talking, the blood rushing through my veins as I imagined her writhing below me.

“He did. I never thought I’d see the day he’d get put in the joint,” she said, her eyes trailing me as I locked the door. I grabbed my gun from the table and tucked it into the waistband of my jeans. She didn’t miss a beat, just kept right on talking. “My dad was so freaked out that day. The whole neighborhood was. Not just Queens, either. All the housewives in Howard Beach were gathered out in the street in front of their houses, chaining smoking and gossiping like it was the event of the century.”

Yeah, I thought, she’s not like other girls. Wait - women. She wasn’t like other women. She didn’t flinch at the sight of my gun, she didn’t seem afraid of anything. It made me wonder if she was ever scared of anything in her life. But why would she be if her father was Leonardo Loprinzi? What did she ever have to be afraid of?

No wonder she was calm as a cucumber about all of this shit. She sat there like we were just two old friends catching up. As if there weren’t a dozen dangerous men trying to find us and kill us at this very second. As if our very lives didn’t hinge on what happened in the next few days.

Fuck it, I thought. Maybe she’s onto something.

“You aren’t afraid?” I asked her, stopping in front of her and pulling her up and into my arms.

“Of you?” she asked.

“No, not of me. Of everyone else,” I said.

A slow smile spread across her lips and she smirked.

“I like to live in the moment,” she winked, “and right now, you’re the only person I see. And I don’t see anything to be afraid of.”

“I like the way you think,” I whispered, pulling her chin up and brushing her lips with mine. She tasted like peaches, so sweet, so good. She melted under my touch. I pulled her close, as close as I could get her, as we stood in the kitchen, slowly inhaling her, tasting her, running the silkiness of her skin under my palms.

All these years, she’d been like a mirage in my head. We were just kids. That brief moment was like a dream, something that never really happened. Something I’d almost convinced myself that I’d made up.

But now she was here, in my arms. Real. Flesh and bone, all feminine softness and welcoming warm bliss that I desperately needed to feel again.

I scooped her up and carried her to my room, slamming the door with my foot behind us, leaving Bear whimpering on the other side.

Gabby

Our clothes melted away and in seconds we were tangled together, our flesh meeting with desperation, grasping, pulling, pressing, our one raw need to be as close as possible overshadowing all else.

This was how it’s supposed to be, I thought.

Hungry. Aching. Obsessive.

The need to touch Dante’s flesh - his face, his lips, his hair, the smooth tight skin that stretched across his rippling muscles - possessed me. As soon as he kissed me again, all my worries melted away, right along with my inhibitions. Hot, searing fingers found my center, sliding through my resistance quickly, easily. My hips flew up to meet his hand, my thighs clutching around him, begging for more, demanding more, desperately needing as much of him that he would give.

“Please,” I cried, his lips caressing my ear, his tongue darting inside, sending shivers of electricity shooting through me.

“Please what, Gabby?” he whispered, my name on his lips sounding so delicious to my ears. His lips captured my ear lobe, sucking softly, gently, as I leaned into him, moaning as his teeth scraped against my flesh, his fingers slowly sliding in and out of me as he teased me mercilessly.

“Dante…” I whispered, my voice breathy and desperate. He kissed me again, his tongue delving into my mouth, searching, finding, his fingers curling inside of me, pressing up, pressing deep into me as his kiss devoured my scream. He pulled hi

s lips away, searing me with hot, feathery kisses down my neck, slowly trailing down my chest, his lips engulfing my nipples, sucking softly and then harder, biting, scraping them between his teeth as I cried out into the darkness.

“Oh, baby,” he groaned, his kisses moving down my stomach, so soft, so gentle, until he was pushing my thighs apart, his mouth kissing the inside of my right thigh, teasing me as he started at my knee, moving up excruciatingly slowly, my stomach quivering in the sweetest anticipation.

He knew exactly what he was doing to me, and he loved it.

The heat of his breath caressed my clit as he hovered over me, before he slowly began trailing kisses down my left thigh, leaving my pulsing clit throbbing in unanswered frustration. My hips raised towards him seductively, attempting to silently pull him back, begging for his touch. I needed his mouth, his lips, his heat. I looked down at him, meeting his teasing gaze as he stared up at me across the landscape of my naked, quivering, hungry sex.

The sexiest grin I’d ever seen spread across his face, and then silently, skillfully, deliciously, he finally gave me exactly what I was dying for.

Salvation was sweet, his mouth devouring me like he’d been sent straight from God, or the devil, perhaps. Within moments, he had me writhing on his tongue like a woman possessed and by the time I’d crashed over the edge of intensity, I was convinced he’d sold his soul to the devil for that mouth.

I gasped, crying out, my thighs gripping around him as he kept going, his tongue, his lips, never stopping until I spilled over the edge and slowly came down, my body crumpled in a spent heap below him. I opened my eyes, his face slowly coming into view.

I gasped again, the hunger I saw there so intense that I couldn’t help but be frightened for a fleeting moment. If anyone else looked at me like that, I’d have run away as fast as I could.

But this wasn’t just anyone. This was Dante.

Dante, the boy who’d saved me from flying bullets behind the tent.

Dante, the man who’d taken on a bar full of dangerous outlaws to save me.

Dante, the man who made me feel alive…