Chapter 78: Chapter Seventy-Eight

Frankie’s cigarette started to burn his knuckle, so he stubbed it out and sat back in the armchair with a sigh while he waited. Not even a minute later, he could hear her muffled protests. He couldn’t help but smile as she cursed and fought against the men dragging her to her punishment. The door to the room clicked, and her voice became clearer.

“I know the rules! I do not consent to this! Let me go, you bastard!”

Her feet entered the room first, flung four feet in the air as she kicked against the two men forcing her forward. Once they felt she was far enough into the room, they dropped her, and her ass thudded against the carpet. She didn’t remain there long. She jumped up and whirled for the door. Her palm smacked against the metal with a resounding pang.

“You better pray I find you before he does!” Gloria yelled.

“What will you do to them, Vixen?” Frankie pondered. Gloria’s shoulders, which had thus far risen and fallen quickly with the anger of her breath, stalled in their movement. She slowly turned to face him, her mask still hiding her expression. Her fists, however, clenched. Frankie stood. “Use as much detail as possible,” he begged.

“You?” she breathed out, exasperated. “You had them drag me here?”

“Mhmm.”

“Why?” she hissed.

Frankie shrugged. “To prove a point.”

She stalked toward him, her fists shaking. “And what point is that?”

By then she was close enough for him to reach out and tuck some hair behind her ear. “That you aren’t invincible. That maybe I asked you to stay back for a reason.”

“I am strong, capable and…”

“I know you are. Do you think I’d be in love with you if you weren’t?” he asked bluntly. That made her mouth snap shut. He chuckled. “There’s a difference between strength and stupidity.”

“And there’s a difference between honesty and secrets,” she quipped back.

Frankie clicked his tongue and sat on the arm of the chair behind him.

Gloria crossed her arms. “You told me you would keep me involved.”

“I have been.”

One brow cocked up behind her mask. “I suppose I must have blacked out when you told me about your plans to bring Aleksander and Johnny into the mix.”

“An orgasm from me can sometimes have that effect,” he said.

Gloria’s mouth drew to a fine line. She turned away, but he caught her wrist before she could take a step. He used his other hand to hook his index finger around her g-string and move it downward between her cheeks. She spun around and smacked his hand away.

Frankie sighed. “I’ve been doing this a long time, Gloria. I’m good at my job. I chase leads, make plans, and execute them with little interference. This matter is important to me, and for the first time I don’t have some big, bad mafia Don barking orders at me demanding I answer to him. So, yeah, maybe I left a few things out while I pursued some different avenues. I didn’t leave you out intentionally. I have a lot going on in here,” he said, tapping his temple. “When I’m with you, the last thing on my mind is laying down a report.”

His explanation seemed to appease her a bit. She cocked her hip and looked away from him as she considered what he said. She finally sighed. “You may not have to report to Accardi, but you’re a fool if you think you don’t have a boss anymore.”

Frankie smirked and shook his head. He gripped her hip with one hand and pulled her forward so his knee pressed against the junction between her legs. “I don’t recall there being an interview process.”

She shrugged and bit her lip, trying to hide that smile. “Shower confessions count as job acceptance. No interview required.”

“I suppose then we should move on to the income negotiation.”

Frankie stood up and pushed her a step back, heading toward the circular bed in the corner with a mirror above it.

“You’re in luck. I’ll be coming into a lot of money soon,” she said, glancing over her shoulder to see where he was slowly leading her.

“Ah, but I’ve already done so much, boss lady, and I don’t take IOUs.”

Gloria’s knees hit the soft edge of the bed, and she put her hands on his chest to prevent him from shoving her onto it. “I think we can both agree I’ve been paying you very well in favors.”

“Mmm, very well indeed. But I don’t think I’ve been reimbursed since this whole blackmailing, getting backup for our mission nonsense.”

“Hm, I would hate for you to go into this position thinking I’m swindling you,” she whispered.

Gloria turned and crawled onto the bed. She turned on her butt, splayed her arms wide and cocked her knee in a seductive manner that made his blood boil.

“Before I collect what I’ve very clearly earned,” Frankie said, undoing his pants and kicking off his shoes while her eyes ate up every portion of skin he revealed with his actions. “I have to ask. Why did you feel the need to follow me tonight, Gloria?” He rested his hands on his waist, waiting for an answer. “The way I see it, you came here for one of two reasons. Either you were curious about what intel I was uncovering about your father and were angry I hadn’t divulged it all.”

“Or?” she asked, cocking her head.

He sighed. “Or, you were worried I was coming here to be with another girl.”

Gloria pursed her lips and looked away.

“Gloria,” Frankie called. She let out a long breath and turned her head back toward him.

“Does it matter?”

“I’m afraid it does. Because I can understand if you wanted to take matters into your own hands and prove to me you could handle yourself in a dicey situation. I’ve been known to do the same thing.” He placed his palms against the mattress and leaned forward. “But if you came here to make sure I didn’t stick my dick where it doesn’t belong, that is a larger issue of trust that we need to deal with right here and now.”

Gloria sighed and switched legs that were cocked. “I was mostly angry with being kept in the dark about your plans with my father, and if you were lying about that, what else could you be lying about? I didn’t like the idea of you coming to an underground sex club. I know of your history, and maybe I was a bit insecure.”

“You’re saying it was both.”

“Maybe.”

“Give me a percentage.”

She shrugged. “Seventy-thirty.”

“Understood.” Frankie grabbed her ankle and pulled her to the edge of the bed so that she was underneath him. He sighed and shook his head. He bent down and kissed her like he’d been wanting to since she strolled into the room with that damn mask covering everything but that fucking smirk. “About my history,” he said, letting go of her lips to move his own across her cheeks, the fabric of her mask, the soft skin of her throat. “I liked to share. I liked to watch. I liked to be with as many women as possible. I liked the hunt, the surrender, using, discarding…”

“You’re not helping,” she growled around a moan as he sucked on the skin just above her collarbone.

“Shh,” he ordered as he nipped her shoulder. “That night you saw me with that girl with her hands and mouth on…”

“Polly,” she snarled.

“What the fuck ever her name was…” he sighed against her ear. “There’s never been another. Ever. There won’t be either.”

Gloria pushed him back slightly and wiggled out from under him toward the headboard. “Yet, you showed up at Mirrors,” she argued, crossing her arms in defiance.

Frankie was reminded of how young she was. How inexperienced. She was so confident around him, so vivacious in her desire and demand for pleasure he often forgot that, up until a few weeks ago, she’d never been consensually touched by a man.

“You’re right. I was trying to get you out of my head. Maybe if things had gone differently, I would have been successful. Instead, you sealed your fate.”

“My fate?” she asked as Frankie crawled onto the bed and settled his weight over her. Her eyes flicked up to the mirror, and he could feel the heat pooling between her thighs.

He nodded as if in sympathy. “As I’ve just explained, I have a lot of needs, Miss Rubanov and while in the past I’ve required many women to satiate them. It now rests on your shoulders…” He chuckled. “Or should I say, your tight little pussy, to alleviate those needs.” He lowered his head and kissed her softly while rocking his dick against her core. “I don’t need another woman. I don’t want another woman. As I’ve said over and over, I am wholly and completely yours and I’m afraid to inform you that means your pussy is going to be sore for a lifetime.”

“I have… other means of satisfying you,” Gloria said, her breath hitching as he palmed her breast over the lace of her lingerie.

Frankie growled deep in his throat, his mind conjuring up unseemly ways in which he could twist that little statement of hers to his liking. “Oh, Vixen, you must be careful with such statements.”

“Frankie, please…” she whispered, grasping his back in a desperate attempt to bring him closer and unite their bodies.

“You tortured me in that room for over ten minutes. This is karma. I have one more question before I give you what we both want,” he whispered against her ear.

“Wh-what?” she stuttered.

“Tell me what you were thinking of that night,” he ordered before tugging her earlobe with his teeth.

“I don’t know what you’re…”

“Mirrors. When you were touching yourself. What were you thinking of? What made you cum, Vixen?”

At this point his dick had worked her heat into a fever pitch. She mewled beneath him, rocking her hips against him, her breath coming in short gasps teetering on moans as she desperately clawed at him for what she needed.

“Fra…”

“Tell me,” he whispered, moving the thin string of her panties aside so the only thing keeping him from entering her was his waning willpower.

“You,” she moaned, finally giving him the answer he’d always been certain of. “I was thinking of you, Frankie.” He pulled away, his movements stalling as the answer he knew still somehow caught him off guard. Frankie finally peeled the mask away from her face so he could see for himself the heat and desire swirling in the honey of her eyes. Read the honesty in her confession. She licked her lips and her eyes closed with the weight of her longing. “At first I imagined the way I thought you’d take me… hard, fast, rough.” His breath caught in his throat as he remembered the way her hands pulled, pinched at her skin, and her fingers moved swiftly into her core. She shook her head. “But it didn’t work so… so I imagined how I wanted you to take me. Like I was the only girl you ever wanted to savor.”

Frankie stared down at her, the woman who gave him everything he never knew he wanted. He lowered his head and captured her lips in a sensual kiss that was long, slow, deliberate. Her hands wove around his neck and traced into his hair.

“I do want to savor you,” Frankie whispered against her lips. “And I’m going to. Tonight…” He pushed inside her and watched with satisfaction as her head fell back and her eyes fluttered closed. He kissed her exposed neck. “Tomorrow.” He grazed his teeth along her throat. “And every day after. Only you, Gloria. Only ever you.”