Chapter 14: Dante

I’d already decided that I wasn’t going to allow her to leave me.

No …

Not leave my place.

I meant Chicago. That was what I meant. I wouldn’t allow her to leave Chicago and she didn’t have a good life here yet, because she wasn’t with me.

End of story.

There was one time, one time when she was with Luc when he spoke to her badly. Told her she needed to get out of his face and embarrassed her in front of the guys. I’d nearly decked him. I wished I had, because then I would have felt better that I did something, like I tried.

Even if he’d beat the life out of me for stepping out of line and talking to him like that. It would have been better than just the stupid look I’d given him at the time.

What I should have done was deck him and take her, take her for myself.

Now we were here though. Both of us lying naked on my bed. Me devouring her, kissing her everywhere, wanting more of her after I’d already had her six times.

I was aiming for ten, but I wasn’t sure if that was actually possible in the time we had left. Morning had come hours ago. First light shined through the window, telling me we’d been awake all night.

The clock on the wall said it was five fifteen.

All damn night we’d been like this and now the daylight was coming to steal her away from me. I wanted to tell her I’d get someone to bring Flynn and her things to my place. I knew though that she wouldn’t just allow me to do that.

And, damn, damn me … listen to me.

My thoughts, the things I said to her …

I’d told her that she was mine, and if she was mine her son was mine too. I’d told her on that first day I went to look for her at Vira’s that I wanted her to come move in with me.

I was thinking it now.

I wanted her for keeps. She was a girl I wanted to keep for myself forever and I’d decided all this in one week.

All of it was me making some decision I didn’t even know I was making. It just felt natural.

It was a week that rode off the back of two decades.

I’d known her for a few months shy of twenty years.

Why wasn’t she mine before now?

Could she really be mine now? I was making it so, but she needed to meet me with more than what she’d given me. So many questions still lingered in the air. Too many, and what I was embarking on with this investigation was danger.

Claudius said straight out, women out of business. Always keep the woman and the loved ones out of business. If this all went to hell, she’d be another weakness for me, because all anyone had to do was look at me and they’d see all I felt for her.

I pulled away and stopped kissing her, but she reached for me and cupped my face.

“Don’t stop touching me,” she pleaded.

I had to look at her, look into her eyes. I held her face too and scanned over her beauty.

The white blonde hair that spilled out around her like white rays of pure sunlight, her high cheekbones, soft skin I could touch forever, the curve of her neck. I stopped there just like before as I gazed at the faint mark of another cut that looked like it had been stitched. It was just at the side of her neck. You’d have to be looking hard to tell, and you’d have to know what you were looking at to know what that was.

Someone had hit her. Hit her hard enough to split the skin. The other mark I saw that first night was similar. Someone had hit her and anger brewed inside me at the thought.

She held my hand and pain filled her eyes.

There were so many questions to ask.

It was on the tip of my tongue to ask who had hit her, but she pulled me back for a kiss.

Later, I would do it later. I would find the time to ask all the questions then.

We probably had another hour together. I didn’t want her to have any trouble at Vira’s and I didn’t want Flynn having any trouble either. It was great Sophia could look after him, but really to me she was just a little bit better than Vira.

Maria’s kisses turned hungry and I slipped my hand behind her head angling her mouth so I could taste her better and deepen the kiss.

Fuck, I couldn’t get enough.

I just couldn’t get enough of her and her perfect body.

She sucked my tongue and smiled as she pulled away.

“I’m on top this time,” she cooed.

“And I’m behind you in the shower next time.” Eight times. Even if my fucking dick fell off after, I was going for that last round in the shower.

“Okay,” she laughed as I flipped her, so she was on top of me.

Her gorgeous light pink nipples puckered as I filled my palms with her breasts. I couldn’t believe I got to touch her like this after all my years of fantasizing.

Fucking hell, the smile on her face spoke to my inner desire and I couldn’t have wanted her more than I did.

That hair of hers flicked to the side and bright baby blues held me in place as the goddess slid down my legs and hovered over my cock.

“One last tasting.” She bubbled.

Yes … she could do whatever the fuck she wanted to me and taste me in whatever way she pleased.

“Taste away, baby.”

She didn’t need any more permission than that. One slender hand wrapped around my cock, her nails the same color pink as her nipples. She ran her hands up and down the length first, making my cock grow in her hands, straining it toward her.

I had to suck in a sharp breath to calm myself.

She gripped the base and lowered her head to slide her tongue over the tip. She lingered there and looked at me. Her smile turned sinful as she took me into her mouth and sucked me hard, gliding her tongue over me in rasping strokes that made me ache for release.

Fuck. I was going to finish right here in her mouth, but damn I wanted to be inside her again and again all over again.

I loved her mouth on me and craved her. I craved her like a fucking drug. Craved her like oxygen in my lungs, like the life that flowed through me.

When she took me deeper, I ran my fingers through her hair, working her head up and down my shaft.

“Good girl,” I groaned, but I knew if I wanted to be inside her, she’d have to stop soon ... no, now.

“Fucking hell Maria. If you want to be on top you better come now.”

She stopped sucking and giggled when I reached for her. I set her back on top of me. This time down on my cock.

I felt the exact moment when her sweet pussy stretched and melted around me. I thrust deeper and she gasped, grabbing onto my shoulders wincing.

“It’s okay, stay with me.”

“I’m with you,” she said breathlessly.

“Good girl.” I rammed deeper, but I allowed her to take over. “Ride me baby.”

Hips grinding, she moved against me. I met her strokes gripping on to her tightly so she could bounce up and down on my cock and ride me.

We got lost in the wild rhythm and damn there was nothing tame about us. Absolutely nothing slow even when we were going slow.

Relentlessly she moved against me, completely letting go. Holding me prisoner and captive to her lust, but also giving herself to me.

Maria Ferrara giving herself to me.

She was wild, so sexy and she was mine.

Body to body we moved trapped in ecstasy and the hunger that took us for each other.

It pummeled us over the edge. Then it happened, the high came and we reached the pinnacle of pleasure. I wanted more and didn’t want to finish, but exhaustion betrayed me, her too. I couldn’t hold back. I hammered into her, slamming in rough strokes that sent us plummeting into the raw waves of passion.

Fire licked at my skin, combustible fire and I thundered into her like a storm, my release spilling into her as she came too digging her nails deep into my skin.

I held her close to me, keeping her there wishing I could hold her like this forever.

It was a nice thought.

I tried to pull back, but she kept me there, holding me too. She held on to me like she never wanted to let me go.

Holding me like she wanted me to keep her safe and protect her.

I just wouldn’t know from what.

***

Taking her back to Vira felt like being issued with the death sentence.

Knowing I shouldn’t be doing something, yet I was still doing it.

I drove the Ferrari this time and when we parked I noticed men going into the brothel next door and coming out.

One coming out had the audacity to look at her as she stepped out of the car. Then he saw me, looked like he recognized me and practically fled.

I was still looking at him even after he’d run down the road.

Fucking asshole, the whole lot of them.

I didn’t want her here.

She looked at me like she could read my mind.

“I’m moving tomorrow. Away from here. It’s not that far, so I’ll still be able to get to work.” She smiled and nodded.

I looked at her. I’d allow her to believe she was working for me since she insisted, but nothing was further from the truth.

I’d allow her to think she was moving anywhere besides with me too and probably let her stay wherever this new place was for a few days. Not for too long though, not long enough to get settled. Then I’d get her and Flynn and take them home with me.

“What?” she asked and gave me a little smile.

“I’m just listening to you.”

“And thinking what?”

“Don’t worry about that baby. All in due time except I’m not completely going at the slow as shit pace we’ve been running on for the last twenty years.”

She laughed. “Dante I met you when I was eight, we couldn’t have done anything then.”

“Whatever, different strokes for different folks. We’re doing things my way now. Another twenty years and I doubt I’d be able to give you the night we had last night.”

She started laughing, but stopped when the door swung open.

Vira stood there nostrils flared. She must have seen Maria first and not me, because the look on her horrible face told me she was about to rip into her about the time. Then she saw me and froze right up. It was almost comical how the woman straightened up and the anger itself fled from her face.

“Vira, how nice to see you. Greetings from above.” I beamed.

Definitely wasn’t how I had greeted her in the past. No, I was a little more respectful, because she used to look down on me. Especially when I was in school and had nothing for myself.

I looked at her now like I expected respect, which she gave. She’d started acting that way after she knew I was one of Raphael’s chosen.

“Dante, wow. I didn’t know you were seeing Maria.” She tried to smile.

“Well now you do. Take care of my girl for me.”

“Of course, she’s in good hands here.”

So fake. I didn’t miss the look of shock on Maria’s face.

I bent down and gave Maria a quick kiss and Vira one last look before I left.

I also didn’t miss the sad look in Maria’s eyes as I drove away.

One thing to make assumptions, another to get actual answers.

I would get those soon, for everything. Every damn thing and set my life back on track.

Back to a path I had wanted to be on for years. I just had more determination now to rid myself of the demons of the past because of her.

Maria, always my girl.