Chapter 15 His Touch
Falcone's voice broke through the thick silence like a blade cutting silk.
"Everyone out," he said, calm but carrying that razor-edge warning that made men jump before they thought. It wasn't loud. It didn't need to be. In Falcone's world, volume was for amateurs.
The underboss hesitated, his weight shifting from one foot to the other. His dark eyes cut toward Cedric with open distrust, the kind that said why is this outsider still breathing? His jaw worked like he was chewing on something bitter, some question he wanted to ask but knew better than to voice. Falcone didn't repeat himself. He never did. He only shifted his gaze… slowly, deliberate, the way a predator tracks movement in the dark,and that was enough.
The underboss clenched his jaw so hard a muscle jumped in his cheek. He gave Cedric a final look that promised trouble, the kind that would find him in a dark alley or an empty parking garage when there were no witnesses around. Then he left the room, shutting the door so quietly it felt like a threat in itself. The soft click of the latch echoed louder than a gunshot.
Now it was just them.
The air in the office felt different suddenly, heavier somehow, charged with something Cedric couldn't quite name. Falcone stood perfectly still for a long second, one hand tucked casually in his pocket, the other flattening against the polished mahogany table as if to hold his temper in place. The wood creaked faintly under his palm. Cedric could see it now that they were alone ~ the pulse hammering in his neck, the faint tremor in the tendons of his hand ~ the kind of restraint that came right before something broke. Before glass shattered. Before bones cracked.
Cedric swallowed hard, his throat clicking. "I didn't mean to….."
Falcone looked up then, and the anger that had been simmering in him changed. Not disappeared ~ it never really disappeared with Falcone ~ but transformed into something else. His eyes softened, not with forgiveness exactly, but with recognition. Something about seeing Cedric standing there, shoulders tense and eyes wide like a cornered animal, seemed to quiet whatever storm had been brewing inside him a moment ago. The fury drained from his expression the way water seeps through cracks, leaving something rawer behind.
He crossed the room in three measured steps, his expensive shoes barely whispering against the Persian rug. Cedric's breath hitched in his chest, caught somewhere between his lungs and his throat.
Falcone stopped close enough that Cedric could feel the warmth radiating off him, could smell the faint trace of his cologne mixed with cigar smoke and something darker, something that was just him. For a heartbeat, neither of them moved. The air between them was too heavy to breathe in properly, thick with all the things they hadn't said and probably never would.
Then Falcone reached out, catching Cedric's chin between his fingers. His touch was firm but not rough, possessive but not cruel. "You make a habit of ignoring me now?" His voice was low, barely above a murmur, the kind of soft that hurt worse than shouting ever could. It was intimate and dangerous all at once.
Cedric opened his mouth, scrambling for words, any words, but they stuck in his throat like stones. What could he say? That he'd been scared? That ignoring Falcone had seemed safer than answering? That every time his phone buzzed with Falcone's name on the screen, his stomach twisted itself into knots?
Falcone's hand shifted, sliding from Cedric's jaw to cup the back of his neck. His palm was warm against Cedric's skin, his fingers threading through the hair at his nape. The sudden closeness sent a shiver racing down Cedric's spine, electric and inevitable. Falcone's expression flickered ~ anger bleeding into want, want wrestling with control ~ all of it folding into one unreadable look that made Cedric's knees feel unstable.
He moved closer, eliminating the last inches between them, until Cedric instinctively backed up and his shoulders hit the wall. The sound of it echoed through the quiet office, punctuating the moment. There was nowhere left to go now. Nowhere to run. Not that running had ever really been an option.
"Falcone….." Cedric started, his voice coming out rougher than he'd intended, almost pleading.
But Falcone didn't let him finish. He leaned in, his breath ghosting over Cedric's lips, warm and mint-sharp from the gum he'd been chewing earlier. The moment stretched impossibly long, a single suspended second filled with nothing but heartbeat and heat and the sound of Cedric's pulse roaring in his ears. And then Falcone kissed him ~ not violently, but with the kind of tension that felt like a threat and a promise both, his teeth catching Cedric's lower lip and tugging gently, technically eating at it in a way that made Cedric's thoughts scatter like birds startled from a wire.
Cedric's hands came up automatically, palms pressing flat against Falcone's chest. Not really to push him away ~ he wasn't sure he could even if he wanted to ~ more like to keep his balance as the world tilted sideways. He could feel Falcone's heart beating beneath his hands, surprisingly fast for someone who always seemed so controlled. Falcone's scent surrounded him, overwhelming his senses. The solid weight of him pressed Cedric harder against the wall. The low sound Falcone made when Cedric gasped against his mouth ~ something between a growl and a groan ~ it all blurred into something dizzying, something that made rational thought impossible.
When Falcone finally pulled back, he didn't go far. His lips hovered by Cedric's ear, close enough that each word was a brush of heat against sensitive skin. His breathing was uneven, controlled but only just. His voice came out quiet, almost tender in a way that felt more dangerous than any threat could be.
"I told you to call me," he murmured, and there was something wounded beneath the words, something vulnerable that Falcone would probably kill anyone else for witnessing. "Why didn't you do what I said?"
Cedric's throat tightened painfully. He tried to swallow but couldn't quite manage it. "I….." His voice cracked. He started again. "I didn't know if you'd want to hear from me. After everything that happened, after the way things ended last time, I just... I wasn't sure."
It sounded weak even to his own ears, but it was the truth. The messy, complicated truth that sat between them like a third presence in the room.
Falcone's thumb brushed over his jaw with devastating gentleness, tracing the faint tremor there, the visible proof of how much Cedric was falling apart under his touch. His eyes searched Cedric's face like he was memorizing it, cataloging every detail. "You'll learn," he said, and it sounded more like he was talking to himself than to Cedric, making some kind of promise or decision. His grip on Cedric's neck tightened just slightly, a reminder of who was in control here, who always would be. "Next time, you won't make me wait."
It wasn't a request. It wasn't even really a command. It was simply a statement of fact, inevitable as gravity. And Cedric, pressed against the wall with Falcone's heat seeping into his bones, could only nod.