Page 19 of His Mafia Sweetheart

"I love you," Eli gasps against my lips, his fingers scrabbling at the hem of my shirt. "God, Nico, I love you so much it hurts. I need you, need to feel you inside me, claiming me, making me yours."

"Yes," I growl, tearing at his clothes with desperate, clumsy fingers. "Fuck, baby, you have no idea how much I need you too. Need to bury myself in you, make you scream my name until you forget there was ever a world outside this room."

We come together in a tangle of limbs and gasping breaths, our naked bodies moving in a rhythm as old as time itself. Eli arches beneath me, his throat bared and his eyes wild with pleasure as I sink into the tight, slick heat of him.

"Nico," he keens, his nails raking down my back as I begin to move. "Oh fuck, yes, just like that. Harder, please, I need...I need..."

I swallow his pleas with my mouth, kissing him with all the desperate hunger clawing at my gut. I snap my hips forward, driving into him with deep, powerful strokes that punch the breath from his lungs.

"That's it, baby," I rasp, my lips moving over the racing pulse in his throat. "Take it, take everything I have. It's all for you, only ever for you."

Eli sobs brokenly, his head thrashing on the pillow as I fuck into him with increasing urgency. The sound of our flesh slapping together mingles with our harsh pants and bitten-off moans, a symphony of raw passion and unrestrained need.

"I love you," I breathe, the words pouring out of me like a prayer. "Fuck, Eli, I love you so goddamn much. You're everything to me, do you understand? My whole fucking world, the beat of my heart, the air in my lungs."

Eli's eyes fly open, his gaze locking with mine. The depth of emotion I see there, the raw, naked love and trust...it steals the breath from my lungs, makes my pounding heart stutter in my chest.

"Show me," he whispers, his hands coming up to frame my face with impossible tenderness. "Show me how much you love me, Nico. Make me feel it in every inch of my body, in every corner of my soul."

I groan, low and guttural, and redouble my efforts. I pour everything I am into each roll of my hips, each drag of my lips over Eli's feverish skin. Every touch, every gasped endearment, every shuddering moan...they're vows, sacred and unbreakable.

I love you. I adore you. I'll fight for you until my last breath, my last beat of my heart. You're mine, and I'm yours, and nothing in this world or the next will ever tear us apart.

Eli cries out, his body going taut as a bowstring beneath me. I can feel him tightening, his inner muscles fluttering around my driving cock as his climax hurtles towards him like a freight train.

"That's it, baby," I coax, my hand snaking between our sweat-slicked bodies to wrap around his weeping erection. "Come for me, let me feel you lose control. I've got you, I'll always have you, now and forever."

"Nico," Eli sobs, his back bowing as his orgasm crashes over him. "Oh fuck, oh god, Nico!"

His release splatters hot and wet between us, his channel clamping down on me like a vise. The feel of him coming undone in my arms, the sound of my name on his lips like a benediction...it's too much, too intense to resist.

With a hoarse shout, I bury myself to the hilt and let go, emptying myself deep inside Eli's welcoming body. Wave after wave of pleasure rolls through me, whiting out my vision and shorting out my higher brain functions until there's nothing but sensation, nothing but the man in my arms and the overwhelming force of my love for him.

We reach our peak together, Eli's scream of ecstasy mingling with my own guttural shout. For a moment, there's nothing but white-hot bliss, the entire universe narrowed down to the two of us, shaking and clinging to each other like we're the only solid things in a world turned to quicksand.

"I love you," Eli pants against my sweat-dampened throat, his lips curved in a smile I can feel. "God, Nico, that was...that was incredible."

"You're incredible," I murmur back, brushing a tender kiss over his temple. "I can't believe I ever thought I could live without this, without you. You're my whole fucking heart, Eli Bloom."

He lifts his head, his eyes shimmering with unshed tears and a love so pure it steals my breath. "And you're mine," he whispers fiercely. "Always and forever, Nico Caruso. No matter what happens, no matter what we have to face...I'm yours, and you're mine. Unbreakable, unstoppable."

I crush my mouth to his in a searing kiss, pouring all the love and devotion and bone-deep certainty I feel into the press of my lips. And when we finally break apart, gasping and grinning like lovesick fools, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is where I'm meant to be.

In Eli's arms, in his heart, in the blinding light of his love...I'm home. And come hell or high water, I'll fight like the devil himself to make sure I never have to leave again.

And later, as we lay spent and sated in the tangled sheets, trading lazy kisses and murmured promises...I feel something settle in my chest. A quiet certainty, a bone-deep knowing that this is right. That Eli is my salvation and my future, the only thing worth fighting for in this fucked-up, blood-soaked life.

"I love you," I breathe against his smiling mouth, the words a vow and a prayer all in one. "Forever and always, sunshine. You and me against the world."

Eli hums happily, snuggling deeper into my embrace. "Forever and always," he echoes, his fingers lacing with mine over the steady thump of my heart. "I love you too, Nico Caruso. More than the stars love the sky."

And in that perfect, shining moment...I believe him. I believe in us, in the strength of what we've built together. And I know that no matter what tomorrow brings, no matter what demons we have to face...

We'll face them together, hand in hand and heart to heart. Unbreakable, unstoppable...and head over heels in love.

CHAPTER 9

ELI

---