Page 16 of Assistant to the Mafia

She lifted his borrowed clothes, slipping on first the shirt—which smelled like him and brought a smile to her lips—then the pants. The pants were too long on her, even with the waist cinched up high, so she had to roll the ankles. The shirt, of course, swam even on her plump figure. But it was comforting, being swallowed up by him this way. It felt almost like a hug.

Then she had no other reason to put it off any longer, so Grace pulled open the door to find Romeo leaning against the wall directly beside it. For a split-second, he looked like he might have been asleep, and she finally remembered what time this had all started.

She opened her mouth to apologize, but he cut her off.

“Feel any better?” His dark blue gaze dropped down her form for a long second, then he reached around and flicked off the bathroom light.

Grace nodded. “A little.” She drew a breath. “I, um, I didn’t know what to do with my pajamas…” Or the panties she’d had on beneath, which had also absorbed some of the blood.

“It’s fine. My housekeeper will sort through what can be washed and what needs to be disposed of in the morning, don’t worry about it.” Romeo reached up while she was prying her tongue off the roof of her mouth and brushed his knuckle oh-so-lightly along her jaw. “I’m sorry, but I went through your phone a little. Was the guy you grabbed that pic of the one who did this?”

“You—” She stopped herself. Could she really be indignant that the man who’d maybe saved her life, in the middle of the damn night no less, had poked around in her phone? While she was using his shower? Maybe. But she could save it for a more clear-headed hour. “I’m pretty sure. I tried to fight him off, and he had a friend, so I’m not positive which of them hit me.”

He blinked at her, and a slow, dimple-popping smile lifted his lips. “You listened.”

Her heart beat a little harder and a wild, stupid, fabulously reckless idea whispered to her. She inched closer, having to tip her head back to keep eye-contact, and reached up to rest her hands on his chest. “Romeo,” she whispered, his name still feeling forbidden on her tongue, “I don’t want to talk about it right now.” She licked her lips. “I don’t want to think about it.”

She watched his Adam’s apple bob and his throat work down a hard swallow. “Tell me what you do want, Grace.”

She knew she shouldn’t. She knew there were so many reasons she should back away and endure the next few hours of non-sleep that were sure to follow. Except the thought of that was too much, so she embraced the reckless feeling she wasn’t known for. “Kiss me. Distract me. Don’t let me think.”

Romeo groaned, the sound rumbling up from deep in his chest, and crushed her to him. His mouth crashed against hers as his fingers lifted into her still damp hair, his tongue slipping past her lips as his other hand dropped lower to grab hold of her butt. It was not a gentle or tentative kiss. The kiss was demanding and all-consuming.

Grace whimpered against him, her fingers twisting in his shirt as she slid her tongue along his. She hadn’t been prepared. It was so much better than she’d imagined, so much more powerful than anything she remembered from past experience. He was pouring fire into her blood and she wanted more, she wanted to plaster herself against him.

Romeo broke from her lips, trailing wet kisses back along the bruise-free side of her jaw until he was sucking on her neck. At the same time, he rocked her forward, grinding her against his erection and drawing a shuddering gasp from somewhere deep in her chest.

She wedged her arms around him, trying to hold him closer, and let her head fall to the side. A delightful shiver ran through her as he pulled her earlobe between his teeth and she almost didn’t process the deep, husky timbre of his voice when he spoke.

“Tonight, your safe word is ‘stop.’ If you change your mind, or I push too far, just say that word and I will, immediately.” He pressed a kiss beneath her ear. “Tell me you understand.”

A safe word… She’d never needed one of those before. Grace clung tighter to his back. “Only … tonight?”

He huffed out a breath and his hands swept over her, diving beneath her borrowed shirt and going straight for the drawstring at her belly. His fingers moved as he lifted his head enough to find her gaze. “If you decide to let me touch you again, after your head’s clear and you’ve had time to do the thing you don’t want to do right now, we’ll talk about all that. You can pick a word you prefer. So yeah, tonight, you just use a standard word. Easy to remember.” The drawstring came loose and he didn’t ask, didn’t blink, before shoving the sweatpants to the floor.

Grace gasped at the same time as his hands curved over her bare hips, slowly dragging down.

Romeo cursed and dropped his forehead to hers. “Fuck. You’re not even wearing any panties?”

She opened her mouth, something inside tensing at the reminder, but then his lips were there again, chasing the thought away. He kissed her roughly, stretching both hands around to take a double handful of her butt this time. She wasn’t sure which of them groaned louder. She wiggled, toeing off the pants from where they’d caught around her ankles, and then he lifted her completely off her feet.

The kiss broke when her butt hit the bed, Romeo’s hands sliding down her thighs as he lowered to his knees. “Spread these legs for me, angel,” he said. “Let me see that pretty pussy.”

She complied without hesitation, the gravelly tone of his voice going through her almost as intensely as the heat of his touch. Or the power of his kiss. So she hiked up his shirt a little and leaned back, widening her legs as much as she could.

Romeo groaned and splayed his palms over her thighs. “Goddamn,” he grunted. “So fucking pretty.” He slid one hand forward and stroked two fingers through her folds, ending on her clit. “So fucking wet for me.” He rubbed his fingers around her clit until she was panting, then bent forward and buried his face between her thighs. His tongue was everywhere, licking every drop. He dipped it past her opening before dragging it up, and as his tongue found her aching clit, he sank two fingers inside her.

There was nothing subtle about the slurping, squelching noises or the moans he was drawing out of her. His fingers were pumping, his tongue swirling, and Grace barely remembered not to scream as her orgasm tore through her and she collapsed back onto the mattress, too weak to hold herself up.

Oh my god… She couldn’t believe how quickly, and how thoroughly, he’d unwound her.

Romeo released a low, deep-throated hum. “Open your mouth, angel,” he said as he leaned over her. He raised the hand he’d just had inside her. “Need to watch you clean me off.”

Her lips parted as if in a haze and he slipped his fingers into her mouth, until she was nearly choking. Her tongue swirled around them, tasting his skin beneath her own musky sweetness, and she heard herself moan.

“That’s it,” Romeo murmured, his other hand sliding beneath the rumpled-up hem of her borrowed shirt. He found one of her breasts and rolled his thumb over her nipple before slowly dragging his fingers from her mouth. “Fuck, angel, tell me you’re on birth control.”

She was gasping for breath again, or still, but she reached down and sank her fingers into his hair anyway. This was exactly what she’d wanted, what she so desperately needed. “IUD.”

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