Page 44 of Beautifully Savage Butterfly

“I’m sorry… for being a goddamn Moretti instead of a regular, fucked-up guy.”

His face stays stony for another beat, then crumples with a bark of laughter. “I guess I’ll take that. For now, anyway.” Orion steps closer again, closing in on me in a blink, his hands on my face and his body up against mine. “Were any of my wins fixed?”

I shake my head. “No. I swear on my life, I would never do that.”

His nostrils flare and his eyes darken again, but he seems to accept the answer. He rests his forehead against mine and drags his thumb along the stubble on my jaw. “I don’t care if someone leaves me half dead after an underground fight, you stay out of it next time. Got it?”

“Absolutely not.” My answer stills the stroke of his thumb.

“Elio.”

“No,” I say again, firmly. “You shouldn't even be doing underground fights.”

Orion sighs. “You’re not planning to make any of this easy for me, are you?”

“No,” I answer a third time, my lips twitching with a smirk. “But I don’t think you like me because it’s easy.”

His eyes search mine, probing and intense, ratcheting my heart rate up again, reaching deep down inside me like he’s making himself at home there, among all the cobwebbed skeletons.

“No, I guess you’re right,” he murmurs in agreement, slamming his lips into mine in a hard, claiming kiss. I pant against his mouth, grabbing a fistful of his shirt and twisting it, pressing myself against him and melting into his body.

It’s definitely not going to be easy between us. Easy is fucking boring anyway.

Chapter 18

ORION

I’m not sure if I can imagine anything more satisfying than marching the Mafia underboss back into the gym with his hair disheveled and a bratty scowl on his kiss swollen lips.

The guys who fled into the locker room when Elio arrived are back at their weight benches or punching bags now. Every eye turns in our direction as we step back inside. There’s a surprising amount of power and control in it. Enough to make my chest swell just a little. I could see how this kind of thing might go to someone’s head, especially when it’s all they’ve ever known.

Elio looks over his shoulder at me and I harden my expression, not leaving any room for him to try to worm his way out of this. Spanking him over the hood of his car was hardly a punishment. That was my miss. But a public correction of his bad behavior? Yeah, I think that will do the trick. And hopefully it’ll solve my problem too.

He clears his throat, straightens his tie, smooths out his suit jacket…

I nudge him between the shoulder blades.

“I’m doing it,” he grumbles under his breath.

“Try that again, Brat?” I bark back, not bothering to keep my voice down. If he wants to fuck around, then I don’t mind everyone else knowing what a spoiled shit he likes to be. A spoiled shit who’s always eager to get on his knees for me. A spoiled shit who drew me a bath and massaged my shoulders until I melted like butter. A spoiled shit who wrapped himself around me like I was a teddy bear in his bed, then threw his weight and money around to take care of my brother without me ever asking.

He’s right, I don’t want easy. I want whatever the hell this is. For better or for worse.

Elio huffs but doesn’t test the tenuous control I have on my patience. Instead, he clears his throat, as if everyone isn’t already focused on him with a kind of morbid curiosity and fear written all over their faces.

“There’s a misunderstanding I want to correct. The threat I made about hurting Orion was only meant to apply to guys fighting dirty. Treat him like you’d treat any other fighter. If I catch anyone pulling their punches or avoiding getting into the ring with him, then we’re going to have a problem.”

“You can’t even help yourself, can you?” I sigh.

He turns back towards me and shrugs, not looking the least bit apologetic about managing to find a loophole to threaten everyone in the gym when he’s supposed to be eating crow.

“You wanted it fixed. It’s fixed.” He drops his voice lower. “I can’t look weak, Boss. It puts you in danger, and it puts my family in danger.”

“Yeah, alright.” I hadn’t thought about how much pressure there must be to always make sure everyone is properly terrified of you. Or maybe I have. It’s not like I live my life all that differently, the threats are just different.

“Listen, if you’re done reminding me who’s boss and making my dick hard, I actually swung by for a reason,” he says, his voice still low. No one is paying attention to us anymore, aside from the occasional nervous glance they’re still giving Elio.

My skin prickles with unspent adrenaline and nerves. I grunt and nod.

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