Page 49 of Taking Over the Dark

Fuck, he’s too pretty.

“If we go to practice, Alex and Arben will land around that time,” I tell Nash, hoping Marcello doesn’t torture them until we get out of practice and over to the warehouse.

Nash sheepishly asks, “Can we leave early to go blow off some steam, lifting?” I wrap my hand around his muscular thigh in an attempt to comfort him.

“Yes. I need to lift, it’s been too many days, and that’s the only way I keep this head of mine clear…” And that’s not a lie. I think the only reason I don’t want to rip my hair out as we speak is due to the little killing spree we’ve been on.

Marcello puts our plates in front of us. “Seafood carbonara. Eat up.”

He doesn’t leave any room for questions, and who am I to ask any?

The creamy noodles hit my tongue, and the feral moan I let out has Ellie coming in from the bedroom. The second moan I let out is from the view of her perfect body. She has one of our oversized T-shirts on—whose, I don’t know—and that thought alone has my dick paying attention.

“Who’s making the slutty noises in here without me?”

Marcello places Ellie’s plate down in front of her from over her shoulder as she sits down in the open chair beside me. Marcello joins us with his food down at the end of the table that’s fit for nothing less than the king he is.

“Cello, fuck, I forgot how good you can cook.” Ellie moans while shoveling more food into her mouth.

Why is her eating so hot, too?

Because you’re obsessed, dick head.

We chit-chat for a little bit after finishing eating, and it’s not lost to me that this should feel very foreign—or even taboo—but it doesn’t.

The thought that one person can and will only love one other person is dumb.

Barbaric.

Simple-minded.

I want more than what the average person does in every aspect of my life. Why does that have to stop in relationships?

Nash and I are up, ready to hit the facilities early so we can put all this restless energy to work. We grab our bags, and by the time we’re back out in the living space, Rhett and Dino are at the door waiting to escort us to practice again.

“Beefy and beefier are here to escort us again, Nash,” I joke and throw a smirk at him, knowing he thinks they’re both hot as shit.

Then I hear Marcello growling like a caged animal, so I also throw one of the jokes at him. “Down, boy. We only have eyes for two others, and it’s not these beefcakes.”

He’s marching over to us, grabbing my face in his hands and squeezing, making my lips open from being puckered. He grunts, “It’s us four, and only us four. Got it?”

I nod in response, and then his lips are on mine, I wrap my hands around his neck and hum into the kiss. Kissing Marcello is like riding a bull. You don’t know what he’s going to do. How hard he’ll buck. But it’ll be a fun ride. It could kill you being this close to him, but it’s worth all the thrill.

Even if he shows his love and affection in the most fucked up ways you can imagine, I would never want him any other way.

?*He’s our little organ-donating, nice mafia don.

I pull away breathless. “We’ve gotta get out of here or we won’t leave at all.” I look him up and down, but my eyes always fall back to his tenting pants.

Ellie’s behind Cello, shoving him out of the way and pushing up to her toes to reach my lips. Even at her height, she still can’t reach me if I’m not bending over to help her.

We switch, everyone says their goodbyes, and we’re out the door.

Pulling into the stadium parking lot, I lean onto the center console to talk to Rhett and Dino. “You two going to come in with us?” Rhett looks like a kid in a candy store, but Dino maintains his serious face that I’ve never seen slip.

“I’ll be right outside the facility, but Rhett wants to go in.” Dino pauses a beat, looking over at him, before saying, “For security purposes.”

Rhett agrees, “Yeah, security purposes… Not because I’ve been a Devils fan my whole life or anything…” I love how sheepish he looks, and I want to ask all the questions about Dino being undercover sweet just now, knowing Rhett would want to be inside meeting everyone, but I control myself for now.

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