Page 81 of Broken Prince

“Sit.” I pointed to a chair before retrieving the first aid kit from under the sink. “Take off your shirt.”

Luca didn’t fight me and just sat down.

“Do I even want to know what happened?” I asked when he gave me his shirt.

“You don’t have to do that,” he called after me as I walked into the laundry room. “It’s only a shirt.”

“It’s not just a shirt; it’s your favorite shirt. Just give me a minute.” I soaked it in water and baking soda and when I walked back in, I saw that his eyes were slightly glazed over and he seemed less in control.

“Are you–is he drunk?” I asked the guys that were standing by the kitchen door. Dom looked protective, Savio speculative.

“No, I’m not but I was getting there.” He sighed as I pulled a chair to sit across from him.

I threw Dom a questioning look.

Dom rolled his eyes. “Our man has a temper, and a guy rubbed him the wrong way.”

“I see.” I looked at Luca and shook my head. “You went all caveman.”

He hissed as I gently pressed the cotton ball soaked with disinfectant just above his brow.

“Why did you stay?” he whispered as I cleaned the cut.

I kept on working silently. I didn’t want to share my feelings in front of witnesses.

He caught my wrist, keeping his eyes locked with mine. “You stayed,” he continued as if he could hardly believe it. “After everything I told you, after the commitment it imposes, after giving you an out… You stayed.” I didn’t miss the longing in his voice and eyes.

I walked in between his open legs and looked down at his scarred chest. I was too scared to look at him.

I traced one of his scars on his chest with my forefinger. “For you, Luca Montanari, a thousand times over,” I whispered. It was a quote from his favorite book and I knew he would understand. I would go through every trial for him.

His hand tightened around my wrist. “Get out!” he barked.

I looked up, startled, and I saw he was glaring at Dom and Savio standing behind us.

“I live here,” Dom started.

“No, tonight you don’t,” he replied, glaring at them. “I don’t care where you go, but I want you gone.” He pulled me closer, sliding his hand under my top and resting a possessive hand on my stomach. “Tonight, I’m claiming what’s mine,” he said, looking at me with so much heat in his eyes my heart started to hammer in my chest.

Savio started to say something, but Dom told him something in Italian, and I finally heard the door close and the room was finally silent, except for the loud grandfather clock in the hall and my ragged breathing.

Luca kept looking up at me in silence, brushing his thumb back and forth against my stomach.

“I didn’t dare hope you’d stay,” he admitted breathlessly, as affected as me by the heat of the moment, the air between us crackling with our desire.

“I couldn't leave you.” I brought a hand up and ran it through his hair. “Ti amo, mia bella bestia,” I said, hoping I was not butchering his language.

His face lit up, and he pulled me closer until I was straddling him on his seat, my core pressed against his growing erection.

“Hearing you speaking Italian…” He trailed off, pulling me forward, kissing my neck. “I love you, my heart, my soul.” He brushed his fingers against the necklace he had bought me. “When I gave it to you, I said it was just because I found it pretty, but it is serotonin because serotonin is the source of your happiness and well-being. You’re my serotonin, Cassie; you make me happier than I thought I could be. More than I deserve.”

I grabbed his face and kissed him, but it didn’t take him long to grab the back of my neck and take control of the kiss. He nipped at my bottom lip, just hard enough to make me gasp, and he invaded my mouth with his tongue, tasting me like he was a parched man finding an oasis in the middle of the desert. His lips were demanding, firm, passionate, the kiss so ardent my entire body felt on fire under the sensual pleasures that just a kiss from him enticed in me.

I moaned in his mouth, rocking my hips against his hard cock. The taste of bourbon on his tongue, his rugged musky scent, his strong hands pressing my core even more tightly against him made me dizzy with an overwhelming lust for my Mafia prince.

Luca broke the kiss and looked into my eyes as we both took a series of ragged breaths. I was glad I was sitting on him because the passion of his kiss had turned me into mush and I wasn’t sure my legs could have supported me.

He kept his eyes locked on mine as he reached up for the thin straps of my tank top and pulled them down until the pink piece of fabric was bunched at my waist. My nipples were hard and demanding attention under the heat of his eyes. I've been bare like that to him before and once again despite my inexperience and the bright light in the kitchen I didn't feel self-conscious—not with him. He was looking at me as if I were a treasure, a dream he had just made and the force of his desire was so transparent in the way his hands tightened almost painfully on my hips, in the way his tongue dipped out of his mouth to lick his bottom lip as if he could already imagine my erected nipple in his mouth. His brown eyes looked black now, revealing his ravenous sexual desire for me.

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