Page 72 of The Devil Can Be Kind

It took two seconds for my body to respond, but when it did, my lips met his with equal parts desperation andneed. My arms wound their way around his neck and our bodies collided. His hands finding my ass as mine threaded in his hair, pulling each other closer. Marco’s tongue found mine and I moaned at his taste, my stomach pooling with desire as his familiar, spicy taste hit my tongue.

I could feel him, and he waseverywhere.

Without breaking our kiss, Marco lifted me onto the edge of the counter. My bare legs hung either side of his thighs, and his hands moved slowly along my skin. The material of my nightdress bunched as his hands coasted upward, exposing meto the evening air. He kissed my lips savagely when his fingers met the elastic of my panties, like an addict being handed his vice. I pulled away to suck in a breath, and his lips fell to my neck in response.

His nipped against the sensitive skin, eliciting goosebumps down my spine.

I pulled at his hair, bringing his face back up to meet mine as our lips crashed together once more. Feeling emboldened and desperate to feel more of him, I sucked on his lip, and he grunted, his hands dipping below the elastic at my hips.

Just when I thought he was going to pull the material down my thighs, a buzzing erupted.

“Marco…” I sighed, struggling to formulate words. “Your phone.”

“Ignore it,” he muttered immediately against my throat, lips pressing against my collarbone as the phone fell silent.

The quiet didn’t last long as his phone began vibrating once again. This time more relentless than before.

“Fuck,” he said angrily, moving back from me enough to retrieve the phone from his pocket.

He didn’t look at the screen as he answered. “This better be fucking good,” he spat. His features immediately morphed into a scowl as he listened to whatever was being said on the other end.

It was enough to sober me up from my intoxicating arousal and it slowly sunk in what we had just done.

My brainfinallycatching back up.

Shit.

It didn’t matter that he said he wanted me. This was just a game to him. He wanted menow, but what about next week? What about tomorrow? I was just a pawn in an elaborate game that Cosa Nostra men liked to play. A game of cat and mouse, ofsex and vanity. Achallengefor a man bored by the easy girls that flocked to his side.

My earlier thoughts echoed through my mind, and I felt nothing but disdain.

How could I let this happen?

It was enough to spur me into action.

I pushed Marco back another step and jumped down from the counter without sparing even a second glance at him. I sped out of the kitchen and up to my room locking myself in for the second time that evening.

What have I just done?

CHAPTER

FOURTEEN

ADALYN

There comes a time in everyone’s life where the need for self-preservation outweighs everything else. Now was one of those times.

Over the next few days I scarcely left the confines of my room and decided that avoidance was my best strategy. I wouldn’t allow myself to be in the same situation again. I couldn’t. Not if I wanted to survive and have a chance at being happy in Chicago.

It didn’t matter that he wanted me. It didn’t matter that I wanted him. If I gave in to whatever feelings I had for the Don, there was a decent chance my heart would get broken in the process…and I couldn’t give everything I had to a man for it to meannothing.

It would always meansomethingto me because of my past and what another man did.

I was already fractured by it, so to risk myself for someone who I could scarcely trust…it had the potential to shatter me irrevocably. And I didn’t know if I could survive it.

Instead, over the course of the weekend I focused on locking away whatever feelings I had for Marco until they were inaccessible to me. Until self-preservation, distrust, and fear shrouded our kiss in a heavy fog and deterred me from lingering on my feelings any longer.

My phone buzzed where it lay on the desk beside me.

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