Page 141 of A Beautiful Crime

“Carina,” he says her name with a fondness and I have to force myself not to hunt him down and murder him. I suppose I’ll have to get used to it. Pietro is quite taken with her as well. And I know her former butler Giuseppe has strong affections for her. He stood as a father figure. It goes against my nature but I’ll resist the urge to slit their throats for her. “Forgive me for the deception,” he apologizes when he has no need to.

“I’m sure you will make it up to me by providing us with good enough intel on my dear fratello.” She spits the last word with venom. And by the murderous rage in mia leonessa’s eyes I almost pity the pathetic excuse of a man when she finally sinks her claws in him.

And what a glorious bloodbath it will be.

Gino chuckles, one of astonishment. The pride is clear in his voice when he replies, “I always knew you were destined for great things, Carina. I have a feeling you’ll be more feared than The Devil of the East Coast himself.”

There’s a warm smile on Carina’s face. One she wouldn’t have allowed herself to express just months ago.

And as much as I am jealous of my own men for bringing these emotions out of her I am much more grateful she has finally found a family.

“Si,” I agree, wrapping my arms around my obsession and holding her tenderly to me. The act in itself is possessive but in truth I can’t keep my hands to myself. I’m a moth to a flame. Icarus to the sun. There is never a moment where she is withinreach where my hands will not be on her. “The world will have a new face to fear and respect, or they will face her wrath.”

“And my brother and father will be the first to experience it,” she vows with vengeance.

Dio mio.

She is never more beautiful than when she’s bloodthirsty.

My cock stiffens in my pants. To conceal my hard on I press her ass against my groin.

Not my smartest move.

She feels the evidence of my arousal and like the dirty minx she is, she innocently wiggles her hips.

My fingers clamp down hard on her luscious hips to keep still. Leaning down I whisper just for her, “Be a good girl and I’ll reward you with my tongue when the meeting is done.”

I can practically feel the excitement thrumming through her veins. She thrusts her ass against me and my cock, the traitorous sex fiend, has never been more excited to sink inside her. “And what if I want the punishment of being a bad girl?”

Fuck.

I’m as hard as a fucking steel pipe. I feel fucking precum leaking at the tip.

All the delicious ways in which I could punish her has me almost climaxing inside my pants like a teenager.

“You want to be punished, mia leonessa? You want to be my bad girl?”

“Yes. Very much so.” Her voice holds a desperate hunger. And when I pinch her chin between my fingers to angle her head towards me I see the craving in her eyes.

Because those lips are so tempting, bruised and swollen from our earlier ravagings, I kiss her lips gently. And because I’m not a gentleman I lightly nip her bottom lip with my teeth before I release her.

Those pupils of hers swallow her eyes whole. “I’ll punish you later. For now let’s conduct business.”

She smiles up at me, giving me another peck on the lips before giving her undivided attention to the meeting.

Dio mio. I am completely and irrevocably in love with this woman.

I then catch eyes with Rico whose eyes are intent on the both of us.

And it is a time like this where I do feel a sense of sympathy for the man. He’ll never understand the importance of what Carina means to me. He will never feel the all consuming encompassing love I have for this woman. The sense of pride to be called her man. The way my heart alights when she gifts me a smile. How I will kill everyone and anyone for her.

He’ll never feel what it is to be in love. How much stronger it makes you. How it completes you.

And while I believe no man will love in the way I love Carina I pity Rico because he will never feel an ounce of that way at all.

For as much as his strategic analytic practical brilliant mind will try to understand Carina and I, he never will.

And I think that disturbs him more than anything.