Page 29 of Secret Baby for the Italian Mafia Don

“I already am,” he says, catching me by the jaw and gazing into my eyes. He sees the tears burning there, the shallow draw of my breath that I just can’t seem to catch. My silence trembles with the truth. “You want to cut deals like a little mafia wife? Well, I have one for you. If you want to give Thaddeus the rest of yourdays, fine. But you have to prove to me that’s really what you want. You convince me of that, and I’ll leave you alone.”

“How?”

“You let me have you for tonight. Just one night. Your mind, your body, your virgin pussy, they’re all mine until the sun comes up. For the next eight hours, you’ll give me everything you are, and I will do whatever the hell I want with it. Listen to me,” he says when I try to answer, more serious than I’ve ever seen him. That smug smile and the teasing light always glinting in his eyes are gone now. Every word is sharp and heavy. Real. “You better understand what it is you’re agreeing to. I’m either going to fix you or I’m going tobreakyou, Ava. And if you still want Sal’s deal after I’m done with you, I’ll buy you a fucking wedding present.”

My mouth is dry, my breathing shallow, my pussy pounding with heat for this man’s control.

“Eight hours. . .” I repeat.

“More or less.”

The offer lingers between us. The rest of the world spins on while we are frozen. Standing completely still, I have that same feeling in my belly I had last night when Nico and I were flying down the expressway, a disaster going 130 miles per hour.

“You’re out of your fucking mind,” I whisper furiously, then lean up and kiss him. His breath growls in his chest, his hands becoming iron on my skin as I finally give in, finally let the heat burning through me spread into an inferno that can’t becontrolled. It burns me down from the inside out, turns all my hollow, wooden defenses to ash.

The sunlight dips below the city skyline as I sign myself over to Nico Mori.

I learn the next eight hours are going to be spent at a luxury hotel. Nico buys out the topmost floor, the penthouse suite, and it costs him a few grand on short notice, but he somehow gets it done.

Thaddeus Mori might think I look like a whore, but at least I’m not acheapwhore.

Nico brings me to the nicest hotel room I’ve ever been in, and standing in the extravagant lounge area with all of Manhattan stretching out beneath our feet, I can’t appreciate it for a second. I am only aware ofhim. I watch Nico’s every move, hyperaware of him.

“What are you thinking about?” Nico asks, taking off his tie.

“Wondering if we’re going to have enough space in here for two whole people,” I say, crossing my arms. “Are you sure you got a big enough room?”

“You’ll appreciate the privacy when I have you screaming.”

I scoff at his overconfidence.

“I’m not going to scream.”

“You will,” Nico says, so certainly it doesn’t even sound like bragging. It just sounds like a simple fact. A law of the universe. Nico approaches me. He throws his jacket aside onto the couchand rolls his sleeves up those strong arms. My eyes trace the subtle veins running to his wrists. He looks like he’s about to go to work on me, like I’m his weekend project and he’s going to tear me apart and fix me with his bare hands. It makes me feral.

“I told you I would have every part of you, Ava,” he says, circling me with measured steps. “That includes the thoughts in that pretty, fucked-up little head of yours. Those are mine, too. Tell me what you’rereallythinking.”

I feel spotlighted. Hunted. Nico’s fingers find the slit in the side of my dress and trace it upward.

My dry wit cracks and splinters when asked for something truthful, and suddenly, I feel an immense amount of self-consciousness.

“I’m thinking about what you’ll do to me,” I force myself to admit, a tiny steppingstone toward the truth.

“Go on.”

My throat works around the words, heat building up in my cheeks. Shame catches in my lungs.

“You can’t just expect me to—”

Suddenly, his hand curls around my throat and he pulls me back against his body, choking off my words.

“What did I say?” he growls, his voice made of iron, as he scrubs his thumb against my jugular. I gasp softly without getting enough air, those wild fantasies playing out. “Play by the rules, Ava, or you getnothingout of this deal except a filled cunt. I’llhelp myself to you for hours, and at the end of it, I won’t just vanish. I’ll be there to remind you of it every day. I’ll never let you forget it. I’ll be there when you’re awake, when you’re asleep. You’ll have to kill me to get rid of me.”

“Just fucking listen to yourself,” I strain to say. “You alreadyknowwhat I want. I want you to fuck me. No condoms, no ‘lovemaking.’ I don’t want it to be soft. I want you to hold me down. Make me helpless. I want you to do what you said you were going to do, and fucking ruin me.”

I can feel the tension in him, the pressure building in those strong muscles, holding himself back.

“Tell me why,” he demands.

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