Page 46 of Brutal Legacy

Pleasure I’d never felt burst inside me like an overripe peach, juices spilling, flesh soft and liquid-feeling. Wetness hit my thighs, but it didn’t feel gross. It felt right.

Elio growled in my ear, his hand pulling my head back, baring my throat to his teeth and lips.

“Fuck, you just squeezed me like you were trying to fucking kill me.”

He panted and then shuddered, his whole body going rigid. His hips slammed deep and stayed there. He pulsed inside me. It was hot and wet.Should that happen with a condom?I didn’t care. I wanted to be marked by him forever. Joined in a way that could never be reversed.

That moment there, in the stables, lying on a makeshift bed, the moon shining down outside, full of him, our hearts beating against each other’s, I felt fate press down on us both. He pulled out of me, and I felt him hot and wet across my thighs.

“The condom broke.” He reached down to take it off. “Fuck.”

“I don’t care. I didn’t like it anyway,” I confessed. “I want to feel you… all of you. I’ll go on the pill.”

He stared at me and ran a hand through my hair, then cupped my cheek.

“You do kill me,topolina, you know that? I can’t live without you,” he said, his green eyes staring into my soul.

“Likewise.” I met his unflinching stare.

He nodded and placed a single kiss on my forehead. A sign of worship. Devotion.

He pulled me close then guided my head to his shoulder and spoke softly. “And I was hers, and she was mine… and no one could take her from me… and no one ever would.”

14

GEORGIA

Now

“Girl, I swear, you don’t do things by halves. Your life was totally boring, and instead of joining a book club or something, you go and get kidnapped by some criminal and held at gunpoint.” I didn’t bother correcting her. “Spoonpoint” didn’t have quite the same ring to it.

“Yes, it was all my choice,” I sighed, downing a large gulp of coffee.

Erica perched on the barstool next to me. “What was the police station like? Did they bring out a hard-boiled detective to interrogate you?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know… just some tired guy and his partner asking all about Jackson and the loan. I guess they’re used to dealing with this kind of thing. I mean, gangs fighting among each other and loan sharks threatening people.”

Erica watched me. “Are you sure your mystery man was really Mafia?”

“I’m sure. Believe me… I know Mafia. The man he works for is a big deal on the East Coast. If they can find him.”As long as they did that, I’d be safe. I didn’t bother saying the last part, because the stark truth was that until they did, I wasn’t safe. I wasn’t safe at all.

“Are you sure you’re okay to go to work today?”

I nodded. I needed to go. I wouldn’t make rent if I didn’t. I’d been given two days off for my trauma, and it was all I could afford to miss.

“I’ll be fine.”

“What about going back to your place? Can you really sleep there after what happened?”

I forced a smile. “It’s fine. I’m tougher than I look, and I’m going to find a new place anyway, like you said, in a better neighborhood.”

Erica brightened. “Maybe near me?”

“Maybe.”

There was no way I could afford to live near Erica. She had a good deal on a studio because the owner was friends with her aunt. But the studio was truly tiny, and I couldn’t impose on her any longer. I knew it was hard for her to have someone stay, even if she’d never say so directly.

I left Erica’s. I had no idea if my De Sanctis stalker was sticking around to find me. The LAPD said they’d put a security detail on me. I didn’t see a single sign of them, so I wasn’t sure if that meant they were just very good at their jobs or that they hadn’t really bothered.

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