Page 28 of Corrupted Empire

Gabriel sucks in a breath and grinds against me. “You’re right,” he murmurs. “I can have you anytime I want. You’re still mine.”

My fingers rub over my sensitive nub, sending pulses of delicious heat through me. I start to move faster. My scalp tingles.

Gabriel keeps ahold of my wrists in one large hand while he unzips with the other. I feel his weight against my thigh, and his lips come to my neck.

“Tell me that you want it,” he says.

I keep my lips pressed tight, even as a moan threatens to rip through me.

His hands tighten on my wrists, and he rubs his hard length against the front of my panties. I suppress another moan, teeth gritted tightly.

“Tell me,” he orders. His deep voice cuts through me like a knife. There is a measure of desperation in it, and I know he needs me right now every bit as much as I need him.

I can’t hold back any longer. “I want it. Please.”

Gabriel emits a deep growl and rips my panties right off me, tossing the torn fabric to the ground. He wedges himself between my thighs, and I feel his thick head at my entrance, pressing into me.

Heat washes over me. I rub furiously, tension pooling deep in my belly.

Gabriel drives in. His hips crash into mine, and I let out a moan of pure bliss as he fills me, stretches me, owns me completely.

“That’s right,” he groans, pulling out and then slamming home again. “I’m the one who gets to make you come. You’re mine, Tiger. All mine.”

My hand grips the sheets as I climb to the peak of pleasure, eyes screwed shut. It’s good. So good. I imagine him above me, his dark hair falling over the deep pools of his eyes as he fucks me senseless.

I break right down the middle, pleasure ripping through me. White flashes behind my eyes. I go perfectly still, not even breathing, as everything in my world blurs at the edges and then comes slowly into focus.

The room is deadly silent until the sounds of my hoarse breaths fill it again.

The loneliness continues to lap at my ankles like soft, hissing waves. I wonder how long until the tide comes in.

11

Gabriel

Never in my life have I wished more that Vito was still alive. I am sitting in my office with his brother, discussing adjustments to our strategy now that we know the face of our enemy, but Silvano only ever met Felicity Huffman briefly. He doesn’t know her like Vito did.

Vito and I used to spend hours discussing the various manipulations she used on my father, and all the ways she might become dangerous for us. I vowed that I would always stay one step ahead of her. If something happened to my father and she came for me next, I would make sure that I didn’t fall into her web.

Only, now I have. She has been pulling my strings for months, and I feel like an absolute idiot. I had no idea.

Silvano studies the photo on the desk. Felicity and my father are grinning at the camera. He looks handsome in an ink-black tux. She looks stunning in a floor-length purple gown. The photo is around five or six years old, but Felicity has barely aged.

“This is a good thing, Gabriel,” Silvano says, sliding the photo back to me. “We know who we’re dealing with now.”

“I know.” I toss the photo into a drawer, skin prickling.

Silvano’s mouth tugs down at the corners. “Your lips are saying one thing…”

I don’t know why Felicity’s reveal has rattled me so much. There is something incredibly disturbing about having my father’s former lover come back into my life, years after she nearly brought my father’s empire to ruin.

Because of Felicity, I have spent my life fearing manipulation by any woman. Now Jezebel herself has waltzed back onto the scene, and I suspect that any move I make to counter her will only send me further into her clutches. She has always been three steps ahead.

“I know, Silvano.” I take a breath. “I want you to set up street surveillance. If anyone so much as whispers her name, I want to know about it. Felicity Huffman has had years to prepare for this, and we’re only in the know now because she wants us to be. So I need all the information I can.”

Silvano nods. “I’ll make it happen.”

“Good. You can go.”

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