Page 9 of Mobster's Home

There is something seriouslyintimidatingabout him. Too intimidating for a bounty hunter...and a thought crosses my mind. Who is the man I live with, really?

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I feel the mattress dip as he gets up in the middle of the night. He’s trying to be noiseless and I have to admit he’s as slithering as a snake but I’ve been preparing for this all day. I lay still, my back turned to him as he gets dressed. There’s the rattle of his coat and then comes the rattle of his weapons and I gulp.

Making sure to keep my eyes closed, I stop breathing when he leans over and plants a kiss on my head. It bursts with tenderness and I struggle to stop my mouth from curving, needing to remind myself to not get all mushy. He murmurs a sweet nothing and then he’s out the door. Ripping off the duvet, I yank on a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt and leave the house. The street is dark and silent, the lampposts shining their gold over well-groomed lawns and I look left and right.

He can’t have gone far. My brows rise when I see a figure turning the corner. Aha! I knew I’d catch him red-handed and I’m going to spend the whole night following him around, see what he’s really doing. He’ll be so shocked when he finds out I’ve been following him, probably make up some excuse he’ll hope I’ll buy but he can’t explain things away if I see them with my own eyes.

I’ve even brought my phone with me to document everything so that he’ll be forced to tell the truth and I want to congratulate myself on how clever I’m being. There’s just no way he’ll get away with this...

Turning the corner, my eyes flare when I see him again and this part of the street has fewer lights and I can’t quite extinguish everything but I register the dark coat and the fast, almost fidgety movements... he’s definitely hiding something big. Grabbing my phone, I snap a couple of pics as he walks toward a black car that just stopped and gets in.

The lights from the car blaze and my heart stops when I see the busty woman behind the wheel and he leans over, kissing her right on the mouth. What the...The lights flare again and I notice that’s not Derex. That’s some other man and my knees shake from relief but then I grow frustrated because this means I completely lost him.

Muttering to myself, I back but freeze the moment I hit a chest about as hard as a brick wall. Iknowthat chest intimately and I raise my trembling face. Derex looks down at me, his eyes stirring with both amusement and annoyance.

“What are you up to?” he purrs, almost sensually and viper like, causing me to shudder.

“Thought I’d go for a walk in the neighborhood. Couldn’t sleep.”

He raises his brows. “That’s a surprise, considering you were barely breathing when I left you.” I wince and he adds, “Luna, is there something you want to tell me?” When I don’t reply, he murmurs, “You were spying on me, weren’t you?”

“Spying?” I blurt before faking a laugh. “That’s just rich. Can’t a girl take an after midnight stroll without being accused of s...spying?”

Derex looks down at me, his face displeased. “Go back to bed. Now.”

“Where areyougoing?” I pant and he clasps my elbow, dragging a hand down his face.

“Nowhere apparently, considering I now have to tuck you in,” he replies and I protest but he won’t hear it. He wraps his arm around me, shushing me with a kiss and I feel like I just lost and he’s won.Again.

“You can’t blame me for trying to find out more about you,” I mutter and he shrugs as if he doesn’t blame me. “There’s so much secrecy surrounding you and I barely know anything. I feel like I’m grappling in the dark.”

Tensing, he murmurs, “There’s not much to know. I’m an only child, grew up with a single mother. As a teen I loved watching action flicks and sometimes still do, when I have the time. I was in a car accident at the age of twenty, flung out of my seat and landed on a farm fence.” He pulls up his sweater. “Still have the scar.”

I’ve been wondering about that scar but never asked. Touching it with my fingertips, I nod and maybe I should’ve asked earlier because his answer is strangely normal and it pacifies me. I choose not to question him on the meetings he has with strange looking men in his office and why they speak in an exotic language, deciding to leave that for later to avoid getting into any more trouble.

We walk hand in hand into our room and to my surprise, Derex crawls into bed with me. It really looks like he isn’t going anywhere, rolling on top of me and the moment he does, my body and flesh is willing to serve him.

It’s obvious he’s hiding something he’s prepared to do anything to cover up but my body doesn’t care, and my heart doesn’t cower in my chest but blooms when he breathes on me. I break out in goosebumps, whimpering and hurrying to pull down my underwear, gasping when the cold air hits me and Derex lets out a hard growl. “You’ve behaved very badly,” he whispers in my ear and I moan again, “now to please your male, you’ll let me ravage you like a savage.”

I pant into the pillow, writhing, “But you always do it like a savage.”

“You want another side of me?” He tilts my face for eye contact. “You could let me ravage you as something else.”

A gasp escapes me. “What would that be?” I ask, but he doesn’t respond and I clutch his shoulder. “Derex, what would that be?” My heart pounds frantically because I’m thinking he’ll say it but instead he just growls and plunges into me. I cry out from desire before throwing him a dazed glance.

His eyes flash. And they flash with something so dark, the stars and the moon stop glistening on the sky and I hold onto the bedpost while he thrusts, knowing that whatever it is that he’s so scared of telling me, I’ll still be his moonshine no matter what.

6.

Luna

Despite everything, despite the tenderness and reassurance he’s not hiding anything, I’m still determined to find out the truth which is why I decide to leave work early and do some snooping in his office. Shivers rip down my spine and my hand trembles on the knob but I close the door, walking over to his desk and audaciously rummage through his drawers. To my disappointment there’s absolutely nothing of importance.

Either he is telling truth, or he’s really good at covering up his tracks.

Pinching my lip, I googleDerex Wargbut nothing comes up. He’s a man who can’t be found like the rest of us andthat’sdefinitely suspicious. Roaming around the room, my eyes land on the vast collection of knives by the window and once I asked him about it, but he just said he’s particular about how he cuts his meat.

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