The scent of my wife drove me insane. Her aroused scent made my mouth water, like I have been deprived of food and water for centuries. Her slick sweetness was all around me. I had lost my mind to do this in the hallway, with my friends behind the office door. But I didn’t give a fuck, as long as they didn’t see her. I wanted them to know she was mine.
“Luciano,” she cried out as my tongue slid up her slit. The restless, ruthless beast inside me finally retreated, satisfied with Grace on my tongue.
Fuck, she tasted so damn good. Like my woman!
Sucking on one of her pussy lips, I wiggled my tongue around her bud. Her body hummed with need, twisting under my mouth. The moans filling the hallway made it abundantly clear what we were doing.
Her fingernails raked through my hair, scraping against my scalp as I devoured her. Keening sounds rasped from my wife’s lips, her pussy on my face. I would die a happy man, just like this. With her taste on my tongue.
I nipped at her clit. Her body tensed for a brief second before she shuddered and she flew over the edge, with my name on her lips. Just the way it should be. I lapped at her juices like the greedy man that I was, my eyes drinking the sight of her.
My wife’s cheeks flushed, her hair attractively messy. She looked like a pleasured woman. My woman. Her eyes locked on mine, the haze in those beautiful eyes slowly lifted. But instead of the softness I was used to seeing in them after I brought her to heights, there was only resentment there.
“You are an asshole,” she spat out, her voice slightly hitched.
I swiftly stood up and pressed my mouth hard on hers. “Taste yourself on my lips, wife,” I told her, my lips inches from hers. “Because that’s where you’ll be until this is over. Now, go greet our guests.”
She pushed herself away from me, smoothing her dress down her thighs, her cheeks still flushed from what we had just done. There was no mistaking what just happened in this hallway, even if she would have been silent through the whole ordeal.
But she wasn’t quiet through her pleasure, I grinned smugly. She loved every second of it. Although regret was clear on her face now.
“They are your guests,” she bit out. “Not mine. You can tell them if they get anywhere near my son or Ella, I’ll kill them.”
She strode away without a backward glance. Her hips swayed in unintentional seduction, her cream dress accentuating each curve of her body, tempting me. There was nothing more I wanted to do than to stride after her, throw her over my shoulder, and take her into our bedroom where I’d fuck her for days. Forget about my friends, forget about the past, the Romano family… forget about everything except her sweet body underneath me.
I was stupid to insist her sleeping in our bedroom. She’d probably slice my throat in the middle of the night. The hate filled glares she threw my way were evidence how much she despised my guts.
I’d fuck the hate right out of her, I grinned to myself. It wasn’t a brilliant plan, but it was all I had.
I headed back into my office, all my friends still there. It wasn’t as if they could have left; not unless they wanted a first row seat with a show while I ate my wife’s pussy.
“I thought someone said your wife was a meek pianist?” Of course, it would be Luca to fucking edge me on. “And here she is threatening to kill us all.”
“Fuck off,” I muttered. My wife’s sweetness lingered on my tongue, my cock rock-hard for her. It has been a permanent side effect from the moment I’ve found her and getting worse by the minute.
“She hasn’t forgiven you?” Cassio asked the unnecessary question.
“No.” I had a feeling she’d never forgive me. I wouldn’t have. None of the men in the room would have forgiven such an offense, so why would I expect anything else from my wife?
“Are you sure you want to sleep in the same room?” Alessio questioned. “She might kill you in your sleep. She hates your guts.”
I glared at him, hating his guts right this second for telling the truth. “Fuck you, asshole.”
Alessio chuckled like the bastard he was. “I’m good. Although, you might want to keep your woman under you all night. From the sounds we just heard, she seems to be receptive to you in that arena.”
“I might shoot you one of these days,” I growled at him but a grin played on my lips. He was right. Grace was receptive when I pleasured her. She had been avoiding me from the moment she set foot back in my house. She either clung to her son, my father, or hid who the fuck knows where. Besides, she had to get over her jet lag too.
“Don’t pay attention to Alessio,” Nico chimed in. “He’s just jealous because he can’t get his dick into the woman he wants.”
Alessio promptly flipped him the bird. We all knew the story. He touched what was forbidden and now he craved more. It would seem all of us had rough starts with our women. Nico was no different.
“I swear, watching you guys makes me grateful not to deal with women on a longer than one night basis,” Luca retorted dryly.
“Your time is coming, brother.” Cassio smirked at his younger sibling. “And I look forward to seeing you squirm.”
It was Luca’s turn to flip the bird at his older brother. “Hold your breath, brother. See how well it works out.”
Cassio flipped him two birds. Here we were, men almost in our forties, and we were so mature we were flipping each other middle fingers.
“Okay, back to the business at hand,” I stopped all this bird flipping. “Do we have any update on fucking Alphonso and what he is doing?”
Nico grabbed his glass and took a drink. “I have a little bit more detail on the Romano connection to the Kings.”
Nico, or the Wolf, as we called him, had an unkeen way of finding out details on everything and everyone. We called him the Wolf because the bastard had the instincts of a wolf. He was highly intelligent, sometimes a loner, dominant, but above all loyal. Except that his family fucked him over – it certainly seemed a running theme around here.
“We are all ears,” I told my friend.
“Now take this with a grain of salt since there is no hard evidence,” Nico started. “The Romano family is old, they go back at least two centuries here in the States. So does the King family.” Cassio nodded. We all knew that the King family ran the criminal underworld in Europe, and when they migrated here, they continued the same path, establishing their territory. “The story was there was some bad blood between your ancestors back in Europe. The Romano family were wealthy and amongst nobility. A Romano daughter fell for one of the Kings while both families still lived in Europe. Once the Romano head found out, they hunted the man down and hung him. They considered them lower class. Shortly after, the Kings migrated to the States and established themselves. Revolutions swept through Europe and the Romano family lost pretty much everything. When they migrated, unfortunately for them, they landed in the King’s territory. Anyhow, the agreement was made between the head of the King family and Romano family. Each generation would provide one woman, a belle, to the King family. As compensation for the man the Romano family killed.”
“What the fuck-” Cassio grumbled. “Are you fucking shitting us? Because I am not in the mood for stupid stories.”
“No, I am quite serious. I’m still digging, but it turns out the King family saw an opportunity. They expanded that agreement to some other families too. Some are one-time deals, others longer term deals. The problem is finding evidence to support this.”
“So where did you hear this?” I questioned him. I had to side with Cassio here. It sounded like some damn fairy tale. And not a good one either.
“Of all the people, from my mother.”
“And you believe her?” Cassio asked, his voice doubtful. Nico’s mother wasn’t exactly a role model.
“It was actually something I heard even when I was a kid, from my grandmother.” Nico was fucking serious. “Apparently my great-grandfather hit a financial snafu and needed money. He was approached by one of your ancestors, Cassio, and was offered a bailout, in return for one of the belles in our family for two generations. My grandfather told him to go fuck himself, and that was it.”
The meaning of it hung heavy in the air. This was something completely different to human smuggling.
“What do they do with women? They really marry a mobster?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “They offer them for sale. You know, fancy upbringing and good pedigree fetches a high price among men in our world.” Yes, we all knew we were bastards. “But the word is that belles from the Romano family have been fetching the largest sum for centuries. And about hundred years ago, the Romano family got into human trafficking, led by their great-great grandmother. And guess who she teamed up with?” I had a suspicion but it was hard to believe all this shit. “You got it. With Cassio’s ancestors. The Romano family offered a perfect, legitimate front.”
“They were no longer required to offer their daughters?” All this churned my stomach.
“Oh no, the agreement still stands. The Belles and Mobsters’ agreement continued, including belles from the Romano family. It is the biggest auction, fetching the largest sums. Women go to the highest bidder. Unfortunately for the Romano family, not all their family members had the stomach for it. There were hushed stories of random family members disappearing or being brought down if they tried to fuck with their new, secret business. Till Kennedy Romano. His feud against his brother was rather bitter.”
That was Grace’s father. My wife told me about her parents during our first few months of marriage. She loved them very much. I should have known all this before; we all should have. But the truth was that I was focused solely on avenging the death of my mother and sister. Both were killed by Alphonso Romano.
“How is it that none of us heard of this before?” And how was it not picked up in Grace’s background check that there was a feud between Kennedy Romano and his brother?
“Well, none of us are really from old families,” Nico retorted. “Alessio came from old money, but his family is based in Canada. My family only got rich about a hundred years ago with the construction boom. Your father, Luciano, was first generation in the States, and he worked himself within the ranks. And you quadrupled, if not more, what your father made, so you would have never needed the money. Cassio and Luca weren’t in those circles, and really their grandfather in Italy raised them. So their father kept them out of the loop.”
“Holy fucking shit,” Luca muttered. “Belles and mobsters. Who in their right mind would ever agree to offer a daughter to a man in our circles?”
He was right. I knew I wouldn’t want my children to be part of this underworld. It was cruel and unforgiving. It made me a hypocritical bastard because I took Grace without consideration to the mafia world.
“I would imagine desperate people would agree to it,” Cassio muttered.
“I hate that fucking old bastard.” Luca didn’t hide his feelings about his father. He hated him with passion. Not that I could blame him.
“But again, there is no evidence for any of this. And good luck finding someone that would be willing to attest to this,” Nico added.
Cassio’s jaw was pressed so tight, I thought it might snap at any second.
The dread was heavy like lead in the pit of my stomach. Grace was the only woman of her family’s current generation. Three years ago, I sent her right back to them. She ran, disappeared for the longest three years of my life. I thought her uncle hid her from me, but if there was an ounce of truth to this story, that couldn’t be. He worked with Cassio’s father. If he had her, she’d be in Benito King’s clutches, offered to the highest bidding mobster.
And I brought her right back into the lion’s den. I might as well have had her delivered on a silver platter.
My blood simmered, the anger at myself unlike ever before.
Nico continued speaking, “As you know, Alphonso only had a brother. So there was no Romano belle offering. Kennedy Romano was in politics; he was pretty good too. He had a childhood sweetheart that refused to marry him for many years. The world was flabbergasted. They were a perfect match. She came from old money. The whispering is that her family knew about the ongoing deal the Romano family had and the human trafficking. Kennedy Romano became educated by his wife in his own family business affairs, after which he cut all contact with the Romano family. His political career grew fast and strong. He was going after the mafia and crime relentlessly. There were stories he could have easily become the next president. And they had a little girl; the only child for that generation since Alphonso never married.”
The meaning of it lingered in the air. Grace was owed to the King family.
“The word is that Grace Romano was meant for Benito King’s legitimate son,” Nico concluded. “Whatever the highest price she fetches, Marco King is to pay double.”
I would never let them have her. I would kill every single member of the King family if I had to, but they would never have Grace. She was Vitale now. She was mine.
“What other families do the Kings have arrangements with?” Cassio gritted out.
“I don’t have concrete leads. Politicians, here in the U.S. and in Europe, movie stars, old families.” Nico took a deep breath and then slowly exhaled.
“Do you think maybe Grace knows?” Cassio’s question was reasonable.
I met Nico’s gaze. “We could ask her,” he suggested.
My eyes took in shattered vase pieces on the floor and my desk. “She won’t tell us anything,” I rasped. If all this was true and Grace knew about the belle deal, I have betrayed her in the worst way possible. Was that the reason she betrayed me that day? Did her uncle hold that over her head?
“Fuck, we have to do something,” Luca gritted.
“Do we know how it works? The belle offering?” I questioned. “When? Where?” The whole concept made me sick to my stomach. “Raphael mentioned he overheard Alphonso speak to Benito about the delivery of a woman.”
Cassio and I shared glances. There was no question who that woman was now. Did Alphonso Romano already know Grace was back in the States?
Massimo barged through the door at that moment, an alarmed look on his face.
“What is it?” Fuck, I didn’t know how much more bad news I could take today.
“I broke it.”
“Broke what?” Cassio and I questioned at the same time.
“I broke your wife’s firewalls.” He looked disheveled, which rarely happened to him. “You won’t fucking believe it.”
