Model for the Mob: A Steamy Standalone Instalove Romance Read online

  I shrug, smirking wider. People think it’s all about brawn, but they’re wrong.

  “Don’t be so paranoid, Ottavio. We’ve got business to take care of.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  Lucy

  I lie in bed, curled into a contented ball with my face turned toward the wide tall sunny windows. My body is tired after all the commotion last night – and then the closeness with Luca – and finally with the morning and afternoon I spent with Maria.

  After breakfast, we took Toto for a long walk around the grounds, letting him sprint through the park and leap bravely into the large pond, seemingly unaware that he’s a tiny little dog.

  “He thinks he’s a giant,” Maria said, giggling as he clambered up onto the shore and came running over. “Don’t you, you silly little man? You think you’re a big scary Doberman.”

  The walk was amazing, setting alight parts of me I daren’t indulge.

  I can’t let myself think about how we’re already building the perfect family unit… complete with an aunt and a cute dog.

  Can I?

  My eyelids drift closed and the sunlight glows warmly against them, enclosing me into a world of red. I sink deeper into the sheets, stunned at the heavy exhaustion draping itself over my body.

  I wasn’t able to relax here last night, or even this morning, but something about meeting Maria and hearing her say that Luca is a good man has hit me deeply, right in the gut, in the womb.

  He’s a good man.

  I send the words singing around and around my mind as sleep wraps its cozy hands around me and pulls me down into the dark.

  I wake when I feel him standing over me, more a presence than a scent or a noise.

  I roll over and open my eyes, finding him standing there bathed red in the setting sunlight. His cheeks are flecked with a silvery shadow of a beard and his silver hair is messy. His eyes are intense as he gazes at me, burning into me and sending solar flares cascading over my body.

  “You’re home.”

  I wish I could snatch the silly sentence back the moment I utter it. Of course, he’s home. He’s standing right there.

  But I’m sleepy and the sight of him glaring so intensely has got my heartbeat pounding like a drum.

  “I’m home.” He smirks and sits on the edge of the bed, reaching over and stroking his fingers across my cheek with surprising tenderness. “I didn’t want to take so long, but I had to work out some business.”

  “Was anybody hurt?” I ask.

  He shakes his head, letting out a sigh of relief.

  “You’re going to make an amazing mother, Lucy. That was your first question. Your first concern was keeping people safe.”

  A glow spreads through me, a shimmering ball of hot emotion that gets wider and bigger until it feels like it’s going to erupt inside of me.

  “To answer your question, no. The only thing that got hurt was my bank account.”

  “What do you mean?” I ask, sitting up.

  He slides his hand down my body, grazing my breast and making my body vibrate and hum, like I could collapse into a sucker-punch of an orgasm at any second. My lips tingle and buzz at the closeness of him, and my womb screams that none of this matters.

  All that matters is the bulging need between his legs, rock hard and ready.

  But I want to get to know my man.

  “Do you really want to hear this stuff?” he asks, gripping onto my hand.

  “Yes,” I say firmly. “I’m going to be a part of your life.”

  “You already are a part of my life,” he growls passionately.

  “So there you go.” I smile up at him. “That’s even more reason to tell me.”

  “Outmaneuvered by my woman.” He grins, wolfish. “I’m paying for protection of all the dockworkers’ families.”

  I gasp. “That must cost a fortune.”

  “Yep.” He shrugs. “But it has to be done. It’s the only way to stop Franco from using their loved ones against them, the sick fuck. But I managed to convince one of his men to defect to me. Right now all his soldiers have a choice to make, and many of them will choose Ottavio over Franco.”

  “And the rest?” I ask.

  He stares hard at me, his dark eyes swimming with intensity. “The rest will have a different choice to make.”

  I nod, swallowing a ball of anxiety.

  What choice, cremation or burial?

  He reads my look. “Prison or the bullet. Or exile if they’re lucky. It depends on how quickly they abandon that fool, Franco.”

  I clasp one of his hands with both of mine, holding on tightly, feeling all the stiff tension that moves through his body.

  “I can’t believe you did this for me. People are going to die because of me.”

  “No,” he growls. “You can’t think of it like that. And you’re wrong, anyway. Franco was heading down this road long before I laid eyes on you. He just sped it up when he disrespected you. He’s always been a monster.”

  “But still…”

  “He’s been getting women hooked on drugs and turning them into prostitutes… or trying to, at least. I’ve managed to keep him in check so far. I learned about this three weeks ago… before we met. So don’t even dream of stressing yourself out about this. Understand?”

  “Okay,” I whimper, shivering under the savage force of his gaze.

  He shuffles onto the bed, smoothing his hand over my shoulder and pulling me close to him. I bury my face against his chest, taking in the heat and the beautiful nearness of him. It’s so good to have him pressed up against me like this, as though nothing could ever separate us.

  “Did you meet Maria today?”

  “She didn’t tell you?” I murmur.

  “Tell me?” He laughs gruffly. “The second I got home, I came straight here. I’m not going to waste time elsewhere. You’re the only person I want to be with, Lucy. If it wasn’t for this damn war you’d never get rid of me.”

  “I think I could manage that,” I murmur with a giggle.

  “How was it?” he asked.

  “It was nice. I hope you don’t mind. She told me some stuff about you, about your mom and your dad… and about the life.”

  He moves his fingers tantalizingly through my hair, sending sensation twisting beautifully across my skin. “I figured she would.”

  “I’m so sorry about your parents,” I whisper. “I know how it feels to grow up without parents, but I’ve got no idea what it’s like to have them wrenched away from you.”

  He lets out a deep shivering breath. “It’s not something I’d wish on anyone. But it happened and I’ve learned to deal with it. My mom was the worst. She faded slowly. My father was taken violently. And so I grew up. I moved on. I made the best of the situation.”

  I claw onto his chest, digging my fingernails through his shirt and squeezing onto his skin. He lets out an animalistic snarl of a sigh, something primal and sent from deep inside of him.

  “You make me fucking crazy, Lucy,” he says. “You have no idea how badly I want you—I need you.”

  I’ll disappoint him, I want to scream.

  I won’t be able to satisfy him.

  I won’t be able to give him everything he wants and needs in the bedroom.

  He’ll get all excited for this crazy sex… and then he’ll remember he just has me.

  “I want you too,” I whisper. “But I don’t think I’m ready yet. I only had my first orgasm this morning.”

  He makes another growling noise. “Fuck. You say you want to wait and then you talk to me about orgasms. Are you trying to drive me crazy?”

  I giggle and look up at him to find him smirking down at me, his lips twitching into something like a beast’s toothy grin.

  “Maria said you were besotted with me when you spoke to her on the phone.”

  He chuckles, and I see what Maria meant earlier when she said he was like the excited boy he was before he became a man. There’s a glint of it in his eyes, a passing flicker, somet
hing intense and so real it makes me ache to draw out more of it.

  “I wouldn’t use that word,” he says. “But she wasn’t lying.”

  “What word would you use, then?” I tease, staring a challenge up at him.

  I’m stunned by this sudden appearance of confidence.

  It comes from nowhere and takes me completely by surprise, but I don’t try to beat it down or question it, or otherwise push it away. When Luca’s got his arm wrapped around me, I feel as if I can let out aspects of myself I’ve always kept locked up.

  “I’m thinking obsessed,” I say with a playful note in my voice.

  He leans down, bringing his face close to mine, his lips within kissing distance. His smirk twitches and his eyes sear into me.

  “That sounds perfect to me, Lucy. Obsessed… committed… forever.”

  “Forever,” I whisper, and then he presses his lips down on mine.

  I kiss him back, both of us opening our mouths in surging hunger, our tongues screaming at us to find each other’s pleasure points. He growls through the kiss and I moan with him, our noises of release combining to make the most carnal song imaginable.

  He moves away suddenly, letting out a growl

  “What’s wrong?” I ask as he climbs to his feet. “What did I do?”

  He looms over me, his jaw tight, his intense eyes unfocused. “You did nothing wrong. You did everything right, Lucy. You always do. It’s just that if I go on kissing you, I won’t be able to stop myself from claiming every other part of you. So let me treat you like my queen instead. Let’s have some dinner.”

  I gesture down at my clothes. “I think I’m a little underdressed.”

  “Don’t worry.” He smirks as he strides across the room to the dresser drawers. “I’ve got something to help with that.”

  Butterflies swarm in my belly, screaming trick, over and over again. I beat them down. I wave them away.

  This isn’t a trick. It’s my life. And it’s time I accept that.

  But when Luca returns to me with a dress in his hands, a fresh wave of disbelief and self-hate burns through me, scorching my insides.

  It’s a gorgeous dress, cut high at the neck but cut low at the thigh. It has elegant gemstones inlaid tastefully into the collar. But that cut… I’ll be showing more of my thigh than I ever voluntarily have before.

  “I’ll look silly,” I murmur.

  “No, you fucking won’t,” he snarls. “You’ll look sexy. You’ll look irresistible. You’ll look beautiful. You’ll look like all the things you are, that you’ve always been, but have never been allowed a chance to show. Stop doubting yourself, Lucy. That’s a goddamn order.”

  The force of his words barrel into me.

  “Get changed.” He places the dress on the bed and steps back, folding his arms. “Now.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Luca

  I fold my arms and stand in the corner of the room, staring across to where my woman stands.

  I have to distance myself. Otherwise, my predator instincts will kick in and I’ll charge across at her, wrestling her to the bed and tearing her clothes off with my teeth before she gets a chance to undress.

  She bites her lip, looking across at me, with those wide fuck-me eyes I’d slaughter whole armies for.

  “I can’t believe you never knew how beautiful you are,” I growl. “The fact that nobody ever noticed is insane to me. But I’m damn relieved, Lucy. Because it led you to me.”

  “I’ve never been called beautiful before, except by you and Maria…”

  “What?” I urge when she trails off.

  She’s clutching the dress in a nervous hand, causing it to flutter and shake. The gemstones dance in the light, and heat dances inside of me at the thought of her curvaceous body wrapped inside it.

  “But with you.” She takes a bolstering breath, as though the words are going to hurt her. “I can start to believe it… maybe?”

  The last word becomes a question as her nervousness surges through her and she turns her gaze away. I can read every subtle shift in my lioness’s mood.

  “You should believe it. You’re the most beautiful woman alive. Now change into the dress. I’m done waiting.”

  She makes an intoxicating whimpering noise and then clutches the hem of her T-shirt in anxious hands. She moans as she shifts out of it, moving her hips from side to side. She reveals her luscious belly, the place that will hold so many of my offspring, as gorgeously voluptuous as the rest of her.

  Every single piece of her drives me wild.

  Because she’s my prey.

  Mine.

  I almost roar it.

  “I’m stuck.” She giggles, with the T-shirt wrapped around her arms and her head, blinding her. “Freaking hell. I knew I shouldn’t have tried to be sexy.”

  She’s laughing, but there’s a hint of disappointment buried within her tone.

  “This is even better. Now you’re really my prey. You’re trapped.”

  I stalk across the room and pause close to her, my body raging with the proximity of my princess. My manhood stiffens and throbs, the base feeling like it’s expanding all across my groin. I’ve never felt a hard on like this, that takes possession of my whole damn body.

  My tip burns hotly every time I rub up against my pants, my balls throbbing and not in a bad way.

  Everything feels good right now, with Lucy’s scent swirling around me, and her bare belly so close I could drag my precome-slick helm across it if I wanted.

  I squeeze my hands behind my back to resist the urge to grip myself, like some overexcited teenager.

  “Allow me.”

  I grab her T-shirt and pull it the rest of the way off.

  Fuck.

  She’s not wearing a bra.

  How did I miss that?

  The T-shirt is baggy, the fabric heavy. It hid those tasty-looking nipples from me, flushed and pink, the cherry on top of her curvy-as-fuck breasts. A pale blue vein slides across one, like a painter’s stroke, so captivating I can’t fight the desire to reach out and trail my fingertip across it.

  She whimpers and moans as I move down toward her nipple, and then I grip her breast and stare enthralled as her skin blazes for me.

  “You excited horny virgin,” I snarl, moving my gaze to her eyes as I massage her nipple.

  It hardens, becoming needy, and the pleasure makes more obvious paths across her expression as I play with her.

  “Are you going to come just from this?” My cock throbs at the thought, my shaft sizzling warmly, as though trying to recreate what her sopping wet slit will feel like when I finally pound the pretty place between her thick gorgeous legs. “Fuck. You are.”

  “I don’t know,” she whispers, shifting and writhing against my hand, her womb forcing her movements as sternly as my seed compels mine.

  Her virgin body wants to give her as much pleasure as possible because her womb knows the drilling my inexperienced queen is going to take.

  When the beast unleashes inside of me, I won’t be able to stop.

  I’ll rear up like a goddamn bear and feast on my woman. I’ll crash into her so her breasts bounce up and down, until the bed breaks, until the sheets are drenched with her squirting release.

  Fuck.

  I. Need. Those. Tits.

  I lean down and take her breast in my mouth, opening wide so I can take in as much of her as possible. I suck on her breast and move my tongue indulgently around her nipple. Her moans rise in the air as I gorge on her pert needy nipple.

  She tastes so fresh, so naive, so mine.

  She tastes like the woman I’d kill for.

  The woman I’d die for.

  I want to reach down and feel how soaked she is, but that would ruin the game.

  I can’t believe she’s going to gift me with more of her juicy come just from me licking her nipples.

  She needs it. She wants it.

  But only from me.

  Or I’ll turn fully feral and tear a hundred
men to pieces.

  “Oh, jeez, no way… no…”

  Her moaning turns breathy and hollow, as though she’s so immersed in the ecstasy of the orgasm she can’t summon the energy to scream. She vibrates and sizzles against me as I swirl my tongue faster, tasting more of her, making her move toward an explosion as she experiences her second orgasm.

  I palm her other breast, feeling her pleasure quiver through her perfect flesh.

  She giggles adorably. “I never even knew that was possible.”

  I stand up, putting my hands behind my back with an effort. They want to go on autopilot and claim what they own. But I know if I touch her – like I need to – I won’t be able to stop myself from taking that hole.

  I’ll throw her down and tie her arms above her head with my tie, making the knot loose enough so it doesn’t hurt her wrists… but tight enough to let her know she’s trapped beneath me.

  And then I’ll eat that tasty pussy until she’s drenched until she’s raw from coming.

  She’ll cry that she can’t take my massive dick after so many orgasms, but then I’ll drive up inside of her wet pink slit and show her how fucking wrong she is.

  She must be able to sense the beast trying to break out of me.

  She moves her hands over her breasts, covering her nipples. Maybe she’s trying to calm my fire, but she’s ignited it in a way that can’t be stopped. She looks so shy and innocent with her fingers covering her gorgeously round and wide nipples, with glimpses of her poking between her fingertips.

  She must know how irresistible she looks right now.

  “I don’t think I can. Not today.”

  Her voice shivers in the air like she wants me to tackle her and take her anyway. I would if she wasn’t a virgin.

  I’d push her down and drive up deep inside of her, and within two thrusts she’d start screaming and moaning and squirting down my dick.

  But I need to be patient for her first time if that’s possible.

  I take a step back, my body rioting at the sudden distance.

  The animal in me roars to take her anyway, right now, and fuck the pleasure into her.

  “I’ll be outside,” I tell her, turning away, voice choked. “And don’t for a second think this means I don’t want to see you undress. It’s just that, if I do, I’m going to maul you, Lucy. I’m going to make you mine like the violent savage I can be when the world demands it.”