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

  She whimpers softly as I stride for the door, throwing it open and slamming it behind me.

  I need to calm down.

  I can’t ruin dinner by acting like some beast.

  But Lucy makes it so easy to forget I’m a don and just be a man.

  She makes me feel twenty years younger.

  I can’t believe I found her.

  Even with all the mayhem, it’s the best thing that has ever happened to me.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Lucy

  “This might be a problem.”

  Luca stands at the edge of the back patio, looking down at the lawn. The sun hasn’t quite finished setting yet. There’s a tinge of Valentine-red in the air, but the pale blue moon – round and full – is already pressing through the sky.

  Luca looks like a man on a magazine cover, standing with his back to me, his powerful arms hanging at his sides.

  “What is?” I ask, walking up beside him.

  I wobble slightly in the heels, but instead of hating myself for my lack of balance, I laugh at myself.

  It’s okay. Luca’s not going to judge me. Nobody’s going to call me cruel nicknames like Lady Falls-A-Lot or whatever the kids in high school would say.

  He gestures down at my heels, his soft beard glistening moon-silver. “Taking you to our date is going to be difficult with you in those heels.”

  “Oh.” I sigh, glancing at the house. “Should I go and change or…”

  Old flickers of my anxiety rise up, little voices that tell me I’ve ruined this. He wanted it to be special but I wore the wrong shoes. And even if he gave me the shoes to wear, and even if I know it’s silly there is still part of me that wants to blame myself.

  Luca leans down, kissing my forehead.

  “You’re so selfless. You’re going to make an incredible mother. But no, Lucy, you don’t need to changes shoes—”

  He leaps on me and I yell and giggle, and then suddenly I’m in his arms and he’s striding purposely across the law.

  I cling tightly onto his shoulders, sure he’s going to drop me. I’m simply too heavy to be cradled like this.

  But then he hugs me even tighter to him, so we’re face to face, and I realize he’s not struggling even a little bit.

  He’s smirking down at me.

  “You’re so strong. How the heck are you doing this?”

  “Lucy, I bench-press stuff that weighs much more than you do. You’re light as hell to me. Good thing we’re having dinner.”

  I giggle and lean in, kissing his bristly cheek and savoring the feeling of it.

  “What was that for?”

  “I’ve never been told I need to eat more.”

  He leans down and kisses my forehead, as we leave the lawn and start heading down the path that leads to the pond. “We need to get you nice and strong for our children. You’re what… twenty-one?”

  “Twenty,” I tell him. “And you’re…”

  “Forty-two,” he says. “Which means half the world is going to think we’re fucking crazy.”

  “Because of the age gap?”

  He nods somberly. “But I don’t give a damn what they say. A connection like ours is a rare thing. Let them be jealous because they didn’t find what we did in each other.”

  His words rush through me, husky and intense, making me reach up and cradle his face. “I feel exactly the same.”

  “Good. So you’re twenty, which means I can probably get twenty children out of you, but if we account for twins and triplets and quadruplets…”

  “Quadruplets?” I giggle, intoxicated by the animated way he’s speaking, no longer the ultra-serious mob boss.

  This is a part of himself he only shows to a select few people, I sense.

  “That’s right.” He smirks. “Then I could even shoot for sixty.”

  “Shoot for?” I laugh. “Jeez, I was thinking more like…”

  “Wait. On the count of three, we both say our real number.”

  “Of how many children we want?”

  He stops walking, tilting his head down at me, smirking playfully. “Ready?”

  “Definitely.”

  His arms feel like pieces of nature like I’m being carried by a tree. I can’t believe how solid every part of him is, every muscle finely honed, making the boys my age look like puny things compared to him.

  “One,” he says.

  “Two,” I whimper.

  “Three…”

  We say our answer at the same time.

  “Four.”

  I laugh in delight as his smirk twitches and almost becomes a full blown smile, but Luca has some animal in him and its impossible for him to smile broadly. Or at least I haven’t seen it yet.

  “We’re made for each other,” he whispers passionately as he keeps walking, carrying me down the gravel path.

  I could probably walk in this, but he doesn’t seem even close to tired and I’d be crazy to turn down a ride this perfect.

  “Have you thought about this then?” I ask.

  “When I was a younger man and still thought I might find the woman who would make me feel, who would mean something to me… when I thought I still might find you, Lucy. I thought about it. Four seems like the perfect number…”

  “Two each, right?” I say breathlessly, my excitement making it hard to get my words out.

  “Exactly. We can give them all the attention they deserve, but they’ll still have siblings to grow and develop with.”

  I cuddle closer to him, digging my fingernails through his jacket and into his shoulders. Passion flares in my belly, willing me to moan out that I’m ready right now.

  I’d bend over and stick my ass against his manhood, grinding it up and down, smearing him with my wetness as he groaned out in uncontrollable lust. I’d reach back and guide him slickly inside of me, pushing back against him, freaking twerking on his dick, moaning hard like he can’t believe I’m a virgin.

  Oh, imagine…

  Imagine if I could do something so forward.

  Instead, I hug him harder, content to be carried down the path. I feel like I’m floating.

  He kicks the gate to the pond open and we both laugh caught up in the warmth of each other’s closeness. I don’t even know why we’re laughing so hard. It’s as though the sheer delight of discovering how right for each other we are is bubbling out of us.

  I love you, I almost say, but I bite down on the words at the last moment.

  If he knew how badly I wanted to throw out those words, he’d probably drop me on the grass in shock. Then maybe he’d say sorry and lift me up, and cradle my hands by the moonlight, and tell me he feels the same way. He loves me as achingly, as desperately, as hungrily as I love him.

  Or maybe he’d stare down at me, his dark eyes glimmering, his lips twisted into a vicious smirk like I’ve never seen.

  “Love?” he’d snarl. “Are you fucking deranged? We’ve known each other for a day and you love me, you silly girl?”

  “Are you okay?” real Luca asks me, not fake Luca who exists only in my tormented anxiety-fueled imagination.

  “Yes,” I tell him. “I guess I’m just overwhelmed by it all. But this is amazing, Luca. Where are we going?”

  “To have dinner,” he says.

  “In a pond?”

  “Not in a pond.”

  He puts me down slowly, and I lower my feet to the ground and grip onto him to stay upright. We’re standing on a smooth concrete platform, the stars having fallen to earth all around us.

  All around the pond bright white lights twinkle, and in the center, a platform sits, raised above the pond and covered in rose petals. Red light glimmers around the edges of the platform, making it look like the inside of a love-filled snow globe. A table and chairs sit in the center, with a single red candle flickering in the middle.

  “On a pond,” I whisper.

  He slides his arm around my shoulders and gives me an affectionate squeeze. “That’s right. The platform isn’t floatin
g. It’s supported by a beam that comes up from the pond’s floor. It’s immovable.”

  “So we won’t have to balance on the water. And fall in.”

  “Exactly.” He points to a hut at the edge of the pond, soft light coming from within. “That’s our restaurant. We can order whatever we like.”

  “And they’ll make it in that little hut?”

  He chuckles, eyes glimmering sportively. “The kitchen is underground. That’s just the entrance.”

  “Underground kitchens. Special love platforms. I thought you never dated.”

  I mean for it to come out sounding like a joke, but there’s an unbidden bitterness that makes me sound needy and accusatory. I want to bite it back, but Luca is staring at me.

  He’s staring hard.

  His eyes seem glassy and his mouth tight, as though he can barely contain his rage.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t—”

  “Why are you apologizing?” he snaps.

  “For making you angry,” I say quickly, hoping I get the right answer to please my mafia king.

  He leans down and brings his face close to mine, our lips almost touching. “I want you, Lucy. You don’t have to pretend. You don’t have to apologize for speaking. And I definitely don’t want you to be afraid of me. You’re a mafia queen now.”

  “I’m not afraid of you,” I murmur. “I’m afraid of disappointing you.”

  “That too,” he growls. “You could never disappoint me.”

  He claims my lips and I kiss him back, gasping in lust through the kiss. It’s like my body has been waiting at just below a boil, simmering for this moment, and now all my nerves are sparking and boiling over.

  My clit surges and my lips swell and my hole floods with my wetness.

  My nipples feel raw and sensitive as his rock hard body crashes into me.

  The kiss ends as passionately as it began, with me biting his lip, clawing onto the last moments of the pleasure. I expect him to tell me to stop, but his eyes light up like he’s seeing me for the first time.

  But every time my man looks at me it’s like he’s seeing me for the first time.

  It’s like he’s constantly as amazed by what we have as I am.

  “So why is it here?” I ask, forgetting the rage that captivated him last time.

  No, not rage… I see it now, a flicker.

  Sadness.

  “My father had it built,” he says, his voice somber. “When my mother became ill, he wanted to catch up on the time they’d missed when he was working… when he was building the family and solidifying his rule. He had this built and they’d dine out here several times a week. It was their favorite place toward the end.”

  I reach up and clasp onto his face, feeling the tension move through him.

  “Oh, Luca. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to dredge that all up.”

  “No, it’s good.” He presses down on the back of my hand, pushing my palm closer to his face. “I’ve never spoken about any of this before. But with you, I feel like I can talk about anything.”

  “You can,” I assure him, passion loud in my voice. “You don’t have to be alone anymore. I’m here.”

  “I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

  He leans down and kisses me again, as the sun kisses the air one final time, and our glittering date waits for us on the water.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Luca

  “You haven’t seen the best part yet,” I tell her, breaking off the kiss.

  I have to.

  If I keep kissing her I won’t be able to stop myself from doing more, especially with the heat of the emotions we just shared flaring between us.

  I never expected to open up about this spot, but with Lucy, it’s like I can cast aside – for a little while – the protective walls I’ve built over the years to protect me from life.

  Perhaps with Lucy, I can just be a man – her man – instead of the don.

  But when it’s time to return to business I’ll have to flip the switch.

  Is it that easy to turn savagery off and on?

  I’m trying it with Lucy, pulling away at the last moment as we kiss, knowing that if we continued I’d take her like a beast.

  “The best part?” she asks.

  I smirk and turn to the water, taking out my phone and swiping a few buttons. Then I take my woman’s hand and pull her back a few inches, away from the edge of the pond.

  She tilts her head at me, her curious eyes wide and tempting like she’s casting a spell on me.

  I fucking love you, I want to roar, but some instinct pulls me back.

  She says she’s not ready for sex.

  Is she ready to be loved? Am I?

  I have to be. We belong to each other.

  She giggles as a smaller platform rises from the pond, sloshing some water onto our platform, which is why I pulled her back. I wait for the platform to stop moving and then incline my head.

  “My old man wanted as much privacy with my mother as possible. None of the men would ever dare interrupt him, but he was a paranoid old bastard. Rightfully so, as it turned out.”

  I sigh and she gives my hand a squeeze, smiling encouragement up at me.

  “So he had it built so they could forget the rest of the world if they wanted. Nobody would be able to physically take him away from my mother. He used to joke about them living here together, and my mom would light up at that. It was like she didn’t even have cancer in those moments.”

  I cough down a ball of emotion, shaking my head.

  “Thank you so, so much for bringing me here, Luca,” my lady murmurs.

  “Of course,” I snarl passionately. “You belong here. You’re the lady of the house now. Come on.”

  She giggles, shaking her head. “Nah uh. I’ll fall.”

  I chuckle and slide my hand around her hip, pulling her onto the platform with me. “Hold onto me,” I tell her. “I’ll never let you fall. Never, Lucy.”

  I hope she knows I’m talking about more than this platform. I hope she knows I’m talking about our life together, where I’ll do anything to make sure we keep what we’re building, this beautiful ball of light buried within the darkness of the Mafia life.

  She clutches onto me as the platform begins to move, heading toward the much larger rose-red one in the center. My princess hugs me tightly, pressing her face into my chest.

  “What are you afraid of?” I ask her, stroking my fingers through her hair.

  “Falling,” she says, with a gorgeous peal of laughter. “What else?”

  “Look at me.” She does, staring with sudden intensity up at me. “I will never let you fall. I mean that. I don’t say things lightly.”

  “I believe you,” she murmurs. “I promise I do. But I’m still scared.”

  “Then hold me tighter,” I growl. “Hold me until you can feel how badly my body wants to protect you.”

  She squeezes against me as the lights flicker around us, and then the platform comes to a stop.

  “Wait.” She looks up at me again, her smile enticing. “That’s it? I feel like a big baby now.”

  “I’m not complaining. You had that perfect body pushed up against me the whole time. I hope you stay scared.”

  She giggles and slaps my chest, the sensation making me want to grab her wrist and turn her around, revealing that ass.

  In that dress… every moment is a battlefield of me not allowing myself to consume her ass in that dress, her hips, those tits. Everything about her is perfect, the glimmering gemstones on her hem more gorgeous than the lights that dance all around us.

  “I’m going to be brave on the way back. You’ll see.”

  “Way back?” I smirk. “I’m keeping you here, Lucy.”

  She smiles up at me with so much affection in her expression I almost roar fuck it and give her the L-word right here. But again that instinct rears up inside of me and roars at me to hold those words back, at least for now, at least until I’ve taken her precious virgin hol
e and flooded her eager womb with my offspring.

  I lead her onto the platform, towards our table. The platform behind us detaches and disappears into the water, leaving us seemingly stranded out here. And that’s fine by me.

  If I had to be stranded it would be with my woman.

  Because I know I’d fight like a cornered animal to keep us safe and warm and together.

  I pull out her seat for her and she slides into it, giggling as I shuffle her close to the table.

  “This is so different from anything I’ve ever done… I’ve never been treated like this before.”

  “That pains me,” I sigh, dropping into my seat and leaning across the table.

  I take her hands in mine and look fiercely into her eyes. “You deserved to be treated like this every day of your life. You’re my princess. But I have to admit I’m relieved.”

  “Relieved?”

  “No other man saw how special you are, but now I get the pleasure of showing you.”

  She tightens her hands in mine. “You know, for a big tough mafia guy you sure can be romantic.”

  “I never knew that before I met you,” I tell her passionately. “And don’t tell anybody, okay? We can’t let word get out that I’m not as brutal as people think.”

  “Do you have a reputation for being brutal?” she asks, my perceptive goddess.

  I nod shortly. “It’s a reputation I’ve cultivated over the years. It’s good to have men fear you on the streets. It means they’ll think twice before they try anything. I’ve had several men relocated put into witness protection if you will… while spreading rumors of the vicious way I executed them.”

  “Mafia guys can put people in witness protection?” she gasps.

  I see disbelief trying to writhe into her expression, her desire to call me a liar quivering beneath the absolute trust she has placed in me. Relief washes through me when I see her choose her trust, as she awaits my answer.

  “Mafia guys normally can’t. But I can. I’ve forged connections over the years which give me access to certain privileges.”