Mafia Scars (The Accidental Mafia Queen Book 2) Read online

  The hostess returned with the chocolate and the rolls.

  “Those are for you. Eat,” he instructed.

  “I’m not hungry.”

  “I’m not going to have you fainting on me. Eat up. You haven’t had anything since I got you.”

  On that basis, I ate and was surprised to find myself finishing it all. He called the hostess over again and asked her for more rolls and a cheese platter.

  “They have all of that onboard?”

  “Yeah.”

  “How were we able to get this plane so quickly?”

  “We have jets and other vehicles on standby in a few states. They’re there if we need to get away like we did yesterday. Standard emergency procedures.”

  “Oh.” It was all so organized. It worked to my advantage yesterday.

  “Do we know if everyone got out okay yesterday? I lost Maurice completely.”

  “He’s fine. There were no injuries on our side.”

  “I guess none of the casualties were Victor?” That would be too easy.

  “No. No such luck. He’ll definitely make his way to Chicago and resume battle there.”

  “So, I’m still not safe?”

  “Chicago is the safest place you’ll ever be.

  I pulled in a breath and rested my head back against the soft leather of the seat.

  There was so much to think about.

  So much to do. It would be hard to see my father after so long. Hard to see him and know he was sick. Dying.

  A massive part of me wanted to be sad, but then I remembered everything, and confliction filled my soul.

  The air…

  It was the first thing I noticed when we landed.

  It was different to the air I breathed in LA. Chicago was a busy place too, but LA seemed to be even busier to me.

  Or maybe that was how I perceived it.

  The air smelled different though. Cleaner, clearer.

  My heart pinched as unexpected warmth filled me. The kind of warmth I imagined when people spoke about coming home.

  I felt that, and it was weird. Weird coming back to the place I fled when I was seventeen.

  At twenty-eight years old, I’d had so much happen to me, and coming back felt like finding refuge. Which I suppose I was.

  A limo picked us up when we arrived. It was late, super late, like early in the morning.

  I glanced at the clock display ahead of us and saw it was nearly two a.m.

  My mind ran on Gigi, and I prayed she’d be okay. I’d have to call her.

  I couldn’t believe that I didn’t get to say goodbye to her or speak to her properly. I knew Luc would have people looking after her, but in all honesty, I would even ask Sinclaire to stop by the house to see how she was doing.

  Despite what had happened between us, I still trusted him, and I knew that although he said he was done with me, he’d help me if I needed it.

  It didn’t take long with the clear roads for us to get to our destination.

  Somehow, I thought we’d be going to my house—my father’s house.

  This wasn’t his place though.

  It was dark, but I could see the vast expanse of the stately home that came into my view.

  A massive set of gates like the one’s at my father’s house opened up for us to enter.

  Lights lit up as we drove along the driveway, illuminating the premises. My eyes were stuck on the size of the property and the beauty I could see all around, like a fairytale. The moon beamed down, gracing the fantasy-like architecture that reminded me of the designs I’d seen in Europe.

  I’d managed to do a tour of some old cities once, years back. Best holiday ever. I went to Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Poland, and Bulgaria.

  This place seemed to hold a mix of the creativity I’d seen there.

  “Who lives here?” I asked Claudius, who’d been quietly resting next to me with his head back against the seat and legs up on the seats in front of us.

  “My brother and I. Welcome to our bachelor pad.”

  “Pad?” I looked at him and squinted. This was no pad. It was a mansion on an estate.

  Most guys thought of a pad as a condo, or an apartment. Not a full-on house that looked big enough to fit a small country. Okay, maybe that was an exaggeration. It was just big, big.

  “This is how we roll. Plus size with everything.”

  “It’s beautiful.”

  He answered me with a grin.

  When we got out of the car, I was tempted to go exploring. The place had that feel about it that sucked you in and made you want to see more. Like my family’s summer home in Italy. I spent many days there roaming the grounds and going on all sorts of childhood adventures.

  The temptation was great but not stronger than what fueled me to see Luc.

  My heart. My heart rejoiced at the fact that we’d made it this far and beat faster at the anticipation of seeing him.

  The minute we went inside the house, I heard footsteps rushing toward us.

  The sound came from up the wide grand stairs that flowed down toward us in the passageway.

  My heart soared and could have popped out of my chest when I saw Luc.

  All I knew was, my body moved to him, knowing him like it knew the muscle memory that used to enable me to dance.

  I threw my arms around him when he picked me up, kissing me, holding me, making me feel like I was his.

  “God,” he said. Emotion rippled in his voice. He took hold of my face and kissed me.

  We only stopped kissing at the sound of someone clearing their throat in a very exaggerated way.

  Claudius.

  “Why, thanks, Claudius,” Claudius intoned with mock sarcasm. “So nice of you to rescue my girl, and yes, you were so right. A powerful Kawasaki engine definitely came in handy. Just like you said,” he taunted.

  Luc smiled, released me, and went to give his brother one a full-on hug.

  “Thank you,” Luc told him.

  “Jesus Christ. I can’t remember the last time we hugged,” Claudius replied. “Don’t make it a habit. Don’t want people to think the Morientz brothers have gone soft.”

  “Like fuck we have.”

  “That’s more like it.” Claudius gave him a playful punch in his shoulder.

  The two together fascinated me.

  “There is much to be done. We’ll talk tomorrow.”

  Claudius nodded. “Forget work. Go look after your woman. She missed you.”

  I appreciated the comment. When Luc turned back to me and gazed at me with deep adoration, I knew in that moment that I would never feel the way I did about him with anyone else.

  It was a fact and I knew it with certainty.

  Chapter 11

  Amelia

  His mouth ravished mine.

  His tongue warring with mine, invading my mouth with a wet heat that spoke of our passion.

  There were so many ways to kiss him, but this was an impossible kiss, resonating from need, greed, madness.

  We crashed into the wall of his room, and the coolness of the concrete pressed against my skin.

  All I wore were my black lace panties. Everything else had come off before I entered his bedroom. Wild, raw need passed between us, and nothing else existed but that.

  His mouth left mine, and he placed fiery kisses all along my neck with his hungry lips. He traced the contour of my throat, trailing down to my breasts, where he paused to suck me. His teeth scraped over my diamond-hard nipples. My breasts heaved against him as he squeezed and fondled them.

  Lapping at my nipples, he worked the tips to life, and I moaned with each lick, my breath growing ragged and strained.

  He sucked until it was almost painful, giving me pleasure because he knew how much I liked that.

  I reached down to feel his cock through the fabric of his pants. I grew wet just from feeling how hard it was, massive and ready for me.

  “You want me inside you, goddess?”

  “Yes, please.” My voice was bar
ely audible over the powerful moan that tore out of my throat when he moved aside the cotton of my panties and pushed two fingers inside my center.

  I could have crumbled into nothing.

  He slid inside and out and smiled that wicked smile, rendering me helpless.

  “Wait, baby, I have to taste that pretty pussy of yours.”

  Before I could answer, he picked me up and carried me to the bed, setting me down in the center, where he tore off my panties.

  Then his head was between my thighs and his tongue up inside me, drinking me.

  He palmed my ass, gripping me firmly and pulling me closer to his face. I screamed when his tongue lashed inside me, tantalizing and teasing, circling over my clit. Conquering me.

  An orgasm ripped through my body, making me come right there in shuddering waves. And yet there was more.

  Much more.

  I watched him step back from the bed, displaying his well-muscled warrior body.

  He stepped out of his pants and boxers at the same time and held his cock for me to see.

  “This belongs to you, Amelia.”

  “Mine.” I smiled.

  “Yours.”

  He climbed back on the bed, parted my legs, and slid right into me. In one thrust, he was buried to the hilt and pumping.

  I cried out from the intensity and reached for the sheets, writhing beneath him.

  He filled me up completely and started moving inside me, stretching me around him.

  Faster and faster he moved in hard, rough strokes that rocked my body. The only way I could describe this wild primal tangle of us was fucking. I lifted my hips to meet his strokes, but I was too weak to maintain it. It felt too good and encouraged him to go faster.

  Now, relentless thrusts rammed into me, making my whole body tingle from the inside out, trapped between torment and ecstasy.

  Something then changed between us. Something in the way we touched each other. Something in the way my heart felt.

  Luc pistoned harder, shaft slicking in and out, slamming hard and gasping in a rush of pure need.

  It was too much. My skin… was on fire.

  Burning, blazing, and I couldn’t help it. I screamed out loud, crying out from somewhere deep inside me where Luc had possessed me.

  This time, the orgasm that tore through me took us both and sent us over the edge and out of this world.

  His body jerked hard, every muscle tight as he poured himself into me. A fireball of pure bliss blowing into me like a hurricane.

  Luc

  She was the first woman I’d ever lost sleep over.

  Losing sleep when I was with her and when I was without her.

  I was exhausted, but still I couldn’t bring myself to sleep and leave her. Even though I knew she’d fill my dreams.

  What the fuck had this woman done to me? I’d grown soft, so soft it was ridiculous to imagine that I was me, Lucian Morientz.

  It was six a.m. We’d been awake since she’d arrived. Making love.

  Not fucking. Although I wasn’t sure if she knew that.

  There was a point where it had felt different to me.

  During that first time. Something happened to both of us, and it carried on each time.

  Now, I had her sitting on the edge of the hot tub, which she insisted looked more like a pond just because I’d had it designed so we could swim around in it.

  She sat on the last step, so the water caught her around her waist, and her beautiful tits were on full display for me. Wet, with the water trickling down them. It reminded me of fresh fruit that had just been washed.

  I swam up to her and sucked on her left nipple, loving that I could do that to her. She ran her hands over my hair, stroking me as I sucked.

  “Luc, what if someone comes and sees us?”

  “It’s okay. No one will be around at this hour. And the only person we’d need to worry about will be sleeping until he needs to get up.”

  Claudius was a deadweight when he was exhausted. Unlike me, the man needed his beauty sleep.

  He wouldn’t have come in here if he knew we were in here, because he’d know there’d be some R-rated scenes.

  “How is it okay?” She moved away from me.

  “God, why? Come back to me.”

  She giggled, swatting at me playfully.

  “You must have staff in this massive house.”

  “No one is going to be on the grounds until about nine, and anyone else who’s here will know not to come in.”

  “Is that some sort of code you had with your previous women?” She arched an eyebrow.

  Minx, trying to catch me out.

  “I was a virgin until I met you,” I teased.

  We both started laughing like neither of us had problems. Like serious things that affected us weren’t on the horizon.

  It was nice though, us laughing like a real couple.

  “Claudius is the one who has his pick of women.”

  “And you’re going to lie and tell me that you don’t.” She gave me a suspicious look.

  A smirk danced on my lips.

  “I had my share. Now the one I want is irritating me because I want to explore her body, and she won’t let me.”

  She splashed water in my face.

  “You did plenty exploring already.”

  “No, there’s never enough. I want more of you always. You’re a drug to me, and I can’t stop myself from wanting you all the time. Every minute of every day.”

  She held my gaze and gave me a sassy smile. “Be careful. I might get the wrong idea about you and think you’re in love with me.”

  I focused on her, giving her a long, hard stare. Did she really not know?

  Or was it me? Maybe I hadn’t made my intentions clear enough.

  It was that. Had to be if she didn’t know.

  “Go figure, doll.”

  Her expression went blank, numb looking, and she looked away from me.

  “How is this going to work?” she asked. Fear was evident in her voice.

  Fear which threw me. “Maybe now’s not the time to talk about us. Your father wants to see us at ten.”

  She snapped her gaze back to me.

  “He… wants to see you first. Only you. He wants to talk to you first.” I’d been holding off on talking about Raphael. I didn’t want to burst this bubble of happiness we had going on.

  “Okay.” She raised her shoulder into a shrug. “But back to us. If we keep putting of talking, we may never get the chance. I swore I was going to die yesterday.”

  “No.” Just the thought made my soul ache.

  “You don’t know that, neither of us does. That psycho, Victor, he thinks unharmed has loopholes. I saw the crazed look in his eyes. He’d pick my eyes out and think I was unharmed if I could still talk. Or walk.”

  She was scarily right about that.

  “Okay, let’s talk. You want me to change. Is that it? You’re a cop, and I’m a criminal.”

  I tugged on my bottom lip, watching her, assessing her reaction.

  “Are you?”

  “Am I a criminal? Yes. I’m not going to lie to you. It was hard for me to lie to you all that time you thought I was Detective Smith. Lies are not me, goddess.”

  Her bottom lip trembled, and she pressed it together tightly, so tight the blood thinned in that the area.

  “Is that what you want? You want to be a criminal for the rest of your life?”

  “No.” I made sure she could see how serious I was when I said that.

  “But… if you hadn’t met me, would you still want to change?”

  “Amelia, I don’t know what you want me to say. I’m telling you I want to change. Isn’t that supposed to be a good thing?” My mind raced, searching through thoughts that bounced off each other.

  “Of course, it’s a great thing, but what I’m saying is, it’s only good if that’s what you want. Not just for me.”

  A weight pressed on my chest, and tingles rippled through every nerve in my body.
Was this it? Was this where she was going to tell me she didn’t want to be with me?

  “Why not? Why can’t that be enough?”

  “Because that’s me changing who you are. For my own selfish reasons.”

  “Okay, so should I continue being a criminal?”

  “That’s not what I mean. You know it. I want you to change for you.”

  For me?

  I’d never thought of that. It was never enough.

  Never reason enough.

  She reached out and touched my face. “Thank you for taking such good care of me. And helping me find myself.”

  “I swear to God if that’s you telling me goodbye, I won’t accept it.” I shook my head.

  She leaned forward and kissed me, nipples brushing against my chest, making me hard.

  “Never. I’m never going to say goodbye to you.”

  “You better not.” I kissed her back but pulled away, so I could gaze into her eyes. “I’ll change for you. I want to change for you.”

  “It wouldn’t be fair… especially since I don’t think I want to be a cop anymore.”

  My eyes widened. “What?”

  She ran her hands over my jaw. “Being a cop’s not me, Luc. It never was. That’s Amelia Taylor. If I make it through all this, and I don’t die, I want to live the rest of my life in the way Amelia Rossi would have.”

  “You will make it. But tell me, doll… Is that me? Is this my influence?”

  She shook her head. “No. It’s me. I want to do that for me. It feels better already. I became a cop thinking that I could change everything because I’d been through so much and saw so much. I guess a part of me did some good. But I don’t feel the way I thought I’d feel. Being a cop wasn’t how I saw my life. I left Chicago because I didn’t want a life of crime, but then I put myself in a career that was filled with it. What sense did that make?”

  I smiled at her, and she kissed me again. “How about we see what course life guides us on? You not being a cop, and me not being a mobster. We’ll see what that makes us.”

  “The gardener and the dancer.” Her smile widened.

  I pressed my forehead to hers, loving the sound of that.