Page 81 of Always Mine
“Arty, listen to me very carefully. The only reason I’m letting you near Sophia is because she wants to continue working on the Law Gala, and I’d never stop her doing something she wants to do.” My voice is low and lethal, even though it’s taking all my restraint. “Outside of work, Sophia is completely off limits. As for the incident at Bella Donna, we’ve got it handled.”
I don’t miss the way he locks his jaw, or how his expression turns almost ominous. He quickly regains control of his emotions. He fixes the mask of politeness in place, so he can keep up the charade of being upstanding and affable.
“We’re adults, so let’s put our differences aside, shall we. I fully respect you’re with Sophia now. I’ll be no trouble. Besides, it’s important we can work together, especially considering VaultSecurity is being offered the contract for the Law Gala. It’s on you to make that the safest event it can be.”
There’s no missing the insinuation in his tone before he flips the nice guy switch again. “Speaking of which, I best be going. I need to find Sophia to continue our planning from the other evening.”
I ball my fists. I know he’s taunting me with mention of Friday night, but I don’t take the bait. He goes over to extend a soft, limp handshake to Seb then Luca, before crossing to Raf.
A knock at the door pulls my attention from thoughts of all the ways I want to make Arty’s life a living hell. My incredible girl stands there, and I just want to wrap her up and go back to the weekend when we shut out all the noise and it was just us.
“Arty, I’ll meet you in the boardroom. I have Evie dialed in on speaker ready to be briefed,” she announces brightly, but her eyes are trained on me and filled with worry. I give her a subtle nod of my head and a small smile to put her at ease.
“Well, that’s my cue. My co-chair is cracking her whip already.” He laughs at his own joke but soon realizes he’s the only one. He clears his throat and looks to each of us. “I trust you’ll get to the bottom of this. As they say, the truth always has a way of prevailing.”
Sophia’s interruption may have spared me the handshake, but the glare he gives me as he delivers his parting words doesn’t miss. Ironically, the joke’s on him. The skeletons hidden in his closet are enough to hang him. And when the time is right, I’ll take delight in stringing him up and pulling the rope.
Just before he walks out the door, he turns to face us again. “Oh! Can’t wait to hang out at the Natalia Hirsch exhibition. It’s going to be phenomenal.”
A message notification chimes. It’s from Chiara. She’s finished at her meeting and needs me to pick her up.
“Boys, I’ve got to go, but we’ll speak soon, yeah?”
I just need to get through this week. Then I’ll figure out how to have the hard conversations beginning to suffocate me.
Until that right time presents itself, I need to call in a favor with my other business partner. No one hurts my family and gets away with it. He more than anyone will understand Arty needs a heavy fucking dose of his own medicine.
Chapter fifty-four
Showtime
Marco
It’sfinallytheweekend,and tonight we’re going to the Natalia Hirsch art exhibition.
Sophia and I have survived our first full week of domestic bliss. Unfortunately, there’s been far too little fucking and way too many hours spent working. Even so, I’ve never felt more satisfied. On the long days alternating between driving Chiara around and keeping tabs on other jobs, just knowing my girl would be waiting when I slide into bed—our bed—at the end of a long day sends a jolt of heat through my entire body. The deep feeling of contentment that settles in my weary bones the moment I wrap my body around hers is priceless. Nothing compares to the way she pushes her round ass back into me until it’s molded to my lap, legs weaving under and over until we’re satisfyingly tangled and my dick is nestled between her full cheeks. It’s this position we find ourselves in this morning. Our bodies fused in such a way it’s hard to tell where she starts and I end. But unlike the rest of the week, there’s no rush to get out the door, so instead of trying to slip out of bed without waking her, I do the exact opposite, hoping to slip right in instead. I band my arm tighter around her hips to pull her closer, inhaling the rich notesof coffee and caramelized brown sugar that seem to infuse her skin and hair and linger on my sheets and every surface of this house. A comforting reminder she’s here even when she’s not. As if on cue, she pushes her ass further into me and my morning wood. I groan against her neck, placing a kiss on the sensitive spot just under her ear, and kiss my way down to her collarbone. She’s breaking my number one bedroom commandment by wearing one of my tees to bed instead of sleeping naked, but she’s bare underneath so I’ll let it slide. I bunch the fabric up around her waist so I can feel as much skin on skin as possible. Her sleepy little moans tell me she’s on board with this wake-up call.
Reaching around, I gently trail my fingertips over her toned stomach, dipping them lower until I find the heat I’ve been craving. I drag a finger through the wetness that already pools there, listening as her breathing turns from steady to ragged. I fuse my lips over hers, paying no mind to her murmured worries about morning breath, and kiss her slow and steady, enjoying the fact we have nowhere to race to. She rocks back into me, wordlessly spurring me on and asking for more friction all at once. I circle her clit, one, two, three times, growing impossibly hard and more impatient than I normally am because I’ve missed this. Missed the surge of warmth that comes from someplace soul deep whenever we’re connected like this. Without pausing the strum of her clit, I thrust up as she pushes back, gaining entrance easily, the hitch of her breath telling me she’s excited to welcome me. We move in sync, slow and rhythmic, letting our bodies do the talking. My deep, low moans and her sweet, high whimpers of satisfaction signal we’ve nearly reached the peak of the climb. I feel Sophia lean slightly more onto her stomach, and the slight change of angle spurs me on. I grab the top side of her waist like an anchor, thrusting with more force. Faster. More frantic. Mirrored in the sounds echoing around us. Hitting deeper and filling her up completely as she comes with a cry, and I finally succumb to the intense orgasm that zips through me and leaves me quaking around her.
She turns in my arms so we’re face to face, her laughter bringing me back to earth. “Well good morning to you too, Daddy,” she says with a cheeky smile. I plant a kiss to her forehead, chuckling at the memory of having to sit through another week of Chiara’s audio porn. I made the mistake of asking her what she was listening to one morning, and that opened an entirely new can of worms. One that involved a mask-wearing, thirst trap TikToker finding, stalking, and falling in love with the woman who kept leaving him equally thirsty comments. I’m still concerned about the romance this girl is into, but for the best part of this week, Chiara has kept me busy driving her around for meetings for tonight’s exhibition and doing all the regular things girls enjoy while on a trip to New York: shopping, brunching at Russ & Daughters Cafe, and beauty appointments. She’s mostly been traveling solo since Arabella has been preoccupied with the coordination of tonight’s event, a given considering her family’s media empire is sponsoring and featuring the artist in their publications. From what I can gather, and what little Luca will offer when I try to grill him after what happened, she’s thrown herself into work, trying to keep busy and out of gossip columns for the wrong reasons. Like Sophia’s dad, her father is a powerful man concerned with image. Chiara mentioned to me that the recent blog blast did not go down well and almost lost Arabella the responsibility of running the entire event she has spent months meticulously planning. She was devastated but managed to reason with her dad.
I settle back on my pillow as Sophia launches into her plans for the day and night. The morning light catches on the subtle sheen of sweat coating her skin and bouncing around her face, making her appear angelic. Personally, I’d sell my soul to just to stay right here, basking in the glow of bliss, a happy, safe, and carefree Sophia occupying all my attention.
Unfortunately that daydream is promptly shattered by the plans she’s laying out that very much don’t include me.
“Okay, so I added Chiara to my group chat with the girls. We’ve got a whole day planned out. Brunch, shopping, and nailappointments. Then we’ll split up to get ready before heading to Le Sip for cocktails around five. We’ll head to the photography exhibition and then we’ll make our way to Bella Donna to dance the night away.”
I don’t get a word in edgewise, and it’s abundantly clear I’m going to have to occupy myself. I’m also concerned about all the red flags I’m seeing with this plan. The main one being how not under the radar they will fly—four ravishing women dolled up and dressed to kill.
“Not fucking happening,” I say. “We’ve managed to stay out of the media for a week, and I’d love to keep it that way. Every photographer and media outlet with skin in the game will be at tonight’s high-profile event. They will be on you like flies on shit.”
“Um. Excuse me? This,” she says, waving a hand around us, her defiant streak on full display, “is not what I meant when I called you Daddy.”
“That plan is fraught with problems,” I drawl calmly, lazily moving my hands behind my head. “The main one being that you’re basically painting a target on your back and inviting attention. That is the very thing I’m trying to avoid.” Leaving off,so nobody gets fucking hurt, or worse yet, killed.
She chokes a laugh, but it lacks humor. Ah, yep. There it is. Brat mode: activated. She huffs in exasperation as she angrily moves to straddle me, bracing her hands on my shoulders and training her fiery eyes on mine, holding my undivided attention. It’s like a shot to the other part of me that wants her undivided attention all the time, too. But she’s not having a bit of it.
“Firstly, you can tell your dick to simmer right down, cause he’s in a time out.” She adds a little roll of hips to add insult to the punishment she’s doled out to me.