Page 57 of Dangerous Men (Fortune City Mafia #1)

SEBASTIAN

My hand shakes as I lower my gun.

It’s subtle, just a tremor. But it’s a crack in my mask I don’t expect. A sign of just how lost I’ve become.

Viper stares after Sydney for several long seconds after the door closes behind her, a wistful smile on his face. I’ve seen that look before, that obsession. But never when looking at a woman.

We’re absolutely fucked.

“You shouldn’t have tried to keep her from me, Doc,” Viper says, shaking his head. “You know better than that.”

He finally turns to look at me, and his eyes go straight to my gun, still clutched tight in my hand. When he steps forward to take it from me, I give it up with no resistance at all.

I don’t know what to expect when he palms it. You can never predict what Viper is going to do. Maybe he’ll just shoot me straight in the head for interrupting his fun. Maybe he’ll end me right now.

But all Viper does is engage the safety and hand the gun back to me .

“Don’t point it at someone unless you’re ready to shoot them,” he reminds me, eyes dark.

That’s the problem, though. I was ready.

I hold his stare, refusing to back down, and wonder if he can see it in my eyes. I wonder if he knows how close I came to killing him.

“Sterling will kill you if you hurt her,” I tell him, taking my gun from him and sliding back into its spot at the small of my back. “He likes her, Viper. Ashton likes her.”

I don’t need to tell Viper how I feel about our Sydney. He can see it written all over my face.

“Of course, you all like her, brother,” Viper says, grinning. He puts a hand on my shoulder, giving it a comforting squeeze. “She’s so, so pretty.”

His smile is a thing of nightmares.

“Just imagine how pretty she’ll be when she breaks,” he says.

His laughter is haunting, and it stays with me long after he’s left.

Sydney isn’t in the café when I go to find her. She’s not in the shop anywhere I look.

The stockroom is the last place I check, and I know I’ve found her when I find it locked.

I don’t even bother knocking. The thin metal card I keep in my wallet is all I need to pick the lock open and let myself inside.

Sydney doesn’t look surprised when I enter, shutting the door behind me and reengaging the lock.

She looks terrified.

Arms wrapped around herself, cowered against the table, she watches me approach with fear in her eyes. There’s a smear of blood on her mouth, and a mark on her neck that looks like a bite. I stare at it, gritting my teeth and hoping Viper had the good sense not to break the skin there.

The human mouth has over 500 different species of bacteria. I make a quick mental note of exactly which antibiotics I’ll need to get for her.

“ That was Viper?” Sydney asks, voice unsteady.

I nod, stepping toward her. She doesn’t flinch away from me, not yet. I take that as a good sign. She held her own against him. She didn’t even scream.

All good signs.

“He’s a maniac,” Sydney breathes, holding herself tighter. “He’s… he’s dangerous .”

The way she says it, the way she spits out the word dangerous like it’s the single most disgusting thing a person can be hits me surprisingly hard. I feel my mask crack, just a little.

“He is,” I try to tell her, keeping my voice gentle. Easy, like I’m talking to a frightened animal. “But he’s loyal. He’s good at what he does. He’s our brother, and?—”

She laughs, and there’s an edge of cruelty to it. “Loyal? He’s a fucking maniac! He—he should be locked up!”

The mask cracks even more as my hands clench at my side.

“He was locked up,” I say in a low voice. Sydney’s eyes jump to mine as I take another step closer to her. “That’s why he’s like this. Because of what being locked up did to him.”

Where is my vengeful goddess? Where is my queen of wrath and darkness? The woman who was willing to kill?

I don’t see her anywhere in Sydney’s face right now. I see a frightened woman. I see a doll made of glass, so easily broken.

“And of course he’s dangerous,” I say, my voice a little too dark, a little too real.

Sydney tries to move away from me, but she’s already right up against the table, and there’s nowhere else for her to go as I close the distance between us.

She holds a hand out to my chest to stop me coming closer, and I grab her wrist, squeezing it tight.

“We’re all dangerous,” I tell her. Because I need her to understand this, I need her to get it . I need her to finally fucking see it. “Me. Viper. Alec.” I chuckle as she winces, tugging in vain to pull her arm out of my grip. “Even Ashton , with all his pretty smiles. We’re dangerous men, Sydney.”

She shakes her head quickly from side to side, like she refuses to believe it. Like she can’t believe it.

“You should be thanking Viper, you know,” I tell her. “He’s the only one of us who’s actually been honest with you about who we are.” I laugh, sounding a little manic even to my own ears. “Hell, he probably couldn’t lie to you if he tried .”

I can feel her pulse rapid as a trapped hummingbird against my hand, and I know I should stop.

But that fierce woman is in there.

I know she is.

And this version of her just won’t fucking understand.

“You know what I think? I think you like that we’re dangerous,” I say.

I press closer until we’re chest to chest, pressed against one another.

This is the closest I’ve ever been to her, and my body immediately responds, blood filling my cock until I’m so hard it hurts.

“I think you’re a little dangerous, too, Sydney. ”

“No.” She shakes her head violently. “I’m not .”

“Stop pretending,” I snarl. “You fucking love it. You love us . When Ashton and Sterling took you to their room and spread you out on that bed, you knew exactly what they were. They gave you just a taste of what they could do for you, and you loved every second of it. ”

“How…” Sydney’s pupils are wide enough to eclipse the brown in her eyes as she stares up at me. “How do you know that?”

I’m so fucking tired of wearing this mask.

“Because I was watching you,” I confess without an ounce of regret.

My cock is rock hard, digging into her, as I finally, finally , let the mask fall away completely for her.

Let her see me . “Because I was watching the whole fucking thing, from start to finish, Sydney. Everything they did to you.” I lean down, pressing my lips to her ear as I hiss, “And I fucking loved it.”

There’s a fine line between fear and arousal.

Sydney’s pupils are blown wide, her breathing and pulse erratic.

But her cheeks are flushed, her lips are a deep, rich red, and when I press against her harder, pushing her back against the edge of the table, her legs clench together, desperate for friction.

I’ve spent years learning to analyze the subtle expressions of people.

I know when a woman is aroused.

“I loved watching you,” I tell her. I drop her wrist, sliding my hand into her hair instead, gripping it to bend her neck back and force her to look up at me.

To see the truth in my eyes. “I loved watching them spread you open to feast on you. I loved how wet your pussy was for them, how much you wanted it. You would have taken them both if they’d offered it, wouldn’t you? Given them any hole they asked for.”

She doesn’t answer.

“Our perfect, filthy girl,” I say, twisting her hair in my hands.

I’m close enough to see the exact moment when her gaze hardens. There’s a flare of something dark in her eyes when she looks away.

There she is.

“Let’s play a game,” I say, kicking her legs open and reaching down, under her skirt. “Tell me you don’t love this, and I’ll stop. Tell me you’re not soaking wet right now, dripping down your thighs, and I’ll leave right now. And never come back.”

It takes no effort at all to lift her to the table and spread her legs wide. My hand hovers at her hip, fingers playing with the hem of her panties.

Sydney’s lip twitches, and her eyes flick to mine, but she says nothing. She glares at me with those beautiful, dark eyes, completely silent.

“That’s all you have to do, Sydney,” I promise her, stroking my fingers over her skin. “Tell me you don’t want this. Tell me I’m wrong, that you don’t belong to us, that you want me to stop…”

My fingertips dip under the fabric, just a fraction, and she sucks in a breath.

“Or don’t say anything. And let me find out for myself how wet you are.”

Sydney’s eyes narrow at me.

But she doesn’t say a word.

“That’s what I thought,” I sneer, yanking that tiny piece of fabric aside and sliding my fingers over her, searching for the truth.

She’s soaked .

I groan, running my fingers through her slick heat. She feels like silk. She’s so soft, so wet, and so perfect .

“I knew it,” I say. “Fuck, you were made for us, weren’t you, Sydney?”

Sydney gasps as I touch her, hips rising to meet my fingers. But I hear it. Soft, and almost inaudible .

“Yes,” Sydney whispers, grinding against my hand.

“Our filthy girl,” I say, fingers sliding over her until I find that hard bundle of nerves. She moans, arching when I circle it.

My fingers move faster and faster, enraptured by the sounds she makes, by every single movement. In every twitch, every gasp, she tells me wordlessly exactly what she wants and how she wants it.

She’s a work of art. Exquisite.

When her legs start to shake, trembling on either side of me, I know she’s close. But I’m not ready to stop, not yet. Not after wanting to touch her for so long.

I pull my hand away, ignoring her cry of protest, and drop to my knees, pulling her to the edge of the table. I need to taste her.

Pushing her legs open even further, I shove her panties to the side and slide my tongue inside her. It’s better than I could have ever imagined. Better than watching Ashton and Sterling with her. She tastes like salted honey. She tastes like every sin I’ve ever wanted to commit.

She reaches for me, burying her hands in my hair to pull me closer, and I groan in encouragement, sucking and licking at every perfect part of her.

“Don’t stop,” Sydney gasps, rocking against me. “Please, oh God, Sebastian… don’t stop.”

When I look up from between her legs, she’s watching me, lips parted, panting. I hold her gaze as I slip a finger inside her, feeling her buck.

That bundle of nerves is even better on my tongue, and I lap at it greedily while I fuck my finger in and out of her. Her thighs clench around me, trembling.

“Look at me,” I demand, moving my hand faster. I let my lips graze against her when I say it. “This is mine. All this pleasure?” I curl my finger as I say it. “This is mine . Look at me, filthy girl. I need to see it when I make you come.”

The second my tongue finds her again, she comes undone, throwing her head back in a soundless scream. Her entire body shakes, thighs squeezing me tight as she rides my face, chasing every ounce of pleasure I’m willing to give her.

I let her take it.