Page 11

The Grey.

T he minute I entered this place, I knew I was far from home. Not because I felt like I didn’t fit in, but because of the sheer luxury. From the glass tables to the glimmering jewels on the ceiling, I just knew whoever owns this place, owns pretty much all of Italy and possibly has a hand in other investments overseas, too.

It screams money.

Rafael takes my hand in his as we make our way through the entry, past the bouncers and wait staff, the thin chain on both our wrists shining as the lights flash.

“What is this place?” I ask, looking around. I expected it to be filled with people, clamouring to get to the bar, fighting over who touched who, but there are probably a hundred people here and all of them look like they are swimming in money.

“It used to belong to the Albani family, but now, it belongs to the Savelli family.”

“That means nothing to me,” I admit, wondering why my father didn’t teach me more about the history of the royal families of Italy.

“You’re about to find out,” he says as we head to a grand table, which looks like a crystal sitting at the back of the room. A man probably just older than me comes to greet Rafael.

“Raf, so good to see you again,” he says, shaking his hand. “And who’s this?” He looks over to me, his too-perfect teeth stealing my attention for a split second.

“N—”

“No one,” Rafael interrupts, gripping my hand tighter in warning. “Do you have what I came for?”

The man nods and motions for us to enter a room behind the crystal table. “Right this way.”

I look up to see several monitors, showcasing multiple people on the screens.

Real people .

Fucking.

On a screen.

Multiple screens.

“I didn’t anticipate the rise in costs this year,” the man mentions as his skinny fingers work to punch in a code on the large safe bricked into a wall. The room looks like an office with a desk in the middle, the monitors mounted on the wall behind the desk, and the safe on the left.

“Think of it as snow tax.”

The safe clicks and I have to physically clench my jaw shut to stop it from falling to the floor.

Hundreds of bars of gold, along with cash, jewels, and a necklace, which looks to be sprinkled with rubies, sit inside.

“Well, you know I love it when it snows .” He smiles, handing over a duffel bag to Rafael. “Tell Dante, for the extra money he’s charging, he better have something spectacular to showcase.”

Rafael opens the duffel, and with a quick glance, he nods in approval.

“Why don’t you keep it here until you leave tonight?” he suggests, then turns his attention to me. “I’m sure your… plus one wants to see what this place is famous for.”

I look at Rafael, pleading to let us stay a little longer.

“I expect to find it here in an hour,” Rafael stresses and the man nods in agreement.

He still hasn’t let go of my hand, the entire time we’ve been here, and I don’t know if it’s because he doesn’t want me to wander or if it’s because he wants me close. A big part of me hopes it’s the latter. The moment we leave the office, house music bounces through me as we enter another room, darker and louder than the first. I know the smile on my face is bigger than I’ve ever let anyone see, and when Rafael looks at me, the corner of his mouth twitches.

“How about we live in that grey area for a little while?” He leans in to speak into my ear and pure excitement courses through me.

“How is dancing in a nightclub living in the grey area?” I ask, moving closer into him, fiddling with the buttons on his shirt, which hangs open.

He gives me a wry smile and spins me around to guide me through the crowd and another door. At first, it looks like a regular corridor, but when he shuts the door behind us, my eyes adjust to the lighting, and my ears slowly return to normal as we leave the reverberations of the bass behind. It’s then I realise this isn’t a regular club at all. Taking a few steps forward, I glance to my right, through the glass window to find a man and a woman, completely naked, and I swallow my trepidation.

“Are they…”

“Fucking?” he whispers, leaning into my space.

I spot the thin chains on their wrists, like ours, but the only difference is theirs are gold and ours are silver. The woman’s moans filter through the speakers as the man takes her roughly from behind, his thick cock dripping with her arousal.

“This isn’t grey at all.” I turn to him, his eyes now dark with desire, focused only on one thing.

Me.

“The grey area…” He pauses, the pads of his fingers brushing the skin on my thigh, gradually ascending as he places his other hand on the glass above my head. Leaning into me, he whispers, “…is the one you were thinking about as you had your fingers inside you in the greenhouse back at Falcon’s Keep.”

Heat rushes to my cheeks and I just know they’re red. I knew he saw me, but I hoped he didn’t, and I hoped by me not openly speaking about it, he’d just forget.

“You saw.”

“The whole thing.” He licks his lips, the rings in his nose glinting as he cocks his head to the side. “Tell me what you were thinking.”

I want to be brave, to tell him how I imagined his thick fingers thrusting into me as I clawed at his chest, but I wonder what others would think of me wanting— lusting —over my adoptive older brother.

“No, no, no.” He shakes his head, tilting my face up with his finger beneath my chin. “Don’t go…stay here, with me, in the grey.”

“You’re older than me,” I breathe nervously, running my hands up his muscular chest as his body presses against mine.

“By eleven years,” he confirms, placing his hand gently around my neck. “Does it not make you want it more?” he whispers, and I lick my lips at the thought of his mouth on mine as his hand moves further down the middle of my chest, his fingers now playing with the neckline of my dress. “Knowing that I can please you in ways men your age could only dream of pleasing a woman?”

I bring my legs closer, but before I can press them together, he pushes his knee between them, the lower part of his thigh pressing against my clit. Clutching his shirt, I take in a sharp breath. “We shouldn’t.” My voice comes out shaky, but he doesn’t seem to care as the back of his fingers graze the top of my breast.

“Why?” he asks, lowering his mouth dangerously close to mine. “Because you don’t want to?” His hand drops to my side and slips beneath my dress, roaming up my thigh and grabbing my hip. “Or because it’s a sin?”

I’m tongue-tied, trying to control my breaths as his knee presses harder against my pussy, making me desperate to grind my hips on him.

“Because Dante would kill you.” It’s not a lie, but it’s not the real reason. I can’t do this with him. I can’t succumb to my desires…not here.

“Might be worth it.” He smiles as he slowly backs away, removing his knee from between my legs, leaving me wanting more.

More exhilaration.

More pleasure.

More sin .

“Wait.” I grab his wrist, pulling him back into me, needing to feel like I’m in control, that only I can decide what I do with my life. And right now, I want his lips on mine. Morals and ethics be damned.

His eyes meet mine, surprised by my response as he assesses me.

“I was thinking about what your fingers would feel like,” I whisper. Grabbing his other hand, I place it on my hip, his fingers intuitively curving to grip me. “Inside me.” I rise on my toes and press my lips onto his, not waiting a second more for either of us to back out of this.

He gives in, pressing me against the glass, the loud moans of the couple behind it filtering through the speaker. My heart thunders beneath my chest as I wrap my arms around his neck, his tongue parting my lips and sliding into my mouth with need.

Wet, hot, and greedy.

He groans as he lifts me, my legs wrapping around his waist, our breaths mingling in heated whispers as our tongues fight for dominance. I’m afraid if we keep going, I won’t be able to stop.

“Raf…”

His mouth moves to my neck, leaving wet kisses as his tongue glides across and up to my ear. “Do you want to find out?”

Oh, god.

He lowers me onto my feet as his hand slips between us, then beneath my dress. I open my mouth to speak, but nothing comes out as he pulls my panties to the side.

“This is your last chance…”

I don’t want to back out. I want his fingers inside me. I want to know if it would feel as great as I imagined, and just as I’m about to grab his hand, a door to my left opens and two people walk out with their hair in disarray, holding hands.

“Booth three is free if you want to continue…whatever is going on here.” The man smirks and guides the woman out of the hall, completely ruining the moment.

Rafael checks his watch and curses.

“ Merda.”

Grabbing my hand, he guides me out. “We need to go.”

I’m frustrated. I didn’t expect anything to happen between us on this trip. I knew better. I know he’s my brother’s best friend and our adoptive brother. I know nothing can eventuate from this, and yet, I’m being pulled in his direction. I want to know him, I want to find out what he’s so desperately hiding beneath that mysterious exterior.

The ferry jostles on the water as we sit in Raf’s car and although we’re heading back to Falcon’s Keep, something inside me sparks with excitement. When we get back, I’m going to do everything in my power to find out what is being hidden on the island.

The entire car ride is silent, neither of us knowing what to say after our heated moment. I watch Raf fiddle with the silver lighter and I wonder what the significance is for him.

“Is that a tic?” I ask playfully, but he doesn’t return it.

The metal glimmers in the moonlight as he opens it, flicking it as the flame ignites. “It was your father’s.”

My brows pull in and I take another look, noticing the letter ‘D’. When he looks at me, I can tell it means a lot to him, the way he always keeps it on his person.

“Why would he give it to you and not Dante?”

“I think he felt sorry for me.” He chuckles, closing the lid and gripping it tightly until his knuckles blanche.

“But…” I pause, thinking about what to say next when I realise I don’t really know anything about his past. “How did you meet my father?”

Smiling, he leans back, the rhythmic swooshing of the waves hitting against the ferry. He undoes the buttons on his shirt slowly and I stare unapologetically. He reveals the scar I saw on the beach that day as he runs his fingers over it.

“When I washed up on the shores of Falcon’s Keep with a machete wound and two fucking euros to my name, Dante took me in.”

I swallow, reaching out and running my fingers over the thick healed skin. “What happened to you?”

“I got caught up with the wrong people.”

“And my father just took you in?” I question, and his jaw tenses.

Obvious discomfort covers his expression as he speaks. “It’s not as simple as that.”

“What do you mean?”

He shifts in his seat and turns the radio on, rock music now filtering through the speakers. “Like I told you before, things are not what they seem.”

“I’m so sick of your riddles.” I huff, crossing my arms and glaring out my window. I want answers and I won’t stop until I get them. “My father would never take in a stray. He was adamant about keeping the island barricaded from the rest of the mainland. Why would he rescue someone he didn’t even know?”

“That’s a great question and you’re finally thinking in the grey.” He’s smirking when I look over at him and I’m furious at how my body reacts to his charm.

“I think we’ve had enough grey tonight,” I whisper, swallowing as his gaze runs over my body, making me squeeze my legs together.

“Have you?” His hand climbs up my thigh as he turns his body. “Or do you want to see what it might feel like…”

I release my legs, letting them fall open as he inches up further, teasing me. As much as I would love to wait for him to make the move, to give me everything I imagined when I was touching myself, I don’t.

I push his hand away, take my heels off, and lazily remove my underwear, making sure he’s watching. Then I climb onto his lap, straddling his thigh between my legs and he smiles.

“Brave.” He chuckles, sliding his hands beneath my dress and gripping my hips. “Go on then, Principessa , take your pleasure.”

Flattening my hands against his hard chest, I study the falcon tattoo. Every inch of him is beautifully tanned, strong, and dangerous . A fire ignites within me, the frustration built up to the point where I cannot bear it anymore, and I begin moving my hips over his thigh, rubbing myself slowly over him. He gently moves the material of my dress aside, revealing my bare breast. A moan escapes my parted lips when he takes me into his mouth, my hips beginning to move faster on their own.

“We shouldn’t be doing this,” I whimper as I grind harder, my arms now slung around his neck, pulling him closer to me.

He says nothing as he continues to lick his way to my other breast, now exposed to the cold, and I tip my head back, rubbing my clit faster over his thigh. His arm wraps around my back and the other remains on my hip, rocking me back and forth as he lifts his gaze to mine.

My breathing becomes ragged as I come closer and closer to my release.

“Do you feel that?” he asks, his hand now snaking into my hair, forcing my forehead to his. “It’s the perfect combination of desire and thrill.” He takes my lips violently and I whimper, grinding and rubbing, the firmness of his thigh placing the perfect amount of pressure on my clit.

“Rafael,” I whisper, breaking our kiss, and he releases me, leaning back.

“Keep going, Nera. I want to watch you come all over my thigh without me touching you, like a needy troia .”

It shouldn’t be this arousing, the degradation of me on top of him, taking my pleasure as he watches me, my wetness probably already soaking through his pants, but I want him to say it again.

I bite my lip, moaning as I pinch my nipples, the intensity of my arousal now running down my spine.

“Mmm…” He undoes his belt, zips down his pants to free his cock and my mouth salivates at the sight of it.

Thick. Hard and long. I groan at the thought of him inside me as he strokes himself.

“ Cavalcami, bellissima troia ,” he murmurs, rolling his hips as he watches me work to get to my release, and it’s the most thrilling thing I have ever done.

His precum trickles beneath the head of his cock as he fists himself and it makes me want to take him into my mouth just to taste him.

“This…” I breathe, squeezing my eyes shut. “Can’t…” I moan, fisting his shirt as I shudder, the thin veil between black and grey now disappearing forever.

When I come down from my high, he has himself tucked back into his pants.

“Can’t happen again,” I finish and climb back into my seat, the weight of what I just did rushing over me. He ignores me, still smirking in my direction, and when I look over at him, he nods to the wet spot now covering his thigh.

“Are you sure you mean that?”

I swallow, and his hand cuts through the air between us, grabbing my cheeks and forcing my lips to pout. “Lick it off then,” he growls, and my eyes go wide. “If you’re so ashamed of yourself, lick every last fucking drop of cum you’ve left from your soaking cunt as you rode my leg like your own personal toy.” He releases my cheeks and I blink, my heart thumping beneath my chest at his demand. “Go on, try to erase it.” The deep timbre of his voice is like a dare, and everything within me screams to not give in to it, but my body leans forward, betraying me.

Getting on all fours, I bend over him as my tongue darts out, licking my arousal off his pants. The great thing about old cars is the roomy front seat, without the disturbance of the middle console. They knew what they were doing when they made these cars. I continue, closing my eyes, enjoying the taste of myself on my tongue and getting lost in the act when his hand closes around my neck. His steel eyes stare back into mine, mystery, danger, and thrill whirling like a tornado behind them.

“The only thing you’ll be able to erase is the purity you cling to, making room for the depravity you crave.”