Page 4 of The Devil’s Touch (Obsession #1)

D omenico

“We found him, Don.” Damien’s voice made me stir lightly. I peeled my gaze off the window of the private study I had in the interior of Karma, one of my clubs in the city. My gaze met his dark, brooding one, his frame stiff and edgy.

“Where?” My voice echoed through the room like a lazy murmur.

“On the outskirts of Maine.” He slumped into the seat before me like a big lazy panther. “The bastard was planning to run away.” Damien seethed.

My lips almost twitched in a smile. Damien Romano might not be my biological heir, but he still had every bit of me in him.

I found him on the streets two decades ago, and I had taken him in since he stunned me with his potential.

I got him off the streets and molded him in my own image.

He was my other eye. My right-hand man who I trusted the most, even more than my own son who would rather be rebellious and reckless than act like a fucking Romano.

“That fucker thought he could get away with stealing from me.” I twirled the tumbler of amber liquid in my hands, taking a sip from it.

Ever since I took over the Cosa Nostra after my father’s demise, I had turned the tide of things.

The laws were more strict and deadly. I ran the Cosa Nostra with an iron fist, acquired allies and immeasurable power that made people terrified of me wherever I set foot.

I took what I wanted without caring who got hurt in the process.

They called me the devil himself, but I was much more than that.

I was The Destroyer. My silence was much deadlier than my rage.

That was what made Luca think he could steal from me and get away with it.

He broke not one, but a couple of our most sacred rules.

He stole from the Cosa Nostra. He had been stealing from me for a while, and I intentionally turned a blind eye to it, hoping to see what he wanted to pull off with it.

Then, I found out that he was forcing himself on one of our girls, Silver.

He wasn’t just abusing her. He was using her for his own gain, forcing her to sleep with clients, making money off her back.

Silver couldn’t say anything to us since he threatened to stop paying for her mother’s cancer treatment if she told on him.

When he figured out that we were on to him, he took off, convinced that he could hide from me—the devil.

“I’d have killed him off the second we found him, but I wanted you to do the honors. He’s at the warehouse. All yours.”

“The chase is the most interesting part, son.” I smirked.

“Our shipment should be coming in tomorrow,” he informed me.

“Good,” I affirmed, downing the rest of my drink at a go. “Have you seen Luciano around?”

A scowl immediately crawled up his face. “Probably out partying his ass off as usual. I don’t know why you bother with him. Luciano has made it clear that all he wants to do is waste his life away while you build a legacy.”

I smiled, nostalgia stabbing me in the gut.

Luciano was the heir I never saw coming.

I had a one-time thing with a girl and she fell pregnant.

My father wouldn’t allow his grandchild to be raised outside the family, so, he paid off his mother after she gave birth to him.

I was stuck with a baby boy at twenty, and twenty-seven years later, I still found myself wondering if I made the right decision to keep him.

He has been more of a pain in the ass than I can comprehend.

“Just find him for me, will you? We both know that little fucker has a tendency to make reckless decisions that might be the end of us,” I said, my voice without a twinge of emotion.

“I’ll get right on it, Don.”

I knew he wasn’t happy about it because of how resentful he sounded, but he also understood that my word was final.

“I—” My words died on my tongue when my gaze darted to the screen of the monitor on my mahogany desk.

There she was.

Silvana Bianchi. In the flesh. Tormenting me, undoing me like the first time I laid my eyes on her.

I never had a thing for blonde women. Silvana was the first for me.

I had a feeling it had more to do with her bratty, stubborn self than her hair color.

Silvana was like a hurricane—volatile, deadly and captivating for an agent of chaos like me.

I knew something in me cracked wide open when I laid eyes on her.

Those lush shiny blonde strands that I could remember fisting in my grip as I pounded into her from behind, olive green eyes that seemed to tread with caution, yet held a rebellious spark in them that only came out when triggered, that flawless porcelain skin that I wanted to claim with my marks, and her body .

.. sinful curves and contours that haunted me since that night.

She was an undoing personified.

But then, just like everyone else who had been pissing me off lately, she thought she could steal from me and get away with it. She didn’t just cart away with my money, she took my jewelry and my ancestral ring, then she had the nerve to sell them off.

Maybe it was the vindictive side of me that didn’t want to let it go and wanted to find her to teach her a lesson.

What I didn’t understand was why I didn’t succumb to the urge to blow her brains out when I got the chance.

Instead, I decided to keep her as my sex slave, with the twist that she had to work at the strip club to pay back every penny she owed.

I didn’t understand if it was my sick need for control or because deep down, I just couldn’t let her go.

Silvana had climbed up to the stage, her red lingerie leaving little to the imagination. My jaw clenched, my grip tightening around my tumbler, nearly crushing it into pieces. My blood boiled to its peak, rage blinding me until all I saw was red.

Her slim, curvaceous body swayed to the music, her lush hair swishing in its ponytail with each slow sensual whine. Silvana grinded against the pole, bending over swiftly to jiggle her ass in the face of the fuckwads who were about to die soon for even daring to look at what was mine.

Then I saw someone grab her ass, spanking it with a wad of cash. My vision blew hot, hot lava leaving a residue in my chest, igniting a burning rage and possessiveness. I didn’t know what demon possessed me, but I was on my feet in no time, grabbing my gun off the table.

“Where are you going?” Damien asked, his voice cutting through that red, heated haze.

“To go teach a son of a bitch a lesson not to mess with what’s mine.”

I didn’t look back. I stormed out of the study.

****

M y strides were long and sharp, everything else blurring into oblivion aside from my target whom I immediately noticed the minute I set foot in the main part of the lounge.

My jaw flexed, my teeth grinding against each other. I didn’t waste time before stretching my gun forward and landing a shot on his arm twice.

The lounge turned upside down. A guttural scream ripped from his throat almost louder than the screeches and screams of the people struggling to find their way out of the chaotic space. I was unremorseful, only intent on searching for her and watching his groaning figure writhe on the floor.

“Throw him out,” I ordered as I saw my men approaching his body. They dragged him out, leaving just me, anyone else who was still bold enough to hang around, and her.

She was immobilized, horror etched on her face like I was some villain from a dark fairytale.

Her lips trembled, blood splatters were all over her thigh, arm, and particularly a side of her face.

The closer I got, the more her eyes widened in fear, unsure whether she should run or stay rooted in the spot she was in.

“What did you do?” she whispered.

I didn’t flinch. I stopped in front of her, my bigger frame towering over her smaller one. “I took care of him.”

“You just shot a man unprovoked!” she screamed at me.

“Unprovoked?” I scoffed, narrowing my eyes at her. “He touched you,” I gritted, hating that I didn’t choose to finish him off.

“It comes with the job in case you’ve forgotten,” she shot at me sarcastically in response.

“I don’t care. You are done here.” I glared at her.

“What?” Surprise was etched on her face. “No, we are not. Why don’t you get out of here and let me get my work done.”

Her stubbornness ticked off my last nerves. It made me want to fuck her and choke her at the same time.

“Get off the stage,” I ordered, my gaze blazing hot.

“No,” she deadpanned. “Why don’t you make me?”

That threw me off. I closed the distance between us, throwing her over my shoulder. She yelped in surprise and I spanked her ass.

“That bratty attitude,” I said through clenched teeth, “it ends here and now.” Her tiny hands descended on my back in incessant fists.

“Put me down,” she raved on like a mad woman.

I didn’t know how I was able to cover the distance between the lounge and my study in such a short time. Maybe it was the rage or because I wanted to punish her so badly.

The door flung open, and I dropped her to her feet, backing her up against the door. It was so swift, almost unbelievable because I felt her swing a palm against my cheek. Hard.

The slap resounded throughout the room. My jaw clenched. My eyes met hers, heated and feral. Her eyes burned with unshed tears, anger vividly evident in them.

“Got it out of your system yet?” I demanded, my voice rough and husky.

“Fuck you,” she spat. “The rules don’t apply when it’s you. I mean, you had no problem pinning me against the wall and fucking my brains out the other night.” Her cheeks flushed as she spoke, embarrassment evident in those green eyes.

My breathing was heavier—harsh, even. She looked like the perfect gift that was waiting to be unwrapped in that fucking lingerie. It was fucking with my head, and knowing the things that bastard must have thought when he put his hands on her, my expression hardened.

“What am I to do with you, hm?” I wrapped my fingers around her delicate throat, stroking her raging pulse.

I pushed my throbbing cock against her, wanting her to feel what she was doing to me. A low moan ripped from her.

Of course. My dirty little slut.

“Choke you to death or just fuck that bratty attitude out of you?” The coldness in my voice thickened.

Her eyes briefly flashed with fear, but her mask was back on in no time. “Get on with it.”

She sounded so out of breath, and by God, it’d be nice to hear that sultry voice thin out as I fucked her against this tiny door, letting everyone hear how much control I had over her body—over her.

But that wasn’t what I wanted. I could be the devil himself, but I also knew when I wanted something and didn’t. I didn’t want to fuck her. Not right now. I wanted something else.

My gaze found her lips, full, sensuous, shimmering. They parted slightly as though they were begging me to take them.

I leaned in, feeling her breath hitch rapidly. The heat between us crackled violently, drawing us to each other like a moth to flame until all I could smell was lavender mixed with eagerness and submission, until all I could see was those green eyes.

“Dom...”

I lost it.

I crashed my lips on hers.

I never liked kissing women. I never kissed women because I considered it a waste of time. Moreso, it was the most intimate sexual experience, and I never felt connected enough to any other woman I had fucked before her to kiss them.

She was different. Silvana was different and she tasted a lot more intoxicating than I thought she would ever since I had fantasized about kissing her.

The taste of her—soft, consuming, and seductively unhinged—exploded all over my tongue, eliciting a groan from me.

I didn’t release her neck from my grip. Instead, I tightened my grip, tearing a moan from her throat which shot straight to my cock, causing blood to rush to it, hardening it.

I pressed the hard on against her cunt, devouring her lips.

Her palms crawled up my chest like she was torn and at a loss on how to handle how hard I kissed her. She fisted my shirt and moaned for me when I thrust my tongue into her mouth. I explored every inch of her tiny, little mouth, the thought of how it’d look around my cock ripping a growl from me.

Kissing her turned me feral. The pace at which I feasted on her lips was outright animalistic. I was convinced that if I kissed her harder, then it’d be enough, but it wasn’t.

Nothing was ever enough when it came to this woman.

I wanted to keep talking until I had thoroughly etched myself under her skin. I wanted to keep claiming her because the obsession that grabbed me in the guts made me feel like kissing her was exactly what I needed to fucking breathe—to exist.

She unraveled me. She shattered me. She destroyed me and then, she pieced me together all over again.

Her body went weak against mine in submission, her strokes unable to match mine because every taste of her drove me into madness. Every glide of my tongue against her moist lips stiffened my muscles so tightly.

Mine. All fucking mine.

I kissed Silvana and I knew that I’d bathe the entirety of Sicily in blood, ash, and destruction before I let her go.

She was fucking made for me.

I tore my lips off hers, and she echoed with a gasp, fisting my shirt. Her eyes twinkled with the need for more, her lips swollen, still begging to be eaten after I had just devoured them.

“What did you do that for?” She was still breathless from the heated kiss.

“To tell you that this,” I ran my fingers over her body—her nipples, the curve of her waist and hips, and then glided my thumb over her swollen lips, “body belongs to me. Every inch of it.”

“That wasn’t what you—”

“I don’t care about the initial terms of our agreement. You are not dancing for any filthy fucker at this club anymore and that’s final.”