Page 6 of The Hitman's Prince

“Standing here now, it feels complicated to explain.”

Maybe because I knew Vince was going to be dead in less than a week, the thought of him forcing himself onme wasn’t as all-consuming as when his father did it. With Ricardo, there was no end in sight, no bottom of the well of what I owed him. More likely, though, it had to do with the soft differences between the two of them. Vince had love coursing through his veins whether he wanted to admit it or not. I doubted he ever would, but his father was made of nothing more than malice and contempt. It was not my fear of dying that determined when I would be willing, but the manner of the man taking me.

Ricardo fucked me to prove a point to me.

Vince had fucked me to prove a point to himself.

“I understand complicated,” he said. “I’d like it if you lit a fire.”

The return to our normal snapped me back into the present, and I gave him a quick and succinct nod. “Yes, Sir. Sorry.”

I went to the fireplace and twisted the gas on, not bothering to rear back when the flames licked to life, burning treacherously close in front of my face. The discomfort of the fire was welcome because, eight days on, I still hadn’t found my footing in this new order of the Angelini clan.

“It’s still cold in here,” he said from the desk.

I straightened and turned in time to see him trace his tongue across the swell of his bottom lip. I swallowed back a moan that had no place breathing itself into existence. It had been so long since I’d been fucked the way I liked, the way I needed. I didn’t think Vince had it in him,though. That sharp edge of contempt his father always carried for me was the kink I’d grown to love the most.

Sleeping with Vince Angelini would only be for pleasure, not purpose.

“I can warm you, Sir,” I said, standing in front of the fire with nervous hands shoved into my pockets.

“How would you do that?”

He pushed his chair back from the desk, eyes alert. He tracked me the way a predator would track its prey as I closed the space between the fireplace and the desk. When I reached him, I sank down to my knees and made quick work of his belt, of his fly. He lifted enough off the chair for me to tug his pants and underwear down. His cock was not hard yet, a little heavier than flaccid, the sweet scent of sweat and soap permeating the air.

I took his softness into my mouth, all the way to the back of my tongue until my nose was buried in the short hairs around the base of his shaft, then I rested my cheek on his thigh and closed my eyes. Vince made a surprised sound, then threaded his fingers through my hair, stroking it away from my face and behind my ear.

He groaned quietly, lifting a little more off his seat, pushing deeper into my mouth. He was quickly getting hard, and as his cock swelled in my mouth, restricting my air, my own erection followed after. But I made no move to suck or lick or swallow. I simply held him in my mouth, relishing the soft, yet still dominating way he touched my hair.

“That’s a good pet,” he murmured, leaning back in hischair, leather creaking as he moved, and I shivered from my place on the floor. “I’m much warmer now. Much warmer.”

And as he curled his fingers around the base of my skull to hold me in his lap, I knew that by calling in the hit on Vince Angelini, I’d made the biggest mistake of my life.

Chapter 5

Vince

It became routine after that, even though I’d never taken Orion’s body as my own, I took his mouth every night. I understood why my father had kept him close, though I’d yet to go as far as he had. I didn’t know if I ever would, but it was the thirst for that physicality that had me crossing town to the Rose Hill University, driving up the winding driveway to Thorn Hill where I knew Gideon, Fletcher, and their harem of fuck boys would be.

I found Bellamy first, on the porch with a glass of wine in hand, his legs stretched out in front of him, feet propped up on Daren’s lap.

“I have to admit I never wanted to see you again,” Daren said to me in greeting.

He and I had started off not understanding each other, with him mistaking my interest in Bellamy’s wellbeing as anything other than work. My introduction toBellamy was complicated, but my understanding of the Sinclair and North hierarchy had been ingrained in my brain since I’d learned my own name.

They weren’t much more than figureheads, with more money than sense, pulling strings like they’d been making their own decisions and not being influenced bymyfamily the whole time. Gideon and Fletcher were both happy enough to walk away from that life, taking their fathers with them, which made things easier—and harder—for me.

Two clowns off the playing board, but that meant I was the only one left to make the moves. I’d admittedly spent more time with my cock in Orion’s throat than I had with my nose in my father’s books, but time hadn’t come to bite me yet. I still had more.

“You should know well enough you’re never truly out of this life,” I said.

Bellamy pulled his legs off Daren’s lap and stood. “I’ll go get Gideon.”

Daren snorted, rolling his eyes at Bellamy, but making no argument when I settled myself into the seat he’d vacated.

“Do I get a foot rub too?” I asked.

“I’ll cut you off at the ankles.”