Page 17 of The Mastermind (Mafia Rivals #1)

Before I could stop myself, my tongue darted out and licked the liquor. It was no more than a drop or two and yet it flooded my system with warmth and insane intoxication, gathering a moan in my chest I barely managed to hold back.

‘I’d like a token to seal our new deal, which for the sake of clarity I’ll repeat. I call. You come. Or else,’ he said, his eyes fixed firmly on my wet mouth.

‘A token? Like… a handshake?’ Or a kiss?

His gaze grew hot and borderline feral as it trailed over my face and shoulders to where my chest met the duvet. He took a step closer. Held out his hand.

Hesitant, because I didn’t trust Cesare Salvatore further than I could throw him, which was not far at all, I held out my hand.

He captured it, wrapped his bigger one around it. Then the bastard jerked me up with a merciless yank that unbalanced me. I fell into him with zero finesse, partially dislodging the sheets covering my body once more.

Me knowing and him guessing I was naked beneath the quilt was one thing. Having it confirmed raced flames over my skin. ‘Cesare! What the hell?’

He caught me easily as I scrambled to keep my dignity. But beneath the frantic tussle, I felt his stillness, the wave of hyperawareness that came with the insane attraction I felt around this man.

‘That’s the second time you’ve used my name,’ he murmured, his delectable mouth far too close to mine.

My face and body heated up faster. ‘I figure I’m due since you use mine with liberal abandon. Let me go!’

He ignored me and there was something baffling yet exhilarating about being pressed against his body and him showing absolutely zero interest in ogling me as most men would. Cesare seemed entirely content with reading my face while resisting my efforts to extricate myself with insulting ease.

That was, until he spoke. ‘Do you always sleep in the nude, Maddelena?’ His voice was thick, a touch slurred.

Only then did other things impinge on my senses.

He was hard. Insanely so.

Blood surged through my veins as his hips rocked against me, pushing the imprint of his arousal into my bare belly. Much as he’d done that night. His arm was still a cage of iron around my waist, but his fingertips moved ever so softly against my ribs, covering my skin in goosebumps.

‘N-no,’ I whispered before I wondered why the hell I was answering him.

‘Why tonight?’

Because I was hot. And horny. And I needed easy access to pleasure myself while thinking of you in your delicious race suit. Or dressed in all black. Or naked. With a cigar hanging from the corner of your mouth and a sexy smirk on your face.

I pressed my lips together, refusing to answer.

His head canted lower, his mouth hovering tantalisingly close to mine. All I needed to do was reverse the push into pull and I could close the gap, turn memory into reality.

‘I still think of the way you wrapped these beautiful legs around me that night, you know that?’ he muttered.

Surprise, and growing lust, pounded through me, arrowing straight between my clenching thighs. ‘Y-you do?’ Why the hell did I sound like a damn sacrificial virgin?

‘Hmm,’ he growled. ‘At the most inconvenient fucking times. Like while I’m navigating Eau Rouge, and every scrap of my concentration is needed, and yet I’m wondering if those legs that pinned me so sweetly… were the legs of a traitor.’

Like a blast of ice water in the face, his words shocked me out of my base emotions. But something else instantly captured my attention, freezing my flight.

The gilt-edged mirror hanging on the wall across the room. My head snapped to the left, my shocked wide eyes staring at the image we made.

His tall, dark frame against the white covers and my smaller pale body was so stark, so… entrancing, I couldn’t look away.

Cesare turned too. The unabashed hunger blazing in his eyes, despite his harsh words, dragged a moan from me before I could stop it. While my top half was completely bared and pressed against his torso, the covers were half-draped over my lower half.

But the top curve of my ass, my tousled hair, his arm pinning me, my splayed hands on his chest partially hiding the globe of one breast, the arousal I couldn’t hide blazing in my eyes… Everything was on display. And the more we watched one another, the thicker and deeper the river of lust grew.

‘You can’t look away, can you? You like how well we fit together, bedda ?’

A strangled, incoherent sound left my throat.

The distinctive click jerked my focus downward, my eyes widening in horror when I saw his phone in his hand, aimed at the mirror. ‘Oh God! Y-you took a picture of me?’

‘Of us,’ he amended.

I fought to scramble away from him, but the arm banding me tightened, keeping me plastered to his front. His still, very aroused , body.

‘What for? To… to blackmail me?’ I wasn’t sure why a lance of hurt impaled my middle.

Just because the sight of my body made Cesare Salvatore hard didn’t mean I had stopped being the enemy. Or that he owed me any leniency for the crime he believed I was in the process of committing against him. And yet…

‘Now, there’s an interesting thought.’ The tip of his nose brushed my cheek but his mouth remained infuriatingly absent, making me crave it more on my skin.

‘But for that to be anywhere near effective, I’d have to actually make the photo public.

And I promise you, bedda , any man who sees you like this I will gut from throat to balls. ’

I was drowning in the sheer feral insanity of that throatily worded threat of unspeakable violence when he took a long inhale of my neck. I sagged against him, my blood surging even faster through my veins as he finally placed his lips at the juncture between my neck and shoulder.

And he licked me.

Oh God. The feel of his tongue was incredible.

I wanted to experience it… everywhere. My hands clutched a handful of shirt and felt the tensile strength of his pecs shifting beneath the cotton.

Overcome with need I couldn’t contain, I dug my nails into him, felt him tense for a moment, before he exhaled harshly.

His mouth, warm and firm, travelled from my neck to my jaw, then completed the tiny distance to my earlobe. He caught the delicate skin between his teeth, the bite sending fresh sparklers that immediately threatened to turn into fireworks.

‘Still want me to leave?’ he breathed in my ear.

This was madness. He’d come on a fishing expedition and all I was doing was baiting myself onto his hook. I ought to send him on his way. Tell him… ‘N-no… Yes.’

Low, dark but strained laughter feathered the shell of my ear, and dear God, I whimpered .

‘You don’t sound sure about that, bedda . And look at you, your nails are digging into me so hard, I’d have to pry you off to leave.’

Eyes heavy with drugged desire slid to the mirror and I gasped again at the image reflected. The sheets had slipped, taking any semblance of decency away. Now my ass and thighs were on full display and all Cesare needed to do was look down to see my painfully budded breasts.

Which is exactly what he did in the next instant when he loosened his hold.

And pushed me back onto the bed.