Page 32 of The Mastermind (Mafia Rivals #1)

I spread my arms wide. ‘Why the hell not? We’ve been circling this particular drain for a while now. Why not get it all out in the open?’

His teeth set for several seconds before he exhaled loudly. ‘I was fine with leaving you clinging to the lockers or hiding behind your little friend like your life depended on it whenever you saw me coming. Hell, half the time, I forgot you even existed.’

The dent to my pride would’ve been painful if I didn’t know what I knew now. That somehow, Cesare Salvatore was as hooked on me as I was hooked on him. Perhaps there was some truth to my thought about this being some Romeo and Juliet bullshit complex with some macabre twist.

Did Cesare feel that too?

I shook my head to free myself of the voice. ‘Only half the time?’

His face darkened with visible displeasure, the taunt hitting a sore spot. ‘You had a very bad habit of following me with those beautiful eyes. They clung just as hard as you clung to the walls.’

My dismissive snort fell a little flat. ‘You were… are my enemy. I would’ve been foolish to pretend you didn’t exist, as much as I wanted to.’

He laughed, although there was little humour in the conceited sound. ‘Yeah, duci , let’s go with that.’

I huffed in protest. ‘So I kept track of you every now and then. So what? You had the same vicious temper then as you do now. Pardon me if I didn’t want to be caught in one of your stupid outbursts.’

His eyes blazed and my belly clenched, wondering if I’d taken it too far. But he gained control of himself almost immediately, his caress slow and hypnotic as he continued to wash me.

‘So…’ I pushed after another minute of silence.

Jaw set, he took my hand, turned it over to examine my fingers with that same ferocious intensity. Then, lifting them to his mouth, he kissed the tips, sending my breathing haywire all over again. His other hand captured my waist, and he dragged me close until my nipples brushed his chest.

Still keeping hold of my fingers, he raised our linked hands to his nape, brushing the skin beneath the curls touching his collar. ‘I felt your stare, right here. All the fucking time.’ He pressed my fingers into his skin, rubbing back and forth. Back and forth. ‘It was annoying… at first.’

My tongue thickened in my mouth, thankfully blocking the trigger-happy questions brimming at the back of my throat from spilling free. Only at first? What changed? Was it a good thing?

‘But I was willing to chalk it up to our family history.’ His mouth twitched again. ‘Like you said, an acknowledgement of an enemy or anomaly that didn’t belong.’

A sound rumbled from my throat. ‘That wasn’t what I said. Stop twisting my words.’

‘You were beneath my radar,’ he continued as if I hadn’t spoken. ‘But then you went and changed all that, didn’t you, bedda mia ? I touched you and you went and fucking kissed me, stuck that addicting, virgin tongue in my mouth.’

‘What makes you think I was a virgin then?’ I dared.

It was intentionally provocative. Seeking a reaction. One I got in spades.

His chest swelled with a slow, long inhale as his eyes turned that fascinating molten that said his control was fraying.

‘Stop trying to get a rise out of me, baby, or it won’t end well for you.

You were a virgin,’ he insisted. ‘I haven’t only just recently taken up keeping an eye on the Mancinellis.

We knew every breath you lot took, even back then.

Granted, one of the few times you slipped away from my spies was that night.

If I’d known you’d be there…’ He paused, then his mouth flattened.

‘We’re veering away from what you want to know.

‘Which is that you poked the fucking lion that night by indulging in your little game. And you went from here’ – he pressed my fingers to his hot skin once more, then dragged them over his shoulder, down his chest… to the packed grouping of muscles above his navel – ‘to here.’

It wasn’t his… his heart… Thank God. I didn’t want to be anywhere near Cesare Salvatore’s heart. I absolutely didn’t.

‘What are you saying, that I gave you a belly ache? Indigestion?’

He didn’t smile. Or chuckle. Or even look mad any more. But his gaze was more direct than it’d ever been. The intent to deliver his message, acute.

‘I’m saying you went from an irritant to a hunger, Maddelena.

A wild, unquenchable hunger in my gut I haven’t been able to shake for almost a decade and a half.

’ He delivered this with even, deadly intent.

‘And that’s why, until I do, you will remain mine.

Fuck everything and everyone else. Now get on your fucking knees. ’

Completely and utterly disarmed by his words, I got on my knees.

Cesare fucked my mouth like he was digging for gold.

Or an extra three-tenths on his favourite racetrack.

‘Look at me, Maddelena,’ he rumbled. He waited until my watering gaze lifted to meet his. From below, he was a virile, towering inked giant.

A gladiator entirely comfortable in his arena and supremely confident he had his quarry cornered. But his smile was a little strained, his breathing choppy from the way my tongue worked his slit and his shaft, the way I sucked him like my life depended on it.

‘You’ve got everyone fooled, haven’t you?

You walk around so pious and demure, smiling that serene smile like you’re Mona Lisa or your namesake herself.

And yet look at you. Here you are, on your knees, swallowing my cock like a dirty little slut.

’ He pushed inside until his broad head blocked my airways.

Held and held and held, then released me with a hoarse shout, the hands braced on the wall curling into fists. ‘Fuck, you’re too damn good at that.’

The praise, filthy and genuine, went straight to my head. Then reversed direction, lodging with glee between my legs, soaking me and ratcheting my need.

Emboldened, I wrapped one hand around his base and cupped his balls with the other. They were drawn up and tight, ready to blow.

He hissed when I played with them. ‘Jesus.’ Eyes laced with madness blazed down at me. ‘If I ever catch you giving another man this mouth, I’ll kill you both. Do you hear me?’

I took my time to suck him deep, then let him pop free. ‘As long as I have the same leeway when it comes to another woman.’

The unhinged look intensified. As if the thought of me taking out another woman out of rabid jealousy turned him on. ‘You have my permission,’ he breathed, his cock astonishingly thickening even fatter.

‘Thank you.’

A hint of a smile whispered over his mouth. ‘You’re welcome. Now make me come, my beautiful slut.’

He drove himself back in. My eyes watered so hard I couldn’t make out his features. Obscene noises filled the bathroom as he fucked my mouth roughly.

And I loved every second of it.