Page 46 of The Mastermind (Mafia Rivals #1)

‘I’ll say this once. Stay away from my family. From today onward that includes Maddelena. Her mother and siblings will be welcome at our wedding if she wants them to. You and your son, however, are not. I’ll leave it to your imagination what the consequences of defying this request will be.’

I turned and headed for the door. The creak of his chair reached me just before he snarled, ‘You will not get away with this.’ His agitation thickened his accent, but I heard him loud and clear.

It was my turn to smile. ‘We both know I already have.’

Outside, my men re-flanked me.

And yeah, outwardly I may have looked calm, but facing the enemy in his territory was anything but a walk in the park. All it took was a tiny spark to start a conflagration. Whatever my past temperament, Maddelena deserved not to be left alone to face our families with news of my demise.

We made it to the car in one piece, Fist’s more uncanny-than-usual hovering telling me the big man was just as eager to leave the Mancinelli compound in his rearview.

I breathed a little easier when he shut the bulletproof door, but I waited until we were on the highway to answer the silent buzzing of my phone. “Hey, cara .”

‘Cesare? I thought you’d be back by now. Are you okay?’

A wave of tenderness swept through me at the proof of her worry and concern. ‘Easy, baby, I’m fine.’

Her hitched breath told me she’d either been crying or on the brink of tears. Another, stronger wave doused me.

‘You’re on your way home?’

I smiled, loving that she already considered my condo her home. ‘After a couple of pit stops, yeah.’

A throb of silence told me she wasn’t pleased with that answer. ‘How did it go?’

I loosened my tie and sprawled back in the seat, letting the sound of her husky voice wash over me.

The only thing that would’ve been better was feeling her soothe me in person.

I planned to remedy that soon enough. Sagging against the headrest, I answered, ‘He called me some choice names. Threatened me a few times. But I think the message got through.’ Fuck, I hope so.

Carnage might be inevitable but I wanted some things to go smoothly. For fucking once. The sound of slow-moving water reached my ears. ‘What are you doing?’

‘Having a bath. I was hoping you’d come back and join me.’

I squeezed my eyes tight as lust unravelled through me. Reaching out, I hit the privacy button, waited impatiently as it rose. ‘Switch to video, bedda .’

‘Hmm, I’m not sure I want to.’ I heard the pout in her voice. ‘I don’t know that you deserve it.’

My breath whistled through my teeth as my cock jerked to painful life. ‘You want me to beg?’

‘I mean, that’s a start, I guess.’

‘Baby,’ I cajoled. ‘I just spent a whole half hour in the last place I wanted to be, just for you.’

‘Are you calling the home I grew up in a hellscape, Salvatore?’

Nah, I knew better. ‘No, bedda . Just a very small faction of your relatives who live there.’ The sound of moving water increased, churning my imagination. ‘Come on, baby. Please.’

She made me wait, breathing softly. ‘Since you begged…’ A soft ping announced the change of medium.

I pulled the phone from my ear just in time to see her fill up my screen.

Her hair was piled up on top of her head in a messy bun my fingers itched to release.

But what drew my every focus was the glow of her skin and the hint of glorious tits above the suds.

Her face was make-up free, her clamped eyelashes and slightly rosy eyelids telling me it wasn’t just water dampening her face.

She’d been crying. Even still, Cristu , she was gorgeous.

‘Fuck,’ I breathed, tackling my belt with uncouth haste. Pre-cum was already beading from my slit by the time I freed myself. My dick surged then slapped against my abs. ‘You’re so fucking pretty.’

‘You’re not so bad your—’ She stopped, eyes widening when she caught a peek of what I was doing. ‘Are you jerking off?’ she whispered, cutely scandalised.

I laughed. Considering everything we’d done to each other in the last few weeks, it blew my mind that she could still blush. ‘Not yet. But that’s the plan.’

She did that mouth twisting thing that told me she was biting her inner cheek. ‘Can I watch?’ she asked, her cheeks reddening even more.

‘On two conditions.’

‘Cesare,’ she protested.

‘Hear me out before you say no. You might like it.’

‘Doubt it,’ she tossed back, but her eyes glittered, and the tightness in my chest eased a bit to know I’d distracted her from her concerns. ‘Okay, what?’ she said, unable to resist the lure.

‘First, you show me those beautiful tits. Show me what I’m missing.’

She drew out her compliance for several long seconds, then leaned forward and propped up the phone on the bath caddy.

Reclining against the head cushion, she scooped out a handful of suds and tossed it over the side.

Two more revealed the tops of her breasts.

Then, lifting both arms, she tucked them behind her head.

‘Fuck!’ I scrambled for a worthy description, but my brain was short-circuiting. So I fell back on the simple but utterly befitting word. ‘Beautiful. God, you’re so beautiful.’

A soft moan puffed through her parted lips, drawing my attention to the cupid’s bow I wanted wrapped around my cock more than I wanted to breathe. I released my death grip from my shaft and pumped my fist up and down, groaning at the dirty delight of it.

‘My turn. Show me, Cesare,’ she whispered. The surface of the water rippled with her restlessness. Her tits bounced and my vision hazed as hunger tore through me.

‘In a moment,’ I managed to get out. ‘There’s another condition, remember?’

‘What is it?’

‘That you go to bed naked tonight.’ Normally, she wore one of her decadent sets of lingerie that drove me insane. Tonight I had something different in mind. Something she might not go for. ‘Naked and wet.’

She watched me from lust-drugged eyes. ‘Why?’

‘I want to slide inside you while you’re sleeping.’ The very thought of it made me leak some more.

Her breath hitched. But the scandalised expression didn’t return. Instead, her nipples slowly hardened. Fuck yes, my little minx wasn’t against the idea.

‘Will you do that for me, baby?’

The slightest hesitation, then she nodded. ‘Yes.’ Her gaze dropped, searching the bottom of the screen.

I dutifully angled it. ‘See how hard you’ve made me, bedda ?’

Her moan was louder, longer. My hand moved faster, jacking myself off for both our pleasure. When her right hand started to lower, I paused long enough to catch her attention. ‘One last thing, Maddelena.’

‘Oh God. What?’ she whined.

‘You’re not allowed to come.’

Her open-mouthed outrage and upright surge, displaying her glorious tits, was all I needed to nut all over my hand. After I cleaned up, I lifted the phone.

‘Sleep well. I’ll wake you up in the best way, baby,’ I said, blowing her a kiss. ‘Count on it.’