Page 35

Arosso

I see things in a new light.

It’s been a month and I’m finally out of this goddamn boot that’s been cramping my style.

It’s been a whirlwind covering up the bratva-police scandal.

Painting Ferraro as some kind of hero who uncovered the plot was a hard sell.

And the release of Captain Dall was an even harder one.

But it was the only way to keep the Dalls and myself out of this mess.

It took a lot of convincing with Donny, but ultimately, the don came around by having a face-to-face with the old bear.

That’s behind us now.

Visiting the graves of my late family, I apologized to them for going back on my word. I had told them I’d see them soon. Even if I wouldn’t be admitted into the pearly gates, I’d ask for visitation rights from my party in hell.

Turns out it’s not my time. And I found new purpose in life.

I buy a gift every day for my little firecracker, but today is a special one.

I’m on my way to the jeweler, considering how I’m going to ask her to be my wife.

Just the thought punches me twice in the gut, for different reasons.

Lisa was never true love… but she was a good person.

Admitting that hurts more than I can ever explain, and it’s against the code to marry again… especially after what happened.

And my daughter…

I get out of my SUV and look up to the sky on this perfect spring day.

I hope you can forgive me, sweetheart.

Even though me and your mom didn’t always get a long, you were everything to me.

Saying a silent prayer doesn’t absolve me of anything, but it’s something.

Heading onto the busy crossroads, I dip into one of Castor DeMatteo’s sister stores. He’s the prick who loves gold and precious metals, you might recall. It’d be sacrilege not to give the Valentino family the business after what Donny did for me.

Apparently, the Russians still don’t know we were involved. That’s the beauty of no survivors. By the time Nikolaj learned I was a Valentino, it was too late. And when Donny came in guns blazing? I guess I’m still a ghost.

I push open the door to chimes overhead, and see a familiar face behind the counter. “Big Ace, what’s up, fucker?”

“I lost a bet,” the giant man says. “My boss likes to punish me by sending me to the dirtiest place on the planet and sell some shiny toys.”

“Lucky you, I’m buying one today.”

“Oh.” He throws his arms out. “Make it any easier for me and I’ll rob you blind.”

“Fuck off.” I laugh and slap the glass table. “Nothing under three karats.”

“Whoa! Going to give me a heart attack here. You know what? Why don’t you come back tomorrow. If I make a sale like that, Castor’s going to keep me here indefinitely.”

We both crack up. The big guy is fun to have around, just like I remember when he was making deliveries to my shops.

“Alright, alright.” Ace sighs while leaning over to pull out two sheets of sparkling diamond rings.

As I’m going through them, I picture Quinn’s face opening such a gift. She’d never expect it, considering all of my rhetoric up ’til this point. Even after promising I want nothing to do with traditional wedding stuff ever again, she doesn’t even blink. She’s just happy to be with me.

That’s how I know she’s worth all of the jazz. I want to give it to her, honestly.

“Yo, Ghost.” Ace looks up at me seriously. “You must be the luckiest mother fucker in the industry.”

“You heard, huh?”

He tilts his head. “You might remember me as a little errand boy—”

“Never thought of you as little.”

“ Hah .” He pats his belly. “Well, I’m number two to Castor now. I hear things. I know things. Here and there, you know.”

“Uh huh.”

“And for the big Stallion to stick his neck out like that for you. Woo, boy. You must’ve been a legend in your day.”

“Still am.”

Ace shrugs. “Guess that limp gives you a bit of swagger. Alright, time to weigh you down a little more. Which one’s it going to be?”

I sift through the second sheet, remembering that she loved the pear-shaped diamond Estina Esmeralda wore in the beach episode of Chilling Desires … and I hate myself for knowing that. “That one’s the right shape. It looks a little foggy though.”

“Oh, oh! ” Ace has an idea. “Castor would kill me for talking you down in size, but I have a 2.5 karat pear over here. Came in this morning. Hold on.” He runs to the back and pulls out a GIA certification and a diamond that’s literally in a napkin. “Look at that.”

It’s true. It’s brilliant.

“D-color, super pure, no lab grown bullshit.” Ace winks at me. “I can have the old jeweler mold you up a band in no time.”

“Price?” I pull out a wad of hundreds.

“Your money’s no good here, Ghost.”

“Fuck off.”

“I’m serious.” Ace lifts his hands, and I grab his face.

“Listen to me. I’m paying for my future wife’s ring. I don’t care if you stuff the money up your ass, it’s coming to you.”

“Okay. Okay. Relax. I’ll charge you cost. This one will run you a clean twenty.”

“That’s more like it.” I count out ten thousand of a thirty stack and leave the rest inside the rubber band. “Clean band. I want the diamond to pop.”

“Right away.” Ace takes the diamond carefully in the napkin and gets the jeweler to work.

Once it’s done, he dresses it nice with a gaudy box that actually has a white light in it. A little too romantic for my taste, but Quinn will be so taken aback by the whole thing she’ll think it’s a movie. The thought brings a smile to my face.

She was right about what she said—she’s tough. Tougher than I would’ve pegged her for, and I love her for it.

xxx

When I get home to our stage house—the one that’s been abandoned for some time—I hear footsteps pattering down the stairs. Quinn has a dorky headset on from one of her accounting meetings, and a little gift bag in one hand.

She runs and jumps on me, which makes me wince since it’s a whole person on my recovering leg. “ Woops! ” She drops off of me and rubs my shin. “Sorry, you just look so good without the boot on.”

The ring is in my pocket, and I have to shift awkwardly so she doesn’t touch it by accident. I pretend it’s from pain, and put my hand up telling her it’s alright.

“What’s that?” I nod to the bag.

“It’s for you. But— ” She pulls it away from me. “I have news to share. I officially gave my two weeks’ notice to the firm.”

“Hell yeah, kid.” I smack her backside.

“And I took the entry level forensics job at the private company, Ivres Tilly. ”

“Good, because if you took a PD job, we’d be mortal enemies,” I joke.

“Just like you and my dad, right? Yeah, okay .”

I take her hand in mine. “I’m proud of you, Quinn. That’s a big step.”

“Thank you.” She leans up and kisses me. “Now for your gift. It’s small, but ferocious.”

“Ferocious?” My brow furrows as I look inside. A part of me dies when I see them.

I hold up two lion socks, each with a huge mane of fuzz. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

“ Nope. ” She twists back and forth, unable to contain herself. “Well?”

“Well, what?”

“Aren’t you going to try them on?” She bites her lip to stop from laughing.

“No.” I turn away, and she clears her throat.

“That’s not very polite, Mister Silver. You owe me one for saving your life and all—”

“Bitch. The count is three to one.”

“Yeah but, I’m cute, sooo…”

I grunt and step out of my loafers, then rip off my socks in a huff. “Can’t believe I’m fucking doing this.”

A part of me wants to hold the ring hostage when I see a fuzzy lion looking up at me from my foot. Once I have them both on, I let my hands slap my sides. “Happy?”

She looks me up and down, then pretends to be a cat, “ Rrrar! ”

“Look, just because I’m into fetish shit, doesn’t mean—”

“Oh, shut up, you.” She moves closer to me and squeezes my arm suggestively.

“Wait.” I grab her hand, but she slithers closer, her body threatening to bump into the ring.

She moans with one hand around my neck as her lips slowly part, begging for mine. How can I resist her?

Our lips melt together, and our tongues clash in a stint of fiery passion. “That’s not all I bought today,” she says, nodding toward the box on the island. I see it’s already opened, and before I could look back, she drops her sweatpants and struts away from me wearing nothing but one of my shirts.

The view is intoxicating. The back of it covers half her ass, leaving the bottom part of her bubble butt to jiggle perfectly. Her skin is so tight is snaps back after every strut.

Fuck me. I bite my fist watching her, then follow when she beckons me.

She straps a ball-gag around her head and bites the ball. Of course she bought toys, this crazy woman.

I pull her hair before she can whip me, and push everything off the table. With one look under the table, I unlock the extender and rip it open so there’s a gap in the center. Bending her over the wood, I grab one of the dildos now sprawled on the floor.

She moans and shakes her head, pretending to be scared.

“Did you clean them?” I ask in a feral voice.

She’s literally hanging by her stomach when I grab one of her ankles and lift her, threatening to flip her over the edge.

“ Mm. ” She nods and winks at me, telling me she loves it.

Fine, I guess the ring can wait.

“We’re going to play a game today, Quinn, and you’re going to love it.” I spank her ass. “You’re going to love it so much, that you might beg for mercy.” I take off my suit one piece at a time, and spank her if she dares to look back.

Now I’m standing there, buck naked, holding a dildo with a front row seat to her two glorious holes. Her second one is pink around the rim, beautiful, yearning . And the other include two light pink delicate lips that glisten from the fountain I evoke.

She kicks her feet at me, pretending she’s stuck.

What a mess we’re about to make.

“I’m going to make you cum in thirty seconds.” I get to my knees and grab onto both of her legs, whipping them apart as her gagged face looks back at me. I tease the dildo over her clit before slowly sticking it inside.

It glides in like a tight chute. Thereafter, I hold eye contact before tilting my head and extending my tongue to gently touch her clit. I harden it at the tip and slide back and forth. Her toes curl. Legs stiffen.

“Twenty-five seconds.” I stare at her, letting her juice fall down the corners of my mouth. Swirling my tongue again evokes another small lake of liquid that I welcome like I’ve been dehydrated in a desert.

She’s tensing harder as I work the dildo.

“Twenty seconds,” I count for her.

She bites down on the red ball, her face pink with blood rushing to her head.

When I move in to suck on her perfect second lips, her eyes roll. I feel that familiar shiver in her right leg. I’m confident in my timing as my tongue swirls around her clit as I loosen suction from my lips.

“Fifteen.”

I ram the dildo harder into her, then pull it out to let some air soak into her juicy pussy. She has to beg for it. When she doesn’t, I remove my tongue too.

“ Mmph. ”

I stare at her cold in the eyes. We’re both counting internally now, so I slip the toy back in with a vengeance.

When my tongue touches her clit one more time, she yelps.

I moan into her second lips, feeling the shivering sensation intensify.

I’m rock hard right now. I can’t wait to enter her and tell her what I’ve been meaning to. But first… my promise.

Gripping onto her ass cheek and teasing the tip of the dildo in the base of her pussy, I switch directions of my tongue side to side, putting the pressure she needs to complete. Her body clenches—from arms to legs—neck veins visible.

She relaxes into a near deathlike state with a second to spare.

Her breath is labored and done. But she’ll snap back when she sees what I have waiting.

I rip her up from being bent over the hole in our dining room table, and grab a handful of her hair. “Did you enjoy that?”

“Yes, master,” she mutters through the ball gag.

“Good.” I notice the red mark on her belly from being draped over the ledge. “Was your punishment sufficient?”

“No, master.” She shakes her head.

“Good girl.” I pull her to the dining room chair and sit down on it, revealing all of my inches standing straight up.

After unstrapping the gag from her mouth, I allow her to speak.

“May I accept my punishment, master?” She teases her ass near my cock, and it’s driving me insane, but I have to keep up appearances.

“You may.”

She sits down on it, and all of the wetness from her pussy and my saliva makes it an easy slide up a tight chute.

“It hurts, master… but… it feels good.”

Her confidence is tantalizing, and her pussy is everything I’ve ever dreamed of having. Every fiber of my body is on fire with passion. I love how she moves, the way her ass jiggles after pounding against my legs, the slight pinkness of her pussy as my cock slides in and out of her.

She’s going to cum again… and I want to be right alongside her. I’m gripping her arms as she bounces up and down, up and down.

“Yes, master. Keep punishing me.” Her slave character is epic. I don’t even have to coach her; she’s just born to be my partner in this.

“Fuck.” I grunt, helping her bounce harder.

She moans and stops, burying me deep inside her as the quavering resumes. Aftershocks. And when she relaxes again, I pick her up and sprawl her on the floor missionary style.

After the first two orgasms, I slow it down, allowing myself to feel her soft skin in a way that changes the whole flow. She squirms slowly.

“You good?” I check in the be sure.

“I can do this all day.” She bites her lip and gives me a kiss.

I slide into her again, this time more gently, pushing her hair lightly out of her face.

“Silver,” she whispers to me as I cradle her back. “This is… nice.”

It’s true. Holding her while slowly pumping is a change of pace, and I think it’s the perfect time to tell her the truth.

“ All that stuff I said about not wanting a family, ” I whisper in her ear, “ I’ve changed my mind. I’ll have one… only with you. ”

Her body tenses as she looks at me. The fire behind her eyes cools, and I see a vulnerable young woman who wants nothing more than to be protected. She kisses me hard, then whispers back, “ Fill me up then, baby.”

Music to my ears. I’ve been holding back my load for twenty minutes already, just to make sure she was satisfied. And for her to lock her legs around my back and slowly go with my rhythm, my cock throbs into an explosion that decorates her insides. It seems endless, and blissful, and right.