Total pages in book: 40
Estimated words: 36839 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 184(@200wpm)___ 147(@250wpm)___ 123(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 36839 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 184(@200wpm)___ 147(@250wpm)___ 123(@300wpm)
I slip my hand between our bodies, seeking her clit.
She gasps, arching upward.
I lift her, anchoring us chest to chest as I move inside her. Our eyes lock. Neither of us speaks. There's nothing left to say. She knows she has me. Christ, she has to know. I spilled my truth over her, and she didn't flinch.
Her body quickens, the orgasm creeping up on her. It washes over her in stages. Her eyes flutter, her mouth falling open. Her body goes rigid, and then her cunt locks down around my cock. A decadent groan rolls from her lips, pouring over me.
The sight of her, the sound of, fuck, the feel of her, sends me over the edge with her. I bury my face in her throat, groaning her name as I spill into her, draining every drop I have into her.
And praying to fucking God my seed takes, tying her to me in ways that can't be undone.
She falls against my chest, completely spent.
"Diego," she sighs.
Within moment, her breath evens out into the deep, even cadence of sleep.
Mine doesn't. For a long time, I lie awake, just holding her. Praying to God that I've done enough to tie her to me. There is no other choice.
I'm still awake when my phone buzzes close to midnight.
I reluctantly grab it off the bedside table to see a message from Rafe.
Valentino: My place. Now.
Fuck.
"Where the fuck have you been?" Rafe growls forty-five minutes later, spinning to glare at me as soon as I step through the front door.
"Busy."
His brows pull together in a severe line. "With her?"
I slide into my seat at the table, buying myself a moment before I have to answer that. He isn't going to like anything I have to say, I already know that much.
"What's the issue?" I ask instead of telling him anything I should be telling him.
"You," he growls, pinning me with a hard stare.
"What the fuck did I do?" I glance around the table, but Coda, Domani, and Mattia studiously avoid my gaze. Luca's scowling at me exactly like Rafe. And Gabriel isn't here.
"You talked."
"How the fuck do you figure?"
"Marcello," Luca states.
Cazzo. Of course, Athena went to him for confirmation on who killed Genovese's men. And of course he fucking ran to Rafe. He has every bit as much reason to want the whole thing kept quiet as we do. His sister is married to a Valentino now.
"I see you aren't denying it," Rafe says, shaking his head in irritation. "What the fuck are you doing, Diego? Are we really going to do this all over again?"
"Jesus Christ. It's not even like that. You think I'd put Amalia at risk for the hell of it?" I narrow my eyes at him. "I had to tell her something to gain her trust."
"How much did you tell her?" Mattia asks. "I think that's the important question here."
"More than any of you would prefer, but nothing that implicates anyone in this room in any sort of crime," I admit, not willing to lie about it. If I want their trust, I have to earn it. Lying won't get me there.
"Mafankulo," Rafe mutters up at the ceiling.
"It's a moot point, Rafe."
He tips his head down, spearing me with another dark look. "Oh? Please explain how talking to the FBI is a moot point, Butera."
"She won't be FBI much longer."
"You seduced her?"
I grit my teeth at the way he says it, as if what we've shared was simply a task on a list. Christ, to him, I guess that is what it is. He doesn't know that I…what, exactly? That I can't get her out of my head? That I'm obsessed with everything she does? That I'm so fucking far in love with her I can't see straight?
I started falling the minute she tried to hit me in the garage. I don't know when I landed. In my kitchen last night? In the interview room earlier yesterday morning? In my office the day after we met? I don't know. I can't point to a single moment and say that right there is when I landed because, in some way, every single one of those moments is when I landed.
I just didn't know what the fuck to call it until she was asleep in my arms tonight.
I'm in love with her. That's why I've pushed and pulled and dragged until I got her right where I wanted her. Because not getting her there wasn't an option. I'm willing to fight as dirty as I have to fight to claim what belongs to me. And Athena belongs to me. Body and soul, she's mine.
"Yes," I growl to Rafe.
"You have proof for her bosses if they need it?" Luca demands.
"I put in an appearance at her office yesterday to lay the groundwork."
"Good," Rafe grunts. "What's your next move?"