Finally, the climax that had eluded her in her dream state had saved her in this one. The throbbing in her mound was the only thing that quietly reminded her of her soon-to-be destination in hell.
When she stopped moving, Dominic moved to her side to gaze down at her, staring at her like he was some conquering hero.
Maria blew out a huff of air. “Don’t look so pleased with yourself. I hope, for your sake, it was worth it.”
Dominic touched her pretty face with soft fingers, like he was etching it forever into his memory, along with his hazel eyes, knowing that his first with the mafia princess would be his last. “It was.”
Closing her eyes, she was unable to look at him a second longer, feeling the threatening tear for his soul about to slip out.
Hearing Rhianna’s fitting song, “Love on the Brain,” that had once started in her dreams was now beginning to end; she dazedly opened her eyes again, feeling the exhaustion hit her bones. “Where am I?”
Dominic smiled down at her one last time, the impression of his dimples forever ingrained into her memory this time. “You tell me.”
“I don’t know ….” She yawned, letting her lashes fall back on her cheeks, giving in to the temptation of sleep. “But wherever it is, I like it.”
Fifteen
The Return of Sadie
Her lashes lifting to an empty bed had her screaming one word … FUCK!
Not knowing if it was the first dream or the second one, where she was bamboozled into a dream within a dream, but one or both had her screaming into her pillow for real, and in frustration. This time, however, she wasn’t going to be lured into a falsehood.
It had been a few days since the school dance and her first-ever kiss, so her subconscious thoughts of her unconscious mind at three in the morning wasn’t to be trusted.
Making herself get out of bed, she needed to be far away from this room … now.
Putting her feet into her fuzzy pink slides, she threw on her pink, velour, zip-up hoodie that matched the little velour shorts she was wearing.
She would go where all men who couldn’t sleep went.
Maria tiptoed through the Caruso family penthouse quietly, going out the door that led to a long hallway of apartments for some of the Caruso soldiers. Reaching the end, luck was on her side as the suit stationed at the elevator, who was supposed to be watching the hallway, was snoozing away.
Pressing a button the elevator doors opened for her. Walking inside, she then pressed in the secret code to take her straight to the bottom floor. Knowing this was where her luck ended, she looked up at the security camera before she flipped it off, showing the person on the other end her favorite shade of nude polish, via her middle finger.
When the elevator doors slid to a close, the only other thing—besides the security camera—she was left to for the next few moments as the elevator journeyed to the depths of hell was her thoughts. And just like in her bedroom, they ventured to a certain Luciano.
Why the fuck did I dream about him? She had cut him out of her brain like a cancerous, blood-sucking tumor the second she asked Lucca about his shooting abilities—just so she’d be able to distance herself. Now, hell, Maria didn’t even know if she could consider herself a virgin after that dream—not that she cared if her precious hymen was intact before marriage. That was just another awfully fucking convenient thing in a woman’s body that had men judging them. As if a thin piece of tissue couldn’t break on its own accord. It was supposed to deem a woman worthy of the most heinous of men, or worse … whether you could enter Heaven or Hell.
It was funny how men didn’t have those “things” to tell women if they were actually virgins. No, women were supposed to take their “word” for it, the exact thing they wouldn’t believe out of an innocent woman saying she didn’t know how it broke.
That was how Maria knew God really was a man. Because every crippling thing about having ovaries ironically didn’t apply to men.
When the door slid open, Maria walked down another long hallway, but this one was so dark that it looked like it was from another dimension that only workers used to take out the trash.
Approaching a door, she heard music on the other side. Knocking just once, she prayed it would open, and when it did, she was greeted to the bustle of the secret floor. Down here, where a legal casino sat on top of this illegal one, almost everything went for a certain price. Like her, the men filling the darkened space couldn’t sleep, while the women walking around in lingerie coaxed them into gambling more of their money.