I want to take her again, but I can’t. I’d hurt her. She’s tight and I’m not small. The one thing I do not want to do is hurt her. So, I tug her to the very edge of the bed and push my sweats down just enough to fist my cock. She watches in fascination as I rub it between her folds, moaning a deep, throaty moan as I smear her come over myself. Her eyes lock on my dick as I pump hard and come all over her tits, her stomach, her pussy, wanting to cover her with my scent like some animal. As if marking her as mine will ward off the evil in her life.
But that’s not what I’m thinking about as I shudder with orgasm. It’s not that when I tuck myself away and lean down to kiss her again. To take her offered tongue in my mouth. I’m thinking about something else. The one thing that is the only thing. The only way forward. And it’s so clear. So fucking obvious. Like it was always meant to be. Like we were always meant to be.
30
Dante
She sleeps the rest of the night. When I slip my arm from beneath her the next morning, her eyes flutter open for an instant, a smile just barely playing on her lips before she’s out again.
I tuck her back into the bed, have a quick shower and head downstairs where my brother and Charlie are already in his study when I arrive.
Cristiano checks his watch. “Since when do you sleep much less sleep in?”
“Jet lag,” I lie as I pour myself a cup of coffee from the silver carafe Lenore left for us. Knowing when they find out, when Cristiano hears that I took Mara to my bed, he will lose his shit.
“What happened last night? I heard Cerberus bark but when I got downstairs, you’d taken him out.”
“Not exactly. I went to check on Mara around two in the morning. Just had a weird feeling.”
“Mara?”
“She’d gone up to the cliffs.”
There’s a moment of stunned silence, although can any of us be stunned considering?
“Fuck,” Charlie finally says, running a hand through his hair and shaking his head.
Cristiano’s face is stone. “You got to her in time.”
“Yeah,” I say even though it wasn’t a question. I sip my coffee. “Just barely.” I can’t think about what would have happened if I’d been just a minute later.
We sit in silence for a long moment.
“Will she do it again?” Cristiano finally asks.
“I don’t think so.”
He studies me, eyes so much like our mothers it’s eerie. He nods. “Okay.” He takes a seat on one of the armchairs and I join Charlie on the couch. “Let’s talk through what’s going on. Make a plan.”
I nod and start. “We have a few players. Jericho St. James.”
“Still digging into him. He’s a fucking ghost,” Charlie says.
“This IVI secret society or some shit. He supposedly is working for this organization. Claimed to have ties to it when I asked if he was a member. It’s the same card David had in his luggage.”
“I remember,” Cristiano says.
“Says there was a meeting Felix recorded and it’s why he’s after the son of a bitch.”
“What meeting?”
“Not sure but apparently there could be implications for our family. Although I’m not sure he wasn’t feeding me a line of bullshit to enlist my help.”
“What implications?”
I swallow too hot coffee before answering. “What David did to our mother for one.”
Cristiano’s eyes narrow and I see how he clenches and unclenches his fist. I wonder if he’s even conscious of it. “That’s on him. What else?”
“I don’t know if he was involved in human trafficking himself, I’d guess yes, but somehow you and me, our family, even Scarlet, were allegedly named during that meeting.”
“Allegedly.” Cristiano doesn’t seem worried, and I get it. I’m not worried about this recording either because chances are Jericho is full of shit.
“But it’s not going to matter anyway if I talk to St. James and learn he had anything to do with the attack on the warehouse. I’ll kill him myself,” I say. “And then there’s Felix Pérez and some new buyer. Which I don’t get.”
“What new buyer?” Charlie asks.
“I don’t know. If St. James knows, he’s not letting on. But apparently money has changed hands and this person wants Mara specifically. Not Elizabeth as far as I can tell since word is out that she isn’t Elizabeth. I’m guessing this deal’s been in place for about a year. It’s when Pérez infiltrated Petrov’s home via a guard who befriended Mara. He gave her the bracelet with the tracking device hidden inside. It’s how they found the warehouse and her.”
“A year?” Cristiano asks as confused as I am. He turns to Charlie. “Any idea how we can figure out who the buyer is?”