“You don’t have to be afraid anymore.” He kissed me deep and slow and rested his forehead against mine. “I’m here now. I’ve got you, Cap.”
I blinked back tears. “What are we doing?”
“We’re being together. You can call me your boyfriend, if you want. You can call me whatever you damn well please, so long as you’re in my bed at night.”
“That’s what this is all about? You want me for my body?”
“I’ve always wanted your body, Cap,” he said, a smirk on his lips. “But now I’m starting to feel somewhat fond of you.”
“Oh, darling, you’re making me swoon.”
He laughed and pushed me back onto the bed. I grinned and scrambled away, but he came after me, caught me, and pinned me down on top of the pillows.
His lips found mine in a delicious, intense frenzy as he peeled my clothes off, piece by piece, kissing every inch of exposed skin, rolling his tongue around my nipples, until he slipped my panties down my long, lean legs and spread my thighs, his fingers teasing my slick pussy.
I moaned, back arching. His shirt came off and I touched his scars. My fingers lingered over the stab wound. It was mostly healed, only a pink, puckered ridge, the stitches long since removed.
I dug my fingers into his back as he moved down my chest, my stomach, down to my clit, licking and kissing. He lapped me up and drank me down as I grabbed his hair and moaned, my breasts pressed together and heaving with every deep gasping breath. He slid his fingers deep inside and curled them until I cried out his name.
“Come for me, love,” he whispered. “I want to see it. I love watching you come. God damn, Cap. I live for it. Come for me.”
The orgasm ripped through my body and he growled with an animalistic need. His jeans came off, followed by his boxer briefs, and he pulled me into his lap, his thick cock pressed against my still-sensitive clit and soaking pussy.
I rolled my hips and moved along him. Not inside, not yet. His hard shaft felt incredible as I purred my pleasure. “I like when you call me love,” I said, biting his bottom lip.
He cupped my breasts and teased my nipples. “It’s true. It’s how I feel about you.” He kissed me and repositioned my hips until I slid down the length of him, taking him deep inside. “I love you, Cap.”
I moaned and kissed him hard. “I love you too.”
I rode him until sweat poured down my body. We came in a furious tangle of limbs, whimpers, and moans. He kissed me through it all, and kept saying it, over and over, those three words, the three words I’d craved my whole life: I love you, I love you, I love you.
Mal loved me. He loved me in a way I’d never thought possible. He loved me with his body, his mouth, his tongue; he loved me with his heart and his soul; and he loved me enough to kill the world if it tried to hurt me. Mal was possession and intensity, he was pleasure and death, and I loved him like my own body.
We finished and he held me tight. “I love you,” he whispered into my hair.
“I love you,” I whispered back, snuggling closer.
It happened that way. Gradually, slowly. One second, grief separated us like a chasm torn in our flesh. The next, I couldn’t picture my life without him by my side. He changed me by inches, and now I was a different person—stronger, confident, free.
* * *
“That’s how we’ll do it.” Carmine stood on the balcony facing out at the city. His back was turned, but I saw the tension written all in his posture. He gripped the railing with both hands and his head was tilted forward, like he was looking for something down on the ground.
“You sure we don’t need more time?” Mal shifted in his chair and took a long sip of whiskey.
“I’m sure. If Balestra’s making moves to ally himself with the Novikov family then he’s likely got other plans to shore up his power. If we wait, we’ll give him a chance to bring all that to fruition.”
“I don’t like it. Too many variables.”
Carmine turned around. He was a shadow in the darkness. His eyes were hooded and for one moment, I almost didn’t recognize the man I once knew.
He’d changed. It wasn’t an obvious change, but it was there. It was a subtle shift in the way he reacted to things. He used to be charming, outgoing, and easy—and he still retained some of those qualities. But now he’d been sharpened like a brush with death had taken away all his softness and replaced it with steel.
“Since when were you afraid of a little risk, Mal?”