I sighed heavily and rolled my eyes so hard, I'm sure he saw only the whites. “Don’t you know by now that I’m not nice?”
“You’re nice for me. You always will be. Deep down, somewhere where you aren’t broken, you still long for acceptance, for love. You want to be nice, Katalina. So be it.”
My stomach twisted, and my heart galloped in my chest. Rome pushed my boundaries, scaled the wall, and swam through the moat around my fortress. He wanted inside my soul, and he wanted to move past the broken edges of it to where he thought I was still whole.
“What if I’m broken everywhere?” I whispered. Most days I felt that way. I’d died with my father, and now I was this shell of a human, not really connected to anyone, striving to be a part of a family I wasn’t sure I could ever truly fit into.
His hand slid to my chest. He rubbed over my heart like he could soothe the fast beats. “Then you’ve survived, and you take your broken pieces, turn them to what you need them to be, and live with it, Bait. You were always a survivor. And you’ve always been the best at it.”
Maybe my shaking my head pushed him over the edge, maybe he saw the doubt in my eyes, maybe he was just done talking, but he didn’t give me the chance to contradict him.
He pushed the zipper down just enough and plowed into me, not hesitating over the repercussions.
I didn’t stop him either. I took what I wanted, riding him like I deserved every part of him in me. I yanked his dark waves of hair so hard he groaned as my nails clawed his scalp. He bit my lips and then ripped his mouth away so he could bite and suck my neck. The marks would be brutal, bruised, and red tomorrow. Rome wasn’t going easy on me.
I wasn’t going easy on him either.
We wanted a piece of each other. Even if it was broken, jagged, and dangerous.
Maybe we were past everything else. Right now, it was just the two of us, in that car, in the city, under the building lights that kept us alive, that drowned out the total darkness but muted the light of the stars. Our natural light, the one that brightened even the darkest soul, had been extinguished.
Chicago wanted to show how it owned us, how it molded us into who we were that night.
I thought I could navigate it all just fine. I thought I had this city by the balls. All these men, my relationship with Rome, all this mafia—I thought I had a handle on it.
I was wrong.
31
Rome
Her pussy clenched down on me like a Venus flytrap. It almost reached the point of pain, it was so tight. It squeezed like I was its last lifeline.
Any man would have felt that way with their hands around her tiny waist, thrusting up into her like they had the ability to split her in two. Her nails scraped at my back, her teeth dug into my neck, and I knew she drew blood in some places. She was leaving her marks on my tattoos, and she was probably doing it on purpose.
The sick thing was that I wanted her to. Katalina was more of a permanent mark on my body than any of the tattoos could ever be.
She sped up our tempo as I rubbed her clit and bit down on one of her nipples. She moaned my name like I was the only man she’d ever longed for.
I knew I wasn’t.
I thrust into her harder, faster, rougher. I wanted to make my mark this time, or maybe get my fix.
I wasn’t sure anymore.
But as she orgasmed on my dick, I remembered why I couldn’t leave this woman behind, couldn’t get enough of her. Her venom spread through the SUV like an airborne toxin as I met her with my own high. I moaned her name and cradled her to my chest when she slumped against it. Her vulnerability seeped into my soul.
I smoothed her caramel curls; I whispered sweet nothings in her ear. “God, you feel good. I fucking missed my home.”
“It’s only been a few hours.”
“A few hours too long,” I said, resting my forehead against hers. It wasn’t nothing I was whispering—it was everything. Every moment that passed, I realized I wanted her unleashed beside me.
Her venom was everywhere, and I sucked it up like it was water and I was stranded in a desert.
I wanted her poison.
She sighed in my arms, and I worried for the millionth time over these past few days if we would be able to survive the storm ahead.