Page 30 of Taken By the Mafia King
My lips parted as I took a shallow breath and exhaled in a soft moan. Killian went still, but I could feel his eyes on me as my lashes fluttered. Unable to control my physical response, I rose up on my tiptoes and brushed a featherlight kiss over his mouth. Felt the heat of his lips, the sweet, minty taste of him. It made me feel drunk. The carpet beneath my toes turned to clouds. The reprieve from the fear made me pull the arousal in closer. I dared him to kiss me back as I curled my fingers in the front of his shirt.
But he had more control than I did. He let go of my neck and backed away, staring at me for a moment before he turned and walked out of the room, locking the door behind him.
My legs gave out and I crumpled into a heap.
What did I just do? Did I really just kiss him?
My eyes locked on the blood stain on the carpet and I almost threw up. I pitched forward, pressing my hands into a clean section of carpet, and sobbed. A silent, desperate scream choked me as tears fell freely down my cheeks.
What was I supposed to do? He’d gotten under my skin, manipulated me, touched me. Forced me to tell my friend I was fine and that I didn’t need saving.
He would have killed Jim. He still might.
I’d played my only hand when I’d made those two calls.
This was it. There was nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. From him, or my own wicked desires.
CHAPTER 24
KILLIAN
Pining over a woman’s attention didn’t fit my persona. I’d also never felt like my knees were going to give out, or that I’d gladly rip the world in half if it meant making a woman happy.
Bracing myself against the wall of the hallway outside Sera’s bedroom, I forced myself to take a breath and ignore her sobs. Her pain and fear ate away at my resolve when I finally broke free of whatever trance she’d put me in and wove through the hallways until I reached the stairs leading down to the foyer.
How many people had I kept up here over the years? Dozens, probably. The carpet in each room was stained with their tears and blood. Delaney remained locked up here as well, but the thought of her crumpled on the floor with her face pressed to the carpet as she screamed did nothing in comparison to the image of Sera in the same position.
I placed two fingers over my lips where she’d brushed that featherlight anddamningkiss. It took all of my strength not to pin her to the wall and taste her fully, my tongue parting her full, plump mouth and exploring her. I imagined the noise that had left her hot, wet mouth as I held her still with a hand wrapped around her throat. Would it leave her lips again if I’d kissed her the way I’d wanted to?
That little moan had done something to me. The way her brows had furrowed and her cheeks flushed with heat ignited a hunger I would never be able to satiate. I craved her in a feral, compulsive way that left my skin heated when I finally walked out onto the second-floor landing and looked over the railing at the men lingering in the foyer.
All I knew for certain was that the next time we kissed, it wouldn’t be a featherlight sensation. I’d kiss her properly, thoroughly, ravenously.
Whether she wanted me to or not.
“What?” I asked as I walked down the wide staircase.
Francesco looked up at me with an exasperated look. “Alonzo’s back, boss. He’s in your office.”
“Am I going to have the whole fucking city descending on my house today?” I spat, striding past him.
I found Alonzo pacing in front of the ceiling-height windows in my office, his knuckles occasionally rapping on the glass.
“It’s bulletproof,” I said absently as I sat down behind my desk. “I want a full report, Alonzo. Everything you’ve seen and heard.”
Alonzo, a younger man of roughly thirty, had spent the last year acting as a spy within the de Luca syndicate for me. His father, a caporegime for Gabriele at one point in time, had taken a knife to the gut two summers ago, and Alonzo didn’t even blink when I’d asked if he wanted to work for me instead of Gabriele.
He’d been there that night. He’d let us in.
“Giuseppe has taken over as boss,” Alonzo said before turning to face me. “He has plans to sabotage your warehouses.”
“Of course, he does,” I said lazily, finding it hard to focus when I could feel Sera’s kiss on my lips.
Alonzo was oblivious to the fact my mind was elsewhere as he rattled on about the aftermath of the bloodbath I’d unleashed at the de Luca compound. “The maid you asked about,” he saidafter a moment, tucking his hands behind his back as he walked a few paces toward my desk. “She didn’t make it.”
I rolled my lower lip between my teeth as I met his eyes. The nameless young maid who’d been kind to Sera. The one she’d asked about when I’d carried her out of the dungeon after shooting her would-be violator in the neck.
“How long did she suffer?”
