Page 123 of Lourdes & the Mafia
“Enough. Have you forgotten that I’m in control here?”
Something like relief passes over her limbs, making her sag into me. The action lets me know I’ve neglected my duties and tells me how much she needs this. She needs me to manipulate her. To take control of one of the few things I know how to.
I can’t control the chaos around us. I can’t control my brothers.
But I can control the pain of souls.
And I can control this.
My wing slaps against her skin again. “Answer me when I speak to you.”
She mewls. “No.”
“No, what?”
“No, I haven’t forgotten that you are in control here, my king.”
My wing soothes across the skin I slapped, soft and kneading, making her nearly melt into me. “That’s a good girl. My perfect queen.”
“Kane.” She says my name on a breathy sigh with just the right amount of reverence I’ve always desired from her.
“Is there anything specific you want me to do to you?”
I’m still kneading her ass as she thinks it over, melting into me, nuzzling her face into the crook of my neck. I wrap my arms and wings around her until we’re cocooned in the warmth of my body. It seems to bring her ease.
“I want…” She pauses, and I can feel her biting gently on her lower lip to avoid saying what she wants.
“Lourdes…”
“I want to forget. Even if it’s just for a moment I want to forget.”
I want to forget, too. I don’t say those words, but I can feel them thick in the space between us like a cloying smoke.
“This I can give you.”
I pull my wings back and the soft light of the room falls over us once more. I pull away and she makes a sound of protest that brings me joy.
Where once we couldn’t touch, where I didn’t want to touch, and when I was desperate for it, she now reaches for me like she can’t get enough of my caress.
“Patience, my queen.”
I walk around her until I’m at her backside. My hands go to her shoulders, palms and talons curling gently over her.
First things first, I don’t want to be here.
I know she’s claimed most of this space as her own, but this is my brother’s room, and he could walk in at any moment.
And I want her for myself.
So I let my magic pull us away from this space and into my own. Because if I am going to control this, I am going to control it all. Every aspect of our time together will be mine to manipulate.
Starting with this.
We land in my room. It’s different from Lorenzo’s mostly black space. Mine is done in dark tones of russet and brown and greens. They are tones that bring me comfort, and scents of something breezy and salty and citrusy. Something like the ocean that meets the edge of a forest.
We appear in front of my mirror. It takes up the entire space of a single wall, reflecting the entire room itself and us.
I catch her reflection and her breath catches at the sight of us together. I’m mostly hidden behind her, the only things visible are my shoulders, head, and the wings spanning out across my back. From this position, it looks like the wings could belong to her.
