Page 50 of Lourdes & the Mafia
I go to stand in front of her, waiting for her to look up at me. When she finally does so, it’s to reveal the tears tracking a pathway down her rounded cheeks. The sight of them captures me in a chokehold. It makes my heart stutter. I hate the very sight of them, and I have the urge to wipe them away so that they never return.
“Lorenzo,” she whispers. The sound of my name on her mouth makes me fucking hard, but I ignore the sudden weeping of my dick. Now is not the time.
“Yes, Amore?” My voice is equally quiet.
“Do you think I’m stupid?”
I want to rip the human scum to shreds away as soon as she says the words. That sniveling little cunt put these doubts in her mind with everything he said. I hate how he made her feel less just because she’s not involved in the supernatural world like we are.
“Make him suffer.”I push the words down my bond with my brothers.“Make him fucking squeal.”
Their response comes in the form of the motherfucker’s screams, followed by the flashing image of what they’re currently doing to him. Kane, covered in blood, flashing a toothy smile up at the bastard as he stabs a knife into his scrotum.
The sound and sight brings me joy.
But there are still her tears to contend with.
I crouch in front of her, lifting her chin with my fingers and using my thumb to wipe away her tears. “Of course not,” I say firmly. She takes a shuddering breath and sniffles. She doesn’t quite believe me. I can see it in her eyes.
“In my family, magic is earned,” she says. “It’s passed down from witch to witch. I never thought I’d earn it. I thought my cousin would. A lot of us prepare, just in case we receive the magic, but I didn’t. I didn’t care. Not because I never thought I would, but because I didn’t want to help people like they did. I was just too focused on my own life… and then my abuela died.”
She shudders again, and I can feel her pain. My magic feels, tastes it. Sadness tastes like salt and bitter herbs, and sometimes it tastes like dripping honey as well. Hers is a combination of the three.
I want to wash that away. Every tear, every single stab of pain I feel like it’s my own. My domain is the Land of Lament, and I’ve bathed in the Lake of Sorrow, so the pain is always deeply ingrained within me. Because I am the master of it. I am the lord of hurt and regret, and I want to heal hers. I want to kiss it away because it has no place within such a bright, beautiful soul.
“My abuela died,” she continues, “and I felt the moment the magic entered me. The visions were painful and I had to get used to it really fast. I hadn’t wanted it, but then when Ihadit, I was happy. I was happy to have something special for me, even if I wasn’t going to use it—and I never used it. At least not in the way that my abuela did. She tried helping people. She opened a shop, told the future, and I was content to live my perfectly normal human life without helping anyone.” She lowers her lashes. “I can’t help but wonder if this is my karma now for not using my magic the way I was supposed to. For not getting involved in the supernatural community. Maybe if I had I would’ve known that someone was out to get me. Maybe my magic would have been stronger, and I would have seen this coming from days away.”
“Amore.” My hands cup her cheeks. “You can never know what would have happened. That probably sounds very ironic considering what your magic is.” That brings out a chuckle from her and I smirk. “It doesn’t matter how involved or not you were in the supernatural community. The things that human was speaking of? It’s something that comes from the criminal underbelly. Normal supernaturals live life like humans do. They get up, they go to work, they have their families. Then there are those too deeply invested in the supernatural criminal underbelly. It’s those who would know about a price on someone’s head. So even if you’d have dedicated your time and magic to helping people, there’s a very low chance that you’d have known unless you’d involved yourself with criminals.”
“Well, I am now. Involved with criminals, I mean.” She gives me a pointed look as if she means to insinuate thatI’mthe criminal.
I laugh. “I’d hardly say you were involved with criminals. Let me let you in on a little secret…” I lean close so my lips nearly skim across her own. “We’re so much worse than that.”
I’m not sure if I mean to scare her with the words, but it doesn’t have the desired effect I thought it would. Instead of catching a whiff of fear, something else flows through her.
Something akin to desire.
I can taste it on the tip of my tongue. The musky scent and sweet aphrodisiac that is the juices between her thighs. Her body shifts with the subtle change, her thighs pressing together. Her pupils flare and I only need to duck my head to inhale between her thighs. Every cell in my body is screaming at me to do it, to dive down to taste what’s rightfully mine.
Slowly, I pull back. I can almost feel her disappointment, and yet this isn’t how I want it to go. I can still feel the lingering sorrow in her; when I taste her, I want there to be no sadness. I want there to be nothing but passion. No honey or salt or bitter herbs.
Just the sharp taste of pussy.
“I want to heal your heart,” I whisper as I stand. I slowly pull her towards me. “Will you let me heal you?”
Lourdes
“Willyouletmeheal you?”
The words Lorenzo says have a strange effect on me.Everythinghe says has my nerve endings on fire, begging to be touched. I feel like I should say no, but I can’t bring myself to do that. Even his mere presence is making me feel better than I had felt before, and I crave it. I crave what he emanates.
I should hate myself for how easily I fall back into their charms and yet… the three of them protected me twice. Even though they didn’t keep their promise to me when it came to Yessi, they’ve protected me. I feel like that should count for something. At least, it’s making me trust them. More than I probably should.
“What do you mean by that?” I ask. He’s healed me twice now; passed those lithe hands across my skin and took away the pain. “You have healing magic?” The answer is obvious.
He smirks. “My brothers and I all have magic pertaining to the Underworld.”
My brows raise. “Explain.”
