Page 42 of The Mafia's Bride
Another harsh slap, the sting vibrating into my hand. “Wrong. The contract gave me complete control of your life. I’m to provide you with financial security, physical safety, and happiness in any way I can. That means I own you.” Another solid hit that has her legs bucking and her knees shaking.
Fuck, I can see her arousal dripping down her leg.
Seeing my handprint on her ass, feeling how incredibly turned on she is, how she’s breaking for me, turns on the manic, primal part of my soul. I want to claim her, keep her, so she never leaves.
I lean down, dragging my tongue against the red skin, kissing away the aches. Her body trembles, and I know her makeup is ruined, tears rolling down her cheeks. Just like I told her would happen.
This is a woman used to walking over people to get her way. Used to people avoiding her because of her temper, using her for a quick photo-op. She’s never had someone withstand the hellfire she rages, never stayed long enough to endure.
I’m different. I meant what I said. She can’t escape me, she’ll never be without me. And I’ll submit to her when I know she can follow me. In this life, it can be the line between life and death, prison, or being taken by another family.
My fingers tease her entrance, pushing into her slick heat. She mewls, nails raking into the wood as if to stop from floating away. Her ass pushes against me, begging me to give her more relief.
Not yet, I won’t. This is a learning exercise for Sloane.
I need her to know that I’m not going anywhere, that this is it. For us both.
I pick her up by the back of her neck, turning her so she faces me. She protests, my fingers leaving her wanting, frustrated.
“You’re such a slut, begging me for a good fucking, aren’t you, little menace?” My words float over her face making her eyes flutter. “This cunt is greedy. Do you want what I can give you?”
She licks her lips in thought. “Yes.” It’s a disgusted whisper. She’s ashamed by it.
Sloane O’Brien—now De Luca, ashamed by what she gets turnedon by. Obviously, there’s something there, but I’m not looking to explore that right now. I just need her to want me, and only me.
“Did you like your punishment?”
Her cheeks grow hotter.
When she’s silent, I rub my thumb against her smeared lips, and the running black mascara. She’s a beautiful mess and it takes all my self-control not to throw her on to the floor and rut into her like a fucking animal.
She does this. Snaps my control, turns me into a mindless beast.
“It’s alright if you did, Sloane. There’s no shame here.” Wrapping that beautiful red hair back around my fist, I pull her close. I inhale her perfume and smile. “The only way you come, is by me. You don’t touch yourself, you don’t let anyone else touch you. Only me.”
She lifts her chin. “And why would I do that? We might be married, but I don’t fucking love you.”
“And I don’t fucking love you,” I say, though something tells me I’ll be eating those words soon enough. I suck her bottom lip into my mouth, giving into the need to taste her. “But Iownyou. So do as I say, and I’ll fuck you like I hate you. Like the dirty fucktoy that you are, that you want to be. Understand?”
I shove her away, letting her see the evidence of my arousal.
“Goodnight,wife.”
17
LEX
Dom is a man of simple tastes.
A pair of perky breasts, an easy poker hand, and a job that pays for his misdeeds is all he needs to feel accomplished. To feel like he’s on top of the world. Because to him, that’s all there is in life.
Not me. I need order and purpose. I need to know where everything is and to work my way to the top. I’m told my ambition is a trait my father passed down to his only son. Wherever it came from, it’s made me into this man now.
I still don’t know why Nico chose me to take over when he retires. By all accounts, Dominic De Luca should’ve had first claim to the position. He’s older, born and raised in the States, and groomed for the family business from day one. He’s a true De Luca, not one adopted into the name. I had a steep learning curve when I came to America, body burnt and bandaged, unable to speak English with no idea for the life that awaited me here.
Yet, here I am. The second in line behind my uncle, giving my shithead cousin simple orders because he’s too thick to figure it out on his own.
Nico didn’t give him the reins, not because of favoritism, butbecause Dom is too idiotic to think. Others have to think for him. He can’t make a plan and follow through or know all the moving pieces without being handheld to task.
