Page 136 of Dagger in the Sea

“Does Alessio know about this?”

“No. I’ve never told anyone. It’s my dirty little secret.” She lit another cigarette.

We all had dirty little secrets, didn’t we? Even the most golden among us.

“I need to go back to Athens. I’m sorry,” she said, her voice low.

“Call Alessio. Tell him you need him.”

“What? Why? We can take the ferry back. I don’t want to bother him now that he’s—”

“Partying? Getting laid? Drinking champagne? Bother him. If he’s the man I think he is, this won’t be a bother. He’d sprout wings and fly to you himself if he could. We’re going to need him.”

She blinked. “We? We are?”

“This isn’t Chicago. I can’t take care of this on my own. ”

She threw the lighter on the table. “Who are you really?”

“My father is a con artist and a liar and a thief too, Adri. Only mine is smart and mean and built an empire on those virtues. He’s one of the most powerful men in America.”

“And you…you don’t save lives, like you did mine, do you? You take them, don’t you?” A bitter laugh ripped from her throat. She threw the lighter on the table. “This is crazy, I can’t—”

She fled the kitchen on a torrent of Greek epithets. I darted up the marble staircase after her, grabbing her arm, twisting her around. “Adri! I saved your life and I’d do it over and over again. I want to help you now. Let me help you.”

“Turo…” A warning, a plea. Her face was wet.

I took her in my arms, and she pushed against my shoulders. “Everything will be all right, baby. We’ll deal with it together. I want to help you. I’m going to help you.”

“Everything’s a mess. A mess. Like it always is.”

“Shh. It’s all right.”

“Don’t tell me it’s all right when it’s not, when it never will be!” Her fists battered at my chest.

I opened her robe, and her breathing sharpened. I ripped it off her body and it fell back onto the steps. “You trust me with your body, don’t you? With your pleasure? Your body knows me.”

She grunted, pushing at my chest, a punch, kicked out a knee, but I grabbed her thigh and steadied her on the steps with an arm around her waist. Nipping and sucking on her throat like a fucking vampire, sliding down her torso, pulling her to the steps with me. My fingers slid between her legs, stroking, and she gasped.

“You’re wet for me.”

She grit her teeth. “I’m always wet for you.”

“Yes. But do you trust me?”

Her eyes bored into mine. “What is it, Turo? Our little self-imposed exile’s over. You want my soul now? You want to claim me for your dark underworld like some Persephone?”

I did. I fucking did.

I replied by going down on her, and she let out a curse in Greek, her back arching, legs falling open and hitching around my shoulders, her fingers clawing at my hair. I scrubbed her smooth inner thigh with my scruff and clenched her ass, holding her against me, my tongue, my lips devouring.

My tongue, my lips were her slaves.

There on the stairs I devoured her until she stopped crying. Only moaning loudly, only repeating my name over and over and over.

Fuck, I loved that.

I kneaded her tits harshly, scraping her nipples with my teeth. I wanted her attention. She tensed, her eyes widening, fingers digging into my hair.There’s my girl.

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