Page 115 of Claiming the Mafia Queen

She drapes her arm lovingly over my chest and lays her head on the pillow.

My head turns and I frown. What initially was meant to be a sexual request, has turned into something a little more complicated…

A little more foreign.

Her eyes are rimmed with red.

“You care…” I whisper, cockily. “About me!”

She smacks me playfully. “Didn’t want to be the reason you died…” she grumbles, sitting up. “I heard you were there so long because of me…”

“I was in there the entire time on account of you…”

She props her head up on her elbow and gives me a deep and searching look.

It’s as if she’s unsure whether I’m being serious or not. Why the hell else would I have been there, though?

She leans forward and kisses me fiercely, almost desperately.

I reach up and rest my hand on the base of her head, digging my fingertips into her hair, pulling her passionately close. She tastes like lust, but her body feels different. It feels almost familiar…

It feels safe…

“I really thought you were going to die…” she snaps, before kissing me again. Her hands are all over me.

I moan into her mouth, my body feeling both pain and pleasure. As if reading me, she pulls back, her chest heaving. “We’re both injured…” she sighs. “We need to take it easy…”

I laugh, completely amused by the situation and lean back on my pillow. “Just lay like this a little while with me, then?”

She returns the laugh, but hers is cocky and when I roll my head over the pillow to look at her, she’s smirking. “I may as well be comfortable if I have to be here, I guess.”

“Well,” I say. “What do you want to talk about?”

She turns to face me and snuggles her head into the pillow. “Nothing…” she replies softly. “You woke me up and I was getting some nice sleep before…” She closes her eyes and I lay a tender kiss on her forehead.

“I like this…” I admit, that same vulnerability is coming back up to the surface.

“I might not hate it..” She says, peaking through one open eye, smiling.

I nod immediately, feeling my heart sore at her confession. She smiles and kisses me again. I grin against her lips, wondering if I’ll ever get used to the rush of feeling that her kisses induce inside of me.

Someone clearing their throat at the doorway pulls me away from her. “Tony…” the voice says. I look up and sigh.

Josh.

And just like that, Aria rolls away and off the bed. I immediately miss her presence.“I just wanted to come check on you…” he says. “I got word you were here.”

“From who?”

“From her…” he points to Aria.

“How do you know him?” I ask, looking at her, through suspicious eyes.

“I’ve made it my job to know everything about you since finding all this out…” she crosses her hands over her chest and looks from me to Josh. Her eyes tell a story. They tell the story of a woman that’s been screwed over a whole hell of a lot in her life.

But there’s something about this world…

It makes you suspicious of everyone.

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