He stalked toward me, his muscular body moving with precision that I’d only ever read about.
When he was in front of me, he kneeled, then tugged me up and with a grunt flipped me onto my stomach, pressing his body against my back, his lips tickled the edge of my ear. “Safe word… Get it? You’re tied up. Safe word is your word for when you get scared during… BDSM.”
“BDSM?” I repeated, my brain not exactly firing on all cylinders since I had almost two hundred pounds of muscle pressed against my backside.
“Bondage…” he whispered, his breath fanning across my skin. “Discipline…” He brushed his nose against my neck and inhaled deeply. “Submission…”
My breath caught. “Oh. OH!” I was so stupid. “Safe word.”
“You can say it now.” He chuckled darkly.
My heart raced. “What if I’m not scared?”
He sighed, his weight pressing harder into me. “You should be.”
“Why?”
“I wouldn’t be good for you…”
“And yet, we’re stuck together.”
“We are.”
He didn’t move.
I was afraid to breathe.
“Open your gift, Val, and if you scream Oklahoma, know that I’ll come running, but be prepared to answer for yourself if you’re still alive; I take safe words very, very seriously, and you wouldn’t want to give me the impression that you’re willing to be at my mercy.”
He pulled back, his hands quickly untying my wrists. Wordlessly, he put on his shirt and left the room, shutting the door quietly behind him.
Meanwhile, I couldn’t even remember my own birthday.
Because he might talk a big game.
But he’d just revealed a chink in his armor, in his tough exterior.
He was still a man.
That much had been evident when he pressed against me — all man. He was all man.
When in that moment, so it came to pass, Titania waked, and straightaway loved an ass. –A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Sergio
I WASN’T EVEN sure how I made it down to the kitchen walking in a straight line.
What the hell had I been thinking?
I’d tied an innocent girl up!
And nearly… kissed her. Again. Only this time it wasn’t to prove anything but that she felt good, and I wanted good so damn bad.
I was so tired of feeling sad and angry.
But she’d made me laugh.
Actually laugh so hard I’d had tears in my eyes.
And like a long lost memory, that small feeling of rightness surfaced, showing me that, yes, it was possible to be happy, and that maybe, just maybe, it was okay.
But my happiness didn’t last for long as arguing erupted in the kitchen the minute I was within earshot.
“What’s going on?” I asked in a calm voice.
Gio looked worried while Papi and Frank continued to argue. Sal shoved a note into my hand.
Frowning, I looked down at it.
“The dynasty dies with the twins,” I read aloud. “Or we kill them ourselves. Your choice.”
Just when things were calming down.
I slapped the note onto the table. “Where did you get this?”
Sal shook his head. “It was in a box.”
Huh, didn’t see that coming.
“With the signet ring of the Alferos burned against a charcoaled hand.” Frank added, twisting his own metal ring around the finger of his left hand. Every boss had a crest that signified what family they were from; the rings held power because they held the blessing of the boss.
“Dramatic.” I sighed, taking a seat. “Frank, any of your men losing their shit lately?”
He took a long sip of wine. “Years ago, the Family split, I am still in control, but there were a few that I… may have upset.”
Sal coughed and Gio made the sign of the cross with his hand across his chest.
“How upset are we talking?” I asked the table.
“There are a few in New York who feel slighted, as if they were kicked out of the Family the minute Frank went into hiding… but if I were to guess…” Sal looked at each of the men. “…I would say it is Xavier who would feel… slighted. After all, he ran most things while Frank was in hiding.”
“Xavier can rot in hell.” Frank slammed his fist onto the table.
Dante and I shared a look before I yelled, “Well, who the hell is he?”
“Not Italian.” Sal spat onto the floor then slammed his foot onto the ground. “Damn man.”
“You didn’t use your own family?” I frowned. “What the hell were you thinking?”
“I was thinking I had nobody I could trust at the time, so I trusted Xavier, I refused to trust blood. Blood had betrayed me. This — this decision was strictly business.”
“Frank…”
“Russian.” Frank looked away. “He is Russian.”
“God save me from more Russians.” I wiped my face with my hands. “Does Nikolai know?”
Papi slammed his hands onto the table. “You have been doing business with The Doctor?”
“Saved his life a few times too,” I added. “So I’d stop throwing stones. He’s a good man.”