‘If I’m not going to unwrap you and gorge like a motherfucking Neanderthal the second I have you?’ he finished.
Another moan shivered up my throat. Because that wasexactlywhat I wanted. To be devoured until there was nothing left.
White-hot eyes raked over my face. ‘Because first you’re going to tell me how much you’ve missed me, too.’
Too?Cesare had missed me? If it was true, why was he admitting it? If he was lying… was this a trap? A power play of some sort?
‘Look at you, tearing yourself apart over whether this is some trick,’ he hummed.
I licked my lips as his deliberately hovered closer, teasing me. ‘You would do the same in my shoes.’
His gaze rested at the pulse beating in my throat for several seconds before he shook his head. ‘Nah, baby. There are some things I don’t fight even if it doesn’t make sense. This’ – he rolled his erection over my ever-dampening sex, the seam of his jeans hitting my clit at the perfect angle and making me shudderagainst him – ‘I’ve accepted as one of those things. Don’t make me ask again.’
Did I miss him?
Was water wet? Hell, forget water. DidIget wet and achy with need every single time I thought of him? His mouth between my legs, his long clever fingers pushing inside me, stretching me, tormenting me with the prelude of what the massive rod between his legs would do to me?
‘Yes.’ The word shivered from the corner of my soul, a place I’d never cared to examine. Because every single wish that resided there was forbidden, every yearning an act of treachery. To my family. To my savage history. To the love for Valentina that Bonafacio swore had been the purest kind. To all the soldiers who’d died in the avenging of that love.
But watching the transformation that my single admission brought to Cesare’s face, it was almost worth it.
And when he grunted and cursed under his breath, then swooped down to finally capture my lips with his,almostturned into certainty.
His tongue breached my lips like a heat-seeking missile, licking me like I was the ambrosia of eternal life. My hands clawed and clung as tightly as my legs, delirium thickening my blood as the magic of his kiss completely overwhelmed me.
But just when I thought, with shocked surprise, that I could actually come just from being kissed by Cesare, he raised his head. A trail of spit joined our lips and I gasped when he flicked his tongue out and licked it.
Drunk on the decadence of it, I swayed towards his mouth, but he reared back further, denying me.
‘Liv Ivanovski, is he your secret partner?’
My head swam as my body screamed with the deprivation of pleasure. ‘What?’ I asked dazedly.
‘Answer me, Maddelena.’
My eyes widened. ‘I… You can’t… Is this why…?’ His eyes hardening dried up my line of questioning. ‘No,’ I whispered.
‘No he’s not or no you don’t know?’
I scrambled to locate my brain cells. ‘Ivanovski… the Russian head of the Solynik Clan?’
The fingers in my hair tightened, angling my face up to dig into my gaze. ‘You know him? You’ve met with him?’
‘No!’ I shook my head, the need to emphasise my answer pressing down on me. ‘Not personally, but his name has crossed my grandfather’s lips once or twice… back when you were…’ I frowned, the fog clearing a little more. ‘What do you mean, is he my partner? Is he the one you think is behind what’s happening?’
His hold tightened another notch, then eased, his fingers massaging my scalp as he maintained the pressure of his gaze. ‘You wouldn’t be lying to me, would you,bedda?’ he queried without answering my question.
‘No, I wouldn’t,’ I breathed. ‘Are you going to tell me what this is about?’
‘Cristu, you really don’t know, do you?’ he muttered, almost to himself.
Almost with relief.
16
MADDELENA
Unwarranted shame kicked through me and in that moment I wasn’t sure who I hated more – my family for keeping me in the dark or Cesare for dragging my ignorance into the light in such an underhanded way.
