Page 26 of Sacred Blood

“Ouch! What was that for?”

“Your pleasure, of course.”

“My pleasure?” She glared at me over her shoulder. “More like your pleasure.”

I sat back on the bed and gripped her hips, pulling her over my lap. “Is it?”

I lightly tapped out a beat on her rounded globes, loving how they bounced back with each strike. It wasn’t long until she was bucking her hips and spreading her legs.

“Whose pleasure, cattiva piccolina?”

“If I say mine like a good girl, will I be rewarded?” She was practically panting and drenched not only in my cum, which was leaking down the insides of her thighs, but her excitement as well.

“I have been known to reward naughty girls,” I teased.

She didn’t like that, clearly. Her legs closed with the finality of a vault door and she did her best to climb off my lap, but I was having none of her attitude.

My spanking picked up in earnest. “What are you upset about, bambina?”

“Don’t you dare call me baby!” She kicked and squirmed, still trying to escape until I placed one of my legs over the back of hers. Now all she could do was beat her tiny feet on the bed.

“Are you jealous of the other women I have known?” I asked.

She glared at me over her shoulder. “Why don’t you just go back to your others and leave me alone?” Tears glistened, threatening to fall and over what? Something that wasn’t even real, albeit she didn’t know that yet.

“You really think a man like me hasn’t had dozens of women? I’ve had more than you can count and no regrets. Now, are you ready to behave yourself or do I need to find some ginger for your back hole and tie you up and leave you here? Or perhaps leave you outside and invite the neighbors to come and see my naughty girl with her red backside.”

Her eyes rounded. “You wouldn’t dare.”

I wouldn’t, but she didn’t know me well enough to know that. I raised an eyebrow at her and let her come to her own conclusions.

She studied me for a moment, considering her next move, and finally said, “Yes.”

“That’s not enough, Gaby. Yes, what?”

She sighed and rolled her eyes. Such bratty behavior. This woman needed to learn what was and wasn’t acceptable behavior. She should know better, being in an Italian family, as most men, especially those part of the mafia, were dominant, with old-fashioned ideas of a woman’s place and high expectations of obedience. We knew that death came early for those who didn’t know the rules of the game. I may not be as active in the family business as my other brothers, but I was the doctor they came to when our soldiers needed medical attention and I’d taken bullets out of many men in our private infirmary at the estate. I had to keep myself trained, not merely as a surgeon, but as one of the Vitale brothers, and any woman who stood at my side must be trained as well.

Any woman who stood at my side? Where had that thought come from? Gaby…Gabriella was delightful entertainment, but still a distraction and a potentially dangerous one.

Guard your heart, Tano…

“Yes, Tano,” Gaby grumbled, startling me from my reverie. “I will be a good girl.”

Removing my leg from hers, she immediately parted her thighs, looking for her reward. I took up where I’d left off and circled her hardened nub with my other hand. Within seconds, she cried out, her body tensing as she rode the orgasm and then collapsed over my lap.

I gently soothed her, running my hand in a circular pattern on her back, taking my fill of her before turning her back out to the world and out of mine, or at least my immediate proximity. When her breathing grew soft and even, I gently removed her.

“We need to talk, Gabriella. But first, you need a shower and coffee, in that order. I’ll leave a shirt on the bed for you and meet you downstairs when you’re ready.”

She opened her mouth to speak, but I held my fingers to her lips.

“Hold your questions,” I ordered. “We’ll discuss them over coffee.”

She nodded and slid off the bed, taking a look back at me before closing the bathroom door.

I made coffee and breakfast and had just placed the breakfast trays on the table outside when Gabriella appeared.

“A doctor who cooks,” she exclaimed. “If the food tastes as good as it looks, I may never leave.”