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So, why was I still thinking about him and longing for him?
* * *
It had been four days—four days of knocking on the door, and then it opened to a hand thrusting a tray of food at me before closing again. The first time I tried to fight back, I found myself invisibly tied to the bed again, so I quickly gave up that plan.
Matteo hadn’t come back to speak with me, but if the sounds from downstairs were any indication, he was busy.
All I could hear were saws, hammers, and drills. On the first day, I agonized, wanting desperately to know what was going on, but then on the second day, I woke to a box of my jewelry and jewelry-making supplies sitting on a small table. It was an answer of sorts—whatever was going on downstairs did not include the jewelry shop I’d spent the better part of six months establishing.
The sounds of construction came all day and night, making it nearly impossible to sleep, but everything stopped on the fifth day. I was exhausted, and when silence swallowed the building, I found myself drifting off.
I woke to someone lazily dragging their fingers through my hair and stroking my head. My eyes fluttered open to find Matteo sitting next to me, petting me.
“Fuck!” I flew back, trying to distance myself from him. “What are you doing?”
A pleased smirk spread across his face as he watched me. “You’re lovely when you sleep, you know that?”
“I do now.” I scowled as I pushed myself into a sitting position, crossing my arms over my chest. “You finally come to let me out?”
“No, but I have come to offer you another chance at a partnership.”
“We’re not fucking.” My voice was firm and placid, yet my body was anything but. Five days with nothing but my thoughts and the constant replay of coming on his tongue left me more hot and bothered than I wanted to admit. But there was no way in hell, literally Hell, I would “partner” with him for anything.
He chuckled. “You’ve made that clear, as I have also made clear I don’t need your permission.”
My scowl deepened as my body tensed with readiness. “Let’s get it over then. But I’m warning you, I’ll lay here like a log the whole time.”
Matteo snorted and rose to his feet, holding his hand out for mine. When I didn’t reach for it, I felt the ghostly touch of magic wrap around my wrist, and he forced my hand into his. My eyes widened with the realization of what that meant, and he only chuckled more.
“As I said, I’d have you on your knees if that’s where I wanted you.”
Unsolicited, I pictured what it would be like to be on my knees in front of him, tongue hanging out wantonly as I tried to stuff both those cocks into my mouth and worship them with my kiss. My thighs tightened as a flood of moisture appeared between them. Then I scowled at him. Was he doing this?
“Come, let me show you what we’ve been up to.” He led me out of the apartment.
My feet reluctantly dragged after him, a far cry from when I’d let him carry me up here. Walking through the back room, new shiny equipment had replaced the old and rusted machines left behind from the butcher shop. Growing up in the industry, I knew my way around the machines, and so to see them in such pristine condition sent a drop of fear into the pit of my stomach. Were they re-opening the butcher shop?
My question was answered as Matteo brought me into the front of my former jewelry shop and introduced me to the newly renovated butcher shop. Gone were my jewelry stands, and in their place, a meat counter scrolled across the back of the room. In the front were baskets filled with dry goods imported from Italy, making it look like a legitimate business. But this was a demon at my side, whose day job was pretending to be a mafia prince, so this couldn’t possibly be arealbutcher shop—could it?
“What’s going on?”
“Welcome to my plan.” He held out an arm like Vanna White, an expression on his face that told me he thought I should be impressed. All I could do was bite my tongue and lift an eyebrow, looking for an explanation. “Pretending to be the mafia to collect souls is a bit more difficult than we anticipated. We’ve got the souls, but when we go to collect, it looks suspicious when Joe Blow from down the street, who had no ties to the Mafia, drops dead in a hit. So, we needed a way to hide the bodies and get rid of them—”
He didn’t have to finish his story for me to put the pieces together. It was a front, but not for an underground casino or anythingminor. No, he was going to literally mince meat—human meat. “So, take them to hell. That’s where they’re going anyway!”
“It doesn’t quite work like that. Unless a human goes through an entrance to hell willingly, they can’t take their body. And frankly, what human would go willingly?” His face spread with a grin as if he knew a few humans that might.
“So, you’re going to make human sausages from people who’ve sold their souls to you?”
Matteo’s eyes lit up as he processed my suggestion, and where I should’ve felt regret or repulsion, I felt something akin to pride. I’d come up with something even more devious than a demon.Take that.
“That is …” He cupped my chin, turning my face to his, “… brilliant, baby girl.” His thumb brushed lovingly down my lips, sending another thrill of pleasure through me, making me loath my body for having such visceral reactions to him. “Damn, I knew you were a devious little thing. We make the sausages, and the people who return for seconds naturally corrupt their souls. They will come to us in the end anyway, no selling needed. Hah! Gluttony!”
He let out a pleased laugh, and suddenly I found myself lifted from the ground as he spun me around excitedly. His reaction took me so off guard that I wrapped my arms around his neck to hold on and then, realizing what I’d done, pushed against his chest.
Once on my feet, I backed away from him and crossed my arms over my chest. “Besides stealing my shop, I don’t understand what this has to do with me.”
“Nothing. My siblings think you are no longer needed besides a little signature turning this place over to the De Luca dynasty, but I don’t need your willingness to achieve that. I will admit, though … I am … intrigued … by you.” He said the words tensely like he had to force them from his mouth. My heart shuddered in my chest as I waited for what came next. “It would be remiss of me to dispose of you and ignore the sensation in my chest the moment I saw you.”
