AllFreeNovel
Share Us
TATUM
With internet access on the blink, Clara, Star, and I were getting desperate. I had to return to my penthouse to get any work done, sometimes with Clara, sometimes without. The days I went alone, spending hours apart from her, frayed my nerves. The nights I spent tangled with her in bed were both exhilarating and frustrating. Exhilarating because for a newbie, she was both curious and adventurous. Frustrating because nothing was resolved between us, and the little possessive demon inside me was chomping at the bit. I barked at Luca the other day, and the look of surprise on his face was almost comical.
With my sanity on the line, I made the unilateral decision to move Clara and Star to my penthouse in Manhattan until the internet was restored on a permanent basis. Mama stayed to host Alex’s mother and grandmother, who were overlooking the repair of their townhouse.
Installing Clara in my terrain, even if we were not alone, hugely improved my mood. After a couple of days, Star complained about the commute to and from school and asked if she could stay with Gabriela until the internet was back on at our family home.
I dropped her off at Gabby’s house with a warning to be a good girl. It was unnecessary because Star was always good, but I had to make certain to communicate my high expectations of her.
Mafiefamilies were uber protective. Even sleepovers were frowned upon, and here I was allowing my little sister to live with another family for days. Edgy, I glanced at Clara in the back seat through the rearview mirror, and a smug grin spread over my face. I couldn’t have planned this better if I’d tried.
“Move up front,” I ordered as soon as Star was out of the car. Clara slipped out of the backseat and settled beside me, her refreshing beach scent wrapping around me. I would forever associate her fragrance with California, and if I had my way, one day I’d have both. I put the car in drive and whipped out into the street, desperate to get back to my penthouse.
My jaws clamped together as I dragged my gaze up and down her luscious figure. She was like a dainty little present begging to be unwrapped. I needed her. I mean, I needed her. I needed to mark her. Fuck her. Take that cherry and thrust my cock right through it, pull out, and see the smear of her crimson blood on my shaft. The demon settled when I had my tongue in her tasty pussy or when she had her mouth on my cock but was otherwise restless. Whereas, before I hated being touched, now I hated every moment she wasn’t touching me.
I needed another hit of her, and soon.
Taking her hand, I drove one-handed toward the Queensboro bridge to take us back to Manhattan as the sun began to set. The silence settled between us comfortably.
Yes, I knew she wanted to stay a virgin, I knew things between us were complicated, but God forbid if things didn’t work out and she ended up flying back to LA alone. I couldn’t stomach the idea.
I’d finally found a woman strong enough to take me as I was, who wasn’t scared of the things I’d proposed to her, and who was a virgin in every way. Yes, I was the dirty possessive bastard who wanted to be her first everything.
Assuming we could get her father’s bullshit virginity condition out of the way, I’d have to move to Los Angeles. Before her, I’d never considered leaving my mother and sister. Never considered living outside of the Lupu clan or New York. I sure as hell had no idea if I could sever the twisted, guilt-ridden bond that shackled me to Alex. Then there was Grigore, who’d had years to dig his sharp claws into her. My grip tightened around the steering wheel, knuckles turning white. No way any sane man would let her go without a fight, and that man was far from sane.
I was going to take her virginity, knowing that worst-case scenario, she could leave me and carry the burden of being deflowered back to LA.
As for my secret… Why not throw it on top of the bonfire of secrets I held and light the match? I was already burning in hell. What was one more secret?
“I can finally relax,” I confessed. “We’re finally alone with all the time in the world. No one to intrude. No one to walk in on us.”
We had done everything but fuck. I’d respected her boundaries, and she’d held strong, but she was close to cracking, and with my kid sister gone, she was all mine.
She glanced at me from underneath her lashes, suddenly bashful, and hell if that didn’t rouse the little demon in me.
“Are you sure that’s for the best?” she asked shyly.
She was intimidated, I got that.
“We couldn’t go on without consistent internet. I have work. You have your work to do for your father.”
Clara was intricately involved in the Hagi clan’s distribution of drugs in southern California. They did things differently over there. We looked toward Europe, Russia, and Afghanistan as sources and routes for our drugs. The California clans looked to Mexico and South America. From what I’d gathered, they had more competition with the Mexican drug syndicates. I didn’t see how the Hagi clan would expand in a sustainable manner. Part of it was the infighting between the western clans, but even if they unified, they’d struggle to spread out beyond their current territory.
“I would’ve managed,” she mumbled.
“Why manage when I have a perfectly good apartment ready for you to live and work in. Plus, you can’t deny the amenities. It’s much more in line with how you’re used to living in LA.”
“I like your mother’s house. It’s cozy.”
“It’s small,” I countered. “And you deserve something better than to live like that.”
“Your mom’s and Alex’s mom’s houses remind me of Romania. I mean, come on. The ceramic stove in the middle of the living room in Alex’s house definitely reminds me of the old country, but even your mother’s house has the old-style Romanian decorative embroidery scattered around the place.”
“Hey, I have that, too. I’ll have you know that people envy the embroidery on my walls,” I informed her, referring to my living room, which displayed abstract woven pieces by a renowned Romanian artist.
“Those are modern renditions, not the real thing,” she said.
“Same thing,” I argued.
