Bound to the Crime Lord (Dark Mafia Tales #2)

Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

Manuel POV

I walked into the penthouse feeling spent from the day I had endured. Not only was The Triads a far greater nuisance than I had anticipated, but they were also getting bolder.

I had a delivery in my office this morning with a letter warning me to make sure to keep an eye on Juliette. I still didn’t know the connection between the rebel group and her, but I was going to find out.

Juliette was no gangster, and if her past was to be believed, she was as close to Mother Teresa as possible. So why is The Triads interested in her?

The house was uncannily quiet. Juliette should be home since she wasn’t on call tonight, but she could have also gone to the clinic to volunteer.

“Dammit, Juliette.” I dug out my phone from my back pocket and called Rigo.

“Yes, boss?” he answered on the first ring.

“Where is Juliette?”

“She’s at the penthouse, Boss. She only left today to go to the Pet Kingdom , and then she was back within an hour.” He recounted what her guards had seen her do. “Adam and Simon have been watching her the entire time.”

“The Pet Kingdom ? Why the hell did she go there?”

I walked further into my house and made a beeline for the kitchen. I came to a staggering halt when I noticed a small purple cage with what I could only describe as a rodent in it.

“What the fuck?” I guessed I knew then why she had gone to that store. I hung up the phone and approached the small box with caution. I was not one for pets, let alone small rodent-like ones.

The small thing was nibbling on what appeared to be a small apple slice in its hands. My nose scrunched in disgust the longer I stared at the thing.

“Such an ugly little thing.” I straightened. It was only then I noticed a small card on the countertop. At closer inspection, I realized that it was a note addressed to me from none other than my roommate.

Meet Wilbert Ballard! He will be joining my family. He’s cute, isn’t he?

“Juliette!” I roared.

“In here, Manuel” I heard her voice come from the direction of my study.

I picked up the stupid pet and stalked down the hallway towards my study. My irritation was already high, but it was morphing into annoyance. I hated pets, but most of all, I hated little rodents. They were not cute little creatures that deserved love. They were small, ugly sewer urchins that had no place in homes.

I pushed the door to my study open and found the very source of my annoyance sitting behind my desk, looking far too comfortable in my chair.

Her face was void of any makeup, and her wet hair had been put up into a messy bun on top of her head. I had never seen her so relaxed and laid back.

“ Good evening, amor .” She used the exact words I had used on her a few nights ago in the kitchen. “How was your day?”

“You think you’re funny, don’t you, amor ?” I walked into my study with the little hamster cage in hand. “You want to bring a rodent into my home?”

“Wilbert is not a rodent; he’s my pet, and I love him.” The amusement in her voice did nothing to quell the irritation in my system. “Rodents deserve love too, Manuel. Don’t you see how Rodrigo loves you?”

“Ha, funny.”

“I try.” She threw a cocky smirk my way.

I placed the small cage on the side table by the leather couches. I stormed toward my desk and slammed both my palms on the hardwood loudly. Juliette didn’t even flinch, she just held my gaze with amusement painting her features.

“You seem stressed, Manny.” She teased me with the most horrendous nickname on the face of the earth. “Yeah, I think that suits you very well, actually.”

“Get out of my chair.”

“I happen to like this chair, actually. What is it? Italian leather? Fancy.”

Instead of obeying me, she leaned further back into the brown leather and kicked up her feet onto my expensive wood. She was barefoot, and I noticed a small tattoo on her ankle that I had not noticed until today.

Hmm, interesting.

“Move before I make you.”

She threw her head back and let out the most boisterous laugh I had ever heard. The sound was pleasing to my ears. I had never heard laughter come from her lips before. She was always so brooding and melancholy that I didn’t even think she had that sound in her.

“ Before I make you , oh, macho-man trying to do macho-man things.” She calmed and then set her glare on me once more. “You ate my cake yesterday, Manuel. You declared war.”

“Cake? You brought a rodent into my house over a slice of cake?”

The intensity behind her glare intensified. “Wilbert is not a rodent. Stop calling him that.”

“It looks like a rat, therefore it is a rodent.”

“That’s a hate crime. You can’t discriminate against him simply because he is in the class of rats. They are a different subspecies.”

I blinked. “We cannot seriously be arguing about a damn hamster. Get it out of my house today, or I’m throwing it in the sewer.”

She dropped her feet from my desk and gaped at me in horror. “That violates multiple animal cruelty laws.”

“Do I look like a man who obeys laws, amor ?”

“True,” she shrugged, “but not even you are that cruel, Manny. How could you kill a hamster?”

“The same way I can kill a man in cold blood.”

She paused, and a subtle shiver flowed through her body. I watched the way her protective shield slipped for only a moment before she held it up again.

“The fact remains that Wilbert stays. He is my pet, and as per our agreement, you said that I could do whatever I see fit to make my stay here as comfortable as possible.” She stood from the chair and sauntered around the desk, breezing past me. I caught the scent of lavender and the faintest hints of lilies.

She smelt divine today.

I swiveled on my heels and watched her come to a halt by her rodent creature. She cooed at the little thing with her back turned to me.

Lesson number one was never to turn your back when a predator is present. You never know when they are going to pounce.

And she had already excited the beast within me.

I stalked toward her, my steps quiet and deliberate. I had no idea what I was going to do when I had her in my arms, but I knew that it was time to take things up and notch.

I came up right behind her. She sensed my presence and turned around quickly, almost smacking into me. She tried to pull away, but I held onto her hips and drew her toward me so she was flush against my chest. Her palms rested over my heart, her breathing coming out uneven.

“W-what are you doing?” Her eyes held mine for some time. I watched the way her crystal-blue gaze shifted to something darker and forbidden. It was the same look she had given me that day in the middle of the kitchen. That same hunger that she so desperately tried to subdue returned.

“You keep denying this, amor .” My hold on her waist tightened. “The problem with ignoring the inevitable is that it will still come to find you. No matter how far or fast you run, the inevitable will always catch up.”

She gasped when I pinched her sides. Her plump, pink lips looked good enough to eat. I could imagine them wrapped around my dick while I fucked her mouth.

My dick twitched. All the blood rushed to my cock, hardening it.

“Manuel…” She was fighting it. Her resistance was admirable, but I was done waiting, now. I needed a taste.

I crashed my lips down onto hers with so much heat that it scorched my skin as well. I had expected an immediate push back, but to my surprise, she melted into me. Our lips fought against each other for dominance. Neither one of us wanted to let up. We wanted to control, we wanted to take the lead and guide the other to whatever dance we saw fit.

It was fitting for the both of us to want to outdo the other.

Weeks of this cat-and-mouse game unleashed into that one kiss. There was nothing soft and gentle about it. It was jagged, violent, and hungry.

We practically clawed at each other, trying to bring our bodies closer. There was nothing quite like her. She was all things sacred and forbidden, and I wanted it all.

I bit down on her lips, seeking access so I could plunge my tongue down her throat. But instead of deepening this moment, Juliette pushed me away from her hard, making me stumble a few steps back.

Without warning her palm connected with my cheek as a resounding smack moved throughout the entire study. My head jerked to the side from the impact, my cheek taking in the sting of the slap.

Before I could even collect myself, Juliette stormed out of the room in a hurry, leaving me completely and utterly flabbergasted.

My lips were swollen from our kiss, my cock was hard from her taste, and my cheek stung from her slap. I should have been angry that she had dared to touch me in such a way, but I found myself intrigued and in need of more of her.

I knew that a taste would simply not be enough to quell the hunger I had now. I had awakened a beast, and he wanted nothing more than to take Juliette Ballard and brand her as his.

The games were in full swing, and it looked like I had some ground to make up.