Dating the Don (Savage Crime Lords #1)

Chapter 17

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CRISTIANO

T he regret I feel is instant.

Maeve shouldn’t be here for this. I never should have involved her. She doesn’t deserve any of this. No woman should have to deal with this sort of horror. Most of all, not my woman. To be reduced to nothing more than a pawn? Auctioned off? I distinctly remember when Ada came of age and the subject of an arranged marriage had surfaced. It had floated around for a few minutes as my father debated whether or not such a political arrangement would suit the family.

I had been shocked.

Of course, it happens. I was even ready and willing to accept it if that was my fate since I was the head of the family. But, Ada? My sister? My baby sister? Absolutely not. She’s always been free to date whom she chooses, within reason, as a result of that choice that I made back then. I would never allow Maeve to be treated like that either.

And yet here we are.

There’s another man out there who likely now believes Maeve belongs to him. That she’s his property.

Over my dead body will she ever belong to anyone but me. Even then, that’s because she chose to surrender herself to me. Such a beautiful and willing submission. I can’t imagine the sort of monster who would take such things by force.

Even then, I only have as much of her as Maeve allows me to have.

At the end of the day, she belongs to nobody and nothing but herself.

Fake or not fake, I can’t let her be dragged into this because of me. The whole point was to keep her safe from my men. I never thought about how it would paint a target on her back for my enemies.

I’m failing even more spectacularly than I presumed. I had no idea Sullivan was alive until tonight. I can feel the accusation in Maeve’s eyes as she stares at me, but I knew nothing before Annalisa spoke. I had hunches and suspicions that I fully intended to spend the night figuring out for myself, and now here we are.

“Did you know about this?” Maeve asks plainly.

If I hide anything from her now, I will lose her forever. I can feel it. This is my one and only chance.

“When Dennis pulled me aside earlier this evening, it was to report that Doyle’s son was to be engaged to a woman named Maeve Sullivan.” I shake my head. “I didn’t think it was you and I feel like a fool for not seeing it sooner.”

Maeve seems speechless. She sits more quietly than I’ve ever seen her before. The puzzle pieces are falling into place for her the same way they had for me.

“I am still waiting for more information,” Annalisa concludes. “But know that I was to guard Maeve’s secret with my life. Now that it’s out, it’s going to spread like wildfire.”

Maeve gets up and leaves the room without a word. I nod my head in a silent goodnight to my mother before following silently after her. She doesn’t stop until she reaches our bedroom. She lingers in front of the door, kicking at her discarded shoes with her bare feet. I reach for her hand, and she pulls it away. It’s like she’s trying to make a choice and she wants to make it alone.

Maeve inhales sharply and lifts her chin. Her shoulders roll back. I would pay far more than a penny to know her thoughts. When she exhales slowly, only then does she open the door and let herself in.

I guess that’s a good sign.

I want to help her. To save her. I want to spare her all of this if I can. My options might be limited but it’s not too late for her.

She removes the pin from her hair and makes her way to the bathroom as I gently close the bedroom door. As soon as she turns on the shower, steamenters the bedroom. She emerges again, and I lean against the dresser. She asks me to undo the tie while holding the top portion up as she turns her back to face me.

This is not the evening I had in mind. I'd been dreaming of taking her clothes off ever since I saw her doing hermakeup. For entirely different reasons than his, I wanted so badly to take the dress off of her. I'm not even sure whether I'm allowed to touch her at this point.

The dress slips off her when I undo it, and she heads to the shower.

“You don’t have to do this, you know,” I offer. It’s an olive branch I don’t even know if she wants it or not.

Maeve pauses with her hand under the water. It’s steaming enough that I’m surprised that it’s not scalding her somehow. “What does that mean?”

“You didn’t sign up for this,” I answer, even though the words feel like a heavy weight in my chest. “You didn’t want this or agree to it.”

She looks at me over her shoulder. I’m struck yet again by just how beautiful she is.

Even with soot and ash stuck to her flesh. She is undoubtedly the most stunning creature I have ever seen, no matter themakeup streaming down her cheeks after sobbing through her mascara or the muted shade of red in her hair. I don’t want to let her go. I would gladly keep our agreement for ever. Butwhat if she doesn't want it?

She waits for me to speak again, her hand lowering.

“I can have you and Ada both on a plane out of here before dawn. Anywhere in the world that you want to go. You don’t even have to tell me where you’re going. You can go on your own, if you prefer. I’ll have an account filled with funds for any life that you want, you don’t have to do this.” My eyes close as I speak. I don’t want to see her expression. I don’t want to know what her answer is going to be until she says it.

Even when I open my eyes again, I focus on my shoes as I give her the space to consider the offer.

“You’re sending me away?” She finally says in a quiet voice.

I look up. “What? No. I’m offering you a way out, you don’t have to live this life if you don’t want?—”

“So you’re getting rid of me? Backing out of our deal because it’s hard? Or are you thinking that I can’t handle it?” Maeve asks, her voice flat and dead.

She’s twisting my words.

A beat passes and she laughs cruelly. “You’re not getting rid of me that easily, Cristiano. If this bastard Sullivan is truly my father, then he’s responsible for my mother’s death and I owe it to her to avenge her.”

She stares at me, waiting for me to protest.

When I don’t, she nods curtly. “So it’s settled then.”

“I think I’m wearing off on you,” I remark with a humorless laugh. “Who would have thought that you would have gotten bloodthirsty so quickly?”

“You’re clearly a terrible influence,” Maeve agrees.

“And yet, here you are,” I push off of the counter and move to stand beside her. I keep my hands respectfully in my pockets. I have to know that she’s sure. “Tell me that you’re okay.”

Maeve’s expression softens. Her chin dimples and tears threaten her again. She shakes her head once. “It’s so much… it’s…”

I nod in understanding and pull her nude frame against my clothed one.

“I feel like I’ve been living under a rock my whole life. Like my mother placed me in this protective bubble and now it’s burst and everything feels so much… bigger,” she says softly with her forehead pressed into my chest. Her hands tighten against the sides of my shirt as she clings to me.

“I’m here, baby, for as long as you’ll have me,” I promise again, rubbing my hands up and down her back softly.

She nudges me back into the spacious walk-in shower, and I don't think twice about objecting. Not when her lips find mine, not when the water clings to my skin. She quickly removes myshirt, and I take off my shoesas she leads the way beneath the veil of water. Her hands find my pants and belt and push them down till the water runs clear of all the soot and ash.

It’s cathartic in a way I’ve never experienced before.

I pull her into my arms,and she pushes my wet hair away from my forehead. I spin around and pin her against the wall as her legs encircle my waist. I can’t stop kissing her. I don't think I can ever get enough of her.

“If we do this, Cristiano, I want to do this together,” Maeve says against my lips.

“I promise,” I agree, as my cock finds her entrance. I slide inside of her as if I’m returning home. She moans softly against my lips and her fingers rake down my scalp.

“I mean it,” she gasps and struggles to keep her voice steady enough to speak as I fuck her slowly, deeply. “I want to be included. This revenge is just as much mine as it is yours.”

I nod again, my teeth closing over her full bottom lip.

“Promise me… Cristiano.”

My name is a prayer on her lips.

“I promise,” I groan. “Together.”

Maeve’s forehead falls to mine and her eyes drift shut. “Harder,” she requests. “Please, I want you to fuck me until I forget. Please. I can’t stop hearing the screaming…”

She doesn’t have to tell me twice.

I fuck her until she’s begging me to stop. I take her against the wall of the shower, the small seat, and on the damned floor. I fuck her until her legs no longer support her weight and she sits curled in my arms on the floor of the shower as I wash her hair. Then, when I carry her, towel-dried, into our bed. I roll her on her stomach and fuck her to sleep.

Letting her be involved in revenge goes against everything that I’d sworn to myself. I can’t put her directly in harm’s way. She has no training, she’s never been in the field. Maeve’s never even fired a gun before. How can I put her up against trained mobsters? Is her getting revenge worth possibly losing her? Can I really make that choice?

As I lay there staring at the ceiling of our room, I don’t know if I can keep my promise, after all.