Taboo Flames (The Sicilian Sins #2)

Chapter 19

CHAPTER 19

Aurora

“ L et go of me,” I snap at Carlos, shrugging his grip off me. “I can walk on my own.”

“My ins?—”

I cut him off right away and snap, “Your instructions were to get me home, and you can do that without ripping my arm clean off.”

“Sorry, Miss Vitale,” he says immediately.

I stomp past him, angry at Gio’s rude dismissal. He should have just let those guys go, or we could have gone elsewhere.

I can’t believe he’s going to go pick a fight just because some assholes were being assholes. As far as I’m concerned, they aren’t the ones who just ruined our dinner. It was Gio and his overbearing attitude.

I’m a few paces away from Carlos’s black Jaguar when I hear four distinct bangs. I flinch in horror, spinning around in an instant.

Carlos immediately nudges me forward toward his car.

“What? What are you doing?” I scream at him. “That could have been Gio.”

“It wasn’t him, miss. The boss is fine,” Carlos says with confidence.

I glare at him furiously. “How do you know?”

“I just do,” he replies with a shrug.

That isn’t enough reassurance for me. I wait for Carlos to start walking again before spinning around and bolting back toward the restaurant.

I ignore Carlos’s yell, running as fast as I can in my high heels. I slip into the nearest hidden corner and immediately undo the straps of the shoes. Clutching it in one hand, I tiptoe down the hallways, careful to avoid Carlos.

When I hear a pained grunt, I quickly follow the sound to the underground parking lot of the restaurant.

Then I quietly dash toward one of the cars parked there and stoop behind it, peeking out from my position to watch what’s going on.

The first thing I see when I poke my head out is Gio’s smile. It’s not the usual smile I’ve gotten used to. There’s something almost shark-like and feral about this particular smile. Something that makes him look nothing like the man I know.

Every trace of humanity is wiped clean from his expression, leaving something that makes shivers run down my spine.

Something glints on his hand, and I briefly wonder if it’s some kind of jewelry. That is until Gio lands the first hit on the other man’s jaw, and I realize exactly what it is.

I hastily slap my hand over my mouth to muffle the sound of horror that suddenly tears out of my throat.

“When I’m done with you, Salvador,” Gio snarls in a dark voice, "Your corpse will be tossed away like the filth you are. I’ll make sure you’re so unrecognizable that your family will never be able to identify your body.”

It’s obvious that whatever this man may have done to Gio, it is far beyond the simple matter of interrupting our dinner date. Gio must have recognized him earlier.

The second hit comes as lightning fast as the first, and the man howls, begging as he’s knocked down to the ground again.

I watch, entranced, as a switch flips in Gio’s eyes, and he rains hits and punches down on the man. This is a side of Gio I’ve never seen before. A side I’m not sure I should have ever gotten to see.

Eventually, the man stops begging or groaning in pain. There is so much blood, and it covers Gio and pools on the ground beneath the bloody pulp.

“Boss, I think he’s dead,” the man standing behind him says, but Gio doesn’t stop.

I feel my stomach revolt, but I squeeze my eyes shut and my hands into tight fists to fight back the urge to throw up. When I finally open my eyes, I’m in for a surprise as my eyes meet intense dark brown ones.

Realizing I’ve been caught by Gio, I gasp and quickly scramble away. This time around, I’m less careful about being caught by Carlos. I have a feeling being caught by Carlos will trump being caught by Gio at the moment.

I let out a shriek of terror when Gio appears in front of me, and I run right into him.

“Going somewhere, princess?” he drawls icily, his face blank.

“I didn’t see anything, I swear,” I rush to say.

“Let’s go home,” he says to me, as if nothing just happened.

I swallow, trying to control the shakiness in my limbs. “I think I’d like to sleep in my own bed tonight.”

He raises a brow at me. “But I like you in my bed.”

My heart immediately softens at his admission, but just as I open my mouth to say yes to him, I spot the blood on his hands and remember what I just witnessed. The blood has stained his chaplet a vivid red, and it’s a sharp reminder that Gio is a dangerous man.

I take a shaky step backward. “I just want to go back to my home.”

Gio’s eyes don't leave mine when he barks, “Take her to my house, Carlos.”

“Gio, I?—”

“We will talk about this when I come home.”

“I’d rather?—”

“Please, princess. I can’t bear to be away from you tonight.” His eyes look sad, contrasting dramatically with his bloody clothes. I know he wants to explain, but I don’t know if I can accept any explanation.

However, I can’t find the words to refuse him either. I want to be his comfort.

“Okay,” I mutter weakly.

I don’t even notice that Carlos has come up behind me until his hand gently drops down on my shoulders.

“Try not to lose her. Again,” Gio commands. I’m pulled away with a wordless Carlos, and when I look over my shoulder, Gio is still standing there. He’s staring forward, but I have the feeling he’s not looking at me. Rather, he’s lost somewhere in his head.

“Who was that man?” I ask Carlos as I climb into his car.

“You’ll have to ask the boss,” Carlos replies.

I turn and look at him. “You don’t know?”

“No.”

Logically, I know Gio won’t kill me over what I saw tonight, but tell it to my brain that’s whirling with gruesome images of what he is capable of doing to me.

Gio doesn’t need to keep me quiet about tonight. I’m a mafia daughter, regardless of how sheltered I’ve been. I know never to go to the cops. It might even be pointless anyway, as I’m sure he has a lot of cops in his pocket. So even if I did, it would be futile.

Yet the tremble in my hands persists, and my heart beats painfully fast.

The second Carlos’s car shuts off in Gio’s driveway, I’m dashing out of the car and into the house to find a hiding place.

The kitchen has far too many windows, and the bathroom reminds me too much of watching Gio masturbate, so I end up crawling into the empty closet of a guest bedroom, unable to tolerate his scent in his room. I curl myself into a ball and go to dig out my phone, then realize I left it at the studio.

I don’t know how much time passes by, but suddenly, the closet door flies open and off its hinges to reveal a very enraged-looking Gio.

I whimper in fright.

“What are you doing in here?” he growls, glaring down at me.

I retreat back into myself and as far back into the closet as I can. “No, stop!” I scream as he reaches out for me.

“Wh—” he trails off before following my fearful gaze to the blood on his hands. “I’ll wash them?—”

“It doesn’t matter,” I snap, averting my eyes. “You can never truly wash it out. Especially from my memories.”

He lets out a dry bark of laughter. “And do you think all the times I’ve touched you, that I did so with clean hands?”

I let out another miserable whimper.

“You’re mine, Aurora,” he informs me firmly.

“Not like this. Oh, God.” He reaches for me again, and this time, I let out a blood-curdling scream. “Don’t touch me. Don’t fucking touch me. You’re a monster!”

He flinches, and then his gaze hardens. Next thing I know, I’m being lifted and carried to his room. I scream at the top of my lungs and struggle, but Gio’s grip is like a vice.

When we get to his room, he drops me to my feet and stands before me, fuming.

“You insult me with your assumption that I’ll harm you.”

“I don’t know what you will and won’t do,” I spit out. “I really don’t know you, and you haven’t given me any opportunity to.”

“At least tell me that you know I won’t hurt you,” he says.

Deep, deep down, I know, but I stubbornly stay mute. Fabio was right when he told me that Gio isn’t all flowers and roses. I had desperately wanted to think the best of him, and now I don’t know what to think.

It isn’t just because he killed a man. I’d be a fool to think the men around me have not taken a life or two. It’s the brutality of his actions, the way he had done it without remorse or any show of emotions. So clinical and methodical.

“Just let me go home,” I say quietly.

He steps forward, right into my personal space, and his hands grab me. “I’ll never let you go, princess,” he says in a defeated and broken voice.

“What if this isn’t what I want anymore?” I voice out, even as the heady smell of him fills my lungs, and the feel of him near me sets my blood on fire.

“I’ll make you want it again,” he whispers against my neck, leaving a trail of hot, open-mouthed kisses along the path from my neck to my collarbone to the swells of my breasts.

“What if we’re a mistake?” I rasp.

“Then let’s make more.”

His breath fans against my lips. He’s so close, and that dangerous fire between us flares to life and burns away the rest of my hesitation. When it comes to Gio, I’m weak, and he has a way of breaking down all my defenses as easily as he did the closet door.

I don’t know who reaches for the other first, but all I know is that I’m in Gio’s arms, his mouth is hot on mine, and his bloody hands are divesting me of my dress.

“Gio,” I breathe out, my fingers fumbling with his shirt buttons and belt jerkily.

“I know, princess. I know.”

The silver dress falls to the floor in a whoosh of silky fabric, and I step out of it while he shrugs off his shirt, pants, and briefs.

Then he drags me into his hot, naked body, and I go willingly, eager for his body to give me the assurance that his words cannot.

“Mine. You’re mine,” he says in between kisses as he pushes me back onto the bed. With a grunt, he presses down on top of me, his tongue licking from my belly button up to my jaw.

I gasp, my legs falling open and aching for the sense of fullness inside me.

Gio takes his time kissing and nibbling and turning me up higher and higher.

His mouth covers one breast, and he sucks it deep just before his teeth clamp down on my nipple. I cry out at the sting of pain, wanting more of it.

Slowly, he makes his way down to my pussy. “Always so wet and ready for me,” he grunts raspily.

“Oh, God,” I moan. “Gio, please.”

He drives one thick finger into me, causing me to strain up to my toes and arch my back. I shriek at the sensation.

“Yes, yes. More!” I cry out.

“I can’t wait anymore, baby,” Gio grinds.

“Don’t make me wait,” I tell him urgently. “Fuck me.”

He removes his finger, and then the fat head of his cock presses against my entrance. He drags the tip across my slit right before he pushes into me with one mighty thrust.

“Fuck!” he groans loudly.

“Yes, oh God, yes. Don’t stop. Don’t stop. Gio!” I squeal.

Suddenly, there’s a loud knock at the door, and Gio turns to it with a fierce scowl. “Come in, and this had better be very fucking important.”

The man who had been standing behind him while he brutalized Salvador walks in, then freezes in shock at the sight of us.

“Uh, I’m sorry, boss?—”

“Spit it out, Fiore,” Gio barks without a change in his rhythm. He continues fucking me fast and hard, pounding me into the bed and making me scream with pleasure.

“We managed to catch two of the Albanian soldiers, and The Priest wants to interrogate them. He’s calling for an urgent meeting with you,” Fiore reports.

“Is that so?” Gio replies, then moans loudly.

I turn my head to see Fiore staring at my breasts, so I grab one and tweak the nipple for him, enjoying the way his gaze sharpens.

“You like that, don’t you?” Gio grits out. “You like being watched while you take my cock like a good girl, don’t you?”

The feel of him moving inside me, combined with his dirty words and the heat of Fiore’s eyes on me, succeed in making my desire rise higher and higher.

I wrap my legs tighter around Gio’s back, clinging to him like he’s my lifeline.

“Yes, I love it. All of it. I love everything you do to me,” I cry.

“You’re mine, Aurora Vitale,” Gio declares.

“I’m yours. Yours. Oh, God.”

I turn just in time to see Fiore pressing the heel of his palm against the bulge in his pants.

“I’m going to make you cum so hard that you forget your name,” Gio proclaims against my throat, his teeth clamping down on the skin there.

My nails rake down his back at the pain interspersed with pleasure. His hands trail down to my wet heat, and he presses his large palm against the top of my mound. Each thrust makes my clit rub against his palm, driving me crazy.

“Cum for me, princess,” he commands.

I feel my body seize up, and then I release a full-body shudder as my orgasm rips through me, sending me into a world bright with light, colors, and possibility.

“Gio!” I scream his name as he fucks me through my orgasm and into another one. Then, he stills above me and cums with a guttural cry.

“Mine,” I whisper into his neck as he pumps his cum into me.

I hear the soft click of the door, and we turn in unison to find that we are now alone.

“I’ll never hurt you, Aurora,” he tells me softly.

I close my eyes and take a deep breath. “I know.”