Their Queenpin (The Ridge MC #6)

Chapter 4Rafe

Chapter Four

Rafe

Giving her a decent amount of space, I tailed Adelina down a flight of stairs to the forty-second floor, where everyone except for Wilde had a room. They had given each of us suites. And nice ones, at that. But they were nothing like the extensive living space Massimo had dedicated to the Prez. No wonder the prospects liked hanging around up there.

My brother’s accommodations for Wilde also refuted the notion that Massimo was after the MC. Regardless of the games he liked to play, he generally tackled things head on. He had, after all, told Wilde exactly what his intentions were with Enzo Gambino.

The fact that one of the officers ended up with a bullet in the chest made little difference once he had overthrown the existing Mafia regime. Like always, Mass got what he wanted and tossed the rest to the wayside.

Adelina threw open the door to her hotel room, stormed inside, and slammed the door in my face. I managed to grab it before it latched and stepped inside after her. Once it closed behind me, the hotel door locked into place. Still, I threw the deadbolt.

Reaching toward her back, she said, “Don’t try to stop me, Rafe. I’m visiting Sas now. If I wouldn’t trip over this damned train, I’d go like this just to make a point with the police.”

“He may not even be booked yet,” I said. “Which means they won’t allow you to see him.”

Without a lawyer and without any kind of inside connections like my brother apparently had, it would be a wasted trip. Adelina would go down to the LVMPD and sit in an awful plastic lobby chair, waiting for the lawyer to arrive. I would hate to see her brat come out with everyone at the cop shop.

She clawed at her back, trying to undo the buttons on her wedding dress, but her fingers only grazed her skin in her frustrated attempt. She was losing patience, scratching at herself like she would tear her own skin off to get out of that damn dress.

My hands twitched, ready to help, but I hesitated. She wasn’t mine—not like that. Not yet. Undressing someone else’s bride wasn’t my place, no matter how much I wanted to step in.

She groaned, stamped her feet, and I knew she’d reached her limit. I hesitated for a moment longer, knowing I should hold back, but when she finally realized she couldn’t do it alone, I gave in.

“I’ll do it,” I said, crossing the room.

It felt natural to slip back into the man I’d been before the Marines, the one whose constant job it was to help the Parisi family. Patient. Stoic. Desperately trying to blend in with the extravagant wallpaper.

My presence had always calmed her, but not this time. She didn’t stop trying to get to the buttons on the back of her dress.

Her hands trembled and sweat beaded on her hair line. She sniffled, exactly the way she had when she was a girl and tried to hold back her tears. A memory of her in the fifth grade dashed across my mind. The school had called Neomi to come get her because she’d gotten in a fight, but her mother had been in the middle of her spa day, so she sent me.

When I’d arrived, I found out that one of the other girls in Adelina’s class had been picking on another girl with acne. Adelina, conscious of the victim’s torment, stood up for her.

Tears had pooled in her eyes then too, and she shook with rage. When I’d grabbed hold of her, a droplet rolled down her face. The principal emerged from the office to let me know she would be suspended for a week for punching the bully.

Adelina had scrubbed away the tear, took a deep breath, lifted her chin, and told the principal, “Someone here should stop the bullying, so I don’t have to.”

Then, she’d stormed outside.

In the car on the way home, she’d apologized. Not for hitting the girl, but for allowing herself to cry.

If those tears fell now, Adelina would be irate with herself. She was a solver through and through. She’d always believed crying was for the weak, so I couldn’t expect any differently now.

I tried to grasp the small buttons on the back of her dress, but she shook too much. I laid a firm hand on her shoulder, forcing her to stay still. It took a few seconds, but she stopped vibrating.

“I don’t know...” She swallowed hard several times. “I don’t know why I’m acting like this.”

“He’s your husband,” I said, slowly removing my hand from her shoulder and starting to undo the buttons.

“He’s an asshole.”

“Yes.” I had no argument. In fact, I would’ve gone one step further. But if anyone could tame that beast, it would be her.

“At least, I used to think he was.” Her shoulders slumped forward.

I paused undoing her buttons, waiting to see if this level of confusion would have her breaking down into sobs. They never came.

After a few deep breaths, she said, “It’s just that today was my wedding day, Rafe.”

“It was a beautiful wedding,” I said, then added in a quieter voice, “Up to a point.”

“Exactly!” She huffed. “And not much about it was what I had envisioned.”

“What did you want, Adelina?” I wasn’t sure my heart would survive her telling me about her sadness over Sas, but she clearly needed to get it off her chest.

“I wanted... to get married in Italy, Rafe.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn’t about Sas, but an ideal she held as a child. That cut into me, too, but it didn’t truly surprise me. She’d always loved her Italian heritage and got super excited when she got the chance to see a new Italian village or vineyard.

“Do you remember that time we visited Lake Como?”

“Mmm...” I tried to recall, but those vacations had been mostly about me hiding from her Nonna Petra.

“It’s okay if you don’t. We weren’t there for very long, but there was this villa on the lake. White, three stories. It had this hedge row with statues lining the way to the entrance, and then the wedding would’ve been out back by the lake.” She sighed.

I continued with her buttons, not saying anything else, but letting her get it out.

She stomped then. “So much prettier. So much more peaceful than the stupid chapel Mamà’s a patron at. How many people have eloped in that chapel, Rafe? Shotgun wedding anyone?”

“Except for the end, yours wasn’t a shotgun wedding, Adelina. Unless you’re...” Please, please, please don’t tell me you’re pregnant.

She chuckled, and my shoulders relaxed at the sound.

“No, Rafe, I’m definitely not pregnant.” Adelina glanced over her shoulder at me, eyes hidden under the heavy mascara and fake eyelashes.

Her face was dolled up to look less like Adelina and more like Neomi, a proper Mafia wife. The bunnies sometimes wore lots of makeup, but it rarely looked as uptight as the women in La Famiglia. And as far as the ol’ ladies went, I didn’t know many of them, but Bou never wore much makeup.

Adelina was now married to the vice president, or one of them.

That meant she had status, even if she wasn’t used to the grittiness of the biker life. The chaos of it all was something I was getting used to as well.

“You are gorgeous too,” I whispered.

She smirked. “I know. And you proved it earlier.”

Playfully, she nudged me in the lower belly, and my cock woke up. The small touch from her sent me reeling. My body wanted more— I wanted so much more.

Given the opportunity, I wouldn’t stop worshiping her until I had myself buried deep in her. But she was a married woman, another layer of sin in my already treacherous life. The jagged lines between us felt like the Grand Canyon. Sharp red rocks and plummeting cliffs. One slip and I’d be gone forever.

Or hers for eternity.

Perhaps she was the devil, sent to torture us all.

It wasn’t the first time she’d toyed with my resolve, and I was sure it wouldn’t be the last. I remembered one night at a family gathering, a summer evening when the air was thick with the scent of roses from her mother’s garden, not one that Neomi ever tended, but they had always been her prize.

The Parisi estate in Summerlin, west of the strip, had been alive with people—business partners, family, and friends—gathered for one of those over-the-top dinners Massimo liked to throw. Chandeliers glowed over long tables covered in expensive linen, while servers walked between the guests offering wine and hors d’oeuvres.

Adelina had been sixteen, wearing a white dress that clung to her in all the right places, a dress that shouldn’t have made her look so grown. I was in my mid-twenties back then.

She’d teased everyone that night, laughing and floating between the guests, her movements carefree, like she owned the world. But it was when she caught me watching her from across the garden, her lips curving into a knowing smile, that everything shifted.

She hadn’t known what she was doing. Womanly awareness about those things wouldn’t come to a girl her age. But that smile, those eyes—the way she held my gaze a second longer than polite for family—it set something off inside me, something I didn’t want to feel.

She’d wandered over, barefoot by then, her heels left behind somewhere. “Why are you standing all the way over here?” she’d asked, her voice light and teasing, like I was part of the game too.

I barely managed to answer her, the knot of guilt already tightening in my chest. “Just keeping an eye on things,” I’d said, trying to sound casual, but my voice had come out rough.

Adelina had studied me in a way that seemed like she saw straight through all my defenses.

“You’re always watching,” she’d said, almost like an accusation, her fingers brushing against my arm as she passed. The touch had been brief, innocent, but it had left a trail of fire on my skin.

I’d watched her walk away, her hips asway as she rejoined the others, and the weight of my sin pressed down on me. She had no idea about the power she wielded or the way she made me question everything I knew about right and wrong.

“Rafe?” Adelina brought me back to the here and now.

I blinked several times.

“There you are.” She smiled, then wriggled and turned away from me. “You went dark on me again.”

“Sorry,” I mumbled.

“Can you undo more of the buttons? I’m having a hard time breathing. It’s so tight.”

My palms were sweaty, and I fumbled.

Adelina let out a long breath, then said, “This dress. The makeup. The hair. It’s all there to make me look so beautiful. But they’re real bitches. Heavy. Thick. They poke me in the sides. I mean, who wants to breathe on their wedding day, anyway?”

“Did Neomi pick the dress?”

“No.” She scoffed, filling the void between us. “Well, kinda.”

She didn’t often ramble, and that she did today was another sign of how rattled she was. “The makeup is terrible to take off,” she said, “but the dress is even harder. You would think the dress shops would make it easier to get to business on the wedding night.”

For a moment, she seemed to mentally go somewhere other than this hotel room.

“Hey, that’s my trick.” I nudged her back to the present.

Her eyes, though, stared off into the distance blankly. Then, she added in a small voice, “Sas would’ve just ripped it off.”

I undid the last of the buttons down her back, something I never dreamed I would have the opportunity to do. “I’m pretty sure you are not wrong.”

“Or maybe he would’ve cut it off.” Adelina pulled the straps from her shoulders and let the dress drop. It pooled around her ankles, and she stepped out, kicking it into a corner. “The housekeepers can burn it for all I care.”

She still wore a corset, stockings, and underwear. My imagination played with what I could do to her. With how much—and how little—she wore. I undressed her with my eyes, remembering her breasts and ass and pussy from when she had been splayed out on the table in LA.

With a sigh, she said, “But he’s not here to take off my dress. He’s rotting in jail.”

“It won’t be for long,” I said, unsure if the words were true.

She ignored my bullshit. “You heard what Papà said. He doesn’t care if I marry somebody else in the club. But what does that make me, Rafe?”

I turned her to face me, holding her by the shoulders like I had when I picked her up that day from school. Needing again to reassure her in any way possible. “Listen to me, tesoro. Sas will be let out on bail soon enough.”

She lifted her chin, raising one eyebrow to give me a challenging look. She really was seeing through my hogwash.

“Maybe,” I conceded. “I don’t know how many times he’s been picked up or put in jail, but I’m willing to bet this isn’t his first rodeo. And if this Melanie woman is worth her salt as a lawyer, she’ll make it happen.”

Adelina nodded solemnly, almost imperceptibly. I barely caught the movement and forced myself to keep my eyes on her. I had been hiding most of the day, like I had for my whole life, but I needed to step out of the shadows. She needed me and that was all that mattered.

Her husband was in jail, and the other man she clearly leaned on—Graff—couldn’t be here either because Prez held him back. That put the pressure of being solid for her on my shoulders. I would always take the weight off her chest, allowing her to breathe freely.

“Everything will be okay,” I murmured.

“It has to be.” She raised her shoulders again and let them fall.

Adelina stood taller, though she wasn’t tall at all. However, she was shedding her confusion and getting her head screwed on straight. Her old strong, confident self pushed through all the shit from today, and I felt certain she would come out on top.

She always did, as she proved when she stood up for that poor girl in a playground fight.

I reached up to touch her shoulder again, but she stepped out of my reach giving her back to me. She kicked the dress again.

Some women would encase their wedding dresses in glass and boxes, meager efforts to preserve their special day. She pushed it aside and slid the garter off her thigh. It slipped to the ground, and she picked it up and shot it like a rubber band into the trash then took off her heels.

“What are you doing?” I asked, waiting back.

“I’m going to change, and then we’re going down to the jail,” she said as she stripped the pearl earrings from her earlobes.

“They’re not going to let you see Sas,” I said.

“They have to. I’m his wife.”

“Until he’s been arraigned, they’ll only allow his lawyer back.”

She spun around. Red crept up her neck from her chest. “Why are you doing this to me?”

I rocked on my heels, blown back by the nuclear blast of her anger.

“What do you mean?” I asked. “I’m not doing anything to you.” At least not intentionally, and it was hard as fucking hell not to wrap her in my arms and try to soothe her with every part of me.

“Why do you always have to tell me the truth?” she snapped. “Can’t you let me...?”

She heaved, her body trembling again. The armor she worked so hard to rebuild was faltering when she needed to be her strongest.

Without thinking better of it, I crossed over to her and wrapped her in my arms. Her face fell against my chest. Her sticky skin—covered in sweat and maybe tears—stuck to me like we were glued together. I wouldn’t mind if we were, but this closeness kindled fire in my blood and reminded me of earlier. How she had taken my cock in her mouth and given me a gift of her own.

The thoughts were rushing back at me, draining toward my groin. My stupid cock lengthened and hardened as it recalled her tentative ministrations all too well.

“Can you take it out?” she asked into my shirt, her voice small.

“What?” I asked, thinking she meant my cock. It was too much hope for the situation, but what she said next was just as good.

“The vibrator,” she said. “It’s still inside and useless.”

My breath hitched in my throat.

“I can reach it, but I don’t think—” She shook her head.

“I, ah . . .”

What was I supposed to say?

“It’s okay.” Her eyes dropped to look at the floor, and she continued, “I keep waiting for it to go off, like when Sas kept hitting the button during the wedding, but I know it won’t. I think it’s why I’ve kept in me, like Sas still had the control to zap me again. Like he would bellow with laughter if he knew he was making me come from miles away, stuck in his jail cell. But the remote fell on the ground when they shoved him in that car.”

“I’m sure he would.” My voice sounded strained.

“I wonder if the cops picked it up after we left. Or if they knew what it was.” Adelina smirked as if imagining the confrontation between Sas and the cops. “I bet you money he grinned like a kid in a candy store when he told them what it was. It might be the only thing he said, just to freak out the police. Though, he should keep his mouth shut.”

“He probably is,” I offered.

Adelina pulled away from me and parted her thighs. Her white thong was drenched with her juices, tight to her slit.

“Take it out,” she said.

I glanced at her, trying to decipher her hardened features and determined gaze, but I lowered my hand down her thigh. She jerked a little at my touch, and I paused. I had never touched her like this. While she had sucked my cock, I had kept my hands away from her. Now, she was commanding my touch.

Only to take the vibrator out of her, I reminded myself. A practical purpose. That was all, but I would have to reach inside her.

Hooking my finger into her panties, I dragged the fabric away from her pussy and exposed her. Her clit was still swollen, protruding from her pink folds. I slipped a finger down between her lips, and she jerked. Small, a spasm. So quick that I might’ve missed it if I had blinked. Her dark eyelashes fluttered. And then she narrowed her gaze on me.

A spike of fear shot through me over what I did. What she was asking me to do. But then she stepped out again, widening her stance and allowing me to push my fingers up inside of her. Fuck, if Sas knew, he would have my head on a platter. He would find every way to torture me before he killed me with Adelina watching.

She’s his. Never mine.

Adelina stepped forward, and I froze. She staggered her feet and moved until my fingers were right at her entrance. I touched the tail of the vibrator, the small lip allowing me to grab it. Graff had shoved it deep into her. Somehow, it hadn’t slipped out.

“Can you get it?” she asked, nearly breathless.

I nodded. “Are you sure you want it out?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“Just in case.”

“There won’t be an ‘in case.’ Take it out,” she ordered.

I grasped the tail and gave it a tug. Adelina faltered forward a step, laying her hands on my shoulders. The vibrator still wasn’t free from her pussy. It was snug, hugged by the tight ring of muscles seeming to suck it, and my hand, deeper. Not even her slickness let it slide away, like the thing didn’t want to be parted from her.

I understood.

It was part of her now.

Like she was part of me.

The vibrator slipped away from my fingers, and I grunted.

She let out a whimper.

“Sorry,” I said and then pushed deeper into her.

Adelina gasped, her body nearly toppling down. Her legs trembled. After all the pleasure that had been rent from her body today, this is what would make her fall.

At my hands. The pleasure I would give her. Intended or not.

I drove my fingers up into her—all the way to my knuckles—but I still didn’t encompass the full vibrator. I added a third finger, trying to wrap them around the little egg, and Adelina fell against me.

My hands weren’t small. She couldn’t possibly take any more as she panted, but holy fuck, how she stretched. Her body was meant for this. To allow more inside. Me. All of us.

Perhaps she would stretch for me. Take me all the way up to my wrist.

Adelina let out quick breaths, each shallow. Her stomach protruded against my body, then her inner muscles tightened and relaxed. The thought of her belly swelling with a child, however, intrigued me. How many children would she bear for Sas, like Wilde’s ol’ lady was for him?

And when her belly was heavy with Sas’s child, my cock could find a home in her without worry of getting her pregnant. For now, I waited for her to adjust before trying again.

Slowly, I reached further, past the knuckles until my fingers grasped the vibrator at last. She let out a squeal with my movement, and her lower lips clenched, suckling against me. Exactly how the vibrator had gotten so deep into her.

Secretly wanting to see her come apart on my hand, I warned, “I’m going to take it out now.”

Biting her bottom lip, Adelina nodded.

I withdrew my fisted hand and vibrator millimeter by millimeter. Her swollen lips peeled back, releasing me, and she screamed. She was stretching terribly, but so incredibly. Her body relished this. Her brows were drawn together, her lips parted as she breathed. Her body had taken the size of my hand wrapped around this egg-shaped contraption. That meant she could take so much more and relish the sensation. It was beautiful.

When I was at the widest part of my fist, I waited. Adelina stomped her foot, adjusting, and I hid my smirk. With her scent in my nose, I watched her... worshiped the pleasure and pain on her face as my cock leaked precum in my pants.

She bit her bottom lip and mewled.

Fuck, I liked to see her like this. Loved to touch her like this. Especially her pussy wrapped around me. As she squealed, agony and indulgence went to war across her face. Her hips bucked as her body won the battle, seeking more.

“Do you want to come, tesoro?” How much she was holding back? Did she like this as much as me?

“Oh fuck, Rafe, yes.”

The sound of my name falling from her lips like that had me almost exploding in my dress pants. I twisted my hand again, and she moaned, openly jerking her hips against me now. The waves of her pleasure built and crested and fell over her, and she gasped, the orgasm washing down her quaking legs.

She fucking came with a part of me inside of her.

With one movement, I pulled the vibrator out of her. Her pussy lips let out an audible slurp.

As though all the air had been sucked from her body, Adelina crumbled against me. Her hot breath scorched my neck. I wrapped my arm around her center, keeping her on her feet. If she toppled anymore, she’d bring me down with her, and I made no promises about letting her up any time soon.

Her juices covered my hand. More of her cum slid down her thighs. I licked my lips, wanting to lick her clean. She would taste so nice.

“I need to take a quick shower,” said Adelina, straightening.

I hated to let her go. I considered throwing her down. My cock rubbed against my pants.

“Then I’ll change, and we can go,” continued Adelina. “We need to free Sas.”

She turned on her heel and walked toward the bathroom.

My wet hand still waited down at an angle, the vibrator in my fist. For the first time in many, many months, nothing had reminded me of the carnage I’d endured in the military. She muted it all—the voices, the bombs, the rat-a-tat-tat of automatic weapons, the screams of children.

Once the bathroom door shut, I lifted my hand to my lips and licked her delicious cum from my fingers.