Their Queenpin (The Ridge MC #6)

Chapter 26Rafe

Chapter Twenty-Six

Rafe

My heartbeat pounded like it was trying to tear its way out of my chest; every thud warned me off as I stalked through the hallways of the Parisi Hotel and Casino toward Adelina. I knew this place like the back of my hand.

Every turn, every shadow, was familiar.

Tonight, however, I wasn’t walking with the casual ease I tried to maintain. Tonight, I moved with purpose, a storm building in my head. I didn’t give a damn about the dirt and dust and possible blood from all the bodies that had fallen. All of it trailed from my boots, onto the plush carpet.

Who gave a fuck about carpet?

Massimo had men to clean it. Like always.

Or the walls? They looked fragile, and I wanted to rip my hands through the plaster, taking this whole damned place down, brick by brick.

A prospect was standing outside Adelina’s door, pretending he was some kind of guard. He straightened when he saw me coming, eyes wide. Good. He knew better than to get in my way.

Even if my brother had bought me my rank, I was still an officer, and he still had to respect that.

“Leave!” I barked.

He stammered, and I fought the urge to pull my gun on the young pup.

He was a bit taller than me, but I came right up in his face. “Do you have a problem with direct orders, soldier?”

I tamped down a wince at the word, then corrected myself. “Prospect.”

His mouth worked like a guppy, and my vision was starting to drift, reality slipping through my fingers. This kid needed to get the fuck away from me before I did something we’d both regret.

Or something that would have Wilde on my ass.

He said something.

I didn’t hear.

Then, something pried my fingers off the kid’s cut before he ran away down the hall. I stood there, watching after him, and the hallway began to reform in my vision.

Shit! That was close. I needed Adelina. She was the only one who could halt my spinning. My plummeting into an abyss with absolutely no return.

I knocked on the door, then braced myself with both hands on the jamb.

The door opened, and she was there. “Rafe!”

Before I reacted, she threw herself against me, her body colliding with mine.

Her arms wrapped around my neck, holding me tight, her breathing ragged and hot against my skin. Each breath she took, I felt, her chest rising and falling in sync with mine.

I closed my eyes, taking in the scent of her hair, the warmth of her against me, letting her breaths fill my lungs. Something woke up inside me, something that had been lurking in the dark corners for too long, itching to break free ever since we’d gotten back from the East Coast.

“Back inside the room,” I growled, my voice rougher than I intended. I caught the door as it was about to swing shut, pushing it open and herding her back inside before it locked us both out.

Still in my grip, she stumbled, and I caught her before she fell. My legs moved as I dragged her further inside, past the makeshift office she’d set up in the living room, the kitchenette, and toward the bedroom.

Massimo had given her one of the nicer suites. How considerate of him.

“Rafe, what’s wrong?” she demanded, trying to twist around in my grasp. I tightened my hold, and she gasped. “Stop, you’re hurting me.”

Fuck. That wasn’t what I wanted. I let go, stepping back, but the need to keep her close still roared in my chest. My vision started darkening at the edges, and once that happened, I would no longer be here with her.

I would be there. In the Middle East, weighed down by Kevlar.

Fighting dead demons.

At war with the carnage I’d sewn.

I needed her here, with me, inside me, me inside of her, filling the emptiness that had been gnawing at my insides for days.

She rubbed her arm, her eyes never leaving mine. There was that look—like I was a train wreck she couldn’t tear herself away from.

Adelina had always loved the broken ones.

Even the starving kitten she’d saved as a girl.

She was the salve to my broken and bloodied heart.

Her hand came up to cup my face, and I flinched away before settling back into the touch I needed so badly.

“What happened, Rafe?” she asked, her voice gentle, like she was speaking to a scared animal. Maybe I was.

I’d killed enough men, torn them apart with my military-issued automatic weapons, and there was nothing gentle left in me. Women, children—when they screamed, it was fucking music, and I’d let it pump through me, get my blood moving.

But the songs took me into the void of darkness. The place I might one day never return from. It was easy to kill with the right tools. It was even easier when I liked doing it. And that’s what the Marines had done to me. Made me okay with killing.

The blood on my hands wasn’t a result of my orders; it was a part of me, and right now, it felt like it was all about to spill over.

It drained into my cock.

“Rafe.” She brought her other hand up to cradle my face. Her fingers were like ice because of the AC, but that was good.

Cooling.

Calming.

I needed to be bathed in ice water. The blood rage was deep in me, squirming in my belly like a parasite. It wanted more.

“What happened?” she asked.

“The blood,” I mumbled.

“Was it bad?”

I scoffed. “No. I’ve seen worse. The blood sprayed like a fucking paintball. All over the jewels. In every crevice. It crusted, made the diamonds hard to clean.” My vision blurred as I drifted. My voice sounded hollow as I continued, “I’ve cleaned before. Weapons. Clothes. Hair. Skin. Everywhere, even my cock.”

It twitched.

It wanted.

It hungered to be buried deep inside of Adelina.

She furrowed her eyebrows together. “Rafe, are you okay?”

How the fuck was I supposed to be okay? I wanted to be balls-deep in my niece. My fucking blood! But I’d been there before. With her and Graff. I’d been in her mouth before her wedding. And before that, her words... the ones that tore me apart and built me back up came floating back:

“Without the Mafia and MC, this is us. It’s never been normal, and I don’t care anymore. I don’t want normal. I want... I want you, Rafe.”

I turned away from her, unable to tell if she was real or a threat. If she was there for me, to take away the blood and make it all better. To touch her would spell disaster with the way my mind and body were reeling. The scent of her berry shampoo crept up my nose and filled my thoughts.

“What happened out there?” she asked. “Was it bad?”

“No.”

Fuck, why does she keep asking if it was bad? That proved to be how innocent she was, trapped up in a tower like the princess she was, needing a prince charming to save her. All she got was monsters, more in the MC. Yet her words still haunted me.

“I want you, Rafe.”

“It wasn’t bad,” I continued. “I’ve seen worse.” So much worse.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Her voice was closer now, and I walked further away.

I should’ve walked the fuck out of the hotel room. Straight of the hotel. Onto a highway and boom! Hit by a car and let my blood stain the pavement.

But Adelina was gravity.

She held me in orbit, and even through the haze of jumbled and bloody faces, I came back to the here and now.

“No.” I didn’t want to talk about it.

Not the blood.

Not the heist; that went well. Everything was executed according to plan while I was going to shit.

Not the... “War—” The word fell from my mouth, dangling between us.

“Rafe.” She came around the front of me.

Why the fuck did she have to do that? I didn’t want to see her face. I couldn’t trust myself to see her face. I needed to?—

I grabbed the front of her blouse, driving my fingers into the fabric, and then managed to find one of her tits. Why did she hide them? I tore off her shirt to expose her, taking her perfect nipple in my mouth and sucking.

“Rafe?!” She gasped.

And I planned to suck her nipples until she came, screaming my fucking name.

Only mine this time.

Her hands found their way into my hair, and she pulled at the back of my head, but I wasn’t about to let go.

“Oh, oh... Rafe!” Adelina’s nails dug into my scalp.

Releasing her nipple, I said, “I need you, tesoro.”

“Then take me, Rafe. Do your worst, because I know you won’t hurt me. Not really.” Her molten brown eyes bored into mine.

Pulling her closer by the ribcage, flush against my body to show her how deadly rigid my cock was right now, I crashed my mouth to hers. I licked and nipped and sucked her tongue like I’d been in the desert for days without water and she was all that would quench my thirst.

She bit back.

Licked.

Pulled me to her and dug her claws into my shoulders.

“Rafe.” She whimpered and dropped her head back, giving me access to the column of her perfect throat.

Without thought, my hand came up and wrapped around it, then I stopped moving entirely.

I had her windpipe under my palm. A small squeeze and she’d fall to the ground.

Dead.

But I couldn’t have her dead. Because without my anchor, my salvation, I would kill every man I met. Still, I felt her pulse. The blood that gave her life, and I watched her vein flutter in her neck.

When my eyes met hers again, there was nothing but desire there. Nothing but adoration, concern, and... love. No matter how much I didn’t deserve it, this amazing woman loved me. She’d loved me since she was a kid. She’d been the only thing that gave me purpose.

Now, she was all that was saving me.

I dropped my hand back to her ribcage and lifted her with ease.

Her legs came around my waist as her arms draped over my shoulders. Her fall of dark brown hair fell in a curtain next to our faces, and she pressed her lips to mine.

Gentle this time.

A promise.

But it turned vicious, daring me to take her.

Throwing her onto the bed, I climbed up until my body covered hers. “I’m not stable right now, Adelina.”

“I know. I’ll bring you back, Rafe.”

Our lips collided like the first strike of battle, fierce and unforgiving, a clash that shook through me like artillery fire. Her breath was hot, a searing wave that broke against my defenses, and I met it head-on, every inch of me braced for the onslaught.

We were in the chaos of war, a frenzy of tangled tongues and bruising teeth, a desperate struggle for control that left me raw. Her fingers twisted in my hair, pulling me closer, like a soldier gripping a rifle, and I pushed back, my hands anchored at her waist, refusing to yield.

The world around us fell away, replaced by the sound of our heavy breathing, like the rush of soldiers charging into the fray, and in that moment, it was both destruction and salvation. We tore into each other, each kiss another salvo, each touch an explosion that scorched every nerve.

No retreat, no surrender, only the raw, violent beauty of it all.

When I pulled back, both our chests were heaving, and I stood on my knees to rip the shirt over my head. I had already destroyed hers, so I ripped the shreds of fabric away from her body and then yanked her skirt off, then her lacy panties, until she was lying gloriously naked before me.

The spoils of my lifelong battle.

I kicked off my boots and pants as she reached for me—a wordless welcome home.

The hotel room around me darkened, my vision narrowing in on Adelina. My tesoro.

I swallowed, something thick clogging my throat, but then wheezed out. “Adelina, I can’t be?—”

“Don’t be nice, Rafe. Be brutal. I’m not breakable.” She arched her back. “And goddamnit, I’m ready for you to fuck me. I’ve been ready for years. Just us here. You and me.”

As I searched her eyes to see if she was telling me the truth, she grabbed my hand and brought it back to her throat.

“I promise, Rafe. You won’t break me.”

She left it unsaid that she was about to put me back together one piece at a time.

Wrapping my fingers around her neck, I fisted my cock with the other hand and drove into her in one sure thrust.

I cried out, a yell that might’ve sounded like a dying wolf—visceral and raw, a noise that embodied my pain and defiance. I growled as her pussy squeezed my length so delightfully. I arched my back, fighting off the tingle in the base of my spine.

Who the fuck knew how long we stayed like that, but holy fucking balls it was a perfect release—not orgasmic, but the release of death. The making of something new. The melding of us. We had always been destined to be together in one way or another.

Wrong? Who the fuck cared?

Right. Yeah. It was righter than right even if society would frown on us.

“Rafe,” Adelina rasped.

I released my grip on her neck and settled my weight on top of her. This was heaven and hell all at once, and I needed to let it sink in.

Her hands cradled my face again, tracing around my hairline and across my stubbled jaw. “You’re safe, my Rafaele. Il mio angelo custode. Capisce?? 1 ”

“Capisco,” I breathed. “Sempre? 2 .”

Then her hands planted hard on my bare chest and ran up and over my shoulders until she had both her hands wrapped around my neck. Her fingers laced at the back, and her thumbs sat along my jugular and carotid.

A devilish glint flickered in her eyes, and she ordered, “Now give me all your pain and torture and make me come.”

She didn’t have to tell me twice. I pulled back my hips and drove into her as though I could squeeze my whole body inside this beautiful, sexy woman. I rocked my hips fast, then slow, then fast again, encouraged by the gorgeous sounds that dripped from her mouth.

Then whole time she watched me with an intensity that made me let go of absolutely everything else and just be here, making love to the only woman I’d ever wanted in my life. As I plundered her core with my length, she started putting pressure against my vein and artery.

It tripled the sensations, making my spine tingle from the base of my skull all the way down to my ass. My balls tightened and my cock thickened as I slid it in and out. Over and over.

My vision started to darken under the pressure of her thumbs, and her pussy started pulsing around my cock. The sensations were too much. Her pants and moans grew louder, and she bit down on her lip hard. But the whole time, she refused to take her eyes off me.

Even as her lips rounded and her body locked up, she put more pressure on my neck, and I came so fucking hard my heart may have actually stopped. The whiteout behind my eyelids made me think I’d somehow made it into heaven versus hell. I soared like a bird in the clouds as my cock kicked and spurted inside Adelina.

Home.

The only place I belonged.

But then, she took several long breaths and looked away. And I felt sick.

1 ? My guardian angel. Understand?

2 ? Always.