????MAFIA POSSESSION ????????
( HIS ADDICTION ????)
BY, ROYAL DIADEM ❣️
CHAPTER 24
Copy and have your life shortened ????
CAROLINE MADE a small helpless noise as Luca’s teeth grazed the sensitive
skin at the corner of her jaw. He came home excited and demanding,
cornered her against the kitchen counter and kis-sed her before she could ask
how the rehearsal dinner went. Not that she was complaining. His large
hands fit around her wa-istand lifted her to her tiptoes. The ha-rd marble
counter pressed into her lower back at an uncomfortable angle,
and she
shifted to ease the pressure on her spine. Her head fell against his shoulder
and his fingers tangled throu-ghher hair to jerk her face back up rou-ghly.
She inhaled de-eply, lost in the mahogany abyss of his focused eyes. But
something wasn’t right. Not the aching prickle of her scalp where he held
her hair tight enough to pull, and not the cold countertop sharp against her
back. She didn’t mind that. But he smelled… flowery.
She inhaled again
throu-ghher nose. Perfume. The smell of perfume lingered on his shirt.
Why? Hugging too many relatives?
Her eyes drifted down the column of his throat to the collar of his pale
blue shirt. A smudge, right at the top button, red and incriminating, sunk her
stomach like a stone in a body of water. li-pstick on his collar, the lingering
scent of flowery perfume. What was she to him? Just a plaything that he
kidnapped and owned?
She pushed at his chest, which did absolutely nothing to make him
move away. He chuckled and stroked her cheek. “What’s wrong, gattina?
You want to play rou-gher?” His voice slid around her senses and almost
made her forget her anger. That made her even more angry. What gave himthis power over her?
“Was she worth it?” Caroline spat. “I’ll break the rules. I’ll call the
cops.”
“What?” Luca looked beyond confused. “You’ll die.”
She pushed him again and this time he did step back, though she got the
distinct feeling that it was more to do with his understanding that she
wanted space than the force she put into the shove. “Do you threaten her
too?” she demanded, more upset than she should be.
“Who are you talking about?” He didn’t even sound defensive so much
as confused.
She tugged on his shirt. “li-pstick.” Another of his buttons came
undone, and she ignored that because she was angry. “You smell like
perfume. You’re not even trying.” That realization hit her like a sack of
flour over the head. “If you wanted to hide it, you could. Easy. Like
everything else in your life. You could lie to me all the time constantly and
I’d never know. This is just lazy.” She bared her teeth, red hot anger
simmering in the back of her throat. “You wanted me to notice. Or you
wanted to see if I would. Well, I noticed, Moretti,” she seethed his name
like an insult.
His expression darkened from confusion to something more dangerous
as she spoke. “What are you saying?” His voice was a blade throu-gha thin
layer of silk, and it took her breath, but she couldn’t back down now.
“You’re cheating on me.” The accusation hung in the air like a delicate
glas-ssuspended in that moment when you realize you can’t catch it before
it shatters on the ground.
Luca stepped backward, laughing darkly, and running his tongue over
his teeth. “In order to cheat on you, we would need to be in some form of
committed relationship.” The glas-sshattered.
Caroline stared at him, speechless. They never really talked about the
nature of their relationship. They never promised each other exclusivity.
They never promised each other anything. Luca was not—was never—her
boyfriend. He was helping her investigate her father’s death. He was her
kidnapper, and sometimes he fu-cked her, but he wasn’t her boyfriend. Thatrealization echoed around the inside of her chest with an empty hollowness.
He sneered at her and it looked out of place on his pretty face. “Didn’trealize you’d get so jealous of your kidnapper.”
Caroline slapped him.
She felt it tingling in her fingers when he turnedhis head back toward her with the most dangerous look he’d ever given her.
His cheek flushed pink in the shape of her fingers, and her heart hammered
in her throat.
“Do you feel better now?” A sour mockery. She did not feel better. She
felt cornered and scared and defensive.
“No,” she said, setting her jaw. “I think I’d have to slap the other cheek
too.”
He caught her hand almost before she lifted it. “You said you’d follow
the rules. The rules are you can’t try to hurt me.”
“Can’t try to kill you.” Caroline wrestled her hand away. “If a slap can
kill you, maybe you shouldn’t leave li-pstick on you collar when you come
home to the girl you kidnapped.”
“I don’t have to answer to you.” Luca growled. It was hot and Caroline
wished to god it wasn’t.
“I don’t know why I didn’t just run when I had the chance.”
Luca’s whole being burned with something Caroline couldn’t identify,
but its intensity scared her. “Why didn’t you?” He made a grand sweeping
gesture toward the door. “Why don’t you run now, hmm? See how far you
get.”
But he knew she wouldn’t run just as well as she did. “You said you
would help me find out what happened to my dad.” Her pride stung, and
that made her throw blame. “Make good on one promise to me at least.”
He stepped back into her personal space so she could feel the heat of his
breath on her face. “I have not lied to you, Caroline. I promised I wouldn’t
kill you, and I haven’t. I promised I wouldn’t ra-pe you, and I haven’t.” He
accentuated the ‘t’ with a snap of his jaw that sent a tremor throu-ghher.
She shoved him away again. “You drugged me. You kidnapped me.
You’ve been holding me hostage for weeks.” She listed his crimes. “Why
should I stay? Why should I follow your rules?” She glanced around and
grabbed a knife from the block on the counter. “Why shouldn’t I kill you
and run and tell everyone what I know?”
He remained motionless with the sort of authority that made Caroline
doubt whether a knife could actually touch him. “Because some part of you
likes it. You like me, however much you don’t want to admit it.” He leaned
in so the knife pressed against the li-pstick stain on his collar. “And because
you’re better than me, aren’t you? You’re not some lowlife mafia thug. Youhave a conscience. You can’t kill me. You don’t even really want to hurtme.”
Caroline could feel the rise and fall of his chest lift the knife against his
collarbone. The cut she gave him with the razor had scabbed over on the
side of his neck, red and brown like an accusation. He was right.
She liked
him. She liked his power, his control, the way he could ruin her. And she
couldn’t kill him. Even if she wanted to, she couldn’t do it. Her hand
trembled on the knife which suddenly felt heavy and cu-mbersome. She
hated that he was right. The angry coal in her stomach hissed and smoked.
“I hate you,” she said.
“I know.” He was infuriatingly calm, and it made her knuckles go white
around the knife.
“Then why do you want me?” she demanded.
His face was completely devoid of humor. “You have been a pain in my
as-sand a thorn in my side ever since I kidnapped you. Killing you would
have made my life so much easier.” Unapologetic intensity behind his eyes.
Caroline didn’t doubt that it was the truth. “You are nosy, you are
distrustful, and you have to push everyone and everything to their limits to
get
what you want.” Caroline felt very small and insignificant. She had a
knife to his chest, but they both knew she wouldn’t use it, so it only
rendered her more powerless. Still, Luca leaned into the knife, so it pressed
his shirt into his skin. “And despite all that, all the annoying shit you do,
everything you put me throu-gh, your empty threats, your prying and
pandering, I’ve gone and fallen in love with you.”
The way he said it felt violent and accusatory, but the words themselves
rattled her. Caroline blinked. “You’re in love with me?”
His hand wrapped around her wrist, warm and sure, and guided the
knife down to the counter. “Yes, Caroline. I am in love with you, all of you.
Even the parts that drive me up the wall.” His voice was a blade dipped in
honey. He leaned in, pressing her against the counter again, her hand still
pinned to the cool surface, but her hold on the knife relaxed. “But now
you’ve tried to kill me three times and you broke the rules, and you
understand that I can’t let that slide.” His li-ps brushed her cheek when he
spoke, and she suppressed a shiver.
Toxic. He was toxic and she would have needed to call poison control
long ago if she wanted to survive this. But she didn’t call for help because
she liked the way he burned in her veins. She liked his duality,
how hecould be terrifying and gentle in the same breath. He was right, she likedhim. Some de-ep, unspeakable part of her liked their dynamic, lived for the danger of it, for pushing him to see how far he’d bend before he snapped
and broke her. And she loved the way he broke her most of all.
He expected an answer, so she w-et her li-ps. “Yes, I understand.”
“Good girl.” Her insides melted like mercury even before he kis-sed her.
It wasn’t a tender kis-s, but she wouldn’t have wanted one. He pulled the
breath from her lungs and ripped little gasps from her mouth with his teeth.
But, like everything he did, it was intentional.
The reigned-in power behind
his li-ps, the bruising pressure when he wrapped a hand around the back of
her neck to push her closer into him, sent electricity coursing throu-ghher.
He lifted her by her wa-istto set her on the counter, scooting the
forgotten knife away. The marble countertop felt cold beneath her thighs
and his body felt warm between her legs. She tugged at the collar of his
shirt, still fixated on the li-pstick.
He caught her hand and brou-ght it to his
mouth to kis-s each of her fingers, her palm, and her wrist. That simple
intimacy nearly ruined her.
“I have not slept with anyone but you since the cabin, kitten,” he
a-ssured her in a low voice that left no room for argument. She believed him,
and she needed to hear it. “I haven’t cheated on you in any sense of the
word.” He released her hand and tugged her shirt up over her head, but
instead of taking it all the way off, he twisted it around her wrists to hold
them together.
“Then what…” she trailed off, still looking at the li-pstick.
He ducked his head between her arms, so they rested comfortably over
his shoulders. “Lorna’s cousin wasn’t used to wearing heels, and she fell. I
caught her.” His hands drifted down her back to shape her wa-istand settle
on her hips. “Her li-pstick must have smudged.”
Caroline felt something that had been wound tight inside her loosen,
and she relaxed into Luca’s embrace and hooked her heels together behind
his hips. “Oh.” She didn’t know why it was so important to her that she was
the only woman in his life. She didn’t think she was the jealous type. “So
are we…” she searched for the right words “What are we?”
He lifted her off the counter with his hands under her thighs and she
squee-zed her legs around him to hold on. “What do you want? Do you wantme to be your boyfriend?” The way he said boyfriend made it sound
childish and immature, but she wasn’t sure that was how he meant it.
She shook her head and buried it in his shoulder as he walked her to hisbedroom. “I just want you to be mine.”
He set her down on his bed and the silky sheets were cool against
Caroline’s bare back. “I am yours, gattina,” he a-ssured her with a rou-ghnip
at her earlobe. “And you are mine.”
The last of the tension from seeing the li-pstick on his collar ebbed away
and left her feeling light and slightly buoyant. She was only able to undo
another two of his buttons before he pinned her hands above her head. She
whined but kept them there. She knew by now that things went better for
her if she did what he wanted. And there was something comforting in that.
She could let go and give in and he would take care of her. She trusted him
to take care of her.
With his shirt hanging loose, she could see his toned torso when he
leaned forward to tug her pan-ts and pan-ties off in one go. She lifted her hips
obediently and su-cked in a breath at the cool air. Luca’s hands were warm
on her thighs as he pressed them open. She squirmed under his gaze, feeling
exposed and vulnerable, but the pressure on her thighs increased and she
stilled.
He looked up at her, lethally beautiful with his li-ps slightly swollen
from their kis-s earlier. He lifted one hand to pat the side of her thigh a few
times and watch her reaction. “What do you think you deserve for breaking
the rules, hmm?” He drew his hand back and slapped the side of her thigh
ha-rd enough to startle a gasp out of her throat. He leaned in close to her ear
as he soothed the skin with gentle fingers. “Oh, you like that?”
Caroline did not dislike that. She drew a breath of anticipation when she
felt his hand leave her thigh again. The sting was sharp and the sound of
skin on skin filled the room and set her heart galloping against the walls of
her chest. He asked her a question and she didn’t answer. His teeth over her
neck reminded her of that. “Yes,” she admitted.
“Good girl.” He dragged her across his lap with her as-sin the air. “Why
are you being punished?” His warm hands caressed her curves and kneaded
her flesh gently.
Anticipation made her breathless. “Because I tried to kill you.” She
turned her face to look at him. His expression remained impa-ssive with an
intensity in his eyes that excited her to no end.
“And?” he prompted.
“And because that’s against the rules.” She was drifting on a wide oceanwhere the only things that mattered were Luca and being perfect. There was
very little warning before his hand came down on her a-ss, a little harder than before. The angry coal smoldering in her stomach turned white hot in a
flash. Again, he soothed the spot. It hurt, but it wasn’t enough. She was
ready for the next one, but a small m-oan escaped her mouth, buried in the
sheets. “More,” she begged.
“It’s not a punishment if you enjoy it.” He sounded more amused than
anything else. Her eyes were squee-zed shut, so she couldn’t see his face, but
the warmth of him shifted slightly, she a-ssumed to get a better angle. He hit
her again, a little harder, right over the last smack. The white-hot coil in her
stomach tightened, and she whined pitifully. A few more spa-nks and tears
hung in the corners of her eyes and she was rocking her hips against Luca’s
leg to get some kind of friction. “Are you sorry?” he asked.
She twisted herself around to look at him. “Please, Luca.” She didn’t
care what she was begging for. Anything he would give her. She was
floating on a sea of clouds and nothing in the world mattered.
His expression softened, and he cupped her cheek and pressed tender
kis-ses to her li-ps. “You took it so well, baby. You did so good.” The praise
went straight to Caroline’s core, and she pulled on his shirt, desperate for
something, anything. He fli-pped her onto her back and made quick work of
his pan-ts. “You think you can take my co-ck, baby?” She made a sound of
acknowledgement and reached for him with her tangled hands. He pinned
them above her head again. “Words.”
She exhaled sharply, exasperated. “Yes, Luca, please. I want you to fu-ck
me.” She didn’t notice him roll the condom on, but her eyes fell closed
when he pushed into her with a hiss. She felt so full and right and good she
could have cried. He rocked his hips a little to give her some time before he
hooked her legs over his shoulders and rammed into her at a punishing
pace.
Caroline barely heard the mumbled curses and broken praises as he
growled beside her ear. She was so high up on a cloud of euphoria, nothing
could bring her down. “Look at me.” It was an order, so she pried her eyesopen and tried to force them to focus. “Come for me.”
She hadn’t realized she was so close, but the white heat snapped insideher and felt everything around her with a hyperintensity. The difference intemperature between Luca’s too-hot body and the cool air of the room, theslide of the sheets against her back, the drag of his co-ck inside her, thebruising hold he had on her hip, the smell of Luca and sweat and se-x, thetaste of lighting.
He collapsed beside her, breathless, and caressed her hair for a moment
before pulling out of her, disposing of the condom. “Shower or sleep?” he
asked, voice rou-ghand sated as he freed her hands from her shirt.
She held him and she wouldn’t let go. “Don’t leave me.” He allowedher to snuggle against his side and pressed a kis-s to her forehead. His armsfelt like home and drowsiness pulled her under before she could make out ifhe actually said, “I love you.”
TBC