Page 145 of A Beautiful Crime
Gino is to keep a close eye on Luca and Niall. When he’s off duty he’s to become a shadow. Much like he was with me before Constantine had him appointed as my bodyguard through a false target on my head. He’s to call immediately with any information, no matter how small.
As Rico had said, it’s the small details left missing that will be the ones ruining.
Pietro is keeping an eye on the streets with other trusted soldiers of The Donati Famiglia. They are to sniff out any members of The Irish Mob, and if they find them it’s death at first sight.
Rico took it upon himself to contact Tao Haung and make him aware of the new development between The Fiore Famiglia and The Sheridan’s.
He said it was better to keep the new business contact in the light rather than the dark. Especially since he has voiced his concerns with Constantine merging The Donati Famiglia with The Fiore Famiglia. And if there is to be a war the numbers The Triad would provide would be useful.
And while Constantine’s men appear to have everything under control I can see the stress this has brought upon him.
Worry lines etch his forehead. A crease marked between his brows. Those sinful lips are terse and his eyes are dark and ominous. Tension has him like a tight wire, ready to snap at any given moment.
It’s not a sight I wish to see. And wanting to ease his mind in any way I can I close the office door.
His head snaps up at the sound. When I turn the lock he stares at me quizzically.
Mustering all the bravado and mafioso boss woman inside me I saunter over to him. My heart sings as my pussy throbs when I notice his eyes are captivated by the easy sway of my hips.
He wasn’t lying when he said he was obsessed with me.
This man admires me like I am the world's most famous painting and only he has possession of it.
He spreads his legs wide, his arm lazily thrown on the arm of the chair as he beckons me with the crook of his finger.
Dio mio. How can even that be so downright sexy?
Standing between his legs I run both of my hands through his hair. My nails scrape along his scalp in a continuous motion. Ifeel him relax against me. His eyes roll shut as he lets out a deep moan of appreciation.
Still continuing my ministrations I press myself closer to him. He buries his nose between my breasts, settling there and breathing me in. His hands then find purchase on my hips, digging his fingers in my tender flesh.
“You worry when you have the best of men on your side,” I remind him with hopes of easing his mind.
His lips brush against me as he responds disappointedly, “This isn’t how I wanted to do this.”
Perplexed, I raise a brow. My hands still in his hair and he nuzzles between my breasts. “Do what, Constantine?”
He places a lingering kiss on my breastbone before he pulls away. But not completely. He keeps a hand firmly placed on my hip as his other retrieves a small black box from his desk drawer.
It’s as if all the air has left my lungs. My eyes stay fixed on the velvet black box. My heart hammers in my chest.
Constantine’s fingers bury themselves deeper in my hip and it’s a reminder for me to breathe.
And as I do everything within me settles.
In the beginning the ring within that box was only another prison. A marriage forced upon my hand to a man I had loathed with every fiber of my being.
I had thought I was trading one gilded cage for another. To be locked within a life of cruelty.
Only to find that I was incredibly wrong.
A life with Constantine is not one locked behind a cage, only to be opened to be displayed as the trophy wife a Made Man adorns on his arm.
There is no cage.
I’m free.
Free of the shackles of my mind.
