Athena“I brought us something to eat,” He announced, steering me towards the living room.I allowed him to lead me to the couch, willing to play along with whatever fantasy played in his head. There was no chance of me escaping when he was around anyway. Tomorrow things will end. All of it. All the banter and flirting, hell the whole mission would end.And you still haven’t found your father’s killer, my mind supplied.I watched Luciano beneath my lashes. He seemed quite busy, setting up the table for us to eat. How many dinners would we eat at this rate?“How would you like your popcorn?” He asked, holding up several sachets. “I have no idea what the fuck they mixed it with, but there’s red, green and yellow popcorn. I thought it was fancy.”I snickered at his words. “You thought popcorn was fancy?! Who and you and what have you done to Mr Moretti?”He grinned widely at my remark, handing over a strawberry flavored popcorn. “I am not Mr Moretti at the moment.”I hummed, collecting th
LucianoTwo words. Tow fucking words that I had ached to hear for the past few weeks. Hell, I had almost given up on her yielding to me and here I was, staring at her, unable to believe the words that slipped from her lips. Raven peered up at me through hooded green eyes, her sultry gaze setting every nerve endings in my body on fire. She looked so damned beautiful. Her lips were parted, pink and soft, early opened for my kisses. My hands tightened reflexively around her neck and a tiny whimper slipped from them. Fuck me. I wanted to hear that sound again. I wanted more than that sound. I'd like to know just how many sounds she could make. "Luciano," she whined, reaching for my shirt and tugging me closer until our bodies were flush against each other. "Fanculo," I whispered, trying to control my breathing. Desire coiled up tightly within me and if I acted too soon, I would fucking snap. Of course, I would. No woman had such power over me. Except her. Except for Raven Gonzalez. A
Athena"What are you thinking about Cara?" Luciano whispered against my ear, his lips teasing my earlobe as he did. My body sagged impulsively against him, a deep purr resounding in my head. That felt good. I arched against him wishing this could last forever. But I knew it couldn't. I wasn't foolish enough to believe that it could. No matter how much I wanted to. Luciano pressed his lips firmly to my ear lobe, then slowly drifted down the nape of my neck. His hands were wrapped around me from behind, large hands that spanned the length of my body and gripped and squeezed my breasts at intervals. And boy it felt so fucking good. "Answer my question, Cara," He mumbled, his tongue teasing my skin, selling in the name of my neck. My thighs burned hotly and I felt every part of me ache again. Crap, I was so a bitch. I wanted him again and he had to know it. It was my last night with him anyways. "Naughty things," I breathed arching against him, enjoying the way his hands kneaded my m
Athena"What would you like to do tonight?" Luciano mumbled, his face buried in my breasts. His breath tickled the hell out of me, warm against my skin and hardening my nipples. I purred in satisfaction when he grabbed one of them and slowly fondled the nipples, sucking in a breath when he pinched it. "Raven?" "We just woke up. How about we find something to eat first instead of talking about what would happen tonight?" I forced out, weaving my hands into his hair, and urged him to take my breasts into his mouth. I was fucking addicted. To the feel of his mouth on me. To his touch. To his caresses. A shudder racked my body when he took the nipple he had been toying with into his mouth, sucking on it rather hotly. "Oh fuck, don't stop that." I urged, holding his head in place. He hummed, driving his hands between my thighs, and groaned softly. His mouth left my nipple then as he slid upwards, falling behind me. "I swear you're always so damn wet,""I am. not," I mumbled, feeling
AthenaThe revelation shook the hell out of me. To say I was stunned was a fucking understatement. I stared at him in disbelief. "No," I laughed, shaking my head. "Quit joking around-" "There are about fifty guns pointed at me currently. Do you think I have the liberty to joke, Athena?"."There's no way you knew..." I shook my head, trying to run through all that had happened since then! That was such a fucking long time ago! "There's no way you knew all along and didn't do anything about it!" "Are you sure about that?" He grinned before slipping the coldest face I had ever seen on. "No ... I know you..." Yet even as I said those words, my stomach bottomed out as I realized I didn't know the man before me. I had only seen the side of him that he wanted me to see. If what he said was true, if he was right, then I had been fooled. Fuck! I had been a damned idiot all along. "Would you like an explanation?" "Fuck yes, I would!" I spat. "You pretended not to know shit all these whil
Athena Frederick. I watched in disbelief as he laid limp and lifeless on the floor. My father. He had made the world make sense after I had lost my father. He had given me a quest, a reason to live. And now he was dead. Sobs wracked my body as I stared at him, the urge to let out a long painful sound was strong. I couldn't do that with Luciano's hands clamped on my mouth. Tears blurred my vision and I looked away, burying my face in Luciano's arms. Something warm trickled down my face and the metallic smell of blood filled the air. I looked up to see his shoulder bleeding and instinctively reached out to touch the wound. "You're injured," I whispered, searching his stony face. His eyes glared at something behind me, while his hands held me tighter. "It'll pass. I'm okay," he muttered, wrapping his hand over mine. "Those bastards won't be though." I followed his gaze and watched in both horror and shock as two men stepped in sight, holding large guns and wearing dark glas
LucianoWhen I was sixteen, I'd gotten a bullet lodged in my arm during a mission. We were supposed to retrieve a batch of smuggled piranhas by the coast and I had been pretty stoked about it for two reasons. One, it was the first mission I had total control and utter authority over. The mafia lord then had slowly descended into a state of madness, hiding from everyone and suspecting even his own shadow. I suppose when a man takes lives for a living, he reaches a point where he starts to fear for his life. His Consiglieres had decided that I was a young lad filled with promises and I had the ruthlessness to lead a squad of ten men down Sicily to retrieve their goods. And I was fucking excited. I'd chugged down a bottle of beer for good measure, revved around the street on my bike with Luca in tow. We screamed around town like banshees, laughing our heads off and when night came, we hauled our asses to the port by the coast ready to seal the deal. But then Luca slipped up. He tick
Athena“Raven!” Luciano yelled behind me. I could hear the anger in his voice. HYe must be pissed that I hadn’t taken the opening he had created for me. Like hell I would. Frederick’s killer stood right before me, smug like the arrogant little bastard he was. There was no way I would just turn away and walk out like a damned coward. I was going to avenge him. If it would be the last thing I’d ever do, then so be it!Q“You bastard,” I gritted through my teeth. My head pounded with a rather massive headache and my vision was a bit blurry. It had to be from the hit I had taken earlier. The faster I got this over with, the faster I could get the hell out of here. “What’s wrong Raven,” Damian taunted, a sly grin on his face, “You look a little… out of sorts.”“Out of sorts? I’ll show you out of sorts!” I screamed, shooting wildly at him. The bastard jumped out of the way, turned on his heels and dashed out of the place. Without a second thought, I bolted after him. “Raven!” Luciano yell
LucianoThe police man standing guard at the gate didn't even bother to check my face, I took it that the warden had done his job and informed them I was on my way, I drove quietly into the compound, packing in front of the administrative building and walking in slowly."Good Evening Signori Luciano" The officer standing at the table greeted as soon as he saw me, tipping his hat. His English was broken and heavily accented, but I could understand him enough."Good evening," I reached into my coat, fishing out my cigarette and lighting it. "How is it going?"He smiled appreciatively, apparently pleased I took any interest in his day to day activities. "It haz been quiet Signore." He smiled, revealing a row of tobacco stained brown teeth.I nodded, "Good, I am here for inmate 474.""Oh," he opened up the computer in front of him, "Would you be going out with him?" He asked, peeking at me from over the desktop, "Do you need an escort?"The look on his face told me he thought I was going
AthenaWe were on a plane back to Sicily the next morning. No need for disguises, we took of from a private airfield in New Jersey.As soon as we touched down, ten hours later, I saw a black limo by the tarmac. Luciano smiled as he saw it, "Our welcoming party is here."I raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean welcoming party?""Don't get your hopes up," he said, "It's just Giuseppe."The old man was standing by the car, smiling widely as we walked towards him. He first greeted Luciano, pulling him into a giant hug, like he was his father, patting his back, pride in his eyes.He then turned to me, "Welcome back to Sicily, Raven," he said, extending his hand. "How was your flight? Was it good? Are you too tired?""I am good." I said as I shook his hand, feeling a surge of pride at the way he addressed me. It was clear that Luciano had already told him about me, and that I was already considered a member of the mafia."Thank you, Giuseppe," I said. "It's good to be back."Giuseppe smiled,
AthenaI was confused, totally. And for the second time that night, I had no idea how to react, "Luca? What? How?"Luciano hobbled over to the table at a dark corner in the room, pulling out a knuckle ring and putting it on his left hand. "I figured he would need a little bit more time." He said casually, like the man he was trying to beat up wasn't an assassin sent by his worst enemy and had damn near succeeded too.I turned to look at him, understanding dawning on me, why he wasn't panicked at all, why he was so calm. There was only one reasonable explanation. "You knew this was going to happen." I said quietly.He stopped his rummaging, turning to look at me, "Raven-""Did you?"He let out a deep breath, "Yeah, well, kinda. I only sus-""You did!" I said, my voice getting louder. The man had shot from my back, he had to be facing Luciano, and given how close the two buildings were, it was impossible Luciano hadn't seen him walk in and set up his little nest. "That's why you aren't
Athena"Raven!"Somewhere, far away, someone was calling my name."Raven!!!"The room blurred into a burst of moving colors around me, a ringing in my ear as in the distance, I could only barely hear the sounds around the room, the people screaming, glasses shattering, tables and chairs toppling."RAVEN! GET DOWN!"A second loud bang, hitting the table and shattering it jerked me out of my trance, sending splinters of wood flying across my face, narrowly missing it.I threw myself to the ground immediately, taking cover and toppling the table to provide extra cover for me and Luciano.The shooter was obviously targeting us, for some reason I was not entirely sure of, and he had shit from behind me, hitting Luciano.I crawled over him, not caring about the broken glass tearing at my clothes or the floor, wet with wine and soggy pasta. He lay they, clutching his bleeding shoulder and grimacing."Luciano! Are you okay?"He nodded, "Yeah, I am fine," but as soon as I reached out to touch
AthenaThe meeting went without much of a hitch. I sat at one end, quietly watching the proceedings as they argued over everything. It was mind of amusing, seeing these grown, powerful men squabble like children.Curses flew across the table like missiles, mothers were cursed, fathers were cursed, wives were cursed, calling it a mad house would be a massive understatement. Luciano for the most part, looked like he was tired of their shit, as at some point he just leaned back on his chair and let them threaten all they wanted without trying to interfere or even mediate."Everything in Queens and the North of Brooklyn is mine, don't be a fool." Antonio spat, crossing his arms like a child who had just been refused candy and was planning to throw the biggest fit anyone had ever seen."Damn right it is," Francesco countered, slamming his fat, heavily ringed fingers on the table, "All of the best markets for our good stuff all go to you yeah? And what is there for the rest of us yeah? What
LucianoI didn't want to admit it to her, mostly because making her even more nervous than she was already was, wasn't exactly in my best interest, like throwing a gasoline soaked rag into an inferno.But I was a but nervous too.The Italian Mafia, wasn't very used to having a woman in it's ranks, no matter the level. There was this, almost patriarchal approach to treating our women. Usually seen, not heard, taking care of the kids at home while the husband did the dirty business and fucked his pretty mistresses. Nobody thought of it too much, it was just the way things were done.But not with Raven, never with Raven.I almost laughed out loud, thinking about her being a nice, quiet housewife who just kept my clothes clean and my belly full while I went after young girls half her age. It was so ridiculous, it didn't even come close to making sense to me, which of course meant the idea was going nowhere.The only other option was of course to try to convince them that she was worth it,
AthenaI sat up from the bed, still a bit groggy, but quite certain I heard him properly."My new associates?" I asked, surely he wasn't serious right?I followed him into the living room of the suite, dimly lit room, decorated with ornate furniture and dimly lit candles. Luciano sat on a velvet armchair, while I stared at him, unsure if he was serious or not. nervously paces the room.Luciano leaned back, observing me, "Raven, my dear," he started, "I don't see any reason why we don't go check it out today, okay? It's time for you to understand who we are and what we do."I appreciate your interest in making me feel at home," I couldn't help but lace my voice with some sarcasm, it was getting ridiculous, "But getting involved with your Mafia is not something I was comfortable with, I only just agreed with it, cam you let me digest it at the very least before plunging me head deep and showing me off like a trophy."He looked up at me, raising an eyebrow, "Do you think that is what I a
LucianoFunnily enough, I had never thought about that question until I heard it from her mouth. You'd think a mafia boss would be a little bit more suspicious of an undercover FBI agent who was sent to specifically bring him down and who had up till very recently, bad a specific agenda against him and was determined to destroy him by any means necessary.But I didn't. I consider myself a logical man, and logically I should be moving as far away from this wam as I possibly could, if not immediately killing her. But whenever I was around Raven Gonzalez, all logic flew out the window, and I wanted nothing more than to have her around me, to keep her by my side, to keep her happy so she would never leave me, matter how illogical that sounded."Oh, Luciano." She said quietly, tears brimming in her eyes. "You don't mean that, do you?""Every single word of it." I said calmly. It was true, there was no point hiding from it anymore."That's not enough Luciano, and you know it.""Raven, I jus
AthenaYou had to give it to Luciano, he had the entire "shock value" thing down well enough.To say I felt like I had been hit by a bus moving a thousand miles per hour would have been a massive understatement. I had spent all day thinking about escaping the world he offered, the world I had been forced to grow in, the world I had forcibly participated in for all my life, that had nearly killed me multiple times and had scarred me so much it was probably best not to even think about it.I had confided in him, hoping he would help me find a solution to my problem, to have something akin to normalcy in my life, even if it was for a little while.And instead, he had completely blindsided me with the offer to accept it all as my new reality.Like I said, he really knew what got a woman going."What?" I managed to drop, my only intelligible word yet.His lips twitched as he fought to not smile, "You look pretty surprised Raven.""I wonder fucking why Luciano," I spat, frustration rising in