Owned by the mafia boss

ALESSIO

What a mess.

Mia had a panic attack on the way to the hospital, and would likely never be the same. The doctor, who assumed Mia witnessed a ghastly hit-and-run, suggested a therapist. Sending her to someone who’d expect her to spill every detail of the triple murder was a bad idea. Therapists were mandated reporters.

Mia would suffer, and it was my fault.

I had sent her to Michael’s.

“Eat something, for Christ’s sake.” Nico turned the sausages while he ignored a rueful glare from his wife, with whom he was on the outs again. “Are you sick?”

“Haven’t been hungry.” I picked up a charred sausage and bit off the end, but the savory taste made my stomach clench. The flavor was fine, but eating it felt like ingesting cement.

He gave me a knowing look. “How is she?”

“Better, I think. It’s been rough.”

My fiancée seemed okay. She’d cocooned herself in blankets and soaked in mindless TV. Watching her struggle to stay awake because she was afraid of dreaming pitted my stomach with sadness, because whenever she slept she endured whatever the fuck those bastards did before I showed up.

She sat in an armchair as a woman I didn’t know talked her ear off. Mia smiled at me, which was my cue to rescue her.

I winked at her.

“Serena’s out of the ICU,” Nico mentioned. “Michael put her in rehab.”

Not for long. “Will I take care of her, or you?”

“We are not talking about this now.”

“She shouldn’t be alive after what she pulled.” Vinn stopped me from strangling Serena in her bed, but I wasn’t about to give up on revenge. “This isn’t punishment for being a junkie. She used Mia like shark bait, for Christ’s sake.”

“I hear you, but we can’t have this discussion.”

Unbelievable.

I’d not been this annoyed with Nico in a while. “What have you always said? Act. Don’t react.”

“I’m not killing Michael’s wife without talking to him first. She’s in rehab. She’s not going anywhere. Relax.”

My only silver lining was Mia’s complete attitude change.

Mia usually spent her mornings and early afternoons in the guest room, wolfing down a pitiful breakfast before searching the house, as though she’d find a hatch to an underground escape route. Lately, she was up earlier. The words she exchanged with me weren’t filled with bile. She’d started to participate in life-rather than flit into my presence like a ghost that haunted my halls.

Mia was slowly accepting me, but Nico demanded results. He wasn’t a guy who waited for people to do what he wanted. He’d offered me the girl because he expected me to deliver, and I didn’t mind because his interests aligned with mine.

Which was knocking her up.

“Have you made progress?” he asked.

“After she was almost killed? No.”

“Ignacio’s will is straightforward. It’s a trickle-down inheritance with huge incentives. If she has a baby, she inherits twenty-five percent instead of the five. Your wife will be the major shareholder of Ignacio’s companies. Think about how much that womb is worth.”

I never cared about the money. “I’m taking it slow for her sake.”

“Why? You don’t owe her or her father anything.”

“She’ll be my fucking wife.”

He sighed like I was being difficult. “What I mean is Naz wouldn’t have lasted another year without this alliance. We could fuck him over and steal his businesses, but Detective Harris needs us to stop piling up the bodies. Having a kid with Mia was supposed to be a simple solution. But if it stops being easy, I’m happy to go the other way.”

“No.” A tension headache throbbed between my eyes. “I’m working on it.”

“I thought you wanted this.”

“I’d sell my soul for a child of my own.”

“Then you know what to do. Don’t get sentimental on me, Alessio.”

“Jesus. Enough, already.”

“There’s a lot of money between that girl’s legs.”

Starting to piss me off, Nico. “She’s my fiancée, not that girl.”

He didn’t look remotely abashed. “We need this done.”

“I didn’t realize I had a countdown. We’re not even married.”

“You’re six months overdue. Six-fucking-months. We should be halfway to consolidating the Ricci family into ours. Instead, I’m placating Ignacio. He’s driving me insane.”

“His other child was almost murdered. You need to trust me.”

“I’ve always trusted you. I’m just not sure you’re up to this. If you don’t feel up to knocking her up, tell me. I’ll find a new option.”

I bristled. “Like who?”

“Someone who’s more proactive. Like Vinn.”

The name dumped gasoline on the fire. Vinn Costa was the biggest threat to my succession to boss. When Nico promoted me to captain, Vinn took it poorly. Ever since my rise to underboss, he’d been undermining me at every opportunity. The asshole was careful. He toed the line but never made me forget I wasn’t blood.

“Are you fucking kidding me? No! I will be her husband. I will father her children. Nobody else.”

“Watch yourself, Alessio.” Nico finished caramelizing the onions, transferring them to a plate. “I set up a meeting. Everything should be good to go, which means no more get-togethers. Sorry, kid.”

Nico patted my shoulder, as though the loss of his cooking was one I felt deeply. We agreed that we should avoid each other. The risk against our lives was too great, which was why I used local PD as rotating bodyguards. They monitored my house and detained gangbangers looking to score street cred by capping my ass. Leading three gangs meant our leadership had to be rock-solid.

So I understood why there would be no more big Christmases and Thanksgivings with Nico’s family, even though it stung. If it came down to me versus Nico’s piece-of-shit son, he would choose his flesh and blood in an instant. That didn’t fill me with bitterness. It was the fact that my real dad wanted nothing to do with me-along with my mother and sister.

They’d blocked me everywhere except Instagram, where I still glimpsed fragments of my sister’s life. My pain sharpened as my calls went unanswered. She sent back the wedding invitations, unopened. The distance between us grew with every missed holiday.

They would talk to me again. We’d be a family.

I just needed Mia to cooperate.

I waded through a living room filled with Nico’s cousins and uncles. Children ran across my path, playing a game of tag. My gaze scanned the half-eaten plates of imported ham and the men picking them clean before I found her talking to Vinn.

They stood in the cramped space, heads bent together. He was closer to her age, and I was sure they had all kinds of bullshit in common. My vision streaked with red.

Vinn had saved Mia from rape. That alone elevated him, but I hated that they’d bonded. I hated that she no longer looked at him with distrust. And I resented his admiration for my fiancée. He palmed her shoulder when Rob’s huge gut bumped into her. Vinn’s touch disappeared, but my outrage swelled like a hurricane.

Mia wore a white tank top over high-waisted, crocodile-print skintight pants, and I had no clue what prompted her to wear leather, but her ass was a tantalizing reminder I still hadn’t tapped that. I grabbed her tiny waist and pulled her close. My cock saluted her curves when she touched my thigh. All I needed was a raging hard-on in the middle of Nico’s house, but she wasn’t making my life easier by flaunting her beauty at Vinn, who would probably jack off to Mia later.

I was projecting.

Three weeks without sex.

It turned me into a beast that popped boners like an eighteen-year-old whenever I heard the shower running or caught her in a silk nightgown. The furtive smiles she gave before closing her guest bedroom door felt like taunts. I could’ve smashed my way inside, but that would destroy her trust. And I couldn’t tell if she was manipulating me.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure if I cared.

I brushed the inch of exposed skin-she was so soft. Blood pounded where I didn’t want attention. I nipped where her shoulder met her neck, burying my face in her vanilla-scented hair.

“You and me. Bathroom. Now.”

Mia ignored my hissed command, releasing a strained laugh. “Vinn and I were talking.”

If he had any sense, he’d fuck off.

“Whatever it is, it’s not as important as what I want to do to you.” I palmed her stomach and inched toward the creamy strip teasing me all afternoon, and her breath hitched. “Right now.”

“Are you crazy?” Underneath her chuckle was a thinly disguised growl. “Vinn, he’s kidding.”

“No, I’m not.”

Vinn shook his head with a smirk and slinked away.

Mia turned in my arms, the movement slowing all mental processes. “You embarrassed me.”

“What did the bastard say?”

“So he’s a bastard?”

“Finding you with him put me in a mood.” I pressed my mouth into her ear, nipping her lobe as though we didn’t have an audience. “One I’d rather get rid of because it’s in the way of what I want.”

“I would appreciate some discretion.”

I tore my gaze from her cleavage to meet her vengeful brown eyes. “Not my forte.”

“I expected more self-control from you.”

“If you were anyone else, I’d have dragged you to the bathroom and ripped off your clothes. Speaking of, I don’t remember telling you I had a biker-bitch fetish.” I trailed her leggings, admiring the light bouncing off her ass. “I haven’t had sex in weeks, and my fiancée taunts me in the morning with very short T-shirts.”

“It’s called being comfortable in my home.”

“Yeah.” My pulse hammered as she wrapped her arms around me, probably to help hide that we stood very still. “But all I’ve done since we got here is fantasize about stripping you.”

“Have you tried rubbing one out?”

“You’re hilarious.”

“You’re insane. This is so not the time or place.” She looked down as though hoping my cock was a gun. The blush spread to her neck. “Oh my God.”

“Give credit where it’s due.” I wanted that color down to her tits. I slipped my fingers inside her waistband and planted kisses along her jaw. “Say. My. Name.”

“Alessio, we’re in the living room. You’re giving everyone a show.”

“Good point. Let’s take this somewhere private.”

“I’ve spent the last hour socializing with the enemy. Men who’ve killed half the people on my family tree. I’m not in the mood.”

“I’m not your enemy.”

“You dragged me to your house in zip ties.”

“Well, I needed to keep you in line somehow. Ignacio gave you too much leeway.”

“Is that what you are?” she said, saccharine. “My dad?”

“Watch your damned mouth.”

“Sure thing, Daddy.”

“Not yet. Maybe in a few months.”

That wiped the grin off her face. “I wonder what’ll happen to you if I can’t conceive. Will your head explode? Or will you have a meltdown because I’ve ruined your dream of a mob dynasty?”

Lord, this woman got my blood boiling. “Don’t pretend you haven’t been given every freedom you had at your dad’s home.”

“Which freedoms? The one where I’m allowed to have sex, as long as it’s with you? Or that I can leave the house, but only if I tell you where, when, and why?”

“What did you expect?”

“I demand more than your handouts. I want full transparency about where you are and what you do.”

“You demand. What do you think this is, equal opportunity?”

She shoved me, grabbing a bottle from the counter. She uncorked it, stared at me, and drank like a college kid during rush week. Mia all but flipped me off as she strolled into Nico’s office, which was off-limits. Not like she’d listen to reason if it danced in front of her naked. I followed her and shut the doors. Then I wrenched it from her grip.

“This is a hundred-dollar bottle.”

I watched as her eyes burned brighter with defiance as she staggered back. “I figured Costas are used to sucking Nico’s cock. They won’t mind tasting my lips.”

She said what?

Glass crunched wood as I slammed the bottle into the desk. My instinct was to react with anger, but I couldn’t muster anything but hilarity at her failure to insult me.

“I’m no Costa, but I’ll take one for the team.”

I dragged Mia close. Her face had gone up in flames. I was sick to death of being gentle and shoving my feelings aside.

She wanted me. I wanted her.

The only thing in our way was her pride.

My fingers dove into her thick hair as I tipped her head, chasing her gasp with my mouth. The cloying taste of wine stung my mouth until her essence overpowered the sweetness. I’d wanted to shove her against the wall, but she seized my hair and kissed me. Lips softer than down pressed into mine.

Sweet. Hot.

Like the first taste of spice before the heat kicked in with a vengeance. She drew me closer and crushed my mouth, her kisses setting my body on fire. She leaned into me, palms gliding up and over my chest to cup my face.

Suddenly, it got intimate.

She touched me like a woman greeting her lover after years apart. Her resistance had melted, but the towering wave of passion knocked me back a step. I claimed every corner of her mouth, sucking her in until she hissed. When she writhed into me like she hadn’t had a good fuck in weeks, my cock swelled. She attacked my hair, dragging her nails into my scalp. I shoved her against the bookshelf, a desperate need stiffening my dick. We were in Nico’s office, but I was prepared to bend her over his desk.

Someone needed to pull back, and it wouldn’t be me.

Then Mia pushed me, hard enough for me to stop. I clung to her, breathing hard, in awe of what happened. Her eyes stayed closed as though she wanted to savor me. When she looked at me, something caught in my chest.

A spark.