THE CALLAHANS (A Mafia Romance): The Complete 5 Books Series (76 page)

No one moved right away. We all knew that the hotel was safe. It belonged to MCorp. Most of the staff were members of the Irish mob. Someone would have to be absolutely insane to hit this hotel, especially tonight of all nights. It wasn’t that anyone felt unsafe. It was that everyone was too drained by the events of the day to have the energy to move.

Amelia came over, her bottom lip caught between her teeth.

“He’s okay,” I said, touching her arm lightly. “He’s with Pops and Jack at the mortuary.”

“Do you think…?” She paused, rolling her eyes to the ceiling to attempt to get control of her emotions. “Do you think he’d be able to answer a text message?”

“I think he’d appreciate hearing from you,” Mia said, getting control of herself so well that she was even able to offer an encouraging smile. “You should go ahead and call him.”

“Yeah?”

She hugged Amelia. “Yeah.”

Amelia wandered off and her movement seemed to encourage the others. Killian scooped his son up from where he’d been sleeping on the couch and helped Stacy up.

“I’ll have my phone on if you need me,” he said as they walked past Mia and me.

Delaney was sobbing against Sean’s shoulder, as he, too, headed for the door. I’d almost forgotten about Delaney’s relationship to Jack. I knew she and Caroline hadn’t got on well when Jack was in the hospital, but that didn’t change the fact that there was a relationship there. And she was such a kindhearted person. I wished I knew what to say to her, but I hadn’t had a chance to process my feelings about Caroline’s death yet. How was I supposed to help someone else process it?

“Do you want to stay here and talk to your parents?”

Mia shook her head. “I’d rather be alone with you for a while.”

I kissed her forehead, then slipped her hand in mine. I grabbed a door key card for a room downstairs, catching Carmine’s eye as we passed him. He bowed his head slightly, his wife still crying on his shoulder.

So much sadness. I wasn’t sure how much of it I could take.

Mia held my hand as we walked to the elevator and waited for the doors to open. Cassidy came out into the hallway and shoved an unopened bottle of champagne in my hand.

“I know you probably don’t feel much like celebrating, but it is your wedding night.”

“Thank you.”

I kissed her cheek, grateful for the first time to see her familiar face.

Our room was two floors down. I opened the door and watched Mia walk over the threshold, thinking of all the things that we should have done on this night and all the things we would never get a second chance to do. I suddenly had this overwhelming desire to get out of my tux and shower, to wash away the darkness from the day.

“Are you hungry?” I asked Mia, as I tugged at my tie, undoing what my father had so carefully done hours ago. It seemed like an entire lifetime ago.

“No. Momma had some sandwiches sent up a couple of hours ago, so I’m good.” She turned, her eyes again searching every inch of me. “Do you want something?”

“Honestly, I just want a shower and a soft bed.”

For an instant, there was something like disappointment in her eyes. But then she settled on the end of the bed.

“Could I just…I was just wondering…”

“What?”

“Why? Why did this happen? Was it one of Daddy’s men who wasn’t happy with our marriage? Or one of Jack’s people? Did we make this happen by getting married?”

“No, we didn’t.” I went to the bed and sat beside her. “This isn’t about us. This is about Kevin trying to get back at Pops for something that he couldn’t even control.”

“Kevin?”

“My brother. He’s…”

I didn’t know what to say. What do you say in this situation?

“He’s like me, broken from a childhood that was so fucked up that you wouldn’t even believe if I told you everything he went through. He ended up killing his mother because she was so sadistic, so…abusive isn’t even the word for it. Abigail saved him from the juvenile detention center where Kyle met him. He was closer to her than the rest of us, so close that when she died, he fell absolutely apart. We thought he’d gotten past it, that he was healing, but…”

I dragged my fingers over my head. “Long story short, he blames Pops for Abigail’s death. And he’s out to destroy Pops by creating this street war between our families and fucking with our lives. He nearly got Killian killed; he got Pops locked up and threatened to kill Delaney. He’s playing games with us, and he finds it amusing.”

I looked at Mia and watched her try to process what I was saying.

“I should have known he would attack the wedding. I should have done a better job of protecting you and your family.”

“No,” she said softly. “You should have done exactly what you did. You should have looked to the day with optimism and believed that our wedding day would be as perfect as we’d hoped it would be.”

She got up and moved around me, exhaustion suddenly written all over her face. I scooped her up as I should have done out in the hallway and carried her to the bed, laying her gently against the pillows.

“Sleep, darling,” I whispered against her lips. “Things can only be better tomorrow.”

Mia

The last thing I remembered was the sound of the shower running. But now…the corset was pressing into my skin, and it was driving me wild. I couldn’t get comfortable no matter how I turned. I finally sat up, mildly confused in the dark of the room. But I could hear Ian’s voice, low like he was trying to keep from disturbing me. There was light coming in from around the heavy curtains drawn over the windows, trying to tell my head that it wasn’t night anymore despite the darkness.

I got up, nearly tripping over the long skirt of my wedding dress and tugged a corner of the curtain back to discover it wasn’t just windows, but a French door that opened onto a small balcony. The sunlight was bright. I blinked for a second, finally capable of focusing on Ian where he stood against the railing, talking to someone on his phone.

He was wearing jeans and t-shirt, suggesting someone had come by with the bags we’d packed to take on our honeymoon. I turned, wondering where my bag was, but unable to see anything in the dark room now that my eyes had adjusted to the light.

“Did I wake you?” Ian came to me as he tucked his phone into his back pocket. “I wanted you to sleep as long as you could.”

“I got uncomfortable.”

“Do you want me to help you out of that dress?”

Ever since he first kissed me in his kitchen, I’d imagined him helping me with the corset. There was a small room behind the larger banquet hall we’d rented for the reception where we’d go to change into our travel clothes. I’d imagined standing in that room, his fingers warm on my back as he carefully untied the ribbon that held the corset in place. In my mind, his fingers didn’t just stay on my back, but moved to other places, touched places that he’d yet to explore. The thought of it kept me awake several nights in the days before the wedding, expectation so tight in my lower belly that I couldn’t get comfortable then either.

“Did you have more calls to make?”

He shook his head. “No. There’s not much left to do. The cops have all the evidence and the others are handling everything else.”

I nodded slowly then, brushing my finger against his chin before I turned and walked back into the bedroom. He followed, securing the door before moving up behind me. I felt the first tug of his attempt to loosen the ribbon, felt his breath on my shoulder as he moved close to me.

I must have been a mess, my hair a jumble of loosened pins and day old hair spray. The dress was wrinkled beyond repair, the train tangled in the tiny buttons that were designed to hold it up out of the way. And my back ached from sleeping with the hard edges of the corset against my sides. It wasn’t quite what I’d imagined, but I was determined to get everything I could out of this moment.

He seemed to know exactly how a corset worked. Pins and needles came alive along my back and against my ribs as the corset was loosened. And his fingers brushed my bare skin as he tugged the edges apart, baring my back as he removed the ribbon. I caught the front of the corset as it began to fall, his hands slipping over my shoulder blades, down along my ribs, rubbing the places that hurt the most. And then he was tugging at the delicate zipper that held the rest of the dress in place.

“It must have been miserable, wearing that dress all night,” he said against my ear.

“I didn’t want to take it off without you.”

“You should have.”

“But then it would have been something else he would have stolen from us. I didn’t want that.”

He groaned softly even as his lips brushed against the back of my neck.

“He can’t steal this.”

He lifted me up into his arms, carrying me to the bed for a second time. But this time I was fully awake and ready for whatever he might have in mind.

We kissed, our lips brushing almost by accident. He leaned over me, one foot still on the floor, almost as though he were reluctant to lie with me. I was here, naked save for my panties and the stockings he’d been talking about for more than a week. Yet, there was resistance in every inch of him.

“What’s wrong?”

“Everything is so fucked up. We were supposed to fly to Italy last night, so half our luggage is on a plane somewhere over the Atlantic. And I didn’t think about that last night when I came to the hotel.”

“So? What does that matter?”

He brushed his fingers over my face, then pulled away, slipping out from the circle of my arms so that he could sit on the edge of the bed.

“You don’t want to do this?”

Self-doubt suddenly came rushing over me. He’d pulled away before, but I’d thought that it was because he didn’t want to ruin our wedding night. But that ship had sailed, and I didn’t understand what it was that was holding him back unless he simply didn’t want me. Was that it? Had I misread his signals? Was he not attracted to me at all?

He groaned.

“That is not the problem,” he said, looking at me, his eyes moving to my breasts for a long second before forcing their way back up to my face. “I want you more than you will ever know.” His voice was almost a growl when he said that. “I can’t think about anything else.”

“Then what’s wrong?”

“I packed the condoms in the wrong bag, and your father’s men are outside our door, so I can’t exactly run down to the drug store to get more.”

It took me a second to truly appreciate what he’d said. I laughed, relief fueling my amusement more than anything else. I crawled into his lap and kissed him all over his face, loving the feel of his hands as they came around my waist, tugging me closer against him.

“Is that all?”

“That’s pretty important, babe.”

I shook my head. “Not really. You don’t have some terrible disease, do you?”

“Not that I know of.”

“And I don’t.”

“Yeah, but—”

“I’m on the pill, so that kind of covers the whole surprise baby thing.”

“Yeah?”

I laughed again. “Do you really think I’d live with a guy like Spider and trust him to always use protection? The guy probably bought condoms once. The clerk at the drug store knew my face better than his.”

Ian shook his head, burying his face against my shoulder. “I forgot who I was dealing with.”

“Yeah, you did. I’m a Rossi. Rossis take care of themselves.”

“You’re a Callahan now.”

I lifted his face and studied his eyes for a second. “Yeah, I am.”

He kissed me then, a kiss that stole my breath and made it impossible for me to ever doubt that he wanted me. He cradled me against him, his hands splayed out against my back, holding me tight for a long moment. Then they began to slide, slipping over my waist until he held my ass in his hands. He pulled my hips forward and rocked my body against his, his erection tenting in his jeans, pressing hard against the teeny nub of my clit, and I suddenly couldn’t just sit there, pretending like I was a proper young woman who waited for a man to please her. I needed him; I needed to feel his skin beneath my hands; I needed to feel his cock inside of me.

I took great handfuls of his t-shirt in my hands, tugging it over his head as he reluctantly broke our kiss. I touched his back the way he had mine, loving the feel of his muscles rippling under my palm. He buried his mouth against my throat, nibbling the skin there, groaning as he made his way down to my breasts. I leaned back, rubbing my cunt against his hard cock, loving the quickening of his breath even as he drew one nipple into his mouth and began to suckle the way a man has desired since he was a babe in the womb.

I pulled him closer to me, pressing my hands into the back of his head. It was so good, the feel of his mouth on me. But I so desperately needed his touch against my clit; I needed to feel him inside of me. I reached down and tugged at the button of his jeans, urging the zipper to get the hell out of my way. He grabbed my wrist, pulling my hand away as he came back up to kiss me again. But I was determined, almost as much as he was.

When I went for his jeans again, he flipped me over, tossing me onto the mattress as he stretched out beside me. He pinned my arms above my head, his mouth moving over my throat again, down to my breasts. He took his time there, nibbling and touching, driving me insane each time he drew a nipple into his mouth and did this funny little thing with his tongue that sent shivers of pleasure up and down the length of my spine. And then he was dragging his lips over the center of my belly, his tongue taking a little sample of my navel as he moved lower and lower, teasing the high arch of my hipbones.

He had to release my hands when he ran out of reach. I sat up and ran my hands over his head, directing him where I needed his touch the most. But he pushed me back down against the pillows, his finger catching under the edge of my panties to tug them down. I groaned, lifting my hips to help him slide them away. He carefully tugged them away, careful not to disturb my stockings and garters. He nibbled at the stockings, tugging them away from my skin, but not making any move to remove them. He liked them; he liked the way they looked against my pale skin; and I liked the admiration that glowed from his eyes when he looked at them.

And then…
Oh, my God!

He pressed his mouth to my cunt, not bothering with the teasing movements that someone else might indulge. He slid his tongue inside of me, nibbling at my inner lips, teasing my clit. It seemed like he was everywhere at once, doing things that I couldn’t begin to describe. The sensations rushing through my body were like nothing I’d ever felt before. I buried my fingers against the back of his skull and tugged him closer, moving him to all the spots that felt the best and he let me, clearly okay with my direction. And that was almost as exciting as his actual touch.

I don’t know if it was just the long anticipation of this moment, or that awesome thing he did, rolling my clit between his tongue and his teeth, but I was quickly losing control. And when he slid his finger deep inside of me at the same time he did that tongue trick? I couldn’t hold it back any longer. The nails came out, pressing into the tender skin of his shoulder, a moan like nothing I’d ever uttered slipping from between my lips. It was a wave that I’d never ridden before, an orgasm that was like nothing I’d ever achieved alone or with Spider. It was…
damn!
There were no words.

I’m not sure when he slid up the length of my body, but I remember the taste of my own fluids on his tongue. And I knew the second he reached between our bodies to release his cock. I reached down to help, and he didn’t try to stop me this time. I grasped him, pulled him toward me, so eager to have him inside of me that I didn’t even wait for the ride on that wave to end. I wanted him in a way I couldn’t imagine ever wanting anyone else. It was a primal urge that couldn’t be ignored and wouldn’t be ignored.

He slid inside of me, his thick head first, a soft moan slipping from between his perfect lips. I nibbled on his bottom lip as he thrust against me, his eyes rolling back in his head for a brief second as the pleasure washed over him. I bent my knees, pressing my hips up against him, taking more of him, as much as I could possibly handle, tugging at his bare ass until we were completely connected, two turned into one.

He lay still, his eyes closed for the longest moment. And then he kissed me, his passion tempered for the moment. He began to move, rocking his hips gently, his hand slipping around my hip, encouraging me to move with his beat. It was a slow rhythm at first, a gentle movement that belied the passion that had been exploding between us almost from the moment we first met. But it wasn’t gentle for long.

He was…he filled me like our bodies were made for each other. He touched me in places I’d never been touched, made me feel things I hadn’t thought were possible. We clung to each other, reaffirming our vitality, creating a world of our own, a life where nothing had existed. We were two lost souls that had finally found one another, clinging to each other in a world that was suddenly filled with uncertainty. But there was certainty in this place, in this life we were making with one another. As long as we were together, as long as we were holding each other this way, nothing could hurt us.

I believed that as much as I believed him when he whispered, “I love you,” against my ear over and over.

I believed him because I loved him, too.

***

We were tangled in each other, our limbs sitting at odd angles because neither of us really wanted to move. I ran my fingers over his chest, tracing the scars he’d told me he had, but I had yet to really see. They were there, a map of his story, the outline of a plot I already knew more of than I thought I could handle. Anger burned in my chest at the thought of the things his uncle had done and had allowed done to him all those years ago. I knew there was cruelty in the world. I couldn’t grow up the daughter of Carmine Rossi, don of the Italian mob, and not know that. But it killed a little piece of my soul to see evidence of that cruelty on the skin of the man I loved.

“I’ll make it all up to you. We’ll go on our honeymoon sometime when all this is over.”

“It’s okay. This is enough.”

“Is it?”

I pushed myself up a little so that I could see his face. “I just want to be with you.”

He kissed me gently. “I don’t deserve you.”

I lay back down, listening to his heartbeat just below my ear. He ran his hand over my head.