Savage Lover: A Dark Mafia Romance (Brutal Birthright Book 3)

After my…however many orgasms I’ve had tonight, Dante lays back down on the pillow with me still draped over his body.

When his arms come around me, holding me tightly to him, he says, “Stay right there, just for a little longer, butterfly.”

“Mmm. Not going anywhere,” I mumble resting my cheek on his rising and falling chest. “You feel so good. So safe.”

Dante doesn’t reply for a long moment, then says, “Safe?”

I nod without lifting my head. “I always felt safe here with you. Even the first night. I’m sorry that I didn’t appreciate it at the time.”

His big, warm palms gently coax up and down my spine.

“You’ve spent your entire life constantly looking over your shoulder. I know how that feels. You make me feel safe too.”

“I do? Little ole me?” I tease with a smile on my face he can’t see.

“Other women I fucked, I wouldn’t dare fall asleep with them, knowing they could rob me or slit my throat. I never worried about that with you. Well, it took a day or two to be confident you wouldn’t slit my throat.”

“I don’t blame you.”

“But I also knew that if someone were to sneak past the guards and attack me in the night, you would shoot them to save me.”

“Oh yeah? You thought I would save you, even the first few days?” I ask in disbelief, surprised to hear such a tough man admit that he thinks I could save him.

“Even the first few days. As soon as my men found the gun hiding under your mattress, I knew not to underestimate you. I still didn’t fully trust you not to fuck me over until I started giving you screaming orgasms.”

“Right, because only a crazy woman would kill the man who gets her off,” I joke. I do believe him, though, that he trusts me and even thinks I could be dangerous in my own right. He thought so before he found out who I was, the life I was born into.

“How did you become Vanessa Brooks?” Dante asks.

“Her parents really did die in a car crash. They were traveling in an RV, on their way from Texas to Washington state on a family vacation. They wrecked in California, the parents dying instantly. Their fifteen-year-old daughter was in a coma until the doctors pulled the plug. No family or friends came for any of their bodies. I had been waiting so…”

“When you heard about them, you decided to take over her identity?”

“I was homeless, crashing in an empty dorm room nearby, hiding there, when the accident happened. Then I just had to find a tech genius on campus who could get in the system to delete her death certificate.”

“I don’t want to know how you convinced this tech genius to help you,” Dante grumbles making me smile.

“I hated using her death for my gain, but I didn’t have any other options.”

Which unfortunately reminds me of other deaths….

Trailing my fingertips over the black wings tattooed on his chest, I voice the unpleasantness he mentioned earlier. “You think my father could be responsible for killing the girls’ mothers?”

Sadly, his palms soothing up and down my back stop suddenly.

“Yes. It’s just too big of a coincidence to lose them all. Petrov could’ve set up the Irish to take the fall for Madison’s mother getting gunned down. I wouldn’t be surprised if Cass’s mother was killed by him when she disappeared, or he kidnapped her. And Sophie’s mother, the doctors said she died from a complication of the C-section, but she was fine the last time I saw her.”

“I wouldn’t put something so horrible past my father. But why wait until these women had your children before killing them?”

“I don’t know. To torture me even more?” he mutters. “Maybe because he couldn’t keep up with who I was seeing until my name showed up on the birth certificates.”

My throat burns at the thought of my father doing something so cruel, hurting innocent women just to torment Dante. “He killed three innocent women, three new mothers, because he wanted to punish you for not marrying me.”

“If I had realized it before, well, he would’ve been dead a long time ago. Once you were kidnapped by his men, I became even more certain. After the bombing too.”

“What do you mean?”

“I believe Yuri has been hitting my warehouses. He wants to take over the fentanyl trafficking from me, and the whore trade from Lochlan. That’s why I think he planted the bomb where he did, to try and take us both out, cause rifts between our people. Best of all, he could use the excuse that he was just retaliating for me killing his two enforcers to get his men to agree.”

“So, the bombing, it wasn’t about the loss of his two men at all,” I remark. “God, Dante. I’m so sorry that I blamed you.”

Wrapping his arms around me tightly, he says, “And I’m sorry that I put all the blame for Madison leaving on you. You were right. It was my fault she left. The tighter I hold on to the girls, the more they’ll try to push me away to be free.”

“One day you will find Madison safe and sound,” I promise him, placing a kiss on his throat. “Until then, maybe you could think about giving Cass and Sophie a little more freedom?”

“I’ll think about it. I already told Cass I might let her compete in a tournament. Only after we handle Yuri.”

“Agreed,” I say with a sigh. “He has to die.”

“Of course, he does.”

Lifting my head to stare down at Dante, I tell him, “But you can’t go after him in a blind rage. We need to have a foolproof plan to make it happen.”

“I couldn’t agree more, butterfly.” He brushes his lips over mine softly. When he pulls back, his brow furrows as if he had a sudden thought he doesn’t like.

“What?” I ask. “Well, other than the obvious?”

His long fingers strum against my back as if figuring out what to say before finally speaking. “Once Yuri is gone, he’ll probably be replaced by Kozlov who does all his dirty work and could be even worse than him. Have you thought about stepping up, taking over?”

I shake my head. “No. I never wanted this life for myself. He knew that, and he picked you out of all the men to marry me, to have your son or daughter who would rule the Italian and Russian underworld.”

“Yuri probably doesn’t know about Cole yet. You should warn him.”

“I will,” I agree.

Kissing the top of my head, Dante says, “I’ll send someone to the school to look out for him.”

“Thank you. I sure as hell never wanted this life for Cole either. It’s why I ran and never looked back.”

“Well, it’s too late now. You’re back in it, at least with me, which means it’s Cole’s world too now.”

“I plan to keep him as far away as possible. This is the first time I’ve been glad that he’s on the other side of the country. My father is going to know that you’re coming after him,” I warn Dante before resting my cheek on his chest again.

Dante’s palms also return to their soothing caress. “Yes, he’ll be anticipating a direct attack.”

“So how about an indirect one?” I ask.

“What do you mean?”

“Yuri doesn’t know you and I are together.”

Dante sighs heavily. “Of course, he does. That’s the reason he had you kidnapped.”

“True, but plenty of people also know that you manipulated me with the deal to let Mitch live.”

A growl of frustration is Dante’s response, as if he still doesn’t care for the m-word. Lifting my head I tell him, “Like it or not, this, our relationship, began from your manipulation. Not that I’m complaining now,” I add when I clench my inner walls around his shaft that’s still buried within me, making him groan and his dick twitches to life again.

In the blink of my eyes, I’m on my back with Dante’s weight pressing on top of me. His lips and tongue are feasting on my neck while he lengthens and thrusts deeper inside of me. “You already know the perfect way to distract me from my anger, butterfly.”

“Yes, I do, but before you start making me forget my own name, let me finish my thought.”

Dante goes still. “Fine. Make it fast.”

“All I’m saying is that we use that information, the truth, to hurt him. Kozlov knows that you paid off the debt for Mitch, right?”

“Yes.”

When he applies suction to my neck, I grab the sides of his head to stop him. “No visible hickeys. That’ll ruin my idea.”

“Then I already hate your idea.” Dante still lifts his mouth from my neck to look at my face. “But do continue, so we can continue. What are you getting at here, Vanessa?”

“What if you bargain a truce with him?”

“A truce?” Dante repeats with a scowl that says there’s no way in hell.

“A truce to stop the violence, the attacks on your business empire, in exchange for you giving me to him.”

Sitting back on his heels, his palms slide down my legs on either side of him as he says, “You want me to hand you over to your father willingly? I thought that was the last thing you wanted. All these years you’ve tried to avoid him…”

“Yes. Well, I’m still his daughter. His possession. He’ll want me back, then want to use me for his own purposes.”

“No, Vanessa. He’ll hurt you…”

“He’ll underestimate me. And he won’t hurt me. Not after I tell him I had the son he always wanted—smart, charismatic, a little ruthless, and with the potential to be business savvy. I’ll dangle the carrot of the perfect heir.”

“Why would Petrov buy you coming home to him with open arms now after all these years?”

“Well, I won’t be. Not at first. You’ll be handing me over against my will. And then, well, I’ll let him convince me that I’m tired of the daily grind of poverty. I’ll reluctantly tell him I’ve decided that I want more for Cole—a better future for him now that he’s grown. I’m sure even my father can understand that I didn’t want my son exposed to his dangerous lifestyle as a child. But now…”

“Now you’ll let him think you’re ready to let Cole take over the family business,” Dante finishes.

“Exactly.”

“One problem. If he does welcome you back, he’s not going to let you leave.”

“Oh, I’ll leave.”

“How, butterfly?”

“I plan to step right over his dead body,” I reply with a smile.

“You’re going to kill him?” With those words, Dante’s dick doubles in size, taking up all the available space within me. For the mafia king, murdering assholes who deserve it really is an aphrodisiac. His blue eyes darken as the arousal overcomes him. When he lifts each of my legs straight up to rest on his chest, I know we won’t be talking much longer.

“I’m…I’m the only one who can get close enough to do it,” I say in a rush just before Dante pulls nearly all the way out to slam deep inside me again.

“We’ll need to plan all of this…carefully,” he says as he starts to move slowly, methodically in and out. His thumb circles and presses on my clit, scattering my thoughts.

“Yesss,” I agree, with his statement and fingers.

Dante is still thinking things through as he moves. “And why would he believe I would be willing to turn you over based solely on his word that there won’t be any more attacks on me?”

“Because you don’t want to look over your shoulder more than usual, and you want him to stay out of your fentanyl business.”

“I guess those are good enough reasons…”

“What do you mean? You think we need something better?”

“I was thinking I could agree to the offer he made me twenty years ago,” Dante explains while hitting the deepest spot inside of me.

“What?” I ask since he’s lost me. I’m too close to coming now.

“I could tell him he can have you back, if he makes you marry me.”

That grabs my attention away from the pleasure. “Makes me marry you?”

Dante stops moving too, which I hate. “Even if he has to drag you down the aisle in a white dress and twist your arm until you say those two words.”

“He wouldn’t have to twist very hard,” I admit, arching my back to roll my hips faster and faster, fucking him from the bottom.

Dante groans to the ceiling, jaw clenched tight, but he doesn’t move, letting me have my way with his cock.

Then I ruin the moment by voicing a concern. “One problem with that plan is…he wanted you to give him an heir to the empire. Now…now he probably knows you can’t have any more children.”

Dante’s massive hand strokes down my leg, over my stomach, between my breasts before squeezing the right one. “I don’t think that would be a problem.”

“Why not?”

“Not if I agree Cole will be my heir too.”

“That’s not even a little funny,” I scoff. “And you’re ruining the mood.”

“My dick can wait. We’ve got all day,” Dante replies with a grin.

“Well, no need to make your dick wait. This discussion is over.”

“You won’t even consider asking Cole what he wants, letting him make his own decision? What if he wants to be a part of this world?”

“No.”

“So, you’ll fuck and love a gangster, but it’s not good enough for your son?”

“That’s not…” I try to lower my legs but Dante grabs both of my ankles, holding them tight to his shoulders so I can’t move them.

“Not what? The truth?”

“Those two things aren’t even close to being the same. Now let my ankles go and get your dick out of me.”

“No.”

“No?” I repeat with an indignant huff.

“I’m never letting you walk away angry from me again,” he says, placing a kiss on the inside of my ankle. “I just got you back. I don’t want to lose you again.”

“Then don’t ever bring up my son again, especially while we’re fucking!”

Dante presses my legs together so he can wrap one arm around them both, making me impossibly tighter with him still buried deep. Then, the bastard shoves his thumb into his mouth, sucking on it before lowering it, pressing it to my clit.

“Asshole,” I grumble while trying to grab his thumb and squirm away. His tattooed hand is unmovable. And the more I squirm, the better it feels until I relent, my head falling back on a moan.

“I know how to distract you from your anger too, butterfly,” Dante informs me, his handsome face smug as hell. “Now, I’m gonna flip you over to your stomach and fuck your brains out until you scream my name and come on my cock. Then, we’ll make a plan to kill your father, and table the discussion about your son’s future for the time being. Agreed?”

I nod since forming words seems impossible at the moment.

“Good girl,” he replies. Those two words make me want to give the mafia king anything he wants, which is confusing and ridiculously arousing. “Now squeeze my dick tight while I turn you over without pulling out. Not being inside of your hot, wet pussy for even a second is too long.”

“How—oh god!” I groan as he makes good on his promise. At first Dante rolls me to my side. Then, with a little adjustment of his knees, I’m flat on my stomach with him straddling both of my legs that are pushed together tightly. His weight presses down on me, pinning me into the mattress, as he slams into me over and over again in that perfect way.