I blew out a sigh instead of arguing. She obviously didn’t care about Leo to listen. She had her own demons to battle. Besides, the idea of touching Leo while sort of giving him a bath sent a big throb between my legs. I didn’t see why it bothered her to do it herself. It wasn’t like he belonged to her sister anymore. What girl would pass on an opportunity such as this?
Unless she was loyal to another man. A fiancé or a husband? She didn’t have any wedding rings on her fingers. Perhaps a boyfriend. A girl who looked like her would have no trouble finding a man.
“Can you, at least, take the cuffs off of him, please? It’ll be faster.” And my breasts wouldn’t be in his face when I cleaned that arm.
“No.”
“Look at him. Do you really think they’re necessary?”
“Oh, yes, they are.”
“But—”
“The cuffs stay, Doctor. End of story.”
“Do you have some sort of fetish with restraints or something? Is that how you draw power?” I mumbled.
Leo gave another one of his manic laughs. “Don’t mind her, Doc. She’s kinky like that. She can’t help it.”
She clenched her teeth at him. “Fuck you.” Her steps echoed away as she stalked out of the room. “And him. And every one of your fucking kind.”
CHAPTER 9
Leo
I hadn’t been touched by a woman in a very long time. Years. Since Sia.
Shocking, right? After her death, you’d think I sank my cock in every wet pussy I’d been offered—or even hadn’t been offered. After all, I was a Mafia prince. The son of Don Bellomo who took anything he wanted whenever he wanted without so much of a second thought.
But I wasn’t him. I’d tried everything in my power not to be him. I went to fucking school, stayed away from the life and kept my cock in my pants. Even my wife I didn’t get to touch because she was a virgin and I wanted to honor her. And in the end? I waited, and he stole her from me on my wedding night.
Everything I’d done to not turn into another Sebastiano Bellomo didn’t matter. Not only that, but I’d become the bad guy. The villain, the killer, the devil, the source of all evil to be burned at the stake while he lived like a king and got the girl. He made me become him and left me to pay for all his mistakes with blood, pain, loneliness and heartache.
How could everybody love him and hate me? Why did they turn a blind eye on his sins, his crimes and even forgive him and not me?
Except for Nicky. The only person who saw Don Bellomo for who he really was and hated him as much as I did that she chose to side with me. And this nervous brunette, breathing on my shoulder while cleaning—and ogling—my bicep, who might not think I was the monster everybody should avoid at all costs.
After she temporarily stopped the bleeding in my leg, she said she’d clean me up first before taking the bullet out so the wound wouldn’t get infected. Those Domenico’s soldiers fucks. They shot at Nicky and me as we escaped from the beachside. The bullet that hit her barely grazed the skin, but mine landed in the calf. They’d have gotten us if Nicky didn’t shoot back at them with her husband’s gun. I was glad she’d taken it before she let us out of that fucking room, and she knew how to use it—she’d grabbed cuffs on the way out, too, because, obviously, she didn’t trust me. Another thing I was grateful for was how strong Nicky was. She’d managed to drag me out of the villa and run to the road.
It was my idea to trap the road and take the first car that came on. Nicky didn’t approve at first—that fucking conscience again—but we both knew we had no chance at making it anywhere on foot with the shape I was in.
Luckily, the plan worked, and she drove us out of Taormina. She’d only stopped to get some water, food, clothes—her husband’s blood was on her shirt, and I was desperate for a new outfit to wear after I was no longer bleeding—and the much needed medical supplies, using the doctor’s cash. I gave Nicky directions to this place so we could hide until we figured out a way to get on a boat from Catania that would take us back to America. A burned down house right outside Catania, an hour or so from Taormina, that used to belong to the Seppis, which no one would guess we were hiding at. After my father had killed them, he took possession of everything the Seppis had, semi-burned it and left the rubbles as a symbol of what would happen to anyone who would even think about crossing him.
Who would have thought the place that once belonged to the killer of my mother would be the only shelter I could use right now?
I closed my eyes, pushing the rumbling rage for a second, distracting myself by wondering why the fuck Nicky took me with her. I’d asked her to help me escape once, but she told me to go fuck myself. Why now? Had she finally accepted I was the only one who could help her end Tino? Or did she take me as leverage for another plan I couldn’t figure out yet?
Everything would be unraveled soon, I was sure. And I’d deal with it as soon as it did. Right now, I needed to focus on surviving to go on with my own plan.
I shifted my focus toward my new friend—and her feminine touch my body hungered after. Unlike that of a professional doctor, her touch was shaky. As if she was a virgin who had never seen a half-naked man before or even gotten that close to one, let alone touched.
The accidental feather of her trembling fingers over the cords of my muscles was a reprieve, something I’d forgotten how it felt when all I’d had for a year was brutality. She had long, brown hair she let cover most of her face, as if the glasses weren’t a shield strong enough to hide behind. Her body didn’t give away much either. She hid it, too, under dark, oversized slacks and jacket. What was she hiding from? The world in general or me in particular? Most importantly, why?
As she wet the little rag—what Nicky had salvaged from the shirt she wore while we ran for our lives—and squeezed off the excess, water chimed along with our breaths through the silent room.
She hesitated. Dipped the washcloth again. Squeezed.
“Just think of me as the hood of your car or the surface of your desk,” I said.