Phantom's Baby: A Mafia Secret Baby Romance (Mob City Book 3) (12 page)

I
reeled
backwards as if stung, rocked both physically and mentally by Val's calm revelation. He stood in front of me, proud and unbending, as if he had nothing to hide.

In a way, I supposed that was true. He hadn't shown a second's hesitation before admitting the truth to me. Apparently Valentino No-Name was a man of many faces: A killer; a brutally honest man; as well as honestly brutal. I choked back the wave of dismay that clenched at my throat and gripped my stomach in an iron vice.

I didn't know whether to run or hide. If Val was the kind of man that could kill his own mother, then not only was my radar way off, but I might be in danger, too.

And how safe was Kitty
?

I was horrified by Val's revelation. I didn't know what to think or where to look. My tongue was paralyzed by a combination of fear and indecision. I had a hundred questions I wanted to ask him, and I couldn't squeeze a single one out.

It doesn't make sense
.
None of this makes any sense
.

When my eyes fell upon the man in front of me, they didn't see a person squirming with the gleeful pride of a psychopath recounting his deeds. Val didn't seem happy about what he'd said, nor was he boasting. His face was set in a grimace, more the look of a man forced to deliver an unpleasant truth. His head was bent, as if dipping into a well of pain.

I was right. This didn't make sense. Val might be doing his best to make the inches between our bodies seem like a chasm, but I knew him better than he thought. Better than even I imagined. If he wasn't outright lying to me, then I knew one thing: he wasn't telling the whole truth.

I had to know.

"Don't lie to me."

Val's expression flickered, and I regretted my choice of words immediately. Bringing up lying probably wasn't the best way of getting what I wanted. Not after the way I had behaved.

"
I
wouldn't. I haven't."

"Then tell me what you're hiding."

Val sank backwards, onto his bed, and as he sat, I blinked. I'd been so caught up with worry since I entered the bedroom that I'd barely noticed my surroundings. They were palatial, to say the least. His bed was bigger than any I'd ever seen – almost bigger than my entire room back at Russell's. Every item of furnishing was as high-end as everything else in Val's apartment – if a little ... lacking in personality. The place needed a woman's touch.

Oh my God! He has a damn balcony
…
We're up in the clouds, and he has a balcony!

When Val started speaking, I guiltily snapped back to the moment and the man in front of me. He spoke so softly I had to strain to hear what he was saying. I sat next to him on the bed, just to get closer.

"She died in childbirth."

My heart jumped into my mouth with relief. “Oh, thank God. It’s okay.” I heard my thoughts whisper. I would never, ever allow Val to know what had entered my mind, but I can't lie – it did. I'd never been more ecstatic in my life to find out that the man in front of me, with the magnetic pull that seemed to lock me to him, was a liar. There was no denying that he was a killer, but in this case, he wasn't. At least, not the way I had feared.

Before I knew it, my arms were draped around his shoulders, my body pressed against his. He was bristling with tightness and suppressed emotion, every muscle taut and tense.

"Oh, Val…" I breathed. "That's, that's not the same at all. How could he possibly blame you for that?"

He paused for a long time before he spoke. "I don't blame you, Cara," he whispered, his breath tickling my ear. "I was raised by a succession of nannies who ran the second they realized what dad did for a living. Sometimes they were scared off by the psycho himself, when he needed a new victim to torment. I don't blame you for hiding Kitty from me. What the hell kind of father could I ever be after that?"

I froze. I didn't know what to say. This was a new side of Val, one I'd never seen before. When we were kids, hell – that was only two years ago, even if it felt like a whole lifetime had passed – life was easy. At least, I could pretend it was as easy as it had ever been for me, and apparently, Val did as well.

Val had been my escape valve. I never told him about the troubles I had at home because when I was away from them, I didn't want to think about them. I didn't realize how selfish I'd been, thinking that I was the only one with problems. Val had a whole personal hell of his own, and it put mine to shame. But the way he was talking shone a light on an entirely different person – a man who wasn't just muscles and stunning good looks, but one who had a mind to match.

A vision of the three of us – one happy family – filled my mind. It was a mirage, a life that I had never lived, but that I'd always dreamt of. In all my twenty-one years I hadn't come close to experiencing that kind of happiness. But I wanted it more desperately than anything.

I said the only thing that came to mind – the truth. It was shocking but, strangely, not scary. "I want to find out."

It was Val's turn to freeze. He was already so still that it was hard to tell the difference, but his breath stopped licking at my ear and toying with my hair.

"Wha … What did you say?" He croaked.

"Only if you want it too," I said hurriedly, my breath caught in my throat, not knowing whether I would be able to handle him turning me down.

Val looked at me with a face twisted by pain and suspicion. It broke my heart. When he spoke, the fearful accusations tumbled out of his mouth and landed upon each other in a heap. "You don't mean it. You can't. I don't believe you."

The hair on my neck bristled. "Valentino Marius whatever the hell you're calling yourself these days, you had
better
stop telling me what I do and don't mean, and start giving me an answer!"

And preferably the answer I want
…

Val stared at me dumbly, as if scared my offer was too good to be true. I watched as the expressions on his face twisted and shimmered like clouds seen from space; as frowned wrinkles and dimples disappeared, only to be reshaped and reformed by an overjoyed smile that dug divots of its own.

"Then yes; definitely yes; a thousand times YES!"

Val pulled me across his body without breaking a sweat and dipped his mouth to mine. I lay on his lap, his arms cradled around me and holding me up. He pressed his lips to mine like he thought he was giving me the kiss of life. In a way, he was. His black, now thickly stubbled chin grazed my cheek, but I didn't care. I barely noticed. I wanted Val and every damn hair on his body if that's what it took.

"You know ever since you came here you've been teasing me, right?" He growled. I felt him hardening underneath me, the heat of his cock pulsating through my flimsy nightwear.

"I –"

I had no idea what to say. No words came to mind, just an overpowering chemical lust.

Val looked me up and down, his gray eyes filled with an inky blackness. He moaned, and I shivered. He was the Val I knew – and something more. Something else lived in those eyes – the darkness inside the man I –.

Loved?

"The things I want to do to you, Cara, you wouldn't even imagine. You make me feel things I haven't felt in years. But…"

"But
what?
" I said, filling my voice with a hungered hardness. I needed him, now. No
but
in the world was going to stop me from getting what only he could give me.

"
But
like I told you," he groaned, raking his hands up and down my body, but never touching skin. It was like he was worried that once he did, he wouldn't be able to stop. "I'm different now. That cell, it changed me. When I fucked you in that hotel, I was holding back. I don't know if I can do that again."

I studied his face. I knew deep down that whatever he
said
, maybe even whatever he thought, Val would never truly hurt me. Not more than I could take. And if he could, well there was only one way to find out.

"Then don't," I said simply.

Val's eyes filled with hope. "Don't what?" He asked, as if worried my answer was too good to be true.

I didn't reply, not with words, not this time. I leaned upward, straining my neck to close the inches between us, and laced my hand into his midnight black hair. I pulled him down and toward me. Our lips met, and Val's tongue flicked out, but I ignored it. I took his bottom lip between both of mine, rolled my tongue around it, and closed my teeth on it. I bit down hard, until I knew that his eyes must be watering, and that every fiber in his body would be screaming at him to pull away.

The tiniest drop of coppery blood tingled on the tip of my tongue. The second it did, I released him.

It was my turn to growl, "Don't fucking hold back."

It was as though my permission had been the last thing holding the dam together, and the second it was given … the walls came down and Val poured through.

My pajamas were off my body and on the floor within seconds. The seams tore and split as he ripped the cloth off my body. I wasn't wearing any underwear, so other than my hands, which jumped – embarrassed – to cover the slit between my legs, I was naked. It all happened so fast that I was still wondering how I was going to get back to my bedroom without Kitty noticing when Val ripped my hands aside.

"No hiding," he growled, drinking every inch of my skin up with greedy eyes. "I want all of you."

He ran his hand roughly from the seat of my ankle, up my thigh and grazed my sex, but he didn't stop there. His fingers sped upwards, leaving a trail of fire behind. His palm scraped against my right nipple, and I clenched my legs together as a desire began to build between them. With his bare hand, he roughly tore my legs apart.

"I told you," he said gruffly, "No hiding."

I wanted to scream that I wasn't hiding, that I needed him inside me – every inch, but he didn't give me the chance. His right hand caressed my neck now, as his left fingers probed my wet slit, and he was everywhere all at once. His lips dipped to mine, his fingers tangled in my hair and pulled oh-so-gently, and he pressed his palm against my pussy. I pushed my hips up, up and out, desperate for his touch.

He pulled his head back, and a wicked grin curled across his face. "Oh, you like that do you?"

It was all I could do to nod. My face must have been flushed red, because my skin was burning. Whether it was from embarrassment, or desire, or hunger for his cock, I didn't know – perhaps all at once. I needed him, right then, and he could tell.

I didn't have to wait long.

Val tossed me to one side as easily as throwing a pillow. He pushed me off him, and onto my back. I whimpered my disappointment, but I knew from the darkness that flooded his eyes that I wouldn't have to wait long. Val had unleashed the beast inside him, and until its hunger was satisfied, there was no quieting that raging animal.

He lifted himself off the bed, chest once again glistening with a faint sheen of sweat. He stood in front of me, eyes greedily devouring my nakedness. My hands had once again crept to cover what little of me they could – but Val shook his head once, and I let them fall to my side. My fingers curled and clutched the sheets as my face burned. It was embarrassment this time, I had no doubt.

But Val had stoked a fire, and the heat on my face paled in comparison to the inferno blazing within. "Please, Val…" I begged, "I need you.
All
of you."

A grin tickled the corners of his mouth as he stood by my feet, lazily unbuckling his belt. He pulled the buttons that held his fly loose one by one, and the denim that rode his hips fell past his thighs. His cock fell out, loose, arrogant …

and
huge
.

Val chuckled, taking his cock in his hand and stepping out of his jeans. My eyes were glued to the thick rod which was between his fingers, still growing and showing no signs of stopping. I bit my lip, wondering how the hell it would possibly fit inside.

Was it that big last time?

I didn't know. It didn't seem possible, but how could it have been anything else?

"Oh, you'll get it," he reassured me. He grabbed my right foot with his free hand and pulled me towards him, bicep bulging as I slid across the sheets.

Memories of two years of celibacy fought in my mind against what I remembered of our teenage tumbles. They were nothing like this. Confused, hurried couplings, when neither of us knew what was meant to go where, when, and for how long. And then after, when I’d ended up in his bed in that hotel, Val was reserved. He held a part of himself back.

Val wasn't that boy, not anymore. Not with me.

But was I still that girl?

Val stopped pulling, and I was there, so close to his cock that I felt the heat radiating off his thighs. He stood between my open legs, grabbed my hips and pulled me the last few inches towards him, and then he was inside me.

He thrust into me in one easy movement until he was buried 8 inches deep; easy for him, maybe, but not for me. A tear welled in my right eye, and the breath died in my lungs as he pressed into me.

"Jesus wept, Cara," he said, whispering into my ear. "You're so fucking tight."

Am I?
I thought.
Or is it just that your cock's thicker
than most tree
trunks?

But it didn't hurt. None of it hurt, because I was wetter than I had ever been before in my life. My skin was on fire, screaming out for him to touch me, to take me however he wanted. I could barely move, I had so much of him inside me, and yet I wanted more.

Val was happy to provide it.

I whimpered as he dug his fingernails into the soft, tender skin of my thighs and pulled me towards him, barely giving me a second to acclimatize to the thickness that was stretching me from inside out. My legs dangled off the bed, but as he started thrusting, I forgot they were there.

I forgot every part of me, except the one exploding between my thighs. Val's legs crashed against mine as he thrust inside me. This fuck wasn't about me – it was about Val. Val's wants, Val's needs, his hopes, his fears and his dreams. His cock ground into my pussy so hard it had me gasping for breath. His hands gripped my legs so tightly that bruises were already forming. I knew they'd mark me for days.