“THAT FELT LIKE a goodbye,” he heard Liliana murmur against his neck.
Joe held her a little tighter. “Not my kiss, I fucking hope.”
He swore his heart had jolted for a second. This goddamn woman was going to be the death of him, he was sure of it.
Liliana laughed a little, and then pulled back just enough to stare him in the eyes. “No, not you. Never you.”
“Then what?”
“The show, I guess. Dancing. Ballet.”
She shrugged, saying nothing else.
Joe didn’t really need her to. “It doesn’t feel the same, then.”
“I did it, though,” she said quietly, “and that’s what I wanted to do the most.”
He stroked her cheeks with the pads of his thumbs, and then dipped his head down low enough to catch her lips with a sweet kiss. “Then, that’s all that matters.”
“I don’t know what to do with my life now.”
Joe chuckled. “You’ve got all the time in the world to figure that out. That’s the best part about being young, Tesoro.”
And if she wanted him there—as long as she wanted him there with her—he would be right beside her to help her figure it out. Whatever she needed, Joe would be there to give it to her every step of the way.
A throat cleared behind them.
Ah, yeah.
Shit.
He’d almost forgotten about everyone else.
As much as Joe didn’t want to let Liliana go—not even for a single second—he stepped aside because he knew others were waiting to congratulate her. This whole night had been huge, even if she wasn’t going to say so out loud. Her first time back on a stage since everything had happened, and of course, she was amazing.
“You looked wonderful,” Lucian told Liliana.
She took the hug from her father with a wide smile, and the same from her mother, too. A kiss from both, as well. Joe hung back a little but only because he didn’t want to intrude on their moment together.
“We’re so proud of you,” Jordyn added.
“Thanks, Ma.”
Liliana seemed determined to bring Joe into their conversation one way or another when she glanced over her shoulder at him. “I see you were all keeping secrets from me.”
Lucian chuckled when his gaze met Joe’s. “We have to keep some tricks hidden up our sleeves, don’t we?”
Sure, Joe had known about Liliana’s upcoming show. She had told him about it over the phone, although she never went in to any great detail about it. He’d never been able to quite tell if she was excited, or not.
She just talked.
But when Lucian called Joe with the suggestion that he come to attend the show, he practically stumbled over every word he said to agree. It had already been four long months since he’d been out of New York and away from Liliana. It wasn’t like he wanted to spend one more damn minute away from her.
He figured shit was still hot and heavy in the city because of the whole Earl thing, but he did his best to keep his head down, and his attention away from any news about New York. A watched pot never boiled, as the saying went.
“Joe,” Jordyn said, drawing his attention to Liliana’s mother.
“Yes?”
“I hope you’re going to join us later.”
“I didn’t know something was happening, actually.”
Lucian chuckled. “Ah, I forgot. Just consider it your surprise, then.”
“Oh, the party,” Liliana said, turning with a smile to face Joe. “They’re throwing me a party at the mansion.”
Lots of people.
A family he wasn’t a part of.
Attention.
The spotlight being with her.
None of that would have been Joe’s thing had someone asked him months and months ago. Yet, he was quick to nod and agree.
“Sounds fun,” he said.
And he meant it.
“You know,” Liliana said, finishing her second glass of champagne, “your brother has texted or called me at least once a week since you left.”
Joe’s gaze drifted from the gathered Marcello family back to Liliana tucked into his side. “Is that so?”
Cory hadn’t mentioned a thing.
Joe wasn’t exactly surprised.
“Yep, he did.”
“And did he annoy the hell out of you like he does to me on a daily basis?” Joe asked.
Liliana snorted, and then smacked Joe with the back of her hand lightly to his chest. “You know your brother loves you. Be nice.”
Joe rubbed the spot she’d hit, although it didn’t actually hurt. “Hey, this is me being nice. Trust me, Cory wouldn’t expect anything different.”
“Yes, I remember. You two show your affection through kicking the shit out of each other.”
He tipped his head to the side a bit, saying, “That, and apparently by Cory calling my girl to check in with her, and make sure she knows the rest of my family hasn’t forgotten about her in the meantime.”
Liliana stilled beside him. “Yeah, I guess that’s exactly what he was doing.”
Joe reminded himself to thank his brother. And maybe sign off on buying another business with him—one he’d been holding off on for a while because it meant more time spent away from the happiness and privacy of his own company.
Cory would like that.
Always pushing Joe out of his comfort zone.
It seemed in a very short span of time, his family had managed to get quite attached to his little ballerina. They were fully willing and ready to welcome her into the folds of their family whenever Joe got back around to bringing her home with him.
He just didn’t know when that was going to happen.
“And your mom, too,” she added.
“Probably not my dad, though.”
Liliana grinned. “Damian Rossi is kind of quiet.”
“That he is.”
“He did say hello whenever your mom called, though.”
Joe smiled faintly to himself. “Seems like his style.”
“I miss them.”
His arm tightened around her waist, saying, “They miss you, too.”
“Yeah?”
“Why wouldn’t they?”
Liliana shrugged a bit. “It’s not like we know each other very well, or—”
“They don’t have to know everything about you. They only need to know one thing that matters to them above the rest.”
“And what’s that, Joe?”
Their gazes met.
He leaned in and kissed her—soft, slow, and sweet.
“How much I love you, Liliana. That’s all they care about.”
She smiled against his kiss. “I love you, too, Joe.”
“Sorry I was gone for so long.”
“Yeah.”
“It won’t happen again.”
Liliana’s gaze darted up to meet his—green fire in a blink.
God, he loved this girl.
“Promise?” she asked sweetly.
“You know it.”
Liliana’s grin turned a little sly as she peered around the room at her family. Some were fully engaged in conversations, while others were looking at something on a tablet, and laughing. They had finally given Joe and Liliana a little room to breathe, and be alone. He appreciated it, but he also didn’t mind being there with her and her people, either.
This was good.
“Everybody is … busy,” Liliana said.
Joe nodded. “Seems so.”
“I don’t think they would notice if we skipped out for a few.”
“Liliana.”
She pressed her lips tight together at his dark warning.
“What?”
Far too innocent.
She wasn’t at all innocent.
“You’re supposed to be celebrating with your family.”
“And I am!” Liliana smiled brightly. “And we’ll come back in a bit. What, you don’t want to get me into a coat room somewhere and see what’s under this dress, Joe?”
He eyed the tight, bodycon dress she had on—royal purple, with silver rockstud heels to match. She’d let her hair down in loose waves, too. His favorite because he could wrap his hands in the strands, and pull while he fucked her.
“Jesus,” he muttered under his breath. “I’m trying to be good here.”
“Yeah, but you’re not. So, let’s go.”
He didn’t even try to refuse.
He all but let her sneak him out of the room.
Liliana tasted like tart, hot candy under Joe’s tongue. He couldn’t bury his face deep enough between her thighs to sedate the fucking hunger he felt for this woman. Every tremble of her legs, and every squeeze of her cunt around his fingers as he fucked her with his hand and his mouth drove him insane.
Every gasp …
Every plead …
Every-fucking-thing.
They had ended up in a coat room. Or something like that. He really hadn’t paid too much attention because he had been far too distracted by the sight of Liliana on her knees as she sucked him off the very second he closed and locked the door.
That was a justifiable reason to be distracted.
Nobody ever looked as hot like that as she did.
And then he couldn’t fucking take it anymore, knowing he was going to blow his load if he didn’t stop her right then and there, so he got Liliana on her back instead. On a table—or a coat table, whatever in the hell they used this thing for.
It was sturdy enough.
Liliana was just panting her way through her third orgasm as her fingers threaded in Joe’s hair began to tug and pull. It stung like nothing else, but he fucking loved it, too. Her back was arched high off the table, and her dress was pushed up around her hips. He wasn’t sure where in the hell her panties had landed when he ripped them off.
That’s all delicate lace like that was good for anyway—to be seen, and then completely ruined.
Like pretty wrapping paper before the prize.
“Again,” Joe murmured, lapping at the inside of Liliana’s thigh. “You’re going to come for me again, Liliana. And then again.”
“I can’t—”
Wrong.
She could.
He would just show her.
“You won’t even need my mouth on you this time,” he said, ignoring his painfully hard erection rubbing against the side of the table. He was practically fucking dry humping it anyway just to give him some goddamn relief. If it got any thicker, his dick was going to punch through his boxer-briefs considering he hadn’t bothered to do anything more than tuck it back in after he’d pulled her mouth off his dick. “Just my fingers, my girl.”
Liliana shuddered. “Lies. I can’t come again.”
“You can.”
She shook her head.
Joe just smiled.
Game on.
“God, I love a challenge,” he murmured.
He soaked in the way her sex clenched hard around two of his fingers when he eased them back inside her wet, tight walls. She hissed low, and those fingers of her came back to find his hair when she lifted her back off the table again.
So pretty.
So responsive.
Her body had to be fucking sensitive. A little too sensitive, maybe.
He started a massaging rhythm against the upper, fleshy part of her cunt that he knew was going to make her come, and come fucking hard. And with each stroke of his digits against her G-spot, Liliana started to shake a little more.
“Oh, my God,” she breathed.
Spun.
So breathless.
High, even.
He lived for her sounds.
“Are you going to give it to me?” he asked.
Her green eyes flew wide, and he saw the way her pupils blew open when her gaze landed on him. Her pretty pink lips—all that lipstick was long gone, now, stained on his cock—fell open in to an O-shape and her chin trembled.
“I think so,” he said.
The sound that came out of Liliana when she came a fourth time was unlike anything he’d ever heard. Raw, and harsh. Yet, still so fucking sexy and beautiful. Like she couldn’t believe what she was feeling, but he bet it was worth it, too.
Christ.
She was worth it.
“Fuck,” she mumbled.
Sobbed was more like it.
Joe chuckled as he kept massaging her G-spot even through her orgasm. He felt her arousal soak his fingers, and slick down his hand. Jesus, she was so wet, it was crazy. He didn’t stop his intent to make her come again like this. Even as she sobbed her way through yet another G-spot stimulated orgasm.
The most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
Joe stood straight, flipped Liliana over, and pulled her to the edge of the table so that her feet could touch the floor. It took two quick smacks of his hands against the back of her thighs for her to open her legs for him. She had made a wet spot on the back of her dress, and probably left one on the table, too.
Damn.
As hot as that was …
Well, they’d figure out how to hide it later.
She shuddered and shook when he rubbed his hands over her ass, and then moaned hard and deep when he fished his cock out, and stroked it through her folds. Every touch of his dick against her cunt made her whine, and jerk.
“Sensitive,” she whispered.
Yeah, he bet.
“This is all mine, isn’t it?” he asked.
He heard her swallow thickly. “All of me, Joe.”
“You trust me, don’t you?” he asked, letting his dick slide into her pussy and soak his length. Then, he dragged his cock higher until it came to rest at her ass. Liliana didn’t even tense, but let out a sweet laugh. “You’re so fucking wet right now—let me fuck you like this. Trust me.”
“Are you going to make me beg for it?”
“I won’t even have to.”
“So cocky.”
“Confident, actually.”
Because it would be better like this. Better when she was strung out on sex, and feeling thoroughly fucked. Better when all she would want to do is beg to be filled and stretched out to her max like nobody else could do for her.
Just better.
“Please,” Liliana whispered.
Jesus.
Yes.
That was all he needed to hear.
He used his cock first to tease her, and test the ring of her tight ass with just the head. When he felt her trying to back onto his cock, he pulled away, and got his fingers wet instead. He’d never heard her moan like she did when she had two of his fingers—and then three—filling her ass, and stretching her open.
It was only when her wild eyes looked back to find his, and he could see the beads of sweat starting to form on her backside, that he put his cock back where he wanted it to be the most.
Slow going.
One fucking inch at a time.
Halfway, she tensed, and sucked in a sharp breath. He felt those inner rings of muscles bear down hard on his length, enough to take his own air away.
“Shit, relax,” he uttered.
Liliana wet her lips. “Just fuck me, Joe.”
“Demand and beg when I’m ready, babe.”
She cursed.
He laughed.
And then he was sliding all the way in because her little distraction had been enough to let her body relax. Once his cock was seated balls-deep into her ass, he pushed his hands hard against her lower back, and kept her pinned to the table.
He couldn’t have her moving.
Fuck, not right then.
He’d bust a nut, and ruin everything.
“Joe?”
He eased up a bit on his hold. “Fucking killing me here, Liliana.”
“Not nearly as much as you’re killing me.”
Yeah, he bet.
“Won’t you fuck me now?” she asked.
God, yes.
And he did.
Harder than fucking ever.
Joe paced the length of the alleyway for what felt like the hundredth time.
At least.
His father kept his calm tone on the other end of the phone, and while Joe usually appreciated Damian’s laidback demeanor, today wasn’t quite the same. It wasn’t helping with his nerves at all.
“Joe,” his father snapped.
It brought him back to reality in a blink.
“What?”
“How long have you been pacing now?”
Joe’s gaze narrowed as he looked around the alleyway. “How do you know I’m pacing?”
“I can hear your feet making a permanent path in the concrete, Joe.”
Oh.
Well …
“I’m trying to calm down,” Joe muttered.
“You don’t need to calm down.”
“You don’t know. You’re not here!”
“Joe, come on, now.”
“I am coming on, Dad. I’m freaking out.”
“He likes you,” Damian murmured, “and you know he does. You have no reason to be acting like this.”
“Says you.”
“All right, you know what? You call me when you’ve talked to Lucian.”
“Why?”
“So, then I can tell you that I told you so, son.”
His father hung up the call.
Without a goodbye, too.
Asshole.
Joe shoved his phone back into his pocket, and then wiped his sweaty palms along his pant legs. Jesus Christ, this should not be such a nerve-wracking thing. He wasn’t even the type of man who got nervous about this kind of shit.
Then again, he’d never done this before.
So, what did he know?
Fuck, fuck, fuck!
All right, that was enough of that. Joe sucked in a breath, and refused to sit out here and panic anymore than he already had. At most, this meeting could end one of three ways.
One—very well, and he got what he wanted.
Two—badly, and he was refused.
Three—Lucian could just kill him.
Maybe the last one was a little dramatic, but they had their things. Joe went to the worst-case scenario first, and worked back from there.
That was his thing.
Stepping up to the back exit door of the restaurant, Joe knocked on it and stepped back to wait. Not two seconds later, the door was opened up, and a Marcello enforcer poked his head out.
“Hey, Rossi.”
Apparently, his face was familiar, now.
People even knew his name.
Or … his last name.
“Is—”
“Yeah, boss is waiting for you,” the man said.
Joe blinked.
What?
He hadn’t told Lucian he was coming because this had all been a little last minute. He’d been in New York for a week, but had to get back to Chicago for some work that needed to be done. He’d stayed long enough for Liliana to finish her shows for the week, but now she was done, too.
Done entirely, she said.
Ballet was no longer a need or want for her.
She was flying out to Chicago with him tomorrow. She missed his family, and God knew they missed her if the many texts and calls to him were any indication. They would like his little surprise when she showed up to dinner with him tomorrow evening.
“You coming, or you gonna stay out here looking foolish?” the enforcer asked.
Joe shot the man a look. “Nice.”
“Yeah, well, I try.”
Joe followed behind the enforcer, and let the man direct him through a busy, bustling restaurant. Lucian was seated in his usual area—the private dining section. The man had a host of papers and files spread out on the table, and didn’t even glance up when Joe approached.
“Have a seat,” Lucian said.
“Do you ever take vacations, or break from … this?” Joe asked.
Lucian shook his head. “Rarely.”
“Your wife must love that.”
A smile curved Lucian’s lips.
“My wife is my break and vacation, Joe.”
Ah.
Okay, then.
“How long were you planning to pace and talk on the phone in the alleyway before you gained enough courage to come in here and speak with me?” Lucian asked.
Joe blinked. “How did you know—”
“I know everything, or the cameras tell me.”
Again … ah.
“Ask,” Lucian said quietly, still going through his files.
“You don’t know if I came here to ask anything.”
“Yes, I do. You probably feel like you waited too long to ask as it is, Joe. Frankly, I would not have waited as long as you did, but I appreciate that you were able to hold yourself back. So, please, put yourself out of this misery, and just ask me what you came here to ask.”
Joe bit his inner cheek.
He glanced down at his clenched hands.
He had never been more sure of anything in his life than this.
“I want to ask for your blessing, Lucian.”
Finally, Lucian glanced up from his work to stare at Joe. He didn’t know what he expected to see staring back at him, but the calm assuredness in Lucian’s gaze was not it. That took him by surprise more than anything else.
“To marry her,” Lucian clarified.
Joe nodded. “Yeah.”
“When do you plan to ask?”
“I don’t know … just that I will.”
Lucian leaned back in his chair, and stared out the window at the passing people on the sidewalk. “She’ll say yes, Joe. I hope you’re not worried about that.”
He wasn’t.
Much.
“And what about you?” Joe asked. “Do I get a blessing from you?”
“You heard that?”
Because they had all seemed rather distracted at the table.
Lucian chuckled. “I told you—”
“You see and notice everything.”
“Exactly. I’d like a call before you ask so that I know, and can let her mother know.”
Joe nodded. “Will do.”
Glancing away, Joe smirked. “I will keep that in mind.”
“You better.”