Smoke and Mirrors (Bleeding Hearts #1)
(By Michelle B.) Read EbookSize | 27 MB (27,086 KB) |
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Author | Michelle B. |
Lilah
One night is all it took.
One night changed all of my plans.
One night laid a road map out for the rest of my life.
My heart now belongs to him- Antonio Robert Heart, the underboss of the Heart Syndicate that governs over New York and its five boroughs. He rules with an unwavering hand yielding the blade of his knife, but when his strong hands touch me, I become liquid. I melt into his all-consuming prowess.
The thing is, he doesn't want me... even though he craves me.
Antonio
I don’t date. I don’t love. I don’t want marriage and I do not want children. I only allow myself companionship when the desire is there.
Lilah Tomlinson was supposed to be one night-one hour at the most.
I was a fool.
My desire for her prevailed and I let her in... only to find out she has betrayed me. That muscle in my chest, the one she has penetrated and brought to life, it shrivels with the worst kind of anger: WRATH.
***This book is a dark romance with strong sexual content and violent scenes. If you are uncomfortable with either of these situations please do not read! 18+
Chapter One
ANTONIO
Her lips feel incredible. Her smile is one of many I have seen gazing up at me from the spare room floor of my penthouse. She licks the corner of her lip. Her smile turns mischievous. I see a glint of craziness flicker in her pupils.
Oh, yeah, the next hour or two will be fun.
What she doesn't know is that her time is limited. I'll use her just like she is using me. She uses me for who I am-for the stature and clout I hold predominantly in the state of New York, but across the country as well. The society girl just moved up the ladder a couple of notches by getting to spend the night with the infamous Antonio Heart, the bad boy of New York City. Though, she is only getting a couple hours out of me. I sound arrogant as fuck, I know, but it is what it is and will always be that way. I use her only for what she was genetically born with. There will be no insta-love at the end of this transaction. She is disposable. I'll throw her out before she can take that post orgasmic breath.
My fingers grip the brown hair at the back of her head. I let my knees relax and sink into the rhythm of her ministrations, allowing her to freely perform for me. Because that’s what this is. A performance, an act… it’s all fake. I need what she has, and she wants what I can give her. I'll give her that minute she needs to make herself feel good. Then I'll take over.
No one but one man governs me. Whether she thinks it or not right now, I am in control.
I am always in control.
I let my eyes close, letting myself feel what's happening to my body. Damn. It's been a minute. I release a breath, relaxing further. Between being exhausted of spending time with self-boasting, fake women that fall into the starfish position and wait for the magic to happen when they get here, and redoing my newly acquired club, Temptations, I can't remember the last time I actually enjoyed a blowjob.
Another minute passes before I’ve had enough. She is lucky I have let her have this long. I hear the familiar chirp from my phone sitting on the edge of the mattress, alerting me of an incoming message. I ignore the first chirp but then three more consecutive alerts sound. My blood starts flowing, becoming a virulent serpentine gliding through my veins. Not from the woman on her knees in front of me, although she is pretty talented with her tongue, but because I know that those consecutive messages are ones I have been waiting for. I need to move this along. She’s playing with me, which was fine for the moment, but now it’s not. I’m halfway there. My fingers twist in her overly stiff hair she primped to what she thought was perfection for a night out club hopping. I knock her hands away from my swelled length and let my hips take over. The repetitive flexing of my hips progress to a faster speed as the seconds tick. She lets out a long moan. My phone chirps again and again. My shoulders tense because of the alerts and my thighs mirror my shoulders. I am close.
I can feel it in my bones, they got him.
I need to hurry this along.
With three more thrusts, I plunge as deep as I can with a release so strong my knees almost buckle. She gasps at the sudden unexpected surge of salty heat. No warning was needed. She knew what she was down there for.
My energy is momentarily zapped. My breathing is still heavy when in one swift moment, I pull from the warmth of her mouth, tuck myself away, refasten the zipper to my slacks, and lunge for my phone. I hear her whine from behind me. I take the steps away, creating more distance. Always alert, I hear her fumble. I turn back and glance at her. I shouldn’t have turned my back on her to begin with.
My screen comes to life with the print of my finger and so does my lineage. A lifelong blood oath is now rapidly flowing through my veins with the speed of revenge as its leader. I’m re-energized from the thrill of the business that awaits. I survey the woman that holds my semen in the hollow of her insides. “Time to go.” I reach down and grab her purse off the bed and toss it to her. Her mouth flaps open, becoming unhinged. Quickly, she snaps it shut. Her eyes become slits and her jaw tenses, clenching with each fuck you sentence forming in her head. Before she can formulate those words, I advance in her direction. “I said it’s time to go. I won’t tell you again…” I add insult to injury when I can’t remember her name. Honestly, I don’t think I even asked her what her name was. It didn’t matter, she won’t get a second go with me. I have my regulars. They know the deal.
I’m in.
I’m out.
“You don’t even know my name!” She slaps her purse against her thigh.
“No. Now get out!”
********
I slammed the gearshift into first gear. My black Testoni-covered foot hits the accelerator with force. With a jerk of the wheel, I peel out into the back alley, black tread left behind to melt into the asphalt. I speed through the city streets, heading towards the warehouse that holds my men and the man they captured–the rat that betrayed the family. The closer I get to my second home the more the usual smell of iron and sea air fills my senses. The metallic sting is an igniter to every fiber of my being and a catalyst for an explosion of electrifying currents that snap every nerve ending. Every single time that distinct smell fills the air, it punches me in the gut and brings me right back to my first kill–the day I became a Made Man.
It was the same day I made my boss proud and my father mournful.
My cherry was popped with a man who betrayed the family. A man who pledged his allegiance to protect and serve. The price for his disloyalty was his life. My father gave me the honor and without a second glance, at the age of fifteen, I took the offered gun from my predecessor, the one he had engraved with my name, the one I still have today sitting in my safe at home, and I put a bullet right between the rat’s eyes as I recited our family motto.
Family is everything.
Family protects you.
Without family, you have nothing.
If you betray one of us, you betrayed all of us.”