This Time I Choose Mr. Mafia novel · Chapter 27 of 32

Chapter 27: After

The house on Oakley Avenue was dark when we got home, and empty.

Bruna had taken my father to a steakhouse on Rush Street after the ballroom cleared.

"For the two of us," she'd told me at the coat check. "It's the price of my silence. I'm getting the big one."

In the back of the car I'd slipped my mother's diamond onto my right hand.

It was loose on my ring finger, so I'd moved it to my middle one.

Damiano had watched me do it and said nothing at all.

He locked the front door behind us.

Then he stood in the dark hall with his back against it and looked at me.

Just looked, in his black tuxedo with the green tie loosened, like he had all night and so did I.

"What?" I said.

"What do you want now?" he said. "No ballroom. No deadline. Nobody left to beat."

"I don't know," I said. "I've never had a night without somebody to beat."

"Then I'll tell you what I want."

"Is it that phone in your pocket? Because it keeps looking at me."

He took the little black flip phone out of his inside pocket.

He looked at it for a second.

Then he set it on the hall table, face down, and left it there.

"You," he said. "Here. Until Monday."

I crossed the hall to him and put my back against the door beside him.

He turned and caged me there with one arm.

His arm came up beside my head.

His other hand found the zip at the back of my gown.

He pulled it down in one slow line, and the green silk went slack on my shoulders.

I didn't move.

"All night," he said. "I've been thinking about this."

"Thinking about what?"

He turned me to face the door.

My palms hit the wood.

"Getting you out of this dress," he said.

The gown slid to my elbows, then to the floor.

I stepped out of it.

Cold air hit my bare back, my thong, the backs of my thighs.

His fingers found my hairpins.

One by one, he pulled them out.

My hair came down over my shoulders and he gathered it in one hand and pulled, gently, until my head tipped back.

"Look at you," he said, against my ear.

I was in nothing but black silk and my mother's pearls and his tie was still loose at his throat.

"Damiano."

"I'm not rushing this."

His mouth hit the back of my neck.

I jumped.

He kissed down my spine, slow, open-mouthed, and I felt every inch of it.

← Chapter 26 · All chapters · Chapter 28 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend