Liam….he was so wrapped around Mel’s finger, I was sure he was permanently bent. He was the living, breathing definition of the term crazy in love. He had to be crazy, what other kind of man would allow his wife to make a habit of shooting him and still comfortably hold onto her? He went to and stayed in jail in the hopes that she would come back for him. He went to war for her.
Now I was the one completely taken over.
If she were sick, I too would fight for her.
If Mina stabbed me in the heart right now, I too would still hold onto her.
I moved over to the couch and she still didn’t notice until I shut the laptop down. Her head snapped at up me, her dark brown eyes on mine when a pout formed on her lips.
“Five more minutes?” she begged.
“Nope,” I said offering her my hand.
She sighed and I pulled her up and spun her into my arms.
“Hello.” She smiled.
“Oh, now you notice me? I’ve been staring at you for at least ten minutes.”
“What? You should have said something!”
“I’m saying something now,” I replied, my hands slowly pulling down the zipper of her dress. When it dropped to the ground and she stood before me in only a lacy baby blue bra set that had bows on the mounds of her breasts, she blushed. When we first made love, she was so shy. Over the years, she’s gotten bolder, but I still loved how she turned pink for me.
“We have to get up early in the morning,” she reminded me.
“Or we could just never go to bed,” I said. I lifted her off her feet and threw her over my shoulder.
“NEAL!”
Smacking her ass, I laughed and took her to the bed.
“Yes?” I asked when I dropped her in the middle. She sat up on her elbows.
“If I fall asleep in church in front of all you clansmen, the amount of rumors—”
Leaning over, I kissed her quickly on the lips. “Let them talk. No matter what they say, it doesn’t change the fact that you are my side, you, Mina, are a Callahan.”
When I kissed her again, there was nothing quick or innocent about it.
FOUR
“The true man wants two things: danger and play. For that reason he wants a woman, as the most dangerous plaything.”
~ Friedrich Nietzsche
MELODY
“We had a plan Liam,” I said slowly as I made myself comfortable on his lap, reaching up to wipe the beads of sweat on his forehead. His shaking hand grabbed onto my wrist tightly and his nosed flared with rage, but that didn’t stop me from simply using my other hand to cup his warm cheek. “According to our plan, Liam, our son would spend the first eleven years of his life just learning how to become the next Ceann na Conairte at home. When he turned twelve, he would visit both our families as the future boss, at thirteen he would go to work with us…you’re three years early, so what happened sweetheart?”
He inhaled deeply through his nose and his jaw tensed as he managed to say, “Poison…not…fair. Scared to fight me now?”
“Liam!” I snapped, grabbing his hair and pulling his head back. He had no idea how badly I wanted to hurt him. “Not fair? You go around my back? You make our son see you as a fucking god and that makes me what? A burden? An embarrassment? And now you have the nerve to talk to me about being fair? The only reason I didn’t take a bat to your head when you walked in was because—”
“Melody. Enough.”
Annoyed, I reached into the pocket of my robe, dropping the antidote next to him before getting up.
My hands were shaking as I opened the door to the balcony. I shivered as the wind blew through me. Gripping the rail, I breathed in slowly. Calm down Mel. Calm down.
“Ahh! Fuck!” I yelled angrily.
“Mel breathe—”
“Don’t touch me,” I snapped, feeling him behind me.
Sighing, he moved to stand to my right, leaning over on the railing. “What is going on with you Mel?”
“What?”
“What is going on?” he repeated himself, this time turning to face me.
“I’m sorry, did you miss the fact that you went behind my back and took my son to see one of the sons of the triad without my knowledge or consent?”
“I’m supposed to get your consent before I take my son out?”
“Don’t do that! Don’t make it sound like I am in the wrong! He’s almost ten, Liam, TEN. He needs to be stronger first! All of our shit will find him eventually. The world is going to try and tear him down. Every fucking moment I can I spend pushing him to be stronger while trying to keep him safe. My whole life I’ve spent proving that I am Melody Giovanni. I’ve gone through hell as Melody Callahan and now my son looks at me like I’m a housewife and my husband no longer thinks he should clue me in on our family business. Meanwhile, I’m running a damn state. What’s wrong? You. You are not talking to me! You are hiding things!”
“For the love of fucking Christ, Melody! You make it seem like I betrayed you. When did you become so emotional about shit like this? Did you ever stop to think about why I took him? He’s young and he figured it out! HE came to me. He wanted to see and I looked into his eyes and saw that he was ready! It was not planned and I did not intend on going behind your back! I took him, he learned, he came home safe. How can I talk to you when you aren’t listening?”
He was an idiot. When it came to everything else, he was a genius; when it came to me, he had no idea how to fucking approach. How long have we been married? All these years and still…
Brushing my hair over to the side, I simply crossed my arms.
“Ethan came to me and asked me if he could go out with you. I told him no. I told him you and I had a plan and he should be patient. Then he goes and asks you and you argue as if my words have no meaning.” I laughed bitterly at that. “Oh, and let’s not forget all the talking coming from our families. ‘Melody is no longer focused on the family but the rest of the world. Melody’s family is the one who almost destroyed our way of life. Melody is now second. No need to speak to Melody, go straight to the boss.’ And because of that, the last few weeks you’ve been meeting privately with heads of Italians families, without so much as a word to me.”
He didn’t say anything, but I could tell he was somewhat shocked I knew.
“That”—I pointed to his eye—“that small twinge of shock in your eye, that is what pisses me off. I’ve never given a flying fuck what people have to say. Their words mean nothing to me. But the fact that you think you can keep secrets from me and I would not find out as if I’m some airhead blow up doll—”
“Never.” He grabbed onto me, pinning me between the railing and his body. His green eyes focused on me…hurt, frustrated, and confused. “Yes, I’ve been keeping secrets. Yes, I’ve been meeting with Italians. But never say I think less of you or that you’ve become anything less than my absolute partner in everything.”
“So why didn’t you tell me? I’m not a patient person and I’ve waited over and over for you to speak up.”
He frowned. “Because I know their words mean nothing to you. You are a mother. You are the head of a state. You plan to be the head of a country. Why the fuck should you be concerned about—”
“They are my people, Liam. My people. The choice of what I am concerned with and what I am not is up to me. You do not make those choices for me. I share control with you; I never left it all in your hands.”
He shook his head at me, cupping the side of my face just like I had done to him earlier. “You want to take care of our family, our children, me, all of Chicago, and our people every day…I just want to take care of you. I know you hate it. I know you’re going to fight me tooth and nail to the very end, but you cannot do it all Mel, and you don’t have to because you have me. You always have me and I would sooner put a bullet in my brain than ever…ever…betray you. Do you know what the Italians call me?”
I nodded. “The Mad Hatter.”
He snickered. “Sometimes
, but for the most part, I’m il cane del padrone.”
I laughed. Damn it. I wanted to be serious but the look on his face as he said it was hilarious. “The master’s dog?”
“We have three children. I’ve finally mastered Italian. I’ve personally overseen charities here and in Italy for all of them and still I’m the dog. However, it does not bother me in the least…because you are the master of me. My mind, my body, my heart. Mel, you control all of it, all the time. I can sit with them a thousand times, but at the end of the day, they still see you as their queen, Bloody Melody.” He lifted my chin up to look him in the eye. “As for Ethan, you’re right, I should have told you before, I apologize, but I cannot and will not apologize for changing our plan. He’s much stronger than even I was at his age. We wanted to wait so he could enjoy just being a kid, but he doesn’t see the world like a normal kid. He’s got his mother’s heart; what I can do?”
I glared; I felt like he wearing me down with his words and I still wanted to be pissed at him. He hadn’t just mastered Italian, but the art of sweet-talking me too. Worst of all, he knew it, which made it all the more irritating. “Stop looking at me like that.”
“Like what? This is how I always look at you.”
Fuck me.
“Give up! I give in! Happy? I’m not pissed anymore. Stop pouring butter all over me.” I groaned, resting my head on his bare chest.
“Does my love for you embarrass you?” He laughed, wrapping me up in his arms.
“You…shut up,” I muttered, kissing the center of his chest. “You’re making me soft.”
“Says the woman who poisoned me five minutes ago,” he said as he undid my silk robe and pushed my nightgown off my shoulders. “The night is almost over and I still haven’t kept my promise to you.”
My lips parted slightly at the touch of his cold hand grasping my bare breast, his thumb brushing my nipple softly before pinching tightly, a shiver going up my spine. His left hand grabbed my ass to bring me so close to him I touched his chest. I wasn’t sure if it was his skin or mine that was on fire or if we both were burning…all I knew was that I wanted him.
Damn it. In the blink of an eye, all my anger and frustration were replaced with lust. He controlled me that much…and I wanted more.
He leaned in, his lips hovering over my ear, softly demanding, “Get on the bed Melody.”
Swallowing slowly, I backed away, moving around him and into our bedroom. Without a word I kneeled in the center of our bed, my heart racing with excitement. I couldn’t help the small smirk on my lips as I felt the lust radiate off his body in waves. His green eyes looked almost black in the dim light of our room. His face was only that stern when he was trying to think of either what he wanted to do to me or where he wanted to start. I took in each one of his chiseled abs until my eyes reached his pajama bottoms, which hung low off his hips.
He came toward me silently, pushed me onto my back, and grabbed my wrist while reaching for the restraints under the bed to tie me down…both of my wrists…spreading my legs.
I pulled on them once and it only got tighter. “There’s my former boy scout.”
Again he was quiet, turning me on more as he went into his closet…returning with one of his ties and a whip. From my closet, he got out my vibrator. I could still remember when he first found it…the man nearly killed me. I hadn’t needed it, but every woman should have at least one. Instead of getting rid of it, he now used it to torture me.
“Liam…” Damn it. I was getting so excited I couldn’t even speak normally anymore.
In a second he tied his tie around my eyes, once again whispering into my ear, “I had planned to make love to you tonight. Since the moment I saw you in that dress, I could think of nothing else but slowly peeling it off you and thrusting into your pussy, your breasts pushed up against my chest as I held on to you and you me, our moans like music, drowning out everything else. Slowly. Passionately. Aguishly.” He kissed my cheek, my ear, and shoulder, making me wet for him. “I was going to make love to you, the way a husband does a wife….but then you went and poisoned me, sweetheart. Me? The man who thinks of no one but you…the man who aches only for you…”
“Liam—”
“Save your breath, sweetheart. You’re going to need it…because apparently you haven’t learned yet: you fuck with your husband and he’ll fuck right back.”
I grinned at that. “Maybe I have learned and just enjoy being fucked with—Ahh.”
I hissed when the tail of his whip connected with my breast.
“Then let’s play.” The whip glided across my bare skin, going farther down…and down…until he rubbed it against my pussy.
WHIP.
“Ah!” I cried, wanting to close my legs from the sheer pleasure going through me like electricity.
WHIP.
My chest rose and fell with each breath as I felt his whip on my thighs.
WHIP.
Each and every part of me was stimulated by his touch. I could have gotten off by him touching my feet.
I was torn between wanting more and wanting him inside me immediately.
“You are trembling, baby,” he said right before two of his fingers slid into me alongside his tongue. My body reacted by thrusting forward, stretching my legs wide to feel him taste me.
He licked my clit over and over again as his hands sped up, and just when I was about to come…he stopped, pulling away.
“No!” I cried out.
Fuck. All of me froze when I heard the soft hum of my vibrator…
“Liam…”
“Having fun?” I could feel the smugness on his lips as he pressed it on to my clit and started rubbing circles, pressing hard. All I could do was moan out like a bitch in heat. “Because I am.”
Without any warning he slid into me, my body arching up off the bed. “Fuck.”
Dear God, don’t let him stop.
LIAM
A thin layer of sweat coated her whole body. Her breathing was staggered as she gripped on to the ties around her wrist. Her pink lips parted and her toes curled as I whipped the top of her dripping wet pussy. The only sound was our breath and the vibrator currently set to low inside her. Her whole body trembled and with each moan of pleasure, pain, and frustration, my cock got harder and harder and twitched with the desire to have her.
No one would ever see her like this but me.
No one would ever know this Melody but me.
The more I thought about it, the harder it was to focus.
“Please…ugh …ahh…” She gasped out when I bit her nipple and let my tongue roll over it, enjoying the feeling of her under me. I slowly left kisses in the space between her breasts before taking the other one in my mouth.
“Liam,” she begged, and I ignored her. “Please.”
“The toy isn’t good enough for you?” I asked softly.
“It’s been years, let’s go!” She cried out, pulling against the restraints.
“I’m far too petty for that.” I grinned. Reaching between her thighs, I grabbed onto it, slowly pulling it out of her and then slamming it back in. Her ass rose off the bed.
“Fuck. Fucking fuck!” She hissed out as I repeated the action over and over again. Not caring how wet my hand was, not caring how badly my cock throbbed, I wanted her to come for me like this. I was so focused on her, my senses clouded, I didn’t realize she had managed to get out of her wrist restraints until her hands were ripping my face from her breast to her lips.
“Urgh…” I moaned as her tongue entered my mouth, rolling over mine and allowing me to taste her more.
“Fuck me,” she demanded when we broke away. She was breathing just as heavily as I was. “Screw the vibrator, I want you in me.”
Shit. “Mel…”
“We can play later. I need you now.” She took my cock into her hand, gripping on tightly before gliding her hand down. “Look how hard you are baby. Fuck me.”
I saw the desire and lust in her eyes that no
doubt matched my own. Undoing the ties at her ankles, I pushed her up against the headboard. Spreading her legs, I pulled the wet vibrator from her and threw it to the side somewhere, then kneeled right in front of her. She stared back at me, excited, wild, passionate—everything I loved about her in one single glance.
“This is what a real fuck feels like.” I kissed her, and it was dirty, wet, sexual, our tongues playfully bashing against each other. I thrust forward, hard, a wicked grin spreading across my lips at how her body responded by arching closer to me. There were no words that could express more than our moans. Each time I slammed myself into her pussy, I could feel myself losing all control. I wanted more. I wanted to fill every inch of her and then some. I wanted her to wake up in the morning and not be able to walk straight. As I’d fucking promised, the headboard hammered against the wall like it was cheering us on. With each thrust, her pussy tightened more and more around my cock. My ears rang with the sound of her pleasure and our skin smacking together as her legs wrapped around me.
“Oh…fuck yes!” She cried out as she reached back to grab on to the headboard with one hand, the other cupping her own breast, squeezing her nipples.
Flipping us both over, bringing her to all fours, I pulled out, much to her dismay, before burying myself into her ass.
“Jesus…” Ahh… I wanted to cum right then and there at how tight she was.
“Harder!” she demanded, gripping the sheets as I gripped her breast, my body hovering over hers, like a lion and a lioness. Sweat rolled off my chin and down her back, we were so close.
“Ahh…so…Liam!” She cried out as she came.
Grabbing a fistful of her hair, I couldn’t take any more. Kissing her jaw, I pounded in faster and faster, my whole body so hot. My vision blurred so much it seemed like I had died and somehow made it to heaven in her.
“Jesus…fucking…fuck…Melody,” I hissed, freezing as I came in her.
Releasing her hair, we both all but collapsed in the center of our bed, me still inside her, both of us just breathing.