“I’m aware of what my sister does … or did. The fact remains, she was really angry at first about Mom. Angry with your family, I mean. I just figured she would be more like Dad and lean to his side of things.”
“Maybe not everyone in this whole thing is as ruined as you believe they are, Adriano.”
Adriano snorted. “By the end of it, I bet they will be.”
“Silver linings. Find one and color it blue, Adriano. Blue is prettier to look at than a shiny gray.”
“I love the way you think, Alessa. And blue is always nicer when you’re wearing it.”
Alessa grinned and buried her face in the pillow to muffle the low moan building in her chest. Just the sound of his voice was enough to set her on edge and promise something wicked. Memories of the day before when he’d bent her over the sink and ate her pussy like he was a starved man flew into her mind. She could still feel his languid laps at her pussy lips before he’d attacked her clit in a way that made her nerves sing. A pulse started to throb between her thighs and Alessa rubbed her legs together in an effort to soothe the ache.
It did nothing.
Nothing but Adriano ever helped with that little problem.
“Fuck, stop, Adriano.”
“Stop what, Lissa?”
“You know what.”
His chuckles rocked her to the core. “What are you wearing today?”
“Stuff.”
She wasn’t doing this with him. Not right now and not right there.
Uh-uh.
It wasn’t going to happen.
“Anything blue?” Adriano asked, his tone dripping with sex and sin.
“Jeans,” Alessa said, unable to stop herself.
“Skinny?”
“Tight as fuck.”
Adriano groaned. “Just the way I like.”
“Stop it.”
“I can’t. I miss you.” Adriano sucked in a harsh breath, adding, “And you left me hard yesterday, Lissa. So hard I couldn’t fucking think. For the rest of the day, the only thing I could taste was your come in my mouth. I could still fucking smell you on my hands, okay? That’s what you left me with. I had to take care of that alone and it did nothing. Talk to me.”
Alessa whined under her breath and turned on the bed so her back was to the mattress. “You don’t play fair.”
“I never have, babe.”
He broke her resolve just like that.
“Blue jeans, a band tee and—”
“Which one?” Adriano interrupted.
“Metallica. From one of their old tours, not the new ones.”
“Because they played better when they were high,” Adriano said.
Alessa laughed. “So you always say.”
“I got you that shirt.”
“Never told me where,” she whispered.
“A thrift place, actually. It was encased in this shadow box because it was signed.”
Alessa glanced down at the black T-shirt, void of any signatures. “There’s never been a signature on it.”
Adriano hummed lowly. “Because when I took it out of the box, it smelled funky. Like it’d been sitting too long. I wanted to see you wear it, not hang it up on the wall. I washed it—it was just pen ink on the white letters. It came out.”
“Damn.”
“You still wore it.”
“I still do,” Alessa replied, smiling wide.
“Where are you?”
Alessa was brought back into the present with a bang. “At the mansion. We moved out of the apartment this morning.”
“Good to know,” Adriano replied. “But that’s not what I meant.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. Where in the fucking mansion?”
“Bedroom.”
“Yours?” he asked.
“Of course.”
“God does love me. Tell me what is underneath that shirt, Lissa.”
“Black bra, satin with lace trim.”
“Matching panties?”
“Thong, actually,” she replied. “These jeans are too tight for lines, Adriano.”
“Goddamn. Painted on?”
“Might as well be.”
“Fucking
hell
.”
Something heady and delicious heated his tone. Alessa couldn’t help herself—the damn bedroom door was locked and she had the entire floor of the wing to herself, basically.
Apparently Adriano wasn’t waiting on Alessa to get her mind in the game. “Hurry up and get your hands down your pants, pretty girl. I want to know how wet you are right now, how you feel under your fingertips and then I want to see if the sound of my voice can make you come.”
“Yes,” Alessa said instantly.
“Hmm?”
“There’s no wondering about it. I know it can.”
Adriano laughed. “Hurry, Lissa.”
Alessa worked the button open and unzipped the zipper. She hadn’t lied. Her skinny jeans were tight, so she pushed them down until she could kick them off.
“Talk to me,” she demanded playfully. “Or I’ll hang up the phone.”
“Don’t you fucking dare. That would give me just the reason I need to come over there, Lissa.”
Alessa stilled on the bed. Rough, callous, and crude. Adriano was usually well-spoken, although she’d witnessed his temper come out a time or two on other people. She decided to poke his bear a little more. “Then you better talk.”
“Spread your legs wide,” he ordered. “Feel yourself through the lace, babe.”
She did as he asked, jolting the moment her fingertips grazed over her lace covered sex. The thong did nothing to protect the sensitive, tender flesh from her touch. She was wet already and soaking through the panties.
“Tell me what that feels like, Lissa.”
Alessa swallowed hard. “Wet. And so good.”
“My fingers stroke,” he murmured quietly. “They stroke you from the back of your pussy straight up to the clit. Do you know why I like doing that so much?”
“No.”
“Because you shake, Lissa. Your pussy fucking quivers from me. I love seeing all your juices smearing all over the pink lips of your pussy as I stroke you and touch you. And when I taste you? Fuck, when I taste you, it makes it even fucking better. I’ve got all of you to clean then. Every single drop, baby, I like to lick it all off. I love the way you taste in my mouth and how it keeps on coming the more I lick.”
Alessa shuddered, still running her fingers over her sex. “I want to touch.”
“Please do.”
Her fingers skipped under the gusset of her thong to find the silky lips of her pussy wet and hot to the touch. She was tender as her digits glided through her labia over and over, dragging her arousal around her slit and up to her clit.
“Let me guess,” Adriano whispered. “You’re burning up down there, your little clit is hard against your finger, and you’re wetter than you thought.”
“Yes.”
“Fucking beautiful.”
“You can’t see,” Alessa said, licking her lips and still holding the phone tight to her ear with a shaking hand. “You can’t see me at all.”
“I don’t have to, baby. I’ve got every fucking inch of you memorized. I’ve seen all the spots on you, I’ve touched them, and tasted them, and Christ … You’re in me, now, Lissa. I can’t get you out if I fucking tried.”
“God.”
“Love your sounds,” Adriano said.
She swore there was a hint of smug satisfaction in his words.
“Are you grinning?” she asked.
“Very much. And stroking my cock, thinking about your pretty mouth being wrapped around it. Shit, do you know what you look like when you suck my dick, Alessa? Amazing. So fucking sexy. I love it when your lips are painted red and they’re wet with my come. You stain me all over and I can’t get that nonsense off no matter how hard I scrub.”
Good God.
That was wicked.
Filthy sinful.
Alessa loved it.
“Fuck yourself with your fingers,” Adriano said, softer than before. “You must be wanting it bad by now. I bet your juices are just flooding your fingers, needing it. I want to hear all the sounds that come out of your mouth while you do.”
“How hard are you?” Alessa asked, pressing two fingers deep into her pussy.
Her inner walls hugged her digits hard. She couldn’t believe how turned on her body was but it shouldn’t have been a surprise. Adriano had always done this for her—he’d always been the only fucking one for her.
Alessa’s fingers working her pussy certainly weren’t Adriano’s. He knew her body better than even she did. While her digits were slender and graceful, his were long and nimble, knowing how to make every little stroke and press send her flying higher toward a precipice of bliss.
“I need to know,” Alessa added quietly, a whimper breaking past her trembling lips. “Tell me how hard you are.”
“So hard. Swollen even. I need to come,” Adriano said huskily. “I’d love to shoot my load down your throat, but this is good, too. And I’d really like to do it hearing you call my name, Lissa. Make that a reality and fast.”
“Oh, my God.”
Alessa couldn’t have stopped if she tried. Adriano’s filthy mouth and quiet demands were enough to make Alessa work her sex a little faster. Harder strokes inside her pussy and then quicker circles on her clit until her thighs burned and shook. The beginning whispers of her orgasm crawled across her skin, promising bliss. She twisted in the bed, her thighs clamping around her hand and still holding the phone tight.
“So close … so close, Adriano.”
“Fuck, yeah. Those sounds are going to kill me, Lissa.”
Even his voice had turned rough. Harsh whooshes of his breaths crackled in the speaker.
Alessa came hard, gasping for air and trying to muffle the sound all the same.
Adriano’s gravelly groan followed close behind. “Shit, shit, shit.”
Sighing, Alessa turned back on the bed and squeezed her eyes shut. “Okay … that was a great way to let me know you got your phone back.”
Adriano’s laughter filled the phone. “Yeah?”
“So good.”
“I made a fucking mess.”
Alessa grinned. “I’d clean it up for you if I was there, you know.”
“I shouldn’t ask. I
shouldn’t
.”
“I would lick every drop of it—”
“Fuck, don’t tease me. I can’t handle it right now,” Adriano warned.
Alessa glanced to the side, noting the boxes in her room again. “Reality sucks.”
“This was a good break, hmm?”
“Very. Thank you.”
“Never thank me for that, Lissa,” Adriano said. “Text me later, yeah?”
“You know I will.”
“And get rid of the texts.”
Alessa rolled her eyes. “Of course.”
“I love you, Lissa.”
“Love you,” she echoed, still smiling.
Hanging up the phone, Alessa clenched her fist tight around the device. A dirty thought passed through her mind, making her giggle. Before she could second guess her choice, she turned on the camera on the phone, knowing damn well her face was flushed, her makeup was likely smeared, and she probably looked thoroughly fucked. She shot off a picture and then sent it to Adriano before deleting all of their conversation in the messages and text files.
Habits.
She couldn’t break them if she tried.
Not a second later, another text came through from Adriano:
Fuck yes. Christ. We’re doing that again, but on video chat.
Alessa laughed out loud.
Whatever you want
, Alessa typed back.
Oh, I want
, came the response. And then another dinged:
I want it all
.
Damn.
Alessa had a feeling Adriano was talking about more than just their phone sex. She hated that their entire world was so fucked up right now. She couldn’t help but be bitter that the people around them were so selfishly focused on their needs and moving themselves higher in the Outfit that no one gave a fuck about anyone else.
Adriano was
hers
.
He had always been hers.
Why couldn’t she have him?
Frustrated but refusing to let it ruin the natural high Adriano had just given her, Alessa went through deleting their last couple of texts. She quickly got redressed and decided to just get the awfulness over with by unpacking more boxes or as many as she could.
The first three boxes were mostly knickknacks and framed photographs that had adorned the sisters’ living spaces. Nothing of much importance and most of it would have to be packed away in storage until they were into a new place.
Popping open the fourth box, Alessa pulled out some clothes that needed refolding and put away. A garbage bag at the bottom of the large box, filled with dirty clothes, reminded her that she needed to do a load. The Trentini mansion had a full staff on hand to cook, clean, and take care of all the chores in between, but Alessa preferred to take care of her own things. She’d always been like that.
Pulling the garbage bag out, she dropped it to the floor. The top popped open, showcasing the jumper she’d worn the day before. The white corner of something familiar stuck out of the left pocket. She knew better than to pry, but Adriano had given it to her.
Right?
Alessa’s curiosity got the better of her. She snatched the letter out of the jumper and noticed immediately that Adriano must have opened it and read it at some point. The wax seal was broken and the flap had been ripped.
The familiar wax seal made her heart stop for a split second. She knew that signet because it was the same one that adorned several things in the Trentini mansion. Her grandfather had worn a ring with the crest embedded on the top.
Their family crest.
Alessa’s confusion jumped higher the longer she stared at the envelope. Clearly Adriano had read it and didn’t care if she did, too. Not if he had given it to her opened for safe keeping. Even still, a wariness settled in her gut as she pulled the letter out and opened it up.
Instantly, she recognized the handwriting as her grandfather’s.
Adriano,
Should this letter find you, my boy, then I have clearly failed.
And should this letter find you, then my end has been met.
I saw you two once, under the willow. You and my Alessa. It was the day of her seventeenth birthday and she was smiling. All day, she hadn’t done much of that at all despite the people and the party. And then you came—she smiled for you.
So, I saw you there and I knew. Love is an interesting beast and young love is even worse. As you should know by now, Adriano, a match of the heart doesn’t guarantee you a match at the altar. Not in the Outfit. Not to men who want only to better their position and their families. How could I deny her smile, though?