Page 22 of Tempting My Mafia Monster

She nodded as if she’d already reached that conclusion. I mean, she’d spent enough time locked down here with me to notice a few things, I was sure. She was observant. She was always watching my every move. At first, I hated it. But more recently, if I didn’t feel her eyes on me, it pissed me off, so I’d stare until she looked again.

“I’ll be careful. And be as quick as I can.”

Exhaling, I nodded once and shut my eyes. After taking everything she needed from the kit, I felt the mattress dip beside me as the warmth of her body seeped into my naked torso, even though she was careful not to touch me. Weirdly, I wanted to lean into it rather than move away.

“I’m going to do your eyebrow first. Keep as still as you can.”

She peeled back the small bandage. Then I felt it. The soft pressure of her fingers against my skin. My nostrils flared, and every muscle in my body clenched.

“Just a little scratch,” she whispered, her breath caressing my face as she leaned in closer.

The scent of her wrapped around me, and I tried to take a lungful. My heart reacted. So did my dick. I realised I wasn’t fighting rage; I was fighting arousal. Every puncture of the needle into my skin, every tug and pull, made my dick harder because she was the one marking me. When she tied the knot and leaned in to rip it with her teeth, I nearly fucking came.

“What happened?” she asked as she started on the cut on my side, leaning over me to swipe an antiseptic wipe across it. I didn’t dare open my eyes to watch her. The sight of her jabbing a needle into my skin would have had me pinning her down beneath me in seconds.

“Fighting.”

“I guessed that. I just never took you for someone who lost.”

“I never lose.”

“So I should see the other guy?”

“He’s dead.”

I cracked an eye open to gauge her reaction, but she didn’t even look up from what she was doing.

“Right, but you must have met your match. You’ve never come back this badly before.”

“Something like that,” I breathed, closing my eyes and leaning my head back. My mind drifted as I grew used to her fingers gently tracing my skin. A sharp tug from the needle jolted me out of drowsiness.

“Stay awake,” she ordered, and I growled.

Her eyes locked with mine, and it took everything in me not to reach for her, to fist her curls and pull her to me. Her lips, so perfectly full and plump, parted, and I saw it. The thought flashed across her eyes. She wanted me to kiss her.

For the first time in my life, I was tempted. That was why this woman was so dangerous. She tempted me to want things I had no business wanting. No good would come of kissing her, just as no good would come from fucking her. She needed to keep her distance from me. Those men outside were vultures, but I was worse. I’d destroy her.

She glanced away and went back to work. The silence was heavier now, thicker; the air charged with something we couldn’t take back. We crossed an invisible line that had kept us detached. Before we were strangers sharing the same space.

But that wasn’t what this was anymore.

Seducing A Monster

When she finished stitching me up, she tidied up and moved back to her side of the bunker. That unsettling feeling I couldn’t name sparked in my chest at the distance. She’d put herself out of reach, and I didn’t like it. I wanted her closer. Next to me.

There I was again, wanting things I shouldn’t.

I watched her grab the armrest of the tattered leather armchair and drag it, with effort, across the stones. I frowned, shifting on the bed to stand and help, knowing it weighed a ton, but her head swivelled towards me with a glare.

“Don’t,” she snapped. “If you open those damn perfect stitches, I’ll kill you.”

My lips twisted, reopening my split lip and filling my mouth with the metallic taste of blood. I sat back against the wall and watched her drag it closer until it reached the end of my bed. She huffed, dropped into it and stared at me. That ache in my chest eased a little, but she still felt too far away. My skin still tingled from her touch, and I didn’t hate it. I think I wanted more of it.

Through my swollen eyes, I took her in fully. They’d given her new clothes, something I’d paid little attention to earlier because I couldn’t see through my rage. The matching pale-pink tracksuit swamped her, but she looked comfortable and warmer. She wouldn’t have to walk around with that dirty blanket wrapped around her shoulders anymore. I’d stopped feeling the cold a long time ago. I hadn’t realised how cold it got until I saw the blue tint on her lips in the mornings. I’d tried not to care about that either, but I still gave her a hoodie for the night.

The redness on her cheek had gone down, and the cut was healing, but I asked, “How’s ya face?”

She touched her hand to her cheek and lip. “Better than yours.”