Chapter Five

Orlando

I catch the soft sound of footsteps approaching, breaking the tranquil silence in the room. I cradle the warm cup of coffee in my hand and turn around to watch the clearly sleepy girl make her way to the living room.

She’s a vision of beauty.

Aria is wearing one of my shirts, the fabric slightly oversized on her, the sleeves rolled up just enough to reveal her delicate wrists. The shirt hangs loosely, accentuating her figure in a way that makes my breath hitch.

She’s perfect . I thought so the first time I saw her and my thoughts remain the same with her standing in my living room against the backdrop of the winter morning.

"Good morning," she says with a yawn, making her way towards me. Her hair moves softly around her face, catching the light and creating a halo effect that makes her look ethereal.

“You’re up early,” I choke out, trying and failing to calm my beating heart. While it slows down a bit, there is hardly anything I can do about the erection pushing against my fly. “It’s not even seven.”

“I’m used to getting up early,” she says with another yawn, joining me by the window and staring out. “It’s the perfect time to paint and… oh my God!” Her eyes widen in surprise when she makes out the heavy snowfall outside. The world beyond the window is blanketed in a soft white layer of snow.

“Weather reports say it will be snowing heavily all day,” I tell her, my eyes fixed on her to gauge her reaction. “We’ve been advised to stay indoors if you don’t want to be caught up in a snowstorm.”

Aria’s head whips towards me, her cheeks flushing, and I would give up everything under my name to know what’s going on in that beautiful head of hers. “Wait, does that mean we’ll be stuck in here all day?”

I am good at reading people, but I can’t tell if she likes the idea of being stuck indoors with me all day. “If you want to go home, I’m sure I could find a way–”

"No," she hurries to say. "I mean if you want me to go then…"

“I don’t want to leave, Aria.” Not today. Not ever.

She flushes at my words, her cheeks picking up a pretty rosy blush. “I don’t want to leave either.”

Christ, could I fall any harder for this girl? I’ve been fighting my feelings for Aria for so long and while a part of it was from self-preservation – I wasn’t exactly thrilled by the idea of pissing off a mob boss – the crust of it was because I didn’t think myself worthy of something so precious.

Aria is a gem. She is smart, beautiful and kind. I wanted her to be with someone her own damn age. Perhaps even experience that carefree college life. Dating people in her age group and living in the moment.

Well, at least that is what I thought I wanted for her, but every time I entertained the thought of some snotty kid touching Aria, I was filled with rage. So I was stuck between wanting to keep her for myself and letting her experience the chaos of youth.

Maybe I would have made peace with the latter if I hadn’t touched her. But I did. No, I did not just touch this girl. I claimed her all night long, making love with her until mine was the only name on her lips.

Speaking of which, after the night we’ve had, I should probably feed her. It’s the least I can do after the night we had.

“I’ll make you breakfast, come with me,” I say but my hand is already reaching down to take hers.

“You cook?” she perks up, following me to the kitchen. “I didn’t know you cooked! The men in my family cannot cook to save their lives.”

I rinse my coffee cup in the sink before washing my hands so I can start on breakfast. “I am an only child and spent most of my life in the kitchen with my parents. They were both professional chefs.”

Aria jumps up on the kitchen counter and it takes sheer will to ignore the way the shirt rides up her thighs, exposing her smooth porcelain skin. I know she has nothing underneath that shirt, but I decide to ignore that little thought. "You never talk about your family. Wait, am I the reason you are not celebrating Christmas Eve at home with them?"

There is panic in her voice when she speaks. “No, Aria. My parents are on a five-month cruise in the Caribbean. They are probably on some island trying different cuisines and getting drunk with the locals.”

She laughs, the sound light and airy. “How did you become a bodyguard if you come from a family of chefs.”

"I wasn't especially passionate about cooking professionally." I dig around in the fridge, gathering the eggs and bacon. "I joined the military because I wasn't exactly sure what to do. Eight years later I had enough capital to open my own company. That’s how I met your father. He was one of my investors."

"How lucky," she whispers, her voice loaded with unsaid words. I drop the ingredients on the counter and turn to her. Her eyes are downcast and there is something akin to sadness in her expression.

“Aria.” I nudge her legs open and step between them. I grab her chin and force her gaze to mine. “What’s wrong, Princess?”

“I… it’s nothing,” she hurries to say, flashing me a smile that does not reach her eyes. “I want to know more about you and your family. What are your parents like?”

“No, we’re not moving on until you tell me what’s bothering you. Was it something I said?”

“I don’t… I mean, I know it’s not your fault,” she says. “I don’t want to ruin the morning by whining about how my father supports everyone’s dream except mine. I mean, he probably invested in you because he knew you would bring him millions and my dream will bring him nothing. I can’t help him run any of his businesses with a useless degree in arts, right? It’s stupid... I’m sorry.”

"It's not stupid," I say, sliding my hand to cap her jaw. "I am not saying this just to placate you, princess. You forget that I've spent a year following you around all the galleries and art shows in the city. I've seen the way your eyes light up when you find a piece you love. While I don't understand most of it, I don't think something that makes you smile so brightly and your eyes light up is stupid. Your dreams are not stupid."

She blinks up at me, her eyes welling with moisture. “You mean it? You’re not saying it just to get into my pants?”

I slide my hands up and down her smooth thighs. “Once I tell your father about my plans to make you mine, I’ll make sure to support you in everything you want to do. Get that arts degree if that is what will make you happy.”

“You are really going to talk to him about us?” Just then, a phone starts ringing somewhere in the apartment and Aria’s eyes widen in panic. “That’s the ringtone I’ve set for my father. Oh my God, I forgot to text him last night.”

“Stay here, I’ll get it for you.”

I walk out of the kitchen and into the living room, following the sound to the couch where the phone must have fallen last night. I grab it and bring it to the clearly nervous girl. I squeeze her thigh before she can take it. “Don’t worry, princess. I’m here with you.”

She nods, pressing the phone to her ear. Constanzo must yell something into the speaker because she winces, pulling it slightly from her ear. I want to yank the phone away and rage at the man, but I have to acknowledge the fact that he's just worried about his daughter. Even so, I cannot ignore the distress he's causing to Aria.

“I’m fine, papa,” she says into the phone, her voice a little panicked. “It was snowing hard last night so I asked Orlando to drop me off at a friend’s house.”

I slide my hands under the shirt and up her thighs. Her breath hitches and she blinks at me, confused by what I am doing. Distracting her is what. Maybe doing so while she is on call with her father is not the best idea, but I hate the look on her face when he rages at her, and I want to wipe it away. With the way her cheeks flush and eyes fire up with heat when I rake my hands down her thighs, I can tell I am doing a pretty damn good job of distracting her.

I push open her knees and nudge them wider to reveal her pussy. I bite back a growl as her feminine lips part slowly for me, revealing her little pink cunt. My cock juts hard against my pants at the sight, begging for me to take her fast and hard on the kitchen island. We can lock the phone in another room and let Constanzo yell his heart out as we make love in the kitchen.

Her breathing starts racing when I drag my knuckle over the valley of her pussy, feeling her grow wet with arousal. She bites her lip hard to cut off a cry, her eyes going glassy. Her breath hitches when I drop to my knees in front of her. "Shhh," I mouth, kissing her inner thigh.

“Oh!” she cries out when I clutch her ass in my hand and draw her to the edge of the counter. Her eyes snap wide with alarm when she realizes what she’s done, hurrying to clear it up with the angry man on the other end of the line. “N-no It’s nothing. I stabbed my toe on a coffee table.”

Good girl.

With my eyes locked on hers, I lean in and inhale her peachy scent nearly getting addicted to how intoxicating it is. I kiss the parted flesh, tasting her sweet arousal on my lips before sliding my tongue through her wet valley. Aria slaps a hand on her mouth to mute her cries. I motion for her to keep quiet as I run my tongue over her clit, bathing it in fast strokes. My cock leaks endlessly behind the fly of my pants as her flavors explode on my tongue.

"I can't talk right now," she chokes out, trying to regulate her breathing but it's a losing battle. Aria shuts her eyes when I bring her thighs to rest on my shoulders before burying my face back into her sex. "W-why can't I talk right now? Well… Alexa… My friend is calling me to join her for breakfast."

I stroke her swollen clit with the tips of my tongue, feeling her grow slicker by the second. She pumps her hips, coasting my chin and jaw with her wetness. I realize that I can’t get enough of her sweet smooth flavors or even the way she’s staring down at me as I pleasure her.

Mine!

Aria Lorenzo is mine and I will make sure it remains so for as long as I live and breathe.

“Yes,” she chokes out. “I… I promise I will be home for Christmas dinner tomorrow. Yes, O-Orlando will pick me up and… b-ring me home.” A shudder wracks her body as I lap at her and I notice how she bites into her lip to stop a cry. Her face scrunching up with a mix of pain and pleasure when I slide my left hand up and pinch her nipple through the shirt. “Oh… okay. Great. Talk later, bye!”

Aria hangs up the call and tosses the phone across the counter it barely avoids falling off by an inch. “Oh, God,” she sobs, her back arching as I pleasure her. Her legs stiffen and her pussy begins to quiver, signaling how close she is to an orgasm. I close my mouth around her clit in hot suction and it seems that is all she needs to send her over the edge. “Oh, yes!” she sobs, her body shaking as she orgasms. I lick her through her climax until all that’s left are tiny tremors that jolt through her.

Her face and neck are flushed when I rise to my feet. Her chest heaves from the intensity of the orgasm, pushing out her tits. Her nipples poke through the shirt, the sight making my aching cock jut hard behind my fly, begging for release but I push back my own need.

“You are gorgeous, princess,” I rasp seconds before I slam my mouth down on hers. She whimpers into the kiss, wrapping her arms around my shoulder and pushing hard against me. Christ, this girl is perfect, every last inch of her is unreal. I haven’t touched or looked at another woman from the moment I saw her. She has occupied my thoughts and there is no coming back from this.

I hiss out when I feel her fingers trace my pecs and move down to my pants. I push away before she can cup my erection. “I want to do it to you too.”

“And you will,” I rasp against her lips. “We have all day to ourselves. I intend to make use of every second of it. But first, I need to deliver that breakfast I promised you.”

She whines in protest when I push away but I note that the sad and panicked look from earlier is gone so I consider my job done. “Fine, what can I help with?”

“Nothing, just sit there and let me take care of you, Princess. We have a long day ahead of us.”

She flushes, ducking her head but I catch her smile and this time, it’s genuine.

Chapter Six

Aria

Christmas is a pretty big deal in my family. The one event that brings everyone together and yet, I don’t remember it once being a happy occasion for me. Well, it’s fun for everyone who loves drama and revels in chaos, but that is not me.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve dreaded the holiday. Gathering around a wide table with people I don’t like and pretending that we all get along was draining.

To my father, I was the quiet pretty child that didn't cause a fuss and did everything that was asked of her. To my brothers, I was the sibling they sometimes ignored and other times picked on. To my aunties, I was the boring member of the family who never got them anything to gossip about. Suffice it to say, Christmas wasn't exactly my favorite thing but not this year.

This year is different.

For one, I wake up in bed with the first and only man I have ever loved. His face is buried in my neck, kissing and branding me, pleasure building up from where our bodies meet. We are supposed to be getting ready to leave but neither of us seems in a hurry to get out of bed.

In a matter of a few days, I’ve learned that there is nothing I love more than the strangled growl the man of my dreams makes as he works his long thick manhood into me. The sounds are wild and beastly, so feral and raw.

They are the kind of sounds I want to wake up to every morning, whispering into my ear. I want – need – his snarling possessive growls to be a permanent fixture in my life.

"Fuck, baby, you are so fucking tight!" Orlando growls into my neck, biting my earlobe before soothing the sting with a kiss. "You're dripping all over my cock, princess. You like that, don't you? Daddy licking up your tight little cunt before filling you with his cock."

"Yes, oh God!" I sob, feeling myself tethered dangerously close to an orgasm. "Faster, Daddy."

His fingers dig into my hip, bringing my thigh to his waist which pushes him impossibly deeper into me. I gasp at the sensation, wrapping my arms tighter around his shoulder as he pumps his cock violently into me.

“You belong to me, Aria Lorenzo,” he grinds. “I can’t wait until the moment you take my last name. Make you mine forever.” His hips increase the pace, slamming his shaft harder into me until I am begging for release.

“Yes Daddy, make me yours!”

"Mine!" he growls, positioning his hips so the base of his shaft grinds against my clit, sending pleasure shooting up my tummy. Orlando pushes back and I barely get to see his face before his mouth crashes down on mine. A sob climbs up my throat when I start to orgasm. My sex pulses hard and clenches hard around his cock, sending him right off the edge with me. "Goddamn it, princess!" he growls, ramming his cock into me and flooding me with his seed.

It’s an overload of sensations and I feel him everywhere. The delicious press of his massive frame against me. The feel of his pulsing manhood around my feminine walls with his warm breath fanning my skin. My heart is filled with affection for this man, and I love every second of it.

Orlando pushes back to meet my gaze and I smile, loving the gray specs in his eyes. "It's so much better," I say, running my fingers through his short salt-and-pepper beard. It is just as soft as I imagined it would be and God, it smells amazing. Everything about this man smells amazing and I just want to bury my face in his neck and spend the entire Christmas day like this. We don't even have to get out of bed.

“What is so much better?”

"Sex," I whisper, pushing up to kiss his jaw and nuzzle it, loving how it feels against my skin. "Sex with you is so much better than all those spicy TV shows I watched or what my friends told me about. I love feeling you inside of me."

“Fuck, princess,” he says thickly, his eyes darkening. “You can’t say things like that if want us to leave this bed sometime today.”

I like the sound of that. “Maybe I could skip Christmas dinner with my family and stay here with you instead.”

"As much as I like the sound of that, I have to tell you no," he says, brushing his lips briefly over mine before pushing back and getting out of bed. He disappears into the ensuite and comes back with a washcloth to clean the stickiness between my thighs. He looks up to meet my gaze as he runs the washcloth over my inner thighs, the heat I read in his eyes causing my pulse to drum rapidly. "After I make you mine officially and I have the papers to prove it, then you can skip the next family Christmas dinner and all the ones after that." Orlando takes my hand and brings it to his mouth, placing a soft kiss that sends my heart racing in my chest. "You will never have to do anything you don't want, Aria. But I need to talk to your father about this first. I owe him that much as a friend and for entrusting you with my protection."

I sigh, nodding at his words. “Okay, just this Christmas.”

“I promise.”

***

My father is outside the massive wooden doors waiting when the car pulls up in front of the mansion. His silhouette is framed by the early morning light, and he looks like a statue, rigid and unmoving. His arms are crossed tightly over his chest and annoyance is etched in his hard features. I can feel the weight of his gaze on me, a mix of disappointment and concern that makes my stomach twist.

I swallow deeply, suddenly terrified to talk to him but Orlando grabs my hand and squeezes it in his, forcing my eyes away from my father and to him, “It’s okay, princess. I’ve got you.”

“Okay,” I whisper.

“I can clear up things with your father, Aria. Let him know of my intentions for you.”

I shake my head, unwilling to be the topic at the dinner. “After Christmas,” I tell him. “Everyone from my extended family will be here today and I prefer to stay invisible. We can talk to him after everyone’s gone home or tomorrow.”

“Okay,” he says, rubbing his thumb over my hand before pulling away. Orlando climbs out of the car and walks to my side to open the door for me.

My heart races when I step out of the car and spot the frown on my father's face. His mouth is set in a straight line as he watches me take the stairs with the speed of a slug. Orlando silently follows behind me, his presence proving to be comforting.

“Where have you been?” my father asks, his voice a low rumble that sends me instinctively dropping my gaze.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper, shuffling my feet nervously. “I got snowed in in the city, so I asked Orlando to drop me off at a friend’s house.”

There is silence and I can't tell whether or not he is buying the lie. Despite my father referring to me as his favorite child, he's always scared me. It's crossed my mind a bunch of times that maybe I am his favorite child because of how easy I am to intimidate. My oldest brother Fabian is always as cool as a cucumber and is never fazed by our father's temper. My stepbrother, Nico, lives in his own world where nothing matters but himself. He doesn't openly oppose my father, but he doesn't suck up to him the way I do.

"People will start arriving soon," he finally says, his voice hard and letting me know that this conversation is not done yet. "I need to talk to Battista about business."

I want to bring up the fact that at twenty, I am old enough to stay out late and even sleep over at friends but I am not brave enough to do that so I simply nod and disappear into the house. I flash Orlando a look before closing the door behind me. My mind is on Orlando and what my father wants to talk to him about is that I don't notice the person rushing down the stairs until we're bumping into each other.

"Watch where you are going, brat!"

Nico.

I push back and glare at my brother. Our relationship is not the best, but it's not horrible either. We are merely two people who exist in each other's world. He picks on me occasionally and I do my best to ignore him which is what I try to do this time but he steps in my space when I attempt to walk around him.

“What?” I snap, my eyes narrowing on his. “I don’t have time for games, Nico.”

"What's that on your neck?" he asks with a smirk, and I immediately reach up to cover the love bites my bodyguard left my neck.

“Nothing.”

Nico leans back against the banister and smirks. “Where did you go last night?”

“None of your business,” I snap but my voice is drowned out by the voices of my father and Orlando. They pass the stairs and take a left and I imagine they are going to my father’s study. For a full minute, I forget about my annoying brother and watch the two disappear down the hall. It’s not until Nico makes an amused sound that I am reminded of his presence. I don't even want to know what he finds amusing, so I rush past him and this time, he lets me. I rush to my bedroom, slamming the door shut behind me.

Nico knows something. Maybe he doesn’t know that I’ve slept with my bodyguard, but he’s seen the hickeys and a part of me is terrified he’ll bring it up at dinner. It doesn’t matter that I am twenty, my family will ask questions.

I drop my back against the door, palming my racing heart and forcing in deep breaths. God, I can't wait until I am away from this family and these ridiculously chaotic Christmas dinners.

After I officially make you mine and I have the papers to prove it, you can skip the next family Christmas dinner and the next one after that. You will never have to do anything you don't want, Aria.

I let the memory of Orlando's words wash over me, holding his promise dear to my heart. I just have to wait a bit longer and then I will be free. I just need to get through this Christmas dinner first.