Catherinelle by Diane Portman-Ray

 

16

 

I was feeling way better. I still hadn’t forgiven Hugo for being the worst asshole in the world the other night, and there would come a day – soon – when all his secrets would be mine. Right then, I was drunk with the power I knew I had over him. The Albanian Monster, the Death Angel of New York, and I could make him lose his head and unleash that primal side of him. I wanted that brute to kneel to me and let me heal his scars, whatever they may be.

I took the elevator from the foyer to the third floor, knowing Hugo would stay behind to talk with the lookouts, ask if anything happened when we were gone, and lock himself in Gino’s office to check on business.

Upstairs, I walked into the kitchen and stopped, surprised, when I saw Flora Maria cleaning the counter.

“Oh,” I said, because I expected to find the house empty. None of our staff was working weekends. “Hello, Flora!”

“Good to see you, Miss Nucci; welcome back home.”

“What are you doing here on a Sunday?”

“I thought you’d come home late tonight, and I came by to do my chores. I know I usually come on Mondays, but since the house was empty, I figured I’d be out of your hair tomorrow.”

“Anything I can help you with?”

“No, Miss Nucci.” She smiled warmly. Her job was to keep my floor clean and keep the pantry stocked. She also cooked when that was asked of her, and I usually accompanied her to the market for groceries. “I have everything ready for your week. I premade some casseroles for your lunches, and I’ll come by to cook you dinner every day now that Muse is not here. That girl can cook, I tell you that. Your brother picked a good one.”

I highly doubted that Gino gave a flying fuck about Muse’s culinary ability, but she was right. He picked a good one, and somehow, she had picked him too. My stupid ass brother should wake up every day and thank Santa Madonna that Muse decided to give him a chance.

“So if I want to eat at home, I just have to put one of your casseroles in the oven?”

“Si, Miss Nucci. There’s an eggplant ratatouille, lasagna, of course, but keep it in the oven enough for the ragu to heat up. Also, I put some beef steak in the fridge to marinate. I can come up tomorrow and cook it for you.”

I rolled my eyes at her. Gino needed to raise her pay, ASAP.

“I can cook it myself, Flora. I got it. I will call you if I need help.” She had no obligation to be here every day of the week, and she had her own family to look after. Plus, my alone time with Hugo was limited, and I wanted to make the best of it.

“Make sure you do, Miss Nucci. Your brother would have my head if he heard I’d let you starve.”

“I don’t think I’m in any danger of that, Flora. I promise you.”

“Good. For tonight, I made you a risotto. I just turned it off. And there’s an apple cobbler in the oven. Let it rest for twenty minutes and then you can cut it.”

The doors of the elevator opened, and my attention was immediately sucked in Hugo’s direction. It was like an unseen leash was pulling at me to get closer, so I just nodded absently for Flora Maria. His dark grey, burning eyes found me too, but he stopped in his tracks when he noticed the maid.

“Flora Maria,” he said simply and then turned away to the living room, disregarding me like my taste wasn’t still in his mouth.

Flora Maria put a hand on my shoulder.

“Make sure to feed him to, will you?”

“What am I, his babysitter?”

“Ah, Miss Nucci, we both know he’ll not ask you for help in the kitchen, even if his stomach was eating itself. Just let him know what I cooked for you two.”

“Will do. You’re leaving already?” I hoped that she didn’t notice the eagerness in my voice because I liked Flora Maria a lot, but right then, I wanted her gone.

“Do you need me? I was planning on cooking some lunch for my boys back home.”

“Then go do that. I want to go change and take a nap,” I lied.

Flora Maria said her goodbyes after checking everything around the house one more time, and I walked her to the door just to see her walk out. The moment the massive sculpted front door closed behind her, a smile landed on my face.

I ran upstairs to my bedroom and got rid of my clothes – all my clothes – throwing just a silky black robe over my body and furry slippers, just like those I had in the Hamptons.

When I came back up, I stopped in the door frame of the living room. Hugo had his back turned to me. He was on the couch watching something, and I couldn’t see the TV screen from where I was, but I could hear the Friends theme song. I knew he heard me coming in, but he didn’t flinch, so I shook my head and turned to the kitchen to slice that cobbler Flora was raving about. If nonna taught me one thing right, it was that you feed a man to make him bend to your desire. I paired both of our slices with a crema gelato and dropped the plates on the big twelve-person table in the dining room hard enough to make his head turn.

“What’s with the noise,” he said in his usual grumbled tone.

“Your lunch.”

He got up with lazy moves and dragged his ass to the table, pulling out a chair and sitting in it.

“I don’t do pie for lunch. I have better eating habits, Cat, and you should too.”

“Well, I was your first course,” I said with a hand on my hip and my eyebrows raised. “Spread open out on the highway, remember? Now eat your cobbler. Flora Maria is very proud of it.”

He didn’t respond, but he did dig in, and I sat in the chair next to him while nipping at my piece. Three bites in, and he was already halfway done with his slice.

“Good?” I asked, smiling.

“Baked goods are not my thing.” Of course not. “I like the vanilla ice cream though.”

I gaped and punched him in the shoulder.

“It’s gelato!”

The audacity he had to call the sweet and creamy gelato ice cream.

“I don’t see the difference, Cat.”

“You’ve been raised under this roof; you should see the difference.”

One of the corners of his mouth raised while he took another bite of his cobbler. He was messing with me, the jerk; of course, he knew the difference. I didn’t think I could remember ice cream ever being served in our house, but if he wanted a game, I was ready to play.

“So,” I said getting out of my chair, taking the plate in my hand and sitting my ass on the shiny surface of the sandalwood table, “any plans for today?”

Hugo looked at me with suspicion and raised an eyebrow.

“Nah, nothing today. Except keeping an eye on you.”

He was welcome to keep more than his eyes on me. The idea sent an electric tingling through my body. It had been a little over an hour since I screamed his name and scratched the leather seats of his car, but I was ready to drag him to bed again. Last night when he took me and made me lose my mind in pleasure, he flipped a switch. My body was alive; my curves seem more voluptuous, my moves more fluid, and I had this smoldering hunger in my stomach. Oh, not for food, no. For a man. For Hugo.

“I see.” I opened my legs slowly, making sure he could figure out I was bare under my robe. Hugo’s eyes slid down, and I felt the intensity in his gaze crushing into me. I wasn’t the only one going crazy with desire. The wolf was hungry too. To ensure his good view, I let one of my legs down, hanging off the edge of the table, and I raised my other knee. “How do you like your apple cobbler?”

Hugo took another piece of cobbler in his spoon and licked it clean.

“Not sweet enough,” he said right before aiming the spoon to my core and dragging it through the slit of my pussy. I was already dripping, so I was sure the bite was glazed in my juices. He took it to his lips and made everything disappear in one bite. “Much better.”

I gulped, swallowing down the awfully large knot that formed in my throat while watching him lick the spoon clean of every trace of me.

Wordlessly, I slid down the table and landed on my knees on our fabulous marble floor and snuck between his opened legs, starting to unbuckle his jeans. For the first time, Hugo didn’t try to resist me. He just leaned back in the chair and stood there like a king, looking down on me. There were a lot of reasons for him to feel just like a king. After all, the Nucci heiress, the princess of the underworld was at his feet, and my only thought was to please him. I wanted to make him crumble again and see that while I was kneeling in front of him, it was me who had the power. I was holding his pleasure at the tips of tongue. To prove my point, I reached into his briefs and pulled out his monster cock and took the tip between my lips. When I sucked him gently, he groaned and grabbed my shoulder with all his force. I knew he’d bruise me; I had his marks all over my body, and I was happy to have them. My monster didn’t speak with words; he spoke with brute force and the possession of a feral animal, and I’d seen them both when he touched me like that.

With my palms on his thighs, I started moving my head up and down, taking him in my mouth a little bit more every time. I took time to use my throat on him and didn’t choke on his thickness. When I went deep enough to feel the silver balls on the roof of my mouth, I moaned, and he did the same.

“Baby girl.” My name sounded like a prayer and a spell.

“You like that?”

He didn’t answer. Instead, he grabbed me by the arm and pulled me up for a kiss. I crawled in his lap while he attacked my mouth with my legs hanging over his hips and my pussy right on top of his shaft.

“You’re an insatiable little siren,” he said then bit my lower lip enough to be painful. “When did that happened?”

I stopped dead and looked into his coal-colored eyes and their infinity. When did that happen?

“Remember that night when I tried to sneak into Gino’s night club? The one in Hell’s Kitchen with all those flowers hanging above the dance floor?” I was there when it was decorated. “You spotted me in the line, even if I tried to hide behind some friends, and you walked straight to me. For a second, I thought you didn’t see anyone else but me.”

“You were with three guys and a girl. One of the assholes was looking at your ass while you were talking with your friend.”

So he did watch.

“You pushed everyone aside and came straight to me, like an ogre. Remember how you dragged me to the car, like I was yours to take?” He nodded without taking his eyes away from mine. “That’s when it happened.”

“How so? You talked my ear off all the way home about how I embarrassed you, princess.”

“Because you treated me like I was your woman, and it felt…good. I wanted to be. Ever since that night, I wanted to end up just as we are right now.”

I’d had eyes for Hugo long before that night, but when he took me away like King Kong taking a hostage, something snapped. I wanted him. He took me to Gino’s office to tattle on me like a bitch, and I remembered struggling to escape his grip, but when he let me go, I wanted his touch back immediately.

“I can think of something better.” He hooked one of his arms under my ass and lifted me to fit his dick at my entrance. In one push, he was inside me, and all the air was knocked out of my lungs, but I didn’t get any time to adjust. “Move, baby girl.”

I listened to his order like it was the word of God and start sliding up and down on his lap. The tension started building inside me immediately, and it only made me to want it harder.

“Hugo, baby…”

“No, baby girl. I just made you cum in the car, now you have to work for it. I gave you the dick, princess; it’s pulsating inside of you. Find your pleasure.”

His words made me go crazy. I was like a bitch in heat when my ogre pushed my buttons. I set my nails deep into his shoulders and found my pleasure. Again. And again. And again. And again. Until both of us were catching our breath and grasping onto each other, trying to come back to earth.

“Damn it, Cat.”

“What?”

“You will make me lose my fucking mind. Too good, baby girl.”

I rested my cheek on his shoulder and smiled. I had him right where I wanted. My ogre. My Monster. My Hugo.

 

~~~

After humping each other at the dining table, we moved to the couch, where he gave me another shattering orgasm before going into Gino’s office and calling Roman to talk shop. I wanted to stay with him, but the moment Roman said something about ‘packages coming in’ and ‘clearing the way with the cops’ he kicked me out and slammed the door. When were the men in my life going to realize I was neither blind nor stupid? I knew their business very well; it was part of my legacy. It was mid-December, the last week before winter vacation. With the holiday season coming, there was a high demand for flashy gifts in the city, so the package they were talking about was probably a ship full of fish that were stuffed with diamonds. Gino had one or two of those coming every year from Africa.

After I’d been so rudely sent my way, I showered, organized my clothes and picked out my outfits for the week – it would have taken too much time to try and pick every morning – and I killed some time watching Friends. I considered trying the Rachel hairstyle after the New Year and starting fresh. After all, I was feeling like a new person with my new found sexual appetite. When midnight rolled around, and Hugo still hadn’t shown his face, I turned off the TV and went downstairs to look for him, but I found the office deserted and all the lights off, so I went to the guest apartment downstairs. The door was closed, but I walked in anyways. The bed was untouched, but before turning to look for him in the kitchen, I heard the shower running so I sat on the edge of the bed waiting for him.

Minutes later, he appeared out of a cloud of steam, gloriously naked, with a towel hanging on his shoulders. He stopped when he saw me.

“Everything alright?” he asked, looking at me questioningly.

“Yes.”

It was more than alright. With the bathroom lights shining behind him and the steam floating around, Hugo looked like a Greek fucking god. Every inch of his body was covered in pure muscle. He was indeed the deadliest weapon the Nucci family had.

For a few moments, I just stood there and took him in. Even with all his imperfections, Hugo was a mighty specimen of a man. He had three scars in his shoulder from bullet wounds, a crooked nose that had been broken at least twice, and a lot of cuts and scars all over his stomach and arms, but none of that diminished his beauty. I found myself mesmerized by his crude image.

He was covered in tattoos, which wasn’t unusual. He had a cross on his chest, roses, vines and thorns going down his fit legs, and the number 1974 inked on his abdomen in thick, gothic-style digits.

“Like what you see, princess?” His throaty voice made me snap out of the trance.

“I do. Very much, actually.”

The corner of his mouth raised, and he shook his head.

“Then you have shit taste in men, Cat.”

“Are you fishing for a compliment, Mustafa? Because if so, I have a mile long list for you.”

“I’m just saying it as it is. You should be with someone gentle, with soft hands, and a face…I don’t know, pretty.”

I couldn’t help myself and laughed.

“You’re right about something. No one with half a brain would call you pretty.” With a malicious smile dancing on my lips, I got up and walked to him, touching his pectoral. “You, Hugo Mustafa, are absolutely stunning. Don’t give me that look.”

“What look?”

“Like you don’t believe a word of what I just said.” He puffed a gust of air in a very sarcastic way. “You can’t be serious, Hugo. Women throw themselves at you everywhere we go. I can just imagine what’s going on when I’m not around. You’re notorious for threesomes.”

“Who even tells you those things?”

“About the threesomes? Bianca heard it from one of the twins. Apparently, you are his hero. Something to do with two sisters that work in one of Gino’s bars.” My eyebrows raised, and he pealed his eyes away from mine. He wasn’t ashamed, but he wasn’t comfortable talking about it either.

“Some women get off on danger, and I’m fucking dangerous.”

Stubborn ass.

“I don’t. I don’t care for the blood on your hands. I just care it’s you. And I think you’re very, extremely, crazy hot, Monster.”

When he saw there was no end to this conversation, he just rolled his eyes and dismissed it.

“Why did you come down here, Catherinelle?”

“I’m tired. Can we go to sleep?”

“Then go to bed. You have school in the morning.”

“I meant together. Would you hold me, please?”

We stared at each other with a choking intensity. He was trying to decide if it was wise to give into my desire, but I wasn’t going to make it easy for him. I stepped forward and hugged his waist and looked up, flashing the baby blues. He was rock hard under my touch – everywhere.

“You’re making it hard to do the right thing, princess. Every time you look at me like that, I’m one step closer to hell.”

“I’m ready to jump into the flames with you, Monster.”

Hugo smiled, but I was dead serious. With every passing minute, it became more and more clear that if my soul was the price to remain in his arms, I was ready to pay up without a second thought. He was stronger than heroine, stronger than crack. He was the Albanian Monster, and I was the princess that fell slave to him.

“Let’s go to bed, baby girl.”

“Can we go up to my bedroom? I don’t like it here, ever since Enzo…” Muse’s brother stayed with us for a short while before he was shot dead. It was in this room the last time I saw him, and it made me sad to be here.

Hugo put a pair of grey sweatpants on and lead me to the elevator in silence, and when we got into my bedroom, he was the first to jump into bed. It was cute to see this massive, dark and handsome man spread on my pink silky sheets and fluffy pillows that had the word ‘queen’ embroidered on them.

“Why can’t you stay in the guest bedroom?” he asked out of the blue. “Did you have something going on with the kid?”

I wanted to laugh at his absurdity, but it didn’t seem appropriate.

“Are you jealous of a dead boy?”

“Just asking.”

“He was my friend. He was family.” A family that was used to losing its own. “Move over, you’re on my side of the bed.”

“How do you have a side of the bed when you sleep alone?”

“I just do, and you’re on it.” I frowned and pinched his arm. “Scooch.”

“Are you still naked under that robe, Cat.”

“No, but you can rectify that,” I whispered with all the sweetness I was capable of. “If you move.”

A few seconds later, I was safely nested at his chest, his bear paw spread on my ass and his nose nuzzling through my hair. A feeling of contentment washed over me, a strong sense of belonging right here with him, and I fell asleep holding onto Hugo so hard that he had a new set of nail marks the next morning.