"What are you doing?" she managed to ask, still refusing to open her eyes.
"Waking you up. I was bored by myself."
"You weren't by yourself. You're in bed with me, Lucian."
"In my mind I was," Lucian replied. "It was unsettling. I've never had that happen before."
Jordyn opened her eyes at that statement. She met his hazel gaze over the white blankets, cocking a single brow at his roughish smirk. "Please, don't let me stop you. I didn't say this was a terrible way to wake up, just the time is ridiculous."
"You are aware I don't need you to move at all, right? I can take you just like this, and you barely need to do a thing."
Jordyn didn't know what to say to that, so she said nothing. Lucian rose from the bed, giving her access to see his cock was already hard and ready, and sheathed with a condom. He moved her legs further apart as he leaned over her, kissing her good morning and sliding home inside her sex with a moan that shattered her from the inside out.
She'd quickly decided Lucian ruined her for other men. It hadn't taken very damn much to come to that conclusion.
Instantly, she was lost with him inside her.
No one had gotten that from Jordyn before.
"Open your eyes, beautiful," Lucian murmured.
Had she closed them? Jordyn didn't even realize. She fisted the bed sheets, eyes flying wide open to find his dark and watching from above.
"I don't want this with someone else," he told her quietly. "And I don't want you to have it with someone else, either. I'd kill them for touching you now that I've had you. I would."
There was a truthfulness in his gaze. A thickness built in her throat, but Jordyn forced it down. That declaration was as startling as it was exciting. There had to be something wrong with her that she liked it a whole lot more than she should. There wasn't any way for her to respond to that except for honestly. The way she felt right now, for him, and with him.
"Okay."
"Okay," he echoed.
Minutes later, Jordyn broke with her orgasm under Lucian's weight and want. He finished soon after with his mouth on hers, fingers weaved in her hair, and his cock so deep it ached.
"Good morning," he mumbled into her mouth.
Jordyn laughed, the sound almost airless. "Good morning."
"You do have to get up, sweetheart. I wasn't lying about that."
Jordyn frowned. "Why?"
"Because according to my mother, missing three Sundays of Mass is unacceptable and you are not staying in this apartment alone without me until I know you're safe."
Great.
Chapter Eleven
"You look lovely, dear," Cecelia Marcello said, leaning in to kiss Jordyn's cheek. "Much better than a few days ago."
Jordyn smiled tentatively. Cecelia was such a sweet woman, and if Jordyn learned anything about her in their few meetings, it was that she didn't say things she didn't mean. The woman was blunt to an almost painful point when she wanted to be.
Even so, Jordyn felt out of place standing on the steps of a church she hadn't thought she would ever come back to. There were people milling around them, but they gave the family a wide berth of space. Evidently, they also couldn't stop staring, especially at Jordyn and the man touching her. Lucian's hand was splayed wide to the small of her back, giving her some form of support, but he was turned away, talking to his brother Dante in hushed whispers she couldn't decipher.
"I try," Jordyn replied. "Lucian certainly helped."
Cecelia winked. "I'm pleased the dress fit. I went by the sizes you gave, but I wasn't sure. It looks fantastic."
The knee-length, caramel toned dress with sleeves that stopped at her elbows hid the vast majority of her injuries and bruises. With her curls down loose, framing her face and hanging around her shoulders, they hid what marks were on her neck, and the small discoloration and cut on her jaw. A bit of concealer helped, too.
Cecelia fixed one of Jordyn's stray curls almost instinctually, like a mother would. "You're coming to dinner at our home tonight with Lucian, right?"
"I don't know." Jordyn turned to Lucian, gaining his attention immediately. "Are we going to dinner?"
"Sì," Lucian said. "I have to show face, as usual."
"You make it sound like a chore," his mother muttered.
"With Kate there, it is, Mamma."
"My sister will be on her best behavior, I promise."
Knowing Kate was Lucian's biological father's wife, Jordyn sympathized with his sudden disgust.
Lucian looked like he'd taken a bite from something rotten. "I'm sure. Where's Dad?"
For the first time since they'd arrived, Cecelia looked uncomfortable. "He's inside with Gio, waiting."
Lucian frowned. "Why?"
Dante cleared his throat and shoved his hands in his pockets. Still, he smiled down at Jordyn when she looked at him.
"Give him time, Lucian. You worry him. He's dealing with a lot. There are a lot of things he has to consider."
Lucian stared at his mother with narrowing eyes. "There's nothing to consider. I've already made my choices. He doesn't get an opinion in this situation."
"You know that's not true," Dante muttered.
"I know it damned well is," Lucian retorted. "Unlike yours, my romantic life is not under his scrutiny. It doesn't affect the future of the family."
"Lucian. Dante. That's enough," Cecelia chided. "Stop it."
Neither brother seemed to hear their mother.
"Doesn't it?" Dante asked. "I understand where you're coming from, man, but you have to play by the rules. That means letting Dad work out his kinks about this."
"Like you do?"
Dante huffed. "That's not what I mean."
"Yes it is."
Lucian shook his head, sadness creeping into his usually calm demeanor. His next words were spoken swiftly and in Italian, effectively ending the conversation when he finished.
Oddly, Jordyn knew they were talking about her and the situation Lucian had taken her from, and was now dealing with because of doing so. It was awkward enough that she was standing right there to hear it, and nobody seemed to mind. She didn't like the thought of him being at odds with his family, especially his father, over her.
"Come on." Lucian tugged on Jordyn's hand, drawing her from her thoughts.
It was only then Jordyn noticed Dante was escorting Cecelia into the church's front entrance.
"I'm sorry," Jordyn said, keeping Lucian at her side instead of following behind with the others.
"Don't be. And don't concern yourself with our nonsense."
"But it's about me," she argued.
Lucian smirked. "Trust me, sweetheart, this is about more than just you. This is years of things piled up on us brothers. It's just not being ignored anymore. It's being shoved in everyone's faces, now."
Jordyn tried to remember some of things he had explained regarding his family, the structure, and the mafia business it revolved around. A lot of their personal lives intertwined with the rules and expectations of the Cosa Nostra lifestyle. If she'd understood his explanations correctly, Lucian wasn't at the spot he was supposed to be, given he was the eldest child.
"Aren't you the oldest son?" she asked quietly.
Lucian nodded. "But, Dante is Antony's firstborn biological son. Things would be different if my father hadn't died, maybe. Then again, I was his mistress's child. If his wife had given him children, they would have been given more control than me."
"What did you mean that it's different for him?"
"Dante?" When she nodded, Lucian sighed. "He has to marry Italian, or at the very least, she has to have strong Sicilian ties in her bloodline. A girl our father approves of entirely, preferably from a family similar to ours. It certainly doesn't have to be because he loves her, but because it's required for him to take over. Dante's time is running out to find someone who suits him because he wants her, not because she was picked for him, and he knows it."
"Like your biological father," Jordyn said.
"Yeah and that ended terribly for both sides."
"What happens if times runs out?"
Lucian glanced away, clearly bothered by the question. "It doesn't matter."
"I think it does, and you don't want to tell me because it matters. What happens, Lucian?"
"The Commission makes the final decisions regarding bosses. The Commission itself is something best explained on another day, but regardless, it helps that the Marcello family dominates the board, essentially."
"And?" Jordyn pressed.
"If Dante doesn't suit their requirements, they'll pick the next best choice. They prefer to keep it in the family. It couldn't be Gio. He's too young and much too unstable. He doesn't want to be boss, anyway. I don't want it, either, frankly."
The unsaid but was as clear as day.
"But you're the next best choice."
"Yes," Lucian admitted.
"And I'm not acceptable," Jordyn whispered. "We're not even … It's not like we're skipping off to get married, Lucian. This shouldn't be a big deal."