STORY EXCERPT

Lany

I had once thought that my life was the comic relief for the universe. Today, I was positive I had been right in my line of thinking. It was the only way to explain how I ended up sitting on the floor of my favorite Thai restaurant, surrounded by armed men and hostages.

It was my anniversary after all.

Every year for the last three years—four if you count the actual day I had met Lt. Salvador Delvecchio and he decided to keep me—something occurred that fucked up us spending our anniversary together.

On our first anniversary, Sal had been sucked into going undercover. To give the man some due, he had thought our anniversary was a week later than it actually was. That hadn’t been the problem. That, I would have understood. It was him trying to hide what he was doing from me that caused our world to turn upside down.

He never made that mistake again.

Last year, Sal had been hurt on the job while chasing a perp. I had been hurt while trying to protect him, and then things got really interesting.

This time around, I had planned to skip all the bells and whistles—or sheer fabric shirt and g-string, in our case—and just let whatever happened happen.

This was not what I had in mind.

I glanced to the brown haired man sitting to my left. His blue eyes were as round as they could be, watching every little thing our captors did. With Lyn Philips being a police officer and all, that kind of made sense. He was probably watching so he could give a good statement later and help prosecute the bad guys.

A quick glance to my right showed that my other friend wasn’t so wide eyed. In fact, his eyes were narrowed into tiny little slits. I had a sinking feeling he was seething with anger. That too made sense. Eddie Wu tended to get angry when people tried to cage him in. More than one idiot had learned that the hard way.

I was afraid these morons were going to learn it, too.

Painfully.

I just wasn’t sure if it was going to be the SWAT unit Sal belonged to that was going to teach them that valuable lesson or the “alleged” mobsters that kept Eddie safe that were going to do it. Either way, these bumbling idiots didn’t have a chance in hell.

My eyes rounded and snapped to the three armed men when my phone suddenly started playing the theme song from “Bad Boys”. It was stereotypical to have that as Sal’s ringtone, but “I want to sex you up” wasn’t exactly appropriate.

I winced when the song snippet played again and again, drawing more attention than I really wanted at the moment.

“You!”

I jumped and cringed back when one of the gunmen stopped in front of me. I wanted to reach up and break off the finger he pointed at me.

I didn’t.

“Get up.”

I swallowed tightly, the ball of nerves clogging my throat making it hard to breathe.

“Hurry the hell up!” the masked man snapped when I didn’t move fast enough.

When he waved his very large, very black automatic rifle at me, I scrambled to my feet. I had seen enough weapons in my time to know that this idiot’s gun could not only take me out if fired, but half the hostages in the place.

“Give me your phone.”

I pulled it out of my pocket.

“Will I get it back?” I asked as I gripped it tightly in my hand, not handing it over. I liked my phone. Sal had given it to me. It was neon green. “Because it has all my pictures and stuff on it, not to mention my phone numbers, and god knows I can’t remember a phone number to save my life. It’s just so much easier dialing one or two or seven or whatever. Don’t you think?”

The dark eyes visible through the small round holes in the guy’s mask widened briefly before filling with anger.

I always expect violence to happen when I’m being held hostage—or kidnapped or attacked by hit men or driving a car—but then when it does, I’m still surprised. When the man pistol whipped me across the face, I cried out, grabbing at my cheek, which hurt like hell.

A shaft of pain ripped through the side of my face, and for a moment, I wondered if my jaw was broken. I opened my mouth wide, feeling my jaw pop. Okay. Maybe not broken, but damn, it hurt.

I stared at him. Hard. “Why’d you do that? I was going to give you my phone.”

Meany.

My opinion of the man’s manners didn’t get any better when he grabbed me and dragged me over to the hostess counter where his two friends were standing. I much preferred the floor with the other hostages.

Well, truthfully, I preferred my penthouse, but I didn’t think I was going to get my wish there, and it wasn’t like I was going to invite these yahoos back to play Parcheesi.

“What is your name?” the man I thought of as the “chief asshole” asked.

Well, he kind of demanded.

“Lany Delvecchio.”

That’s what it said on my driver’s license, and I had no problem sharing that bit of information. I was proud to be Lany Delvecchio. It was better than Lancaster Harris III, the name I had been born with.

Sal had christened me Lany when we met. He had made me a Delvecchio when we got married three years ago.

I went by nothing else.

Well, I went by caro, too, but only for Sal. And my parents and uncle called me Junior. I hated it, but long ago accepted it.

My eyes popped wider when the man held my cell phone out to me. I started to reach for it, but then paused, the wheels in my brain working overtime. Hell, they were practically leaving skid marks.

“He just took my phone from me.” I gestured toward Mr. Meany. “Why are you giving it back?”

“I want you to make a little phone call.”

“Oh hell no!” I took two steps back before spinning and running back over to where Eddie and Lyn sat. There was no way I was going to be the go between for these idiots.

As big as their guns were, Sal’s were bigger.

“Hey!” the chief idiot shouted. “Get your ass back here.”

I jumped when the man fired off a round into the ceiling, but that didn’t stop me from returning to my spot on the floor.

They might have been idiots, but I wasn’t.

“Hey!”

I rolled my eyes at Eddie and Lyn as I crawled between them and sat down.

“I’m gonna shoot your ass if you don’t get back here.”

I shook my head vehemently. “Then you’re just going to have to shoot me. I’m not making that phone call.”

“He wants you to make a phone call?” Lyn asked.

I nodded.

“But he just took your phone.”

“I know, right?”

It was nice to know I wasn’t the only one that saw that as weird.

And somewhat counterproductive.

Just how unprofessional were these guys?

“Who does he want you to call?” Eddie asked.

I just stared at the man.

Eddie’s eyes rounded as he sucked in a quick breath. “Oh no, you can’t do that.”

“Right?”

ADULT EXCERPT

“I’ve been waiting for you, caro.”

Sal’s beautiful copper colored eyes were filled with heat as he gazed down at me. “Ho bisogno di essere dentro di te.”

I swallowed tightly.

God, I loved this man.

I had wanted Sal from the moment I first laid eyes on him. Things between us had been intense almost from the moment we met. I had serious doubts that I would ever get enough of my handsome Italian SWAT officer.

Italian. SWAT. Police officer...this was a wet dream waiting to happen.

“Clothes off, caro.” Sal’s voice was deep, and slightly rough.

I shivered as Sal released me. My hands shook as I stood and started stripping my clothes off. It wasn’t like it had been that long since the last time we had sex—in the shower this morning before Sal went to work—but if felt as if an eternity had passed us by.

I groaned when I bent to remove my socks and felt a hand glide over my ass, giving me a little pat.

“I love your ass, Lany.”

Not exactly romantic, but I’d take it.

I turned to watch Sal toss his clothes aside. When he was done, Sal stepped up to me, cupped my face between his hands, and then leaned down and melded our lips together in a kiss that made my toes curl.

The man was a really good kisser.

I moaned with wanton abandon when Sal cupped my ass in his large hands, pulling me closer, taking the kiss deeper. Goose bumps broke out over my skin when Sal’s hands left my ass and slid over my back. I wanted to climb the large man like a monkey and hang on until we melded together.

“You’re mine, Lany, all mine.”

I was.

I nodded vigorously.

A low guttural growl left Sal’s lips. 

“On your back, caro,” he instructed.

I twisted around and jumped up on the bed, scrambling to do as Sal commanded. My skin buzzed with excitement at the knowledge that Sal was going to claim me again. I laid down on my back and spread my legs wide.

“Beautiful,” Sal whispered as his eyes roamed over my naked body. The molten heat in his eyes was something I knew only burned for me.

I fisted the sheets as Sal dropped to his knees and crawled up the blanket, his hands smoothing over my legs. I was dying to move, to wiggle around and beg Sal to fuck me already, but I sealed my plea behind my lips. Sal seemed to be on some sort of mission tonight, and I wasn’t about to mess that up.

My eyes damn near rolled to the back of my head as Sal’s fingertips played over my skin, slowly making their way up my thighs toward my aching cock. I almost whined at the slow pace.

When Sal wrapped his large hand around my hard shaft, I couldn’t stop my moan. I spread my legs wider as Sal stroked my cock from root to tip and then back down again. Sal’s other hand cupped my balls, massaging them between his fingers.

He was really good at that.

I writhed and squirmed on the bed, moaning loudly as I succumbed to the waves of ecstasy trying to pull me under. I lay there, drowning in a flood tide of exquisite rapture as Sal took me to another place, a place where I was no longer my own person. It was a place where Sal owned me, mind, body, and soul.

“Come for me, caro.”

My back left the sheets as I arched up and cried out, hot jets of cum shooting from my cock. The pleasure was pure and explosive. I shouted Sal’s name, thrashing my head from side to side.

Sal stroked my cock through my entire orgasm. I panted heavily as Sal milked my cock, pulling every last drop from my balls.

“You’re beautiful when you come, Lany,” Sal whispered. “The way you look at me, you make me feel like I could conquer the world.”

I licked my lips as I gazed at Sal, wonderment filling me. I was always so amazed that a man like Sal had not only wanted me, but had kept me. He had saved me from a beat down in a bar and swept me off my feet from the very beginning. Of everyone I had ever known, Sal was the one who never let me down. He was it for me. Without him, I was nothing.

“Ero fatto per te.”

Sal’s eyes flickered up to mine. “You were made for me, caro.”

I watched as Sal swiped his fingers through the cum cooling on my groin and then reached below me. My breath hissed out of my mouth when Sal circled my hole with his large finger. At that moment, all I wanted was to feel Sal deep inside of him.

“Fuck me, Sal.”