Page 9 of Stained Honor

I lift my hand to his face and stroke his cheek gently.

He lowers his forehead against mine and whispers hoarsely, “I would die for you.”

I lock my legs tighter around his waist and whisper back, “And I would die for you.”

Contrary to the storm that had raged between us just moments ago, he begins to move slowly.

He buries his face in the curve of my neck and moves inside me with deep, steady strokes while trying not to crush me beneath his weight. Rough breaths leave his throat with every movement.

I hold onto him like he’s the only thing keeping me alive. My arms can’t fully wrap around his massive torso, but I still try to move with him, lifting my hips to match every thrust.

We consume each other together.

Like always, his cock finds the deepest, most sensitive places inside me, driving into them over and over until my body tightens around him desperately, trying to pull him even deeper. My hands slide down the line dividing the muscles of his back and grab his firm ass through his jeans. I pull my head back enough to look into his eyes while my needy hips move faster on their own and his name falls from my lips in a broken moan.

“Carlo!”

He plants both palms beside my head and lifts his upper body completely, pulling almost all the way out before slamming back into me so hard the couch shifts beneath me and a loud cry tears from my throat.

But he only goes harder.

Deeper.

Faster.

Until the force of my orgasm rips through my entire body, and he empties himself inside me with a rough groan before dropping his face back into my neck again.

For several long minutes, neither of us moves. We just stay tangled together, breathing hard against each other’s skin.

Then Carlo finally breaks the silence. “You can’t take Gabriel with you.”

Horror crashes through me so violently I can barely process the words coming out of his mouth. I shove at his shoulder, trying to pull away from him, but he doesn’t budge even an inch. He’s still buried deep inside me, one hand gripping my ass, his heavy body pinning me beneath him, locking me in place.

“No,” I choke out, squirming beneath him. “Wherever I go, my son comes with me.”

Without looking at me, he slowly rolls his hips against mine, making another tremor from the aftershocks of my orgasm run through my body. His mouth brushes the space between my shoulder and neck as he whispers,

“It’s too dangerous. Until I figure out how Tony plans to play this card, we need to stay apart.”

I shake my head harder beneath him, panic rising fast enough to choke me.

“No, Carlo. No.”

He turns his head and presses a wet kiss against my ear, ignoring the tears running down my face.

“If Tony tells the underbosses you were the one who helped him escape, a fucking army will rise up trying to take you down. And he can go even further than that. He can claim you were his inside source in this organization all these years. Every shipment that got exposed. Every soldier who died. He can pin all of it on you.”

My body slowly goes cold beneath him.

“Then it turns into a blood vendetta. Every man who lost someone comes after you. And I won’t even know who I can trust anymore, because the one thing I can’t stop in this world is my own men killing someone they believe is a traitor.” His voice drops rougher. “You become a moving target, Emily. Every mistake, every betrayal, every dead man suddenly gets tied to your name.”

The fight drains out of me completely.

He lifts his kisses to my forehead and continues more quietly,

“Brando, Maxim, Lorenzo, and Giorgio are the only ones I can trust with my life. The five of us aren’t enough to keep you safe.” His forehead rests against mine for a second. “That’s why I have to send you away.”

I grab onto his shoulder desperately. “Why can’t you come with me? Let’s all leave together.”