Dark Saint [Romano Brotherhood, #1]

DEVIANT PRINCE - EXCERPT!

Closer to Massimo now, I can feel the soft breaths that break past his lips. And every minuscule movement he makes settles beneath my skin, affecting me in a novel way. It's sexual and something entirely different at the same time. It's fire, chaos, and the sweet pull of something else unnamed. Like I can absorb the pandemonium in his bones, feel it melt into mine until we're connected by a fragile live wire that crackles with a beautiful, elemental turmoil.

It's more than I've felt from actual sex with a man.

Shit, I really do have to get out of here.

"You need to let me leave," I breathe, wondering why I'm whispering.

Internally, I'm shouting at the traitorous ache between my legs that never seems to dull when he's like this, so close to me and on the brink of something dangerous. No matter how fucked up it is.

"No," he whispers back. His discomfort from having me this close is clear in the strain of his body, but he forces himself to stay where he is.

I raise my hand.

Those clear umber eyes flit immediately to the movement. They really are so unusual, lighter in color than you'd expect, with darker brown and golden flecks orbiting a jet-black iris. Details you can only see if you get this close—and I have a feeling that nobody else does.

I bring my hand closer, watching his features transform at the imminent contact. It's a look I've never seen on anybody before. It's caged terror, desperation that has nowhere to go. Right before my eyes, Massimo has turned into a man tied to a stake, my hand the warm glow of fire as it comes alight and seals his death.

Less than an inch away from his skin, I stop. His eyes slip shut, and there's something hopeless about it. He could easily just choose to take a step to the side and let me leave, but instead... this. His face a sheet of white, tremors beginning to work their way through every one of his limbs.

And fuck. I can't do this. I'm not a heartless piece of shit.

"Do it."

Frozen at his breathless order, I hesitate. Everything but his words is telling me to stop. Unable to resist, I trickle my fingertips across his jaw, breathing deep at the warmth of him. The hitch of his breath as I increase the pressure and spread of my hand, until I'm practically cupping the side of his face. Absorbing all the resistance from him into my own body.

There's a moment that feels like an eternity where I can see the heat in his eyes. The lust and the fucking want dripping from him. Where I can feel him pushing into the contact, that telltale pulse of his jaw dancing beneath my touch. I'm a sizzling puddle of everything I swore I'd never feel for him but before I can do anything else, my time is up.

A noise leaks from him, from somewhere deep in his chest. And it breaks me. Out of the moment, out of his proximity. Because it's the sound of a man in deep, total pain.

My heart hurts, actually pulses with a tangible ache, as I back away. For a moment I can't read the answering look on his face but then his entire being is loosening in relief.

Something is so clearly warring in him. And against all sense and reason, I just wish I knew what it was.  

♛

DEVIANT PRINCE (Massimo and Vivienne's story) is out now on my profile! Add it to your libraries if you want to find out how our favorite sociopathic Capo finds love. Buckle up y'all. I post chapters every week.

Thank you for reading <3

- G