Authors: N.M. Catalano
"How many others?"
“Enough of that, you'll find out things soon enough. We have other things to discuss." His reply is curt and to the point.
I stop and he almost bumps into me.
"Mr. Black, I appreciate how you stopped Tony from choking me to death, and bringing me here so I would not have to deal with Tony’s father and the inquisition that was sure to follow. But if you're going to continue to be a dick, I can MOST certainly go someplace else," I tell him coldly, my eyes daring him to push me further.
His jaw clenches as he scoops me up and throws me on the bed.
"First, Ms. Trudeau, no woman has ever been in my bedroom. Second, you are not going anywhere. Period. Third, I am a prick. But this thing...with you...is like an obsession.” His eyes are searing and his expression is stern and commanding. “It claws at me, to have you, take you, devour you, to punish you even.” He steps closer as my heart pounds, his words igniting my desire. “I'm dark, Gemma, and I want to take you to my darkest places, to consume you in the blackness. I want to hear the echoes of you begging for more in its depths. Tell me you don’t want that, tell me to let you go. Now. Before it's too late." His face and body are hard and controlled but lust burns in his eyes. He’s assessing every one of my nuances that would give him an indication of what I’m thinking and feeling.
Erotic heat oozes through me with Black's dark declaration. Fear and lust entwine together, embracing and seducing, taking me with them. I should run, tell him no, he's too dark, too black, too dangerous.
I lick my suddenly dry lips and whisper, "Okay..."
Outside the man in the black sedan makes a call.
“She’s staying with Black.”
To Be Continued…
Keep going…
Black Ink
Part Two
Gemma
Life has a strange, complicated, completely unexpected way of putting you right where you want to be, exactly where you need to be, and precisely when you need to be there.
I’ve landed in the middle of Alexander Black’s bed, quite literally. And the intense force of the man himself is looming over me.
Apprehension and anticipation are warring inside me.
He just told me he wants to do very wicked things to me, wants to take me to the darkness inside him. He said he’d give me only one opportunity to escape.
This was it.
My emotions are rolling turbulently within me. I want to dive into his darkness and let him consume me with it until I’m lost in him. My own deepest darkest places awakening with that promise, stretching and reaching for his to find fulfillment, to intertwine in a dance so forbidden I have refused to allow myself to imagine it.
But I’m afraid of what would happen to me when he’s done with me, when he’s sated his appetite and was finally bored with me. Can I walk away the same person unmarred after having tasted from the well of temptation satisfied and content? Am I strong enough to face another rejection, used and cast aside when I no longer serve his purposes?
Use
him
.
The whispered thought comes to fruition.
Use him. Let that woman free that you’ve ignored all these wasted years. Denying it has done you no good. Indulge…
“Tell me now, Gemma, if you want to leave, because there’s no turning back after this.”
His impeccably stunning self is standing poised and erect, waiting for my answer. Control and power resonates within him, so strong it lures like a magnet, like the serpent to Eve. “Come, taste all that you crave, it’s all here waiting for you, all you have to do is say yes…”
The promise is loud and unyielding.
Here in his Louis XVI style mansion, his lair, I’m a lamb who’s come to slaughter, and I cannot wait.
“Yes, Alex,” the whisper is barely audible.
I can see a glimmer of satisfaction and a hint of relief in the depths of his ice blue eyes all swirling around his need.
“You’re mine now, Gemma, mine to do what I want, mine to take when I want, how I want, where I want. Inside these walls, you will give up all control to me. Free yourself in giving. I will push you beyond what you’re used to, to take you where you want to go, to give you what you need, what you’ve always craved. And your pleasure will be everything you’ve hungered for.”
Those promises, the things I’ve always known but didn’t, things my soul longed for but I refused to admit. Things my mind doesn’t know but my body yearns for. Things I’ve been waiting for but have denied.
“We have to have a certain level of trust between us, Gemma, for us to achieve the intimacy we crave. There can be no secrets, no inhibitions, nothing. I have to know everything. Is there something you haven’t told me Gemma? Anything else lurking in your shadows besides Malcolm and Salvatore?”
My heart races and my mouth hungers to taste him as I anticipate the places he’d mentioned. Reality forces me to stay focused on his question.
Malcolm, my soon to be ex-husband who’d stolen three million dollars from Alexander, and Salvatore, member of the New Jersey mafia family. Who says I belong to him. Who Alex just stopped from choking me to death.
When did my life become such a mess?
“No, Alex, there’s nothing…,” I was going to confirm there’s nothing else, then I remembered the two strange phone calls I’d received since working for him.
Alex’s posture goes rigid with apprehension.
“What is it?”
“There were phone calls…”
His jaw clenches and the violent look returns to his eyes, the one he’d had when he found Tony Salvatore with his hands gripping my throat.
“When?”
“The first came the week I started working for you, the second this week.”
The same feelings of caution I’d had during the conversations return and I see them reflected in Alex’s eyes.
“Where?”
“At the office?”
“How many?”
His fists clench and unclench and his nostrils flare with suppressed rage.
“Just the two,” I reply.
“A man?” he asks, but he already knows.
“Yes.”
“Do you know who it was?”
“I didn’t recognize the voice and he didn’t say.”
“What
did
he say?”
I take a deep breath.
“Both calls were very brief. The first one he said it was interesting I was working for you and he said he had an
interest
in me. The second time he said I have interesting associates, and he mentioned the flowers. He made me feel like he’s been watching me.”
Recalling the conversations and putting the contents out for inspection was making me very nervous. I hadn’t considered all the aspects and danger possibly associated with them until Alex started to dissect them.
“Any other phone calls or visitors, run-ins with people?”
The Faceless Man.
I’m struggling with telling Alex about the man who’d entered my house and took me blindfolded on two of the most passionate nights of my life.
He doesn’t have anything to do with the calls.
I am certain of that.
“No, that’s it.”
I’m not ready to tell him about The Faceless Man, I only hope I never have to.
Alex studies me, examining me to see if I’m keeping anything from him. He knows there was someone I was sleeping with, I’d received flowers at the office on three different occasions.
“If there are any other calls, mails, emails, deliveries, anything at all Gemma, tell me immediately.”
He seems satisfied that I’ve told him everything he needs to know. For now.
“I will, I promise.”
“You are apparently a target to someone and I have no idea how many people want to get at you. Malcolm’s schemes haven’t fully come out yet, and we haven’t seen the end of Salvatore. Things haven’t even begun.”
His words of foreboding send a cold tremor through me.
“Son of a bitch!” He runs a frustrated hand through his hair. “I should have known, dammit!”
“What are you talking about?” I ask, confused.
“It’s obvious Gemma, but I was focused on you, I didn’t even allow myself to consider it.”
I cross my arms across my chest, starting to feel very annoyed.
“Would you mind telling
what
exactly is obvious?”
“I’ve already told you this before,” he stops pacing to look intently at me. “Malcolm is too stupid to have put together such an elaborate scheme that had even me unaware. He wasn’t working with you, but he was involved with someone. Someone powerful, someone who has very solid connections, someone who was using Malcolm. And I have no doubt I’m not the only one.”
“What does that have to do with me?”
A thought begins to push from the back of my mind, a very disconcerting thought. A thought that is literally scaring the hell out of me.
He closes the distance between us and extends his hand to me. I tentatively place my cold hand in his large warm one. He pulls me to him and embraces me tightly, looking into my eyes.
“Gemma,” he begins softly. “There are circles of people who play for very high stakes. There is a very intricate business world that exists and thrives behind the scenes, the Salvatore’s and DiAngelo’s know it, even UN Ambassadors are well aware of it. But other heavy hitters have their places within this world, people and companies you would never believe but know very well. Powerful people…people who don’t like losing.”
“The Black Market is something I’m aware of, Black,” I reply, attempting to sound unconcerned.
“Gemma, the Black Market is this world’s infant. It’s nothing compared to the elaborate, and very profitable, enterprise that spans the entire globe. The woven intricacies that link things together is an empire no one wants to get involved with…unless you can win.”
“So what does that have to do with me?” I ask again, nervously.
He hesitates. I can see he’s struggling with the answer, an answer he does not seem to like.
“Malcolm lost.”
Those two words, as simple as they are, hit me with such force, my breath is pushed from my lungs and my vision begins to swim.
“But I had nothing to do with it,” I choke out.
He pulls me closer and cradles my head against the firmness of his chest.
“I know that. Nothing is going to happen to you Gemma. I’ll find out what’s going on and who’s involved. People may not like me but they respect me, and wouldn’t fuck with me. It’ll be well known that you belong to me now, and no one is going to dare jeopardize the delicate balance of things. Not unless they want a war.” His tone drops and becomes ominous, the weight of his threat quite clear.
Pulling away from me so he can look into my eyes, he says, “You need release, pet, you need to let go and forget about all this for a while. I want to show you something.”
His eyes flicker back and forth on mine, gauging my reaction, reading me.
“What did you have in mind?” I ask quietly.
A slow lascivious grin lifts the corners of his mouth.
“Come with me.”
He takes my hand and leads me from the bedroom to a closed door two doors down the hallway. Pausing, he cups my chin gently and says, “I want you to look at everything in here; touch, feel, smell, hold. I’m going to leave you alone in this room while I make some calls. I want you to choose three things you’d like me to use on you tonight. Three things Gemma. If you don’t choose, I will.”
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They’ll plunge her into the most erotic oblivion she’s ever experienced.
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No one will escape without being hurt.
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This is a stand-alone, third instalment in a series. For mature audiences only.
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THE ROOSTER CLUB, The Best Cocks in Town
He grew up on the streets of Brooklyn in a time of extravagance and possibilities, a little rough around the edges with a hint of arrogance and seduction. A promise to a friend leads them down a rollercoaster ride filled with danger and suspense, from the discos, to the streets of Harlem and drug lords in Mexico. Until it all collapses. Just when he’d found the one woman who could save him from himself, and the beast inside him.
We all have that first true love, the one we never forget, the one that makes our heart hurt, even today.
This is their story. It spans decades.
This is his story….
All wrapped up in the decadence of the ‘80’s:
Sex (lots of it).
Drugs (almost as much).
Discos (where it all happened).
How it all crashed in the 90’s.
And today, how it found her once again…
……they’re here……get ready, it’s going to be one hell of a ride…..
They were the new ‘It’ guys. Sought after and wanted, anything and everything they had, they were given anything to get it.
But it was him, he was their king, a dark angel, mysterious and oh, so deliciously bad. He grew up on the streets of Brooklyn in a time of extravagance and possibilities, a little rough around the edges with a hint of arrogance and seduction. A promise to a friend leads them down a rollercoaster ride filled with danger and suspense, from the discos, to the streets of Harlem and drug lords in Mexico. Until it all collapses. Just when he’d found the one woman who could save him from himself, and the beast inside him.
We all have that first true love, the one we never forget, the one that makes our heart hurt, even today.
This is their story. It spans decades.
This is his story….
All wrapped up in the decadence of the ‘80’s:
Sex (lots of it).
Drugs (almost as much).
Discos (where it all happened).
How it all crashed in the 90’s.
Then today, how it found her once again…
HIDING….coming soon.
A sneak peek….
Maria Santos was going down the stairs to the DeKalb Avenue subway station in Brooklyn, NY, when her phone rang. Her mind was such a mess that she almost didn’t hear it. Her body was wracked with grief and her heart was being torn from her chest. She’d received a call earlier in the morning from her boyfriend’s, Raphael “Rafi”, mother. He had been shot and killed, the latest victim in the gang wars in her Spanish Harlem neighborhood.
Maria is blinded by fury and heartache, nothing will stop her. She had just left her friend’s apartment she knew from school whose brother is a cop. She’d told him everything she knew about the drug wars in her neighborhood, and she demanded that he record her. She wanted those filthy scumbags to fry for what they’d done to Rafi, she would make sure of it.
“Mami, what is it?” Maria said tightly into her cellphone.
“Mi hija, DON’T COME HOME!” Her mother yelled.
Panic began to rise in Maria.
“What happened?” Maria asked worriedly as she gripped tightly onto the metal handrail.
“Julio was just here with three other boys,” her mother began, her voice trembling.
Fucking Gangbangers, not boys!
“And they had a gun, baby.” Her mother’s voice cracked.
“Mami, it’s okay,” Maria tried to soothe her.
“NO, IT’S NOT OKAY, THEY ARE LOOKING FOR YOU!!” She screamed.
OH GOD, MY FAMILY, WHAT HAVE I DONE?!
“Go to Port Authority, there will be a ticket waiting for you. You’re going to North Carolina with your aunt and grandmother,” her mother said hurriedly.
“No, Mama, I can’t…” She tried to argue.
“You are going! A bus leaves in an hour. And Maria?” Her mother choked.
“Yes, Mama?” She started to sob.
“I love you, but don’t use your phone again. Your aunt will take care of you. I’ll talk to you when you get there.”
“Ok,” she sighed heavily.
“Bye, baby.” Her mothered cried softly.
“Bye, Mama, and I am so sorry…”
The line went dead.
Maria swiped her subway pass for the last time. She was leaving her life, her family, everything she had ever known, but the greatest pain was that she wouldn’t get to kiss her mother goodbye and give her last respects to the only man she had ever loved.
She was going to a hick town in God only knows where. With no clothes, no memories of the life she’s leaving, to live with people she doesn’t even know.
How did life get so fucked-up so fast?
Keep going…