Read Online The Beauty and the Brawler by Nikki Winter - Free Book Online Page A

Looking down, he felt a smirk curve his lips. He flies in the middle of the day to talk to her, and the first thing she does is fall asleep. Nice.
    His smirk faded when he noticed the discoloration under her eyes. She hadn’t been getting enough sleep, and she was thinner than when he saw her last. Fingertips lightly pushing into her side, he felt around to make sure her ribs weren’t apparent and let out a small breath of relief when all he felt was soft flesh.
    “Exactly what have you been doing, beautiful?” Luciano whispered, brushing a tear track with his thumb. This Samara was...vulnerable. Something he wasn’t exactly used to. No, his Sammie was abrasive and brutally honest and uncaring of who didn’t like it. But when she’d looked at him moments ago all he’d seen was fear. Christ. Exactly what reaction had she been expecting from him?
    No, they weren’t a couple of, well, anything. But Luciano felt something for her. Something that went past a friendship. Something slightly possessive and a little needy of her approval. That didn’t make him weak, did it? Maybe it did. Maybe she had made him into her bitch. Or maybe he knew enough about life to understand when something truly precious was dangling in his reach, grasping at his hand. It would make him weak to walk away from this. Obviously his emotions had gone way past that one night. Obviously he was totally and completely obsessed with her in a way he hoped didn’t land him with a restraining order or a Taser to the dick. He’d heard that really hurt.
    Luciano’s palm slid over Samara’s T-shirt-clad belly and pulled at the fabric until it lifted enough for him to see the creamy, dark, velvety shade of her tummy. He stared. It didn’t look any different, but the small, three-dimensional image he’d seen moments ago had clued him in to the fact there was literally a whole person growing in there.
    His index finger traced her belly button in wonder as he remembered how his tongue had been there...been everywhere. He shifted a little to relieve the tension building in his groin.
    “Not now. That type of behavior is what got us here in the first place,” Luciano muttered.
    He traced Samara’s face with his eyes again, stopping at her mouth. That mouth had been the cause of many fantasies on his part; many nights spent with him exercising his right arm in an extremely unholy way. Now that mouth was a mere few inches away from his own, and he had to clench his left hand and bite the inside of his cheek to resist the temptation it offered.
    It wasn’t an easy task. He deserved a fucking pat on the back...a medal...some cheesecake for this shit. When she sighed and rolled until they were chest to chest, her breasts flush against him, he stared at the ceiling and gasped, “I’m coming, Elizabeth.”
    He didn’t think it possible, but she’d marked him in just a few short hours, and there was no escaping the need to be inside her. Not only that, but the need to see her smile or flip him the bird...or threaten his balls with castration by stapler gun. Luciano needed her eating and talking, even if it was just to rant. He needed her and their baby healthy because it would keep him sane.
    With a sigh he placed a kiss to her lips, trying not to linger, and gently moved her from his arms to the mattress, tucking a small throw blanket over her before he padded out of the room.
    Sansone and Nyssa sat on opposite ends of the couch, glaring at each other like teenagers from the seventies ready to shoot over the last dirty magazine at the library. It was...creepy.
    “You two,” he said, heading for the front door. “Up and out.”
    Both heads jerked in his direction.
              “Wait...whaa?” the pair asked in unison.
              “Sammie is peacefully sleeping in what I would guess is the first time in weeks. I don’t need the bellowing to recommence,” Luciano continued, swinging open the door. “Because I’ll call your mother.”