Breathless & Bloodstained (The Chicago War #4) (19 page)

“Yes. I have a
Capo to see.”

“Don’t get Adriano
killed in the process of fucking around with Joel.”

Tommas smiled.
“That’s not my plan.”

But first, Tommas
had other plans.

It’d been two
weeks.

Tommas had done
the time that his cousin wanted to stay low and out of the view of the police.
That was over. He had his girl to see. Chances were, Joel knew about Theo and
Evelina getting married and was on one of his rampages. That meant Joel was
distracted, and likely wouldn’t have a handful of enforcers watching Abriella.

But even if he
did, Tommas would have to take the chance.

Two weeks was too
fucking long.

Abriella would be
at school. Tommas had spent a week planning to safely see her.

It wouldn’t be too
hard.

Hopefully.

Tommas shrugged
off his suit jacket, laid it over one of the chairs, and sat down on the edge
of one of the many tables.

Checking his
watch, Tommas noted the time was cutting close to when the class was expected
to start in this very room. He wondered if Abriella was going to show up, or if
she’d somehow missed school that day.

His girl needed a
new way to contact him.

Tommas hoped to
fix that little issue today. He’d picked up a prepaid burner phone on the way
over to the college. As long as Abriella kept it out of Joel’s sights, then she
should be okay.

Five long minutes
of waiting later, and a knock on the classroom door brought Tommas from his
thoughts. Pushing off the edge of the desk, he walked over, stood to the side
of the door, and opened it to let who he knew had to be Abriella in without her
being able to see him at first.

“I’m not late,”
Abriella said as she strolled right past a slightly hidden Tommas. “I’m five
minutes early, so I don’t know why you closed the door on me. I know the rules,
thank you very—”

Tommas slammed the
door shut, making Abriella jump and spin in her heels.

“Oh,” she
breathed.

A beautiful smile
bloomed on his girl’s features.

Tommas answered it
with a grin. “How long was it going to take you to realize that the classroom
was empty?”

“Not very long.”

“Mmhmm. And what
was all that attitude you walked in here with?”

Abriella dropped
her bag on the floor and stuck a hand on her hip. “What about it?”

“Are you always
like that when you waltz into a classroom?”

“None of your
business, Tommy.”

“Get over here,
babe.”

Abriella didn’t
need to be told again. She flew into Tommas’ opened arms, and let him lift her
right off the floor. Her jean clad legs wrapped around his waist like she
didn’t want to let him go. Keeping a firm hold on her backside, Tommas used his
other hand to grab Abriella’s chin and draw her mouth to his. The soft touch of
her lips was all he needed to forget the nonsense of two weeks missing,
thinking about her, and worrying his ass off.

Just a kiss.

That simple kiss
quickly turned into something hotter when Abriella’s teeth nipped on his bottom
lip and sent a shock of lust straight down to his cock. Tommas groaned, and
Abriella took the opening he gave to deepen their kiss until neither of them
could breathe and blood rushed in his ears. Beneath his trousers, his cock
twitched to life, hardening more by the second. The gentle friction of her body
rubbing against his length only added to the need beginning to thrum hard and
fast through his body.

“God, I missed
you,” Abriella mumbled against his lips.

Tommas chuckled.
“I figured. It ate me up thinking about being away from you for two weeks and
not even calling you somehow. Damn, Ella, I was going crazy.”

Carefully, Tommas
let Abriella drop back on the floor. She didn’t go very far. Her arms snaked
around his chest and hugged him so fiercely, his heart ached. She didn’t seem
to want to move away, so Tommas held her, kissed the top of her head, and
stayed still until she was ready to release him.

That time didn’t
come.

“How did you get
in here, and where is the rest of my class and the professor?” she asked.

Tommas shrugged.
“Maybe I paid some kid in the office to hack the computer, get a list of the
students in the class and their cell phone plus email contacts, and sent out a
message that the class would be held in the fourth hall.”

“Seriously?”

“Maybe.”

“And the
professor?”

“Minor water leak.
That’s what his message said.”

Abriella’s
laughter was light and airy. “How did you manage to find someone who could do
that?”

“I know some
people,” he said vaguely. “And I had two weeks to get the details figured out.”

“You’ve been
planning to come see me?”

Tommas put two
fingers under Abriella’s chin and tilted her head up. Her blue gaze shined with
her emotions. As much as it was something he adored about her, it was also one
of her flaws. All a person had to do was look into Abriella’s eyes and they
would see her truths.

“I’ve thought
about coming to see you every day since you left my place, Ella.”

Abriella bit her
bottom lip. “Yeah?”

“Why wouldn’t I,
babe?”

“I don’t know, I
just … It’s not important. You know Joel’s enforcer is probably outside the
class, right? He usually stays down the hall by the soda machines.”

“Which one?”
Tommas asked.

“Darryl.”

“Don’t worry about
him.”

Abriella frowned.
“So you’re only here for a little while and then you have to leave?”

Tommas sighed,
nodding. “Yeah. Just for the period. Something came up that I have to handle.
I’m working on stuff, though. Know that.”

“Working on what,
Tommy?”

The only thing
that mattered to him.

“Us, Ella.”

Abriella glanced
away quickly. Tommas wouldn’t let her do that—hide from him. She was too good
for that nonsense.

“Hey, look at me,”
Tommas demanded.

Abriella did, but
her frown had deepened. “I’ve only ever looked at you.”

Tommas flinched, a
memory rushing his mind before he could stop it. He could still see Abriella on
the floor, bleeding from a bullet hole in her back from her brother’s
stupidity. She’d almost lost her life—Tommas would have followed his girl in a
heartbeat if she had died.

Simple as that.

But those words …
She’d told him those words when she was on the floor, bleeding and dying.

“Who else is going
to save you, right?” Tommas asked.

Abriella shrugged.
“Bang on, Tommy.”

“Crazy girl.”

Glancing around
the quiet, empty classroom, Abriella asked, “What are we supposed to do?”

“Whatever you
want. The hour is yours. I just wanted to see you, be close to you, or anything
that I could have for a few minutes. Like I said, it was driving me crazy being
away. I don’t like it.”

“Me, neither.”
Abriella wet her lips, adding, “But I don’t always want to keep hiding,
either.”

Tommas heard her
unspoken words loud and clear. “We won’t. Not forever.”

“Don’t make
promises.”

He’d never broken
one before.

Not to her.

“Stop,” Tommas
told her. “That’s not important right now.”

“You’re right.”

“I have something
for you.”

Abriella’s eyes
lit up instantly. “Oh?”

Laughing, Tommas
pulled the prepaid burner phone from his pocket. It was simple in design with a
touch screen and a black casing. “Here. There’s a fifty dollar card on it right
now. Next time I see you, I’ll bring another one for you to activate. Fifty was
the highest the store had right then, or I would have bought you something
unlimited. If you have to toss it for whatever reason, then don’t worry about
it as nothing can be traced.”

Her breath caught
as she took the phone from him. “Thank you.”

“I need to be able
to have contact with you, Ella. It fucking kills me when I don’t know how your
day went, or if you’re okay. You know I’ll always take care of you.”

“Your girl,
right?”

“Right,” Tommas
echoed with a smile. “My girl.”

Abriella’s gaze
lifted to meet his. “Only yours, Tommy.”

A possessive heat
curled in his stomach, reminding him of just how badly he loved and needed this
woman. Something as simple as an innocent phrase could make his yearning for
her grow into a goddamn monster in a second.

It was kind of
ridiculous.

Tommas didn’t
mind.

“I know what I
want to do for the next hour,” Abriella said, grinning slyly as she shoved the
phone into her jacket pocket.

“What’s that?”

Anything she
wanted, he would give.

“You, me, this
classroom, and anyway we can defile it for the next fifty or so minutes.”

Tommas’ throat
closed around the appreciative groan wanting out from his chest. “Yeah? Because
that’s kind of bad.”

“You hacked into a
computer system, tricked a class full of students and a professor just to get
me alone in here. Which one is worse? I’m just taking advantage.”

“You’re wicked,
baby.”

Abriella winked
and stepped closer to him again. Her hands trailed up his chest to his neck,
and then back down his body. The graze of her fingernails through his silk
shirt was enough to get his cock harder than steel and ready for something wet,
hot, and tight. Keeping her stare locked on his, Abriella’s hand dipped lower,
the tips of her fingers ghosting over the line of his erection straining
against his trousers.

Damn.

Tommas wasn’t even
ashamed.

Abriella should
know what she did for him.

“Fuck, Tommy,”
Abriella whispered, leaning up on her tiptoes to kiss his mouth.

Her hand palmed
him through his pants, making him swallow the lump forming in his throat. It
wasn’t often that Abriella took the reins between them. Tommas usually made the
first move, demanded from her, and then took great joy in watching her control
shatter under his wants and needs. She got off on it, but sometimes, she needed
something different.

“You’re so hard.”

“It’s all for you,
Ella. You’re wicked,” he repeated. 

Abriella’s smile
was downright sinful. “Someone made me this way, remember? Some strange man
told me once to do what I wanted, what would make me happy, and fuck the judgment
of others. He made me like this—I kind of like it.”

Tommas let out a
shuddering exhale, and fought off a shiver as Abriella’s hand slipped under the
waistline of his pants and boxer-briefs and found his cock. She tugged on his
member with quick, firm strokes that made his throat tighten and his cock
pulse.

“Good God,” Tommas
moaned.

Her hand stilled
instantly.

“You know,” she
began in a whisper, “when we first started this four years ago, you kind of
were like that for me, Tommy. I didn’t realize it at first, but I definitely revered
you like one.”

Tommas grabbed
Abriella’s waist and dragged her closer. “Like what?”

“A God.”

“I’m not one of
those.”

“You were mine in
a way. I put you on a pedestal like one, and only saw you as this perfect,
untouchable being. It was crazy, but it was exactly what I needed at the time.”

“Putting people on
pedestals only means they’ll break when they fall off, Ella.”

Abriella laughed.
“Tell that to an eighteen-year-old me. Christ, Tommy, I adored the person I
thought you were back then.”