[Made Men 6] The Root of All Evil Read online

  Andreas looked at Dominick as Dominick texted the guys. A knock sounded on the door as Giada finished fixing her lip gloss. She ran her hands along her dress. Andreas held out his hand.

  “Let’s go enjoy the night with family and friends.”

  She took his hand, and the four of them, plus Royce and Logic, headed out of the office and into the elevator to the club. Andreas felt uptight and anxious. Would Giada come home with them tonight and let them truly into her heart, or would she need more time, a sense of control and separation? He didn’t want to leave her alone, accessible to an attack. She wouldn’t be allowed to go home alone tonight. He saw how Calvarro and the other two men looked at her with desire, lust in their eyes. They wanted his woman, and that was never going to happen.

  * * * *

  “So, can we assume the conversation went well upstairs, and you’re accepting Andreas, Dominick, and Giuseppe as your protectors and men?” Bella asked Giada. She stood by the bar with Caprice, Bella, Alessa, Alda, Donata, and Fina.

  “I’m accepting them, but I’m still not ready to be intimate.” She glanced their way. The men were watching her closely.

  “Well, that won’t be a problem for long. Believe me, once you get tag-teamed, it’s pretty damn hard to say no when it feels so right,” Caprice said.

  Bella chuckled. “Isn’t that the truth?”

  “We wouldn’t know. None of us have engaged in any ménages, although I have to say that Turbo, Covan, Jack, and Harley are definitely men I would like to make my first ménage encounter with,” Donata stated, looking toward Turbo and the guys.

  Alessa gave her arm a slap. “You are so full of crap. You were just saying how intimidating all the security guys are. You talk a great game, Donata, but come down to it, and no way anything is happening.”

  The others laughed.

  “Yeah, besides, you can’t take like all four hot guys for yourself. You need to share,” Alda added.

  “Well, I think that Royce, Logic, Train, and Brew are pretty hot, but that doesn’t mean they would want to share the same woman. Hell, I would pass out if one of them flirted with me, never mind wanted to go out with me,” Alda stated.

  “How do you know any of the security guys are even into that whole ménage thing?” Fina asked.

  “Who do you have your eyes on?” Bella asked Fina.

  Giada couldn’t help but smirk. She knew who Fina had eyes for.

  Fina got all quiet. “No one. I’m playing it safe for a while.”

  “Playing it safe? What do you mean?” Caprice asked her.

  “She was hanging out a few weeks back when all the crazy stuff was going on with Rayanna and Giada, and she met these two guys and started hanging out with them,” Donata said.

  “Donata, don’t. It isn’t a big deal, and it’s over with. They aren’t calling or texting anymore,” Fina stated.

  “Wait. Some guys were bothering you, and you didn’t tell any of us or our men?” Caprice asked.

  “It was handled,” Fina stated.

  “By who?” Giada asked, feeling concerned.

  Donata chuckled. “Tell them or I will.”

  “One of Dmitri’s guys,” Fina looked away from them.

  Giada was shocked, and so was everyone but Donata. They started whistling and teasing her. Poor Fina was as red as a cherry.

  “Oh God, the Russian mob. Look at you, Fina. Part-time events coordinator and stock trader. All prim and proper, following the straight and narrow,” Caprice teased.

  “I wouldn’t go that far. She was pretty entertaining in the Dominican Republic, as we all recall,” Alessa said, and they laughed.

  “Oh yeah, Mario and Johnny were their names. They worked for Mateus or something at one of the security firms in Miami,” Alda stated.

  “Interesting,” Bella said.

  “Cut it out. I just fooled around with them, and it wasn’t anything more than a good time on vacation.” Fina slid her hand along her hips in the tight skirt she wore.

  “Rayanna, Dmitri, and the crew are supposed to be coming to town to visit soon. Are you going to talk to your friend, or was it friends?” Caprice asked.

  “Nothing happened between them and me.”

  “Them? Which ones?” Bella asked.

  “Oh brother. Thanks a bunch, Donata. I’ll remember this.” Fina drank the rest of her girlie fruit drink and then moved past them to place it on the bar.

  Giada smiled. “I love you guys. I never would have made it through the heartache over Jimmy, my uncle Les being a jerk, or anything in life without you guys.”

  “Aw, we love you, too, Giada.” Bella hugged her shoulder.

  “How is Uncle Les? Have you had to bail him out of jail or anything?” Donata asked.

  “Donata,” Caprice scolded.

  Giada chuckled. “No, I haven’t. It’s been fine. I really don’t talk to him, and after I had to go pick him up at some shit bar a couple of weeks ago at three o’clock in the morning, I think I’m done with him.”

  They all responded with shock and concern.

  “You can’t do that kind of stuff. Now that you’re with the Coglonie men, you need to make them aware of Uncle Les if he calls or asks for help,” Bella told her.

  “I guess I’m going to need to learn a lot. My big concern is for my job. I don’t know how I’m going to see Alajandro and Toro again for work and how to handle it.”

  “Oh, don’t worry about that. I’m sure Dominick has already sent out the message that you belong to him, his brother, and their cousin. Those men would be asking for trouble if they contacted you anyway,” Bella told her.

  “If they do, tell your men right away. No messing around, Giada. Those are guys with connections to the Cuban mafia. That’s heavy shit,” Aldo told her, and they all agreed.

  Giada felt her belly ache, and she placed her hand over it, looked past the girls, and locked gazes with Andreas. He squinted, and she gave a soft smile and listened to her friends talk some more. She didn’t know what she was going to do tonight. When she thought about sleeping with them, her heart ached, and she felt guilty. She needed to get rid of these feeling that stood in the way of what she wanted. Dominick, Andreas, and Giuseppe. She had to.

  * * * *

  “So what did you find out?” Mateus asked Dominick as they stood near the bar watching Bella, Caprice, Giada, and their friends talking.

  “Enough to know that Calvarro and his two cousins want our Giada. Considering the current business dealings we’re involved in, I’d say he had bad intentions.”

  “Dominick, what is she going to do about work and dealing with these men? She can’t not do that or quit that job,” Mateus asked.

  “Why the fuck not?” Giuseppe asked and took a sip of his brandy.

  Mateus chuckled, and so did Sunny, who stood next to Giuseppe.

  “Seriously, the woman is a workaholic. Bella said she doesn’t date ever,” Mateus told them.

  “We know. Turns out the reason she was holding back was because of an old boyfriend. A soldier who she’d planned to marry died in combat,” Dominick told them. Sunny whistled low.

  “Is that why Andreas is in a dead stare at her right now?” Sunny asked.

  “I’m sure that hit home for him. He survived when a lot of his friends didn’t,” Giuseppe stated.

  “Could be a good thing she’s the one you set your eyes on. She might be good for Andreas. Maybe make him a little less hostile,” Mateus teased, and they snickered.

  “Never happen,” Sunny said.

  Dominick noticed that Andreas was staring at his cell phone and looked pissed off. Dominick caught his eyes, and Andreas walked over toward them.

  “What’s wrong?” Mateus asked.

  “They’re watching her fucking apartment building. Brew just texted now.”

  “Shit,” Sunny said.

  “What are you going to do?” Major asked.

  “Going caveman isn’t going to work on a woman like Giada. Could scare the hel
l out of her,” Mateus said to them in warning.

  “She won’t go home without security from now on. We promised to take things slow because of this guy she lost and cared about. That doesn’t mean we can’t stay nearby and protect her. We’ll figure it out.” Dominick locked gazes with Andreas, who didn’t look happy at all.

  * * * *

  Giada gasped as Dominick clasped her wrists behind her back with one hand while cupping her cheek and head, kissing her. She moaned into his mouth. The man was dominant, controlling, and in a way that totally aroused her. She found herself pressing against him, reciprocating the kiss until his hand slid from her cheek to her breast.

  She shivered as her mind processed what was happening here. She wanted them—wanted to be with them, trust them, continue to feel how protected she was with them—but she wasn’t ready to be intimate. Would this drive them mad? Would it make them annoyed with her? They were older, more experienced men, and she wasn’t stupid. These men could have any woman they wanted in their beds. They could have sex every night if they wanted to. Why did that aggravate her and make her jealous? She pulled back, only for him to release her lips and catch his breath, his hold on her wrists still firm. He gripped her jaw and stared at her with dark, serious eyes.

  “I want you in our bed, in our arms, where I know you’re safe and all ours. I don’t want you to fucking go home,” he whispered through clenched teeth.

  Tears stung her eyes. She parted her lips. “I’m trying. I’m…I’m just not like other women you guys are used to. I can’t pretend to be someone I’m not. To look at sleeping with you as just meaningless sex.”

  The hands landed on her shoulder.

  “Meaningless? Definitely not meaningless.” Giuseppe joined the conversation.

  She knew that he and Andreas had stood right there watching Dominick kiss her, touch her, and try to convince her to go home with them instead of going home alone.

  Giuseppe caressed her hair and then cupped her head, softly tilting her head up toward him. He lowered. “Definitely not meaningless.” He kissed her.

  Dominick released her wrists, and she turned into Giuseppe’s kiss and ran her hands up his chest under his dress jacket and to his shoulders. She felt his palm slide along her ass and squeeze her against him hard. She felt his thick erection, and she wished she could let the walls down and take this chance. If she went home with them, had sex with them, what if things didn’t work out? What if it went wrong? Then she would have made a huge mistake and wind up with a broken heart because she’d given her all and they saw it as sexual pleasure, control, dominance, and possession.

  Giuseppe released her lips and kissed her chin. “You’re killing us leaving us like this,” he said against her cheek.

  She held his gaze. “Don’t be angry with me. Please understand I’ve made love with only one man. That’s one man ever, and you three…” She shook her head. “You three have been with who knows how many women.”

  Giuseppe wrapped her in his arms tighter, nearly taking her breath away. He stared down into her eyes, and she held onto his shoulders.

  “None of that matters—not the past, not any other lovers for any of us. What matters is now, Giada, what we feel and how powerful this connection is. We want every bit of you. We want to explore this body, learn what turns you on, what makes you beg for more cock.”

  “Oh God,” she said on an exhale.

  “I think you’re scaring her.” Dominick chuckled.

  Giuseppe held her gaze. “No, I’m not scaring her. She wants it, too, but she’s still holding up that wall, and we need to break it down and show her how perfect this will be.” He kissed her again, lowered her feet to the floor, and slowly released her. “Andreas will take you home with Train and Logic.” He tapped her ass as she looked at Andreas.

  When she went to grab her purse, Dominick took her hand and stopped her. That dark, serious expression and those brown eyes held hers steady.

  “Don’t be scared when you see the extra security around. Brew will be there when you two get to the apartment. One guy will remain downstairs with Donny and another outside your apartment door.”

  “What? Why? Is that necessary?”

  Dominick reached up and stroked her cheek. “They’re watching your apartment.”

  “Who?” she asked, heart pounding.

  “Men working for Calvarro.”

  Her eyes widened, and she looked at Andreas, who had his arms crossed and appeared pissed off. Then she looked at Giuseppe, whose lips were in a thin line, and he was obviously angry, too. She could have sworn she heard him grinding his teeth. She suddenly wasn’t sure about going home, but she couldn’t flip-flop. She had a life to live, and she hadn’t done anything wrong to merit Calvarro and his men watching her apartment.

  “Then I guess it will be good to head home and have them see that Andreas is with me. They’ll know you’re protecting me.”

  “They’ll know soon enough that you’re our woman, just as soon as you stay with us and we stay with you.”

  She gulped. “So this is a means to show some sort of ownership to protect me from harm? That’s why you wanted me to stay the night with you? To have sex with you?” She felt insulted and emotional.

  “I’m not even going to respond to that. Don’t minimize what is happening here. You’re already getting away with going home alone without one of us staying the night in your bed with you. These walls you have up will be coming down. The sooner, the better,” Dominick stated firmly.

  Now she felt guilty and bad for insulting him, them, and what was happening. The hang-up was with her. She needed to process her emotions and desires. She needed to be sure that this was right and that it was time to let go, let the walls down, and allow them into her heart. Well, they were already in her heart, and she cared for them, even worried about what harm could come to them if this Cuban-gang thing got out of hand. She exhaled and felt jittery and nervous as Andreas escorted her out of the office in the club and down to the waiting SUV.

  Was this going to be a new way of life for her, like it was for Bella, Caprice, Gisella, Rayanna, and Adelina? Maybe she needed to talk to them a bit more? As they drove to her apartment, she found comfort in having a man as big and capable as Andreas with her. She tried not to read into the fact that he was a soldier like Jimmy had been. She wouldn’t compare. There was no comparison. As capable as Jimmy had been as a man and a soldier, Andreas was so much more. He was hard and fierce, not as talkative as his cousins. She absorbed everything about him. His hard, thick thighs and how they looked in the dress pants he wore. The way the suit clung to his wide, thick shoulders and muscular arms. He had a hand on her knee the moment she crossed her legs, and it sent warmth and desire right to her cunt. She readjusted her position in the seat multiple times.

  When they got to her apartment, sure enough Brew was outside waiting by the door to greet them.

  “You’re not staying the night?” he asked Andreas in a tone that made her feel worse.

  Everyone seemed to want to accept this joining and relationship but her and the damn hang-ups.

  “Not tonight,” he replied in a sharp tone.

  As they walked into the lobby, she locked onto Donny standing there with one guy she recognized as one of the Coglonie security men.

  “You went over everything with them?” Andreas asked Brew, who accompanied them up into the elevator.

  “Yes.” Brew hit the button for her floor.

  When the doors opened, she felt as if her legs were going to give out she was so nervous and affected by all this stuff. Her life had already changed, and she hadn’t even had sex with the Coglonie men. The second set of doors opened, and she saw another man was right outside her door.

  “Mike, keep in contact with Toby downstairs,” Andreas stated.

  “Got it, sir.”

  “We’ll inform you of the morning schedule when I come out,” Andreas told them.

  Brew nodded.

  She handed ove
r her keys to the apartment, and Andreas opened the door. She went inside feeling his hand at her hips. He closed the door and looked around the place. She placed her purse on the coffee table and turned to look at him.

  Andreas stared at her. His eyes swept over her, and every part of her came alive again. How did these men do this to her? Three men. She was going to belong—no, she belonged—to three made men.

  He licked his lower lip and closed the space between them. He stared at her eyes, her lips as she gripped his arms and held onto him.

  “I know you feel it. You couldn’t sit still because your body aches for us. It aches to be claimed by us.”

  He lowered down and kissed her. She kissed him back and relished the feel of his hands sliding up and down her ass and thighs and how his big, strong arms pulled her tight against his rock-solid muscles. She felt the gun against her hip, and her pussy wept.

  He released her lips and backstepped her toward the couch.

  “I need more, Giada, something more to get me through the night. To help me tamp down my need to fuck and claim every damn fucking inch of you. I want to bury my cock so deep inside of you that you cry out for mercy.” He sucked on her neck as he unzipped her dress.

  “Andreas. Oh God.” She exhaled as he lowered her to the couch, half lying over her as he stared into her eyes. She gripped his shoulders, could feel how loose her dress was on top. It was strapless. One push down and he would see her breasts, maybe suck her nipples and make her wetter than she already was. Did she want that?

  “A little more. Just a little more.”

  He eased his long, thick finger along the trim of her top then gently pushed down. Her breast emerged, and he squinted. She could see the veins by his temples pulsate. He licked his lips.

  “Incredible.”

  He lowered his mouth. She watched as his lips parted, and he licked the tip and began to feast. “Oh, Andreas.” She tilted her hips upward, and he sucked harder, slid a hand up under her dress against her thigh, and squeezed her hip. He lifted his hip and was going to slide between her legs when she gripped his shoulders. “Stop. It’s too much. Giuseppe and Dominick aren’t here.”