AUCTIONED TO HER DAD’S MAFIA ENEMIES: A MAFIA AGE-GAP REVERSE HAREM ROMANCE (AUCTIONED SERIES Book 4)

WHAT IT MEANS TO BE OURS

Antonio and Aemelia don’t appear until midnight is closing in, and Alexis and I are half asleep on the couch. Antonio’s pants are half undone, and Aemelia is wrapped in the thick, plush robe he bought her which swallows her small frame. Her cheeks are flushed, her lips swollen, and Antonio… he looks different. More at ease than I’ve seen him in years. The sharp edges of his face are smoothed by a rare, satisfied smile that’s shaved years off him.

“You almost took off the roof,” Alexis murmurs sleepily, holding up his thumb in approval.

“No sex talk,” Antonio says, shooting him a warning look that’s only fifty percent menacing. “You’ll embarrass the girl.”

“Nothing to be embarrassed about.” Alexis rubs his face, swiping away the last traces of sleep before straightening. “Nice robe. Antonio fingered a lot of them before he found the perfect one.”

I shake my head at my brother’s comment, catching the double meaning, hoping Aemelia doesn’t. When I glance at her, she’s smiling with a softness to her expression that makes my chest tighten. It’s like nothing can touch her after Antonio’s performance: a bride on the first glorious day of her honeymoon. If I said I wasn’t jealous, I’d be a liar. With all this drama, my only companion has been my right hand, and though experienced, he’s lacking in many departments.

“So, what are you doing down here?” I ask, my voice gravelly. If I’d been in Antonio’s shoes, I’d be upstairs, making Aemelia’s legs shake, taking the roof off again and again. She’s lucky it was Antonio for her first time.

“Hunting for snacks.”

Ah, she’s hungry. I’ll forgive him. “We left plenty in the kitchen.” I wave in the general direction, and he nods, steering Aemelia with his hand on her lower back, an intimate gesture that speaks volumes. They whisper between themselves, her laugh a soft, happy sound that wraps around me like silk. I shut my eyes for a second, remembering the brush of her lips over mine, the way she’d curled up against me when she slept.

She wanted to kiss me. Maybe she’ll want more.

I still want Carlo’s head on a stick but maybe this is the way he repays us until then.

I watch Antonio as he helps to plate up a snack, his gaze wide and full of hope. He seems so relaxed that it’s hard to reconcile that he’s the same man. He watches her like she’s a dream he never thought he’d touch. Our mother has been like a stuck record with her views on marriage. You need a woman in your life, Luca. A woman to make you happy. But how do you find a woman when your life is dedicated to everything but love?

By buying her and taking her captive? It’s not exactly the start of an epic romance, and yet…

Antonio isn’t just interested in Aemelia for a place to stick his dick. He’s finding a way out of the darkness that consumes us. Redemption. He’s falling in love.

Alexis, too, watches her with fascination rather than hunger. We’ve never had a shortage of female company, but no woman has ever made my brothers look at her like she’s something more than a warm body.

Antonio lifts a sweet pastry to Aemelia’s lips, and she takes a bite. Her moan is soft, pleased, but it still makes my cock twitch because it’s impossible not to remember the sounds that were carried from upstairs earlier.

Patience, I remind myself. My turn isn’t coming tonight.

“We should leave here tomorrow,” I tell Alexis, leaning in so Aemelia and Antonio won’t overhear the rest. “With Carlo uninterested in our threats, there’s no risk in taking her back to more comfortable surroundings. Sleeping on a mattress in one room won’t show her what life could be like if she decides to stay with us. This kind of life might be what she’s used to, but we could give her so much more.”

“How about tonight?” Alexis asks, stretching his arms above his head, already eager.

“Tomorrow morning.”

He nods, then stands and strolls to the door so he can brief the men outside.

For now, we have to get through another night on the mattresses with Aemelia between us.

***

“We’re leaving tomorrow.”

Aemelia pauses mid-scrub, her fingers tightening around the dish in her hands. Water drips from her fingertips, sliding down the plate and into the soapy sink. Slowly, she turns, dark eyes searching mine.

“We’re going back?”

“To the penthouse,” I confirm. “It’s time.”

She blinks, processes, then presses her lips together. Instead of answering, she resumes washing, her movements slower, more deliberate. I can feel the weight of her unspoken questions hanging between us, thick as smoke.

“You don’t need to worry about anything,” I say, my voice low and steady. “That man, the stalker, is in your past. And your father? He’s still a ghost.”

She nods, but she doesn’t look at me. Her shoulders remain stiff, her posture guarded.

Antonio moves in behind her, close but not suffocating, his warmth an unspoken reassurance. He rests a broad palm against the small of her back, his touch light yet firm—an anchor.

“Everything’s going to be okay,” he murmurs.

For a second, she closes her eyes, just breathing. Then, with a slow exhale, she places the final dish on the drying rack and dries her hands on a dishtowel, her movements careful and controlled.

And finally, she turns to us, something softer, almost vulnerable, in the depths of her gaze.

“Okay,” she whispers.

Antonio squeezes her waist, a silent promise, while I hold her gaze, giving her the same vow without words.

Tomorrow, we’ll return to the world we left behind.

Tomorrow, we’ll take her home.

***

When we finally make our way upstairs, the air between us is different. The tension is still there, but it’s shifted, heavier with something unspoken.

The bedroom is dimly lit, the soft glow of a bedside lamp casting long shadows against the wall. Aemelia hesitates at the doorway, glancing between the three of us. “What happens when we go back?”

Antonio steps forward first, brushing his scarred knuckles over her cheek. “You’ll see what life could be like. What it means to belong to us.”

She looks around, exhaling slowly, her expression thoughtful. “And if I don’t want to stay?”

Alexis leans against the wall, his grin wolfish. “Then you walk. But not yet. Not until we’ve cleared your path.”

“But if you like it, maybe you’ll never want to leave.” Antonio takes her hand gently in his, an indication of how things could be and a clear communication that he wants her to stay.

Her lips part, but she doesn’t speak; instead, she steps into the room that still carries the lingering scent of sex to sleep between us.

“Okay,” she whispers. It’s a single word, but it carries weight, threading through the air like a promise. She’s choosing to stay. For now.noveldrama

“Aemelia,” I say as we follow her. “You forgot something.”

Her eyes, bright and a little fearful that she’s disappointed me in some way, flick between us, searching for answers.

“You forgot to kiss us all goodnight.”

She blushes, and her first instinct is to find Antonio in the room, the man she knows most intimately. He takes her face in his hands and bends to kiss her lips like he’s sipping from a chalice of the finest wine. Her soft moan takes my breath away, anticipation drumming through me like the thunder of wild horses in my chest.

Alexis is closer than I am, and she hesitates in front of him. He slides his hand around her neck, tangling his fingers in the hair at her nape. He ducks his head so his mouth is close to her ear. “Beg,” he murmurs, only just loud enough for me and Antonio to overhear.

Antonio expresses displeasure with a tut, but he knows what our brother likes, and Aemelia will have to understand if this is going to work.

Her jaw flexes as though she’s gritting her teeth. Submission doesn’t come easy to her, but she will learn, and she will enjoy it. She’s spent too long shouldering too much responsibility. It’s time for her to hand all of that over to us.

Her dark eyes meet Alexis’s dancing hazel irises, searching. “Please,” she says softly. “Kiss me.”

It’s perfect. Alexis exhales, pleasure surging through him. Then he leans in to kiss her, long and lingering, a tease of what’s to come. She sways on her feet, letting go of the edges of the robe she is holding together to stabilize herself with her hand on his shoulder. Beneath the robe is a white nightdress that cuts low in the center and high on the thigh.

Beautiful.

When my youngest brother is done with her, he taps her on the ass. “Now, go kiss your boss.”

I never liked the title. I didn’t choose to be in this position, but tonight, the power it gives me drips through me like an IV infusion. Aemelia’s approach is tentative, her eyes wide as she searches my expression. What does he want? What will he do? The questions are written clearly on her face. Up to now, our contact has been a mixture of gentle and harsh, my hand on her ass and between her legs but a distant memory to the feel of my arms around her.

“Luca,” she says, interrupting my thoughts.

I hold out my hand high enough that she knows what I expect. Holding my gaze, she bends to press her lips to my knuckles—such a good girl. The sweetness of her submission makes me close my eyes for just a second. When I open them, she watches me, biting back a smile.

Taking her by the chin, I draw her up so she’s balancing on the tips of her toes. Then I deliver a punishing kiss, pressing the sides of her jaw so she has to open up to accept my tongue. Her hands grip my shirt as I invade her mouth, tasting the sweetness of cannoli, remembering that my brothers’ kisses are still present on her lips. I plunder her, own her, prepare her for what’s coming, and she moans like the perfect good girl that she is.

We’ll find another way to get to Carlo. Aemelia isn’t part of that plan anymore.

But she’s still ours.

Willing captive.

Marked by one of us.

Soon to be claimed by us all.