Chapter 16
Isabelle
The greenhouse is everything I could have dreamed and more. Rian lets me explore until my heart is filled with contentment and excitement for the future. When we’re nearing lunch time, he tilts his head toward the house, asking if I’m hungry. He doesn’t say anything when I silently take back the book he offered to hold while I was gathering some of the herbs.
“Weren’t you going to New York? Or did you decide to spend the day with me?” I ask as we walk back.
Rian glances at me, curiously. “If I did, would you appreciate that?”
“Don’t do it for my benefit,” I say, trying to shrug nonchalantly. But inside, I’m trying to bury the butterflies swarming. I’d promised my mother to have an open mind, and hadn’t expected him to show me a different side to him on the first day. They seem to be a large family, and have accepted me without a second thought. The way his mother’s things have remained untouched, a living memory of their love for her, has me at odds with the anger I still hold for being forced into this union.
His lips quirk. “What about your father? Does he spend a lot of time at home with your mother?”
My steps slow as my heart squeezes tight. It’s only been a day without my parents and I already miss them. And Ricky, it feels weird knowing my brother isn’t going to just pop up and bother me. I’d been so focused on the restaurant, I feel like time has slipped by and I’ve barely spent any with my family.
“He didn’t used to, but he does more now. I don’t know if it’s because he’s not needed as much at the restaurant or because Ricky and I are out of the house more so he doesn’t want my mom alone,” I say. A large reason is because he trusts António to handle the restaurant, and by some extension, me too.
“And when you and your brother were younger?”
I scrunch my nose. “It was mostly my mom, but it’s not like he wasn’t involved. We knew where he was. We could just walk to the restaurant if we ever needed him. But…I think it’s part of why I loved being in the kitchen so much. I didn’t like knowing my mom was alone in there.”
Rian’s throat bobs and he nods, glancing toward the second level of the house as we approach it. “My father made it a point to be home for dinner, no matter what was happening. He said there’s no greater disrespect than not showing up for the meal your wife cooked you.” A man after my own heart, a man who raised Rian…I push away the thoughts, trying to stay planted in the present, and not any hopes of the future.
“Is that why you want to do dinners? To start the tradition again?”
“Part of it, but also…I want this marriage to work, Isabelle. We may not have been a love match, but we’re obviously compatible. We came together once of our own free will.”
My cheeks flush at his reminder of the night I threw away my virginity. I pause, staring at him in earnest. “I want to make it work too, even given the circumstances. But I need you to meet me halfway on stuff. I want to continue working at the restaurant. You can’t expect to just bulldoze your way and think I’m going to be the perfect, obedient wife.”
There’s a small wince when I mention my work, but then Rian’s mouth curls in that deliciously dark sensuous smile and my core clenches in response. He moves toward me and I’m backed against a wall before I realize. “You? Obedient? Two words that could never be in the same sentence.”
My lungs freeze when his hands skim down my stomach, playing with the waistband of my leggings. I glance around, knowing we can’t be alone.
“No one would dare look at my wife,” Rian mutters, his lips kissing the shell of my ear as his hands slip further and he cups my pussy.
“Rian.” His name comes out as a breathless moan as he presses into me. His fingers slip inside, finding me still wet and slightly sore from this morning. He grunts, dropping his face into my neck as he fills me with another finger and pumps them in and out.
“Fuck. I love how wet you get for me.”
I pinch my eyes closed, clutching the book tight to my chest as he pins me against the wall. His hard cock is warm against my hip and I’m on the verge of asking him to fuck me when he picks up his pace, pressing against my throbbing bud with the heel of his palm.
“I can’t get enough of you, Isabelle. I’ll never let you go.”
That isn’t news to me, something in the back of my mind always warned me that any chance I had for escaping this marriage would have been before I said I do. Had it been any other man, I probably would have run or done anything to get out. But also, Rian knows exactly where to hurt me. My family means everything to me, and the threat of all they’ve built over the years being for nothing isn’t something I can live with.
I tilt my head back and his mouth is on mine in the next second. Our kiss deepens as I moan against his lips, I love his taste and the sensual feeling of his tongue playing with mine. And I hate myself for it, hate that I didn’t fight harder to resist his charms.
The pleasure coils tight in my belly as I pull away from his mouth, clenching around his fingers at the sound of Rian’s ragged pants in my ear.
“Do you know how hard I get every time I think of you?”
I shake my head once as my toes curl in my slippers. I’m so close and I know his words are going to set me off.
“I can barely function, the thought of being the only one who has touched you. The only one who will ever touch you. I get so hard imagining your belly round with my child over and over again. I want as many as you’ll give me.”
A shuddered breath escapes my lips and I rock my hips into his hand. My pussy flutters as he kisses down my neck, licking and nipping at the sensitive spot near my ear that only he’s discovered. He’s got me so hot and riled up. I turn my head, our mouths still brushing one another.
“Want to know a secret?” My question is barely audible.
“What?” he answers in a hoarse voice.
“I love the feeling of you coming inside me.”
His fingers jerk inside me and it sets me off. Rian swallows my moans and I ride his hand through my release. I gasp, gulping air when he finally stills and pulls away from our kiss. His dark eyes stare down into mine, swirling with carnal desire as his hand exits my panties and he licks his glistening fingers.
“Want to know my secret?”
I don’t say anything, already sure what he’s going to say.
Rian sucks at my juices and his tongue drags along his lips, as if to not miss a drop. “I love the taste of us.”
A shiver runs through me at the thought of the cum he filled me with this morning, and now he knows how much I secretly loved it.
He smiles, and it’s devastating how handsome it is on his face. “Hungry? Deirdre is probably close to finishing with breakfast by now.”
I glance at him, amused. “Do you guys expect her to cook three meals a day for all of you?”
He shrugs. “It brings her joy, who are we to deny her that?”
Rolling my eyes, I swat at his chest. “It’s not like she can tell you no.”
Rian grabs my wrist and pulls me closer, staring down at me seriously. “She can. Anyone can and I’ll respect it. The brotherhood is successful because we understand each other’s limits and do not force blind loyalty.”
I swallow, stunned by the intensity of this conversation. He studies my face.
“Do you want to know why else I chose you? It was clear to anyone who looked close enough that you didn’t want to get married, so I was curious if Luca would force it anyway.” I try not to let the words affect me, even if the reminder this is all a game to him hurts me more than it should. The walls that have been cracking for him become sturdier and I mentally patch them before narrowing my gaze.
“Why wouldn’t he? It would be disrespectful to you to decline.”
He nods. “True, but he could have proposed someone else. He didn’t even try.”
I glare at him. “You wouldn’t have accepted anyway. You blackmailed me to stay quiet.”
“So I did.”
His confirmation solidifies any walls in my heart that were crumbling for him, and I pull away from his hold. “Don’t make a big speech about respecting boundaries or whatever bullshit when the whole time you didn’t respect mine.”
I head back to the house, knowing he’s following a few steps behind me in silence. There’s nothing he can say to change our past, no matter what our future entails.