Chapter 44 – Vincenzo – The Past
Light spilled slowly across the shore, warming my face before the rest of me, turning the water copper and pale pink.
Gulls cried somewhere above. Their calls sounded thin and lonely.
Amanda leaned back against me, letting the moment wash over her.
The sun was almost here. There were only the two of us, hidden away on the cove.
It was pure bliss.
Wrapping my arms tightly around her, I waited. The air tasted faintly of salt and metal, sharp enough to wake me. Not that I was sleepy. We’d done it. Snuck away from the city and, found a cozy bungalow.
Waves slid in with a steady hush, folding over themselves like quiet breaths, while a breeze lifted the fine hairs on my arms and carried the clean, briny smell of kelp and wet stone.
The first true heat of the day settled into my skin, gentle and promising, as if the morning had noticed us sitting there and decided to stay awhile.
“Happy birthday, Mandy,” I whispered against her hair.
She sighed happily. Pushing against me, she rose. “Come on.”
My brows knit together as I studied her. “Where are we going?”
“Back to bed.”
I almost teased her. Almost pointed out that we’d set an alarm, crawled out of the house, walked over the dark beach, just to see the sunrise. But the glow in her electric blue eyes wasn’t the look of someone who was sleepy.
Oh…ooohhhh.
The next breath was a shiver.
Dio mio…va bene.
I scrambled to my feet, trying to act cool. Blood rushed south, and the basketball shorts tented in the front. I pulled my sweatshirt low to hide it.
“Are you sure?” I asked, looping my arm around her shoulder. “I’m good with waiting.”
My dick pulsed in protest.
Amanda wrapped her arm behind my back, leaning into me as we began to walk up the sand and over the dune. “I’m an adult now. I don’t want to wait. I want you.”
If it was bliss I felt earlier while, holding her on the sandy shore, it was boundless joy to hear that.
“You’ve been eighteen for less than seven hours,” I teased.
Her fist playfully punched my gut.
The groan that escaped my lips was real.
Stopping by the door, I pulled her in front of me. Her fingers gripped the hoodie at my back, her blue gaze shimmered as she stared up at me with shy excitement. Madonna, she was innocent. Eager and intoxicating. Was I a monster for wanting her? My life lay with the underworld.
What if I carve a different future?
I was already headed to college on a football scholarship. I didn’t have to become a Made Man.
“I love you, my sweet, beautiful flower,” I confessed in Italian.
“I know,” she responded.
“If we do this, there will be no one else for me.”
At my declaration, Amanda stilled. “That’s a heavy vow. I won’t hold you to it.”
I shook my head. “Forever.”
“Per sempre,” she repeated.
We opened the cottage door, and I let her pull me upstairs to the cozy little bedroom where we let our bodies write that confession in our souls.