Chapter 39
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Siobhán
T he heatwave broke overnight, and a warm breeze wafted through the trees surrounding Birch Pond. I closed my eyes and turned my face up. I needed its gentle touch, something to calm my nerves while I waited at Luca’s front door.
I barely slept the night before, even with Anna and Sophie curled up next to me, rattled from the attack and Vinnie’s off-hand comment about who he suspected kidnapped Vito and Gina. My knotted stomach forced me to graduate from Tums to Maalox, and the morning sickness didn’t help. I was exhausted and queasy, but I needed to know that Luca was okay. And break the news that I was leaving. Better to tell him now. Delaying the inevitable would only make our separation more painful.
The deadbolt clicked, and the door opened. Luca stood in the foyer wearing basketball shorts, a sleeveless undershirt, and a surprised smile.
“Siobhán,” he said, breathless. “I wasn’t expecting you.”
He looked past me, and I glanced over my shoulder to where Paulie leaned against the hood of Marco’s Range Rover. Marco still had me under lockdown, but I wasn’t complaining. My nerves were shot. Luca lifted his chin, and Paulie did the same.
“I was going to call,” he said, “but I thought I should let you rest. You mentioned morning sickness.” His smile turned sheepish, almost nervous.
“I know. Sorry for the pop in. I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
His shoulders relaxed, and he ushered me inside. “Fully healed. Thanks to you.”
I kicked off my sandals and looked at him with an impish smile. “No shoes.”
He wrapped an arm around my waist. “Come here,” he said and pulled me into him. He kissed me passionately, furiously, love and relief pouring out through each caress of his lips and swipe of his tongue. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him back with equal fervor.
He broke the kiss and rested his forehead against mine. “I’m so glad you’re here.” The hope and love radiating from his smile warmed and broke my heart.
His hair was half pulled up, and loose strands framed his handsome face. I pushed them aside with my fingernails and brushed my thumb across a creamy yellow smudge at the top of his cheekbone near his left temple. “What’s this?”
He glanced over his shoulder, hesitating. “I wanted to surprise you when it was finished, but since you’re here…” He took my hand and led me upstairs.
Halfway up, I registered the smell of wet paint. It got stronger as we walked down the hall. The door to the room across from the master had always been closed, but now classical violin emanated through the half-opened door.
An old boom box was perched on top of a metal ladder. Plastic sheeting covered the floor and was meticulously secured in place with blue painter’s tape. The windows were thrown open, their frames taped like wrapped presents, and natural light shone in without any curtains or blinds to stop it. The soft yellow paint gleamed as fresh and bright as rays of sunshine in what had always felt like such a dark world.
“Do you like the color?” he asked, eager and hopeful. “I know we don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl, but I looked online, and every baby website said yellow and green work for both.”
My throat constricted, and tears welled. He was building a nursery. For our baby.
“Kinda perfect timing,” he said. “I just finished the second coat.”
I couldn’t tell if the ache in my chest was my heart exploding with love or shattering because I was about to break his. A tear escaped, and I swallowed back the sob attempting to break free.
“Hey, don’t cry.” He brushed the backs of his fingers across my cheek. “We can always change the color,” he said with a crooked smile. “I know it’s premature, but I wanted to show you how much having a family means to me and that if you decide to keep the baby, I’ll make a home for us.”
“No, it’s—” I shook my head. “I love the color.” I couldn’t bring myself to say what needed to be said.
“Good.” He took my hand—“I want to show you something”—and led me to the closet where a glass of water and a picture frame sat on a small utility table. He picked up the frame. “These are my parents.” Luca said the words with purposeful strength. As though he’d uncovered something deeply buried and wanted to share it with the world.
The polaroid inside the frame was old and discolored, but the grainy image couldn’t hide the joy in the faces of the two people it captured. An older version of Luca looked down at a woman who smiled into the camera. The love in his eyes reached across the years and grabbed my heart. Luca was there in the woman’s face as well—lips as full as his, the same pouty shape and rosy color, and matching chocolate-brown hair.
“This is my mother Lucia and my father Antonio—Tony. They didn’t get to live here together, but that’s what they wanted for a time. To be a family. To build a family in this house.” He looked at me. “This room was supposed to be a surprise.”
I traced my finger over the glass, over the parents he’d lost, the family he so desperately wanted but had been taken from him when he was a child. And there I was, about to take that from him again. Take myself and our child away from him, because I was too scared to stay and fight for my safety. Because I was too scared to admit that I wasn’t really safe anywhere.
Worse, I was about to create the same situation Luca and I had endured as children. If I took our child away from Luca so I could have my false sense of security, I’d be no better than my own parents. I’d just be creating a different brand of our fucked-up childhoods. Was I strong enough to break the cycle?
Luca set the picture on the table and rubbed the back of his neck. “Kinda doing things all backward, huh?”
I let out a nervous chuckle. “That’s kind of our MO.”
He took my hands. “Do you like it?”
“It’s lovely, Luca.”
He examined my face, and the smile left his lips. “But…”
“But I’m scared,” I said. He pressed his lips together and worry replaced the hope in his eyes. “Not of you. Not of the whole blood demon thing.” I shook my head. “I can’t believe I just said that, but it’s true. Anna explained a lot last night, and even though I have questions, I understand, and I’m not scared. But what happened yesterday… That’s what I was talking about when I said I’m not safe in this world. And it’s not just about me anymore. I have to think of our baby. I want to move back to Ireland.”
He stiffened and squeezed my hands. “I’ll protect us. I’ll do whatever I need to do to keep us safe.”
“You say that now, but who knows what could happen? Someone has Gina right now.”
“And we’re going to get her back,” he said with steely resolve, eyes sparking. “Not to mention, you need me, Siobhán. You need my blood and my venom.”
“I know. Dr. Levine explained that part to me. Paulie took me to see him this morning before I came here.”
“What? Why didn’t you call me? I would have gone with you. What did he say? Is the baby okay? Are you okay?”
“Luca.” I placed a hand on his chest and smiled. “I’m fine. We’re both healthy. He said the baby’s heartbeat is strong and everything looks totally normal.”
His shoulders relaxed, and he shuttered his eyes. “Grazie a Dio.”
“But he also said I could use a—a Source for blood and venom if I needed to. He said he’d connect me with a doctor in London who works with blood demons and—and that’s a quick flight from Cork. He’ll help me find a Source to get me through this pregnancy.”
Luca’s eyes flared red. He curled his top lip, and his fangs elongated to vicious points. “Absolutely not!”
“You don’t run my life, Luca Moretti,” I snapped, my own temper kicking in. “If I want to move back to Ireland, you better believe that’s what I’m going to do.”
“I’m not talking about moving to Ireland,” he growled. “I’m talking about you drinking from another blood demon. I’m talking about letting another man feed from you. Absolutely. Fucking. Not.” He grabbed my shoulders. “You are mine, Siobhán Connelly. Do you hear me? If you want to move to Ireland, I’ll buy a fucking Celtics hat and move with you, but after all the shit we’ve been through, there’s no fucking way I’m letting you go.”
My breath caught, and if I hadn’t known it was impossible, I’d have sworn my heart stopped beating. “You’d leave Boston?”
“Are you kidding?” His lips pinched, and his eyebrows drew together. “Gimme a sec.” He darted out of the room.
Was this really happening? When was the other shoe going to drop? When was Luca going to crush my heart again? It was coming. It had to be coming.
He marched back into the room, determination etched in the lines of his face. “This is not how any of this was supposed to go,” he said and licked his lips. “Our first time together, the pregnancy, the nursery, this…”
He lifted his hand, and between his thumb and index finger, a delicate gold band embedded with a row of rubies as deep a crimson as the specks of fire in his eyes glinted in the sunlight. And Luca Moretti—consummate playboy, breaker of hearts, Romeo to my Juliet—got down on one knee and looked up at me with expectation, hope, and so much love, the world around us faded into background and fate finally had its way.
“Something shifted the day I saw you in the lobby at Terme. I don’t believe in all that fate stuff, but something about that moment…” He shook his head. “It sent a boulder hurtling down a mountain, and it didn’t matter how many times I tried to change its course, nothing was going to stop that boulder. Nothing could stop our destiny, Siobhán. We were meant to be.
“I wasted so much time trying to purge my heart of pain with revenge, when all I needed was to let myself love you. And as soon as I did, the pain stopped. I’m finally free, and it’s because of you. Nothing will ever be more important to me than loving you.”
Tears spilled down my cheeks. I ran my fingernails along the edge of his hair, tucking it behind his ear, unable to imagine how we’d finally arrived at a destination that evaded us for so long.
“We’ve both been searching for family our entire lives. That’s all either of us has ever wanted. And we finally have it, Siobhán. Right here. This is our family. You, me, and our little miracle. I don’t ever want to let that go. I will fight every day to make sure we don’t lose this, and if that means I need to move to Ireland, I’ll move to Ireland. I own a house in Roma. If you think you can grow your career there, we’ll go there. We’ll go wherever you want to go, because wherever you are, that’s where I want to be. Because you’re my family.” He lifted the ring. “If you’ll have me.”
I stared down at the man I’d loved for so long, the man I’d lost more times than I could count, the man who held up a ring and whose voice trembled with hope and no small amount of fear, his entire future waiting on my answer.
Despite everything, Luca Moretti was the only man who’d seen the real me, and he’d done things for me not for his own gain, but because they meant something to me. He’d learned who I was, what I needed and what I wanted, without help or prodding, just to make me happy. He was ready to uproot his life, move away from his job, his foster parents, and his community so I’d feel safe and could pursue my career. There was no qualification to the sincerity in his eyes. No hesitation. Just an earnest desire to give us what we’d longed for our entire lives—family. Luca and Siobhán’s happy ever after.
The ring glinted between his thick fingers, fine and delicate and perfectly me. “It’s beautiful,” I said, dazed and breathless.
“It was my mother’s.” His voice shook through the declaration. “Or it was supposed to be. It’s a bond ring. My father bought it for her, but they never bonded in blood. When I moved back to Boston and we unpacked the house, Gina recognized it.” His lips bent in a crooked smile. “She helped him pick it out. She asked what I wanted to do with it, if I wanted to sell it. And I remember…” His eyebrows knit together. “I remember thinking I needed to hold on to it. That, for some reason, it was important for me to hold on to it. I never understood why. I do now. This ring was meant for you, Siobhán. It was always meant for you.”
He took my left hand and widened his eyes, asking permission, not only for us to bond but for us to put the pain and loneliness behind us and create a new future. Together.
He wanted to be my family. Someone who’d take care of me and who’d always think of me first. Someone who I could lean on to help shoulder life’s burdens. Someone who loved me as much as I loved him.
“Yes,” I said, nodding like a fool. “Yes. To everything. To you. To our family. To this house.”
His eyes widened.
“Yes, to this house!” Something between a laugh and a sob sprang from my lungs. Something that sounded a lot like a declaration of freedom. “I want more for our child than what we had. I don’t want to raise them without the support of the people who love us, and those people are here. In Boston. I’m done running, Luca. I want to build a life here. I want this to be our family home.”
He smiled, the genuine smile he reserved just for me, and slid the band onto my ring finger. And like everything else in our fate-filled story, it fit perfectly, as though it really had been made for me.
He brought my finger to his lips and kissed it, then rose and swept me off my feet, cradling me in his arms as he walked across the hall. I wrapped my arms around his neck, and he placed sweet, loving kisses across my cheeks and on the tip of my nose with a lightness I’d never experienced with him before. He’d let love into his heart, and it vanquished the heaviness put there by his quest for revenge.
He set me on my feet next to the bed and traced the outline of my face with his finger, the hint of a happy smile still blessing his full lips. He trailed his finger down my neck to the buttons of my blouse and started to undress me, slowly and reverently taking care of each button, my belt, my slacks, until I stood in my underwear. His eyes flared to match my lingerie—crimson lace.
He ran his finger along the top edge of my bra and lifted his eyes for no more than a heartbeat before tucking his finger under the lace and pulling it down to reveal my nipple. He craned his head, flicked the peak with his tongue, and placed a kiss there. He let go of the fabric, and it fell back into place.
His hands cradled my face, and he lowered his mouth to mine. His kiss was sweet yet sensual, content yet urgent, a combination of the past and present but wholly Luca. I moved my lips and tongue with his, matching every stroke, and knew I made the right decision.
Luca was right. We were right. We may have taken a long and winding path to find our happy ending, but we’d finally arrived. We were home.
He pulled back until his lips hovered over mine. “Do you understand what it means to bond? Did Anna explain it to you?”
“Yes.” I nuzzled his cheek. “She did.”
“We’ll have to move every few decades. You’ll outlive your friends, your family.”
“You’re my family.”
He smiled. “Will you bond with me, Siobhán? Will you drink my blood and be mine for eternity?”
I nodded, emotion clogging my throat. “One lifetime with you would never be enough.”
Fire erupted in his dark eyes. The color swirled in a mesmerizing display as captivating as his handsome face. He pulled off his undershirt and dropped his shorts, his desire visible through his boxers. He picked me up, climbed onto the bed, and settled me across his lap, his back against the headboard.
His lips parted, and his eyeteeth elongated and sharpened into points. The color in his eyes solidified into a steady glow. He’d shared his demons, and now he shared himself, open and bared, and he was beautiful.
He dragged a fang across his wrist, and a slash of blood appeared. I shifted my gaze from the crimson in his expectant eyes to the crimson trailing down his arm. I held his hand and lowered my head.
I ran my tongue over the thick trail of blood, and my body’s reaction surprised me as much as the sweet taste. A force deep within me came alive, urging me to lap up every bit of blood from his arm and drink. My eyes widened and locked with Luca’s. I laid a hand on my belly and searched his face for confirmation. He gave me a knowing smile and nodded. My heart soared, and I fell even more in love with him and our family.
I licked his forearm clean, and every drop of him danced across my tastebuds, rich, metallic, and delicious. My senses climbed, and that force inside me—our baby—grew in contentment, eager for more. I closed my lips over the slash at his wrist and pulled blood into my mouth. He sighed, a satisfied sound, and hardened beneath me. I drank eagerly and thoroughly, each mouthful more fulfilling than the last and each swallow strengthening our bond.
He eased me off his wrist, and I panted from the sensory overload. The caress of wind from the ceiling fan on my exposed skin, the satiny sheets beneath my feet, the brush of his fingertips along my spine. The rich browns in his long hair, the deep red of his eyes, the bright yellow sunlight dappling the verdant foliage outside the window. The rustle of leaves, his breath and mine, the beat of our hearts. Everything was fresh and new, like I was experiencing the world for the first time.
He licked the wound at his wrist, and the red slash faded to a pink line. He brushed his fingertips across my lips and rested his hand on the nape of my neck. “How do you feel?”
“In love. Completely in love.”
“My little shamrock.” He squeezed my neck—“I’m the luckiest man alive”—and pulled me into a kiss.
I ran my fingers over his shoulder and up his neck and pushed them into his hair. I tugged, shifting my weight to the side, and pulled him on top of me. I stretched my arms overhead, and he broke the kiss with a sinful smile that was utterly Luca.
“I still owe you,” he said.
“Hm?”
“I never did return the favor from that night at Vesuvio.” His devilish grin was made all the more wicked by his pointed fangs.
My eyes widened. “I’m not going to argue.”
He chuckled and slid down my body. He hooked his fingers around the top of my panties and pulled the lace down my legs. He tossed them aside, spread my knees wide, and licked his lips like he was preparing to feast. He captured my eyes, and his swirled with red eddies of lust. “Can I feed?” he asked, his voice laced with the same hunger that shone through his eyes.
“Yes,” I said, breathy and excited. My heart beat faster in anticipation of experiencing his fangs inside me again.
“Get ready for the best orgasm of your life,” he said through his signature cocky smirk.
I laughed, and propped myself up on my elbows so I could watch the sexiest man alive pleasure me.
He lowered his mouth between my legs, swept his tongue over my folds, then pressed it between them, licking my crease. I whimpered and squirmed, impatient and ready for more.
A rumbling sound filled the silence, something close to a growl. It grew louder when he circled the tip of his tongue around my entrance, teasing and taunting me before thrusting it into my channel. He squeezed my thighs, forcing me to still, and licked me slowly from my entrance to my clit. He circled it with his tongue, then pulled the bundle of nerves between his lips and sucked.
“Ahh,” I whined, relishing the feel of his mouth on my sex. My legs twitched from the targeted sensation, and I bucked my hips, desperate for more friction, desperate for more Luca.
He lifted his head, and his lips curled back to reveal his fangs. He captured my gaze and without breaking eye contact, followed the same path he traveled with his tongue with one of his fangs, dragging it through my folds from my entrance to my clit. Venom leaked onto sensitive flesh, and the delicious toxin tingled, a warm thrill on top of his heated touch. And when his fang reached my clit, he circled and flicked it with the pointed tip until the sensitive nub was covered with venom and pulsing with desire.
“Unh.” The moan was deep, throaty, and unrestrained. My elbows collapsed beneath me, and my head fell to the bed, the stimulation from Luca’s fang a shock to my unprepared body.
He swirled his tongue over my sex, spreading venom through my folds before performing the same sinful act with his other fang. My pussy clenched, and my muscles seized. Pleasure climbed up my spine, then back down to my fingertips and toes, every nerve ending activated and aroused.
He pushed my knee higher, revealing more of my inner thigh, and trailed his tongue to the top of my leg, only inches from my opening. I lifted my head off the mattress, wanting to see him, wanting to watch what he’d do next.
Luca raised his eyes. His lips curled back, revealing the full extent of his long sharp eyeteeth, and his eyes’ crimson glow flared into a blazing inferno. I gasped, and he plunged his fangs into my flesh.
“Ahh!” I cried out at the shock of pain, but molten pleasure quickly replaced the momentary sting as his venom spread through my bloodstream. He fed his hunger, pulling hard on my artery, and the bite, so close to my core, made my pussy throb with each beat of my heart.
He groaned, and the vibrations sent a shiver skittering across my skin. He ran his fingers up my other leg and pressed his thumb into my entrance, coating it with my wetness and dragging it through my folds. He drank from my thigh, exchanging his venom for my blood, and rubbed my clit. Fireworks burst across my body with every swipe of his thumb.
“Luca,” I breathed. My head rocked from side to side. “Luca!”
My pussy spasmed, the sensations too much too handle, but the venom took away my ability to control, any capacity to hold back. With my heightened senses after drinking his blood, my orgasm consumed me, my body transformed into a conduit of pleasure.
Luca’s thumb never stopped. He sucked harder on my leg, and the continued pressure and venom took my orgasm to new heights. Time froze at the apex of sensation, trapping me in perpetual bliss.
Finally, his thumb slowed. He removed his fangs from my leg and swept his tongue across the bite. I shivered and convulsed. Down and down, I traveled a slow descent, my body shaking and clenching and vibrating until I lay still, satisfied and thrumming in the aftermath of the most powerful orgasm of my life.
Heat from Luca’s body crept up mine until he hovered over me. He kissed me gently, then buried his face in my neck, nuzzling the space he loved below my ear. “Thank you,” he whispered.
I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him close. “Shouldn’t I be the one thanking you?”
His chest rumbled with a low chuckle, and he pressed himself up, a smug grin across his swollen, pouty lips.
“That was amazing,” I said.
“Told you.”
I barked out a laugh and swatted his chest.
“So…” He moved a piece of hair off my forehead. “Am I forgiven for, you know”—he grimaced—“the whole bridge thing?”
I chuckled and shook my head. “Hmm.” I tapped the tip of my fingernail against my teeth. “There is one more thing you could do. If you really wanted to even the score.” I smiled wickedly.
“Oh yeah?”
* * *
I stomped on the clutch and threw the 308 into fifth gear. The engine roared, and the Ferrari leaped forward, pressing me back into the driver’s seat but without so much as a jerk. Smooth as cashew butter.
I shot a smug look to my right.
Luca stared at me in awe. “You really are perfect,” he said.
I stuck the tip of my tongue between my teeth and scrunched my nose.
“I love you so much,” he said, shaking his head like he couldn’t believe this wasn’t a dream. To be fair, I couldn’t either.
“I love you too.” I took my hand off the shifter, grabbed his thigh, and squeezed.
We barreled down the open expanse of Highway 1, nothing but open skies and our future awaiting us. It wouldn’t be easy, and it wouldn’t be safe, but we’d face it together. As a family.