Chapter 39 #2
Zagreus smiles as his thumb pressures the center of my chin, tilting my face up.
“Lawless? I’m a man of order, Mrs. Vitale.
I simply write my own laws when it comes to you.
” He leans down, his lips brushing against the edge of my jaw.
“And right now, the law states you don’t get to look this breathtaking in my clothes without paying a tax. ”
“A tax?”
My voice catches as his hands slide a little higher on my waist. “You’re entirely too greedy, Mr. Vitale.”
“Always.” His mouth traces a slow path up to the lobe of my ear, biting it gently enough to elicit a soft sigh from my lips. “Especially when I’m reminded that you’re entirely mine to consume.”
I anchor my fingers into his hair, intending to push him away, but my hands betray me, tightening in the dark waves instead.
The warmth of him, the safety of his arms after the storm of yesterday makes a sweet ache settle in my chest. But with that warmth comes the agonizing months where I thought this exact closeness was being promised to someone else.
I pull back slightly, forcing him to meet my gaze. His grey eyes are hooded, but I need the truth.
“You’re very bold for a man who was supposed to be at an altar two months ago,” I say.
Zagreus’s jaw tightens, and the playful, seductive air between us instantly shifts into something far more grounded. I expect him to pull away, but his hands flatten against the counter on either side of my hips again, trapping me within his space as his eyes lock onto mine.
“Is that what’s running through that beautiful head of yours?” he asks softly.
“Can you blame me?” I counter as I look down at his bare chest, tracing one of the silver scars with my index finger just to keep from drowning in his stare.
“I heard from someone else, Zagreus, your Mother at that. I thought it was a lie until I saw the announcements on television. I spent days believing I was just a shameful little secret you kept in the dark, while Crystella was the one you were going to present to the world. Why didn’t you tell me?
Why did you let me believe you were going to marry her? ”
He lets out a long breath through his nose; his hands find my waist.
“Because the fewer people who knew the wedding was a trap, the safer you were, Selene,” he answers.
“Novak’s family, the council… they were watching my every move.
If I had changed my behavior toward you, if I had given you even a hint of reassurance, they would have known my allegiance had shifted entirely to you.
They would have used you as leverage to break me before I could take the throne.
I had to make the world believe you were nothing but a passing distraction. ”
My throat tightens as I remember the weeks I spent thinking I was losing him to another woman. “It hurt, Zagreus. Believing I was just the other woman.”
His grip on my waist tightens, pulling me closer until there isn’t a single inch of air between our chests.
“You are my real life,” he growls softly, his grey eyes burning into mine.
“Everything else is just noise I have to silence so I can keep you. My Father saw how obsessed I was with you, and in our world, that’s a weakness.
Neither you nor your Father belonged to the Cosa Nostra.
To win the vote to become the head of the families, the rules demanded I marry into an empire with the same power to secure my alliance.
I had to make everyone believe I was playing by their rules, or they would have targeted you to break me. ”
Understandable. His Father never liked me much, though he was friends with Papa. He often pitied my Father for not having a son but a daughter.
“I need you to understand that I am never letting you go. We are bound, Selene. Forever. I promise you, the moment this war is fully over, when everything is taken care of and the threats are cleared… I will never keep a single thing from you again. My world will be entirely yours.”
Tears prick the corners of my eyes as I lean my forehead against his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart.
“Then open your heart to me, Zagreus,” I whisper against his skin. “Don’t just protect me. Let me inside. Let me protect you too.”
His hand moves up to cup my cheek, his thumb catching a stray tear before it can fall. “I am inside you, Dolcezza. In every way a man can be.”
“I’m serious.” I look up at him. “I need you to know… I haven’t forgiven you for my Father fully. I haven’t forgotten the blood on your hands, and I don’t know if I ever entirely can.”
“I know,” he rasps.
“But I can’t leave you either.” I wrap my arms tightly around his neck, burying my face in his shoulder. “God help me, I love you too much. I am so entirely, miserably in love with you that it makes me feel like a traitor to my own name. But I am yours. I can’t change it.”
He wraps his massive arms around my back, crushing me against his chest. He is just as terrified of losing me as I am of losing myself in him.
“You aren’t a traitor, Selene,” he whispers into my hair. “You’re my anchor. The only good thing left in my soul.”
We hold onto each other for a long minute in the middle of the kitchen, two fractured pieces of a violent world trying to fit together.
When the faint, burning smell breaks the intensity of the moment, I blink, my head snapping toward the stove. “The eggs.”
A startled laugh escapes me as I look over his shoulder at the smoking skillet. “The great Zagreus Vitale, defeated by a breakfast menu.”
He chuckles, turning the stove off with one hand, the other still around me, a glint of mischief shining in his eyes as he whispers, “I suppose we’ll have to find something else to satisfy our hunger.”