Chapter 10
ALEX
Three Days Later
“It’s over,” Matteo says down the phone. “I’ll send you the rest of your cash from your liquidated assets over the coming weeks. But the war’s done, boss.”
“And I’m done,” I say, nodding with satisfaction as I look over the rolling glistening landscape of my vineyard flecked with moonlight.
“Are you sure?”
Beside me, Bella is humming as she works. Dragging her paintbrush over the canvas, biting her lip in concentration. These past three days have been hectic. I’ve spent every second either on the phone or in the village, decimating the Russians.
But now it’s over.
A deal with the Bratva to make them back off in place—finally—a deal they were forced to take because they were losing the war.
I’m tired down to my bones. But also energized. After every day, I came home thinking Bella might’ve left. Lost her nerve. But in the brief moments we’ve been able to spend together, I’ve felt our love. Felt it bloom. Our connection. Deeper than any words or surface-level bonding could ever be.
Our love goes past our skin. Past our lips and our breaths and past our sex, even. It’s fate-sent, destiny-tinged, marked with a purpose no regular couple could ever understand. It’s us, just us, only us.
“Boss?” Matt says.
“I’ve never been more sure about anything,” I tell him, hanging up.
I walk up behind Bella. Gently touch her shoulders. She shivers, letting out a soft moan. She looks at me over her shoulder, hair cascading down her bare back. She’s wearing an open dress. Showing her shoulder blades, her creamy skin.
“What do you think?” she asks.
“Beautiful,” I tell her.
She laughs, flashes a look up at me. “I was talking about the painting … Daddy.”
Fuck.
We haven’t had sex for three days. I tried on the first day, but she said she wanted to wait until this was over. I respected her decision. She deserves respect. Always.
“The painting is incredible,” I tell her honestly. “You’ve made the vineyard look like something out of a dream.”
“It is a dream,” she murmurs. “On this balcony, with you, with nothing but the stars and the moon watching us … don’t you think it feels like a dream, Daddy?”
My pole aches. Pushes against my pants. My heart thunders against my chest.
“I was going to take you for a romantic meal, Bella.”
There’s something I need to ask you.
She arches her back against my touch. Lets out a high-pitched breath. “Daddy should know by now that nothing’s simple with us. We can be romantic and dirty.”
I take her by the arms, haul her to her feet. She gasps in a way that tells me exactly what I need to know. I shove her against the balcony railing, push my rail against her thick ass through her thin dress.
“Every single night,” I growl, “you’ve been waiting for me. For this. In the safe room, locked away so nobody can touch you, you’ve been thinking about this. Maybe my horny little girl even touched her slick slit, hmm? Maybe my excited girl couldn’t help herself.”
She pushes against the railing. Grinds her ample sexy ass up and down my crotch. I let out a trembling growl. Wrap my arm around her body and slip my hand into her dress. Find her nipple already pricked hard for me. Already horny as fuck.
“Alex,” she moans. “Fuh-fuck.”
“Don’t you mean Daddy?” I snarl. “I know you’ve been making yourself wild for me. Making your na?ve little pussy wet every night thinking of me. Out there waging a war for you. For us. For our future.”
“I know Daddy would do anything for me.”
“I need to fuck you raw. No goddamn ceremony. Claim your hole and empty inside of you. Right now. How’s that for romantic?” Remembering something she told me, “Are we an Instalove story? Is this instant enough for your romantic side?”
“Maybe I don’t want romantic right now, Daddy. Maybe I want whatever the fuck you want.”
That pulls something loose in me. With an animal grunt I glide my hand up her thick thighs and find her underwear. Yank them down fast, watch obsessively as her curvy calves step out of the pooled fabric.
I yank my pants down. Let my cock spring up. My end is already soaked with precum. My shaft already throbbing with tension.
She bends forward and arches her back. Presents her pussy to me.
I take a shuddering step. Stare down in awe as moonlight bounces off her pink swollen glistening pussy. She looks at me over her shoulder. Eyebrows bowed. A challenge on her beautiful face.
“What’s Daddy waiting for, huh?”
There’s no ceremony this time. No gentleness.
We’re both too hungry from three days of holding back our primal instincts. Three days of fighting and wanting and starvation.
I push all the way into the hilt. She’s soaked. Dripping like she’s been plucking her perfect pussy for three days.
I groan as I hold myself inside of her. One hand playing with her tit, pleasing her nipple, massaging it as I make circles inside of her.
“Daddy wants to take you hard, this time” I growl in her ear.
“Daddy will be gentle again, next time, Bella. Daddy will spend hours nibbling your clit and your lips and fucking your hole with my tongue. But right now, Daddy needs to use your tight hole. Daddy needs to fuck you until you cream down your legs and milk cum from me.”
“Do it.” She gasps.
“Say what you know I need to hear.”
“Fuck me, Daddy. Hard, Daddy. Ruin me, Daddy.”
I grip the handholds between her belly and her legs. Slide out. Then pull her against me as I push in. My balls slap against her clit. She moans, clenching her thighs tightly around me.
No fucking way …
I can already feel her tunnel pulsing. Her orgasm crashing into her.
“You really have been driving yourself fucking crazy.”
“Daddy, Daddy, Daddy—”
It doesn’t take long for both of us to lose our minds. Hell, maybe we did that the moment we laid eyes on each other. But, if wanting her makes me crazy, then consider me goddamn institutionalized.
I pump my thick shaft quickly inside of her. Fill up my horny girl’s pussy until I’m straining at her walls. She screams into the night, bucking wildly on my dick, until juices seep down her thighs in shimmering rivulets.
“My—girl’s—pussy—is—so—tight,” I growl.
“Just for Daddy,” she whimpers. “Only … for … Duh-Duh—”
She collapses against the railing. Her thighs and her ass tremble.
Her pussy clenches me even harder. She can’t move her body as the second orgasm hits her.
It’s the shocks of the release making her shudder.
And my hands on her, pulling and pushing, as the tension at the end of my cock becomes an unstoppable flame.
“Fuck!” I roar.
Cum rushes up my shaft. Erupts out of my end and floods into her as her walls pulse around me. Drawing out every last drop of my release like it’s her life force.
After, I smooth my hands to her chest. Wrap my arms around her. Kiss the back of her neck.
“I love you, Bella,” I whisper. “So much.”
She reaches up. Touches my face. Her voice is croaky with pleasure and emotion. “I love you too.”
I drive her to dinner on the top of the tallest hill on my land. A ring of fairy lights surround a table with a bottle of champagne resting in a bucket, candles flickering on the table. She takes my hand and steps from my car.
My mouth waters as I look at her. And not from the prospect of a meal.
Her hair flows wildly down her back. Wearing a subtle layer of makeup that highlights her natural beauty. Her dress is modest but has sexy hints that drive me feral, a slit up the side showing a slice of thigh.
It’s the look in her eyes that gets me the most, though. The glint of belonging. The emotion flooding her expression every time we make serious eye contact at each other. It’s like something ancient inside her is speaking to the ancient something in me.
“Why do I get the feeling you’re thinking about fate again?” she says, grabbing my shirt and pulling herself close.
I cradle her back. Splay my fingers so I can feel her warmth and pull her against me.
“I was born into a shitty life, beautiful,” I tell her.
“I know,” she murmurs softly.
I’ve told her about my parents’ deaths. About what the Russian mob did, prompting me to join the Italians. To climb the ranks and try to make it right.
“And I’ll be here to talk with you about it, to hear you” she whispers. “Always.”
“Thank you,” I say, brushing my lips against hers. “But I wasn’t trying to be a downer. My point is … I never thought I’d have this, Bella. I never even tried. It always felt hollow. Even the idea of it. Then you came along. You transformed me.”
She slides her hand to the back of my neck. Clings on like she never wants to let go.
“Alex?” she whimpers.
She knows. I can see it.
Tonight is about more than a meal.
“I was going to wait until after dinner,” I say. “But I can’t wait anymore. This new life of ours, Bella Hart, it’s a canvas. And I’m ready to paint something amazing. Something beautiful. I’m ready to paint a miracle with you.”
She gasps, hand flying to her mouth, when I lower myself to one knee. Reach into my suit jacket and take out a ring box. Open it and show her a big glistening diamond set within a white-gold band, every bit as elegant and full as she is.
“Will you marry me?”
“Yes!” she cries. “Oh my God, yes!”
I slide the ring onto her finger. Jump up and pull the love of my life into my arms. Spin her into a kiss that would fit on a movie poster about true love.
She smiles breathlessly up at me. “One thing.”
“Yeah?”
“How are we going to get dinner all the way up here?”
I grin, reach into my pocket and take out my phone.
“What are you in the mood for? For a starter, say.”
She smiles. “Uh, garlic bread?”
“Garlic bread it is.”
I type a few buttons on my phone. Then loop my arm around her and walk her to the edge of the hill.
“What are we waiting for?” she asks.
“You’ll see.”
A few minutes later, the whir-whir-whir of the drone comes over the hills.
She giggles in delight. “Are you serious? No way! Drone delivery?”
I kiss her on the cheek. Hold her tighter. “Nothing is too much for you, Bella. Not now. Not ever.”