Chapter 33
NICOLETTE
He holds my gaze with such intensity, I shudder. But I don’t make a move to go to him, sitting there, rooted in place.
Because I don’t know. I don’t know if he still wants me. If he’ll choose me after everything.
She’s alive. His wife. And that has always meant something to him. An unbreakable bond.
She clings to him, telling him how sorry she is. How badly she wanted to be with him, but his father wanted her dead.
“I’m so glad you found me,” she weeps. “I thought I’d die here. I thought she’d kill me.” Her hands tighten around his shoulders. “Your father ruined my entire life. He made me sleep with him. I swear I didn’t want to, Raph.”
She gazes up at him, but he looks past her, his posture tense. Stiff. His eyes haven’t left mine. He traps me in his striking gaze. His shoulders rising with shallow breaths.
My heartbeats quicken.
A chill rushes up the back of my neck.
“Are you listening, Raph?” She places a hand against his cheek. “Your father was blackmailing me.”
But I don’t think he’s even listening.
He pushes her off, gradually treading closer. Then he’s rushing to me while my pulse quickens and my heart expands.
Slowly, he reaches a hand for mine.
“Come here,” he says in his cool, commanding tone as he hoists me up, looking me up and down like he’s checking me for wounds.
“What the hell are you doing?” Bianca shrieks, appearing beside him and gripping an arm around his bicep.
“Shut up,” he tells her, the words whipping out harshly.
He looks so broken, utterly broken, as those eyes search mine.
“Tesoro mio…never leave me again,” he whispers with untamable emotions.
The back of his hand brushes down my cheek and my heart skips a beat. He grips my jaw with a possessive hold, and a small cry escapes from my lips. He’s here. He saved me just like I wished he would.
“God, I missed you so much,” he says with such fervor, hope blooms within me. It’s vibrant and optimistic.
But will he finally choose me?
“You missed me?” My question comes out almost silently, and his mouth immediately pulls up.
“Of course, I did.” His thumb strokes my chin. “What did you think? That her being alive would change something?”
“I thought you’d believe her,” I breathe, tears filling the rims of my eyes. “I thought you’d want her back.”
“I’d never want her. Nor would I ever choose her over you, Nicolette. Don’t you realize it by now?” He cups my face between his hands.
“Realize what?” The words fall out so quietly, like I’m afraid to dream that this could finally be happening.
“That I’m in love with you.”
He loves me? My heartbeats quicken to an unruly pace. I can’t seem to say a word, unsure if this is real or if I’m somehow dead and dreaming.
“You’re the only one for me. You always were.”
Thud.
Thud.
“No! You don’t mean that!” Bianca screams.
But Raph only continues. “I’m done living in fear. I refuse to run from the only truth I’ve ever known.”
“What truth is that?” My breath stills in my lungs.
“That you’ve always been the one.” His lips press to the corner of my mouth so tenderly, I feel it in all parts of me. “That I love you with my whole heart. I always have.”
He says the words I’ve been dying to hear for so long. A raw ache pounds at my chest. But no longer from pain or sorrow. From utter and complete joy. Because for the very first time, someone truly loves me, and I’ve never felt anything more incredible.
“I know I can’t change the past,” he goes on. “But I can change the future. And there’s no future without you in it. Not for me.”
“What are you saying?” I ask with a tear-stricken voice, needing to hear it again. And again.
“I’m saying I’m yours, just as much as you’re mine.” He brushes his lips against my own. “I’m saying that you’re my home, and I never truly had one until you.”
“I never had one either.” Fresh tears well in my eyes and drip down my face.
“Then we make one in each other,” he breathes. “The way it was supposed to be.”
“Do you really mean that?”
“With everything I have.”
Then he kisses me, like there’s no one here but the both of us, like he needs me just as much as I need him. His hands glide up my back, twining in my hair, and he groans when my tongue meets his.
“No!” Bianca screams. “Get the hell off her, you asshole! I’m your wife! Me!”
But we continue to ignore her, and he only kisses me harder.
“You slut!” she shouts. “Don’t you touch him!”
With a low growl, he separates from me and pivots toward her. “If you call her a name again, I’ll cut out your tongue.”
Her eyes widen in sheer terror.
With a satisfied grin, he curls an arm around my hips. I wince from the cut to my left forearm she gave me. I don’t even know how bad it is with the hoodie still on me.
He shifts to examine me from top to bottom. “Are you hurt?”
Quiet, simmering rage etches deep in his gaze, like the very thought of my pain, pains him even more.
I shrug. “A cut on the arm. I’ll be okay.” I force a smile.
He grinds his jaw, eyes turning into golden flames. “She hurt you?”
I nod, and he faces her once more.
“I’m gonna kill you slowly, Bianca, just for hurting what’s mine. You’ll never hurt her again.”
Every word is laced with a meaningful threat. I’d be terrified if I were her. And by the look on her face—eyes practically falling out—she is.
“Take her,” he instructs the men with a tilt of his chin.
I hadn’t even realized Gio and Michael were here too, standing beside the men, guns at their waistbands.
“What?” Bianca pants. “No.” She shakes her head. “You can’t do this, Raph. I’m your wife!”
Two men grab her arms as he chuckles coldly.
“You’re no wife of mine. Our marriage was over way before you decided to spread your legs for my father.”
The men drag her out of the room, kicking and screaming. And the sounds of her shouting fall into the distance until they disappear for good.
But we stopped listening as soon as she left the room, our eyes only knowing each other. Everyone else steps out and leaves us.
His hands come to rest around my face once more, and his smile is painted with sorrow. “I’m sorry she hurt you. I’m sorry for all of this. It’s all my damn fault.”
“It’s not, Raph.” I clasp the side of his neck, his pulse ravaging beneath my fingertips. “You did nothing but come and save me. No one ever saved me. Not until you came along.”
“You’ll never be alone again, little one.” His eyes grow tender. “I’ll always be here, whether you need me or not. No one will come between us anymore, and I’ll prove that to you every single moment we spend together.”
A smile touches my lips, and I say what I have wanted to say for years now. I say the three words that have lived in my heart in silence. But now, I no longer have to keep them to myself.
“I love you too, Raph Marino. I always have and I always will.”
And with a satisfied groan rumbling deep in his chest, he smashes his lips to mine, and it’s as though the universe has shifted into place. The colors are brighter. The world more beautiful.
He growls as he sucks my tongue into his mouth, his hands traveling up and down my back, gripping my ass, the fingers of his free hand lacing through my hair, fisting it in his palm.
My Lord, can this man kiss. But it’s more like a possession.
A claim to my body and soul. Marking me for the rest of eternity.
Breathlessly, we both separate, staring at one another with hunger and lust and unspeakable devotion. I feel it and see it there in his eyes.
“My God, Nicolette. I thought I lost you for good…” Emotions clog his throat.
“And the mere thought of never seeing you, never holding you, never being able to tell you I love you, it almost destroyed me.” He pauses and brushes his lips with mine.
“I’ve loved you for years, and I want to love you for the rest of my life,” he swears. “If you’ll have me.”
“I’ll always have you, Raph Marino. I don’t quite know how not to.”
Then he kisses me again, and I don’t really know how long this one lasts.