Chapter 35
GIO
Sunlight splinters in through the slice of my curtains as the most breathtaking woman wakes up across my chest, her head tucked between my shoulder and my neck, her body clearly satiated from last night.
She’s sighing, unable to erase the satisfied smile on her lips as I stroke the back of her head.
“How’d you sleep?” My voice is gruff.
Both of us are naked, skin to skin, and it’s the closest I’ve felt to anyone in my entire life.
“Your bed is comfortable enough.” A teasing smile lines her mouth.
“You mean our bed.” I tilt her face up with one finger under her chin. “It’s going to be yours when you marry me.”
She raises her head and props it on her chin. “You know, with all those rumors about you, it’s hard to believe you’re the same man.”
“That’s because I’m not the same,” I easily admit. “I’ve been a different man since the moment you pierced those sharp claws into my back and refused to let go.”
The back of her fingers trace over the stubble of my jaw. “You make it kinda hard to let you go, Giovanni.”
I jerk my head. “Wait a minute.”
I quickly flip her onto her back, and she squeals when I start to tickle her ribs.
“Did you just admit you like me?”
She laughs, trying to push me off. “Never said that!”
Her laughter grows, making my heart beat right out of my chest. I shake my head.
“You ever going to just say it?” I still, my heart beating ferociously the more I stare into the serenity of her gaze.
“Say what?”
“How I really make you feel?”
All amusement slowly dissipates from her face.
With a sigh, she clasps my cheek. “Fine. But I will only say this once and probably never again.”
My pulse slams into my ears.
“Do go on, Your Highness.” I grin.
“Oh, God…” She shuts her eyes for a moment.
“I can’t believe I’m doing this, but here goes.
” She clears her throat and stares back at me.
“Ever since my mother died, and then after what Sergey did to me, I hated getting close to people. I had my family, Kora, and that had always been enough. But now…”
Silence stretches, and my God, my heart is gonna cut in two if she doesn’t say more.
“But now, the very thought of never being close to you again kills me. Imagining you in bed with someone else, loving someone…it physically hurts, Gio.” Her voice lowers as she picks up my hand and places it in the middle of her chest. “It hurts right here, and I don’t know what to do with that.”
I stare, the magnitude of what she just said overwhelming me.
“Are you going to say something?” she asks. “Or are you going to just stare at me and make me feel like an asshole for confessing all of that? Because I’ll have you know I’ve never said that to any man before.”
With a groan, I grab her jaw and kiss her hard before I stare back at her.
“You don’t know what that meant to me, bambina.” I drop my forehead to hers. “Your heart is safe with me,” I whisper across her lips. “Is mine safe with you?”
She lets out a sigh, but she doesn’t say a word, and that fucking terrifies me.
I palm her forehead, circling my hips between her soft thighs. My shaft is rock hard, wanting to be welcomed home, needing that connection between us.
She flattens her hands around my back, nails piercing into my muscle. And without taking my eyes off hers, I thrust inside her with one quick move, going slower than last night, driving inside her until I’m all the way in.
I stay that way, still, wrapped in her warmth and heat as I gaze down into her eyes, gently stroking the back of my hand across the pale softness of her cheek. “You feel too good, bambina.”
“Faster,” she begs, curving her hips upward.
My palm clasps around her throat, her pulse beating frantically against my fingertips.
“Spread those thighs wider,” I demand, and she instantly complies, letting me deeper inside her.
I drop my mouth to hers, kissing her slow, the passion and raw need seeping from my lips. And the way she makes me feel, no one ever has and no one ever will. It’s something different, something earth-shattering and something completely ours.
My hand reaches down, stroking her clit between our sweat-ridden bodies.
She groans, her walls gripping me tight, her body ready to let go. And I don’t stop. I take everything, her sounds of pleasure around my tongue, her insatiable body mine to please.
And with her eyes on mine, I watch as she falls apart, wave after wave, all mine for the taking.
I follow her there too, spilling inside her, wanting this feeling to last for eternity.
ISEULT
I’ve never felt more alive than I do whenever I’m in his arms—a man who has seen me at my worst.
Yet he’s still here, wanting me. Looking at me like I’m his entire universe.
The ring glistens on my finger, and I can’t believe I said yes. It was reckless and stupid, but it felt right. Mom would be happy. She’d like him. I’m sure of it. I bet he’d make her laugh.
His words ring in my head. I’m falling in love with you, he said. And though I felt that all-consuming feeling to say it back, I just couldn’t.
Because what the hell do I know about love?
His large, powerful hand is fastened around my back while I’m cradled against his beating heart, feeling the magnitude of my emotions reflected in his wild heartbeats.
“What are you thinking about?” he asks, tilting back to look at me.
Can a man be both beautiful and fierce all at once? Like a giant mountain that terrifies you, yet makes you awestruck.
“Just thinking how unfortunate it is that I’ll have to be stuck with you for the rest of my life,” I quip.
“My God, woman,” he chuckles. “Can’t even be nice to me after I just made love to you?”
My heart skips a beat.
Made love.
Not fucked.
He made love to me.
That’s what he said.
Emotions I can’t name drift through my body like I’m drowning in a flood I can’t breathe through, see through—like it’s too much, yet not enough.
He made love to me.
Yet if I’m being honest, I already knew it. Felt it when he was inside me, taking bits of my soul.
A lazy smirk greets his sinful mouth. “No one has ever made love to you before, have they?”
I shake my head, unable to pacify my shallow breaths.
“It’s a good thing you’ll be stuck with me for the rest of your life, then,” he adds, his gaze filled with intensity. “Because even though I enjoy fucking you like I hate you, I much prefer making love to you like I don’t.”
And before I can even wrap my head around what he just said, he palms my cheek and presses me onto his chest, leaving a kiss on the top of my head.
With my feelings overtaking me completely, I curl my fingers around him, hoping my father accepts that I may be falling in love for the very first time.
“Ugh,” I groan as my phone rings, loud and annoying.
I don’t want to get up. I’m content with staying in his bed forever, not wanting to move to see who’s calling. He tightens his arm around me.
The cell stops, but seconds later, the irritating sound continues.
“I have to get that…” I stretch my arm and feel for the phone on top of his nightstand.
As soon as it is in my hand, I maneuver out of Gio’s grasp and see that it’s my father calling. My pulse pounds, as though he can somehow find out where I am. It’s still very early in the morning, and he doesn’t normally call about work-related things until at least after lunch.
Worry echoes through my mind as I answer.
“Hello?” I yawn. “Is everything okay?”
“No,” he fires. “Where are you?”
My heartbeats thrash. He sounds enraged.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, immediately jumping to my feet while Gio sits up against the pillows, rubbing his face, the muscles in his triceps straining.
“I asked you a question. Where are you?” His tone is a sharp bite, sending a chill down my arms.
“At my apartment in the city. It was easier to go there after the wedding than drive back home. Tell me what’s going on.”
“I need you home immediately.”
“This can’t wait until tomorrow?” I ask, gauging the seriousness of the matter.
“It cannot. I’ll be waiting.” Then the line goes dead.
I stare at the cell in my hand, unable to make sense of why he sounded that way.
“What’s going on?” Gio moves to sit beside me. “What did he say?”
I shrug, my heart hammering. “That he needs to see me immediately.” I glance at him, before peering back down at my phone. “I have to go home.”
“Text me as soon as you get there,” he tells me.
“That’s usually my line.”
He clasps a palm around my jaw. “Well, now it’s mine.”
“Sit. Now.” My father’s glare hardens as I pull a chair and take a seat across his desk.
As soon as I walked into his house, I felt this instant dread hit my gut. The home was silent, except for the foot soldiers who instructed me that my father was already waiting for me.
He rocks back and forth on the swivel chair and eyes me with something heavy and unspoken.
My fingers brush over my bare ring finger, grateful I remembered to take off my engagement ring before I walked inside. It’s currently in my glove compartment, and I’m paranoid I’m going to lose it.
“So, are you going to tell me what’s going on?”
He pulls himself toward the desk, elbows hitting the wood with a thump.
“How long?” he asks through gritted teeth.
“What?” My expression twists, my eyes leveled to his.
“Don’t play me for a fool, darling.”
I scoff. “I’m too tired for guessing games, Dad.” My arms cross over my chest. “Just tell me what I did to piss you off this time.”
He balls a hand until his knuckles pale. “How long have you been screwing around with Gio?”
All air leaves my lungs.
How the hell did he find out?
“You’re just going to sit there and deny it?”
A cold, brutal chill rushes up my back.
I tilt up my face and shrug, so tired of hiding. I don’t want to hide anymore.
“You know what? I’m not. Gio and I are together.” I throw one leg over the other while his eyes turn to slits.
“How dare you? He’s your sister’s fiancé! How could you bring such shame upon our family?” Rage and disappointment battle for space on his features.
I hate seeing him look at me with shame. “How did you find out?”