Chapter 33 Massimo
MASSIMO
After I went by Filippa’s hospital to talk about Katarina’s results, I answered Giada’s call.
“Finally, you pick up. Didn’t you see that you have a hundred missed calls from me?”
“Yes I did, but I had somewhere to be before I called you back. I had to find someone I’d lost in the mess that was the end of Hallow Hall.
Someone important.” Not to mention that Paolo had been calling me nonstop to report on Katarina’s movements, including the fact that she’d decided to smash up the bedroom. I hurried back at that news.
Giada was quiet for a moment, and then I could hear the smile in her voice. “I told her you’d find her. I was so right.”
“You told her what? You’ve spoken to her?” I asked, confused. I came to a stop in the street.
“Mm-hmm, yes, I have. She called me . . . well, someone close to me called for her.”
“Tell me everything,” I demanded.
Once her story was over, I stood at the side of the road watching cars pass, turning the road to gray slush. It was cold, but I couldn’t feel it. The inevitability of fate felt like it was closing in on all sides.
Katarina had run into Renato De Sanctis’s sister-in-law? It was almost enough to make a believer out of me.
“I told her you’d find her, and you did.”
“She knew me? I mean, she was looking for me? When was this?”
“Bright and early yesterday morning. Why? Is she not looking for you anymore?”
“No. She’s not. She doesn’t know me. They’ve done something to her.” I fought to keep my anger calm. They were dead. They got what they deserved.
“Shit, really? What are you going to do with her?” Giada asked.
“I married her.”
“What?” Giada’s voice exploded over the line. “Why? You married her, as in it’s already done? You just told me that she doesn’t know you . . .”
“She was asleep for the ceremony. I’ll tell her all about it when she’s feeling back to herself.”
“Why wouldn’t you just wait?” Giada said, exasperated.
“Because she’s mine, and it’s time everyone knew it. We won’t be parted again,” I told her resolutely.
She was quiet for a long moment and then whistled softly. “So, you’re like in love with her . . . or obsessed . . .”
“Both. She won’t be taken from me again.”
“Okay, okay, I’m not trying to take her anywhere, jeez. Lucy is panicking about where she went.”
“Tell her that everything is fine,” I commanded.
Giada chuckled. “Sure it is, she’s just married to some lunatic she doesn’t know. Absolutely fine.”
I cast my eyes toward the sky, thinking of my angel in my room right now, worn out from breaking things, safe and sound in my house.
“She knows me. She knows me like no one ever has. Soon, she’ll remember that.”
“You hope,” Giada added.
“I know.”
She sighed. “Take it from someone who had a few memory problems a little while back. There’s nothing scarier than some big, terrifying guy telling you he’s your husband when you don’t recognize him. Take it easy with her. Make sure she’s better before you tell her.”
“I will. Don’t worry. Her well-being is my topmost priority. Also, I need you to find someone’s address for me. A doctor from Hallow Hall. He goes by Blackwood and seems to be the real deal as far as I can tell.”
“First name?”
“You need one? I thought you were the best at this,” I reminded her.
She scoffed. “I am the best, and that cheek is going to cost you extra.”
“Bill me, just find his address.”
“Okay, okay, I’ll call you later.”
Giada hung up, and I climbed into my car at the curb.
Blackwood had driven Katarina away from Hallow Hall before I could leave and find her again.
He’d obviously helped to keep her drugged.
The kind of shit they were giving her wasn’t over-the-counter stuff.
There had to be a real doctor in the mix somewhere.
So Blackwood needed a little visit. I had questions, and revenge to exact. My angel’s story didn’t quite add up, and I needed answers. I’d present his severed head to Katarina as a wedding present if she seemed so inclined.
Good idea, I congratulated myself, and turned the car toward home.
I came into the kitchen of the townhouse just as Paolo set a tray with coffee and cakes on the island.
“I’ll take this upstairs,” I said, picking up the tray.
“Are you sure she wants to see you?” Paolo hurried after me. “I made some headway earlier, if you want to leave it to me.”
He bumped into my back when I stopped abruptly.
“As touching as your concern is, I can handle my wife. Don’t worry.”
“Your wife?” he nearly squeaked. “She never mentioned . . .”
“She doesn’t know yet.”
I had the pleasure of striking Paolo speechless as I headed upstairs.
I climbed the endless stairs slowly, tugged upward by the pull of Katarina. I’d be able to find her in the dark, with my eyes closed . . . something inside drew me toward her whatever chance it got. A little red line of fate connected us both.
I reached the door and set the tray on the console table across the hall before taking my key from my pocket and fitting it into the lock.
I turned it quietly, hoping I wouldn’t wake her if she’d been sleeping.
“Rise and shine, micetta. Paolo made snacks.”
The curtains were closed, keeping out the late-afternoon sunlight, the room shrouded in gloom. I peered through the darkness toward the bed. The covers were rumpled and tossed around . . . but the bed was empty.
I stepped farther into the room to find her, then I felt it.
A sharp sensation at my neck. Something piercing pressed against my throat.
“So, you’re awake,” I drawled.
She was silent, refusing to even give me her voice.
“Hungry yet? I brought you something to eat.”
“Your man locked me up in here,” she said just behind me.
Something that had been clenched tight the entire time we were apart relaxed at the sound of her voice.
I nodded. “For your own safety. I can’t take the risk that you leave here and run away before you remember everything.”
“He locked me up in here—alone.” Her voice was low, and she was clearly hurt.
Her words sank through me. Fuck. I’d ordered for her to be locked up, just like the men in Hallow Hall had.
Last night, I’d known it would hurt her to be locked up alone, and that’s why I’d stayed by her side.
Today, I’d been distracted with wanting answers, and Paolo had carried out my wishes a little too enthusiastically.
I turned, and the sharp object pressed harder into my skin, but the pain didn’t register.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for that to happen,” I told her slowly.
“You locked me up, Mass. Took away my choices. Controlled me.”
Mass?
I twisted my head to see her, needing to look into her eyes to see if what I hoped was true really was.
She stared up at me, her eyes accusing. The glare was hard to meet, and yet, at the same time, precious. Because she knew me. She really knew me.
“I didn’t know what to do—I’m sorry,” I admitted.
She sighed, her shoulders falling from their position up around her ears. Her hand dropped to her side, and the shard fell to the floor with a small smash.
Her face twisted slightly, her lips drawing together, and her eyes filled with tears.
“I got lost again,” she whispered, so quietly I almost couldn’t make her words out. “I got so lost in the dark again—alone.”
“You’re not lost anymore. You’ll never be lost again, and you’re not alone anymore. From now on, it’s you and me. I’ll never leave you alone in the dark again.”
A tear ran down her cheek, and then a sob that she was trying to fight slipped out. The sound was like an accusation, and I knew in that moment that I’d never let this woman cry again. She’d cried a lifetime’s worth, and she was finished with that. I’d make sure of it.
“I thought you’d gotten hurt in the fire. I thought you might have died,” she confessed, tears running freely down her cheeks now.
She started forward, and I opened my arms to catch her.
She hugged me around the middle, throwing herself into my arms, and I let her momentum spin us around, clutching her tightly to me.
Breathe. Now I could breathe again for the first time in days.
I pressed my face into her hair and inhaled deeply, filling my lungs with her. She was here. She knew me. Not alone, not anymore.
“I was so confused . . . I couldn’t remember you, but I knew I’d forgotten something important,” she muttered against my chest. She raised her head and looked at me. “It was you. The feeling that I’d forgotten something vitally important . . . It was you.”
The space where my heart used to be burned. Fuck, it hurt. Finding a kindred soul after a lifetime of loneliness wasn’t a small feat. For a man like me, it was a miracle. I was unlovable, and yet . . . she loved me.
I couldn’t put any of that into words. All I could do was show her how much I’d missed her.
I leaned in and kissed her, and she kissed me back. Her hunger stole my heart even more. Soon there’d be nothing left of me, and only her inside me.
I pulled her more firmly into my arms and turned us around, kicking the door shut and heading for the bed. I carried her to the edge and then sank down on it, holding her carefully so she wouldn’t fall.
I settled my weight just off her, so she wouldn’t be crushed, and then deepened the kiss. My tongue sliding along hers, my hand cupping her jaw, then circling her neck. Thrusting against her soft, pliable body, needing more. Always more. I needed all of it. Every single inch of her.
My hands moved to her clothes. An old sweater of mine, and her panties.
In seconds, they were on the floor. My own clothes followed.
Her eyes widened as I lowered my naked body over hers.
Her hard nipples pushed into my chest, and I could feel her heat between her legs, so fucking close it was all I could do not to sink inside her that very second.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Taking another of my firsts,” I continued, sliding my hand down from her neck, between her breasts, and over her hips, and stroking her cunt. “First time I fuck you in my bed . . . our bed.”
She shivered, biting her lip and trying not to cry out. My cock poked at the soft skin of her inner thighs as I ground myself on her. Her knee rose, and I guided it around my hips. I angled my aching cock just right and nudged inside.
It was like hitting a damn wall. She was so tight.
“Fuck,” I let out in a rush.
“I don’t think that’s going to fit this time,” she murmured, and then laughed.
She fucking laughed, while my cock poked at her tight little entrance and my body was desperate to be joined with hers.
My heart skipped a fucking beat. That was what she did to me.
My chest loosened with a chuckle, and I shifted to my side, slipping a hand down her body to her cunt.
“Hmm, it isn’t, is it? My fault for skipping to the main course when I haven’t even had my appetizer yet.” I traced my fingers down her slit and moved suddenly, shifting to kneel before her. I pressed her knees to the bed, pinning her open.
She watched me with heated eyes. I leaned in and licked her.
Her cunt was even sweeter than I remembered.
I licked her from clit to ass and back again.
I inched a finger inside and added another.
She thrust her hips into my invasion. Needing more, I nosed through the wet curls covering her mound and burrowed through her slick folds to her clit.
I licked and sucked circles around that precious little bundle of nerves, and her wetness coated my hands.
I added a third finger, and her breath hitched.
She was getting there. I tongue-fucked her while she writhed beneath me, and when she came, her cunt spasming around my fingers, clenching tightly, I leaned up, moved across her, and pushed inside.
I kissed her deeply, holding her face in my hands like the priceless thing it was, and sank in deep, to the hilt.
She cried out on my lips. I’d only been inside her once before, which wasn’t nearly enough to make it easier for her to take me.
“I’m sorry, angel. I’m sorry,” I murmured, letting her adjust to my size.
I was sunk deep, and her muscles clenched like crazy around me. Maybe I was pushing her too quickly after everything that had happened. She wasn’t relaxed like she’d been that first time in the chapel.
Her nails were deep in my back, and when her eyes met mine, they were blazing.
“I’m sorry to hurt you—”
“Don’t stop,” she interrupted me to whisper.
When I didn’t move, surprised by her words, she spoke again.
“I said don’t stop,” she demanded.
I pulled out a few inches then sank back in, and pleasure shot down my spine. Holy fuck. I wouldn’t last long inside my angel. She had not only destroyed my sanity, but she’d also dismantled my self-control.
She shook under me, and I gathered her close, my heart against hers.
“I got so lost,” she murmured. “I missed you. When I thought you were hurt, my heart broke, and I didn’t think there was enough of it left to do that anymore.”
I shook my head, emotions crowding in and filling it. Tender and sweet things I’d never felt before. Precious feelings I had given up on experiencing in my miserable life.
“I will find you every single time you feel lost. I will never let you go. How they ever thought they could tame you, I have no idea. You are so much stronger and braver than they could ever conceive.”
My hips were pounding her now, and I was close.
I needed to come, to mark this woman and fill her up.
We weren’t using protection, and there was only a slim chance that she was on birth control.
What if she got pregnant? Good. Then it would be harder for her to ever leave.
That damn devil in my head was satisfied.
It would be harder for her to stop loving me if she was tied to me by a child .
. . or three. I wanted her pregnant with my child, wearing my ring, in my bed, on my lap, at my table, all around me, all the time.
A fresh start to have a real family, and they would be loved. I’d die before they ever doubted that.
She had changed me, from the inside out. I wasn’t the same because of her. I never would be again. A light in the darkness.
“You shine,” I whispered on her skin, and changed my angle to hit her clit with my pelvic bone.
She cried out, stiffening, her nails biting deeper, but I didn’t stop.
I didn’t slow even a moment and showed no mercy, because she’d shown me none. She’d stormed my heart and claimed it before I’d even realized I still had one.
When she came again, her whole body jerked. She got impossibly tight, so tight I couldn’t even thrust anymore. Instead, her cunt squeezed along my cock and milked my fucking orgasm right out of me, drawing it ruthlessly from my balls.
I couldn’t have stopped it if I’d tried.