Chapter 40 #2
When Ida is busy people watching, I feel Dante looking at me.
There's so much desire in his eyes, and it's all for me.
The new pink dress I changed into has a corset top that exaggerates my curves.
He takes his time checking me out, letting his eyes wander down every inch of me before landing on my lips.
Need builds inside me like a dormant volcano.
Everything inside me comes alive, blooming under his dark gaze.
"Excuse me, I need to go to the ladies' room," I say, standing up.
I feel Dante's eyes on me as I walk away. A moment later, I feel someone following me. I push the door open to the restroom and glance behind me, expecting to see Dante. But it's another woman.
I smile at her politely, but there's something strange about her. She's speaking with someone on the phone, and she's standing way too close to me.
And when the door closes behind her, she locks it.
My intuition screams at me to run.
"Actually, I left something outside,” I say, trying to get past her.
The lady raises her eyebrows at me. She doesn't step out of my way.
"Yeah, she's right here," she says into the phone. And then she hands it to me. "Your mother wants to speak with you."
My blood turns to ice. I forget how to breathe.
I want to scream for Dante, but the phone is thrust in front of my face. I take the phone from her and place it to my ear. I take a deep breath.
"Mother?" I say.
"Dearie," a soft voice croons. "It's been too long. Haven't you missed me?"
It's her. It's really her.
The familiar dread starts to sneak up on me, but I make myself remember that everything is different now.
I'm different now.
"What do you want?" I ask, my voice sounding stronger than I currently feel.
"That's no way to speak to your mother," she snaps. "I heard you found someone who wanted to marry you. I never thought I'd see the day."
Her words still cut me, but it's not as deep as it used to be.
"We're in love," I say. "He's a good man. He'll do anything to protect me."
"Isn't that lovely?" she replies. "But the real question is, would you do the same for him?"
The woman standing before me retrieves a second phone. She shows me footage of the inside of the bar. It shows Dante and Ida huddled together as they speak. Seated in a booth directly behind them are two men, one of whom has a concealed gun pointed directly at Dante.
"I wish it didn't have to be this way, but you've left me with no choice," my mother says. "You always needed a little nudge to do the right thing. I have people everywhere. If you don't return to me in the next twenty-four hours, you're going to wake up with a dead man next to you."
I start hyperventilating at the very thought of something happening to Dante or his sister.
"Mother, please," I say.
I try to bargain with her, but like always, it falls on deaf ears.
"I'm in Rome," she says. "Zoe will give you the details of my hotel. I hope you make the right choice before it's too late."
"Mother, wait—" But she cuts the call before I can finish my sentence.
My head fills with white noise as Zoe writes down an address for me on a piece of paper. She folds it and pushes it into my palm before leaving. I'm alone in the bathroom now, completely at the mercy of my racing thoughts.
Everything was going so well.
Things were finally starting to make sense. I found something so beautiful. I don't want to let go of it just yet.
But my mother always keeps her promises.
If she says she'll hurt him, she will.
I have no other option. I have to go back to my mother.
When I return to our table, I pretend I didn't receive news that shattered my world.
I pretend everything's normal as we head back to the beach. I smile as Ida and I take photos together. I pretend to enjoy the glorious sunset.
Dante watches me, but he doesn't say anything. It's only when we return to our bedroom at midnight that he holds my wrist and asks me the question I know is coming.
"Are you okay?" he asks.
I don't have the words in me tonight. I don't know how to say goodbye to a person who has become so important to me. So I don't.
"I had a really nice time today," I say to him. "Thank you."
"I did, too," he says. "But why have you been acting strange all evening?”
I wrap my arms around him. It's the middle of the night. We're illuminated by the moonlight. I want to whisper my secret to him. I want him to tell me that it will all be okay.
But again, I can't find the words.
My mother's threat holds me back.
"Can you kiss me?" I ask. Because it might be the last time you ever kiss me.
His fingers slide into my hair. He tugs on my strands and makes me meet his burning gaze.
"I know I've been caught up with so many things lately, but you are my number one priority, Grace," he says. "Family is everything to me, and there's not a single thing I wouldn't do for you. If there's something I've done that you're not happy with, I want you to tell me.”
"You're perfect," I whisper. "I love you, Dante. So much that it feels like agony."
He lifts me into his strong arms and takes me to our king-sized bed. It's the same bed where we made love countless times. It's the same bed where we made all of my favorite memories. And he doesn't know it yet, but this will be the last time.
Leaving him will be my last act of love.
Everybody underestimates my mother, but I never did. I know exactly what she's capable of.
Dante looms over me now, his large, muscular frame blocking out everything else. He leans down and brushes his lips against mine, lighting fire to every single nerve ending inside me. It makes me forget about the past. It makes me forget about the things to come.
All that exists is his lips on mine.
He growls approvingly when I spread my thighs for him, letting his hardness settle against my pussy.
"My good girl," he praises. "You always know how to make me feel good."
I arch into him, letting him plant open-mouthed kisses all over my breasts. When he wraps his lips and sucks on my hard nipples, I melt into him.
"So fucking sweet for Daddy," he says, pushing his hand inside my panties.
"You're going to get me into trouble, little girl.
And I wouldn't even care because this tight little pussy feels so good wrapped around my cock.
You're so soft and sweet underneath me, watching me with those innocent brown eyes as you let me take what I need from you. "
"It's all for you," I say.
"Damn right it is," he says, replacing his fingers with his hard cock. He pushes his hard length inside me, muttering curses about how tight I am. And when he's fully seated inside me, he kisses me.
I can feel his cock pulsing inside me as he swirls his tongue inside my mouth.
“You make me so fucking hard, baby girl,” he says. “You looked so fucking pretty today in that little pink dress. I wanted to drag you into the water and suck on your big tits. I wanted to take you in the water until you screamed my name into the night.”
"This is my favorite part of the day," I tell him, moaning as he thrusts into me while holding my hips down to the bed. "I like it when you visit me in the middle of the night to play with me. I like it when it's just the two of us."
"I like it too, little girl," he says, palming my breasts. "I like it a little too much. That's why I keep coming back even after I tell myself it's the last time. I can't stay away."
I see blinding lights every time he bottoms out inside me.
"You've gotten me addicted to this sweet pussy," he says. "And I'll be craving it for the rest of my life now. I'm the only man you spread these thighs for. I'm the only man who gets to come inside this princess pussy."
"Okay, Daddy," I whisper.
He takes a pillow and places it under my lower back. When he enters me again, I feel him even deeper inside me. The tip of his cock brushes a spot deep inside me, the friction making my toes curl.
"All. Fucking. Mine." He punctuates each word with a crude thrust of his hips. His eyes are fixated on my breasts, watching the way they bounce for him.
"Yours," I say. "I'm all yours, Daddy."
He crowds my thighs apart even wider before folding me in half, using me like I'm a toy designed just for his pleasure.
"My pretty princess," he says. "Such an innocent face, but this curvy little body is made to serve me."
He hooks his arms underneath my knees and presses his chest against mine while he takes what he needs from me. He buries his face in the crook of my neck, nipping the delicate flesh.
It's all so overwhelming that I throw my head back.
The room is still dark, but I see our reflection in a full-length mirror. And I'm so fixated by how we look together.
He follows my gaze.
"If anyone were to walk in on us, they'd think I was taking you against your will," he says. "You're so tiny pinned underneath me with my big cock inside you. You look trapped, little bird. Like you have no choice but to let me breed you."
My walls clench involuntarily. I'm not sure why, but I like the idea of him having all the power over me.
He watches me curiously.
"You would like that, wouldn't you?" he asks. "Do you want Daddy to tie you up just so he can do whatever he needs to your ripe little body?"
He pulls out and positions me on my hands and knees. He presses down on my shoulder blades until I'm face down on the mattress. Then he enters me so violently that I see double.
"Does it turn you on knowing that you can't escape even if you wanted to?" he asks. "It's like Beauty and the Beast. You're a pretty little princess. I'm the monster who just can’t resist you. I can’t rest until I feel your tightness squeezing down on me.”
The desire he elicits inside me feels like live electricity.
He pins me completely to the bed now, his large hand enclosing my wrists over my head.
"You're inside the monster's den now, little girl," he says. "The only way to get out now is by begging for every drop of my come and then taking it inside you like a good little girl."
I nearly come right there.
My nipples bead into painful peaks, scraping against the bedsheets as he takes me.
"Go on, little girl," he says. "Beg."
"Please, Daddy," I say. "Please fill me up with your come."
“Only because you asked so nicely," he says, leaning over me and wrapping his arm around my hip. He brushes my clit with his rough fingers, enticing me to come for him. "Go ahead, princess. I want to feel you clenching all around me as you receive it.”
He goes for broke now, bottoming out inside me and making his heavy balls slap against my ass.
I can’t help it. I implode.
He buries his cock even deeper inside me, stretching me out as he comes right against the walls of my cervix. I feel his release inside me. I feel the satisfaction rolling off his body. I feel his adoration in the way he wraps his arms around me.
For a blissful second, I don't remember anything else.
And then it all comes crashing back.