Chapter Five
Gabriel
Seeing the fire in someone’s eyes is life changing.
I have hurt people as they begged me to stop. I have killed men who wept about forgiveness for their sins. Their cries, the pleading, the absolute dimming of the light within them let me know I was doing them a favor. To see the fight, the fire in someone’s eyes as they fight for their life, for their freedom, for their dreams, is brand new for me.
Gianna stares up at me with fire in her beautiful eyes. A fire that others want to put out. A fire that I will not allow anyone to dim. Not her father, not Marconi, and not even me. I care about nothing else now. Protecting her, and that fire, that fight, that spirit, is all that matters to me.
Because if there are still beautiful creatures out there in the world, others with the same fire she has, the world can’t be that bad a place, can it? Even if there is bad in it, it is not all bad. I am holding onto that for all I am worth. If it is true, it means the things I have done, things I might still do, were not for nothing. I cannot erase the evil I’ve done but perhaps it was a necessary evil.
If it means taking down entire families, an entire syndicate, to keep that fire in her eyes, then so be it.
“Your eyes have saved me,” I whisper to her, brushing her dark hair back from her face. “I wasn’t sure until this moment. I thought it that night. You looked at me and....princess, my entire world shifted. It began the moment you walked into that room in that pretty princess dress with this fire in your eyes. Fire to live, to dream, to be free.”
“I said I was a princess,” she flushes, bowing her head. “What a silly little girl thing to say.”
“You can be my princess,” I husk, tipping her head back so I can stare into those beautiful, magical eyes. “I would give you a castle, a fortress, a crown of diamonds and gold. Whatever you wanted would be yours.”
“I....no, no, I am not allowed to want things.”
“Wrong. They cannot take your dreams or your want away, Gianna. I just won’t allow it. What do you want? Right this moment?”
Her teeth come out to bite at her full bottom lip. Fire simmers in her eyes again. I have her settled on my lap and we both realize it at the same time. I am hard as stone with her plump ass sitting on my cock.
“I... I don’t know...”
Tugging at her lip with my thumb, I grin at her. “Liar. You do know. I see it in those pretty eyes. Anything you want, I will give it to you.”
For a heartbeat, the air sizzles between us. I fear she will ask me to let her go. I would. I would not just let her go, I would set her free. Not just from me. From all the men trying to dim her fire, trying to reduce her to nothing more than a pawn in their dirty game.
“Gabriel,” she whispers my name as if testing it out. “I want to be free. Not...not free of you. Or free of this,” she hums, pressing her hand to my chest where my heart gallops beneath her touch. “This is the first thing I have let myself want. I just...can...could you make me feel free? Could you....”
Trailing off, she slides back on my lap a little. I frown before I watch her thighs fall open. Heat rockets through me as if I were a live wire struck by the want in her eyes. My little princess wants to feel free, and she has an idea of how she can feel that way. A way that I can make her feel what no one else ever has before. Or ever will again.
“Yes, baby, I can do that. Come here, come close to me. I need to taste you first. I have thought about this pretty little mouth for days.”
“Yes,” she pants, clawing at my chest now, wiggling her ass on my lap. I smack her ass and she whimpers before I crush my lips to hers.
There was a time I thought I had life figured out. I knew who I was, knew what I was doing, where I was going. That was before I tasted this sweet woman. Before I felt her soft body trembling against mine, tangled my tongue with her eager one as she opened her mouth to me. Now I know nothing else, want nothing else than to figure out how to please her, how to give her the entire world if she wants it.
“Please,” she cries, rocking side to side on my lap, her sneakers thumping against the door.
Reaching down, I take them off, tossing them to the floor. Sliding my hand up her thigh, I ease it beneath her skirt. God, I love how much she loves to wear little skirts or pretty dresses. She loves to be feminine this way. My fingers hook her tiny cotton panties and I groan.
“Oh, my little princess,” I growl, pushing the soaked fabric out of my way. “You got this pretty little pussy so wet for me, yeah? Does me kissing your pretty mouth make you wet? Or was it when I spanked your little ass? Do you want me to touch this soaked pussy, or do you want me to punish you for thinking you could run from me?”
“Yes, yes, I want.... I want it, please,” she moans, her hips rocking as I stroke two fingers over her soaked slit.
“That’s good, baby. Tell me what you need. Oh, yes, there it is, that’s what you need,” I growl as I push two fingers inside her, her hot, silkiness sucking greedily at me. I pump them a few times and she whimpers the sweetest, hottest little sound I have ever heard.
“Oh....oh, please,” she gasps, her eyes molten as they lock on mine.
“No, no, I don’t think you need this,” I taunt, pulling my fingers out of her. Those eyes of hers go wild as she bucks her hips, shaking her head. I turn her so she is laid across my lap, pulling her panties down her thighs.
“Gabriel...no, no....oh, god!” Her loud shout as I spank her bare ass makes my dick drip with need. I smack her again, again, turning each round, perfect cheek bright red. With her still laid prone, I shove my fingers back inside of her, smirking at the satisfied little moan she gives me.
“Such a greedy girl. I don’t think greedy girls get what they want. No, good girls do. Not greedy, needy little princesses.”
“Please!” She demands as she turns to stare back at me.
Grasping her chin in rough hands, I bend her back at an angle. Smacking her ass twice more, I feel her moans before I hear them. I press my mouth to hers, but it is not a kiss. My breath is rattling in my lungs, my chest is heaving. I want to make our situation very, very clear to her.
“I am a bad man, baby. Worse than your father or that fuck Marconi. I am a man others fear. If I want something, I take it, no matter the destruction I leave in my path. I would tap dance on any motherfucker who got in my way. Danced on a few heads to get here. Do you understand?”
“Yes. Yes, Gabriel, I understand.”
“Good. Then you understand that running my borough, being the head of one of the five families, it is all I know, all I have worked for most of my life. Understand this, princess,” my fingers hold her chin still, our gazes locked, as I let her in on what’s going to happen next. “I would kill for my mother, for my sister, for my armies. For you...for you, Gianna, I would set the world on fucking fire. I would slow dance with you on the burning ash of the empire I have spent my life building. Do you understand me?”
“Yes. I understand,” a flush heats her cheeks as her eyes shimmer.
“You understand that if another man touches you, I will cut off his hand. If he talks to you out of pocket, I will slice his fucking tongue out. If another man even thought about you as anything but mine, I would end him. That includes your father. Marconi. I would kill them both right in front of you if they thought for one single moment, I would let them have you.”
Gianna’s head lifts, her spine stiffening. Good. It shows me that she does understand. This woman has been mine since the moment she walked in the room at her engagement party. We might as well have announced our intention to take our vows. Because she will be my bride, the mother to my children, the woman at my side, bar nothing. No one will stop this. Not her father, not Santino Marconi, not even her.
God himself could not stop us happening.
“Gabriel,” she whimpers my name as her big eyes search mine. “You said you would set me free. This is how you do it? You said I had a choice.”
“You have a choice, princess. I swore to you. What is your choice?”
Gianna bites her lip again as she gazes up at me. It is her way of being coy. Her way of toying with me. My princess is a kitten with a new toy. I am her ball of string, and she wants to bat me about a bit. I will allow it. Because I would do anything she asked of me. I told her I would give her a crown if she wanted one—I meant she was the queen of my entire fucking universe.
“Gabriel,” her voice is throaty, raw, her body trembling. “Please.”
Nodding because I know just what she needs, I smack her ass three more times. When my fingers shove back inside her, she is dripping, soaking my fingers as I work her little pussy. It’s so tight, two of my fingers barely fit. I groan at the idea of stuffing my thick cock in that hot tightness, letting her virgin princess pussy choke the life out of me.
“Nod your head that you understand me. You never let another man touch you,” her head nods and I reward her with another swat at her juicy ass. “You never listen to what another man demands of you,” another nod has my cock jerking in my slacks. “You call me if you’re needy. No one else,” her third nod has me grunting as her pussy clamps down tight on my fingers as she starts to come hard. “Only I get to taste, to touch, to fuck this sweet princess pussy,” her final nod has my cock shooting in my thousand-dollar suit, but I don’t care.
“Gabriel!” her voice echoes loudly in the car as she comes, her body shaking with her orgasm as she writhes on my lap.
Swinging her up to sit on my lap again, I cradle her close. I even rock her a little as she cuddles against me, humming softly as she trembles with aftershocks. I comb my fingers through her thick hair, kissing her temple as she lets out a little sound, her breath warm against my neck.
“My sweet Princessa,” I hum, tilting her head back so I can look into those pretty eyes.
Gianna grins up at me with the sweetest, widest smile I have ever seen. In this moment, she is at peace. Safe with me, trusting me to take care of her. I want the moment to last as long as it can. I have to send her back to her father for a little bit longer, but I meant all the things I said to her.
Gianna will never be Santino Marconi’s bride. No, she will take my last name as soon as I get a ring on her pretty finger. She will have my children, be protected at my compound, and rule my kingdom at my side. I will give her everything, I will protect her with my own life, and she will never know the fear, the unease, the control she has known for so long.
“Where were you running to earlier, baby?”
Ducking her head sheepishly, she flushes. God, she is adorable. “To the pier. They never let me go anywhere alone. I just want to listen to the waves, smell the salty air, put my feet in the sand.”
“Then you will. I will take you there now. All I care about is making your dreams, big or small, come true, Gianna.”
Those sparkling eyes blink up at me. Looking for lies. “Why? Why me? We might have met for the first time at the party, but I have heard of you. All of Silver Shores has heard of you. My father or Marconi think they’re big bad bosses. Everyone knows you’re the real boss here, that all of Silver Shores is yours. Why would you bother with me, if you can have anything?”
“Oh, baby,” I hum, cradling her face in trembling hands. “Don’t you see? You, Gianna, you are everything. The first spark of life I have seen in so long. I crave that. I crave you. You have stayed strong, sweet, so damn good, despite all they have done to you. You are everything, Gianna. You will be my everything. My princess. My fucking queen.”
Gianna whimpers and pushes closer, fitting her sweet mouth to mine. I crush her to me, licking at her sweet mouth, tasting her want, her need. I need too, I want too, but first I have to show her I mean my words. All the other men in her life have taken from her. I want to be the man who gives to her.
We make out like teenagers who snuck out for a forbidden tryst. When we get to the waterfront, she is panting, flushed, her eyes wild with need. I think I will need to make her come at least once more before I send her home. At the shore, she hesitates for just a moment, as if I am going to take back my promise. I suspect others have done this before, and I make a note to hurt them for ever hurting such a sweet thing.
“It’s so beautiful here. It reminds me that living is worth it,” she hums as we walk along the shore, her cute little toes wiggling in the damp sand. Her eyes watch the waves crash in, the very embodiment of life. It never stops, it never gives up, just the way she continues to fight, to dream her dreams.
“Tell me another dream, princess,” I whisper as I bring our tangled hands to my lips, kissing each fingertip, the palm of her hand, her wrist.
“Do not laugh at me,” she pleads, sliding me a cute look. “I would love going on a hot air balloon. I bet Silver Shores is so pretty from up there.”
Turning her head as we crest some dunes, she sighs as she gazes out over Silver Shores. There is such wonder in her eyes. It is another reason I am drawn to her. Much of my life has been darkened by violence, greed, and vulgarity. Seeing such purity, such softness still exists has changed me.
“I bet it would be pretty,” I agree, watching her eyes sparkle. “Silver Shores is a lovely place, even with men like me running much of it.”
“You’re different than them,” she insists, turning to face me, her little hand coming to trace my brow, my cheek, my lips. Emotion hits me as fast, as heavy as the waves crashing at the sandy shore.
“I wish that were true. I know I am a bad man, baby. I just don’t care.”
“You do care,” she whispers gently, pressing closer as if she can share some of her goodness with me. Perhaps she can. It might be why I want her so badly. To absolve myself of my own darkness. “You’re the first person to ask about my dreams. About what I want. That proves it, Gabriel.”
“Ah, my sweet princess. I care about everything about you. It is new for me. I never cared about anything before. Not this way. It is you who is different, Gianna. Without even trying you have changed me.”
Gianna beams, pushing up on her toes to nuzzle my nose with hers. It is such an adorable act, so sweet, so innocent, I just have to laugh. Then I taste her tongue licking shyly at my lips and I groan. Once again, we’re lost in a kiss, the waves crashing at our feet as we kiss hungrily, fervently, greedily.
We stay on the beach until the sun sets on the horizon. I am sure her father or even her fiancé wonder where she is. Neither of us care. I hate that I have to send her back to her father, but I cannot take her with me just yet. I need to be cautious. I must be certain no one will get hurt.
If I must, I will go to war for her—and I pity any man who would ever try to keep her from me.