Chapter 35 DAN
DAN
She stops fighting me as if giving in to our fate, but her eyes glaze over, staring off as if she can see something beyond the door. Her voice is barely a whisper, fractured and broken. “Don’t wake the baby.”
My chest goes tight, my breath locking in my lungs as realisation dawns.
Her fists clench tight as she feels around, grappling with the wall, her fingertips dragging across the surface as though she’s feeling for something solid to anchor her.
“Rose, I’m here. You’re safe with me.”
I let the torn fabric fall to the floor, my hands trembling as I gather her against me, her body shaking violently in my arms. “Rose?” My voice cracks.
Her hand bangs against the light switch on the wall, bathing the room in harsh light.
My stomach twists at the sight. The scar on her shoulder glints silver in the glow.
But that’s not the only one. No. My breath chokes in my throat as my gaze roams lower.
Ragged, brutal scars hacked across her back like savage brushstrokes.
Like someone carved their fury into her flesh and left her bleeding.
I stumble back a step, as if the sheer horror of it physically knocks me off balance.
She slides down the wall, curling into herself on the floor and crawls to the corner of the room, her arms wrapping tight around her bare chest. Her fists stay clenched, white-knuckled, her whole body trembling as she rocks gently in place.
My warrior reduced to a fragile girl, haunted by a past that’s of my doing. I should have never left. Should have taken her with me away from all this. Should’ve married her the day I took her innocence and moved her to the wives’ quarters. So many should haves.
“Rose.” I drop to my knees, my hands trembling, scared to touch her. I’m helpless, watching the fierce woman I love cower in the corner like a beaten dog. “What the fuck did he do to you?”
A knot of rage burns my insides to ash. Acid coats my tongue. Every muscle in my body screams for vengeance. “This was no accident, Rose.” My voice is low, savage, barely human. I want to tear him limb from limb. I want to end him for every mark, every scar, every scream he stole from her throat.
My gaze locks on her, her glassy, unfocused stare. She’s not here. She’s gone, trapped in some living hell in her mind.
“Rose.” I say again, forcing the crack out of my voice, gazing into her glassy eyes, void of all emotion.
“Don’t wake the baby,” she whispers again.
“Fiore mio.” I cup her face, cradling gently, her skin ice-cold beneath my touch. “Come back to me.”
Her mouth parts as she gazes up at me, then looks around as if getting her bearings.
I let go of her, giving her the space she needs and lean back against a set of drawers. “Nobody’s gonna hurt you again. I promise you. You don’t need to be afraid anymore.”
The spell she was under breaks and it’s like a dam broke as she climbs onto my lap and wraps her arms around my neck. Her body shakes as she silently sobs against my shoulder. And the ice around my heart shatters all over again.
I hold her tight against me, never wanting to let her go.
My fingers trace the scars on her back, feeling every smooth and jagged line.
“Forgive me,” I whisper, praying she will.
Not just for breaking into her bedroom and triggering her trauma, but for everything.
The last time I was here, I left a path of destruction in my wake.
This time I’ll make things right. “Is Angelos safe?”
She nods against my shoulder with a sniffle. Tears stream down her face and I kiss them away.
“Shh.” I stroke her hair and pull a blanket from her bed to wrap around her as I hold her in my arms. “Let me take care of you.” I pepper her face with kisses, then catch sight of her book on the small table.
I reach for it, remembering the well-loved book.
Almost every other page is dog-eared, faded pink pen highlighting her favourite quotes. I read aloud.
“With love’s light wings, did I o’erperch these walls;
For stony limits cannot hold love out,
And what love can do that dares love attempt;
Therefore thy kinsmen are no stop to me.”
She lifts her head, her arms wrapping tighter around my neck. “Will you read more?”
I flick to another one of her dog-eared pages.
“My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.”
We hold each other for a long time as I continue to rub her back and read the highlighted passages in her book until she’s nodding off against my chest.
“Let’s get you into bed.”
She’s so tired, she can barely stand, but she doesn’t need to hold herself up. That’s why I’m here.
I kick off my shoes and drop my trousers, then lift my shirt over my head and slide into the bed next to her. We face each other just like our first time.
“Why do you have Magnus on your phone?” Her voice is barely a whisper.
“Is that why you left?”
“You planned to meet him.”
“He hired me to find you.” I run a hand over my face.
“And you took the job? That’s why you were on the flight?” Her body recoils, but I pull her flush with my chest.
“Yes, I took the fucking job. Because I wanted to throw him off the scent. But that’s not why I was on the flight.
That encounter was pure fate. I met him afterwards.
Figured If he wasn’t hiring me, he’d be hiring some other motherfucker.
” I move the hair from her face. “If anyone is going to hunt you down, it’s me.
Anyone else, I’d have to kill them.” A grin spreads across my face as if I’m joking, but I’m deadly serious. “Why didn’t you just ask me?”
“Because you lie more than Pinocchio. I can’t trust you.”
“I told you, I’ll spend the rest of my life earning your trust, but you have to let me. You can’t go running off. I need to know where you are, Rose.” A sigh leaves my lungs. “I thought he’d taken you.”
“He visited Angelos at school.”
My insides twist. “I should’ve killed him when I had the chance.”
“I’ll never be free of him.”
“Trust me. You will.”
She swipes a finger along the creases in my brow, her warm palm caressing my cheek. “I want to trust you, Dan. I really do.”
“I’ll earn it, Rose. If it’s the last thing I do. I’ll earn your trust.” I gaze into her eyes, trying to convey without words everything I feel. “Are you cold?” I wrap my arms around her, sliding my hands underneath the blanket.
“No.” She lies against my chest. The warmth of her seeps into my skin, and she’s definitely not cold, but she shivers again.
“What is it?” I press a kiss to her lips, needing to hold her, kiss her, show her I am the man she can trust.
“Will you do me a favour?” She gazes into my eyes, hers swollen from tears, sad and whimsical. red bleeding into her blue irises, like blood spilling into her dark pools.
“I’ll do anything for you.” I swipe her fake blonde hair from her face, hungry for the day she can let it grow out to her natural colour. Not because I prefer my brunette, but because it will mean she doesn’t have to hide anymore.
She swallows, her cheeks a deep shade of pink now her makeup’s wearing off. “Will you pretend you love me and make love to me?” She looks away. “I just want to feel like I did that night before everything went to hell.”
I gently graze her cheek with my fingertips, coaxing her face back to mine. A watery film covers her eyes, but the fire’s still there beneath the surface.
“Just for tonight. Just pretend for tonight and make love to me like you did back then. I want to forget everything. Forget all my worries and just be me again.”
I swallow the burning lump rising in the back of my throat. My heart aches as it cracks in two, blood spilling out like molten lava as heat coils around my lungs, making it difficult to breathe.
In one swift motion, I roll her onto her back. I hover above her, drinking in the sight of her. My goddess has never looked so fragile as her eyes plead with me to take her back to that night.
My heavy breaths fall on her lips as our noses kiss. “Fiore mio, I wasn’t pretending back then.” I slip my tongue into her parted mouth, showing her without words how I feel about her.
Her breasts are soft against my calloused palms as I roam a hand all over her skin, silently telling her how much I worship her.
The tip of my cock nudges at her slick entrance. “I wasn’t pretending then, and I’m certainly not pretending now.” I rock my pelvis and push in through her walls with a groan.
She whimpers, the watery glaze in her eyes pooling in the corners and as she blinks, it drips down her temples. “You don't have to lie to me.”
I kiss her tears away. My heart cracks again, spilling out more warmth as it pumps wildly beneath my ribs. “Give me your hand.” I hold her palm against my heart as I pull out of her and push back inside, slow and gentle, but each thrust a promise of my devotion. “You feel that?”
She nods as we both feel the thumps of my heart.
“It beats for you. It’s yours. If I could sever it and give you a piece of me, I would.”
She smiles. Her hand reaches my jaw, her thumb stroking my short beard. “I already have a piece of you.” A small laugh breaks through the sadness like a ray of sunlight breaking through a dark cloud. “He’s just younger, but probably just as cocky.”
I let out a small laugh of my own. “He’s probably cleverer too.”
“Hmm. And maybe a little less annoying.”
“I want to make ten more babies with you.” My cock slides in and out of her with ease, and I don’t want this night to be over, afraid that come the morning, her defences will be up and this intimacy between us will be just another beautiful memory to add to the vault.
“I don’t know if I could cope with ten more of you.” Her smile reaches her eyes, making them shine like diamonds and sapphires, and I already know my mother’s engagement ring is going to look great on her. “Maybe I can handle one more of you.”
My lips curve into a smile. “I’ll settle for one more.
” I kiss her tenderly. Our bodies fused together just like an invisible force has tethered our souls all these years.
I break the kiss and look into her eyes, twirling a lock of her hair around my finger.
“I hope the next one looks like you.” I pepper her face with kisses.
“Long dark hair, piercing blue eyes, ruby lips and sass for days.”
Rose smiles. “She’d be a daddy’s girl.”
“She’d be our girl.”
Her fingertip caresses my temple. “It’s a nice dream, D’Angelo.”
I grind into her, apply pressure to her clit, watching her mouth part with a short inhale of breath. “It’s not a dream. I’m gonna make it happen and we’re all gonna live happily ever after.”
“There are no happy ever afters in my world, Dan. Only happy for now. Sooner or later, everything will come crashing down.”
“The world can go to hell. Me, you and Angelos can get on a plane tomorrow and disappear. Our reality is whatever we make it, Rose.” I pick up speed, my stomach tightening as my balls draw up. “Come for me. I won’t be able to last much longer.”
Her nails scratch the back of my neck. “I’m almost there. Spill inside me. I want to feel you.”
Gazing down into her eyes while she asks me to fill her up has me barrelling to the finish line.
I thrust my hips hard, slapping against the back of her thighs, but keep my control like I did all those years ago, desperate not to hurt her.
A sheen of sweat coats my skin, my entire body on fire as my orgasm sizzles through every cell.
With each rock of my hips, I spill into her, my dick pulsing as she milks my cock.
Rose arches her back with a shallow whimper on her lips.
Her nails claw at my shoulders as she vibrates beneath me, her legs quivering around my hips.
“D’Angelo.” Her voice is nothing but a breathy whisper fanning my cheek.
But my name on her tongue as she comes undone is the best sound in the world.
I kiss her, still rocking into her as we both ride the tsunami of our release.
The words I love you are on the tip of my tongue, but she’s not ready to hear them yet.
I spoke those words before—they just aren’t enough to convey how I feel.
There are no words in the English dictionary that can encompass what I feel for her. I’ll just have to show her.
I roll to the side, but pull her with me, our bodies locked together. Our breaths mingle as we both come down from our high. I swipe the hair from her face and we just gaze into each other’s eyes for a beat too long.
My hand trails down her spine, catching the raised welts and slashes on her skin, and I curse myself for never feeling them or noticing them before now. “Is this why you wouldn't get naked in front of me?”
She nods, hiding her face in the crook of my neck. “It’s a sure way to kill the mood. They look hideous.”
“I don't give a damn what they look like. You're always beautiful to me. My beautiful queen, who's been so strong despite everything you've been through.”
“I got so used to hiding them from Angelos, it's just become habit.”
“You never have to hide anything from me, fiore mio.” I pepper her face with fresh kisses, hoping I can reassure her with my words, my touch, and my devotion.
“You have to go. If my brother finds you here, he’ll kill you.”
“I’m not going anywhere. I’m never leaving you or my son again.”
“But my bro—”
“Shh.” I kiss her lips and it’s full of unspoken promises.
“Tomorrow, I’m going to have a meeting with Elio.
We have some business to discuss. Then we’re going to tell Angelos the truth.
You’re never going to need to hide these scars again.
He’ll know I’m his real dad. I’m not perfect, but I’m no monster.
Then we’re going to go back to England and live a normal life and we’re gonna be fucking happy. ”
“Are you still going to be my gardener?”
“Yes. I’ll be your gardener, chauffeur, chef. Whatever you need. But most importantly, I'm going to be your husband once I've taken care of business.”
“I vowed I'd never marry another man.”
“I won't force you to do anything you don’t want to, but when you're ready to marry again, I hope you choose me.”
She closes her eyes and presses a soft kiss against my lips. “I’ve never heard you speak so reasonably or rationally.”
I quirk a grin. “I can be reasonable. Just don’t choose anyone else or I’ll have to kill them.”
A smile breaks through her weary face. And she snuggles against me, her breathing soft, her heart rate soothing me, and despite everything that’s happened in the last twenty-four hours, I’ve never felt closer to her.