Chapter 45 #2
“I know that,” I whisper, pulse fluttering at the intensity in his eyes and voice, my mouth watering when he pulls his hard cock into his hands and gives it a few good strokes.
Matteo’s mouth curves into something dangerously sinful as he grabs my ankles and drags me to the edge of the bed, hooking my legs over his shoulders.
“Good,” he murmurs against my lips. “Because for the next couple of hours, I plan on fucking you in ways that won’t feel very respectful at all.”
And before I can even reply, I feel him thrusting deep inside of me, my back arching off the bed at how good it feels to finally feel this complete. This whole. This full.
“This is going to be quick and dirty, baby. Promise to make it up to you on the second round.”
“M’kay,” is all I’m able to say in response as Matteo fucks me within an inch of my life.
Neither one of us is surprised when we finally sneak into the small church tucked away in Little Italy nearly three hours later than planned, my body still humming from the way my husband worshipped me back home.
“I won’t be too long,” I say at the door, pressing a kiss to his cheek.
“Take all the time that you need, sweetheart. I’m not going anywhere.”
I let my smile slip free before one of his guards opens the church’s doors for us, though not before Matteo reminds his soldiers to call him if anything feels off.
Like I’ve done so many times these last few months, I walk toward the altar with Matteo close behind me, then kneel before the cross and quietly send out a prayer while my husband’s warmth settles at my back, his fingers absentmindedly playing with my hair.
And like it always does, my heart skips a beat at how incapable my husband seems of going even a second without touching me.
When I rise to my feet, I move toward the rows of candles and light them one by one, hoping that somehow my prayers will be enough to keep the people I love safe from the horrors waiting outside these walls.
As I place the wick back where it belongs, Matteo steps closer, brushing the ends of my bob away from my neck before leaning down to whisper in my ear.
“I’ve never really liked going to church much,” he murmurs. “But this one…” His lips graze the shell of my ear. “This one is growing on me. Especially since it holds my favorite memory.”
I smile, knowing exactly which memory he’s talking about.
“Say it again,” he whispers, almost desperately.
“I love you.”
Matteo closes his eyes like he needs to savor every word, every syllable.
“Fuck,” he breathes softly. “I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of hearing you say that to me.”
“Good. Because you’ll never have to.”
He’s about to reach for me, needing to seal my promise to love him always, when his phone starts ringing in his pocket.
“Cazzo,” he mutters under his breath, glancing at the screen. “It’s Nico. I should answer.”
I smile softly as he steps away to take the call, wondering for the thousandth time how I ever got lucky enough to be loved by a man like him.
And then hell descends.
It happens so fast my mind can barely keep up.
One second Matteo is standing a few feet away from me, and the next Marcello’s arms are locking around my body from behind while silver flashes through the air.
No.
No. No. No.
This can’t be happening.
“Matteo!” I scream, violently struggling against my brother’s hold. “Let me go! Please!”
But Marcello’s grip is crushing, impossible to escape.
And Stella’s aim is deadly.
I watch in horror as dagger after dagger buries itself into Matteo’s back.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
His body jerks violently with every hit before he stumbles and turns around, blood already staining his shirt.
Stella looks terrifying. Almost inhuman. Her eyes wild, her smile monstrous as she reaches for more blades strapped to her thigh.
And that’s when I realize my sister won’t stop until she’s killed him.
“No!”
Pure panic explodes through me as I slam my heel down onto Marcello’s foot and drive my elbow back into his stomach as hard as I can. His hold loosens just enough for me to wrench myself free.
“Shit!” Stella curses.
I throw myself toward Matteo just as another wave of daggers slices through the air.
The blades miss his heart by inches, but not by enough. One sinks into his shoulder. Another into his abdomen. Another tears into his thigh.
Matteo crashes onto his side on the marble floor with a guttural cry that rips something apart inside me, the daggers jutting grotesquely from both his chest and back.
“Stop!” I sob, dropping to my knees beside him. “Please! Don’t hurt him! Please!”
My hands shake as I press desperately against his wounds, blood pouring through my fingers faster than I can stop it. My heart feels like it’s dying right alongside him.
Matteo looks up at me with devastated eyes, like he already knows this is the last time he’ll ever see my face.
No! No! No! No! No!
“Don’t leave me,” I whisper brokenly as his blood coats my hands. “Please… don’t leave me.”
His trembling hand rises to cradle my cheek.
“Ti amo, vita mia,” he chokes out.
Then his eyes slide shut, like he used the last of his strength just to remind me that his heart will always be mine. In death as it was in life.
“No!” I cry, pulling him against my chest.
Someone is talking behind me. Stella maybe. Marcello too. But their voices sound far away, muffled beneath the roaring agony ringing in my ears.
I’m too numb to understand any of it.
Too cold.
Too empty.
It’s only when Marcello crouches in front of me and grabs my face that the world comes back into focus.
“We need to leave, Anna,” he says urgently. “Can you walk?”
My tears are answer enough. I can’t move. Can’t think. Not when my heart feels like it died with his.
“Okay,” Marcello murmurs, lifting me into his arms. “We got you. Shh. Don’t cry. We got you.”
But my grief is far too monstrous to be soothed by words.
Stella rushes toward the back exit while Marcello carries me after her, and over his shoulder, I catch one last glimpse of my husband lying motionless on the marble floor, blood pooling beneath him.
And with that final glance, I know I’ll be joining him soon enough.
Till death do us part.
That had been the vow I made him on our wedding day.
It will also be the only promise I’ll ever break.
Death will not separate us.
I will make sure of that