Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Susanna
I’m expecting to get shot since Luca’s gun is pointed right at me but instead, Alek surges forward right as Luca pulls his trigger and aims the gun into the sky. The bullet goes high and doesn’t hit anyone.
Gabriel pulls me into him, clenching his hands on my arms. I find myself leaning into his touch. Luca didn’t hesitate to point his gun at me to get to Gabriel which means he’s not the one who will ever care for me.
Gabriel is.
He may have started off as my kidnapper but he’s the one who sees me for me. Who actually likes me for me.
“What are you doing?” Alek demands, staring at Luca in disgust. “You could have killed Susanna.”
“Gabriel needs to die,” Luca growls. When he tries to raise his gun again, Alek grabs his arm and shoves him back.
“No. Not when Susanna is standing right in front of him.”
“The question is,” Dimitri chimes in, “why is she standing right in front of him?”
All three men look at me with confusion. Alek’s gaze also contains hurt. He doesn’t understand why I put myself in front of the enemy to save him.
“Let’s go,” Gabriel says into my ear.
“We don’t have a car,” I remind him. “They’ll only follow.”
“What is going on?” Alek asks, taking a step towards me.
The urge to run to him hits me in the gut.
He helped raise me. Protected me. I want nothing more than to hug him again.
There were so many times I turned away from his embrace because I was a moody teenager. Now that’s all changed. I miss him.
Miss my sister and mom.
But I can’t go back home when Luca is willing to put me in harm’s way to get to Gabriel. Even though Gabriel kidnapped me, he protected me from Chip. He sees the real me and accepts me.
I will never find someone like that for me. Someone with money and power and status. Someone that I have a connection with even if it doesn’t fully make sense to me.
“What are you doing, Susanna?” Alek asks. “Just walk forward. Gabriel won’t shoot you in front of all of these people.”
It’s then that I remember we’re in the street. Normal citizens are watching us in horror.
“Luca, you have to get out of here,” Dimitri says. “Before the cops come. You just pulled your gun on Gabriel. You have to go. Now. Unless you want to be arrested.”
“We should all go,” Alek says. “Susanna, come with me. Now. Just step away from him.” He turns his eyes onto Gabriel. “Let my daughter go.”
I gasp. Alek so rarely calls me his daughter. Usually his surrogate daughter but never just his daughter.
“The police will be on their way,” Gabriel says. “You boys better run. We’re the victims here. You hit us. You fired a gun at us. We’re just innocents. So go.”
“Susanna,” Alek says, holding his hand out to me. I want nothing more than to reach out to him in return… but I find myself stepping closer to Gabriel.
“I’m sorry,” I say.
His eyes tighten in hurt.
The sound of police sirens is loud in the air.
“We have to go,” Dimitri says, storming over to the car and practically dragging Luca with him. After a beat, Alek follows. He knows that he can’t save me from inside a prison cell.
So he has to walk away to help save me later.
But I don’t want to be saved.
Gabriel takes my hand and tugs me in the opposite direction.
“Where are we going?” I ask, trying not to look back. Trying not to get another glimpse of Alek.
“We need a car. I don’t want to talk to the police.”
“But we were the ones who were shot at.”
“Yes. But I am a well-known mafia man. It won’t look good. Come on.” He pulls me along towards the nearest parking garage. It’s easy for Gabriel to find a nondescript car and break into it by picking the lock.
“Do you just keep a lock pick on you at all times?” I ask.
He gives me a sly grin and that tells me everything I need to know. We get into the car and he easily hotwires it.
“Is there anything you can’t do?”
“I can do pretty much anything.” There’s a sexual innuendo in his tone that makes a heat rise to my face.
We get out of the parking lot with no problems.
“What do we do about the car?” I ask. My heart is pounding from the thrill of everything. This is the most excitement I’ve had in a long time.
“We ditch it and move on. We’re not far from my house. I’ll call one of my guys to come pick it up and deal with it.”
Just like a dead body. Like all the dead bodies Gabriel has left in his wake.
“How many people have you killed?” I ask.
He does a double take before turning back to the road. “You’ve never asked me that before.”
“I never cared to. You used to scare me.”
“Now I don’t?”
“You know you don’t. I wouldn’t have let you touch me otherwise if you did. But I don’t even know how many lives you’ve taken. What kind of man I’m married to.”
“All you need to worry about is whether I’ll protect you and I will. You’re mine now, Susanna. I will keep you safe from anyone who would do you harm.”
“Even if that person is yourself?”
He hesitates. “I wouldn’t go that far. But from everyone else, yes. I will. I won’t let any one of my men hurt you ever again.”
“So no more locking me up in a cage?”
“You agreed to marry me. So yes, no more locking you up in a cage. You’ll stand at my side. You already chose me when you stood in front of me and almost took a bullet for me. Why did you do that anyway? I never thought you were the selfless type.”
I stare out the window, unable to look at him. There’s too much knowing in Gabriel’s eyes. “You like me for me. That’s the reason I did it. So it was a selfish decision. I’m not sure I’ll ever find anyone who will accept me like you have.”
“So, you settled for me then, is that it?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. I just know that… I don’t want to live in this world that you don’t live in. That doesn’t mean I’m still not conflicted. I miss my family. But they were always going to see me the same way. You’ve given me the chance to grow and change and I want to take it.”
He doesn’t give me a response.
We make it back to his house. Well, I guess my house now since we’re married. Gabriel is my husband. I married my kidnapper. The whole thing is messed up and yet I can’t find it in myself to care.
He calls one of his guys to handle the car before turning to me. I’m breathing heavy from the craziness of the day. Almost dying. Going on the run from the police. I have never felt more alive.
Our eyes meet. It’s then that I notice how heavy Gabriel is breathing too.
And before I even realize it’s happening, he has me in his arms and is kissing me with so much passion, I sink right into him.
He doesn’t stop kissing me as he picks me up and carries me into a beautiful master bedroom. His bedroom. No longer in the cage. This was my way out: marrying him. It was meant to just save myself.
But now, I know in my gut it wasn’t just to save myself. It’s because I like Gabriel. I care for him for some odd reason. And there’s no point in denying that to myself.
Gabriel sets me on my feet and turns me around without a word as he undoes the back of my wedding dress. We both knew this would happen. I’ve let him put his mouth on me. I’ll let him do more than that.
He shoves my dress down and turns me back to him. Since he still never bought me underwear or a bra, I’m fully naked before him. His eyes rake over me and they darken. I shiver in a good way. I want this. I want to know what it’s like to be taken by a man so powerful as Gabriel.
Without a word myself, I shove his jacket off him. Gabriel smirks down at me as I make quick work of his shirt. He doesn’t bother helping me get him naked. We both need to see how far I’m willing to go.
And I’m willing to go far.
He kicks off his shoes before I push his pants and underwear down. The sight of his fully naked body is almost too much to handle. It’s electric. Sexy. Powerful.
He’s all of these things and he’s my husband. My strange, dark husband who gets me.
Gabriel picks me up by the hips and throws me onto the bed. I gasp as he gets on top of me.
“I’m going to fuck you,” he says in a dark tone. “Claim you as mine. I won’t be gentle, even though I know it’s your first time.”
“Just take me,” I say, giving in to this moment. If I think too much, I might stop him and I don’t want to stop him.
Gabriel runs his fingers between my legs, making me gasp. I’m already wet. That’s the power he has over me. His smirk tells me he knows this.
And before I can even react, he lines his erection up to my entrance and thrusts into me. I cry out from the pain but it also feels so good. Full and tingling.
Gabriel doesn’t stop until he’s fully seated inside of me. Even though I’m in pain, I can’t let him win. Can’t let him take complete control, so I grab his shoulders and push him back so I’m seated on his lap.
He grabs my hips and pulls my body down so his cock sinks deeper into me. My moan catches in my throat. How can something feel so painful and so good at the same time? It’s like I’m dying and being reborn in the same breath.
Gabriel is rough as he rolls my hips around, thrusting his cock up into me over and over and over. We lock eyes, neither one of us looking away. Neither one daring to lose this game we’re in.
I grip his arms tighter. My nails dig into his skin. He hisses and it makes me smile knowing that I can cause him some small pain like he’s caused me.
In one smooth motion, he lays me on my back and lifts my legs around his shoulders and thrusts into me with wild abandon. I cry out from pain and pleasure. I don’t want this to ever stop and yet I need it to.
Gabriel doesn’t say a word as he claims me. All he needs his eyes boring down into me and I’m powerless to stop this. The sound of our bodies moving together is almost vulgar but sexy. I’m actually doing this. Living for once.
Being claimed by a man that sees me for me.
That thought sends a wave of pleasure straight over me and my orgasm hits me before I can even process what’s happening.
“Oh,” I cry out. This spurs Gabriel on and he thrusts into me harder and harder and harder. I squeeze my eyes shut from the pain and pleasure of it all.
And then in one breath, he shudders and finds his own release. We both breathe heavy for a moment before he pulls out of me. Blood is on his tip, from how hard he took me.
Yet, I don’t seem to care. I have found the man for me, even if I found it in darkness.