Chapter 45
Elowen
I rub the spot again with another set of napkins.
“It’s clean,” Salvario says from the other couch.
We made a mess on it. He wiped off the worst of it, but I need to be sure there are no signs.
“It can’t look like someone came on it.”
“It doesn’t. Now come here. Stop tiring yourself out for nothing.”
I toss the napkins in the trash and walk over to him. I grab the TV remote from the table and sit beside him, leaning into the curve of his arm, close against his chest. He kisses the top of my head.
Rosie settles beside me. I give her a little pat, then look up at my man’s handsome face.
“What do you usually watch on TV?”
“I don’t watch TV.”
I turn back to the screen. “I’m not surprised.”
I switch it on and find the comedy show I usually watch. Kelly is hosting, and Alori is the guest tonight.
“Welcome to Midnight Meltdown, Alori. You’ve gained some mass since we last met.” Kelly says, eyes fixed on Alori’s chest.
I glance at Salvario, laughing. His face doesn’t even twitch. He must not get the joke.
Alori laughs. “I just gained a little weight.”
Kelly nods. “Right. So the rumors about you getting cushions for your twins are fake?”
I laugh, looking at him. He watches like it’s a crime documentary. It was a weak joke—not his fault for not laughing.
I focus back on the TV.
“Totally fake,” Alori says.
Kelly glances at her cue card. “There’s another rumor here. Says you learned Italian for your new movie, but really, it was to impress the man playing your killer.”
Alori laughs, rolling back on the couch. “That’s totally fake. Faker than the last one.”
Kelly shrugs. “I get it. Last month someone spread a rumor that I was kissing Lavin’s ass at a party.”
The screen cuts to an image of Kelly—clearly drunk—literally kissing Lavin’s bare butt.
“It’s horrible when people talk fake shit about you.”
Everyone laughs. I double over, rolling into Salvario, laughing my ass off.
But he doesn’t make a sound. I look up, he’s watching the screen with the same interest I used to give my math teacher’s monthly seminar presentations.
His utter lack of interest kills my buzz. I hit pause.
“Are these jokes not funny enough for you?”
“What’s funny about saying someone’s lying, just with more words?” He drawls.
I hit play. “It’s fine. My pa doesn’t think it’s funny either.”
Before I can focus again, Salvario grabs me and flips me onto his lap—stomach down, ass up. I yelp at the sudden move.
He pulls down my shorts.
“No, Salvario!” I shout. “You just fucked me half an hour ago. I’m sore.” My words end in a loud cry as his palm meets my ass cheek.
Rosie panics. She leaps off the couch and stands in front of him, barking.
“You should’ve thought about that before making the joke.” He caresses the sting on my ass.
I twist around to look at him. “So you do get the jokes! I was just testing you. I swear.”
He laughs, his palm still covering my ass. I roll off his lap and gingerly climb back up. The moment my ass touches the couch, I wince, glaring at him with a pout, while he just keeps laughing.
Rosie edges closer, sniffing me anxiously. I kiss her face to reassure her I’m okay.
“And you’re laughing at nothing funny. Are you a little defective?”
He pulls me closer, hugging me tightly around the shoulders.
“I’m more than a little defective.”
He cups my jaw in his big palm, his fingers curling down to my neck. He kisses me, and I melt into it, forgetting all about the sting on my butt.
When we pull apart, I ask, “How about we watch a movie? We’ll watch your favorite.”
“I’ve never watched a movie.”
“How is that possible?”
He trails his thumb along my jaw, more interested in touching my face than in answering.
“When my father was alive, he never allowed it. After his death, it was already at the bottom of my priorities.”
I kiss his jaw. “It’s okay. There’s a first time for everything. And since you don’t have a favorite, let me pick.”
I tap at the remote, and the movie menu appears on screen.
I tilt my head back to look at him. “What do you like? Action? Drama? Thriller? Romance?”
“Your favorite movie.”
“I have many favorites.”
Then an idea lights up in my head.
I grin. “It would be a shame if I didn’t show you a fairytale.”
He smiles. From the way he’s watching me, I can tell the smile isn’t for the words. I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t even hear what I said. I can’t complain, not when he looks at me like this, sending endless flutters through my heart.
I kiss his dimple. “I love you.”
He kisses my lips. “I love you too.”
I snuggle closer to him and type Beauty and the Beast into the remote.
“It’s my favorite fairytale. You’ll love it.” I giggle.
The movie starts, it’s the latest live-action adaptation of the classic tale.
He watches with far more attention than I expected. The story must have grabbed him, and why wouldn’t it? It’s Beauty and the Beast, after all.
I keep glancing at him, checking his reactions. His face barely changes throughout, until the ending, when the beast transforms into a prince. That earns a frown.
When it ends, I sit up and turn to face him.
“So? Did you like it?”
“No.” The frown remains.
“Why not? You looked totally into it, man.” I clutch my chest in exaggerated shock.
“She didn’t know he would change. She loved him for what he was. But they made it seem like she became happier when he changed.” He pauses. “Why would someone who loves you for who you are feel happy after you lose that part completely?”
His eyes bore into mine. “Or is that how it works? The beauty loves the beast expecting him to become someone else? If that’s true, then she loved the idea of what he could become, not him.”
“I don’t think so. If it were me, I’d have cried over the change. The beast was hot.” I chuckle. “And I loved the abandoned palace more than what it became. Maybe Belle cried too, but she loved him, so she adjusted.”
My face turns serious as the thought that’s been sitting in my brain like a thorn pricks again.
I take his hand in both of mine.
“I don’t want anything about you to change, Salvario. I love you for who you are. I love you—with your monsters. But I do want you to change one thing. It’s not your identity, so it’s not a big deal.”
“What?”
“Killing innocents. I know what you did in Naples. I need you to never do that again.”
“Innocents.” He scoffs, snatching his hand away from mine. “Where were those innocents when my grandfather was selling my mother to that monster don? Do you know how many innocents were there? Every person from their neighborhood. At least fifty of them.”
My heart clenches, beating loudly under the weight of his rage.
“What were those innocent maids doing when seven men were raping my mother and me?” He pauses, letting the horror of his words sink into me. “They were watching.”
His face twists further into anger and pain.
“My mother was innocent. And what happened to her? She was beaten by her husband every night. After his death, she was treated worse than an animal. That’s what happens to innocents in this world, Princess.” He heaves. I reach for him, he pushes my hand away.
“You are fucking innocent. And you know why you get to stay that way? Because there’s a man in this world who would reduce it to ashes if anyone so much as laid a hand on his daughter. If you can’t protect an innocent, it’s better for that innocent to die.”
“But killing them won’t bring her justice. She wouldn’t want this.” The words come out as a desperate attempt to reach through the rage.
“I don’t give a fuck about justice. Justice wasn’t listening when my mother begged. So now I don’t listen to it either. It goes both ways. You create a monster and expect it to never bite? You’re fucking delusional.”
He laughs, a voided, bitter sound. “I was also an innocent, Princess. I never wanted to become a killer. I wanted a peaceful life. I wanted to give my mother a happy life. They fucking killed those dreams. They fucking murdered the boy.”
He goes still, like an ocean swallowing its own storms in a single breath.
“I burned Naples five times. And if I live, I’ll burn it a hundred times more.”
My lips tremble, but I force the words out. “Fine. If you want to do that, then know this, the next time you burn that city, you’ll be burning me inside it.”
His brows pinch together. The maddening rage in his eyes intensifies.
“What the fuck are you saying?”
“I can’t live with myself knowing the man I love is out there killing innocents. The guilt will eat me alive.”
I stand from the couch. Tears prick my eyes.
“I won’t force you to change your mind. I don’t know how much importance I have in your life, whether I’m important enough for you to stop—”
He pulls me down onto his lap before I can finish, holding me tight enough to suffocate, and silences me with an feral kiss. One hand fists in my hair, pressing me to him; the other bands across my back, crushing me against his chest.
I push against him. He doesn’t let go. Just keeps kissing me like a madman. I surrender to his force and let him hold me, let him kiss me with whatever intensity he needs.
“Are you out of your fucking mind, woman?” He grits out, breathing hard through flared nostrils.
I gasp, lungs burning, struggling to pull air past the iron grip of his arms.
“How many times do I have to tell you that you are my fucking world for you to understand your importance?” His words are harsh, his arms coiled so tightly around me that one more squeeze and he’ll break my bones.
“You’re hurting me, Salvario.”
He loosens his grip slightly.
“You’re hurting me too, Elowen.”
“By asking you to stop the butchery?”
His face clenches further. “By saying you’re ready to end your life for some useless people. You’re ready to die for someone else, knowing full well it would destroy me. And then you say, so ignorantly, that you don’t know how important you are.”
I move my hand from his shoulder to his face, cupping his cheek.
“You can stop doing this, can’t you? Is it the boy making you do it?”
His face softens, the tension easing slightly.
“It’s not him.”
“Then can you stop? For me?” I implore quietly.
He hugs me, burying his face in my neck. “I will... for you.”