Chapter 74
Zeno isn’t gentle.
If this is his love, his possessiveness, then it’s everything I crave—and everything I thought I’d despise.
My back scrapes against the bark, but the pain is swept away by the pleasure building in my core. With our angle, he manages to get deep inside, and every thrust sends me one step closer to the afterlife.
He buries his head into my neck, trailing not-so-gentle nips along my collarbone. I hope they leave marks. Zeno isn’t just any man. He’s mine, and I crave being marked by him. Exactly as I plan to do the same to him.
“Fuck, you feel amazing. Tutto mio .”
I smile, his next thrust sending a rippling pleasure throughout my core. My legs tighten around his waist, needing him as close as physically possible. It won’t take me long, not with this position. Not after giving myself over to him.
“I feel like yours.”
Zeno freezes, but a rock of my hips reminds him to continue. He stares at me like I’m the sun rising over his property, casting its glow upon his sparkling pool. “You mean that?”
“Wouldn’t say it if I didn’t.” It’s easier to admit now. To accept what’s been in front of me this entire time. What Papa’s actions have led to. He’s one of the men who kept me down, but he introduced me to the one who helped me rise.
“Say it again.”
Thrust.
“I’m yours, Zeno.”
Thrust.
“Fuck.”
“And you’re mine.”
“Fuck.” That one ends on a long groan as he drops his head back to my neck and his hips pound against me.
Intense pleasure consumes me until there’s nothing to do but hold on. He’s mindless, thrusting inside me, claiming me. Heat expands in my stomach, my core. My back arches into his chest while my legs stiffen around him.
When I come, it’s with a noise that echoes through the forest. My eyes slide shut as staggered breaths come out in heavy heaves.
“Let me see you, mia regina .”
My eyes flutter open. “You always have.”
I’m met with one of his easy smiles. “Wasn’t easy uncovering you, but it was fucking worth it.” He strokes my face, cupping my cheek in his warm palm.
“You mean that?”
“Would I lie?”
“Considering you don’t have the greatest track record.”
He smirks. “Fair.”
Then he kisses me long and deep before rocking against me again, but I drop my arms from his shoulders and unwind my legs until he has no option but to release me.
My turn.
Twirling my finger in the air, I demand, “Sit. Back against the tree. We did it your way. Now, we’re playing by my rules.”
He unhooks himself from me with half-lidded eyes dripping with lust. He slides by me, stealing my place as I shift into his. His lips skirt over my shoulder as he passes and I feel him smiling.
“Sì, signora.”
God, what that does to me. I bite my lip from revealing too much too soon and point, repeating, “Sit.”
Once he’s settled on the ground, his throne of broken twigs and fallen leaves, in the same place I once found him, I admire him. His chest decorated with a few cuts and bruises from the fight this morning. The bandage around his arm. His cock standing tall, damp with me, the tip of it making my mouth water.
Before I can act on everything else I want to do to him, knowing we now have time for it all, I swing a leg over him and settle onto his lap. He reaches for my hips, but with a shake of my head, I tell him no. He won’t be in control for this next part and I stretch to the side to retrieve his belt.
Green eyes meet mine and he holds out his wrists toward me, knowing exactly what’s about to happen.
“Good,” I praise, looping the belt around his wrists and pulling tight, using the end to hike his arms above his head, pinning them to the tree. The angle forces me to lean into him, my nipples a breath away from his mouth. “If you want out, you know the word that’ll make it happen.”
“Never.”
“Never is a long time.”
“I know.”
I lift onto my knees and shuffle so his cock is lined up with my pussy before stroking him, enjoying the feel of his heat in my palm entirely too much. He makes noises that’ll utterly destroy my will if I allow him to.
Maybe, soon I will.
I dip down until his cockhead enters me, and pause. A guttural noise comes from his chest, a rumble I feel throughout my entire body. He pulls his arms down, and we’re both aware he’s stronger than I am so with little effort, he could be free.
Although the feeling of him inside me is nearly too good to handle, the sound of his denial when I lift off him is even better.
“Please.”
“Hm, maybe.”
I lower again, taking him two inches inside me, enjoying the way he lets himself go for me. Hands his control over and doesn’t fight to take over. He’s loving this as much as I am, and when his head rolls forward, it’s with a stare so hungry, so dominating, I nearly give him what he wants. Until I don’t, and lift up again.
“You’re going to be the death of me.”
And you’re going to give me life.
“I’m enjoying myself.”
This time, when I lower myself on him, I grant us both the release we’re craving and sink down entirely, feeling him at a different angle than when he had me against the tree. My hand tightens around the belt to keep him in place when my limbs feel heavier, washed with bliss.
Zeno’s head ducks down and he takes a nipple between his teeth, nibbling lightly. I nearly chide him for acting out of turn, but it feels way too right, so I stop caring. My back arches into him as I lift onto my knees, pulling off his cock until only his head remains before sinking all the way again. I do it again and again, taking us both to new heights.
“Bellissima.”
“Dio, ti amo.”
“Non fermarti, cazzo.”
Strings of what I assume are praises, if the expression on his face is any indication, spurs me to take him faster, harder. He thrusts beneath me while I control the depth and intensity and rock my hips so he rubs on my clit, sending sparks throughout my body.
With my free hand, I cup his face, forcing him to look me in the eyes. “Don’t hurt me, Zeno. That’s all I ask.”
I wouldn’t survive him, not again. Betrayal from him wouldn’t be like my shitty family. It wouldn’t be brushed aside with a bit of rage and trauma. No, Zeno would break me. I’d like to claim not, but it’s a suspicion I have deep down. It’d be one battle I wouldn’t be a victor in.
“Never.” The way he says it sounds like I love you.
My hold on the belt weakens, my craving to have him touch me growing until the two contradict each other. I drop his arms.
“Finally.”
He shakes himself free before hauling me against his chest, ensuring there isn’t a gap between us the wind can seep between. His hand fists my hair, tilting my head back until he’s able to attack my neck, while his other arm bands around my waist, pushing me down onto him as my thrusts quicken, the pleasure inside me expanding.
We’re two animals fucking in the woods, matching one another’s craving. I’m mindless on him, trying to keep a pace we can both survive while he holds me like I’m his everything. With a domination I don’t mind, that makes my body tight and loose at the same time.
His teeth nip my collarbone, his breath warm against my skin alongside more Italian phrases growled from the deepest parts of him.
“I’m…going to…come,” I manage between thrusts.
His hand tightens in my hair, and I take that as permission.
“Me too,” he growls against my neck.
I dig my knees in and go harder, granting him permission too.
The heat shoots off throughout my entire body and my core clenches impossibly tight around him, keeping him as deep as he’s able to be as he growls his own release and his warmth travels through my pussy. I’m mindless and boneless, continuing to rock on him even as my lungs work overtime, trying to stretch this minute as long as I can. As long as nature will allow us to.
When I finish, I do nothing but fall against his chest. For the first time, I don’t push him away. Don’t shove him out my bedroom so I can continue with my life. I allow his arms to come around my body and enjoy the feeling of being held by someone who cares for me.
He strokes a hand over my hair. “Sorry I was such an ass to you for so long. If only I knew this would be our ending, I’d have gone about it a different way.”
I shake my head against his damp chest. “Things worked out how they should have, so I wouldn’t change anything. Everything that happened got me to see what I was missing.”
Zeno twines his fingers with mine, lifting our joined hands to his heart. “You’re going to get pissed at me from time to time. Once I have something I love, I don’t share.”
I lift my head to look at him. “You’re in luck then, ‘cause neither do I. And Mancini, you’re all mine now. I’ll slaughter the next person who hurts you.”
He smirks playfully. “The only person allowed to kill me is you.”
“Damn right.”
I lower my head back to his chest, his heartbeat steadily thumping beneath my ear. It’s to that gentle beat, I let myself slip away, dozing in the arms of my rival.
My husband.