Chapter 14 #2
“There are a lot of things you don’t know about me, Raph Marino.” Her slinky tone has my cock already getting hard.
Tell me everything about you. Don’t skip a detail.
I inhale long, placing my lips to her forehead. “I love it when you call me Raph.”
Hearing her call me by my full name felt like there were more miles between us than there already were.
“So you didn’t like me calling you Raphael?” Amusement wafts her tone.
I groan, because how the hell can I not when she sounds like that? She narrows a playful look as I peer back at her.
“Not at all, tesoro mio. Not ever.”
Her gaze softens, and my knuckles roll down the soft contours of her cheek.
“Don’t ever call me that again.”
“Okay,” she murmurs, her eyes glued to mine, her palm rolling from my neck down to my shoulder.
This is what it was always supposed to feel like.
Being in love.
“And yes, little one,” I confess. “I did beat the shit out of that asshole.” A grin spreads over my face. “And I enjoyed every fucking second.”
Her mouth falls open and she laughs. “I knew it!”
She drops her hand from me, and I’m suddenly cold. But then her palm is there around my hip and she’s looking up at me with damn near amazement, and everything is perfect again.
“Tell me everything.”
She’s got me chuckling again.
“Well…as soon as you told me what he did, I went crazy.” I settle my palms on the small of her back. “I may not have showed it to you, but I knew right then and there he was going to hurt for what he did to you.”
Emotions flank through her eyes. And I get why. No one has ever defended this girl before.
“Once I left your house, I tried to look for him, going to his usual spots. The basketball court. The park. But he wasn’t there. But the following day, after school, there he fucking was,” I tell her. “With his two buddies, smoking joints.”
She purses her lips. “Figures.”
“I scared the other two away, and it was just me and him left,” I continue.
“He was ready to piss himself when he saw me. Because he knew I must’ve known what happened.
He was all, ‘Sorry, I’ll never do that again.
’” I scoff. “But with a single punch to his nose, he was on the ground and, well…the leg? I stepped on. By accident of course.” I smirk.
“Of course,” she giggles, and it’s fucking adorable. “And here I thought you were sweet.”
“Only with you, little one. Anyone touches you, and they die. I’d do anything for you.
It’s that simple.” I press my lips to her forehead once more, closing my eyes and feeling everything for her in this very moment.
“The only reason he remained alive was because of his age. But I swear, if he ever tries that on another woman, I will know about it, and this time, nothing will save him.”
The kid screamed so damn loud, I wanted to record it and send it to her as a gift. He deserved worse. These assholes think they can do whatever they want to women. Like by having a dick, they own them. He’s lucky I didn’t kill him.
“Thank you, Raph.” Her voice grows tearful, and she presses her cheek into my chest. “No one has ever been there for me the way you always have.”
With the back of my hand, I tug up her chin. “Always will be, tesoro mio. You’ll never be alone. No matter who you end up with, no matter how much it fucking hurts, I’ll always be there. I’ll always keep you safe. Because you’re mine, even when you’re not.”
Her glossy stare is full of emotion, and if she cries, I’m going to throw her up against the nearest wall and finally show her what she means to me.
“What the hell did you ever see in that idiot anyway?” I ask.
“I don’t know.” She shrugs. “I didn’t even really like him. I…just…”
She tries to glance down to the floor, but I grip her jaw roughly and refuse to let go.
“Look at me.”
She gasps at my harshness, her cheeks turning slight crimson.
Why the hell does she look so fuckable? The things I’m doing to her in my head right now…
“Finish what you were about to say,” I demand in a crude tone.
“You’re not going to want to hear it.”
“I want to hear everything that comes out of that pretty mouth.”
“Pretty ass and pretty mouth?” she teases. “Well, Raph, a girl could get used to all these compliments.”
“I’ve got so many more coming. Now tell me, why him?”
A heavy breath wooshes out of her. “I was sick of seeing you with her, so when he asked me out, I accepted. I hated every time she kissed you. Every time she told you she loved you. Because I wanted to be her.”
She bites into her bottom lip, and my mouth hungers for those lips. I want to be the one to do that over and over for the rest of my days.
“I thought if I had someone, you’d finally see me. That you’d be jealous. But you weren’t.”
“Nicolette…” I breathe, stroking a thumb across her heart-shaped mouth. “I was never in love with her. Not for a moment.”
I pause, not sure how much I should reveal, but in the end, I decide to tell her.
“I tried to end it that day you kissed me.”
“What?” Her eyes expand.
“Yeah.” I nod. “But she told me she was pregnant, so I stayed with her. Once she lost the baby, we were already married, so I couldn’t do—”
“She told you she was pregnant?” Her voice trails almost to a whisper, her features crawling with shock.
A chill crawls down the back of my neck. “What is it, Nicolette?”
“Did you ever go to doctor’s appointments with her?”
“No…” My arms fall to my sides, and I back a step, my head starting to spin. “She said she had one for bloodwork and that was it. She said she was newly pregnant.”
She presses two fingers into her temple, her expression growing distant, like she’s trying to remember everything from that time. Seconds later, and she’s shaking her head.
“She couldn’t have been pregnant, Raph. She was always drinking at home, up to the time she moved in with you after the wedding.
I’d see her with a glass at dinner almost nightly.
Why would she do that if she were pregnant?
” she asks. “And knowing her, she’d have told my parents so they could fawn over her even more. ”
A buzzing noise fills my ears, and I blink rapidly, unable to grasp what she’s telling me even as she says more.
“She must’ve figured this was the best way to trap you. I wouldn’t put it past her.”
Could she be right? Did Bianca play me for a fool?
“Fuck!” I roar. “Fucking hell!”
I force a fist to the bridge of my nose. I can’t believe this. I can’t even confirm it.
She stole years from me on a possible lie. Was she that conniving? I mean, she fucked my father behind my back. Why am I even questioning it?
“I need to take a shower.”
I reach for Nicolette, grabbing her hips and kissing her on her cheek, not wanting her to think I’m mad at her. She’s one of the only people who actually gives a fuck about me. I can’t lose her.
“Okay,” she sighs. “Do you want me to make dinner?”
“We’ll do it together once I’m done.” A smile falls to my mouth easily.
“I love it when you smile at me like that,” she breathes.
My heart beats faster the more she stares at me. “With you, all I wanna do is smile.”
And when she sucks that damn bottom lip into her mouth again, I quickly turn and rush for the coldest shower of my goddamn life.