Chapter Sixteen
Marco
Idive out of the way the moment Cormac shoots at me. The bullet lands in the ground. Cormac stumbles back, shocked for a moment, giving me a chance. With my hands tied, I can’t do much with them but I still have strength in my body.
I run forward and dive right into Cormac, knocking him to the ground. I raise my tied hands high and bring them down onto his face. He groans as his nose breaks, spilling blood everywhere.
I quickly stand back up and grab his gun from off the ground and aim it at him. Cormac glares up at me.
“Do it,” he says, his voice muffled from his broken nose. “Just do it. Prove to me how bad the mafia is. Why I was right to not want my sister married to you.”
If I kill Cormac, Ciara will never forgive me. But why do I care what she thinks? She was just a pawn to get power from her father.
But now… now I’m not so sure she’s just a pawn.
“Stop trying to kill me,” I snap. “And I won’t kill you.
For your sister’s sake. Not for yours and not because I’m a good man.
” I keep his gun as I slowly walk towards his car.
The keys are still in the ignition. I can’t untie my hands so it’s awkward trying to drive with them but I manage to and I leave Cormac on the road, alive but surely angry.
I make it back home within an hour.
My body is shaking and I’m wired from my entire evening. Not killing Will when I could have. My confrontation with Cormac. Now, I need to speak to my wife.
Ciara is in her bedroom when I make it upstairs. Our separate bedrooms for the separate lives we’re living. She’s scrolling on her phone and gasps when she hears me enter the room. Her eyes widen.
“What happened?” Quickly, she gets out of the bed and rushes towards me. “Your hands…”
“Can you untie them?”
She does without any hesitation. “What happened? Your face is all red and you’re breathing heavy.”
“Your brother just tried to kill me tonight.”
She goes still. “What?”
“You heard me. And he told me that it was your idea. Because of my past with Gianna and Will. You asked him to kill me. Is that true?”
Her eyes lower to the ground as she bites her lip. I want nothing more than to bite her lip myself but now is not the time.
“Do you still want me dead, Ciara? After you said you didn’t? Will you betray me like everyone else has?”
A fire is in her eyes as she snaps them back to mine. “I didn’t betray you. You’re the one with feelings for another woman.”
“I told you: I never loved Gianna.”
“And yet, you’re obsessed with revenge because of her.”
“But it was never love. Just tell me. Did you ask your brother to kill me tonight? He said it was your idea.”
She shakes her head. “I went to Cormac after I found out about Gianna and Will. Yes, I did. But I never asked him to kill you. I cried and he hugged me and told me he’d handle it. But I didn’t ask him to kill you. I just…”
“Didn’t stop him,” I finish for her.
A sigh escapes her. So different from the moans I’ve heard from her when I’ve shown her pleasure.
“Yes,” she admits. “I didn’t stop him. I knew he would come for you sometime.
I was so angry, Marco. You made me believe we could have hope and then you smashed that hope into the ground.
I was upset. I shouldn’t have gone to my brother, I’ll admit.
But you have got to stop painting me like I’m the bad guy.
You have to learn to trust me if we’re going to make this work. ”
“Kind of hard when you run to your brother every time you’re upset and he will try to kill me every goddam time.”
She flinches. “I know. Cormac is a problem. But you hurt me.”
“And you hurt me,” I snap. “My own wife wants me dead.”
“Maybe you should think about why.”
I huff, shaking my head. “I know I’m not a good man. I never pretended to be.”
“That’s not what I’m saying.”
“I don’t love her, Ciara!” I shout, making her step back.
“I don’t love Gianna. I never have. I used her in my games to hurt her brother.
I wanted to make her mine, yes. But it was to hurt Enzo.
Not because I loved her. I hired Will Taylor myself to kidnap Gianna for me and then he ended up falling in love with her.
They ran away together, leaving me for dead.
I was pissed. I held onto my anger for the past year because it was the only thing that kept me going.
But it was never love for Gianna. It was pure hate for Will.
For shooting me. For stealing what I considered mine.
But Gianna was never mine. I know that. She was never mine like you are. ”
Ciara stares down at the floor for a long moment. I would give anything to know what’s on her mind. “I didn’t realize that.”
“Now you know,” I say in a quieter voice. “I should have told you from the start. I… I’m sorry.”
She sucks in a breath as her eyes meet mine. “You don’t say sorry that often, do you?”
“Never. There’s something else. I went after Will tonight.”
“After I told you not to?”
“Yes. I had a chance to kill him but then… I couldn’t.
Your words were in my head. I don’t know why they were but they were.
And I didn’t kill him. I couldn’t because for some strange reason, I don’t want you to hate me.
I don’t want you to just be a pawn in my game for revenge. I want you to be… more.”
“Really?” She sounds so vulnerable and young as she wraps her arms around her waist.
“Yes. Really. I didn’t kill him, Ciara. Everything in me wanted him dead but I couldn’t because of you.
Because I don’t want to lose you before we’ve even had a chance to begin.
I can’t promise that my hate is gone forever.
I can’t promise that I’ll never try to kill Will. But for tonight… I didn’t do it.”
“You chose our marriage instead.”
“Yes. But then your brother found me before I could tell you this and almost killed me.”
She winces. “I am sorry for that. I never should have gone to him when I was upset. I know how much he wants you dead.”
“He’ll keep coming for me, Ciara. You know it.”
“I know. So what do we do?”
“Right now, I just want to know that I can trust my wife. I want to know that I made the right decision in choosing you over Will tonight. But if you still want me dead…”
“No,” she says with a shake of her head as she reaches out to me.
Her hands find my chest. “I don’t want you dead, Marco.
I am sorry for going to Cormac. I was upset that you had feelings for another woman.
Or, at least, I thought you did at the time.
I saved you from my brother when we were in Italy for a reason.
Our marriage is one neither one of us wanted.
But for some reason… I want it now. I want you to choose me. And I want to choose you too.”
Our eyes lock in a heated gaze for a long, tense moment before I lower my lips to hers. The kiss starts off tender but that only lasts a second before it deepens into a passionate, intense one.
Ciara lets out a moan as I lift her up into my arms with her wrapping her legs around my waist. That’s the sound I wanted to hear before. The sound of pleasure. Of knowing that Ciara is mine.
And I could be hers. I’ve never belonged to another person before. I held myself back. It’s why I don’t even have a relationship with my family anymore. My parents are retired and we don’t speak. My brother wants nothing to do with me to keep his daughter safe.
I don’t have anyone in my life.
But I could have Ciara if I just let myself choose her.
I lower her onto the bed as our kiss deepens even more. Our bodies are flush together, no gap between us. I don’t want there to be a gap ever again. The last thing I want is to pretend I don’t have feelings for Ciara. She has gotten under my skin and refuses to leave.
She shrugs my jacket off and then quickly works on the button of my shirt. “I want to see you,” she gasps out. “I’ve never seen all of you before.”
Because I always hold myself back. But I’m done with that. I’m fucking tired of it.
I sit up and slip my shirt off. Ciara’s eyes run down my body and darken. She likes what she sees which makes me proud. I’ve worked hard for my body.
My hands go to the end of her silky nightgown but she stops me.
“I want to see all of you,” she states.
I hesitate for a moment. I’ve had sex plenty of times; that isn’t the problem.
I’ve just never had sex with a woman I have these feelings for.
To show Ciara my entire body is to bare more of myself open to her.
To let her in and risk her betraying me one day.
That betrayal would cut deeper than anything else in this world.
But as I stare down at her, laying on the bed, her hair spread out around her, looking up at me with heated eyes, I know I want to show her all of me. I don’t want to hold myself back any longer.
I stand up and unzip my pants, pushing them down along with my underwear. I kick off my shoes and then I stand back up, exposing all of myself to her.
My cock hardens when her eyes land on it. “You like what you see?”
Her swallow is perceptible as she nods. “I do.”
“Have you ever seen a naked man before?”
“No. Not in person. Just online.”
“How does it compare?”
She flushes, exposing just how young she still is. It makes me want to protect her. To corrupt her. To truly make her mine for good. “It’s better.”
“Good. I want to fuck you, Ciara. I want to put my cock so deep inside of you that you won’t be able to think of anything else. But only if you want it too.” She needs to choose me as well for this marriage to work.
Ciara is quiet for a moment before she opens her legs wide. I can tell that she has no panties underneath her nightgown. Her short, silky nightgown that I want to rip right off her.
“I want that too,” she says.
With no other words, I stand over her, my hands finding the end of her nightgown and I shove it up her body. My hand cups her pussy, making her moan. She’s soaking wet. Her inner thighs are covered in her arousal. Fuck. This woman is going to be the death of me and I don’t even care.
I run my hand over her pussy. Her hips buck up, desperate for me. I can see it in her expression. We both want this.
“You are mine,” I say again. Before it was to convince myself – to make me believe that I wouldn’t lose her – but now it’s because it’s the right thing to say.
“You’re mine,” she says in response, putting her claim on me too.
We both know it’s time.