CHAPTER 46 - ARIANNA
CHAPTER
Arianna
CLOSING MY EYES, I let the cold air flowing through the window wash over me as we head back towards the terraced house in Wimbledon.
I’m lightheaded. The rush of successfully standing up to Papà has caught up with me now I’m back in the car.
Red’s brothers will deliver their side of the payback in the morning, and I’ve started mine.
The game is on. I just hope it works.
I let out a long, shaky breath. The gust of the November night is painful on my cheek, but it’s a good pain. It serves as another reminder that I’m alive and not crushed; reduced to a wreck, like I’ve been far too much of my life.
Now I’m making a stand, and it feels good.
Really good.
Opening my eyes, I glance at Red. His jacket is off and slung across the back seats, his huge biceps illuminated by the flash of passing streetlamps as he grips the steering wheel. I stare at the angular bones of his face and the edge of the scorpion tattoo creeping up the side of his neck.
Warmth spreads through me, despite the cold of my skin. I wonder if he has any idea what he’s given me tonight by handing me the reins?
Sensing I’m studying him, Red takes his eyes off the road and looks at me, specks of fire dancing in his eyes in the shadows. “You were shit hot in there, princess,” he grins. “Remind me not to get on the wrong side of you!”
When he winks at me, my heart skips.
Turning back to the road, his face becomes serious. “You handled it brilliantly. Emiliano is a difficult man. Especially when... Well, I can’t guess how difficult that was for you.”
I bite my lip. Especially when I’d held a torch to the man for so long, Red was about to say. Yeah, I used to, but that has changed.
A lot has changed. It’s had to since discovering most of my life was a fucking lie.
My gaze swivels back to the only man in my life who hasn’t turned out to be a lie at all, and my heart leaps again. “It wasn’t as difficult as you might suppose. If anything, it was liberating.”
Turning away, I close the window and press my forehead against the cold pane. Have I become the hard, unfeeling woman Maria now believes me to be?
I don’t know.
Maybe with certain things and some people, yes. But not this one here. “Stop the car.”
“What?” Red turns to me, but I’m not looking. “Are you unwell?”
“Please, just stop.”
Red’s concern is clear in the window’s reflection as he scans for a place to pull over. My skin tingles as he veers off the main road onto a service road in front of a bedraggled line of shops, their frontages shrouded in darkness.
I know what I’m about to do, but he doesn’t.
“Arianna?” Unclipping his seat belt, Red leans across, his arm snaking around my shoulders. “What’s wrong? Has tonight upset you too much? Oh, baby, I’m getting us back as fast as I can and...”
“I’m not upset.” I gently push him back into the driver’s seat and release my seat belt.
“Arianna...?”
His confusion only fuels my desire to take my newfound confidence and do something I’ve never dreamed of doing with anyone before. With bright headlights only yards away lighting up the car from both directions, I clamber over and straddle him.
“What the...?” Red’s mouth breaks into a half-smile before I cover it with my lips. I can already feel his hardness pressing against me through his jeans as I grind wantonly against him.
“Fuck,” he growls, his hands moving around my back.
Raising myself up, I unzip his jeans and free his hard length. His hand slides between my legs, but I push it away and instead pull my thong to one side and allow the drooling head of his cock to rub against my entrance.
Pushing myself down onto him, I wince at the pleasurable pain at his girth. My juices flow hard, but he’s so big.
“Oh, God,” Red groans, his mouth searching for mine. “You’re so tight, I fucking love it, I fucking love you!”
Pushing fully down, I moan as he fills me and move on his shaft. I work fast, hard, abandoned – exactly how I feel right now.
We made beautiful slow love last night and this morning. It broke the chains constraining me. I’m free and tonight has freed me from another thing. Now, I’m seeking further liberation.
His teeth nip my ear; his fingers brush my nipple, the other hand aiding me in my lift.
“Shit,” he hisses, his cock expanding further. “I’m... I’m going to come.”
He sounds disappointed and worried he’s coming too soon, but he’s not because...
“Oh!” My back arches, pressing against the steering wheel as I come, the strobe of passing cars illuminating Red’s head thrust back, his hips bucking as he empties into me and I know more than ever that I want to spend every second of my life with this man.
Spent, I collapse forward against him, my sudden and all-consuming need satiated.