Chapter Ten
Gianna
Somehow, I am living a dream life.
Lying in the luscious bed I never want to get out of, I am lost in daydreams. It was one of the roughest days of my life. But here I am, alive, well, surviving the way I’ve survived everything else. Just like I survived the contempt, the hate, the control my parents showed me for most of my life.
Knowing they had mistreated me most of my life out of guilt or spite for their own choices hit me hard. But as Gabriel explained that my brother, my sweet hero Anto, was not just alive but would come to see me, something inside of me broke free. Those ties that bound me to my parents, that dreamt of their love, of their approval snapped.
Gabriel has set me free just as he promised.
“They kept you guarded, kept you locked away because he had the power to take you from them. I had no idea you were the sister he spoke of. It makes sense that I was so taken by you the night we met. That we were so connected so quickly. Anto is one of my best friends, princess. He swayed the five families to have my back in the war we started tonight.”
Cuddling against him as he feeds me sweet grapes and decadent cheese, I nod. The war. One started because of my father’s greed, his quest for power, his willingness to give up another of his children to the families. He is such a heartless, gutless man that he wouldn’t care what Santino did to me.
If not for Gabriel, I would have been taken in a way I could not come back from. I swore I would not give him my body—but he was going to take it. Even as my head swims with all that has gone on today, all that we’re facing together now, I am smiling up at Gabriel like a lovestruck fool.
“Has anyone ever said how handsome you are, Gabriel Capelli?”
Grinning at me like a handsome young boy, not a hardened mafia boss, he shakes his head. “No. Well, if they did, it would not have counted anyway. Not until you said it would it have counted to me, princess.”
Laughing, I shake my head at him as I feed him a slice of salami. We’re lying naked in his big bed, the fireplace against the far wall flickering as it fills the room with warmth and a lovely glow. A television slid out of the bottom of the bedframe and now plays my favorite Disney movies.
Gabriel told me I could be a sweet little princess the way I always dreamed. I want to be. I want to let go and let him have control because I trust him. Because I need him. I love him. He is the best thing to ever happen to me even if he is a mafia brute who might kill my own parents.
Trying to run from him the way I had, it would have gotten me nowhere. He let me know that Stefan was on my tail the entire time. Turns out that young man has been following me for weeks. Well before the day I caught him. Gabriel also confesses something else after he telling me he was friends with my brother—though he had no idea.
“Watching me? Watching the house? How long?” I wonder about the cameras he admits he set up outside my father’s house.
“Put them up the night of the engagement party. Had to keep an eye on you, princess. Had to be sure Santino kept his distance while I worked out a plan to steal you from him. I watched you for hours, baby. I could watch you sit and daydream all day, I wouldn’t need a single other thing.”
“Said the stalker. That is stalking . First cameras, then Stefan. I lost him before I got to the train station. How...how did you know where to find me?”
Gabriel smiles, lifting his shoulder as he tosses a grape in his mouth. “I had someone tracking that bastard too. Hedging my bets. Protecting what is mine. If I had not gotten there...” Trailing off, he shakes his head in anger.
“You got there. You were there, stalker. When I needed you.”
Nodding, he pulls me close, kissing the top of my head. We talk about what will come next with the Marconi’s and my father, if anything. To hear him tell it, with the Scarsi’s, the Orsini’s, and his families, the Capelli’s, backing him, it would be stupid for the Bianchi’s to go to war side-by-side with the Marconi’s.
“Romeo Bianchi, your grandfather, he would not want your father to lead the Bianchi’s. It was meant to be Vinnie, but...he got wasted. Rumor has it your father was behind it. If he wanted to make a move, that would do it. Your father is just...he is not a capo. Not a leader.”
Vinnie was a good man, better than my father. He treated me and my mother well. I had a feeling he knew more about things with Anto, but my father had falling out before he died. I am frustrated because another man, like Anto, who had been good to me, is proof that not all men are bad. Even living this life, in this twisted world, some of them have boundaries.
Lying there with Gabriel, I sigh dreamily. Have I ever felt this good? I am safe, I am at peace, I am actually deeply, truly happy. I dreamed a thousand dreams of a different life. Getting out, getting free, getting to live a life that I chose. Finding out who I am without the guilt, the baggage.
I am free. I am honestly, truly, free from all of it. All of them.
“Can I leave this place?” I wonder aloud.
“Yes. I will not keep you prisoner. I want you here. It will calm my fears if I know you’re in the safest place possible. I am not those men.”
Lifting up, I stare down at him for a moment. The sun has begun to set after the day that never seemed to end. It spills bright oranges and soft pinks across the room, casting him in beautiful light. He is the most beautiful man I have ever seen, and he wants me. He wants to be mine.
“Will you have…I mean, Santino had another woman he would go to…my father said they all do. All the men in the families have others.”
Gabriel sits up, cradling my face in gentle hands. “Not this man. I never wanted one woman before, let alone several. I planned to never give someone my name, to never have an heir. Why would I? This world is all I know, it is all I know how to be. That doesn’t mean I wanted it to be that for someone else. For my wife or for my children.”
Kneeling on the bed, we share a shaking breath. “And now? Now that it is me…someone who knows nothing else, is nothing else…”
“Princess, nothing they did or tried to do ever stopped those dreams. You know a world none of us ever could. I would love to live in that world. We could go right now, chase down every dream you have ever had. Live all of them out. Or we can stay here, you can be my little princess as I take control of this kingdom. As I make you a queen.”
Most would think the choice is obvious. I have wanted out of here for so long. Not just Silver Shores, because I love the pier, I love the boardwalk, and the salty sea air. Out of this life that is drenched in darkness. This life that steals choices from all of us.
“I want to stay, baby,” I whisper in a little voice, crawling closer. “I want to be your princess right here, where we belong.”
Gabriel groans, cradling my face as he pulls me to him for a kiss. I moan against his lips, loving the faint taste of his cigars, the wine we shared earlier. I lick his tongue as it lashes at my lips, sliding my hands down his chest. I score my nails on his skin, hoping to mark him, to claim him as my own. My king.
“Gabriel, I want it all. This kingdom. With you,” I pant against his mouth as his hands come to cup my breasts, thumbs rubbing at the nipples.
“Good girl. I will give it all to you,” he husks, pulling at a nipple before he spanks my ass, the sound echoing. “Get on your knees, baby. Open up for me,” he demands, fisting my hair to pull me down.
Obeying him, I fold onto all fours, popping my mouth open. I love having him in my mouth, it makes me feel so sexy, so powerful. I lick the tip of his stiff cock and he grunts, smacking my ass as it wiggles at him. Looking up at him, I take more and more of him in my mouth, moaning at how dirty it feels. Gently he rubs his fingers over my cheek, tracing the press of his cock inside my mouth.
“Such a pretty princess. Take my cock down deep, that’s it,” he hisses, pumping his hips. I moan as his fingers hook inside me, finding me soaked, the sounds of him working them inside of me wet, loud.
“Christ you get so wet with my cock stuffed down that pretty throat. I love how turned on you get being my little slut,” he grunts, smacking my ass again as he starts thrusting deeper and deeper inside my mouth.
Reaching down, I try to rub at my aching clit, but he smacks me again, hard, pulling my hand away. Lifting it, he sucks the soaked digits inside his mouth, humming as if it’s the sweetest thing he’s ever had. I ache between my thighs, I need him inside me. Now. All night. Forever.
“Greedy little thing. Tell me, does my princess need a cock stuffed in her virgin cunt? Is that why you’re moaning like a bitch in heat?”
Nodding, I let him out of my mouth with a pop. “Yes, yes, I want it. I said I want it all, baby. Please, I don’t want to play this game. I want to play new games.”
“Lie back, princess. Let me see what you’re giving me,” he commands, jerking his head towards the pillows.
Lying back, I am shaking, anxious for his touch, for the weight of him, for his hands on my skin. Gabriel grabs my thighs, pushing them up and out, baring me to him. Staring at the slit between my thighs, he growls. It is so animal like, I have to blink to confirm he has not become a beast.
“Jesus, that’s pretty. Tell me you belong to me. I want the words.”
“I belong to you, Gabriel. I am…I love you. You don’t have to love me back. Men never do. But I love you and I am just yours. Only yours .”
Gabriel drops down fast, startling me. Grasping my chin, he pants for a moment, chest heaving, before he breathes his words. “Other men were fools. Good for me. Because they never had a chance. You were mine before I ever set sight on you. You’ll be mine until you take your last breath. And I’ll be yours. How can you doubt it? That I love you. I started living, breathing, my fucking heart started beating for you, Gianna. Because of you. Of course I love you. I said it: you’re everything.”
Pulling him down to me, I crush my mouth to his as he pins me beneath his big body. Grasping my thighs, he lifts them at his waist as he angles his hips between them. Holding my gaze as he pulls back, he presses the swollen crown of his cock to my pussy, pushing slowly. I gasp then he grunts and slams deep.
“Ah, fuck. Fuck. Princess. It is… è così bello . So beautiful,” he whispers, moving slowly out of me, both of us dropping our gazes to see the drag of him pulling out. We both groan as he pushes back in deep.
“Oh…oh, yes,” I moan throatily, clawing at his shoulders.
“So good. It’s so fucking good. No one else, princess. It is just you. No one else for me. Not ever. Not fucking ever. I love you. I love you so much I would slice your fucking throat before I ever let you go.”
To someone else, that might be a red flag. To me…to me it is a green flag. It is all systems go. Full steam ahead. This is mine. My king and our kingdom. He once said he would set Silver Shores on fire for me. I would light a match that would burn it to ash. His threat just turns me on.
“Yes. Yes. God, yes!” I scream, twisting beneath him, chasing the pleasure that will wash away the pain.
We come together at the same moment, gazes locked, bodies tangled. Nothing could tear us apart. Nothing else is this strong, it is impossible.
We just have to survive this war together.