Twisted Emotions (The Camorra Chronicles, #2)

by Cora Reilly

A hush fell over the crowd when the music began to play and Kiara appeared at the end of the aisle. She had chosen an elegant dress with a veil that covered her shoulders. Felix led her toward me, but Kiara never raised her eyes to meet mine, instead, keeping them fixed on my chest.

“You are a Falcone now. My brother’s wife. You fall under my rule. That makes you mine to protect.”

“I will find the man who raped you and slaughter him like a pig on these sheets. Do you think that will be enough blood for your family?”

“Do you want your uncle to live?”

“No,” I admitted.

And that sealed all o...

“Your nights are safe. You are safe now, Kiara. Even in the dark, there’s nothing you have to fear, no one, because I am there and they will have to go through me. And no one ever has won against me. I am the most dangerous thing in the dark, but you don’t have to fear me.”

“Don’t you understand? I’m a woman. I’m guilty by default. It’s always like that. They will say I asked for it. A smile means I’m flirting. A nice word means I’m asking for it. Revealing clothes mean I’m inviting touch. That is fact, Nino.”

I couldn’t stop playing, even as I began the melody anew, reformed it, but the emotion remained, and it filled the room and me. For a moment, I felt at home, felt almost at peace.

“I see you discovered your piano,” Nino drawled, and my fingers dug into the keys, making the beautiful instrument cry out almost angrily.

“The scars he left, your body can heal them if you let it, and the result will be stronger than what was there before.”

“Tonight people will start talking about another Falcone. The lady in red.”

“I wish … I wish I could be touched without fear.”

“Eventually, you will. You will kill the part of your uncle I couldn’t kill for you.”

“It is. I won’t ever push you past your boundaries, but just because I haven’t claimed your body with my cock yet doesn’t mean I haven’t laid claim on you. You are mine. Mine alone. And for as long as I live, no one will touch you but me.”

“I was, but I don’t want that anymore. I want us to have a real marriage.”

“That’s not what I mean. I want a normal marriage. For me that means being faithful and being intimate only with your partner. It means taking care of each other, showing affection, trying to love each other.”

“I can simulate emotions very well, Kiara. If it helps you feel more comfortable, I can fake affection and even love.”

“I want to take care of you, and even if I can’t feel emotions, seeing them on your face, particularly happiness and joy, give me a certain level of satisfaction. I can’t give you more than that.”

Her lips were very soft and the pressure was light, almost nonexistent like our kiss on our wedding day. Resisting the urge to pull her closer and show her how good kissing could feel, I let her be in control.

“I want you in every regard. I want to kiss you, of course. I want to show you pleasure, Kiara.” My pulse galloped with every word. “I want to give you an orgasm with my mouth and my fingers. I want to taste you everywhere, and I want to … sleep with you.”

We kissed for a long time, and I started to feel hot between my legs. Nino’s kisses were incredible, overwhelming; he led easily without making me feel like I was under his control. His breathing deepened ever so slightly as his mouth slid over mine, and the friction sent a new surge of heat through my core. I squirmed, pressing my thighs together.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“For never going beyond what I can take,” she said quietly. “For showing me that being touched there doesn’t have to be painful.”

Kiara was my wife and I wanted to treat her right, treat her like a wife was supposed to be treated.

Kiara wasn’t a whore or debtor. She was my wife. A Falcone. My responsibility.

I stroked her back gently, trying to understand. I had killed him as brutally as I was capable of, and yet this act of tenderness finally destroyed the demons of her past, the memories of his actions. I tightened my hold on her, bringing our bodies flush together, my back pressed against the headboard. For once I didn’t know what to say, and it was an unsettling experience.

It was uncoordinated and unpracticed and yet the best thing I’d ever watched. The fucking best thing I’d ever felt.

“I love you,” she whispered, and we both stiffened at the same time.

Her breathing hitched against my throat.

L...

Nino had been nothing but patient and gentle with me, and it wasn’t something I’d expected. Not in my wildest dreams, not from a man like him, and not from a Falcone. I felt safe with him. But saying the words I’d barely dared to admit to myself had been a mistake. I knew it deep down.

“I know you can’t return the emotion. I know you don’t feel anything for me, and it’s okay. You are trying to be a good man, even though it’s not in your nature. You are treating me right, you are simulating affection for me, and that’s all right. It’s more than I expected when we married and it’s enough.”

“Are you sure?”

No, it had been a big fat lie. The idea that Nino could never feel for me what I felt for him filled me with despair, but he had been upfront about his disposition from the very start. I couldn’t hold it against him. I wouldn’t.

“Does it matter? You can’t change who you are. You can’t make yourself feel, so even if it bothered me, that wouldn’t change a thing. I prefer ...

I kissed him fiercely, my lips lingering against his as I looked into his gray eyes. As soon as I did, they softened again. Simulated affection. He was so horrifyingly good at it.

“I can try to simulate love,” he murmured, and my heart jerked violently. “It’s not difficult. Humans have a certain way they act around each other when they are in love.”

I was torn between wanting to agree … because if Nino was as good at simulated love as he was at everything else, he could make me believe his emotions were real. I could allow myself to believe a lie. I knew it. But what happened in the moments when I realized the truth, when he forgot to show emotion? These moments...

“Don’t simulate love. Everything else, I can deal with, but not love. If you ever tell me you love me, it has to be because you really do love me.”

Could you love someone who didn’t have emotions? Someone who analyzed love as if it were a mathematical problem?

It wasn’t a question that needed answering.

I knew the ...

I loved Nino, even if he could never ...

Nino lowered himself beside me on the bench, but I didn’t stop playing. I closed my eyes and let the music flow, wishing he could understand that this song encompassed everything I felt for him, everything I’d ever felt for him. Then new notes rang out, and my eyes jerked open, my fingers faltering as Nino began to play the song as well. What?

It was more beautiful than anything I’d ever heard. Nino’s eyes were on my face as he played the song from memory without faltering, but I had to return my gaze to the keys because I couldn’t understand the look in his eyes.

She kissed me. “I know our pasts hold horrors, but we can get beyond that, don’t you think?”

“I hope one day you will find someone you want so much it burns you up inside, and then we’ll talk when she doesn’t return your feelings.”

“What does it mean?” Nino murmured. “Since you started the song, it has evolved more and more.”

“It’s the story of my feelings for you,” I admitted. “How I came to accept that I love you and that you can never love me back.”