Diavolo (Devil's Playground #1)

by T.A. Fan

His eyes were very different colors. The right one was fiercely dark. Almost black. Grim as death. The left was bluish-gray. It reminded her of calm seas after a storm. Such duality was perplexing. If eyes were windows to the soul, Elyse couldn't tell whether she was about to save a sinner or a saint.

"But anything that harms you," he argued, "hurts me, no?" Dios, the low, smoky timbre of his voice was distracting. The man smiled again. "My life is in your hands. I must protect you if I wish to live." Elyse glanced down. The sentiment

"A beautiful woman is a beautiful woman," he murmured. "Even at death's door, it would be a sin to forget her name."

Her heart tripped over a beat. Elyse ignored the sensation and declared, "I have no interest in being your friend." A wicked gleam entered his eyes. His gaze traveled appreciatively up and down her body. "I have no interest in being your friend, either."

Elyse didn't trust him. The man was too tempting. Too willing. A dangerous combination.

"I would gladly take another bullet," he professed, "if it brings me back to you."

Not everything that shines is gold, my daughter.

"There's no such thing as freedom from men like you." He grimaced. "The tragedy on your lovely face grieves me. I would move mountains and drain the seas. Just to see you smile once more."

"Do not let pride stand in the way of your well-being." "What do you know about my well-being?" Alessandro suddenly gazed upon her as one might look at a lover. Foolishly, Elyse felt her heart quicken inside her chest. In seemingly sincere tones, he expressed, "More than you think."

The bastard wielded words in the way she wielded surgical tools. Skillfully and strategically.

"You work for me. So you are mine to protect." "You haven't answered my question." "I would do everything in my power to convince you not to go," Alessandro confessed, "but I would never hurt you. If that is what weighs on your mind."

He chuckled, soft and low. "I believe any red-blooded man would want you in his bed. I am certainly no exception, but, sadly, the answer to your question is—no. I did not bring you here solely to fuck. I have other reasons."

"A word to the wise, angelo. Do not offer yourself to a devil. Unless you are prepared to be swallowed whole."

"I do not need apologies. My only wish is for you to finish what you start next time. If you pull this shit again, I will be ready to fuck your brains out."

He continued in a low and intimate voice, "That will not stop me from wanting you. Or you from wanting me. Every time we cross paths, there is an undeniable pull between us. Why deny it?"

He was the serpent to her Eve. Temptation sang through her veins.

She offered in breezy tones, “Want me to pray for your soul?" Alessandro muttered with a wry expression, "Just let me burn. Dio. I would give anything to become necessary in your life. What must I do to earn your love?" "Don't hold your breath." He grinned. "You are breaking my heart, angelo." "Impossible," she quipped. "You have no heart." "Not anymore. It is in a thousand pieces."

"If I had not knocked on your door tonight," he growled, "how much longer would you have kept yourself from me?"

His eyes darted between Elyse's face and her breasts like a broken man. Desperately, he pleaded with her, "Angelo, per favore, be kind."

Alessandro eyed her suspiciously. "I gave you two months. You did not come." "I didn't mean to stay away." "And yet," he grumbled, "you forgot about my fucking existence while I pined day and night."

He started shifting across the couch toward her. A predatory gleam shone from his glare. "Fuck that shit. I want you make a mess all over me. Ride my fucking face until you scream. I want you begging when my fingers aren’t enough. But you will not be given more. No matter how prettily you beg for my cock. I will edge you until tears fall from your eyes. Only then will I let that pretty, little cunt of yours swallow every inch of me. Only then will I bury myself in you so we fuck to the point of no return."

Freedom required sacrifice. The light that awaited her at the end of this fucked up tunnel would be more than worth it.

Elyse smirked and pulled her hand away. "You failed to fuck my brains out the last two times, so don't be surprised if I start looking elsewhere for someone who can." His reply came swiftly, carrying a frighteningly possessive edge, "If I ever catch you with another man, angelo, then, rest assured, that brutto figlio di puttana bastardo is as good as dead."

Something within pushed her to challenge his threat. "Unwilling to share your toys?" Alessandro glared as he corrected her, "Unwilling to share my woman." "I thought I was your physician?" "You will become everything to me."

"He hurt you," Alessandro finally answered, "so I hurt him."

"Please do not fear me. I would never harm you," he contended softly. "I may be a monster in many ways, but I strive to be a good man in your eyes. Let me be your diavolo, and I will treat you like my angelo."

Only men were allowed to be kings in the mafia. Their women weren't queens. They were pawns. Disposable and easily replaced.

"No, you're mistaken. We are done because—this—is what it feels like to be used, to be denied what you desperately want, and to be treated like an object. An object that can be picked up. And played with. Then discarded without a second thought."

"I may not be your first choice," Alessandro disputed, "but I am not a bad choice. Give me a chance to win you over. To show you what it would be like to be my queen." "I don't need to be your queen," Elyse sniffed elegantly. "I'm already a goddamn surgeon."

"Easy for you to say," she retorted. "You hold all the cards while I have none." "Once you become my wife," Alessandro stressed, "what is mine will be yours. A true king does not rule over his queen. He rules alongside her." Beautiful lies from a beautiful devil.

Alessandro stared down at his tattoo. Then, he glanced back at her. "Perhaps, this memento will be enough to bring me back tonight. Alive and well. So that you may continue to hate me as my wife. Instead of my widow."

As Elyse slept, Alessandro watched her. He couldn't seem to look away. In this moment, his brimming confidence seemed to dim with uncertainty. He laughed quietly to himself. Elyse didn't hear him at all when he confessed in the dark. "There was a void. Here. Before you." He guided her palm to his chest, pressing it against the strong, steady beats. "Fuck me but I did not know what I was capable of feeling. Until you.”

"She also happens to be a gifted surgeon. It would seem that my beloved can cut a man open as easily as her beauty can bring another to his knees."

With uncertainty etched across her face, Elyse mumbled, "I guess I was scared of what might become of me if I… stayed." His eyes flashed intensely. "I would never let anyone hurt you. You are part of me now. I would sooner carve out my own flesh than let you suffer a moment of abuse."

"Why is that a bad thing? I want you to lose yourself in me. As I am lost in you," he returned in heated tones. "I have wanted you from the very beginning. The moment I opened my eyes in Queens and saw you, I knew, I would never be able to look at another woman the way I look at you."

"Women lie all the time," Alessandro grumbled as he shot her a pointed look. "Especially the intelligent ones." "Men lie, too, regardless of their intelligence level."

She taunted, "I thought you were in control? You could've stopped me." His lips brushed against her temple as he sighed, "How could I stand in your way? You overwhelmed me. I am weak when it comes to you. Always."

"Marry me, cuore mio," he said softly, "so that I can spend a lifetime learning how to be the husband you deserve."

"I once heard that, when we meet our soulmates, hearts do not pound. Nor do knees go weak. Instead, we will feel calm. No anxiety. Or agitation."

Sometimes, grief brings out the worst in people. Sometimes, I fear, grief may cause a person to set the world on fire. Simply to watch it burn."

As long as she didn't acknowledge it, the feeling wasn't real. It couldn't hurt her. She refused to surrender to it.

"I missed you," Alessandro murmured into her hair. She side-eyed him. "I was only gone for a few minutes." "Even a minute feels like eternity when you are away." Elyse laughed in spite of herself. "Stop." Alessandro grinned cheekily. "Never. I must never stop with you. It was my dogged persistence that chained you to me. If God is kind, He will let me keep you. Forever."

"You might get sick of me. But I can never tire of you. Forever will not be enough. You are a gift. A gift I do not deserve, so I must cling to you and protect what we have with all my might."

He kissed her back with equal abandon and kept thrusting away. "Ti voglio più di ogni altra cosa."

She was a realist. It made her second guess everything.

"Most days," Elyse added, "fighting for the life I want feels like a lost cause. But I'm too stubborn to give up."