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“You are beautiful, Elena. From your red hair to your endlessly long legs, your velvet gray eyes and your elegance. Even, and especially, your pussy. This”––he dropped a chaste kiss to my covered clit that made me gasp––“is beautiful. Do not deny me the pleasure of kissing you here. Of tasting you straight from the well.”
“There has never been another man for you,” he said fiercely, eyes flashing up to mine and filled with primal possession. “I am the only one to touch you this way, to bring you this pleasure. Forget the past, Elena, because I am the only man in your future.”
“Only you, Elena. Only with you do I feel like fucking you, marking you, owning you with my body and my cum. I’m going to paint you with it right now so you know you’re mine. Mine to fuck. Mine to cherish. Mine to love.”
“Partner? Mmm, I don’t think so. I like the sound of… my lover, my woman, innamorata mia, amora mia.” My love, my heart.
“You don’t understand this yet, but you do not need your armor all the time now. Not when you have me.” He lipped the edge of my jaw all the way up to my ear, where he spoke his next words on a purr. “I will be your sword.”
I was a man who only feared one thing, which I was learning was infinitely more dangerous than a man who feared nothing. I would not lose Elena. Not for anything. Not for my bloody kingdom and stacks of crisp bills. Not for my honor or my family, my Italian ideals. She was it. Mine. Forever.
“There is no shame in anything between us, lottatice mia. I will not have you feel embarrassed of your emotions with me. Embarrassed of the dreams I hope you’ll come to share with me. Most people have reason to fear me. I’d end them without blinking for even a slight offense against me or mine. But you?” I brushed my nose up her elegant neck and pressed an open-mouthed kiss to her cheek. “You have nothing to fear in me, capisci? You have had enough to fear in your life and I will break apart the entire universe if it dares to harm you again. Do you understand me?”
“Tu si l’azzurro dò mare sì duci e si amar,” I told her. You are like the sea, sweet and salty. “A sailor does not leave the sea because it storms, and it does not begrudge the ocean her moods. I have no intention of giving up on you, Elena, because there is no part of you I do not find worthy and fascinating. If this ends, it will be because you choose to end it, and you refuse to let me fight to win you back.”
back. “Do you know how good it feels to have you vulnerable in my arms? To know it is a gift you only give to me?” I hadn’t ever thought of it that way. “I always feel like a burden when I get emotional. It shouldn’t be anyone’s problem but my own.” He made a pained noise in his throat, then ran his nose from my forehead down the bridge of my own until he reached my mouth where he spoke the words like a secret. “It is a privilege, Elena, to know you intimately. To know what makes you hurt and what makes you blush. To know what your demons are so I can slay them for you when you don’t have the
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“As yours?” “Not just as my woman, but theirs. The woman, la Donna, they will be expected to lay down their lives for just as I would,” he said almost casually, factually, as if he wasn’t altering my entire world again. “You aren’t my lawyer anymore, Elena. Tu sei la mia regina.” You are my queen.
Io sono con te. I am with you. Elena, you don’t realize this yet, but I see you, I know you, and I’m undone by you. Sono pazzo di te. I’m crazy about you. Only you, Elena. Only with you do I like fucking you, marking you, owning you with my body and my cum. Mine to fuck. Mine to cherish. Mine to love. It is a privilege to know you intimately. It is an honor to know you and I won’t ever take that for granted. Tu sei la mia regina. You are my queen.
“I would do anything for you, Elena. Men have said that to women before, but they couldn’t know what it means, not really. I will kill and die for you, but I will also shop for you because I like you in the clothes I’ve bought, and I’ll cook for you because I love to watch you rediscover the joy of indulgence. I will make love to you when your heart is aching and lonely, echoing with the past, and I will fuck you when you can’t stand to be empty of me for one second longer. I am capo dei capi of the New York Camorra, but that is not the most important title I have anymore. In fact, it means
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“Let’s get married, Dante. I want you to be my husband.” His eyes flashed, lightning through a dark sky. “Now, that sounds better than any curse or please from your lips. Say it again.” “Husband,” I teased. “Husband. Husband.” A growl moved through his throat, his hands spasming on my face before one slid down to palm my neck. “Andiamo, padre,” Dante ordered the priest without taking his gaze from mine. “I want to make this woman my wife.”
“Some people have hobbies, art, music, playing sport. Mine is learning you.”