Page 46 of Stolen Bride

She freezes, parting her plump lips that I’ve missed so damn much. My mouth comes down on hers, kissing her with the passion of the past few days. She gives in without hesitation.

Suddenly, she halts and shoves me off her. “No. No. You can’t do this to me. Please, just go. Please.” Sobs wrack her chest, and I don’t fucking like it.

“Don’t cry. Shit.” I stand and run my hands through my hair.

“I don’t know how to stop.” Every last bit of that wall between my heart and head has crumbled.

“Stella Valentino, will you stop and let me hold you for as long as I live?”

“Why, Damiano?” she sniffles out. I pull out my monogrammed handkerchief and wipe her tears.

“Because I love you. It took me a long time to realize it, but I do.”

“Why should I believe you?”

“I should have known how I felt from the start. Yours is the first woman’s touch I welcomed who wasn’t blood.” I was about to say family, but I had to bite that back.

“What? I don’t understand.”

“I may be the devil, but I have my own demons chasing me.”

“The first woman to put her hands on me nearly sent me to my grave. I didn’t tell her to touch me. Damn it, I even told her to get the fuck away from me, but the damage was done.” Standing up again, I grab a bottle of water from her mini fridge and drink it before I sit down and tell the tale of young Damiano. By the time I’m finished, my sweet angel is crying.

“Sweet Stella, I didn’t tell you that shit to have you crying again.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“You had to kill your grandfather.”

“I thought for a long time that love made a man weak and foolish. My grandfather didn’t even listen to his only grandson; he hadn’t even given it a second thought. Then, my father gave his empire so easily to me to care for my mother and sister. All I saw was weakness. Until I met you…I wanted to have you and not at the same time. Use you for my pleasure, the longing, but I couldn’t let you go. I didn’t have anyone else, even if you thought so. You were too good to be like that bitch who nearly got mekilled, but you were also the kind of woman who could make me give up everything at a word.”

“I’d never.”

“That’s the thing. My father didn’t do it because my mother asked; he did it because he couldn’t get enough of her.”

“Well, isn’t twenty-something odd years long enough to pass on the reins or slow down to enjoy the finer things. Most people enjoy retiring.”

“I didn’t think so.”

“And now?”

“Now, all I want to do is come home to you before the club even opens.”

“Well, I could always pay you visits and keep you company. The lounge is quite comfortable, Mr. Valentino.”

“Wife.” A deep growl falls from my lips when a giggle falls from hers. I lean down and stare into her blue eyes and whisper, “I missed you so much.”

She cups my jaw that could use a serious shave. “I missed you too. I like this, though.”

“Do you?”

“Yes, it’s sexy.”

“Well, then, maybe I’ll keep it a little longer, if you promise not to try some stupid shit like leaving me again.”

“I never wanted to leave. I wanted to protect…”

“The baby from me?”

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