Page 19 of Stealing Her Heart
“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 isstalking. 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 isnota 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.
