Page 61 of The Sting of Love
“Donny you’re hurt. You’re bleeding,” I say.
“Fuck it. We’re talking. I don’t give a shit about blood. What you did was dangerous. What if I hadn’t gotten to you? The current in the sea here is vicious. Ready to kill and claim. We could have both gone.”
“I’m sorry.”
“What were you thinking?”
“My aunt... I don’t want anything to happen to her,” I stutter.
“Willow, I told you I have people watching her.”
“I was just worried. I wanted to warn her. I know what I did was completely crazy,” I try to explain.
“Completely crazy?” He laughs but it’s not laughter of humor. It’s a crude sardonic laugh and he sounds like he’s laughing at himself. “Fuck.Crazy? Trying to protect you is driving me insane. Loving you is driving me fucking crazy, and I can’t stop.”
His words send a lance of shock through me. We stare at each other, deep and intense as I process his words.
Love...
The thought sends all that I feel for him rushing back to my heart.
As I look at him the love he speaks of reflects through his panic stricken gaze. It shimmers and surges through me holding me in place, commanding my attention.
The tenderness grips me forcing me to look deeper through the window of his eyes. That’s where I see his soul. Love flows there, deep and strong, spellbinding. More powerful than anything I’ve ever seen in anyone for me.
In that moment I know all that I felt for him was real, and all that we experienced together was real. All of it was real, all of it was true and what I felt for him was love too.
My heart throbs, and my pulse races at the acceptance. Truth then washes over me, pushing aside my fears and everything that made me want to escape.
Donny cups my face and rivets his gaze to mine. His face softens and the hammering in my heart slows.
“Willow, I need you to trust me,” he says. “I know the situation is complete shit and trusting me is a big ask considering what I did to get you here. But I need you to trust me.”
Anguish fills his face. What I see is sincerity. It tells me that if I ever needed to trust anyone it’s now and it’s him.
I nod and he pulls me close to his chest, cupping the back of my head like I belong to him. I snuggle against him feeling the rapid beat of his heart.
“Willow,” he whispers in my ear and I grab on to his shirt, closing my eyes to savor the safety I feel in his arms.
Loving me is making him crazy, loving him must have made me crazy too.
Chapter Eighteen
Willow
Donny fell asleep after Armand stitched up his cut. It was quite deep and sliced across the ridge of his left brow. Although Armand took care of it, I would have felt more reassured if we’d gone to the hospital. I’m starting to worry because Donny has been sleeping for hours and night fell long ago.
I changed into a long sleeved t-shirt and a pair of yoga pants, then decided to stay in Donny’s room which seemed to be the master bedroom. Unlike the rest of the house, the king sized bed with the mahogany bedframe and the wrought iron chandelier hanging over it creates more of a medieval presence.
I’ve been sitting in the chair beside Donny’s bed, watching over him in his deep slumber. Just like always when I’ve seen him asleep I found myself looking at the angles and planes in his face. Even with the stitch over his eye and the black and blue bruise surrounding the area he still has that beauty.
Right now he’s the sleeping giant in a calmed state. Awake he’s the dark avenging angel. Vicious and fearsome, brave. The only man to fight for me.
I feel so awful that he got hurt. I would never have attempted to escape if I’d known the danger. Desperation to make sure Lurlene was safe and get myself out of trouble got the better of me and I didn’t think things through.
I keep remembering his words –loving me made him crazy. I wonder if he knew what he said and what it meant to hear it. He seems to be the kind of man who doesn’t say things he doesn’t mean. It was just the way it came out that makes me wonder if he meant to tell me such a truth. Maybe he realized I needed to hear it to truly trust him and know why he was doing what he was doing.
We haven’t known each other for long and people like Mom would tell me I’d lost my mind for thinking I was in love, and worse for falling for a mobster.
