Page 28 of Fall
9
Antonio
“I know I shouldn’t be here. But I don’t care. Not anymore,” she whispers up to me, her tone intense but meek. “I only care about you. About us. This is where I belong. With you. Nothing else matters to me.”
She can see how hard I’m fighting this thingbetween us. She knows how wrong is it for us to make another move. We both understand how much hell will come down on us both if I give in.
Maybe she wants a bit of trouble. After all, she’s been a good girl all her life. I would know. I’ve been around her family since I was in my late teens. I watched over her while she played with her toys around my little brothers. I kept her safe asa shy teen, and I always saw her a kid. Then this summer she went on a trip to Italy with her nonna and returned a woman, with curves that I had no business noticing. And on this same night, on her eighteenth birthday, she comes from left field and makes it clear to me that she’s old enough for me now.
"Your father already made a commitment for you to be with someone else," I remind her,and my blood runs hotter than hell in no time. I shouldn't even mention that undeserving little prick. I've never met him, but I know enough. Just the idea that one day the boss might force her to marry that useless asshole drives me close to madness. This is how love works in this famiglia. I've heard stories, and the living proof of it is right before me in this bed, and in that house, and allover this very situation that threatens to drive us all apart. The boss's marriage was arranged. As was Nonna Romano's marriage to her husband. And probably before her too. Crime families do this to augment their power and expand their territory.Love comes with time.That’s what Nonna Romano tells Natalia over and over. This is how the famiglia has always been, but I don’t have to like it.
“That will never happen. Not anymore. I’m yours.”
I see the same resolve in her eyes as I always have.
And something else.
Longing.
I need to watch myself with this girl. She's barely out of high school, barely an adult compared to my being thirty, years younger than my younger brothers, who I still see as kids. She's not just practically jailbait. She's completelyoff limits. Her dad isn't only my employer. He'sa mobboss. And his daughter, the mafia princess, is under my care. It’s my job to protect everyone in Romano’s family, including this seductress who’s found her way to my suite.
And if I dare touch her naked virgin body, there’ll be hell to pay.
I search her face, and she remains locked onto my gaze, hiding nothing, bold as fuck.Looking down her body, I see a slight imprint of the bra and panties she wore under that designer dress she had on tonight, the one teased me with all her curves on full display, causing me to swallow hard every fucking time I saw her across the room, or opposite me at the dinner table for that eight-course meal they planned for her.
I ate the food put in front of me tonight, but all Ithought about was tasting her.
Sweet Natalia.
Forbidden fruit.
And now, she’s here, tempting and innocent, yet inviting. I breathe in her scent and groan aloud. She smells like vanilla and honeysuckle. Sweet and pure and feminine. There’s barely any light in the room with the blinds closed and the curtains drawn, but I can see enough. Her creamy skin, those long, dark locksI’ve dreamed of wrapping around my fist as I take her. She must have a good idea what I’m thinking, because she moves closer to me and cranes her neck up, showing me more of her. A narrow band of light from one of the floodlights installed at the edge of the property streams in through a gap between the curtains, falling on one side of her torso and hips.
Curves.
Lines.
Perfectskin.
And enough meat on her body to grab hold of, just the way I like a woman.
Part of me wants to wait, to stare at the feast before me, to devour her with my eyes for a while longer.
But I can’t.
Won’t.
I have less than three days with this woman, and then she’ll be gone for who knows how long. I’ve wasted too much time playing it safe. I’ve ignored the needbuilding inside of me for too much time, and now it’s grown into an insatiable beast, ready to ravish her until there’s nothing left.
I won't wait for a second more.
Fuck responsibility.
Screw loyalty.
To hell with rules.
I’m ready to claim the woman who’s always been mine.
