All of me.
I need all of you tonight.
My body answered his body’s need.
I was so delirious that when he picked me up from the bed, I cried a little and threw a hand over my eyes. “I can’t,” I said. “I. Just. Can’t.”
Even though he was moving, I couldn’t find it in me to care anymore where he was taking me. My body had completely shut down, and so had my mind. I could tell he was going down steps, though, and I sighed when warm water covered me like a soothing blanket. Then I hissed out a breath when the water seemed to get hotter and touched the lower half of my body.
He settled us deeper into the water, his back against the tub, keeping me in front of him. I forced my eyes to open and catch a glimpse of the city lights from where we were. Steam rose like smoke around us, and the smell in the air, that soothing tobacco, made me sink further into him with another contented sigh.
With one eye open, I remembered where the moon had been and traced the shape of it. My eye closed as my hand hit the water with a loudplop!, sending a splash of it in my face. I’d lost control of anything that belonged to me.
A shiver stole over me when he started to trace my scars with a slow, gentle finger. “These are my veins imprinted on your body,” he said in Italian. “You are forever marked as mine.” His voice was deep and as quiet as the night. I couldn’t hear anything from outside. Only the beating of my heart and his steady breathing.
“That’s why I’ve never been ashamed of them,” I said, my voice not even sounding like mine. It was soft, almost dreamy. So damn exhausted.
He let out a strained breath, his finger tracing a vicious, deep-pink scar. “If you bleed, I hemorrhage.”
“If you die, I die,” I whispered, and then I fell asleep with his heart pounding against my back.
* * *
The next morning,his side of the bed was empty. It felt as cold as the penthouse did.
The deep chill was back.
I was covered up to my neck in the warm blanket. Bambina was buried underneath the covers, her warm little body pressed against my back. I was almost to the edge. She was like a little rock wedged between me and seven feet of bed.For as small as she was, she was a bed hog.
We both groaned when I moved. She didn’t want to be disturbed. My entire body felt like it’d been through a war. I had found out who I was and what I was made of the night before.
I was his. Completely his. But powerful in my own way.
I just didn’t feel that power in my muscles and bones in the brightness of the day. It took every ounce of whatever energy reserves I had left to make it to the bathroom and do necessary things. Even swapping out my pajamas for a t-shirt and a pair of jeans felt like I’d run a marathon after running a triathlon. I swept my hair up into a messy bun as I met Cilla in the kitchen.
She was at the table, eating cereal. Her entire body was wrapped in the plush blanket. The only thing visible was her face and her arms as she took scoops to eat.
“The monster left early this morning,” she said. “He took Bambina out for a walk before he did.”
Angelia, I wanted to say, but nodded instead, pouring myself a cup of coffee. Even though it was midday, I needed a pick me up. Especially after the fall my heart had taken when I’d walked into the kitchen and discovered that he’d left.
In one way, I was glad not to see him. After everything we did the night before, I wasn’t sure if I could face him right away. My mind needed a little time to process all the ways I’d let him abuse my body. And enjoyed it.Thoroughly.
His power, all the marks he left behind, and the ones he claimed as his,my scars, were like tattoos he’d inked on my body.
In another way, not seeing him always made my days feel dark. Eternal nights. Because there were moments last night that were almost…heavenly. He treated my body like a temple. And he was in awe of it. Of me. Maybe of the power my body held over his, even though he could crush my windpipe with a squeeze of his hand.
The night before, I’d brought him to his knees. More than once.
It was sexual, but it still counted.
My cheeks heated when I remembered how hungry he was for me.
“I’m going to tell you you’re glowing like all the ballsy best friends do in romance books if you sigh one more time. Then I’m going to give you some unsolicited, but groundbreaking advice, even though the knowledge has always been buried deep down inside of you.”
“I’m terrified,” I said, grinning into my cup a little, “because I know how much of a little monster you can be now. Your advice will probably get me arrested.”
“By the way, he went to work,” Cilla said, drinking the milk leftover in her bowl. “He has to go. They don’t have a choice when they get called in. This life always comes first. It doesn’t matter if your mamma is dying or your wife is giving birth. Thefamigliaalways takes priority.”
