“Godamnit!” I chased her, although there wasn’t anywhere for her to go. If it wasn’t pouring down rain, I’d have left her to it. Although knowing her, she’d tear herself up, trying to climb over the gates.
She ran fast, but the slippery ground beneath her bare feet hindered her progress. She fell twice more before I finally caught up to her. When I wrapped an arm around her waist to haul her up, she kicked out, knocking my legs out from under me so that I fell on top of her.
“Leave me alone! Why can’t you justleave me alone?”
She fought like a feral cat, scratching and kicking until I lay my full weight on her, caught both of her wrists, and trapped her beneath me.
“Stop! Stop fighting me!”
“I hate you. I hate you, and I will never stop.”
I looked down at her, tears and rain soaking her face.
“You will stop.”
“Why did you come for me? What do you want from me?”
“What do I want?” I looked at her face flushed with exertion, her mouth open to suck in gulps of air, her dark hair fanned out around her head, stuck to her face, soaked and dirty. “What do I want?” She jerked her body. I touched my forehead to hers, her eyes burning amber now. “This,” I said, and kissed her.
She tried to say something, but whatever it was, I swallowed it up. Her soft wet lips yielded beneath mine. Even as she attempted to fight, her body gave itself over, her mouth surrendering. She made a small sound as I deepened the kiss,tasting her, pressing her harder into the earth, my cock like steel against her soft belly.
“I want this,” I said, claiming her mouth again while I reached with one hand to take my cock out of my pants. Her nightie had already ridden up to midbelly. “This.” I kissed her again, this time softer, on her lips, then her chin, her cheek. I wanted to see her face, her eyes. Slipping my fingers beneath her panties, I drew them aside. She bit her lips, watching me. “I want you.” I thrust into her, and she arched her back, closing her eyes momentarily. “You.” I drove in again, her tight pussy wet like a glove around my cock. “I want you, Lucia,” I said finally, taking her wrists in my hands and pinning them out to her sides, watching her face as I fucked her, just a few more short, hard thrusts before she clenched around me, coming, making that sound she made, crushing my cock until I stilled, squeezing her wrists harder, coming, heart racing, not breathing until I’d emptied.
The rain slowed, finally, as if it matched our moods. I kissed her and slowly slid out, kneeling to zip my jeans before lifting her up. She let me this time. Let me carry her into the house and up to the second floor and through my bedroom to the master bath, where I ran the shower and placed her inside. I followed, still fully clothed, stripping first her and then myself beneath the warm flow of water.
“I wantyou, Lucia,” I said yet again, pressing her back against the wall, kissing her. “As wrong as it is, I want you.”
Lucia lay in my bed,the cuts on her knees and palms bandaged, warm beneath the covers. Safe in my arms.
“Natalie is my sister-in-law. Sergio’s wife.” She had her back to me, so I couldn’t see her face. “She has a son who was at daycare while she worked her usual hours. When she got there to pick him up, he was gone. The daycare provider had fucked up, releasing Jacob to someone who claimed to be his uncle.”
She turned her head to look at me, then shifted to lie on her back. I kept my arm over her belly, my hand closed possessively around her hip.
“She was frantic, as you can imagine.”
“Did they find him?”
I nodded. “It was Dominic, I’m certain. He’d dropped him off at her parent’s house but only after a couple of hours.”
“Is Jacob okay?”
“He’s fine now. He’s only a year and a half, so he couldn’t tell us much. Dropped off with an armful of toys and an ice-cream cone that had melted all over him. He apparently ran into his grandmother’s arms and sobbed, calling for his mom.”
“Why would Dominic do that?”
“To show he could.” That’s what pissed me off the most. This was the one thing that could terrorize Natalie.
“I can’t imagine what Natalie must have felt.”
I nodded. I’d never seen her like I did today, not even when she’d learned Sergio had been killed.
“I’m the only person she trusts, Lucia. I couldn’t abandon her or my nephew.”
“You should have told me.”
“I know.”
“I assumed… I thought she was your... That you were having an affair.” She lowered her lashes, her face growing pink with embarrassment.
