So I walk back to bed, climbing in.He doesn’t avert his stern gaze until the covers are pulled up to my chin.
“Good girl,” he says.“Now dream of me.Because I will certainly dream of you.”
“I will,” I promise him and it’s already a done deal.Even though I don’t want to fall asleep yet.I want to lie here, awake, feeling the tingling left by his kisses on my lips and the sparkling they left in my veins.
But my room is dark and empty again.He’s gone.So silently and completely I’m questioning whether he was here at all.
But I can still feel the echoes of his hand around my throat and his voice is still whispering in my head, telling me he’ll dream of me.And that is enough to know just how real all this is.Just how perfect.Just how magical.
Chapter29
MATTEO
It’s beena while since I’ve been with a woman.That’s why I can’t get Goldie’s soft lips and even softer skin out of my head.Or my throbbing cock to go down.
She was so willing.She’d have let me fuck her right where we stood and for the rest of the night afterwards.Inexperienced and innocent as she is, she’d have let me ravage her all night long.She’d have no choice.Because once I started, I couldn’t stop.
She’s like this golden apple no one’s ever tasted before me, this golden rose no one’s ever plucked.I will be the one.So I can wait a little longer.
Not what I was thinking as I stood in the cool hallway outside her door after leaving her, trying to get my heartbeat and my erection under control.Trying and failing.Because every time my mind wandered it wandered right back to her, sleeping in that soft bed of hers, kissing me with those sweet lips, touching me with her gentle hands.
I figured anyone who saw me would read all that off my face in a second, but I didn’t even care.She’s the first thing that’s made me feel truly alive since my family was murdered.But that’s just women.They’ll do that if they’re sweet and willing enough.
And she’s the catalyst for getting my revenge.Which makes her even sweeter.
Rafaelle came out of the security room just before five AM, told me to go home, and noticed nothing different about me.Hardly even looked at me.That guy’s got some deep issues I know nothing about.Well, he’s about to have some more soon.Maybe he should spend less time inside his own head and more time doing his job guarding this family that’s about to go down.But I suppose it’s lucky for me that he’s not.
I’ve been walking the streets since I left the building, watching the light grow from grey to pale pink to yellow, back to grey as the shadows of the skyscrapers obscured the risen sun.
I’d have gone home, but I knew I wouldn’t sleep.And I wanted to spend some more time alone with Goldie before she’s snatched away from me by this plot Ferro’s hatching.Even if it’s just in my mind.Fantasy’s always better than reality anyway.Anticipation is always better than getting the thing you want.
But be that as it may, the thing I want most is the revenge Ferro is giving me.Not Goldie.
Chapter30
GIANNA
He might’ve toldme to go to sleep, but I had no hope of actually doing it.My whole body was too alive from the kisses, I could feel his lips on mine and his hand around my throat too clearly for anything but endless waking dreams of the two of us together, to unfold in my mind every time I closed my eyes.
I even tiptoed to the door a few times, just to look at him through the peephole.And I almost opened the door more than once to pull him inside so we could finish what we started.
Or, more like, kiss until dawn.
Because as much as my body craves him, I don’t think I’m ready.Gone are the waking nightmares I had imagining my wedding night with some man my dad picked and I didn’t like or want.They’ve been replaced by sensations and desires I’ve never felt before.Wishes to see Matteo naked.Feel his muscles under my fingers.Feel his penis in the palm of my hand.Taste it.Take it in.
Most women my age wouldn’t think twice before acting on all those desires.But I have to think about so many things beyond it.
If I lose my virginity before my wedding night, I will disgrace my family.Possibly beyond repair.I’ve been told that ever since I knew what “losing your virginity” even meant, possibly before that.
If my father or any of his other men ever find out he kissed me, Matteo’s life is over.
And even if all that were something I could overcome, if we could keep it a secret, if I could convince dad to let me marry him… that still leaves the curse… and the fear that I’ll make a total fool of myself when we do make love.
I’m pretty sure he’s somehow immune to my curse.Because I’m sure it would cut him down by now if he wasn’t.Maybe it’s precisely because we’re never getting married.My dad wouldn’t allow it in a million years.Or maybe his kiss broke it.Or maybe it was never a curse to begin with, but more like a guardian angel, making sure I would be free to find the love of my life.
As for making a fool of myself… I’ve probably already done that with the kissing.I have no experience, nothing beyond what I’d seen in movies or read about in books.
By the time I’d finally fallen asleep at dawn, the rising sun casting a diffuse golden light over my room, I’d already decided that nothing would make me walk away from Matteo and these feelings he’s woken in me.
