“You should not be here, Emberline. Go back,” she ordered sternly. “I will take care of him now,la mia adorata figlia.”
For a moment, all I did was stare, feeling small, vulnerable, and lost.
Ottavia DiRavello looked exactly like the one picture I’d seen of her, an old, faded photograph father kept framed behind his desk, but even in death… she was vibrant, glowing with a fierce energy that cast a golden aura around her. “There is a war coming,figlia. A war you were trained to fight.”
This wasn’t real.None of this was real. My mother died when Luca and I were small. Like father, some unknown killer had stolen my chance of ever knowing my mother in the flesh.
But… she was as beautiful as my father claimed.
And I couldn’t remember what it felt like to be hugged by a mother taken away too soon.
My hands flexed, and her face softened. “Your brother still needs you, Emberline. Luca is too much like your father.” She wrapped her thin arms around Enzo’s middle. “Watch over him, as you always have. Now go back,amore mio, we will all be together soon enough.”
The edges of the veil spread wider, a ripple of cold stretched toward me, like long, reaching fingers…
I burst out of the dream, from darkness into the soft light of early morning, predawn streaming through the gaps in the slats, dust careening wildly through the pale beams as I thrashed in the sheets.
“Wake up, Ember, I’ve got you.” Dante pushed damp hair out of my face, peering deep, chasing the shadows in my eyes. “You’re safe,” he soothed. “You’re in our bed, in our house.”
I shook my head, unable to tell him I was only half here, the other half was somewhere else, in a place I shouldn’t even know existed.
He cradled my face in his huge hands, callouses scratching my cheeks. “You are safe. You are loved, Emberline Dominico. No matter where you go, I will follow. I’m never leaving you, so get used to having me around.”
I huffed out a choked sob, closing my eyes, shutting him out.
But he was still there, thumbs pressed into the hollows of my cheeks, warm breath skating over me like a furnace.
“Go back to sleep. There’s still an hour before dawn.” He dragged his nose down the side of my throat, a purr rumbling in his chest. “I’ll hold you and keep the nightmares away.”
“I don’t want to sleep.” I nuzzled deeper into his palms, not opening my eyes. This felt nice, skin to skin, breath mingling, both of us so alive, it hurt.
“Then tell me what you want.” He nibbled at my lips. “Whatever it is, I am at your command,mia dolcissima moglie.”
Every soft touch of his mouth against mine sent my heart fluttering, a new, fragile happiness I couldn’t guard myself against, this growing realization I was in love with my husband, my chest cracking wide open as I let him inside.
After a lifetime of restraint, I let myself fall.
Let myself tumble headfirst into this heedless, reckless joy, and decided happiness deserved its chance.
“You, Dante.” I opened my eyes and lost myself in blueones filled with longing, the kind that reached into my soul and yanked, the kind that had me leaning forward and kissing him back, so he didn’t feel alone, either.
“Then I’m all yours,” he vowed, “for however long you’ll have me.” Pressing me down to the bed, he settled his weight over me like some immovable, muscled blanket, one hand still wrapped around my face as he plundered my mouth. He reached between us and slipped his finger inside my pussy, pumping in and out, my hips slowly tiding to the rhythm until we moved together, sweat building between us, pleasure rippling through me in consuming waves.
I wanted to giggle from this heady joy moving through me, leaving me teary and breathless, my heart galloping.
“You are perfect.” He moved to my throat, fangs pricking for a small taste, then a shuddering groan before he sealed me up. He moved down to my breasts, laving his tongue over turgid flesh, coaxing my nipples into hard points until they were heavy and aching.
“Most of my life, I wanted to be alone, and now, I can’t stand the thought of being parted from the woman I love more than anything in this world.”
He held my gaze as his fingers plunged and swirled, and I unraveled like a ball of string.
“You saved me,” I choked, my body on fire for this male who’d stolen me in every single way.
He kissed my tear-stained cheeks, gentle as the rain, then pulled back so I could see his eyes.
“We saved each other,tesoro. I was a dead male when I walked into that chapel. I’m not dead anymore. Now, let me make love to my beautiful wife.”
He moved down my body, putting his clever mouth and tongue where his fingers had been. A hungry growl rumbled against me before he drove his tongue in, deepenough, I moaned his name. His chuckle deepened, shivering through me, a mess of raw nerve endings and slippery, swollen skin, of deep, aching hunger.
