“What you’re saying is insane! Do you even love me, Tino?”
“Love?” He laughed hard. “Oh, Angel.”
His scorn wounded me. “Yes, love, Tino. Love that makes people care for each other, not hurt each other.”
“Didn’t your father love you? And what did he do to you? Love, too, hurts, Angel.Youhurt me, Angel.”
“Leo loved me. He didn’t hurt me.”
“He was going to,” he gritted. “You don’t know the first thing about him or what he’s capable of. One day you’ll know that I saved you from him just like I always have.”
“He can’t be worse than you. Fuck, even my sicko father wasn’t worse than you. At least, they loved me.”
“Fuck their pathetic love.” Both his arms were now wrapping around me tightly, like a snake squeezing a prey. “What I feel for you is beyond any definition,” he said, softer. “No, I don’t love you, Angel. It’s simply not a word that could describe what I feel for you because it’s bigger than anything you or them had ever felt.” He squeezed even tighter, and I could hardly breathe. “Call it love, possession, obsession, sickness, plain psycho shit, call it whatever you want. All you need to know is that it’s true and real and stronger than anything you’ll ever know.”
He let out a long sigh before he pressed a deep kiss on my head. We were both trembling now, locked around each other, inside each other, not just our bodies but our souls, too.
Chapter 49
Tino
The light that had dimmed in her eyes glimmered again when she reconnected with her violin. I’d brought it back with me but decided not to give it to her until she behaved.
She was reluctant to touch it even though she wanted it so badly, just like she did with me. She didn’t want to acknowledge the truth or validate my endless giving for her.
As always, I had to force her to do the right thing. I ordered her to play for me once and twice until she no longer resisted and our private recitals had become part of our routine.
I loved every note, every second of her performance as my eyes worshipped her naked body and my ears savored her beautiful music. She played just for me as I’d always dreamed, and it was everything I’d imagined and more. It was worth every agony in the wait.
When I wasn’t making love to her or I was managing business in my office, she played for herself, willingly. That was when I decided to give her another reward.
I blindfolded her, and she thought I was going for kinky sex and started shaking. “Having sex while being blindfolded can be really fun and hot. We can try it later, but this isn’t my intention now,” I whispered in her ear.
“What do you want then?”
“I have a surprise for you. You’re gonna love it.”
She walked with me silently, and I led her into her old room—she slept in my room now—that I’d rearranged with the surprise I had for her.
I took off the blindfold. “Allora, what do you think?”
Angel squinted in the middle of the room at the shelves that replaced the bed and wardrobe. The desk in the right corner and the piano in the far left.
Her head tilted at me, her jaw hanging low. “What is this?”
“Your library and music room.” I beckoned at the shelves. “I brought all these CDs and books for you when I came back. It’s a vast collection, but they have all your favorites in classical music, practice pieces as well. Also, all your favorite romance reads among hundreds of other books are in there.”
She gasped in surprise, a hint of a smile on her gaping mouth.
“Do you like it?” I asked, hoping she did.
“Like it? Tino, I’m having a Belle moment here.”
“A Belle moment?”
“You know when Beast shows Belle the huge library in his castle? Books to her are like music to me, the one thing she loves the most, and he gives her that. It’s her way of escaping. She’s like finally, a good thing in my eternal imprisonment.”
“So I’m Beast in this moment? The cruel monster that is keeping you as his prisoner?”
