Page 64 of Beautiful Torment (Empire of Kings #1)

ANGELO

S hifting back to her protector, I lift Abella in my arms, hands planted on her ass.

She wraps her legs around me and rests her head on my shoulder.

Her skin is damp, her cheeks are flushed, and her tangled hair is littered with dirt and grass.

She’s never looked more ravaged than she does right now.

When the mess between her thighs soaks into my hoodie on the way back to the house, it makes me hard all over again.

It was foolish of me to think that I would eventually be able to purge this obsession with her. Every day I’m near her, it only grows stronger. I’m inside her every opportunity I get, and when I’m not fucking her, I’m thinking about fucking her.

In meetings, my thoughts drift to her instead of focusing on what it is I need to do. It’s a fucking problem, and it’s one I have no intention of solving anytime soon.

Abella clings to me, her eyes heavy as I carry her back to our suite and into the bathroom. I set her onto the counter and strip her bare before I discard my clothes. She lets me take care of her the way she always does, soaking up my attention as I wash her in the shower.

She craves this from me, and when I deprive her, I know it feels like a punishment. But it’s self-preservation. When she looks up at me, there’s a vulnerability in her eyes that she doesn’t often show. It tugs at something in my chest and makes me want to kiss her.

But kissing her is a slippery slope, and I won’t do it again until she’s willing to come clean and tell me everything.

I can fuck her, touch her, and sleep next to her in bed every night.

But I will never lay myself bare and make the mistake of trusting her again when she refuses to be honest with me.

So instead, I lift her gaze to mine and offer her the next best thing.

“You put up a good fight tonight, cara . I’m proud of you.”

Her eyes drift shut, face softening as she absorbs those words. I’ll never get over the way the world seems to stop for her the moment she has my approval. When I tell her how well she’s done, and she unravels like this, it pleases me to no end. But it also guts me that this wound lives inside her.

She never had approval from the one person she should have. Now that he’s dead, she’ll have to settle for hearing it from me for the rest of her life.

“Are you sore?” I ask her.

“A little.” She shrugs. “I’ll feel it tomorrow.”

I suppress a groan because I’m a sadistic son of a bitch, and I love the thought of her feeling me every time she sits.

I guide her to the bench and sit her down while I lather some shampoo in my hands. When I work it into her hair, it’s a long, slow process. Mostly because she shivers with pleasure every time I drag my fingers over her scalp.

“Angelo?” She draws her lip between her teeth as she looks up at me.

“Yes?”

“Thank you.” Her voice trembles with an unexpected swell of emotion.

“For what?” I search her eyes.

“For everything you’ve given me.”

I don’t know what to make of that statement, but I also know there’s no point pushing her. We’ve been down that road too many times already.

“Let’s get you to bed.”

After drying Abella, I take her to bed and pull her against my body. She fits perfectly—head tucked beneath my chin, her soft, round ass curved against my cock. I drape an arm over her waist and tell her to go to sleep, but despite her earlier exhaustion, she seems restless.

“What’s keeping you awake?” I ask.

She hesitates for a moment before her question spills out in the safety of darkness.

“Have you…spent a lot of time at the Cat House?”

Her body hums with tension, her breath suspended as she waits for my answer. The asshole in me wants to see her burn with jealousy the way I did when I thought of her and Matteo.

Instead, I tell her the truth.

“I’ve been there after my release from prison,” I admit. “If you want to know if I’ve fucked women there, the answer is yes, Abella. But I don’t know who they were. I don’t even know what their faces looked like. I didn’t know their identity, and they didn’t know mine.”

It takes her a minute to process that before she nods against me, the strands of her hair tickling my chest. “Okay.”

Another long silence follows, and then she shifts, pressing her ass against my cock.

“Keep doing that, and I’ll shove it back inside you.”

She bites her lip and looks over her shoulder as if that’s exactly what she’s trying to do. But I was rough with her earlier, and I have no intention of fucking her right now.

“You want more?” My hand drifts up to palm her breast.

She arches into me and nods, and I bury my face in her hair, inhaling her. I will never get enough of that scent.

I reach down between us and rub the head of my cock against her slick pussy, already soaking for me again.

“So fucking greedy, aren’t you, dolcezza ?”

She freezes when that word slips from my mouth, and I almost regret it. When she glances back at me, there’s no hiding it.

The question lingered in her eyes the first time she saw the yacht I named for her. It feels like another lifetime when I used the endearment so freely. But I’m not going to explain it. She already knows I was never going to let her go. This should come as no surprise.

I slide my cock inside her, fingers digging into her hip as I draw in a ragged breath. It’s pure fucking agony being buried in her warmth without indulging my baser desires. But I’ll settle for delayed gratification. I already waited six years. What’s a few more hours?

“Angelo?”

“Don’t move,” I tell her. “I’m going to take care of you.”

She’s set to protest when I slip my fingers down between her thighs. Her body contracts around me as I stroke her clit, and despite my order, she can’t help herself.

She rocks against me, and it takes everything in me not to fuck her right now. But there are still a few things on her list I haven’t given her.

I get her off in record time, and when she comes around me, I grab a handful of her ass to keep her still.

“You aren’t going to come?” she pouts.

“No.” I smile against her. “Now go to sleep.”

“Oh,” she says softly, realizing I intend to stay inside her.

She makes no further protests as she settles deeper into my body and releases a contented little sigh.

“Angelo?”

“Hmm?”

She makes another whispered confession in the darkness. “I never wanted him.”

I know she’s not talking about the incident with Ares. But she doesn’t elaborate, and I don’t ask. I drape my arm over her waist again and close my eyes. Sleep doesn’t come, at least…not for me.

Abella drifts off into a peaceful slumber, her breath growing even as she takes shelter against my body.

I stay semi-erect in her as the hours tick by. When the morning sun begins to rise in the window, casting a warm glow over her face, I can’t hold back anymore.

I suck one of her nipples into my mouth, and she moans in her sleep. After I spend a few minutes taking my fill of her breast, I kiss my way up the column of her throat and start to thrust inside her.

Her body comes alive for me, drenching my cock in her arousal.

I mutter a curse under my breath. I’m not going to last. This is what I get for torturing myself for hours.

Abella whimpers, and her eyes begin to flutter as I grip her hip and fuck her harder.

“Angelo,” she breathes.

“I know.” I fumble my way to her clit and stroke her roughly. “You feel so good, cara mia . I need you to come for me.”

My voice is rough, edged with need, and Abella doesn’t hold back as she cries out, her pussy gushing over my cock.

“ Cazzo ,” I growl into her neck as I thrust deep and unload my aching balls inside her.

The release of built-up tension drains everything from me, and minutes later, I’m still lying there lifeless as Abella turns and presses a kiss to my jaw.

“Good morning.” She smiles sleepily.

A dark laugh rumbles from my chest as I peer down at her.

“Good morning, bella .”