Page 73 of Beautiful Torment (Empire of Kings #1)

ANGELO

T here’s a palpable silence in the car as Nicky drives us back to the penthouse. Something feels off with Abella, and I don’t like it.

When we arrive, I guide her to the primary suite with the intention of getting to the bottom of it. But the moment the door closes behind us, she mauls me.

She grabs me by the lapels of my suit jacket and starts stripping me down. After she’s made her way through the first layer, she dispenses with my shirt too.

“Don’t get me wrong,” I muse. “I’m thoroughly enjoying it, but what prompted this urgent need?”

She pauses to look up at me, a quiet ache lingering in her eyes.

“I just…want you.” Her breath hitches. “More than anything.”

Those words imprint on the darkest part of me, vindicating the obsession I’ve carried for so long.

It doesn’t feel like a lie. It feels like the most honest thing she’s ever said.

I trace the line of her jaw, grazing my knuckles against her soft skin.

Gabi was right. My wife looks angelic in this dress.

Almost too pure for my world. It’s how I felt the first time I realized I wanted her to be mine.

There was something a little sinister about the thought of touching her with my criminally deranged hands.

But it was that same nature in me that refused to let her go.

She was the softness to my brutality.

Looking at her now, I realize that even after everything that has happened between us, she still is.

All the resentment and hostility I’ve held for her isn’t in the room tonight. I don’t know when it left, and I don’t really care. Not when I have what was always meant to be mine, staring up at me like she’ll die if she doesn’t have me right now.

“Go on then,” I tell her. “Have your way with me.”

I mean it as a joke, but she takes it seriously, pressing her hands against my chest and walking me backward. When my legs brush against the chair beside the window, she gives me a little shove like she’s trying to push me down. It’s about as effective as a kitten batting at a lion.

Regardless, I settle into the chair, getting comfortable as she undresses for me.

Moonlight spills in through the window, casting her in a divine light as the material of her dress slides down to pool around her feet. She holds my gaze as she removes her bra and shimmies out of her thong, leaving her in nothing but a pair of gold stilettos.

My eyes burn a path down the length of her body, drinking in every detail of her full breasts and the feminine flare of her hips. She didn’t need a dress to look like a goddess tonight. She already was.

She comes to me on her own and straddles me, and my restraint hangs by a thread. I want to sink deep inside her and fuck her until my dick gives out, but Abella has other plans.

She touches my face, soft fingers mapping out every detail with naked reverence. It’s the most unguarded I’ve ever seen her.

“Angelo,” she whispers my name like a prayer, leaning closer, lips a breath from mine.

When I don’t refuse her, she kisses me hesitantly, still waiting for my rejection.

I slide my palms over the curves of her hips, gripping her roughly. “Take it.”

She lets out a moan, slipping her fingers through my hair and holding me there as she deepens the kiss. When her lips part, I sweep my tongue into her mouth and taste the sweetness of cherries and a years-long addiction.

My participation feeds her urgency, and she starts grinding down on me as she works open my trousers between us. A second later, she has her hand around my cock, stroking me like she has to get me off—she doesn’t care how or where. But I fucking do.

I break the kiss and lift her by the hips, growling out my demand.

“Sit on it, cara .”

I have a VIP seat as she drops herself onto my cock with a shudder, sliding down the length as I stretch her apart.

She grabs my shoulders, using them for leverage as she starts to rock up and down. For a moment, I sit back and soak it all in, watching her ride me.

There has never been a better view in my life.

Her eyes fall back to my mouth, and she brushes her lips against mine, teasing me with another kiss.

“Do you like it?” she asks.

“Yes.”

A rough breath escapes me as she tilts my head back, kissing and biting her way down my neck. She pauses to suck my skin, and I let out a groan. It feels like she’s trying to eat me alive, and if this is how I’m going to die, I’m okay with that.

Before I can see the light, she stops moving entirely, leaning back to ask me the question I knew was coming.

“If you like it, then why didn’t you let me do it before?”

There’s so much vulnerability in her eyes, I can’t lie to her.

“Because I can’t hide the way you make me feel, vita mia .”

I reach up to stroke her face, and she leans into that touch, closing her eyes and letting a single tear slip free. We linger there, letting the weight of those words settle, and then she resumes her worship.

She fucks me sweet, and kisses me rough—licking inside my mouth and biting at me until our lips are raw.

I’m too fucking close to blowing my load, and she hasn’t come yet. So I pick her up and carry her to the bed, wedging my body between her thighs. She wraps her heels around my back as I thrust into her and fuck her deep.

Twenty seconds later, she’s coming all over my cock.

I sink inside her and unleash what feels like ten years of pent-up tension, coming so hard the edges of my vision go black.

I collapse on the bed beside her, then tug her back against me and drape my arm over her waist.

A long stretch of silence follows as I close my eyes, losing myself to the softness and warmth of her body. I could fall asleep right here, but her voice pulls me back.

“If there were no treaty, would you still want a family?”

I open my eyes and look down at her, but she’s not looking at me. Her eyes are shut, and it feels like she’s holding her breath.

“What are you really asking me, cara ?”

She doesn’t answer.

“Do you want to know if I’d still choose to have a family with you?”

Or is it something else?

That thought has been rattling around my brain for a while. But historically, we don’t have a great track record when it comes to getting her to open up to me. I’m not sure she’s ready yet, and her silence seems to be proof of that.

My phone rings in my trouser pocket, and I ignore it.

“Abella.” I tip her chin up. “Look at me.”

She does. Her eyes are soft and sleepy, and whatever was on her mind a moment ago, she’s buried it deep inside her.

“Are you going to get that?” she asks. “It might be important.”

I don’t want to get it. I already know it’s one of my brothers. We’ve been tracking the movements of Ray’s business partner, and tonight we lured him to the ball with a potential lead. While I’ve been here with Abella, my brothers have been interrogating him.

The phone rings again, and Abella groans.

“Either you get it or I will,” she grumbles.

“We’re finishing this conversation,” I tell her.

“Okay, but later.” She yawns and closes her eyes again.

I watch her for a moment before the sound of my ringtone starts to annoy the fuck out of me, too. Reaching into the pocket of the pants still hanging off my hips, I grab my phone and answer the call.

“We’ve got it,” Romeo says.

“All of it?”

“Everything.” He hesitates for a second, and that’s never a good sign. “You’ll want to see this.”

I glance at Abella. I really don’t want to leave her tonight, but she’s exhausted, and I need to see what they unearthed. This could be the missing link in Grant Ellison’s disappearance and the connection to Aegis.

“It’s alright.” Abella opens her eyes and looks up at me. “I’m tired. You can go do what you need to do.”

I nod reluctantly.

“I’ll be there in thirty minutes,” I tell Romeo.

Before I go, I clean Abella with a cloth and remove her heels. I drape the comforter over her naked body and kiss her on the lips without thinking too much about it.

“Goodnight, cara mia .”

As I’m pulling away, her fingers trail down my arm and grab my hand, holding me there for a moment.

“ Tu sei stato e sarai sempre la mia vita .”

You have been and you will always be my life.