Page 16

Adriano

Penelope stands there, eyes wild, like she’s ready to scratch my face off. Seeing her in my space, like that day I had her in my kitchen, makes my insides all mush. I like it too much, even when she’s storming in, all fire and hurt. She belongs here, even if she’s about to tear me apart.

Her voice shakes, barely above a whisper. “How could you hide this shit from me? Leave me to choke on it alone?”

I scrub a hand over my face, stubble biting my palm, my gut twisting. “Because I’m a fucking wreck, Pen. I couldn’t stand the thought of you bolting—not when I’ve memorized every damn inch of you.”

She surges forward, slamming her palms into me, but I snag her wrists, trapping her against me. “You don’t get to bury secrets and pretend it’s for me, Adriano!”

“I know.” I crash my forehead to hers, breath ragged, lips brushing her skin like a plea. “But I’m too far gone. Every time you’re near, I want to keep you close.”

She freezes, her eyes snapping up, wet and blazing. “You’re a killer. Some twisted bastard.”

“Fuck yes, I am.” I press into her, pinning her to the wall, voice dropping to a rough hiss. “And I’d carve my hands bloody again just to feel you breathe next to me.”

“Theo,” she gasps, shaking like a leaf. “You bashed his head in—”

“For you.” My fingers dig into her hips, frantic, like she’ll slip away if I let go. “I’d slaughter a thousand more to keep your heartbeat in my ears—I can’t fucking sleep without it.”

She stares at me, torn apart, and I see it—the moment she breaks.

Her hands fist my shirt, pulling me in, and her lips crash into mine.

It’s not soft, not sweet. It’s desperate, angry, all teeth and heat.

Different. She knows who I am now—dangerous, fucked up—and she’s still here, kissing me like she needs it to breathe.

I groan into her mouth, hands roaming her sides. “God I’m so crazy for you baby,” I mutter against her lips.

“Why did you have to lie to me?” she fires back, biting my lip hard enough to sting.

“I’m sorry sweetheart,” Just thirty seconds in, kissing her like his, of having her in my arms, and I know that I am totally fucked.

It's not a hard decision to come to. Hell, it's not even a decision, if I'm being honest. Judging from the cold look on her face and the way she leans into my kiss, I can tell that she's thinking one of two things: bolt or fight me on this.

“Sweetheart—”

She pushes me back and walks out of my embrace. “No, don't call me that,” she says, her voice gravelly, insistent. “I'm not your sweetheart or your…Pen.”

“You know my truth now,” I say. “I don't want to lie to you. This is the man I am.”

Penelope doesn't say anything for a couple of seconds. In that time, I watch her every move, from the way her eyes dart around the house like she's trying to remember it for the last time to the way she skips backward, edging toward the door.

“Penelope, I haven't changed from the man you knew when Sophia was here.” I cover the space between us so quickly that she lets out a sharp gasp of fear when I reach her.

My brows crease together on instinct when I see the fear etched across her beautiful face.

“I'm still the same man you've known. The same man you've always known—”

“You have a dark side,” she groans. I notice the tremor in her voice and in the way she still can't seem to look me in the eyes.

My blood begins to run cold at the thought that maybe my honesty is going to be the one thing that drives her away for good.

“You kill people in cold blood. You're not a good man.”

“Is that who you're looking for? A good man?”

“Yes.”

I reach a hand up to cup her cheek. It's stained with her tears. I can see that she's hurt and afraid and clearly shaken up but when I touch her like this and hold her close, we become one. She's mine just as I'm hers and I don't think anything or anyone can change that.

“I can't let you leave me, Penelope.”

That's what gets to her because then, she's trembling even more. “Are you going to kill me?”

“Jesus Christ, Pen, I'm not a monster!” I don't think anyone's ever asked me a question that's managed to both rile and hurt me like this.

To kill her? Sure, I've taken the lives of enemies before.

When I'm presented with the choice of taking a person's life and ending their deceit or showing mercy to them and risking a betrayal, I go for the former.

I kill people, yes. But I sure as hell won’t touch this lady in front of me.

I didn't think I'd feel this way for someone. I don't think this feeling is meant to be short lived. I think my obsession with Penelope is so great I'd become ruined if it didn't pan out.

“If you aren't gonna kill me, why won't you let me leave?”

A part of me—the old, nonchalant me—wants to open the door and let her leave. Honor style. I want to let her go so she can be safe because my world isn't the kind people like her stay in and survive. But if I do let her go, I'm destroying myself in the process.

“Call it selfish, Pen, but I can't do that.”

“Adriano—”

I pick up my gun, then twirl it around in my palm and flip around to where she's still huddled by the door. When she sees the gun in my hand, she pushes backward until her body’s pressed against the door.

“Don't hurt me, please.”

I stumble back to her, take her palm out, then place the gun there. Then, I raise her hand wrapped around the gun and dare her to look me in the eye.

“Listen to me and listen to me well because I’m going to make sure you hear this every chance I get.

I’m not letting you leave because I’m incapable of doing that.

You're a drug I’m addicted to. I'm addicted to you, to your body, your smell, your soul.

Sweetheart, I could never hurt you. I exist for you.

My heart is in you and if it isn't beating for me anymore, say it.”

“Adriano…”

“Say that this changes everything,” I growl, hurt. “Say that what you've just discovered doesn’t make you hate me.”

“I'm scared, Adriano.” Her voice is small and fragile. This has affected her way more than I'd bargained for. Maybe I really should let her go.

“You're frightened of me.” It's not a question. I can see it in the way she looks at me now.

But she shakes her head, biting the insides of her cheeks, before saying, “I don't know what to tell you. You're still you but…I don't know.”

“Then press the trigger, damn it. I breathe for you and now, I'm giving you the power to end me.”

“You can't do that,” she says.

“Why not?”

“Because you and I know you’re more than capable of overpowering me. Heck, I’m sure you’ve taken men out for less.”

I chuckle. “What do you know of the Mafia world, Pen?”

“Not a lot, apparently.” She swallows and I can see a part of the fear leave her. “I know that you're powerful and you're the boss and if I put a trigger through your heart right now, the cops would be the least thing I'd be worried about.”

I can't help the laugh that comes out right then. In a way, she's right. So like Pen to overanalyze. She breaks into a smile too. Then, because I'm still laughing, she joins me and we're both laughing and suddenly, there's this mountain before us that we're certain we can pass.

I cup her face in my hands and kiss the top of her head. Her hair is in a messy ponytail but she smells and looks so damn good, it has to be criminal. She sighs contentedly when I crush her body to mine.

“I'd never hurt you, Pen, I promise.”

“I like you too much for my own good,” she murmurs against me. “I can't help it, Adriano. I can't help the way I feel for you.”

I tilt her chin up to me and kiss her. She tastes salty from all the tears. I want to kiss her every damn day.

The kiss is different. I can't explain it. Before, when we kissed, there was an invincible line of chastity we didn’t cross because she didn't know the real me.

Now, though, with the amount of danger lurking in the darkness, the kiss is fierce.

She grabs a hold of my shirt and tugs, pulling me down to her with a force she hasn't used before.

Our tongues swipe and thrust each other's mouth.

I bite her lower lip and lick off the sting. She moans into my mouth.

I take off my T-shirt. Then, I work on the zipper of her dress, dig my fingers into the curve of her body and peel it off her. She shimmies out of the dress. Her bra and panties are in different shades of red.

Almost as if she read my mind, Penelope quickly says, “I was upset. I was coming to your place to yell and fight with you over the cameras. To end this whole thing. I wasn't…I didn't think…”

“You didn't think we'd fuck?” I like the way her cheeks immediately turn crimson when I say this.

She nods, turning her gaze down to the floor. “Yes, that.”

“You're out of this world,” I tell her because it's true. Her body is divine. No matter how long and hard I look at it, I can never quite get used to seeing the stretch of tanned skin, the creamy undersides of her breasts.

I lead her out to the balcony where the moon shines and sit down on the chair there. She crosses her arms, rubbing the sides of her arms to quell the cold.

I stretch out my hands to her. “Come here.”

She settles on my thighs, sitting sideways just the way I like it. There's a chance we could be seen out here. Personally, I don't give a fuck, but right now, this is all for Penelope.

I want what she wants.

I run my index finger around a firm nipple, tracing the outline from her bra while she squirms, trying to hide how good she feels.

“Stop fighting what you want, Penelope. Tell me what feels good when I touch you.”

“O-okay,” she says in a whimper.

I flick her nipples with my thumb, feel it swell and pinch it. The shudder that goes through her then feels devine. I don’t even need to ask her before she says, “I like when you touch me like that…”

So I do it again and again before skimming my fingers down her body to the band of her panties. I slip my fingers in, watching her face for a reaction and getting one of her flushed expressions.

“You know how I love your tight little pussy.” I hold her close, tighter, and touch her. She’s wet. Dripping even, and when I touch her like this, it feels perfect.

She flips her body to me and straddles me on the chair. “I can’t wait,” she cries out. “I just can’t.”

She helps to unhook my belt and my cock springs free, sitting between us.

Penelope doesn’t take off her panties. I don’t let her. Instead, I use a finger to hook it to the side and watch as she settles her wetness on my already throbbing cock.

“Fuck!” I let out a groan that reverberates through the space. “You’re perfect. My perfect little vixen.”

Penelope rides me hard and fast like both our lives depend on it and maybe they do. Maybe this is what we’ve both been hoping for all our lives.

I grab a hold of her waist, pull her down with each thrust until she’s crying out from the sheer pleasure of the moment. And that’s when I burst open too, spilling completely into her.

I like her.

Fuck, I love her.

There’s no going back anymore for me. I see it now.

We’re a mess, panting, stuck together. I lift her chin, smiling wryly. “Still pissed?”

“Always,” she mutters, but her arms wrap around my neck, holding tight.

“Good.” I kiss her slowly, tasting the fight still simmering there. She’s mine, and I’m hers, and that’s the truth that’ll bury us both. I don’t care anymore. She’s worth every damn second of the fall.