Page 43 of Forgive Me, Father

But maybe that was on me.

I hadn’t replied once.

I fell asleep watching a horror movie and woke up with a giant figure watching me, sitting right next to my bed on the one-seater chair that was usually sitting in the corner.

I simply stared at him.I knew he knew my eyes were open.

“What are we going to do, Camilla?”he breathed.“As we both know, we can’t go on like this.Is this it?Is this how you are going to treat me from now on?Do I have to take whatever I need from you?”

I reached out for the light and switched it on.

We both squinted at the sudden light.

“You’ve been doing it since we got married.”

“Bullshit,” he spoke.“You’re stubborn and hold a grudge like no other.I want to make this work, but I can’t do it alone.”

“It’s not a marriage, Alfonso.”I looked at him.His dark, tousled hair framed his chiseled face, and those piercing green eyes that held the depth of a thousand unspoken secrets, threatened to pull me in.

He looked exhausted, yet there was a quiet determination in his gaze, as if he was ready to fix whatever was broken between us.

Fuck, he was gorgeous.

“It’s a binding contract for ten years.I won’t break it before then.I need an heir from you, as I refuse to go back to Italy and tell my mother she was right about this entire ordeal.So, tell me what it is you want from me, so we can move forward.”

I froze.Somehow it worked.I’d never have thought in a million years that it would work on him, but it did.

“I’m waiting.”

I pushed myself up and sat straight.Alfonso moved forward in his chair.

“I need you to stop treating me as if I’m an idiot and respect the fact that I do not understand Italian.I’m not like anyone you’ve ever met.”

“Oh, I’ve learned that the hard way.What else?”

“Control your temper.I know what you felt that night, I don’t know why my body reacted that way, and it scared me to death.”

“It’s nothing to be scared of,” he responded.“I can help you explore it, if you want.”

“Explore it?You threatened to rape me, and I…” I couldn’t even say it.I was still so ashamed of it.

“It’s normal, Camilla.”

“No, it’s not.”

“Everyone is different.Your sexual desires have been suppressed for a long time.Sometimes it happens.It’s what you end up with.What else?”

He made it sound normal.

“I blossom with gentleness, not with anger and violence.”

He nodded.“What else?”

“Just treat me like you at least like me.”

The corners of his mouth curved into a faint smile.“I do like you, more than I should.In fact, I think I love you, but that’s not possible since we haven’t known each other that long, so it’s probably something I ate and am struggling to work out of my system.”

A smile threatened to twitch as sarcasm laced his words.