Page 81 of Scream (Duchess & Devils #1)

When the train stops just outside of Verona, there’s already a car waiting for us to drive through the slopes and valleys to get to Giordano's village. We all retire to our rooms once we’re inside the villa, but something inside me feels restless.

I should be exhausted. Sabrina immediately steps out of her clothes, puts on one of my shirts that fits her mid-thigh, and climbs into the large, deluxe bed.

I give her a kiss on her head once she’s fast asleep and slip out of the room heading to the patio to sit by the heated pool.

The water is clear, fog rising from it. It’s a gorgeous night, away from all the light pollution.

I can see the tall, snow-covered mountains that sit stoic against a dark, glittering night sky.

If I turn my head, I can see the city of Verona in the distance – but for now, I just want to drink in the view.

My heart sinks, thinking of how many times I’ve traveled to far, distant shores as a younger man in the military and how empty every city felt.

Nothing feels the same anymore.

It all feels better .

Like it’s too true to be real.

Am I wishing for too much? Not enough?

I’m grateful, for sure. There’s just this… feeling.

I don’t feel like her bodyguard anymore. I feel like her man. With the way her pinky found mine throughout the day – just to hold – sending sparks up my arm. How… full my heart feels… all day, all the time… like nothing is missing anymore. I am hers. She is mine.

The glass door of the house slides open behind me, and – just as I’ve always been able to feel her presence – Sabrina steps out. “Savage? ”

I hold my hand out, and she comes to me, settling her weight on my lap.

She doesn’t say anything – only relaxes against me as we look at the panoramic sight before us.

I clear my throat. “I used to dream about nights like this. When I was off on missions. Granted, it was more like sleeping under the stars at Cloudland Canyon, where the only noise for miles was critters chittering. For peace and quiet.”

She runs her hands along my forearms that I have wrapped around her waist. “And now?”

“Turns out you are my peace and quiet. You’re a balm to my soul, my mind, my heart.

I know that’s cheesy, Bri. But there was not one moment today where I felt overly anxious.

There wasn’t a moment when I felt I had to find the exits.

I mean, I still looked, just in case. But there was not one moment when I felt my fight or flight mode activate.

And I noticed… I don’t think you and I are in survival mode anymore, Bri.

You’ve replaced so many bad memories, and we’ve made so many new ones.

I can barely remember the bad. Maybe I've repressed them, or maybe it’s just that I'm so goddamn happy, and finally at peace, that they don’t even matter anymore. ”

She inhales but waits for me to continue.

So I do. “You are everything to me – and so much more, Sabrina. My light, my life, my love. I’m fucking crazy for you.

If I had to redo this life, I would die trying to find you again.

I would die of an ache if I couldn't – because I'd know there was a piece of my soul out in the world, needing me too, and I wouldn’t know how to live without you in my life. I would be so devastatingly hollow.”

“Oh, Parker. There is so much beauty in your mind – it must be so loud.” It is.

But not for the reasons she’s thinking. She twists in my lap and straddles me.

My hands immediately find purchase on the flare of her hips.

Her arms drape around my shoulders, fingers going to the fine hairs on the back of my head.

She is as beautiful in the moonlight as she is in the sun, and I am fucking gone.

She plants a chaste kiss on my lips, then tips her forehead to mine.

“You say you’d find me in the afterlife, but I want you in every life, my love. ”

I can't breathe. Or think. My heart silently seizes in my ribcage as I stare into her dark, glittering eyes – always so expressive. Her lips crash to mine again in a heated kiss so savage, it’s meant to singe and burn every thought that isn’t us.

With every nip of her teeth, every glide of her tongue, and every whimper that leaves her mouth - I'm torn apart and put back together.

Made new. Tailor-made to be hers forever.

Woven in the stars like an invisible constellation, and we are nothing more than stardust on fire – burning together for eternity.

Mine .

She's all I ever want to know.

I reach between us to find her hot, plump pussy bare, slippery and wet. I growl. “Were you planning this, sweet girl? Huh?”

Her giggle is low in her throat. “I'm always hopeful you want to fuck me.”

I grin against her lips, “You're so fucking bad, baby. You want me to fuck you out in the open like this?”

“No, Parker. I want you to claim me out in the open like you do in the dark. I don't want to hide anymore. Please?” She whispers so fucking sweetly. Who am I to deny her anything?

She already owns my heart, my soul, my mind.

Why not let her claim me, too? I withdraw my fingers from her juicy pussy, then lick them off before I shift to pull my sweats down – just enough for my dick to land on my stomach, heavy, needy and already leaking with precum.

She settles back down, her legs on either side of me, toes planted on the ground.

The sensation of the pressure of her weight, her arousal weeping on my dick, and her scent, is almost enough to make me come.

Keeping my hands on her hips, I recline, letting my back rest. Then, I pull the shirt she's wearing up to her tummy, looking at the magnificent view of my length nestled between her naked pussy lips. “Glide for me, baby.”

Her brows furrow, flaming verdant gaze on mine. “You don't want to be inside of me?”

“I always want to be inside of you. I want you to tease me before I take you inside and fuck you until the sun rises, baby.

I'm gonna violate every hole you have until I fill them all.

I want to remind you right now that I love you, because later, I'm gonna fuck you like you’re nothing more than my filthy cocksleeve.

So glide, babydoll. Use my dick and make yourself come. Here, I'll help you.”

I piston my hips gradually, and she moans as every barbell hits her clit. “Ohhhh Parker…”

“That feel good, baby?”

“Yes!” She whines, her hands on my chest. She begins to move with me, rolling her hips, gasping.

“That's it baby. God, you look so fucking good using my dick.

God, yeah, Sabrina. So fucking pretty in my shirt.

I'm so fucking crazy for you, baby. I'm gonna get the reversal.

Your pussy was made for me to breed, baby.

Oh, God. Don't stop, don't stop, don't stop.” I know I said I wanted her to use me, but she's too fucking perfect.

I stand quickly to lay her down, push up our shirt so I can watch those pretty tits jiggle for me, and proceed.

Looming over her, I press my thumb to my shaft and rut, watching the way her creamy, plush thighs quiver. The fucking vision of her skin glowing in the soft pale light of the moon. It's too much. I want to paint her pussy with my cum.

“Oh my God, Savage!” She rasps in a hoarse whisper. Her hands hold my sides, clawing deep while her hips keep moving – gliding with me – and I fucking love that. “Keep going!”

I grunt, feeling that all too familiar white-hot need licking up the base of my spine. “You coming, baby?”

“God, yes!” Her back arches, body goes still, her mouth falls open in a silent scream, but I don't let up, wanting to keep the image of her like this locked away forever.

“That's it baby. Give me everything. Aw shit. Fuck, baby.” I fist my shaft and jerk my dick, each hot spurt of cum shoots out of me hard and fast. I aim it at her fat, little pussy, coating her in my seed, then shove myself into her hot, still pulsing entrance, as she milks the rest of me out.

Panting, I withdraw from her slowly. Then I rub the tip of my dick all over my mess and try to get as much of me as I can back into her. The sight is mouthwatering.

“Oh my God. That was so hot.”

I beam down at her. “You should see it from this angle. C'mon. Let's get you cleaned up so I can dirty you all over again.”

While she’s naked in the shower, I’m able to see the outline of her tattoos under the saniderm.

On her left shoulder, she has Giordano written in Old English, and I finally understand why the male artist refused to work on her.

The guy was smart as fuck, not wanting to put his hands on a Giordano’ wife.

On her right, she has Hayes written in some kinda fancy cursive.

I brush my lips against it, growing hard seeing my name on her body.

I can’t wait until I can lick all over it. To bite into it.

“Do you like it?” she asks, while I use my fist to guide my dick into her. She groans. The noise bounces off the walls, and I lick up her neck, nipping at it.

“I fucking love it, baby. It’s so permanent.”

“Forever.” She chokes out, the wording sending chills through every fucking nerve in my body – like crackling fissures – when I slam myself into her tight heat, so hard I hit home.

My eyes cross. “Fuck. Say that again.”

“For- oh, fuck - forever , Savage.”

We go from the shower to the bed, to the floor, back to the foot of the bed.

I make her come and pant my name in every fucking position I can think of until we both collapse in a sweaty heap of tangled limbs and satisfied smiles.

Maksim comes home when she’s sound asleep, tightly wrapped around me like a koala.

But I don't mind it.I love when my girl’s sweet on me.

All kitten, no claws. I love those, too, though.

“How is she?” He asks, taking a seat at her feet. He places a hand on her leg, like he just needed to touch her to feel alright. Maks stands back up and begins to undress.

“She’s good. Exhausted. Had a lot of fun.”

He grins. “Good. I’m glad.” But that smile doesn’t reach his dark eyes.

“Everything okay?”

He shirks off his shirt, drops his pants, and puts them in the hamper in the walk-in. “Everything goes to you and Sabrina.”

I raise a brow. “What?”

“I’ve spoken to the other capos. Anything happens to me, Sabrina is to run the Giordano empire as she sees fit.”

“Maks, that’s -”

“The capos agree. She has an entire army at her back. Now, so do you. Apparently, my father also noticed a few… incautious actions between the three of us, but… he approves. He states had he had one more set of eyes on my mother… maybe…” He sighs heavily, then shakes his head, grabbing a towel.

“Sabrina carries my last name now that she’s finally changed it. ”

I eye him up and down. “Does she know you’ve been tampering with her birth control for the last two months?”

He pauses, one foot in the bathroom. His wide back is covered in tattoos – Giordano, in the same Old English as Sabrina’s Giordano tattoo – splays from shoulder to shoulder. “She’ll figure it out soon enough.”

“You’re fucking diabolical.”

He grins. “Have you told her you already made an appointment to get your balls working again?”

My smile drops. “Kind of.”

He murmurs something I can't hear, steps into the bathroom, and closes the door. I settle back in with my girl and close my eyes, only waking up when Maksim wakes her up in the best way possible. She begs for him to go slow, and I watch as he makes love to her, until she reaches for me.

Like I said, somehow I made it into heaven, even though all the demons are here.

I’m nothing more than an elevated heathen, invisibly and willingly chained to an altar of my choosing.

Her .

It will always be her.

She is the only religion I know.

And I will always fall to my knees and worship at her call.