Page 22

The Sting of Reality.

F ierce, striking, and remorselessly beautiful. Those were the exact thoughts that ran through my head when I saw her get into that Uber in the States. I knew she’d changed. I knew she wasn’t the same girl who left Falcon’s Keep. What I never thought was how much she’d crawl under my skin, and make me crave her touch, her smell, her company. It’s like she’s the Earth and I’m the sea, being drawn to her magnetic pull no matter how many other planets surround us.

My cock strains as she smiles beneath it, her tongue darting out, gliding from my balls, along my length, and to the tip of my cock, drawing a groan from deep within my chest.

“I will never let them have you, Principessa .” Guiding her up by her elbows, I kiss her with everything I have. I grip her by her hips, driving her back into Dante’s tomb as I grind my cock into her belly. Removing the straps of her dress, it pools at her feet, revealing her perky breasts. I want to run my tongue all over her body just to be able to say I’ve tasted every fucking inch of her because that’s how much I desire her.

She bites her bottom lip, still refusing to say the words I need to hear, but it doesn’t matter if she says them or not because the reality is: I will never let her be with anyone but me. I will gut them all if I have to. One by one until there’s none of them left.

“I don’t think I can ever open my heart to anyone else,” she whispers as a tear rolls down her cheek. “Not like I have with you.”

Scooping her up with one arm, I rest the back of her ass on the tomb as I enter her. “Don’t think about anyone else right now, Nera.” I slide deeper into her warmth, fighting the urge to roll my eyes back into my skull from how good she feels. “It’s me and you.”

She nods, and I grip the belt still fastened around her neck, pulling her to my lips, and our tongues perfect our tango. Mine, fighting for a chance for her to choose me. To realise that it’s me she’s meant to be with, not him. However, I think she fights for the one thing she’s been thinking about ever since arriving on this island.

The States.

Maybe she thinks she can escape her fate by marrying the rich cunt and fleeing without a care in the world.

Maybe…this is what she wants .

My chest sinks as my head takes me places I don’t want to fucking go. My heart still calls her name as she bites my lip, pulling me deeper into her as I thrust, our skin slapping against each other.

“Rafael.” Her moans sound like desperate pleas. For me to save her, to save us from this destiny. But all I can think about is the way her pussy squeezes me tighter the harder I fuck her.

I pull the belt tighter, and she digs her nails into my back, rolling her hips against mine. I stare into her stormy eyes filled to the brim with tears, and it makes me burn with rage, a fiery hell whirling inside me, just waiting to be released onto Falcon’s Keep.

She closes them, freeing me from torment as she nears her release. Her thighs are secured around my waist like heavy chains, but I keep my eyes on her, watching her body react to my touch.

There will not be a life without her in it. Not now, not ever.

I groan when her pussy clenches around my cock, the sweat on her body mixing with mine as I continue to fuck her against the tomb, slamming into her, jolting her body back with each thrust.

The pleasure surges from beneath my spine and ripples through me as I come inside her, my forehead pressed to hers. When she opens her beautiful blue-grey eyes, the corner of her lips curl ever so slightly as she places her hand on my cheek.

“Don’t ruin everything you’ve worked for just for a shot at something the world will never see as normal,” she whispers, placing a chaste kiss on my lips.

The earth is pulled from beneath me as she gently draws herself away, slips on her dress without another word, and walks out the door. She leaves me with my exposed heart on the tomb, the oxygen surrounding it like acid, corroding the flesh agonisingly slow.

I needed sleep. My head was pounding after the one I gave Nera and considering how sickeningly sober I was at the revelry, my mind needed a damn break. A break from Dante Senior’s words echoing in my ear every six minutes about keeping Falcon’s Keep safe from outsiders. Sometimes, I rue the fucking day I was swept up onto these shores. Maybe I should have just drowned, perhaps it would have saved me from this excruciating hurt in the middle of my body. The constant pull from one direction and the other is giving me hardcore vertigo, but this afternoon, after the sleep I just had, I somewhat feel better.

I stare at my hands as I sit up on the edge of the bed, the veins now protruding more than they did years ago, the scars from countless knives and burns covering my skin. Even when they’re clean, all I see is the thick, red blood—a constant reminder that no matter where I go, or who I try to become, I’ll always be this.

Sighing, I head over to the connected bathroom and step out of my briefs. The water hits the floor of the shower as I step in, the cold shocking my system before it begins to heat up. I haven’t heard from her since last night, and it’s making me question if she ever wanted it. I knew it would be hard for her to admit the way she felt about me, but I never thought I’d be second-guessing that she ever had those feelings to begin with.

It can’t be it.

Not like this.

There’s a knock on my door and my hand curls into a fist. I just want to be left alone. For one whole day, I just want to exist.

“What?” My voice is harsh.

“We’re leaving in half an hour, just wanted to say bye.” Darcy’s voice travels through the door.

“I’ll be out in ten. I’ll meet you at the dock.”

Finishing up, I head out the door after getting dressed, into the cool breeze. The ferry rocks as the waves hit the wharf, the entire Casella family waiting to take their leave.

“You call me if you need anything.” Ezra faces Dante, his arm placed on his shoulder, and my body tenses as I watch the exchange.

Dante nods. “What will you do?”

“Well, I’m looking forward to the birth of my son any day now,” Ezra says with joy in his tone. Funny, didn’t think he was capable of such feelings. “And Nicholas…”

“We’re leaving in a few days. Starting a new life.” Nicholas smiles at Darcy and although he makes my skin crawl, I wouldn’t choose anyone else to take care of Darcy.

“You’re here!” Darcy smiles as she strides over and into my arms.

Jackson extends his hand and I take it. “Thank you. To both of you.” He reaches for Dante and they shake hands.

Darcy places her hand on my cheek as the others begin boarding the ferry. “If it’s worth fighting for, don’t let it go so easily,” she whispers. “Don’t make the same mistake I did.”

Without another word, she takes Nicholas’s hand and boards the ferry.

“Don’t forget, brother, you will always have a place in London.” Ezra nods as Darcy waves.

The loud horn of the ferry hums as it departs, and Dante takes his place beside me.

“I take it you heard about Nera?”

The blood runs hot in my veins at the mention of her name. He’s not the brother I once thought him to be.

“You signed her fucking life away,” I say with contempt.

“There’s so much more to it that you don’t know.”

I turn to face him, keeping my violent urges at bay. “How could you do that to your own flesh and blood?”

He laughs, running a hand through his thick hair. “You have no idea what it takes to keep a family safe.”

Something freefalls inside my chest, the words aimed to cut, slicing me deep. “Because I don’t have one, right?”

He stares at me, unwilling to clarify what he meant, and the red smoke clouds my vision as my fist charges into the air, cracking through his jaw. I climb on top, taking out my rage I was desperately trying to curb and unleash it on the person I once called my family. Lifting him by his collar, I ram him back onto the wharf, hitting his head, the blood trickling from the wound.

He coughs, the red liquid spraying onto my shirt as he pushes me off. He gets to his feet, wiping the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. “Don’t act like you haven’t done some heinous things in your life, too!”

“I would never?—”

“That’s the difference between us, brother. I would go to the ends of the fucking earth to save my family.”

“By signing their lives over to the devil!?”

“Better the devil you know than the one you don’t.”