Page 156 of Thorns of Death

A choked sob escaped me. “I don’t feel strong.”

“Do you trust me?” I nodded. “Then trust me when I say you are strong. The strongest Marchetti woman who has ever lived.” He slowly turned me so I was standing in front of him, then he lowered down to his knees. My eyes locked on the man kneeling before me. “Do you remember our first night?”

“Yes,” I croaked, my heart hammering in my chest.

“I thought you were the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.” His palms trailed my hips and my thighs, then parted my legs. “I was wrong.” I stiffened, but before I could break down, he continued, “Today, you’re even more beautiful. Because I see your strength in your eyes. In every scar. In every breath you take. Don’t ever doubt it.”

My heart shuddered with need and love. God, I loved him so much that it terrified me. It made me feel vulnerable and strong at the same time. I didn’t understand it.

“When will you touch me?” I breathed.

He let out a heavy sigh. “I thought you’d never ask,dolcezza.”

His fingers teased my seam and the familiar lust brewed in the pit of my stomach. “Watch yourself in the mirror,” he ordered as he turned me to the side and pulled my panties down my legs. Then his finger dipped inside me and my eyes fluttered shut. A tear finally rolled freely down my cheek, my heart beat in sync with his. My lips parted, oxygen too hard to come by.

“I was a shell of a man before you, Isla,” he murmured against my core. “I love you,amore mio.”

“I love you too,” I whimpered, my bottom lip trembling. “This is the first time you’ve gotten down on your knees since we got married,” I remarked, my smile wobbly.

“I’ll always kneel for my queen.” I squeezed my eyes shut as he thrust his finger in and out, the heat building inside me. “Open your beautiful eyes for me. Watch us.”

I peeled my eyes open, watching him as he leaned closer and flicked his tongue against my core.

My thighs quivered. My skin flushed. My eyes glimmered.

All for him.

“Enzo.” He froze, unused to me calling him by his birth name. His gaze met mine, his darkness meeting my own. “I wantyouinside me.”

He rose to his full height, discarding his pajama pants. His hands reached around me, his fingers digging into my ass. I hooked my legs around him, and he thrust to the hilt inside me.

I held on to him as he moved in and out of me like a possessed man. Like he owned me. Like he needed me the way I needed him.

“I need you like the sun needs the moon.” He thrust in again. Hard. “Like the sea needs the shore.” He fucked me harder and faster, his moves animalistic. “Like my lungs need air.”Thrust.

It took no time for both of us to fall over the edge.

FIFTY-SEVEN

ENRICO

Four Months Later

Waves crashed against the shoreline. The beach was empty. The weather was still not warm enough to attract the crowds. Isla’s small body pressed against mine as we sat on the cliffs. Each cool breeze from the sea had her pressing against me harder, her hands clutching for me like I was her lifeline.

It was fucking heaven.

Days, weeks, months had gone by and we had all settled into a routine. The paranoia refused to leave me, however, so I’d enhanced our security, scared to ever lose her again.

Kian and I had started teaching Isla self-defense too.

“If you get a cold, you still have to go to school.”

My wife used her most stern voice, but the boys knew it was an empty threat. Nobody babied them like Isla. When Amadeo had come down with food poisoning, she insisted on holding his head as he puked his guts out. But I’d come to realize that they needed it. They needed a woman’s touch. A gentle hand. And Isla fit perfectly into our family. The way I always knew she would.

Enzo and Amadeo swam in the cold sea, claiming it was warm. It wasn’t. Their blue lips were proof, but they were stubborn as fuck. Just like my wife.

I wouldn’t have it any other way.