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"I love you," he snarls, thrusting up into me with a force that robs me of breath. "More than my own life. You're my salvation."
And he might be my damnation. But this right here, this is where I belong.
I bounce on his thighs, each thrust sending electricity sparking along every nerve ending in my body. Each press of his fingers in my ass sends me spiraling further and further from reality.
"Karina." His voice is a ragged whisper. His eyes are fathomless pools, drawing me deeper under his spell as he drives into me again and again.
"Look at me," I moan, no longer the innocent girl he found at the party, but someone else. What did he call me? Mio angelo obscuro. Yes. His dark angel. His queen.
Our gazes lock, and the world falls away.
"Karina, amore mio," he groans, his movements growing more frantic. His grip more possessive. "I'm—"
"Let go, Coda. Together," I whisper, feeling like I'm going to break apart and scatter into a million stars.
His grip tightens on me, my name a prayer on his lips. I breathe his as we come undone, reaching heaven together.
"Ti amo," he breathes against my ear, sending aftershocks rippling through me as he writhes in ecstasy. "Ti amo."
"I love you," I whisper back, my heart overflowing with love for this beautiful, complicated, perfect man who doesn't trust himself but trusts me enough for the both of us.
As we come down, we cling to each other, gasping for air, complete in a way we've never been. And in this moment, everything we still have to face—my father and his crimes—doesn't seem nearly that big.
They can't defeat us. We're unbreakable.
Chapter Nine
Karina
The sharp chill of the wind blowing in from the water cuts through me as I stride across campus toward my last class of the day, my phone pressed to my ear. "How late this time?"
"I don't know, cara," Coda says, his voice an apologetic rumble that does nothing to soothe the disappointment coursing through me. "Something important came up. It may be a while before I'm finished handling it."
"Something important," I repeat. It's the same excuse he's been giving me for the last two weeks. I barely see him anymore. He's always gone, always doing…I don't know. He won't tell me. When I ask, he kisses me until I forget I had questions, or fucks me until I forget anything but him exists.
He's up to something, and doesn't want me to know what. The few times we've ventured beyond the walls of his condo, he's vigilant to the point of paranoia…checking every shadow, constantly looking over his shoulder.
It's driving me crazy. We both know whatever he's doing involves my father and that shipment of guns. But he adamantly refuses to broach the subject, skillfully evading my every attempt to learn more about what he's found out…and what he's doing about it.
He doesn't want me involved—he thinks this level of dark shouldn't ever touch me. I love him for wanting to protect me. But his world is my world now. His dark is my dark. And if my father is the reason he's out at all hours, I should know that.
There's nothing he could tell me about what he's doing that would change my mind about him. I'm his in every way. That won't change because of my father. I made my choice. It's him.
But I'd like to know, if for no other reason than because I want to know every piece of him. It's the only way he'll ever realize that he's worthy of me exactly as he is.
One day soon, I'm going to tie him to the bed and force him to tell me all of his secrets.
"Do you trust me, angioletta?" he asks, and that's just the thing. I do trust him—more than anything. Even with all the secrets, I don't doubt him at all.
"Of course I trust you," I whisper. "I just miss you."
"I miss you too, cara." He sighs, and I know he means it. This hasn't been any easier for him. "I'll be home as soon as possible."
"Okay," I say, though we both know as soon as possible may not be until the wee hours. With him, it's hard to tell.
"Ti amo."
"I love you," I whisper before ending the call. I slip the phone into my bag, groaning. Yes, I'm definitely tying him to bed to torture his secrets from him soon.
