“Please, I need you. I want you, Angelo,” she begged.
He loved it when she let her guard down with him.
“How do you want it?” he asked as he placed his fingers on her inner knee. She trembled as he traced circles on the inside of her knee before he moved upward toward her sweet center.
“Hard—fast—” the two words escaped rapidly from her lips, and he almost decided to take it slow, to draw the ecstasy but he never wanted to deny Kara anything if it was within his power to give it to her.
“Anything for you,” he rasped as he stroked the wet folds of her pussy and she moaned, pressing back against him.
Angelo didn’t prolong her anticipation, he guided his cock to her entrance and thrust deep, so deep Kara whimpered and walked up onto her tiptoes.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Yeah… like that.” She encouraged and Angelo didn’t wait.
He drove in faster the second time. Again, and again he claimed her, deep, rough his hands tightly digging into her hips to hold her still while he fucked her. She panted, whimpered and begged him not to stop. It was the sweetest sound in the world.
When she finally came, he followed her seconds later, emptying himself into her, his sense of connection so deep that it seemed for several long moments, he wasn’t quite sure who he was, he only knew he belonged to her. It was as if for a brief instant she had stolen his very soul from his body.
He released her hips and she straightened slightly, her legs wobbling, and he held her body against his chest to keep her from falling. They were still fully joined at that point of hot connection.
“Kara,” he sighed her name as he kissed her ear, her neck, her cheek. “Kara…”
“How can you do this to me?” She was shaking harder now. He pulled out of her and she tried to step away but he turned her to face him, his hands gentle.
“What’s the matter?” he asked. “Did I hurt you?”
Her eyes met his through the steam of the shower.
She shook her head. “You break down every wall I build like it’s nothing,” she whispered, her voice almost broken. “You make me… you make me think I can be happy, truly happy.”
Angelo could see her starting to spiral. He pulled her back into his embrace. He said nothing; he was too afraid to. He simply held her there in the shower for a minute before theyturned the water off. He took time drying her off, seeing to her comfort as he helped her into one of his t-shirts before he pulled on a pair of pajama pants and tumbled back together in his bed, their bodies entwined. He murmured soft words, silly nonsense and promises of things to come tomorrow as it was the most natural thing in the world, as if they had forever to spend such nights.
Long hours later as he held her in his arms in his bed, and he noticed the moonlight reflecting the moonlight gleaming on her left hand. She’d put his grandmother’s ring back on and he hadn’t asked her to. Precious hope stirred in his heart at the sight.
Chapter Fifteen
“You know… I see it,” Dante said.
Angelo, who hadn’t been paying attention to his younger brother, glanced away from Dante’s two children who were in the middle of a skating rink with Kara, Alessia, and Angelo’s parents.
“What?” He shot a glance at his brother before looking back at Kara ice skating.
“You and Kara. After I saw her place and you told me she was running from her past, I didn’t want to like her, trust her, not with you. But I do now.” Dante admitted this with a furrowed brow, his arms crossed as he looked between Angelo and Kara. “Whatever she’s been through, she’s a great woman, Angelo. I get what you see in her now.” Dante was still watching Kara who was ushering Nicholas around the ice, skating skillfully backwards as she guided Dante’s son.
Angelo hadn’t known she knew how to skate. There was still so much he had to learn about her. And he looked forward to each precious discovery.
“She’s not out of danger yet,” Angelo replied, his tone quiet. He and Dante were standing at the edge of the rink, thankfully out of earshot of anyone else.
“I know,” Dante sighed. “I guess that means we’re going to do whatever we can to keep her safe?”
“Yes. But I want you to keep away from everything. Keep our family away from it. That’s your job.” Of all of his brothers, Dante was the one Angelo felt closest to, the one he could trust with Kara’s secrets.
“You want me to stay out of the fight?” Dante’s frown deepened.
He never did like to be kept out of a fight. Angelo remembered more than one fight when they’d been kids with neighborhood bullies, and Dante had been right there with him, tossing punches. But they weren’t kids anymore. Dante had everything to lose and Angelo as the oldest would never let his little brother stand between him and danger.
“You can call it that, but I prefer to think of you as a giant wall keeping our family safe. If something happens, I just need to know you’ll stay away. Someone has to protect the family.”
