“And I told you before, you’re my wife, and that makes you my business. If someone hurts you, they hurt me. That’s how marriage works. You and me until death do us part.”
“Yes, but when death parts us, it’s likely going to be from one of our own hands. You’d still put a bullet in my head if you thought it was necessary, and I’d do the same to you, and you giving me my first orgasm doesn’t change that.”
She felt him shift. “Your first orgasm? Are you serious?”
She came within a breath of twisting around. “You can’t have already forgotten that I was a virgin until a day ago?”
“Of course not, but I was masturbating for years before I lost my virginity.”
“Yes, but that’s because all men are wankers.”
He gave a short bark of laughter before she felt his stare on her. “Shall I ask one of your brothers if it was Stefano?”
This time, she couldn’t stop herself from whipping around to face him. “Don’t you dare,” she hissed. “You might think you own me, Elio, but you don’t. Whatever baggage I have belongs to me. I let you screw me, but I didn’t give you my soul because, as we have already established, neither of us has one.”
His beautiful eyes – God, when had she started thinking of them as beautiful? – held hers. “If you don’t have a soul, then why do you look like you’re going to cry?”
Emotion punched through her again, and for one long, horrifying second, she feared he was right. Swallowing hard, she fought for control of herself. “Don’t try to make this marriageinto something it isn’t. You married me for who I am, not for me, and I don’t owe you a damned thing.”
“Other than your loyalty as my wife,” he pointed out softly, reaching his hand into her hair.
“You know where my loyalty lies. If you want it, too, then it’s on you to earn it.”
Her heart thumping, she turned away from him again and wriggled to the edge of the bed. A moment later, the room plunged into darkness.
* * *
Siena woke to hazy morning light, and with a warm body compressed into her back and an arm slung over her waist.
She closed her eyes and resisted the dream-like urge to turn over and cuddle into him. That she was in the middle of the bed meant that at some point in the night, she’d made her way back to him.
This was the third morning in a row that she’d woken like this. That she felt no urge to escape before he woke frightened her more than when she’d got into bed the night she lost her virginity to him… Was that really only five nights ago?
Closing her eyes even tighter, she filled herself with the resolve needed to slip away rather than turn to him.
She shouldn’t need resolve.
She could just about forgive herself for craving sex with him, but craving his embrace was madness. It was hard enough feigning indifference when she climbed into bed with him, her body already simmering with anticipation at the thought of him being inside her again, but when it was over, and he was lying on top of her, their bodies meshed together… Finding the strength to push him off and turn her back on him was becoming close to impossible.
Last night, she’d held him so tightly that her arms had stubbornly ignored the commands from her brain to push him for a time that seemed to last forever.
She’d moved barely two inches when the arm she was trying to escape tightened around her, and Elio’s warm body closed the small gap she’d created.
“Not trying to escape before I’ve had my good morning kiss, are you?” he asked, his voice thick with sleep.
Her heart surged before she could catch hold and temper it, and when he lazily climbed on top of her and his sleepy, silver eyes locked onto hers, it was her breath she could no longer catch. It was terrifying how much this seemed to be happening. If she could only avoid being trapped in his stare, she would be better able to control all the sensations he evoked in her. Her only saving grace was that she continued to resist initiating it, holding her breath and lying with heightened anticipation for him to roll on top of her and for her body to sigh in relief that it was going to happen.
Never would she make the first move.
“Good morning, wife,” he whispered.
Her heart surged again and caught in her throat. “Good morning,” she whispered back before she could stop herself.
His mouth slanted onto hers for a kiss so sleepy and lazy it seemed to drug her with its somnolent effect.
His kisses drugged her whatever way they were given.
Closing her eyes, Siena submitted to the dream-like sensation and returned the kiss. She could do nothing else. Elio’s kisses and the feel of his body on hers were just too heady a combination to deny herself the pleasure they gave.
