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When he grabs the back of my neck to hold me in place, I stifle a moan. With anyone else, I’d be afraid, but with him——I’m alive.
When he takes off the blindfold, I stare into the depths of his eyes. With anyone else, I’d want to hide, but with him—I want nothing more than to see and be seen.
And when he glides me onto his hardened length, I moan, so consumed with my need for him, so utterly lost in sensation and ecstasy, my words become incoherent murmurings of love and adoration.
I breathe, “I love you,” when we reach our peak together.
He whispers, “I love you,” when he holds me against him, my heart stuttering against the damp heat of his chest.
The tears on my cheeks aren’t just because I love him.
I love…me.
I love us.
* * *
CHAPTERTWENTY-SEVEN
Eden
We're sittingon chairs by the private beach near the Rossi family home, The Castle. Yes, it really is an actual, bona fide castle and I want to pinch myself. I feel like a princess.
Nonna and Tosca enthusiastically accepted our request to move in. Sergio could've bought a home anywhere, but it may have been awkward, knowing that he and I are lovers, and my sister’s sort of the third wheel. This is a much better situation.
First, she doesn't have to know that I work at the club. Not yet.
Second, she delights in all the kitchen pursuits as she learns to cook with Nonna and Tosca. Tosca’s missed having her daughters home. She's got a hard edge about her. But she also has a heart that loves and loves deeply. I think both of them are finding healing in each other.
Third… I get Sergio all to myself.
They’ve given us a suite on the second floor of The Castle. It's magnificent, everything I could've hoped it would be, with all the regal adornments any castle may be expected to have, but at the same time, as homey as a real home should be. We have an enormous suite, with its own kitchen, its own bathroom, an office for Sergio, and a sitting room. I cook our meals and look after Starla. And soon I’ll return to the club where I’ll cook, but not until I know that Starla is healed.
"A lot had to happen for you to become my guardian, Eden."
Starla sits next to me, wrapped in a blanket. She's thin, and frail, but I would never mistake that for weakness. There's nothing like Nonna’s cooking to put meat on the bones, at least so I've been told, and Starla has developed quite the appetite.
If someone had told me a year ago that my parents and Seth would be dead now, the fellowship dissolved, and that I would be married to a hot, rich gangster and living in a castle? I would have laughed them right out of town.
But I made some changes… and here we are.
"Decided what you want for centerpieces?"
I groan.
"Starla, I don't want a big wedding. Just family."
Sergio grimaces. "Uh, babe. Do you have any idea what ‘just family’ means? Those two concepts are mutually exclusive. You cannot just say I want a small wedding and just family in the same sentence when you're talking about the Montavios and the Rossis.”
Oh, that's right. He may only have two brothers and a sister but there’s… way more people than that.
“Okay, so what is conceivably the smallest wedding we could have?"
He proceeds to list off names of people that I'm surprised to find… I already know.
I know his brothers, I know the people at the club. I know the Rossi family, his mother, even Nonna and his aunt. I know all of them.
For the first time in my life, I have an actual family I want to be a part of.
