AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My only disappointment was that I had fallen asleep wrapped in a down-filled duvet and not his arms. Now, glancing across the large bed to the pillows next to me I could see that he hadn’t come to bed at all, and my disappointment deepened.
‘It’s time,’ Salvatore informed me, seemingly impatient with my timewasting.
I looked quickly at the large, wrought iron wall clock I’d seen hanging on the one exposed stone wall in the bedroom. The early morning sun’s rays had already swept into the room and had reached the oversized hands.
The clock read ten minutes to eight.
‘It’s early,’ I complained, feeling discombobulated at the way he’d chosen to wake me, when I knew I would have preferred him to have woken me with his lips, hands, or both on my body.
‘We have one more duty to complete and then we can escape.’
‘Escape sounds good.’ The words left my mouth without me thinking and our eyes once again found each other’s.
‘There’s no escaping me, little bird.’ Once again, he tried to convince me that I was merely a pawn in the game of life and death he was conducting, and I watched as one by one the tense muscles in his body relaxed.
He had drawn the line between us again and the strained atmosphere lifted.
Understanding captured me.
Given our far from normal family life, from the very traditional, outdated Italian upbringing, to our much more relaxed and modern life in London, the way people acted had always intrigued me. I’d always been someone who looked far too deeply into everything and everyone, because from as far back as I could remember, I’d worked out there was always more there than what first met the eye.
Realisation seized me.
Most of my life, it seemed, I had been honing myself to being in Salvatore’s world; to being his wife.
Sitting up quickly, I made sure he wasn’t party to the knowing smile that had stretched over my face. If an odd quip from him about our situation was enough to keep him content, I was willing to accept it.
Then all at once, I could feel myself travelling as Salvatore dragged the sheet from underneath me.
I couldn’t stop the girlish squeal falling from my lips and in turn I heard Salvatore laugh out loud as the movement he was creating saw me falling from one side to the other, until eventually, I fell off the end of the bed and onto the thick, grey rug at the foot of the bed.
The rustling of the cotton sheet stopped, and I heard the mattress fall back into place after Salvatore claimed the prize he was after. Slowly, I pulled myself up to standing to find him standing by the bed, examining the white, super king-sized sheet. Grabbing at the grey throw at the bottom of the bed, I wrapped it around my body, suddenly feeling cold.
I watched as Salvatore moved the sheet around in his hands. Faster and faster, he turned the cotton around, but found nothing. I knew without watching that I hadn’t bled my virginal blood on the required fabric and my heart fell heavily.
‘Oh no… what happens now?’ My voice was small.
Unceremoniously, I looked on as Salvatore dropped the sheet from his hands and it drifted down to the floor.
‘I was your first, Serafina?’ he questioned, without turning around to face me.
‘You were… please, Salvatore, you had to know that? You must have felt that?’
‘I knew,’ he admitted, standing straighter and nodding as he replied.
I used my hands to rub up and down my bare arms as I watched him walk over to the large chest of drawers where his clothes had been placed. Not certain of what was about to transpire in the next few minutes, I followed his every movement.
‘You must know that I could have ruptured my hymen doing any number of things over the past few years,’ I added, even though I knew whatever I said now would make no difference.
My eyes darted to the open door of the bedroom. I had no idea why.
Was I looking to bolt?
Of course not. I knew that I’d never be able to outrun him even if I could get off De Luca land wearing only a throw, and truthfully, I didn’t want to. Our lives were now irrevocably bound together.
I looked back at Salvatore and watched as the muscles on his back flexed as he searched through the clothing he had picked up at some point while I was sleeping, becoming aware that none of the clothing he touched was my very expensive statement of a wedding dress.
He had got rid of it.
