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I shook my head at him, unable to speak through the emotions trapped at the back of my throat.
‘This isn’t right!’ Anger consumed me and my pain fell rapidly down and over my cheeks. ‘You can’t come marching back into my life and assume that everything will go back to the way it was.’ I tried to blink away the copious number of tears that I could feel were collecting. ‘There’s far too much water under that bridge, Salvatore.’
‘I never assume anything.’
‘So, what is all of this?’ I knew that if we weren’t in the confines of the car with him holding one of my hands, I would have thrown my hands up high in the air in exasperation.
‘We’re married. I told you I’d be back and here I am. In our time apart, you’ve become resilient. Strong enough to take your place beside me.’ As my anger returned, so did his autocratic tendencies.
‘You can’t expect that.’ I removed my eyes from his as I refuted his words.
‘You know me better than anyone… that’s precisely what I do expect, and exactly what’s going to happen.’ His hand strengthened its hold on mine, causing my eyes to find his fleetingly as I glanced to where we touched. The connection between us getting stronger with every second that passed.
I resumed looking out of the window, hoping to break the bond between us and knowing at the same time how futile my hope was.
‘My grandmother once told me that if you want to know where your heart resides, picture where your mind wanders off to...You’re it, Serafina.’ I heard the small gasp leave my parted lips at his unexpected admission and turning at his words I watched as his expression softened when he understood he was getting through to me. ‘Even after all this time, my blackened, shrivelled up heart resides with you.Ourlives have changed and now I’m back for you, like I said I would be. I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time, and I’m impatient to have you back in my life.’
I read between the words he’d so thoughtfully used and closed my eyes at his admissions. For the first time, I thought I might have understood what had happened between us. He was, as always, my devil and my saviour rolled into one.
For some reason, he’d pushed me away to save me, and through my pain my interest had been piqued and I was determined to find out why.
CHAPTER TWO
SALVATORE
Fortunately,my Italian heritage meant that at least I understood the need for all the pomp and ceremony that the English loved to stage to mark these types of occasions. What I hated was the fact that Serafina and I had only just reached some sort of silent understanding between us when my car had come to a standstill and she’d jumped out to join her peers.
I was seated deliberately by myself. I’d offered Serafina’s parents a curt nod outside the Royal Festival Hall and had then moved away from them to take the seat I’d paid a substantial donation for. Even after all these years of trying to nail Giordano as my mama’s kidnapper and finding nothing, until I’d found the irrefutable evidence and the bastard I was searching for, he remained at the top of my shit list. There was no fucking way I could sit next to them and pass the time of day, even at Serafina’s graduation.
As usual, I didn’t make small talk and grunted at the people sat around me until they got the hint that I wasn’t here to talk about the weather, nor to answer their questions, and they had stopped talking to me altogether.
I’d always enjoyed the power my height and build offered me, but today it paid dividends as I could see above those around me. Deliberately, I followed Serafina’s every movement around the large hall and after years of only watching her from a distance, I’d made sure she could always feel my eyes on her. My wife had always been beautiful, but now she’d hit her twenties, she was flawless. The dress she’d chosen, fitted her curvy figure to perfection and the itch I had to touch her, to run my hands over the shape of her, meant I’d spent most of the ridiculously long ceremony with my hands tightly clenched. I wasn’t a man who appreciated the arts, but the beauty of my young wife was the exception to the rule. Long, dark waves of her hair, which I wanted to wrap around my fist while she enfolded my cock with her mouth, framed her olive skin, and the colour of the dress she’d chosen made her eyes pop.
Most of all, I was enjoying watching her blush every time she caught my eyes with her own.
She was fucking stunning, a goddess above all women.
In truth, even being here with her wasn’t enough. I wanted her to myself and away from here as fast as was humanly possible. I’d opened up to her earlier and now the demon inside me was demanding balance, and the need to be appeased. The pleasant disposition I’d entered the hall with earlier, was leaving me fast.
Uncomfortable wasn’t the half of it, the ceremony had been going on for nearly two hours. Chairs pushed so close together gave no thought to people of my height and build. My ass was going numb, and my legs were screaming at me to straighten them. If I’d been anywhere else, other than her graduation, I would have stood up an hour ago and walked out.
But I wasn’t leaving without her. Whatever plans she had for after the ceremony were now going to include me, whether she liked it or not. Until we’d had the time alone to talk properly, I wasn’t going to be letting her out of my sight. I knew her of old, fight or flight were her two go-to responses. I was prepared to do the fighting and no way in hell was she escaping what I needed to be said.
The graduates had paraded in and one by one they’d been called up to receive their degrees. Apparently, we had to remain seated and were expected to clap every fucking one, until the orator had come to the end of what appeared to be a never-ending list.
After going over our limited conversation in the car, I took it all fucking back, I was not a patient man.
Finally, the orator stopped calling out names and began to roll up the papers in his hands.
I let out a long exhale as I anticipated that at last, it might be coming to an end. It appeared my relief was short lived as classical music started to come through the speakers.
‘What the fuck?’ I voiced out loud as we were gesticulated to stand. The graduates filed down the centre aisle and back around again to receive more applause.
Several men’s heads turned around to look at me, after being nudged by their wives. Unable to help myself, I raised my eyebrows at them in question and one by one, as I knew they would, they shifted their gaze, as though it had been their decision.
I couldn’t help the smile that spread over my face.
Serafina swept past, carrying her mortarboard which had fallen off several times during the ceremony in one hand and her degree in the other. Her long dark hair moved around her face as she walked, offering it the perfect frame for her stunning beauty. When her turquoise eyes lifted to find the smile on my face, tentatively she smiled back and the power it held behind it filled me with a warmth I hadn’t felt in far too long.
