Page 80 of Tainted Love

“His family owns the entire city,” he points out. “You can be damn sure they all know who I am by now. We can’t touch him.”

“Marty Zappia is just a man,” I say. “Every man has a weakness.”

Dante looks down again, hiding the darkness bleeding into his blue eyes. “You’re sure about this?”

I don’t hesitate. “Yes.”

“There’s no going back, Lucy,” he whispers. “You open that door, it doesn’t close again.”

I hold my eyes steady. “I’m sure.”

Dante takes a breath, filling his lungs to the very top and holding it there for several moments before forcing it out. “Okay…” he says, reaching out for the disassembled gun grip in front of him. “This is a Glock. 9mm. I’m going to put it back together. I’ll take it apart again and then you’ll do the same, so watch closely.”

I nod, leaning over to get a better view while my heart pounds in my chest.

Chapter 25

Dante

I know a thing or two about grief.

There are few things in the world that can fill that void. The promise of vengeance and a deep dicking every night just so happen to work for Lucy Vaughn.

I’ll oblige. It’s the least I can do.

I twist her brunette hair in my fingers and pull back a little more, listening for the painful purr at the back of her throat. Instead, she giggles, turning her head back to steal a kiss from me. I let her have one before pounding her a little harder from behind and listening again for any sound she may make to tell me I’ve gone too far.

Lucy’s tolerance for pain has certainly shifted. She’s always been strong, but this is a different level entirely.

No matter how badly we get hurt, there’s always a little bit left over. There’s no such thing as healing to one hundred percent. Scars remain, inside and outside. Viruses live on in our systems, dormant cells just waiting to revive and cut us down again.

But we learn to live with it. We bear the risk on our shoulders every day because each new sunrise brings a little more peace. After a while, that pain becomes a part of us. Some of us don’t even notice it’s still there.

My whole life, I believed I was a broken man. I’ve never experienced love — the bonds of my family excluded, of course. I’ve never touched a living thing in this world without crushing it in my palm.

Except her.

She looks at me like no one else ever has. She needs me like no one else ever will.

When I touch her she doesn’t cry or bleed.

When I touch her… she likes it.

“Dante?”

I blink, breathing hard, realizing I’ve been staring at the wall. “Yeah?”

“Why’d you stop?”

Lucy slopes down onto her back, gently rounding her cursed leg up and around my body in a perfect curve. Even with the brace, she’s the most graceful creature on this planet. She probably doesn’t even need it anymore, but I haven’t let her take it off yet. I’m too scared that she’ll bite off more than she can chew. I fear her pain far more than she does.

“Come here,” I whisper, reaching out to her in the dark.

She takes my hand and shifts closer, letting me pull her onto my lap and she straddles my waist. Her right leg stretches out while her good knee rings around me, locking us together. I take her face in my hands. Her angelic features glisten in the soft moonlight shining in from the window above the bed. The sweat on her brow drips down her pale cheeks and the darkness inside me fades as she smiles back.

Lucy Vaughn, an everlasting light. It’d be a sin in and of itself to let that light burn out.

She kisses me. Electric passion twitches her lips like she just can’t get enough. She wants more of me — more of my dick, specifically — and I’ll give it to her, but first…

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