Page 1 of Something New

CHAPTER ONE

Tuomo

She giggles as I pull her into the space beneath the stairway in the hall of my father’s mansion.

I push her up against the wall, staring down at her.

Nerissa is the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen. She is young and I know my father would be furious if he caught me kissing the maid’s daughter, but I can’t help who I fall in love with. My heart is in control of that, and who am I to question my heart?

At twenty-nine, I’ve never felt this way about anyone in my life. Girls fall over me, because of who I am, but not Nerissa. Nerissa is different. And no girl has ever made me want to willingly defy my father and get into trouble.

She is mature for her age, and even though she is just seventeen, I believe we’ve found true love in each other.

I close the door behind us, and we are pressed together in the small space beneath the stairs.

She giggles again and I press my finger over her lips. “Shh.” I whisper. “They’ll hear you.”

She pushes her lips together, sealing them shut, falling silent. She looks up at me and has my full attention. Beautiful, bright hazel eyes that catch the light and when the sunshine hits them just right, they turn to gold.

She takes a soft breath and her lips part.

I wrap my hand around her jaw, unable to control this urge I’ve had since the moment I laid eyes on her. She is my world. She is my everything.

I want her and I don’t care where she comes from or who her mother is. I don’t care that my father would disapprove. I only care about her.

She lifts her chin towards me, and I lower my lips - inches away from hers. I can smell strawberries and ice cream on her warm breath. We snuck it from the kitchen earlier and ate it in the back of the garden where no one would see us. We like to spend time amongst the orange trees, hidden from the watchful eyes of my father and my brothers.

We can never spend too much time together. We always need to be careful.

I meant to just walk her back to her room - but instead I pushed her into the closet beneath the stairs. I wanted to kiss her between the trees, but I didn’t. I regret it and now I am going to make up for it. And now I can smell strawberries on her breath and feel the heat of her beautiful body against mine.

My heart is beating so fast as I lean closer to her.

Closer, until there is no space between us anymore and my lips press into hers.

Her soft, warm, divine mouth opens, and she returns the kiss without hesitation.

Her lips are inviting, plump, pink and beautiful. Her tongue dances across my mouth and my blood boils, wild images flashing through my mind.

She is mine, and she was always meant to be mine.

I am holding her so close, her heart beating so hard I can feel it - and mine is in sync with hers. It is the most beautiful moment I’ve ever experienced in my life.

That is - until the door flies open and someone grabs me by the arm - yanking me away from her and throwing me to the floor with vicious coldness.

I gasp in shock, staring up at my father.

“What the fuck do you think you are doing,boy?” he snarls at me, his mouth curled up with anger and disgust. “She is a child - amaid’schild.What the fuck do you think you are doing? I asked you a question.”

The veins on his head popping and blue. They do that when he’s furious - and he’s always angry.

“I love her.” Is all I can say. “And don’t call me boy. I stopped being a boy years ago.” I snap. Although, when I am around my father, I always feel like a child. He knows how to make a person perceive themselves as small and worthless. He has never treated me like a man. He has never given me that respect or an ounce of love.

My twin brother, born mere minutes before me, is his pride and joy. Masaccio gets everything and I don’t even get the left-over scraps. He looks at me with a familiarlook of disgust. My fatheronly has disdain towards me. He hates me and he never misses an opportunity to remind me of that.

I push myself up onto my knees as my father grabs Nerissa from the closet. She is crying, and she lifts her hands up to protect her face as he raises his hand as though he wants to slap her.

I am on my feet in a flash, grabbing his wrist. He is stronger than me. He always has been. A brute of a man, with an icy heart.

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