Page 87 of Twisted Obsession

‘You gave yourself to another man and that’s supposed to make it better?’ he shouted, before pushing both of his hands through his hair in exasperation. ‘I expected my wife to keep her fucking panties on, and to not offer her sopping wet cunt to anyone who paid her attention, because of her uncontrollable lust.’ He spun around, making the vehemence in his voice doubly powerful with the movement.

‘How dare you!’ I shouted.

Suddenly, he was crossing the few steps between us, until his face was only a few inches away from mine.

‘I dare because Iwasyour husband and you committed adultery with another.’ As he spoke, he leant in even closer, and I could feel the power of his words rush over my face.

‘Was?’

‘Was,’ he confirmed. ‘I think you should get back to your fiancé, in Calabria, before you or I ruin any chance of you ever getting married.’

‘You don’t want me, yet you’d tell him what happened between us?’

‘It’s possible.’ He shrugged, as though I had never meant anything to him at all.

‘Who are you, Dante? Where has the boy I fell in love with all those years ago gone?’

‘Maybe you just made a mistake thinking you knew me at all?’ His blue eyes bored into mine as though he was wordlessly trying to tell me something his mouth just couldn’t manage. But as to what it was, I couldn’t discern.

‘I think you and I have said enough.’

‘Yeah?’ he mocked. ‘Then can I suggest you get the fuck off my boat and out of my fucking life once again, before I say or do something we’ll both regret.’ Dante pushed his hands into his pockets, making his leather wrist straps move up his wrists and the elastic waist band travel down, exposing the V of muscle I loved so much.

Moving fast, I barged past him, picking up my handbag as I walked towards the open door. Lifting it up and onto my shoulder, I delved onehandedly inside. Miraculously, my fingers found the exact thing I was looking for in a side pocket. Wrapping my fingers around it, I pulled it out swiftly.

‘The one thing I regret is accepting this in the first place.’

Without looking at him again, I dropped the phone he’d given me outside of my nonno’s rooms all those years before, and with a sense of satisfaction I watched as it broke apart.

Painfully my heart did the same.

Chapter Seventeen

Dante

For her safety, and my own sanity, with my Beretta in hand, I’d watched as Giovanna returned to the boat she’d come from. As she’d stepped across the gangplank, I’d sighed with relief. With her onboard, I was convinced that even though Ariti’s security was lacking for the next few hours at least, I could keep her safe.

‘You may think this is the end, amore mio… but there will never be an end to you and me. This isn’t goodbye, we don’t say goodbye.’ I spoke out loud, hoping my voice would travel on the breeze and find her heart. The one I knew I’d just broken into pieces.

Then, with my eyes still unwavering from the floating vessel, I’d secured another boat, and organised some of my best men to be onboard to follow Ariti’s home. All I had to do was to get Ariti to travel the short voyage back to Calabria, and make sure I had a tracker on board when he sailed.

It took me less than two hours to get the shipping magnet’s mooring permit rebuked, on a technicality of over booking, using a huge amount of cash as a backhander. I’d observed from the deck of my boat as they had gone aboard, giving them the instruction to leave. They had also been told that thenearest safe port they could sail to would be Port Calabria, as luckily for me there was a probable storm blowing in within the next twenty-four hours. Ariti himself hadn’t seemed too fussed one way or another, as the harbour master apologised for any inconvenience for over booking the mooring, and with his apology he had also offered free mooring for a few other times. But my interest had been piqued at the way Valentina Ariti, formerly De Luca had gone completely berserk at the inconvenience and the shameful way her family were being treated. Perhaps she was angry at being sent to somewhere she knew she couldn’t disembark from? Despite my pain over sending Giovanna away, I had practically laughed out loud when she’d finally ended her tirade with a loud shout of ‘Do you not know who I am?’

When Peter had taken hold of her arm in a quiet gesture, she had pulled herself away from his grasp, given him an icy glare and stormed off. If I hadn’t been nursing the pain of losing Giovanna once again, I was certain I would have found it even more amusing to watch, but as it was, I needed their vessel gone, fathoming that it should give me a few hours of knowing she was safe.

My phone going off in my pocket brought me out of my trance like state, staring across the sea at the boat that held the woman I loved.

‘Ciao,’ I answered brusquely, angry at the interruption.

‘Dante.’ I heard the worried tone of my papa.

‘Papa?’

‘Something has happened. Your mama and I need you back here.’ In the background I heard my mum wail, as she released her pain into the world. It was a pain I’d heard from her twice before; when she had lost her first child, Zeno, and when she had miscarried her last pregnancy.

‘What’s happened?’

‘Alessio’s car was ambushed this morning.’

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