Page 4 of Twisted Obsession

In response, I deliberately closed my eyes at his nearness.

‘That wasn’t nice… We wouldn’t want you to get hurt… would we?’ he whispered into my ear, just as I unleashed my other foot catching him directly in the middle of his other shin.

‘Bollocks.’ The single word left him through gritted teeth.

‘If only my legs were long enough to reach them!’ I snarled back at him.

Refusing to rub the pained leg, instead choosing to shrug his shoulders at me, I watched as he sat back on his seat and leant back into the luxurious, navy leather and replaced his seat belt.

When he lifted his gaze again, his piercing blue eyes found mine. Then as he perused me, his captive, I watched as his tongue played with his two front teeth as it always did when he was deep in thought and, like every other time I’d witnessed it, it held me spellbound.

‘Hello, my love.’ His English accent enthralled me as always, but it was the wink he offered me afterwards, I knew would be my downfall. ‘Welcome to England.’

Part One

Chapter One

Dante

Nearly five weeks earlier

Istood on the terrace with my jean clad legs resting against the wall in front of me, and my hands shoved deep into my back pockets. Exhaling, I attempted to release the stress caught in between my shoulders. Yet again I changed my stance, as I tried hard to concentrate on the familiar things around me, like the coping stone pressed into the front of my thighs and the wooden gate that had been recently repainted its vibrant green, banging on its catch as the wind suddenly took hold of it and released it just as quickly. I needed my thoughts focussed on anything other than the frustration I felt at being so impotent.

Looking across Bovalino beach, I stared hard at the expansive, whitewashed villa almost opposite my own family’s home. It had been a difficult few days for me, knowing my sister Serafina was back with him, her husband.

As soon as word had got around my family that Salvatore had collected her at her graduation ceremony and brought her back here, I was once again catapulted into the knowledge that heseemed to pull the strings on every aspect of my family’s lives, and I fucking hated it.

My uncle’s advice was to leave well alone and to stay in London.

It was advice I couldn’t take.

London was the place where I felt the most comfortable, but I wouldn’t go so far as calling it home. My Italian blood would never have allowed it. My home was here in Calabria, like generations after generations before me.

All the time Serafina had been studying in London, I was happy in the knowledge that she was at last living her life. Living her dream.

And I was happy because De Luca no longer had her in his clutches.

Now the pendulum had swung again, and she was back in a marriage she’d been sold into to save our family, and I fucking hated that even more.

I’d even prayed his attraction and fascination with her had waned. Now, I knew it wasn’t the case. Even in the twenty first century, our family lived by the ancient laws of the ‘Ndrangheta, and I was more than happy with that, at least most of the time. But it made me sick to the stomach and produced such a vehement anger inside me, not knowing how much more our family would have to give to the De Lucas to pay for crimes we hadn’t committed.

A soon as I’d learnt he’d taken her back, I’d thrown some clothes into a case and arrived not many hours behind her, giving my parents the excuse that I needed a few days break. I hadn’t a sodding clue what I hoped to achieve by following her, but I knew that although my brother Alessio, who had taken hold of the reins since our papa’s heart attack and subsequent debilitation, was very good at keeping the equilibrium, ourfamily deserved so very much more. One day, I knew I was going to be the one who would help us achieve it.

Suddenly, something changed in the air around me, and movement from the beach caught my eye.

I watched as the large, tattooed man ran far too fast across the unforgiving sand. His bare feet made deep prints beneath him as he overexerted himself in his struggle, and then it hit me just who I was watching.

Salvatore De Luca.The man himself.

Finally, with a sense of pleasure, I observed as he began to sprint the final hundred metres, not satisfied with the punishment he had already handed out to himself.

What’s wrong with you?

I asked myself the question, knowing how much satisfaction it would give me if I could help to extend his self-inflicted penalty.

As he reached the end and stopped, his body shook and sweated with his toil. I could see him struggling to breathe, struggling to keep control and I understood just how much that was bothering him.

My feet began to move on instinct. I’d comprehended that he had been brought to me for a purpose and standing up here and out of his way wasn’t going to fulfil that.

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