Page 116 of A Beautiful Crime

Dio mio, this woman was made for me.

I curve my arm around her waist and tug her towards me. She falls into me with ease. Her entire body relaxes within my embrace.

“It’s my favorite photograph my mamma took,” I find myself telling her. It’s easy, way too easy to be transparent with her. And while I have always considered myself a confident man I’ve only now become complete.

Her head leans back to rest against my chest. The scent of cherries fills my nostrils giving me a peace nothing else could. “I can see why.” We stare at the photograph a moment longer, enjoying the silence. “Are all of these photographs hers?”

“Yes. Mamma’s photography was a hobby my papa had encouraged. She had a great love for art. A deep appreciation beyond beauty. She could see what others could not. I must admit, I always envied her for it.”

She turns in my arms then, her hands framing my face like I am precious art. “You do, Constantine. You saw me when no one else did. Not even myself.”

“I’ll always see you, Carina.”

A soft smile is my response. Taking my hand once again she leads me across the bedroom to the en-suite. “Where is your first aid kit?” I lean back against the black marble countertop as I point to the drawers that contain everything she will need. Shesmiles again. A smile that stops my heart and then makes it beat twice as fast.

As she begins to tend to my wounds I don’t even flinch. I’ve suffered worse. The scars on my body are proof of it. As she dribbles the antiseptic over the wound she says, “The first time Giuseppe tended to my wounds I sobbed for hours.” She says it so casually, as if we are discussing the weather and not her trauma. “And although the pain was great it wasn’t necessarily the pain that had me in tears.” Her method is gentle as she begins to wrap my hands in bandages. “It was the tenderness in his care. The affection. He was always so gentle. I couldn’t understand it. I even believed I didn’t deserve it. But my heart ached for it.”

I imagine a young girl in the cruel hands of Savio and Luca. The images before my eyes have me seeing red. Rage burns like an inferno in my blood.

I want to avenge her. The girl who should’ve been showered with love and affection not fear and pain.

We both grew up in this dark world except I was blessed with parents who had loved me. I never had any doubts.

She raises my now bandaged wounds to her lips and kisses my knuckles softly. “Gino also bestowed kindness to me.” Her lips form a small smile at the man I had infiltrated Savio’s soldiers to protect her. “In his own way of course.” Her eyes cast down to my hands, lost in thought. “I never understood him either. He was a highly trusted soldier of papa. The best soldier of his and yet he never showed me his cruelty.”

One day soon I will tell her the truth of Gino. She deserves the truth. She deserves everything. And I promise I will give it to her. Until my last breath.

I intertwine her hand with mine. “Would you like communication with them?” Although Gino is a trusted man of mine I can grant her the connection to Giuseppe. He’s doneproved his loyalty to her. How many times has the old man risked his life to care for her?

“You would allow that?”

“There isn’t much I wouldn’t do for you, amore. All you have to do is say the word.”

Her eyes glisten like diamonds. She blinks them away before they have the chance to fall. “I would like that very much.”

Gripping her hips I place her between my spread legs. Her arms loop around my neck as she brings her forehead down to rest on mine. “Consider it done.”

Standing to full height my hands move from her hips to the underside of her thighs to support her weight. Without instruction she wraps those long lean legs around my waist. I feel her heat against me and all the blood rushes to my cock.

“Now,” I say as I press open mouth kisses along the side of her neck, “how about I give you what you’ve been aching for?”

Her voice is a breathless moan as she replies, “Yes, please.”

I carry us out of the en-suite into the bedroom. She tilts her neck, granting me further access along the expanse of her neck. I flatten my tongue on her fluttering pulse. It goes wild before I plant a bruising kiss on it.

I claim her mouth in a searing kiss as I lay her down on the bed. For a woman who has never kissed a man she’s entirely too good at it. She claims my mouth with the same urgency. Gives it back to me as good as I give her.

Sliding my hands down the outside of her thighs I unhook her ankles from around my waist. The emerald dress she’s wearing that perfectly matches her eyes rides up further as I do so.

Humbly and greatly I kneel myself before her. I’ve never been a religious man but I can understand worship, and I’m a man who is going to worship every inch of her.

Propped on her elbows she stares down at me with heady and curious eyes. There’s no uncomfortableness in her posture. No signs showing me she isn’t ready for this. For me.

Building the tension that has been between us for weeks I trace my fingers in patterns along her skin. From her ankle, up her leg, to the insides of her thighs, and back down again without ever getting too close to the place where she wants me most.

Her breathing has turned erratic. And as my fingers inch higher up her inner thighs she lets out a whimper that has my cock straining against my slacks.

“Look at you,” I say as I spread her legs as far as they can go. She whimpers again and my eyes roll to the back of my head at the sound. Her whimpers alone are going to make me combust. I open my eyes after I gained a little composure. This isn’t about me. This is about her. Her wants. Her needs. Her pleasure. I lean in to where my nose brushes against her soaked black thong. Fuck, even the smell of her has my mouth salivating. “All wet just for me, aren’t you?” I run my nose along her scantily covered slit and she shudders.

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