Page 41 of Relentless Refuge

“Your cousin said it himself. In that child is the heir to both thrones. He will lead our Family, all sides of it, as one new Family. Not mine and yours. Not mine or yours. Ours, together forever.” I turn her in my arms so that she’s facing me and cover her lips with mine. She opens to me, allowing me to deepen the kiss and drink the sweet nectar from her lips.

“I don’t know what to say, Marco.” She sounds confused and distraught.

“Say you think this is the way it’s meant to be, because I think it is, Isabella. And I think it’s good.” I hold her biceps and look her in the eye. “I love you.”

“Oh, Marco, I love you too,” she whimpers, wrapping her arms around my neck. Her body splays against mine and melds into me as I hold her against myself. I won’t ever let her go again, not in a million years.

30

ISABELLA

I’ve cried enough tears to drown a small city, and Marco’s arms feel so good around me that I can’t help but melt into him. His lips move over mine, syncing with my need to feel safe and close to him. All my fears about my unborn child are beginning to fade away as I allow myself to be smitten by this man again and again. I wanted a business partner, someone to help me corral my family and keep them in line. And what I’ve found in Marco is so much more. He is a life partner, one I can trust and rely on in every sense of the word.

“I knew you would come for me,” I tell him, pulling myself up and wrapping my legs around his waist as he slips his hand around the back of my thighs and lifts me.

“There was never any other thought in my mind.” His growls against my mouth give me a sense of urgency. I need him. I want to be one with him again and again, to feel our bodies unite in pleasure, but again in commitment.

Until this time, I’ve reserved a part of my heart from him, held it back so I didn’t get consumed with affection and emotion that was unwarranted. But here at this moment, I’m throwingcaution to the wind. Marco is mine in every sense of the word, and even my family backs me up now. We are one in purpose and in being.

“Oh, God, I love you,” I mewl as he lays me on the bed and lets the weight of his body sink onto me. My body is crushed between his and the mattress as I lock my ankles behind his back and feel his growing erection between my thighs.

“I love you, too,” he growls out, then he plants his lips on mine again.

Instead of a slow and passionate reunion, it’s fast and frantic, the kind of desperate thrashing of lovers separated for too long. He unbuttons my pants in hasty movements, tearing them from my body so quickly the fabric of my panties rips. I lay naked on the bed, waiting as he strips his clothing off and tosses it away like the prison it is, then eagerly returns to my waiting arms.

“You are carrying our child,” he says with awe as he places a hand on my stomach, paying special attention to my growing belly. “You’ve given me a miracle,” he adds before looking back up at me with hooded eyes.

I wriggle beneath him, spreading my legs wider to accommodate his hips between my thighs, and pull him down for a kiss. Raw, unfiltered, unadulterated need takes over my body. I want him deep and hard, to mark me as his and only his. Marco senses my need and complies with a gravelly groan that sets my body on fire. His hips grind downward against my core, and I feel how much moisture is there for him.

“I missed you. God, I need you,” I pant, clawing frantically at his back as his kisses become greedy and demanding. He nips atmy lower lip and grins before he slides inside me in one rough thrust.

“I missed you too,” he breathes into my ear, slowly rocking his hips against mine as a moan escapes my lips. “Dio mio, Isabella.”

It’s like I’ve been set on fire with the way he fills me up. I feel whole and complete and every other cliché in the book I never understood until now. Our bodies move in perfect rhythm, our sex slickened by mutual arousal and need. Marco is a furnace inside me, and each deep thrust of his hips causes me to jolt and shudder, and his playful smack on the side of my ass sends a shockwave of pain and pleasure through my body.

He’s an animal, moving inside me with the need of a man crazed with lust. And as for me? I crave his touch like it’s my last.

“Oh, God,” I mewl, my back arching off the bed as he slams into me again and again.

He growls, and his grip on my hips tightens, lifting me up to meet him halfway. His length moves inside me, impossibly deeper, and I feel him hit my cervix, pleasure so intense coursing through my body that I see stars. I’m lost in the moment, feeling him in me and his hands on me, and all I want is for this feeling to never end, to feel so close to him that we’re one every second of every day.

The orgasm builds with each thrust, each moan, each filthy thing he whispers into my ear. His fingers find my clit and rub it in a circular motion as his other hand molds my breast. “Marco!” I scream, unable to hold back anymore.

“Come for me,mi corazno,” he growls, and his words are the final push I needed. My orgasm crashes over me like a tidal wave, and I see stars behind my eyelids as I come hardaround him. Spasms and convulsions shake my body, and my fingernails dig into his shoulders, drawing blood, but he doesn’t stop. He urges my body to higher heights of ecstasy, and all I can do is writhe and pant.

“Sì, tesoromio. Come for me.” His words and the mind-shattering pleasure are too much, and I go over the edge, my pussy clamping down so tight around his length that I think my body will split in half. His thrusts don’t relent. He continues pounding into me, drawing gasps and moans from my lips in a way only he can. His body weighs me down, molding to mine in a passionate embrace as he hooks his arms beneath my shoulders and pulls them lower as he drives into me.

“Let go, Marco,” I beg. I want him to feel the same release I just did, I want him to know what it feels like to be so lost in me that he can’t breathe.

He obliges me with a bone-shattering groan, and he buries himself deep inside me and shudders, his thrusts faster and harder as he finds his own release. His seed shoots inside me, marking me as his again as I come down from my high. My body finally relaxes from the intensity of it all, and I lie there panting beneath him.

I don’t want him to pull away or out of me. I want to remain united like this, but he withdraws, rolling to the side and holding me against his chest. He pulls the covers over our sweat-slicked bodies and breathes across my cheek as he peppers my skin with kisses. My heart is full right now, but strangely, it’s also missing something, a part of me I decided to give up.

“Do you think our Families will really stay united long after we’re gone, when our son or daughter is in charge and we pass thebaton?” I hold his hands to my chest, kissing his knuckles as I rest in his arms.

Lucco should have been leading my Family. He was preparing to take over, for my father’s inevitable death would happen one day. Father never had a thought in his mind that one day I would lead, or that my son or daughter would eventually lead either. I wonder what he would say if he were here, if he would be proud of me.

“I think we have decades to find out, Bella.” Marco tucks the hair behind my ear and kisses my cheek, then props himself on one elbow as his hand slides down over my breasts and lower to my stomach. “And I can’t wait to find out.”

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