Page 48 of Broken Innocence
“I don’t know,” she wavers, her fingers digging into my shoulders as I circle her clit, preparing her for my swift entry.
“I love you, Eden. I’ve loved you for months. From afar when I watched you. From the end of that bed at Blackchapel Manor while you recovered from being beaten. You’re my resilient little Butterfly, and nothing is going to change how I feel.”
I seal the promise with a flex of my hips, sinking deep into her wet cunt. Eden gasps but doesn’t push me away. Her body wants this, too, even if her mind is trying to catch up.
I’ve barely gotten started when a tear drips down the side of her cheek to dampen mine, and I immediately stop. “Fuck, did I hurt you?”
“No, these are happy tears. Because you love me, too.” She shudders in my arms and wraps her legs around my waist as I pin her to the wall. Emergency exit posters have never looked so sexy as they do with my wife braced against them. “Youseeme. All my life I’ve been in the background. I’ve never been important toThe Family, never been noticed. Untilyou. Why can you see me, Luca?”
“Because you’re mine,” I growl.
Eden whimpers, and the sound is enough consent to re-energize me. Our bodies push and pull with each labored breath. Love twining in the air to tie us closer together.
I spread hot kisses over her face and neck, down to the deep cleavage created by her heavy breasts. Eden scratches at my scalp, my shoulders, wherever she can reach as she covers me with the most beautiful three words in the English language.
I love you. I love you. I love you.
Together, we find release.
Together, we find peace.
Slowly, we come down from our high with soft sighs and nuzzling kisses, content to remain in this cozy bubble for a little while longer.
Except there’s a loud bang on the door.
“Hey, lovebirds! The surgeon is waiting to give you an update. Wrap it up and get out here.” Jonah must have been the lucky one elected to corral us back to reality.
“Fucking asshole,” I mutter with no heat.
Giggling, Eden slides down my body and shuffles to the sink and counter to clean up the mess between her thighs. I’m about to stop her—the thought of my seed dripping down her legs, my scent covering her curvy little body intoxicating—but she spears me with a knowing stare, and I stay silent.
There will be plenty of times in the future when I can live out that particular fantasy.
We leave the room hand in hand minutes later to hear what the doctor has to say about my dad, and a pit forms in my stomach, despite the previous satisfaction I claimed from Eden’s giving body.
“Your father has a long recovery ahead of him, but we’re confident about his prognosis. Barring any complications, he should make a full recovery. If you’d like, you can sit with him.” The doctor flips the cover over his tablet and the hospital’s digital file for Enzo, which basically states how he’s lucky to still be alive since Fabian’s bullet nicked a lung.
“Thank you,” I say, glancing down the hall to the post-op room they wheeled Enzo to. The doctor retreats to the nurses’ station and hands over the tablet for charging. I share the good news with everyone in the waiting room then grab Eden’s hand.
It's dim with beeping machine lights and what spills over from the overhead hallway fluorescents as Eden and I step into Enzo’s private room.
His upper body rests at a reclined angle in the hospital bed, tubing and wires a complicated web leading from his supine body to the various medical devices monitoring his health. Oxygen fills his injured lungs from the nasal cannula. Thewrinkles around his eyes and mouth are more pronounced, and for the first time, it hits me how fragile my father truly is.
He’s always seemed larger than life with his commanding presence and air of authority, but looking at him now—a weathered man in his sixties—the signs of age are more obvious. The evidence of his mortality more alarming.
“Are you alright?” Eden whispers, compassion shining from her eyes. She tugs her hand free from mine to pat my chest.
Clearing my throat, I clench my jaw and nod. “Sorry. I didn’t expect seeing him like this to affect me so much.”
She rubs the spot over my pounding heart. “No need to apologize. He’s your dad, despite the painful history between you two. It’s natural for emotions to rise. You are human, after all,” she lightly teases with a gentle pinch to my pec.
“Still… I didn’t—”
“Luca? Is that you, son?” Enzo’s graveled croak interrupts us, and I stride to his bedside, shocked to see him awake.
“Fighting the anesthesia? You should still be resting, Papà.” It’s been forever since I’ve called him by the more intimate paternal moniker, but somehow, it feels right.
“I heard your voice and had to know what happened.” He struggles to sit more upright. Immediately, my arm braces against his back to help him while Eden rushes to fill a cup with water. Enzo accepts it with a trembling hand, and I keep a watchful eye on each slow sip from a straw.
