Page 56 of Cruel Heir

“Only if you come with me, too,principessa.”

I shatter. I let out a long, breathless moan of pleasure against his neck as my head drops forward, my body shuddering atop his as I feel myself come again, clenching and rippling along his length as he pulls me down atop him. I feel the flood of him inside of me, hot cumfilling me up as he holds me there, his cock pulsing inside of me as we stay locked together for a long, blissful moment.

I can’t breathe. I can hardlythink. My entire body is trembling in the aftermath, and I don’t know how I’m expected to slide off of him. But Andre doesn’t feel as if he’s in any hurry to remove me.

His hands slide into my hair, stroking through it, his lips finding my throat. He holds me there, touching, caressing, and it feelsright. It feels so much better than it should.

“You’re right,” he whispers against my skin. “I’m sorry,principessa. Lucia. If you promise me that you’ll come back with me—I will try.”

That’s all he says. But it’s enough. I look up at him, feeling tears burning behind my eyes again, and I hope that he’s telling the truth.

I hope we can both keep our promises.

18

ANDRE

Ifeel utterly torn.

I know my marriage with Lucia will never be as peaceful as it was—or as I had intended it to be. Even if I succeeded in usurping her father and carrying out my revenge, even if I did everything that I planned to, she and I would stay locked in a battle of wills forever. She would never stop fighting me, never stop trying to keep me from the things that I want, and I would forever have to take anything that I wanted from her.

Once, I had thought I was fine with that. But the longer we’re together, the more I want Lucia to care for me the way I’ve begun to care for her. I want her to respect me instead of fearing me, to use her remarkable tenacity and her intelligence tohelpme, instead of being at odds with me.

More and more, I’m finding that I don’t want to hurt her. And she was right when she told me that my actions will do exactly that.

In my hatred for her father, I had forgotten thatshecares for him. That she doesn’t see him as the same person that I do, that she’s been sheltered from his machinations and the worst parts of him all her life. The realities that she’s being struck with are all new. I can’t blame her for being hesitant to accept them.

And I can’t deny that she was right in saying that by exacting my vengeance on her family, I’m only hurting her the same way her father hurt me.

I leave her after breakfast, going to my study and closing the door behind me as I pace and try to think. What she’s asking of me is difficult.Morethan difficult. My wife hasn’t outright said that I need to forgive Fontana for what he’s done, but in order for me to parlay with him, a measure of forgiveness has to be on the table. If I’m going to accept a bargain that isn’t taking Fontana’s life, I have to be willing to work with him—and he’s going to have to work with me.

The latter seems impossible, and in a way, that’s reassuring.All I have to do is try.That’s what I’ve promised Lucia. If her father refuses to compromise, then there’s nothing I can do but strike back. I can’t see her father, the powerful head of the Sicilian Family, deigning to barter with me after I escaped his shackles and kidnapped his daughter, rendering her all but unmarriageable to anyone he might have wanted to barter her to. I can’t imagine that he’ll be willing to compromise. That he’ll accept anything less than her return and my death.

Which, of course, is no compromise at all.

I call Antonio into the office, feeling the tension rippling through me. I’ve agreed to this, but I’m still not certain that it’s the right choice. I’m not certain that I haven’t allowed myself to be seduced into something that might be a mistake.

But if I don’t do this, Lucia will never trust me again. There will be no chance of anything between us. And she’s made it clear that she will fight me every step of the way if I insist on exacting my vengeance the way I intended.

“I need you to speak with Fontana’s right hand and arrange a meeting,” I tell Antonio. I see the brief moment that his eyebrows rise with shock before he carefully schools his face back into blankness. “A meeting on neutral ground. No violence. Lucia will come with me, and she will leave with me.”

Antonio nods. “And the purpose of this meeting?”

“To discuss how we might come to terms.” I sit down heavily inmy chair, feeling the weight of that statement settling on my shoulders. For two years, I planned my vengeance and nurtured it. It kept me going through the tedious days and months under house arrest on Fontana’s estate, when I had run out of things to otherwise occupy my thoughts. It kept me from feeling utterly hopeless, as if I had failed at everything I had been taught to accomplish. If there was nothing else, there was that one goal.

Lucia was meant to be a means to achieve that goal. Instead, she is becoming something more.

“I will do my best, Don Leone.” Antonio looks at me, and I can see clearly, even as carefully as he’s trying to hide his expression, the confusion in it. I can see that he’s unsure as to whether or not this is even possible.

All I promised was to try.

“I believe that,” I tell him firmly. “Let me know as soon as you have an answer—whatever answer that is.”

“Of course.” He nods, letting himself out of the room, and I sit there, staring at the door long after it’s closed.

I married Lucia in this room. I look at the fireplace, where Father Delaney stood, where my wife pleaded with him for help. Where all of her cries landed on deaf ears. I feel an uncomfortable shiver go through me at the memory. It brought me so much satisfaction then, but I can't find any pleasure in the memory now.

I allowed her to go back to her old room after breakfast, trusting that she wouldn’t harm herself now that I’ve promised to speak with her father. I haven’t yet allowed Celeste to go back to being the maid assigned to her—I can’t trust that they won’t make further plans. But if Lucia keeps her word and returns with me after I speak with her father—

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