Chapter 39
Julian
Her pink tongue darts out over her bottom lip, and I’m tempted to kiss her, to bite that plump flesh. Her eyes are shiny, iridescent, and I know if I stare for too long, I’ll get sucked right into their depths.
“What did you think of me the first time you saw me?” I don’t know why I ask this question, but I have often wondered the answer. Maybe because seeing her for the first time was such a profound moment for me. It changed the course of my future. In an instant, I knew what I had to do.
“Honestly, I didn’t think much when I saw you at my mother’s funeral. I don’t even remember much from that time, but I do remember you being there. I thought you looked dangerous, but so did all the other men there. Your eyes stood out to me, though. I felt like you could see right through me. I still think you can.” Her eyes hold mine, and right in this second, it’s like the world around us melts away. It’s just us, floating in a pool, no worries, no revenge, no mafia.
“What about you?”
“I knew I had to have you. The very first moment I saw you, I knew.” It’s not a lie, but I will leave the other part out for now. The part where I wanted nothing from her than to use her for my revenge. Soon she’ll discover that all of this was nothing, a facade, and by then, she’ll be trapped, married, and bound by a vow and blood. Just like the mafia, there is no out in marriage, there is only death.
I want to ask her what she thought of me the second time she saw me, the time I stole her away from her father and everything she ever knew, but I already know the answer to that. I know she hated me and feared me in equal parts.
She hasn’t looked like that at me in a while. Her fear and hatred have turned into trust and calmness. It’s what I expected, what I had hoped for, but what I didn’t see coming is how much I would enjoy it.
I can’t help but wonder if I could somehow have both. Could I get my revenge on her father without breaking her trust, without breaking that fragile bond that has formed between us? The fact that I will eventually kill her father tells me, no, but maybe if she was in love with me, if I turned her against her father completely? I could keep this, whatever it is going on between us.
We’ve floated to the center of the pool. Elena uses me as a life preserver, her fingers wrapped around my biceps. Her eyes dart down into the water, and when she looks up, I see panic at the edges of her eyes.
“If I drown, I will come back as a ghost and haunt you.” She smiles nervously.
“Haunt me, huh?” I cock a brow and start to pull away a little. “You have to have more faith in yourself. After all, you’re going to be a Moretti, and we never fail at anything we put our minds to.”
Her nails rake across my skin as she tries to grasp onto me, but I slip away. She moves her legs a little faster, treading water so she can stay afloat. I would never let her drown, but I want her to trust herself, trust that she can do this.
“I’m not a good swimmer, Julian.” She blinks slowly, and I can see the panic inside of her rising up, filling her delicate features with chaos.
“Calm down, focus on your movements, and breathe slowly,” I tell her, but her movements become jerky, and soon she starts to sink into the water like a stone, her panicked emeralds finding mine.
Unable to bear watching her another second, I wrap my arms around her waist. I hold her to my chest and guide us back to the edge of the pool.
She clings to me, and it’s impossibly fucking hard not to notice her perky breasts plastered to my chest. My reaction to her is instant, and my cock swells in my swim trunks. Ignoring the stiffening rod, I release her, and she clutches onto the side of the pool with trembling hands.
“Are you ready to get out and have lunch?”
“Yes,” she murmurs.
A soft little gasp passes her lips when I grab her by the hips and lift her out of the pool, the sound going straight to my cock.
By the time I’m out of the water, Elena is standing, her arms wrapped around her chest. Snagging a towel off one of the sun chairs, I wrap it around her.
“Thank you,” she whispers.
Dragging the towel over my face, chest, and arms, I shake my head before tossing it back onto the chair. Turning, I grab Elena’s hand to walk us back up to the house but stop in my tracks when I find Lucca standing near the French doors.Nôvel(D)rama.Org's content.
His eyes meet mine, and I grit my teeth. He knows I don’t talk business in front of Elena, and that’s exactly why he’s here. I didn’t want to have to deal with anything today. As we get closer, he gives me a nod. I release Elena’s hand and pull out a chair for her.
She looks between Lucca and me as if she can feel the tension in the air before sitting down.
“I need a word with you, boss.” Lucca clears his throat, averting his gaze away from my soon to be wife.
I should’ve known letting Markus go on vacation was a stupid idea. Killing Lev is going to come with a blowback that I’m not sure Lucca is ready to deal with.
Leaning down, I whisper into Elena’s ear. “I’ll be back in a min.”
She nods, and I walk over to Lucca, clamping a hand on his shoulder and guiding him away from Elena and back into the house. We don’t stop walking until we’re at the end of the terrace, where I know she can’t hear, but I can still see her.
Curling my lip, I direct my attention to Lucca. “What is it?”
“You didn’t answer your phone.”
“I’m fucking busy, and I told you that I was taking the rest of the day off.”