LUCA
There was a click, but I didn't flinch. I knew the gun was out of bullets. She'd emptied them all into Mario.
Veda stared down at me with horror in her wide, gray eyes. Then I watched as they filled with new tears. Her face crumpled, and the gun clattered to the floor as she fell into my open arms.
I caught her and pulled her onto my lap as she wrapped her arms around my neck. I held her tight as great heaving sobs wracked her body and she kept repeating my name over and over in terrified, keening cries. I adjusted her legs until they straddled mine and tightened my hold on her, my voice thick with my own tears as I told her, "Shhh...amore. It's okay. I'm here."
I felt Enzo's hand squeeze my shoulder, and then heard his footsteps as he left us. At the door, he stopped. "Don't ever fucking do that again, Luca." Then he left, shutting the door behind him.
"Are we even now, amore?" I whispered near her ear. "Are we done? I tried to kill you. You tried to kill me. Can I love you now? Will you let me?"
She didn't respond. She couldn't. She was crying too hard.
I needed to get her away from all of this blood and death. Without releasing her, I rose to my feet, keeping one arm around her back and one under her sweet ass. Adrenaline still flooded my system. So much I was shaking. Her legs wrapped around my waist as I stood. We were still like that when I took her into the house and up the stairs to our bedroom and straight into our shower.
Hanging onto Veda with one arm, I turned on the faucet and gave the water a few seconds to warm up as I hugged her to me. The hard sobs that had burst from her had subsided into normal sniffles that were no less heart-wrenching to hear. I held her tight. "I'm never letting go of you again, amore. Do you hear me?"
Fully clothed, I walked us both into the shower and got under the warm spray. As I started to relax, my arms and legs began to give, and I put my back to the glass wall, then slid down to sit on the tiles with Veda on my lap. I tilted her face back and let the water wash over us. Blood and tears ran down the drain, taking with it everything that had brought us to this point. This was a new start for us. A new beginning. "I love you," I told her.
The water calmed her hysteria, and when she looked at me, I saw no storms in her bloodshot, gray eyes, only disbelief. "I tried to shoot you," she choked out.
"You did." I pushed her wet hair back from her face.
"Luca...I tried to shoot you."
Her face crumbled again, and I had to force her to look at me. "Veda. My vita. Look at me, amore. Hey. Hey. LOOK at me."
But when she did as I asked, I had no words. No way to tell her all that I was feeling. Hell, I didn't even fucking know. So I tightened my hold on her precious face and brought her lips to mine, taking her mouth like that kiss was my last breath.
I kissed her hungrily. Desperately. The shower spraying over our heads. And something deep inside of me began to realize there was a chance I never would've kissed her again. What if I'd miscounted the bullets? What if Mario had gotten to her before I'd gotten to him?
Pain lanced through me in white hot bursts, and I choked it down, telling myself it was okay. She was here. And so was I. I felt her under my hands. Tasted her with my tongue. Felt her weight on my lap, her pussy pressing against my swollen cock, and my hands went to the waistband of her shorts, tearing at the fastenings. "Take these off," I ordered, my voice rough with my own tears. "Now."
I watched as her hands replaced mine. They were shaking so much I thought I'd have to rip the fucking things from her, but she eventually got it. I helped her get up on her knees and pull them down over her hips and one leg until her foot was free and she was back on my lap in nothing but cotton panties, a bra, and a wet T-shirt. I pulled it up and over her head, and then we were kissing again, and her moans were in my ears as I rolled my hips into the heat of her body.
But it wasn't enough. It was never enough with her. Breaking off the kiss, I ripped the button from my pants as I struggled to get them undone one-handed. As soon as my cock was free, I pulled her panties to the side and slid inside of her, both of us crying out as she tightened around me, all wet heat and trembling limbs.
"Fuck...Veda..." Her name ended on a moan as we sat there wrapped around each other, unmoving except for our chests lifting up and down with each breath. I was so deep inside of her I could feel her womb, and yet I wanted to be closer still. I wanted to crawl inside of her and wrap her around me until I felt her blood pulse through my veins and her soul caress mine. I lifted her so that I slid halfway out, then pulled her back down. The feel of her skin. The scent of her sex. The sound of her soft cries. They echoed around me in the shower as she took me so deep my eyes rolled back in my head.
"Luca...I need you to fuck me." The order was low and sexy in my ear, almost timid, and it fucking undid me. Bending my knees, I used my hands on her hips to guide her as I picked up speed, torn between the raw lust of my body and the need to never have this end. I felt myself sliding on the wet tiles and went with it, lying flat on the shower floor as this woman, this fucking stunning, beautiful, brave woman, braced her hands on my chest and threw her head back until the water sprayed over her and onto me. She rocked her hips, seating herself fully, and I cursed softly at the tightness of her around my cock, her ass on my thighs and her fragile hands holding me captive beneath her more effectively than the heaviest chains ever could.
I let her set the pace, fast and hard, the contrast of her near naked body sitting atop my fully dressed form one of the hottest fucking things I'd ever seen in my life. Her head fell forward, water running over the back of her head to drip down her hair and wet the front of her bra until it was nearly transparent. I reached for one breast, hefting the weight in my palm and feeling the nipple harden beneath my thumb through the thin material.
Then I dropped my hand back down to her hip as my orgasm slid down my spine and tightened my balls. I increased the pace, slamming into her sweet body. "Come with me, vita."
"Luca." She cried out my name, her hands going to her breasts as she let me take control.
"Ah, god. Fuck..." My thumb found her clit, swollen and hard, and as soon as I touched her, she stiffened over me. "Holy fuck," I repeated as my orgasm hit me. My eyes went wide, watching her face as I cried out her name, pulling her down until I was as deep as I could go, filling her with my come. With the very essence of me.
Her chest and neck flushed red as she shuddered over me, the scar my brother made white in contrast, and I felt her pussy pulse around my cock, milking me for all I was worth. Reaching up with both hands, I grabbed her head and pulled her mouth down to mine, needing the connection as I came down. She came willingly, collapsing on top of me.
The kiss went from something wild and uncontrolled to calm, lazy strokes of my tongue inside her mouth, then easy brushes of my lips against hers. I nipped her bottom lip just before I let her pull away.
She tucked her face into my neck, and I wrapped my arms around her as we laid there on the shower floor with me still inside of her.
"I love you, amore," I told her again. "Will you stay with me now?" I would call Milo to take care of my brother and pay him five times his normal rate to keep his mouth shut about it. As far as my father needed to know, he'd just disappeared again. He couldn't suspect a thing, ever, or I was as good as dead. And so was Veda.
She lifted her head just enough to look down at me. Her wet hair was plastered to her cheeks, her eyes were red and puffy from crying, and her lips were swollen from my kisses. I'd never seen anyone more beautiful in my life. "Luca, this is so fucked up."