The more my skin lingered on hers, her sweet scent teasing me as it enveloped my senses, the more I realized I wanted her. But not just her body, not just the color of her blood. I wanted her heart and everything in it. I wanted to possess her soul. I wanted to be the center of her broken world, just like she was mine.
“Would you stay, Tatum?” I dragged my fingertips up her arms, and she shivered. I loved that I held such power over her body.
She leaned her face against mine. “You already know the answer to that, Castello.”
“Do I?”
“Yes.”
I tore my lips from her flesh and stared down into her crystal blue eyes that had the power to consume me. Blue eyes that became the sun in my dark world. “Then say it. I need to hear you say it.”
Her tongue flicked out as she licked her lips, leaving the most enticing shimmer that beckoned me to claim her mouth.
She gave a step back, and my heart skipped a beat. For the first time her expression was unreadable. Her beautiful, oval-shaped face gave me no clue as to what she was thinking. Maybe it was my own insecurity causing me to become blind, rendering me incapable of knowing what was going on in her mind. I hated it.
She looked down at her arm covered with the protective wrapping. “You had me kidnapped.” She looked up at me. “You tore me away from my life.”
I swallowed hard, her face still completely unreadable.
“You starved me, humiliated me.”
My heart started to pound like a jackhammer against my ribs. Memories of how I hurt her, thoughts of how much I wanted to fucking kill her, scrambled through my mind.
I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t open my mouth. All I could do was look at her, praying to God her face would allow me to see something.
Then she reached to the zipper of her dress that started under her arm. “You spent days trying to break me.” Slowly, she dragged the zip down. “Mind fucked me. Convinced me that in the end, I would die by your hand.”
I couldn’t take it anymore. “Tatum—”
The dress slipped off her body, and I balked.
“You degraded me, made me go on my knees, forcing me to act like your goddamn pet.”
“Tatum, what are you doing?” I was confused as fuck. Her naked body and the words coming out of her mouth were contradicting—the one causing my cock to harden and the other slicing through my heart.
She gave a step closer, her shoulders squared with confidence. “You let your brother beat me. You let an entire crowd of men watch while I hung naked and chained from your goddamn ceiling.”
“Tatum, stop.” My heart was about to explode, my fists clenched as I tried desperately to fight the regret that was moments away from turning into anger.
With another step, she stood right in front of me, her naked breasts inches from my chest, her nipples taunting the beast.
“Do you know what else you did, Castello?”
I tore my gaze away from her breasts, pulling my hand down my face. “For God’s sake, Tatum. Just stop.”
She reached out and placed her palm against my cheek. Confused as fuck, I stared down into her eyes…and then she smiled.
“Mi hai liberato.” You set me free.
Chills broke out straight through my entire body, relief filling my already pounding heart. My fists unclenched, and I grabbed her face in my palms. “Damn tu donna.” Damn you, woman.
I pulled her face to mine and crashed my lips against hers. I kissed her, my tongue assaulting her mouth with a kind of vigor I never experienced before. I didn’t know whether it was relief or anger because she had managed to put me through hell for the past few moments. But I needed to pour everything inside me into that one kiss. I needed this moment to show her what lay hidden beneath the cold, hard layers of my heart.
“Ti amo.” I love you. I whispered the words from my mouth into hers. Yet I screamed those words from my heart, desperate for her soul to hear. The taste of salt invaded our kiss, and without moving my lips from hers, I opened my eyes and saw the tears running down her cheeks.
Softly, I wiped them away with my thumbs. “Il mio cuore è tuo.”My heart is yours.
A soft sob escaped her with a breath. “E la tua.”And mine yours.