I came to Italy because it was one of the last places my mother was planning on going to look for my father. A devil of a man that in all actuality I was happy to be rid of. But she wouldn’t let it go, she wouldn’t lethimgo. Although before she could ever take the trip she slipped into a deep depression and took her own life.
I’ll never forget coming home and finding her in the living room. The smell and visions still haunt me daily, nightly, as I remember her lying there in her own blood. She had taken my father’s gun and shot herself in the head. Her brown hair mangled with dry blood. A chill runs up my spine as I remember the bottle of whiskey which sat empty on the table beside her.
My trip here was to honor her memory, as shitty as it was. She never really was that great of a mother to me, especially when it came to my father taking what he wanted when he wanted from me. My mother’s silence and back turned to the truth the way she dealt with her only daughter being beaten, molested, and damaged beyond any therapist being able to help her in the future.
After she had died, I found a notebook she had kept secret and spent the next several months studying it. The only one thing about it that was certain? I needed to take the trip my mother had planned because all signs in it, that I could understand at least, led to Rome. With questions still unanswered, I wasn’t looking for any distractions on this trip, needing to stay focused and understand just what the notebook was trying to tell me.
But Leo…
I try and shake the memory from my mind as I timidly take the few steps towards the door and place my hand on the handle. My heart hammers out of my chest from just the nearness of him on the other side of the door. I notice my hand begin to tremble because actually opening and meeting his stare might be too much as I remember the way he made me feel last night.
Delirious with need. Craving his next touch. Wanting only to stay in his presence and succumb to the power I can feel radiating off his delicious as sin body. Something I swear without a doubt I have never felt before, even if the chemistry between us calls to a familiar place inside me.
Shyly, I turn the knob and creak the door open a crack. Looking through, his smile greets me and it only makes the desire inside me, the one telling me I want to be his and only his, grow. He leans against the door frame and stares in my eyes momentarily before looking to the side and taking in the noises coming from the room next door. His mischievous grin grows as he turns back and forces the door open making me fall back against the wall to my right as he makes his way into the room and shuts the door quickly behind him.
“I was planning to take you out,Amore,” he growls, as his hands raise up my side and hold me tight against the wall. “But, hell if hearing what I do now doesn’t makes mecravea different way to spend the day with you.”
He raises his left hand and lightly brushes his thumb across my lower lip. Holding my mouth open as he pulls it down, he bends forward and pushes himself against me harder.
“I thought a man like you would have better manners,” I say, buying time before I give him exactly what he wants. “Didn’t your mother teach you, the way to get a lady to do as you please is to wine and dine her first, Romeo? Not take what you want before.”
A smile spreads across his features before he backs away and releases me. With a nod towards the other side of the room, he lets me know to grab my things and I hurry and do just that before I go back on my control and tell him what I really want, what I really need, is for him to take everything from me until I have nothing left to give.
Something tells me he could, and will, and my insides flip with longing at the thought as I grab my purse and meet him back at the door.
The loud noises slow next door as the two lovers finish and find their climax. I look in his eyes briefly as I pass and grab a hold of the doorknob, needing to escape and put some distance between us to gather my thoughts and keep my head straight. His strong hand comes up and stops the door as it sits slightly ajar. His breath is hot on the back of my neck as his large hand circles my waist and pulls me back against him before he pushes himself up tighter against my rear. I can feel his length hardened slightly against my ass and bite my lip, feeling my own desire coat me from the realization.
“When I have you,” he says in a whisper, as his mouth hovers against my ear. “I will make you cum hard enough the whole world hears the pleasureonly Iam capable of giving you.” My breathing quickens as he pulls me by the waist and tightens his grip on my body, leaving me no way to escape. “Not just the fucking room next door.”
His hands lower, and I swear he is going to do exactly what I said, take what he wants, and heaven help me because I want him to,needhim to. But his fingers stop, just above my sex, before he spins me around with his free hand and leaves me a fucking puddle of desire at his feet. Wet. More than willing. And needing to know just what it feels like to be owned by him alone.
“First,” he says, as his hand reaches out behind me and opens the door to the hallway wider. “MyMadretaught me, the way to awomen’sheart,” he says with a wink. “Is giving hermy time, always. And the only way I want to spend my time,Amore,is with you.”
Leonardo
My gaze falls on her beautiful figure as she walks along the Roman Forum later that afternoon. Both of us starved, we took to one of my favorite restaurants near here, La Taverna dei Fori Imperiali, and shared a traditional Italian cuisine of ham and melon, sorrento style gnocchi and confit duck. Both indulging and splitting one of my favorite bottles of red wine, the ease at which she fell into my world and made me want to keep her there always is rapidly becoming unnerving.
Trying to shake the hold she is suddenly having on me, I suggested walking through the forum after lunch, although now wish I could take it back as the light cascades around her beautifully, she laughs effortlessly when she is supposed to, those fucking pearls around her neck scream perfect innocence and she smiles up at me like one of the Gods represented in the statues around us, purposely put her in my life to crucify me. Test me. Tempt me. But fuck if I can let that happen because my control is all I have, and I will be a dead man the day I ever let anyone break it.
Coming to a stop at the House of Vestil Virgins, Mia pauses and takes in the sight. Holding up her tour guidebook she pulled from her purse once we made our way into the forum, I can’t help the laugh that escapes my lips as she concentrates and tries to understand just what she is standing in front of.
“Amore,”I chuckle. “Let me.” Placing my hand on top of hers, I lower the book from her eyes and get lost in her soul as she stares back at me. Swallowing over a lump in my throat, I try and regain my control, my fucking restraint, as she looks at me like no other woman has before in my life.
Like she sees me. All of me. And accepts me anyways.
“Do you know the story of the Vestil Virgins?” I ask, clearing my throat and trying to shake her pull right before seeing her shake her head no. “They were priestesses in Ancient Rome. Goddesses of the Hearth. Taking a 30-year vow of chastity in order to study and observe state rituals forbidden to male priests.”
She looks past me at the statues on the pedestals and I continue. “They were entrusted with important wills and state documentsno one elsewas. They were honored above many other women of their time. They had the power to free condemned prisoners and slaves by just touching them,” I say, as my voice lowers and I get lost in the growing electricity between us as I stand by her side. She looks up at me and for a brief moment I see recognition flash in her eyes, almost as if she knows the story. But as soon as it appears it passes and I take a step back from her as I feel something inside begin to change. Something, deep within feels different and I need to escape it. With a shaky step I move away from her side, but I can still feel the damn fucking pull no matter how much distance I put between us.
Normally I relish in the feeling inside me. The one that is ruthless. Crazed. Will stop at nothing to get what I want and make sure the job is finished to Luigi’s liking. The sooner the better. But all damn day she’s stared up at me with those fucking amazing eyes. Her sexy full lips. And a warmth I am not used to has begun to fill me inside instead.
“Their only job,” I continue, as I walk towards the statues of the Vestils. “Was to cultivate the fire of Vesta, the virgin goddess of the home, and make sure it never went out.”
Leaning against a pillar, my eyes betray me as I look back at her and they roam her body on instinct. I war with myself as I try and remember I am here to do a job and not take what every damn part of my body, my soul wants. Her. Always her. Mia’s eyes meet mine and a startling confidence becomes her as she smiles at me, walks a few steps closer, and seductively stares me in the eyes.
“That doesn’t sound too hard,” she whispers between us. “Can’t be difficult work to keep a fire going.”
My grin cocks up one side of my face. As corny as it sounds, something tells me that she would always keepmyfire lit, and fuck if I don’t want to give her the opportunity to do just that. Before I can say a word back, my eyes rise and catch something in the distance. I silently curse myself as I push of the wall and fucking Matteo’s presence immediately brings me crashing back down to earth.
