“Feel what?”
“My ownership… it’s already inside you… and oozing out of your pussy. I’m right here too.”
My clit throbs, the sweet swell aching for his touch. “Don’t.” I argue, all breathy and frustrated. “Our relationship isn't all about sex and control. I’m in love with you. I’ve opened my heart to you…” I wriggle against him. “And you can’t even call me your girlfriend.”
“Fuck this,” he mutters and spins me around so fast my head spins. Large hands cup my cheeks. “You’ll never be my girlfriend, my lover, or even just a friend.”
My eyebrows snap together, and air fills my lungs like he’s just slapped me. I stand before him, frozen.
“Because you’re all of those things and more.” He continues. “I’m new to this… to needing someone so much that my brain fucking hurts from thinking about you every second. You’re my everything, India. You’re justeverything. That’s the only way I can explain who you are to me.”
“Everything?” I bite my lip to hold back a smile, my heart swelling.
“Everything, baby.”
“I guess I could live with that.”
And then his mouth covers mine, and suddenly I’m aware of that one word.
Everything.
I ache for this man, craving him like he’severythingI’d ever need in this world. But I want everything too, and that includes spending a few weeks in Sicily when Sinéad gives birth.
He grabs the back of my neck and pulls me in. A hand snakes across my ass and yanks me into his pelvis, leaving no extra space between our bodies. We kiss hard and urgent; sloppy and wet.
“I want to be your everything.” I breathe into his mouth. “But that means you accepting the part of my heart that belongs to the men in this photograph.”
He bites my lip, sucking it into his mouth. “That depends,” he says when my lip pops back into place.
“On?”
“How much room do they take up in your heart compared to me?”
“The same amount of space Leo takes up in yours.” He stills as he considers that. “There’s plenty of room for all of us, Gio. But if I had to quantify it, I’d say you take up the biggest part of my heart. And always will. You’ve become my everything too.”
The corners of his mouth curl ever so slightly, and he presses his forehead to mine. “Good answer.”
His lips gently settle on the tip of my nose, kissing it lightly before he peels himself off me. “I guess it's time to get back to business. I need you to do one thing for me.”
“Sure…”
“Stay here with Leo while I take my brothers to the caves.” He puts himself away and buttons his utility pants. “A lot has happened in his little world lately. He needs routine. Could you do that for me?”
“Is it safe for all four of you to go there… together?”
His eyes darken, and a shiver of fear runs through me.
“They’ll be with me,” Gio says as he walks around the armchair, sounding cold.
27
GIOVANNI
“Where are we?” Matheus climbs out of the two-seater Jeep Wrangler, eyeing the gray sky and choppy ocean through a mass of jungle greenery. “Have you got another secret house?”
“Not exactly.”
The second Jeep skids over the wet ground next to us, with Tomás being chauffeured by André. Not that he’d expected to take the passenger seat, André wouldn’t let him drive, not when dirt tracks and high-powered vehicles are involved.
