Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 66962 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 223(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66962 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 223(@300wpm)
As I lay there trying to catch my breath, I felt my seed sliding out of his ass while his cum pooled on my torso. Carlo slowly opened his eyes, and when he did, I felt my heart skip a beat. I wasn’t in danger of loving him. I already did. This was terrible and wonderful at the same time.
“I didn’t do it,” Carlo said, his voice barely there.
Had I missed something? “Do what?”
“I didn’t seduce Luca Pisano, steal his money, or blackmail him. I’m not supposed to talk about it, but I can’t take it anymore. I need you to know it wasn’t me. I… Yes, I like to use my charms to get what I want, but I wouldn’t risk…”
His distress was palpable. I reached up and cupped his face. “I believe you. Do you want to tell me what really happened?”
He nodded.
“Why don’t we get cleaned up first and maybe get some water? I started coughing before I could get any more words out.
“You need to rest. You shouldn’t—”
“Are you telling me you wish we hadn’t done that?”
“No. I… I mean… What are we doing? What’s happening between us?”
“We definitely need to clean up before we talk about that.” I would do anything I could to put off that conversation.
“Are you okay? Should I bring you something?” He looked so worried, and I couldn’t help but smile. I was still buried in his ass as he straddled me, but he’d gone right back to his caretaker role.
“I’m fine. Let’s go shower. That way you can catch me if I fall.” Could he, though? He wasn’t going to be there when I crashed because he was gone.
We were both so exhausted we actually focused on washing each other in the shower. Another time, I’d put it to more creative use.
If there was another time.
There will be. He’s as much in love with you as you are with him.
Was he, though?
You saw it in his eyes.
I wanted to believe that, but how could I trust myself?
My legs were barely holding me up by the time we got out of the shower. I made it to the couch, and Carlo went to get us water and plates of the casserole Jacob had sent over.
When he came back, I insisted he snuggle under the blanket with me. He felt my forehead. “You’re warm.”
I just got out of a hot shower, and I’m under a blanket.”
“What if your fever is back?”
“It will go away again. I’m tough.”
He grinned. “Yeah, you are.”
I drained most of the water he’d given me, and he insisted on getting me more.
When he’d settled down for a second time, I laid a hand on his thigh. “Tell me what really happened.” It seemed like he needed to open up, but I felt like a hypocrite for asking that of him when I couldn’t tell my own story.
“I shouldn’t. I swore I wouldn’t tell anyone.”
“You shouldn’t take the blame for something you didn’t do. Who made you promise that?” I wanted to deal with that person and make them very sorry for hurting him.
“My mother.”
Damn, this was not going to be good. “Your mother put you up to this?”
He dropped his head into his hands and nodded. “It’s a long story.”
I didn’t care how long it was. His mother had treated him like shit, and I was going to make sure that didn’t happen again. “I’m supposed to be resting, so I’ve got time for a long story.”
“My mother had a child with another man before she married my father. She kept it a secret, but she continued to see that man throughout her marriage. She said he was the love of her life, but her parents didn’t approve of him.”
“But they approved of a mob boss?”
“Her family was also in the business, and alliances needed to be made.”
That sounded miserable. “Did she even like your father?”
“They got along like most arranged marriages of their type. They were civil in public. She ‘did her duty’ and gave him children he could pass his legacy to.”
“This sounds like something from a hundred years ago.”
He sighed. “Yes, but it’s real. I lived it. I am living it.”
I squeezed his hand. “Tell me how this caused you to take the blame for something you didn’t do.”
“It’s always been clear to me that I was my father’s least favorite child. Sometimes I was sure he hated me. Biagio protected me when he could, but I always took the brunt of my father’s anger, and I was never given the favors my brothers received. There had been rumors since I was a baby that I wasn’t actually my father’s son. I didn’t understand them when I was little, but by the time I was twelve, I began to question it too. My mother doted on me, and I didn’t look like my brothers. It was easy to dismiss me as looking more like her, but when I was sixteen, she took me to meet my actual father on his death bed and introduced me to Roberto, my full biological brother.”