ERICA“Excuse me,” I murmured as I stood up from the table. Antonio grabbed my hand, stopping me before I could leave. “Where are you going?”Our earlier conversation hadn’t ended well and the strain of it had followed us downstairs to where we joined Gianna and Ephraim for the late lunch. I met his eyes, saw the distrust in them and swallowed against the tight knot in my throat. “You didn’t ask your daughter where she was going when she excused herself.” I said to him, jerking my hand free as I glared at him, trying to hide my hurt. We were really backtracking to the time from where it all started.He sighed, his fingers raking through his hair. And in his eyes, I saw that he really didn’t trust me at the moment. He thought I was going to try to escape. And I wish I was, but before that I’d try everything and first was to talk to Gabriel. “I am going to the restroom.” I had drunk three glasses of red wine and it was catching up to me. “You can send your men if you want, go back to b
ANTONIO“What’s going on?” Ephraim asked as we waited on the terrace for Gianna and Erica. Surprisingly, both of them seemed to have called a truce on their animosity for some reason. And even though I knew that Erica didn’t have any other agenda, I didn’t trust Gianna. She was really my daughter for all the things that mattered, and if she had a grudge with someone she didn’t let it go so easily, so for her to be smiling and talking with Erica like she hadn’t told me to get rid of her was alarming. I had to warn Erica unless she does something to hurt her.I looked at Ephraim and answered, “She knows about Gianna. And about my reason to hate Gabriel Wolfe.”Ephraim looked at me with a shocked expression on his face. He said, “You told her everything.” It wasn’t a question but I nodded. “About your emails, and the exchange you discussed with Gabriel?”“She isn't going anywhere.” I gritted out.“Yeah, I know. But it's the reason he will be coming here like a lamb to a slaughter. Did yo
ERICAI heard Ephraim’s and Antonio’s conversation, and I might’ve missed some parts but I understood it well enough so when we stepped down from the chopper, even though I was angry I couldn’t banish the spark of worry that came alive in my heart. I stopped and turned around. “Antonio!” I called out his name over the noise of the chopper. He looked back at me and then walked toward me. I erased the remaining distance between us and looked up at his handsome face. “What is it?” He asked.I licked my lips, suddenly hesitant after the tension between us. When I placed my palm on his chest, feeling his strong heartbeat an image of him in a hospital bed flashed in my mind. He was there then because he had gotten shot while saving me and the bitter helpless feeling from that time coated the back of my tongue. I didn't want the repeat of that, so I said, “Please, be safe.”His golden eyes sparked yellow and he slipped his hand at the back of my nape as he replied, “Don’t worry, little devi
ERICA “Are you cheating on my papa?” “What?” I stared at her and realised she was totally serious. I scoffed and a chuckle left me as even the prospect of cheating on a man like Antonio was laughable to me. I met her eyes and replied, “No. I’m not cheating on him. And I can see that you’d like for that to be the case, but unfortunately for you I am not that kind of a woman. Neither I’m a cheater and nor I’m a gold digger of which you accused me without knowing me.” “Then why did you ask for my phone? Who are you calling behind my father’s back?” I looked down at the phone in my hand that I had slipped out to check again, it was unlocked and on the screen as a wallpaper there was a picture of her with Ephraim and Antonio. As I watched the picture, looking at their happy faces, I couldn't help but miss my own family. I drank more from my mug and in a moment of weakness which was probably because of the whiskey that seemed to be rushing to my he
ERICA“I am sorry. I didn’t know about your situation. That papa brought you here against your will. I just didn’t want anyone to change what we already have.”Hate welled up inside me, surprising even me in its intensity. I clenched my fists by my sides unless I punch her in the face. She was a real bîtch, wasn’t she? “And what you were going to do about it?” I gestured at the open packets of pills and the white powder she had thrown all over the bed. “Make it all my fault!” I was aware that I was on the verge of losing control but I didn’t know what to do. Thor barked and growled at her, I commanded him to be silent and sit down as I fought my rage.“I made a mistake. I just thought—”“What did you think, that you’ll blame it all on me. Tell your father that I was the one who bought these drugs. And what else?” I could only think what Antonio would have gone or behaved like when he found this. I wondered if he'd have believed his daughter’s lies or trusted me, but then considering m
ERICAMy knees bounced as my anxiety started to get worse while I sat there at the end of the bed, looking around myself feeling alone like I was in a well, forgotten and helpless. Thor got tired of my agitation, at least that’s what I think was the reason for him to go sit near the windows. But I couldn’t help it as no matter how much I tried to think of something else my thoughts circled back to what Mac had said to me, and my body buzzed with an unfamiliar energy as my mind conjured up all the unwanted stuff that must be happening back at home. The emails. The threats. Antonio’s ultimatum. And my sister... Fuck. Gabe and Summer must be devastated from the miscarriage. And I was here wondering about how I could keep Antonio for myself. Having the time of my life with him despite knowing how hungry he was for revenge. Unknowingly I had become so selfish, looking forward to an impossible future, that I forgot about everything else.I stood up and had to stop for a moment as black dot
ERICAIt was loud enough. The cracks that formed in my heart and how it started tobreak into pieces as I opened the next email.There was another picture of me. It was edited in such a way that it highlighted my hands with a bandage and my back to be specific, with red lines that looked horrible and blood smeared on theside of my arse cheek. The picture in itself looked horrific, like someone was beaten so severely. My whole back looked like any moment it’d start bleeding and while I knew that wasn’t the case, sobs started to pour out of me to think that my sister saw this and Gabe saw this. They must’ve been so scared for me, and Antonio’s words accompanied with these pictures were cruel and heartless. The way he described what he did and what he would do if Gabriel didn’t surrender himself.
ANTONIO“What's going on with you?” I looked up at Ephraim, arching a dark brow at him like I didn’t know what he was talking about. He said, “It’s the fourth time you’re checking the time on your watch.”“Nothing.”“You can tell me. It’s obviously something about Erica, right?” “Not per se about Erica, but I didn’t like how Gianna was behaving with her. I know her, she’s my daughter. And, as much as she was smiling and was sweetly behaving toward Erica, I don’t trust her. I’m just afraid she doesn’t cross the line.”“Do you want me to call Mario and get an update from him?” He asked, pulling out his phone from his pocket.“Leave it. We will be there soon enough.”Ephraim shook his head and muttered, “I’ll just do it. You are too tense.”I couldn’t explain it but since we left the factory site, I have got this bad feeling for some reason. And I have this urge to go back to the castle and have my little devil in my arms, look at her beautiful face. I focused back on Ephraim and notice
ANTONIO“Fuck me, husband. Make me scream.”My balls drew up tight at her words, the sparkle in her brown eyes were my undoing and I slammed into her in one hard thrust. Fuck. More than twelve years of having this woman, of having her tight pussy wrapped around my cock and it still somehow feels like the first time. If I could, I’d turn into three of me and fuck her mouth, arse and pussy at the same time, claim every inch of her, every part of her like I wanted to. My hunger for this woman hasn’t abated in all these years and I doubted it’d ever until the day I died. “Oh, god, Antonio...”I grabbed her face, my fingers digging into her cheeks not so gently. “Yeah, baby, tell me.”“Don’t stop. Please.” Hearing her someone might think that she didn’t get proper and regular fucking, but they’d be fool to think that. The truth was my little devil was just hungry for my cock, was still covered in last night bruises and still was begging for more like the dirty little slut that she was fo
EPILOGUE IITwelve years later...ERICA“Mamma, perché siamo qui? Voglio tornare a casa e invitare i miei amici." My daughter asked, her golden brown eyes like her father’s stared up at me in exasperation. It was the third time she had expressed her displeasure to be here at the charity event Gianna has hosted at my behest because I wanted to do something good for their father’s birthday which was tomorrow. But knowing Antonio wouldn’t want anything to happen on the actual day of his birthday as he likes to spend it with us instead of celebrating it, we had made all the arrangements for a day before. (Mom, why are we here? I want to go back to the house and invite my friends over.)“I don’t understand why you want to be with your friends they are all stupid.” Unlike my daughter who had inherited all the explosive characteristics of her father along with his eyes, my son got all the indifferent genes from his father which make him look like an unfeeling brute most of the time but there
Epilogue ITwenty eight weeks later...ANTONIO“So, I thought you wouldn't come again?” Mrs Khan asked.We were sitting in her office. My wife was sitting opposite her own therapist a few doors down, as I sat here after two weeks ago when I had declared I won’t come again. But the problem with anxiety was it never fucking disappears and as the time for Erica’s delivery drew closer, my anxiety only grew bigger. For some reason I feel like I won't be enough for them. That there were hundred different things that could go wrong and my family would've to suffer, it keeps me up at night and makes it hard to get through a day.I rubbed a palm down on my face and I leaned forward to pick up the glass of water. Any other time I might’ve not drunk it but therapy had helped enough to not make me paranoid all the time. After taking a sip, I put the glass down and met her eyes as I said, “I thought that too. But,” Fuck. It was still fucking hard to express myself, to put my fears into words. “But
ERICASome people say the happiest moments come after you’ve lived the saddest ones. And for sure I have had my fair share of sad moments in my life so I guess my husband here was a god’s gift for all those tears and heartache I suffered. And if someone asked me now if I was given a choice to suffer through the same things, same monsters, if it meant getting him at the end of that dark tunnel then I wasn’t sure if my answer would be a no. As we pulled apart from a long hard kiss that wasn’t appropriate for a wedding, I heard our family and friends cheer around us and then a moment later I felt something soft touching my cheek. I looked up and a delighted laugh left me when I saw twp choppers circling over our heads and rose petals being thrown over us. A literal shower of roses. “Antonio!!” I exclaimed, my happiness unbound, and then I ended up squealing as Antonio lifted me up in his arms and took me to the little raised stage set up for dancing. As I danced in my husband’s arms, e
ANTONIO“What’s taking them so fucking long?” I muttered, tugging on my cuffs to straighten them for the sixth time. For the second time when I had woken up in the early hours of the morning, my little devil wasn’t in the bed where she had fallen in a exhausted sleep after I had carried her from the tower. But unlike before this time it was Mario and Summer who decided that it was a great fucking idea to keep Erica away from me until I see her walk down the aisle. It had been only a few hours but I already felt impatient and on the edge. I wanted her glued to my side for every breath I take. It was fûcking impossible to put into words how much I was obsessed with her, how much I loved her. But I swore to myself that I’ll try to convey that to her for the rest of my life. “Are you nervous, Antonio?” Ephraim asked from my side. I refrained from looking at him, unless I’d end up punching him in the face for what happened last night even though he didn’t do anything that I didn’t ask o
(Skip this chapter if you have problem with exhibition and voyeurism and other related elements).ERICA“Here.” As soon as the word left me, Antonio stepped back from me, leaving me feeling cold and adrift. I turned to him, panicked that I made a mistake but found him lowering himself in a loveseat. He crooked his finger and demanded, “Come here.”A calm washed over me when I saw the dark look of arousal in his eyes. When I took a step closer to him, he leaned back in his seat and pointed to his lap as he ordered, “Bend over my lap, baby, present me that arse.”My lower belly clenched at his words and a heated desire coursed through my veins. My eyes went to Z who was still staring at Kat but when I looked at her I found her gaze fixed on me. She arched her brows, silently telling me to go on. I smiled at her, feeling my blood heat at her attention as my heart started to beat in excitement. That smile turned to a hungry look when I faced my dark villain who grew impatient and grabb
ERICA“My handsome Duke!!” Ami stood up, waving on her two feet that were encased in heels and stumbled her way to Raphael, who looked only a little bit amused but his blue eyes darkened as they raked down his wife. She was wearing a red sequin dress that ended just below her arse and by the look on Raphael’s face, I’d say Ami will finally get what she was wishing for. “See, what I did? Are you going to punish me for it!” She asked, blinking her eyes at him as she stumbled and he caught her in his arms.Kat snickered behind me and I couldn't help as my own lips pulled up in a smile. Raphael picked her up in his arms and announced for our benefit or maybe to the men standing on either side of him. “I’ll leave you to deal with your wives, mine needs a strong hand.” We could hear Ami squeal in excitement as they disappeared from the view.“Gianna, go to your room. And for fuck’s sake get rid of that dress.” I shivered at his deep voice, my eyes barely fluttering to Gianna to take in the
ERICA“OH MY GOD! I think I am drunk!!” Ami squealed as the half naked man with a cat mask twirled her around and then took Gianna in his arms who was also half drunk.We were in one of the back towers that I was admiring earlier in the day and Kat had managed to invite the party we were supposed to have here in the castle right under the watchful gazes of our husbands and their men. She was a tricky one. I didn’t know how she managed it but it was awesome and I wasn’t complaining.There were four women out of which two were filling our drinks— unfortunately, non-alcoholic for me, and giving us snacks to munch on while the two men were entertaining us with half their bodies bare and muscles painted what seemed like glitter that shined in the lights. The music was loud but we had checked and the noise couldn’t be heard to the main part of the castle. It was really the bachelorette I didn't think I’ll be having after Antonio fucked me so har
ANTONIOI don’t know what woke me up but when my eyes opened, I instantly became aware of the fact that my little devil wasn’t by my side and that I wasn’t alone in the room. There was a heavy presence in the room that couldn’t be ignored. I slipped my hand beneath my pillow and pulled out my gun as surreptitiously as I could.I wasn’t afraid for myself but my mind was on Erica, she was sleeping in my arms and now she was nowhere in the room, I didn’t even have to check the bathroom to know she wasn’t there. Her absence was like an open chasm in my chest every time she was away from me. After dinner where we were joined by her sister and Gabriel, we had come to sleep in the bedroom but not before I had exhausted her by fûcking her in the mirror room where she had screamed her pleasure that I was sure everyone in the castle heard. Erica was really a voyeur, she came so many times by just looking at our reflection as I fucked her hard, warning her to not go anywhere her friends and sis