Present
“I can walk,” I grunt as Marco lifts me from the car.
I swear, this man is impossible.
It’s been three months since I woke up and I’ve finally been discharged from the hospital. It would have been sooner, but my idiot boyfriend persuaded to doctors who I work with to keep me in longer, “Just in case.”
If I didn’t love him so much, I’d fucking kill him.
Marco shifts me so that my legs are secured around his waist before carrying me into the building. The doorman nods to us as we enter the lobby and I bury my head in Marco’s shoulder, not wanting people to see me, a grown ass woman, being carried like a child.
“This is unnecessary,” I mutter, and he chuckles.
The usual grouchy asshole has been sunshine and fucking rainbows lately, smiling, laughing, and joking.
I love it.
He finally seems happy.
I just don’t like it when he laughs at my expense.
“Get used to it, baby. If you think I’m ever letting you out of my sight again, you’re out of your goddamn mind.”
Once we exit the elevator into his apartment, my brows furrow as I look around. Everything is the same, yet different.
The sofa has moved, and the coffee table that was previously in front of it is nowhere to be seen. The closer I look around, the more changes I see. I wiggle in his hold, and he finally lets me down so I can investigate further.
“Why have you changed it?” I ask before turning to face him.
He pops a shoulder in a half shrug. “I know you’re getting there, but you’re still not back to how you were before and I wanted to make things easier for you.”
I walk slowly through the apartment, picking up on the little changes he’s made. Things like moving seats around so that there’s always somewhere for me to sit down if I need to. Moving the coffee machine closer to the edge of the counter and having the things I’d need easily accessible next to it, so I don’t have to go looking through cabinets.
I reach the bedroom and pause as I see the bed. The bed he previously had was quite high, but this one seems lower.
“You changed the bed?” I ask and he chuckles.
“I was due for a new one anyways, since I’d had that one for over twelve years.”
I shake my head and plop myself down on it.
“Are you gonna tell me the real reason you never changed a thing in this place in ten years?” I ask just as he takes a seat beside me and leans back, resting his arms behind him.
“How could I change anything when this place was all I had left of you? This was where we spent most of our relationship. I couldn’t bring myself to erase those memories.”
I offer him a small smile before leaning down and pressing a chaste kiss to his cheek.
“If I look in that closet, I’m gonna see it fully stocked for me, aren’t I?”
He raises a brow, giving me a look that says of course it is.
I sigh. “I live here now, don’t I?”
He chuckles. “Baby, I was never gonna let you leave, even when you still had your own apartment. Hell, your uncle did me a favor burning it down.”
I shake my head. “What happened to him? I was so focused on you I didn’t even know what was happening around me.”
He hums. “I asked the same thing. I guess when my dad and our brothers turned up, Nolan started trying to shoot at them, but obviously he was no match for the four of them. Their plan was to just subdue him and keep him to deal with later, but once they saw the state we were both in, their plan changed. Enzo shot him between the eyes while Luca and Finn focused on helping us as my dad coordinated with the paramedics.”
“Finn was there?” I ask, not remembering seeing him.
He nods. “Guess our families spent a lot of time together over that week.”
I had noticed that Finn seemed to be getting along well with the entire Romano clan lately, but I just figured it was from all of them spending so much time in the hospital visiting us.
I lean back, placing my arms under my head, making my shirt ride up my stomach. Marco’s fingers trail across my bare skin and I sigh, finally feeling relaxed for the first time since before all of this happened.
“Tired, little warrior?” he asks.
“No, I’m okay,” I murmur. He dips his hand lower, his fingers brushing under the waistband of my leggings.
It’s crazy to think that it’s been over three months since we’ve been intimate. I’m craving him more than ever, but he’s down right refused to touch me until I was healed.
Well, I’m feeling perfectly freaking fine right now.
“Touch me,” I plead, and he leans over me, his lips less than an inch from mine.
“Are you sure you’re ready?” he asks, his breath fanning across my face.
“Marco, I swear to God, if you don’t touch me right now I’m gonna break your goddamn fingers,” I growl and he laughs before sliding his hand inside my leggings.
“Greedy little whore, and only for me.”
“Only for you,” I repeat, but then huff as he removes his hand.
“Relax, baby. I’m not stopping, just giving you what you need.”
I’m about to ask what that means but then he starts pulling my leggings down my legs and I let out a sigh of relief. He motions for me to move up the bed and I do as I’m told, scooting up so my head hits the pillow and my legs fall open as he positions himself between them.
“Been dying for a taste of you,” he mutters before leaning down and swiping his tongue across my center and circling it around my clit.
“Fucking delicious.”
A finger enters me as he devours my clit, my moans and whimpers filling the air as he continues his assault on me. He mutters to himself over and over, saying how good I taste and how much of a good little slut I am.
Pressure builds inside me, and I know I won’t last much longer.
“Please, Marco,” I whimper. “Please let me come.”
“Fuuuck,” he groans as he moves his mouth away from me, using his free hand to undo his pants and shoving them down a little before fisting his cock. I lick my lips and he gives me a cocky smirk.
“Not today, baby.”
I give him a playful pout and he shakes his head.
“You’re still recovering, so I won’t fuck you yet. But I will fucking devour you until you can’t even remember your own name before painting your skin with my cum and marking you as mine.”
I moan at the picture he paints in my mind.
“You don’t need to mark me. I’m already yours.”
“Oh, I know,” he chuckles, “but there’s nothing quite like the sight of you covered in me.”
He leans back down and starts feasting on me once more as his fingers work their way in and out of me. I can’t see his movements clearly, but the movement of his arm that I can see as he works his length is so damn erotic I almost come on the spot.
“So close,” I mutter as he hits my G-spot with his fingers, curving them so a burst of pleasure runs through me. All it takes is for him to trap my clit between his teeth, nibbling down on it to set me off.
I see stars as my eyes scrunch shut, my body rising off the bed as my hips tip up, chasing that feeling. All of my senses blur together in one as I feel the most intense orgasm I’ve ever experienced. It’s not until I float back down to Earth that I feel the wetness covering my lower stomach and thighs.
“Messy little whore.” Marco chuckles as he looks down at his cum covering my body before retreating to the bathroom for a washcloth.
He cleans me up, refusing to let me move a muscle before climbing into bed beside me.
“It’s the middle of the day,” I grunt. “We should get up.”
“You’ve been in the hospital for months in that tiny, awful bed, so your gonna keep your ass right where it is and I’m gonna cuddle the fuck out of you, okay?” he mutters and pulls me to his chest.
“So, what’s next?” I ask.
“What do you mean?” he asks before placing a kiss into my hair.
“The threat is gone. We’re okay. So where do we go from here?”
He hums, his arms tightening around me. “Wherever the fuck we want, little warrior. I don’t care what happens so long as you’re by my side for the rest of eternity.”
“I love you, Marco,” I whisper. It’s the first time I’ve told him since we were in the cabin. It never quite felt right at the hospital, like the first real time I said the words needed more meaning. It needed to be special, it needed to be us.
I look up at him and his softened eyes stare down at me in awe.
“I love you, Sloane. So fucking much.”
