“Polly!”
I gasp as I see my little girl in Luca’s arms, rushing over to her and pulling her into my grasp. I bury my face in her hair and breathe in the scent of her, trembling so hard I’m not sure I’ll be able to keep a grip on her much longer.
I thought I would never see her again. Though I never really came to terms with it, it strikes me now, as I hold her, how impossible this feels—like something I have conjured up from fiction, something that couldn’t possibly be real. When they had me in that basement, I gave up on ever seeing the light of day again. And, if it weren’t for the sudden commotion upstairs that drew away my attacker’s attention, who knows what would have happened there…
I plant a hundred little kisses all over Polly, who’s gazing up at me like I hung the damn moon. I can’t believe I get to hold her again, to see her sweet little face, those curious gray eyes…
I feel another rush of tears coming on, and I slump back against the kitchen counter in Luca’s apartment. He brought her here, he told me, as soon as he found that my apartment was empty; he didn’t even think twice. This place has been kitted out to take care of a child, and I know it can’t have been easy for him to adapt his life so quickly to such an enormous change.
“I think she’s pretty tired,” he remarks gently as I head over to the couch so I can feed her.
“I know,” I murmur. “But I just want to feed her first. Let her know that we’re back to normal…”
“Of course,” Luca replies, and he sinks down onto the seat beside me, reaching over to brush my hair out of my face as I set about taking care of my little girl. She latches on quickly, and soon, she’s drinking deep, and I watch as her stomach rises and falls with each gulp.
I’m glad it’s just the three of us—though I know I owe my life to Emil too. I don’t know if I really thanked him for it properly yet. I was in shock when they got me out of there, and I could barely nod my greeting to his brother as the car pulled away from the townhouse.
He’s headed back to his apartment so he can get in touch with their father about what happened, let him know that everything is done here in the city. That the man who was giving them reason to stay here in the first place has been taken out. I know it means something is going to change between Luca and me, but, to be honest, I don’t really have it in me to contend with that right now.
Luca watches me as I feed Polly, and when I’m done, he offers to put her to bed.
“I can do that,” I reply, but a yawn nags at my lips even as I speak.
He smiles slightly. “You can, but you don’t have to,” he replies. “I’ve been doing it the last few days with no problem. You get some rest, okay?”
I don’t have it in me to argue with him—he heads to the nursery, and I slump back onto the couch, trying to wrap my head around everything that’s happened.
Though I suppose the more pressing question at this point is what is going to happen, now that the Maglione threat is dealt with. It seems like the guy who interrogated me earlier was the big boss of the whole operation—he’s been staying out in that townhouse to keep his cover low, and only had a handful of guards there so as not to attract too much attention. The thought of what he might have done to me, how he might have made me pay for the crime of daring to be this man’s lover, scares the hell out of me, but at least I’m not going to have to deal with the reality of it anytime soon.
When Luca returns, there’s a strange expression on his face, one that I’m not sure I’ve ever seen on him before. I tip my head to the side and study him for a moment, trying to get to the bottom of it.
“Are you okay?” I ask him finally, and he glances over at me, as though surprised by the question.
“Of course I am,” he replies at once. “You’re safe, and you’re back with Polly. That’s all I wanted.”
“All you wanted?”
I echo the words after him, maybe because I don’t entirely want to believe them. Because, yes, in theory, I know this means that everything is over—that there’s no reason for him to stick around here, and that he should go back to the city, to his real life, his real family. And yet, the thought of being apart from him, when I’ve only just found him again, it’s…it doesn’t sit right with me.
He locks eyes with me. “When all of this started,” he reminds me softly, “you told me you didn’t want anything to do with me. With this. And I promised you I would leave the city as soon as everything was over.”
I nod. I remember it well. Back then, I meant every word coming out of my mouth, even if now I see things in an entirely different light.
“And it’s over.” He stares at me, letting those words sink in. “It’s over, Katie. I should go back to my family now. And if that’s what you want, I will.”
He pauses, as though waiting for me to contradict him or argue with him. But, truth be told, I don’t know how to react. Can I ask him to stay? Ask him to leave everything behind and forget the life he has lived to be here with me? From everything he’s said, he’s dedicated to his family, and he wouldn’t want to walk away from them for a woman he’s known for just a few weeks, even if she is the mother of his child.
“I don’t know what I want,” I confess, my voice dropping to a whisper as I say it out loud. I wish I had a better answer for him than this, I really do, but I can’t give him anything concrete right now. My head is a scrambled mess after everything that’s happened, and I’m in no position to be asking anyone to root up their life for me in this moment.
He reaches over and takes my hand, bringing it to his lips where he presses a kiss against my fingers.
“You don’t have to know,” he assures me gently. “I’m not asking you to give me an answer right now, I just…I need you to know where I’m at with all of this.”
I close my eyes for a moment and nod. Exhaustion moves through me, but more than that, a comfort—a peace in knowing that this man has gone so far to make sure I’m safe and sound, back where I belong. I can’t imagine that a life with him would be free from stuff like this, but if he’s willing to take on the man who has been causing his family trouble for years just to get me to safety, then I know I have found someone good.
He moves a little closer to me, putting his arm around my shoulders, and I rest my head on his chest. I know it’s dangerous, being so domestic with him, enjoying his company this much, but right now, I feel like I need all the comfort I can get.
“I was so worried I’d lost you,” he murmurs to me as he moves his hand to my face, drawing my gaze up toward him. I meet his eyes slowly, taking in the look on his face, the sincerity in his words.
“I…I had no idea what they were going to do to me,” I confess. “They were threatening all kinds of shit, I…”
“I know,” he murmurs. “I know the kind of stuff they do. But I would never have let it happen to you.”
“And what about the other women who are part of that right now?” I wonder aloud, my mind suddenly darting back toward the compound in the woods. “What if the guards have just left them out there with no way of getting free…?”
“We’ll send some men down there first thing in the morning,” he promises me. “Anyone who’s left, we’ll get them to safety, make sure they have somewhere warm to sleep and something to eat.”
I nod—that’s something, at least. I can still hear the screams of those other women echoing in my mind, all too vividly. I know it’s going to be a long time before they fade, no matter how much I try.
“Good,” I breathe. “I just—I wish there was more I could do. I feel like I left them all back there—”
“You had no choice,” he replies hotly. “You know that, don’t you? You should never have been pulled into something like this. I should never have let it get to this point. Shit, if I could—”
He stops himself dead in his tracks before he goes any further, as though he can tell that I don’t need him beating himself up in this moment. I reach my hand for his cheek and rest it there for a second, brushing my fingertips along his jaw.
“Guess you’ve been doing a lot of that lately, huh?” I say.
“What?”
“Blaming yourself.”
He sighs and glances away from me. “Yeah, you can’t blame me for that,” he mutters. “If I had never met you, none of this would have happened. If I—”
But before he can go any further down this path, I lean up and plant my lips against his. That seems to silence him for a second, and when I pull back, he looks surprised.
“What are you…?”
“I didn’t know who you were then,” I confess, stroking my hand through his silver hair. “But I know who you are now. And right now, all that matters is that I want you.”
He seems to understand—this isn’t about what comes next, this is about here, now, this moment, the feel of his hands on my body, his fingertips digging into my skin. He moves on top of me, leaning down over me as our legs tangle, and his tongue slips into my mouth as we finally finish the talking and get to the good stuff.
I arch my back to push into him, and I can already feel that he’s starting to get hard. All the emotion of the last few days is rising up inside me, faster than I can control it, and I kiss him back even harder. It feels as though I can’t get enough of him, as though I will never get enough of him. My body is moving against his, my legs pressing him closer to me, and he groans against my mouth, a sure sign that he wants this just as much as I do.
“I need you inside of me,” I breathe against his mouth, my words so quiet I’m not sure if he can even hear them—but then, as though on cue, he reaches down to his pants and unzips them, taking himself in his hand as he grins down at me.
“I don’t think I’m ever going to get tired of hearing you say that,” he murmurs as he reaches down to pull off the sweatpants I changed into after my shower. I kick them off, along with my panties, unable to think about anything other than giving myself to him. This man has risked so much to come to my aid—and I need to show him just how thankful I am.
I hook my ankles around him and draw him down to me, reaching out so I can guide his cock toward my pussy. He watches as I lower him into me, letting out a deep growl of pleasure as he feels me envelop him for the first time in what feels like forever.
“Oh, fuck,” he moans, and he lets himself down on top of me, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me against him with a desperate neediness. He begins to thrust into me at once, not holding back, and I knew he feels everything I do right now—the pleasure, the intensity of it, the need for each other that seems to overwhelm everything else.
I catch his face in my hands so I can look into his eyes as he fucks me, and he gazes back, clear-eyed and steady. I can see the pleasure starting to rise in him, the veins in his neck beginning to stand out as he finds himself going closer and closer to the edge, but he slows himself, making sure not to go over before I’m entirely ready for him.
And for a while, he just grinds into me—hitting that perfect spot that allows him to massage my clit while he’s in me, the pleasure throbbing through every inch of my body at once. My thighs begin to tense and twitch on either side of him, and I know it’s not going to be long till I reach my own release.
He moves his mouth to my neck, grazing his lips along me hungrily. I can feel his teeth against me again, that flash of danger that reminds me just who I’m dealing with, but in this heightened state, it translates only into another tingling wave of pleasure.
“Oh God,” I whimper, and he pushes into me deep, one last time—and I finish, right there on his cock, filled to the brim with his length as he holds me close. I can feel his heart pounding against mine, almost in time with the pulsations of my pussy, and my body rocks against his as I draw him in deeper, craving every inch of him I can take.
A few moments later, he goes over the edge inside of me, as though he’s been holding off for my orgasm all this time. I can feel the warmth of him within me, the two of us bound together like this as though we were made for each other.
And he just holds me there for a long moment, neither of us willing to pull back. The last time we hooked up, I was kidnapped just a few hours later, and some of that fear still lingers, as irrational as I know it to be.
When he finally draws back, his eyes are nearly black in the dim light. He kisses me one more time, and then pulls me up into his lap, nuzzling into my neck as the two of us catch our breath once more.
He leans into me, his grip tightening around my waist. I know he doesn’t want to let me go—and God, in this moment, I don’t want him to either. I just need to feel safe in his arms right now, need the promise that nothing bad is going to happen again.
“You should get to bed,” he remarks softly, brushing his lips against my ear. I yawn, my body utterly spent from everything that has happened, and then that incredible orgasm on top of it.
“I want to check on Polly one last time before I go to bed,” I reply.
“She’s fine,” he assures me.
“I know,” I reply. “I just want to make sure. For my own peace of mind.”
He sighs, but he unravels himself from me, perhaps sensing that I really need to do this, no matter how silly it might seem from his point of view. I’m sure this whole thing seems bizarre to him, when Polly is just in the next room, but it’s going to be a long time before I can truly relax around my daughter again.
But she’s fine, fast asleep in her crib, as though nothing at all is wrong. I smile as I lean in the doorway, and feel him move in behind me, planting a kiss on the back of my neck.
“Satisfied?” he asks, and I nod.
“For now,” I reply. “Come on, let’s go to bed. I’m exhausted.”
“I couldn’t agree more.”
He laces his hand through mine and leads me toward the bedroom. And as I follow him, I can’t help but wonder how long Polly and I are going to be staying in this apartment. Or how long it will be before his father calls him back to the fold.
For now, it’s just the three of us. And like I told him—that’s all I really care about.
