Page 183 of Vicious Intentions
“Cazzo,” I hear Matteo mumble from behind me, provoking me to walk faster. “Annamaria Donato! Do not run away from me!” he shouts, making me break into a full-on sprint.
“You’re not my father, Matteo! I can do whatever I like!” I shout, thankful we left the backward lights on to lead the way.
“Anna, I said stop!”
“No!”
“Anna!”
This time, I’m not sprinting. I’m running, passing the two wooden beach chairs Matteo and I used that morning to drink our coffee and watch the sun rise. But just as I’m a few yards away from the house, I feel a strong hand grip my wrist and spin me around until my chest is flush with my husband’s.
“Okay, Anna. Let’s have it. Why are you so upset?” he asks, dropping my heels to the sand.
“I’m not upset. You’re seeing things.”
“I’m not in the mood for games, wife. And you’ve never been one to play them well, so just talk to me. Tell me what’s wrong.”
Tears begin to sting the corner of my eyes, forcing me to turn my face away from his.
“Sweetheart, you’re worrying me,” he whispers, clutching my chin and gently turning my face to greet his. “Did I do something wrong? Tell me what I did wrong, and I’ll fix it. Please, just talk to me.”
It’s thepleasethat gets me in the end.
“Why… Why won’t you sleep with me? Am I that repulsive?” Matteo’s eyes widen in shock as mine begin to water. “You say that you love me. You make me feel like you love me. But what kind of husband refuses to sleep with his wife? Why don’t you want me?”
“You think I don’t want you?” he repeats the words as if they were foreign to him. “All I do is want you. Yearn for you. How could you ever believe that I…” he struggles to finish the sentence. “There isn’t a world that exists where I don’t want you.”
“So why won’t you—” He presses his temple to mine and places a finger on my lips, stopping my words.
“I made you a promise on our wedding night, remember,vita mia? When you’re ready to be my wife, then, and only then, will I have you. Not a second sooner. Not a second later.” I swallow the lump his words have formed, the intensity in his eyes undoing all the anger I was feeling. “Are you ready to be my wife, Anna? Is that what you’re telling me? Are you ready to spend the rest of your life by my side? To let me love you like I’m desperate to do? Because if you’re not, then don’t ask me to break my promise. Not when it’s the only thing still giving me hope.”
Words fail me because it feels like too big a promise to make him. But as I search his eyes and see the deeper meaning behind them, I know that there is only one answer I could give him. Only one that holds any real truth to it.
“Iamyour wife, Matteo. I have been your wife all along. Even when I didn’t want to be, I was always yours.”
“Mine.” He chews on the word as if he can’t believe it’s his to say. “You’re mine?”
I cup his face in my palms and breathe him in. “Yes, husband. I am irrevocably, undeniably, yours. And it’s breaking my heart that you’re still keeping me at arm’s length.”
Matteo’s gaze fixes on mine, his black stare full of love and devotion. “You can never take those words back, sweetheart. I’ll never let you go now. You know that, right?”
“Just kiss me, Matteo. And take me out of my misery. I’ve yearned for your touch long enough.”
Whatever resolve had my husband’s hands tied behind his back, whatever restraint kept him from giving himself to me fully, it’s broken by a kiss. Matteo’s lips mold themselves to mine as he lifts me off the sand and walks us back to the nearest chair on the beach. He sits down, cradling me in his lap, as his tongue dives into my mouth, needing to taste every hidden secret I’ve been withholding from him. But there are no more secrets now. Not anymore.
I know I’m sealing my fate with this kiss, and I don’t care. I’ll find a way to put order to the chaos my kidnapping has caused, but right now, all I want is to be in my husband’s arms and let him love me like he wants to. His kiss soon morphs from gentle to demanding, as if a switch has been turned on inside him and he’s no longer willing to stand alone in the dark. With one hand on my nape, his other roams my body, working on the laces of my summer dress, pulling at the strings until my breasts tumble over.
Matteo breaks our kiss just long enough to pepper my neck with languid pecks, his tongue licking its slope before biting into the swell of my breasts, leaving his mark on my tender flesh. I hold onto him while my fingers run through his hair, my head falling back to give him all the room he needs to kiss his way to my exposed breasts. He takes one nipple into his mouth, suckingon it, while his other hand pulls up my dress, sliding in between my thighs. I open my legs wider for him, which he takes as an invitation to stroke his fingers through my glistening slit.
“I’m not sure if I should be angry or elated that we went into town and my wife decided that a bra and panties were just too much clothes for her to put on tonight.”
“Maybe I was hoping you’d finally take the hint.”
“Oh, I got the hint, alright. I can smell you from here, wife,” he groans, biting my other nipple until I’m rubbing my ass on his lap. “Fuck. A better man would take you home and make love to you on a bed the first time.”
“I don’t want such a man. I want you. Just you,” I purr, licking my lips when his thumb begins to strum my clit in circular motions.
“You have me, Anna. You fucking have me,” he says, grabbing my chin and crashing his lips on mine again.
