Painted in Red (SPIN-OFF)

Chapter 20- A Lonely Woman

--Maria POV--

For the longest time, I have always loved children. As someone whose life has been ruined, the innocence that came with their cuteness always made me want to protect them. 

So, when Narciso impregnated me in high school, I never saw the child as his, but another innocent life that must be protected; That's why I wanted to keep the child. I had hoped that if I gave birth to a child of my own then my will to live would strengthen. And it did.

For the short few weeks that I had been pregnant, I found myself being more excited than nervous, never once stopping to imagine the fact that I wasn't ready to be a mother. How could I protect another life when I couldn't even protect myself? That's why I was grateful to Giana even though she never did what she did with any good intentions.

I got an abortion after all her threats, and the matter was quickly dusted under the rug. Narciso never learnt about the pregnancy, Giana wanted it to stay like that, and I was fine with that. In the fleeting time that I had been pregnant, I didn't think of the child as his.

But flash forward six years, and he's become a father either way. Thinking about Alejandro, that innocent child, I knew I couldn't drag him into my plan. And I would have to somehow tell Leandro about it.

"What are you thinking about?" He asked, voice laced with a sexy tiredness.

But here I am now, lying under the soft covers in a mafia lord's bed, trying to figure out how we got here after that heated kiss in his study. When I came here today, this was the last thing I expected to happen, but I couldn't help it.

"I'm wondering how I got here..." I whispered, answering his question.

He'd been looking at me oddly throughout the whole evening, so it wasn't a big surprise when he suddenly leaned in for a kiss, and when I let him do as he pleased, kissing him back, things had quickly progressed from kissing to full blown sex. The first consensual sex in my life. And maybe he was just skilled or Narciso really was just terrible, but I liked it.

"Was it that bad? Or was it that good?" He spoke, already knowing the answer, and when I turned to finally meet his waiting gaze, I caught him already staring at me with those green eyes of his. Head perched on his elbow, he gazed down at me with the covers hanging loosely over his waist, looking like an adonis.

"I can't say. I've not got much to compare it to." I refused to tell him the truth, pulling the covers up my body as I went to turn my back on him, failing as he jumped over me, pulling me down so he lay over me, hands finding my cheeks while his thumb ran over my lips.

"The sounds you made say otherwise, and your expressions... They were sexy, to say the least, and definitely not faked." Breaking the eye contact to prevent the blush from appearing on my cheeks after hearing his words, my eyes crept down his body, his completely nude body, and quickly, they jumped back up.

"You would know, wouldn't you? Speaking from experience." I narrowed my eyes to which he sighed, shrugging his shoulders.

"Hey, I'm not proud of my history either, but at the very least, everyone I've slept with were all willing. You should be glad; I wouldn't be this experienced in bed if it wasn't thanks to them." And glaring at him, I shoved him off me, sitting up as I took the bedsheets with me.

"I'm going to go do a shower. And then I've got work." I changed the subject, catching sight of the time on the wall clock, giving me plenty of time to wash up, go home and get changed and then make my way to the hospital.

"Already? But we've not even finished the conversation that you came here for... Also, I was hoping for another round, I know you liked it..." His hands ran along my arm, pushing my hair away as his lips found my shoulders, and I almost gave in to him, and I would have if my alarm hadn't rung, reminding me that I didn't want to be late to work again.