Aquamarine
V A L E R I U S ' P O V :
Six years ago
"Scusa, signore!" A small voice squeaks from below me. My eyes met those of a small boy, wide eyed with a nervous stare.
I grunt, passing the kid without a word.
Children are so messy. Irresponsible. Annoying.
The smeared chocolate on his face proves my point.
His eyes show an innocence that I wasn't ever given. So, I leave quickly to avoid the reminder. I need to get to my papà's office.
The usual busy streets are dim, dusk is approaching soon. In an hour, the sun will be gone completely. Car wheels splash against the rain. It's sprinkling now, earlier it was pouring.
I hate rain. It ruins everything.
I also hate walking but my driver is stuck in traffic and papà's office is only three blocks away from where I am.
I need to arrive in a short twenty minutes. We have a meeting scheduled with the Germans, they have worries about the Russians acting out. They've gotten word that Ivan fucking Moscow has something planned for us.
It doesn't surprise me, the late heir of Artem Moscow has been nothing short of insane since his father's passing.
He has a dream to overthrow my father's mafia to become number one. The only thing that dick is, is jealous and mentally insane.
My ears pick up a sound, arguing. I was going to brush it off, my papà's office is only a block away now, but something pulls me to stop.
"You bastard!" A female voice shouts in Italian.
Sounds of struggling reach my ears and I slow, barely stopping in my steps.
I glance towards the sound.
Don't. You have places more important to be.
Though, I did. I turned to the sound and follow it down a dim way between two buildings.
"Just be quiet! Let me show that pretty body some love." The male's voice got louder.
You've got to be kidding me.
"Fuck you!" The lady spit.
I turn the corner to a sight that disgusted me. An older man, about the age of my father, towers over a much smaller woman. He has her against a wall.
A surge of anger slams through me.
The woman is leaning down the wall, lowering her hand to reach for something in her purse. The man has a hand yanking the side of her hair and the other was under her shirt while he tries to kiss her mouth.
Within a second of seeing the situation, I run over to the scene and the man is on the ground with a shout. Fury chills my bones. Everything that pissed me off today built up and this man just gave me an excuse to take it out.
He drops to the ground with a thud.
A stench of alcohol floods through my nose. I know he's knocked out with just one punch. I can't help but to continue because I hate fuckers like him.
I throw another punch, sure to give him a black eye. I kick his dick in hopes he wakes up in a throbbing sense of pain.
I turn around to help the woman up when I finish but as soon as I did—
"Cazzo!" I hiss. My eyes immediately squint upon the impact of the wet, stinging liquid.
The woman gasps when my fingers go to pinch my eyes. "Shit!" She sputters, throwing something to the ground. "Mio Dio! Are you okay?" Gentle hands land on my biceps, a jolt of something stings through me.
"What does it look like?" I snap.
I try to open my eyes but when I do, I have to immediately close them again. I can't fucking see.
I hear her digging through her purse.
"What the hell was that! You made me blind!"
In panic, I heard her mumbles. She leads me to sit down on the dirty fucking ground. Doesn't she realize this suit is worth more than her life? I want to protest but so far she's at the advantage with having sight.
With a hand still on my bicep, her other gently touches my face, her thumb rubs my non consensual tears. I flinch back when her nail brushes a sensitive part of my eye.
"Shit! I'm sorry!" She breathes out frantically.
My eyes start violently blinking in an attempt to rid the burning.
I know this is a fucked up situation but I can't help the feeling of my dick twitch when I feel her breath cool my tears. Fuck. Her voice just made it all the more arousing.
I need laid.
My eyes become slightly blurry before they start focusing.
"What the fuck was that!?" My tone was enough to suggest that I'm angry.
"Pepper spray." She utters, her voice faltering.
God damnit.
My vision finally focuses and I gaze upwards to see the woman hovering above me, her eyes hold something in them. Mascara paints her cheeks but what my eyes first lock to are her eyes.
Blue. So fucking blue.
They have their own set of tears in them, she lets out a loud, audible sigh of relief when she notices I can see her.
"Oh, thank god." Her hand moves off of my face but the other stays on my bicep. My face suddenly feels cold without it there. I have an urge to put it back and tell her to not let it fall again.
What? No. That's not right.
I quickly wipe my face halfway in embarrassment. I've never let anyone put me in such a vulnerable position before. I don't like it.
"Are you okay?" Blue. So fucking blue.
Soft blonde ringlets fall in front of her face while she hovers from above. Her skin is a smooth canvas. Her eyelashes are long, her lips pink. Her eyes, her eyes are so fucking blue it hurts. I don't want to look away.
Unwillingly, my eyes travel down and to her neck. A dark red mark lays there. That fucking bastard. The urge to kill him was stronger than before.
I can't stop myself from reaching out, my thumb running across the dark mark. Well fuck me. I'll never let a man get away with assault but why the fuck do I want to feed this man his organs? I don't think I've felt fury this strong before.
Her head turns to try and look at what I'm doing, her throat bobs. Her hand reaches up to cover it but it only ends up covering my hand.
I look at her hand on mine. My dick throbs.
Fuck this. I need to control myself.
"Uhm— are you hurt?" She asks me like she isn't the one who was just assaulted. My eyes snap to hers.
I want to make a snide comment about how ridiculous she sounds but when I see her eyes start scanning down my body, something jumps in my
chest. I may be the devil but I'm not a dick. I can't let the woman see I'm getting hard at the sight of her after she just went through something so compromising.
My hand grips her chin and pulls her face to look me in the eyes. Her blue eyes go wide, she sucks in a shallow breath.
Fuck. She isn't making this easy.
She swallows hard. I sit up, moving to stand.
"Are you okay?" Why did I ask that? I don't care. I never care.
When she stands to her full height, I notice how short she looks compared to me. I'm tall, no doubt, so she has to be somewhere around five-foot-five.
"No." She says. "I don't really know what's happening right now." Her eyes don't leave mine.
"Okay." Okay? Really?
Apparently, any knowledge of communication I have disappeared the moment I met her eyes.
"Yeah.. okay." Her eyebrows scrunch. She bends down to grab her purse. I don't miss how her hands shake. "I— I have to go meet my friend for dinner. I don't want to be late." She looks dazed. She turns to leave.
I don't know why but my hand darts out. When I grab her wrist, she flinches. I draw it back when she does, feeling a sense of guilt.
She blinks at me. Fuck.
"Your name." Great speech skills Valerius.
"Oh.. uh. No." She shakes her head and looks away from me. "I mean.. t-thank you for uhm.. saving me but this isn't a thing—"
I step closer to her, she steps back.
She lets out a shaky breath when she steps back again and hits the wall. I don't go any closer, I won't scare her.
"No?"
No one ever says no to me.
My pulse rages through my entire body. I try to ignore the overwhelming feeling.
I tell myself not to. I tell myself not to get any closer but I do. I step closer, leaving a fine line between us.
Her eyes flutter shut when my hand reaches out to brush a piece of hair out of her face. She breathes out shakily.
My head dips down, one of my hands press against the wall. Vanilla clouds my senses.
"Your name, bellissima." I whisper.
Her mouth drops open, her eyes still shut. "I—", she stammers. Her head shakes so I press off the wall, giving her space. "I- no. No, no, no, no." Her hands wave and she opens her eyes. "I- I have to go. Goodbye, very attractive man. I have to get to dinner." She begins walking off, still facing me. "My head isn't clear." She turns and starts walking quickly down the street, her head still shaking no.
My lips curl into a knowing smile as I watch get further away. I pull her cellphone out from behind my back.
"Goodbye, bellissima." I whisper to the quiet streets. Her figure disappears down to the main road.
Grunting comes from below me and I tense, forgetting about the man for a moment.
Damn bastard.
I bend down and pull his shirt up to me so he lifts from the ground. His eyes flutter heavily.
His eyes dart around to figure out where he is.
"Look no more. . . the devil found you."
I drop him, kicking his face in so he loses consciousness again.
That night I skipped the meeting with my papà and those damn blue eyes never left my mind.
I wish I knew it then how those eyes would haunt me for a lifetime.
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