"I love you!" His whisper, his hot breath against my ear and the sound of Vince Joy's Riptide made me reluctantly open my eyes and look into the hazels of my murderer. Falling asleep next to him was something I'd gotten used to, but also waking up with him by my side -or rather said, with him on top of me- was something new. Something I found myself enjoying. "I love you, dea!" A lazy smile took over my lips as I fought my way from underneath him, a deep frown marring Gabriel's forehead as he watched me crawl to the other side of the bed. "What are you doing?" One of his brows was raised questioningly at me, the corners of his mouth quirking up ever so slightly. I gathered all the energy I couldn't believe I still had left and put on a defiant facade before answering him.
"Seven times in twelve hours is my limit, Gabriel. I barely had any sleep, my core is all swollen up, my insides are sore and my muscles ache." His eyes lit up with something resembling pure male satisfaction, a damned smirk pulling at his lips while he reached out for me and grabbed my wrist, pulling me into his chest again. My palms colided with his abdomen, somehow succeding to keep what little distance was left between us, but -unfortunatelly- unsuccesful to also keep his erection away from me. My murderer's arousal was standing proud and tall between us, making my mouth water. And yet, I was determined to stand my ground. "I mean it, Gabe. I know it's not fair of me to deny you this and normally, I would offer to make it up to you, but honestly, right now, my jaw is pretty stiff too from all the times I went down on you last night. How are you not tired anyway? Are you some sort of a machine?" The amusement written all over his handsome face made me wonder what the fuck did he find so funny? I was being serious here.
"I'm sorry for wearing you out, dea." I wanted to tell him he had absolutely nothing to be sorry about. I had enjoyed him wearing me out at least as much as I knew he had enjoyed it too. "As about me being a machine... Dea, it's you who turn me into one. So I'm not gonna appologize about that. I enjoyed fucking your brains out and it thrills me to see you like this -utterly spent from the pleasure I inflicted on you. But -as much as I'd like that- another round of mind blowing sex is not what I woke you up for." It was my turn to quirk a questioning brow at him.
"It's not?" The slight shake of his head was all the answer I got before my murderer stood up from the bed and made his way to the huge vintage warbrobe sat on the opposite wall from me. "What is it then?" I asked quietly while trying not to stare at his gloriously naked ass. The perfection this man was flaunting had the gift of throwing me off completely.
"I have something to do so I'll be out for a little while. I wanted to tell you that. I didn't want you to wake up alone and not know where I was." Well, basically, I still didn't know where he was going. He was keeping that piece of information to himself and I knew that pushing for it wouldn't have helped. So I just watched him put on a plain white linen shirt and a navy blue Armani suit, no tie -the naked perfection of him now covered up by equally perfect clothes.
Turning around while unbuttoning the top two buttons of his shirt, my murderer finally looked my way, a worried expression replacing the earlier carefree one.
"Dea?" I knew what he was seeing when he looked at me -a sad, insecure woman- but that couldn't make me hide the way I felt. I was sad and insecure and that was mostly because somewhere deep within me I knew exactly where he was going.
"Do what you gotta do. Just..." The words got stuck in my throat, the lump there making it almost impossible for me to breathe. Realisation dawned on him, his eyes widening, his chest expanding on a deep breath. Taking a few steps towards me, my murderer kneeled next to the bed, one of his hands gently covering one of mine.
"I'm not going to Rosso, Julia. I'm never going back there." A deep, relieved sigh escaped me, making me realise that I've been holding my breath the entire time.
"I'm sorry. It's not that I don't trust you. I just..." My throat closed in on me, my words fleeting from my mind. I meant every single word I'd uttered. I did trust Gabriel. I trusted him with my life. And that was what made it so damn hard to word my insecurities.
"Quite honestly, I wouldn't blame you if you didn't, Julia. I do appear to have a way of messing everything up for us." His fingers gently squeezed my hand, my core starting to throb from that simple gesture. "Let's clarify something though. The other night, at Rosso... I went there because I was angry -no, furious- I was furious at what you'd told me. I was furious because I knew I had failed you. I just needed to punish someone for what had happened to you." I wanted to tell him that killing Marco and his men was punishment enough, but wisely kept my mouth shut while waiting for him to continue. "I wasn't there for the women, Julia. I never went there for the women. It was the distraction I seeked. Because no matter how hard I tried to forget they were not you, dea, I couldn't help but notice all the little things that made them wrong for me. There's only one woman in the entire world that I'm interested in and that woman smiles at me every time I bring her to the heights of pleasure." My eyes teared up and then widened at the mention of what appeared to be a sexual habbit of mine. I had no knowledge of the fact that I smiled each time I came, but the sincerity in my murderer's eyes combined with the authentic warmth lighting up his hazels made me stop questioning his words. "Never doubt my fidelity towards you, dea. That's the one thing I couldn't change if I wanted to."
My heart bursted with joy, my eyes closing briefly while allowing his words to sink in. I knew my murderer well enough to also know that this was the ultimate declaration of love coming from him.
"You taught me how to love again, Julia, and I may not be worthy of your love but I'm doing my best to keep it." My mouth went completely dry. I've never thought Gabriel was capable of love, but I was so very wrong. He had so much to give and it all belonged to me. "That being said, I'm gonna get very mad if you ever think that I would betray you again. I know it's my fault for making you doubt me. I've made a lot of stupid mistakes when it came to you, dea, and I'm sorry. But I'm asking you to remember that I love you. That you're the only woman for me." A short laugh escaped me before I could stop it, my murderer's eyes widening.
"For a man who doesn't believe in romance, you are quite romantic, Mr Shaffer." A grimace appeared on my murderer's face as he watched me incredulously for a second.
"This is all your doing, Ms Groves. Now, I'll be with Mathew and meanwhile, my mother would like to keep you company. She wants to get to know you, so could you please humour her?" Knots formed inside my stomach at the thought of spending an entire day with Gabriel's mother. It felt as if I was just about to be interviewed for a job I was not so sure I was compatible with. "Don't look so scared, for God's sake! She already likes you, dea. No need to worry about that." Gently kissing the top of my head, my murderer then stood up, pulling at his clothes until removing any possible crease of the fabric. "Be good, ok?" I wondered idly what he meant by that and only then realised that he was most likely talking about the possibility of me making a run for it. Well, one thing I knew for sure. He had no reason to worry about that. I'd already been given the posibility of leaving -by none other than him, in fact- and chose to stay.
Watching Gabriel turn his back to me and open the door to leave, I decided it was also the time for me to stand up and get dressed. The love of my life's mother was waiting to get to know me.
$$$
Marcella Montego AKA Marcella Shaffer was one hell of a woman. Gabriel's mother looked nothing like her age -which if I had to guess, I would've said was somewhere around forty- a gorgeous burgundy, lacy dress perfectly fitting her small figure, a pair of nude, high heeled Louboutins adding the exact amount of height needed to make her look lethal. The dark waves falling down her back made it impossible for me not to wonder if the woman's hair was just as smooth as her son's, my fingers instinctively flexing as if remembering what it felt like to play with that hair. I couldn't see her face, but I didn't really need to. I knew that the earthy tones of her makeup would perfectly match her hazels and that her burgundy lips would form that most amazing, kind smile.
Turning around to look at me a moment too soon -and also taking me by complete surprise-, Mrs Shaffer caught me staring, my face immediatelly flushing while her lips formed a gentle smile. Her strikingly familiar hazels ran down the length of my body, my own eyes incapable of not following them. Suddenly realising what I must've looked like compared to her utter perfection, I began to feel underdressed.
There I stood, wearing a pair of plain boyfriend jeans, an emerald green V-neck Tee and a rather old, navy blue blazer. The only pair of high heeled Louboutins Maria had packed for me seemed unfitting to the occasion, so I'd gone for the pair of grey Valentino flats, my own choice now making me cringe. My red, rather wavy hair looked messy and untamed, my face lacking any kind of makeup. For God's sake! What was I thinking? I must've looked like a homeless person.
"Julia. Good to see you." The woman's voice gave nothing away, her arms wide open while she walked towards me. But I knew what she must have been thinking. Her son's wife might've been a bitch, but she was a classy one, and then, there was me...
"I'm sorry for making you wait, Mrs Shaffer. I found it difficult to wake up this morning." And that was a big, fat lie. I wasn't late because it had been hard for me to wake up. I was late because I'd spent most of the morning thinking of what to wear. And yet, that did nothing to help me, did it now?
"Marcella, please. Mrs Shaffer sounds so formal." Gabe's mother smiled, motioning for me to head for the couch. What I guessed to be a late breakfast was placed on the small coffee table in front of the couch, everything from waffles to pretzels and scrambled eggs spreading a delicious smell throughout the house. "Gabriel told me you might be hungry when you came downstairs. He also said you might be tired." A mischivous sparkle lit up her eyes as Marcella's words drifted in the air between us. "Busy night, I guess." My cheeks switched ten shades of red in under one minute, my hand reaching out for a cup of coffee.
A maid stepped forward from somewhere behind me, her hands holding a small tray out to me. The chocolate muffins on said tray didn't appeal to me and neither did the hot crispy, grilled cheese sandwiches, so I just shook my head, watching the woman step back to her place.
"Look, my dear, there's no secret that I don't like Stephanie one bit." My chest tightened, the sip of coffee I'd just had, burning its way down my throat. This was the moment she was going to say she didn't like me either, I guessed. "She was wrong for my son from the very begining, you know? And I told him that. You know what he did? Gabriel just ignored me. He married that God awful woman anyway." A tight smile pulled at her lips this time, her body turning slightly to the left, denying me the possibility of seeing her face and try to figure out what she would say next. "She's gone now, but he always falls in love with the wrong girl, you see?" I knew for sure that there was an insult somewhere in there. I just wasn't sure whether I should point that out or not. And then something else caught my attention. Stephanie was gone? Already? "He's a lot like his father from this point of view. My Rodrigo used to fall in love with the wrong women too."
My hand closed over the coffee cup I held, the burn I felt inside my palm not bothering me in the slightest. If anything, it was helping me keep it together.
"You're different from the rest of them, that much is obvious." A deep intake of air made its way past my lips and into my lungs before I finally gathered the courage to look the woman in the eye. "He loves you." I slowly nodded my head.
"I know." Mrs Shaffer's tight smile turned into an authentic one, her hazels lighting up with kindness.
"Thank God! I thought he was never going to say it again." The half of a smile pulled at my lips, my chest expanding on a small, inaudible sigh. The truth was that neither had I. "I was different too, you know?" Her whispered words took me by surprise, my eyes immediately going to search her face. "I know what you're going through because I was different too." One of Marcella's hands reached out, grabbing one of mine and gently squeezing it. "I may have not had it the same way you did, Julia, but I did have to face difficulties of my own. It's the price we had to pay for being different."
My breath hitched a little, my pulse quickening. She knew. She knew what I was going through -how hard it was for me to move on with her son. She was offering me her silent support.
"My son was not being himself the last time he came here. I think that when you asked him to leave you behind, part of his heart detached itself from him and stayed with you. He was no longer the man you know, my dear." Those words pulled at my heart, my eyes closing in utter agony. "And then Marco took you and he found out... There's only one other man in the entire world that I'd ever seen so angry and that happened when I found out I was pregnant with his son and left him." A frown marred my forehead once her words sinked in, my mouth slightly opening in shock. The other man was Gabriel's father, no doubt about that and the woman in front of me -the woman he loved- had tried to leave and also take his child away from him. "I love my husband more than anything in the world, Julia. But like I said, I had my own difficulties to face before we could be happy." And I finally saw the meaning behind her words. By giving me that little piece of information -that little insight on her life- Marcella was telling me that I was not alone in this. That I didn't have to be. "I can't begin to imagine what that monster did to you, dear girl, but I'm here if you wanna talk about it. I can listen to you, Julia."
Tears stung my eyes, the realisation that I no longer had to hold it all in making me heady. This wonderful woman who was so much like the mother I'd never had was willing to help me and I found myself willing to accept her help.
"It doesn't have to be now. Whenever you're ready, dear." Her hazels slowly drifted from my face and towards the untouched food scattered all over the small coffee table in front of me. And again, I knew exactly what she was going to say even before she did say it. "Gabriel also tells me that you appear to have lost your appetite entirely." What could've I said to that? It was the truth and I doubted Mrs Shaffer really needed a confirmation. "I hope you won't mind it, but I took the liberty of making an appointment for you with my doctor." My heart stopped beating for the briefest of seconds, my blues widening while searching Marcella's serious face.
"Thank you for your concern, Mrs Shaffer -Marcella- but I sincerely doubt I need a doctor's appointment. I, um... I spent quite some time in a hospital not so long ago and the doctors there told me everything I needed to know." My voice was quivery and I hated myself for that. I didn't know how much her son had told her, but I was sure as hell not going to tell her about the baby malfunction I currently had, myself. And I wasn't exactly thrilled about letting a doctor I knew nothing about break that news on her either. Gabriel's mother didn't need to know that his son's girlfriend -or fling, or whatever the fuck I was- was so damn broken.
Standing up from the couch -because quite honestly, I found it incredibly difficult to look the woman next to me in the eyes-, I headed for the door, amazed that my feet could actually carry me there. The sound of a commotion taking place somewhere behind me made me stop and turn around to look at the woman now standing up next to the couch, the small pool of coffee at her feet quickly scrubbed by one of her maids.
"So do it for me. Do it for my son and his peace of mind. Gabriel is really worried about you, Julia and frankly, so am I." Oh, for God's sake! It was so tipically him to ask his mother to practically drag me to the hospital. What the fuck was wrong with my murderer? Why did my oppinion never seemed to matter to him? "Just a quick check up, my dear. That's all I'm asking of you." My throat went dry, my hands fisting at my sides. And yet I nodded my head at the woman waiting for my answer. "Wonderful! I'll tell Nico to get the car ready." And with that, she left.
I had no idea who Nico was -probably one of Mr Shaffer's men- but I honestly didn't care about it at the moment. What I really cared about was the fact that I was just about to be taken to another hospital where another nosy doctor was going to check up on me and give me the same bad news the other doctors before him had already given me. Sitting onto the closest chair, I tiredly hanged my head, my hands immediately going to massage my temples in an attempt to release the tension gathered there while the maids still trying to remove the coffee stain from the fluffy, cream coloured carpet silently stared at me. For fuck's sake! This was going to be a damn rough day.
$$$
Mrs Shaffer's doctor was a rather young, handsome man who'd appearently done his studies at Stanford University and therefore was able to talk me through my examination himself. After pushing on my stomach for a little while and checking to see if my bullet wounds had healed properly, doctor Lombardi, used his rather annoying little lights and instruments on my eyes, ears and even nose.
"Well, Ms Groves..." My name sounded strange coming out of his mouth, his thick Italian accent making it sound more like Grovis than Groves. "Your wounds are perfectly healed and no real damage occured to you while getting said wounds, appearently." That was what he thought anyway. The good doctor hadn't yet gotten the chance to give me a thorough exam and maybe even an ultrasound, which would've revealed just how much damage had occured to me while getting those fucking wounds. I couldn't blame him though. One of my conditions for coming here willingly had been for the doctor not to ask any questions about what had happed to me and well, he hadn't. So all doctor Lombardi knew was the fact that I was here for a quick examination that might've explained why I appeared to have lost my appetite.
"Are we done?" I asked while pulling at my Tee and reaching out for my blazer which was placed on a hanger by the bed. Lombardi smiled briefly before pulling a siringe and a test tube out of his huge, white, wooden desk.
"The examination revealed nothing wrong, madam, so we'll need some blood tests performed as well." Panic took over me for a second, memories of Marco's girls giving me shots of strong pain killers coming back to mind and making me squirm before I ordered myself to calm down. This was a hospital, not Marco's little cell where I'd been held captive and the man in front of me was a real doctor, not one of his people trying to get more drugs into my system. "It's only gonna take a moment." Lombardi said, probably mistaking my panic for fear of needles or something.
The sting only lasted for a second before a small patch was placed over the inside of my elbow, the doctor now heading for his desk once more.
"Wasn't that bad, now was it?" I slowly shook my head, aware of the fact that he actually really expected an answer to his question. "Now I need to take this to our lab and it normally takes somewhere around ten and twelve hours to get a result, but I'll see what I can do to make them hurry up, ok?" Smiling while shrugging on my blazer, I turned my back to Lombardi, hearing the door close once he'd left the room.
Taking a deep breath, I started for the exit, only slightly remembering that Marcella was probably still in the waiting room, waiting for me. And she was indeed. Gabriel's mother was silently reading one of the hospital brochures placed on the small table next to her, her lips sill forming that gentle smile. She didn't seem aware of my presence and not wanting to bother her, I simply sat onto the empty chair at her left, waiting for her to say something.
"I trust Lombardi will not make us wait too much, will he?" Not looking away from her brochure, Marcella placed a conforting hand onto my knee. "I also trust he was not that bad, was he?" This time, her hazels found my blues, the warmth in there making me want to hug her. Instead of that, I just nodded my head in her direction, the woman giving my knee a little squeeze before removing her hand.
The waiting room was quiet, the soft, relaxing music gently playing in the background making me close my eyes for a brief second. But then I felt it. He was close. I could feel my murderer's presence deep in my bones.
A large hand landed onto my shoulder, the squeeze it gave me igniting hot little sparks deep inside my belly. I remembered that same hand touching and squeezing other places on my body, giving me pleasure in a way only my murderer mastered. My breath picked up speed and so did my pulse, liquid lust already forming at my core. And then, all too soon, his hand was gone, my eyes opening into his perfect, loving hazels.
"Stand up, dea. We need to go." My brow furrowed, my eyes immediately travelling to his mother. Mrs Shaffer was already standing, Mathew keeping a protecting hand at her back. "You need to stand up, Julia. Now!" My foggy brain refused to register his words, my body failing to jump into action, probably lacking the blood that's been taken from me. A deep, tired sigh left Gabriel's lips as he stooped down and picked me up in his arms, starting to walk with me in his arms like I weighed nothing at all.
"What happened?" I asked, finally realising that something was wrong indeed, my murderer's stiff body living proof of that. "I should be waiting for the results of my tests, Gabriel. What the hell happened?" His tired, sad eyes found mine for a moment before travelling back down.
"Mathew talked to Lombardi. He'll have your blood tests sent to us." Ok, so that was taking care of the tests' results, but it didn't answer my other question. Probably knowing that I wasn't going to let that go, Gabriel sighed shortly before mumbling his following words to me. "Marco's here. He's alive." My mouth opened in utter shock, my murderer quickly continuing. "We'll talk about it when we get to the villa." I knew why he was saying that. He feared that I was going to start asking questions in public and he couldn't have let that happen. But he was wrong. I had no questions to ask and nothing to say. Marco was alive. He was here. My worst nightmare was unfolding before my eyes, making me cripple with fear in Gabriel's arms.