Angelo

After my mother fed Gia enough food for an army, I carried her upstairs and into the bathroom that connected my bedroom to the vacant one next door. I lowered her to the floor, clutching her at my side, and turned the shower knobs. Still in disbelief I had her back, I got on my knees in front of her. Staring up at Gia, I pushed the dress over her legs and pulled her closer to me by her hips.

She took her dress off and dropped it to the floor behind her. I analyzed every bruise and scar left on her body by her kidnappers and kissed each of them. My lips caressed every bit of her skin.

Gia threaded her fingers through my hair and moaned. “Angelo… baby, I missed you. I missed this.”

With each kiss, I whispered I was sorry and that I loved her. I promised to never let her out of my sight again. I promised to care for her and our child. I vowed to be a good husband and father. Most of all, I vowed to keep her safe. No one would ever touch a hair on her head again. I would kill anyone who tried to harm Gia or our child.

Family was important to me. Even though I had a love-hate relationship with my brothers and father, I still loved them. I would die for them. I would kill for them. And I would do the same for Gia and our family.

After I finished appraising every inch of Gia’s body, I pushed myself up to my feet and slid my jacket over my shoulders. Gia removed my pants, while I worked on my shirt. We stood there with nothing separating us.

I pushed the glass door to the side, reached into the tiled shower to feel the water, and then lifted Gia up and placed her inside. She closed her eyes when the water splashed across her beautiful face. When she opened her eyes, she smiled at me. It was the same smile she’d given me the last time I saw her. I’d hoped for weeks that my Gia would return to me. She was still there, the same girl I’d fell in love with as a boy.

I got in with her and closed the door behind me, pulling her into my arms. She hooked her arm around my back and leaned her head against my chest, turning her head to the side to look up and into my eyes.

“I can’t believe you’re here,” I whispered and smacked a kiss on her forehead. “I tried to buy you. I thought I lost you. Forever.”

“You could never lose me, Angelo.” She moved her hand up my chest to cover my heart. “Because I will always be in here.”

I stroked her cheek. “Cuore mio.”

Gia had said those words to me since we were old enough to understand what we had was real love. The kind of love worth fighting for. Worth dying for. She was my heart, my soul. Gia was my end and my beginning. I didn’t exist without her. I couldn’t function without her. Her absence was proof of that.

“I love you, Gianna.” I kissed her lips, softly and only for a few seconds, before pressing my forehead against hers. “I can’t live without you. While you were gone, I couldn’t sleep or eat. All I did was hunt and kill. Losing you turned me into a madman. I’m not the same man as before you were taken from me.”

She moved her hand up to my cheek and held it there, stroking my skin with her thumb. “There’s good in you, Angelo. You show me every time we are together. I know you’re afraid of failing me. I know you blame yourself for what happened to me. But I don’t. Not once did I blame you for my kidnapping.”

“You should. It’s my fault.” The water rained down us, but I shielded her the best I could. “None of this would have happened if I didn’t kill Enzo’s son. If I didn’t kill some of his men. You suffered so Enzo could show me how much power he has over our family. My father is losing his edge. Everything is falling apart.”

“No matter what, you still have me. You have this baby that’s growing inside me.”

I leaned my head back against the tiled wall and held Gia at an arm’s length so I could get a good look at her body. It was different and still as beautiful as I’d remembered. Her breasts were bigger, more rounded. I cupped her left breast in my hand and massaged her nipple with my finger. As always, Gia was responsive to my touch. The tiny bud hardened for me, and Gia let out a soft moan.

I ran my other hand over her stomach. “I still don’t believe it,” I confessed. “I thought you were on the pill.”

“I was.” She leaned into my hand. “I kept forgetting to take it with all the shit we had going on. I would double up on the pills I missed. I tried to remember to take it on a regular schedule, but in all honesty, I didn’t care as much after we got engaged. You were going to be my husband. We knew we wanted kids. I figured if it was going to happen it would, and it did.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“There was this girl who worked for Dante. Her name is Alexandria, but she goes by the name Lucky.”

“I know her,” I admitted.

“You do?” Her voice had a strange squeal to it.

I nodded. “I met her a few times down in AC. She’s been with Dante a long time. I guess she’s like his headmistress.”

“She was nice to me. We became friends. I wanted to take her with me. She was the one who figured out I was pregnant. I was supposed to stay with her and Dante, but I told him I was pregnant. Then, he punished me before he sold me.”

My jaw clenched in anger. “He punished you how?”

“He didn’t hurt me. But he made me watch him fuck Lucky. He made a real show of it as if he wanted me to know what I was missing.”

I bit back my words for Gia’s benefit.

Now that I had her back, I had to try my best to act like the man I used to be. Controlling my temper was a good start. Gia needed someone levelheaded who would make her feel safe, not some lunatic hell-bent on revenge. But my father made it clear that Gia’s return had conditions I was expected to obey. No vendettas, no retaliation. I had to honor his wish when he’d granted mine.

I lifted a bottle of shampoo from the ledge and began to work it into Gia’s curls. She turned around, so her back was flat against my chest. I washed her hair, then made my way to her body. The tangerine body wash she liked was in the shower from the last time she’d stayed at my parent’s house with me. We were alone on this side of the house. And I planned to make use of the time we had together.

I lathered the soap in my hands and rubbed it down her arms, taking my time when I got to her chest. Gia covered my hands with hers and held them over her breasts. My growing erection was digging into her lower back. I didn’t want to make this about sex, but Gia had other plans.

“I need to feel you, Angelo.” She licked her lips, drinking in some of the water that landed on her face. “It’s been too long.”

I brushed my lips along her ear. “You need to rest. Let me take care of you. After you get some sleep and recover, you will feel me… everywhere.”

She shook her head. “I don’t want to wait. My body might be sore from the drugs and the shitty conditions, but I need you, Angelo. I need this. I need to feel you.”

This was our way of communicating. It was never just about sex with us. The act itself might have been intense and sometimes too rough, but we showed each other how much we loved each other with our bodies. It was how we healed, how we became one. When I would go to my dark place, all Gia had to say were those five words to bring me back to life. I couldn’t feel a thing with anyone but Gia. She was the link to my humanity, and she held the key.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” I told her. “You’re too weak. You need your strength.”

With her back to me, Gia looked up and smiled. “Go slow. Be gentle. Take your time. We have all night. Show me how much you’ve missed me.”

I spun Gia around, so we were facing and kissed her, soft and sensual for once. Each kiss was a silent promise, as I made love to her mouth. Gia wasn’t used to me being gentle, but I was always good to her. When we were younger, I took everything slow, never pushed anything too far. I was trying to be that person for her. Instead of my usual rough tough, I kissed her as if she was my last breath, and I needed her to survive. Because I did.

Gia slid her hands up to my neck and hooked her leg around me, digging her heel into my ass. I lifted her up, and she pinned the other leg around me, holding on to me for dear life. She dragged her fingers down my arms, her nails piercing my skin. I liked the pain. Feeling something with Gia made all of this real.

She was back.

She was mine.

And I would never let her go.

Ever.

I’d made the mistake once, one I would not make again. When you have something worth fighting for, you have to protect it at all costs. Gia was always it for me. No one and nothing could ever compare to her. She absolved me of my sins, forgave me when I was at my worst. I owed whatever shred of decency that was left inside me to her.

Gripping Gia by the hips, I lowered her onto my cock and used the wall behind me for support. We both closed our eyes and moaned the second I was inside her. She pressed down on my shoulders, her tits bouncing in my face. I opened my mouth and took her nipple between my teeth, pulling out of her slowly, before I filled her up again.

She screamed my name, her voice growing louder the closer she got to her orgasm. Gia was so close I could feel it, her pussy milking my cock. I wasn’t too far behind her. After not having sex for a month, I couldn’t last much longer. She was too tight, too warm, her body too perfect for me to focus on anything else. I couldn’t distract myself. I wanted to get lost in her, feel every inch of her.

Gia came so hard her orgasm rocked right through me. She moaned. I growled, biting her nipple harder as I came along with her. Out of breath, I peeled my mouth from her breast and looked up at her.

“I love you, G.” I slid her off me and set her down on the ground. “So fucking much.”

She smiled and placed her palm on my chest. “I love you, too, Angelo. Thank you for saving me.”

I shook my head and sighed. “I didn’t save you. I couldn’t even find you.”

I felt worthless for not being the one to bring Gia back safely. That was my job, and I’d failed.

“You saved me in other ways.” She spoke so low it was hard to hear her over the water beating on my back. “When I had lost all hope, I thought of you. I knew we would find our way back to each other. And this baby,” she said, stroking her stomach, “kept me going on the worst days.”

Slowly, I dropped to my knees, holding her by the hips, and kissed her stomach. I planted gentle but deliberate kisses on every surface of her skin. My child was growing inside of her. Gia was about to become my wife and the mother of my child.

“I hope it’s a girl,” I admitted.

“Why?”

“Because she won’t be forced to become something she’s not. If we have a boy, my father will stake his claim before he’s even born. Every man in my family was born into this life. We never had a choice. That’s why I want a girl. She will never have to endure the wrath of my father.”

Gia took my hair in her hands and forced me to look up at her until our eyes met. “I want to have the baby before we get married. I want him or her to be part of our wedding.”

I got up from the floor, confused. “You want to wait that long?”

She nodded. “I would marry you right here if someone would officiate, but I want our child to be there, too. If we have a girl, she can be our flower girl, and if it’s a boy, our ring bearer. I’m not in any rush, Angelo. We’ve been together for most of our lives. I knew I was going to spend the rest of my life with you when I was a girl.”

“Almost losing you made me realize what little time we might have left.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” she whispered. “We are in this together.”

I brought her hand to my mouth and kissed her skin with a wicked grin on my lips. “Till death do us part.”