Santiago

I release my breath with a hiss when Bella looks at me with eyes drowning in vulnerability and fear, her agreement making the joy I thought I would feel ring hollow in my ears.

“You will be with me? Be my wife?” I ask, my heart pounding all the louder when she nods again, her lips trembling into a smile.

“Yes,” she whispers.

“And you think that you can be happy with me, Isabella? Be your true self again and stop drifting through life as a ghost?” I ask, my mind refusing to let go of it until I am assured.

“Yes. I can be happy.”

The words lighten my heart exponentially and I push myself up and grab her with a joy and passion I have not experienced before. Her lips open on a gasp when I lean down to kiss her and I feel the arousal that is always burning just under my skin burst to life.

She doesn’t protest when I pull her up and into my arms, bending to swing her legs up so I can carry her to the bed. I undress her quickly, shedding my own clothes with impatient hands and walk to the bed with one thought in my mind.

I need her now.

Bella rolls when I come down on the bed, evading my hands and I growl a protest when she scoots back and sits up on her knees.

“Hands off, Alvarez. I want to play.”

I don’t think I could stand-

I moan when she lowers her head before I can argue and clench my ass when her mouth opens over the head of my cock, the wet swirl of her tongue sliding over the mushroomed head making me stiffen yet more.

It feels so good I can’t manage to protest. Her mouth surrounds me, moving down the shaft slowly, her cheeks hollowing when she sucks before moving up again to suckle at the head.

Her hand closes around me, pumping the hard stalk, her grip tight, just the way she knows I like it. I need her too much and, despite the pleasure, I try to rear up to roll her to her back.

I want to taste her, drive her mad with the pleasure and show her that she has made the right choice in choosing to stay.

“I need to taste you.” I snarl, bowing up when she sucks harder and refuses to release me.

The need in me builds and I’m on the verge of throwing her to her back when she surprises me and throws her leg over my shoulder, putting her wet sex right in my face.

I grin despite the pain of holding back and palm her ass, pulling her onto my mouth without preliminaries. Bella gasps around my flesh, her moans vibrating through my shaft and I growl, spearing my tongue into her sheath.

I can’t stand this much longer, I know it when I feel her hand reach down to cradle my balls, her fingers rolling as she sucks me softly and flicks her tongue into the slit at the head of my shaft.

She moans, grinding her sex against my marauding tongue and I shudder and try to hold off, wanting her to come this way, in my mouth so I have the taste of her on my tongue when I’m inside her.

“Oh.” She grunts, ripping her mouth off me when the pleasure becomes too great.

I grin, pulling her down harder, my mouth closing over her slit from clit to entrance as I suck and drink her in. Bella screams when my teeth graze off her clit and I enjoy the feel of her orgasm before she slumps down, her breath wafting over my leaking length.

I should leave her to recover, I know she is bound to be sensitive, but I am almost mad with the need to be inside her at this stage. Rolling out from under, I hike her hips up and slide into her from behind, the molten lava heat of her still quivering sheath welcoming me.

Gritting my teeth, I push all the way inside, going until my balls slap against her sex and hold there, counting to thirty with my teeth clenched to stave off the come boiling up my shaft.

“Ooooh, feels so good,” she moans, pushing back more to snuggle her rounded ass into my hips.

I don’t move, I can’t and not come, so I pay some attention to her back and wait for her to settle. Bella likes my teeth and tongue on her, so that is what I give her, nibbling all the way to her nape and licking out, adoring her skin as I wait for her to be ready for another climax.

I am half mad by the time I feel her interest return and the way she circles her hips, forcing me deeper. The sensations take me to the brink and I reach around almost desperately to strum her clit, praying that she comes first because I am right there.

Her scream and the tightening around my shaft send me over before I can stop it and I come so hard I feel everything inside me buckle and rush forward.

It’s hard, almost painful, but it feels right and I wait until she has reached her completion before dragging out of her, groaning at the sensitive scrape of her sex along my softening shaft.

Falling onto the mattress, I pant and smile when she rolls closer, demanding her cuddles in that way that only my Isabella has. She’s so tough, yet vulnerable.

It makes me understand for the first time that I have power over this woman. She may no longer love me but I have the power to hurt her because she cares.

I vow to never push her to the point I did before when all I could think about was running and keeping myself from taking more.

“I hope to God everything goes well,” she murmurs after a lengthy silence, her eyes getting a lost and faraway look.

I know she’s speaking about finding Gabriella and I feel my stomach clench at the prospect. Everything is so perfect between us right now and I don’t want that to change.

Yes, I need to find Gabriella, I cannot rest until I do, but it is not easy to know that one of the things I have to do in life could ruin the peace that I have discovered now with Bella.

“It will be fine, Bella. You know what you are doing and the information checks out. Don’t worry about it,” I murmur, my chest tightening.

“I can’t help it! You know how I feel about family, Santiago. We need to get her back, make a good home for her and make her a part of a family. Children need family.”

I know. I have heard Bella’s stories about her parents more than once and the thought of any innocent child experiencing even half of that makes me so angry.

Children deserve love and laughter, stability, all the things that I had when I was growing up. Sure, maybe my own parents were not that great either, their lust for pleasure and partying being the only thing in life that made them happy.

But I had Nona and Javi, my grandfather. They gave me stability, discipline and a life that was secure because I never doubted that they loved me and my siblings.

I did not know my sisters very well growing up. They attended boarding schools until they came of age and then went off to marry and that was it. My brother Carlos was more a wild child than actual brother so it’s not as if I had this great childhood with all my family around.

It was lonely at times with Nona always busy puttering around and caring for Javi and Javi himself was constantly busy running his companies and taking care of the vineyard so that I could inherit it as second son.

But I was loved. I was always loved and, unlike Bella who grew up with parents who were no parents at all, I have always understood that having a loving family makes the difference.

So yes, I am nervous about finding Gabriella but I am confident that with Bella there to give her unconditional love, everything will work out exactly as it should.

“She will have a family, Bella. She will have a mama and a papa and a Nona,” I assure her, swallowing when she nods and squeezes me tight.

“I hope she’ll be happy with us, Santiago. I want her to be happy with us.”

“She will be,” I assure her, knowing that I may be lying but powerless to say anything else.

We could meet her and find her in a family who loves her and would balk at having her ripped from them. She could be happy and refuse to come home.

I could be forced to use the court to remove her. There are any number of things that could go wrong but all I say to my soft-hearted wife is that it will work out. Because I need it to.

I have dreamed of this for so long now that I cannot allow for any other outcome or consider the risk of failure.

I have failed Bella once before, failed Gabriella. I refuse to let that happen again.

“Aunt Sue said we should take her a gift but it feels so much like a bribe that I can’t let myself do it, even if I want to.”

Screw that, I think. I will use whatever I must to make her want to be with us. I even considered arriving there with a pony. All little girls want a pony, right?

“We should just stop thinking of everything that can go wrong and get some sleep,” I murmur, knowing that I won’t sleep a wink until we discover the truth tomorrow.

Bella yawns and snuggles down, her breathing going deep and even in minutes, now that I have whisked away all of her fears. But how do I rid myself of mine, I wonder, waiting another minute for her to roll onto her stomach as she always does before leaving the bed.

Shortly after landing, we made it to the hotel and fell on each other, the passion we share out of control now that I know I have her. At least long enough to work at keeping her.

I tiptoe out of the bedroom to pour myself a drink, staring out at the still night outside the window, drinking slowly as I think about everything that led to this moment and hating those who made it so hard for me.

I hate Lena the most, hope she burns in hell with my brother for giving away a child that is of my blood and keeping a secret that has ruined me but had the potential to save me years ago.

Mostly, I hate myself because if I had only been better, smarter, stronger this would never have happened. Gabriella would have been with us all this time, filling the villa with laughter and making Nona and myself happy.

One day, perhaps if things work out for us, I will find it within myself to forgive Lena, Carlos and Brian Cassidy for what they have all stolen from us.

Tonight, though, I drink and pray to God that Bella and I make it. I know now that I cannot give her up, but that does not mean she cannot leave me.