Taken

by Esme Devlin

  “I’m well aware. We just… I mean, we barely know each other.”

  “So we’ll make a conscious effort. I don’t give a fuck. You’re perfect for me in every single way,” he says, tracing his fingers down my spine.

  I narrow my eyes at him. “I want a long engagement.”

  “Two weeks should do it,” he tells me with a shrug. I’m about to open my mouth to protest when he laughs. “I told you, whatever you want. Just as long as you accept that you’re mine.”

  “I think I just accepted it, didn’t I?”

  He flicks his eyebrows and smirks. “I think you just accepted it pretty fucking well.”

  Chapter 12

  JULIAN

  When she'd finally caught her breath, I got her dressed and convinced her it would be a good idea to join the party.

  She did the cute little huffy face, as usual, but within twenty minutes we were back downstairs as if nothing had happened.

  "You remember Sofia?"

  My grandmother takes a step back and eyes her up.

  “Of course I do. I’ve still a brain between my ears and eyes in my head,” she replies, tapping me on the shoulder playfully. “Do you remember me, Sofia?” There's a warmth and her eyes I haven't seen for the long time.

  Sofia shifts nervously, "I'm sorry… I don't remember anything."

  My Grandmother, Rose, smiles and takes Sofia's hands in hers. "That's okay. It'll just take some time, I'm sure."

  They smile at each other and begin making small-talk. My grandmother, bless her, could talk the back legs off a donkey. I excuse myself to go and get some drinks. My father is sitting at the dining room table with his associates, playing cards and discussing matters of business.

  "Julian. I see you decided to join us?"

  “I’m not staying,” I tell him.

  Kane is sitting there, and I give him the you’re needed eyes. He puts his cards down on the table and declares himself out. I glance at them — it was a shit hand anyway and Kane couldn’t bluff to save his life.

  “At midnight I need everyone in here.”

  He narrows his eyes before nodding his head.

  “I mean it,” I tell him. “It’s important. Don’t fuck it up like you did playing bad cop.”

  He smiles and breaks into a laugh, giving me a slap on the back.

  “It’s done.”

  I nod and am about to continue on my way to get those drinks, when he pulls me back.

  “You’re nervous,” he says.

  “I am not.”

  “I know you, and I know when you’re nervous. What’s the worst that could happen?”

  I take a step back and sigh. “Oh, I don’t know? She says no in front of every friend, relative, and business associate I’ve ever had?”

  Kane chuckles and shakes his head. “And when has a woman ever said no to you?”

  “This is different and you know it. She’s different. The circumstances are… different.”

  “Then make sure you treat her different,” he says, before walking back to the table.

  The hours until midnight drag by and I swear I start thinking my watch is fucked. But it’s not that. Kane said I’m nervous. I’ve never been nervous in my life before, and I’m not about to get into the habit of doing it now.

  She won’t say no. She won’t say no because I mean what I say — I’ll give her fucking everything. Everything she ever wanted or needed. I’ll make her a goddamn queen.

  She’s sitting down at the table next to my father. When I dropped by earlier to see if she needed another drink, he was deep in conversation with her, telling her about the time she choked on a grape when she was a toddler and we all thought she was going to die. I remember it, I was eleven.

  I remember looking to my father. You always do that, in times of need. Why wasn’t my dad saving the day? It was my mother who rushed in, though. Put Sofia over her knee like she was a sack of feathers and started pounding on her back until the thing shot from her mouth.

  My mother passed away that winter.

  I wish she could have been here to see her now.

  At the strike of the clock I know it’s now or never.

  I approach, and my father stops talking. She glances up at me and I swear I can see her soul inside those witchy green eyes. She’s so fucking beautiful it makes my chest hurt just thinking about it.

  That’s when you know. When just looking at someone makes your heart speed up and you almost forget to fucking breathe.

  I take her hand, my other one stuck inside my pocket fiddling with the little velvet box there. I have my mothers ring. I hope she likes it, and that it’s enough for her.

  When I get down on one knee, the room goes quiet and fades away to nothing. Sofia glances around before settling her eyes on me.

  “You know what I’m going to say?”

  She nods, the hint of a smile tugging at her lips. “I can guess,” she says. “But I still want you to do it properly.”

  “You’re killing me, woman,” I tell her.

  She giggles and her smile lights up the room. “Sofia Romano. The most beautiful, funny, headstrong, pain in the ass I’ve ever met.”

  She taps me on the shoulder but since she’s smiling, I reckon I have a free pass. “Would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”

  Her eyes bore into me and I’m holding my breath, waiting for her next words. The whole room is watching her. The seconds drag on, feeling like forever. I need her to be forever.

  Finally, fucking finally, she nods her head. “Yes.”

  I’m up off my knees instantly, taking her head in my hands and pulling her in close to me. My precious piccolina. “I meant what I said,” I whisper. “I promise you, you’ll never regret this. Not for a second.”

  She tilts her head up at me, and blinks a few times. “You better make sure of it,” she threatens, her tone light.

  I bend down and whisper into her ear. “I’ll kill anyone who stands in our way.”

  Chapter 13

  EPILOGUE

  Did I regret it?

  No.

  Not for a second.

  Just as Julian promised.

  My it better be a long engagement attitude was chipped away at every day for the first month. I don’t know why I expected any different. Have I ever had a choice when it comes to Julian? Not really.

  But in some ways I like that better. He just knows stuff that I don’t even think about. With Derek dead, I got everything. Turned out he owned two nightclubs, a shipping yard, and had a whole portfolio of shares in various tech-companies. I didn’t even know he had anything… we were always piss-poor growing up. I only realized after I met Julian, and him and his father sat me down and explained everything, that keeping my father’s assets from Derek had been a carefully constructed plan.

  But with him gone, they could reverse everything they did to hide the assets and give it all to me.

  So marrying was the most sensible thing to do. At least that’s what I tell myself. If I’m honest, though, by the end of that month I think I was just as desperate to marry as Julian was (though I’d never let him know that).

  Three months later I had a wedding band on my finger and a baby in my belly. That baby is three now, Lucia, and we have another one on the way. She’s as wild as a spring meadow, and never goes anywhere without her dog. Julian had Diesel bred specifically so she could have her own one. Lucia called her Roma, with a little nudge from Julian who said Trixibelle wasn’t an appropriate name for a Cane Corso — even if it was the cutest thing he’d ever heard.

  I told him we’re not getting another one when this baby comes.

  And although I have the perfect family life, I never turned into that painted doll. I took a managing role in one of the nightclubs — the one in our hometown. It’s called La Cabala and there is no upstairs where girls are bought and sold like cattle.

  It’s classy and stylish and the cocktail menu is longer than the spirits list.

  I’m
working late tonight. I don’t really have to… I have a whole team of people who make sure that even if I wanted to spend the month in the Bahamas, La Cabala would still run like a well-oiled machine. Jessica runs the bar for me, and Whitney and Matt both sacked the job at Carpathia and joined us within a few weeks. So me being here isn’t really needed, but Lucia is already in bed and Julian had some urgent business to attend to of the less-than-legal kind (which I try to stay out of).

  I’m going through last weeks purchase orders with Jessica when there’s a knock at the door.

  “Come in,” I shout. It’s probably Kane. Julian hired him as head of security. Says he didn’t trust anyone else with my safety. So far, the worst thing that’s happened is a paper-cut — but who am I to argue?

  The door opens to reveal Julian, dressed in his signature black suit with his charcoal shirt unbuttoned slightly.

  “Jessica,” he says in greeting.

  She gets up from her chair and smiles at him. “Mr Rinaldi. We weren’t expecting you tonight.” She looks between me and Julian. “I’ll leave you two to catch up.”

  She knows the drill. It’s happened a hundred times before.

  “Thanks, Jessica,” I call as she crosses the room and slides around Julian.

  With her gone, he closes the door and pushes the deadbolt over.

  I lean back in my chair, watching him. “I wasn’t expecting you tonight.”

  He shoves his hands in his pockets and tilts his head to the side. “If you ever start expecting me to do this, then I’ll start switching it up,” he tells me.

  “And how are you going to do that?”

  He slides his suit jacket off and throws it over the chair in the corner of my office, before rolling his sleeves up.

  “If I told you, I’d have to think of more ways.”

  “Are you saying you’re not up to the challenge?”

  He scoffs. “Sounds like my little bird needs another lesson?”

  I shake my head slowly but I know my eyes are betraying what I’m thinking.

  “Get up,” he tells me.

  I stand, but don’t make any move towards him.

  “Take your panties off and sit up on that desk for me.”

  Feeling my cheeks heat at the thought of it, I do as he says.

  “Now spread them. Show me what I’ve been thinking about for the last three days straight.”

  I give him the smallest peek and he shakes his head. “You can do better than that, piccolina.” His tone is stern but I know he’s playing.

  I shake my head, feigning ignorance. “You’ll have to show me.”

  He crosses the room, eyeing me up like he’s a hungry wolf and tonight I’m the lamb. I remember that first night I ever laid eyes on him… where I felt exactly like the lamb I’m feeling now. He still looks at me like that — every single day. Except now there’s something more there. It’s not just lust. It’s not just obsession.

  It’s the feeling of being completed by someone else. The feeling that together, we’re the same person.

  When he looks at me like that, I’d sign my own soul away for him.

  He splits my legs open and fiddles with his buckle while he bends down and catches my lips. Sometimes he’ll spend hours teasing me with those lips, devouring every inch of flesh on my body. But on nights like this, when we haven’t seen each other in a couple of days — he knows exactly what I need. What we both need.

  Hard and fast and quick and mindless.

  I need him to bury himself inside me and not stop until I’m screaming his name. And I need it right now.

  As if he already knows all of that, he pushes inside me all the way and I cry out as the relief washes over my body. Without him, I truly feel empty. With him, I feel home.

  Now we both have what we need, he pulls the buttons on my blouse apart and pushes my bra down my shoulders.

  “Fuck, baby,” he says at the sight of me. My too-small tits gained a couple of sizes after Lucia. He loved them anyway, but he loves them even more now.

  “Bend over for me,” he whispers through a kiss. “I want to feel them bouncing in my hands while I fuck you senseless.”

  I break the kiss for just a second to do as he says, sliding my skirt down over my hips and pulling my blouse off. He’s still fully clothed, and that turns me on even more.

  Bending over the desk, he slides quickly inside me and grabs a hold of my tits in his hands while he thrusts into me. I can tell he’s close when his hands slip and his fingers dig into my hips, forcing me closer to him, forcing himself deeper.

  “You’re mine, little bird,” he says. “Always mine.”

  “Yes,” I cry out.

  He loves hearing that.

  “Say it again,” he says, giving my ass a slap that has every muscle in my body clenching and contracting.

  “Yours. Always. Fuck.”

  Heat erupts from him and he pulls me up close into his chest while his hands run over my tits and his mouth devours my neck.

  I may tease him, but I will never, ever, get tired of this.

  Looking back, I wouldn’t change a thing about any of it. He’s the most attentive husband I could ever have asked for. A skilled businessman. A doting father. But more than that, Julian is home to me. He’s everything I didn’t even know I wanted — just as he promised he would be.

  “I fucking love you, piccolina,” he says, kissing me on the top of my head.

  “I love you, too.”

  THE END

  Also by ESME DEVLIN

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