Page 19 of His Wicked Obsession
“Because I mean it, and I need you to know that I find every curvy, lush inch of you desirable, and there isn’t a damn thing in the world that will change my mind.” The vehemence in my voice is coated with menace because I suspect whoever bugged her earrings can also hear what she does. And I’m convinced it’s the earrings. It’s the only damn thing that makes a lick of sense.
“Y-you do?” Her stuttering is adorable.
“Cara mia, if you want me to prove it to you again, just ask Daddy. I’ll never deny you.” A haze of lust intensifies her emerald eyes, and I could drown in them.
“Could, uh…could, we…” She grows shy. Closing her eyes, the words rush out in one spurt of breath. “Could we do more than that?” Her hands move up and down my sides, unleashing a yearning to claim this woman in the most visceral way possible.
Nuzzling her neck again, I kiss up her throat and settle right behind her ear. “Tonight, I’m going to ravish you. I’m going to bring you to heights of pleasure you’ve never even dreamed of, and just when you don’t think you can take anymore, I’m going to have you begging for it.”
He’s lying. See how he’s not doing it right now when you’re begging like a slut? He wants nothing to do with you.
I’m going to find this asshole and fucking kill him. What I did to Aimes will be nothing compared to how this fucker suffers.
“We need to fucking talk,” I growl at Maso, Lude, and Santi as I enter the kitchen. “Where’s Pace?” I know for a fact he’s going to enjoy this one. “What?” I snap when Santi and Maso share a look.
“Isabel went into labor, and there’s a few complications. She needs him there,” Santi explains.
“Is she okay? The baby? What can we do?” Nothing will take the wind out of my sales faster than hearing that someone I love is hurting. Isabel wormed her way into my heart the minute I watched her standing up to marry my little brother.
“Nothing.” Maso shakes his head. “Domino and Nicola are with them. Amalia is going once Mama takes the baby. We’re here to help you and Bella, and it sounds like you’re about ready to go to war.” He raises a brow in question.
“Someone planted a device in her earrings. It’s why she’s hearing voices. None of it is in her head,” I spit out. I’m so fucking pissed.
“Are you fucking serious?” Lude explodes out of his chair. “When the hell would they have done that? Nobody has access to her.”
“She never takes them off.” Bria’s quiet voice from behind makes me turn. Her face shows distress as she pads over to her husband. Maso is quick to pull her into his arms and kiss her.
“Where is she?” Bria nods behind me, and I turn again. Bella stands in the entryway, swamped in one of my sweaters, a tight pair of black leggings, and thick socks. Holding out a hand for her, she reaches for me.
“What’s going on?” she asks, her trusting gaze staring up at me. I catch Santi writing a quick note on some paper as Maso takes Bria over to the kettle to turn it on and make some noise.
As Santi hands the paper to Bella, fear immediately distorts her face. “Sit,” I instruct her. “You need to eat.”
Her head shakes as she takes the earrings out. “I’m not hungry.”
“Cara mia.” I kneel in front of her as Santi collects the jewelry. “You need to eat for me. I need to take care of you.” Leaning forward, I whisper in her ear, “We’ll talk about everything later. For now, whoever that is has to believe we don’t know about what’s going on.”
Inhaling deeply, she finally nods and asks for some bread and olive oil. The tea kettle whistles, and Bria starts talking about the tea collection in my cupboard to find out which one Bella would like before diving into news about Isabel and the baby.
“Isa’s having the baby?” Bella’s excitement is uncontainable. “Can we go see her?” Her hopeful eyes land on me as I’m warming up the bread.
“In the morning, we will, but you have your appointment tomorrow afternoon, too.” The reminder is like a bucket of cold water being poured on her.
“Right.” I hate the dejected look on her face.
Bringing the comforting drink and bread to her, I lean down to kiss her cheek. “As soon as we’ve had breakfast, I’ll take you to see Isabel; hopefully, she’ll be ready for visitors by then.”
“Hopefully, Pace will,” Maso snorts, and Bria giggles, making Bella frown.
“Pace is more than obsessed with his young wife,” Bria explains to her. “If he doesn’t think she’s ready, he won’t allow it, no matter what the doctors say.”
Silence falls around the room as Lude and I silently fume over the hell Bella has been under. Someone deliberately set out to torment her like this, and while I’m determined to get to the bottom of it, I don’t like that she’s currently hurting or what we’ll have to do in order to resolve this. Because the bottom line is, she might have to put the earrings back in, and that’s the last fucking thing I want for her.
CHAPTER 11
Bella
I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. That shoe being Donato asking me to put the earrings back in, to hear the voice again. To listen to it spew its hate towards me. I know he and his brothers stayed up most of the night trying to trace who is doing this to me.