75
Lina's kidnapping pulled me out of the beautiful and unrealistic trance Arie had me under. When I tried to fly and live a little in love, life had to grab me by my throat and pin my ass down to reality in which anything could happen. If sick assholes could kidnap my innocent baby sister then what would they do with the woman I'm stupidly and irrevocably in love with. The bloody love of my life. She doesn't deserve to live in fear everyday because of me.
I should have let her go when I had the chance yesterday, but my idiotic heart melted for her fucking tears as usual. I should have never done that. It was a mistake. Now she's imprisoned in my bloody heart and I'm imprisoned in hers. This is how much she controlled me and I hated that a woman had such rule over me. She could make me do anything she wanted, anything that she craved. No woman has ever had such clawing power over me, not even my mother because I never let it happen so badly until now.
Striding towards the bar, I retrieved a glass from a cabinet and poured the venom of Brandy into it. With slow, small steps I reached for my chair behind the desk and seated myself on it with the entire bottle of the alcohol and the glass as a burden sat upon my chest. To numb the growing ache in my chest, I swallow the entire liquid down my throat in two gulps that sat in the glass, scorching my walls inside before I throw the glass against the wall, sending the shards everywhere and drinking from the bottle itself. This was the only way I could think of to ease the daunting pain lurking in my entire body.
A knock sounded at the door followed by her beautiful voice that immediately took away a fraction of the pain, forcing my head up that laid on the desk. "Leo, it's Arie. Can I come in?"
Pushing a button under the desk, I unlocked the door along with switching off the cameras and watched my queen walk in with a weak smile clinging onto her luscious lips and a little cut placed to the side of her lower lip. She looked like a bloody goddess with her gorgeous brown locks swaying down her shoulders, but her features had a certain sadness etched onto them.
"What's wrong, my love?" I managed to lift my queasy body up, heading towards her in quick steps. All of a sudden I had a certain energy within me to dismantle the person who was responsible for the furrowing in her brows. Cupping her face, I force her brown eyes to look into mine. "Tell me."
"Who's Verona?" Her question jarred a spear right through my chest, constricting my lungs, pinching my throat shut.
Swallowing the lump and pain that her name always brought in, I dropped my hands from her face and grabbed her wrist, tugging her with me around the desk. Taking a seat on the chair, I pulled her down onto my lap, my hands wrapping around her waist and hers wrapping around my neck, her beautiful long, smooth legs dangling off one side. "She was my past, love. That's all you need to know."
Verona has always been a sensitive topic for me ever since all that shit happened two years ago. She took a part of me with her, but this woman that sat on my lap right now restored that part with so much more, filling me up with so much happiness and love when I thought I'd never feel again. She added that extra emotion to everything. Her bloody smile has the magic to make me fall head first into her beautiful trap. I could share anything with this woman, anything she wanted me to, but not Verona. I never talked about her to anyone and I didn't want to talk to Arie about her, the woman I'm madly in love with now. Maybe one day when I'm ready, I'll spill all my darkest secrets.
"Past? That's all I get?" She frowned as she shifted on my lap, unintentionally making my member ache all of a sudden. The power this woman has over me is ridiculous.
"For now, yes. She's not a part of me anymore. She was my past, so let's keep her there. You're my present. You're my now."
"And future?" Her curiosity hits my face. How am I supposed to answer that? I could easily see her in my future. She could be the queen that ruled the empire with me and she could be the mother to my kids, but the amount of pain that she would be dragged through would literally kill me. I know I can protect her perfectly, but the paranoia still gets the best of me. I couldn't protect Verona. I couldn't keep her safe...
A hard slap landed across my right cheek, jerking me out of my brooding thoughts. "What the fuck was that for?" I looked up at Arie who had a scowl planted on her face while something began swirling in my eyes and thoughts.
"Because I know exactly what you're thinking. The same old bad world crap and you can't put me through that shit."
"They took my sister today, tomorrow they'll take you and I can't bear that."
"Remember what you said this morning?" She lifted my chin up and forced me to look into her enticing eyes. "You said that I'm yours and only yours. I don't plan on being anyone else's blessing, but yours because you're mine, not Verona's or anyone. You're only mine and will always be mine. You know what I see in my future?"
"What?"
"I see you. I see us. I see till death do us part. That's what I see and I want it to be true." She hefted up and placed each leg to either sides of my lap, straddling me while her soft hands feather my cheeks. "I know your world holds a lot of darkness and I know I'm ready for it because I'm already living in it, Leo. Nothing you can do or say will push me away, so don't even try to do so. I make my own decisions and I've decided to love you and be with you for however long I live because I'm in love with you."
"How in the bloody hell did I get so fucking lucky with you?" I smiled at the most beautiful woman that was utterly in love with me. The corners of her eyes creased up due to the curling of her lips through which the most breathtaking smile shined and glistened, trapping my damn soul in it.
"I honestly don't know. I'm a pretty hard catch, if you didn't know. You're one lucky bastard." She snickered, urging me to let out a bark of laugh. "In all honesty, I don't know how I got lucky with you."
"You're my light," I laid my head on her chest and pulled her further into me. "You have no idea how happy you make me."
She tightened her hold on me and rocked us back and forth before she pulled away and grabbed my injured hand. Furrowing her brows, she scowled at me. "Does your stupid ass not care about your injuries or what? You act like you're fucking invincible. Look at all this blood." She examined the bandage further and continued her little rant, but all I could think about was how adorable she looked with her nose turning red and my hardness shifting underneath her. "You didn't have to hurt yourself and punch that poor man. And knock that stupid grin off your face."
"I can't help it. I need you to assist," I winked at her and compelled her to chuckle, looking away at the glass shards on the floor.
"What happened here?" She shifted her gaze from the sharp shards and directed it towards the hole in the wall.
"The talk did not go too well. I never raised a hand on my sister and today I almost did that."
"But you didn't and that's what matters. Apologize to her when you have the time." She pecked my lips and pulled back immediately. "You reek of alcohol."
"I only drink when I'm hurting physically or mentally, in this case it was both." I twirled my fingers around her strands and tucked them behind her ear. "Sex releases natural morphine to reduce pain so do you want to try that out to help the pain in my hand?"
"Do you have some gum in here so I can shove it in your mouth?" She giggled and tried to pull herself off of me, but I gripped her thighs tight and restricted her from moving another inch.
"Is that so? Why don't you have a taste?" I reached up and pulled her sensual lips into my mouth, sliding my tongue past her teeth and massaging each flesh that it came in contact with.