by Marian Tee
Upon reaching Eula’s room, Vivian offered to tuck the little girl in bed so that Luca could change and freshen up.
Luca gave her a gracious nod, murmuring, “I’ll take you up on that if you don’t mind.” As he turned away, he continued smoothly, “We can talk after my shower.”
She forced a smile. “Sure.”
When Luca left, she took her time drawing the covers up to Eula’s neck and unpacking her bag, doing her best to kill time. Eula started to stir a moment later, and Vivian stilled.
The little girl’s eyes fluttered open slowly. “Vivi?”
“H-hey.” She sat down carefully, perched on the edge of the bed. “Sleep some more, principesa.”
Eula shook her head. “I don’t want to.”
Her eyes widened. “Why?”
“I have bad dreams.”
Stroking Luca’s daughter head comfortingly, she asked Eula what those dreams were about but the little girl only shook her head, asking, “What if Mummy will take me away?”
Vivian’s hand on Eula’s hair stilled, and she wondered painfully if that was what Eula’s dreams were about. Did they terrify Eula because in her dreams Vivian had forced her to choose?
Forcing herself to smile, she asked, “Don’t you want to spend more time with Maria?”
Something flickered in the child’s eyes before Eula slowly nodded.
“Then there’s nothing to worry about.” Vivian had a hard time keeping her smile. “You’re a good girl---”
Eula looked stricken.
Vivian frowned. “Eula?”
“Am I a good girl,” Eula asked shakily, “because I’ll go away with Mummy?”
“I…I…yes.” Eula’s eyes filled up, leaving Vivian at a loss. “Eula, what’s wrong? Che cos’e?”
But the little girl refused to answer and squeezed her eyes shut instead, pretending to fall asleep.
Vivian did her best to cajole Eula into answering her questions, but she eventually gave up, seeing that Eula still needed time.
Placing a kiss on the little girl’s forehead, she whispered, “Just remember I’m on your side, principesa, always.”
After closing the door behind her, Vivian leaned tiredly against the wall as her eyes shut closed.
God, she was so stupid.
Had she really thought she stood a chance against Eula’s own birth mother?
“Vivi?”
Her head jerked up, and she blinked when she saw Luca coming out of their bedroom. His dark hair was still wet, his broad chest accentuated by his thin, V-neck undershirt and his long legs encased in a loose pair of pants.
Before she could think of what to say, Luca was already striding towards her, and by the time her lips parted he had already hauled her into his arms, crushing her mouth under his.
Oh!
Vivian surrendered into the kiss, her arms curling around his neck tightly. She craved for the euphoria his touch always offered, needing it to forget---
His tongue pushed inside her mouth, and she eagerly sucked it, making her husband groan. Without breaking their kiss, the billionaire pushed her against the wall as he lifted her up, and her legs immediately wrapped around his waist.
He ground his cock against her throbbing mound, and she whimpered.
At the sound, Luca managed to tear his mouth away from his wife’s, and even as she mewled in protest, he demanded hoarsely, “I need to know you’re okay.”
She moaned, her soft, sensual green eyes pleading unconsciously with him. “Just make love to me, Luca.” It was a rare instance for his wife to ask him for sex, and his control snapped.
He unbuckled his belt and unzipped himself with uncool haste, and when she began to pant as if she couldn’t bear to wait for him, his arousal heightened, ripping a harsh growl out of his throat.
Their eyes locked just as his manhood sprung free, thick and engorged, pulsing powerfully against her wet underwear---
“I love you.” His voice was fierce.
Oh!
The words were completely unexpected, and coming from a man who had once pushed her away because he had been terrified in taking the risk of falling in love with her---
“Luca---”
His hand went under her skirt, and she stopped speaking, her throat tightening at the exciting feel of his hand on the bare curve of her hip.
“I’m glad you’re over those CSI suits, and you’re back to wearing skirts.” His light blue eyes smirked down at her. “It makes things more convenient.” And as if to demonstrate, the words was followed by the telltale sound of her lace panties tearing, and Vivian bit hard into her lower lip to keep herself from moaning.
And then he was thrusting hard into her, so damn deep that every inch of her insides felt stuffed full of him.
Her fingers dug into the panes of his back. “Oh, Luca.”
She had missed this so, so much, and as he withdrew and shoved his erection back into her, it seemed like he did, too, and her legs tightened around his waist, relief flooding her.
Didn’t this mean he hadn’t spent any of his time in Italy cheating on her with his ex-wife?
Their lovemaking was fast and furious, and she might have made a joke about it if she wasn’t so busy trying to hold on to him as he slammed into her again and again. When she couldn’t take it anymore, she started to scream, but her husband covered her mouth in time.
“Quiet, cara,” he muttered under his breath, “or we’ll wake Eula up.”
Ah!
She was horrified to hear his words. The possibility hadn’t even occurred to her at all, and she would have drowned in shame if she just weren’t so taken over by the way her husband kept pounding into her. The erotic sounds of their bodies slapping against each other echoed all over the vast second-floor hallway. She was certain the sound could have spilled over to the living room below, and the thought that the servants could hear them and know what they were doing---
It shamed and excited her at the same time, every cell of her body throbbing at the knowledge that people knew Luca Valencia was making love to her.
Because Luca was her husband.
Hers.
And this mattered to her so, so much that in a moment of weakness and abandon she blindly reached for his head, her tongue swirling around his ear.
Luca’s powerful body shuddered against her.
She whispered, “You’re mine, a-aren’t you, Luca?”
He answered her with a deep, forceful shove of his manhood, and the strength of his thrust caused her to arch against him as her head fell back.
The billionaire fisted her hair, his hand serving to protect the back of her head before it could hit the wall behind Vivian.
And then he was retaliating, biting her ear as he said savagely, “Always.”
The answer rocked her world, and before she knew it, her body was tensing up, and her pleasure had reached the point of no return.
She came with a gasp, her eyes squeezing shut at the force of her orgasm.
Her husband followed soon after, his hips pumping nonstop against her as he ejaculated inside of her.
Afterwards, Luca carried her to their bedroom but instead of taking her straight to the shower as she had expected, he laid her out on their bed instead.
Bemused green eyes lifted to his. “Luca?”
He divested of their clothes, and when they were both naked he returned to her, and she sighed softly as the familiar weight of him pressed down on her.
Luca’s head lowered, and her eyes closed as he started nibbling on her lips.
“I love you.”
Ah.
Vivian squeezed her eyes shut more tightly, tried to convince herself that as long as she pretended this was all a dream---
She wouldn’t need to remember that she had done nothing to make her deserving of his love.
This time, her husband’s lovemaking was painstakingly slow, the billionaire taking his time savoring every inch of her body. Every part of her burned at the heat of
his kisses – her mouth, the side of her neck, her breasts, and oh, when he went down on her---
Her husband firmly parted her legs wide open before his mouth claimed the moist, throbbing core of her.
Her fingers drove through his hair. “Luca.” She cried her name out as his tongue pushed inside her, driving Vivian out of her mind.
By the time he finally claimed her with his erection, she was a sobbing, writhing mess, her nails clawing down his back as she urged him with incoherent mewls.
Faster, harder, deeper.
She begged him in a mix of Italian and English, but her husband refused to be hurried.
He took his sweet time with his strokes, pulling almost all the way out before plunging back in, so deep that the head of his manhood actually grazed her womb---
“This time,” he whispered, “I want you to get loud.”
And so she did, because he made it so easy for Vivian to lose her mind.
She cried out when he rose to his knees and threw her legs over his shoulders to thrust deeper into her, cried out when after plunging into her several times in this position he flipped her over, placing Vivian on her fours before ramming into her from behind.
She cried out when it was all too much, imploring for him to stop and let her at least catch her breath.
But the billionaire said rawly, “No.” He rammed into her again, and she saw stars. “I need this. We need this.”
When she finally came, it felt like her orgasm ripped her apart, and she arched against him with a cry as he squeezed her aching breasts hard from behind and causing Vivian to come harder and longer. She sobbed anew when he came soon after her, shooting his load inside of her, filling her to the brim until she felt his cum literally leaking out of her and trailing down her legs.
By the time she could muster enough strength to open her eyes, he had finished cleaning both of them up and they were back in bed, lying on their sides and facing each other.
His beautiful face filled her vision.
She loved this man so, so much.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” the billionaire asked gently, and she could have wept at his tone. He still sounded like he loved her, and she didn’t understand how it could be so. Did he not remember the way she had shamed him over and over?
Her rejected application for a chair in St. Francis’ board---
Vivian forgetting about Eula’s school play---
And of course there was that party, which had forced his bodyguards to come to her rescue because she had been foolish and stupid. She had read this morning’s news, and everything had been horrendously bad. The gossip rags had gleefully painted her as a wild party girl whose life was ruled by booze, drugs, and younger men. The business news predicted the fall of stock price for Luca’s company, believing that investors would lose confidence in a CEO who would allow his wife to make a fool out of him.
Remembering all the damning headlines about her was too much, and she choked out, “I’m not fit to be your wife.”
Ah. The billionaire fought against the urge to haul his wife close. “You must stop this, cara.”
“S-stop what?” Tears clogged her throat, making her words nearly incoherent.
“Punishing yourself.”
Oh. Her lower lip trembled harder, and she bit into it, hating the way she had become so weak. “I need to punish myself,” she whispered in a stricken tone, “because you won’t do it.”
“I’m not punishing you because there is no need. Ti amo, cara---”
She shook her head jerkily. “You can’t. You shouldn’t. After everything that’s happened---” She stared at him, and the defeat in her green eyes made the billionaire go white.
Fuck.
He already knew what she was going to say before her lips even started to move, already knew that no matter what he did she wouldn’t change her mind now.
But even so---
He said savagely, “Don’t say it.”
But it was as if she hadn’t heard him, the words still tumbling past his wife’s trembling lips.
“Maybe Maria deserves another chance with you and Eula?”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
The billionaire knew his wife inside and out. He knew her better than she knew herself because he loved her, and he knew that Vivian probably had the most misguided reasons for saying something so damn stupid.
But even so, it didn’t keep her words from slashing at him.
She owned his heart after all, and so it was hers to break and tear into pieces, even without knowing so.
Vivian was looking at him as if she was waiting for him to speak, but Luca only stared at her stoically.
When the silence continued to stretch painfully between them, Vivian heard herself say, “I g-guess this is it?” But in her mind, she was begging and screaming. Stop me! Stop me! Stop me just once and---
“I’ve always told you, cara.” Her husband’s voice was even. “I will never keep you from doing what you want.”
Her heart broke.
He wasn’t going to stop her.
“You don’t love me, do you?” she choked out. She knew she was being stupid and contradictory. She had practically ordered him to consider getting back together with his ex, and now she was acting like he had betrayed her from the start.
But even so she couldn’t help it.
She loved him, and it devastated her, knowing that no matter how hard she tried, she could never be someone fit to be his wife.
“D-did you stay with me all this time just because of Eula?” Her voice started to shake. “Did you?”
When all he did was gaze impassively at her, Vivian could feel herself being drained of strength. How foolish, how so very foolish – but it was just like that old song. Love had been keeping her alive all this time, and yet now---
How had it come down to this?
How?
She had thought they were happy.
She had thought they were in love.
So how---
“If you really loved me,” she whispered painfully, “you would---”
Luca asked quietly, “I would what?” He knew what she wanted to say, but he also knew he couldn’t – shouldn’t – say the words for her. She had to realize on her own that a happy-ever-after ending was something they had to fight for every damn day of their lives.
She had to believe he would always love her – the same way she had made Luca believe she would always love him.
When his wife still didn’t say anything, the billionaire repeated grimly, “I would what, cara?” He looked into her eyes, willing her to claim what was hers and would always be her. “If I loved you, what do you think am I supposed to say or do?”
Her lips slowly started to part, and his chest tightened. For one moment, the billionaire allowed himself to hope that this was it. That she finally understood.
But then his wife suddenly turned away, and he watched her slim shoulders start to shake.
Ah.
He wanted to reach for her across the bed, knowing that just one touch was all it would take, one word from him, and she would realize that there hadn’t ever been a need to worry.
But he couldn’t.
Even when her soundless sobs tore at him, he just couldn’t, and he cursed fate savagely in his mind.
Love was such a goddamn bitch.
He loved Vivian more than his life, but it was also because he loved her---
He also knew he had no other choice but to stand by and watch her hurt.
And she had to hurt, she had to hurt so badly until she was forced to decide whether their love was worth fighting for, against all odds.
Chapter Eight
Luca strolled into the kitchen looking every inch the powerful, gorgeous billionaire he was, dressed in a handmade suit and oozing with sex appeal and sophistication. It had been a week since Luca and Eula’s return from Italy, and yet---
“Good morning, cara.” Curling one strong arm around her waist, her hus
band pulled her close for a long, passionate kiss that had Eula giggling from the table.
When he released her, Vivian was red-faced and flustered, but more embarrassing than that was the way her nipples had started to poke alarmingly against the thin fabric of her floral dress.
“G-good morning.” Awkwardness colored her voice, and she pulled away as soon as she could without drawing attention from Eula, who had risen on her seat on her knees. It was too mortifying that she still wanted Luca so much even though she knew his show of affection was only for Eula’s sake.
As she took a seat across Eula, she found herself feeling a bit envious at the way the little girl was able to be openly affectionate, quickly rising on her knees on her seat to throw her arms around her father’s neck.
The night of Luca’s return from Italy was the last night her husband had spent in her bed. Since then, he had moved to one of the guest bedrooms, and every night she would cry her to sleep, wishing she was brave and selfish enough to beg him to come back.
A week, she thought restlessly as she forced herself to take a small bite of her omelet. It had been a week since they had started sleeping apart, and she already felt like she had been damned to eternal condemnation. How worse would it be when Luca decided to kick her out of the house because he wanted to get back to Maria?
In front of her, Luca was helping the little girl back to her seat. “Are you excited about later, principesa?” As he spoke, he pulled the chair next to Eula and took a seat as well, and Vivian tried not to look stricken.
His usual seat was at the head of the table, placing him between Eula and Vivian.
So not only did he not want to share a bed with her now, Vivian thought shakily, but now he couldn’t bear being too close to her either?
Was this how their marriage going to be from here on?
“If you receive an A on your manners,” Luca was saying, “I’ll give you a reward, remember?”
A dark frown crossed Eula’s face. “It’s hard to be a good girl.”
Luca laughed, and Vivian’s chest squeezed painfully at the sound. What would happen if today were the last time she’d hear that laugh again?